by SJ Hailey
‘I guess it worked Jacob?’
‘Yes, it only wants the amulets that belong here perhaps?’
‘Perhaps.’
As the two men packed the rejected amulet safely into Jacob’s rucksack, the space in front of them lit up. There was an image floating in the middle of the room, a vivid blue light, similar to what Jacob had seen on Kevin’s display in the obelisk. It showed the Earth, then moved down to the South American continent, then to the rivers and hills around the complex. An area lit up in red, a small circle in the centre of the complex, and then it expanded. The circle moved out from the complex, spreading equally in all directions, eventually reaching right out past the towers over three kilometres in diameter. Jacob turned to Osvaldo Roderigo, ‘I don’t think you need to translate that for me. Go!’
Without delay the two men began to run back up the steps, past the obelisk chamber, and up the flights of steps to the open hatch. Jacob and Osvaldo Roderigo knew they had to be past the three-kilometre mark before the complex destroyed itself. What they did not know, was this was going to happen in just ten minutes time.
FORTY SEVEN
Katherine had turned the Osprey around. She needed to get back to the complex to collect her friends, now the threat was gone. The group watched the burning remains of Jones’ helicopter disappear as the tail ramp closed, getting back into their seats, absorbing the enormity of the day. Kevin moved up to sit with his sister in the cockpit, ‘hey Katherine, do you think we can get to Jacob in time?’
‘Of course I can Kevin, have I ever been late?’
‘Well there was that one time, when you had been out drinking and rode your bike home, ROBBIE’
‘I told you never to tell that, although I know you told someone, as my training instructor found out!’
‘I may have mentioned it to someone.’
She slapped him on the arm, releasing her grip briefly from the controls, Kevin recoiling in feigned discomfort.
‘How far away are we?’
‘About thirty-five miles, it will take us about eight minutes to reach the complex, I suggest you strap in.’
Kevin secured his harness over his shoulder, clipping it into his waist and pulling tight, as Katherine gained some altitude to climb over the hills for a direct line to the complex.
Jacob was scrambling with Osvaldo Roderigo to get away from the complex, but he knew that to get the three kilometres distance, with the heavy foliage would take them hours, and he was sure the complex would disappear long before that.
Gasping for breath, he called over to Osvaldo Roderigo just ahead, ‘I think we should stop.’
‘Why my friend, are you hurt?’
‘Look we both know that we cannot get to a safe distance in time, so let’s just find a nice spot and wait.’
‘You are giving up?’
‘No, my wife taught me that sometimes you should just accept things, and sit and enjoy the moments you have, rather than fight a losing battle.’
‘She sounds like a wise woman; I would like to meet her.’
‘Well maybe we will soon.’
‘I don’t understand?’
‘She died nine months and six days ago, cancer.’
‘I am sorry Jacob, truly I am.’
The two men just stood, looking at each other.
‘Come this way, I know a place, a beautiful clearing overlooking a gorge and a waterfall.’
Jacob accepted the invitation, and both men moved towards their final resting place.
Katherine had the Osprey at full speed, the massive rotors carving up the moist jungle air, propelling the aircraft rapidly towards the complex. The instrument panel in front was confusing to Kevin, but his sister directed him through it, ‘That is the Forward looking Infra-red, FLIR, use that to see if you can spot Jacob and Osvaldo Roderigo, they will show up as large mammals.’
As Kevin surveyed the FLIR every object with a large heat signature lit up the display, and he was amazed by the amount of creatures moving through the jungle.
‘Katherine, there are lots of animals, and they are all moving.’
‘Well I would expect that.’
‘They are all moving in the same direction, away from the complex, spreading out in a circle, I would say running.’
‘Oh that really can’t be good, we may not see any danger yet, but it’s coming.’
‘In all that clutter, we will never see Jacob; we need to find him another way.’
‘I have an idea, the GPS in his sat phone, could we use that?’
‘Yes, just need to find the frequency, I’ll call the Arcadia and check it, you watch that FLIR and keep checking for them.’
Jacob moved up next to Osvaldo Roderigo, the final trees revealed the source of the thundering noise as they approached the gorge. A few hundred feet below them, the valley wall had collapsed, rocks the size of houses laid around, as if tossed aside by a huge petulant child. The white torrent of water cascaded across them fanned out hitting the plunge pool at the bottom with dissipated force, but enough to produce substantial spray. The gorge was a huge bowl, climbing several thousand feet around them in a horseshoe shape, carved out by millennia of water erosion.
‘This is a beautiful spot, cannot think of anywhere better.’
‘Thank you Jacob, I came here with my grandfather, not to talk, but to think, to watch.’
‘How far are we from the complex?’
‘Maybe almost half a kilometre, but the elevation of the land obscures it from here.’
The two men sat admiring what both of them thought would be the last sight they would ever see, as the ground began to shake and tremble with increasing violence.
Katherine was five miles from the complex, ‘Anything yet on infra-red?’
Kevin shook his head, ‘Try the sat phone again.’
‘I have called it three times Kevin, no response, battery must be dead.’
Katherine was frustrated, all this technology, and she could not find Jacob, and she knew that they had to leave.
‘Katherine, look at the complex!’
Katherine looked to her left, where the complex wall was, it was collapsing, even at this range, she could see whole sections of the wall falling.
‘Kevin anything? We have no time left!’
‘No nothing, there are bodies, but they are feint and stationary.’
‘They are corpses, I recognise the images, anything really bright, check further out, they must have left here.’
Kevin looked at the display, and sure enough as Katherine gained altitude, two glowing figures appeared, ‘There they are, I think?’
Katherine followed Kevin’s arm, and headed towards the two images almost white hot on the screen.
Jacob and Osvaldo Roderigo knew what was coming, whether it was an explosion, or implosion, the complex was ending, and them along with it. The two men showed their years of life experience, with the calm acceptance of their fate, ‘Well Jacob, it has been great.’
‘Thank you Osvaldo Roderigo, for sharing your knowledge and this place.’
The ground shaking diminished, replaced by the sound of tearing earth and snapping foliage, giant trees creaked, reluctantly wrenched from their footings. The ferocity of the sound increased rapidly.
Katherine saw the ground heave up, as the area around the complex began to move, displacing everything, the walls, the jungle, the river. Water was rushing away from the complex as the river was pushed aside by the ground shifting, the animals of the jungle, long gone. Katherine could see Jacob and Osvaldo Roderigo sitting on a hill in front of her; she opened the rear hatch, banked hard to hover in front of them.
The nacelles adjusted to vertical flight, causing a massive downdraft, as the remaining foliage around them was flattened, alerting the two men to her arrival. She hovered a dozen metres in front of them, over the gorge and then turned the aircraft moving to the edge of the cliff.
Jacob and Osvaldo Roderigo couldn’t believe it, the plane was hoveri
ng just out of reach, but they knew they had to jump. The ground beneath them was beginning to buck and crack, succumbing to gigantic stresses from below, Jacob looked behind him to see the jungle under the complex rising up, a giant wave of earth moving rapidly towards them.
Kevin was standing in the rear of the Osprey; he flung two ropes out, they hung temptingly out of reach over the cliff. Kevin was gesturing towards the men to jump, Katherine struggled to keep the aircraft stable in the changing updrafts from the gorge below. She dare not land, and they had seen the ground wrenching as they arrived. Without a word to Jacob Osvaldo Roderigo began to run towards the edge of the cliff, jumping the few metres between the cliff and the loitering machine. He grabbed the rope his sweaty hands slipping, the moisture burning off as he fell down the rope, some of his palms going with it. He gripped harder and the friction slowed his decent, he had fallen some fifteen feet down the rope, and was now dangling precariously just above the edge of the cliff.
Jacob took some steps back ready for the short run up, the ground tremor was at its most violent, the brief pause gone, worse than any earthquake he had experienced. The jungle behind him was ripping to pieces and the area where the complex used to be was now moving down into the earth, taking whole sections of land with it
The complex was sinking back into the earth and fractures and ruptures spread out over an enormous area. The complex was over a kilometre across, but the towers reached out much further.
Jacob began to run, his legs using every cell to get the speed he knew he required, not looking at the gigantic drop below, or the destruction rapidly accelerating towards him. He reached the edge, as the undulating earth caught him up, a wave of soil, plants and rocks pushed his feet from under him.
Kevin saw the earth moving towards them, and told Katherine to pull forwards, but she stood firm. Jacob grabbed the rope firmly twisting his legs around the writhing coils to stop a fall, with a cluster of debris following. Katherine obeyed Kevin’s shout and put the nose of the Osprey down, descending and moving forward, as the cliff collapsed behind them. Tons of earth cascaded into the basin below, it blocked the flow of the river. She pushed the nacelles up and had the Osprey climbed out of the disappearing gorge, heading for the larger mountains in the distance.
Everyone in the Osprey heaved on the ropes desperately. The combined effort managed to drag Jacob and Osvaldo Roderigo aboard the sanctuary of the aircraft. A heavily soiled and breathless Jacob looked back at the area he had expected to die in. Katherine gained altitude, and La gente de la luz azul watched the spectacle unfold beneath and behind them.
The area that the complex had occupied was now a huge gaping wound, almost two kilometres across, into which the rivers and streams were pouring already. The hole was at least a few hundred metres deep, the very bowels of the complex being torn down hundreds of metres. The towers that had been in the jungle fell and were dragged thru the jungle, being pulled along by the crystal conduits attached to the rapidly descending complex. Gigantic wounds appeared around below them as the massive structure sank lower into the earth.
The Osprey stayed to watch, and Kevin filmed what he could on his handheld camera, capturing the event, but losing the impact of the full spectacle. Within minutes of it beginning the entire complex was several kilometres deep. The rivers from the surrounding area poured into the void, massive waterfalls showing on all sides. Millions of tons of earth and debris following down to create a soup of chaos.
Kevin and Ana Lucia were in a heated discussion on the true origin of the complex, much to the amusement of Jacob.
‘That’s s UFO!’
‘There is no way that is a UFO Kevin it went down! We have both sat at the controls inside, don’t you think we would have realised it was a UFO?’
‘Not if the owners did not want us to!’
‘Well I think it was a UFO, and I am sure other people will too!’
Jacob had stopped laughing and felt he had to interrupt, ‘You two, even if it is or is not a UFO, do you think anyone will believe you? A UFO over two kilometres, hidden in the jungle, and you operated it? And when they ask where is it now?’
The two youngsters glanced silently at each other.
‘Thank you, I suggest both of you keep the information to yourselves, as we will all have too.’
‘But Jacob don’t you think that someone will notice?’
‘Being this remote hopefully not.’
Katherine turned the Osprey back towards the coast, passing over the complex’s grave. The excavated jungle filled with run off from the rivers and streams, already following the path of least resistance. Many environmentalists and analysts would spend the next few months attempting to work out what had caused such a devastating mess of the area, and of course only a handful of people knew the truth, and would never tell. Katherine turned the apparently ungainly aircraft towards the coast once more, increasing speed towards the sanctuary of the Arcadia.
FORTY EIGHT
United States of America. Classified location.
President Uncotto had flown home and dealt with the strange disappearance of Chui Enzi, taking the opportunity to shut down most of his illegal operations. Men loyal to Enzi were told that they either conform to the new regime, or they can leave the country. The vast majority decided to stay, preferring to work with the President, than live in fear of possible reprisals.
He had been surprised by a phone call a week after he returned, and travelled to Washington D.C. to discuss the issues raised in the call, face to face. He landed at the airport, and did not pass through customs as expected, quickly ushered into a military helicopter and flown directly to Wallops Island on the east coast, an old testing ground for NASA and the military for years. He did not need to see where he was going, the helicopter passed right over the top of the mobile office he was attending.
The VC-25 tail number 29000 otherwise known as Air Force One sat on the tarmac, refuelling tankers adjacent. The impressive blue and white body of the customised and most recognised 747 on the planet, intimidating even at this distance. Uncotto was escorted by Secret Service from the helicopter, up the ramp, and into Air Force One. He was greeted by the President’s Chief of Staff, who escorted him to the conference room, leaving Uncotto’s two aides in the seating area to the rear. The two young men enjoyed the comfortable leather seats, and individual plasma screens of the press section. Uncotto sat in the conference room, his host noticeably absent, taking in the efficient majesty of the décor.
Even in an aircraft it was unusual to see a walnut conference table, polished to an immaculate sheen, he did just admired the way the late afternoon sunlit bounced off its surface. The oval table had a number of seats around it, identical, except one. At the head of the table, the back slightly higher, indicating the status of its usual occupant, with the presidential seal behind it. Whoever had designed this room had intended to convey the office of the President of the United States, and the power and responsibility to the world. Uncotto knew from the experiences of governing his fledgling country how difficult and isolating it could be, but the sheer scale of the task that his host faced was barely comprehensible.
The door was opened with a swish across the deep pile carpet, and the President entered, unannounced, and apparently relaxed.
‘Good afternoon Mr President.’
Uncotto’s wry smile accompanied his response, ‘Thank you, and good afternoon to you Mr President, I like your accommodation.’
‘Yes so do I, it is rather formal for my tastes, but it definitely does the job on impressing people. Did it work?’
President Robert T Hill was a good six feet seven tall, one of the tallest men to hold the office, his broad shoulders and solid frame as intimidating as his aircraft.
Uncotto kept his composure, ‘Yes, very much so, I was just thinking with the responsibility you have, how do you sleep? I have trouble often.’
‘I don’t really, maybe five hours a night. Where do you think all the grey ha
ir comes from?’
‘Good point sir.’
Uncotto paused, standing nervously by the edge of the walnut table, the President sensed the apprehension and gestured for him to sit.
‘Please sit, Alexander, I can call you that?’
‘Yes of course you can Mr President.’
‘Call me Robert, no need for formality. I just needed to discuss some issues with you, but not over the phone, just privately, discreetly.’
Uncotto sat, a little uneasy at the President’s last comment, ‘What issues would they be?’
‘Well I’ve always been a straight shooter; it’s about the development of your country. You were in the U.N. two weeks ago outlining your plans.’
‘Yes, and I met with your Energy and Development department, as well as Arthur Jarrett.’
‘Yes that is what I want to discuss with you. As far as the United States is officially concerned, the meetings you had in New York never happened, and I would appreciate it if your records reflected this.’
‘I am confused Robert, you want me to ignore these meetings, or erase them from our notes?’
‘Both please, I am having those meetings with you now, so the previous ones never happened it would be more convenient for our governments.’
‘I see. I understand it would be more convenient for your government, so what are you proposing today?’
‘There have been certain events, and people within my administration have been implicated in these events. I cannot say what they are, but just let me state that they involve you and your country’s development.’
‘I see, would this have anything to do with the unpublished assassination attempt on your soil?’
‘It may have.’
‘I was surprised when all that appeared in the newspapers was that it was a security training exercise.‘
‘I was advised that it would not be publicly acceptable for you to appear threatened during this fragile time in your presidential term.’
