by S. E. Meyer
“Hey brotha, you wouldn’t happen to have another cigarette would you?” John felt around in his pockets and pulled out a pack, handing one to Jake along with a lighter. “So John, what brings you to Iraq of all places?”
“It’s just kind of where this crazy road I’m on has led me Jake,” John answered.
“Well, you’re in the right place if you want answers John,” Jake said as he took a drag of his cigarette. “You’re in the right place for sure, but you have to be careful here, there’s a lot of crazy things going on in this country and I worry about Jenny.”
“I’ll make sure I keep a close eye on her Jake,” John replied.
The sun was up now, it's bright yellow rays glittered off the water along-side them as they walked. John started to notice something out of the corner of his eye as he looked out across the water. There was a sliver of red light on the horizon and John stopped walking to stare at it. Jake stopped too and they both watched as the sliver turned into a half circle and then a full circle of deep red-orange light, rising in the distance. It was the same second sunrise John had seen several times before. It rose in the same arc and continued to follow the bright yellow sun ahead of it.
“What do you think that is Jake? I keep seeing it, two suns. What does it mean?
“It’s the future John, it’s what’s to come,” Jake replied.
“What do you mean? Tell me everything you know Jake.”
Suddenly there was a roaring applause and John snapped to consciousness. Everyone around him was clapping. He realized he had fallen asleep and was now witnessing the end of the Goodman presentation. John looked around and could see Frank and Hosea with bright excited expressions on their faces. He turned to Jenny next to him, who had also fallen asleep, now rubbing her eyes as she yawned.
“Come on” said Frank “let’s go, we’re supposed to meet Lucas in the lounge,” he said.
The foursome slowly made their way out of the conference room and back the way they had come earlier. They past the front desk and headed into the lounge. Lucas was able to avoid the crowd and was already in the lounge waiting for them. He greeted Hosea with a firm handshake.
“Long time no see my friend. And who do you have with you here.” Hosea went through introductions and Lucas shook everyone hands in turn. “So what do I owe this visit?” he asked once the introductions were complete.
Hosea spoke in a lower tone. “It’s about the capstone key,” he said.
Lucas had a surprised look on his face. “Well, that’s very interesting,” he said as he raised an eyebrow.
“We think we may have found it” Hosea continued.
“Lets go up to my room, it’s more private and more suited for this conversation,” whispered Lucas.
The lounge started to get quite full with attendees from the presentation and people kept stopping to congratulate Lucas. He shook several hands and exchanged pleasantries as they made their way out into the hallway and down to the elevator bank. The doors opened and two unusually tall men stepped out. John immediately had a bad feeling in his gut. The group went to the top floor and entered Lucas’s large suite.
“Did you feel that? The guys that were in the elevator?” John asked Frank quietly as they entered the room. Frank just nodded slightly and put his fingers to his lips.
“Yes, I believe they followed us here,” he replied.
Lucas poured a drink. “Anyone else?” he asked.
Everyone thought that a stiff drink was a good idea, including Jenny, who didn’t often indulge in such things. Lucas poured one for everyone and sat down in a large chair next to the wet bar as he let out a large sigh. “Okay, so what’s this all about, you say you found it? The Key?”
Hosea nodded to Frank and Frank told Lucas the entire story of everything that had happened to them up to meeting in the lounge. Lucas hung on every word and made small acknowledgments as Frank told the story. He had a serious expression on his face that turned to shock as Frank placed the pyramid on the top of the bar next to where they were sitting.
“Well,” he finally said once Frank was done. “What you have just been through is amazing, and a little ironic at the same time.” Lucas continued to stare at the stone while Frank began speaking again.
“It also opens and there is a small cylinder seal inside, except I haven’t figured out how we opened it before. John dropped it on his foot and suddenly it did all kinds of crazy things and then opened up on top.”
“Dropped it on his foot you say?” asked Lucas.
“Yeah, it hurt like hell too, was enough to draw blood,” John added.
“Interesting,” Lucas said as he walked into the bathroom and came back out with a large needle between two fingers, He walked over to John and took his hand. “This will just be a little poke, let me try something,” he said and then jabbed John’s index finger. He squeezed out a single drop of blood as he moved John’s arm and brought his hand directly over the pyramid. He touched the finger with the drop of blood onto the tip of the black stone. Within seconds it began to spin around again and re-sort its images until the top once again lifted up to expose the seal inside. Lucas pulled it out and began to examine it carefully.
“How did you know to do that?” asked Frank.
“It was just a hunch based on old stories, but it proves that what you have here is in fact the capstone key, or one of them anyway. Ancient legend says there were a total of seven, given to the seven rulers of the world, to be brought back together some day to save Earth,” Lucas explained as he examined the small cylinder seal. “This is amazing, do you realize what you have here Frank? Do you know what this small cylinder is? Frank just shrugged his shoulders and Lucas continued. “This is another key of sorts, or codex, whatever you want to call it. It is used to decipher the language of the Gods! This is a fantastic discovery! It will allow us to translate thousands of ancient writings, old cylinder seals, and clay tablets that we have otherwise not been able to read or understand. Imagine the information locked within them,” Lucas finished, awestruck with his discovery. Frank's eyes were lit up as he held a look of bewilderment on his face. “What about John? Do you think you can help him?” Frank asked.
“I think we may be able to help each other. There’s something I have been working on in Iraq for a long time now, and with what you’ve just told me and what we have just discovered, I would like to share it with you all. We’ve always known that Iraq holds the history of the human race. This is where it all started, at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Many of us have been visiting for years and helping on digs and trying to learn as much as we could. Back in the early 90’s something was discovered that led us to believe there was a secret buried here. It was knowledge that had been buried for thousands of years,” Lucas said as he took a drink of his scotch and gazed around the room. He was still in ‘Presenter Mode’ and had everyone’s undivided attention.
“A discovery was made in the first Gulf war that was studied and examined for over a decade. It was actually found by accident when an army vehicle crashed into the corner of a pyramid. Buried in the stones was a box, and inside the box were several gold plates stamped with ancient writing. It was discovered that what was written on the plates was the entire history of this planet and our ancient ancestors from the very beginning of time. There was a lot of other very important information on these plates. So important that world governments and the military became involved, and I have to be careful what I say here, but let’s just say there was enough worldwide interest to start one of the largest treasure hunts in human history. The Iraqi government was not at all interested in cooperating with western leaders, especially after the political and physical damage that was caused from the first Gulf War. So the worldwide panic button was pressed. Remember WMD? That’s all anyone heard for month’s right? The phrase ‘weapons of mass destruction’, ‘weapons of mass destruction’, ‘weapons of mass destruction’, a mantra, repeated over and over again. Well the news media d
id its job. The propaganda machine planted a message in the public’s mind and it grew into panic, which is exactly what high-ranking officials wanted. Sure it was led by the US, but there were several countries involved and the United Nations held the reins. Here’s a little secret, no one was looking for WMD. We were looking for something else and the WMD pretense allowed us to invade this country in order to find it. It allowed us to search every square inch and turn over every rock and to not stop until we found what we were looking for. The entire time we had the support of most of the world behind us. That is really why Iraq was targeted, that’s why I’m still here,” explained Lucas.
“That’s brilliant,” said Hosea without realizing he spoke out loud. “You were able to search the entire country practically by UN law, the purse strings of governments around the world were opened to finance it and with everyone cheering you on to save the world. I have to admire it, such a simple plan that worked so well.”
Lucas continued, ”Well I was assigned as a UN weapons inspector and was brought in to lead several of the search teams, and after many long years of searching, we finally found what we were looking for. My team and I made a very exciting discovery, maybe the biggest discovery in all of known human history, directly under the city center of ancient Babylon just south of here.
“What was it?” Frank and Hosea asked excitedly.
“It would be hard for me to tell you, I think it would better to just show you. Frank, I believe you and your pyramid can help me to decipher the writings we’ve found there. Are you up for a short road trip yet tonight?” Lucas asked as he looked around the room waiting for any objections.
“I think it might be a good idea to get out of here,” answered Frank. “I should tell you Lucas. The people who have been chasing us have followed us here. We could be in danger.”
Lucas got up and drained his glass. “Don’t worry Frank, where we’re going no one will be able to follow us.
Alone in the Dark
They made their way back down to the lobby while Lucas made a phone call. Three armed men met the group at the front desk and they were escorted out the back entrance behind the hotel. They moved across a large lot towards a helipad where a large black military helicopter was waiting. As they got closer its engines began to whine and the large blades on top started to spin.
“We’re riding in that?“ asked Hosea “Wow, you’ve really moved up in the world” he added with a smile.
“Yes, being a preferred US and UN defense contractor definitely has its perks.”
They boarded the helicopter and each found a seat. The armed men that escorted them also climbed aboard and they lifted off the ground. Within a few minutes they were speeding away from the city lights of Baghdad and headed in a southerly direction. It wasn’t long before Lucas pointed towards the ground ahead of them. “There,” he yelled over the sound of the whirring engine and blades. There was a small patch of circular lights that were coming into view below them. There was a large makeshift complex set up in a perimeter. Large camouflage army tents with bright floodlights in a square around it. What caught everyone’s attention was the huge hole that was in the ground with more bright spotlights shining down into the depths and along its’ perimeter. The entire area was about the size of a football field and completely encompassed with razor wire fencing. The helicopter landed on the far side of the complex onto a cleared area.
“Follow me,” shouted Lucas as they exited the helicopter and made their way towards the largest of the tents in front of them. John looked around as they walked and noticed machine gun towers around the entire perimeter. There were US and British troops everywhere, some stationed outside the buildings, some walking the perimeter of the fence line, and several in formation doing drills. When they arrived at the large door of the main tent they were greeted by two armed guards.
“Good Evening Sir” the Sergeant on the left said to Lucas. Lucas just nodded in return and the guard opened the door. There was a hiss as air pressure changed and they all filed into an entryway with more doors and more guards. Once through the second set of doors they walked into a large room with several people moving about a large mobile laboratory. Some of them were at workstations with computers while others were working with laboratory equipment. John was fascinated by the amount of effort put into this place and he could tell by Hosea and Frank’s expressions that they were feeling the same way. This must be something big, thought John. He looked over at Jenny and put his arm around her waist. She gave him a bewildered smile as they continued past row after row of men and women in suits and lab coats working at their stations.
“Wow, this is impressive,” said Frank as he rubbed his hands together in excitement.
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” responded Lucas.
As they continued past the rows of workers everyone greeted Lucas either with a nod or a ‘Good Evening’ sometimes with a Mr. Goodman at the end. He definitely seemed to be the one in charge. They finally got towards the back end of the building where the last of the space was divided up into rooms and offices. They walked through a door with a sign that read in large block letters. “Authorized Personnel Only” and made their way down a hallway with rooms on either side. Suddenly a bright, clear-eyed, younger man came running excitedly out of one of the rooms they just past. “Sir” he yelled “Sir, Mr. Goodman”
Lucas stopped and turned to face him. “Ah, what is it Dennis?” Lucas turned towards the group. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet Dennis Mathews, one of the brightest minds on the planet. He’s a graduate of Cal-Tech and the youngest person to ever graduate from MIT with three PhD’s. “What can I do for you Dennis?” he asked as he turned once again towards the young scientist.
“Well, sir, we made a huge discovery on the powder today. I was going to call you tonight, but then I heard you were coming down so I thought I would wait so I could show you in person.”
Everyone could see the excitement bursting out of him. “Follow me, follow me right this way,” he said as he beckoned the group to follow him into the room he just came out of a few moments before. “Okay, first question Mr. Goodman, are we all top level clearance here? Because what I am about to show you is so classified I don’t even know if I’m supposed to be working on it.” He smiled, but kept Lucas’s gaze as he waited for a response.
“Yes, yes, Dennis, it’s fine. Go on.”
Dennis stopped in front of a long table with several instruments and vials on it. “Now this is a demonstration.” There was a huge block of solid stone lying on the floor next to the table. “The powder we’ve been studying, well we have come to believe that it is a true superconductor.” Dennis picked up a vial filled with what looked like snow-white sand, but lighter and fluffier. “What I mean by a superconductor is the scientific definition okay?”
“It might help to dumb it down for us a bit Dennis, we’re not all MIT grads here” said Lucas.
“Right, right, Okay, well a superconductor, basically isn’t something that conducts electricity like you would think, like a copper wire, okay? It’s an element that will absorb energy, rather than freely allow energy to pass through it, like a power cord. With me so far?”
He didn’t wait for a response from anyone and continued. “The laws of physics state that the main property of a true superconductor is that it can absorb an infinite amount of energy, and when energy is applied to it, it gives off a strong electromagnetic field. The more energy absorbed, the stronger the magnetic field. Also the only magnetic field that can exist inside and around the superconductor is its own magnetic field. Did I lose you there? Where’d I lose you at?” Dennis stopped to ask because several eyebrows went up with the last statement he made. “Okay, okay, it will be easier to just show you. What I’m trying to say is that a superconductor’s magnetic field is so strong that any other magnetic field cannot penetrate it, and will bend around it. That means any magnetic field.” Dennis looked like he was about to explode with excitement. He was waiting
for the light bulbs to go on in the group as he explained. but didn’t get the response he was looking for. “Here, what’s your name?” he asked John.
“John, ” John said as he stuck out his arm and shook Dennis's hand firmly
“Likewise, well John, just for demonstration purposes, please try and lift this block of stone.”
John smirked, obviously he knew he could not, but just to humor his new acquaintance he placed his hands on either side of the large square stone and tried to lift it.
“It’s a little too heavy I think” said John smiling.
“Yes, I should say so, very heavy, approximately one ton to be exact, just less than 2000 pounds. Dennis walked over to the large stone and slid a cylindrical vial of the white powder into each of the holes that had apparently been drilled into the large stone. He placed one at each corner and then a larger one in the center.
“How about now?” asked Dennis as he gestured for John to try again.
John walked back to the stone and placed his hands on it. He was startled for a moment because the rock slid sideways with just the weight of his hands.
“As I said” continued Dennis, “ It will repel and bend around itself any magnetic field, including Earth’s own gravity.”
As he said the word gravity Dennis put a hand on each side of the large stone and lifted it with ease to eye level. Everyone stared in amazement as he then let go of the rock and it continued to hover there floating in thin air.
“Can you all understand the gravity of this discovery now” Dennis chuckled at his play on words and smiled as he gently gave the large floating rock a nudge. It began to slowly, but freely float away from the group towards the other end of the room.
