The Great Pack: Deathless Book 4

by Chris Fox

  “Of course, of course. How very rude of me.” Percy perked up instantly. “How do you do, Ms…?”

  “Anput,” she supplied. She shifted her weight, the motion somehow managing to emphasize her chest.

  “Anput you say? As in the Egyptian goddess? Wife of Anubis?” Percy adjusted his spectacles, studying Anput’s face. “You have the right complexion for it. I’d definitely say you are Egyptian. Dark skin, dark hair.”

  “You’re a scholar?” Anput’s surprised was total. She dropped the seduction. “How long have you been here? What can you tell us about this place?”

  “Why don’t we begin with that tour, and I’ll tell you the tale as we walk? I’m afraid I’m quite frail these days. Would you be so kind as to assist me?” Percy offered his arm to Anput, and she took it, leaning against the old man as they started down the stairs to the fourth level. “I’m assuming you’ve seen the two upper floors already, as you had to pass them to get here. The top floor is some sort of control room, and I believe this is a laboratory of some kind. The apparatus on the second and third floor suggests they were experimenting with living creatures. The last floor is the most troubling, but as that will take an old man some time to reach, why don’t I tell you how I came to be in this place?”

  Percy stopped speaking, breathing harder as he made his way to the next landing. He paused there, mopping sweat from his forehead.

  “I was fortunate enough to have a distinguished career with Her Majesty’s Royal Artillery. During my travels, I spent a great deal of time learning about the local cultures. From Egypt to the New World, I was privileged enough to see the world’s wonders. After my retirement, I decided I wanted to find the lost city I believed lay behind the tales of El Dorado. I called that city Z. Most didn’t believe it existed, but I was certain this place was out there.”

  Trevor glanced down the stairs to the room below. It was cavernous, many times larger than the floor above. Banks of strange pods lined the room, but he couldn’t see much detail from this distance.

  “My son Jack, the Rimmell boy, and I set out along the Xingu River in 1925. I’d been there often, you see, and knew the ways of the local tribes.” Percy’s eyes took on a faraway cast. “The trip was long, and difficult. At one point we lost most of the gifts we’d intended for local tribes, and both Jack and the Rimmell boy contracted malaria. I tended to them best I could, but our pace was hobbled. They worsened, until they lacked the strength to walk. I stayed with them until the end. It’s a hard thing, watching your child die and knowing there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  Anput made a sympathetic noise. It was difficult seeing the old man’s pain, and Trevor didn’t know what to say, so he patted Percy on the shoulder.

  “Eventually, I continued on. I don’t know why I didn’t contract malaria. I don’t know how the Xavantes tribe never found me, the murderous savages. I kept pushing further into the jungle, never really expecting to find the city. I don’t know how long I walked. Weeks? Months? Time loses meaning in the jungle, as you’re no doubt aware.” Percy was interrupted by a fit of violent coughing. He dabbed his mouth with a handkerchief, and Trevor could smell the spots of blood staining the white cloth. The scent was sickly somehow. “I couldn’t even send word to Nina, and it ate at me that she’d never know what happened to her boys. But I wouldn’t let it all be for nothing. If I was going to die, at least I’d see Z before I did.

  “One day, I discovered a shimmering doorway in the middle of the jungle. It was wide enough to drive an automobile through, and on the other side I could see gold. I climbed down the valley, and found this place.” The old man grunted as he started down the stairs again. They’d nearly reached the fourth floor. “I spent a good month exploring the city. It was maddening. All around me was proof of a culture more advanced than anything Mother England had produced. It made the ancient Egyptians look like children, yet I was powerless to make sense of any of it. I couldn’t read even a single passage, and had no idea how to translate it. I spent months exploring every inch of Z, prying what secrets I could from her. Many buildings have exquisite artwork that told me a great deal about the beings who built this place. This may come as a bit of a shock, but they were not human.”

  “It’s not as shocking as you might expect,” Anput said. She helped Percy down the last few steps, leading him slowly onto the fourth floor. Dozens of banks of pods lined the room.

  Trevor followed, walking over to one of the pods. It was cylindrical, with a thick golden conduit connecting it to a bank of similar pods. “These things are about the right size to hold a person, and they have little windows at about face height.”

  “What do you think they are?” Anput asked. She disengaged from Percy, moving to inspect the pod.

  “Ba called them reclamation pods,” Trevor said. “They look like something we saw routinely in science fiction. Cryogenic suspension pods. I have no idea what their actual purpose is, but there are hundreds of them.” He turned in a slow circle, scanning the room. Row after row of pods, and that was it.

  “This building isn’t the only one with those pods. Nearly every pyramid has a similar number of them, and the largest pyramid in the city leads to a cavern with countless pods. Literally countless. I spent days trying to count them, and eventually gave up when I reached a hundred thousand.” Percy hobbled over to the pod, leaning heavily on his cane. “I’ve no earthly idea what they might be used for. I’d considered livestock, but never that they might put people in these things. What is this ‘cryogenic’ thing you mentioned?”

  “It’s a way of keeping a living being in stasis indefinitely,” Trevor explained. “They’re theoretical, but if they worked as expected someone could go to sleep in a cryo pod, and wake up after thousands of years without having aged.”

  “Similar to the rejuvenation chamber in the Arks.” Anput walked in a slow circle around the pod. “This looks different. Not just in appearance, but the signal it gives off. Perhaps Ba might be able to tell us more.”

  “The what chamber in the what? I’m not following.” Percy removed his spectacles, squinting at Anput as he cleaned them on his jacket.

  “It’s a lot to explain,” Trevor supplied. “So you reached this city and explored it. What happened then?”

  “Ah, yes. As I said, it was maddening. I tried to document everything, but eventually I ran out of paper. I decided to go back through the portal to get tree bark, as I figured it would make a suitable substitute. But the portal was gone. The city is as you see it now, surrounded by a dome of gold. I’ve walked the entire edge of that dome, and the only way in or out is the portal.” Percy withdrew a canteen from his belt, lifting it to his mouth with a trembling hand. He took several mouthfuls, then replaced the canteen. “Over time, I realized that the portal wasn’t static. It would open and close, seemingly without cause. I was terrified. I didn’t know if I should flee back into the jungle. I hadn’t found any source of food, and my supplies were dwindling. That’s when I realized something profound. I wasn’t hungry. I’d been having meals because it was habit, but I was never truly hungry. I stopped eating, and as the days passed it became clear that city was somehow sustaining me.”

  “That explains much,” Anput said, her tone sympathetic. “This city is using energy to sustain you, but that energy is degrading your helixes. Eventually, what is keeping you alive will kill you.”

  “I suspected that part,” Percy said. He gave a half-smile. “I always knew this place would be the end of me, but it was worth it. This place was a fitting greatest adventure for a man of my disposition. I suspect that you two can provide many of the answers I seek.”

  “We’re happy to do that,” Trevor said. “It’s also possible that Anput might be able to help you recover.”

  “Help how?” Anput asked, raising a delicate eyebrow.

  “We have access to the deathless virus, the werewolf virus, and the vampire virus,” Trevor said. “We’re in a Builder laboratory. What he’s experiencin
g is basically radiation poisoning right? We should be able to create a strain of the virus that will give him the same protection we have.”

  “It’s worth a try, I suppose,” Anput allowed. She studied Percy critically. “Why don’t we get you back to the first floor? Let’s get you comfortable. You can tell us the rest of your story while I prepare a mutagen.”

  Chapter 59- Time Dilation

  Anput helped Percy onto his cot. It was a clever little contraption made from thin wooden dowels and a length of thick cloth. It kept the old man nearly a foot off the ground, which was no doubt helpful in an insect-infested jungle.

  “The fact that you survived this jungle with such primitive equipment is really quite impressive,” Anput said. She offered Percy a blanket, and the old man accepted it gratefully.

  “I’ve noticed that both your attire and your apparatus are unfamiliar to me. They seem advanced, yet more akin to modern technology than to that of these mysterious ancients. Where did you come by it?” Percy was breathing easier now, and color had returned to his face.

  “Perhaps Trevor should explain, as all these things are from his own time. My world is far removed, from both yours and his,” Anput explained. She couldn’t help adding a dash of mystery. It was nice flirting with someone who didn’t just stare back impassively, like Trevor.

  “You said that your expedition left in 1925, right?” Trevor asked. He looked up from the pedestal he’d been inspecting. “What year do you think it is?”

  “Well that’s a very good question,” Percy said. He stroked his mustache, considering for long moments. “I believe I was in the jungle for several months, certainly no longer than a year. I’ve been here for a number of months, perhaps twice as long as my stay in the jungle. Let’s call that two years. That would make it somewhere between 1927 and 1929, by my estimate. How’d I do?”

  “You’re off by almost a century,” Trevor said.

  Anput was more than a little surprised at his bluntness, though by now she shouldn’t have been. It was a refreshing departure from the endless political games in Ra’s court.

  “It’s been almost ninety years since you found this place.”

  “That’s impossible. I’ve kept a rough count of time, and even if my methods were wildly inaccurate it couldn’t be more than a few extra years. If ninety years had passed, I’d be a skeleton long since.” Percy sat up on his cot, smoothing his mustache. “How do you account for that?”

  “He’s right,” Anput realized aloud. “The energy sickness would long since have killed him. There’s no way it could keep him alive for that length of time. He might survive another year, two at the outside. Definitely not another five.”

  “Ba, are you monitoring our conversation?” Trevor asked.

  “Indeed,” Ba’s disembodied voice said. “How can I assist you, Ark Lord?”

  “How long has Percy been in this city?” Trevor asked.

  Anput could have kicked herself for not thinking to check with the construct.

  “Seven months, nine days, eleven hours,” Ba’s voice said.

  “Can you explain the time discrepancy then?” Anput asked.

  Ba was silent until Trevor repeated the question. It irked her, but she’d long grown used to living in the shadow of an Ark Lord. At least Trevor was less insufferable than Ra had been.

  “This city was the crowning achievement of the species you refer to as the Builders,” Ba began. “They constructed it in a subterranean location, one carefully protected from all outside influence. Then, the Builders created an energy field that warped the space around the city. This was done to extend the longevity of the city, though this measure has not been entirely successful. The time dilation factor is currently set to ten, so for every hundred days that passes outside a single day will elapse here. The portal allows the city to connect briefly to the current flow of time.”

  Anput merely blinked. The implications were staggering.

  “I need you to cancel that time dilation immediately,” Trevor said. “Can you do that?”

  “I can do so, but this will accelerate the destabilization of this city,” Ba cautioned. “Once the field is deactivated, I will not be able to reactivate it without first enacting extensive repairs. Do you wish me to disable the field?”

  “Do it,” Trevor ordered. “We can’t afford to have that much time pass.” A moment later a tremor passed through the room, and the lights dimmed even further.

  “It is done, Ark Lord,” Ba said.

  “Trevor, do you realize what this means?” Anput asked, laughter bubbling up. “For time dilation to function, time would have to be non-linear.”

  “Einstein was right,” Trevor said. He gave one of his boyish smiles. “It might even be possible to travel backwards in time.”

  “Such travel is inadvisable,” Ba interjected, “and outlawed in the Builder Codex.”

  “But it’s possible,” Anput shot back, throwing her arms around Trevor.

  “Pardon the intrusion,” Percy said, “but I have so many questions.” He tried to rise from the cot, but Anput disengaged from Trevor and moved to intercept him.

  “And we’ll answer them, but you need to rest,” she ordered. “We still don’t know the rest of your story. At some point, you were imprisoned here. What happened?”

  “Of course, of course. I owe you the conclusion of the tale.” Percy settled against the cot, dabbing his mouth with his handkerchief. “One day, the portal opened differently. It was far, far larger than it had been. I don’t know why it changed, but this time it stayed open. It would move sometimes, each time showing a different part of the jungle. Yet it never again closed. I watched it every day, and eventually a group of natives entered the city. At first I thought they were local explorers, but then they turned into hairy, brutish monsters. They were more akin to the kind of werewolf described in English folklore than anything I’d have associated with the Amazon.”

  “We can explain how and why they exist when you’re done with your story,” Trevor offered.

  Percy nodded, then continued. “I tried to hide from the monsters, and was successful at first. By then I understood the city’s layout better than they did. I watched as they explored Z. They seemed very excited by the writings, and by the jewelry they found.” Percy reached into his pouch and withdrew a thick golden bracelet. “These are highly prized. At first I thought they’re merely decorative, but then I saw some of the werewolves use them. I could never figure out the trick of how they did it.” He offered the bracelet to Anput.

  “Are you giving this to me?” she asked, blinking.

  He nodded.

  She accepted the bracelet, snapping it around her wrist. She could feel the power within it, linking instantly to her. It was unlike the few sunsteel weapons she’d touched, as if this somehow possessed its own primitive intelligence. “Do you have any idea how priceless this artifact is?”

  “Lady Anput, I realize you are a married woman, and I am a married man. Still, I cannot see either of our spouses objecting to me making a gift to a beautiful woman.” Percy gave her a wink, paired with a grandfatherly smile. “I can’t use that thing. Maybe you can. You wished to hear the rest of my tale? When the werewolves finally caught me they put me inside this pyramid, and sealed it behind me. I was caught without most of my research materials, and had little more than a chronometer and a few flares. They didn’t give me a chance to explain, nor did they ask my opinion. That, in my mind, makes these creatures the enemy. You, then, might be my allies.”

  “They don’t want us here any more than they want you, I can promise you that,” Trevor said. He looked to Anput. “What do you need from me to conduct your experiments?”

  “Ba, are you capable of reading a data crystal?” she asked. No answer, of course.

  “Ba, I order you to answer Anput’s questions as if she were an Ark lord,” Trevor commanded.

  “Very well, Ark Lord. I am capable of reading data crystals, as they were the primary mea
ns of data storage used by the Builders. My databanks can handle conversion of most numeric systems, and can decrypt most symbol sets.” Ba finally shimmered back into view, drawing a gasp from Percy.

  “Here,” Anput said, tossing a fist-sized ruby to Trevor. “That’s what I was working on with Project Solaris. The experiments were mostly conducted on David, to find out what the grey men had done to him. I have enough of an understanding to map the desired traits into the virus—at least I think I do. It shouldn’t take that much modulation to scale the virus back. If we do that, we give Percy a higher chance of surviving, though he’s unlikely to manifest much in the way of shaping.”

  “I only understood about one word in three,” Percy said, his confusion evident, “but it sounds like you may have the means to my survival. You want to expose me to some sort of sickness?”

  “Something like that,” Anput explained. She put a hand on his. “For the time being, please just relax. Trevor and I might be able to cure you, but it’s going to take time, study, and experimentation.”

  “Well, we’ve got plenty of time and nothing else to do,” Trevor said. He moved to the console, inserting Anput’s data crystal.

  Chapter 60- Stand Off

  Jordan wasn’t having the best day. Three of the five councilors had denied his request for an audience, and he hadn’t even bothered to ask Elia. He suspected the only one who’d agreed had simply done it out of politeness.

  He hoped it was politeness, anyway.

  “Welcome, Ark Lord,” Matron Davina said, gesturing at a foam chair across from him. It was similar to those in the Ark, and Jordan sank comfortably into it. Davina waved a hand and a white-robed acolyte brought forth a tray with two wooden goblets on it. She filled them with a clear liquid, then offered a mug to Davina. The matron took it, and waved at Jordan to do the same.

  Jordan shook his head. “I’m too dehydrated to drink alcohol. I was in the jungle this morning. Thanks for the offer though.”