by Alex Archer
"Of course there is," Annja said. "And we'll never find out what it is. Our expedition might have served to cover any number of different ends or operations," she explained.
"Thank you for talking sense, Ms. Creed," the man said.
"Say," Levi said. "What about the Assyrian tablet? It was in the pocket of my pants. What happened to it? It must be extremely valuable."
"I'm sorry, Rabbi Leibowitz," the man said. "Anything other than personal effects you might've brought down the mountain have been confiscated in the interests of national security. For reasons that should be obvious, they cannot be returned."
"But it's a priceless artifact! Its historical significance is beyond question—"
"What its significance is," the man said, "is moot. Please understand, Rabbi. Ms. Creed certainly does. What you think you recall happening up on Ararat never really happened."
Levi sent Annja a pleading look. She shook her head sadly.
"What really happened," the government agent said, "as will shortly be made public, is that your expedition proved the Ararat Anomaly was simply a basalt formation. It's geological, not any kind of human artifact."
"What?" Annja said. "I saw it. It was definitely human-built. It was—" She stopped, frowning. Not a ship, she realized with sudden shock. That quickly turned to chagrin at not seeing it earlier.
"It's a temple, Annja," Levi said. "Constructed partially out of wood, hauled painstakingly up that terrible peak for obscure but obviously powerful religious reasons."
He shrugged. "I suppose it's not any weirder than Stonehenge or the Terra-cotta Army, is it, really? And don't feel bad that we didn't figure it out earlier. We were sort of busy."
The government agent smiled. "The Anomaly is just a rock," he repeated. "Sadly, unexpectedly savage weather caused an avalanche that tragically wiped out the rest of your expedition. The world is very fortunate that Ms. Creed and Rabbi Leibowitz survived to tell the truth about the fate of the expedition and what they found. You're both heroes."
Annja did not miss the fact that he emphasized the word truth.
"And that truth is what you're scheduled to tell the eager global media in a press conference tomorrow," he said. "Should anyone suggest otherwise, that will constitute an extreme breach of national security. There will be no trial. The matter will be settled covertly."
Levi shook his head in disbelief. "So the ancient Assyrian relic we brought back—excuse me, didn't bring back—goes where? To that warehouse where they put the Ark of the Covenant in the first Indiana Jones movie?"
The government agent swung his cocked leg back and forth. "You have a highly active imagination, Rabbi."
"But what interest could the U.S. government possibly have in keeping something like this secret?" Annja asked. "The Ark—Noah's Ark—hasn't got anything to do with national security."
"It does when the country's run by born-agains!" Levi said.
"Should that circumstance ever have pertained, Rabbi Leibowitz," the man said, calm as ever, "it no longer does, I can assure you. The inmates proved inadequate to the task of running the asylum.
"As to how such arcana impacts the nation's security, Ms. Creed, you might be surprised. Be aware that, above all, the U.S. government, in common with the other governments of the Earth, has a vested interest in maintaining order. That includes the accepted order of things. Including the public understanding of the world and how it works. That in turn encompasses large areas of scientific and, we might even say, esoteric knowledge."
"What?" Levi said. "You mean flying saucers? Cold fusion? Antigravity? This is ridiculous. You can't be serious!"
"I'll leave you now," the man said, rising. "You need to rest up for your big press conference tomorrow. In a couple of hours some of our media specialists will meet with you to help you prepare."
He left the room quietly.
When the door shut behind him Levi turned to Annja. "What are we going to say?" he pleaded.
"Whatever they want us to say," she replied dully.
"Why won't you resist them? I thought you were a fighter."
"I am when there's something worth fighting for," she said quietly.
"But the truth—we can get the truth out! If not at the press conference, then over the Internet!"
"No, Levi," Annja said. "Believe me. We can't."
He sank back. "You know what you're talking about, don't you?" he said weakly. "You've done this sort of thing before."
"Yes, unfortunately I have," she said.
Tears welled up in his eyes and rolled down cheeks peeling with sun and wind burn, into a beard neatly trimmed by Armenian nurses.
"So it was all in vain. Those poor deluded young men. Mr. Atabeg. Even…even the Kurds, who died for something they thought was worthwhile. All the pain. All the blood."
"No, Levi. It wasn't in vain," Annja said.
"But we failed."
"No."
Blinking away tears, he looked at her, confused.
"We went up the mountain to find something, remember?" she asked gently.
"The truth about the Anomaly." He spoke haltingly, as if he suspected some kind of verbal trap.
"Yes. And that's what we did, isn't? We learned the truth, you and I. We found it and we brought it back alive. And if we can never share it with the rest of the world—we know. They can never take that away from us, can they?"
He looked at her for a long moment. Then, slowly, he smiled.
"No," he said. "No, I guess they can't."
He lay back. He seemed exhausted. He probably was, given what he'd been through. For that matter, so was she. Even though she felt only a little residual pain in her right hip and ankle, suggesting those injuries had been minor, it would take time to get her strength back. She'd been right up to the edge. And as far beyond it as she ever had been before.
"Annja?" Levi said in a small voice.
"Yes, Levi?"
"If this is what victory feels like, may the Lord preserve me from ever knowing defeat."
"Amen," she said.
Copyright
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4324-2
PARADOX
Special thanks and acknowledgment to Victor Milán for his contribution to this work.
Copyright © 2009 by Worldwide Library.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Worldwide Library, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises Limited. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
