Babel Found

by Matthew James

  I’d be the only one, for sure.

  Lost in his thoughts, Ben barely noticed when their heads cleared the edge of the golden platform surrounding them. As they slowed and stopped, he instantly saw an unfamiliar man waiting beside the dump truck. He was dressed as he’d seen Kane once. Black suit, black tie, aviator sunglasses.

  The ‘Company.’

  He and Joshua unclipped their harnesses and stepped off the foothold, heading towards the unexpected, and therefore, unwelcomed visitor.

  Ben glanced up and saw two men, one to each side of the pit, carrying assault rifles, ready for anything. Kane had ordered and personally selected a new security team. They were ex-military and highly regarded men. Ben had no idea how Kane knew them, but his time in the army must’ve been it.

  “How can we help you, Mister…?” Ben said, trying to coax the man.

  “Anu,” said the dark-skinned man, his southern drawl deep and booming, “call me, Anu.”

  “Okay, Mr. Anu,” Ben said, standing tall, not at all pleased with the intrusion paid to them by the agent from the bayou, “would you mind telling me why you’re here—unannounced? I’m the only one on this continent that can approve who sets foot on, or even near, this location. That permission is mine alone and you weren’t approved.”

  “Dr. Fehr,” Anu said, removing his sunglasses. Ben was taken back by the man’s penetrating blue eyes. They were something to behold, belonging to those of a catalog model. Anu stepped forward and smiled like a predator would look at its prey. “I’d watch your tone, good sir. You wouldn’t want to become a useless redundancy now, would you?”

  3

  The Smithsonian Castle

  Washington D.C.

  Todd Jenkins was still getting used to his new surroundings. He wasn’t a history buff like Hank, Nicole, and Ben, or a militarized war-machine like Kane. Even Olivia specialized in genetics, or more precisely, the field of archaeogenetics. She was the foremost mind, studying the link between the bloodlines of all the ancient cultures around the world. She’d been looking for a master race of sorts and after the deaths of over thirty of her colleagues, she was rescued and brought aboard. It was then Olivia found out she was actually looking for Atlantis.

  Atlantis, Todd thought, I can’t believe it’s actually Atlantis.

  He was still a little shell-shocked with the discovery, stating that it was ‘wicked’ when Kane had first divulged the information. The others shrugged it off like it was nothing special, though. They just went about their business like they discovered a tomb belonging to someone’s pet hamster.

  Then again, no one has tried to kill me yet. That can really put a damper on your outlook.

  Yet…

  He didn’t like how easily he added it to the end of the thought. He had no intention of being a part of the action. He liked his basement office, away from the real dangers of the world. People. He got along with his machines a lot better than those of his own species.

  Dressed, as always, like a common college student, Todd roamed the main hall of the Castle, feeling comfortable in his overly worn light-green Hyrule kingdom tee. He’d regularly get into nerd-based arguments about The Legend of Zelda being the best video game franchise with Kane. The big man obviously dug the Halo games, though. But of course, when Hank was around, he would always try to trump everyone and say Uncharted, arguing it was the closest thing to what they did in real life. They never could agree on it, but man did they have fun with the multiplayer options.

  Todd would periodically come up for air during his insanely long work hours and just stroll the corridors. When he felt particularly adventurous, he’d even visit the surrounding museums too. The walk would help clear his thoughts, effectively hitting the reset button on his computer-like brain.

  Todd was a renowned hacker and eventually contacted by the CIA. At first, he was scared he’d done something wrong—minus breaking into the various databases around the world like he had. It was a hobby, though, and he never caused any real trouble. It kept his mind off his day job working at the local Apple store, helping John and Jane Doe check their email.

  One of the first people he met was a giant man named Jeremy Kane. The two of them immediately bonded as friends, having similar interests. Then, Kane was pulled away from an investigation, eventually heading to northern Africa to interview a man named Harrison Boyd.

  From then on, Todd had been added into the mix, developing all kinds of spy gadgets as Kane like to call them. Kane even went as far as to call him ‘Q’ on several occasions. Their relationship was how Kane really got the second pair of first-generation NVS glasses. Kane would tell people he stole them to cover for his new friend, but Todd really wasn’t worried. The things that went on just feet away from him at his old office in Langley… They wouldn’t miss one pair of high-tech Oakley’s.

  Even if they did cost over a million dollars to make. He shook his head. Government spending… Money to burn.

  But as of today—as of now, he was studying a fantastic display depicting the ancient gods of Egypt. They were set up in the center of the recently reopened room, encompassing a to-scale model of one of the tombs he couldn’t remember the name of. The main hall was badly damaged during a gunfight, but the Castle’s temporary closure and subsequent remodel gave them the cover they needed to transfer his equipment over. Once reopened, no one would be the wiser.

  The display he stood before now gave him a CliffsNotes version into the history of ancient Egypt, starting with the famous, and to only a very few, very real deity, Thoth.

  “I still can’t believe it,” Todd said, reiterating his thought from before. “Thoth in the flesh,” he shook his head in disbelief. “I wonder if the other gods were real too...”

  He stepped away from the lifelike bust of Thoth and tied his shoulder length blonde hair into a ponytail. His ‘surfer-do’ was getting a little long, even for his taste. It now brushed against his shoulders when not tied up, having not been cut in months. Then, he took off his glasses, of the NVS variety, and rubbed his eyes hard, stopping only once he saw spots beneath his eyelids. The occasional strain-induced headache was the only thing that prevented him from working for hours on end. He could get through about five or six without having to take a break, other than pee, any more than that and he’d be down for good. While six hours may not seem like an outrageous amount of time in front of a computer to some, Todd would do it for twenty hours at a time sometimes. Maybe even longer when a team was active.

  Like what happened in Mexico.

  It was his first official gig as the team’s operations handler. He would upload whatever information necessary, via their own NVS glasses, on the fly, as fast as he could. As long as his coworkers—his friends—were out in the field and in danger, so was he. It’s how he operated either way. Hank and Kane may not be able to rest and they may need him ASAP. He needed to be there for them when they came calling no matter what.

  Thankfully, they were very resourceful people and didn’t overly abuse the ease at which they could ask for help. They only called on Todd when it was absolutely essential. Like needing schematics of Kukulkan’s pyramid when getting chased by a team of a dozen mercenaries and only carrying handguns.

  That was an intense couple of days for sure.

  But man was it fun! he thought, smiling to himself.

  He stepped over to the next bust. It was of Horus—the falcon god—the hero. He was king after his father, Osiris, was murdered by the treacherous Set. Isis’ statuette came after Horus. She was his mother and was adorned with a stern look. And then there was Osiris himself, and so on and so on down the royal line.

  Todd loved this stuff the more he was around it. He had always loved the movies centered around the gods of old. The mythology behind it was amazing. Even if it was a farfetched tale, just the slight possibility that people like that existed in years past was awesome to him.

  The original Harryhausen movies like Clash of the Titans, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad,
and Jason and the Argonauts were his favorites. They depicted the classic heroes fighting against the banes of their particular worlds. They were also some of Hank and Kane’s favorite movies too, something that brought them together further.

  A clacking sound broke him from his admiration. He quickly turned and spotted a woman in a tight black dress and oversized sunglasses, making her way towards him. But before he could panic, she stopped a good twenty or so feet away, at another case of Thoth. He watched as her hip-length raven colored hair sashayed to a stop, eventually falling back into place behind her. She intently stared into the full-body display of the immaculately dressed god. Oddly, she just stood there and gazed at it, intently reading the information cards posted around the large glass case. She didn’t even take off her heavily tinted eyewear.

  It wasn’t odd that a woman would read the text, but one dressed as her and this time of day… She just made him…nervous.

  Todd wasn’t sure why he felt such fear towards the woman—or women in general. Even when he had to converse with Nicole or Olivia, he felt a slight case of anxiety. They were the alphas of the sex for sure. Those two could frighten a pack of wolves if they deemed it necessary, Nicole with her physical prowess, and Olivia with her inner fire.

  There were other people in the hall too. It’s not like he was alone with her or anything. There were even other women in the room, but they were casually dressed for the weekend weather.

  He glanced back over to the woman in black, sensing that she was different somehow. And…she moved closer to him. Not much, but it was enough to make him squirm.

  Todd turned and headed back towards the security door leading down to the basement. Once he was through, no one could follow him. He was, in fact, the only one here with a keycard. That was enough for him to start calming some.

  Just get downstairs and you’ll be fine.

  “Excuse me?”

  Todd whirled around, reaching for the gun underneath his Robert Langdon inspired jacket. However, he released his grip on the weapon once he saw who was speaking.

  It was the black dressed beauty. She was standing not three feet from him. He wasn’t exactly sure how she could have covered that distance without him noticing. He remembered hearing her heels echo around the room when she originally entered. He surely would have heard them again.

  It’s not like she could’ve jumped that distance and landed like a panther, right?

  “Y-yes?” Todd couldn’t even look directly at her. She was sending chill after chill of nerve-wracking energy towards him. Breathing hard, he did his best to relax. Her posture wasn’t the least bit threatening. If she was, it was to his emotions and not to him physically.

  “Could you help me find something, please?” Her accent strange, yet familiar. He couldn’t place it, but it sounded Italian, mixed with something else as if she was trying to hide it a little.

  “I…I can try. Yes, ma’am. What are you looking for exactly?”

  She removed her Jackie Onassis-inspired sunglasses, revealing even more of her flawless skin, looking him in the eyes. The already apprehensive computer engineer froze when he saw the frigid blue, almost white colored irises. But they softened slightly like she was intrigued by his boyish behavior.

  She blinked it away, though, her eyes becoming stern again.

  They held a cunningness that could only mean trouble.

  4

  Typhoon Lagoon

  Orlando, Florida

  “Hank and Nicole have no idea what they’re missing,” Kane said, smiling wide as he looked at the bevy of waterslides.

  “And we have no idea what we’re missing!” replied the very annoyed Frenchwoman by his side, her accent growing in strength with her annoyance. Olivia Dubois wanted nothing better than to be tanning next to Nicole on the beach, but instead, Kane coerced her into going to Disney World—more specifically Typhoon Lagoon waterpark.

  “Come on Belle, it’s where dreams come true,” he’d said, using the pet name he came up with. It was the only time Olivia regretted her heritage.

  She sneered at him. “So you’re telling me you’d rather play here than watch me tan on a beautiful beach in just the tiniest of bathing suits while sipping on beers with Hank and occasionally sneaking peeks at Nicole?”

  Damn, he thought, didn’t think of that.

  Kane’s face fell flat and his cheeks reddened as he pictured the scene before him, but shook it away when he noticed Olivia staring at him, a smile forming. She loved to mention the fact that he had a small crush on Nicole when he’d first met her. But when he and Olivia had officially become an item, she even admitted to having a girl crush on the Swede.

  “Who doesn’t think she’s magnifique?” Olivia said when he told her, making an overly generous hourglass shape with her hands. She even went as far as flicking her eyebrows up a couple times, teasing him further.

  He shrugged off her proposal. “As long as you come down the slides with me, I’m okay with missing the ‘T and A’ show.”

  Kane grinned as she turned away. “That is…” she stopped almost losing a flip-flop, facing back towards her boyfriend. She threw her hands up, waiting for him to finish, “…I’ll be content with missing the show…until we get back to the hotel room.”

  “You know something, Jeremy,” she said, hands on hips, thrusting them to the right, “you really know how to sweep a woman off her feet.”

  She smiled again and started left around the immense wave pool. It was one of the largest in the world, reaching over ten feet in depth in some places. Olivia had no interest in it since she was only five-two. Kane, however, would easily clear the six-foot waves with his six-foot-six frame. Yes, over a foot separated them from each other.

  They continued hand-in-hand, heading for the first slide they could find. It was a decent walk too. Typhoon Lagoon was a really big place and impressed the hell out of Kane. Then, he saw a bar and screeched to a halt, ordering him and Olivia a couple of frozen daiquiris.

  “Cheers, sweet cheeks,” Kane said, clinking his plastic cup against Olivia’s.

  “Santé, you big lug.”

  Kane’s eyebrows creased. “Where’d you hear that?”

  Olivia shrugged. “Hank’s been helping me with some Kane-centered American insults. He thought they’d help when you annoyed me.” She then laughed at his hanging open mouth, patting his cheek as she walked by. “Come, let’s see this Humunga Kowabunga.”

  Kane smiled and followed along, thoroughly enjoying his drink. “Humunga Kowabunga…sort of sounds like when we—”

  She whirled on him. “If you’re going to turn the name of a family waterslide into a sex joke, please don’t. I can only take so many in one day’s time.”

  Kane looked down at his watch. “But it’s only noon.”

  “Exactly!” she hissed, slapping his shoulder, making him spill a little of his drink.

  “Ugh, party foul.” He licked it from his fingers. “You should know better Belle. We Americans take our alcohol very seriously.”

  She smiled again. “Especially at these prices!”

  They laughed it off and continued around the wave pool, eventually passing a section of kiddie slides and other activities.

  “Ketchakiddee Creek,” Olivia said, carefully pronouncing the title. “Cute name.”

  “Don’t even try,” Kane said inbetween slurps. “They don’t take too kindly to grown-ups splashing around in the kid zone.”

  Before Olivia could ask why he knew that, Kane pointed to another small tiki bar, already finished with his drink. “Round two?”

  Olivia shrugged, slurped down the rest of her own drink and shambled over. She wasn’t nearly as big as Kane and had a much weaker tolerance to the liquor-infused drinks. But they were on vacation and the CIA was paying for everything.

  What the hell? she thought, accepting the even bigger drink.

  “You trying to get me drunk?” she asked, half-joking.

  “Are you trying to say that I’d i
ntentionally get you schnockered and take advantage of you?” His acting job was perfect, making her shoulders sag a little. “Because if you are…” He tilted his head a little and shrugged his shoulders, sucking down the extra-large drink, revealing his flawless performance, something he’d honed while in the CIA. You needed to act the part in certain situations when out in the field.

  “God,” she said, stamping her foot, “you and your drama skills are so insufferable sometimes. It’s like you majored in theater or something.”

  “I did,” he said, continuing forward. “They had us take acting classes right when I joined up with the company. Instructors said I was a natural at lying.” He laughed at the last part, but Olivia didn’t.

  He stopped and reached a hand out. “But I don’t lie to those I care about.”

  She blushed in the summer sun and accepted the offered paw of a hand.

  “Let’s find that slide so you can finally get your jollies off.”

  Kane smiled, holding back another joke, saving it for later.

  You’ve got time. It’s only noon…

  As they neared their destination Kane thought back to the first time he and Olivia shared that ‘moment.’ It was the first time he saved her life.

  They were on the steps of a stone pyramid in Teotihuacán, being attacked by living golem-made serpents. The snakes were the size of Hummer limos and were slithering up after them.

  Olivia tripped, twisting her ankle in the process. As the nearest snake closed in, about to consume her, Kane leapt over her prone form and landed inbetween her and the beast.

  He acted like a hero from the movies and jammed his rifle into its mouth, pinning it open. Then he swiftly drew his twin Desert Eagle handguns and unloaded them into the back of its throat.

  Kane looked down at his still healing left hand. It had been crushed later, in D.C., while chasing the mastermind behind the mercs, his old army teammate, John Frost. Their Jeep flipped, mangling his hand in the process, ending his dual-wielding days. His hand still ached, having just gotten the cast off, but it was a livable pain. He was alive after all.