Babel Found

by Matthew James

  Todd’s eyes went wide. “What of Daniel?”

  “I…I’m not sure, but I had just left him underground in the tunnels. As long as they still have air, they should be fine until we can come back for them.”

  Todd clenched both his fists, not believing what he was hearing. What are the odds that Ben is undergoing a similarly outrageous event there as he was here in D.C.? He wasn’t about to relay that, but Ben beat him to it.

  “What’s going on in Washington?” Ben asked, obviously unaware of Todd’s predicament.

  “Remember what Coaxoch did to the Great Goddess’ pyramid?” Todd asked, knowing Ben would instantly understand the reference. It was the pyramid that would eventually form into the colossal stone giant that almost pancaked Hank, Nicole, Kane, and Olivia.

  “You’re kidding me?” Ben said in disbelief. “What—”

  “I’ll give you a hint…” Todd said, wanting to turn and run, but unable to. “Big guy, top hat, never told a lie, was a fictional vampire hunter.”

  “Oh, no…”

  Todd completely agreed with Ben. This was without a doubt a worst possible scenario. That statue was not only ninety years old, but it was a symbol the capital couldn’t replace.

  “It’s not coming after you, is it?” Ben asked, concerned.

  “I don’t know. I’m not sure.”

  As he finished his response he saw the stone eyes of Abraham Lincoln turn towards him and stop in its tracks. It just stood there, still as a…well…a statue.

  “Oh, damn.”

  “What is it?” Ben asked through another bout of swirling wind.

  “Abe’s looking at me, Ben.”

  “Run, Todd. Run and don’t stop.”

  He was about to respond when a ­whup, whup, whup broke out in the air above him. His hair billowed around his head as he looked up and saw his guardian angel a hundred feet directly overhead.

  “What’s that sound?” Ben asked.

  Todd allowed himself to smile slightly. “Help from above.”

  Designated, Aegis-One, the Navy-built AH-1Z Viper hovered directly above its marked target: Todd Jenkins. His glasses’ GPS beacon would be easy to pick up and the two available attack choppers were under strict orders to protect those connected to it if at all possible, and since Todd was the only one left standing in Abe’s path…it wasn’t a hard thing to do. He, like the statue, was easy to spot.

  Killing two birds with one stone. Stop the golem and save me.

  Understanding of the situation was evident as the helicopter’s pilot quickly sent two small missiles right into Abe’s midsection, blasting craters into his gut. Stone went flying as they instantly unloaded two more into the president’s legs, shattering the right knee. It toppled to the ground but immediately attempted to right itself.

  Hands cupped over his ears, Todd watched as the monster picked up a car and flung it at the chopper, missing wide left. Sneering, Abe then hurled its broken leg skyward, intent on destroying the aerial defender anyway it could. The leg fell short, however, not even making the aircraft maneuver out of the way.

  But the seemingly feeble attack wasn’t meant for the AH-1Z.

  It was for Todd.

  He just stood there, waiting for death, unable to move. Shock had taken over, locking up his body and mind, freezing him in place. But as he waited for his own demise, something happened to the earth under his feet. It bucked and lifted, throwing him to the right, sending him flailing into the central lawn of the National Mall.

  Just as his feet cleared the area, the Lincoln Log crashed down and slid, taking out two very expensive looking sedans.

  But Todd didn’t see the destruction unfold behind him. As he tumbled he witnessed the helo land a well-placed projectile dead center in Abe’s forehead, obliterating the priceless effigy.

  It wasn’t the only thing he saw, however.

  Standing off to one side and currently zoomed in his lenses, was the Italian woman from the Castle, Terra. Terra firma, he thought. Now the spelling made sense. She could control the earth or anything made of its elements.

  Like, Abe.

  She had one hand pointed to the now lifeless golem and the other to him. She had been the one controlling the marble statue—just like Coaxoch in Mexico.

  But she also saved me…

  He didn’t understand why she would try to kill him—only to immediately come to his rescue moments later. What was her endgame? What was her—it’s then he saw it. Her face softened just a little upon seeing that he did, in fact, survive the devastation.

  All he could do was stand and stare.

  She did the same, meeting his gaze for only a second.

  Then, the ground opened up and swallowed her, no doubt acting as some high-speed getaway vehicle.

  “She saved me.”

  “What?”

  Todd flinched at the sound of Ben’s voice in his ear again. It had been so loud around him that he didn’t realize they were still connected.

  “Terra,” he said, “she saved me.”

  “Who’s Terra, Todd?”

  Who was she exactly? That is what he’d like to know.

  Todd did know one thing…

  “I have no idea, Ben…” he grinned.

  He then continued in his own head. But I think I’m in love!

  10

  Djanet, Algeria

  Ben’s topless Jeep went airborne as he launched it off the slightly raised desert sands, landing hard on the small town’s uneven paved road. He cringed as he felt his spine compress and twist, sending a wave of pain through his body. He needed to find cover before he was sucked up by the incoming twister.

  I seriously doubt these homes have any type of basement too.

  The skidding vehicle’s horn blared as Ben slammed his palm down atop the steering column, doing his best to entice the people of the village to scatter. He didn’t want to bring the storm this way if he could help it, but he needed to get back to civilization and this was the only usable road within miles.

  As he swerved around a small group of rogue dogs, he thought back to his last conversation with Todd. Another stone golem had attacked their team, this one in the heart of Washington.

  I can’t believe the statue was destroyed, he thought, jamming his foot down on the pedal. But he knew Kane’s orders. The CIA gave him complete control over everything surrounding their expeditions, including its safety—even their headquarters. Plus, the powers-that-be didn’t really think it a bad thing to have two attack helicopters on call at all times just outside the nation’s capital. Between the country’s currently heightened state of paranoia and what happened just a few months ago, the president himself signed off on it.

  Ben stomped on the brakes as a little boy ran out in front of him, chasing after one of the dogs. He spun the steering wheel as someone, presumably the child’s father, yanked the child out of harm’s way. Ben and the Wrangler did a one-eighty as he screeched to a halt, making him breathe in heavily, his hands shaking.

  As much as he needed to leave, he also needed to take greater care during his exodus. He almost killed the boy while trying to save his own life. It immediately brought his mind back to Daniel. If the tornado was strong enough to dislodge the massive dump truck, there would be no escape until someone got out there and re-rigged the cables. It could take days.

  Tornado…

  He looked up through his grimy windshield and saw what had been chasing him in its entirety for the first time. It resembled your standard dust devil. They were usually small, mostly harmless tornado-like phenomena, but this one looked like a twister you’d see in North America.

  Tornado Alley as it was called, was made up of the central states, mostly Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and parts of northern Texas. The mix of cold dry air from the northwest, warm dry air from the southwest, and warm wet air from the southeast caused all kinds of havoc in the region. The end result was some of the largest twisters in the world.

  This is one of those monst
ers, he thought, craning his head up. It reached as high as the clouds and churned with what looked like an anger-fueled frenzy.

  As he studied the zigzagging storm, thankful it was still far enough away to not suck him and the Jeep in, he saw something within it glowing. He touched the armbar of his NVS4’s and zoomed in, seeing it clearer as they refocused.

  It was the man from before—the imposter agent, Anu. He was calmly floating inside its vortex, hands outspread, his eyes glowing a fiery red. He was controlling the storm.

  “Not good,” Ben said to himself, looking in his rearview mirror. He could see a multitude of the townsfolk, retreating, desperately trying to escape the twister’s wrath. A wrath that Ben brought to their doorsteps. Most here didn’t even have their own transportation. They relied on others, most of whom had already left.

  “Damnit,” he said, cursing his stupid mistake. If Anu was really here for him, then so be it. Better he dies than everyone in the town too.

  How am I going to draw him away, though? he thought, gripping the steering wheel tighter. He needed to think of something fast, or else this town and everyone that didn’t make it out would be ripped apart.

  He looked left and right, trying to come up with something. And he did… His eyes found the other path out of the town. Yes, the road he currently sat on was the only paved one, but it wasn’t necessarily the only exit.

  “UNESCO be damned again,” he said, spinning the tires, heading back off-road. Vehicles weren’t allowed near or around the Tassili rock art for fear of further eroding them further, but Ben could care less about international law right now. Living was a higher priority at the moment.

  “Follow me you bastard,” Ben whispered to himself. Just for good measure he blared the vehicle’s horn again, spooking a couple of loose goats in the process. His tires found the sand again, leaving the road, following the worn footpath to the heart of the Tassili n’Ajjer National Park. If he could lose Anu inside the world heritage site, then maybe he’d have a chance. There would be minimal casualties within the confusing grid of rock arches and caves. The latter was what Ben was hoping to find before it was too late.

  He quickly activated his glasses’ video option and recorded the goings-on around him, focusing on the man within the storm as well. If he didn’t make it out of the Tassili mountain range alive, at least the rest of his team would know why.

  Plus, he thought, a wave of concern flowing through him, sounds like they have enough to deal with right now.

  * * *

  The Judge named Anu watched as the Jeep fled deeper into the park, curious as to why his mark would head farther away from civilization and possible help. He’d seen it countless times in his many years of life. His victims would go screaming through a crowded market, or a large building, crying that something was after them.

  His knowledge of this region was fairly limited, but he knew Babel was a very unusual city during its time. It was an early metropolis in which everyone spoke the same unified language. The people that called it home were said to be descendants of Noah and his family.

  The ancient texts state that they eventually built an impossibly tall tower, upsetting their god. He believed man arrogant for trying to exist at his level in the heavens, and so through his vengeance, he cursed the people of the city, instilling a dizzying number of dialects within their culture. They then scattered, babbling incoherently to one another. The like-speaking clans migrated together, following those they could understand. Eventually, they settled, creating the oldest civilizations we know of today.

  That, Anu knew, was fact. It was something their master had seen with his own eyes…or that of the man he influenced at the time. One of those trendsetting societies was none other than An’tala itself. Its king wasn’t the only all-powerful being to begin his life within the reaches of Babel.

  But unlike the island’s ruler, the other never left the tower.

  That was the most interesting of all the tales he’d heard during the building of what would become the city’s beacon to God. Anu was told this side of the story by his master. He said that the knowledge of what truly happened would prove significant in the coming years and was worth hearing.

  A young man named Malecima discovered a fallen star after it crashed down from the heavens above. Without thought, the curious man set out into the surrounding desert to discover where it landed, not knowing what he’d find.

  Was he in for a surprise, Anu thought.

  What could only be described as a fiery rock of gold impacted the terrain with an earth-rattling force, embedding itself deep within a previously undiscovered cave system. The man found a large crater after a day’s hike with only a small portion of drinking water, his robes, and a crude pair of slippers fashioned from animal hide.

  It was the most beautiful sight in the world, something he decided to greedily keep to himself. He would return several times over the next few weeks, covering the glowing stone with palms and dirt as he broke off chunk after chunk, experimenting on it. He’d tried to remove the rock itself once, but found it much too large to do so.

  No, that’s not right… It didn’t ‘glow.’ The master said it swirled like the clouds above, pulsating, radiantly bright.

  Anu was impressed that someone of that time would have the wherewithal to even think to do such a thing. Most would have claimed it as an omen, or maybe even a damning curse, and stayed far away. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until the man—hell-bent on solving the stone’s mystery—consumed a small piece of it that things really started to get interesting. It happened almost immediately—the changes. Most were to his mind, but some did occur to him physically.

  An awakening of sorts.

  The reckless individual became bigger, stronger, and faster, being able to lift the heaviest of boulders. He kept a lot of the alterations to himself, however, including his shining, swirling eyes, for fear of ridicule. He covered them, pretending he’d been blinded by illness, all while being able to see just fine. He also had to hunch and dress in loose rags to conceal his increased stature.

  But the original sample of the fallen star was too much for his mind to handle. He tried to suppress his newly developed gifts, becoming a recluse. Rumors were he even turned mad. He would ramble on about a tower, seeing hallucinations of one in his dreams, and wanting to be a god. The people of the encampment understood him as wanting to be like God, or at the very least, near Him. The minds of men were easily manipulated during those times if pulled in the right direction. It was easy for them to do things of evil while praising the noble.

  As time passed and his mind began to piece back together, the transformed man convinced the others to walk a day to the south and build a tower to God directly over the covered impact crater. Only he knew it to hold a great source of power. He would instill the wisest of those around him with the ideal blueprints to follow, secretly directing things from the sidelines. He wasn’t sure how it was happening exactly, but he continued to whisper to those around him, stating it was God speaking to him.

  Not only had the changed man become powerful, but his hindered mind screamed for more. No one would be the wiser of the internal struggle the man in rags was fighting against, claiming he heard voices in his head. That was…until the fabled tower collapsed years later due to a godlike incident.

  A massive earthquake, originating from somewhere below, shattered the structure’s foundation. Many of those who lived in and around the tower died that day, and those who didn’t, couldn’t converse with each other, having their tongues tied by God. It’s what they believed anyway.

  It wasn’t God, though, Anu thought. It was something infinitely more dangerous than God.

  Angered at what transpired, the malformed man was done living in the shadows of the inferior, hiding his true form. He was especially done letting the unrighteous take the credit for his undertakings. He wanted to be the one making the official decisions. He wanted to rule.

  So, he went away for a week, regretti
ng what had happened. As soon as he accepted the remorse, believing in his heart that he would change and do good, he felt a weight lift off his shoulders and even his mind. It was like a blinding, rage-filled presence had been erased from his thoughts like something else had been whispering commands to him like he did to those around him.

  Knowing what he needed to do to pay back his sins, he returned looking like a new man, calling himself by a false name. It was one that would be remembered and revered for all time, one that would be responsible for a new kingdom built atop a beautiful island. It would appear almost overnight, having little to no record of its construction.

  Malecima, the faux vagrant, was no more.

  Thoth was born, his memories forgotten. Events that not even the eventual king of An’tala would be able to recall if asked. There was only one being who knew what really transpired the day Babel was demolished and he still resides in its ruins, waiting for his chosen vessel to come. Only…he didn’t plan on waiting as long as he had.

  Well, technically he wasn’t the only resident of the tower ruins. The other survivors within it grew restless. They also wanted out.

  11

  South Beach, Miami, Florida

  Well, Ocean Drive is now appropriately named. Let me clarify, it’s not really an ocean, but it is flooded, becoming more like a kid’s theme park splash pad. Nicole and I are sloshing through the ankle-deep water, heading north along the normally busy street. It’s technically still busy, but the only things moving are the screaming people—not the cars. Between accidents and stalled engines, on foot is the only way to move.

  “Who is that guy?” Nicole asks, holding my hand. While the water level is manageable, my current state isn’t. I used a lot of juice when I burned up the incoming wave and it sapped me of most of my strength for the time being. As the minutes go by I’ll gain some of it back, but any more of this and I’ll need a long nap to fully recover.