by Nick Thacker
“Like a flood story,” Wayne said.
“ — Like a flood story, to name the most famous example. But what about pyramidal structures like ancient tombs, temples, and worship sites? And what was it exactly that these civilizations worshiped? Did you know that many ancient civilizations, even those worlds away from each other that have never had contact with one another, share a very similar story of their ancestry? Most tell of a bearded white man, rising from the sea and walking onto land, then teaching them agriculture, civilization, and other things. These ‘bearded visitors’ were said to be wise, powerful, and were worshipped as gods, even though they did not refer to themselves as gods.
“So if there’s a way to prove the existence of such a supremely intelligent race, something that offers conclusive evidence — well, I think you all understand the gravity of something like that.”
He looked around the group, analyzing their reactions. Corinne looked at Cole, searching his expression. Bryce and the brothers exchanged glances.
Bryce knew that it wasn’t just scientific evidence of an ancient prehistoric civilization that Vilocek was after. There had to be a source for their power, a reason for their superiority. Bryce knew that was all that really interested Vilocek.
“Sounds intriguing,” Bryce said finally, trying to sound less anxious than he felt. “Let’s get on with it then. You can explain the rest of it on the way, Tanning. I’d like to hear more about why the crystal breaks down the way it does, but we need to get moving.”
Chapter 49
10:03 am - Easter Island
They began the descent in silence, all pondering Vilocek’s words. As they followed the cave into the volcano’s side, they were guided by the numerous blue symbols glowing along the walls and ceiling. The symbols, though, were the only resemblance to the other passageways so far. Unlike the symmetrical, mirror-image passageways beneath the Great Pyramid and Petra, this tunnel was nothing more than a smooth-walled cave, sloping slightly downward, devoid of any stalagmites or other irregularities. As they went, Corinne thought of everything that had happened in the past few days, and tried to block as much of it out as possible.
She couldn’t bring herself to speak to the man that had shot and killed her uncle. She despised Vilocek, wanted to see him suffer. He had caused them all unbelievable pain even before he’d lifted his gun, first with her uncle’s kidnapping, then throughout the time they’d spent as Vilocorp’s prisoners. From the strange crystal-based bullet they’d shot into Jensen’s leg, which caused enormous pain when he got too far from Corinne, to the random beatings and general torture they’d endured — it had all worn her down to a point that she would rather have just stopped, laid down on the floor of the cave, and died.
But something nagged at her. Something Vilocek had said earlier, about “Te Pito.” She’d heard that term once before, while studying the island for a class that seemed a lifetime ago. Although she wanted nothing more than to hold a gun to Vilocek’s head and pull the trigger, she wanted an explanation for all this first. The group had paused in a larger cavern that had Birdman cave paintings and an old fire ring in it, when she finally found the strength to speak.
“Vilocek,” she said, her voice sounding stronger and more confident than she’d expected.
“What you said earlier — about Madu finding ‘Te Pito?’” she said.
“Yes — ‘Te pito o te henua.’ You’ve heard this term?”
“Once, a long time ago. It means ‘The navel of the Earth,’ right?”
“Yes, or ‘the ends’ or ‘the center’ of the Earth, as well, and it was how the Rapa Nui used to describe their island here.”
“I know — ‘Pito’ means ‘navel’ or ‘umbilical cord,’ and they thought that this was the link between the living world and the spirit world, ‘Po,’ in the sea,” she said. The rest of the group was silent, collectively surprised at her sudden interaction with Vilocek.
“That’s right,” Vilocek said, “but we thought the ‘Te Pito’ was actually a sort of literal path between the two worlds — one above ground, and one below — where their power source was kept.”
“But wasn’t the ‘living world’ said to be some other place, ‘Hive,’ or something like that?” Corinne asked.
“Yes — Hiva,” Vilocek corrected, “was said to be their ‘living world,’ whatever that means. Whatever it was, Easter Island wasn’t it — Rapa Nui, as the island was originally named by its inhabitants, was settled much too late to be considered Hiva. But most of the Polynesian islands and settlements today — including Easter Island — have a unified thread amongst their histories — they all came to their respective islands from another home — their legendary homeland, or Hiva.
“So, no one really knows how or when the first people landed on the island. They came from this ‘faraway land,’ and shortly thereafter a completely original written language appeared, as well as religion a and way of life. Out of nowhere. There is no documented evidence — like there is in literally every other culture known to man — of a slow progression. Hunter-gatherers first, then subsistence farming, then agriculture, for example. It just… appeared. Out of the blue.”
It took Corinne a moment. “Oh my God,” she said, realizing what he meant. “You think the Atlantians settled Easter Island?”
“Well, doesn’t it make sense?” Vilocek said. “The Rapa Nui people had to come from somewhere, and Easter Island’s not that close to anything… at least, nothing we know about today.
“Their language, their culture, it was all very secretive, you see. They were known for defending these cave systems, and their entire population eventually even became a ruthless, cannibalistic cult.
“What was left of the Atlantian civilization, after the famed continent was ‘sunk in a day and a night’ — according to Plato’s manuscripts — may have been a few stragglers. It would only take a handful to secure the crystal and bring it to a new island; to start again,” he mused. “Maybe this was their second home — a much smaller, much weaker version of the original Atlantis.”
“And the destruction of the Atlantian continent — the crystal’s doing, I assume?” Bryce piped in, still skeptical of it all.
“Why, yes — we know for a fact that the crystal is breaking down at an exponential rate, year over year. And in the lab, even though our synthetic versions have not been nearly as stable, all of the experimental tests have eventually ‘reset’ after a complete breakdown.”
“Reset? Back to a stable state?” Wayne asked.
“Yes — at least somewhat stable. It seems the two materials always reach a unified point, where their ratio to one another is 1:1 — then they break down and cause the reactions you witnessed on the videotape, Captain, and then revert back to their original states, for the whole process to start again.”
“So,” Cole asked, “the original crystal has done this before? And you’re afraid it’s going to do it again?”
“That’s what we believe. We’ve been able to cross-reference dates within the literature out there for when the Atlantian civilization existed, and when it was destroyed. Most of what we’ve found points to the year 9610 B.C. — over 11,600 years ago — as when Atlantis sunk beneath the waves. According to the calculations I mentioned outside, at the breakdown rate of around 0.00414% per year, that would give Material A exactly 11,622 years to break down.
“Meaning, of course, that the crystal’s primary two material substances would reach a ratio of 1:1 this year, on December 21, 2012.”
“Why December 21?”
“Remember how I mentioned how there are some coincidental similarities between a few completely isolated civilizations?”
“Yes,” Cole answered.
“Well, one of those strange similarities is the shared belief that the world will come to an end — on December 21, 2012. It’s usually a phenomenon attributed to the ancient Mayan civilization, but threads of the belief system have turned up around the world, in the Celtic calendar �
�� the date of the winter solstice — and on,” Vilocek said.
“Wait a second — “ Cole said. “December 21st is tomorrow.” He looked at Vilocek.
“I realize that,” Vilocek said. “Even more reason to get that crystal — we’re not sure what time the crystal will reach its breaking point, but we’ll be able to see the telltale signs for sure in the next few hours.”
“And if we do find the crystal,” Corinne asked, “how exactly do you plan to stop this ‘breakdown’ from occurring?”
“With this.” Vilocek reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small test tube. The liquid inside glowed with the same color as Cole’s luminescent skin. “It’s an elixir we created by extracting ‘Material A’ from the crystal. As I said, we can’t isolate it completely, so there’s still a small remnant of Material B on each molecular formation, but we’ve ‘rounded out’ the mixture with a Uranium isotope to stabilize it. It’s part of what my father and the Sr. Whittenfield were researching many years ago.
“Again, it’s nowhere near perfect — it comes with its own side effects — but it’s all we’ve got right now, and as long as the crystal is no larger than a basketball, it shouldn’t react too dramatically with the serum.”
Corinne watched Cole look down at his skin. She wondered if the “side effects” Vilocek referred to were like his — the bluish glow on his skin in the presence of the crystal — or if there was something more to it. Corinne took his wrist and gently started pulling him toward the opposite side of the cavern.
They moved on. It seemed to Corinne that they were constantly delving into caves, and she hoped they’d find the crystal soon — if at all. As she walked, her hand gently dropped from Cole’s wrist into his hand. It was cold and damp — Cole seemed fine, but his eyes weren’t focused, and he stared vacantly as they walked.
She hoped he was all right. After everything that had happened, she needed something to remain constant.
Chapter 50
9:46 am - Unknown
The crackling of Whittenfield’s headphones alerted him to an incoming transmission. He jumped — whacking his knee against the tray table in front of him. His coffee, sitting cold inside a much-too-small styrofoam cup with the airline’s logo emblazoned on each side, tipped over and splashed a few drips on the table adjacent to his.
The woman next to him — a burly, slightly smelly 50-year old with the faint peach fuzz of a mustache gone unnoticed — gave him a condescending glance, huffed, and looked toward the front of the plane.
Why in the world did I offer to take a commercial plane, he thought, apologizing and wiping the centimeter-wide drip off of her tray. He’d wanted to remain under the radar — even with his prosperity and recognition, most of the people who might recognize him would be sitting in first class. In a moment of stupidity — he knew now — he’d traded in his first-class ticket for this coach seat, squeezed between this sack of fat and a black-haired teenager who’d done nothing but look out the window the entire flight. He almost wondered if the kid was alive — he hadn’t moved or spoken since they’d taken off.
He clicked the trackpad to wake up his laptop. He closed several windows that popped up, ensuring that there would be no peeking from his cabin mates, and clicked the blinking ‘receive’ icon on the task bar.
He positioned the earbud-style headphones more comfortably in his ears, and adjusted the volume.
“Check, 1-2,” Bryce’s voice came across in a raspy whisper. “Come in, Whittenfield.” There was a slight delay. “Whittenfield, I can’t hear anything — if you can hear me, I’m beginning the transmission now. We’re about to begin the search for the crystal, but we have been intercepted by the Vilocorp group.
“Vilocek is here, and we’re currently, uh, with him. I’m going to keep this line open, see if I can’t get him to talk a bit. I need to know what we’re up against. If you’re there, you might want to record this.”
Whittenfield started the recording device on the software program. He reclined a bit more and closed his eyes. For the next hour there was nothing but static, but he let it run.
Eventually, he heard them begin to talk — something about one of the big Moai heads he’d read about — then about the video feed he’d sent to Bryce. After a while, he could hear Vilocek begin one of his monologues, this time about the crystal and what they’d discovered about it so far.
He listened closely. Quickly, Vilocek’s description went beyond Whittenfield’s level of understanding and knowledge about the crystal — from his and his father’s own research — and Vilocek described things Whittenfield hadn’t even imagined. He opened a text file and quickly started typing notes.
A few minutes into Vilocek’s speech, Whittenfield turned the headphones up again. This was it. This was what he — and his father before him — had been trying to discover about the crystal.
It was what he needed to know.
It was everything.
Chapter 51
10:23 am - Easter Island
“How much longer does this cave go?” Corinne asked.
“Captain Reynolds said something like 5 or 6 kilometers, right?” Cole asked.
“Yeah,” Bryce said, “the article I read said a ‘new cave had been discovered,’ going on for about 6 kilometers until reaching a — “
They came to a turn in the tunnel and were faced with a looming wall of stone.
“ — dead end.”
“This is odd,” Corinne said. “Usually cave systems that descend like this one dwindle in size, gradually ending in a much smaller diameter. This one has been getting larger — the height of this section alone is twice that of the cavern we stopped in earlier.”
“You’re right,” Bryce said. “This wall seems too abrupt,” Bryce said.
A muffled boom suddenly sounded from somewhere in the distant reaches of the cavern, followed by a tremor that made them all stumble and grab at the walls for support.
“What was that?” Bryce asked, to no one in particular.
“Sounded like dynamite,” Jeff said. “On the other side of the wall.”
Cole stepped closer to the wall. As he approached, the now familiar symbols lit up all over the surface.
He knew what to look for, and quickly found the familiar symbol of the open-armed man, rising from the sea, directly in front of him. He placed his palm over the symbol, and almost immediately the ground began to shake.
The rumble increased in volume as the entire cavern quaked gently. The rumbling continued, but nothing else happened.
“Are you sure you did that right?” Jeff shouted over the growing din.
“There’s nothing else to do!” Cole shouted back. “It’s worked everywhere else we’ve been so far.”
Then, with a deep groan, the enormous wall slowly started to slide backwards. Loose pebbles danced at the threshold, and the team took several steps back.
“I guess there’s more to go through after all,” Jeff said. Wayne just nodded, watching the huge slab slide back. One side ground to a halt as the other began to swing back, like a great hinged door. Trapped air from behind rushed into their side of the cavern, bringing a stale, distilled scent of age and earth washing over them.
“This is like one giant tomb — and we’re about to walk in with the mummy,” Karn said, trying to peer around the now slightly open door.
“Well,” Vilocek said, “considering most of the cave system so far has been relatively straight, and adjusting for the few hundred feet we’ve descended, we should be almost exactly at the center of the northern third of the island.”
A large cloud of dust billowed from the door, and Corinne covered her eyes and mouth with the sleeve of her shirt.
“You mean,” Bryce said, “right in the center of the — “
“— volcano?” Cole finished his sentence as he took a tentative step through the doorway.
As the dust settled, they saw the cavern beyond was more of a subterranean biosphere — the path ended abou
t twenty yards ahead in a massive cliff, falling straight down to meet the cavern floor. Above, the ceiling catapulted up in a dome shape, with a small hole in the center. The cavern wasn’t unlike a Yucatan cenoté, or like a naturally-created observatory, except larger — much larger. It was actually difficult to see the other side; from somewhere in the middle part of the upside-down bowl there was a steaming wall of white mist from falling water somewhere above it. There was light leaking into the massive cave from somewhere, but the misty fog caught and converged on the upper half of the upside-down bowl, diffusing it to a dim glow.
“Whoa,” Jeff said.
“You got that right,” his brother answered.
The immense hollow dome would certainly have been impressive enough — geologists and archeologists alike would go nuts over a find like this — but it wasn’t the dome by itself that caught their attention.
“It’s a — “ Cole paused as he stepped farther onto the ledge.
“A city,” Vilocek finished.
To their left the pathway continued, sloping downward and around where the dome met the floor of the cavern, like a huge spiral staircase. Below them, spread across the immense cavern floor, was an abandoned city — complete with towers, stone temples, and rows of cookie-cutter houses.
“Unbelievable,” Bryce said. “Who’d have thought something like this could exist?” he said.
“And look,” Corinne said, “it looks like they even had churches, or some kind of worship centers.” She pointed toward the center of the city, where two large spires reached almost to the dome’s ceiling.
The group walked to the left down the path. Corinne and Cole took turns pointing out different features they could see, while Bryce made sure that his shoulder-mounted camera was recording everything.
