by Olly Jarvis
‘That is what history tells us,’ Chan replied. ‘But unlike the teachers that came before him, Alexander used the knowledge only to gain power, just like David Kline.’ He made eye-contact with Ella. ‘Knowledge worth having does not bring power, Miss Blake.’
Ella thought for a moment, sensing it was a test. ‘No,’ she replied. ‘It brings enlightenment.’
‘Exactly.’ He gave a tired smile. ‘Power never lasts and brings only pain and death.’
‘But what did Aristotle teach Alexander?’ Lizzie persisted.
He clasped his hands together, accentuating their bony appearance, then looked at Ella which she took as a request for an answer.
‘To understand that we are always in the hands of the comets?’ she replied.
Chan nodded. ‘I don’t know why we forgot. Part of learning is forgetting, I suppose.’ Chan’s brow furrowed as if he was troubled. He pointed to a large picture of Matthew’s Genesis pattern on the wall off to his right. ‘Try to see beyond power, war and destruction. Man has free will. We don’t know what makes each individual choose a path. We have forged the wrong road for too long.’ He glanced over at the Book of Silk again. ‘Unfortunately, it is the rhythm of this cycle.’
‘This cycle?’ repeated Broady, leaning in.
‘Comets have always brought change.’ Chan took a breath as if getting ready for a long explanation. ‘Even as far back as the dinosaurs. Life has evolved in tandem, driven by the comet cycles.’ He looked from one to the other. ‘They are of different durations, but they always come and go.’
‘The bigger picture,’ said Ella, truly seeing its meaning for the first time.
Chan took another breath. ‘The earth warmed for thousands of years and then it suddenly reversed about twelve thousand eight hundred years ago, returning to glacial conditions.’
‘Yes,’ said Ella. ‘The beginning of the Younger Dryas period.’
‘Yes,’ Chan replied, as if talking to a pupil, but there was nothing patronising in his tone. ‘Scientists have found nanodiamonds from over fifty sites from this period, an indication of great comet impacts around the world. There were mass extinctions, lost species of animals, plants, and even humans like the Clovis people in North America.’
‘Of course!’ exclaimed Ella. ‘The Younger Dryas lasted one thousand three hundred years and then there was another dip in temperature.’
‘Yes.’ Chan smiled. ‘Another comet strike, possibly remnants of the old shower. Some people call them the Taurids.’
‘So that cycle ended about eleven thousand five hundred years ago?’ asked Jay.
‘Yes.’ The old man took another sip of tea.
‘And our cycle began,’ said Ella, studying Chan. ‘The Holocene. The beginning of which matches the first dot on Genesis.’
‘You are on the road to enlightenment, Miss Blake.’ He didn’t say more, as if sensing the next question.
‘All these people from history that correspond with great events,’ she said her voice trailing off. ‘Why are they all men?’
‘Perhaps women aren’t driven by power as men are,’ Chan replied.
‘So, they are not predisposed to the power of the comets in the same way?’
Chan shrugged. ‘So much we don’t yet understand.’
Ella looked deep into the old man’s watery eyes. ‘Did you work with Matthew?’
Chan gave an affirming blink. ‘We corresponded, exchanged ideas. But I didn’t like David Kline. They worked together on the Genesis theory in the early days.’ He let out a sigh. ‘They were very different people. Matthew was in search of enlightenment, Kline was only interested in what power knowledge could bring. He was seduced by it, he began to believe the comets brought some kind of strength, just like so many great leaders in history. It blinded him.’
Conscious of the urgency, Ella decided to move straight to the biggest question. ‘And does a comet bring some kind of strength?’
‘It’s possible.’ Chan replied matter-of-factly. ‘Certainly, the belief that it does seems to be enough for some people. A self-fulfilling prophecy.’
Ella thought again about the great invasions in history and their single-minded leaders, then back to the present. ‘But what about when people are still in the womb, like Tacumseh? They don’t have the belief?’
Chan scratched his nose. ‘Maybe they were told by others that they were chosen.’
Jay’s brow furrowed. ‘But the pattern of important historical events correlates so exactly with the comets?’
Chan opened up his hands. ‘All I can say is that as a scientist or as a historian, I must have evidence.’
‘Or as a lawyer,’ Ella replied.
‘There might be some kind of energy in the comets that can affect some people,’ Chan said with a shrug. ‘We know the sun and the wind can be turned into energy. There’s nothing new there. We are constantly understanding new energies and how to harness them.’
Ella glanced over at Broady, remembering what he’d said in the car. She wouldn’t make the mistake of underestimating him again.
‘But I have no proof,’ Chan continued. ‘There is just, as you say, a correlation. And even if it were true, man has free will, choice. It is always what we do with knowledge that changes history.’
Lizzie and Jay stared at him, as if hypnotised.
Ella focussed on the task in hand. ‘Do you know where Matthew is?’
He closed his eyes again, this time holding them shut. On opening them, he said quietly, ‘I fear he’s dead.’
‘How?’
Chan shook his head. ‘He was very ill, he couldn’t keep moving, searching.’
Silence descended around the room. Ella felt her eyes welling up, mourning the death of a man she’d never met. ‘Where do you think he was?’
Chan shrugged. ‘I don’t know, maybe Turkey.’
‘Turkey?’ Ella looked at Broady again.
The woman said something in Chinese to Chan then left the room.
The others watched her leave then turned back to Chan who continued with his lesson. ‘He was searching for the Genesis.’
‘Genesis of what?’ asked Lizzie.
‘The Holocene,’ Ella replied. ‘Civilization, our cycle.’
Chan’s smile conveyed an obvious affection for his new pupil. ‘Yes, the source of our river.’
The pieces were falling into place. ‘So Matthew believed we can only find enlightenment if we can retrace our steps, go back to the beginning, the birth of who we are.’
Chan nodded.
‘So what is the beginning?’ asked Ella.
Chan gave her a look that seemed to pierce her soul. ‘You already know.’
Frustrated by the cryptic reply Ella huffed. Then, realisation dawned. ‘Genesis.’ She felt the blood rushing to her face. ‘The Great Flood.’
The old man raised an arm and pointed at her. ‘Yes.’
‘Atlantis? It was destroyed in a flood at the exact time of the last impact.’ She squinted trying to remember the exact date. ‘Plato first wrote about Atlantis in 360 BC and said it was lost more than nine thousand years before, sunk beneath the sea.’
‘Yes.’ Chan elaborated. ‘There is plenty of geological evidence that the comet melted huge glaciers in North America. The heat generated on impact would have been immense.’
‘So, sea levels rose,’ said Jay.
‘The new cycle must have started after the flood waters receded,’ said Lizzie, turning to Ella, as they said in unison, ‘Noah!’
‘You are your mother’s daughter,’ said Chan, beaming.
Ella and Lizzie’s eyes locked and Ella was overwhelmed by a sense of connection with her daughter, an exchange of infinite love and respect.
Still choked, Ella refocussed on Chan. ‘Matthew was looking for evidence of Noah, his ark.’
‘Yes. Noah came from a sophisticated world, the old cycle. Plato called it Atlantis. Matthew was convinced there must be some proof, something to mark the birth of our
civilisation.’
‘Isaac Newton,’ said Broady, slapping his thigh. ‘He knew all this?’ Broady stared excitedly at the others. ‘He said in one of his last pieces of work that Noah’s flood must have been caused by a comet.’
‘That’s right,’ replied Chan. ‘I think he came close to enlightenment before his death.’
The woman came rushing back into the room and locked the door, shouting something urgently to the old man.
‘They have found us,’ he said, getting up. ‘We must go.’ The woman rushed over to him and slipped some laceless plimsolls onto his feet as if dressing a child.
The others got to their feet and watched as the woman rolled back the mat uncovering a circular man-hole cover with an indented handle in the middle. She hauled it up and slid it off, revealing a metal ladder attached to a vertical tunnel leading into darkness.
The old man began to climb down. The woman waved at Ella to do the same.
Ella was still absorbed in Genesis but a sudden hammering on the door jolted her into action.
Chapter Sixty-Nine
They made their way down into the pitch black, condensation on the walls giving off a rank, damp smell.
The young woman went last, pulling the lid back across and turning a handle to seal it in place.
Ella could see a light below. Chan had reached the bottom and switched on a small torch. She could make out tunnels, leading off in all directions.
‘Follow the light,’ he said calmly, leading them off down a narrow walkway. His tiny frame and hunched gait made it easier for him to hobble along. Jay and Broady had to bend over to get through. They came to a dingy crossroads with the sound of running water. The stench was overwhelming. There was a stream of sewage in a huge channel across their path. Lizzie retched and covered her mouth.
The old man shone his torch at something on the ground. ‘Please, put that across,’ he said without a hint of panic. Jay put down his bag, came forward and picked up the plank of wood that had clearly been left there in readiness for a quick getaway. He slid it across the river of waste until it was firmly resting on both sides.
The old man went first, arms out like a seasoned tight-rope walker. The others followed, careful not to let their holdalls unbalance them.
Chan’s companion was the last to cross, then she pushed the plank into the water. They all watched for a moment as it floated off downstream.
They continued on, taking several turns, right then left into different tunnels, the old man seemingly confident of the route.
Eventually they came to a door at the end of their path. The woman came forward, undid a catch, opened it slightly, then waited. After a minute or so she pulled it open and they filed out into the light, squinting to see a large, tiled passageway with an escalator at the end. It took a moment to get their bearings. A sign on the wall read Green Park. They were in a tube station.
They went up the escalator, still trying to adjust their eyes. As they came up to the top Ella could see the ticket barriers, manned by a bloke in uniform. ‘We haven’t got tickets,’ she said, suddenly feeling panicked.
The woman, who hadn’t spoken since they left the room, took a bundle of tickets out of her pocket and distributed them, finishing with a little bow. ‘Please.’
They went through the barriers and up the steps.
It was nearly dark. The old man was exhausted, his pace slower and his footing unsteady. ‘This way,’ he said, leading them down into the park itself. They crossed the grass to a patch under a tree where he flopped down.
Commuters heading home from work were walking along the paths in different directions, all lost in their own worlds.
Once Chan had caught his breath, he spoke again. ‘You must go now.’
The woman remained standing, keeping watch.
‘Go where?’ said Ella.
‘Find the place Matthew was searching for.’ He took a gulp of air. ‘Finish his work.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Ella protested. ‘Why is it so important?’
Chan nodded as if realising there was something he hadn’t explained. ‘War is always about differences between men. Beliefs.’
‘I don’t get it,’ said Broady.
Ella answered, ‘Religion.’
Chan nodded. ‘Christians and Muslims, Catholics and Protestants, Sunnis and Shiites. Our differences are what stop us from working together even though we can see our future clearly.’
‘Pollution?’ asked Jay. ‘The destruction of our home?’
Chan bestowed a gentle smile on the young man.
Ella exhaled in realisation. ‘He wanted to find the common bond, where religion began?’
Chan touched Ella’s arm. ‘We were once the same, all of us.’
‘We thought Genesis might be a code word for some kind of weapon,’ said Broady.
‘On the contrary.’ Chan gave a resigned shake of the head. ‘People see what they want to see.’
Ella instinctively checked about them in the half light at the gloomy silhouettes heading towards the Tube. She remembered the Bible in Matthew’s room. ‘Doesn’t the Bible say the flood happened in about 2300 BC?’
Chan waved a finger. ‘There is no date in the Bible. That is just a calculation people make based on other stories.’ Chan’s knowledge was effortless. ‘There is no geological evidence of a comet strike at that time. But there is no doubt that the flood happened, it is recorded in every ancient text, every religion, the Bible, the Quran.’ He was almost laughing as he spoke. ‘It’s in Hindu mythology – the Satapatha Brahmana, written in the sixth century. The Sumerians wrote about it centuries earlier on the Deluge Tablet. It is in Norse legends, ancient Chinese texts – the Gun-Yu flood – Maya and Aboriginal mythology.’
‘It’s in the Hohokam creation story too,’ said Broady in a tone of wonder. ‘An Arizona desert people.’
Chan grinned. ‘It is a story that unites all peoples, because we all come from this event, this is when our epoch began.’
Ella glanced at the others in the dusky gloom. ‘So, where do we start looking, Turkey?’
‘Yes, Cizre.’ He smiled. ‘That is where many ancient texts say Noah landed.’
‘Cizre,’ said Broady, moving up onto his knees to stretch out his torso. ‘It’s on the Turkish–Syrian border, right? In the south?’
‘Yes,’ Chan replied.
‘But the Bible says Noah landed on Mount Ararat. I remember from my army days, that’s north-east Turkey, on the border with Iran.’ Broady rested an arm on Jay’s shoulder for support. ‘That’s got to be hundreds of kilometres away from Cizre?’
Chan smiled. ‘The original Hebrew texts from the Bible actually say Noah landed in the Kingdom of Ararat, that is a vast area covering the whole of the fertile crescent.’
Jay cut in, ‘So why Cizre?’
‘Matthew was convinced the Quran was more accurate.’ Chan’s passion for the subject held them all spellbound. ‘It records that Noah’s ark came to rest on Mount Judi.’ He wiped his brow with a handkerchief from his shirt pocket. ‘The ancient Kurdish city at its base is now called Cizre.’
Ella took a moment to take it all in. ‘There’s a comet overhead now. It’s closest point to the earth will be over Turkey in a couple of days. The last dot.’
Chan nodded.
Broady stared intently at him. ‘What’s going to happen?’
‘How can we know?’ he replied. ‘History is not yet written.’ Chan stroked his stubble. ‘I fear David Kline wants to be the man to write it.’
The old man’s friend was becoming more impatient. Evidently unable to control her anxiety, she said something in Chinese and put an arm under Chan’s shoulder, pulling him to his feet.
‘Go now,’ he said, waving them away like stray dogs. ‘And good luck.’
Ella jumped to her feet, desperate to keep him there a little longer. There was so much more to discuss. ‘Why us?’
He gently touched her cheek. ‘Perhaps that is written
.’
She stared into his eyes, for once lost for something to say.
‘Please, one more question,’ said Jay, getting up. ‘One of the most recent dots on Genesis is 1986, Halley’s Comet. Why is that date important?’
Chan straightened up as much as his curved spine would allow, held out a palm and smiled. Instead of providing an answer, he said, ‘Rain.’ Cajoled by his companion, he shuffled off into the half-light.
‘What about 1986?’ Jay called after him.
In one serene motion, the old man half-turned and said, ‘Matthew Shepherd was born.’
Chapter Seventy
Ella and the others picked up their stuff and headed across the park in the opposite direction, weaving their way through the stream of commuters.
‘Are we going to Cizre?’ stuttered Jay, as he moved alongside Ella.
She didn’t respond, she needed to think through their next move.
‘Are we, Mum?’ said Lizzie.
She didn’t reply. ‘Let’s just get out of here.’
Broady tapped Ella’s arm. ‘We can’t risk hotels, not with the check-in.’
‘I know,’ Ella replied stern-faced. ‘But you could do with some rest.’ She glanced at the others. ‘We all could.’
They came out near The Mall and stood under a streetlight, taking in each other’s ghostly expressions. Ella flagged down a black cab. ‘I know a place we can go,’ she said to Broady. ‘I’d trust him with my life.’ Something made her say to him, ‘As I would you.’
She opened the door to let Jay and Lizzie climb in. Broady stopped. ‘You OK, Ella?’
She managed a weary smile.
‘You’re doing great.’
Canary Wharf was still bustling. The lights from the windows in the skyscrapers gave the whole area an aura of dynamism.
‘Just here’s fine,’ Ella said to the driver, who pulled up outside a gigantic tower block.
‘This way,’ she signalled to the others, walking down the ramp into an underground car park. ‘There’s a back entrance,’ she explained. ‘Just to be safe.’
