“Watch out!” Sam yelled, and quickly shimmied another few feet up the rope.
Next to him, Tom made a slight grunt sound.
“You okay, Tom?” he yelled.
“Just a scratch. But I’d like to put some more distance between us and any of the Pirahã guards before they get another lucky shot in.”
“Agreed!”
Adrenaline fueled their efforts, and Sam and Tom soon reached the top.
Genevieve looked at Tom’s leg wound. “That looks painful.”
Tom smiled. “I’ve had worse.”
Sam glanced at his friend. There was blood oozing out of a small wound to his left thigh. “That looks like more than a scratch.”
Tom shrugged. “I’ll get a tetanus shot, antibiotics, and some stiches and it’ll be fine.”
Veyron stepped forward. “Are you sure you’re all right? You look pretty pale.”
Sam studied Tom for a second. His face was ashen, and small beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. “Okay, let’s get him into the back of the Black Hawk.”
Sam looked over his shoulder. “Genevieve, are you alright to fly us back to the Maria Helena, while Elise stiches up Tom’s leg?”
“Yeah, I’m on it,” she replied.
Sam waited until Veyron climbed into the navigator’s seat and then closed the side door.
In the back of the Sikorsky helicopter, Elise was already in the process of opening the suturing kit. She looked at Tom, “This might hurt a bit…”
Billie studied the stone tablet without looking up, either unaware that Tom had been injured, or indifferent. She smiled broadly, as she studied the ancient map, waiting for its secrets to be revealed.
Genevieve climbed into the cockpit and switched on the main power. The rotors started to turn. She waited until they built up take-off rotation, and then pulled up on the cyclic collective and took off over the tabletop.
Chapter Eleven
The helicopter flew low and silently north.
Its dark shadow whipped across the tops of the ancient jungle canopies, which made up much of Venezuela. In the cockpit, Genevieve and Veyron were focused, but now settled into their flightpath. In the back, Tom slept well. Elise had cleaned the thigh wound and then sutured it shut. A small drip containing antibiotics and some colloidal fluids slowly ran down a small priming line into his vein. He would be sore for a few days, but he’d recover well. Elise and Sam both attempted to rest sitting up, but their constant subtle movements, and intermittent opening and darting of their eyes, suggested neither was capable of achieving it.
Despite being awake for nearly twenty-four hours now, Billie didn’t even attempt to rest. Instead, she spent the flight back to the Maria Helena poring over the ancient stone tablet under the beam of a small flashlight, unable to look away from the mysterious inscriptions.
The tablet was made from a single piece of pitch-black jet lignite. The soft rock only scored a three out of ten on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, making it easy for the ancient Master Builders who worked on it to carve into its soft mineral. It had been polished and cut precisely into the shape of a rectangle.
There was no written description on the surface. A series of fine lines were precisely engraved into the ebony-colored piece of stone, so fine that they were more easily felt than seen against the darkness. They ran both horizontally and vertically, giving it the appearance of a map showing the parallels of latitude and the meridians of longitude.
The Greek symbols for Theta, Sigma, Phi, and Omega were etched in gold, with one at each corner. Below each of those were the four horses, intricately carved out of stone or ivory to represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
She studied the first one. It was made of ivory, and its rider carried a sword and wore a crown of thorns. Billie noted the reference to the White Horseman – AKA the Conqueror. The second one was made of pure obsidian. Its rider was carrying a set of scales carved from solid gold, which represented the changing value of barley during the reign of Famine. The third was made of a solid piece of red garnet, which was expertly crafted into the shape of a horse and rider. In the rider’s right hand was a broadsword, identifying him as the biblical reference to War. The last horse was made of jade. Its rider carried a scythe. And although some people believed that he rode a pale horse, ashen, or black horse, of all the horsemen his purpose was undisputed – he was the harbinger of Death.
Despite the terrifying meaning behind the biblical references to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the sight brought reassurance to Billie. Eight weeks ago, when Sam and Tom were trying to track her down and rescue her, Sam uncovered a series of temples, and an ancient covenant based on the Four Horsemen. The covenant dated back to 286 A.D. when Grigori the Illuminator made a pilgrimage to Mount Ararat. What he discovered high up in the twin volcanic peaks, was enough for Armenia’s then King Tiradates III to have him thrown into the deep dungeon of Khor Virap, and left to die in solitude where his story could never be told.
Billie thought about that story…
A great harbinger of Death was slowly approaching Earth. Left unhindered, the evil fire from the sky would burn its way through all life on Earth. But the Gods had left the Four Horsemen to protect mankind.
The constant whine of the helicopter’s engine softened, and she felt the Black Hawk descend at the northern end of the Tepui Mountains. The nose of the helicopter dipped, and they descended into the valley below, where the dense vegetation of the Amazon jungle ran by at eighty knots, in a mirage of deep green.
Her mind returned to the stone tablet.
Within the inky black canvas were a scattering of identical blue sapphires. Despite the morning’s light, which now filtered through the helicopter’s windows, she used her flashlight to examine the precious gemstones. They sparkled wickedly under the beam of her flashlight, like a series of stars in the night’s sky.
She switched off the flashlight and stared at the stone tablet in the natural light. A curious grin filtered across her open mouth. The entire image looked like a giant constellation of stars. There was a total of twenty-two sapphires.
But what constellation is it?
Her eyes flicked across the rest of the tablet. In addition to the twenty-two precious blue gemstones, there were five empty indentations, where she suspected previous sapphires were once fixed. She brought the stone tablet up to her face so that she could examine one of the empty indents. It looked as though something had once been there. She could even make out the remnant of some sort of cement most likely used to glue the radiant gems in place.
The discovery hit her like a bomb.
There had once been a total of twenty-seven sapphires.
Five were now missing.
Billie looked up. Sam’s breathing was deep and irregular. The previously taut expression in his face was now relaxed, as though he’d finally slipped off into a peaceful dream.
She nudged him with her leg. “Sam. Wake up!”
Sam’s eyes shot open, and he sat upright. “Did you find something?”
“Maybe.” Her voice wasn’t certain. More prying, instead. “How many of the ancient Master Builder temples do you know for certain have been destroyed?”
Sam blinked his eyes, still trying to wake from his sleep inertia. “What?”
“The Builder’s temples. How many do we know for certain have been destroyed in recent years?”
Sam’s blurry eyes darted across to the other crew, all resting in the back of the helicopter. “Three. Atlantis sunk. The one in the Mediterranean Sea was swallowed by the incoming tide. And the one beneath the Gulf of Mexico imploded.”
“That’s all of them?” she asked.
With her eyes still firmly closed, Elise said, “No. There have been five destroyed, although there may have been others that we don’t know about. Including the three that Sam listed, there were also the one in Tunguska in the Siberian Taiga, which was bombed from above. And the one in the Khyber Pass, in Afghanista
n, which was destroyed by militants shortly after Sam first investigated it all those years ago.”
An engaging smile formed on Sam’s lips. His piercing blue eyes were now wide awake with interest. “All right. So, there’s five. Why do you ask?”
Billie handed him the tablet. “There are twenty-two stones implanted in small indents within the jet lignite.”
“And?” Sam asked.
“There are an additional five indents without stones. When you examine them closely, you will see a small bit of silvery powder, the remnants of a very old form of glue.”
“It looks like someone has gone to the effort of removing the gems?” Sam asked.
Billie nodded. “Exactly.”
“Or it’s just a coincidence, and five stones were randomly lost from the ancient artifact.”
“That’s always a possibility,” she acknowledged. “You want to hear a more likely theory?”
“Shoot.”
“This is a map of the world. Each of these gems represents a temple constructed by the Master Builders and interconnected by the strange power of the looking-glass. There were originally a total of twenty-seven indents filled with blue gems. Now there are twenty-two. Someone’s been removing a corresponding gem every time a temple has been destroyed.”
Sam took a deep breath and beamed with satisfaction. “You know what this means?”
Billie smiled. “We now have a map of the remaining temples of the Master Builders!”
Chapter Twelve
Sam’s heart pounded, and his muscles went tense with anticipation. He counted each of the meridian lines out loud. There were twelve lines in total. On a normal map of the Earth there were a total of a hundred and eighty meridian lines, but a normal map only displayed one line for every fifteen meridian lines.
A wry smile formed on his open mouth. “You’re right, it is a map of the world!”
Billie matched his smile. “And it shows where each of the remaining twenty-two temples are.”
“But it doesn’t tell us which of the four temples we need to take the Four Horsemen stones we found in the Aleutian Portal to, does it?”
“No.”
Sam met her inquisitive eye. “Is there anything else you’ve found?”
“Just this.”
“Is there any way we can narrow this down more specifically, or are we going to have to find and search twenty-two temples around the world?”
“You know as much as me. Once we’re back on board the Maria Helena, I’ll run some more tests, and see what I can find.” Billie sighed. “Once we know the map coordinates each of these gems corresponds to, we might be able to recognize a pattern or rule out some of them.”
“You’re still confident of your theory?” Sam asked.
“Yes, now even more so.” She spoke emphatically. “Those four stones found buried within the Death Stone will need to be placed at four separate temples – most likely running along contiguous meridians – in order to protect Earth…”
“How?” Sam asked, incredulous. “The four stones are small enough to fit individually in one’s hand. So, what the hell are they going to do to protect us from an approaching asteroid?”
“I have no idea. But previously, we’ve seen the Master Builder utilize ancient technologies in ways that our scientists can’t understand or explain. If they’ve known about this thing approaching for nearly thirteen thousand years, I’m willing to bet my life they’ve worked out a way of beating it.”
“That’s good, because we’re all betting our lives that you’re right.”
The sound of the engine changed its pitch, and the helicopter banked gently to the left. Sam glanced up ahead, out through the windshield. They were flying over water. Most likely they had reached the Caribbean Sea. He glanced at the sea below. It was calm, the rays of light glistening off the ripples beneath the helicopter blades.
Roughly half a mile ahead, a vessel came into view.
It was painted sky blue. And along the ship’s steel hull, in large emerald writing, were the words MARIA HELENA and below in smaller writing – Deep Sea Expeditions. From the distance, it looked like nothing more than an oversized tugboat or possibly an old icebreaker converted into a science vessel. On the aft deck a helipad could be seen – the only indication that it was anything more than a tugboat.
The sight of his ship always made him smile.
The nose dipped again, and the Sikorsky dropped its altitude before Genevieve leveled out and brought it into a gentle hover above the Maria Helena’s aft deck. A moment later, she placed it firmly on the deck and shut down the engine.
The main rotors continued to whir almost silently above their heads. Billie glanced out the side of the helicopter. The sea was still moving swiftly.
Her eyes turned to Sam, and she asked, “We’re moving?”
“Yeah,” Sam answered, as though it was obvious.
“Where to?”
“We’re heading to Belize.”
“Belize? What’s in Belize?”
“Nothing, but in two days the USS Gerald R. Ford will travel through the Caribbean Sea on a routine set of sea trials. We’ve been instructed to wait at Belize and rendezvous with her to return their experimental Black Hawk – otherwise I’m going to owe Uncle Sam somewhere in the vicinity of forty-five million dollars.”
“What are we going to do waiting around here for two days?” she asked, as though the thought of enjoying some much-needed rest and relaxation in paradise was abhorrent and repugnant to her.
“I don’t know what you want to do, but I’m going free-diving. There’s an annual event. I booked tickets for Tom and I a week ago”
Billie met his eye. “A week ago?”
Sam shrugged. “On the off chance we had to wait for the USS Gerald R. Ford.”
She smiled and shook her head at his lie. “Tom’s going to be pissed he can’t go diving with that leg wound.”
Sam glanced over at him. “Yeah, he’ll be pissed. No reason I shouldn’t have some fun though. Besides, he can come watch.”
“I’ll have a go deciphering the rest of the tablet and working out where each of the temples are that each of those sapphires correlates to,” Billie said. Then, after a long pause, “once I’ve slept.”
Her tone brooked no argument, and Sam didn’t even try. His eyes were too heavy, and his body already shutting down for some much-needed rest.
“Yeah, for sure – get some rest. We’re no good to anyone in our current state. I’m going to spend the day sleeping, and will probably take a few hours to enjoy the free diving competition tomorrow. After that, let’s see what you’ve found and where we’re going to go from here.”
“Sounds good.”
Sam paused. “Once we know which temples require the stones, and where they belong inside the temple, what then?” he asked.
Billie looked up, a faraway look in her eyes. She shook her head. “Then we wait.”
“Wait for what?” Sam wasn’t much of a waiter. He preferred action any day. A tendril of fear made the hairs on his arms stand up when he noticed Billie’s expression.
She swallowed, hard. “For the signs that the ending of the world has begun.”
Chapter Thirteen
Great Blue Hole, Belize
It was a typical, balmy day off the coast of Belize.
The midday sun glistened in the clear blue and turquoise water, causing it to sparkle with the light of an infinite bed of crystals. Sam edged the Maria Helena’s inflatable Zodiac through the maze of corals that formed the Lighthouse Reef, and then through the gap into the Great Blue Hole. On the opposite side of the small runabout, Tom stretched out his injured leg with a bemused look on his face. They had both dived here extensively when they were in their early twenties. It felt like coming home to a childhood vacation spot.
On an ordinary day, the giant sinkhole would have only had an occasional recreational dive boat and they would have been able to bring the Maria Helena right inside.
&
nbsp; But today, the entire place was a great flurry of activity.
Boats full of spectators crowded the area where usually only dive boats bearing recreational divers were present. In the very center of the 300-foot, perfectly circular, submerged sinkhole floated a huge temporary diving barge. All the boats had been tied together to make one giant diving platform. At the very end of the flotilla was a single de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter Seaplane. Its owner had casually left it tied to the last boat in the flotilla, where it rested peacefully on the perfectly still water at the end of a single fifteen-foot line of rope.
Sam tied the Zodiac up alongside one of the larger pleasure cruisers and climbed on board. Tom pulled himself up over the railing, and the two of them made their way across the series of tied-together boats to the main diving platform.
Sam glanced behind him. Tom had a slight grimace he appeared to be working hard to conceal, but otherwise managed to step from boat to boat as nimbly as ever.
“How’s the leg?” Sam asked.
“Fine. Never better.” Tom grinned. “I told you it was a minor wound, I just needed to rest it for a day.”
“That’s right. And have some fluids, a dozen stitches, and some antibiotics.”
Tom shrugged. “Those, too.”
Sam stopped at the main event.
On the surface of the sea, the diving barge was a swarm of activity as well. Competition divers waited their turns to dive.
“How long has it been?” Tom asked.
“Since we last dived here?”
“Yeah.”
“Gotta be fifteen years at least.”
Sam completed his registration and safety briefing. Afterwards, he waited in silence, making the mental preparations for the dive. Both men had once held record-breaking dives at the site, but that had been a long time ago. Sam had no erroneous belief that he would score highly today. For him, it wasn’t about the competition, so much as simply enjoying the event and the rare beauty of the location.
The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 3 Page 57
