Konstantin forced Sarah’s arm from around his neck and Ruben let out a howl of despair and sprinted towards the transporter, which now blazed with radiance.
The myriad of images slowed and Sarah opened her eyes to see Konstantin staring at her, as she still held his forehead. He reached out and grasped her wrist with both hands. Sarah gasped in pain as more images cascaded back through her mind’s eye, tears filled her eyes as the agony increased and increased again. She let out a cry and then a scream of pain, but refused to let go, her eyes burning into his. The air between them crackled and Sarah was back inside the stone pyramid, staring through Konstantin’s eyes at Avery, who’d just shot Sarah in the chest. ‘These things saith he that hath the sharp two-edged sword,’ Avery said and lowered the gun to aim at Sarah again. ‘I know where thou dwellest, where the seat of Satan is. Apocalypsis Ioannis. The Book of Revelation,’ – another gunshot rang out into the chamber and Sarah watched her own blood spill onto the pentagram – ‘also known as, The Apocalypse of John.’
Sarah’s eyes grew wide and she was flying across an ocean, gazing down at an enormous ship. A man stood on the deck atop the image of a great eagle, surrounded by armed soldiers. Sarah let out another scream of agony and then the man turned to look up at her, as if he could see she was there.
Back on the Anakim bridge, Konstantin forced Sarah to her knees and she was thrust back into her past, the gunshot wounds a fresh agony. Trish struggled nearby as she was held back by Jason. ‘Sarah, no!’ she screamed, fighting to free herself, and Sarah said, ‘Where Satan dwells.’ Avery turned to look at the stone throne as the shimmering light of the Pharos materialised upon it.
Simultaneously witnessing past and present, Sarah gazed at the demonic spirit within Konstantin and felt the dread of death upon her. ‘The Apocalypse of John,’ she whispered, ‘the apostle.’
‘Sarah!’ said Trish from the past, distraught with grief. ‘Sarah, no!’
In vision’s past, Sarah reached up and touched Trish’s tear-streaked cheek, while in the present, that same hand was pressed to Konstantin’s chest. ‘John, it’s him.’ Sarah’s eyes widened and she was back flying above the ship. ‘It’s him! John, he is ...’ – she gritted her teeth against the Pharos that sought to end her – ‘he is ... the apostle.’
Belief emanated from this man like a beacon of light, brighter than a thousand stars. His eyes met hers and Sarah felt power surge through her, his mind to hers, his light to her light, his love to her love.
Sarah cried out, her arm shaking as she held onto Konstantin’s head. ‘Konstantin,’ she said. ‘Open your heart!’ Something gave beneath her hand and she let out a final scream and dragged the darkness from Konstantin’s body and into the light. The rush of water filled Sarah’s ears and she found herself back on the bridge, holding the writhing form of a Pharos above her head. Its transparent body melted around her as it disintegrated. Konstantin collapsed to his knees and Sarah cast the Pharos from her, and it disappeared into the realm of nothing.
At the far end of the bridge Ruben shielded his eyes form the transporter’s light. He glanced back to see Sarah was alive and then turned back, as the Anakim device blazed even brighter, and launched himself into its midst.
A flash of light shot upwards, announcing Avery and Lanter’s escape, and Ruben’s limp body reappeared, flying through the air to plunge into the whirlpool’s raging torrent far below.
Their chance at stopping the Irish cardinal had gone and a voice said, ‘Beware.’
Sarah looked round to see a groggy looking Konstantin, still on his knees. His eyes had returned to normal and he pointed at the shimmering form of the other Pharos, which now moved towards them.
Sarah stood her ground. The Pharos was too close for her to make a dash for the water and she knew whatever supernatural powers she’d just displayed had left her – if they had ever been hers at all.
Knowing the game was up, Sarah let out a silent prayer, and then Konstantin grasped her shoulder and hauled himself to his feet. ‘Go,’ he said. ‘While you still have the chance.’
Sarah stared into his eyes. ‘What about you?’
Konstantin looked at her, as if seeing her for the first time. He touched her cheek in wonder. ‘I’ll die a thousand deaths for you,’ he said, turning back to face the monster before them, ‘my sister.’
The leader of the Knights of the Apocalypse raised his arms wide as the Pharos surged forwards. ‘Come, demon!’ he shouted. ‘Feel God’s love, and tremble!’
The Pharos bore Konstantin to the ground and Sarah took two strides and dived off the bridge.
♦
Air rushed past then Sarah plunged into roaring waters, while up on the bridge the Pharos entered Konstantin’s body, the knight once more thrashing wildly as he was repossessed.
Sarah spiralled down into the seething flood and Konstantin stopped shaking. The whites of his eyes filled with darkness and he stood up to gaze down after his prey, his face an expressionless mask.
Sarah felt the current suck her down into the whirlpool’s raging funnel. Round and round, the rush of water roared loud in her ears. Ruben span past in front of her, and as she tumbled end over end – she glimpsed Konstantin’s distorted form peering down at her from high above. Inside the eye of the swirling sea, she gasped for air just before a wall of water crushed down upon her, and Sarah reached out a hand for the surface, her silent scream producing a plume of bubbles, as she was dragged into darkness and the dark unconsciousness of a black abyss.
Chapter Two Hundred Eighty-Eight
The rhythmic wash of water lapping at a hidden shoreline made Sarah stir and wake. She coughed and a stream of salt water trickled from her mouth. Coughing again, she sat up and wiped away a dribble of saliva, then looked around. She couldn’t see any sign of Ruben, Trish or Jason. Light streamed in from an opening high above. It looked like sunlight, which shimmered golden on the shallow pool of water she now found herself sitting in.
Taking a deep breath, she gazed down into the crystal-clear liquid and her eyes widened. The giant’s image peered back at her.
‘It was you,’ Sarah said. ‘You knew the whirlpool would lead me here.’
The giant smiled at her.
‘Why? Where am I?’
The giant pointed and Sarah turned to where an archway stood at the edge of what looked like the inside of a large tree.
Sarah frowned, then looked back at the water and the giant had gone. It was then that she knew its spirit had left her. She felt empty, yet strangely filled with a deep sense of love. A contradiction in terms, some might say, but if they’d lived Sarah’s life, she knew they’d know such contradictions were far from strange. No one truly knew the life of another until they’d walked in their shoes from birth to death, felt, seen and experienced their highest highs and lowest lows. Which meant any judgement of another was born of an understandable, but ultimately misguided, arrogance, an arrogance that cried out for compassion from all others, when it only had compassion for those that fitted into its own limited worldview. It was difficult to accept, no one was perfect, no one was truly right or wrong, or even good or evil, when operating from their own perspective. They were just doing the best they could with what they had to work with, which, for some people, wasn’t very much at all. Although, she also knew, just because someone like Avery was misguided, and from Sarah’s perspective, and from the perspective of most, as evil a man as you were ever likely to meet, it didn’t mean she was going to let him continue hurting others, as there was one thing she’d always known above anything else – even in the midst of her darkest moments – turning a blind eye was not, and never would be, who she was.
With such deep thoughts whirling round her head, Sarah looked back to where the giant had pointed and swore she saw its indistinct figure walking away through the archway, where it eventually faded and then disappeared from view.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered, hoping the Anakim woman could hear her. ‘Thank
you, for saving me.’ As, at that moment, she knew she was saved. Not from the manifestation of future strife, or the pain and struggles of her past, but from the realisation that nothing or no one could truly harm her. No matter how painful things became, no matter how hard or maddening, she knew she could overcome and rise above it. And the reason she knew that was because ... she already had.
Sarah smiled to herself.
The realisation made her feel calm and at peace, a moment from within she knew could never be quenched by outside forces. And it was this inner strength that helped her struggle to her feet, wipe the water from her face and head out through the opening in search of her friends, and on, towards an unwritten future – forged in the past, but lived in the only place possible, a place whose mirror image meant she’d won, and that place was now.
Chapter Two Hundred Eighty-Nine
Sarah left the pool of water behind her and emerged from the darkness and into the blinding light of a summer’s day. Heat poured down on her from a radiant blue sky and she blinked and squinted against the glare.
Below her, a winding stone staircase led down to a lush beach surrounded by dense forest, the chirps and squawks of exotic birdsong a harmony to a sparkling sea’s softly crashing waves. Two figures sat on the steps below her and one turned to look up.
‘Sarah!’ Trish scrambled to her feet and bounded up the steps towards her. ‘I knew you’d find us eventually!’
‘What do you mean?’ Sarah said, relieved to see her friends alive and well. ‘I entered the whirlpool shortly after you and Jason.’
Trish hugged her tight.
‘And a few seconds after me,’ said a familiar voice.
Sarah turned to see Ruben standing on the steps above her.
‘And yet we’ve been here for hours,’ Jason said, also coming up the staircase to greet her with a hug. ‘We thought you’d never arrive. We were getting really worried you’d gone somewhere else, but Trish told us to keep the faith, and we did and now you’re here.’
Sarah looked at Jason in confusion. ‘Yes, but where’s here?’
Jason grinned. ‘You won’t believe it. I didn’t.’
‘I still don’t,’ Trish said.
‘Come on.’ Jason grasped her hand and led her back up the stairs and onto a narrow path that led around the stone structure, on which grew an enormous tree.
Sarah glanced at Ruben as she moved past him, and he gave her a small smile, which made her even more confused as he was usually so grim.
‘Jason, slow down,’ Sarah said, as he dragged her onto a new area of the building she now realised was an ancient temple, similar to those they’d explored in Honduras. ‘We’re in South America?’
Jason came to a stop and stepped aside. ‘Something like that.’
Sarah stared out across more forest, which stretched as far as the eye could see. ‘The Amazon,’ she whispered.
Trish laughed and pointed to the right; Sarah followed her gaze and her eyes grew wide.
She looked at Trish and Jason in amazement. ‘It can’t be.’ She looked back again in shock. ‘It can’t be.’
‘Sarah, we’ve done it, you’ve done it. You’ve found—’
‘Agartha.’ Sarah gazed out at a huge city which glinted on the horizon, but not one made by human hands. Anakim towers soared to the heavens, huge dazzling white pyramids loomed over the forest in the distance, and beyond them, a vast ocean gleamed in the noonday sun. However, it wasn’t this spectacle that made Sarah’s mind spin, it was the movement of animals all around them – and not just a few, but thousands, many of which should have been long extinct. This was no Sanctuary. No barren wasteland. This place teemed with life.
‘Agartha,’ she said again, mesmerised by the sight of it. The legendary city at the centre of the Earth wasn’t a city at all; it was a whole new world.
‘You did it, Saz,’ – Trish hugged her again – ‘you really did it.’
Sarah felt her eyes brim with tears, then she found herself laughing with joy, but as the tears flowed, elation turned to grief, as the struggles she’d fought over the past weeks and years broke through the dam she’d built around her heart. She’d thought she’d already shed enough tears for five lifetimes, especially after Riley’s death, but it seemed her body had the last say on the matter, one last exhale before the calm.
She clung onto Trish, and Jason’s arms encircled her from behind and he kissed her head, as she continued to sob into Trish’s shoulder. The act of love made her sob even harder, as finding Agartha was secondary to what she’d really found: not just her sanity, which made her mind soar, not just her closest friends, which made her heart sing, and not just her health, which made her body roar, but that which had the deepest impact, beyond anything else: the reunion with her true self, a reunion with her soul and, indeed, with God herself. As now, her true purpose was finally revealed. She wasn’t on Earth to pursue selfish pleasures or avenge her mother. And how could she possibly while away her time in mindless self-gratification, or try to prove to others what she already knew was true, while millions of people on the same planet continued to starve from hunger and be murdered by war? She’d always been taught that was just the way it was. But that was no longer good enough. Sarah knew she could make a difference, and she’d found the place to do just that, and it wasn’t something from without, but something from deep within, somewhere she could bring others, and as many as possible before Armageddon consumed the surface and those who still lived upon it. It was as Avery had said, when he’d willingly given her the secrets he’d believed she’d never be able to use: the End of Days and the Second Coming were upon them. And for Sarah, things couldn’t be any clearer, it was time for a new world order and a time not just to be counted, it was time, once and for all ... to make a stand.
TERMINOLOGY
USSB – United States Subterranean Base
GMRC – Global Meteor Response Council, aka the Council
The Committee – Secret organisation / society
Darklight – World’s largest private security contractor
Terra Force – Special Forces Subterranean Detachment (SFSD)
S.I.L.V.E.R. – Elite military unit available to the highest bidder
Deep Reach – Special survey team working within the SED
SED – Sanctuary Exploration Division
Sanctuary – Ancient underground structure
USSB Sanctuary – A man-made base built within the Anakim creation, from which the U.S. Subterranean Base took its name
Anakim – an extinct species of Hominid, Homo giganthropsis
—————
Swiss Guard – Catholic military unit based in Vatican City
Holy See – Government of the Roman Catholic Church
Vatican City – Independent city state located in Rome, Italy
The Vatican – Informal term for the Holy See, or Vatican City
Knights of the Apocalypse – Catholic fundamentalists
[For ease of reference this page is duplicated in the final Appendix]
Chapter Two Hundred Ninety
Inside the GMRC’s Washington D.C. headquarters, Professor Steiner sat back in his chair and puffed out his cheeks. John Henry was safe, or at least he was for now. Having resisted continuous digital attacks by the GMRC, Steiner had managed to maintain his stranglehold on their military network, rendering the aerial bombardment inaccurate at best, and a depletion of their missile cache at worst. The Subterranean Programme couldn’t afford to waste any more of its stockpiles. The nuclear strike on the asteroid would have already drained them beyond what was advised and it was for that reason Joiner and the Directorate must have decided to cease the assault. No more missiles rained down on the surface, and yet the damage already done was enormous and, in many cases, irreparable. As far as its military and political institutions were concerned, Washington D.C. had been wiped off the map. The Pentagon, White House, Washington Monument and the Capitol Building, all had been destroyed
, along with many other strategic targets.
Steiner pressed a button on his console and an image from outside the abandoned GMRC skyscraper appeared on the control room’s holographic display. The morning light revealed the extent of the damage inflicted by the meteor shower and also by the GMRC’s military assault. Fires still raged across the city, their orange glow less visible in the day, the flickering flames replaced by plumes of black smoke, which rose up into the sky like ghostly apparitions.
The streets themselves heaved with chaos. Law and order had disintegrated overnight, replaced by mass hysteria on an unprecedented scale. If the recent onslaught from the skies hadn’t been enough, news of more to come had been the thunderbolt that obliterated the camel’s back.
Steiner gazed at the fights breaking out and at the National Guard and U.S. Army, who’d also succumbed to the mayhem. Some units scythed down civilians like wheat, their guns ablaze in fear, while others turned on each other in a bid for survival. And, as the bodies piled up, people fled for their lives amidst the rivers of blood. Steiner knew these scenes would be replicated the world over and he leaned forward in his chair and put his hands to his face. ‘This is all my fault,’ he whispered. ‘Oh, dear God, this is all my fault.’
‘You did what you thought was best,’ said a voice.
Steiner tensed and then slowly looked up at the hologram, where a familiar figure had materialised.
‘What do you want?’ Steiner said, his voice weary with defeat.
‘I am here to deliver a message,’ Bic said.
‘Haven’t you done enough?’ Steiner pointed to where images of murder and disorder raged unabated. ‘Aren’t you pleased with your handiwork? This is what you wanted, isn’t it? This was your goal? Look, see it unfold. Witness your great vision.’
Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2) Page 143
