The Wolves of Freydis

by J C Ryan

  Carter’s head was spinning as he again realized the enormity of the discovery.

  He stopped at one of the tombs, shone the flashlight into it and looked at the mummified body; robes were still draped around the body of a person who would have been at least fourteen feet tall - a giant. He continued and inspected a few more tombs before he stood back.

  Daan, who had been following him quietly, broke the silence. “There are engravings above each tomb,” he pointed to the wall above the cavity they were looking at.

  Carter took a step back and looked at the engravings. “Nothing new under the sun,” he murmured.

  “What did you say?” Daan wanted to know.

  “I said there is nothing new under the sun.” Daan, who was Coptic Christian, smiled when he heard Carter quoting from the Bible and nodded his head.

  “We are doing the same thing today,” Carter said. Daan was looking at him inquisitively. “We put inscriptions on tombstones, the name of the person, date of birth, and date of death. I believe that is what we’re seeing here.”

  Daan nodded in agreement. “Now the most intriguing question is; how many were the years of their lives?”

  “Well, Daan,” Carter smiled. “The oldest man I have heard of was Methuselah, 963 years old. So let’s play it safe and say anything from 40 to 963 years.”

  Daan enjoyed Carter’s humor. “The problem we have here is that all we see are names and dates, it won’t help us much to translate this language.”

  Carter nodded. “We have to keep searching for that library Daan; that’s why I’m here. We have to find it.”

  Carter said he wanted to go back to the entrance and look around there a bit more, Daan was more intrigued by how deep down the structure went and what else there was to see on the lower levels.

  As Daan started walking down the ramp, Carter returned to the entry, to study the door mechanism closer. He was also intrigued by the first four or so yards of the wall by the entry that had no tombs in it.

  He crawled around on his hands and knees inspecting each part of the door and was not entirely surprised when he realized the doors were not sliding on rollers or bearings but on what he thought could only have been electromagnetic levitation technology. This ancient technology was very similar to what modern day engineers are using with high-speed trains where the train is suspended on a magnetic cushion above a magnetized track.

  After a while, he stood and looked at the distance between the door opening and the first tomb. Why didn’t they use that space on the walls to fit in more tombs? Something stirred in his subconscious mind but hadn’t quite reached conscious thought. He knew the feeling very well, and the only way to force it to the surface was to keep on throwing questions at it.

  Then he saw it. It was there right in front of him. He spun around and looked at the wall behind him and saw the same thing. A door, so well-constructed in the same material as the wall, so precisely fitting in and blending with the wall, it was near impossible to see. He looked around; everyone else had gone down the ramp; he was on his own.

  He went right up to the door, looked at it up close, and then retrieved a pair of German made binocular loupes from his backpack, placed it on his head and studied the markings. He did the same on the opposite wall and found it to be identical. Then he took pictures and video footage, adjusting the focus of the camera lenses for close-up photos. He wanted to study this in privacy later; he was not ready to talk about it yet.

  When Carter stepped back, he knew he had found two more doors leading, he could only venture a guess as to where, and reminded himself of the second rule of archeology; shut up until you have proof.

  Chapter 39 -

  I’m coming to the end, I fear

  Mackenzie lay in her narrow bed in the dark, tears rolling down her cheeks as she tried not to make a sound that would wake Liam. The gray stone walls of her narrow room were encroaching on her mind, squeezing the very life out of her.

  Her daily life underground was dragging her down and down, the gloomy little kitchen, where each morning she made her and Liam’s breakfast, was gritty and grimy. The room where she and Liu eked out their lives in front of endless, incomprehensible texts was stultifying and the Three Stooges an endless ugly view of men she wished would drop dead.

  Her situation was hopeless, and she knew it. For months now she had tried to keep up the pretense that once the work was complete, she would be allowed to leave with Liam and go home. But as the months passed and the baby inside her grew and developed she became more and more morbid.

  There’s no way they are going to let me go; they’ll kill me the moment my usefulness is over, and God knows what they will do with Liam. She shuddered as she thought of the baby inside her and its dependence on her, if I lose my life the baby dies too, that is, unless they wait until it’s born and, if it’s a boy, farm it out to a good family and raise it as one of their own.

  She sat up and turned her pillow over, seeking a cold side; the baby kicked, and she put her hand on her tummy to calm it down. There’s no fooling you, is there, my love? You’re too close to me.

  For days now she’d realized her mind was seeking escape, any escape, and with that idea, thoughts of what chemicals she might find in the laboratory that she could take to terminate her life. Liam would be safer if I weren’t here, he’s a boy, they’d hand him over to a good Muslim family, and he’d be okay. I’m the problem in his life.

  If only Carter would come, she’d waited and waited in hope believing he knew she was alive. But as time dragged on she began to fear he had no idea, had probably even held a memorial for them both, and was now getting on with his life, maybe he’d even marry again one day.

  She sat up, I mustn’t think this way, it’s dangerous, what would Liam do if he heard my thoughts? He’d be terrified.

  By morning, Mackenzie had managed a couple of hours’ sleep, but she was exhausted and not just from lack of sleep, but from the lack of just about everything that was good for her and her growing child. No sun, no wind, no cool breezes, no quiet private moments with Carter. The food was plain, bland, and thoroughly dull. She’d grown used to shoveling it in and not thinking about it, but how she longed for an orange or an apple, banana, anything fresh out of an orchard or a garden. She missed the smell of roses and lavender, the hum of bees, and the call of birds. She even missed the traffic in the city - the honking of car horns that she never heard anymore because she'd grown so used to them when she lived in Boston. She wanted proper clothes, not these dreadful black sacks, and to have her hair trimmed and washed in warm water with real shampoo and conditioner. How she longed to manicure her nails and use polish, even just the clear stuff to give them shine.

  Casting these longings to one side, she dressed and helped Liam into his clothes, then made breakfast. Another day of Naan bread and oatmeal porridge with maybe a sprinkling of brown sugar and nutmeg; it was all right for sometimes, but not every day.

  Liam tried so hard to pretend he still enjoyed it, but like her, he was slowly losing the battle. He had dark circles under his eyes and was listless. The excitement about the baby had long vanished even when she let him feel it moving. He made an effort one day and asked her “What do you think you’ll call it Mom?”

  “Well,” she answered, “I thought if it’s a boy I’ll call it after your grandfather Steven, my father and maybe give it 'Carter' for its second name, what do you think?”

  “Steven Carter Devereux, that’s not bad. What about a girl?”

  “After my Mother, I think, her names are Mary Elizabeth. I don’t really like Elizabeth very much, but if I shortened it to Beth, then she’d have her grandmother’s name but shortened. So, like you are William after your Great Grandfather, but we call you Liam, we could call her Beth, which is the short form of Elizabeth if you follow me.” She suddenly drifted off, her eyes becoming vacant.

  “Mom, are you all right?” Liam was shaking her.

  “Mmm? Um, yes darling, I’m fine
, just so tired, and I must get back to the Three Stooges and see what they’re up to today.”

  “Are they treating you alright?”

  “Yes, I don’t think they’d dare not to for fear Nasser would be very angry with them.” She gave him a wan smile.

  The three men approached her later that morning while she and Liu were working side-by-side trying to decipher more of the texts. The two of them had given up trying to speak to each other long ago; it was too dangerous, and there was very little to say anymore.

  The men told her they felt they had reached a stage where it was necessary to take their research out of the test tubes and begin again on animals and humans.

  Mackenzie lifted her head from the text she was working on and stared darkly at them through the niqab. She slowly rose from her chair; they may not have been able to see her eyes too clearly, but as she stood up to her full height, there was no mistaking the rage emanating from her.

  “If you ever suggest such indescribable and filthy experimentation again, I will report you to Nasser. You already know he has banned such disgusting research, and you well know what he would do if you approached him with this request.” She continued to stare down at them, "You would not only be out of a job but very likely executed.” They were not very tall and certainly not imposing. Finally, they slunk away, and she gratefully sat down again.

  She held her hands in her lap waiting for them and her legs to stop shaking.

  “Mackie, are you okay?” Liu whispered.

  “I don’t know how much longer I can hold out Liu, I’m coming to the end, I fear.”

  ***

  The wolves were agitated. All day they lingered near the cave and their pups that came out to play when the sun was high.

  They hunted nearby, eating rabbit then disgorging it to fill the pups’ tummies; it was a full-time job.

  They’d checked the environment again but knew there were no threats. All nearby creatures were aware of the Freydis wolves; the big ones respected them, and the small ones feared them.

  There was nothing to disturb their wellbeing, yet still they paced back and forth, back and forth panting until finally as if of one mind, they turned and loped towards Ahote and Bly’s homestead.

  Bly was out settling the chickens into their yard for the night, feeding and watering them when she looked up and saw Loki and Keeva standing some distance away waiting patiently for her. They were familiar with her evening routines and knew she’d be nearby.

  “What on earth do you two want?” she asked as she walked towards them. “I didn’t expect to see you again until Carter comes back.” She stopped and stared at them; their ears were back, their tails down.

  She sighed, “Okay, so what’s wrong. It’s obviously not good.” She went over and fondled their thick fur, scratching behind their ears. Each of them rubbed against her, looking up into her eyes, as no wolf would normally do. “So, I take it something has gone wrong somewhere, and you need to pass it on.” She sighed again, “Oh hell; I know what you're going to do now; you’ve given me the message so you’ll soon walk away from me and go back to your cave and your babies, and leave me with the worry.”

  That was exactly what they did moments later, turning and loping off into the trees, vanishing from sight.

  “Thanks, guys,” Bly had her hands on her hips watching them go. “Hmm… I don’t think I will share this visit with Ahote; he’ll only fuss and not sleep. Whoever it is, and I fear it’s probably Mackie, Liam, or oh hell, maybe even Ahote. I’m sure I'll know soon enough; or perhaps not.”

  As she turned away, she muttered: “May as well call me Chief Worry Wolf, yeah, that’s me.”

  She sat on the porch until Ahote arrived home; "Well, it's not him, that's a relief." With that, she stood and went inside to start dinner.

  Chapter 40 -

  An ethical dilemma

  By the fourth day on the site, the number of participants in Carter and his four companions’ early morning and late afternoon runs had increased to ten people with the inclusion of some running enthusiasts amongst Daan’s crew and a few of the soldiers from the camp.

  One of the enthusiasts was Khalid Abbasi, from Daan’s crew and a marathon fanatic who was preparing to run the Cairo marathon later in the year. He told Carter that he had been participating in marathons and even a few ultra-marathons all over the Middle East, including the Dead Sea Marathon, the Mobility Jeddah Marathon in Saudi Arabia and once the 220-kilometer Marathon des Sables in the Moroccan Sahara. However, he just shook his head when he told Carter that it was madness; he would never do that again. Running 220 kilometers through the Sahara Desert while carrying your water and food with you in a backpack had nothing to do with fun; it was torture.

  Khalid told Carter that he had a lot of pictures and videos on his tablet about some of the marathons, that he had participated in and would show it to him if he were interested. Carter told him he would indeed like to see them.

  The other parts of Carter’s training were kept private and out of the public eye. These sessions were held in the big tent that Daan’s crew had erected for him and his men shortly after their arrival.

  After they had managed to open the door to the ancient cemetery, Daan and some of his crew had diverted their attention there to conduct an initial survey and mapping of the place before they would allow anthropologists to visit.

  Carter had joined them, but not for the same purposes as they had. He had studied the pictures and videos of the two hidden doors and managed to conduct GPR scans while no one was watching him.

  The scans confirmed his initial assessment, those were definitely doors, and there were large open areas behind both of them. However, the GPR could not penetrate deep enough to tell him how big they were. It wasn’t long before he confirmed that the doors operated with electromagnetic mechanisms, the same as the first one.

  Carter had a constant, almost electric sensation that a treasure trove of information was awaiting him behind those doors. Once he collected all the information it was time to once again demand ‘Open Sesame.’

  However, he hesitated, he brooded on it for quite a few days. Since he discovered those doors, he had been fighting a battle with his conscience. On the one hand, as a revered archeologist, he was obliged to share his findings with Daan, the expedition leader; after all, Carter and his men were there at the invitation of Daan, who trusted Carter and his men. On the other hand, there was the reality of the threat to the world from ancient technology that could cause unimaginable death and destruction. Information about that technology could be behind those doors, and if that were the case, it was his duty to ensure it would not land in anyone else’s hands.

  Should he tell Daan about his discovery? Or should he wait until he had a chance to see what was in the chambers behind the doors? Shut up until you have proof.

  If he discovered anything of significance there, should he hand it over to Daan or should he keep it and study it first? Shut up until you have proof.

  Another issue he had was that his own team was not aware of the real purpose of his search. They had no idea about the ancient nukes, nor were they aware of the fact that Mackenzie and Liam were alive. As far as they were concerned, Carter’s family died in a bomb explosion in Jerusalem several months ago, and they were with him to protect him while he was doing his job as an archeologist in a foreign country.

  Carefully weighing up the various options and consequences, he decided the safe option was to keep the status quo. That meant; find out what was going on behind those doors first, and then make the next decision.

  He called his team together, and after Andre had assured him that the counter surveillance equipment would block out their communications to outsiders, he continued.

  “Now guys, I know what I’m about to tell you might sound strange, even unethical but hear me out first. It’s also vital that what I’m about to tell you stays between us; hell, it’s not just vital, it’s crucial.”

  They all
nodded their agreement. The four of them had spent enough time in the world of clandestine operations; they knew how important it was to keep your mouth shut if you wanted to stay alive.

  “Good,” Carter continued. “I found two concealed doors just inside the burial chamber. As far as I know, no one else has spotted them.” Carter pulled up the videos, pictures, and GPR images, and showed them.

  They all had a good look at it, and Andre said, “So let me guess. You’d like to go and have a look behind those doors without anyone else knowing?”

  Carter nodded. “Yes, and that’s the part that’s probably a bit unethical.”

  “Why?” John asked.

  “Well, we’re here as Daan’s guests. Moreover, we’re here to participate in his expedition and it goes without saying that whatever we discover must be handed to him. We have no rights to it.”

  “So why don’t you want to do that then?” Andre asked.

  Carter was expecting this line of questioning, and he had already decided that the best way to handle it was to be honest with them. “Okay guys, I’ve got a bit of a dilemma. I want very much to tell you the whole story; but I’m bound by an oath of secrecy, so, unfortunately, I’m unable to share it with you.”

  “In other words, ‘yours is not to reason why, yours is but to do or die,’” Kevin smiled as he quoted the old military jingle.

  Carter could see a bit of disappointment on their faces, but they were used to the ‘need-to-know’ principle. He smiled wryly, “Yes, something like that. But let me give you some background information which might clarify things a bit.”

  They all looked at him in anticipation.

  “Look around you,” Carter said. “We have a city here; the last inhabitants left this place about 50,000 years ago. We don’t have any idea how long they lived here before that. There is no record of the existence of this place anywhere in any written history. Until that desert storm removed the sand and revealed it, it simply didn’t exist. Giants occupied the place, as you have already seen. However, up until this discovery very few people believed that giants had ever walked the earth. It was believed they only appeared in fairy tales.”