The Wolves of Freydis

by J C Ryan

  “One more thing,” Carter said. “Would it do any harm if I have a good look through Mackenzie’s research?”

  Irene smiled as she looked at James. They had been talking about it before, hoping that they would be able to get Carter to do exactly that, but they hadn’t wanted to put any additional emotional stress on him, so they had delayed the request. “No Carter, no problem at all. In fact, it’s a little earlier than we anticipated, but Jim and I were planning on asking you if you felt up to doing that.”

  “Good that’s settled then. Now I have to get into those ancient sheets and see what we can learn from our gigantic ancestors,” Carter said referring to the giants as he stood.

  ***

  The next morning Carter and Irene went to the DARPA offices and on arrival were escorted by Dr. Cate Nelson to the secure room equipped with the scanning electron microscope as requested.

  Carter was worried that the microscope, which used a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination, could damage the ancient datasheets. However, due to the requirement for absolute secrecy, he could not call in any outside expertise to help him analyze the sheets to determine a nondestructive analysis method. He was on his own and had to take the risk. After discussing the matter with Irene, they agreed that it would be best to use one of the sheets from the box that Carter believed contained the names of the dead. They reasoned that if one of those sheets were damaged, it would not be as big a loss as library information would be if that is what was on the other sheets.

  Irene was holding her breath as she watched how carefully Carter retrieved one of the sheets from the container and put it in place.

  “Carter, this whole thing of ancient nanotechnology is really mindboggling. It feels surreal to think that we might be looking at 50,000-year-old technology which could be more advanced than our own.”

  Carter grinned. “Yeah, it’s hard getting used to it.”

  “So do you want to venture any guesses as to how they could have done it? That’s of course if it was nanotechnology they used.”

  “Well, nanotechnology is not really my bailiwick, so all I have to go on is how Israeli scientists have done it with the Old Testament.”

  “How did they do it?”

  “My understanding is that they printed the ‘Nano Bible’ as they call it, which is the Hebrew Bible, on a gold-plated silicon chip one-hundredth of an inch square; that’s about the size of a pinhead. The text consists of a little over 1.2 million letters. Apparently, they used a focused ion beam, which dislodged gold atoms from the plating and created the letters, very similar to the way inscriptions were carved in stone.”

  “Amazing! So how would one be able to read that Nano Bible then?”

  “You’d need a microscope capable of 10,000 times magnification or higher, which only electron microscopes can do. With electron microscopes, you can get up to 10 million times magnification, whereas most light microscopes are limited to between 100 and 1,000 magnifications.”

  The first images appeared on the screen, and they both leaned in closer to look. “There you go!” Carter whispered breathlessly, as they stared at the screen. Carter let out a sigh of relief. “It worked; no damage to the plate.”

  Irene had stopped breathing as her eyes darted across the rows of mysterious characters. Her hands were shaking when she touched Carter’s hand. “Can you read it?” Her voice was almost inaudible and filled with hope.

  Carter heard her, but nothing registered. His mind was digging into the deep storage vectors of his mind, trying to find the connection between what he was staring at and what was stored in his brain. Something on the screen almost wanted to look familiar.

  “Carter?” She whispered again.

  “Mhh…?”

  “Can you read it?”

  He was shaking his head. “All I can say for now is,” he pointed to the screen, “it certainly looks like letters of an alphabet, forming words, with spaces between them. I’ve seen something… similar,” He brushed his hand through his hair, “it reminds me of some ancient Semitic scripts I’ve seen.”

  She moved back in her chair, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and relaxed. “What is the origin of the Semitic languages?”

  “Well, the name Semitic refers to Shem, one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis. Semitic languages were widely used in 3,000 to 2,000 BC in Mesopotamia, which covered the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian civilizations. There are more than 330 million people today that speak one form or another of a Semitic langue, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and a few others.”

  “Interesting. Do you think there is a chance that the root of the Semitic languages could be antediluvian?”

  “Yes, I definitely think so. Why? What are you thinking?”

  “If I still remember some of my Sunday school classes correctly, somewhere in Genesis, if I’m not mistaken there is a verse that talks about ‘giants in the earth’ or something to that effect.”

  Carter smiled. “Genesis 6 verse 4 ‘There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.’”

  “Have you memorized the Bible?” Irene asked in disbelief, looking at Carter as if she expected the answer to be ‘yes.’

  “No, not all of it,” Carter said casually, “but I’m getting there.” When he saw the look on Irene’s face, he held his hand up, “I’m just pulling your leg, Irene. I do remember a few verses, Genesis 6 verse 4 just happens to be one of them because of the research we’ve been doing.”

  I wonder how many is a few?

  “You and Jim are going to drive me crazy one day.” She laughed. “I never know when the two of you are serious or just fooling around. Okay, where were we? Oh yeah, before the flood. I was wondering if the language on those sheets could be the precursor to the Semitic languages.”

  Carter nodded. “Yes, I agree with you, but only as long as you don’t tell any of my archeological colleagues that I said so.”

  “I promise,” Irene giggled. It was heartwarming to see how the zest for life had returned to Carter since he learned that Mackenzie and Liam were alive.

  “All right. I’m relieved we achieved what we came here to do,” Carter said. “We know we can read the data on those sheets without damaging them, and we know we can copy the data over to an electronic mass storage device. I would like to spend a bit more time to try and analyze the language before we call in the help of linguists.”

  “Do you want to copy some of the data over now before we go?”

  “No, I don’t want to spend any more time here. I’m going to buy one of those electron microscopes for myself and take it to Freydis,” Carter replied.

  “But those things are expensive!”

  “It’s safer that way. Besides, I frequently find myself in need of, and wishing I had, one and this is a good enough reason for me to get my own.”

  Chapter 43 -

  Mr. Greed won the battle

  Carter was excited to get back to Freydis. He always enjoyed visiting Washington; he’d made good friends there with James and Irene. But his heart was always on Freydis, that’s where he grew up, that’s where his beloved grandfather lived and was buried, it’s where his friends Ahote and Bly lived. It was the place he and Mackenzie and Liam were devoted to, the place that gave him so many wonderful memories. The old saying was true – home is where the heart is.

  After Carter had completed the initial work on the ancient data sheets from the City of Lights, he collected the data received from the research team in Northern India involving the GPR surveys from Professor Pillay’s dig. He then took a quick one-day trip to Boston to visit his in-laws Steven and Mary Anderson.

  It was good to see them again, but it was also tough for Carter to hide from them the fact that Mackenzie and Liam were still alive. He could see their suffering and pain. At one stage, a burning desire to ease their
misery and tell them almost overcame him. He loved them, and it was hurting him to see their grief. Only the thought of Mackenzie’s and Liam’s safety stopped him.

  When they said goodbye late that afternoon, Carter invited them to come and visit him on Freydis for a while as soon as they could fit a few weeks’ holiday into their schedule. His invite seemed to cheer them up. It would give them a badly needed break and finally get the chance to see the place that Mackenzie and Liam could never stop talking about every time they returned from Freydis.

  Andre and Roy returned to Freydis with Carter and on the way, they lightheartedly warned him that he had a lot of catching up to do. Carter responded that they also might need a bit of action, saying that he was of the opinion they were getting fat. This lead to more threats from them, ignoring them with just a reminder that whatever torment they wanted to inflict, would be revenged during the hand-to-hand combat sessions if he felt they were too hard on him.

  Half an hour out from Freydis, Carter called Ahote to let them know they would be landing soon. Ahote had been expecting them back for a few days, but he knew he couldn’t ask about that on the phone or email.

  Ahote and Bly were at the hangar with the electric carts, waiting for them when they landed. Jeha was with them but waited until Carter placed his feet on the ground before she leaped from the cart and rushed towards him, squeaking and barking with excitement until Carter picked her up and held her in his arms where she immediately started licking his hands and face. It looked as if the little dog was about to jump out of its skin with excitement.

  Bly was almost as excited as Jeha to welcome her boys back home.

  Ahote helped them unload their luggage. He noted that there was a lot more of it than when they left a few weeks ago. He asked about it, and Carter told him it was a few ‘odds and ends’ he needed for his research. Ahote just smiled at that – he knew better than to ask more questions. Carter would tell him when he thought it was necessary to know.

  When all their stuff was safely stacked in the cabin, they sat around the kitchen table. Each had a mug of coffee and a fat slice of Bly’s chocolate cake which she’d baked the day before hoping Carter and his guards would return in time to have some of it before Ahote made it all disappear.

  Ahote then related the events of the attempted break-in to them.

  Carter tried to hide his alarm as best he could while Ahote told them what happened.

  “I don’t think there is anything to worry about,” Ahote said. “The police came out and looked around, took the backpacks with them but I haven’t heard from them again. Doubt if we ever will. Loki and Keeva scared the living daylights out of them.” He chuckled, “I’m not sure which of the wolves it was, but one of them got a good piece out of one of the thugs. I followed their trail up to the border and let me tell you, they were running all the way. Nah, they won’t get close to this place again.”

  “Oh well let’s hope Loki and Keeva have scared them and anyone else with silly ideas away for good,” Carter tried to make light of it. He didn’t want to scare Bly and Ahote by telling them he had been followed and watched while in DC and that this incident was probably related to that.

  Instead, he bent down, picked Jeha up from the floor and scratched her ears. “I hear you have been a very bright and brave girl while I’ve been away.”

  They visited a while longer, but as soon as Bly and Ahote had left, Roy and Andre jumped up and went through the security camera feeds that were stored on the two computers. They quickly found the images of the culprits and immediately sent them via the encrypted link to Rick Winslow, who would use the CIA’s facial recognition system to try and identify the two.

  The rest of the afternoon, they unpacked their stuff and helped Carter set up the electron microscope that he’d purchased.

  Later, while they were walking over to Bly and Ahote’s place for dinner, Carter saw Loki and Keeva waiting for them next to the path.

  Carter approached them first and scratched their backs; murmuring to them, he thanked them for chasing away the intruders. After a while, he got up, and the two moved over to Andre and Roy, sniffed them and wagged their tails, then turned, and disappeared into the trees.

  “‘The wolves of Freydis’ welcoming committee,” Andre laughed. “It’s just the most amazing thing ever.”

  The next morning Carter, Roy, and Andre were back into their routine: running, sparring, shooting, and close quarter combat training. It was nearing the time when they would start to introduce bushcraft, stalking, and survival skills.

  Carter had decided to divide his days into three parts; the first part was for training, the afternoons were for research on the ancient nukes and in the evenings after dinner, he would take up the respirocyte research.

  ***

  Shortly after Carter, Roy and Andre cleared customs at Quebec City on their way to Freydis; Dwayne Miller was notified by his contact with border control. He instructed his new subcontractor in Toronto to get his men out there and deploy the drones over Freydis. He also gave the subcontractor very strict orders about security, secrecy, and traceability. He demanded that the best men be put on the job. He didn’t want any excuses, no comebacks, no trails, and no loose ends. There must be absolutely nothing that could lead investigators back to CRS.

  The near disaster caused by the carelessness of AMZ Security, when Carter’s bodyguards detected their men in the white van outside the coffee shop, didn’t go over well with Nate Gordon. He was especially angry after he had to contact Ibrahimi El Fadl in Saudi Arabia and explain to him that not only had the whole surveillance operation in DC been compromised but that they had also allowed Carter to slip out to Egypt from under their noses. That had wasted a golden opportunity to capture him while he was in Egypt.

  “Telling El Fadl about it the first time was the easy part,” Gordon told Miller. “The embarrassing and most annoying part came a few days later when I had to listen to that camel jockey ranting for almost 30 minutes while passing on the threats and disappointment of his boss. I don’t even have a bloody clue who the asshole is. Never met him, don’t know his name but I have to say yes sir, no sir, I’m sorry sir to this high and mighty ghost’s fuckin minion.”

  “I’m sorry about that Nate.”

  “Don’t be sorry Miller, be careful!”

  Miller had never seen Gordon like this. He could only imagine how annoying that telephone call must have been.

  “I didn’t even tell them about the cluster-fuck on Devereux’s ranch. Can you imagine what El Fadl’s mighty boss’s message would have been if he heard that you sent two guys there but wolves bit one of them in the ass, and they had to run away and be evacuated by a helicopter!”

  “I’ll fix it, Nate. I’ll get another company to do the job this time. It won’t happen again.”

  “You better make sure they don’t fuck it up like those other monkeys. You were lucky once, and now that Devereux and his buddies know someone is watching his ass, it won’t be so easy to wipe your tracks out again. They will be all over you like a fuckin’ bad rash. You are the one who will be thrown under the bus, whose ass will be in jail when this thing goes tits up.”

  Miller just nodded.

  “Next time you fuck up Miller, don’t even call me. Just disappear! Jump out the window, throw yourself off a bridge, I don’t care, just don’t call me!” Gordon shouted and stormed out of Miller’s office.

  Dwayne Miller sat back and wondered. Is it time to resign? Get out while I can.

  But it was not easy to say goodbye to a quarter of a million-dollar salary, plus $150,000 in tax-free fringe benefits. Neither would it be easy to walk away from the $1.5 million performance bonus which he had received each year for the past three years, this year it was going to be more than $2 million.

  Mr. Greed won the battle.

  Chapter 44 -

  What have you done Mackie?

  The evening had arrived after a long day of running and workouts as well as working on th
e ancient data sheets from the City of Lights. Carter now set himself to the task of going carefully through all Mackenzie’s analysis in the hope he would find something, anything that would lead him closer to her.

  Sitting at his desk after dinner, Carter brought up Mackenzie’s research papers on her computer. Andre and Roy were watching television in the other room, unwinding for the day and preparing to get a good night’s sleep.

  A slight breeze from the window moved the golden key ring that he'd hung from his desk lamp, causing it to glint and catch his eye. This was the key ring he’d had specially made for their 6th wedding anniversary. Not only did it hold keys, but hidden inside was a small camera and a flash drive. It had intrigued Mackenzie, delighting her immensely.

  Putting the computer lid down and contemplating the key ring he realized it had come to the point where he was strong enough, and ready, to look at the photos on the drive.

  It was the thought of seeing those photographs that had kept him from looking at the small gold item months ago when he believed they were dead. He knew one day he’d look, but at the time, he was faced with a dread of seeing those much-loved faces shining out at him and knowing they were gone; that had proved too hard to do.

  Now, of course, it was the opposite. Knowing the photos were there, and that Mackenzie and Liam were alive somewhere in the world, made him not want to see them as he remembered them, when for all he knew, they were starving and ill in some god-forsaken prison, forgotten and lost forever.

  He took the small item into his hand and held it for a while; it grew warm and seemed to beckon him. Finally, taking a deep breath, he slotted it into the USB port on his computer and downloaded everything. When the transfer was complete, he saw dozens of pictures, including ones of him laughing with Liam or hugging Mackie as she took ‘selfies’ of them together. There were pictures of the places they’d been and seen in Jerusalem before the explosion. These were just a little close to the bone, and he found it hard to look at them.