Babel Found (18 page)

“Could that evil have been Enki’s presence in his mind?”

“It’s possible,” she replies. “Thoth really did feel tortured. It was another reason he took in my father and uncles. He wanted to make up for things he did previously.”

“And the protectors—the priests?” I ask. “Why would someone as powerful as Thoth be afraid of something enough to need watchdogs?”

“Thoth was paranoid that the evil he felt was tangible and truly existed. He was overly cautious sometimes.”

Terra turns and continues down the hall.

“Wait,” I say.

She stops. “I suggest we keep moving if you want your friend to live, Mr. Boyd. My master doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

Seeing no other way around it, I meet Terra’s sorrowful gaze. “Well, Terra… Let’s get this over with.”

While trying to sound unaffected and as chipper as ever, I have my fists balled up tight, trying to keep them from shaking. We still have some time before we get there. I can’t imagine this
Kur
place being all that small. Maybe…just maybe…I can figure a way out of this before my body is again taken over by an ancient god-king.

I look up and visualize Nicole and Kane standing above ground.

Come on guys… I could definitely use some help.

Blairsville, Georgia

It took some convincing, but Todd was able to have the Chief of Police call his superiors in Virginia and get him released from his holding cell. Apparently, even in the backwoods of Georgia, it’s frowned upon to discharge a firearm in public. Especially without a license to carry said weapon. As he walked by the front counter of the small police station, the woman behind it handed him a sealed envelope containing his few belongings.

Thanking her, he left, not once asking for his gun back. There were more where they came from. Plus, if he gave it up willingly, he was hoping the police would leave him alone, seeing him as less of a threat without it.

He casually opened the large manila folder and removed his keys to a house that burnt to the ground and his wallet which contained a phony ID. It read,
Timothy Johnson
—a name his bosses were well aware of. The only thing the local police knew was that he was a government agent. They didn’t know his real identity or the reason he was in town.

Next came his NVS glasses. He quickly slipped them on and found a recently received email. He smiled when he saw the sender’s handle.

“ENVY,” he said aloud, “reply to sender: On my way.”

He nonchalantly hailed one of two cabs sitting along the street but thought better of it before getting in. He apologized for the mistake and sent the taxi on its way. He was only a mile away after all. He could easily walk the distance in no time.

As he made his way south down Cleveland Street, he took in the horror of what happened. He was just north of where the old courthouse was—
was
being the appropriate word. Everything was gone, either burst from within or consumed by fire. There was also car after car destroyed from when Phoenix bulled through them. Some were charred, some were only thrown to the side. Either way, the town of Blairsville looked like a war zone.

And I brought it here.

He could have just as easily headed south, away from town, but instead he went the way he knew. It was an instinctual choice he decided. He doubted most people thought rationally during the fight-or-flight mentality. Once your mind entered that zone, it only cared about one thing…its own survival.

Instead of retracing his exact steps, Todd ventured to the right, around the other side of where the red-brick building used to be. He continued south, having to shamble over bricks in certain parts of the sidewalk—some of which even made it into the surrounding storefront windows, shattering them.

He’d find a way to make up for this devastation. He’d hack into some international drug lord’s bank account and
donate
a small fortune if he had too. It was an ability only he knew he had. He’d never followed through with it before, but he was absolutely positive he could pull it off, even without his bosses knowing.

One thing Todd had going for him, at least, was that no one knew it was him that did this besides the local police and they were ordered to keep his identity—false or otherwise—on the down low. Phoenix had gotten all the attention as she barreled through town. There were even some of the more fanatical religious folks on the street corner as he walked, waving signs about the apocalypse. People would do anything to help themselves explain the unexplainable.

“Like the military aircraft out west,” he mumbled to himself. As much as he’d like to believe that Area 51 housed some sort of fallen spacecraft, he knew through his findings that it only housed some equally amazing science experiments. If it
did
hold something more than that, then it was something even he couldn’t dig up let alone some hick with a probe up his butt surfing the web.

He exited the remains of the historical district and continued south, picking up the pace a little. He wasn’t worried about Olivia though. She had days’ worth of oxygen in the small bunker. He’d only been gone a couple hours. She was, no doubt, tapping away at the PC he installed a couple weeks ago. Most of the weapons were Frost’s, but Kane had a few more delivered. Those guys sure liked their guns.

He and Olivia would outfit themselves to the teeth and head…

Where?
he thought.

Hank and Ben were missing and Kane and Nicole were in Kuwait. What could the two of them do? Is there anything they could do to help with everyone overseas?

“Incoming call,”
his glasses said.

“Answer.”

After a moment of silence, the call clicked over.

“Jenkins!”

Todd stopped, shaken. What in the world was
he
doing calling him directly? Kane was the only one who was supposed to do so. Unless they thought their mission was compromised.

Which it was.

“Sir,” he said, not sure what else to say.

“Tell me everything, Jenkins.”

Not wanting to piss off his
and
Kane’s boss, Todd began his walk again and retold the man everything they had learned. He even threw in his own concerns and suggestions on how to respond. While he would never dream of telling him what to do, he laid it out and pleaded for his understanding.

“We need more than just this, sir. I’ll put together a long-term plan and send it back to you ASAP. We can’t keep doing this without more help.”

After another uncomfortable moment of silence, the caller acknowledged Todd and signed off. He now knew what he and Olivia had to do while the others were in the Middle East. They would put together the groundwork for the next phase in their worldwide efforts. History—both then and now—wasn’t safe. And they needed to be there when things ultimately went south.

Todd looked up, seeing the street to the bunker, and sighed. He had an idea—an idea that could, if applicable, change the world.

He breathed out. “Here goes nothing.”

*

“On my way,” she read aloud, relieved that Todd had received her simple email. It was the only way for her to communicate with the outside world and she was hoping Todd’s specs were still operational. If Todd had died, she very well may have as well.

Olivia looked up and saw the underside of the hatch, eyeing the keypad. Unlike the movies, shooting it wouldn’t magically unlock it. It would just disable it forever, trapping her even more than she already was.

She guessed Todd would be here shortly, so instead of pacing the room, she’d get back to work. She already Googled everything she could find on the Middle East and anything pertaining to the Tower of Babel. Like you’d think, no one could agree on its location, but
they
knew.

“Eridu…” she whispered, typing.

She pulled up the window containing the information of the ancient city and was surprised to see that it was supposedly the home of the ancient Sumerian god, Enki. His name literally translated to “Lord of the Earth” or “King of the World” in Sumerian, depending on the translation you used. He was revered as their god of gods, the creator of their civilization and of life itself.

“What does that have to do with the impact crater?” It was the one inconsistency she couldn’t figure out. “Why did you guys build the tower over it?”

She knew from her experience with the Orichalcum metal that it was otherworldly in power—almost supernatural. It had qualities that nothing on Earth had.

Makes sense since it’s from space.

Did the ignorant minds of the past worship it like those in the Old Testament? Was it their golden idol? She knew it was possible, but she had no proof. She needed to keep digging.

“Come on, damnit,” she said, cursing at the computer for not giving her the answers she sought. “Tell me!”

She pounded her fists on the table, frustration taking over. When she looked up, she realized she must have hit the keyboard, because the screen changed. Instead of the internet browser, it showed a file she’d yet to comb through again. It was the folder containing Daniel’s photos from inside the tunnels at Site A.

I wonder…

She double-clicked it, bringing up the thumbnails. One-by-one she checked each slide but saw nothing. Not until she came to the last one, the one containing the image of a man inside the crater.

“What is that?” she asked it.

She zoomed in on the image and sharpened it a pinch. There was a symbol etched into the side of the pyramid-shaped rock—the one Thoth was revering.

Probably where they got the design for the pyramids of Egypt.

As much as it interested her, she refocused on the symbol. Next, she opened a photo editing program that Todd showed her how to use and uploaded the picture into it. Once she traced the figure, she opened another program. It was Todd’s bread-and-butter.

TransPro was the same translation program he’d used to help decode the skin-bound diary of the Aztecan priest. They found the tome in Campeche, Mexico after her entire crew of thirty-plus was killed by the virus-like ashen remains of Nannot.

She entered the symbol into the program and had it search its massive database. Todd and she had been collecting every image from every major culture around the world. TransPro would determine what subcategory it belonged in, trying to find similarities between them. She was doing the same with DNA samples while Todd did it digitally. But with less overall genetic work needing to be done in the field, Olivia was becoming a cybergeneticist of sorts.

She sat back and waited.

A few minutes later she got a message from Todd. It read:
I’m here.

Olivia slid her chair out and looked up. Why wasn’t he coming down?

She asked as much. His answer sank her heart… The outside panel was fried, destroyed by the blaze.

Instead of voicing a concern, Todd sent her another message. It contained a series of letters and numbers.

What’s this?

Her eyes lit up.

She rushed to the ladder and quickly scaled it, punching in the sixteen-digit sequence, laughing when the lid hissed and popped. She shoved it open, smiling when she saw Todd standing above her.

Like a too excited puppy, Olivia climbed out and leapt into Todd’s arms, happy to see the man alive and in one piece. She then broke off the engagement and looked him square in the eyes. As quick as a lightning strike, she slapped him across the face.

“What was that for?” he asked, holding his reddening cheek.

“That was for locking me down there!” She pointed down at her feet. Before he could respond, she slapped his other cheek too. “And that was for barging in on me in the shower!”

After a quiet second, they both smiled.

Todd’s face quickly fell. “Oh, crap… About that.”

Olivia smiled. “I won’t tell him.”

He saved her life twice in a matter of minutes, the least she could do was keep Jeremy from killing strangling him until his head popped.

She looked around and saw the soaked landscape. Water from what had to have been firetrucks drenched the still-smoldering lot surrounding the hatch.

Quickly remembering what she found, she climbed back down the ladder, ushering Todd to follow. Next, she retook her position behind the keyboard. She didn’t have to tell him anymore, though. TransPro had finished its search during their aboveground reunion.

The screen held two names. Normally, they wouldn’t have connected in any way, but what they were dealing with wasn’t exactly
normal
. The background information they had, along with what was happening to the team gave them all the answers they needed.

Todd looked at her and shared her dismay. “Oh,
gods
.”

It was a pair of symbols as old as time, but not necessarily something they had to worry about right this minute. It was two symbols intertwined actually. They each represented one of the most powerful and influential deities in history.

“Enki and Thoth—together?” Olivia asked. “What the hell does that mean?”

Todd honestly didn’t care. As of now there wasn’t much they could do for the team in the field. The best thing they could do was prep for their hopeful return. Todd needed to get his project underway.

“Look, Olivia,” he said, getting her attention, “I know you want to help them out, right?”

“Of course,” she said. “What kind of question is that?”

“Do you agree that if all this pans out and they do, in fact, come home, that we aren’t out of this yet? Do you agree that there is more to do after this current conflict is solved?”

It took her a second to think, but eventually she nodded.

“Okay then…” he said, looking like he was going to vomit. “I need your help with something.”

“With what?”

He smiled. “Let me show you.”