Babel Found (3 page)

Site “A”

Outside Djanet, Algeria

“Daniel, please be careful. Don’t make me remind you how invaluable they are.”

Dr. Benjamin Fehr was under a lot of pressure these days. He was solely responsible for taking over the reins at the Smithsonian, something he knew wasn’t going to be easy. His dear friend had died.

“You just did, Dad,” Daniel said with an underlying snarkiness.

Daniel was an archaeologist like his father, but he operated under the guise of being overprivileged at school. Being top of his class had only ballooned his head more. He was nothing like Ben was, and not even close to William or even the rascally Hank.

William was as stern in his work as someone could get, but he treated everyone with respect and dignity, understanding the pressures of everyday life. Hank was, well, Hank. He had zero formal schooling and learned untraditionally while on the job, but Ben didn’t trust anyone’s opinion or judgment more. Hank had proven time and time again that he was truly the best at what he did. He took a real-world approach to things, often finding results where others only found dead ends.

Regardless of his son’s shortcomings, Ben was just happy he followed his own footsteps. History was so important to the world. There just weren’t enough young people who cared about those who came before them.

Sometimes thousands of years before them,
he thought as he breathed in heavily, doing his best to not chastise his son. He was Daniel’s boss after all, but if there’s one thing Ben learned from watching William and Hank work side-by-side all those years, it’s that sometimes you need to step aside and let the boy work. He witnessed countless times where William would overly critique his son. The difference? Hank would tell his father so and get in his face about it.

Hank brought results, though.

Deep down Ben knew he needed to cut Daniel some slack. He was a new addition to the overseas team. He couldn’t possibly produce anything significant in such a short amount of time.

Ben turned away from his son and headed down the underground tunnel system, back towards the vertical entrance of the thousand-foot-deep orichalcum lined shaft. The winch above was easy enough to work. It was still connected to the massive dump truck from before.

From when Hank and the others first found this place.

Eventually, they had set up a power station down below too, being able to call the specially made platform back down. The cable itself ran down the full length of the shaft and was then bolted to the base of the room below.

A small, but sturdy two-by-two platform was then laced onto the cable like a piece of meat on a shish kabob. The unnerving landing was then ingeniously attached to a free-moving secondary pulley system, allowing travel up and down the shaft, held in line by the main stabilizer cable.

We don’t need to be swung into the walls.

The tunnels around them were something else altogether. Each side of the switch-backing passage was adorned with epically beautiful portraits and murals. Daniel was specifically working on cleaning and restoring a picture of Atlantis before it was corrupted and destroyed. It was his favorite from the time he saw them.

Ben knew his son had an affinity for the ancient arts of past cultures. He loved them as much as someone would appreciate Da Vinci’s
Mona Lisa
or Van Gogh’s
Starry Night.
So he let him work down in the tunnels, quietly doing his duty. He also tried his best to not interfere with Daniel’s work.

Like I just did
, he thought, reprimanding himself for doing so.

Ben continued forward, sometimes having to squeeze by others doing as his son did. There was a team of twenty on hand right now, which was fairly large considering they were simply cleaning and cataloging their finds. There wasn’t any
real
physical labor going on right now, just the tedious work they came here to do.

Archaeology isn’t ‘all’ fortune and glory. It’s the passion for history.
Ben used to constantly tell Daniel that when he used to ask about the far-off places and daring chases he’d seen on TV and in the movies. And before the last few months, Ben had been right.

Until this place was discovered.

Ben stopped and turned, facing back the way he’d come. The destroyed entrance to what was described as a ‘cavern of epic size and majesty’ was gone. But the eerie feeling was still alive and well.

Hank wanted every single piece of information he could get, and Ben agreed. After what they had all been through in Washington, the government—more specifically Kane and the CIA—wanted to know what else to expect from their nemesis, Zero. Strangely, though, the criminal organization had gone silent with the death of Coaxoch, the Atlantean witch, as well as their mercenary-for-hire, John Frost, and his security firm, Broadsword Inc.

“Dr. Fehr?”

Ben quickly turned, alarmed by the disturbance.

“Joshua…” he said, breathing heavily. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry,” Joshua said, sheepishly, “but you have a visitor topside. He says he’s from Washington.”

Washington?
Ben thought but shrugged it off. He was out of earshot for hours at a time while down in the tunnels. Their man back at the Smithsonian Castle, Todd Jenkins, had been trying to figure out a way to boost their communications through their NVS4 system.

Not only was the
Night Vision Specs
capabilities beyond impressive, but it had proven a priceless addition to archaeology as a whole. They were able to use its built-in TransPro language translation software to decipher everything they’d seen so far. All they had to do was visibly look at the ancient writings around them and the cameras built into the state-of-the-art Oakley-design would see to the rest.

But the NVS4 offered something even more unique.

“Hang on, Joshua,” Ben said, stopping and staring at the wall to his left.

“Keyboard,” Ben said, calling up his virtual computer keyboard.

Joshua wouldn’t be able to see it since he didn’t have a pair himself. Only the core team did, including Hank, Nicole, Kane, Olivia, Todd, and himself. It was a nifty invention by the team’s IT guru and hacker extraordinaire. Kane even so much as moved Todd out to D.C., giving him an office of his own near theirs. They wanted him fully engrossed in their work, only helping the agency on other matters if it was absolutely necessary, like he’d recently done in southern Africa.

Ben stepped close to the wall, within arm’s length, and watched as an electric blue outline of a standard computer keyboard popped up. It came with everything you’d expect to see from a keyboard—letters and all. It even had a virtual scroll pad so the user could mouse around and browse the web, wherever they were.

He quickly typed out an email, which would be sent to everyone on the network once he was above ground. The lack of a signal this deep really was a problem for everyone—Ben especially. It was moments like this that he wished he had a direct line through the bedrock. They weren’t supposed to have guests out here…ever. He turned and quickly made his way back to the entrance, relaying to Joshua, his personal assistant, what he wanted to be done when they reached the sun and sand.

*

Twenty minutes later, Ben and Joshua arrived at the vertical shaft, moving as quickly as Ben’s fifty-eight-year-old body would let them. Joshua clipped on first, and then Ben on the other side. They were almost nose to nose when Joshua pressed a switch off to one side. The two men quickly shot straight up at an incredible speed, especially considering where they were.

Ben watched as the younger man across from him closed his eyes and white-knuckled the cable. It made the older historian smile. He had no such fear. He was actually extremely grateful for the technological advancements given to them by the brain trust in Langley.

Ben craned his neck up and watched as the small dot of light quickly widened and became that of a square. He breathed in, being able to smell the dry desert air rush in. It wasn’t nearly as cool as in the shaft as it was down in the tunnels, but it was fresh. He’d grown up in the oppressive heat, in Israel, secretly loving it.

I’d be the only one, for sure.

Lost in his thoughts, Ben barely noticed when their heads cleared the edge of the golden platform surrounding them. As they slowed and stopped, he instantly saw an unfamiliar man waiting beside the dump truck. He was dressed as he’d seen Kane once. Black suit, black tie, aviator sunglasses.

The ‘Company.’

He and Joshua unclipped their harnesses and stepped off the foothold, heading towards the unexpected, and therefore, unwelcomed visitor.

Ben glanced up and saw two men, one to each side of the pit, carrying assault rifles, ready for anything. Kane had ordered and personally selected a new security team. They were ex-military and highly regarded men. Ben had no idea how Kane knew them, but his time in the army must’ve been it.

“How can we help you, Mister…?” Ben said, trying to coax the man.

“Anu,” said the dark-skinned man, his southern drawl deep and booming, “call me, Anu.”

“Okay, Mr. Anu,” Ben said, standing tall, not at all pleased with the intrusion paid to them by the agent from the bayou, “would you mind telling me why you’re here—unannounced? I’m the only one on this continent that can approve who sets foot on, or even near, this location. That permission is mine alone and you weren’t approved.”

“Dr. Fehr,” Anu said, removing his sunglasses. Ben was taken back by the man’s penetrating blue eyes. They were something to behold, belonging to those of a catalog model. Anu stepped forward and smiled like a predator would look at its prey. “I’d watch your tone, good sir. You wouldn’t want to become a useless redundancy now, would you?”

The Smithsonian Castle

Washington D.C.

Todd Jenkins was still getting used to his new surroundings. He wasn’t a history buff like Hank, Nicole, and Ben, or a militarized war-machine like Kane. Even Olivia specialized in genetics, or more precisely, the field of archaeogenetics. She was the foremost mind, studying the link between the bloodlines of all the ancient cultures around the world. She’d been looking for a
master race
of sorts and after the deaths of over thirty of her colleagues, she was rescued and brought aboard. It was then Olivia found out she was actually looking for Atlantis.

Atlantis,
Todd thought,
I can’t believe it’s actually Atlantis.

He was still a little shell-shocked with the discovery, stating that it was ‘wicked’ when Kane had first divulged the information. The others shrugged it off like it was nothing special, though. They just went about their business like they discovered a tomb belonging to someone’s pet hamster.

Then again, no one has tried to kill me yet.
That can really put a damper on your outlook.

Yet…

He didn’t like how easily he added it to the end of the thought. He had no intention of being a part of the action. He liked his basement office, away from the real dangers of the world. People. He got along with his machines a lot better than those of his own species.

Dressed, as always, like a common college student, Todd roamed the main hall of the Castle, feeling comfortable in his overly worn light-green Hyrule kingdom tee. He’d regularly get into nerd-based arguments about
The Legend of Zelda
being the best video game franchise with Kane. The big man obviously dug the Halo games, though. But of course, when Hank was around, he would always try to trump everyone and say
Uncharted
, arguing it was the closest thing to what they did in real life
.
They never could agree on it, but man did they have fun with the multiplayer options.

Todd would periodically come up for air during his insanely long work hours and just stroll the corridors. When he felt particularly adventurous, he’d even visit the surrounding museums too. The walk would help clear his thoughts, effectively hitting the reset button on his computer-like brain.

Todd was a renowned hacker and eventually contacted by the CIA. At first, he was scared he’d done something wrong—minus breaking into the various databases around the world like he had. It was a hobby, though, and he never caused any
real
trouble. It kept his mind off his day job working at the local Apple store, helping John and Jane Doe check their email.

One of the first people he met was a giant man named Jeremy Kane. The two of them immediately bonded as friends, having similar interests. Then, Kane was pulled away from an investigation, eventually heading to northern Africa to interview a man named Harrison Boyd.

From then on, Todd had been added into the mix, developing all kinds of
spy gadgets
as Kane like to call them. Kane even went as far as to call him
‘Q’
on several occasions. Their relationship was how Kane really got the second pair of first-generation NVS glasses. Kane would tell people he stole them to cover for his new friend, but Todd really wasn’t worried. The things that went on just feet away from him at his old office in Langley… They wouldn’t miss one pair of high-tech Oakley’s.

Even if they did cost over a million dollars to make.
He shook his head.
Government spending… Money to burn.

But as of today—as of now, he was studying a fantastic display depicting the ancient gods of Egypt. They were set up in the center of the recently reopened room, encompassing a to-scale model of one of the tombs he couldn’t remember the name of. The main hall was badly damaged during a gunfight, but the Castle’s temporary closure and subsequent remodel gave them the cover they needed to transfer his equipment over. Once reopened, no one would be the wiser.

The display he stood before now gave him a
CliffsNotes
version into the history of ancient Egypt, starting with the famous, and to only a very few, very
real
deity, Thoth.

“I still can’t believe it,” Todd said, reiterating his thought from before. “Thoth in the flesh,” he shook his head in disbelief. “I wonder if the other gods were real too...”

He stepped away from the lifelike bust of Thoth and tied his shoulder length blonde hair into a ponytail. His
‘surfer-do’
was getting a little long, even for his taste. It now brushed against his shoulders when not tied up, having not been cut in months. Then, he took off his glasses, of the NVS variety, and rubbed his eyes hard, stopping only once he saw spots beneath his eyelids. The occasional strain-induced headache was the only thing that prevented him from working for hours on end. He could get through about five or six without having to take a break, other than pee, any more than that and he’d be down for good. While six hours may not seem like an outrageous amount of time in front of a computer to some, Todd would do it for twenty hours at a time sometimes. Maybe even longer when a team was active.

Like what happened in Mexico.

It was his first official gig as the team’s operations handler. He would upload whatever information necessary, via their own NVS glasses, on the fly, as fast as he could. As long as his coworkers—his friends—were out in the field and in danger, so was he. It’s how he operated either way. Hank and Kane may not be able to rest and they may need him ASAP. He needed to be there for them when they came calling no matter what.

Thankfully, they were very resourceful people and didn’t overly abuse the ease at which they could ask for help. They only called on Todd when it was absolutely essential. Like needing schematics of Kukulkan’s pyramid when getting chased by a team of a dozen mercenaries and only carrying handguns.

That was an intense couple of days for sure.

But man was it fun!
he thought, smiling to himself.

He stepped over to the next bust. It was of Horus—the falcon god—the hero. He was king after his father, Osiris, was murdered by the treacherous Set. Isis’ statuette came after Horus. She was his mother and was adorned with a stern look. And then there was Osiris himself, and so on and so on down the royal line.

Todd loved this stuff the more he was around it. He had always loved the movies centered around the gods of old. The mythology behind it was amazing. Even if it was a farfetched tale, just the slight possibility that people like that existed in years past was awesome to him.

The original Harryhausen movies like
Clash of the Titans
,
The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad
, and
Jason and the Argonauts
were his favorites. They depicted the classic heroes fighting against the banes of their particular worlds. They were also some of Hank and Kane’s favorite movies too, something that brought them together further.

A clacking sound broke him from his admiration. He quickly turned and spotted a woman in a tight black dress and oversized sunglasses, making her way towards him. But before he could panic, she stopped a good twenty or so feet away, at another case of Thoth. He watched as her hip-length raven colored hair sashayed to a stop, eventually falling back into place behind her. She intently stared into the full-body display of the immaculately dressed god. Oddly, she just stood there and gazed at it, intently reading the information cards posted around the large glass case. She didn’t even take off her heavily tinted eyewear.

It wasn’t odd that a woman would read the text, but one dressed as her and this time of day… She just made him…nervous.

Todd wasn’t sure why he felt such fear towards the woman—or women in general. Even when he had to converse with Nicole or Olivia, he felt a slight case of anxiety. They were the alphas of the sex for sure. Those two could frighten a pack of wolves if they deemed it necessary, Nicole with her physical prowess, and Olivia with her inner fire.

There were other people in the hall too. It’s not like he was alone with her or anything. There were even other women in the room, but they were casually dressed for the weekend weather.

He glanced back over to the woman in black, sensing that she was different somehow. And…she moved closer to him. Not much, but it was enough to make him squirm.

Todd turned and headed back towards the security door leading down to the basement. Once he was through, no one could follow him. He was, in fact, the only one here with a keycard. That was enough for him to start calming some.

Just get downstairs and you’ll be fine.

“Excuse me?”

Todd whirled around, reaching for the gun underneath his Robert Langdon inspired jacket. However, he released his grip on the weapon once he saw who was speaking.

It was the black dressed beauty. She was standing not three feet from him. He wasn’t exactly sure how she could have covered that distance without him noticing. He remembered hearing her heels echo around the room when she originally entered. He surely would have heard them again.

It’s not like she could’ve jumped that distance and landed like a panther, right?

“Y-yes?” Todd couldn’t even look directly at her. She was sending chill after chill of nerve-wracking energy towards him. Breathing hard, he did his best to relax. Her posture wasn’t the least bit threatening. If she was, it was to his emotions and not to him physically.

“Could you help me find something, please?” Her accent strange, yet familiar. He couldn’t place it, but it sounded Italian, mixed with something else as if she was trying to hide it a little.

“I…I can try. Yes, ma’am. What are you looking for exactly?”

She removed her Jackie Onassis-inspired sunglasses, revealing even more of her flawless skin, looking him in the eyes. The already apprehensive computer engineer froze when he saw the frigid blue, almost white colored irises. But they softened slightly like she was intrigued by his boyish behavior.

She blinked it away, though, her eyes becoming stern again.

They held a cunningness that could only mean trouble.