The Second Wave (30 page)

She was aware of the fact that she would have
to search an entire planet for one human being; but it was better
than sitting in the mayor’s house the whole day, trying to come up
with a perfect plan. She was a protector after all, and she did
have the best team she could imagine. The last sentence she heard
as she walked out of the door was Summer’s philosophical question
whether human life on Earth had started out the way life on
Alternearth had. Emily supposed that all the brilliant heads in the
universe couldn’t figure that one out.

* * * *

“The pyramids,” Gavin Watts immediately
suggested after the team had assembled at Emily’s place. The
captain had relayed to them every bit of information she
possessed.

Sally cocked her head. “Egypt? Really?”

“Why not?” said Gavin. “If we’re looking for
something that could be a temple as well as a grave.”

If Eugenia had become Alternearth’s medium
because she had been the first human to die on its soil, then
Earth’s medium should have a similar story. They needed to find the
one place where the earliest humans had lived.

“Do we even know where the first humans
originated?” asked Mandy Rhett.

Carl made a tutting noise. “Africa of course.
Look it up in any old book.”

“Are you saying Chinese people originated in
Africa?” Timothy challenged him.

“Well,” Carl scratched his head. “Maybe
they
didn’t.”

“My brother’s late husband once told me there
were theories about the Atlantians being the first people.” Sally
Sheldon brought to the table, but this rather far-fetched theory
was almost instantly dismissed. Sophie Bahr suggested Australia as
possible cradle of life, which prompted Timothy to once again bring
up Asians. The discussion that followed, about who were the true
forefathers of humankind, almost got out of hand, when Gavin
suddenly silenced them by raising his hand.

“I have a radical idea!” he said. “Let’s go
to the library, and check some books.”

In the end, gathered around the only table in
the village’s library, the team settled on six possible locations.
Two of them were completely destroyed, one was underwater and
therefore nigh inaccessible, one was on a mountain in Tibet, one
inside the great pyramid of Gizeh and one was in a town in
Copán.

“Bad news on Tibet,” Carl told them, clapping
shut a book. “Or maybe good news, at this point I’m not sure. In
any case the mountain peak was destroyed when they tried to build a
tunnel through it a couple of years ago.”

“I suppose it’s good news for us,” Sally
shrugged. “One less location to check out.”

“So who’s going where?” asked Gavin. “I
suppose we split up to cover more ground in less time?”

“Dibbs on Egypt!” Sophie called out. Then
added apologetically, “I always wanted to go there.”

Gavin and Sally volunteered to accompany her,
and it was soon settled that Mandy, Carl and Emily would check out
the town in Copán. Timothy would stay on Alternearth to be the
liaison between the two teams, Earth and Alternearth, and to keep
an eye on things—and by things, Timothy knew, Emily meant
Eugenia.

* * * *

The heat wave continued. Thick thunderclouds
on the horizon taunted the villagers by never moving closer.
Instead of fresh rain, the bright heat kept scorching the
settlement, burning plants and humans alike. Soon the small creeks
and brooks dried up. The lakes as well as the rivers carried less
and less water. A small grove of ancient trees just outside the
corn field burst into flames one afternoon, the heat was too much
for the gaunt old bark. If one of the teachers hadn’t taken their
class outside to visit the fields, the fire might have gone
unnoticed for much longer and would have spread out to the
fields.

For Mandy Rett, Carl Gibson, and Emily Eleven
it was almost a relief to travel to Central America, where the
temperature, compared to the daily average on Alternearth at the
moment, was cool and refreshing. When General Fatique heard where
they were headed, he gave them an address and promised that someone
would await them at the harbor.

Once their ship anchored after four long days
of journey, though, they were surprised to find it was Elizabeth
Burke who stood next to a donkey cart, raising her arm to greet
them. In the five years they had spent in each other’s company,
Emily’s team and Elizabeth had worked together on some projects.
When she left quite suddenly the very day the wormhole reopened,
they begun to miss her to some extent. The aloof General’s
secretary had morphed into an open, friendly woman, someone people
generally liked to be around.

Emily gave Elizabeth a hug by way of a
greeting. Mandy and Carl simply smiled and shook hands. They
exchanged personal and official information—Emily told her
everything they had found out about Earth’s possible connection
with some kind of medium, and Elizabeth told them about her
farm.

It was a long ride from the harbor to the
small town of Lamanai in the heart of Copán, and somewhere along
the way Carl decided the climate was not as refreshing as it had
first appeared; especially not after they left the protection
shield of Porto Cortes and had to walk to the anchorage at the
river. There they boarded another ship that safely carried them, in
two days time, Southwest, as close to the town of Lamanai as
civilization allowed. From there on they had to march through the
jungle to reach their destination.

“The townsfolk are terrified that people from
the outside might find them and rob them of their artefacts, like
they’ve done to other ancient towns,” explained Elizabeth, when
Carl began bemoaning the loss of something like a path. They had to
leave the cart behind, and the donkey, a wiry, agile creature,
cheerfully brought up the vanguard, leading them, it seemed, deeper
and deeper into unknown territory.

On the third day they finally reached the
valley in which Elizabeth’s hometown lay—encompassed on four sides
by mountains, whose peaks, at least the two that were visible,
glistened white with snow. The three protectors believed themselves
back in their settlement on Alternearth as they set eyes on the
town: it was nothing more than a village, or rather, not even a
village but an accumulation of huts surrounding one larger farm,
which was only recognizable as a farm because three goats and an ox
stood next to it, grazing peacefully.

It was there Elizabeth led them; it was her
farm now. In the South of the village, half carved into the
mountain, towered a tall pyramid, almost a mile high. On second
glance it was obvious that the entrance of every hut pointed in the
direction of this monument. One sought without success for signs of
decay or dilapidation. The pyramid looked just as divine and
majestic now as it had the day it was finished several thousand
years ago.

* * * *

The second team, consisting of Gavin Watts,
Sophie Bahr, and Sally Sheldon, reached their destination much
earlier than the others. It took them less than two days to travel
from Rome to Port Said, and another day’s journey to reach Gizeh
and Memphis, which lay deep inside the outlawed zone of Africa.

Another two days later, Timothy Niman relayed
the message to Mayor Rochester that the great pyramid of Gizeh was
but a massive heap of stones, with a handful of pillaged, looted
chambers. If there had at any point been a medium in there, it must
be long gone. All hopes now rested with Emily and the others.

All the while General Fatique prepared a
press release to notify as many people as possible about the true
nature of the planet they called home.

* * * *

At the hospital on Alternearth, Summer Paige
was in the office, busying herself with administrative tasks. She
knew very well, if she was honest with herself, that she was just
avoiding seeing Timothy. She still owed him an answer to his
marriage proposal, and she still wasn’t sure what to tell him.
Using the discrepancy in their respective ages as a reason to
decline his offer sounded ridiculous, even to her ears. And the
fact that she was rational and centred where he was emotional and
laissez-faire was a confirmation rather than an imponderability of
their relationship. On the other hand, she was a doctor; she had a
position she loved here at the village’s hospital, whereas Timothy
was a protector. Now that the connection with Earth was stable
again, there was no telling where he’d be stationed next. The fact
that she was battling with herself in the first place, she finally
decided, should perhaps be reason enough to doubt the whole
thing.

She was about to leave and look for Timothy
to break up with him, when in the corridor she met John and
Eugenia. She walked slowly; he tried to match her unusual pace.
Summer immediately knew that something was wrong. Eugenia dreaded
the hospital, she would never come here if it could be avoided. All
thoughts of turning down marriage proposals were forgotten when
John said, “She started coughing up blood,” and Summer saw that
neither of them could have gotten any sleep last night.

* * * *

After Emily, Carl, and Mandy had eaten and
refreshed themselves, they wasted no time but headed straight for
the pyramid. They were too far away from any form of messenger
service, so the news about Gizeh being a lost cause never reached
them. It would have made no difference, though. Geared up, equipped
with torches, a map, a compass, an old woman who served as their
guide and Elizabeth, who acted as translator for the local woman,
they entered the great temple through the stone door on top of the
pyramid. Elizabeth’s donkey, who had taken a fancy to Carl, stayed
at the foot of the building and patiently waited for their
return.

It was less dark than they expected. The old
Mayans had carved the passageways in such a way that the sunlight,
streaming in through the main door, was reflected by polished,
mirror-like surfaces, and thus shone through the corridors and
illuminated the chambers on the topmost level. As they descended,
though, they had to switch on their torches at one point, as the
redirected sunlight grew dimmer with every level they passed.

The walls were rough and dark, some covered
in nocturnal flowers and light sensitive mosses. The delicate
plants quickly withdrew their petals when the light of a torch
swept over them. The air was cool and damp, but stuffy.

“I feel like we’ve descended a million steps
already,” Carl grumbled. “Does it ever end?”

Mandy looked at her compass, then said with
surprise, “We should be below the ground by now.”

Elizabeth asked their guide and translated
the woman’s stream of rough, fast sounds. “She says the pyramid is
just as large underground as it is above. This way, if the village
was attacked and the temple destroyed, they could still hide out
below the surface.”

“Good thinking,” Carl admitted.

“Do we have any idea where we’re going,
Elizabeth?” asked Emily.

“To the main sacrificial chamber,” came the
reply.

“The what?” Mandy asked.

Carl rolled his eyes, which fortunately was
barely visible in the semi-darkness. “Please tell me you know that
the Mayan’s believed in human sacrifice.”

“Well, I didn’t know that,” Mandy huffed.
“What does it mean?”

While Carl explained to her, in great and
gory detail, about human sacrifices, Emily walked up to
Elizabeth.

“I’ve noticed that the people here view us as
strangers, but treat you as one of their own,” she began.

“I was born here,” Elizabeth confided. “My
grandfather was something like a mix between a mayor and a high
priest. They’re glad that, now that I’m back, I can fill out his
shoes.”

“And will you?”

Elizabeth paused for a moment, then she
looked at Emily. “I think I will, yes.”

“That means you won’t be coming back with
us.”

To that the newly elected mayor/high
priestess didn’t reply. They walked a while in silence until the
old woman, walking safely in the middle, called out for them to
stop. They had reached a crossing where four corridors met. In the
ceiling, as they saw when the woman showed them, gaped a hole.
Square, merely big enough for one person to squeeze through at a
time. Mandy had seen an old ladder a little way back that she went
to fetch.

“What’s up there?” Carl asked while he
watched Mandy put up the ladder. It was a perfect fit, designed for
just this occasion.

“The secret entry to the main sacrificial
chamber,” Elizabeth translated. “A hidden room to access the main
temple.”

Up there was another, much narrower, corridor
they had to follow; until they stepped through a low door and at
last stood in a huge hall. They were deep underground now. Not as
deep as the pyramid went on, but this was the heart of the temple
they gathered from what the local woman told them in a hushed, awe
filled voice. It was an enormous chamber, pitch dark, of course,
but when they shone their torches hither and thither they saw
gigantic drawings on the stone walls in shining colors, as if they
had been painted yesterday. A huge statue was at the far end and
before it, surrounded by a circle of what looked like holy stones
with detailed engravings, stood a boy.

Mandy, the first one to direct her torch to
the statue, gave a surprised shriek on encountering the child. Carl
was next to her in a heartbeat, gun in one hand, torch in the
other. So was Emily. Elizabeth could only stare.

It took them a moment longer to understand
that the boy wasn’t moving. As motionless as the statue he stood
inside a circle of holy stones, naked but for a feathered crown on
his head and the remains of a painted body armour on his skin. His
eyes stared into the distance.

The woman who had brought them this far
walked up to him. Hidden from view up to the moment she lit them
was a group of candles on the right and another one at the left
hand side of the statue. Quickly the chamber was illuminated by
their warm, flickering glow. The woman knelt, touched four of the
stones as if she had done so countless times, bowed and laid down a
set of flowers she took out of her bag. A long withered bunch she
took away. Her movements were those of someone who was used to this
ritual. When she finally spoke the eyes of the protectors were on
Elizabeth, who tried to translate what she heard.