by J G Barber
“The acts of one human cannot atone for the crimes of generations!” Leucosia stands toe-to-toe with Paul. “I will no longer indulge your indecision. Choose now. Are you with us, or are you against us?”
Monica-Lorelei steps between them. “It is your destiny to join us. Let us remind you.” She motions to the sisters. They join her in a siren song intended to bind Paul to their collective will.
At a cellular level, he feels the song as a threat. He emanates the green light of protection. It oscillates as the sisters raise the volume of their call. He assesses the sisters as they persevere in their call, refusing to stop despite the ineffectiveness of their song. Paul accepts the sirens’ denial is too deep for him to overcome. His gaze lingers on Monica-Lorelei’s pregnant belly. He only sees one chance to liberate his son from his fate with the sirens. “You leave me with no choice.” Still emanating the green cocoon of energy, Paul leaves the room.
He walks into the crowd of dancing familiars. Paul takes the stage, scaring the DJ crew from their stations. He turns down the music and grabs a microphone. The dancers look at him, some frightened, others tripping on the cocoon of green light surrounding him. “You are all under the sirens’ spell.”
The six sisters surround the dance floor and sing a song to maintain the potentials’ trance. Paul focuses on Narmaya and her girlfriends. Narmaya looks back at him with the unconquerable resolve of a Sirenian spirit.
“Wake up!” Paul shouts. “Your desire to become mermaids is a fantasy. I will tell you your fate. Those of you who are loyal to the sirens will become breeding stock for a campaign of terror against humanity. They will trade those of you who fail to the cartel to become sex slaves.” Cartel gunmen take strategic positions on the second floor and lock their rifles on Paul.
Leucosia takes center stage, outside the field of Paul’s green light. She grabs a microphone. “We are fearless!”
The DJ crew retakes her stations and cranks up a powerful song. Narmaya leads the potentials as they move together in a synchronized dance, emanating a collective power that Paul feels in his gut.
“We are fearless,” they sing together with the music, their wills united, the warrior’s fierceness in their eyes focused on Paul. The green light surrounding him intensifies. Leucosia and the DJ crew step off the stage.
One of the cartel gunman takes a shot. The green light absorbs the bullet, and it falls onto the stage. Women on the dance floor scatter. Gunmen open fire with their semi-automatic weapons, destroying the DJ station as the green light of protection absorbs dozens of bullets and drops them onto the stage. Paul steps down, walking out onto the clay dance floor.
“Enough!” Leucosia shouts. The gunmen cease firing.
Undeterred by the green light of protection, Narmaya intercepts Paul in the center of the dance floor. “I recognized you the first time we met, Paul Douglass. Do you recognize me?”
“Yes, Narmaya. You are a siren.”
“I am Jalpari, the seventh sister, a Sirenian born as a human. The fulfillment of our prophecy.” The six sisters gather around Leucosia, all of them moved to tears. “Sister Lorelei is correct. It is your destiny to join us. Why do you resist?”
Paul attempts to connect with her. “I ask you to remember who you are. The Sirenians love peace. You have allowed the crimes from another age to poison your collective soul. Now you conspire to commit genocide.”
Narmaya meets his eyes with the siren look that could sink a thousand ships. “Genocide. Your kind is the perpetrator of genocide! Even today, you associate with siren hunters who intend to destroy us. You are conflicted.”
Paul opens his arms. “We’re all conflicted!” He turns in a circle to look around the dance floor, returns his gaze to Narmaya, and points at himself. “I’m the only one here with the courage to admit it.”
Narmaya steps up to the edge of Paul’s cocoon of green light. “We embrace our destiny, to resurrect the Sirenian race and put an end to the global destruction wrought by your invasive human species. We are the protectors of all life on this planet. In your heart, you desire the same thing as we do. Why do you deny it?”
Paul contains his outrage. “Genocide is not the solution.”
“It is the only solution! Your European ancestors believed it to be so. You and your associates are the carriers of their evil. You are a fraud and a hypocrite, Paul Douglass.”
He shakes his head. “I came here to end this madness. You all have made it clear you have no interest in doing so. I cannot allow you to destroy the human race.”
Narmaya’s laugh echoes through the facility. “You cannot stop us.” She reaches through the green light and wraps her arms around his neck. “Queen Leucosia made your options clear. Join us or join humanity’s self-destruction.” She looks deep into his eyes, studying his soul for a long moment, seeing his inability to resolve his own inner conflict and his stubborn, futile hope for peace. She leans in through the green light and gives him a parting kiss. “I was really looking forward to fucking you. But I see you have made your choice. We release you to enjoy the short time you have left with the humans.”
Leucosia signals El Jefazo, who signals the guards to lower their weapons. Paul’s cocoon of green light retracts. He exits the facility and descends the steel stairs to return to his boat. No one follows him.
The six sisters embrace Narmaya, showering her with kisses. Leucosia stands before her. Narmaya drops to one knee and takes her hand. “I am Jalpari, the seventh sister, a Sirenian born as a human. The prophecy is fulfilled. The time of your ascension has arrived, Queen Leucosia.” The six sisters emulate Narmaya, dropping to one knee in a circle around their queen.
El Jefazo leaves the sirens to their moment. He walks upstairs to join a short Mexican man, dressed in an expensive suite made with the cartel brown and black colors, who has been watching the scene from above. “You have seen it with your own eyes, El Jefe Superior.”
The man studies the sirens and women below with fierce, cold, calculating eyes. He strokes his small goatee. “All of them will have this capability? Under my command?”
“Yes,” El Jefazo answers. El Aniquilador takes in the information without another word.
Chapter Seventeen
“Moving into position.” Clive steers the DJI Phantom 3 Pro video drone into position over the pyramid excavation site, giving the siren hunters a view of the progress. Paul learned his lesson from their first drone. This time, he bought a top-of-the-line drone with silent mode. Noise from the excavation work at the site makes this one undetectable.
The camera transmits a view of the site. Earth that once buried the pyramid forms a perfect circle with a concave shape and the pyramid in the center. A single gated opening in the earth circle, facing north outside the main entrance to the pyramid, allows for the entry of vehicles and personnel. “They’re making a freaking radio dish,” Paul says.
Clive studies the video. “Crikey! It’s not a radio dish; it’s a speaker.” He turns to face Paul. “The ancients built many sites as sound amplifiers.”
Ellen watches over Clive’s shoulder. “So that’s how they plan to do it! They’ll use this and other ancient sites to amplify their call to self-destruction around the world.”
Laura waddles over. “Look at that.” She rubs her belly. “Okay, Jason, it’s time. Mommy has work to do.”
Clive overlays his saved 3D topographic satellite map with the drone live video feed. “They have guards stationed around the cone, the main entrance and the tunnels. And there by the shore, that’s a scuba shack. They’re expecting underwater visitors. We’ll have to rethink that scenario.” He steers the drone to view the south tunnel entrance where the siren hunters plan to enter. Large stones cover it.
“Focus on the plan,” Sorcerer says. “First, we create a distraction to pull the guards away. Then we use C2 to blow the rocks off the entrance. We’ll have to move fast. They will pursue us.” He looks at the women. “Laura and El Anciano, you’ll run comms from h
ere. Ellen, you’re driving.” Laura and Ellen nod.
Paul points out a rectangular shape to the left of the entrance, encrusted in stone. “What’s that?” He waits while Clive dials in max zoom. “Access control?”
“You may be onto something there, mate,” Clive says. “You think it still works?”
Paul looks at the rock-encrusted panel. “The pyramid has a power source. I think I can open it.”
“That’s a better plan,” Alexei says. “No explosion means we’ll have more time.”
Ellen grabs a crossbow from the weapons rack. “Why don’t we shoot the guards with tranquilizer darts?”
“Brilliant!” Clive shoots a look at Sorcerer for not thinking of that option. “El Anciano, you can find the ingredients, right mate?” El Anciano nods.
Sorcerer refuses to admit his oversight. “Let’s get to it.”
La Tlanchana’s head peaks out of the water. Her song calls Leucosia to the edge of the lake. “Come, my Queen. I’ll show you the way.”
As Leucosia walks into the water, she morphs into a mermaid and swims with La Tlanchana. They dive to the depths of the lake to find the underwater entrance to the pyramid, hidden behind a cluster of plants, between two large rocks. They swim through the gap in the two rocks, into the underwater tunnel, until they come up for air inside the pyramid.
“You are the instrument of our destiny, Queen Leucosia, as your mother Diana foresaw. Come, I’ll show you the activation key.” They leap out of the water, morphing into their human forms mid-air, landing on their feet on a large circular platform that surrounds the underwater entrance.
Leucosia follows La Tlanchana inside the pyramid. They walk together, hand-in-hand, through a maze of passageways. Leucosia notes the symbols on the corner of each turn. They follow the path marked by the labrys, the sirens’ symbol of resurrection. As they approach, each symbol glows with white light to lead them to their destination.
La Tlanchana walks through a foyer containing a white rectangular bench, to the doors sealing off the lab. “Only those who possess the genetic encoding may pass.”
The doors open for Leucosia. She passes through the four layers of shielded doors into a towering cylindrical room. Massive crystal pillars capture geothermal energy from the earth to power the genetic transformation process. The pillars surround a rotating base in the center where a full body reclining chair connects by fiber optic cables to a workstation with eight interactive control displays. Leucosia inspects the workstation. She recognizes the technology from the laboratory on Arguin Island where the Atlanteans imprisoned her over twelve thousand years ago.
La Tlanchana points to the interactive displays. “Your programming is unique, Queen Leucosia. It enables you to activate yourself and the others.”
Leucosia returns to normal consciousness. La Tlanchana’s words echo in her mind as she looks out on the ocean from her meditation spot. She stands, feeling a surge of empowerment fueled by hope. I must transform ahead of the others. She traverses the rocks and dives into the ocean. It’s the first time she’s been in the water since their boat trip from Seattle to Mexico. Leucosia swims and plays in the waves, surprised by the primitive delight she feels. I am a water creature, she reminds herself. She remains in the ocean for most of the morning to reacquaint her body with her native element.
El Anciano, Clive and Ellen huddle with an indigenous Mayan shaman in the back of a booth in the marketplace, inspecting a vial of amber liquid. “El brujo says this formula will cause a man to sleep for half a day,” El Anciano explains. “Show him the dart.”
Clive shows him the prototype he assembled. The crossbow dart incorporates a small a reservoir and injection pin to transfer fluid into the target’s body. The shaman nods.
“Yes. The reservoir is large enough.” El Anciano trades the shaman a stack of pesos for an old seven-ounce soda bottle with a cork stopper. He exchanges a firm handshake with the shaman, then leads Ellen and Clive away through the marketplace. “We go to a shop I know in town. We can purchase the parts there.”
Ellen rests her arms on the two men’s shoulders. “You are a creative trio.”
“We have hunted together for some time. We have learned many tricks,” El Anciano says. “Violence is never a desirable solution. One should always seek to avoid it. You are wise to recommend this path, Ellen.”
“A hunter is someone who searches for something,” Clive says. “Not necessarily a killer. Paul is right. As siren hunters, we’re protectors of life, not destroyers.”
Ellen weighs in. “Then why must the sirens die? Honestly, I want to kill them with every fiber of my being. But my mind won’t let go of the question Paul keeps asking. Don’t the sirens have the right to live, just as we do?”
El Anciano stops walking. Ellen and Clive stop to listen. They both realize they’re about to hear an outpouring of wisdom. “The sirens have the right to live. They do not have the right to kill all of us. That is their goal. Our duty to protect all life requires us to stop them. Paul is right to seek a peaceful solution. It saddens me that the sirens do not wish for one. My heart feels their pain. It is a deep, smoldering resentment passed down through the generations. An unquenchable desire for revenge against those who cared nothing for you, who gave no value to your life, and who perpetrated unspeakable crimes against your people. It feels unforgivable. Yet the universe asks us to forgive. All of our ancestors have committed crimes against life, and those crimes continue today. Very few of us are innocent.” He takes Ellen’s hands. “It is an unfortunate truth. The sirens refuse to forgive the crimes of the Atlanteans and the Europeans. They leave us with no other choice than to defend our kind.”
His words move Ellen to the point of tears. “That’s deep.”
El Anciano squeezes her hands. “We do what we must. Not what we wish.”
Back at the underground bunker, Clive and Paul argue as the others assemble the darts. Paul told Clive the truth about Narmaya, and he’s not taking it well. Clive points at the surveillance video, zoomed in on the rectangular panel next to the pyramid tunnel entrance. “Just tell me, already. How the fuck did you know that is an access control panel?”
“How do I know any of this stuff?” Paul says. “It just comes to me.”
Clive taps on the frozen image of the panel. The desk shakes. “So how do we gain access?”
Paul studies the display showing the long view of the pyramid and the cone of earth surrounding it. “Sound. This pyramid is all about sound.”
Clive’s patience is long gone. “Okay,” he snaps. “What sounds will open the door?”
Paul shrugs his shoulders. “I have no idea.”
“Super fucking helpful, mate.” Clive scans through the drone video for more clues, choking back tears as the truth about his new love crushes his heart.
Paul breathes to center himself. The image of Leucosia’s face and eyes penetrate his mind. He retreats to his meditation spot and takes position. Paul closes his eyes and continues his breathing to focus his mind. His consciousness travels the mental plane to the pyramid site. He observes Leucosia’s actions.
“La Jefa, we must train you to use this equipment,” the cartel’s scuba leader warns as Leucosia gears up with a tank and mask.
She holds up the regulator. “Show me how to use this.”
He grabs it from her. “We will send a squad of divers with you to assist.”
“No! I will do this alone. I do not require your protection.” She walks into the water up to her waist. “Come here, now. Show me how to use this device.”
The scuba leader joins her in the water and shows her how to use the regulator. “You have 30 minutes of oxygen with this tank,” he says. Leucosia submerges and tests it out. She’s a natural. She gives the scuba leader a thumbs up before disappearing underwater.
In his mind’s eye, Paul watches Leucosia swim down to find the underwater entrance to the pyramid. She passes through the rocks guarding the tunnel and proceeds inside the pyramid
. Leucosia pops out of the water and onto the platform. She slips out of the scuba gear and proceeds up the ramp.
Paul shifts his remote view to the outside the south tunnel entrance. Paul examines the access control panel. He waves his hand across it, feeling for an impression. He singing a resonant tone. The rocky crust around the panel cracks. He brushes it away with his hand to reveal a touchscreen display with Atlantean symbols.
Chapter Eighteen
Four cartel guards stand in front of the stones covering the south tunnel entrance to the pyramid. Alexei, Sorcerer, Clive and Paul move into position for a shot. They fire their crossbows in unison, landing their tranquilizer darts on target. The guards slump to the ground. The siren hunters collect the darts and drag the bodies to suggest they fell asleep on the job. A discard pile nearby provides the set decorations; food packaging and empty beer and liquor bottles.
Paul inspects the access panel while the others search for a leverage point along the invisible seam around the stone slab covering the tunnel entrance. The others have no luck, as the seam is a perfect fit. Paul motions the others to stand back, rubs his hand over the panel, and sings the first tone that came to him in his remote viewing session. The access panel’s cover cracks into pieces. Paul pulls the pieces away to reveal a touchscreen panel. He sings a second tone to bring the panel to life, displaying a graphical user interface with a series of Atlantean symbols.
Paul recognizes the symbols from Erik’s spyglass. “No fucking way.” He taps the symbols etched into the spyglass, in left-to-right order. Nothing happens.
“Try right-to-left,” Clive says.
Paul does it. The stone slab rumbles. Seams appear in the door. In rapid motion the slab pulls back and disappears into the ground, revealing the tunnel entrance. Paul and Clive exchange a high five. Sorcerer signals the men to enter. The stone slab closes behind them.
“Alerta de intrusos. Túnel del sur. Alerta de intrusos. Túnel del sur.” In response to the loudspeaker alert, a dozen armed men climb over the south lip of the earth circle and down toward the south tunnel entrance.