by R. D. Brady
He heard a gasp behind him.
Deveraux ran over to him. “No. Absolutely not.”
Hugo met Deveraux’s gaze as he spoke into the radio. “Yes.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Deveraux yelled. “That is a priceless artifact.”
“Yeah, with a priceless treasure inside. But you know what? I’m betting I could find a price I’m happy to trade it for.”
“You’re a barbarian.”
Hugo narrowed his eyes, his tone lowered. “Be careful how you speak to me, Professor. Not everybody needs to return from this trip.”
Deveraux paled. His next words had a tremor in them. “It’s just an unnecessary destruction. I’m sure I could find a way to open the case and retrieve the skeleton without harming it.”
“Well, the next thing we find, I’ll give you a crack at.”
Deveraux nodded, turning away. He paused in mid-step, swinging back to Hugo. “Wait. Are you saying that’s all they’ve found?”
Hugo nodded, eyeing the concern on the archaeologist’s face. “Yes. A giant room and then an alcove off it with the gold skeleton.”
“That’s not right. Do you have the coordinates of where we are?”
Hugo pulled out his GPS and rattled off the location. "78’ 13’ degrees West and –"
“3’ 6’ degrees South.” Deveraux finished for him.
“Correct. How did you know that?”
Deveraux closed his eyes. “We’re at the wrong spot. This is the Tayos Cave.”
"What the hell’s the Tayos Cave?"
"Back in 1976 a man named Stan Hall led a group of explorers to try and find the Atlantis library. They never found it. They did find the Tayos Cave along with a few ancient artifacts. And, of course, they found the tunnel system that runs underneath almost all of Ecuador."
“So it could connect to the cave we’re looking for?” Hugo asked.
“Yes, but it would be almost impossible to find. The tunnel system that links them has never been mapped, nor even fully explored. It’s also supposed to be booby trapped by the Incans.”
A panicked voice squawked out of the radio. “Sir.”
“Report,” Hugo barked, an uneasy feeling stealing over him.
“Sir, I have six men down.”
“What the hell happened?’
“I’m not sure. We were heading through one of the tunnels when all of a sudden some sort of chemical sprayed out from the walls. Four of us were able to get clear. But the other six…”
“Yes?”
“They’re dead, sir.”
Hugo gripped the radio. “Clear out. Get everyone out of the tunnels.”
“Sir, what about the men? Should we retrieve their bodies?”
“No. Leave them.”
There was a pause over the radio. “Yes, sir.”
Hugo turned to the professor. “Seems you were right, Professor. Although an earlier warning would have saved my men and some time.”
Deveraux blanched. “I couldn’t have known. You wouldn’t give me a GPS. How was I to know where we are?”
“Out of my sight, Professor, before I decide to let you see the Incans’ work up close and in person.”
Deveraux scurried away, casting a worried look over his shoulder.
More men down. He didn’t mind their deaths. He did, however, mind the feeling that someone has gotten the best of him.
“Schedderton.” He barked.
His second in command ran forward, stopping in front of him. “Sir.”
“We’re going to have to split the group. You’ll lead your group downstream. I’ll take the other one upstream. Bravo and tango teams are already scouting ahead. Our target has moved on. We need to run them to ground.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Dismissed.” Hugo stalked towards the riverbank. He would track them down. And they would pay for making him search.
CHAPTER 30
Laney slept hard. When she woke, she felt like she’d aged overnight. Everything ached.
Jen let out a small groan from the hammock next to her. Laney smiled, feeling a little better that Jen was also struggling. At least she’s not a superhuman.
Starting at the thought, Laney stared at Jen. Jen hadn’t mentioned her arm since the village. Nana had given her a new shirt, which covered her wound, so Laney couldn’t tell if it had healed.
Jen turned to Laney with a grimace. “I feel like crap.”
Laney laughed, shaking her head to clear her thoughts as she disentangled herself from the hammock. “Same here.” Jen as a superhuman. Hunger and exhaustion must be messing with her brain. She was Jen, not one of them.
A woman walked up and handed them each a mango and a piece of dried meat. They nodded their thanks. And then the group started moving into the forest.
Laney rubbed the back of her neck. "Here we go again."
"It can't be as long a walk as yesterday. Can it?" Jen asked.
Laney stretched out her legs before following the Shuar into the trees. "I really hope not.” She looked around. “I wonder how the tribespeople they left to defend out backs are faring.”
“We haven’t heard any gunfire, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign.”
Those were the last words they spoke until the sun was high in the sky. A river could be heard up ahead.
“We must be getting close,” Jen whispered.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Laney said.
They stepped out of the forest and onto a rock shelf. The river spanned fifty feet across. A towering wall of rock, at least a hundred feet high, bordered the river on the opposite bank. Elena and Eddie played along the riverbank with some of the other children.
Laney looked around. “I don’t understand. Where’s the cave?”
Jen shrugged. “I don’t see anything. Maybe we’re just taking a break?”
Nana walked towards them, her eyes alight. “Are you two ready?”
Laney looked over at the rock face. It was completely sheer. If they were going to climb it, it was going to be nearly impossible. “Ready? But there’s nothing here.”
“You didn’t think it would be easy to find, did you? How do you think we’ve been able to protect it all these years?”
Laney looked again at the rock wall, inspecting it closely. She still couldn’t see any openings. She glanced at the river, the water lapping against the shores and the wall of rock across from them.
She smiled. Not all cave entrances were so obvious. “I guess we’re going for a little swim?”
Nana nodded.
Laney stared across the dark river. “How long a swim?”
It didn’t look like the current was too strong, but she didn’t know what to expect once they went under the water. Swimming in the Amazon, even just a tributary of the Maranon River in the Amazon Basin, wasn’t exactly high on her list of things to do, at least not without a hazmat suit. A myriad of horror stories about exotic parasites filled her head.
“Once you’re underwater, it’s about ten feet down and twenty feet across."
“Can we see under there?” Jen asked.
Julian joined them, the backpack with the camera equipment slung over his broad shoulders. “A little. It’s dark. But we know the way.” He held up a rope. “We‘ve done this before.”
Julian waded into the river along with another tribesman, a young, muscular man in his mid-twenties. A few feet from the shore, he dove in and swam swiftly to the other side. The other tribesman followed. They stopped at the base of the rock on the other side, treading water.
Laney looked down at Nana with a smile. “Your husband’s in pretty good shape.”
“Don’t I know it.” Nana pushed the two of them towards the river with a grin. “Now go on.”
“You’re not coming?” Jen asked.
Nana shook her head. “No. I’ve never been inside.”
Laney stopped short. “What? Why not?"
“My job is to maintain contact with the outside world and monit
or any threats. It’s the Guardians’ job to guard the cave. Only Guardians have been inside. This is a great honor you are receiving.”
The gravity of the responsibility wasn’t lost on Laney. She clasped Nana’s hand. “Thank you for your trust.”
Squeezing her hand, Nana waved the two of them towards the water. “You better go."
Laney looked at Jen and smiled. The answers to Crespi’s collection, to mankind’s past, maybe to its very existence, lay less than a hundred feet away. Any thoughts of rest disappeared. Excitement coursed through her. She kicked off her boots and stuffed her socks into them, seeing Jen do the same.
Jen stood. “Ready?”
Laney took a deep breath. “Absolutely.”
Together, they ran to the edge of the water and dove in.
CHAPTER 31
The water was warm and Laney quickly made her way over to Julian. Jen reached him just ahead of her.
“Good. You’re both strong swimmers.” He handed Jen a rope. “Tie this around your waist. I’ll lead you through.” He turned to Laney. “George will lead you through.”
George swam over to Laney, handing her a rope. She took it, tying it around her waist.
“Take a deep breath,” Julian warned, before disappearing under the water.
“Good luck,” Laney said.
Jen gave her a thumbs-up before following Julian down.
George held up three fingers. Laney sucked in a deep breath. When George reached one, she dove under the water with him. It was dark, but there was enough light to at least keep an eye on George as he swam ahead of her.
He angled towards the left and down. After about ten feet, he stopped. If he hadn’t, she never would have seen the entrance. Tall grasses swayed in front of it, completely hiding it from view.
He disappeared through the opening. Laney followed. It was a tight tunnel. She used the sides to usher her forward.
The tunnel felt like it was growing smaller. Her breath became strained and she became desperate for air. Spots began to appear in her vision, a burning in her chest.
Just about at the end of her air supply, the tunnel ended. She popped up in a small lagoon. Greedily sucking in air, she lay on her back, floating, trying to calm her breathing. George swam for the bank, releasing his end of the rope.
Flickering light from torches on the bank gave the room a soft glow. She squinted at the ceiling. There seemed to be something carved into it. It took a moment to register what she was seeing. She gasped, causing her to go under. She came back up spluttering. “Holy crap.”
The ceiling was a giant carving of the world.
“I know,” Jen called from the bank. George was just climbing onto the bank.
Laney glanced over at her and started swimming. Pulling herself up to the ledge with a grin, she pulled the rope from around her waist, her eyes constantly returning to the ceiling. “Two seconds in here and I already have goose bumps.”
Jen grinned back. “Tell me about it. Did you notice the extra landmass between North America and Europe?"
Laney looked back at the carving. An archipelago was dead center of the map.
“And Antarctica’s not on there.”
Jen grinned. “I guess Hapgood was right.”
In 1953, Charles Hapgood had developed his theory of crustal displacement. He argued that the Earth had undergone multiple displacements of land as a result of the movement of a liquid core one hundred miles underneath the surface. Rather than the slow process of continental drift, which split lands apart, crustal displacement could move large bodies of land together and quickly. In line with his theory, he argued that Atlantis had never truly disappeared but just moved North, where it was renamed Antarctica.
Hapgood’s theory would explain one extraordinary fact about the continent of Antarctica: evidence indicated that at one point in its history, it had a much warmer climate, free from ice. Hapgood’s theory was scorned by a number of prominent scientists, but Dr. Hapgood had garnered at least one well-known supporter: Albert Einstein.
Laney wrapped her arms around herself. Were they really about to see a lost cache from Atlantis?
Jen waved towards an opening twenty feet away. “Julian said he’d go ahead and light the torches.”
As if on cue, a soft glow shone through the opening. Feeling like a kid on Christmas morning, Laney got to her feet, stopping at the entrance of the tunnel next to Jen. A torch flicked on either side. The flames glowed in a holder with a lion’s head on the bottom and what looked like an angel or goddess on the top. She smiled, her anticipation growing.
Laney turned to George, who stood next to the entrance, struggling to recall the correct Shuar words. Finally, she just pointed at him and the tunnel. “Are you coming?”
He shook his head, indicating he was to remain there. Laney nodded and then followed Jen into the tunnel.
Running her hand along the wall, Laney was surprised by its texture. She’d expected the walls to be rough, but they were perfectly smooth. If she didn’t know any better, she’d swear they’d been smoothed by a machine. “What do you make of the walls?”
Jen stopped, running her hands over the surface. “I can’t figure it out. It doesn’t feel like rock. It feels almost like a piece of metal, but the texture’s a little off.”
“I know. I’d say it was a really strong plastic, but that’s not possible, right?”
Jen glanced over at her. “A synthetic polymer mix? Is that even possible? That technology’s not exactly rudimentary.”
“I know. But I can’t figure out what else it could be.” Her mind whirled. They hadn't even entered the main cavern and already she was mystified.
Up ahead, the tunnel funneled out into a larger space, although due to the incline of the tunnel, Laney couldn’t make anything out. She had to actively keep herself from sprinting forward.
Jen stepped out of the tunnel ahead of her and went completely still. Laney stepped around her and couldn’t even think.
The cavern was massive, about half the size of a football field and easily eighty feet high.
Laney walked forward, her knees weak. Standing at attention at the entrance were two twenty-foot limestone statues, one man, one woman, wrapped in intricate robes, a small smile etched on each of their faces.
In fact, statues, lined the walls at twenty-foot intervals, each one at least thirty feet tall. Some bore an uncanny resemblance to early portrayals of Egyptian gods: human bodies with the heads of jackals, falcons, lions, and even a crocodile. Others were obviously fully human, complete with wrinkles and scars.
Against the wall to the right was a miniature ship made of gold. It looked almost exactly like a space shuttle. Gold spheres, small silver statues of animals, intricate boxes, and chests were spread out across the space.
And the walls. The walls were lined in sheets of gold, covered in carvings, just like the ones in Crespi's collection. It was overwhelming.
Laney looked at Julian, who stood next to one of the giant limestone statues. He smiled at her. “Go on.”
Her knees weak, Laney didn't know where to start. Shaking her head, she finally just turned to her right, starting with a metal scroll on the wall. Awe filled her.
"Jen, come look at this."
Jen stepped over to her, grabbing onto Laney's arm. "It's the Vimanas."
Laney nodded. The Vimanas were ancient flying machines described in Sanskrit epics. The information from those ancient texts was astonishing in its detail. Drawings done based on the descriptions resembled current space shuttles.
But on this metal scroll in front of them, there weren’t reading about an ancient space shuttle. They were seeing the actual picture of one.
Alternative archaeologists claimed that the machines described in the epics weren’t mythological, but actual machines used in antiquity. Of course, no credible archaeologist believed they were blueprints for spaceships, despite the descriptions of aerial battles that littered a number of ancient texts, including the B
ible.
A few feet from the blueprint was a miniature model of a space shuttle. Laney traced its outline. Fuselage, two wings, even thrusters at the back. She glanced back at the drawing a few feet way. She struggled to come up with some other interpretation for the object, but her mind couldn’t conjure one. My God, were we capable of flight thousands of years ago?
Jen headed across the room but Laney walked along the perimeter of the room to the right. A miniature ancient city was painstakingly crafted in one spot, with an organized city grid and something that looked like a type of monorail.
Laney was starting to feel lightheaded. It was incredible. It was proof that humanity wasn’t at the pinnacle of its evolution. If anything, humanity was only getting back to where it once was.
She looked around and saw Jen standing in the middle of the room, next to a large rectangular table. Laney made her way over. It looked like an ornate conference table. She ran her hand over it. It was made of the same material as the walls in the tunnel. Seven chairs were placed carefully around it. She lifted one. It was unbelievably light. Yet she could tell it was incredibly sturdy. “What is this material?”
Laney glanced over at Jen when her question was greeted with only silence.
Jen was staring, mesmerized by the seven chairs surrounding the table. Each one had a different design etched into every inch. One had the signs of the zodiac, another long forgotten animals from the sea. A third had human/animal hybrids. A fourth had what looked like airplanes and hot air balloons. The fifth had an array of land-dwelling animals, many Laney had never seen or heard of before. The sixth had what looked like constellations and the seventh was covered in pictures of humans engaged in different tasks.
“There’s seven,” Jen whispered, her voice reverent. “Seven.”
Laney looked back at her, not sure what she meant, until it hit her. Once again, she felt the ground beneath her shift. Throughout ancient tales, seven had always been a critical number. There were seven gods in Greek mythology. In India, seven helpers. The advanced peoples of a myriad of myths and legends always seemed to come in the number seven.