“Why is that important?”
“If this statue is praying, as you suggested, why are its hands so far apart? I would have expected them to be closer.” Mr. Perrot stepped back to take it in more fully. “This is not your standard praying posture.”
Logan shook his head. “Mr. Montez believes that the pyramids here and around the world were used to extract power directly out of the atmosphere. At first, I was skeptical, but after my experience with the mirror the other night, I’m becoming more open-minded.”
Mr. Perrot walked around the statue and studied its back. “The presence of the Satraya symbols suggests that the sculptor had insight into the Chronicles.”
“Or at the very least to the philosophy presented in them,” Logan said. “It still fascinates me that the Satraya symbols were known two thousand years ago. I incorrectly assumed that the books were a gift given to humanity in our time.”
“The knowledge in the books is ancient. We can assume that the symbols are also. Perhaps the gift to us is that the symbols were made more accessible.”
Logan nodded and then added, “At least, some of them.”
“What about this sixth symbol that is carved into the headband?” Mr. Perrot asked.
“Yeah, that’s the one I told you was similar to what was painted on the whistle and what I saw in my vision.” Logan walked to Mr. Perrot’s side. “I wonder,” said Logan.
“Wonder what?” asked Mr. Perrot.
“Could this be one of the veiled symbols? As you said, the sculptor of this statue possessed knowledge of the Chronicles. What if he knew it all? You even said you didn’t think this man was praying. What if he is more than a priest?”
“You think this man is a Rasatya?”
“Not the statue,” Logan said. “But whoever sculpted it.”
“But the Chronicles only allude to the existence of such people,” a familiar voice said. Logan turned and saw Mr. Montez and Elvia walking through the doorway.
“Hello, Mr. Montez,” Logan said, stepping out from behind the statue with Mr. Perrot. “I was just telling Mr. Perrot about your theories. Mr. Perrot, I’d like to introduce you to—”
Logan stopped abruptly. Mr. Perrot and Mr. Montez were staring at each other.
“Madu Shata and his wife, Nadine,” Mr. Perrot finished for Logan.
30
At the heart of every living cell lies the power of a thousand suns.
—THE CHRONICLES OF SATRAYA
TEOTIHUACÁN, MEXICO, 9:00 A.M. LOCAL TIME, MARCH 24, 2070
“I was hoping that Nadine and I would be able to keep our secret a little longer,” Madu said. “We have been Juan and Elvia for more than five years now.”
“My husband did everything he could to resist calling you after we learned about your reappearance,” Nadine said to Mr. Perrot, and Madu smiled. “Just recently, we learned that Simon and Andrea died. Only then did I allow Madu to come forward.”
“Like you, we’d been in hiding, too,” Madu added. “After the splintering of the original Council, Nadine and I returned to Egypt and took on new identities.”
“It was difficult at first,” Nadine said. “Madu and I were very famous and easily recognized in Cairo. We had to spend years in disguise until we faded from people’s memories. Since then, we have changed our identities numerous times, as we have traveled from place to place pursuing Madu’s energy theories.”
There was a lull in the conversation—strange, it seemed, for such good friends.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Logan said to Mr. Perrot.
“I am still rather stunned by all of this,” Mr. Perrot said, then addressed Madu. “I have so many questions. After you called me a few days ago, I wasn’t sure if I would actually see you again.”
“Speaking of your call the other day,” Logan said, “Mr. Perrot said that you were on your way to a business meeting. Did it happen to be with Rigel Wright?”
“Yes, it was,” Madu answered. “Why do you ask?”
“I can’t say too much,” Logan said, “but the Tripod Group has been mentioned a few times in relation to the recent natural-gas well explosions.”
“Rigel couldn’t be involved in those disasters,” Nadine said. “He has been nothing but supportive of Madu’s work.”
Madu nodded in agreement.
“That’s part of what we are afraid of,” Logan said, stealing a glance at Mr. Perrot.
“I agree with my wife,” Madu said. “I don’t believe that Rigel is involved in the explosions.” The reconstructed whistle on the table caught Madu’s eye, and he walked over to it. He put on his glasses, adjusted the overhead swivel lamp, and started inspecting it. “Excellent work.”
“It turned out to be rather easy to put the fragments together,” Logan said, as he and Nadine joined Madu at the table. Mr. Perrot remained near the statue. “Perhaps a little too easy.”
“Easy, yes, as in an easy way to meet you,” Madu admitted with a grin.
“Before you and Nadine arrived,” Mr. Perrot said, “I told Logan that I don’t think this statue depicts a man who is praying.”
Madu removed his glasses and looked at Mr. Perrot. “You don’t think this statue represents a holy man? He is quite in line with the images of the priests painted on the walls of the secret chamber we recently discovered and also the priests painted on this whistle.”
“Robert, you are always questioning everything,” Nadine said fondly.
“He might be a holy man,” Mr. Perrot said, “but a holy man with great insight into Satrayian philosophy. Remember, the Chronicles had a very different explanation of prayer and communion.”
Madu did not look convinced. “But we know that during the construction of Teotihuacán, the priests led large and elaborate prayer sessions and even sacrifices.”
Mr. Perrot looked at the statue’s face and then its hands. “He who asks in belief is praying . . .”
“He who commands in knowingness is creating,” Madu said, completing Mr. Perrot’s quote from the Chronicles.
Mr. Perrot put his hands up in the same position as the statue’s. “I asked Logan this earlier. If this man is indeed praying, why are his hands so far apart? No, I think he is doing something else.”
“And what do you think this statue is doing, Robert?” Nadine asked. “When we walked in, did I hear one of you refer to the statue as a Rasatya? Do you really believe that this statue or the person who sculpted it was someone who possessed absolute truth, as the Chronicles define a Rasatya?”
“Perhaps,” Mr. Perrot said. “I think there are always such people with us in the world, guiding and urging us forward.” He gave Logan a knowing look.
“What do you make of the phrase painted along the air stem of the whistling vessel?” Logan asked, turning everyone’s attention back to the restored artifact. “I translated it after we restored it. It means Wrap thin serpent to discover earth voice. I’m not sure how that relates to the radioactive source you told me you were looking for the last time I was here.”
Madu looked disappointed. “This is a curious phrase indeed. I did not expect the broken pieces to form a whistle. While interesting, it does not advance my research in any perceivable way.”
“What about the pyramids and their electrical qualities?” Mr. Perrot said, walking over to the table. “Maybe something on that front will spur us forward as we try to figure out what the stone statue depicts.”
Nadine’s PCD rang. “Excuse me. I need to take this,” she said, and walked out.
“I was taught that electricity is created by the motion of strong magnets,” Mr. Perrot resumed. “Have you located any rotating gears or mechanisms that could have held something magnetic? Any levers or pendulums?”
“As I told Logan during his last visit, I think the energy came right out of the atmosphere,” Madu said. “Are you familiar with the work of Nikola Tesla in the late nineteenth century? He once said, ‘The desire that guides me in all I do is the desire to harness the force
s of nature to the service of mankind.’ He proved that a measurable amount of electricity exists between any two points of different heights off the surface of the earth. It is my contention that the pyramids worked in much the same way as Tesla described. I believe that these pyramids were devices that somehow captured the earth’s electricity, which exists between the pyramid’s apex and its base and possibly below it. The major question I have been grappling with is how the ancients amplified that relatively weak current of energy into something more useful.”
“You said that you thought the people of Teotihuacán did that by using some kind of radioactive core,” Logan said. “Rocks and gems of some kind.”
“Yes,” Madu said. “I still believe that. Once amplification takes place, the capstone of the pyramid would become supercharged. And once that occurred, electricity, as Tesla suggested, could then flow between the capstone and the base of the ionosphere.”
“The ionosphere?” Logan asked, surprised.
“Yes, there is an almost unlimited supply of electrical energy between the surface of the earth and the ionosphere seventy kilometers above it. This space is known as the Schumann cavity.”
“You’re talking about the Wardenclyffe Tower that Tesla built,” Mr. Perrot said.
“Yes, Robert. And had Tesla been allowed to complete the construction of that tower, he would have demonstrated the true extent of free energy.”
“And you believe that this pyramid is like Tesla’s tower?”
“Not just this one,” Madu replied, “but many other pyramids around the world.”
“And how did the pyramids transmit the energy they captured?” Logan asked.
“Tesla answered that question, too,” Madu said. “He claimed that the earth itself could be used in place of a wire. He even demonstrated it with his wireless lightbulb.”
Wireless lightbulb, Logan thought, suddenly realizing where he’d seen that very thing. The man in his vision—he was Nikola Tesla. Logan had suspected that the man was the one Mr. Quinn had referred to in his note as the person halfway around the world who had somehow caused “nature to scream” and inspired Munch to create his masterpiece.
Logan interrupted the conversation. “Assume that you’re right and devices such as this one could in fact extract energy from the atmosphere. Would there be any side effects?”
“Plenty,” Madu said. “Tesla wrote copious notes concerning what could happen if the proper precautions were not taken. One side effect of atmospheric energy induction is the release of stray electrical discharges. They appear as lightning. During one of Tesla’s experiments in Colorado, he produced millions of volts of artificial lightning. As he refined his work, he was able to induce various weather phenomena: rain, windstorms, hail. That same work led to the creation of the resonance machine.”
“If I remember correctly,” Mr. Perrot said, “that work was of keen interest to the military. Resonance machines are capable of shaking buildings and bridges.”
“They could do much more than that,” Madu said. “Tesla was able to shake the earth and produce earthquakes. He once wrote that isolating the exact resonances and sounds was an important part of his work.”
“In what year did Tesla do all this?” Logan asked.
“Tesla immigrated to the United States in 1884,” Madu replied. “The Wardenclyffe Tower was built in 1901. I would assume that Tesla did a great deal of experimenting in that seventeen-year span.”
Logan looked at Mr. Perrot and lowered his voice. “Munch created The Scream in 1895 . . .”
Mr. Perrot nodded. “Please continue, Madu.”
“We recently found records that refer to a time, two thousand years ago, when the area around Teotihuacán was much lusher and more fertile than it is today. Sometime around A.D. 536, that suddenly changed, and droughts took over the land. We have also discovered skeletons with signs of malnutrition from the sixth century. Some scholars and archaeologists have attributed this decline to naturally occurring climate change.”
“But you don’t,” Logan observed. “You think it had something to do with this pyramid.”
“Yes,” Madu said. “I believe, as Tesla wrote, that the pyramids could be used to control the weather in the area surrounding Teotihuacán. And this is not the only place, I believe, where pyramids were used to effect a change in the weather. Did you know that Egypt’s deserts were once fields and prairies? I believe that the pyramids of Giza and others around the world once acted in much the same way as those built here.”
“So what happened?” Logan asked. “Why did the climate change?”
“That I don’t know,” Madu said, shaking his head. “There are indications that Teotihuacán was invaded during the sixth century. I suspect that the destabilization of the civilization had something to do with the drought and eventual crop failures.”
“The pyramid stopped working,” Mr. Perrot said, looking at Madu. “Or it was turned off.”
Logan returned to the statue of the kneeling man. “What if he knew the secret?” He put his hands up, the same distance apart as the statue’s, then turned and eyed the whistle sitting on the table. “What if Mr. Perrot is correct, and this is not a statue of a man praying?” Mr. Perrot grabbed the whistle and walked it over to Logan, who in turn placed it between the open hands of the statue. It fit perfectly. The air stem from the whistling vessel touched the statue’s lips. “What if this is a statue of a man playing an instrument?”
Madu said nothing. He just stared at the statue. Logan turned and looked at him. “You said earlier that Tesla believed that sound and resonance played a key role in his theories. I don’t mean to insult you, but maybe you missed something over the years. Maybe sound, and not radiation, is the missing ingredient.”
The silence after this was long and tense, broken finally by Mr. Perrot. “I suggest that we visit that secret chamber,” he said.
Logan nodded. “What if that is the place, as the name Teotihuacán suggests, where men went to become gods?”
31
There is no final exam for life. All you need to do to pass is give it a whirl.
—THE CHRONICLES OF SATRAYA
TEOTIHUACÁN, MEXICO, 10:06 A.M. LOCAL TIME, MARCH 23, 2070
“Since the site has been put off limits by the government, we haven’t been able to do much down here,” Madu explained to Logan and Mr. Perrot after they had descended into the secret chamber of the Pyramid of the Moon that Jordan and Jamie had discovered. A metal cage elevator that accommodated a single person had been installed, along with bright lighting. Tables had also been set up to hold archaeology tools, empty boxes, and packaging materials, so that artifacts could be wrapped and transported to the research center. “As you can see,” Madu said to Logan, “everything is as we found it during your last visit.”
Mr. Perrot walked around the chamber. “Fascinating,” he remarked, as he looked up at the many small openings in the ceiling, which angled off in different directions. When he reached the middle, he inspected the mica platform with the carving of the coiled serpent at its center. He moved on to the archway where the skeletons lay. After looking them over, he glanced at the wooden cart, which resembled a wheelbarrow, in the corner nearby. Then he walked over to the murals and began to study them.
Logan carefully set his backpack and the box containing the whistle on a long table that also held an array of broken pottery and other artifacts. He picked up a long piece of tangled string that lay on the table. Parts of it were discolored and worn through. “What was this used for?”
“I don’t know. We found it in the wooden cart,” Madu said.
Logan finished untangling it and put it back on the table. “One thing this chamber and the praying man statue have in common is a round mica platform.” He stepped onto it. Looking down, he saw the red stone that served as one of the eyes of the image of the serpent carved into the platform.
“Since your last visit, I have been able to determine that this chamber sits directly u
nder the apex,” Madu said. “And the platform that you are standing on is in perfect alignment with it. The red eye of the serpent aligns exactly with the pyramid’s apex.”
Logan knelt down and raised his hands in front of his mouth. “Look familiar?” he asked.
“Yes, but you’re missing something,” Madu said, and he picked up one of the ceramic whistles in the corner of the room and placed it between Logan’s hands. “Now your pose is complete.”
“The praying Logan,” Mr. Perrot said with a chuckle.
Logan looked over at the skeletons. “Those two must have known what this place was all about.”
“Let’s continue with the train of thought concerning sound,” Mr. Perrot said.
“Agreed,” Logan said. “What if something down here acts as the pyramid’s on-and-off switch? And what if the statue is demonstrating how that switch works?” He blew into the whistle. The three of them looked up at the chamber’s ceiling, surprised by the reverberation of the sound.
“Excellent acoustics,” Mr. Perrot said. The harmonic continued for a few moments before fading. Mr. Perrot pointed to the ceiling. “It is possible that these shafts extend throughout the pyramid somehow, allowing the sound to spread.”
Madu picked up two more whistles from the ground. “Try the one with the painting of a goat on it,” he said as he handed it to Mr. Perrot. “I’ll try the one with the picture of an ox.” The two of them joined Logan near the mica platform. They all blew into the stems of their whistles. A richer sound now echoed throughout the chamber. The three different sounds from the whistles blended together to create a completely new reverberation and harmonic.
Mr. Perrot spotted the four other whistles on the ground. “I don’t know much about music, but I can safely say there are potentially thousands of harmonics that could be created by combining the sounds of these whistles.”
Logan rose to his feet, set the whistle he was holding on the mica platform, and walked over to a pair of long, thin sticks that were leaning against the wall. “Have you been able to determine what these rods were used for?” he asked Madu.
Journey Through the Mirrors Page 21