“Okay, okay. Jeez, keep your panties on. I’m just assuming we actually want to get where we’re going. Which reminds me, do you have an address or something?”
“Professor D’Souza gave us the rough coordinates of the archaeological dig site. It should be coming into view soon,” Freya replied.
“Oh good. I guess they aren’t using tents up here—too friggin’ cold—so billets or something?”
“How about a Kharkovchanka?” The XO nodded toward the windshield.
“A Karo-what-now?” Kelly raised an eyebrow.
“A Kharkovchanka,” Freya repeated. “One of those.” She pointed in front of them.
An enormous, bright-red mass emerged from behind the curtain of sleet and snow in the distance. It looked like an oversized shoebox with four small windows cut into the narrowest end and was seated on giant black caterpillar tracks. It was gargantuan.
“Kharkovchankas were exclusively manufactured in Kharkov for arctic expeditions. Each one has a five hundred and twenty horse-power V12 diesel engine. It’s fourteen feet wide and more than thirty feet long.” The XO spread his arms wide, mimicking the dimensions of the monster vehicle. “The cab usually seats six people. The rear is hermetically sealed and divided into multiple compartments. Back in the day, these compartments often comprised a bunk room, galley, head office, and comms room. But I guess that could easily be adapted for other work.”
“What the fuck is it with you people? You’re like goddamn walking encyclopedias.” Kelly huffed and turned to K’in. “I suppose you’re gonna suddenly open your trap and recite War and Peace word for word?”
K’in just gazed back at him.
“Russia still represents a significant threat to national security, Mr. Graham. Just because you do not hear it on the news, does not mean that it’s gone away. Understanding your enemy is the first step in defeating him.” The General hadn’t even turned around to respond, instead speaking into the ether. Perhaps he was reminding his subordinates.
“Your contact is in there, Alejandro?” Kelly asked.
“I assume so.” The old man was transfixed on the gargantuan Kharkovchanka. Its massive form loomed larger and larger in the windshield.
“So, professor, how do we make contact?” called the General over his shoulder.
“I guess, we knock.” replied the old man. “She will be surprised to see us. I wasn’t allowed to make a call ahead.”
“Rightly so. Okay, professor, you, Tremaine, and I will go and introduce ourselves. Freya, you stay here with the creature, Mr. Graham, and the rest of the team. Do not come in after us. We’ll come for you. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.” Freya nodded.
* * *
The General, Tremaine, and Alejandro climbed out of the Trekol. The blistering, cold wind tore inside the vehicle, freezing the occupants. Tremaine struggled against the wind, forcing each door closed in turn.
“C’mon,” The General bellowed over the howling wind and trudged off in the snow toward the Kharkovchanka.
Tremaine trod up behind Alejandro and placed a reassuring hand on the old man’s shoulder, a signal he would be right behind to support the old man on his slog through the less than favorable climate.
The three men stomped awkwardly on. It took almost ten minutes to traverse the fifty feet or so, in the ever deepening snow, to the mobile archaeological base. Having reached what appeared to be the outer door, the General rapped on it with a gloved hand. The sound was muffled and barely audible to the General in the howling wind, let alone to anyone inside. He reached inside his coat and pulled out his Beretta. Then, using the barrel, hammered on the door. This time, the sound was dull and metallic but at least loud. He waited for ten seconds, but nothing happened. He tried again and again, nothing. Turning to Alejandro, he shrugged. As he raised his gun for a third attempt, he was halted by a high-pitched screech as the door’s locking mechanism was released. It swung open.
A tall bearded man stared out of the doorway. He glanced at each of the three men and then shouted something over his shoulder. A woman appeared. Her strawberry-blonde hair blew about her face in the crosswinds. She squinted to see her visitors through the bluster of snow. Shaking her head, she frantically waved at the men to come inside.
The men did not need to be asked twice. They ascended a short ladder and climbed in. The bearded man closed the door behind them. It clanged shut, signaling their safety—at least for now.
Minya studied the three men, each with his hood pulled up around his head and face. She said something in Russian. Her almond eyes flared and her high cheekbones flushed red. The old man quickly slipped back his fur-lined hood and pried the goggles from his face. The other men followed his lead.
Minya stared for a few seconds, unsure she was really seeing the man in front of her. “Alejandro?” Her accent was definitely Russian but not stereotypical, not Muscovite. It was slow as if the words and syllables were rolling from her lips, rather than being spat.
“Minya, I apologize for my unannounced arrival, but I wouldn’t come if it weren’t urgent.”
She threw her arms wide, a smile breaking across her face, and hugged the old man, kissing him several times on the cheeks. “Alejandro, kak ty la?”
“What did she say?” the General asked.
“She asked how he is,” Tremaine replied.
“Minya, English please, my colleagues are American.”
“Da! Of course! Alejandro, why are you here? How did you get here? I thought you were in Egypt.”
“We brought him here. I am General Benjamin Lloyd. This is my associate, Tremaine. Is it just you and him?” Benjamin pointed unceremoniously at the large, hairy man standing in the corner of the compartment.
“Da, da. Just us. Winter months. All others have gone home.” As good as her English was, the epiglottal H sound in her pronunciation was unmistakable.
“Good. We have more colleagues in the vehicle outside. I would appreciate it if we could bring them in here before they freeze to death. Then, I will explain why we are here.”
Minya glanced at Alejandro for reassurance. “More?”
He nodded at her.
She nodded back. “Da. Ilari, idt I sobriat ljudej.”
Before the General could ask, Tremaine was already translating. “He’s called Ilari. She just told him to get the others.”
“Wait,” the General commanded. “Tremaine, you go with him. Wrap our cargo in the thermal sheets and bring it here.”
Tremaine lowered his head in obedience and marched after the Russian. The two men wrapped themselves up in their arctic gear—Ilari in bright red in order to be found and rescued if he were lost and Tremaine in crystal white, so he could be hidden at all costs. The rear door was flung open, and the two men disappeared into the blizzard. The portal clanged shut behind them.
“Alejandro, my old friend, please explain what is going on.” She folded her arms across her chest and raised her perfectly shaped eyebrows expectantly.
“Professor D’Souza is merely a victim of circumstance in this instance,” the General said. “But if you allow me, I will explain why we are here and with what we need your help. Professor, the device please?”
The old man shuffled off the backpack and dropped to his knees. He rummaged around inside and pulled out the Antikythera mechanism.
“This is why we are here,” the General said. “And why we need your help.”
* * *
The inside of the Trekol’s windows had fogged up with warm breath. Kelly sat huddled in the back, muttering and patting his arms and body. The cold did not agree with him.
“What’s wrong with you? Surely, a big macho man like you doesn’t mind a little cold?” Freya asked.
“It’s fucking cold, that’s what’s wrong. You think it’s a coincidence I spend my time in equatorial climates? Warm is good. This is shit.” He shook his head and huffed out a cloud of moist breath.
“Well, you know ...” the XO began.
/> “If you quote Kirk, I swear to God I’m gonna rip off my frostbitten arm and beat you to death with it.”
“Well, actually it was going to be Spock, but I imagine a similar response.” He laughed.
Freya and Wiezorek glanced at each other and stifled a smirk.
A rap on the outer hull broke the frosty atmosphere. The XO stepped over K’in and opened the rear door. Two large figures stood there, one in red, the other in white, both shivering and being pummeled by every form of frozen water.
Tremaine pulled down the zip of his hood to reveal his mouth. “We gotta move inside. Temperature is gonna drop.”
“Affirmative.” Freya pulled the goggles onto her face and the hood over her head. “Let’s move. Tremaine, you grab K’in. You’ll be fastest with him in this snow. Everyone else, follow my lead.” She climbed through the group and dropped out of the rear door into the snow, a crisp and satisfying crunch under her feet.
The Shadow Man scooped up the foil-covered K’in and sprinted off in the direction of the giant mobile base. The Russian in red followed suit.
Kelly laughed. “Jesus, he can really move when he wants to.”
“Don’t just stand there,” yelled Freya over the howl of the wind. “Follow him.”
The others didn’t need to be asked twice. Kelly and Wiezorek ran off into the blizzard, their sight fixed on the red coat in front of them.
The XO exited last and closed the Trekol door behind him. “Ready?” he yelled.
“Ready,” Freya shouted back.
* * *
“Wait, wait, wait, you’re serious? This is incredible. Do you know how long I have been waiting to see this?”
“You knew it existed?” Alejandro furrowed his brow.
“Da! Of course. The Antikythera mechanism is old, but this one looks older. The theory was Archimedes invented the device, but it was too advanced. We never found any evidence of predecessors or previous attempts. It never made sense he could create something so accurate on first attempt. There had to be older versions.”
“Can you read it?” the General asked.
“Well, these symbols look familiar, but I would need to study this more. Where did you find it?”
“In India, amongst some old ruins, less than sixty-five feet underwater.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Most of these markings are Mayan.” She paused. “But these, these are not, they look like proto-cuneiform symbols from Sumeria.”
“From the Kish tablet? I’m sure I would’ve seen that.” Alejandro shook his head.
“The Kish tablet? What is that?” the General asked.
“The Kish tablet is believed to be very first example of writing, albeit very crude writing,” Minya began. “The tablet records ridding of insects from a piece of land. The last line on tablet reads, ‘he made it bright,’ believed to refer to a ceremonial purification of a field.”
Alejandro nodded. “Of course, every linguist knows this.”
“Yes, but these things are all interpretation, and often wrong. Look here.” She ran her finger along the pictograms around the largest dial. “At this point, here, the symbols are almost identical to the Kish tablet. But these things are always about context. When reading here, it does not say, ‘he made it bright,’ it says, ‘and he brought light.’ But I do not understand why.”
Alejandro uttered a single word to the General. “K’in.”
The General nodded in agreement, his lips pursed in thought.
“K’in? What is K’in?”
As if on cue, the doors to the Kharkovchanka opened with a screech. The frozen travelers clambered inside as quickly as they could. A whirlwind of snow and ice blasted in with them, forcing Minya, the General, and the old man to cover their eyes.
Ilari slammed the door shut, killing the miniature storm dead. The ice crystals dropped to the floor, and the cutting wind failed. Minya lowered her arms back to her sides and studied her new guests.
In one corner, there was a young woman, her jet black hair slicked to her face with frozen water. Next to her were three new men, two clearly military from their stance—tall and straight, even when drenched. The last one was a civilian shivering uncontrollably. Tremaine stood at the front of the group holding a limp form wrapped in a thermal foil.
“You have someone injured? We need to make him warm.” She stepped forward to help. Tremaine stepped back, still clutching his package.
“It’s alright, Tremaine. Show her.”
The Shadow Man took two steps forward and cautiously dropped to the floor. He placed the foil-covered body in front of him and unwrapped it, revealing a frigid, pale animal.
“This, Ms. Yermalova, is K’in.” The General folded his arms. Minya stared for a few seconds before slowly dropping to her haunches. Her eyes darted as she inspected the animal. Cautiously, she reached one hand out to touch it.
K’in skulked close to the floor and hid behind the shivering legs of the frozen Kelly.
“Don’t feel bad. It seems the creature has a thing for Kelly, here. None of us can figure out why.” Tremaine shook his head.
“What is it?” Minya’s gaze was fixated on the gap between Kelly’s legs.
“Well, I could try to explain, Minya, but I think the General and his colleagues would be best placed. I’m so sorry I brought them here, but you were the only person I could think of who may have a clue about the device, and ...” the old man rambled quickly.
“Alejandro, it’s okay.” She tried to soothe him. “Your friends are cold. We should make them more comfortable inside. Then, they can tell me all about the problem.” She stood and waved for them to follow her into the next compartment.
Location: Inside the Kharkovchanka, Altai Mountains, Siberia
The group sat around the table in Minya’s small and claustrophobic meeting room. The chairs could only pull away from the table enough for each person to squeeze in. There were not enough chairs for everyone. Kelly had offered to sit in the corner with K’in as he’d wanted to keep an eye on him.
For the next thirty minutes, the General and Freya recounted the last sixty-odd years of history just as it had been told to Kelly, Chris and Victoria—almost word for word like the pair had memorized a rehearsed speech. Or perhaps they had heard Professor Alexander spout it so often it was ingrained into their minds.
The rest of the group hugged their plastic mugs of hot black tea and cautiously munched on various pickled vegetables and kholodets, the unidentified meat in jelly. Minya had apologized, saying they only had food that would last for a long time in the depths of Siberia. Kelly laughed as Freya turned her nose up at the food and sipped on her tea.
Minya nodded along while glancing at K’in and Kelly in the corner every so often. She also studied the General and Freya, taking in each word they spoke, digesting everything, analyzing the situation.
“Which brings us to now. We need to find a new orb. Kelly and Freya thought that it may have been in India, but they only found that device. We were hoping you may be able to help. Perhaps you could lead us to an orb.” The General’s eyes were a little wider than normal—a look of hope on his face. Perhaps she could help.
“Well,” she began. “I have good news, and I have bad news.”
Kelly groaned. “Of course”
Alejandro threw him a scathing look before returning to face Minya. “Please, start with the good news.”
Minya cleared her throat. “Earlier, when you showed me device and I read inscriptions, I could do this, because it was not first time I’d seen them.”
“You’ve seen them before?” Alejandro asked. “Where?”
“On another object. Something we found here in the Altai mountains.” She nodded to Ilari, who disappeared out of the room. He returned carrying a perfectly cube-shaped metal box, slightly bigger than the Antikythera device. It was tarnished and dented but clearly heavy as Ilari struggled to set it down on the table.
The group stared at it. Even Kelly craned his neck t
o see.
“We found this, twelve miles away, buried in ice. We don’t have technology here to scan the interior, but I am sure it is hollow.”
“Do you think there’s something inside it?” Alejandro stood, palms on the table, as he inspected the box.
“The book of Thoth.”
“Fuckin’ knew it.” Kelly hadn’t meant to voice his inner thought, but it was loud enough to make the whole team glance at him. He shrugged.
“Why do you say that, Minya?” the old man asked.
“Look here.” She heaved the box around. On one side were several rows of symbols. The top row seemed separate from the other four or five below it. Each row was also completely different from each of the others. “Here, the top row, it looks like the symbols on your device, no? ‘He brought light.’”
Alejandro nodded. “Yes, and here, we have Mayan, and here, Egyptian.” He pulled his glasses to the tip of his nose and then translated, reading as he went. “The god’s ... knowledge ... is not ... meant ... for ... humans to know.”
“Da, da. Exactly.”
Alejandro sat down, stunned. His face blank as his mind kicked into overdrive.
“Why is that important?” the XO asked.
The old man snapped back to reality and swallowed. “The fictional Book of Thoth appears in an ancient Egyptian story from the Ptolemaic period. The book, written by Thoth, is said to contain two spells. One allows the reader to understand the speech of animals.” He glanced at K’in. “The other allows the reader to perceive the gods themselves. The Egyptians believed such knowledge was not meant for us. There are many stories of humans who try to steal the book of Thoth and are punished for doing so.”
“Can we open it?” Freya asked.
“Don’t open it.” Kelly sighed. “Don’t you guys watch movies? Every time some dumbass opens a mysterious box something bad happens.”
“This isn’t the movies, Kelly.” Freya shook her head in exasperation.
Kelly shrugged. “Hey, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Minya, have you been able to open it?” Alejandro clasped his hands together in anticipation of the answer.
Children of the Fifth Sun Page 27