Location: Under Teotihuacan, Mexico, South America
Kelly lay there in the dim light. Only a single halogen rig provided any kind of illumination. Its strange glow amplified the sickly pallor of his clammy skin. As he clung to a rock on the ground, his anchor to the living world, Kelly’s breathing slowed.
Freya was the first to notice. She’d been up all night, keeping watch. Every time she nodded off, she’d jolt back awake and force another cup of disgustingly cold coffee down her throat. There was no way she was going to let sleep be the reason he died.
She flung her sleeping bag open and quickly crawled along the rough cave floor to position herself behind Kelly so she could elevate his torso somewhat and rest his head, facing away from her, on her chest. “C’mon, you. You’re not giving up on us that easily. I’ve seen you shot, nearly drowned, hooked up to electrodes, and bonded with a salamander. You’re telling me a girl beating you up is the thing that finishes you off?” She forced a weak laugh.
He didn’t reply. Instead, he squirmed and screwed his eyelids tighter together.
She put her chin on top of his head and held one hand to his sweaty forehead. He was so hot, a fever burning through his skin. Freya rocked him ever-so-slightly from side to side.
From the other side of the halogen rig, and completely unnoticed, Teller watched Freya intently. It was difficult to be angry with her. You don’t choose who you fall for. He caught her eye and spoke through his gaze. Is everything okay?
Freya stiffened her lips and gave a micro shake of her head. No.
Kelly coughed awake, his eyes darting from side to side. Forgetting his injury, he lurched forward to stand, but immediately crumpled back into Freya’s arms.
“Whoa there. Don’t try and move, okay? You have to rest,” Freya said, her voice a soothing tone.
He forced his chin to the sky so he could look up at her. To him, she was upside down. He blinked slowly, his breathing labored. “You know ...” he wheezed. “I can see right up your nose”
She smiled at him and shook her head. “For God’s sake, Kelly Graham. Are you ever serious?”
He huffed a laugh from his lungs but couldn’t sustain it.
“How you holding up there, big guy?”
Kelly dropped his chin again to see Teller sitting on his haunches in front of him. Just the way Chris used to sit. “Big ... guy?”
“Hey, it felt like a ‘big guy’ moment.” Teller winked at him and quickly glanced at Freya.
Her vacant stare belied the torrent of thoughts racing through her mind.
Teller turned back to Kelly. “So, this is how you steal a guy’s girl. Gotta say, it’s ingenious. A little extreme but ingenious. Kirk would be proud.”
His attempt at humor was sucked into the cold atmosphere—perhaps because it wasn’t funny, or it was too close to the truth, or simply because Kelly was too out of it to comprehend.
“Anyway, you gotta—” Teller began.
“Shhh!” Freya hissed. “Did you hear that?”
Everyone froze, their heads cocked to listen in the dark.
“Hear what?” Teller asked, his hand already poised over the handgrip of his sidearm.
“That,” Freya replied, listening to the faint scratching sound.
“Where’s it coming from?” Teller had now drawn his weapon and was pointing it into the cave where the light could not penetrate.
From within the gloom, the hulking pallid form of Wak skulked into the orangey glow of the halogen rigs. Its eyes were burning a deep red, and even though no pupil could be seen, it was clear the animal was scanning each and every one of the humans before it.
“Nobody move,” Teller whispered. “Sasha, keep an eye on our Mr. Radley there.”
“Jonathan, it’s just staring. Where’s Victoria?”
“I don’t know, Freya.”
The animal swayed slightly from side to side and then suddenly jerked its neck in a spasm, screwing its eyes together before relaxing again.
“That thing has issues.” Kelly’s voice came out weak. Even in his crippled state, he couldn’t help but be sarcastic. Unfortunately, that made his presence known to the animal.
Wak turned its gaze to Kelly, boring a stare into him.
“What’s up, gorgeous?” he asked. “You wanna kiss?”
The animal curled its lips as if it were annoyed. Before Kelly could make yet another irritating quip, his attention was drawn to the slender figure sidling up to Wak—Victoria.
“Now what?” Freya mumbled.
No one answered.
A horrible gurgle spluttered from behind Sasha. The Russian had diverted his concentration for a split second, and as he turned back to Tom, he caught sight of the man’s open throat, blood surging from the precision wound. The soldier slumped lifelessly forward.
A dull thud of pain entered through Sasha’s jaw, knocking him to the ground. He was quickly followed by the rest of his unit.
The Shan Chu deftly snaked his way through the American soldiers, delivering bone-crunching strikes to their faces and heads as he sprang from wall to wall. In his left arm, he held the glowing, blue, gelatinous orb, which cast sinister shadows on the roof of the cave. His lightning-fast serpentine movement took Teller and Freya so completely by surprise they were only able to watch helplessly.
Within seconds, the Triad leader was upon Wak. He stood inches from the animal, his shoulders heaving with his breathing. Wak stared at the Triad leader—studying him and calculating. Victoria mimicked the animal’s motions, syncing to its movements.
Freya raised her Beretta but had no clear shot.
Wak grabbed the orb and tugged on it, but the Shan Chu kept hold.
A blinding light exploded from the orb, filling the cave. The Shan Chu spasmed and writhed. He screamed as the full consciousness of Wak flowed into his brain, burning its emotions and memories into his neurons. Crashing to the floor, he clutched at his own head with one hand while the other still firmly gripped the orb. He stayed there on his knees for a long moment, his eyes screwed up and his jaw clenched.
Wak slumped to the floor, completely sprawled out, as if the ordeal had drained it of all energy. Victoria followed suit, collapsing onto the rocky ground, her breathing shallow.
Freya kept her sights on the Triad leader.
“It’s done,” hissed the Shan Chu. “I can feel it. Feel the power, the knowledge within me. The strength.” He threw the orb to one side. It rolled across the ground and came to rest a few feet from Kelly.
The Shan Chu beat his hands on his chest. “I feel it growing.”
“You got shit, you fucker,” Freya yelled.
“Stupid woman. Soon I will destroy the world with a great flood. And once again, the supreme race will lead the way from darkness. My race.”
“There’s gonna be no flood, asshole. We got your nuke. You got nothing.” Her voice strained with fury.
“Then I kill you first. The rest will follow.”
Sasha climbed to his feet and joined Teller’s side.
“I’ve had enough of this asshole,” growled Teller.
The Russian nodded.
“Shall we?” Teller asked, waving his arm forward.
“Da.”
The two men launched themselves at the Shan Chu. He responded in kind, ducking, spinning, and slicing his way through the air, dodging the onslaught of punches and kicks the soldiers rained down upon him. His Wing Chun-style martial arts allowed him to intercept the men’s fists and deliver crushing strikes. Yet, compared with his usual lithe skill, the Shan Chu was frustratingly slow.
“Get out of the goddamn way so I can shoot this bastard!” Freya screamed.
Sasha and Teller weren’t listening. Any distraction could mean the end of their lives. Teller took a roundhouse kick to the jaw, which sent him sprawling onto the cave floor. Sasha, taking advantage of the Shan Chu’s concentration on the American, thrust an elbow into the back of the Triad’s head. But it only served to anger him more.
“Goddammit,” Freya said through gritted teeth. “Just let me—”
She was suddenly distracted by movement on the floor. Kelly was convulsing.
“What’s wrong?” Teller shouted over his shoulder, never taking his eyes from the Shan Chu as they fought.
“I don’t know, it’s Kelly. He’s got the orb.”
“Get him out of here.”
Freya dropped to the floor and crawled across to Kelly. She pulled his head back. Two blazing cobalt-blue eyes stared back at her, flashes of white and green dancing within. “Kelly?”
He smiled, though he wasn’t looking at Freya. He reached up, letting his fingers wave gently in the air, feeling an imaginary object. “Jumalaykuw kutiniskix.” The words came from his mouth but were carried by a strange voice.
“What is it?” Teller yelled before taking yet another strike to his ribs.
“I don’t know. There’s something wrong with him.”
“Jumalaykuw kutiniskix,” Kelly repeated.
“What language is that? Is it Quechua?” Freya murmured.
“Nyet.” Minya had circled the room and crouched beside Freya.
“You say something?” Freya asked.
Minya huffed. “He speaks Aymara.”
“Aymara? What’s that?”
“It is perhaps oldest language in world. Spoken only in Bolivia and Peru. The designed language.”
“Jumalaykuw kutiniskix.” Kelly was still smiling, his mind clearly somewhere else.
“Designed language?” Freya pressed, one eye on Teller and Sasha mid-combat.
“Yes,” Minya replied. “Using a special algorithm, you can translate English into French, Spanish into German, Spanish into French, and English into German. The syntax of the language is specific and so organized it’s like it was designed for this very purpose.”
“I get it. The ancient species used it to communicate on every continent, but what the fuck is he saying?” yelled Freya in frustration.
“Ju-ma-lay-ku-wa ku-ti-ni-ska-i-xa,” Minya replied slowly, enunciating each syllable. “It means ‘she is returning for you.’”
Freya’s eyes widened. “Don’t you fucking dare, Kelly Graham. Don’t you dare.” She grabbed him, trying to break him from his trance.
“Who? Who is returning?” Minya asked.
“Izel. His dead wife, Izel.”
* * *
The Shan Chu suddenly stopped and clasped his head. Pain drove itself like an icepick into his brain. He shrieked and dropped to one knee.
“Now,” Teller shouted.
Sasha pulled a knife from its sheath and thrust it at the Triad leader, but it was intercepted. The Shan Chu hammered the blade away, climbed back to his feet, and grabbed Sasha by the throat.
“Now I kill you, Russian.”
Teller leapt onto the Triad’s back and yanked hard, pulling him from Sasha. They both crashed to the ground. The Shan Chu clambered back to his knees but couldn’t stand. Instead, he clutched at his head again, growling in pain.
“Something’s wrong with him, too!” Teller ceased his attack and watched the exhausted man struggle with what seemed like immense pressure inside his skull.
“What’s going on?” Freya yelled.
“I don’t know. It’s like there are too many minds linked to the orb. They’re all messed up.”
Struggling to his feet, the Triad leader shouted and shook his head. “It’s in me. The power. It needs to escape. Our souls are one. We are the ultimate being. I must release it!”
Teller and Sasha backed away from the Shan Chu, confused.
“He’s lost it,” yelled Teller.
The Shan Chu pulled his cleaver from its holster and chopped into his own torso. Each dull thud wedged the blade into his flesh. He screamed wildly, yanked it out, and hacked at himself again. Chunks of blood-covered muscle and fat were flung across the cave.
“Fuck me, he’s gone berserk.”
“Look at the rest of them,” called out Sasha.
Teller glanced backward. Indeed, Kelly, Victoria, and Wak were all convulsing on the floor, their bodies contorted and awkward.
Freya was forcibly pinning Kelly to the ground with all her might. She looked up to see the others writhing in agony. Finally, she steeled her resolve, leapt to her feet, pulled out her Beretta, and aimed at the Shan Chu’s head.
He momentarily stopped his self-flagellation, arms spread wide, the cleaver firmly gripped in one hand. He twitched only slightly, giving away his intention to attack.
Her hesitation was less than a microsecond. The force of the bullet from Freya’s Beretta caused the back of the Triad leader’s skull to explode onto Sasha’s combat pants. “Fuck you.”
His body hung in mid-air momentarily, blood streaming from the perfectly round hole in his forehead before he fell to his knees and finally onto his face. His blade clanged about on the rocky ground.
Freya walked over to the spasming creature, Wak. It struggled to lift its massive head up to see her. From the look in its eyes, she knew the animal would not fight her. It needed peace.
The creature lowered its head in acceptance. Freya didn’t waste any time putting three bullets in its brain. The animal instantly stopped breathing. Without a second glance, Freya stomped back to Kelly, purposely squashing the orb with the heel of her boot as she did so. The fluorescent liquid burst through the gelatinous skin and leaked across the ground. Teller and Sasha stared in bewilderment.
“Now they’re free,” Freya said. She dropped to Kelly’s side, her fierce façade fading and her emotions rushing to the surface. “Kelly, please. Please come back,” she begged, fighting the lump in her throat and the well of tears in her eyes. “Please.”
Kelly suddenly inhaled, his chest expanding beyond its limits, forcing his spine to arch. The serene expression of his face melted away as he exhaled. A fine blue mist, crackling like a dying fire’s embers, slipped past his lips and dissipated into the cold air. Kelly slumped back into Freya’s arms.
“Kelly, talk to us.”
With a squirm, Kelly blinked open his weary eyes. For a few seconds, he remained quiet as he surveyed the now-darkened cave. He fixed his gaze on Freya and spoke through a husky, weak voice. “Wak. Wak is free. I saw it. And K’in. K’in was there. They were there, too. Chris and Izel ... and Carmen.”
“I know, Kelly, I know.” Freya stroked his head.
“I was wrong, Freya.” Kelly held her hand, stopping her from stroking him, making her pay attention to the seriousness of his voice. “I was wrong.”
“Kelly?”
He smiled weakly and turned his head to see Victoria lying naked on the floor just a few feet from him. Her eyes were slightly open, exhausted, but not red anymore. The blue of her irises shined back at him. “Vicky?”
She blinked slowly.
“Vicky, is it you?”
She nodded weakly, her eyes barely able to stay open. Teller quickly grabbed a backpack, pulled out a sleeping bag, and covered Victoria with it.
Kelly exhaled in relief. “She’s ... she’s okay. We did it.”
“We did, Kelly. We did. Now you just have to hold on.” Freya sniffed hard.
Kelly didn’t respond.
“Kelly?” She called to him, but in her heart, she already knew there would be no answer.
In a final exhale, Kelly’s last breath of life left him.
Freya gurgled a breathless sob, hot tears cutting a path down her dirty face. She clasped his head to her bosom, and managed a gasp of air that allowed her to finally voice the anguish coursing through her very being.
Kelly was gone.
Location: Under Teotihuacan, Mexico, South America
For a moment, it was eerily silent. Teller, Sasha, and even Minya hung their heads in respect at Kelly’s passing. The faint hum of the spotlights provided an almost comforting ambient noise. Victoria lay under the sleeping bag, unconscious.
Without warning, Freya opened her eyes and jerked into actio
n. “You think you get out of it that quickly? Huh?” she screamed at him, the blood vessels in her neck straining against her porcelain skin. “Well, you don’t.” She slapped him in the face. His head lolled to the side, and she slapped him again—harder.
“Fuck you, Kelly Graham! You don’t get to opt out. The rest of us have to go on. Why should you get to leave?” She thumped his chest with balled fists and slapped him again—over and over. The onslaught accelerated with more slapping, punching, thumping, and grabbing in desperation. “Come back, you fucking asshole. Come back!”
Teller grabbed Freya’s wrists, ending her assault on Kelly’s lifeless body. “Hey, hey, hey ...” His voice was soft and empathetic. “You gotta stop. He’s gone.”
Freya ceased her barrage and glanced up at Teller, her face wet with tears and eyes red with salt. “It’s not fair.”
“I know,” he said softly, pulling her close. “I know. It never is.”
Freya sobbed uncontrollably into Teller’s shirt.
From the corner of his eye, Sasha noticed a faint blue haze. It was a single spot on a far rock-hewn wall that seemed to emanate from the buried crystalline structures as if the material itself were alive. He frowned, staring at it. Another spot appeared a few feet away from the first, and again, it was a strange, blue haze with a definite light at its center. Then another formed—and another.
“What do you suppose that is?” Sasha asked, never taking his eyes from the pinpricks of light appearing in the dark.
Still clinging to Freya, Teller lifted his head to investigate. “It’s scheelite. It’s a crystal that glows blue when exposed to UV light. It’s probably just reacting to our halogen rigs.” He dismissed it and returned to tending to the woman in his arms.
“No, this is different. Look.” Minya gazed about the cave in wonder.
Millions upon millions of tiny crystalline pyramids lined the walls. Each one emanated a low-level, perfectly clear, sky-blue light.
“How did we not see these before?” Teller asked, his attention now fully removed from his patient. “It looks like scheelite, but this is unbelievable. Freya, look.” He nudged her shoulder, prompting her from her fetal position.
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