Flypaper: A Novel

by Chris Angus

  “My God!” said Marcia, her archaeologist’s blood racing. “It’s a library! An ancient Buddhist library!”

  “Sit,” said Xuemin. He gazed around the room at the thousands of scrolls as if they were his children. “My life’s work has been to preserve these ancient documents. Many have been here longer than anyone can remember. Others came from Buddhist temples all over China, most of them discarded or simply ignored. I traveled a great deal to find them and bring them here.”

  Marcia’s gaze fixed on the table nearest to her. On it sat the oval, still radiating cold, not to mention a certain inscrutability.

  Xuemin took in her look. Before she could speak, he said, “Yes, I brought it here for protection. And yes, you may continue your studies. In fact, I hoped to convince you to do so.”

  “That’s what I was doing, Xuemin, before you and your men came in and literally tore it out of my hands,” she said petulantly.

  “The risk was too great. Even now, I fear the attackers will have overrun the monastery. They would either destroy the oval or hide it away again. That cannot be allowed to happen. Regardless of what it may have done, it belongs here. It’s a living piece of our history—of the great Buddha himself. We must understand it. I’ve learned over many decades there is no higher calling than to preserve the past.” He stared at her with his heavily lidded eyes. “So, will you continue?”

  As if nothing at all had transpired in the past couple of hours, Marcia moved at once to the table, sat beside the oval and asked for paper and pencil. In a moment, she was deeply entranced by the strange markings once again.

  Diana retreated to the edge of the cliff, having heard the sound of more people coming. Holding her rifle ready, she felt remarkably calm. They were, after all, in a virtually impregnable position here. The only way up was via the iron ladder, which could easily be defended.

  She could hear what sounded like a large number of people approaching. Yet it didn’t seem like the arrival of the disorganized hordes from outside. She saw flashlights and then picked out the military garb of Gaoming’s troops. A moment later, her heart leapt as she heard Logan calling from below.

  “Eric! We’re up here.” She flashed the light Xuemin had given her. Then she aimed the beam straight down the ladder. “Follow my light to the ladder.”

  “Who’s with you?” Logan called.

  “Just Marcia . . . and Xuemin and some of the monks. You’re not going to believe what’s up here.”

  “You’re not going to believe what’s down here,” came the reply. “The bad guys are right behind us. We’re coming up fast.”

  The soldiers, along with Logan, Alan, Leeanne, and Yä Ling, came up the ladder hand over hand in rapid fashion. Logan was the last. He gave Diana a quick hug, then turned immediately to Gaoming.

  “What can you do about making this ladder go away?” he asked.

  “Not a problem,” said Gaoming. He motioned to one of his men, who came over and sloughed off a heavy pack. In a moment, he devised a charge of plastic explosive and wrapped it around the rungs of the ladder down as far as he could reach over the edge.

  “That should be enough, sir,” the man said.

  Gaoming nodded and ordered everyone away from the edge of the cliff. In the distance below, they could hear the first sounds of people entering the cavern. Or what had at least once been people. The approaching army of diseased and half-crazed souls acted more like the arrival of a pack of blood-thirsty animals.

  As Gaoming’s man leaned over to light the charge, Diana shivered at the inhuman sound. She felt Logan’s strong arm come around her shoulders, and then they waited.

  “Damn it, Huang!” said Duncan. “I tell you this stupid monk hasn’t a clue where he’s going.”

  Huang was beginning to agree with him. They’d passed down one long corridor and through one large cavern after another, occasionally backtracking in confusion. The monk kept up a rigorous pace that strained all of them. It was the backtracking that had allowed Logan and the rest to get ahead of them.

  In a tired voice, Zhong said, “He’s getting too far ahead. We’re going to lose him.”

  And in fact, when Huang looked, he saw the monk’s torch flicker out as though the man had gone around a corner or into yet another cave.

  “Wait here,” Huang said. With his own torch held high, he ran ahead to where he’d last seen the monk. He was vaguely aware now of other sounds in the caverns. More people seemed to be entering somewhere behind them, though it was impossible to even guess directions down here. The walls reflected sound, which then echoed through the endless chambers.

  He came quickly to where he estimated the light had been. Turning a corner, he stopped abruptly, face to face with a stone wall. Thunderstruck, he splayed his light in all directions. The monk was nowhere to be seen, and he could detect no cavity into which he might have disappeared.

  Fear rose in the pit of his stomach. If their guide was gone, they would be irretrievably lost down here. He made his way back to the others, his heart still pounding.

  “Well, where is he?” asked Duncan.

  “I don’t know. We’ve lost him.”

  “Jesus! What are we going to do now?”

  As if in answer to Duncan’s question, they suddenly heard cries and the insane howls of the sick, mindless people behind them. The frenzied attackers were a lot closer than they’d thought.

  The sounds nearly disabled them with fear. Huang and Duncan began backing away from the unseen clamor, their eyes flicking in all directions, desperately seeking some path away from the coming onslaught.

  Zhong was probably the most rational of the three. “We’ve got to keep moving,” he said. “It doesn’t matter which way. We’re already lost. Just head away from that.” He nodded in the direction of the terrifying shrieks.

  So Huang selected a direction away from the noise, and they stumbled down through the cavern. It seemed as if there were people everywhere. Partly it was the strange effect the caves had on sound, but also, the attackers were flooding into the underground in random fashion, following any opening and corridor. The sense that they were surrounded acted almost like a paralyzing agent. No matter which way they went, there seemed to be the sounds of people out there in the dark somewhere.

  Finally, stopping yet again in indecision, the men saw a light flickering ahead. It seemed to float high in the air.

  “What is that?” said Duncan.

  “It must be the monk,” said Huang, almost wishfully. “Come on.”

  Behind them, the cavern they were now in suddenly erupted with noise as the attackers flooded into it from several directions.

  “My God!” cried Duncan. “They’re right behind us!”

  The three men raced across the cavern floor until they came to a halt facing an abrupt, sheer cliff face. They stared at this new obstacle in disbelief.

  Huang shone his light desperately in all directions. The torches of the attackers were moving ever-closer behind them. He thought he saw something a dozen yards off to one side. As he approached, he realized what it was.

  “It’s a ladder!” he said with such relief he was barely able to speak. “Quick, get up it. Maybe we can hold them off from above.”

  He put his foot on the first rung and at that instant the cavern flickered into the brightness of day as a flash of light, followed by an enormous boom, echoed through the chambers. In the instant of bright light, they glanced behind them. What they saw made their hearts freeze. Hundreds of slowly crawling, limping figures were approaching from every side. A few seemed somewhat better off and held torches, but most were covered with sores, and the poor creatures appeared barely recognizable as humans. Some looked like they might already have died and begun the rapid disintegration that caused flesh to fall away from bones. It was the most horrifying sight Huang had ever seen.

  A moment later, he felt himself pulled away from the ladder as Duncan and Zhong attempted to crawl up the rungs at the same time. But the entire fi
xture now vibrated strangely. There was a sickening series of pops as the fasteners holding the device to the rock came apart one by one and the entire ladder stripped away from the rock face and fell with a crash to the cavern floor.

  They were trapped.

  Far above, Diana and Logan watched the approaching lights of the mad horde below. There seemed to be people and strange cries everywhere in the darkness. A single light appeared and they watched as it approached the cliff face. There it paused and began to flick this way and that, searching for something.

  “They’re looking for a way up,” said Diana.

  “It’s all right. They’re too late.” Logan pulled her farther away from the edge. At that moment, the explosion rang out and they watched the ladder strip away and fall with a loud, metallic crash to the cavern floor. As soon as the noise and debris of the explosion dissipated, they approached the rim and looked down.

  Logan aimed his powerful flashlight into the gloom and found three figures slowly picking themselves up. Diana cried, “That’s Duncan!”

  Below, three heads jerked upward as if on a leash. In the light, they could see Duncan, Huang, and Zhong.

  “Help us!” Duncan cried. “My God, help us!”

  Diana gripped Logan’s arm. The floor of the cavern was filled with attackers only yards from the three men. “Can’t we do something?”

  Logan looked at Gaoming. “Have you got any rope?”

  But Gaoming was already yelling to his men. Two ran forward with lengths of nylon climbing ropes. Quickly, they threw the lines over the edge.

  Diana stared down at Huang, who grabbed desperately for one of the ropes, missed it, grabbed it again, and made a lunge to climb, but he was too late. Diseased hands pulled him from the line and Diana turned away as the three were overwhelmed. Their cries lasted only a few moments. Then there was silence.

  Gaoming pulled the rope back up slowly, hand over hand, looping it carefully, trying not to think too hard about the rescue he’d failed to achieve.

  The cave floor now boiled with bodies, moving listlessly and aimlessly. There was no way they could climb the cliff face.

  For the time being, at least, those in the library were safe.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  KESSLER HAD BARELY looked up from her papers in hours. She was vaguely aware of the turmoil occurring back at the cliff face and flinched once at Gaoming’s explosion. Otherwise, her concentration was total.

  As the others came into the library, they poked into corners, examined scrolls, and wondered at the ancient writing. But they were tired. The strenuous rush through the caverns and up the cliff, combined with the incredible stress of hearing and then seeing the wretched creatures that were after them, had drained everyone, even the monks. Only Xuemin seemed unfazed. He sat beside Marcia, observing her inscrutably, bringing forth scrolls and translating them for her.

  After a time, Logan roused himself from where he’d been sitting with Diana and came over to sit beside the Buddhist monk and the scientist.

  “Can you tell us anything?” he asked.

  Marcia looked up at him. There was a strange light in her eyes. “It’s hard to be sure. Duncan was right when he said the symbols—or scratchings, if you prefer—are ambiguous. One way to see it, the way I’m inclined to interpret it, is that this strange oval represents proof of something scientists have been wanting to know for a very long time—that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.”

  “You’ve proved it, then? The oval is from another planet?”

  She shrugged. “Proof? You ask a lot.” She gestured to the inscrutable, black object. Waves of cold continued to emanate from it. “The technology is stupendous. We’ve found no way to penetrate its surface. And there’s no explanation for the source of the cold. Postulate all you want about the monks having taken enlightenment to another level, but it stretches credulity to think of them being able to fashion something like this.

  “With Xuemin’s help, I’ve begun to understand a tiny part of it. The ancient scrolls tell some of the story. The monks seem to have worked very hard two thousand years ago to decipher the oval. And they were superb at deciphering the symbols. I would have gotten nowhere without their insights. Evidently what they discovered frightened them enough to lead them to wall the thing off in the caverns.”

  She stood up and stretched her thin shoulders, waggling them up and down. She’d been sitting for hours. “Let’s say, then, for the sake of argument, that our enigmatic little rock here is actually from somewhere else—another civilization. Call it a planet if you want, another solar system, galaxy, who knows? One thing is pretty clear, though. Whoever created this small visitor had no interest whatsoever in communicating their purpose to us.”

  “Why would anyone send a probe of such incredible complexity across the universe if the point wasn’t to initiate contact?”

  “I know. It’s very hard to understand. You remember I told you about the symbol for DNA that appears on the surface?”

  Logan nodded. He moved his chair as Diana and Gaoming joined them at the table. The others remained where they were, but every ear in the library, at least those that could understand English, was intent on Dr. Kessler’s words.

  “I said it didn’t appear to be a description, but more of an instruction.”

  Logan stared at her blankly.

  “Look.” She shuffled her papers, brought out one and placed it before them. It contained an odd series of dots of varying sizes.

  “This is another description—I prefer to call them ­instructions—that I copied off the oval. What’s it look like to you?”

  Logan was growing more and more impatient at the classroom quizzing Kessler was so fond of. “For God’s sake, Marcia, it all looks like chicken scratches to me. Will you please just spell it out?”

  She stared at him witheringly. “You see this large dot? Now how many of the smaller dots are there?”

  He was ready to bean her over the head with the oval, extreme cold or no.

  Diana counted the dots quickly. “Nine,” she said. Suddenly, a light went on in her eyes. “It’s supposed to be our solar system!”

  “Excellent!” said Marcia. “Well done. I think this is basically a map—a guidance system, if you will—directing the oval to our solar system. There are other symbols that I think relate to this and refine the map, though I don’t understand much of it yet.”

  Alan came over and joined them. “So it’s basically a probe of some sort? From another part of the universe—from another—intelligence?”

  Again, Marcia shrugged. “There’s so much we don’t know. Duncan couldn’t see any order in the scratchings. To him, it was just a rock. But I disagree, and so did the ancient monks. I think another intelligence is a distinct possibility.”

  “I gather there’s no way to determine its age,” said Alan. “Other than the fact it’s clearly been walled up for a very long time.”

  “Not with the tools I have here,” Marcia replied.

  “So it could have been created by the monks?”

  “I don’t see how. The scrolls are filled with their own uncertainties as to its origin. I suppose, if you wanted to stretch the point, you could speculate that other monks, or other, even earlier religious figures created it and those origins were subsequently lost to time.”

  “Why on Earth,” said Diana, “would another race of beings—obviously much more intelligent than we are—want to send a probe halfway across the universe simply to land and do nothing?”

  “Oh, it certainly hasn’t done nothing,” said Marcia.

  “Anyway,” said Alan, “isn’t that what our own space agencies do? Send probes out to other planets? They land if they can, work for a while, maybe relay information home, but inevitably they die and simply become interplanetary trash.”

  “This hasn’t become trash,” said Marcia. “I believe it is still a completely functioning piece of equipment.”

  Alan shook his head. “If it
’s been around for two million years or more, it couldn’t possibly still be working. Nothing created by man would last that long. Parts wear out, things run down, erode. It’s just not possible.”

  “Nevertheless.” Marcia’s eyes took on that strange, distant look again. “We talked once about the possibility of life on Earth being seeded from another planet, either naturally or intentionally. Suppose this probe was that seed? We know it carries the symbol for all life on Earth, DNA—if you accept my interpretation.”

  “Are you really suggesting this probe has been around not just two million years, but maybe for as long as two billion years?” asked Alan.

  She stared at him stubbornly. “I believe it’s one possibility. Perhaps it carried instructions for the creation of DNA to Earth.”

  There was a moment of hushed quiet, as the impact sank in.

  “Instructions are one thing,” said Diana, breaking the silence. “But who was supposed to build it?”

  “All of the necessary elements were already here on primordial Earth,” said Marcia. “Perhaps the probe simply released a necessary stimulus.”

  “This is crazy! It’s utter speculation,” argued Alan. “A fantasy. There’s no way you could ever prove such a hypothesis.”

  “With the current state of the world, perhaps not,” said Kessler. “But given what I’ve learned in just a few hours with Xuemin’s help, if I had access to the best labs and minds and equipment, who knows what we might determine? We could almost certainly come up with some way to penetrate this thing. Can you imagine that?” Her eyes were glossy. “We’d have a window into a completely alien technology. Think of what we might learn.”

  “Yeah, well, unfortunately, we do have to deal with the current state of the world,” said Logan. He looked over to one of the soldiers stationed at the cliff face. “Anything going on down there?” he asked.

  The man looked up. “I don’t know, sir. They seem to be lying down, most of them. I think maybe they’re dying.”