by Thorpe, K.
242
THE CODE
Genesis – Book I
A NOVEL
Written By
K. Thorpe
Copyright © 2006 K. Thorpe
All rights reserved.
Cover concept by K. Thorpe
Cover photo by Michelle Folmar
Cover design by Jenny Spolnik & Emma Birath
Visit the website at:
www.thecode2012.com
First printing: July 2007
Published by:
For my inner child…may you be cradled in the love
and safety that I now know how to give.
Acknowledgments
First, I’d like to pass along my thanks and appreciation to the readers of this work. May you enjoy it and continue to share the experience as the excursion continues. To Emma, thank you for being in my life and sharing this with me. And, much appreciation for your contribution to all of the art work in this book, including the cover. To my mom, I thank you for all of your support and for believing in me and this dream. To Mich, my good friend, our trip to Mexico helped begin this journey. Thanks for sharing it with me and capturing it digitally…my greatest gratitude for your contribution to the cover. To my editor, Jessica Gribble, thanks for all of your hard work on this project. You are the best! To Jackie, John, Krystal, Kamelia, Heather, Yessica, the rest of my family, and Dr. B.G., I thank you all for your faith and support. It means the world to me. To Super Jenny, thanks for swooping in during the last moments and saving the day. Bravo! And, finally, thanks to all those researchers, both past and present, who sought to uncover the truth about the hidden biblical codes. Proponents and opponents alike fuel the flame of knowledge that contributes to each of us individually and to all of us in our collective humanity.
Inspired reader,
This is the first book to be released in The Code series with additional works scheduled for release over the next five years, through to 2012. It would be my honor to share and discuss behind the scenes components of this work with you. Please feel free to email me at: [email protected] and/or visit the webpage: www.thecode2012.com for additional information, updates, and discussions available about this work and future works in The Code series. I can also be available for individual meetings with book clubs or groups that elect to read this work. If you are interested in this, please get in touch through the email listed above to discuss scheduling options. I appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing from you. Happy reading!
THE CODE
Genesis – Book I
A NOVEL
Uncovering Fact in The Code:
Certain “codes” have actually been found in biblical text and the debate over the validity of these codes continues today along with ongoing research on the subject. Certain components of miscellaneous background information on the Bible Code, the ancient Mayans, and other ideas listed in this text are based on factual and historical information available on the topics. However, all characters in this novel are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or deceased, is entirely coincidental.
Prologue
Does God exist? In our pursuits of truth, is humanity seeking validation of our own existence through the shared existence of a deity, albeit the possibility that such a being is simply one of our own creations? The quest to seek God has existed since the dawn of man. Humankind’s conceptualization of a higher being and our longing to understand ourselves and the universe has fundamentally ingrained this pursuit, driving our need for something greater…that something outside and beyond us that continues to captivate our minds and our souls today.
Does our faith render us pious or gullible? Without tangible proof of the existence of God, relying solely on faith is what the world has become accustomed to and what science has used as fodder. History has not lacked in attempts to uncover such evidence, but has rendered the quest itself inconclusive. Or has it?
Has the evidence of God’s existence been held within the pages of the oldest holy text bestowed upon us, the Bible, all along? Does this holy book contain messages…direct communications from the deity for whom we have so longed to know and understand? And, if true, what does this mean for us?
Part I
The Beginning
Chapter One
June 21, 2006
The early afternoon sun stretches across the southern Mexican sky, gently caressing the glistening peaks of waves as they reach out across the Pacific. Each individual wave greets the light, shimmering brilliantly against the backdrop of deep blue. Once joined together, the collective waves succumb to the end of their journey, rushing against a rock-laden shore with the finality of their cause. Clusters of a rocky shore outline high cliffs, the largest of which houses a major altar site of an ancient Mayan ruin.
Set back several hundred feet from the cliff’s edge, nearly fifty stone stairs lead to the top of a speckled stone magnificence. Remaining skeletal pillars of the ancient feat line the outline of the perimeter, hovering perpendicular to time-enduring floor etchings. The gray of the ancient stones sits gently against the brilliant blue of the sky as it abridges heaven, merging into the horizon, mixing with the reds and oranges of the hot summer sun. Atop the highest point of this monument, the sound of the waves’ fulfillment of their destiny echo in only a whisper of a soothing ocean lullaby.
A half-mile away, thirty-five-year-old Professor Josh Sails, a handsome, eccentric iconographic mathematician with Maryland University, wears a Hawaiian shirt and straw hat, with sunscreen dolloped on the top of his nose. He hikes along the coast of Tapachula, Mexico, shouldering a backpack carrying his research equipment. His blonde hair, dancing above his turquoise eyes, outlines his chiseled features. Josh’s eyes mirror the two sparse puffy white clouds rolling above as they unthreateningly tease the sun.
Josh looks ahead and sees the Mayan ruins in the distance in front of him. He pulls a G.P.S. tracker from his bag, stopping to check his progress. A Spanish sign looms in the distance in front of the ruins.
Government Property: No Trespassing.
Josh mutters under his breath. “Let’s hope your brother’s gear works, Amanda.”
He looks down at his watch. I’m cutting it close. Who knew it would take this long hiking in? The G.P.S. tracker displays his coordinates with a latitude of 14.78333 and a longitude of 92.38333. Josh closes in on the ruins. Their magnificence fills him with wonder. Only a few hundred yards away from his destination, he continues, barely able to contain his anticipation.
Reaching the ruins he drops his gear and pulls a water bottle, map, and a single page with Hebrew text covered with handwritten translation notes from his bag. He folds the noted page and puts it in his back pocket. Josh puts the G.P.S. in his bag, but neglects to turn it off. The G.P.S. system light flashes a glaring red as if revealing his mistake.
Sweating, he wipes the wetness from his brow with his shirt and gulps a drink of water. Josh looks out across the expansive sky, taking a few brief seconds to relish the beauty before he puts the bottle back into his bag. Those coordinates were right on the money.
Josh looks up at the bright blue sky, focusing on the two pillowy white clouds that seem to be following him, watching from afar as he inches closer to his destiny. He retreats into a memory from childhood as he watches the clouds move rhythmically with the gentle tropical breeze.
A six-year-old Josh and his mother, twenty-nine-year-old Evalyn Sails, lie on the lush green grass looking up at the clouds in one of Boston’s central parks near their home. Resembling a blonde Jackie O, Evalyn’s beauty was second only to her fundamental integrity.
“What do you see, Josh?” she inquires of her only son.
Josh
points at the cloud farthest from them. “I see a fire engine, Mommy. Can you see it?”
Evalyn squints in the sun. “I think I can.”
She points to a closer cloud on the horizon. “Look at that one, Joshy. I see a bunny. Can you see it?”
Josh looks, his face furrowing intently. “That’s not a bunny. That’s a dinosaur.”
Evalyn’s face softens as any mother’s would at her son’s tenacious ability to convince. “Well, maybe it is. The most important thing to remember is that if you look hard enough, you’ll always find something hidden just beneath the surface…and not just for clouds, but for everything there is, Josh.”
Josh looks at his mother quizzically. “Did God make the clouds, Mommy?”
Evalyn looks down at him thoughtfully. “I like to think so.”
Josh squints at his mother. “Where is God?”
Evalyn stretches her hand out, shielding her son’s eyes. “I think he’s everywhere.” She knows that having a child is one thing and raising that child to be a contributor to the world is another thing entirely, requiring discipline, encouragement, and free thinking.
Josh cocks his head slightly, edging out of the protective shade of his mother’s hand to look her in the eye. “How do you know?” he says, wanting to understand.
Evalyn touches her heart, tapping it softly. “I just feel him inside of here.”
Josh touches his heart. “I don’t feel anything in there.”
She tussles Josh’s hair playfully. “One day you will, son…I promise.” Evalyn smiles with a quiet knowing. He will definitely be a contributor.
Heat-soaked by the Mexican sun, Josh blinks himself back to reality, as his eyes follow the stone steps to the top of the ruin. He grabs his gear and walks up the stone staircase, heading into a hollowed-out square ruin of the site. Josh hesitantly steps inside, looking around in disbelief as he gets his bearings. He walks to the highest point of the roofless ruin as sunlight streams in from all sides. Sparse walls and ancient stones surround him as he wanders through the historical structure.
Looking around, Josh scans the area. It would be in the centermost point, to
access both the sunrise and the sunset. He comes across a slightly raised stone area 6.5 feet in diameter in the center of the highest point of the altar structure. Josh falls to his knees, touching his heart as his eyes well up with tears.
Trying to collect himself, Josh looks at his watch through unsteady hands. It reads 12:55 p.m. and 35 seconds.
Josh coaches himself aloud. “Get it together. No time to spare. No mistakes. We may not be able to wait another six years to get the data.” He takes a breath. “Come on, Josh. Make it happen.”
Still kneeling, he wipes the dust and dirt from a circle engraved in the stone floor. It reveals a chart with thirteen segmented pieces listing various symbols resembling unusual hieroglyphics and shapes. In the center of the circle lies another smaller circle with engraved symbols: a line over a shell over two dots and two lines.
Josh stands up, pulling the translation page from his pocket. He takes a few steps back and mentally reviews both the circle images and the translation page. Josh is beside himself, mumbling aloud, “2012. I just can’t believe it.” He looks at his watch. I’ve got less than 5 minutes.
Josh yanks a digital camera, a piece of black charcoal chalk, and a few pieces of white art shading paper from his bag. He places the charcoal and paper on the floor just out of the way. Josh readies the camera and hastily clicks seven or eight close-up shots, maneuvering just slightly between each shot. Let’s hope at least one turns out.
He quickly places the camera back in his bag and grabs the charcoal and paper from the floor. Josh kneels on the ground, placing the paper over the smaller circle as he shades the symbols carefully with the charcoal chalk. He spends more time on this as he tries to shade every detail, switching to a blank page when he completes the one he’s working on. Josh stops and reviews the circle as a mild anxiousness begins to take hold. Where is it?
Josh runs his free hand around the circle. He feels a lone symbol etched in a 1 inch by 1 inch square in the corner of the larger circle. Josh uses his finger to clean it off and accidentally depresses it as he rubs back and forth. A 1 foot by 1 foot square rises up from the ground near the edge of the large circle. It’s the marker! Still holding the shadings, Josh steps onto the marker. He looks left, then right. Now, is it with the sunrise or with the sunset? Josh eyes his watch. It reads 12:59 p.m.
The sound of a faint but loudening siren emerges in the background from the approaching Mexican military. Josh jerks to attention as his feet slip from the square. How do they know I’m here? Realizing his mistake, Josh looks in his bag. “Damn!” he shouts. He sees the streaming red light and pulls out the G.P.S., quickly shutting it off. Josh jams it back in his bag with frustration. Not now!
In the distance, a rugged Mexican military vehicle carrying two hardened armed Mexican soldiers in camouflage military fatigues races along the coast toward the ruins with sirens blaring. The two pillowy clouds above shade the trail of dust that follows them.
Inside the ruin, tension continues to envelop a stiffening Josh as he looks around frantically. Gripping several of the shaded pages stacked together and the chalk, Josh steps back onto the square, shifting his feet first toward the direction of the sunrise and then toward the direction of the sunset, vacillating between left and right.
“East or West? Which is it? Think, dammit!” he says aloud. Josh stops to his left. It’s the center…the doorway to the beginning and end of the sky. Josh places his feet facing the center of the circle. Here’s hoping. He looks down at his watch, gripping his thumb between his four fingers as he holds the pages. Ten seconds.
The seconds slowly tick off his watch. Josh grips the blank side of his paper as he stands still, hovering in the square over the larger circle. His eyes remain fixed on his watch as droplets of perspiration fall from his forehead. A droplet hits his watch, splashing on the digital time display. Shaking the wetness from his watch, he wipes his forehead with the back of his hand and waits anxiously, his thumb now free. Five seconds.
The clock reads 1:00 p.m., as an alarm beeps in unison with the display. The sun shines directly onto the first piece of the segmented circle, highlighting one symbol of the many in this particular section. An elated Josh bellows “Jackpot!” as he frantically flips through the shaded pages. He finds the page with the matching segment and he circles the symbol highlighted by the sun.
Thirty seconds later the sun moves to the second segment, highlighting another symbol of the many in this particular section. Josh finds the next page and circles the symbol as the process continues. He glances at his feet to ensure that they don’t move even a millimeter. This will show them the truth.
Outside of Josh’s frantic, elated world, the Mexican soldiers, ready to ambush, rush from the vehicle toward the stairs where Josh entered. Holding a G.P.S., one soldier points to footprints in the dirt. The soldier speaks in Spanish to his comrade, “I’ve lost the signal, but someone has definitely been here.”
Sweat streams from Josh’s face as he waits, continuing to circle symbols as each is revealed. He’s reached number five of thirteen. Come on! I have to get these…I have to.
Outside the entrance, the second soldier grabs a handheld radio from his belt and hastily speaks through the radio. “Base…we’ve lost the signal, but there are tracks near the entrance of the ruins. How do we proceed?”
A cracked voice responds from the radio. “Command says that the last coordinates we received were inside the ruins. He couldn’t have gotten far in only a matter of minutes. Check inside. If you locate him, you are to apprehend him immediately.”
The Mexican soldiers ready their weapons, rushing up the stairs into the ruins.
As they enter the site, the soldiers see Josh writing with his hand supporting the pages he holds as he stands in the square. They yell at him in Spanish. Josh ignores them, scribbling
frantically, just completing number seven of the thirteen symbols. He tries to continue when the soldiers confront him.
“Halt! Put your hands up. You are trespassing on Mexican Government property,” the larger, more aggressive-looking soldier says to Josh in Spanish.
Josh quickly squats down and grabs his pack from the floor, jamming the pages into it. Getting up, he tosses the backpack over his shoulder as he slowly raises his hands. Remaining in the square the entire time, he glances to his side to get a full view of the circle. The code is no longer visible. The sun fades from the spot and the entire circle is now shaded. Josh is devastated. “It’s gone,” he says under his breath.
He returns his attention to the angry Mexican soldiers. Speaking Spanish, Josh attempts to explain himself, “My name is Professor Josh Sails. I am an American. I’m here doing research for my university.” He reaches down to his backpack. “Let me get my documents.”
Josh tries to reach into his bag but the soldier holding the G.P.S. won’t allow it. “Hands up! One more step and I’ll shoot!” The soldier points his gun with more certainty. “You are under arrest!”
Josh quickly puts his hands back up. The soldiers rush up to him, grab his backpack, toss it to the floor, and then forcefully push him against a lone stone pillar.
Confused and anxious, Josh reverts back to English. “Careful with that! There’s
expensive equipment in there.”
The second soldier pats him down, finding the translation page in Josh’s back pocket. The soldier pulls out the page and looks at it. Unable to understand the Hebrew or the English, he crumples up the page and throws it to the ground. Josh tries to reach for it, but his captivity won’t allow it.