Norwood crouched next to Eddy, rubbing his hands together. “My God, we’re going to be rich.” He looked at Eddy’s face and saw his squinting eyes staring at the frozen woman. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“A few things,” Eddy began. “First, what the hell happened here? Why did the ice melt, and what heated the cables so much that they snapped?”
Norwood felt a twist in his stomach. “Eddy, this isn’t the time to play Sherlock Holmes. The mammoth is exposed! We should get to work.”
Eddy glanced at Norwood with a serious expression. “You don’t think something’s wrong here? Of course, it is very convenient for you, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“The mammoth is thawed and you can get your DNA sample.”
Eddy turned back to the woman, his face wrinkling with thought. Norwood could see there was more on Eddy’s mind than his conspiracy theory, and he wanted Eddy’s train of thought to head in the other direction. “What do you see?”
“She’s holding something,” Eddy said, as he reached out with his hand.
“Don’t touch it!” Eve shouted. “We need to take her to the lab.”
Eddy held his bare hand just above the furry object, clutched to the ancient woman’s chest. “I’m not going to touch her.”
Eve craned her head toward Eddy’s hand, which he moved back and forth over the object. “Then what’s wrong?”
Eddy met Eve’s eyes, his face scrunched in deep thought. “She’s warm.”
10
ACTIVATION
After transporting the body of the woman to an examination tent, Eddy, Eve and Kevin set to work discovering what ancient secrets the woman might be hiding. Norwood disappeared with the mammoth, set up a massive, reinforced tent around the carcass, then set to work retrieving his DNA sample.
Eddy leaned against one of the two titanium tent support poles that ran from five feet below the ice to eight feet above, creating an expansive space in which to work. The outer layer of the triple thick Mylar was stretched over a dome-shaped titanium frame. Designed to stand up to a blizzard of extreme proportions, the research tent resembled a flimsy yellow igloo, but was built like a tank.
“How’s it coming?” Eddy asked.
Eve had inspected every inch of the woman’s body and hadn’t done more than remove hair samples. She was a meticulous researcher and it sometimes caused those working with her to grow impatient. Eve held a finger up to Eddy as she had done so many times before. It was beginning to irritate him, but he knew the message: one more minute…or maybe half an hour, but you better not interrupt me again! All that with one index finger.
“At least think out loud,” Eddy said.
“I’ll think out loud for her,” Kevin said, as he looked the woman over. “Maybe ten thousand years old…Not quite Homo sapien…Huh.”
Eddy watched as Kevin inspected the woman’s head. “What?”
Kevin held his index finger up to Eddy, who sighed at the sight of it.
Eve made a quick note on her portable computer tablet, which translated her chicken scratch handwriting into legible text, then smacked down a quick period. “Done!” she said. “Were you two talking to me?”
“No, no.” Eddy said. “We were just discussing how one would go about knocking out one of these fine cavewomen and dragging her back to one’s cave, assuming that’s how things were done back then.”
“I highly doubt it,” Eve stated. “This woman could have easily fended off the both of you. Her muscles are toned, especially for a woman in her forties, which was elderly by ancient terms, when the life expectancy was late thirties at best.”
“Though we shouldn’t be judging her in human terms,” Kevin said, as he stood up straight, moving away from the ancient woman.
“Why’s that?” Eve asked with raised eyebrows.
Kevin gave a slight smirk. “She’s not human.”
“What?” Eddy almost tripped backward.
“Well, technically speaking, she’s not Homo sapien…or any other kind of known hominid species. She’s something new.” Kevin crossed his arms, smile widening. “A new link in the evolutionary chain.”
“Are…are you sure?” Eve asked with a questioning look.
“I’m a cryptozoologist. I study new species of animal. Man is an animal. New species of hominid fall under my umbrella. Yes, I’m sure.”
“No need to get all red in the face, Kev,” Eve said with a smile. “I just wanted you to be sure.”
Kevin made a visible attempt to relax. “Well, I am.”
Eve turned back to the woman lying on the examining table. “I find it intriguing, how well she’s been preserved. Her skin isn’t cracked and there’s no decomposition, which is extremely odd, considering the warmth of her tomb—which is odd in itself. I’m interested to see what Brian has found about the state of the mammoth. If it is as well-preserved as this woman, we should have all the DNA we need, and then some.” Eve smiled wide and looked into Eddy’s eyes. “We did it.”
Eddy smiled in return, but only for a moment. The chain of events that began with the melting of the cables, the fall and thawing of the mammoth, and the appearance of a perfectly preserved cavewoman had put Eddy on a razor edge that had yet to be dulled. “Any theories as to how this woman came to be inside a mammoth, or what preserved her so well?”
Eve shrugged. “Not a clue.”
Eddy looked at Kevin. “What about the melting cables or rapid thawing?”
“We’ll have to talk to Steve and Paul about the cables. As for the thawing trick, I’ve never seen anything like it. That was straight out of Star Trek, if you ask me.”
Eddy rolled his head on his neck and stood over the cavewoman, starring down into her hard, brown eyes. “What are you hiding?” Eddy’s eyes wandered down to the object, clutched in the woman’s hands, bound in furs. Eddy reached for it.
“Eddy…” Eve’s voice was cautious.
“The object this woman is holding could be the key to everything we don’t know.” Eddy placed his hand on the fur and took hold.
“It could be a bundle of food, or even an infant. Exposing it to…”
Eddy pulled back the fur, cutting Eve off mid-sentence. She loathed being interrupted, but this time she didn’t seem to mind. A glint of silver showed from inside the wrappings, like a swath of brushed metal.
Kevin stood next to Eddy, his mouth wide. “Did the ancient North Americans know how to work metals?”
“Impossible,” Eve said.
Eddy took a second piece of fur in his fingers and prepared to pull it back.
“Do it.” Eve said.
Eddy eased the white fur away from the object. After a few inches, the furs loosened and fell away, revealing the top half of a pill-shaped metallic object. Eddy’s face screwed with confusion. “This isn’t right! Someone’s been playing us for fools from the very beginning.” Eddy’s voice became loud with anger.
“How do you mean?” Eve asked.
Eddy ran his fingers through his hair several times. “This entire site is compromised. Either the mammoth was a fake, planted in the ice for us to discover, or it was raised at a previous time, modified and reinserted into the ice.”
“Who would do that?” Kevin asked.
“Someone who wanted a success at all costs. There’s a lot of fame and fortune wrapped up in this expedition.”
“Brian?” Eve asked.
Eddy nodded. “He’s at the top of a very short list.”
Kevin shook his head slowly. “No… Brian’s success is determined by the retrieval of viable DNA. If this is a fake, he’s screwed.”
“Unless he fakes the DNA, using a modified string of elephant DNA,” Eve added.
Eddy paced. “But he’d eventually be found out and sued for all he’s worth. He’s greedy but not stupid.”
“What about Nicole?” Eve asked.
Eddy’s eyebrows dipped down low over his eyes. “She has the motivation and probably would have no compu
nction about manipulating us, but I doubt she has the resources available…and the Exploration Channel has a good reputation. They wouldn’t air something that had been proven to be a fraud.”
Kevin walked around the woman, taking in the object from all sides. His voice was silent, but his brain was firing electrons like bolts of lightning from a midsummer thunderstorm in Miami.
“Unless no one was left to object to her claims and all the evidence was lost,” Eve said.
Eddy smiled. “Murder the entire crew and bury the evidence? Intriguing but impossible.”
“There is another option,” Kevin said, “but it’s going to take a little faith on your parts. What if this isn’t a fake?”
Eddy and Eve stared at Kevin, unsure if he was joking or serious.
“What if this object is proof of Atlantis or some other scientifically advanced ancient civilization?”
He was serious.
“What if this object fell from space? Or better yet, what if—”
“Okay, Buck,” Eddy said. “I see where you’re going. I’m pretty sure we can rule out little green men. This object is the handiwork of modern man. The only questions we need to answer are who and why.”
Eddy looked at the object and placed his hand over it, feeling warmth emanating from its silver skin. “For now, I want as few people near this as possible. Whatever is making this thing heat up might cause health issues in humans.”
“Radiation?”
“Could be. We’ll treat it—” A shift in movement caught Eddy’s eye.
Eve saw the slight rotation of the object beneath Eddy’s hand, too. “Did you touch it?”
Eddy pulled his hand away. “No.” His voice was a mixture of surprise and defensiveness.
The three of them eyed the object, leaning in closer, watching for the slightest movement. When it came, they could have been twenty feet away and still seen it clearly. The object popped open and elongated by three inches to reveal a round portion of what looked like glass. The glassy area turned bright red. The device began to slide out of the frozen women’s grip, sliding toward the edge of the table. It fell from the woman’s body and Eddy instinctively reached out and snatched it from the air. As Eddy lifted the object up, he turned it so he was gazing into the hypnotic red light.
“Eddy, put it down,” Eve insisted, but she went unheard.
In an instant, the red light shot out and scanned across Eddy’s eyes, too fast for anyone but Eddy to register. It came like a flood, rushing into his mind—vast stores of information moving so fast that Eddy couldn’t catch a single byte of knowledge. Then, in the same second it began, it suddenly stopped and the mass of garbled information disappeared into the recesses of Eddy’s mind, behind a door not even he had the key to unlock.
Eddy stumbled backward and held his head with one hand while he clung to the object with the other. Tripping over a tent support, Eddy began to fall backwards but was caught by Kevin’s arms. “Whoa! I got you.”
After helping Eddy to his feet, Kevin took the object from Eddy’s hands and placed it on the research table, next to the body of the ancient woman.
“What happened?” Eve asked.
Eddy rubbed his head and groaned. “It was… I saw…too much to understand. I don’t know what it was.”
“Looked like a seizure to me; a very short one, but I think that object might have caused your brain to short-circuit. After it turned red, your eyes glazed over and you stumbled backwards. I think we should quarantine that thing and get you back to civilization for a medical exam.”
“I feel fine,” Eddy said, as his strength returned. “It was like a wave of energy passed through me. Like a magnetic force.”
Kevin eyed the metallic cylinder. “Guys, its still doing something.”
All eyes turned to the object as it closed.
“A third possibility just entered my mind,” Kevin said. “What if this thing is some kind of a weapon?”
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
High above the Earth, where the continents are reduced to smears of brown and green, the ocean glows blue and the currents of wind can be observed by the swirling of cloud formations, a lone, dark orb spun. Clutched for thousands of years in Earth’s orbit, the object blinked to life. A red light began to blink on the otherwise smooth surface.
The object’s spinning slowed, then stopped as though by its own will. Europe, Siberia, Alaska and Canada passed by below, revealing a frigid, frozen north. With a burst of tremendous speed created by unseen forces, the black orb rocketed toward the frozen Canadian North.
Passing through the upper layers of the atmosphere like a bullet through Jell-O, the sphere burst into the open blue sky of the arctic on a collision course with the ice below. As the orb descended toward the white expanse, an inconsistency could be seen. Small objects pocked the surface, moving back and forth—the crew of the mammoth dig hard at work.
Arcing its path over the site, the orb shot down toward the ice at five hundred miles per hour and stopped with a sudden jerk two feet above the ice, a half mile from the mammoth dig site. Just as it appeared nothing more was going to happen, the orb began to spin. With each pass, the orb emitted a low hum—hum…hum…hum—slowly at first, then faster and faster, like a Tilt-a-whirl out of control.
hum hum hum humhumhumhumhumhumhumhumhummhmhmhmhhmhmhm
Spinning madly, the loose snow beneath the obsidian globe began to lift into the air.
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
The collision was like a bad train wreck. As Eddy moved toward the exit of the tent, intent on keeping everyone away from the mysterious cylinder, Norwood burst in. The two men collided and sprawled in separate directions. Eddy fell back into Kevin and Eve, knocking them back into the research table, which wobbled, but didn’t spill over as Kevin managed to grab its legs and stabilize them. Norwood careened forward and fell on the floor without much more incident than a loud “Oof!”
Eddy leapt to his feet. His voice boomed with irritation. “What the hell are you doing, Norwood?”
Norwood rolled over onto his back, supporting himself on his elbows. He laughed and showed a bright smile. “I did it! We did it! Not only did we get an intact mammoth with enough DNA to clone an army of mammoths, we got a reserve of frozen sperm.”
Eddy’s eyes squinted, curiosity peaked, but not ready to cheer victory. “What good are frozen sperm?”
“Have you noticed how perfectly preserved the mammoth is?” Norwood said with a squeak in his giddy voice. “I was able to remove a single sperm from the mammoth’s testes and slowly thawed it out. When it reached room temperature, it became active! Brought back to life! We can do more than clone the mammoth, we can breed them! Modern elephants are simply the distant relatives of the mammoth. Like big cats, their sperm is most likely compatible. It’s the most… What is that?”
Norwood’s eyes were glued to an object under the table. He reached under and pulled out the metallic pill-shaped artifact.
Eddy’s eyes widened. It had been knocked off the table when Norwood barreled into the room. “Put it down,” Eddy said, trying not to sound urgent.
“Why? What is it?” Norwood asked as he looked the object over.
“It’s dangerous,” Kevin said. “We think it might be radioactive.”
Norwood looked confused. “Then why the blazes did you bring it to the site?”
“We didn’t,” Eve said, looking at the frozen woman, still rigid on the research table. “She did.”
A curious expression worked its way across Norwood’s face as he went from confused to astonished to indignant. “You expect me to believe you found this…obviously modern device…with her?” Norwood motioned to the frozen woman with his head. “You can’t be serious?”
Eddy leaned down in front of Norwood’s face, his expression grim. He held out his hand for the artifact. “Deadly serious.”
11
THE FIRST WAVE
Pulling with every sinew his arms could call to battle, Pau
l pried the bolt loose; the effort sent him toppling backwards. Legs sprawling, Paul tripped over his tool box, spilling its contents and falling to the metal floor. The sound of Paul’s body crashing down and the clang of tumbling tools echoed off the metallic walls of what Steve called the “backhoe box.” The large steel container was exactly that: a massive box that contained a backhoe, which Paul had been fine tuning before its return to Archer Industrial, a heavy equipment rental agency. It was only now that Paul grasped how badly a tune-up was in order.
Paul groaned as he sat up on the cold floor of the backhoe box. “I thought you said Archer rented top of the line equipment? This backhoe hasn’t been worked on in years. Most of the bolts are rusted tight.”
Steve struggled to remain balanced on the treads of the backhoe while he finished laughing at Paul’s calamity. “Hey, man. It got the job done, didn’t it?” Steve laughed again and took a long drag from a cigarette.
“You’re paid to help fix this stuff, too, you know.”
When Steve spoke, his voice was laced with sarcasm, “No! Really?”
Paul’s nose itched with the smell of motor oil and tobacco. It reminded him of his youth, working in his father’s shop with all the old timers who had watched their own fathers and grandfathers work on some of the first gasoline powered cars ever built—men who’d seen New York transformed from a horse and buggy town to a skyscraper and taxi cab metropolis. Paul had since been captured by all things mechanical. He drew in a deep breath, and while his lungs protested, smiled at the memories the odors brought to the forefront of his mind.
Steve hopped down from the backhoe tread and helped Paul return his tools to their proper places in the well-organized toolbox. “See, I help.” Steve took a drag, held it in, and let it slide out through his nostrils. “What do you think about all the freakiness, man? We raise a mammoth from the ice, cool, but then this ancient chick falls out… I don’t get it.”
Raising the Past Page 10