Babel Found

by Matthew James

“An engine with a brain,” Terra adds.

  “Pretty much.”

  “Can we turn it off?” Nicole asks.

  I look down at her and her chin drops. She already knows what I’m going to try.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  She’s about to argue, but I don’t let her.

  “Trust me.”

  She smiles. “You know I do.”

  So instead of running further from the battle, I leap back into it. I land on the altar, only this time it’s willingly. And just like Terra said, it doesn’t fight for control of me. It just simply connects to my brain, giving me a view of the world I never thought possible.

  * * *

  “Is he going to be okay?” Nicole asked, glancing down at the shorter woman.

  Terra met her eyes. “I’d be lying if I had an answer.”

  Nicole just nodded but noticed Terra’s demeanor had changed. While she’d been shy before, she’d also been confident in her immortality.

  Hank must have really gotten through to her.

  She prayed and believed he would be okay. If anything, at least he knew she believed in him. He knew she loved him.

  The large interior of the Citadel shook again, getting both women’s attention off Hank and back to the fight taking place between the three Judges and their master.

  Nicole headed around the left side of the altar, followed closely by Terra. The latter was limping and had a knot on her forehead.

  Why isn’t she healing?

  The question would have to wait. Nicole instead ran to where she was mentally and physically ambushed by Phoenix and picked up her discarded KRISS assault rifle. She turned and unloaded her entire clip into Enki as he flailed and fought both a material and immaterial enemy.

  Phoenix had invaded her body and mind, scarring Nicole deeply. While there was no evidence of her takeover, she knew it was there. Nicole felt as violated as Hank did when it initially happened to him.

  She ejected the spent magazine and loaded a fresh one, readying it for use, but she never got too. The floor beneath her feet buckled and sent her crashing to the floor. The upheaval also spilled the others too, including Enki. The only one unaffected by the sudden bone-jarring movement was Hank. He was peacefully standing atop the broken altar, his face staring straight up.

  Hurry.

  Nicole quickly stood and shouldered her weapon as did Kane and the remaining soldiers alike. They all took shots at Enki as he thrashed around, swinging wildly at the empty air.

  No, he’s not fighting us right now. It’s the Judges.

  It sounded ridiculous, but she knew it was true. Enki’s face was full of emotion and his movements somewhat coordinated. Susanoo, Anu, and Phoenix must be having some luck from the looks of it. How many times had Enki ever been attacked this way?

  Probably never, she deduced and sent another six rounds into his chest. The bullets found their mark, blasting flesh to pieces, but it looked like they were hitting concrete. There was most definitely damage, but nothing severe enough to cause a mortal wound.

  “It’s because he’s immortal…” she said aloud. “Stop firing!”

  The others listened, seeing the same results—or lack thereof. Everyone just stood and watched as the ancient being fought…no one. The only noise in the room was a hum from above and Enki’s own grunts and growls.

  Everyone yelped in surprise as the floor gave again, sending Terra and Nicole to the ground a second time. They both winced, hitting hard. Nicole watched as Terra’s lip began to bleed, busted open when she hit.

  Terra wiped the crimson liquid away, her eyes wide at its sight. Nicole guessed she wasn’t used to bleeding. I wish that was the case… Nicole, like Hank and Kane, desired to lead simple lives. This was becoming more than it was worth. They loved the idea of exploring and finding lost treasure troves, but not at the cost of their lives. Not every mission needed to involve cheating death.

  A blood-curdling scream got everyone’s attention as flames erupted from the altar—more specifically Hank. His eyes were open, but he looked to be staring through everyone.

  Nicole watched as a surge of crackling green fire was sent skyward. It reached the ceiling and bent outward, like a tidal wave cresting and falling back to earth. Except, these didn’t fall directly back to the ground, thankfully. They hugged the top of the hundred-foot-tall space and cascaded outward…towards the vines.

  “What’s he doing?” Kane asked, also bleeding from a knock to the face.

  “No idea,” Nicole replied.

  “He’s going for Enki’s lifeblood.”

  Everyone looked to Terra, who was holding her side, and then back up as the fires of Atlantis scorched everything they touched. They burned through the plants like an inferno through a wheat field. Nothing could stand in their way.

  “Enki needs the vines to survive,” Terra continued. “He’s immortal to an extent, but he needs them to continue on.”

  “She’s right,” Ben said, chiming in. “I saw him do the same as me. I wasn’t sure why someone that could live forever would need a life source like this, but now it makes sense.”

  “Source…” Kane said. “Like the stone?”

  “It’s Enki’s life source,” Terra said, shocked at the revelation. “Without it, he can’t survive.” Her eyes went wide. “We need to get Hank and leave now!”

  Nicole and Kane nodded, but couldn’t do anything until Hank was released from the energy field. They didn’t want to hurt him any more than he’d—

  “Where’d Hank go?” Kane asked, confused.

  “What?” Nicole turned and looked.

  The altar was empty.

  “Oh, god…” Nicole said, thinking the worst. “Hank.”

  44

  The Citadel

  “Hi.”

  Nicole turns and almost falls, tripping on a loose piece of stone. I’m standing right behind her, having just climbed down the other side of the altar.

  My body is still the same, unfortunately, but I feel something different too. I feel at peace—content. I’m actually all right with what happened to me. My friends on the other hand… I’m not at all okay with what just took place regarding them.

  “You need to leave,” I say to them, turning.

  I calmly walk over to Enki and snag one of his swinging wrists. His surprise is evident when I catch his arm, but I pay it no attention.

  The Source told me what I need to do.

  It was a strange sensation. There was nothing inside it talking to me like I thought there’d be. No Siri at all. I just thought of a question and I immediately gained the knowledge to solve it. It makes me think what else I could have asked it. Knowledge is truly the greatest power of all.

  My first question was easy. “How do I stop Enki?”

  The answer was an indirect one. I figured I’d be told of a way to kill him—a weakness of some kind, but no. The fact that there wasn’t any violence requested was interesting too. Modern man defeats its enemies with bigger guns and even bigger egos. The Source didn’t want me to physically destroy Enki. It was asking me to essentially starve him. It wasn’t starving him in the traditional sense, mind you, but in a metaphorical way. I would stave off his regenerative capabilities, leaving him to time itself. How long would it take? Even the Source didn’t have that answer.

  Like the people of An’tala, Enki needs help staying alive for long periods of time. Interestingly enough, the Judges don’t. They were truly immortal, like Nannot and his brothers. Like Thoth too. It was a genetic anomaly that only their family possessed. Terra was truthful in that they can only be killed if they choose it to happen. They need to give up the ability to be immortal, like Thoth and the priests did to ensnare Nannot in his fiery prison.

  Enki swings his other fist at me, but I catch it easily. The Judges inside his head have weakened him enough that I can somewhat manhandle him. My larger, stronger body easily outmatches his frailer one.

  “I wonder,” I say, my voice cold and calcu
lating, “what happens to your body if it’s superheated from the inside out? Can you handle it?”

  I lock, digging my naturally clawed fingertips into his flesh and summon my fire. My gloves are gone, replaced by the real deal. The green aura wraps around us as I push. I drive it as hard as I did in the tunnels, but instead of focusing on killing Enki like I did the mitutu, I focus on the flames themselves. They felt like an extension of my own body the last time I used them as a weapon against something.

  “Go,” I say, speaking to myself. “Go now. All of it.”

  My ears start to ring and my vision blurs, the fire within coming out as a superheated white. A massive column of fire shoots up to the ceiling, impacting the Source Stone. As soon as it touches the upside down orichalcum pyramid, it bursts, shattering into pieces. Enki wails in agony, both from me and from watching his precious stone destroyed.

  I barely hear either. The last thing I remember seeing before blacking out is the remaining shards of orichalcum shimmering as its ambient light winks out. My vision is next, as well as my mind.

  I don’t feel the ground when I hit it.

  The Kur

  I stir and wake…in fear. It’s beyond redundant at this point. Except, the fear quickly passes this time. It wasn’t from a dream either. It was just me being startled by screaming voices and my body being dropped on the hard floor.

  “Get a light!” I hear someone shout.

  “I’m trying!” somebody replies.

  “Oh, forget it,” Nicole’s distinct voice yells back. “I’ve got it.”

  A small, but powerful, LED blooms to life in front of me and I yelp, covering my eyes. I hear a collective gasp as I slowly lower my hands…my human hands. I try to stand, but Kane doesn’t let me. His large hands push me back down into a sitting position.

  “Easy buddy, you’re fine. You’re better than fine, actually.”

  “I’m…me,” I say, inspecting my dirty fingers and scraped palms. I’m a mess, but don’t care, and neither does Nicole as she dives at me, kissing me hard.

  “Ow,” I mumble mid-kiss, the word coming out as an incoherent garble.

  She releases me and smiles wide. “Don’t be such a baby.”

  “I’m sorry, hun, but everything hurts!” I prove it by standing and cringing.

  “As it should,” Terra says, stepping into view.

  She also looks terrible, bleeding from several wounds.

  “Why haven’t you healed?” I ask, leaning against the wall.

  She looks down at her own hands. They shake like mine do sometimes, but she doesn’t look scared or upset. Her smile proves just how happy she is.

  “Do you remember when I told you about how we die?”

  I nod. “You have to will it to happen.”

  My eyes widen. “But how?”

  “Excuse me,” Kane says, butting in, “but the rest of us don’t speak freak show.”

  I shake my head. I never thought I’d miss Kane as much as I did. But I explain. “In order for someone in Thoth’s bloodline to die…”

  “They have to freely give themselves up,” Nicole says, “like the three priests.”

  Kane understands now. He knows all about that.

  “But—” he says, “and don’t take this the wrong way—but why aren’t you dead?”

  “I am,” she says, grinning from ear-to-ear.

  I reach out a hand and squeeze her shoulder, also smiling wide. I look at Nicole and Kane. “She’s mortal… She’s as good as dead now.”

  Terra screams and stamps her feet in excitement. I’ve never seen someone react like this to news of a death sentence—no matter how long off it may be. But knowing how Terra feels about humanity, this is what she truly wanted.

  “How’d it happen?” I ask.

  She controls herself, containing her excitement. “I tried to sink the Citadel, like you asked, but couldn’t. It was just too big and the power it held resisted my efforts.”

  “Then how?” Kane asks.

  She looks at me. “I gave it up, fully. I told my gifts to leave me. I’ve never used them to their fullest potential. I couldn’t—not without giving them up completely. I was too scared to try before. We all had our limits like that. Luckily, it was enough of a boost to get the matter displacement sphere I created around it to start rolling.”

  I quickly fill everyone in about the sphere we used to travel here in and turn back to Terra. She smiles again.

  “How far did you send it?” I ask.

  She shrugs. “I didn’t give it a final destination. It’ll roll until it burns up miles below us.”

  “So…it’s done?” Nicole asks.

  Terra nods. “It is.”

  “What of your siblings?” I ask.

  “I don’t know,” Terra replies, “but even if they survived somehow, I wouldn’t be able to feel them now.”

  “We’ll just have to wait and see I guess,” Kane says, scratching his uneven stubble.

  “Can we please leave?” Terra asks.

  “What’s the rush?” Kane asks.

  She glances down to her stomach. “I’m really hungry.”

  I laugh, remembering how the Judges didn’t have to eat or drink to survive. Either way, she’s right. We need to leave.

  “Anyone have any more lights?” Terra asks.

  Everyone shakes their heads. The remaining soldiers apparently lost most of their gear when trying to escape. It’s pitch black and we only have one light. It’ll do, but—

  “Hank?” Nicole must see the confusion in my eyes as I stare down at my hands. “What is it?”

  I look up at her and then to Kane and Terra. “My fire is gone.”

  I breathe in and out, feeling my hands start to shake. “What color are my eyes?”

  “Their hazel, Hank,” Nicole says. “Your contacts are still camouflaging them.”

  I shake my head. “I can normally feel the left one every so often. It would itch a little when my eyes dry out. I should be tearing up big time right now with all the dust in the air. I don’t think they came back with me when I…” I motion to my human form.

  Nicole’s own eyes start to glisten as I hug her. Kane’s hand grips my shoulder and he laughs.

  I look up at them. “I’m back, baby.” I rest my chin on Nicole’s shoulder, sighing in relief. “I’m back.”

  EPILOGUE I

  The George Bush Center for Intelligence

  Langley, Virginia

  “Tell me again why the Director of the CIA wants to see me?”

  Kane stops his forward march and spins, blocking me. I almost crash into him, my mind fluttering like a hummingbird. He holds out his hands and rests them on my shoulders, breathing in deep. Even the big guy is a little nervous.

  “Director Rollins wants to ask the horse’s mouth himself what we’ve been asking ourselves…”

  I lift my eyebrows, waiting for him to finish.

  “Are we safe?”

  He’s right, of course. Is the threat completely neutralized? Are there other dangers out there that only our team can fight? It’s been almost a month since it all ended, but…

  “Don’t you hear it from the horse’s mouth and not ask it?”

  He waves me off. “Semantics.”

  “Honestly, though,” I say, “I don’t think we’ll ever truly be—”

  “Don’t tell me,” Kane says, squeezing my shoulders hard, “tell him.” He motions to the door at the end of the hall. “He knows my loyalty to this country. Rollins is a former operative, and before that, a Ranger, like me. He has no political allegiances, which makes him a fantastically scary man. But he knows nothing about you other than what I’ve told him.”

  “Which is?” I ask, eyebrow raised.

  “You’re kind of a pussy.”

  I laugh, shaking my head.

  “Hank.”

  I meet his serious gaze.

  “If he sides with us…” His eyes widen. Something is spinning in his head. “Well, if he does… It�
�ll be worth it.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask.

  “Can’t say until the cards fall into place.”

  “But—”

  “Don’t Hank. You may be one of my best friends, but don’t make me choose between you and my country on this one. You can’t win that fight.”

  I nod. Kane is a true patriot—a hero even. I would never make him cross the line like that. We are friends, but he still has his duties.

  “Okay, then,” I say, blowing out a long, nervous breath.

  Kane smiles and turns again, leading me towards a utilitarian looking door, guarded by two men. They both resemble Kane. Huge and intimidating.

  I’m expecting them to stop us, but they don’t. They actually don’t even move. As we near, I hear a faint click. Then, on silent hinges, the door opens. It’s just like the one leading down to our basement offices under the Castle.

  We smoothly enter, followed closely by the door. It softly clicks back into place behind us, the only noise in the quaint, mostly unfurnished room. It’s no bigger than your average living room, but knowing the CIA, there’s more than meets the eye here.

  It’s proved when the rear wall opens, allowing a man access. It quickly closes behind him, meshing perfectly back into the hidden entrance it was before. He’s around my height and build but carries himself like Kane, the former soldier. His face is hardened, specifically his clenched square jaw. But his eyes are the most intense thing. They just stare me down, reading every little clue I can give him.

  He’s literally reading me like a book and I haven’t said a word… Damn spies.

  “Sir,” Kane says with a nod as his boss sits.

  “Have a seat.”

  Following Kane’s lead, I circle around a set of simple leather chairs and sit in one of them, trying not to look too uncomfortable in my freshly tailored suit. I hate these things, but Kane thought it would be a good idea.

  “The suit doesn’t fit you, Mr. Boyd. Makes you look uncomfortable. You look like more of a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy.”

  This guy’s good.

  “It is,” I say, pulling at the collar. “I haven’t worn one of these outside of a wedding or a funeral in years.”