The God Complex: A Thriller

by Murray Mcdonald

  “Clear!” said Cash as they exited the airport. Nobody was following them. Thirty minutes later, they were drinking a beer on the terrace of a hillside safe house in Beit Meri, looking down on the lights of Beirut and the Mediterranean beyond.

  “Well that was the easy part,” said Travis, taking another long pull on his ice cold Bud.

  “For him,” whispered Rigs. It was he and Cash who had thought up the arrival plan.

  “I need to make a call. You two, keep the noise down,” said Cash.

  Travis raised his drink, Rigs looked out across the city.

  “Sophie?” Travis asked when Cash disappeared.

  Rigs nodded.

  Cash spoke to Kyle for ten minutes, hearing his latest conquests at rugby, a sport he was going to have to get to know a hell of a lot better. Ten minutes was the longest conversation yet, as the two were still in the infancy of getting comfortable with each other. “So, here’s Mum,” said Kyle.

  Cash stopped himself correcting him. It’s Mom, he thought to himself. The sooner he could talk them back to the States, the better, he thought. Football, that was a game he understood.

  “Hey, you,” said Cash.

  “Hi, Cash,” replied Sophie while Kyle was still in earshot. He had spoken to her every day since they had parted over a week earlier but still he could have talked to her for hours.

  “It really isn’t a great line,” she said after a few times having to get him to repeat things.

  “I said any luck?”

  “No, still nothing. Where are you? The line’s getting worse.”

  “I can’t tell you because we’re not here.”

  “Give me a clue,” she said.

  “Hmm,” thought Cash. “I can see a cedar tree.”

  “Oh dear God, don’t give up the day job,” she sighed.

  “Why not?”

  “Seriously, it’s only what the country’s most famous for after terrorists!”

  “Well you’re not going to tell anyone, are you?”

  “No, but if you get the chance, visit Baalbeck, it’s a big part of your father’s research and one of the oldest settlements in the world.”

  “Anything there that can help us?”

  “Don’t think so, but remember to look out for the foundation stones, there are three of them, that’s all I’ll say.”

  After concluding his call, Cash returned to the deafening silence of the terrace. All decided it was time to call it a night.

  The call at 6:00 a.m. from the Iranians was not at all what had been expected. Travis hung up having barely uttered a word.

  “Well guys, the meeting’s off.”

  What?” said Cash.

  “The very fact that I was willing to come to Beirut is good enough for their intelligence Chief. His plane will pick you up in an hour at the airport and take you to Chalus with the weapons’ team. I’ll head back to London and catch you there when you’re done.”

  Unsurprisingly, given the Iranians’ offer to let them tour the site, Chalus was nothing more than a bombed out hole in the mountain. The Israelis had destroyed every inch of the complex with devastating efficiency, even more impressive given how deep inside the mountain the complex had been located.

  Ten hours after leaving Beirut for Chalus, they were touching back down again. Their confirmation had already restarted the decommissioning process. Within twenty-four hours, the horror of nuclear annihilation that had threatened the world for over seventy years would be over.

  With three hours of daylight left, Cash asked if Rigs minded if they made a short detour before flying to London. Cash headed out to the taxi rank. Rigs pulled him back having caught sight of a map that was on the wall.

  “It’s miles away, over the mountains,” said Rigs, pointing to the private leasing company whose office sat in the terminal building. “I’m sure my trust fund can cover the cost of a chopper.”

  “Sounds good to me,” said Cash, leading the way and starting the negotiations, which were concluded when the cost reached half what they thought it would be.

  With two hours of good sunlight left, they landed in the Bekaa Valley, more famous across the world for its ties to drug cultivation and hostage storage during the Civil War than the magnificent Roman ruins.

  A tent near the entrance appeared to be a must-stop. Cash and Rigs were ushered in by overly eager locals. It soon became apparent when they entered the tent that their only option was to keep moving through. Lines of glass cabinets displaying the personal mementoes of suicide bombers lined the walls while videos played in the background of attacks on Israeli positions by Hezbollah. As much as they wanted to snap the inanely smiling terrorists’ necks, it wasn’t going to get them anywhere.

  Cash had to keep checking on Rigs. His ability to control his emotions at times was tenuous. Fortunately, he played along. They sped through the tent, remaining silent, not giving away the fact that they were American which, given Rigs’ silence was no real issue.

  “Let’s do something about that before we go,” whispered Rigs when they walked into the ruins. Cash nodded eagerly, it had sickened him to the core.

  Cash hit the speed dial on his cell.

  “Hey, I used to be number one,” Rigs protested.

  “Hey, you,” Cash said when Sophie answered. “Guess where I am?”

  “Baalbeck?”

  “Shit, will you stop that, how did you know?”

  “It was that or outside, but the line’s still bad.”

  “So what are the sites here then?”

  “You’re looking for tall columns, six of them still standing together.”

  Cash looked around and saw them instantly, over sixty feet high.

  “Got them.”

  “Go towards them and walk around behind them, .keeping them to your right. You want to get to the back of the temple where you can see the base of the structure.”

  “We’re not far from it. Impressive columns!”

  “They were added by the Romans about two thousand years ago. There were fifty-four of them which supported a massive roof. It was one of their most impressive and sacred sanctuaries.”

  “Okay, we’re here,” he said, looking at the wall.

  “Tell me what you see.”

  “I see a wall, different sized blocks on the different layers, large then larger then much smaller as they built the walls of the temple. The foundation stones are huge.”

  “They’re bigger than three hundred tons each.”

  Cash looked at them. “And they lifted them two thousand years ago?”

  “The three hundred ton ones are the smaller ones at the base, the larger ones are the three main stones that are at the top of the platform and weigh anything up to a thousand tons each. According to your father’s research, they were laid long before the Romans even existed, thousands of years earlier.”

  “That’s not possible. These things are laid perfectly together, twenty feet off the ground, a thousand tons?!”

  Rigs looked at him as he repeated ‘a thousand tons’ and looked up at the wall with greater interest than he had been previously.

  “As impossible as you say, it’s staring you in the face. Did you know they used to call Baalbeck ‘Heliopolis’ after the sun god who flew around on his chariot?”

  “I’ve only seen pictures but I imagine without anything other than the three massive stones as a platform, before the Romans built the temple on top, that may have made a good, solid landing site?” Cash mused. “So if the city was Heliopolis, what’s the temple called?”

  “Temple of Jupiter,” Sophie said.

  “Temple of Jupiter? Why Jupiter?”

  “He was the Roman god of gods, their equivalent of Zeus.”

  “So nothing to do with the actual planet Jupiter?”

  “Well, it was named after him.”

  “Why did they worship another planet?” asked Rigs, only hearing half the conversation.

  “They didn’t,” said Cash. “They worshipped the
god not the planet.”

  “What?” asked Sophie.

  “Sorry, I was talking to Rigs.”

  “What did you say though?”

  “I said they worshipped the god, not the planet.”

  “I need to go,” Sophie said and abruptly hung up.

  Chapter 66

  Geneva, Switzerland

  Antoine entered the library to find his council on their feet, applauding him. He was particularly proud to see his son on the right of his seat. Alex had been helping with final preparations at the spaceport, having embraced his newfound place in the family. It was always a danger keeping the true family history a secret until the twenty-first birthday. But given the necessity to integrate with the world, it had been agreed that while in education, it was best for the child that they did not feel different. More importantly, neither were they, as children were prone, in a position to tell the world their fantastical tale.

  Antoine walked to the end of the table, accepting the applause with a wave of gratitude. In just two days, it would all commence. Millennia in the preparation, the time had finally arrived. It would be their final council meeting before the first transport would leave while the council members carried out their final preparations before traveling to the spaceport at the remote Pacific island. For the next eighty years, the distance between the two planets would be at a minimum, allowing travel between the two. Their galaxies and orbits in synch for what in celestial times was merely a blink of an eye. The window was finite. After the convergence was over, the distance would increase dramatically as the galaxies shifted in time and space and the route would increase dramatically, along with the risk. They had eighty years to save an entire population. It sounded like a long time but the closer they got to their goal, the more they realized how difficult it would be and the sacrifices that would have to be made.

  “On behalf of us all, I thank you,” said Antoine, taking his seat. “Any last minute concerns?” he asked, looking around the table and at the two screens on the wall where Bea and Caleb had teleconferenced in.

  Nobody raised any.

  “Caleb,” Antoine looked at the screen. “Everything okay at your end? All tests successful?”

  “Everything good at this end. We’ll begin the fuelling when darkness falls and aim to have the first transport ready for the 5:57 a.m. launch, in time for the convergence. I assume I’ll see you all at the launch site?” A round of ‘yeses’, circled the table, with only one ‘no’.

  “Not me, I’m afraid,” said Bertie. “I have to be in the Senate, my absence would raise major questions.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Antoine.

  “As important as the first launch is, we have eighty years to cover and although we can’t possibly keep this quiet for even a fraction of that, we’re not in a position to let it be known yet. That will change very quickly and with time, our strength and power will grow. Very shortly, we will be in a position where we can let the covers down and let everyone know, but not yet. They are already watching me closely. I have a number of bills that I have sponsored hitting the floor at that time. If I’m not there, they’ll be looking for me.”

  “Understood,” said Antoine.

  “As I will be one of the only Nobles missing the event, may I ask a favor?”

  “Of course, what is it?”

  “May I trigger the population control?”

  Antoine looked at Bea. She had designed the system and the toxin. A simple computer program controlled the water treatment facilities around the Third World, all thanks to the Noble Trust’s recent investment.

  “I don’t see why not. You’ll just be clicking a ‘yes’ icon on the bottom of a computer screen,” Bea conceded. “The toxin will be released into the water system and doesn’t matter whether it is ingested or just touched, the water will deliver the gene altering toxin, just as we did in Papua New Guinea from the air. Even boiling won’t alter the effects. If you want to kill almost four billion people?”

  “We have to kill to save,” Bertie said. “And to save, I will happily kill!”

  “You’d have killed more?” asked Antoine, intrigued.

  “I think it’s a good start,” Bertie offered, ever the politician. His answer really being yes.

  “I’ll give you the laptop and show you how it works before we leave. We agreed to wait until thirty minutes before the first launch, so that would be 1:30 p.m. D.C. time?”

  “That’s fine. My bills are up first, so I’ll be finished well before lunch.”

  “Well, if that’s all, I think we’ll all see each other at the spaceport, if not on the same plane.” The council members began filing out of the room. “Alex, Anya, are you flying with me?” he asked.

  “Yes,” said Alex.

  “No, I’ve got to fly via Cairo,” Anya said. “I’ll see you out there.”

  “You’re joining us for dinner though?”

  “No, sorry, I have quite a few things to see to before I can leave.”

  Antoine stood up and kissed his sister on the forehead. “I don’t know what we’d have done without you,” he said proudly.

  Anya felt instantly guilty. She was making one other detour she hadn’t told him about, an early morning trip to a rugby match in Cambridge, England.

  Chapter 67

  Cash and Rigs landed in London before ten p.m. Cash checked in with Travis, who didn’t need them until the following day. By the time they arrived in Cambridge, only fifty miles north of London, Kyle and Mrs. Kramer were already in bed. Sophie was nowhere near ready to go to bed. She was scribbling furiously and barely raised her head to say hello.

  “What’s going on?’ asked Cash, a little put out by the lack of welcome, particularly as he’d not seen Sophie for nearly two weeks.

  She stood up, gave him a hug and kissed him on the lips, repeating the same for Rigs, catching him off guard, but kissing his cheek rather than lips.

  “I’m sorry, but it was something you said that got me thinking. What if this wasn’t about our planet, what if they were following another one?” She sighed heavily. “It’s complicated but trust me, everything’s moving up there. I hadn’t figured that in either, every second, minute, hour, day, the position’s changing. So where you look now, in an hour, it’ll be different. I have to do the calculation almost in advance and then look where I calculate at the time I calculated, taking into account where I’m looking from. I’ve been at it since we got off the phone. I’ve got two intersecting points and just about to get a third and I’ve got a time-slot to use the Keck Observatory on Maui booked in,” she checked her watch, “an hour from now.”

  “Maui, Hawaii?”

  “Remote access. I can control it from here and instruct it to take images of what it sees. I just need to—”

  “Don’t mind us, we’ll keep out your way,” said Cash, taking a seat next to the ever quiet Rigs.

  Two hours later, Sophie was looking at a picture that, as far as Cash and Rigs could tell, was meaningless.

  “I need a bit of time to analyze it properly but a couple of things stand out. It definitely looks like another planetary system. I’ll know more tomorrow when we can analyze the data properly at the university. The interesting thing and the bit that’s most surprising is the eighty year countdown, remember that?”

  “To the new star signs, every 2,160 years, yeah,” said Cash.

  “If you go back a month and input the same data, the point in space we’d be looking for would have been much, much further away. I ran the numbers using various dates in and out of the eighty year countdown. In the eighty year window, it’s near, but outside of that, it’s deep off in space. The precision of the calendars is phenomenal, far beyond anything we could have imagined. To think they made them thousands of years ago, and that it points us to a planet way off in space.”

  “But that planet’s not going to destroy us?”

  “God no! It’s still a long, long, long, way away.”

  “So we can sleep we
ll tonight?”

  “Rigs might,” she smiled coyly.

  “Please,” said Rigs, leaving the room quickly.

  ***

  When Cash woke up, Sophie was already gone. A note at the side of the bed instructed him what to do with Kyle, namely get him to school by 8:30 a.m. Fortunately, Mrs. Kramer had him up and ready when Cash raced down the stairs, grabbed the rental car keys and rushed him out of the door. Rigs was standing by the car waiting for him.

  “You could have woken me up,” Cash said grumpily.

  Rigs opened the back door and climbed in, letting Kyle sit up front with his dad.

  “Are you going to stay and watch?” asked Kyle.

  “We’re supposed to be in London,” said Cash, looking at the time. “But yeah, of course,” he said, raising a smile.

  Cash and Rigs stood and watched the game unfold, neither entirely understanding why play was stopped, or how players managed not to beat the living crap out of each other.

  “Why didn’t you punch that son of a—”

  “You don’t understand, Dad,” said Kyle, bringing a tear to Cash’s eye, which he quickly swiped away. “Rugby is a game of thugs played by gentlemen.”

  Kyle ran off for the next play.

  Rigs nudged Cash. “He just called you…”

  “I know,” said Cash. “Don’t.” He looked away, not wanting to break down in front of Rigs. He noticed a woman standing further down the pitch, one he recognized from Switzerland. He walked towards her. She saw him coming and with a handkerchief wiping her eyes jumped into the back of a waiting limousine.

  “Was that Anya Noble?” asked Rigs, catching up with Cash.

  “Yeah, there must be a Noble at this school,” said Cash.

  Cash was tapped on the shoulder, catching both him and Rigs by surprise.

  He spun around. A man in a cast stood behind him.