LOST AND FORGOTTEN: BOOK THREE - ENIGMA

by Maurice Barkley

  “A contrail,” I heard M2 say, “a frigging contrail.”

  Joe continued, “Yes, that and the multitude of electronic transmissions that fill the air leave no doubt as to our current location.”

  Bob looked around at us and said, “You seem to know where we are just by seeing that strange cloud.”

  Shan, distracted by the sight, put her hands on her hips and furrowed her brow. “I am still in the dark, man.”

  “Sorry, you guys,” Alice said, “It’s just that we’re surprised to be back on Earth.”

  “Earth, “Shan exclaimed. “This is Earth? How swell.”

  “What the hell?” M1 exclaimed. “Okay, let me catch my breath. Alice, I suppose you should check in with the boss.”

  “I agree,” she said, “but what do I say? Give me a minute to organize my scrambled brain. Joe, do you know our exact location?”

  “Not precisely, but we are somewhere on the coast of Peru.”

  I sat on my backpack and uncorked my canteen. Everyone gathered around Alice except Bebe and Harry. They both stood off to one side near the cliff edge, looking out at the jungle. I couldn’t see their faces, but their demeanor was far from casual. They weren’t talking, simply gazing out at the landscape.

  “Okey dokey, I’m ready,” Alice said. “I have to change the frequency on my radio to the one I use when we are like, on Earth.” She fiddled with it and then said, “I’ll put it on speaker.”

  She punched in a number. It rang twice and the director answered. “This is a restricted frequency. Who is this?”

  “Uhhh… It’s me, sir.”

  “Alice? What… How can you be on this frequency? Talk to me.”

  “Blue found another portal in the same building that has the one to Nexus—the one that Colonel Brockway uses. Anyway, we went through and here we are.”

  “Where are you precisely, do you know?”

  “Joe says we are somewhere on the coast of Peru. It’s a very isolated and wild place.”

  The director was quiet for a few moments. “I can’t keep up with you people—Peru for God’s sake. Next you’ll be calling me from Coney Island. This is great news in that we have a direct link to Enigma. As you can imagine, we are incredibly busy right now. What are your immediate plans?”

  “Look around here some. We’re trying to think of some way to start looking for Carl and at the same time hunt the Nazis. We’ll take pictures and send them to you before we return to Enigma. We have to be flexible.”

  “Well, go ahead and flex away, but leave this line open. We need to get a fix on the exact spot. I probably won’t be sending anyone from here. If necessary, I can send personnel there the same way that you arrived. Please extend my sympathy to your companions. Carl was a good man. And the city’s name is now officially Manheim. Call me soon.”

  “Yes, sir—will do,” she said, then turned off the speaker, but left the radio on.

  We began to negotiate the ledge, single file. Though it made me nervous it was plenty wide enough, but the vines and other undergrowth made it slow going. Our path followed the rock face as it curved further to the left and away from the water. The ledge stayed level, but the drop-off vanished when we came to a small waterfall that began from a stream at our level and spilled into the chasm below. We continued next to the stream. The foliage became even denser as we went along what was now the bottom of a diminished gorge. A short distance later the rock walls on either side widened to create a natural round amphitheater. At the far end another small waterfall rained down from the cliff face above to form a sparkling pool before sending a ribbon of bubbling water our way. Everything was shades of green, brown or the gray of the exposed rock. The vines covering the rock faces were very thick. I’m sure I could have climbed to the top with little difficulty, if the need ever arose. We stopped at the entrance to this ethereal place.

  The dominant feature was an immense Banyan tree growing to the right of the pool. Its aerial prop roots, looking like hundreds of rough poles, pushed vertically into the ground to support the massive limbs. They were so profuse the center trunk was invisible.

  “Now that’s a tree!” Amy exclaimed. “Incredible. Those prop roots form a trunk that must be sixty or seventy feet in diameter.

  “This is gorgeous,” Alice whispered. “I feel like we’re the first people ever to see this place.”

  Bebe, quiet the whole time, was standing next to me. I began to get curious about her behavior and Harry’s too. Of course Alice had noticed this before I did and she did not hesitate to ask her why. “Bebe,” she said, “you've been very distant since we arrived. Care to share with your friends?”

  Bebe tapped her forehead as though she were rousing herself from a bout of lethargy. “This place looks somehow familiar. I must have been either here or some similar place long ago when I was very young. The memories are so distant that I simply do not know.”

  “Well,” Alice said, with one arm draped around Bebe’s shoulder, “just keep your eyes open and poke around, okay?” She poked Harry’s arm. “You, my friend, have also been unusually silent.”

  After a short pause, he said, “I’m fairly sure I have been here too, or at least in this area. I have blurred and fragmented memories, but it just feels like this is where it happened.”

  Alice reached out with both arms stiff and linked her fingers behind his neck. “We don’t have to know,” she said. “It’s your choice.”

  Harry looked at those big, dark eyes for several moments. “Perhaps it’s time,” he said, “that I share this with my friends.”

  M1 suggested, since it was late in our day, we should first eat dinner by the pool. He felt this would give Harry time to organize his thoughts. Our pilot agreed and we moved a few rocks to make a campfire next to the pool. We had only sandwiches. It was a quiet meal, all things considered—not at all somber, but small talk was not the order of the day. Jesus and Blue gobbled their share then moved off a bit and lay down side by side, but with heads up to watch us. They knew something different was in the air.

  M2 had a small fire going and we all sat around in a large circle. After he brewed a pot of coffee, I distributed one Shenandoah cigar to each customer. M1 asked for an extra, which he laid on a flat rock near the fire. “This one’s for you, Carl, I hope you’re out there somewhere.”

  “Everyone, look up to the sky,” Shan said. A moment later she said, “And now look down.”

  There was Carl’s cigar, smoldering on the rock.

  “Jeez, Shan,” M2 said intensely, “you’re the best.”

  “I was a misfit on the farm,” she said, “but now I have my tribe.”

  Somehow I wound up with Bebe at my left and Alice on my right. I felt no tension so I fired up and relaxed. The air was calm in this sheltered place and soon smoke rings began to wobble toward the fire. Those that made it to the flame dissolved in an upward swirl and this helped our mood.

  “You all know,” Harry began, “that my aircraft is named Nora. It’s a name that means nothing to all but three or four people and it’s been that way for a long time. Of people you know, only the director and James know some of the story. I told it to James on one of our trips to Panama.”

  I was gazing at the fire. As soon as he said that, my peripheral vision informed me all heads and eyes turned my way, including the two female heads on either side.

  “You knew!” Alice exclaimed, giving me a jab in my side.

  “I swore him to silence,” Harry added hastily.

  “Oh, I don’t fault him for keeping your secret. I’m upset because I couldn’t tell he had a significant secret to keep. Anyway, I’m sorry for the interruption, please continue.”

  As attention returned to Harry, Bebe reached over and gave my arm a gentle squeeze.

  “It begins long ago in Germany. I was a fighter pilot at that time—I even had a girlfriend. Her name was Heidi. One day, I suddenly and unexpectedly had to take an emergency leave. I left in such a hurry that I had time only to
leave a note for her.

  “The report I received said my sister, Nora, was missing. She was on one of those group tours that trekked into the more remote areas of Peru to explore lost cities and that sort of thing. There were no further details at that point other than the current location of the tour leader.

  “I went first to Texas by military transport then took commercial carriers on to Cuzco, Peru where I met with the tour leader. He told me he had been leading a mixed group of eighteen people. Constantly on the move, they would sometimes stay in hotels or in temporary camps. There was a casual head count each morning, but when my sister came up missing, no one could say exactly when. A team from the tour company backtracked the route and searched each stop, but she had vanished at some unknown time and place. Someone notified the authorities and a search was in progress.

  “The tour guide took me to the last place where my sister had definitely been seen. One of the other tourists had a photo of her at that spot. From there we followed the exact route, including all of the stops, up to the point where someone noticed her absence. We found nothing, but I couldn’t give up. I kept searching in ever expanding circles. The guide stayed with me for a time, but eventually he had to leave. I hired a local guide and his Land Rover and kept on looking.

  “Here’s where it gets sketchy. I apparently got lost for about three weeks. The people who found me took me to a local hospital where the staff treated me for exhaustion and fever. The problem is I have no memory of either getting lost or anyone finding me. The memories I do have of that period remain fragmented and distorted—more like dreams.

  “In these dreams I was in some sort of bed in a room with white walls. My sister and another woman who looked something like Bebe were caring for me. What I remember most about that other woman were her glowing eyes that would sometimes change color, like Bebe’s. In every one of these dreams I was always in that bed looking up at the blank, white ceiling. All the walls were blank except for an ornament over the head of my bed. When I looked up it was a sharp angle, but what I saw were two crosses…” Harry stopped talking as his eyes glazed over. “I remember,” he said. “I can see it now, thanks to those two crosses back on Enigma. What I thought were two crosses above my bed was the Black Sun symbol. It was the sharp angle that hid the distortion.” He was quiet for a minute or two, and then he continued, “That’s about all I remember until I woke up in a local hospital. After my discharge, I returned to Texas and reported in. They stuck me in a military hospital for a couple of months. After that they cleared me for duty and reassigned me to a base there in Texas. It was a real low point that lasted a long time. Eventually, I sorted things out and started over—without Heidi. I’ve spent many years wishing this had never happened, but the past is what it is and here we are today.”

  The smoke rings had stopped while Harry told his story, but now they began again while we thought about it. Because of the Black Sun symbol we were discovering possible links between places we had traveled to, but the why of it was still a complete mystery.

  “You know,” Alice said, between puffs, “I’m certain that as much as we have learned, there is even more hidden from us. We’re scrambling to reveal the past five or six thousand years of galactic history. Perhaps the Black Sun symbol is only a tiny part of the picture. Then again for all we know it could be the key to the whole portrait. It’s like having several random pieces of a large jigsaw puzzle. What we have is interesting and important, but the big picture still eludes us. And where the hell are those Nazis? Talk about one thing leading to another. Wow! We have that in spades. We should call it the Manheim Principle, defined as the consequences of dogged curiosity.” She paused and gave us a sad smile. “Such a sweet guy, he never really hurt anyone. I do miss him. I’m glad his sister, Anna, has Fritz.”

  “I wonder,” Bob pointed his cigar at my second button, “if your Lonesome Joe has anything to share with us?”

  My second button responded. “You are dealing with the unknown and as a group you are reacting well to the mysteries you have uncovered. My advice is to continue as you have.

  M1 stood up without using his hands and stretched. “Well, it’s pretty clear that wherever Carl went, it wasn’t here. He’d have left something obvious for us to find if he had. Let’s quickly see what else is here, if anything. I’m anxious to get back to Enigma.”

  Our search was not extensive because the amphitheater was only about the size of half of a football field. An examination of the rock walls revealed no concealed entrances, which left only the tree. From a distance the roots formed a solid mass, but up close the haphazard growth created dark passageways that lead to the interior. Bob wiggled his way inward, but the rest of us weren’t that interested. At that point our thoughts were all on Enigma and we were milling about, waiting for someone to suggest we depart this pleasant, but unrevealing place.

  “Found something,” Bob called, from somewhere inside the mass of roots. “It looks like the tree grew over a small building made of the forever material. All I see is a wall. We will have to hunt for the door.”

  “Spread out around the tree,” M1 said. “We’ll search from all sides.”

  In less than two minutes we heard Amy shout that she had found the door and in less than one more minute, we joined her. Fortunately one large root had only partially covered the opening and M2 was able to twist the handle and push the door open. M2 went in first then called to us to follow. The interior was a plain box, typical of the forever-material builders. There were the remains of a bamboo bed and some crumbling chairs and furniture. The thing we all noticed right away was the Black Sun symbol on the wall over the remnants of the bed.

  “Welcome back, Harry,” Alice said, “but it looks like everyone left when you did.”

  “This is it all right,” he said. “It has to be, but I see nothing that reminds me of anything more than I already remember.”

  “How about we have Blue sniff for a hidden portal?” Amy suggested.

  “Good idea,” M1 said. “Shan, tell Blue to check it out.”

  Shan gave Blue his instructions and he went right to work. He made one circuit of the room then headed out the door and began to work his way around the base of the surrounding rock wall. He swept the half that held the giant tree with no results. When he came to the waterfall he hopped behind the descending stream that looked like a dent in the wall caused by erosion. He came out and continued his circuit of the amphitheater then returned to the waterfall.

  “Something,” he said in Shan’s voice.

  “No portal?” Shan asked.

  “No portal. Something,” was his reply.

  “Let’s have a look, “M1 said and we all stepped into the small space behind the cascade.

  “If there’s a door of some sort here, it’s very well hidden,” Alice observed and what she said was true because all we could see was a surface of cracked and eroded stone—probably lava. “Maybe they sealed it by fusing the rock.”

  As I moved nearer for a closer look, I stubbed my toe on a small, natural looking column of rock sticking up about ten inches. It looked like the beginnings of a small stalagmite only there was no corresponding stalactite above. Its top was almost the size of a volleyball and it had the look of stone long washed by water. The angle and the light was just right. I saw a faint alteration of the rock crystal that created a shape not put there by random chance.

  “Look here,” I said to M1, while touching the stone. “Look at it from this angle.”

  “I see,” he said, while touching it. “It’s faint, but it’s a perfect ring and that ain’t natural and my hand don’t work. Amy, help me out here.”

  “Sorry,” she said, when nothing happened.

  “Before we use Bebe,” M1 said, “Let’s have Shan and Bob give it a whirl.”

  The results were negative for both.

  I turned to Bebe and said, “Please touch this stone.”

  I saw questions in her eyes, but she said nothing as she step
ped to the rock column and leaned over to place her hand flat on its top. The familiar white ring lit up at her touch and a large, circular section of the rock wall morphed into the green barrier.

  “Well, that’s a new twist and it’s something all right,” Alice commented, “but how do we open the barrier?”

  Amy suggested Bebe touch the ring again and when she did the barrier parted, revealing not a gray nothing, but a round tunnel, boring straight into the solid rock.

  “Awfully dark in there, “Alice said, “Did any of you notice this tunnel seems to be the same size and shape of the one we discovered in Egypt?”

  “Only one way to find out, kids,” M1 said. “Turn on your lights. M2 and I will go ahead. You guys stay here at the entrance until we give the all clear.”

  Blue and Jesus went along with the group as though they were going for a stroll down a country road. That gave all of us some degree of comfort, but still we remained alert. The tunnel extended less than one hundred feet before opening into a huge chamber. Their flashlight beams were insufficient to penetrate enough to reveal its true dimensions.

  M1 called a halt and I saw the beams of light dancing around and I also heard voices.

  “Shades of the Hollow Mountain!” I heard Alice exclaim.

  “Hey, you guys,” M1 called. “Get in here, you gotta see this.”

  We hotfooted it down the tunnel and joined the crowd who were all shining their lights on the same object, the first in a row of six.

  “Hey, Harry,” M2 asked, “how’s that for folding wings?”

  “The United States Navy never ordered one of those,” M1 said. “They remind me of transformers, only these are not toys.”

  “Holy cow,” Harry exclaimed. “Those are double folded wings, but they’re not wings as such, although they might contribute to lift. When unfolded they just turn the thing back into a disk. I think the two edges fold up like that to clear the sides of this tunnel going in or out.”

  Alice spoke up. “All of a sudden I’m thinking maybe the old UFO scare was not all imagination or swamp gas.”