The Cydonia Objective (Morpheus Initiative 03)

by David Sakmyster

  He opens his mouth, but she's leaning in. Her lips against his, silencing his voice. She pulls back, only for an instant. "Just think about it. We're running out of time. A boy's only a boy for so long."

  Caleb caught his breath and looked up to see Alexander and Rashi staring at him, both concerned. They stood between a gap between two enormous rows of shelves. Books as far as he could see in any direction.

  "I'm okay. Just had a moment."

  Alexander moved forward. "Was it Mom?"

  Caleb smiled. "Yeah… just, I haven't been here since…"

  A flash, an explosion of fire. A charred body, spinning around, and facing him, two green orbs in a blackened skull boring down at him, recriminating…

  "Dad?" His hand on Caleb's shoulder, Alexander pulled him up. His grip was strong, firmer than Caleb had ever remembered. It's already too late. He's not a boy anymore. And it's my fault. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

  And Alexander shook his head. "No reason to be."

  "I did to you what my mother did to me. She stole my childhood, and I never forgave her for it, not until the end."

  Alexander rolled his eyes. "I'm still a kid. I'm—what's the word? Resilient. After we stop the bad guys and save the world, I'm still going to want to watch cartoons and play that 3D PlayStation you're going to buy me for Christmas."

  A laugh mingled with a choking sob as Caleb stood up and hugged his son under the watchful gaze of the Keeper, Rashi. When they were ready, they made their way through the stacks and the shelves, the seemingly endless texts, volumes and tomes. While they walked, he took a moment to gaze fondly on all these works, and looked up at the sunlight-kissed levels above, all those treasures preserved here, hopefully for a long time to come.

  At last, they made it to the elevator and accessed the locked sublevel. As the doors closed, Caleb glanced away from his son, out the doors and saw-

  In the center of the library, on the marble floor in a shaft of light, Lydia stood alone, head bowed in silence.

  #

  The once metal-walled hallway was now decorated with ancient artwork: Sumerian friezes, Babylonian bas-reliefs, Egyptian murals… Caleb had walked this hallway more than a hundred times, and each time he felt as if he were coming home.

  Into the vault, Rashi joined several other Keepers: two men and a woman busy at work at their stations. Hideki Matusi, bone-thin, yet regally elegant in a way Caleb always associated with ancient scholars, stood over a glass table, lit from below, as she analyzed scroll fragments with a microscope. She took a break from translating the ancient texts and came down to greet them.

  She nodded sympathetically to Caleb. "We mourn for Lydia. But the work must continue, as she would have wanted it."

  Caleb looked down at his shoes, choked up.

  But then Hideki smiled at Alexander. "Ah, the precocious child returns."

  "Hello Hideki!" Alexander waved, beaming at her. "Can't wait to help out again."

  "Yes, yes, so long as you promise not to spill chocolate milk on any more priceless fifth-century BC papyri."

  "I promise."

  "I mean it."

  Caleb found it surprisingly comforting to laugh, to be distracted from the finality of loss. "She means it, Alexander. And so do I. Socrates would have been pissed."

  Rashi took a seat at the conference table, the very same one used by Nolan Gregory years ago when he had confined the Keepers down here for their protection. That day was the last great crisis for the Keepers. But now, they had lost two key members in the past week. One to tragedy, the other to greed. With Lydia and Robert gone, the Keepers needed a leader, and despite the regard they all held for Caleb, they knew he couldn't step into the role held by his wife. Not under these circumstances.

  Rashi took the reins, and she'd moved quickly but deliberately. They had to be extra careful, but they still needed to replenish their ranks. Hideki had a son, fifteen, who unfortunately showed no promise, or interest. Alexander was almost ready and could soon fill one of the gaps, but Rashi felt deep regret that she had never succeeded in bringing a child into the world. There was always adoption, but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to that stage where she would have to admit it was physically impossible for herself.

  But now, she had a new focus. Leadership.

  Their enemies were closing in. What Caleb had discovered, what Robert Gregory was a part of… it stretched back to the dawn of human history, to the very origins of civilization. A conflict, dormant for millennia, about to be rekindled.

  "If what we've discovered in these texts is true, then we have no time to waste. No time to grieve. No time at all."

  Hideki joined them at the table.

  "All these scrolls…" She looked around at the hermetically sealed cabinets, the honeycombed alcoves, filled with the contents of the vanished Alexandrian Library, the most esoteric texts, some so ancient they had yet to decipher the language. "Everything you found, Caleb. And yet…"

  "And yet," said Rashi, leveling her gaze at him, "the one thing that could have helped us most prepare for this moment…"

  "You kept from us," Hideki finished.

  Caleb swallowed and looked in turn at the Keepers. He met their stares of recrimination. "I can't apologize. I didn't trust you, it's true, but…"

  "You were right not to," Rashi said, raising a hand. "We are not condemning. We're merely stating fact, preparing the setting, so to speak. The foundation for what we must do next. We are not judges."

  "How could we be," Hideki said, "when one of our own, our very leader, was corrupted?"

  Rashi leaned in. "If you had not kept the Tablet from us, Robert would have had it, and he would have used it."

  "That," Caleb said in a low voice, "is what I need to understand. How would he have used it? What are they planning? Xavier Montross saw something. And I did too."

  Rashi nodded. "I can guess. Destruction. You saw it on a scale unimaginable."

  Caleb felt Alexander's eyes on him. Large, almond-shaped, glassy. A hint of jade, like his mother's. "The Tablet itself is undecipherable. I got nowhere with it, and honestly I didn't want to try. It was enough that it fell to me to protect it. But now… Now I wish I had tried a little harder. Maybe I'd know what it is we need to do."

  Rashi kept her head down, contemplating the lines on her hands, between her knuckles. "We'll tell you what we know, but after this you must rejoin your sister. And the others like yourself."

  Alexander perked up. "More remote-viewers?"

  "Soon," Caleb said. He had seen it, too—brief glimpses of well-trained men escorting Phoebe and Orlando through caves in the desert, then onto a plane, heading back to some well-hidden facility in the snow-capped mountains of the Pacific Northwest. "Soon, and I know they're looking for answers too, but I don't believe they know the right questions to ask. That's why it has to start here. It needs to come from practical research first, grounding us on what to set as our objectives. Otherwise we're blind mice sniffing around empty cupboards. Wasting time."

  "Time we don't have," Rashi agreed.

  Caleb leaned back, studying the other members, then looking past them to the scrolls laid out on the work area. To the banks of servers storing all the scanned documents.

  The other two Keepers were looking solemn, palms flat on the table. Caleb had taken a seat next to Alexander. He leaned forward. "Tell me what you've found. About the Tablet, about… the Spear."

  Rashi closed her eyes, and began to talk. "The first thing we found wasn't from the Library, it was something much more recent. We looked into Robert Gregory's files, decrypting his locked folders and accessing what he'd been studying in secret."

  "So basically," Hideki said, "he had already done the research."

  "Knew what he was looking for," Caleb said.

  "But some of it wasn't even from what you found under the Pharos. He had access to other books, private collections, heretical texts acquired from individuals with powerful connections, to say the least."


  Alexander was listening to all of this, confused. He kept focusing on the Zodiac images painted above, on the azure-background of the dome, imagining the animals taking form, moving around. He thought of the shapes in Genghis Khan's tomb, thought of how much he had seen in the past few weeks. How much death, but in the midst of all that life. His eyes settled on the constellation of Gemini, the twins. And he realized couldn't stop thinking about them, his new brothers. Where were they now?

  "…revelations that seemed far too fanciful for us at first," Hideki continued.

  "But," said Rashi, "now we've been reconsidering. In light of other insights. Now that the majority of the Pharos' documents have been scanned and uploaded, and everything that could be translated has been, we have been able to search for keywords and phrases."

  "'Tablet of Destiny' being one," Hideki said.

  Caleb's lips felt parched. His stomach grumbled. And he thought of Alexander and how neither of them had eaten in more than a day. He looked toward the door set back in a side room off the main domed chamber where they kept supplies, enough food and water for months. Beds, a shower. He thought about getting up and telling Rashi and Hideki to wait until he got a snack, but that was when he felt something.

  A rumbling.

  The table rattled. The microscope in the other room shook, toppled. The lights overhead dimmed.

  Caleb blinked, and across his eyelids flashed an image, a vision in stark clarity:

  A snowy field beset by enormous mountains ringed by an emerald aurora. Almost two hundred radar arrays, glowing, sparking with errant electrical discharge. And zooming in closer… through the walls of the main facility, lightning-quick through hallways and down elevator shafts to a control room… and a man in uniform holding a phone to his ear, saying: "Yes, Senator. It's been done…"

  The very chamber shook now, dust fell from the dome, and the barest hint of a crack split through the constellations, ripping apart Pisces and splitting the Twins.

  Rashi stood up, eyes wide. "No… They can't… They wouldn't dare!"

  Hideki screamed and pointed to Alexander, who when he stood, leaned forward so the necklace with the three charms slipped out.

  "The Keys!" she shouted. "They're after the Keys!"

  Caleb got up, reaching for his son—but suddenly the room pitched and buckled and the table rocked into his side and thrust him backwards while Alexander stood there, helplessly.

  "Dad!"

  Caleb climbed over the table, and was about to leap and swoop him up when a huge section of the ceiling collapsed, masonry crashed between them, and everything turned black.

  #

  He stayed on his knees, arms outstretched toward the mass of debris: layers of twisted concrete, metal and girders. And all he could think of was: this can't be happening!

  Robert and Lydia and all the Keepers had given their assurances that this library was built to withstand the ages, time and especially, earthquakes. Not only were the upper levels built upon shifting, standalone foundations that should have been impervious to ground fault tectonic shifts, but this sublevel especially was reinforced. A veritable bunker. Even if the unthinkable were to happen up above, the most treasured documents should have been safe down here.

  Safe…

  The rumbling subsided, the vibrations died down. But now what replaced it was infinitely worse:

  Silence.

  It was as all-pervasive. One set of flickering lights above remained, highlighting the cracked forms of the lower half of the Zodiac.

  "Alexander?"

  He held his breath, listening for anything. Studying the wall of debris, trying not to think the worst. Keeping it out of his mind, just as he kept away the horrors of what must be happening on the surface, up in Alexandria. What kind of devastation…?

  A glimpse, a curse rewarding his lack of willpower: A birds-eye view from two hundred feet up… The slanting glass roof destroyed, just a jagged semi-circular foundation left in the earth. Great chunks of glass and twisted metal girders strewn about an area that looked like a meteor had struck a direct hit. Centered perfectly on the library.

  Not possible, Caleb thought. Pausing now in his search. Going with the vision, the power that wanted, needed him to see.

  Show me, he whispered, and mentally stepped back a few moments…

  The domed library, scintillating in the sun, through the transparent windows hundreds of patrons could be seen strolling the aisles, reading at tables, looking at exhibits, while outside tourists took in the gardens, the fountains, or marveled at the planetarium.

  Then, without warning, without even a flash of light, nothing but a faint ripple in the air, as if an invisible wave had just disrupted the fabric of the atmosphere—the dome imploded, shelves and floor were slammed down and met the exploding ground levels. Chunks of metal, concrete and earth rending and splitting, thrusting up and out and slamming down again, pulverized into Alexandria's foundation.

  The force of a meteor, just like—

  He'd seen this before. Something Orlando had shown him…

  Caleb shook his head, gagging on the visualization of the complete destruction of such a grand monument, not to mention the instant death of all those people. And only minutes after his arrival!

  There could be no natural event. Just like he now believed Tunguska, Siberia was anything but natural. That place by the snowy mountains… Calderon…

  He hung his head, fighting the tears, the guilt threatening to rend his heart of its last remaining strength. Willing it all away. He had to get to Alexander.

  As much as it might be the final nail in his heart, he had to see…

  #

  But before he even looked, he knew what he'd find. Alexander was okay. He just had to be.

  If Calderon did this, he would only have gone so far if he knew of the vault down here. Knew they'd be here. Calderon gave them enough time to get settled in, then he brought the world down upon them, sealing them in.

  Keeping Caleb and Alexander—and the other Keepers—from the worst of the destruction.

  But Alexander had the keys.

  That was the one thought that kept Caleb going.

  If Calderon still wanted that translation, he needed the keys. Sure he could mount an excavation in the guise of a rescue, and dig up the lower vault to find the keys, but that could take months, especially given the level of response and world attention that would be starting even now.

  No, something told Caleb that Calderon knew that there would be an easier way.

  One that would only be possible if he knew about the other exit from the vault, and if he knew that Alexander might actually be okay. Or at least reachable quickly.

  Caleb knew it had to be true. After all, Mason Calderon was not without his own resources. Resources that could see, most likely, as well as anyone on the Morpheus Initiative.

  Caleb's other boys.

  12.

  Cairo

  Mason Calderon put away his cell phone, slipped it inside his suit coat pocket, and turned back to the twins, standing on either side of their mother.

  "It's done. If your visions were right, your brother is now buried under the sadly short-lived Bibliotheca Alexandrina."

  Isaac shrugged. "We no more doubt our visions than you doubt when you look up into the sky and say it's blue."

  Mason took a moment. "A shame really, about their library. Such noble endeavors for the sons of Thoth, but in the end, what is it I always tell you boys?"

  Jacob looked at his brother, and they both intoned the mantra at once: "Nothing ever lasts, least of all knowledge."

  Calderon smiled, a grin that lingered despite the concern he saw on Nina's face. "Don't worry, my dear. I'm sure you're old lover has managed to survive. Although what he's feeling right now, I can hardly guess. To actually be witness to the destruction of the great library on both occasions, and with his fondness for wisdom…"

  Nina's lips curled up at the edges. "I still have a score to settle with
him. So, are we going?"

  The boys looked up at her with something like flashing respect. She was all business, a quality they understood.

  Calderon nodded, motioning the soldiers to carry up the heavy chest and prepare to take it away. He addressed the senior guard. "Seal the door when we're gone. I want no evidence of this entrance, and no further questions. Tell the press the situation is controlled. The bomb threat was a false alarm."

  Nina followed, lost in her thoughts amid confusion about her feelings for Caleb. Feelings now that seemed mired in shifting sands. Caleb and Nina shared something now, a connection to a line of heredity. Their genes, their individuality merged in these two living beings. She never imagined she'd feel this responsibility, this curiosity, or this stake in the future of other beings. Halfway up the stairs, she realized that Jacob was holding her hand, as naturally as if he'd been with her all his life.

  Two more steps, and Isaac noticed. Scowling at his brother, he took Nina's other hand and led her up the last few steps impatiently.

  "Come on," he said, manic glee in his voice. "I want to meet my father. Let's go dig them out."

  "And get those keys," Calderon said over his shoulder as he headed for the helicopter. "And then…" He held the briefcase in a tight grip, feeling the handle tremble with the power of the Emerald Tablet inside. Another step and he paused and looked around the perimeter to the armada of jeeps, soldiers and onlookers. Then, back to the imposing sight of the Great Pyramid rising from beyond the Sphinx's back.

  The Shepherd's tool was blunted, useless. But a new one was operational, halfway around the world. His gaze shifted and he looked up, beyond the pyramid's hulking outline, to the shining half-moon.

  Soon… His destiny was just a translation away.

  BOOK TWO

  Seeing Is Believing

  1.

  Washington State