* There’s no one else approaching. *
You’re as handy as Touchdown sometimes.
* Glad to be of service. *
Quiz gazed at the eight-inch-long blue crystal resting on the stone floor — the energy source his Digi-Palm had registered. It was pulsing at ten-second intervals.
* It’s an incredible power source. *
No doubt. But used for what?
*I don’t know, but I think you should wrap it up. It may be light-sensitive. *
Quiz took a piece of bandage from his first aid kit and gently wrapped the crystal. The pulsing stopped.
Quiz took a deep breath and looked at his Digi-Palm. It was called the Ruba-schal.
* It obviously comes from the Ancients. The Nizia were advanced, but I don’t see anything here resembling a scientific technology that could utilize crystals as an energy source. *
I agree. Let’s get this back to the EFV.
Temple of Kalpur-Az
Ruins of Raj Kithune
“The temple is clear — for now,” said Touchdown.
“We’re climbing the steps,” said Hawkeye.
Ten steps up, Hawkeye winced.
“I can walk with a limp, but climbing all those steps . . . ” Hawkeye shook his head. “Not gonna happen.”
The leader threw his arms around Shooter and Madison, who flanked his sides. Hawkeye hopped on his one good leg the rest of the way up. The three figures stopped on the porch of the temple.
“Pictures of the sun are carved everywhere,” Madison observed.
Many of the glyphs showed a humanoid figure, the head replaced by the sun, complete with grooved lines representing rays of light moving outward from the body.
Madison looked at the temple and the other Nizian structures in the distance. “The layout is similar to Mayan cities in Central America. It was probably a well-manicured city with plenty of green spaces and plazas. I’ve also seen stone channels running through the city and what appear to be fountains and dried-up pools. These people had a sophisticated irrigation system.”
“Let’s get inside,” Hawkeye said. “We shouldn’t stay exposed for too long.”
Inside the temple, the Titan members beheld hundreds of pictures of mating couples on the walls, although many were partially eroded.
“A randy bunch,” Shooter remarked. “This resembles a Nizian Kama Sutra.”
Ambergris broke in from the Ops Center.
“It’s unusual for a sun god to be equated with fertility,” he said. “In most cultures, fertility gods were lesser beings and had their own temples.”
“It’s awfully damn hot in here,” said Shooter.
“Ops,” said Hawkeye, “we have flames coming through cracks in the floor. I’m also reading pockets of methane, sulfur, and other volatile elements.”
Shooter cautiously entered the interior chamber. “In here,” she called. “There’s a winding stairway that leads below.”
“We’re going to descend,” said Hawkeye as he and Madison joined Shooter.
“I’m reading intense geologic activity down there,” said Touchdown. “The temperature is just this side of hell. I advise you to activate the oxygen canisters in your backpacks and take slow, steady breaths.”
“Roger that,” said Hawkeye.
A narrow stairway was carved directly into the stone floor of the temple. It was dark except for an occasional red glow that illuminated the steps, as if a light was strobing somewhere beneath the main chamber.
The team descended single file.
Subterranean Chamber
Temple of the Moon
Will Langhorne walked into a chamber adjoining the room where he had spoken with Commander Aiko. The space was lit with a portable light panel in the corner.
“So I’m not the only prisoner of the Chinese,” Langhorne said affably as he approached two soldiers sitting in the corner.
The Titan members got to their feet.
“I’m Tank and this is Gator. We’re part of a special ops force from Titan Global. We were captured while doing some recon.”
“I’ve heard of the outfit,” said Langhorne, raising his eyebrows. “Very impressive — and very hush-hush. I used to work in Washington for the U.S. Geological Survey. There’s a lot of gossip in that town. I’ve been stationed in Nevada lately and thought I’d have a look-see after the explosion. I fell into the crater and was investigating when the Chinese knocked me out and brought me here.”
“What do they want?” Tank asked.
“I haven’t the faintest idea. Couldn’t understand what they were saying. I do know a way out of here, however, assuming we could distract our hosts.”
Tank and Gator exchanged glances.
“That can be arranged,” said Tank. “If you can spring us, we’ll take you to the rest of our team.”
“Deal,” said Langhorne.
Beneath the Temple of Kalpur-Az
Ruins of Raj Kithune
Titan Six entered a vast underground chamber below the temple of the sun god.
“It’s huge!” said Hawkeye. “This space extends for fifty yards in every direction.”
The red glow the team had seen in the stairway was the lurid glare coming from dozens of fires. The chamber was bordered on two sides by the stone foundation of the temple above. The other two sides were limestone and granite outcroppings.
“The blast shattered some of the foundation,” Madison observed, pointing to the limestone and granite. “It’s a wonder the entire temple hasn’t already collapsed.”
A large fireball erupted from the floor twenty yards away, knocking the team to the ground.
Madison staggered to his feet, took a black cylinder from his backpack, and planted it in a crack in the floor. He flipped a switch on the side of the device, which came to life, lights blinking along its smooth, black surface.
Madison nodded grimly after several minutes and then stood.
“Touchdown was correct,” he said. “There are pockets of gas under this temple, although a lot more than anybody suspected. Just two hundred meters below where we’re standing, the temperature is five hundred degrees hotter than it should be.”
“I think you guys should get over here,” said Shooter, who had moved close to one of the chamber’s limestone walls.
Hawkeye, followed by Madison, limped to her position. The three lay on their stomachs and peered through an underground fissure in the floor of the chamber where offerings to Kalpur-az had once been stored.
“Son of a bitch,” Hawkeye muttered. “This isn’t a temple of the sun. It’s a temple of fire.”
The Titan members gazed at a geological chamber below the one they now inhabited. It descended far into the bowels of the earth. Rivers of lava flowed around raging fires, the flames of which shot up every few seconds as gas escaped from deep recesses in the earth. Pools of black oil bubbled up from below, occasionally erupting into lakes of fire.
“U.S. Petroleum created a literal hell,” Madison said, “but their theory of abiogenic oil was dead on. They tapped into the Deep Biosphere. Oil rich, to say the least, but also rich in natural gas deposits.”
“Did their drilling techniques do this?” asked Hawkeye.
“It’s wasn’t their technique,” Madison answered. “Any sustained drilling three miles below this area would have destabilized the geology. The fact that this city was here was the wild card. The city contains plenty of air pockets — the rooms in all the temples and pyramids and dwellings — making the ground far more unstable than most drilling sites.
“But that’s only one factor that caused this shit-storm. The air pockets, combined with the escaping gas, are responsible for the raging fires. A simple equation: fire, gas, and oxygen equals explosions.”
“So the city is going to be destroyed?” asked Shooter.
“No!” cried Ambergris over the COM sets. “It must be preserved at all costs.”
“Joshua, you don’t understand the ramifications of what I�
��m saying,” Madison said. “This city is going to be consumed in less than a day, maybe even in a matter of hours. But it’s not just fire that’s going to level it.”
“Cut to the chase,” said Caine.
“What we’re witnessing in this cavern extends for miles down into the earth. Everything is going to collapse.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” asked Hawkeye. “The city will be lost, but this whole damn pit of hell will be sealed up.”
Madison shook his head. “No. Not sealed. The pressure created by the collapse is going to trap megatons of energy that will rebound in an explosion far more powerful than anything the human race has ever witnessed.”
“How powerful, Christian?” asked Caine.
“As powerful as the blast that created the underwater Yucatan crater sixty-five million years ago. The one that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.”
“What you’re telling me,” said Caine, “is that mankind is going to be wiped out.”
“Exactly,” said Madison. “Extinction.”
Tremors deep in the earth shook the cavern.
“Let’s get out of here,” Hawkeye said. “We need to regroup on the surface.”
The team made their way up and out of the Temple of Kalpur-az.
86TH FLOOR, Jin Mao Tower,
Shanghai, China
Dressed impeccably in an Armani suit, Li Soo Yang stood before the double-plated window that served as the office wall overlooking the heart of Shanghai. The flatscreen behind him announced with a gentle chime that he had an incoming video call.
“We have penetrated the crater, sir,” said Saturo Aiko. “My troops are recording all data from the city, which we shall transmit to Dominique Caine when we are finished.”
“Well done,” said Yang. “Dominique is interested in studying the extent of technological influence, if any, the Ancients had on later cultures that their descendants created.”
“Understood.”
“Tell me of the geological situation,” said Yang. “We have decided to pursue any information pertaining to abiogenic sources of oil. Dominique has discovered alternative energies while interpreting The Genesis Code, but they will take time to develop.”
“My team’s lead scientist tells me that there is a vast reservoir of oil beneath the crater, but we have only begun to investigate the scientific ramifications of the blast.”
“Very well,” said Yang. “Keep me informed.”
The flatscreen went blank.
Outside the Temple of Kalpur-az
Ruins of Raz Kithune
“It’s getting hard to see,” Hawkeye said. “The wind is picking up.”
“Sandstorm,” said Madison.
“Three figures approaching you from the west,” said Touchdown.
Hawkeye, Shooter, and Madison raised their rifles as they hid behind a toppled stone column.
From the haze of dust and sand, Gator and Tank emerged. They were accompanied by a man wearing a cavalry hat.
“We’re okay,” Tank said. “This is Will Langhorne. He’s a geologist stationed over in Elko. All three of us were captured by Chinese Dragons. Gator pretended to be having trouble breathing. We overpowered the guards, found our weapons, and exited the temple where we were held using a tunnel that Will found.”
The maverick tipped his hat.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Langhorne said.
“Sorry to interrupt the introductions, gentlemen,” said Touchdown, “but I show Chinese targets all around you. They’re stationed on the tops of various temples and the observatory.”
Bullets tore through stone representations of lions and eagles. Titan Six fired blindly at a forty-five degree angle, aiming for the tops of the temples.
“Take cover on the southern side of the Temple of the High Priest!” Hawkeye ordered.
Assault rifles and machine guns from both sides sent rounds into the air and down at the earth.
A grenade exploded in the area between the Temple of Kalpur-az and the Temple of the High Priest.
Titan Six ceased fire as they reeled from the explosion.
“The sandstorm’s getting worse!” screamed Gator.
“More than a sandstorm,” yelled Madison. “It’s a desert twister. It’s causing a whiteout.”
The Chinese kept firing.
The wind howled as sand swirled around Titan Six, spinning the team members around like small action figures. The wind drove them against the stone edifice of the high priest’s temple.
With the sound of a speeding freight train, the twister rose from the crater, revealing all Titan members prostrate on the sand.
Six Dragons loomed above them, rifles at the ready. The soldiers parted as their commander walked forward.
“We meet again, Hawkeye,” said Saturo Aiko. “It is better to engage in combat than tend a garden, is it not?”
Temple of the High Priest
Ruins of Raj Kithune
Quiz had tracked the whereabouts of his team members from the EFV. He was on top of the massive portico in front of the Temple of the High Priest. He saw his team below, lying on the ground and at the mercy of the Chinese.
This is Shooter’s gig.
* But you’re the one with the advantage. The job falls to you. *
What if I miss? Or hit one of Titan Six?
* And what if you don’t? *
Quiz curled his fingers around the trigger of the semi-automatic rifle. Having scoped the Chinese, he counted down from three and began firing.
He felled three commandos in rapid succession. The other three escaped behind one of the stone ruins. Commander Aiko vanished in another direction, a blur that seemed to move faster than was humanly possible.
* * *
Titan Six climbed to its feet, dazed.
“Let’s get back to the EFV,” said Hawkeye. “And thanks, Quiz. Nicely done.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“What’s that?” asked Madison, wiping sand from his eyes. “On the ground.”
Hawkeye looked at the sand floor of the crater. “It’s a grenade! A little parting gift from Aiko. Run! Follow me!”
Titan Six ran the length of the Temple of the High Priest. They rounded its back corner as the grenade exploded.
Langhorne had brought up the rear. He tumbled head first onto the ground and didn’t move.
“Gator and Tank, go get him,” said Hawkeye.
The team retreated to the EFV.
Titan Six
Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle
Titan Six removed their helmets and sipped Grace Nguyen’s energy supplements, which were definitely not available Over-the-Counter.
“So what the hell do we do?” asked Hawkeye, massaging his right leg. “This whole dog and pony show is about to get blown to hell.”
“I’ve been making some calculations regarding the extent of the impending blast,” Madison said, motioning to the black cylinder he had inserted into the underground chamber beneath the Temple of Kalpur-az. “Based on the data I collected, the explosion will create a dust cloud extending forty thousand feet into the atmosphere. The cloud would be approximately six to seven hundred miles in diameter. At that altitude, prevailing wind currents will carry it around the entire world in two to three weeks.”
“The beginning of nuclear winter,” Quiz said. “The much tamer explosion at Tunguska in 1908 spread dust in the atmosphere for weeks, but this is going to be far worse. Sunlight will be blocked from the earth for hundreds of years.”
“I don’t see how this can be averted,” Madison said, resignation causing his facial features to sag. “The Genesis Code is in all of us. Maybe a few survivors will start from scratch yet again. We now know it’s happened several times before.”
* Now is the time to tell them about our special cargo. *
“There may be a way to avert this,” Quiz said. “A limited thermonuclear detonation.” His youthful appearance and demeanor were at odds with the gravity of his stat
ement.
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