‘How many are missing?’ Sarah said, fearing the worst.
No one spoke, but Sarah was getting the distinct impression everyone was on a knife edge. If she made one wrong move, she was dead.
‘What about Konstantin?’ Sarah said, suddenly hopeful. ‘He came for me. Why not them?’
‘Why?’ Chen said. ‘Because Avery had Major Lanter lock down the whole site. They’ve got thermal cameras up everywhere and their precious Swiss guards are patrolling day and night.’
‘And besides,’ Farish said, ‘it wasn’t a man who was seen in the camp.’ He holstered his weapon. ‘It was a woman.’
‘Konstantin’s knights are all men,’ Chen said, ‘and the only other woman here is your friend. What’s her name? Trish Brook.’
‘And you,’ Sarah said, holding her gaze.
‘Chen was with at least one of us all the time,’ said another explorer, a bald-headed man with ferocious eyes.
Sarah looked back down at the feverish man, as he continued his eerie mutterings. ‘Did he touch the frieze?’
Chen shook her head. ‘Neither of them did.’
‘Then what’s causing it?’
‘That’s the problem, we don’t know.’
‘Has he spoken as well?’ Sarah pointed to the silent form of the other man lying behind Chen.
The Australian looked at him, her expression sad. ‘He did for a while; he’s been silent over a day now.’
As the seconds ticked by the other explorers moved over to the far side of the large tent to talk and Chen lowered her voice. ‘Sarah, listen to me. I don’t know if you’re behind this, behind the deaths, or the missing, but you know Zinetti and Avery are keeping things from us. They have from the beginning. If we’re to find our friends, we need to work together.’ She held up the drawing she’d shown her before. ‘You’re the key to this place. Why are we here? Think. You must know.’
‘I don’t, I ...’ She looked at the drawing and noticed a constellation that matched the one in the night sky shown to her by the crazed Catholic fanatic, Alexander Konstantin, who also happened to be the leader of the Knights of the Apocalypse, a terrorist group of religious fundamentalists responsible for Sarah’s abduction some days before.
‘You recognise something, don’t you? What do you see?’
Sarah shook her head. The man next to her groaned and she looked down as his nonsensical oratory resumed again. Chen and her team obviously needed help, they were dropping like flies, but Sarah knew she couldn’t even help herself, let alone anyone else. She had no idea how she could find Trish and Jason. She had no idea about anything anymore. But as she continued to listen to the flow of words, she heard the structure Chen had mentioned. There were definite sentences, repetitions and verb-like attributes. It was as if she could understand it somehow, it felt so familiar ... so unusually familiar.
Chen grasped Sarah’s wrist. ‘Tell me, what do you hear?’ She looked at Sarah, who was listening intently, then looked down at her friend and frowned. ‘Do you recognise the language?’
Sarah didn’t reply straight away, and then, after a pause, she said, ‘It’s meaningless. It could be a language, you’re right, but it’s not like anything I’ve ever heard before.’
‘That’s because he’s speaking in tongues,’ said a familiar voice.
They both looked round to see Cardinal Avery Cantrell entering the tent, with Ruben, the monk, and Cardinal Zinetti, following close behind.
Sarah caught Ruben’s gaze, but he quickly looked away. The thawing of their relations remained in full reverse since she’d been revealed as a potential killer. And she couldn’t blame him; why would he want to be near her? Why would anyone? she thought.
The Irish cardinal stamped his feet to remove the snow and moved closer, stepping into the light.
‘Speaking in tongues,’ Farish said, as the other explorers gathered around them. ‘What’s that?’
‘It’s the language of God,’ Sarah said. ‘That’s right, isn’t it?’
‘It is a gift from the Holy Spirit,’ Avery said. ‘Although some fear it and others mock it.’
‘And which sort are you?’ Sarah said.
Avery smiled. ‘Our official position is that we don’t have an official position.’
‘It’s called sitting on the fence,’ Zinetti said, and he pushed Sarah aside as he moved closer to the bedridden explorer in order to hear his words. After a moment the Italian cardinal stood up. ‘This man has been touched by the Devil. This is Satan’s work.’
‘You forget scripture, Your Eminence,’ Ruben said, his voice stern. ‘Aemulamini prophetare et loqui linguis nolite prohibere,’ he said in Latin.
‘Be zealous to prophesy: and forbid not to speak with tongues,’ Avery said in translation. ‘Epistula Ad Corinthios I. Chapter fourteen, verse thirty-nine.’
Zinetti scowled at Ruben. ‘Just because we don’t understand it doesn’t mean he speaks in tongues.’
‘Just because you don’t understand it,’ Avery said, ‘doesn’t mean he doesn’t.’
‘I thought believers could interpret it,’ Sarah said.
‘It’s been found speaking in tongues activates parts of the brain usually associated with meditation and prayer,’ Avery said. ‘Interpretation is in itself a gift, one of the spiritual gifts.’
Zinetti said something condescending in Latin and the two cardinals proceeded to argue in increasing agitation. Sarah ignored them and Chen moved away to speak with her explorers in hushed tones.
Ruben cleared his throat to gain Sarah’s attention.
‘Speaking in tongues,’ he said, gazing down at the bedridden explorer, ‘is the body’s way of allowing our soul to speak directly to God.’
‘Exactly!’ Avery said pointing at Ruben. ‘Exactly that.’
‘I don’t care what it means,’ Chen said to the Irish cardinal. She held up Sarah’s drawing. ‘You still haven’t told us how these led us here.’
Silence fell inside the tent and Sarah noticed two of the explorers had drawn their weapons and moved to guard the exit.
Chen looked down meaningfully at the pistol in her hands, and then looked up at Avery. ‘It’s time to start talking, Your Eminence. Our patience has run out.’
Farish pointed his gun at Zinetti, who took a fearful step back as Ruben strode forward and reached back over his shoulder to grasp something hidden beneath his robe.
Chen and her other explorers also raised their weapons and Avery touched Ruben’s shoulder and shook his head in warning.
‘Chen, my dear,’ Avery said, the white-haired Irish cardinal moving to the fore, ‘I understand your frustration. You’re quite right. It’s time to tell you what we know.’
Chen gazed at him and then motioned to her men to lower their weapons.
Visibly relieved, Avery turned to Sarah and pointed to the back of the tent. ‘Sarah, if you will.’
Confused, Sarah stood up. Her painful tremors had calmed a little and she looked to where Avery had pointed and caught sight of something familiar. She walked over to an area at the back of the tent to find drawings like those shown her by Alexander Konstantin, when he’d held her prisoner in his cave. Only unlike those copies, these were originals, the actual drawings Sarah had feverishly compiled back in Costa Rica the year before. She picked one up and wondered if Ruben had taken more than the giant’s blood from the train on the night he’d rescued her. It explained how these came to be here, rather than in the GMRC’s possession, especially considering Konstantin’s claim that they had guided the Vatican expedition to Mongolia in the first place.
Not all the drawings were present, however, or at least it didn’t seem that way. She remembered sketching more. She stared down at the designs filled with constellations and strange symbols and wondered how anyone could have made sense of them.
She picked them up and handed them to Avery, who shuffled through them and then passed them to Zinetti.
The Italian cardinal moved to the front of the d
imly lit tent and powered up the holographic display to cast a blue glow over the room. He held up the first drawing. ‘At first glance these symbols and constellations are meaningless.’
He turned to the screen and pressed a button and the drawing he’d just shown them appeared in three dimensions, hovering in the air beside him. ‘And,’ he said, holding up a second drawing next to the first, ‘in isolation, they are. But when combined with others …’ – he pressed another button and a second drawing appeared beside the first – ‘… we found six of them form a greater whole.’
Four more images appeared on the holographic screen and the constellations at its centre merged as they intersected.
‘It’s a map of the stars,’ Sarah said, studying it. ‘But how did it lead you here? There are no reference points.’
Avery smiled. ‘We found that the remaining drawings also created single star maps, ten in total. But these were not different sections of the night sky; they were the same snapshot of space, depicting different times. The clue to their sequence is not in the constellations themselves, but in the symbols around them.’
Zinetti pressed another button and the image changed to a second image, and then to a third and then a fourth. Each time the image changed, the symbols at the edges altered, while the constellations at the centre remained in virtually the same positions.
‘As you can see,’ Avery said, pointing at the scrolling representation. ‘The symbols are arranged in a circular formation around the outer edge.’
‘Like a clock,’ said one of Chen’s explorers.
‘Just so,’ Avery said. ‘And when arranged in a specific order, they play out a set period of time of nine months. And they also enabled us to pinpoint the exact location of this site.’ Avery motioned at Zinetti. ‘Run the sequence.’
‘The drawings have been converted into real life imagery using footage taken from the night sky,’ Zinetti said, and ran the short holographic movie.
The light in the room dimmed as the holo-screen displayed twinkling constellations.
Sarah took a step forward. ‘What are those other stars?’
‘They’re any other celestial bodies that would be in the same location in real life,’ Avery said.
‘Are those planets?’ Chen said, pointing at five other bright lights in the film.
Avery nodded. ‘And the constellation Virgo, and the moon beneath.’
‘The five planets are Heaven’s Vault,’ Sarah said, remembering what Konstantin had told her. ‘And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.’
‘Revelation, chapter twelve,’ Avery said. ‘How did you know?’
Sarah grimaced. ‘Konstantin told me before he shoved a sword in my chest.’
Avery threw Zinetti a worried look and then looked back at Sarah. ‘What else did he say?’
Sarah considered him for a moment before saying, ‘That the End of Days is upon us and Cardinal Zinetti believes he can prevent some kind of apocalypse.’
‘An apocalypse?’ Chen said, growing angry. ‘Planets, scrolls, stars. What does this all mean? Why are we here? What are you looking for, if not Agartha?’ The Australian pointed to the back of the tent. ‘What’s happening to my men?!’
Avery held up his hands. ‘We don’t know what’s affecting your team.’
His eyes flicked to Sarah, but they returned to Chen a split second later without anyone noticing; anyone, that was, except for Sarah herself.
He does think I’m to blame, Sarah thought, having glimpsed the Irishman’s Freudian slip. She glanced at the man who still spoke in tongues and tried to remember if she’d ever touched him.
‘However,’ Avery continued. ‘We believe this place, which the Golden Scroll referred to as the Source of Egypt, is the real-life creation that formed the basis of Egyptian belief, a way to reach what they called the world of the spirit. What are we looking for?’ He looked at Chen. ‘You’re right, Agartha is not our priority. This place might be an ancient city, built millennia past by beings we call the Anakim, but it’s much more than that. We believe the Anakim built something here, something powerful, something wonderful. What do we seek? We seek Heaven’s Gate.’
‘A gateway,’ Chen said. ‘A gateway to where? The underground world?’
‘The answer is in the name,’ Avery said.
Chen laughed. ‘A gateway to heaven? You’re out of your mind.’
‘Am I?’ Avery said, his eyes glittering with excitement.
Sarah suddenly realised what she’d been missing all along. ‘You’ve decoded their text. That’s how you found this place, it wasn’t just from the constellations. You found a way to decipher their writings. You’ve found a way to open this gate.’
Avery shook his head. ‘We’ve decoded a few symbols, that’s all. Their language remains far beyond our reach. But you’re right, we’ve found a way to open it. Although we believe entering the spirit world is not its purpose, at least not directly.’
‘Then what is its purpose?’ Chen said, as everyone in the room fell silent.
‘It’s so much more than another world.’ Avery raised his arms aloft and touched the cross hanging around his neck. ‘It’s a way ... a way to converse with God himself.’
Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Four
‘This is absurd,’ Chen said. ‘A way to speak to God? A gateway to heaven? Surely you can’t expect us to believe that.’
‘Believe what you like,’ Zinetti said angrily. He switched off the holographic projector. ‘We don’t need approval from the likes of you.’
‘How do you explain a man speaking in a language unknown to man?’ Avery said. ‘How do you explain what the previous expedition found? Yes, we know you broke into this tent and read the diary entries, Ms Chen.’ He gave her a knowing look. ‘And how do you explain that something inside Ms Morgan’s mind led us here, without her knowledge?’
‘Coincidences,’ Chen said, sounding unsure of herself. ‘What you’re claiming is impossible.’
‘The Anakim were technologically advanced for at least five hundred thousand years,’ Avery continued. ‘Their civilisation lasted a hundred, possibly even a thousand times longer than our own. Do you think, in all that time, they progressed no further than humans, whose technological age has lasted a mere few hundred years?’
‘So you claim,’ Chen said. ‘We only have your word these Anakim even existed.’
Sarah glanced at Chen and thought, she must have found out more about the Anakim during my abduction and recovery. Which made Sarah wonder, what else had happened while she’d been away.
‘Then prove us wrong,’ Avery said to the Australian explorer. ‘Stop fighting us and finish what you started. You found the frieze, now help us find the gate, and maybe we can cure your friends.’
Chen looked to her men and then back at Avery. ‘We want our pay quadrupled and all medical expenses covered. Family members are to receive the money for any of my team who are left incapacitated, or who never return, be they missing or dead.’
‘Done,’ Avery said, his quick acceptance of the proposal leaving Chen momentarily thrown.
‘And we want it in writing, legally binding.’ Chen said. ‘With all monies and benefits due held in escrow, to be released upon completion.’
‘Agreed,’ Avery said. ‘Shall we connect to our relevant institutions now, to seal the deal?’
Chen nodded and moved to the computer terminal to begin the process. Meanwhile, Sarah, feeling less than well, moved to the back of the tent as they hammered out their financial wranglings.
The feverish man continued to talk and Sarah sat down on the floor next to him, the dim lights above casting them in shadow. She zoned out as she tried to ignore the pain and resist the urge to inject herself with more drugs. I can fight this, she told herself. I don’t need their medicine. I won’t die without it.<
br />
‘Only in God’s light is our path unbroken.’
Sarah looked round to see who had spoken, but no one was there. She looked down at the man who lay on the floor next to her and he stared right back, his mad eyes fixed on hers.
‘Only in God’s word is Heaven’s Gate opened,’ he said, and seized her wrist.
Sarah tried to free herself but he pulled her closer. ‘The blood of the sacrificed will open the gates of heaven or hell,’ he said, his voice a terrified whisper. ‘And lo, the chosen will bear the marks of Christ, awakened by God’s messenger, resurrected from death, possessed of darkness.’
Sarah went to cry out but the man’s other hand clamped over her mouth. ‘But never alone,’ he said. ‘God’s light protects the sons and daughters of man, for they shall fear no evil in his presence,’ – blood seeped from his eyes and his voice grew louder – ‘only in future’s past.’ He forced Sarah onto her back and lent over her, his blood dripping onto her face as it seeped from his mouth, eyes and nose. ‘Where they will usher in an age of darkness, for they are possessed by shadow’s light!’
Sarah struggled to free herself and then Ruben was there, trying to pull the deranged explorer away. The man grasped her tightly as he pushed his bloodied lips to her ear and whispered, ‘Only in God’s word is Heaven’s Gate opened.’
Ruben dragged him off and the man screamed an unintelligible rush of words. His body thrashed on the floor and Chen and her team ran to help subdue him.
The struggle continued and Sarah stared in horror, blood dripping from her face, as the explorer screamed again, until, finally, his movements weakened and then ceased altogether. His wide, staring eyes fixed on Sarah and he sighed, his last breath whispering from his lips, his fingers pointing towards her with his body clutched in the rigidity of death.
Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Five
It had only been ten minutes since the man had died right in front of their eyes and the atmosphere in the dig site’s main tent remained tense. Avery, Zinetti and Ruben seemed less affected by events than Chen and her team, who were visibly shaken after witnessing one of their own die in torment. Sarah could relate, as she was right there with them.
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