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Wolfgang found the detention room empty. It took him only five minutes to find the courtyard and the bodies of his men.
“Cage!” He spat the name out like a mouth full of rotten meat.
Colonel Wolfgang ran back to the Grand Pyramid. When he arrived he informed the three guards around Venoma’s tent to escort the Marquis to the Great Chamber. He retrieved two machine guns and set off in search of Jack and Sophie.
Moments later the Marquis de Venoma exited the tent.
“Where is Colonel Wolfgang?”
“He is looking for his men sir, he ordered us to see you safely to the Professor.”
The three soldiers followed the Marquis slowly up the steep stairs, down the short hallway and into the main chamber. They marveled at the room opening before them. Their two comrades stood across the room a few feet behind the professor. Fritz was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall near one of the small obelisk, his face swollen and his eyes black and blue as if he had been beaten severely. Venoma approached the central obelisk.
“Professor DeWulf, the time has arrived for us to embark on our journey. Man has walked this planet for thousands of years, wandering through the ages in darkness, searching for a purpose that always just eluded them. Together we have discovered the next step in man’s evolution and together we will bravely move forward. In a thousand years our progeny will speak of this moment with awe and reverence. In the journal of human existence this will forever be mankind’s crowning moment.”
“Xavier, I beg you reconsider. This is insanity. Do you not realize that mankind will resist you. There is a better way to use the knowledge here. Let those who can control it first learn to use it and then you can…”
“What professor, I can what? Allow you and your contemporary infidels to plagiarize the accomplishments of a surpassing intellect, to defile my legacy, to plunder what has been bestowed upon me! No professor, I will go forward and complete the biography of the Katch’. My actions here today will be legend. The young Corporals failure here was a result of his deficiencies. I however will enter as the chosen one and rise unblemished and uninjured.”
Venoma stretched himself out upon the golden lounge. The professor refused to proceed.
“The Colonel is with your beautiful daughter awaiting my safe return. Let us begin and thus not delay your reunion any longer.”
Professor DeWulf stepped forward as the black floor produced the control panel. The two soldiers nearest him stepped back fearfully. The headpiece again lowered into place. The pulsating tempo increased its rhythm. Xavier Venoma tensed as the pyramid once again began its plaintive wail.
“I can see it! It is wonderful!” Venoma cried out in frenzied delight.
The three soldiers nearest the entryway turned and ran from the chamber.
As the conduits of light coursed through floor, Venoma’s countenance suddenly changed, his eyes becoming wide with fear.
“Professor… stop…” He demanded through clenched teeth.
Before DeWulf could react, Corporal Fritz leapt forward pushing the professor to the ground and took over the controls. His hands flew over the control panel and the entire Pyramid began to quake violently. The noise in the room reached a deafening level.
Matroye Joley appeared in the entryway. The two guards moved toward him. He broke the first man’s neck and killed the second with his own rifle. Fritz turned to see the big man approaching.
“Take the Professor and go!” Fritz spoke in a tone that stopped Jolly in his tracks. The Pyramid rumbled and shook with convulsions as glass and chunks of black granite rained down from above. Fritz passed his hand over the control panel one last time sending a bone jarring tremor through the structure.
“Fritz my boy, please… ” Professor DeWulf began.
“Professor, you do not understand. The inhabitants of this city were not the Katch’. They were merely the guardians of their technology. The Katch’ are not… human.”
Xavier Venoma let go a horrific scream that carried above the roar of the machine as the skin across his scalp began to tear apart.
“The four stones are only the key’s that unlock the vault.” Fritz continued. “The four towers around this pyramid are the true receptacles. They contain the accumulated knowledge and experiences of thousands of races spanning millions of generations, collected over eons of time from hundreds of worlds.” Fritz moved his arm in a sweeping gesture.
“The Katch’ are a race of conquerors moving from world to world destroying, plundering and enslaving their inhabitants. This city is not a benign Eden. It is a garrison, an outpost, a cache. The knowledge and technology stored here is not meant for us. Mankind is not ready to possess it, they will never be ready. It must be destroyed. It must never be allowed to leave this place.”
“No! Surely we can learn to control it, given time and patience, if not now perhaps in the future.” The professor pleaded.
“The Katch’ thought that way too professor. But they were corrupted by the absolute power this knowledge brought them. They were consumed by greed. They became compassionless and imperious.” Fritz eyes focused on some unseen thing in the distance.
“In their natural state they could exist on this planet for only short periods of time and so they attempted to blend their species with that of the locals. They sought to produce a superior race, one that could exist in this world and theirs, a race that would replace and enslave mankind. The result… was an abomination.”
“The Xingu!” Jolly said.
“Yes. Man’s violent nature was enhanced. Our desire to destroy was augmented while our compassion and intellect were repressed. The children of the Katch’ and the people of this city became nothing more than human predators lusting after violence and blood.”
Fritz had been manipulating the control panel as he spoke, the loud thump, thump, thump from outside the Grand Pyramid reverberated throughout the structure. Xavier Venoma writhed on the lounge, every muscle in his body locking and relaxing alternatively. He released a sickening bone chilling scream of agony. Slowly he forced his gaze toward the control panel. Upon seeing Fritz a howl of terror and rage escaped his lungs.
“You see it don’t you Xavier?” Fritz spoke consolingly. “You know I cannot let you have it. It was not meant for us, it is a burden too heavy for us to carry.”
Jolly pulled the professor away pushing him toward the entrance.
Fritz passed his hand quickly over the controls. The four small obelisks shattered in an explosion of light. A small fissure opened across the length of the great obelisk with a resounding crack.
Venoma’s eyes exploded in his skull. He flailed in uncontrollable misery. The Grand Pyramid began breaking apart sending huge chunks of black granite falling from above. As Jolly and the professor turned to escape Fritz called after them.
“Professsor,” he shouted over the chaos, “they are coming back!”
Jolly and the Professor froze in their tracks at this horrific revelation.
“You must find the other temples and destroy them. You are mankind’s only hope for survival” Fritz tone was ominous and his words pleading.
Jolly grabbed the Professors lapel and led him away as the Great Pyramid collapsed around them.
Chasing El Dorado Page 25