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Foletta approaches. He exchanges waves with several abnormally exuberant residents, then joins her.

“Is he still refusing to speak with you?”

Dominique nods. “It’s been almost two weeks. Every day, the same routine. He eats breakfast, then meets with me and stares at the floor for a full hour. Once he gets to the yard, he paces back and forth until dinner. He never mingles with other residents and never says a word. He just paces.”

“You’d think he’d be grateful; after all, you are the one responsible for his newfound freedom.”

“This isn’t freedom.”

“No, but it’s a big step up from eleven years in solitary.”

“I think he really believed I could have gotten him out.”

Foletta’s expression gives him away.

“What, Doctor? Was he right? Could I have—”

“Whoa, slow down, Intern. Mick Gabriel’s not going anywhere, at least not right now. As you’ve seen for yourself, he’s still quite unstable, posing a danger not only to himself but to others. Keep working with him, encourage him to participate in his own therapy. Anything can happen.”

“You are still planning to assign a rehab team.”

“We agreed on January, provided he behaves himself. You should tell him about it.”

“I’ve tried.” She watches as Mick strides past the flight of stairs directly below them. “He no longer trusts me.”

Foletta pats her on the back. “Get over it.”

“I’m not doing him any good. Maybe he needs someone with more experience.”

“Nonsense. I’ll instruct his orderlies that he’s no longer permitted to leave his room unless he actively participates in his therapy sessions.”

“Forcing him to talk won’t help.”

“This isn’t a country club, Intern. We have rules. If a resident refuses to cooperate, he forfeits his privileges. I’ve seen cases like this before. If you don’t act now, Mick will crawl inside his own head, and you’ll lose him forever.”

Foletta signals to an orderly. “Joseph, escort Mr. Gabriel out of the rain. We can’t have our residents getting sick on us.”

“No, wait, he’s my patient, I’ll get him.” Dominique pulls her hair into a tight bun, removes her shoes, then descends the two flights of stairs to the yard. She is drenched by the time she catches up with Mick.

“Hey, stranger, mind if I join you?”

He ignores her.

Dominique keeps pace, the rain pelting her face. “Come on, Mick, talk to me. I’ve been apologizing all week. What did you expect me to do? I had to sign off on Foletta’s report.”

She gets a hard look.

The rain comes down heavier, forcing her to shout. “Mick, slow down.”

He continues walking.

She dashes ahead of him, then takes a fighting stance, fists up, blocking his way. “Okay, buddy, don’t force me to kick your ass.”

Mick stops. He looks up, the rain streaming down his angular face. “You let me down.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, dropping her fists. “Why did you lie to me about the guard attacking you?”

A pained expression. “So truth is no longer to be judged by your heart, but by your ambition, is that it? I thought we were friends.”

She feels a lump growing in her throat. “I want to be your friend, but I’m also your psychiatrist. I did what I thought was best.”

“Dominique, I gave you my word that I’d never lie to you.” He lifts his head, pointing to the three-inch scar along his jawline. “Before Griggs tried to rape me, he threatened to cut my throat.”

Goddam you, Foletta
. “Mick, Jesus, I’m sorry. At our last meeting, when you flipped out on me—”

“My fault. I got excited. I’ve been locked up for so long—sometimes, well sometimes it’s just hard to stay calm. I don’t socialize well, but I swear, I never would have hurt you.”

She sees tears in his eyes. “I believe you.”

“You know, being outside has helped. It’s caused me to think about a lot of different things … selfish things, really. My childhood, the lifestyle I was raised in … how I ended up in here, whether I’ll ever get out. There are so many things that I’ve never done … so many things I would change if I could. I loved my parents, but, for the first time, I realize that I really hate what they did. I hate the fact that they never gave me a choice—”

“We can’t choose our parents, Mick. What’s important is that you not blame yourself. None of us have any control over the deck or the hand we’ve been dealt. What we do have is total responsibility as to how we play the hand. I think I can help you regain control of that.”

He moves closer, the rain pouring down both sides of his face. “May I ask you a personal question?”

“Yes.”

“Do you believe in destiny?”

“Destiny?”

“Do you think our lives, our futures have been … never mind, forget it—”

“Do I think what happens to us is prearranged?”

“Yes.”

“I think we have choices. I think it’s up to us to choose the right destiny to pursue.”

“Have you ever been in love?”

She stares helplessly into the glistening puppy-dog eyes. “I’ve been close a few times. It never seemed to work out.” She smiles. “Guess they weren’t meant to be part of my destiny.”

“If I wasn’t … incarcerated. If we had met under different circumstances. Do you think you could have loved me?”

Oh, shit
… She swallows hard, her pulse causing the base of her throat to twitch. “Mick, let’s get out of the rain. Come on—”

“There’s something about you. It’s not just a physical attraction, it’s like I’ve known you, or knew you in another life.” “Mick—”

“Sometimes I get these premonitions. I felt one the moment I first saw you.”

“You said it was the perfume.”

“It was something more. I can’t explain it. All I know is that I care about you, and the emotions are confusing.”

“Mick, I’m flattered, really I am, but I think you’re right. Your emotions are confused, and—”

He smiles sadly, ignoring her words. “You’re so beautiful.” Leaning forward, he touches her cheek, then reaches out and loosens the knot of jet-black hair.

She closes her eyes, feeling the length of hair unravel down her back, becoming heavy with the rain.
Stop this
!
He’s your patient, a mental patient, for God’s sake
. “Mick, please. Foletta’s watching. Could you just come inside? Let’s talk inside—”

He stares at her, the ebony eyes despondent, revealing a soul tortured by forbidden beauty. “ ‘She doth teach the torches to burn bright. It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night, as a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear—’ ”

“What did you say?” Dominique’s heart is pounding.

“
Romeo and Juliet
. I used to read it to my mother at her bedside.” He lifts her hand, bringing it to his lips. “ ‘And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? Foreswear it, sight, for I never saw true beauty till this night.’ ”

The rain subsides. She sees the two orderlies approach. “Mick, listen to me. I forced Foletta to sign off on assigning you to a rehab team. You could be out of here within six months.”

Mick shakes his head. “We’ll never see the day, my love. Tomorrow’s the autumnal equinox—” He turns, becoming anxious as he spots the men in white. “Read my father’s journal. The fate of this world is about to cross another threshold, vaulting the human race to the top of the endangered species list—”

The two orderlies each grab an arm.

“Hey, go easy on him!”

Mick turns to face her as he is led away, the humidity rising off his body like steam. “ ‘How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night, like softest music to attending ears.’ You’re in my heart, Dominique. Destiny has brought us together. I can feel it. I can feel it…”

JOURNAL OF

JULIUS GABRIEL

B
efore we continue on our journey through man’s history, allow me to introduce you to a term unfamiliar to most of the public: forbidden archaeology. It seems that when it comes to the subject of human origins and antiquity, the scientific community is not always open-minded to evidence that may contradict the already established models of evolution. In other words, sometimes it’s easier just to refute the facts than attempt to come up with a feasible explanation of what can’t be explained.

Good thing Columbus used a Piri Re’is map instead of the accepted European version, or he’d have sailed right off the edge of the world.

When man thinks he knows everything he ceases to learn. This unfortunate reality has led to the suppression of much important research. Because one cannot get published without the approval of a major university, it becomes nearly impossible to challenge the dominant views of the day. I have seen learned colleagues try, only to be ostracized, their reputations destroyed and their careers ruined, even though the evidence supporting their controversial viewpoints appeared insurmountable.

Egyptian Egyptologists are the worst of the lot, hating it when scientists seek to challenge the accepted history of their ancient sites, becoming especially nasty when foreigners question the age and origin of their monolithic structures.

This brings us to methods of dating, the most controversial aspect of archaeology. The use of carbon-14 dating on bones and coal residue is both easy and accurate, but the technique cannot be applied to stone. As a result, archaeologists will often date an ancient site according to other more datable relics found within the vicinity of the dig, or, when none are found, merely by conjecture, leading to a wide range of human error.

Having stated this, let us return to our journey through history and time.

It was sometime after the Great Flood that the first civilizations began cropping up across the world. What we now accept as truth is that recorded history began in Mesopotamia in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley, sometime around 4000 BC, with some of the earliest urban remains found in Jericho dating back as far as 7000 BC. But new evidence now indicates that another civilization, a superior civilization, had flourished even earlier along the banks of the Nile, and it is this more ancient culture and its wise leader who left us the first of the mysterious wonders that may ultimately be responsible for saving our species from annihilation.

There are many temples, pyramids, and monuments spread across the Egyptian landscape, but none compare to the magnificent marvels erected in Giza. It is here, on the west bank of the Nile, that an incredible site plan was laid out, consisting of the Sphinx, its two temples, and the three great pyramids of Egypt.

Why am I speaking of the great pyramids of Giza? How could these ancient monoliths possibly be related to the Mayan calendar and the Mesoamerican culture, halfway across the world?

After three decades of research, I finally realized that, in order to resolve the riddle of the doomsday prophecy, one must put aside the preconceived notions of time, distance, cultures, and surface impressions when analyzing the ancient clues surrounding humanity’s great mystery.

Allow me a moment to elaborate.

The largest and most unexplainable structures ever erected by man are the pyramids of Giza, the Temples of Angkor, located in the jungles of Cambodia, the pyramids in the ancient Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan (also known as the “place of the gods”), Stonehenge, the Nazca drawings, the ruins of Tiahuanaco, and the Kukulcan pyramid in Chichén Itza. Each and every one of these ancient marvels, built by different cultures in different parts of the world at vastly different periods in man’s prehistory, are nevertheless related to humanity’s impending doom referenced in the Mayan calendar. The architects and engineers who erected these cities all possessed a vast knowledge of astronomy and mathematics that easily exceeded the knowledge base of their day. Furthermore, the location for each of the ancient structures had been painstakingly set in accordance with the equinox and solstice, and, incredible as it seems, to each other, for if one wished to divide the surface of our planet using distinct landmarks, then these structures would easily complete the task.