“What, like the crystal wasn’t natural to begin with?” Cole asked.
“Maybe it was — who knows?” Jensen asked. “But there’s nothing else like it anywhere in the world — as far as we know, right? So why couldn’t someone have actually
created
the crystal from something? Maybe using the Golden Ratio as a blueprint?”
They all pondered this for a moment. Vilocek seemed surprised; surprised that he had not questioned the crystal’s
creation
, much less that it might have something to do with the Golden Ratio. He knew Andrews made a strong point, but they would need to see more evidence of the crystal’s relationship with the Ratio before he would accept such a theory.
As Jensen continued to explain and clarify the mathematics, Bryce’s cell phone started vibrating in his pocket. Surprised he even had service out here, walked into the kitchen, where there were more windows and the potential for a stronger signal.
“Reynolds,” he answered.
“Bryce — it’s Whittenfield; I’m on a secure line. I just wanted to check in. Have you made any progress?”
Bryce explained what had unfolded so far; the near-executions and Jensen’s theory of the Golden Spiral. He added Jensen’s belief that the crystal might have been created by some ancient civilization, possibly with the help or use of the Golden Ratio.
Whittenfield asked more questions, and Bryce promised to try to send an image of the page in Karn’s notebook. In turn, Bryce asked Whittenfield about any headway he’d made regarding the symbols on the outside of the well shaft beneath the Lower Room.
“Actually, yes. That was one of the main reasons I called.”
“Really?” Bryce perked up.
“It turns out that the symbols on the shaft were exactly what you thought — a map.”
“Really? To where?”
“That’s just it — I’m not sure exactly where, but it’s the results I have here that led me to call. Bryce — this map, these symbols — you won’t believe this,” he continued. “This map is actually a sort of circular diagram of specific spots on the earth’s surface.
“The shaft itself, I’m willing to wager, is representative of the proverbial ‘center of the earth,’ and therefore the symbols around the center mark geographic locations around the world.”
“So it’s like a globe?” Bryce asked, slightly confused.
“Sort of,” Whittenfield said, “only it’s a globe in two dimensions, as if you looked at the North Pole from directly above it, and the equator was the circle that represented the diameter of the Earth.
“In this case, the north pole would be somewhere in present-day Alaska, and the equator would be what we call a ‘Great Circle’.”
“Ok — I’m with you,” Bryce said. “The rim around the well represents the diameter of the earth. The bottom of the shaft, the ‘center’ of the earth.”
“Exactly,” Whittenfield said. “And the symbols on the well shaft’s outer surface represent points along that Great Circle. Including the Pyramid of Giza, there are nine points altogether designated by those symbols.”
Bryce let this last statement sink in. “So there are ten symbols, and each one represents a physical location.”
“Precisely correct — the symbols line up
perfectly
with the corresponding spots around the world, and they are most certainly not random, arbitrary geographic points.”
“What do you mean? They’re
known
locations?” Bryce asked, beginning to share the older man’s excitement.
“Yes. Absolutely, yes. Bryce — I don’t know how it has escaped modern-day geography, but these sites — these places that your hidden chamber points — all exist on the exact same diametric line around the earth. If you drew a straight line around a globe, connecting these dots, each one of these ancient sites would appear
exactly
on that line.”
Bryce felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck. “What exactly are these locations?”
“Whittenfield was triumphant. “Starting with the Great Pyramid, of course, the remaining sites include the location of the ancient temple of Ammon-Ra, home of the Oracle at Siwa, the first known inhabited city on the planet, Ur — in Sumeria, the group of monuments at Khajuraho in India, and the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro, also known as the
Mound of the Dead
.”
“I think I’ve heard of most of those — all ancient historical sites, right?” Bryce asked.
“Not
just
historical sites — some of these are UNESCO World Heritage sites, while others are the pinnacle of their civilization’s architectural achievements. Overall, however, these sites all define and represent their respective cultures. In short, these places are sites of such significance they’ve impacted and shaped world history.”
“Damn.” Bryce was stunned.
“And don’t forget, there were
nine
sites mapped by the symbols — I’ve mentioned the first
six
only.”
“So what are the others?”
“Well, completing the circle around the well shaft, we have the Incan city of Machupicchu, the ‘Lost City’ of Petra — “
Bryce interrupted. “Wait — the Petra in the Indiana Jones movie?”
“The same. Lost for centuries, and found in the early 1800s by the explorer Johann Ludwig Burkhardt.”
“What’s the last site?”
“This is one of my favorites,” Whittenfield said. “Easter Island.”
“The island with those giant stone heads?”
“Yes, known the world over for its sculptures, called
Moai
, somehow built and placed individually by the Rapa Nui people.”
“Wow. You’re sure this is accurate? I mean, those are all pretty significant places, and you mean to tell me they’re all points
on the same line?”
“Yes,
exactly
on the line — almost as if they were
placed
there to coincide with the Great Circle around the globe. Here — check your messages. I just sent some images rendered on my lab computer. I plugged in the longitude and latitude coordinates of each of the symbols’ corresponding sites, and then had my terrestrial mapping software simply ‘connect the dots.’”
Bryce checked the his messages, finding the first image.
“The first is one of the earth, in its standard elliptical shape. You’ll see the equator mapped as well. But you’ll also notice a
second
line — which also completes a full circle around the earth, but starts at 30 degrees south of the equator and extends to 30 degrees north of the equator.”
Bryce listened as he stared at the small screen. Frustrated, he wanted to upload the image to a computer and view it in its full-size. He knew Vilocek would be eager for Whittenfield’s update, so it wouldn’t be out of the question to ask for the use of the laptop again.
“The next image,” Whittenfield continued, “which I’ve just finished and sent to you, is of the earth in a two-dimensional flat map format, with the same circle stretched across from left to right. As I’ve kept true north and south intact, you’ll see the equator still runs through the center horizontally, and the ‘circle’ from before actually appears like a waveform.
”Finally, on both of the maps, I’ve plotted the coordinates of each of the sites. You’ll see them on the line as well.”
“Bryce — you all need to understand something. This crystal — or whatever it is — has a larger implication than we originally thought. The creators of this crystal we’re looking for — the same people who probably created the hidden shafts and chamber below Giza — have obviously laid clues throughout the entire world pointing to the crystal.”
“Obviously,” Bryce said. “They want us to find it, right?”
“Perhaps — but we must not ignore the possibility that this is all something else entirely. Maybe the creators of the crystal weren’t trying to lead us
to
the crystal, but
away
from it. Bryce, this could be a warning — do you think there’s something about the crystal that would need to be locked away forever?”
“I don’t know,” Bryce said. “I’m not sure exactly
what
we’re after here, but I’ll let you know as we get closer.” He let out a tired breath. “I’m going to go and present this to Vilocek; thanks for the input. Oh — and one more thing,” he added.
“What is it?”
“We don’t have time to search all of these sites. Which one do we check?”
“That I don’t know. The symbols, other than their individual locations around the well shaft, are all exactly the same. There’s nothing to differentiate them from each other. Unfortunately, you’ll have to depend on Vilocek and his men for that.”
“Sir…” Bryce hesitated.
“Yes?”
“Those notebooks of your father’s — I kept meaning to ask you. I saw one before we met, back in Iraq. I was given orders to locate and retrieve one from the encampment there, as you recall.”
“I remember.”
“Well, it was in an envelope, one addressed with only two initials
.
We were attacked back in Egypt by a man who Vilocek believes will be after us from now on. Do you know anything about that? A man named Madu — ?”
Bryce was interrupted when he noticed a shadow moving behind him. He quickly hung up the phone and turned around, finding himself face to face with Beka.
“Dr. Vilocek has been waiting — and he wants to know what your boss knows.” Beka turned toward the living room, but quickly spun back to face Bryce. “Captain,” he said mockingly, smirking at Bryce, “I shouldn’t have to tell you what’ll happen if you try to hide something.”
Bryce simply nodded, and followed the giant of a man into the living room of the run-down house.
1:36 AM
“SO WHICH is it, then?” A frustrated Vilocek asked.
“He didn’t know,” Bryce said. “He’s only figured out the location of each site, and that’s it.”
“We don’t have time to search each of these locations, Captain. We need to know
exactly
where the crystal is, extract it, and — “
“Why?” Bryce interrupted. “Why do you need it
now
— can’t you send teams to each place? What’s your hurry?”
Vilocek glared at him. “We have a deadline; imposed on us by the crystal itself.”
“What do you mean, a deadline?” Professor Andrews asked.
Vilocek kept glaring at Bryce as he answered. “The crystal, as we’ve found from the original sample in the lab, is actually degrading. From what we can tell, it’s close to 12,000 years old, and it degrades at an increasing rate with each passing day.”
“So it’ll be completely broken down sometime in the near future?” Wayne asked.
“Yes — in June, my scientists back in New Mexico determined that it will be completely degraded by sometime late this year. We’ve been unable to pinpoint the exact date, but we can assume that we have only about a week to find and stabilize the crystal.”
“And — you
do
know how to do that, correct?” Professor Andrews asked.
Vilocek grinned. “We’re working on it.” His smile quickly faded. “But for now, we need to figure out where the stone is hiding. Professor Jensen, I suggest you and Bryce put your heads together and get me something I can use.”
Jensen Andrews nodded, and then frowned; he stared vacantly at a point on the floor, perplexed.
Corinne looked at him, realized that he’d just remembered something, and was trying to piece it together in his mind. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “There’s something we’re missing. The locations, the symbols — they’re all trying to tell us something, but I can’t figure it out! So far, everything we’ve seen from these clues — and whoever left them — is a
pattern;
there’s order in this all. We need to look at the data from that perspective, and we should be able to — “
“Petra.” Corinne was staring at a map that Karn was scribbling on a large sheet of paper.
“Petra?” Vilocek and Jensen asked simultaneously.
“Yes! Look,” she said, shoving Karn aside to get closer to the map. He shot a murderous look at her, but Vilocek shook his head as Corinne examined the drawing. “It’s the northernmost point of all the locations, and since the line travels both north and south of the equator, don’t you think they would have acknowledged the significance of Petra’s location?”
“Each of the sites are perfectly aligned to the cardinal points,” Jensen said, considering, “so they certainly included magnetic direction in their considerations.”
“And we don’t have anything else to go on,” Vilocek said, making up his mind. “I’m not completely convinced, but we can look into it more on the way. Load up. We’re leaving.”
Plus,
he thought to himself,
we’ll be in a much better position to meet up with the others.
Vilocek knew that they couldn’t maintain the status quo with Bryce’s team for much longer. They were at an impasse, and he knew that if it wasn’t for Whittenfield’s orders and the three civilians, Bryce would have organized some sort of mutiny by now.
It would only be a matter of time before Bryce realized this as well. Vilocek needed help, and he knew Madu Jabari was no longer willing to provide it. Although Vilocek had other friends in low places, he wasn’t entirely confident in their loyalty.
Loyal or not, money was an excellent motivating tool — and Vilocek had plenty of it. He went to a back room and opened his laptop to make a call. After three rings, the screen expanded and a quiet voice greeted him.
Vilocek quickly explained the situation. The other man needed no clarification, and asked no questions. The entire conversation lasted less than a minute.
As Vilocek shut down the computer and collected his things, Karn rushed through the door.
“Boss, we got something — “ he blurted. “Beka’s contact in the states just radioed in with news. They’ve been monitoring the frequencies around Cairo and Giza. Your guy Jabari’s on the move.”
“Where are they headed?” Vilocek asked, shouldering his bag and hurrying out. The others were already packed, all of them grabbing gear and starting outside.
“We don’t know yet,” Karn said, “But they left Giza around 0200 hours, headed almost due east.”
Vilocek pulled up short. “East? They’re heading to Petra!”