* * *
Bryce and Reina found the gate open. Reina stopped at the first body, a tall, skinny soldier lying like a dummy discarded from a shop window. His helmet had come off his head. She bent, placing a hand on his throat. “Hey, he’s alive.”
Just inside the tunnel, they found the entrance to the offices and labs. It was locked. Bryce dragged the unconscious guard over to the door and held his thumb up against the security lock. The door slid open.
Reina was impressed. “Cool! How did you know to do that?”
Bryce laughed. “They’re planning on introducing that sort of stuff all over the place in the next year or two.”
In the first room, they found the photos on the desk. “Here’s something…”
“Check this out.” Reina had found the map on the wall.
Bryce came over. “This must be what’s down below.”
“There’s enough of it. It’s humungous.”
“Let’s see what else is here.”
They left the office and went down the corridor to the lab. They had never seen anything like the artifacts that were laid out on the tables. The hybrid animal-humans, lizard men and dinosaurs looked like props from a B-grade movie.
“What are these doing here?” Bryce picked up a small brontosaurus. “No prehistoric human ever made an image of a dinosaur. It’s impossible. There’s the slight matter of a few million years…”
“Oh, wow.” Reina had found a meter-high ceramic of a woman having sex with something that looked like
tyrannosaurus rex
. “That’s bent.”
“How can you tell?” asked Bryce.
“Idiot. This thing’s fucking her, look…”
“You’re too kind. And so it is. Now concentrate, we have to think. We’ve got photos of some ruins, we’ve got a map, and now we’ve got some strangely amorous garden gnomes…”
“We have indeed, Sherlock. You’re quite brilliant. There’s something weird going on here.”
“Too right there is. They’ve been digging all this stuff up. That’s how come all the equipment, and all the guys. Shall we go and have a look?”
“Absolutely. Let’s have a smoke first.”
* * *
THE GENERAL AND THE ARCHAEOLOGIST stood before one of the panels of hieroglyphs, unaware that Thead was observing their deliberations. In the center of the wall was arranged a large spiral pattern of circles, some hollow and others solid.
“That’s this room,” says Thead.
“That’s this room,” said the archaeologist. “You see, that’s the tunnel leading to it, and that’s where it was sealed by the wall. And you see the circles? They show the locations of the megaliths in the room. You can see from the diagram that they’re laid out in a pattern, in two joined spirals with the centers towards the ends of the rooms. Those marks to the left and right of the rectangle are their writing. It’s the same script that we’ve seen in the other sites.”
The General knew this. He also knew that the rupturing of the wall had started the process. The crystalline structures inside the rock had begun moving, flowing like fluid through the half-formed veins of an embryo.
Thead knows much of what is happening, having read the writing on the wall. He congratulates himself on his facility with the language, and briefly has a chance to feel smug about this payoff for his preoccupation with the map.
The General moved towards the entrance. He knew, at least to some extent, what was about to happen. More was known than had been admitted to anyone – more than the archaeologists knew, and much more than any of the lower ranks realized. One of the advantages of his position was that he could watch history make itself, and know what he was watching.
He looked at his watch. It was approaching time.
The final phase should begin about eight and a half minutes – two of their time units, if the translation had been correct – after the introduction of biomass into the room.
It was a pity that his hand had been forced. The original plan had been to breach the chamber, establish that it was what they believed it was, then seal it up again. The excavation of the caverns could then have proceeded at a leisurely pace, and when they had learned all there was to know from the artifacts and ruins, the main force of soldiers and archaeologists would have been shipped out, and replaced by specialists from Mount Weather.
At that point, the Nefilim would have been revived, using what had been learned over the last few months. But events had overtaken them already.
The ground shook.
Somewhere, something moved. The halogens tumbled and all but one of them went out, their filaments shattered.
Without warning, the obelisks exploded. Fragments of stone flew everywhere. One of the soldiers made a small, surprised sound as he disappeared beneath falling pieces of rock. Bisset expired without a sound, crushed against a wall by a collapsing pillar.
The General stepped back and drew his gun. He waited out of sight until the woman and the three remaining soldiers appeared, running towards the entrance.
He stepped in front of them. “Back in there.” He leveled the gun and pointed it over their shoulders at the blackness behind them. “Now.”
“But why… you saw…” The sergeant was bleeding from a gash in his forehead.
The General shot him, then pointed the gun at the others. “Do it now.”
Silently, eyes wide, they edged back into the cavern. The explosions had stopped. Columns of shadow began moving among the piles of rubble, like dark searchlights shining down from the ceiling.
The panels in the walls disappeared, revealing banks of controls that pulsed with light in the same way that the designs on the rock faces had.
The columns of darkness began to move together.
Figures became visible in the dark mist. They were humanoid, but definitely – most definitely – not human. The General held his breath and took another step back.
The creatures were tall, with long gangling limbs. Their elongated skulls were devoid of hair, except for long strings of braids attached to the sides and the back that hung down over thin bony shoulders. Large coal-black eyes looked out from between heavy brows and hollow, bleached white cheeks.
The General knew that the same thing was happening at the three other locations around the world. All the signs had pointed towards this site being the key – the center – the revival of which would be the spark that brought the whole system to life.
He thought of calling Mount Weather, but decided against it. One thing at a time. It wouldn’t do for things to get out of control. The General’s superiors weren’t famous for their tolerance of failure. The fate of his predecessor had been proof enough of that. He would get things in order here first.
The woman and the two soldiers were standing, stupefied, between the entrance and the nearest of the creatures. A low throbbing reverberated through the walls and the floor.
Kali is whimpering again. Shut up, thinks Bark. We’ve got enough to deal with. He looks around. Sahrin is watching calmly, but Onethian looks worried.
The creatures moved forwards. The three humans were frozen, gripped by some unseen force. Long fingers wrapped themselves around the woman and one of the soldiers and lifted them off the ground.
At that point, the spell that had been holding the remaining soldier seemed to break, and he turned and ran from the room, past the General. He stopped and turned. When he saw that the General had turned as well and was aiming his gun at him, he disappeared around the nearest corner, a bullet cracking the rock near his head.
Onethian, the example set for him, follows suit. This is too much for him. Physical dangers that he can understand are fine; he’ll mix it with anyone. But this… he can’t put a handle on it at all. Onethian, a traveler of much spine but little imagination, is out of here.
* * *
Bryce and Reina, descending into the caverns, marveled at what they saw. They gazed in silence, their mouths hanging open at the scale of the ruins.
The Senator’s reaction is more specific. “Oh,” he says, recognizing the style. “Nefilim… It has to be Nefilim.”
He wishes he could tell the two locals about the Nefilim, and how their dark reputation has spread through the furthest reaches of space and time. But then, he thinks to himself (knowing that he is wrong), these are just old ruins, dead, cold, and there is nothing here except dust and dissolution. There’s nothing at all for these people to worry about, and certainly nothing for him to worry about...
* * *
Meanwhile, Bark, Thead, Sahrin and Kali are feeling strange. Something is happening.
A wave passes through them all. They might not understand that anything has changed if the General was not staring at them. They have shifted frequencies, they realize instantly.
They are on the physical plane. Unheard of…
* * *
Suddenly, they were there…
The General saw four strangely dressed and confused people snap into existence a few feet from him. Everyone stood still, forgetting for a few seconds about the Nefilim.
The General came to his senses first. He turned his gun on the group. If he hadn’t witnessed their unusual arrival, he would have killed them straight away.
“I don’t know who you are, but right now it doesn’t matter. All of you stay exactly where you are. I’ll kill anyone who either interferes or moves. Got it?”
Bark nodded and said nothing.
The General took his phone from his belt and keyed Mount Weather. Screw waiting for anything. The small screen came to life as the UN logo appeared, and then faded away to reveal the face of the Secretary-General.
The fat face was contorted with rage. “What the hell is going on there? The monitors are down, we’re getting no feedback at all from your site. And the process is starting ahead of time at the other sites! It’s chaos; we’ll be lucky if we can maintain control. What the fuck have you done?”
“My hand was forced, Secretary-General,” the General said in his best voice. “The seal was breached as planned, but we couldn’t close it off. Virtually everyone here is down, in some sort of coma. The creatures have arrived here, what about the other...?”
“Yes, they have.” The Secretary was sweating. “We’ll have to make the best of it. Do they have what they need?”
“They have the two sacrifices. We were extremely lucky; there was a woman here, one of the scientists. They’ve taken her and a private. Is everything set in the other sites?”
“Yes, no thanks to you. You’re pushing your luck on this one, General. But we’ll discuss that later. Don’t screw up again.”
Shit
. “I’ve got four uninvited guests here,” he replied. “Are they anything to do with you?”
“No. If they’re not with you, I don’t know anything about them. Kill them.” The Secretary-General closed the connection.
The General pointed his gun at the group.
“Now that wouldn’t be a good idea at all,” said Bark, not sure how far their new corporeality went, and how susceptible to bullets they would be.
“You might well think that,” the General replied, and shot Kali.
Their physical status was established beyond all doubt. Kali was thrown against the wall and slid to the ground, thoroughly and completely dead, a small hole in his chest and a much larger one in his back. Blood spread into a pool on the ground beneath him.
Bark grabbed Sahrin by the arm and pulled her around the same corner that had saved the corporal.
The General swore. Pursuing them through the darkness was not an option.
Thead, too close to the General and his gun to consider the same maneuver, cowered back against the rock. He was trapped.
The General was about to send Thead the way of Kali when his potential victim had the brainwave that would not only save his life, but also open up a new career path for him.
“I can read their writing. I’ve studied it for many years,” he blurted, gesturing towards the Nefilim, who were busy with an array of devices that had appeared from somewhere. “I’m fluent in it.” At this point, Thead had not much else going for him.
The stranger knows something
, the General thought,
and he’s scared as well. He won’t be trying anything
.
“You stay in sight,” he said to Thead, who nodded vigorous agreement. “If you move – if you do
anything
– you’re as dead as your friend there.”
If this new arrival could in fact read the Nefilim writing, he might be useful. And delivering him to the Secretary-General would help the General’s return to favor. If not, the stranger could always be executed.
Thead slid down the wall onto the floor. It was infinitely preferable to death, he reminded himself, sitting as he was only a few yards from the cooling corpses of Kali and the soldier.
The General turned his attention back to the chamber. There were at least a dozen of the creatures, and they had been busy.
The female archaeologist (whose name he had never bothered to learn and which now mattered to no one) and the equally nameless and hapless soldier had been placed on large stone slabs that had risen from the floor. The slabs and their occupants were surrounded by columns of intense silver light.
It was time to meet their new allies. He gestured with his gun to Thead, indicating that he should stand up and walk in front of him. Slowly, with an unwilling Thead in the lead, they entered the chamber.
Each of the humans was being attended by two of the Nefilim. They were having some sort of probes or terminals attached to their heads, their limbs, and their torsos. They weren’t temporary, the General noticed. They were being inserted deep into the two bodies.
The subjects had been paralyzed. The only control they had was over their eyes, wide with panic and staring in terror at what was happening.
At each of the three other sites around the world, a male and female had been kept on hand for precisely this moment, and in the last few minutes they would have been delivered over to the Nefilim for this same procedure. The soldier and the woman were being wired into the Nefilim grid. The earth would once again pulse with the power that had maintained and invigorated it in distant times – except this time, the Nefilim would have an ally. The world’s governments and the inhabitants of the distant past would be of much use to each other. Combined, they would be invincible; something which the uncooperative parts of the planet would soon come to appreciate.