‘Jay-zus ’n’ mother Mary,’ whispered Liam. ‘It’s like a goddamn abattoir.’
Billy pointed to another skull, bigger, round like a football and stripped clean of any flesh at all. ‘That one –’ his eyes met Maddy’s – ‘that one, human.’
Chapter 58
1479, the Lost City of the Windtalkers
‘They want us to leave this place,’ said Rashim. ‘That much is very clear. We are not welcome here any more, Maddy!’
Maddy shook her head and looked out of the small square window of one of their temple rooms. Beads strung on twine clattered gently together as a soft breeze teased past them. They’d retired back to this building, high up on the city slopes. Keeping out of sight. Keeping a low profile. There were noises rising up to them, though, coming from outside. The people were gathered together in the plaza, a meeting of the elders watched by their people. Clearly they were discussing the fate of their – no longer welcome – guests, trying to determine who or what they were, what they were up to down in their holy chamber and what that meant for them. Voices sounding shrill and afraid and angry.
‘You’re asking me to walk away from Sal?’
‘She is gone, Maddy. We may never find her.’
‘But she left this place. She might just return here, at this time! If there’s one place she’s going to come back to, it’s going to be right here! If we’re gone when she does come back …’ Maddy pointed to the crowd on the plaza. ‘… she’ll be facing those people alone. And what do you think those people down there will do to her? Huh?’
‘That is, if she can come back.’ Rashim reached out for her hand. ‘She may not even be alive now. Maddy, you have to accept that possibility.’
Maddy pulled her hand away. ‘Well you go if you want to. But I’m staying.’
‘I think Rashim may be right, Maddy,’ said Adam. ‘These people don’t want us here. They’re angry, they’re frightened. They could easily turn on us. Billy, what was that word the elder was using? You said it was a Tawahka word?’
‘Tik m’hathla.’
‘And what does that mean?’ asked Liam.
‘It is not exact same, but like word old Tawahka holymen use. I not so sure in English. In Spanish …?’ He waggled his hand uncertainly. ‘Perhaps you might say diablo.’
‘Diablo?’ Liam frowned. ‘That means something like “devil”, doesn’t it?’
Billy nodded. ‘Devil! Yes, this is English word.’ He looked at Maddy. ‘He say we bring Devil up from his Hell, the underworld. Very frightened now.’
‘Because of those chewed-up animals?’
‘And some person,’ added Adam. ‘Let’s not forget that, there was a person died too.’
Maddy frowned. ‘Some jungle predator! That’s what it must have been. A jaguar or cougar or whatever animals they have in this jungle. It got into the city last night and …’ Her voice trailed away. Nobody appeared to be convinced by that. Not even herself.
‘Well, come on!’ She looked exasperated. ‘Obviously it’s not the Devil,’ she said.
Liam met her eyes. ‘Come on, Maddy … you’re thinking what I’m thinking.’
Maddy shook her head. She didn’t want to say it … didn’t even want to think it.
‘Aye. What else could it be? Think about it! We had a bloody great window open on to chaos space for nearly ten minutes! It must be a seeker!’
Bertie turned sharply. ‘A seeker?’
Neither Liam nor Maddy were inclined to explain just then, but Adam, Rashim and Billy seemed to want to know too.
‘It’s some kind of … parasite or something that lives in chaos space,’ she explained. ‘Mostly you don’t see them when you jump through, or, if you do … you’ll see them at a distance. They don’t seem that interested in us.’
‘Aye, but we think they might be attracted to open windows,’ said Liam, ‘just like a moth comes to a lamp. That’s why you’ve seen us with portals – how we try an’ close a window quickly after we’re done with it.’
Rashim squinted as he thought back to yesterday. ‘We did have that beam open for a long time …’
Maddy shook her head. ‘I know where you’re going with that, but if a seeker had come through we’d have known. Bob or Becks would have registered the energy field, right?’
Bob nodded. ‘Affirmative. The information acquired on “seekers” suggests that they are phasing energy fields.’
‘Where do they come from?’ asked Adam. ‘What are they?’
‘There is currently no information on their origin,’ replied Becks.
‘They are energy, and they require additional energy to stay alive,’ said Maddy. ‘We know that about them. When we were first recruited, we encountered one. A weakened one. Without access to energy it just dwindled to nothing.’
‘Aye, and that was scary.’ Liam recalled what Foster had told them about it. It suddenly came back to him and his eyes rounded. ‘Didn’t Foster tell us that a seeker had killed the team before us? Torn to pieces, he said! Those were his exact words, so they were!’
Rashim’s mouth dropped open. ‘There was a team before you?’ He stared from one of them to the other. ‘You never mentioned that before! Why not?’
‘Aye,’ Liam flipped his hand to dismiss the subject. ‘It’s not a big detail, Rashim.’
‘I thought I was a trusted member of your team!’
‘It’s not important, Rashim!’ snapped Maddy. ‘Not right now!’
‘I’ll second that,’ said Adam. ‘I’m kind of more focused on the “torn to pieces” bit.’
‘Nothing came out, Adam.’ She addressed all of them. ‘Nothing came out! We were right there! We were watching, we would have seen it! The support units would’ve sensed something! Jesus … we’d have been the ones ripped to shreds! Not a dog and some llamas.’
‘Lest we forget, some poor hapless person as well,’ added Bertie.
‘Look! That bloody mess down there could just as easily have been the work of a witch-doctor or someone wanting us to go. They just slaughtered some animals and flung bits of gunk around and told everyone the gods were angry with us.’
‘And sacrificed somebody too?’ Adam pointed out.
She shrugged. ‘That could’ve been the bones of somebody who already died.’ She sighed. ‘Look, there’s no Devil! There’s no seeker! More likely, that old guy, or some other witch-doctor whose thunder we’re stealing, wants us gone. If these people are getting jittery or suspicious – or they want to start becoming threatening, then I say screw it! They’re just a bunch of frightened, primitive savages! Let’s fire a shot or two into the air, or Bob can go rip a goat in half or something. That’ll give ’em something to be frightened about! They’ll soon get off our backs and leave us alone.’ She shook her head. ‘But the one thing I’m not doing is running away and leaving Sal to come out here on her own.’
‘So, what are you going to do?’ asked Rashim.
‘I’m going in.’
‘What?’
‘I’m going into the beam. If she’s in there, I’ll find her and I’ll bring her back.’
Chapter 59
1479, the Lost City of the Windtalkers
This time round, making their way to the chambers, the atmosphere was wholly different. No longer thousands of pairs of eyes glistening with excitement and reverence. No longer people dropping to their knees as they passed by, offering tributes of fruit and meat.
There was now an almost palpable sense of hostility and fear. The crowd stepped aside in complete silence to allow them through; a couple of thousand pairs of eyes wordlessly warned them that they should turn and leave immediately or this was going to end badly for them.
The only sound was the gentle hiss of rain pattering down from an overcast sky.
Maddy wanted to call out to them and assure them that everything was going to be just fine, that they weren’t going down there to open up the gates of the underworld and invite a horde of demons into their city. But, ev
en if she could speak their tongue, the grisly scene of dismembered animals was so dark and horrific an omen to them, that her words wouldn’t carry any meaningful weight.
The rain spattered on the shreds of flesh and tendon, the shards of bone, making them wet, glistening like the scene of a fresh slaughter. The rain made the congealed blood fluid once more so that it ran again, meandering in a crimson stream among the many sandal-clad feet. Hostile eyes, wide and warning, remained on the passing strangers.
They made their way through the crowd, all of them huddled closely together. Bob up front, gigantic and menacing with the rifle like a large club in his hands. Becks at the rear and equally intimidating with hers brandished in both hands. Billy walked beside her, his AK cocked and ready to fire. They descended into the trench, then ducked down as they entered the low stone arch of the entrance into the upper chamber.
Thick shards of grey light from the large gap in the ceiling pierced the darkness at an angle and rain spattered in noisily through the jagged hole, the sound of drips echoing around the chamber. They could see a dozen other angled beams of weak daylight piercing the dark where other support columns had been damaged or dislocated and cracks in the weakened stonework above had appeared.
‘I can’t believe deep bass vibrations from that device below did all this damage,’ said Adam.
Maddy wasn’t so sure. The throbbing had been deafening, they’d all felt it against their chests: the kind of ultra-deep frequency that can rattle cups in saucers, and cause brittle glass to shatter. She could well believe those vibrations, amplified by the shape of the chambers themselves, had caused this ancient stonework to rattle and loosen up.
This city, the upper chamber, all of the stonework had been built many, many centuries ago. Here and there, she’d noted the stonework appeared to be worn and old and beginning to show signs of attrition and fracture. Very little sign of recent repair work or any new structures. The city had the look of a place that was once far grander and better maintained. In other words, this micro-civilization had seen better days. This was a civilization on its way out – in the midst of a gradual and gentle decline.
Yeah, as far as she was concerned it was perfectly plausible that deep throbbing frequency had caused some of the plaza to cave in on the chamber below.
They made their way across to the narrow gap in the wall and the small antechamber beyond. Torches snapped on. Then down they went, down the narrow stairwell into the much bigger second chamber.
She was certain there were no monsters down here – damned if she was going to jump at shadows just because those primitive people up above were. All the same, she asked Bob and Becks if they were picking up any unexpected energy signatures.
‘Negative. We are only detecting stray tachyon particles from the field.’
‘There is still a significant surge of energy in progress,’ added Becks.
They crossed the glass-smooth floor until they were standing close to the central column. Adam and Rashim approached its curved wall and started work on picking out the three glyphs Adam had touched last time to open the column.
‘See? It’s still closed, Liam,’ she said, finally breaking the wordless silence. ‘So if it was a seeker, it was rather decent of him to close the door behind himself.’
Liam laughed. It sounded forced and uncomfortable as it echoed back to them. She imagined he’d rather that particular echo hurried up and faded away.
‘We should discuss a back-up plan, Maddy,’ said Liam.
She knew what he was getting at. It was written all over his face: what happens if you go through and you don’t come back either?
She dug into the pocket of her jeans, pulled out the transponder and handed it to him. ‘Just in case, you know? If for some reason …?’
‘No.’ He pushed her hand away. ‘You should keep hold of it. If you do find yourself coming out somewhere else, then we can use it to find you.’
She shook her head. ‘This little thing would be about as useful as a needle in a haystack. It’s no use to me unless you guys know pretty precisely where to look.’ She offered it to him again. ‘Take it, Liam. You’re going to need it to signal computer-Bob … to get you all back home.’
Liam stared at the device in her hand. Unwilling to take it yet.
‘And listen, if I don’t come back out, you make sure you go back to London. OK? You take Adam and Bertie back to their times. And Rashim and that stupid bot of his can decide for themselves where they want to go.’
She held the transponder out. He took it off her reluctantly. ‘You know, Mads, maybe this isn’t such a great idea?’
‘Maybe – maybe not. But it’s the only idea I’ve got right now.’
‘There is another way, Maddy. We could all just leave. We could just get out of here and go home!’
‘Then what?’ She shrugged. ‘You know you and I – we’d end up coming back here eventually. You know that, don’t you? We’d want to know what’s happened to Sal. We’d want to know what this field is doing here. Who set it up here in the first place. We’d want to know what’s waiting for us at the other end … and whether Sal is there, instead, patiently waiting for us.’
Liam conceded that with a slight nod. ‘Aye, well. Perhaps we would.’
‘No perhaps about it.’ She tried on a brave smile. It looked shaky and uncertain. ‘We’re here right now. So we might as well get those answers now. Right?’
He nodded. ‘Right.’
‘Anyway,’ she added, ‘I think this is where we’re meant to be. We’ve been led here. This is what we were meant to discover.’
It seemed obvious to her, even if Liam wasn’t seeing it yet, that everything since she’d discovered that handwritten note in San Francisco had been leading up to this. It was as if they’d been actors following an elaborate script, being carefully led by the nose, scene by scene, to this place and this moment. And it appeared that Sal had somehow read the script that bit faster than either of them, read ahead of them by a couple of scenes.
‘Let me come along with you then,’ said Liam.
‘No. Just in case –’ she lowered her voice just a fraction – ‘just in case something happens, one of us needs to get this lot back home.’
‘Rashim can do that,’ he replied. ‘He knows how the technology all works better than I do.’
‘No. We were given this job, Liam. We were made for this job. We’re the agency. We’re all that’s left of it. Not them. It’s just you and me now.’
She patted his shoulder. ‘It’s gonna be fine. I’ll bring her back.’
‘For the record, I think this is a really bad idea, Mads,’ he replied. ‘Definitely not one of your best ones.’
She looked up at the imposing form of the column, something built by technicians from the far future; a future beyond the near-complete annihilation of mankind. Perhaps a future in which mankind had learned all the important lessons. Learned that this world was a fragile closed system of finite resources. Learned that war was not the best way to resolve difficult decisions. Learned that to wield technology like this, there was a duty, responsibility, a required level of cultural maturity.
She realized, digging deep down into the bedrock of her mind, this wasn’t just about searching for Sal, this was about satisfying her own insatiable curiosity. This was about wanting to know if there really was a future worth fighting to preserve. Wanting to see for herself and wondering if, somewhere behind the smooth curved wall of the column, she would see what Waldstein once saw.
Perhaps she would emerge again, not only with Sal by her side, but finally with a clear understanding of why Waldstein had set up the agency and why they had the grim task of carefully steering mankind towards its own undoing.
She squeezed Liam’s hand. ‘I will come back, I promise you.’
Adam joined them. ‘I’ve marked up the three symbols that open the door.’ He pointed at the column. Three scraps of paper were stuck to the surface beside each symbol, stuck with gu
m. Numbers 1, 2 and 3 scrawled in biro on them to indicate the order in which they were to be touched.
He noted her hand clasping Liam’s. ‘I don’t think this is such a great idea either.’
She let Liam’s hand go and reached out for Adam. Curled a hand round the back of his neck. ‘I know.’
Liam took a step back with a polite nod and a smile, allowed them a moment of privacy.
‘I really need to do this, Adam,’ she whispered.
‘I overheard Liam suggest we could all just walk away from this. I just thought I’d add my tuppence worth and say I think he’s right.’
‘Don’t you want to know why your name ended up a part of ancient history? Aren’t you curious?’
‘Sure.’ He shook his head slowly. ‘But not at the risk of you losing your life!’
She wondered if it would help him understand where her head was at if she told him that his own burning curiosity would ultimately lead him to New York and his death in one of the Twin Towers. She wanted to tell him that, in a way, every human life was a journey to have questions answered. It was a journey that inevitably ended with death.
We all die eventually. But the one thing we can do is seek answers along the way.
She squeezed the back of his neck. ‘You answered some important things I needed to know, Adam.’
He offered her a puzzled look. ‘I’m just the geek with the map. I’m just the hanger-on here.’
She pulled him closer and placed a tender kiss on his lips. ‘In another universe you and me live together in a scruffy Manhattan apartment …’ she whispered, ‘with clothes tossed all over the floor and the cap left off the toothpaste in our bathroom.’
He smiled sadly. ‘Lucky Adam Lewis.’
‘I will come back.’ She kissed him again.
And maybe we’ll have that … one day.
She let him go and stepped back. A couple of deep breaths to steady her nerves and her voice. She nodded at Rashim, standing beside the wall of symbols. ‘OK, open it up.’