Pyramid of the Ancients Read online

  Although its twelve-foot height, heavy build, and fearsome claws were more than enough to inspire awe, it was the monster’s facial expression that caused Jeffrey’s body to go cold. Like the corpse in the main chamber, this one looked like it was part human, part animal. But compared to the other body, which seemed more like a human with animal features, this one appeared as if some angry, pagan god had twisted a rabid wolf or wild dog into the semblance of a human. Its canine-like snout was mangled into a vicious snarl that sent shivers down Jeffrey’s spine.

  Taking a steadying breath, Jeffrey stepped into the room, leaving Akwen and Jerome standing in the entrance. Picking his way carefully around the body, Jeffrey stopped near the head, bent down, and held his lantern closer to the creature’s face. “It looks like his neck is broken,” Jeffrey stated, his features splitting into a grimace. “He sure is ugly.” Looking over at the others, he smirked. “I’m sure glad he’s dead! I’d hate to run into one of these on a dark street. Then again, I’d hate to run into one of these in broad daylight surrounded by an army…” Noticing the look on Akwen’s face, he paused, his humor fizzling. “Hey, are you okay?”

  The dark skin on Akwen’s forehead was creased with worry lines. “What are dese tings, Jeffrey? Dis…beast…is not human. It is one ting to speculate dat aliens might exist, but it is difficult to grasp the reality when faced with cold, hard evidence.” Shaking her head and closing her eyes, Akwen turned away from the corpse for a moment, her left hand coming up to cup her head. Jerome, watching her with concern, hesitantly placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

  Akwen shrugged off Jerome's hand as she lowered her own. Turning, she stared at each of them, her normally stoic face etched with worry. “I don’t like dis. Someting feels wrong. Can you sense it? Dis whole place seems…oppressive. Dere is someting here…almost like a dark presence.”

  Standing up, Jeffrey tried to force a smile. “Akwen, stop. You’re scaring me—”

  “I am not joking, Jeffrey!” Akwen stated, her voice rising as she shot him a withering glance. Sobered by her reaction, the crooked smile on Jeffrey's lips faded as Akwen continued. “Where did dese tings come from? Dey don’t look friendly. What happened in dis chamber? What if…what if, after all dese years, we disturb someting that could…I don’t know…call others of deir kind back here.”

  “Now you’re beginning to sound like Mack,” Jeffrey began. Akwen’s eyes narrowed and her face darkened further, causing Jeffrey to quickly add, “but you’re right. We should be careful. Besides, there’s nothing to worry about. All we’ve found are a couple of dead bodies and a book.”

  “Yes, and what is in da book?” Akwen pressed. But before she could say anything else, Mack came running up behind her, bringing their conversation to an abrupt halt.

  “Jeffrey! I think I found something!”

  Mack’s face appeared just above Akwen’s broad right shoulder. One glance at the contents of the room, however, and his face disappeared almost as quickly as he tumbled backward, tripping over his own feet. “Sweet mother of Gene Roddenberry!” he exclaimed as he picked himself up off the floor. “What is that thing? It looks uglier than a Klingon on a bad hair day!”

  “Never mind that,” Jeffrey said as he retrieved Mack’s baseball cap from the floor and placed it back on his head. “What did you find?”

  Unable to tear his eyes away from the creature on the floor, Mack replied as if in a trance, his mind clearly not yet focused on the task of speaking. “The…uh…the book has a…it…there’s a drawing.… Man, that thing is huge!”

  Grabbing Mack by the shoulders, Jeffrey forced his colleague to look at him. Speaking slowly, as if talking to a child, Jeffrey asked again, “What…did…you…FIND?”

  Finally coming to his senses, Mack’s enthusiasm came rushing back. “Oh! Come here. Quick! I’ve gotta show you this!”

  Leading the others over to the table where the book rested, Mack pointed down at a drawing of a triangular object. “See that? What does that look like to you?”

  Mack moved out of the way so Jeffrey and the others could get a closer look at the diagram. “It looks like an Egyptian pyramid, or a ziggurat,” Jerome said, sounding puzzled.

  “That’s what I thought, too,” Mack said.

  “So what are you getting at?” Jeffrey asked, looking up from the book.

  “There was this sci-fi show many years ago that talked about how the pyramids were landing pads for triangular-shaped alien ships. What if there was some truth to that? But instead of being landing pads, what if all of these ancient cultures built these pyramids and ziggurats to copy the design of the spaceships?” Ignoring the skeptical looks, he continued. “I believe, based upon what I can read of the text and the diagrams, that this book gives instructions on how to build one of these spaceships!”

  As the four stood contemplating the import of Mack’s last statement, a low rumble put an end to further discussion. In unison, they jerked their heads toward the north end of the room to see Elmer quickly floating towards them.

  “Dr. Nancho, I believe I may have inadvertently tripped some kind of mechanism,” the droid said, its voice calm despite its rapid movements.

  As they watched in astonishment, the entire northern portion of the wall slid upward, leaving a gaping black opening in its void. As the dust settled, the four explorers—still frozen in place—slowly began to stir. Jeffrey picked up his lantern and quietly made his way forward, the hairs on his neck standing straight up. His heart pounded thunderously in his chest from a mixture of adrenaline, fear, and excitement. With each step he took, Akwen’s words flowed through his mind, causing inexplicable fear to come over him.

  Setting his will against his feelings, he forced his legs forward until he stood at the threshold of the new chamber. Raising his lantern into the air, he simply stared at the sight spread out before him bathed in the yellowish glow of light. Sitting in the center of the new, larger chamber was a two-story pyramid with a flat top and steps leading up the sides. Directly in front of him, a twelve-foot-wide corridor led into the interior of the pyramid, the shadows within seeming to call out to him with promises of adventure and discovery.

  So enraptured was he with this new sight that he didn’t even realize that his colleagues had joined him until Jerome spoke. “This is it!” he said in an excited whisper. “Congratulations my friend, you just made history.” Placing an arm around Jeffrey’s shoulder, Jerome stated more firmly, “And now, here is the man who brought the world into a new era of space exploration by his discovery of an alien spacecraft. Jeffrey David Evans!”

  1

  Rebecca’s Arrival

  The jeep rocked wildly to the side, causing Rebecca to reach up once again and grab the door frame in order to keep her head from bumping against the side of the vehicle. She had driven over many lousy dirt roads near her home in the Midwest, but this one definitely took the prize for being the worst. The fact that she had been riding on it for more than forty-five minutes only highlighted the road's many flaws.

  But according to her driver, this was the best way to get to the dig. If this is the best way, I would hate to see the others, she thought sarcastically.

  “Please be careful!” she called out for the umpteenth time, leaning forward so the driver could hear her better from where she sat in the back seat. “NASA has gone through a lot to get this package delivered. It’s vital that it arrives undamaged.”

  Her concern was met with the same response as her previous efforts: nothing.

  “Relax,” the soldier sitting beside her remarked nonchalantly. “We secured the package very carefully.”

  Trying to hide her frustration with the others’ seeming lack of concern, she again addressed the driver. “Can you at least tell me how much longer it will take?”

  “At our current speed, we should arrive in another fifteen minutes,” the driver said in lightly accented English.

  Fifteen minutes. Her heart began to pick up its relaxed pace a
s her stomach performed its customary acrobatics that signaled the onset of nervousness. What will he say? Will he be happy to see me, or angry that I surprised him at his precious dig? Her thoughts had traveled this familiar course for so long, asking the same questions over and over, that she wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that they were forever etched on the inside of her skull.

  Ever since she had started speaking regularly about the topic of the origin of life, her relationship with Jeffrey had gone from strained to almost nonexistent. In fact, this would be the first time she would see him in person since the night he had walked out at the end of one of her speeches. That was over ten months ago. Since then, she had decided that if their marriage had any chance of succeeding, she would have to go to Iraq to be with him. Look at me, she thought as she glanced down at her clothing. My new shirt and jeans are completely covered with dust, this blasted midday heat is causing my hair to curl out of control, and I smell like diesel fuel. I probably look like something out of a horror flick. I want Jeffrey to notice my appearance, but this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.

  The minutes seemed to drag on inexorably, Rebecca’s thoughts bouncing back and forth as if trying to compete with the hole-ridden road. At long last, the perimeter of the military encampment came into view as the vehicle crested another hill.

  According to the driver, once the Iraqi government realized the importance of the discovery, they had quickly—and quietly—set up a military presence to guard the dig. From a military perspective, they couldn’t have chosen a better location. The entire compound was near the base of a mountain in an uninhabited section of the country. With the mountain at their backs and the dry plain in front of them, they would have plenty of notice if anyone came sniffing around.

  In the center of the rear section of the compound was a large structure Rebecca assumed housed the dig itself. Due to the secret nature of the discovery, the government had erected a temporary building around the entire site, which was nearly as large as a football field. The structure was unusually shaped—probably because it followed the formation of the dig, Rebecca surmised—and was built out of a kind of off-white, plastic material. The length of the dig stretched in a more or less northeasterly direction until it almost literally ran into the side of the mountain.

  The outer perimeter was marked by a heavy-duty, fifteen-foot electrical fence nearly two hundred yards from the dig site. Between the fence and the central structure, several prefabricated buildings of various sizes dotted the landscape. Three guard towers were positioned in a triangular shape: two along the northern sides of the encampment near the mountain, and one farther down the slope, in the southern section next to the main gate. The entire setup reminded Rebecca of a twentieth-century concentration camp.

  Jeffrey, what did you get yourself into? She found herself wondering this for the hundredth time. In her mind, she could once again hear the words Jeffrey had spoken to her during their last “heated conversation”: “This discovery will blow all of that religious junk back to the Middle Ages where it belongs!” he had said. She could still hear the conviction in his voice and the sheer certainty of his statement.

  The jeep Rebecca was riding in was fifth in line in the convoy of trucks and military vehicles bringing fresh supplies and cargo to the compound. As the first truck approached the main gate, located just west of the southern tower, two pairs of high-powered laser rifles pointed in their direction from each of the three towers. Rebecca’s seven years of service as a gunnery sergeant in the Marines caused her to wonder what other security measures were in place that she couldn’t see.

  One of the soldiers standing in front of the gate held up a hand, signaling the driver to stop. Detaching himself from his post, he stepped cautiously toward the driver’s side of the lead truck. Reaching down with his left hand, he unclipped an electronic device from his belt while his right hand rested comfortably on the handle of his holstered pistol. Leaning back in her seat, Rebecca tried to relax while the guard finished the security check on the four preceding vehicles. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the car in front of the jeep moved on through the gate and it was their turn.

  “Please prepare for retinal scan,” the guard stated in a crisp, military fashion.

  Holding the device up to within inches of the driver’s face, the machine emitted a blue beam that quickly scanned his left eye. Within seconds, the soldier had moved on to Rebecca and the other occupants of the jeep. In less than a minute, they were instructed to proceed. Moving slowly, the driver edged through the heavy metallic gate and into the compound.

  Once clear of the entrance, the driver steered the vehicle toward the left. The entire place was alive with activity, seemingly oblivious to the rapid approach of evening. Several times, Rebecca and her fellow travelers were forced to slow down or stop to let a group of scientists or technicians pass by. Each of them, Rebecca noted, wore shirts or jackets emblazoned with the NASA logo. Finally, the driver brought the vehicle to a halt fifty feet from the skirt of the mountain, on the northwest side of the slanted dig site. As the other members of the convoy were cleared through security, they were directed toward various other areas of the compound.

  “All right,” the driver said, his voice cold and business-like. “Let's get this thing unloaded.” Glad to be getting out of the uncomfortable back seat, Rebecca quickly opened the door, stepped out, and stretched her stiff muscles. Although all she could think of was going inside the dig to see her husband, she forced herself to see to the cargo first.

  Her military companions immediately began unloading the large, rectangular box from the back of the jeep. The crate’s hefty weight alone made it difficult to move, but when combined with the fact that it was the size of a small desk, it became truly cumbersome. Jumping in to help with a sagging corner, Rebecca and the others began moving their cargo away from the back of the jeep as a group of several technicians and scientists converged on the vehicle. Their excitement was palpable, causing Rebecca to wonder once again exactly what it was that had accompanied her arrival.

  Practically pushing her out of the way, one of the technicians in the front of the group grabbed the side of the box and barked out commands. “Careful! Careful! This crate is extremely important. Watch out on the left. Jonas, take that side. Easy now.”

  Like a swarm of ants carrying off a prized piece of food from a picnic, the technicians and scientists scurried away toward the northern entrance of the central building, leaving Rebecca and the others from her group to follow in their wake.

  “Can I leave my bags in the back temporarily?” she asked the driver as he exited the vehicle.

  “Yeah, no problem,” he replied casually, “but I can't guarantee their safety.”

  Since she had nothing of real value among her things, and considering that she was inside a military camp, she decided to chance it. Leaving her suitcase and overnight bag in the back seat, she turned and began walking in the direction the techs had taken. As she reached the double doors leading into the dig site, Rebecca felt her pulse quicken, both from the prospect of seeing Jeffrey again and from the thirst for discovery that ran deep in her veins. Taking a steadying breath, she pushed open the door and entered the complex.

  It seemed as if she had stepped into another world. All around, broken and cracked pillars stood like giant sentinels staring down at her. Several crumbling walls jutted out from the fractured flooring, which appeared to be made of a type of marble with swirls of white and tan coloring. This is definitely no ordinary archaeological find, she thought as she stared around at the intricate carvings that adorned the marble pillars and walls. Even in its current damaged condition, it was apparent that the beauty of the ancient ruins had once been exquisite. Stepping around a group of technicians deep in conversation, Rebecca walked up to one of the pillars and began to examine the carving of some kind of reptilian beast that resembled a stegosaurus.

  “Are you lost, little girl?” asked a voice behind her. A
smile creased her face as she turned around to see a bald man in his late fifties standing behind her. Although only half a foot taller than Rebecca, his poise and demeanor magnified his height in her mind. His white, short-sleeved, button-up shirt with khaki pants and brown dress shoes stood out in sharp contrast to the “NASA”-emblazoned uniforms nearly everyone else in the area was wearing.

  “Dr. Eisenberg!” Rebecca said as she leaned forward and embraced the man. “It is so good to see you. You look great! You’ve lost a few pounds since I last saw you. Is there someone new you’re trying to impress?” she asked playfully.

  The scholar simply pushed up his wire-framed glasses and smiled down at her mischievously. “Only you, Rebecca. Don’t you know you have always been the apple of my eye?”

  Rebecca grinned back fondly. “So what are you doing with all of your free time now that you’re retired? Are you still dabbling in art?”

  “Yes, now and again,” he said. “Whenever I can find the time.”

  “That reminds me, I’ve been meaning to thank you for the beautiful oil painting you sent us last Christmas,” Rebecca said. “Was that Mount Saint Helens?”

  “Yes. I painted that one when Nathan and I were visiting Washington a couple of years ago,” Dr. Eisenberg answered. “I thought you might like it.”

  “How is Nathan, anyway?”

  “Just fine,” the older man replied with a fatherly smile. “He is following in his mother’s footsteps. He has become quite a good pediatrician, you know. If only Ruth had lived long enough to see the grandchildren,” he said as he proudly pulled from his pocket a digital photo card that cycled through several photos of his progeny.

  “They’re so cute! You must be so proud,” Rebecca said, a hint of emotion coloring her voice as she looked at the snapshots. She had wanted to have children for many years, but although she and Jeffrey had tried, they remained childless. And now, at forty years old—and with a struggling marriage—her chance at motherhood seemed all but vanished. Handing back the photo card, she quickly changed the subject.