Part 14 (1/2)

It was then that she removed something from her backpack.

The top piece of the Golden Capstone.

TheSaBenben.

The Firestone.

It was stunning to behold. It glimmered in the night, its golden sides s.h.i.+ning, its crystalline peak sparkling.

Zoe climbed a stepladder and stood at the top of the nowerect Altar Stone.

She saw the depression in the flat top end of the stone, saw that, yes, it matched the size of the Firestone's base perfectly.

”All right, then...” she said softly to herself. ”The Great Pyramid and Stonehenge. Let's see what you got.”

With great reverence, she placed the squarebased Firestone in the matching recess of the Altar Stone and suddenly, the Altar Stone took on a wholly new appearance: it looked like a miniobelisk, surrounded by the trilithons of the henge, guardians in the night.

Her watch hit 3:49.

”I see t.i.tan...” Alby said.

Through his highpowered telescope, the greatest moon of Saturn appeared as barely a dot behind the large orange orb that was Jupiter. It rose behind it, looking like a very dim star.

A minute pa.s.sed. The twins. .h.i.tRECORD on some digital video cameras they'd set up around the henge. They also held still cameras in their hands.

Another minute pa.s.sed.

”And I see Saturn...wow!”

A larger dot rose behind Jupiter, moving ever so slowly, its rings barely apparent, before it cleared the horizon of Jupiter and a gap appeared between the two planets.

At which point Stonehenge, silent and mysterious for over fortyfive centuries, suddenly and spectacularly came to life.

AN INVISIBLE lightforce shot over the horizon from the Dark Sun, lanced over the Heel Stone in a deadstraight line, shot through the outer circle of lintels before itslammed into the Firestone sitting atop the central Altar Stone.

The Firestone blazed to life.

Brilliant purple light flared around it, illuminating the ring of trilithons in an unearthly glow.

Then shafts of this purple light-bright, strong shafts of the stuff, six of them-lanced outward from the Firestone like the spokes of a wheel andhit some of the uprights of the trilithons.

Zoe and the others could only stare in stunned awe at the light show, a light show that had not been seen for over 4,500 years.

And then something else happened.

The lichens on the surface of the trilithons-the strange algaefungus that had no business existing this far inland-began to glow a pale green.

And suddenly, as this faint glowing of the lichens combined with the cracks and indentations of the stone uprights themselves,images began to form on the trilithons, images that hadn't been discernible before.

Zoe stared in wonder.

The images on the trilithons looked strangely familiar, kind of like the continents of Earth-but notexactly like them. They were somehow different, the familiar coastlines warped. A couple of the trilithons depicted what appeared to be theedges of continents.

”It's the world,” Lachlan breathed. ”They all combine to create a map of the Earth, millions of years ago.”

”What?”Zoe whispered, not realizing that she was whispering.

Lachlan nodded at the glowing images in the stones: ”They're the continents of our planet. They're in their current positions, but before rising oceans gave them their current coastlines. Whoever built this, built it along time ago.”

Zoe swung back to gaze at the glowing images on the stones, and saw that he was right.

There was Africa...

BEFORE.

DURING.

And that looked a little like Asia...

The stone depicting Africa was pierced by two of the laserlike purple light shafts: one shaft penetrating it near the northern end, the second shaft hitting it at the very southern tip.

”Are you getting all this?” Zoe called.

The twins were indeed clicking away on their digital cameras, taking photos of the illuminated stones and light shafts. At the same time their video cameras whirred, recording it.

”What about those two?” Zoe asked, indicating the two uprights that appeared to depict the edges of continents.

”Oceans, I guess,” Julius said, ”but it's hard to tell which ones, given the altered coastlines. The world has three main oceans, the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. A third ocean might have been on one of the fallen uprights. Which makes sense. No one has ever figured out why Stonehenge has ten uprights. This would explain it: seven continents and three oceans.”

Zoe blinked.

Holy, holy s.h.i.+t...

Then Alby called, ”She's sinking! Saturn's sinking!”

A moment later, everything went dark.

The Firestone's purple light went out and the great stone circle was dark once more.

Zoe gazed at the twins and the kids. ”Bet you haven't seen that before. Come on.” She hurriedly reerected her stepladder, heading for the Firestone. ”We're done. Lachlan, Julius: lower the Altar Stone, put it back exactly where you found it. Then we have to motor. Wizard and Jack are not gonna believe this.”

When the two security guards awoke two hours later, groggy and dazed, they found Stonehenge undamaged, seemingly untouched.

There were several sets of footprints among the central stones, suggesting unusual activity, but nothing was missing. Except for the hole that had once housed the Altar Stone-it had been cleared of dirt-everything, thankfully, was where it should be.

The next day there would be reports from locals of a glowing purple light emanating from the area, but they were quickly dismissed. Every year there were at least a dozen UFO sightings over the Salisbury Plain and numerous other crackpot claims.

And so as dawn came, Stonehenge stood once again, tall and silent, maintaining its centuriesold watch over the ancient landscape.

SICHUAN MOUNTAINS, CHINA.