Part 14 (2/2)
DECEMBER5, 2007, 5:35P.M.
AROUND the same time Zoe and the twins were watching the wondrous lightshow at Stonehenge, Jack and Wizard were soaring over the wild, rugged mountains of central China in the hold of their stolen Hind helicopter, aware that a sizeable portion of the Chinese People's Liberation Army-some 1.2 million men-were at that very moment mobilizing to hunt them down.
With them were Stretch, Astro, Scimitar, Vulture, and the injured Tank Tanaka.
Sky Monster had taken theHalicarna.s.sus south, just over the Burmese border, where he waited patiently for the extraction call.
”It is absolutely imperative that we get the Philosopher's Stone,” Wizard said to Jack when they were alone in a corner of the hold. He munched hungrily on some food while he put on clean clothes.
”I got that impression from your notes,” Jack said. ”So that's where we're going right now. It's also why we needed to get this helicopter.”
Jack told Wizard about the meeting in Dubai, about the new coalition of nations helping them in this quest-including America and Saudi Arabia-and most importantly, what they had so far deduced from Wizard's research.
”But I need to know more, Max,” he concluded. ”Your notes were good, but we could only piece together so much.”
”Yes, yes...”
”For instance, the part where you said theSaBenben and the Philosopher's Stone were central to everything. Why?”
Wizard's head snapped up. ”Good G.o.d, Jack, you didn't bring the Firestone with you, did you? We can't allow our enemies to have both it and Laozi's Stone.”
”No, I didn't,” Jack said. ”Zoe has it. In England. She's gone to Stonehenge with the Firestone, the twins, and the kids.”
”You got in touch with the twins? Oh,excellent,” Wizard said, sighing deeply. ”And Stonehenge. Stonehenge and theSaBenben. But, wait, it must be done during the t.i.tanic Ris-”
”Got it covered.”
Wizard stared off into s.p.a.ce, smiled. ”I only wish I could have been there to see it. I'm glad you figured that out.”
”Wasn't me. It was Lily's friend, Alby.”
”Ah, Alby. Smart boy. And such a good friend to Lily. As things get more difficult, she will need companions like him...” Wizard's voice trailed off, his eyes glazing over into a deep sadness.
As he spoke, Jack scanned the torture scars on the old man's face, the bruises and gashes, the dried blood on his beard. Wizard had been through the wringer in that prison.
”Oh, Jack,” Wizard said. ”The situation is dire. Most dire. It's like nothing we've ever encountered before.”
”Tell me.”
”The world has reached a critical stage in its existence. A turning point has come, atesting point, a time at which the Earth can either renew itself or be destroyed. The Tartarus Rotation was just the beginning, merely the first step in a far larger drama.”
”The coming of this Dark Sun?” Jack prompted.
”The coming of the Dark Sun is only part of it. There are many unexplained things in our world, Jack, and with the coming of the zeropoint field, this Dark Sun, many of them will reveal their true purpose. The Great Pyramid and its Capstone are just the start.
Stonehenge. Nazca. Easter Island. It all comes together now, with the coming of the Dark Sun. A coalescence of ancient things. But the greatest thing to fear, as always, is man himself.”
”Why?”
Wizard said, ”Let me backtrack.”
He grabbed a sheet from his notes, indicated a picture on it that Jack recalled seeing before: Wizard said, ”This is the common symbol for the Great Machine. Now, as you deduced correctly from my notes, the Machine is simply our planet. As the image shows, at six locations around our planet are six underground shrines, pyramidal in shape and inverted, but gigantic, and all pointing down toward the center of the Earth. Note the downward pointing pyramids in the picture, with the white rectangular pillars sticking out of them.
”While the Machine is depicted in this image as a flat twodimensional structure, we should picture it threedimensionally, with the sixvertices situated just below the Earth's surface, arrayed around the spherical planet. Like this.”
Wizard drew a rough sketch: ”Now, at each of these locations, acleansed pillar must be set in place, the pillars being small oblongshaped uncut diamonds whose whereabouts are largely unknown.”
”Not totally unknown,” Jack said. ”We're working on that.”
”Oh, good. Now, let me come to the Ramesean Stones, and the most unique part that they play in this challenge. We call them 'Ramesean' stones but their true name is actually 'Guidestones.' The Six Guidestones of Ra's Dark Twin. For when each comes into contact with the Suncharged SaBenben, they reveal something about this Machine.
”For instance, at Stonehenge: when theSaBenben is placed atop the guidestone there at the rising of Saturn over Jupiter, thelocations of the six vertices will be revealed. How this actually occurs at the site of Stonehenge, I don't know. Hopefully, Zoe now does.”
”And the Philosopher's Stone?” Jack asked.
Wizard again rifled through his notes, came up with another image: ”This is a carving of Laozi's Stone,” Wizard said, ”otherwise known as the Philosopher's Stone. Note the pyramidal capstone hovering above it and the rectangular recess in it.
”To cleanse a pillar, one needs three things: theSaBenben, the Philosopher's Stone, and one of the pillars. You place the pillar inside the recess in the Philosopher's Stone, close the lid, and then place the chargedSaBenben on the lid. The pillar is thus cleansed and is then ready for placement in one of the six vertices.”
”Which is why theSaBenben and the Philosopher's Stone are central to everything...”
Jack said, understanding.
”Correct. The next most important Ramesean stone is the Killing Stone of the Maya: when united with theSaBenben, it will specify the astronomical dates by which the pillars must be set in place at the vertices. Now, I already understand that the placing of the six pillars is divided into two distinct time frames-the first two pillars must be set in place within the next week or so the remaining four must be placed later, about three months from now, just before the equinox on March 20, 2008, when the Dark Sun will make its longawaited return.”
Jack's mind spun. This was sounding very big indeed: stars, stones, pillars, vertices, astronomical dates. In a vague corner of his mind he recalled that the Americans had said they possessed the Mayan Killing Stone.
Clearing his head, he brought Wizard back: ”So why in all this isMan the greatest thing to fear?”
Wizard sighed.
”Because of the rewards,” he said simply. ”The rewards. 'To he who lays each pillar goes a fabulous reward.' So it is said on the walls of Abydos. It was there that I found the six rewards listed underneath a carving of Rameses II and his father, Seti I-a carving that scholars have long dismissed as a mere adornment. The six rewards were listed as:knowledge, heat, sight, death, life, andpower.”
Wizard's face went grim. ”Jack. What the rewards are exactly, no one knows, but by all accounts, they are of immense value. For instance, I believeheat is a fabulous power source, anunending power source andknowledge is some great insight that we are yet to discover.”
Jack listened intently to what Wizard was saying. Power sources, great knowledge.
Suddenly the USSaudi interest in the success of his mission made more sense, not to mention China's grab for the Firestone at his farm.
Wizard said, ”Given these stakes, and the arrival of this Dark Sun and the possible end of our world, I can see nations taking great risks to acquire and then place these pillars. And if history teaches us nothing, it teaches us this: where items of great worth are at stake, men will do anything to possess them.”
Just then, the cargo hold was plunged into red emergency lighting, a buzzer sounding repeatedly. The intercom over Jack's head crackled.
”Huntsman, we're coming up on the Wu Gorge system,”Astro's voice said.”ETA is nine minutes, and we're about to pop up on their radars like a big friggin' Christmas light. I hope you're right about this.”
”Come on,” Jack said, standing. ”We'd better suit up. The target is guarded and we're on top of the local Most Wanted List, so we'll be going in hard and going in fast. Just stay close to me. It's time for us to finish what you started it's time to get the Philosopher's Stone.”
<script>