Origin (16 page)

‘Some people claim that it was here that alien visitors first came to us, providing us with the seeds of our modern civilization. In turn, we ascribed supernatural significance to them, and organized religion was born. Thus, “gods” coming down from heaven in fiery chariots are not dreams, visions, or metaphors, this is what really happened, aliens coming to earth in their spaceships. But how else could ancient man explain it? And so religion began in Sumer, and then spread across the region, first to Egypt, and then on to Israel, finally spanning the globe and including India, Rome and Greece in its thrall. Everywhere it went, it was modified by the indigenous people there but it was essentially the same as the factual reports of alien landings and alien technology that was experienced first-hand by the Sumerians.’

‘So God
was
an astronaut?’ Adams asked, still unconvinced.

‘Who knows? It is a theory, yes? A story. And no more or no less convincing than any other, in my opinion.’

‘Well, Fabricio,’ Lynn said, ‘we have a little anomly of our own.’

‘Forty thousand years old?’ Baranelli asked excitedly.

‘Well, that’s how it appeared. Obviously, most of the evidence has now been destroyed.’

‘When did civilization appear in Sumer?’ Adams asked Baranelli.

‘About 3800BC,’ the professor answered immediately. ‘Nearly six thousand years ago, give or take.’

‘So do you have any theories about an advanced people that may have existed
forty
thousand years ago?’ Adams persisted.

‘Perhaps the cycle that we saw begin in Sumer was not the first time such a thing happened,’ Baranelli said, unsure.

‘What do you mean?’ Lynn asked.

‘I mean if extraterrestrial beings could have come to the earth and provided man with civilization in 3800BC, they – maybe the same beings, maybe another group from another region of the universe entirely – could have come here forty, fifty, a hundred thousand years ago, even. We cannot rule it out. Or else mankind evolved such technology on its own during that period, without any external help.’

‘And then?’ Adams asked.

‘And was then destroyed, like Atlantis, some global catastrophe that completely wiped out mankind. Perhaps some pockets survived, but due to conditions on the planet had to revert to nature, as it were, becoming more primitive in order to survive.’

‘Like Atlantis?’ Adams asked. ‘Are you saying that Atlantis existed?’

‘No,’ Baranelli said slowly, choosing his words carefully. ‘What I am saying is that almost every modern-day culture has some form of Atlantean, pre-historic advanced-culture myth. Is it just a coincidence, or do these myths have a basis in truth? The body Lynn found would certainly seem to indicate that this is the case, no?’ Baranelli asked, his eyebrows raised. ‘And then you have to consider the universality of the ancient flood myths. In our Christian culture, we know predominantly about Noah and the Flood, but this, too, can be traced back to its origins in ancient Sumerian folklore. Indeed, many respected scientists believe the world did experience such catastrophic flooding, in the period between 12,000 and 10,000BC.

‘But this is just an example, to show that it could well be true. Other calamities could have befallen ancient man – meteor strike, volcanic eruptions, the list goes on. The bottom line is, it is certainly possible that an advanced civilization, perhaps even more advanced than our own, once walked the earth, and was subsequently all but wiped out. You have not analysed the DNA yet?’ he asked suddenly.

‘No, not yet. We’re hoping to do that back in the US, if we can get there.’

Baranelli nodded his head, deep in thought. ‘So the body might not even be
Homo sapiens
,’ he said. ‘Perhaps it is some other branch of the genus
Homo
, which for some reason progressed faster than us. Maybe their reliance on technology made the catastrophe hit them much harder than it hit us, so they died out completely, allowing us to scrape our way up to the top.’

Lynn and Adams exchanged looks. Another branch of the human family? It was something they hadn’t even considered, and to Adams it certainly seemed more convincing than Lynn having found an alien body or time traveller, two other possibilities that might have explained the ancient corpse.

‘It appears to me that you need to get the DNA tested immediately,’ Baranelli announced. ‘That way we will know what we are dealing with.’

‘That’s why we’ve got to get back to the US,’ Adams agreed. ‘Get the evidence analysed, find out what the hell is going on.’

Baranelli nodded his head. ‘It will be dangerous, my friends. It is clear that the body is important to someone, and they will stop at nothing to keep whatever secret it is that they are hiding.’

‘You’re right about that,’ Adams said. ‘I think we’re dealing with some top-level government interest, with enough power to get things done well south of the border too.’

‘Anybody like that who has a secret, it must be a secret worth knowing, yes?’ Baranelli asked with a mischievous smile and a wink. He took another sip of his wine, and looked directly at Adams and Lynn. ‘And so this is the help you need, yes? You want to know if I am able to get you back to the US undetected?’

Adams and Lynn both nodded and then watched as Baranelli refilled his glass and polished off half of it with one long, leisurely pull.

‘But only if you think you can do it without endagering yourself,’ Lynn added seriously.

Baranelli waved his hand. ‘Don’t worry about that,’ he said. ‘I think I can help you, and I’m sure it won’t endanger me one little bit. Besides, what’s life without a little excitement?’ He finished his wine. ‘You will be back in the US by tomorrow, I promise. Just promise
me
you will tell me what you find out.’

‘We will, Fabricio,’ Lynn agreed. ‘And we’ll also find out who’s behind all this,’ she said, hands clasping Adams’. ‘I’m tired of being the victim,’ she continued, and Adams was shocked by the fiery determination in her eyes. ‘They think we’re dead, they think they’ve won. Well, we’re going to find out who
they
are, and we’re going to take this fight to
them
.’

DNA A
NALYTICS WAS
located in downtown Phoenix, one of thousands of such laboratories scattered across the United States. The principal work carried out by such facilities is paternity testing, although many work in cooperation with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to analyse DNA evidence for criminal cases.

Lynn chose this particular site expressly because it carried out no governmental or law enforcement work at all, and was thus a little more off-radar than many other such establishments. In addition, it had a sister facility in Los Angeles that could deal with analysis of the fragments of cloth that Lynn had collected from the burial site. This would enable them to deal with everything in just one visit, thus minimizing their exposure.

As they entered the foyer, they were surprised by just how busy it was, from young mothers with screaming babies to ageing college professors and white-coated laboratory technicians, the place was a hive of bustling activity.

Adams had shaved his head and started to grow a beard, while Lynn had dyed her hair blonde, changed her style of make-up and clothes considerably, and put in blue contact lenses. They had also both used powder to try and lighten their skin tone, and both now wore glasses to adjust the contours of their faces. Even so, they still avoided looking towards the security cameras pointing from the ceiling down into the busy foyer. They were officially dead, of course – Lynn twice now – but if the past few days had taught them anything, it was that it was impossible to be too careful.

Lynn approached the desk, backpack in hand. After a brief discussion with the receptionist, during which Lynn asked for a full DNA test for three of the samples she had brought with her, they were told that due to a backlog, results wouldn’t be ready for at least a month. The handing over of five hundred dollars in cash – courtesy of Fabricio Baranelli – immediately moved that up to just over a week.

Lynn turned to Adams. ‘A week,’ she said, deflated even though she had been expecting as much. ‘Can we wait that long?’

‘Well, without access to government labs, I don’t see what choice we have. I mean, the only way we’d even have access to better facilities was if we used your position, but that would mean using your name, and we definitely can’t afford to do that.’

Lynn nodded, then turned back towards the receptionist. ‘OK,’ she agreed, and then gave her a cellphone number from a newly acquired, pay-as-you-go, untraceable handset. ‘Call me on this as soon as you have anything. And there’ll be an extra five hundred for you if you get those results to us in under a week.’

Walking out of the centre, Lynn turned to Adams once more. ‘OK,’ she said, ‘now what?’

‘We’ve done the science bit,’ Adams said, ‘now we need to do the real work. Let’s go and meet my friends.’

Baranelli had been as good as his word. The day after their meeting, Lynn and Adams had been back in the United States.

The professor had been chartering an aeroplane for his aerial research on a long-term basis, and had simply filed a flight plan up to Mexico, citing connected research as his reason. The little bird had needed to be refuelled once in Columbia, and had then made it to Mexico, where nobody at the small airfield expressed any interest in the two passengers that deplaned and went on their way.

The pain from their hastily extracted teeth – covered by adrenalin for so long – was now becoming unbearable, and so Adams used his old contacts to make a late-night visit to a friendly dentist in a small town nearby.

An Oglala Lakota like Adams, the dentist took cash and asked no questions. He did, however, tell Adams that it was a good job that they had come; if they had left it much longer, there would have been the possibility of infection, which might have led to blood poisoning.

The old man had patched them up quickly – albeit not exactly painlessly, and then advised them to get some rest. Adams and Lynn had just smiled, sharing the same thought –
the chance would be a fine thing
.

The town was close to the border, and after their brief but necessary detour, Adams had led Lynn back along the same unmanned trails he had used to enter Mexico several days before.

As they had made their way across Arizona towards Phoenix, hitchhiking in a battered pick-up, Adams had used their new cellphone to call one of his Shadow Wolves colleagues, careful to use codes he had not used in years, aware that plain speech might well be picked up by electronic surveillance. But his friend had understood, and a meeting had been arranged for the following morning.

The Tohono O’odham Sweat Lodge was located in a part of the reservation completely out of bounds to those not associated with, or invited by, the tribe.

The sweat lodge is an ancient American Indian custom, a traditional tribal ceremony that is still carried out by many tribes across the country. It is similar to a sauna in that there is heat and moisture – people sit around a firepit filled with stones, upon which they pour water, while ensconced in a heavy, blanket-covered tent – but the sweat lodge is a more spiritual affair, the heat being used to create the atmosphere of being in the womb of the ‘great earth mother’. It is intended to help purify not only the body but also the mind, emotions, and spirit.

Adams and Lynn arrived at the lodge in the early morning. Adams greeted his old colleagues with warm embraces, and was introduced to the newer members of the team. Lynn was also introduced, and she understood what an honour it was for her to be there – outsiders were seldom welcome.

Adams was pleased to see his old friends but he was disturbed not to see Mark ‘Spirit From Above’ Takanawee at the meeting. The fact that this was the man who had provided him with his passport and some cash for his trip to South America – as well as the troubled looks on the faces of the other men – did not bode well.

But his questions would have to wait, for tradition demanded that first they had to ritually cleanse themselves, and then light the fire for the ceremony, and only then could the talk begin.

A
DAMS LOOKED OVER
at Lynn. It wasn’t the first time she had been in a sweat lodge – he had taken her to the Lakota lodge back at his home reservation when they had been married – but he saw that the extreme heat was taking its toll on her, sweat running profusely down her face and neck. As per custom, she was fully clothed. Adams wondered if she was going to pass out. It had been a long time, after all.

But she continued to hang in there, even joining in with the ritual songs and chants, in time to the steady, rhythmic beat of the drums. To Adams, she had never looked more beautiful.

‘Matt,’ said John ‘First to Dance’ Ayita, a Cherokee tribesman who was the unit leader, having moved up to the position after Adams had left, ‘it is time to talk.’

And with that, the feeling within the tent immediately changed.

Adams nodded his head. ‘What happened to Mark?’

Ayita looked pained, looking up to the roof of the tent, and the sky beyond. ‘He was taken from us, not so very long ago. He is with the spirits now.’

‘How?’ Adams asked, fearing he already knew the answer.

‘Heart attack.’

Adams knew the coincidence was too great. There was no way it would have been a real heart attack, and a wave of grief swept over him. It was his fault entirely. The enemy would have finally caught his image at the airport entering Chile, found out the passport he was travelling under, and then tracked down Mark Takanawee. And then they would have tortured him for information, finally staging a heart attack.

‘Did you get a chance to look at the body?’

Ayita’s face was grave. ‘Bodaway managed to check the body out at the morgue before he was buried.’

Bodaway ‘Fire-Maker’ Arawan was the Shadow Wolves’ chief medic, a legend among the tribes for his fusion of traditional medicine with the latest cutting-edge medical practices.