The Eden Factor (Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Romance Adventure Series Book 2) (42 page)

"I also think that your
children hated you and tried to kill you," she said, her mood growing more
serious. "Being part human, they more than likely saw you as the feared
enemy and were encouraged to fight you by their stronger human relations. Those
skeletons we found not too far from here were part of that clash; one big
skeleton and three smaller ones, all fallen to earth, all dead in battle.
People of course saw this, and told about it, the fight of good against evil.
The story was handed down from generation to generation until it reached men
like Seth and Enosh and Kenan, and they passed it down to finally be written as
the war between heaven and hell. It ended up in the book of Revelation."

She quieted, thinking of her
theory, wondering if she even wanted to pursue it. To do so would be to totally
debunk the Bible, and she believed in the book implicitly. So what if some of
the passages had a reasonable explanation; wasn't that she was all about?
Proving the Bible itself, good or bad?

 "So what about this baby I
carry, if it is, in fact, a hybrid?" She ran her fingers along the
drawings reverently. "Will it come back to fight you? Will it be kept in a
laboratory its entire life, kept secret from the world? I just don't know and
I'm scared to death."

There were no immediate answers
for her questions. Truthfully, she wasn't sure she wanted any. More drawings
caught her attention and she moved to her right a few feet, studying the
charcoal and ocher. "I saw this earlier and it didn't make any sense to
me," she said. "But it does now; your people are on perches, high up
in what looks like a room. But I don't think it's a room; it’s a cavern. But
the cavern floor is covered by wavy lines that I think represent water. Since
Iraq is so dry, I can't imagine what kind of river or flooding would fill up
these caverns, even heavy seasonal rains. But even that wouldn't fill up the
caverns like they're represented here. But the greatest flood in history would
have filled them. Maybe this is representing Noah's flood and how you survived
it?"

She turned to the Curious one. He
just stared at her. But he soon rose from his crouched position. Kathlyn
watched him warily as he beckoned her over to another wall. He had something
more to show her.

It was a darker portion of the
cavern and it smelled like feces. Kathlyn wriggled her nose as the Curious one
gestured to a corner of the wall, a small area near the base. Kathlyn knelt
down, trying to focus on what he was showing her. It was dark and difficult,
and her disorientation only made it worse. Suddenly, her eyes widened.

"My... God," she
murmured.

She ran her fingers over two
simple lines, the vertical one longer than the horizontal. But it was
unmistakably a cross. When she looked at the Curious one as if he had all the
answers, he merely pointed his index finger skyward. No other words needed to
be spoken. Kathlyn understood him perfectly.

"I am the way and the truth
and the life," she whispered. "No one comes to the Father except
through me."

The Curious one jabbed his finger
skyward again. Kathlyn knew he hadn't understood her, but she suspected somehow
they had more of a connection now. A bond was forming.

 "How do you know
this?" she whispered. "How would you know anything at all about Jesus
Christ?"

He couldn't answer and she simply
shook her head in awe. "It's like all of history is recorded here and I'm
left to figure it all out. I can't even fathom the things your race must have
seen, but here it is, from Noah's flood to Christ's appearance, and I'm trying
to sort through it like a blind man trying to distinguish colors." There
was longing in her tone. "I've been an archaeologist many years and I
always thought I was good at what I did. But now I know I'm not half as good as
I wish I was, or need to be. I could spend the rest of my life in here and
probably still never completely figure it out."

The Curious one watched her mouth
as she spoke. His lips moved as hers did, as if he was trying to form the words
she was speaking. It seemed that he truly wanted to understand. Kathlyn was
about to make more of an attempt to communicate with him when suddenly, his
eyes narrowed and he turned sharply in the direction of the cavern entrance. 
Frighteningly, he hissed and barred his big teeth. Before Kathlyn could say
anything, he swooped out of the cavern, leaving her alone and bewildered and
still sailing on mushrooms.

 It was then she heard the first
of what sounded to be a very distant, very faint gunshot.

***

The entrance of the S.E.A.L.s and
Marines into the uppermost level of the cavern had been uneventful. Marcus had
marveled at the mummy in the first chamber, even more awestruck by the mummies
in the second. The archaeologist in him was raging to examine the crispy
dried-out remains, but the husband in him was stronger and more concerned about
retrieving Kathlyn. He went with the stronger instinct.

It had been a battle to keep Gary
and Jace from coming with them. Dennis, Mark and Otis knew well enough not to
argue, but Gary was stubborn and Deverona thought he could take on the entire
world. Neither Ellsner nor Tony would budge; Marcus was one thing, but a
psychotherapist FBI agent was another. They just didn't think there was any
real need for him. Fayd didn't even bother asking if he could come; he knew
better, standing back while the others slugged it out. But he told them all he
could so they had some idea of what they would be facing. Still, it didn't make
it any easier once they actually entered the musty dark cavern.

 Every step they took was heavy
with anxiety. The cave was pitch black without the flashlights some of the
S.E.A.L.s had strapped to themselves, throwing meteors of light across the
darkened walls.  Marcus could smell the oldness and the rot as he followed Tony
through the second cavern. There was blood on the floor, evidence of the
earlier gun battle. He wondered what had happened to the bodies of the men Mark
and Otis had killed until he saw what looked like drag marks in the soft dirt,
leading toward the back end of the cavern. It gave him the willies to think
that the winged beings, or whatever they were, had taken the bodies back into
the shafts. He didn't even want to guess about the purpose, not with Kathlyn
somewhere down there with them. His urgency grew.

Ellsner had three men up front at
point, while the commander himself brought up the rear. Marcus and Tony were
somewhere in the middle. It was a big group, but the deeper they penetrated,
the more relieved Ellsner was with having more manpower along. It was a creepy,
foreboding place. Truthfully, the moment they saw the mummies, it seemed to
throw an entirely new light onto the mission. No longer were they in doubt of what
they might find.

 The men at the head of the
parade seemed more leery than the rest of them, guns cocked and nervously
waiting. Ellsner had to remind them to pick their targets carefully; they were
looking for a woman in this hellish maze and didn't want to shoot her on
accident, in front of her husband no less. The kids in the lead struggled to
keep calm, so much so that Ellsner finally had Tony put his older Marine at
point. The bald man with the broom-like mustache and a confident manner took
charge of the convoy.

There were three tunnels at the
end of the cavern. Tony and Ellsner studied the footprints, determining that
Kathlyn and Fayd had gone into the shaft on the extreme left.  As the men on
point entered the dark, narrow shaft, Tony handed Marcus a Glock nine
millimeter automatic.

"You think I'll need
it?" he asked Tony.

Tony drew in a deep breath, his
blue-blue eyes raking the cavern. "I don't know. But I don't like the look
of any of this, so you'd better be on your guard."

Marcus couldn't disagree. He took
the gun and put it in the waistband of his jeans.  Following Tony into the
tunnel, he had to bend low in order to keep from striking his head on the roof
of the shaft; as big as he was, he was having difficulty maneuvering in the
confined space. Heart rates went up and so did the temperature as they
continued onward, the floor of the tunnel declining and going on for what
seemed like miles. Marcus was weary of the never-ending tunnel, but he also
wondered if he was ready to face what was at the other end. He just wanted to
get to his wife.

Just when he thought he might
possibly go mad about it, the tunnel opened up in to a tall but narrow cavern.
It was a few stories high and they were a good twenty feet above the floor.
Narrow catwalks crisscrossed the midsection and disappeared into hand-fashioned
doorways hewn into the cavern walls. On the ground far below, a few fires
burned and cast a brownish haze into the air. Tony, Ellsner and Marcus took a
hard, long look.

"This must be the cavern
Fayd told us about," Tony said. "It's habited, that's for sure."

Marcus' trained eye scanned the
room. "I agree. But with what or whom?"

Ellsner cast him a look.
"You're the archaeologist, Dr. Burton. We'll have to depend on you for
that analysis."

"Sir," one of Ellsner's
men snapped quickly. "Down there. Under the lowermost bridge."

He was pointing at something and
everyone strained to see. Marcus could see a leg with a shoe on it; shifting
his position, he realized that was all there was; a dismembered leg. Sickened,
he realized they were looking at the remains of the men killed in the gunfight.

  "What the hell is all
that?" Ellsner muttered.

Marcus was grim. "Cannibals.
They're goddamn cannibals."

"You've got to be
kidding."

"Not the way that leg is
gnawed on, I'm not."

The younger men looked
particularly uncomfortable. Tony and Ellsner didn't show their uneasiness,
though they surely must have felt it.

"All right, people,"
Ellsner got them moving; he didn't want them dwelling on a chewed leg.
"We've got a job to do. Get going."

The point men took the narrow
path down the side of the sloping cavern walls to the floor below.  It smelled
strongly, like animals, and it was enough of a suddenly odor to raise an alarm.
Tony held up a hand, a silent command to stop where they were.  He lifted his
gun, his eyes sharp as he scanned the floor of the cave for any signs of life.
He didn't see any, and motioned to the group to continue.  But the uneasiness
deepened, and so did the stench.

He had no idea that, high above,
they were being watched.

***

"You realize they're never
going to find her unless we do something," Fayd said.

Dennis and Jace looked at him
with contempt. Standing at the mouth of the cave with the heated desert air
swirling around them, tempers and patience were short.

 "Please, Fahdlan, do us a
favor and tell us why you think that," Dennis said sarcastically.
"This is all your damn fault anyway. I'm all ears, brother."

Fayd wasn't upset in the least.
"Because the creatures will be focused on the group. The smart thing would
have been to split the group in two, using one as a diversion while the other
searches for Kathlyn. This way, they'll never find her. I would think they'll
be lucky to make it out alive."

"They know what they're
doing," Gary said. His nose was swollen from the crash, more than likely
fractured. "We need to wait here, just like Marcus said."

Fayd shook his head. "But
you're not seeing the point. We can go in there and get her out while the
creatures are occupied with the military men." He jabbed a finger into the
dark cave. "That is their territory in there. They have the advantage. We
need to help or they'll all die in there."

"We need to stay out or
we'll die in there," Gary replied. "Marcus told us to stay put and
that's what I intend to do. I don't like it any more than you do."

Fayd was growing frustrated. He
thought he would have more support. "So you just sit back and hope nothing
happens," he said. "That's pathetic. If you're not going to do
anything, I am."

He moved for the entrance but
Dennis blocked his path. "You're not going anywhere," he snarled.
"If you're trying to ease your guilty conscience, don't bother. Nothing
you do can make up for the hell you've created."

"He's right." Deverona
was standing several feet away, in the shade.  When the others looked over at
him, he lifted his eyebrows as if to drive home his point. "Fahdlan is
right. They're all sitting ducks down there. While those things are distracted,
it'll be up to us to get Kathlyn out of there. I'm in complete agreement with Fahdlan."

"Marcus told us to hang
back," Dennis said, though he was leaning towards disobeying orders as
well. He didn't like being useless. "We have no weapons, no flashlights,
nothing."

Jace moved towards them.
"Not true. I have a gun, and I also have a flashlight."

"One flashlight for all of
us?"

Jace looked around. "There
are lots of dried branches out here, things like that. We can make
torches."

It was a brilliantly simple idea.
Dennis wasn't a good decision maker, however; he looked over at Mark and Otis.
The two were listening to the conversation intently. Somehow, it all seemed to
hinge on them. Either they all went, or no one did.