Trifariam, The Lost Codex (2012) (56 page)

“That’s impossible! It would just prove that we are waiting for them and that we are involved in the organization. Go back to the control center, I have a plan. James Oldrich will hand it over to us on a plate.”

“Okay, Dad.”

Just then, one of the snipers was pointing his telescopic weapon at James’ head and he had his finger on the trigger, waiting for orders which, unfortunately, would never come.

“We’re aborting the mission!” announced the woman via her intercom. “That’s an order. Nobody shoot. We’re going home.”

“B
ut what are they doing?! That’s the Altar Stone!”

James looked on in astonishment as the two scientists brought the laser nearer to the stone which was over twenty-six feet long, three feet wide and twenty inches thick and was in the center of the site.

“Please, remain calm. We’ve checked all our calculations and the source won’t come to any harm.”

“What?! The source is inside?! Fuck!” James had become extremely nervous and was pacing back and forth. “You can’t break it - it’s part of a historic landmark.”

One of the scientists, who had up until then remained quiet, smiled at James. “I completely agree, but inside is something which can generate energy and has unimaginable value. To hell with the stone!”

“But…”

It was too late. A beam of light cut through the air and hit one side of the stone, slicing through the rock as if it were made of butter.

“Shit! I didn’t know that there was a machine which could cut stone so easily.”

“It’s one of our latest inventions,” remarked the other scientist. “We’ve succeeded in creating a laser capable of cutting through any material, even diamond, with astonishing ease.”

James wondered which company those two worked for, but he didn’t have to wait too long for the answer to his query.

“Do you remember Charly Humphrey’s face when he found out about our latest research? It took him less than two days to find a new use for it in one of his supersonic airplanes.”

Area 51
, thought James.

The laser cut through the stone at a constant speed of fifteen inches per second and went from one side to the other, slicing it through the middle. It had already cut through five feet when James sharply interrupted them.

“But… if that laser is as powerful as you say, aren’t you worried that it could destroy the source? We don’t know how it works. It might even explode.”

Neither of the scientists answered his question, so it was left to the archaeologist. “The device is equipped with the latest software based on the use of hugely complex algorithms. It first performs a millimetric scan of the stone, and records the composition and hardness of each section of the block. That way it knows the appropriate strength the laser has to apply in order to cut it. When it reaches the middle section where the source is located, the outflow will reduce in power until it is just enough not to cause damage. Watch!”

The laser had already dissected seven feet of stone when the beam of light decreased in intensity and became a thin red thread. It continued on for another twenty inches before reverting back to its initial power. It passed through the last seven feet in less than two minutes. The machine then stopped automatically.

“Why hasn’t the stone broken in two?”

“According to our scanner, there is a twenty-inch section remaining between where the laser has cut and the other end of the stone. We can assume that it is the size of the object inside,” said the scientist with curly black hair. “Anyway, it must be on the verge of breaking by now. Quick, stand on either side!”

James and the archaeologist instantly ran to the left side while the two scientists did the same on the right. The sound of a crack was more than enough to tell them that the stone was on the point of giving way. James pleaded to god that nobody had seen him commit such an atrocity in such a significant and well-known place. It went completely against his principles.

“It’s happening! It’s happening!”

The stone split into two parts, revealing what was inside. They were all amazed to discover a kind of elongated crystal of around twenty inches in length and with its three faces joined so as to form a triangular prism. One of them featured a series of symbols which had been carved into the stone itself, not in relief. James was unable to recognize them, but this was undoubtedly the object they had been looking for.

“But how did they manage to get it inside the stone?”

The scientists were gathering together their equipment and hadn’t heard the professor, so it was again the archaeologist who replied. “How do you think the Egyptians built the Great Pyramid at Giza?”

James hesitated before giving a convincing response and tried to remember what Mary had told him when they had been in Egypt. “I think they took the stones from the quarry at Assuan and transported them to the plain at Giza. They then went about placing - ”

“Yes, of course! Do you really believe that the architect of the Great Pyramid managed to gather together a team of laborers who were able to select the stone in the quarry, cut the block, smooth it, carry it hundreds of miles, raise them dozens of feet and place them with such precision… all at the pace of a block every two or three minutes with no breaks?!”

It does sound a bit far-fetched when you put it like that,
thought James. “What do you suggest?”

“Over the last few years, it has been thought that the explanations given by archaeologists about the construction of the pyramids are not true. Although some of them have been hushed up by more conservative Egyptologists, recent studies claim that those who built the Great Pyramid were not stonemasons, but alchemists.”

“Alchemists?”

“Yes. More than enough evidence has been found and studies carried out to show that the ancient Egyptians could soften the stones in order to mold them or cut them to size by first heating them up. They could even make their own with a mixture of different compounds.”

“That’s impossible!”

“It’s not as far-fetched as it seems. A series of hieroglyphics were found on an islet surrounded by the Nile. They were deciphered in 1935 and found to have named twenty-nine components and the method for creating artificial stone. There is a fresco in the tomb of Rekhmire which shows several workers carrying sacks of a substance which they then put into molds until it sets and forms blocks. Given how easy it would be to take the components up to the top of the Great Pyramid in sacks and then make the stones up there, it is thought that it could be an indication of the method used to build it. Meanwhile, twenty samples of blocks from the Great Pyramid have recently been analyzed and it was discovered that no two are of the same consistency; even the same stone could have a different in composition between the upper and lower parts. How could that be possible if the stones came from the same place? Plus the blocks had a higher absorption rating than is found in natural stone. Another interesting finding is that they discovered remains of hair, nails and human textile fibers inside the blocks, something that would be completely impossible unless they were manmade and the detritus fell inside during the process.”

“And what about heating up the stone?”

“They are thought to have taken the granite from the quarry at Assuan and, using methods that are unknown to us, they managed to soften the granite until they could manipulate it like gelatine. That’s why the edges expand a few inches every so often!”

James fired another question at him, one which would prove to be much more enlightening. “And do you think that this stone was treated with one of those two methods?”

“I don’t think so - I know so,” replied the archaeologist with astonishing certainty. “How else could they have placed the crystal inside the stone? If the Egyptians, Asians, South Americans… were all similar in their adoration of the Sun, their Pyramids, their psychic beliefs and their understanding of the great beyond, then why couldn’t they have been taught the same alchemical concepts regarding the reshaping of stone?”

James picked up the crystal and handed it to one of the scientists. It was clean and glinted in the sunlight.

So then there are two theories,
thought James as he made his way back to the plane.
Either that lost civilization brought the stone here, or they shared their knowledge and those who laid the stones hid it here themselves.

W
hen the SR-91 Aurora landed on the longest runway in the world, four scientists and an army of soldiers armed with assault rifles had already been waiting for them for a good while. One of them snatched the piece from their hands, practically without asking, and showed it to the rest of his colleagues.

Two soldiers escorted James to another entrance as he watched the other ten take the scientists in the opposite direction, towards the laboratories. As he walked past one of the largest hangars in the whole complex, he caught a glimpse of what was inside before one of the engineers could finish closing the doors. He saw a gigantic Boeing 747-200B around two hundred and thirty feet long and sixty-five feet wide. It was painted blue and white with “United States of America” written along one of the sides of the fuselage. On the tail was the U.S. flag along with the number 28000.

“That’s the VC-25A,” said one of the officers accompanying him when he noticed that he was looking elsewhere.

James was familiar with that designation. That plane was known as
Air Force One
whenever the President of the United States was onboard. Few people knew that there were actually two VC-25A aircraft which were exactly the same and for the use of the President. They bore the numbers 28000 and 29000 on their respective tails.

The President is here! Shit!

They led him inside a two-story building. An elevator with space for ten people went down to a floor whose location completely passed the professor by. However, when they entered a really long corridor with meeting rooms on either side, it was vaguely coming back to him. He eventually realized where he was. He recognized the floor he was standing on, the lighting, the doors on both sides…he had been there before when he had accompanied Charly Humphrey, the Director of Area 51, to his office.

The officer stopped in front of the only door which was ajar in the entire corridor. “Wait in this room, please. They’ll come for both of you in a few minutes.”

Both of you? I’m not alone?

When the soldier opened the door, Richard got up off the sofa which he was leaning back on. He was expecting some illustrious figure to come through the door, but it was his best friend instead. “Shit, what a fright!”

The pair greeted each other warmly. It was then that James couldn’t take the pressure any longer and he began to cry.

“Don’t worry. I’m fine.”

“It’s not that,” he replied. “They’ve kidnapped Lily and my ex-wife!”

Richard turned pale. He thought his friend was crying because he had found out about how close he came to being killed, but it was something much more serious. “Are you sure?”

“I’m positive - I heard them kidnap her myself. She called me in a flood of tears and told me that they were going through the house.” James wiped away his tears with a handkerchief and blew his nose. “After five minutes I heard a man gag and hit her to keep her quiet. Then we got cut off.”

Richard didn’t say a word. Never would he want to be in a similar predicament, even less so if he was thousands of miles away and couldn’t do a thing to help her. “Who were they?”

“The ones who are after the
Trifariam
. Who else could it be?”

“You do know that they won’t hurt them until they have it in their power, don’t you?”

“I know! But it’s not easy to picture your daughter tied up in some corner of the planet and you can’t do anything to help her.”

“What did they ask you to do?”

“They want us to complete it, but it’s been hours since I heard anything. They told me that if I tell anybody, they’ll kill her. You’re the only one who knows. Nobody can find out.”

Richard stood up from the sofa, his fists clenched. He was really angry. Rage washed over his whole body and he didn’t even want to imagine what kind of lowlife could hurt such a little girl.

Just as Richard was going to give him another hug, James felt his cellphone vibrate in his pocket. The screen read “Number withheld”.

“Is it them?”

“I don’t know. Quiet, nobody can find out!”

“Hello. Who is it?”

There was a silence which dragged on for too long, to the point where the call seemed to have been cut off. Eventually somebody spoke, their voice disguised by a synthesizer. “We will shortly be in touch with you to tell you what you have to do. Now is not the time for silly games - your daughter’s life is at stake.”

“How do I know she’s still alive?”

There was another silence which, despite being shorter than the previous one, seemed to last a thousand times longer.

“Dad,” said Lily eventually.

“Sweetheart! Are you okay?!” James couldn’t keep the tears of joy from flowing down his face, into the crow’s feet that with lack of sleep had turned into deep furrows.

“Yes, Dad. When they came into the house, we had just come back from visiting the Memorial Jefferson and I bought you the Notarikon games you asked me to get you. Mom is with me, she’s asleep.”

James weighed up the possibility that she was in fact dead and Lily hadn’t realized. “Have they hurt you?”

“No,” she replied.

They were in a dark room of around thirty-two square feet, the walls of which were covered in a thick layer of concrete which made it a dismal and gloomy place. Despite how he had treated her mother, who had been tied up and gagged, the kidnapper had not thought it necessary to do the same to a girl of fourteen. What problems could she possibly give him?

The captor monitored all the girl’s movements and words. After a minute long conversation, he thought it had been enough. He quickly walked over to the girl and tried to snatch the cellphone from her hands. The girl didn’t want to give it to him and started to wave her arms and legs about, hitting him wherever she could cause the most pain. She wanted to hurt him. The man wasn’t the least bit frightened and squeezed her arm tightly until she screamed in pain.