Andy Mcdermott - Temple of the Gods

‘NOFORN means “no foreign nationals”,’ said Eddie. ‘I’d better look away, then. Don’t want to break any rules.’

‘I think we’re past the stage of worrying about that,’ Nina said with a half-hearted smile.

‘Just a bit. And SCI stands for Sensitive Compartmentalised Information. Super-Top Secret, basically. The G3 part’s probably some particular need-to-know clearance. Which Dalton arranged for you, so you’d better start using it. The quicker we’re out of here, the better.’

She took the box to the reading desk. ‘Yeah. I didn’t like what Ogleby said, that we could have had this brought to the IHA. You think Dalton’s trying to set us up to be caught red-handed?’

‘I’m surprised we haven’t been arrested already, to be honest. Or shot.’

‘There’s a pleasant thought.’ Nina sat and opened the box, Eddie leaning over her shoulder to see what was inside.

It didn’t contain a great deal: a manila folder with thirty or so typewritten pages within, and a large padded envelope housing a flat and heavy object. She flicked through the folder first. The opening pages were a summary of where and when US forces had acquired the material from the Nazi archive at the end of the Second World War, and the bureaucratic decision-making process that had kept it hidden to this day. Following them were translations — from German to English, of the Nazis’ own records, and then from ancient Greek to English… of the material itself.

Nina put them aside and picked up the envelope. Inside was another folder, but this was metal bound in thick black leather, not a simple card sleeve. A brass zipper ran around three sides. She carefully unfastened it and opened the cover.

She immediately recognised the contents.

It was the rest of the torn parchment she had seen in the Brotherhood of Selasphoros’s archives in Rome.

‘What is it?’ Eddie asked.

‘Something that’s been missing for a very long time,’ Nina replied in a reverential whisper. The US government had taken the same approach to preserving the fragile sheet of browned animal skin as the Brotherhood, pressing it between two pieces of glass. Despite this, the ancient document’s condition was considerably worse than its matching half; it had passed through more hands over the centuries.

But it was still readable, the closely spaced Greek text clear. She gazed at the long-lost words of Kallikrates, starting to translate…

‘So?’ said Eddie impatiently. ‘What is it?’

‘The Brotherhood had the other half,’ she explained, indicating the torn top of the page. ‘Their part described the mental effects of what happens when the three statues are brought together — the “visions”. But this…’ She rapidly skimmed through the rest of the writing. ‘This is about the physical effects. And it matches what happened in Tokyo — the statues becoming charged with earth energy, the levitation…’

‘Levitation? What, you started floating around the room?’

‘Not me, the statues. And they just kind of… hung there. But never mind that.’ She kept reading, hungry to learn more. ‘In the Brotherhood’s text, Nantalas, the priestess, believed that the statues were the keys to godlike powers, which came from something she called the sky stone.’

‘A meteor?’

‘Seems likely. The statues are meteoric rock, after all — they must have been cut from it. But this text actually says what that power is .’ She pointed at the top of the parchment. ‘It follows on directly from the part I read in Rome. When she put all three statues together and touched them to the sky stone, it “rose from the floor, lifted by the power of the gods. Even though the chamber was not open to the sky, lightning flashed through the Temple of the Gods and the ground shook with thunder. After Nantalas lowered the stone, the king agreed that such power should be used against the enemies of Atlantis, but knew there would be those in the royal court who would be fearful of angering the gods by doing so. He said that he would bring the court to the Temple of the Gods so they could witness with their own eyes the power of the sky stone.” The royal court,’ she added thoughtfully. ‘If they were involved, it would have been recorded in the altar room…’

‘How big was the stone?’ Eddie asked.

‘It doesn’t say. But the inference seems to be that it was fairly large — bigger than the statues, certainly.’

‘So the whole thing’s basically an earth energy weapon, then? Only a natural one?’

‘It looks like it. And the Atlanteans had it, eleven thousand years ago.’

‘Then where is it now?’

‘I think that’s what a lot of people are trying to find out.’ She gave him a worried look. ‘And Eddie… I’m the key to finding it. When I had all three statues in Japan, I felt… drawn to something. I didn’t know what at the time, but it has to be this sky stone.’

‘Drawn to it?’ he said doubtfully. ‘How?’

‘It’s hard to explain, but it was like — like a bird’s homing instinct, perhaps. I just knew what direction it was in, and that it was a long way away. And Takashi was expecting it — one of the first things he asked me was if I had felt it. The mole in the Brotherhood gave this Group the first half of Kallikrates’ texts, and they obviously had enough influence over the US government to get access to this.’ She tapped the glass protecting the parchment. ‘They must think that the meteorite is some Atlantean super-weapon, and want to get their hands on it. And they need me to find it.’

‘That can’t be good,’ said Eddie. ‘Maybe I should’ve smashed those fucking statues after all.’

‘I’m starting to think you’re right. The question is, what are we going to do?’

He looked at the parchment. ‘Is there anything else on there that’s useful?’

Nina quickly checked the remainder of the text. ‘Nothing that seems relevant.’

‘Great. In that case, stick it back in the box and let’s get out of here.’

Nina closed the leather case, placed it back in the envelope, then returned it and the folder to their container. She picked up the box and was about to send it down the chute back to the automated library when her phone rang, startling them both. ‘We’ve got reception all the way down here?’ she said, puzzled, as she fumbled it from her pocket with one hand. The number was unfamiliar.

‘They must have a booster,’ said Eddie, suddenly wary. ‘You expecting any calls?’

‘Nope.’ She answered it. ‘Hello?’

‘Hello, Dr Wilde.’ Dalton .

Nina lowered her voice so Ogleby or the guard wouldn’t overhear. ‘Hello, Mr President,’ she said, making the title sound almost derogatory. Eddie instantly became more alert than ever, checking what was happening outside the cubicle. As yet, nothing — but he was certain that wouldn’t last. ‘To what do I owe the extremely dubious honour?’

‘What do you think of Silent Peak?’

‘It’s impressive, if you like colossal wastes of taxpayer dollars. But you didn’t call me to get my opinion on that, did you?’ Eddie leaned closer to listen to the other side of the conversation.

‘No, I didn’t.’ The ex-president was relishing every word. ‘I called to say… goodbye. The base commander is just being told about a major security breach. I’d imagine you’ve got less than a minute before they come for you. In force.’

A sickening chill ran through Nina’s body. ‘A breach that’ll be traced back to you,’ she said with straw-grabbing defiance.

Dalton almost laughed. ‘No. It won’t. For one thing, my people covered their tracks, and for another… you won’t get the chance to tell anyone. So once again — goodbye, Dr Wilde.’