Beneath the Ice (36 page)

“You will be surprised.”

“What can you do with it?” Jack asked. “I
don’t care how big a strip mall you build, people aren’t going to
come down here.”

“Those who know—those who believe—will
come.” He stared as if his eyes could burrow into Perry’s skull.
“There is much here: water, obviously, but under the ice there is a
continent of untapped minerals.”

“That’s the problem, isn’t it? That whole
ice thing, I mean.” Perry returned the stare.

“I’m a mining expert, Mr. Sachs. I know how
to move dirt. I can move ice.”

“What? You’re going to strip mine the ice?”
Jack asked.

Enkian never took his eyes
of Perry. “We prefer to call it
open-
face mining.
I have the equipment that will uncover the
ziggurat. It will take a few years, but it can be done.” He smiled.
“I’m under no obligation to explain anything to you, Mr. Sachs, but
I’ll leave you a few things to think about. One reason this area is
so cold is albedo. Are you familiar with the term?”

Perry nodded. “It’s reflective power—the
amount of light that’s reflected from a surface.”

“Very good. The ice reflects a tremendous
amount of sunlight, far more than it would if the continent were
bare ground. Change that, and the ice begins to melt.”

“How can you change the physical
characteristics of ice?” Perry asked. Then the answer hit him.
“You’re going to color the ice?”

“You are sharp, Mr. Sachs.
But we will only do so where we
want the
ice to melt. Coal dust—and I have many sources for
that
—dark aggregates, dyes dropped from
aircraft like fire retardant from firefighting planes, and . . .
well, you get the idea. Also imagine what might happen to shipping
lanes.”

“Do you think other nations are going to
just turn it over to you?”

“As a matter of fact, I do. We have been
planning this for more than a few years. I have been honored with
refining the plans and implementing them, largely because of your
fine work.”

“Give us the keys to that plane out there,
and I’ll consider that payment in full.”

“I think I’ll keep you a little longer,”
Enkian said. “But now that you’re back among the living, you should
be warned: I have no compunction about putting you or your friends
at death’s door. Or through it.” He walked away.

“Cheery fellow, huh?” Jack said.

Dr. Curtis moved closer. “That looked
interesting,” he deadpanned.

Perry shook his head. “I can’t get the
pieces to fit. Tell me, Doc, can that really be the Tower of
Babel?”

“How can I know?” Curtis said. “I would not
have believed a story about what I’ve seen, yet there it is,
mocking everything I’ve been taught.”

“Maybe it’s just another ziggurat,” Jack
said.

“Perhaps,” Curtis agreed. “But even that is
beyond all expectation. Human habitation on this continent is so
far beyond the pale of contemporary science that I can barely
comprehend it. Of course, others have suggested it.”

“They have?” Perry said.

Curtis frowned. “There have always been
those who preach that science is blind to the existence of previous
civilizations. Occasionally they offer some evidence, but none of
it can be scientifically verified.”

“Such as?” Perry prompted.

“Well, there’s the Piri Reis map of 1513,”
Curtis explained. “The map shows a portion of Antarctica, the Queen
Maud Land to be specific.”

“1513?” Perry said. “Antarctica wasn’t
discovered until 1818. That’s a three-hundred-year difference.”

“That’s part of the
puzzle, but even more intriguing is that the map shows the area as
ice-free. That means that Admiral Piri Reis drew his map based on
older maps that had to be made—if we use current scientific
dating—prior to 4000
b.c
. You can see why the scientific
community dismisses the idea out of hand. Mapmaking was not a
developed art then.”

“At least as far as current thinking
goes.”

Curtis nodded. “Of course, the natural
assumption is that no ice means the land could have been inhabited,
but something happened to change all of that.”

“What was the writing on the brick?” Perry
asked, wrapping his arms around his chest and moving his weight
from leg to leg to increase circulation.

“Cuneiform,” Curtis said. “It’s a name,
Marduk, and that’s what troubles me.”

“The name?”

Curtis nodded. “There’s an
ancient body of work from Babylon called the
Enuma Elish.
It speaks of the Tower
of Babel, saying that the name Marduk was stamped into every
brick.”

“Marduk was a Babylonian god?” Perry
asked.

“Yes. He’s one god of the Babylonian
pantheon.”

“Pantheon?” Jack said.

“All the gods of a particular religion. We
believe in one God, so the idea of many gods sounds odd to us, but
most ancient people had belief systems with multiple deities.
Usually, each one was associated with a numen.”

“Now you’re losing me, Doc,” Perry said.

“Numina—or numen in the singular—are
supernatural powers associated with a place or a natural
phenomenon. So every city had a god, the sun was a god, and there
was a god of storms. You get the idea. Initially, the Babylonians
worshiped a mother-goddess. The most ancient sculptures we have are
of pregnant women, a symbol of fertility and promise. Male deities
were introduced much later.”

“You said Enkian and Tia were named after
ancient gods,” Perry prompted.

“That’s right. Enkian is from Enki and Tia
is from Tiamat. Now there’s some irony.”

“Why is that?” Perry asked.

Curtis took a deep breath
and released it. He looked weary, and Perry knew the man had a
right to. “If I remember my mythology correctly, Tiamat was the
mother of all living. Her name comes from the Akkadian and
means
sea.
She
was involved in a battle with Marduk, who slew her, cut her to
pieces, and made heaven and earth out of her two
halves.”

“Nice,” Jack said.

“I’m guessing it is one reason Tia defers to
Enkian. Enki was the god of wisdom, spells, and incantations;
Tiamat of ocean water. In the Babylonian accounts, Tiamat is
consort to Apsu, the god of freshwater. Their union produced many
gods, including Ea, who is also known as Enki. Tiamat is often
portrayed as a dragon, which explains the tattoo. You can see the
connection between the two.”

“Wait,” Jack said. “That means that Tiamat
is Enki’s mother, right?”

“Right, but it’s more
complex than that. Marduk is Ea’s son, who
ultimately kills his grandfather and Tiamat, his grandmother
. . . so to speak. But don’t read too much into that. I imagine our
unexpected guests have just taken on the names. Marduk became the
chief of all the gods, and his eminence was so great that he
claimed fifty titles.”

“If Marduk was such hot stuff, then why
didn’t Enkian take his name?” Jack asked.

“Probably because he believes there really
is a god named Marduk,” Curtis explained.

“Hold on,” Perry cut in. “You said Enki went
by another name?”

“Oh, yes,” Curtis said. “Remember, these
gods and their stories were held by different groups. The stories
vary some as do the names.”

“Say the name again.”

“Ea. It’s spelled E-A.”

“I wonder,” Perry said. “We did some work
for a mining company called EA Mining.”

“He said he was a mining expert,” Jack
added.

“If that’s his firm, then he has a lot of
money behind him,” Perry said. “They’re global, and they’re
wealthy.” He paused and then added, “I think I want to see what
they’ve done to the Chamber.”

Chapter
32

Of the fifty men
Enkian
had brought with him, thirty or
more hustled about the Chamber, carrying boxes and unloading them.
The contents were unexpected. Perry saw gray-blue stones re-moved
from packing crates and set up on the ice. They formed three
concentric rings of twenty-two stones each—sixty-six in all.
Smaller stones composed the inner ring and were less than two feet
high and a foot in width. The next ring was comprised of stones a
third larger than the first, and the last ring was made of stones
three feet tall and two feet around. Some of the men worked alone;
others, especially those handling the large rocks, labored in
tandem. The other men stood by with guns at the ready.

Enkian had taken a position in the center of
the rings, directing their placement, calling for corrections, and
snapping orders. Tia stood by his side.

Perry walked to one of the
large stones and noticed that the top had been chiseled flat and a
circular half-inch deep depression was centered in each one. More
stones were brought in, but these were smaller and rectangular like
bricks. They were of different shades and textures but were all the
same size. Enkian took a step to the side as two men knelt on the
ice and began to take one stone brick
and
lay it upon another in a staggered array. From his position
out
side the outer ring, Perry studied the
stones. One was silvery; another, jet black; another, white as ice;
and still another, green. Row was laid upon course until a small
pyramid shape with a flat top rose from the ice. The last block
laid was like gold. Then it hit Perry: It
was
gold. And the silver brick was
true silver. The others were what they appeared to be—onyx,
granite, and more. Perry counted sixty-six stones of every
kind.

“This is weird,” Jack said.

“Beyond weird,” Perry added.

“Is that really a brick of gold?” Curtis
asked.

“I think so,” Perry answered. “If Enkian is
the owner of EA Mining, he has access to every type of mineral in
the ground.”

More boxes were brought in, but these were
different from those that had been brought in before. They had
rigid plastic sides. Perry moved as close to one as he dared and
watched the worker unsnap the metal latches and swing up the lid.
Inside was packing material that had been carefully wrapped around
an object Perry could not see clearly.

“Your curiosity is whetted, I see.” Perry
looked up to see Enkian approaching from a few feet away, Tia on
his heels with her head bowed. The worker Perry had been watching
carefully removed the packing material and then moved away. Enkian
took his place, gently lifting a cylindrical object from the case.
He held it as if it were alive, cradling it in his hands as a man
would a child. Inside the clear plastic container, Perry saw a clay
cylinder. “Behold the prophecy,” Enkian said. He set it in the
depression of the closest stone.

“Behold the prophecy,” Tia repeated.

“I don’t understand,” Perry said.

“You never will,” Enkian
replied, then moved to the next stone, where another worker was
unpacking an identical cylinder. Again
Enkian picked up the package tenderly, said, “Behold the
prophe
cy,” and set the cylinder on the
nearest stone.

Gleason, Griffin, and the others joined
Perry. “This is making me real uncomfortable,” Gleason said. “What
are they doing?”

“I think we are about to
see a pagan worship ritual,” Dr. Curtis
said.

Enkian stopped at each stone and repeated
his previous action, Tia never more than one step away, her head
down as if condemned to permanent humility. Minutes turned to half
an hour until Enkian set the last clay cylinder in place.

He returned to the center of the rings. Tia
followed. Wordlessly, Enkian’s small army formed a fourth ring
around the three stone circles.

Enkian stepped behind the
altar and removed his parka,
tossing it to
the side. Underneath he wore a long-sleeved
undergarment
. He peeled it away along with
the thick T-shirt he wore beneath it, baring his chest to air kept
several degrees below freezing. If the bite of the frigid air
bothered him, he didn’t show it.

Perry leaned forward to verify what his eyes
were telling him. Enkian’s chest was a latticework of scars from
shoulders to waist. Tia turned to a man in the first circle and
held out her hands. He presented her with a long-bladed knife,
which he had removed from what appeared to be a handcrafted
rosewood box. The handle of the knife was encrusted with jewels.
Tia knelt before Enkian, bowed her head, and raised the knife for
him to take.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” Gleason
said.

Perry narrowed his eyes as he watched the
scene unfolding before him. No one paid attention to them. It was
as if they had ceased to matter.

“Self-mutilation,” Curtis whispered. “Not
all that unusual. Many ancient cultures practiced it.”

“Elijah and the prophets of Baal,” Perry
mused.

“Who?” Griffin said.

Curtis, ever the
professor, explained. “An Old Testament showdown. The prophet
Elijah faced off against four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal
and four hundred prophets of Asherah. Elijah had laid out a simple
challenge: If Baal was real, then let him show it by sending fire
from heaven to consume an offering; if the Lord God
was real, He would answer with fire from heaven.
When Baal did
n’t answer, the prophets
began to cut themselves to encourage his response. It didn’t work.
We know who won.”

“You mean this is normal?” Griffin
asked.

“Not normal,” Perry said. “There’s nothing
normal about this. It’s just not new.”