The Golden Crystal (20 page)

Cole was the only one lucky enough to survive without strange physical anomalies. 

Vilocek hoped that he would be able to replicate the experiment — but next time with the original crystal. He believed the pure specimen would provide much more powerful effects. 

He would be the first successful subject. He was not a man to waste time pondering after effects or waiting for focus groups, multiple human testing successes, and the worthless bureaucratic posturing of the United States Food and Drug Administration. He wanted nothing to do with publicizing the results to the world, anyway. Whatever he was able to accomplish with the crystal, he would keep to himself. 

He even had plans in place for the removal of the doctors and scientists who would aid him in the experimentation. 

Once all was said and done, he alone would be able to enjoy the fruits of his labor for the rest of his life. 

The rest of his
long
life. 

Thanks to his father’s secret memoirs, Vilocek knew that the crystal not only had miraculous healing powers and benefits when mixed with other pure substances — a fact he had proven inside his own laboratory — but it also held the secret to sustained life. 

Dr. Enko Vilocek, after stealing the crystal from James Whittenfield, Sr., had discovered that not only could the crystal resurrect a healthy plant from a wilted shrub, but that the same plant had blossomed and grown to thirty percent larger than the control specimens,
and
had outlived the others by almost
fifty
percent. 

When tested on small rodents, the same results were found. Screech, an aptly named guinea pig Tanning had actually grown quite fond of, had outlived his brothers and sisters by almost
four years
— an insanely long life for a common house pet. 

Vilocek knew that by attaining a much larger — and more potent — sample of the crystal, he would be able to streamline and expedite his research tenfold. Maybe more, depending on the actual size of the stone. Either way, he would be able to enjoy an extremely long lifespan, his aging slowed to a crawl as the physical effects and healing properties worked their magic. 

Now, as Beka and Karn marched the prisoners back into the room, Vilocek turned to Bryce. “Captain Reynolds. I know you’ve been in contact with Whittenfield — please share his thoughts on all of this.” It was an unmistakable command, yet Vilocek added a raised inflection at the end of the statement, making it seem as though he was asking a question. 

“Look,” Bryce said, “I already told you. He doesn’t know any more than we do! I told him everything I told you, and sent him the images from the well shaft.”

“Well, you mentioned the well shaft had some markings on the outside that you recognized, correct?” Vilocek asked. “Let’s see if the good professor here can offer his input.” He glanced over at Andrews, gasping in the corner of the room. 

“I didn’t recognize them from anywhere, but they were on both the door to our tunnel, and to the entrance stone blocking the hidden chamber,” Bryce said as he pulled up one of the images on a laptop. Vilocek again looked toward Professor Andrews. 

“Well?”

Beka propped the older man up, keeping him from collapsing under his own weight. Clearly he was still in excruciating pain, but he spoke up in a firm, confident voice. 

“I don’t know about those symbols — I’ve never seen anything like them in my life. But I can assure you, they are not hieroglyphics.”

“Well, Bryce has Whittenfield cross-referencing the symbol with other known glyph-based written languages, and since he will have a much better connection from where he is, I guess we’ll just have to be patient.” He motioned to Karn and Beka. “Clearly Professor Andrews is of no use to us any longer. I was mistaken to think that he would be some help to us here. Gentlemen, dismiss him from the expedition.”

Corinne’s and Jensen’s eyes widened simultaneously. The guards tightened their grips on their captives, and Beka’s characteristic smirk appeared. 

Bryce stood, making eye contact with Sean Bartlinski in the corner of the room. Wayne and Jeff Thompson also exchanged glances, both gripping their pistols. Vilocek raised his hands in front of him, acting like a referee. “Gentlemen, please do not try anything rash. It makes no difference if we end this in a bloodbath or a calm, professional execution. Miss Banks and her uncle are no longer needed, and regardless of what you do, they will be eliminated.”

His eyes landed on each man individually for a moment, before settling on the band that around Corinne’s ankle. Bryce knew why. If anything was out-of-line with this man’s plan, he could instantly cause unbelievable pain to the professor — or worse. Bryce wasn’t about to test what “or worse” might be. 

But before the guards could haul them off to wherever they would be murdered, Professor Jensen spoke up, almost yelling. 

“Wait!” he cried. “I know — I mean, I think I know — “ 

Vilocek turned toward him. “Yes, Professor?”

“It’s just that, well it seems — “ Jensen gathered his thoughts for a moment, understanding finally beginning to hit him. “Well, I’ve been thinking about the relationships between the Golden Ratio — 1.618, as you know — how it appears numerous times both in the street layout of Washington D.C.,
and
the Pyramid of Giza.”

“I remember your paper,” Vilocek said, his voice indicating his diminishing patience. 

“Right, well, I have been struggling to find the connection between the Golden Ratio and this new information. Either through the symbols themselves, or some other manifestation entirely, there should have been at least one more representation of the Golden Ratio in the pyramid. One that we haven’t already documented.”

“Why? Couldn’t it just be a coincidence that Phi shows up a few times on some old map and inside the Pyramid?” Karn asked.

“No. No, it’s not that simple. I thought of that, but the fact remains — the ‘Golden Ratio,’ ‘Golden Number,’ whatever you want to call it — has been known to man long before the layout of the capital city and even before the pyramids. Some even say that both were built according to the number — a claim that actually has scientific merit. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen men constructing buildings and designing architecture that incorporates the number Phi.

“So, the city was built in a specific way that not only pointed us to the Great Pyramid, but also maintained the angles that would mathematically support the Golden Ratio. Likewise, historians believe that the Egyptians, or whoever built the Pyramid at Giza originally, built it using those angles and, again, the Golden Ratio.”

“So the Golden Ratio shows up in nature, art, and architecture.” Vilocek said. He was getting visibly annoyed. “Why is that so important now? I read your article, Professor, and though it’s fascinating, I’m not sure we need a lecture on the Golden Ratio at this particular time.”

“But understand, though,” Jensen said, suddenly more animated than he’d been in two days. “No one knows exactly who was the first to ‘discover’ this unique number. Some attribute it to the ancient Greeks, others argue it was handed to mankind from the hand of God himself. Either way, the number is certainly linked to some miraculous things. If we think back to the hidden chamber, the tunnels, the symbols, everything — we should be able to find
another
reference to the Golden Ratio that might reveal a great deal.”

Vilocek sighed slightly. He knew Andrews was intelligent, but he still couldn’t see the benefit of chasing after a
number
— after all, what difference would it make if they
did
find another link to the Golden Ratio? What bearing could that possibly have on the crystal?

Karn reached into his front pocket and withdrew the small field notebook he was constantly scribbling in. “I can maybe help with the tunnel thing — I made a rough map of the tunnel — in case we got turned around down there.” He handed the notebook to Professor Andrews. 

The Professor stared at the page in disbelief. 

“It’s right here! This is it — the Golden Ratio
is
part of the crystal’s history!” The others stood and gathered around the small notebook. 

“What are we looking at?” Vilocek asked. 

“The diggers of those tunnels,” Andrews explained, “ — the original owners of the crystal, left us a clue pointing back to the Golden Ratio.”

He showed them the map Karn had drawn of the long-hidden tunnel beneath the Great Pyramid:

“It’s a spiral,” Bryce said, confused. “So what?”

“It
is
a spiral,” Andrews said, grinning in spite of the situation. “That alone would be cause for interest, as the rest of the Giza pyramids — and all other pyramids known to man, for that matter — consist of
straight, angled
shafts, leading into rectangular or square-shaped chambers.”

“But the spiral passage in this drawing — which leads to the hidden chamber — is exactly the same shape of the
other
passage as well — the one leading
out
of the hidden chamber back up to the Lower Room.”

He took the pencil from the binding of the notebook and quickly sketched out the other passageway — an exact copy of the first tunnel Karn had drawn, resulting in a mirror image.

“As you can see, the spiral is repeated with the two passageways. This is a perfect representation of what’s called a ‘Golden Spiral.’”

“A ‘Golden Spiral?’” Bryce asked. “Is that tied in with the Golden Ratio?”

“Exactly!” Andrews was in full professor mode, happy in his own element. “Watch this.” He continued to scribble on the page, this time sectioning the spiral into quadrants. On the next page he drew a simplified version of the shafts, and continued his lesson. 

“As you can see, each section of both spirals can be split into quadrants — getting progressively smaller and tighter with each curl; specifically, each quarter-turn is proportionately smaller than the preceding turn.

“Or — looking at it from the opposite way — each section of the spiral, starting from the center — which in this case is the location of the well shaft — each quarter turn in the spiral gets progressively
larger
by a specific ratio, or number, each time. Anyone want to guess what that number is?”

Wayne Thompson spoke up from the back of the group. “Phi — 1.618?”

“Correct!” Andrews beamed.  

“Again, Professor,” Vilocek said, more insistent now. “What exactly does this have to do with the crystal?”

“Well, Dr. Vilocek — “ Professor Jensen said, starting to theorize out loud, “this ‘Golden Spiral,’ as it has come to be known, and other instances of the term ‘Golden Mean,’ ‘Golden Ratio,’ etc, have all been labeled as such due to their appearances in
nature
. Some have even gone so far as to say that God himself used the Ratio to design the heavens and the earth, with the ubiquity of its appearances arguably more than a coincidence. The ancient Greeks — specifically Pythagoras — have been designated as the true ‘discoverers’ of the Ratio, and have used it in their art and architecture for centuries; even to the present day.

“But what if the Greeks were
not
the first to discover this ratio? What if there was someone else — some ancient civilization even — who’d found out about the Golden Ratio and used it in their engineering and construction as well? Further, what if the Ratio was used somehow in the creation of the original crystal?”