The Thrones of Eden 3 (Eden) (2 page)

“I wish you wouldn’t give up.”

“John, there comes a time when you have to say it’s over. And it’s over. We can’t even rub the rust off a penny we’re so financially dry. We can’t even pay the light bill.” She looked at the overhead fixture, an antique her father purchased in Ankara, Turkey. It was dead.

“We can rebuild.”

“You don’t get it, do you? My reputation is shot. No one will give me a grant or fund a project because I’m tabloid fodder. I’m the community joke within the world of archeology.”

“Then we’ll find a way together.”

She turned and offered him a false smile.

She was so beautiful he thought, her face the color of cocoa, a trait from her Filipina mother, as was the unique color of her eyes, that of polished copper of newly minted pennies.

She walked to him and fell into his embrace, her arms reaching up behind his back. “I know what you’re doing,” she told him. “You’re trying to give me hope where there is none.”

He said nothing because she was telling the truth. There was no future in the field of archeology. Not now and perhaps never. Right now they were drifting and looking for a place to land.

He cupped his hands around her face and pulled her close until they were inches apart, their noses nearly touching. “We have each other,” he told her. “And right now I feel like the richest man in the entire world. And it’s a pretty big world. So we’ll get through this.”

She feigned a smile, one that said ‘
Yeah,
sure. We’ll get through this.’
Then she eased into him with the side of her head resting against his chest, and listened to the strong measure of his heartbeat.

And then her cell phone rang.

CHAPTER TWO

“You’re a hard woman to reach,” said John Hillary. “I tried calling the AIAA’s direct number, but it appears that the landline has been disconnected.”

“What do you want, Hillary?”

John Hillary had been a longtime adversary of her father, trying to discredit him whenever the possibility availed itself in order to promote his own self interests and agendas. So the edge of her tone was hardly masked.

“I’m offering you an olive branch,” he said. “I know your father and I had a history—”

“A history! All
you
ever did, Hillary, was to try to undermine everything
he
did.”

“Please, Alyssa, allow me to speak. I have something worthwhile to say. Something I think you need to hear.”

She sighed. “What on Earth would ever possess you to think that I would ever want to hear
anything
from you at all?”

“Please allow me to say that my petty jealousies against your father were just that, petty jealousies. And now that he’s gone, I have come to realize the true greatness that your father brought to the field of archeology.”

“Get to the point, Hillary. Why are you calling me?”

“The truth is, Alyssa, no matter how prominent of a scientist I have become in the field, I could never hold a torch to your father and always had to follow in his shadow. I’ve come to realize that. But I’ve also come to respect you as well . . . A daughter of John Moore is an apple that doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Another sigh. “You’re costing me valuable time on my phone.”

“I know. And I’m sorry. But I want you to know that I found it.”

“Found what?”

“Eden . . . I found Eden.”

Alyssa eyes detonated with surprise. “Excuse me?”

“Eden,” he repeated. “It’s exactly where you said it was, at the precise coordinates.”

“That’s impossible,” she said. “The site imploded on itself. There’s nothing left besides a crater.”

“This is true. However, I had set up a dig site—”

“—To steal my thunder? Is that what you’re trying to say? Well that’s very Hillary of you since you tried to do the same thing to my father.”

“Alyssa, please. All I’m asking is a moment of your time.”

“The clock’s ticking.”

“A member of my team discovered a relic that bears the markings you posted in the newspapers from interviews when you returned from Turkey, writings that exist nowhere else. Or at least have yet to be discovered elsewhere.”

“What kind of a relic?”

“It’s a piece of black silica, triangular. I believe it’s the material you indicated as to the main substance used in the construction of Eden.”

“They found numerous pieces of black silica at the site,” she told him. Then after a slight hitch, she said, “But nothing with etchings.”

“As we speak, I am holding the relic in my hand.”

“Where exactly did you find it?”

“Approximately forty feet down on the third level, at the west side of the imploded site. But there’s something else.”

“And what’s that?”

“We discovered another tunnel,” he told her. “It appears to be an arterial of some kind that leads to the west.”

“Another tunnel?”

“An arterial. Whatever it was you discovered it extends to the west and under the desert plain. It appears that Eden connects to something else.”

“To what?”

“We’re not sure. We’ve only begun to breach the cave-in caused by the implosion by removing debris. But so far it appears quite lengthy. Who knows where this corridor ends. It may end at a hundred feet or a thousand. But of note to your discovery, we did find ancient founts that resemble the descriptions you made in the journals. This alone will support your claim.”

“So did you call me to throw this in my face? I’m still not getting the reason as to why you called me.”

“The reason is that I’m digging at the precise location you claimed to be the site of Eden. The claim has already been made. The discovery, no matter what I do from this point on, is yours.”

“My father’s,” she corrected. “The discovery was his.”

“But it was you that brought it to the world.”

“And it was the world that made me a pariah in the field of archeology.”

“Not anymore,” he said. “I need you here, Alyssa, in Turkey. I need your help.”

“You need
my
help?”

“There’s something definitely down there. I honestly believe that the tunnel leads to someplace in particular down that stretch. Otherwise, why build it?”

“Are you offering me a partnership?”

“You’re an accomplished cryptanalyst. Someone I need.”

“So it’s still about you?”

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t. But the fact is, Alyssa, something wonderful exists at the very coordinates you had given and cannot be disputed. Organizations all over the world will recognize the validity of your claim.”

She could almost feel her heart thrumming against the wall of her chest with excitement. “I’m going to ask you one more time, Hillary. Are you offering me a partnership?”

“Yes,” he said. “From this point on, we will share all discoveries together.”

“Yeah, well, that’s all good and fine. But I literally don’t have two nickels to rub together. So getting to you would be impossible at this time.” She looked ceilingward at the Ankara lamp
. I can’t even pay the electric bill.

“Then I will dig into my reserves and fly you out here. That’s no problem.”

“And John?”

Savage’s attention quickly peaked.

“As your aid, then I will accept the terms regarding him as well. You and Mr. Savage are to join my team. I’ll have my assistant contact you with the specifics of travel. Please keep your line open.”

She could hardly contain herself as she fought for calm. “I will. And Hillary?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

The connection was severed with an audible click.

Savage cocked his head. She could tell that his interest was overwhelming.

“What?” he asked.

She smiled. “Pack your bags,” she told him.” And then her smile broadened. “We’re going back to Eden.”

CHAPTER THREE

Esenboğa Airport

Ankara, Turkey

When their plane touched down in Ankara, John and Alyssa took a cab to the exclusive JW Marriott Hotel in downtown Ankara. The room was elegant and spacious with marble flooring and scalloped drapes. The tub was made of marble with jets to soothe the body. And the connecting balcony offered a breath-taking view of the city, especially at night when Ankara was a gallery of lights.

Although they were tired, they could not pass up a good meal on Hillary’s dime.

Sitting at a table in an area with subdued lighting, with the flames of ornamental candles dancing and swaying on their wicks, John and Alyssa enjoyed a fine wine as they waited for their meals.

John raised his glass in toast and tapped it against Alyssa’s. “To the AIAA,” he said.

“To the AIAA.”

They took a sip and set their glasses aside.

 “We have new life,” said Savage.

 “And it came from a most unlikely source, too—an adversary of my father, no less. But he’s still John Hillary. A man who would sell his mother upriver for a bottle of beer if he knew the act would benefit him.”

“It’s been all over the news,” he said. He raised his glass in salutation. “Suffice to say, your credibility is back.”

“And that’s all I wanted,” she told him. “But more importantly, I didn’t want my father’s legacy to become the brunt of in-circle jokes amongst professionals in the field.” She reached across the table and grabbed his hands with hers. “I’m scared and excited at the same time,” she told him.

He knew exactly what she was alluding to. “Those things inside Eden are gone,” he told her.

“How do you know that? How do you know that there isn’t something else waiting at the end of that tunnel?”

“I don’t.”

“Exactly. And that’s why we can’t afford to become complacent.”

“Alyssa, that temple was a burial chamber built to protect the Primaries. I’m sure this arterial tunnel leads to a safer haven—maybe to an ancient library or amphitheater, to something less guarded.”

“You’re becoming complacent.”

She was right. The warrens inside Eden were filled with reptiles that where venomously dangerous. The
Megalania Priscas
may not have been exclusive just to Eden. They may be elsewhere as well. 

“John, those
Megalania Priscas
may not have been restricted to the temple of Eden. Like any other creature they live by self-preservation. And who’s to say that this tunnel is not the only one? There could be many. And maybe this
one
tunnel leads to an underground topography we could only imagine Eden to be, a truly magnificent city buried beneath the sands of Turkey.”

“An entire city? Is that what you think?”

“Something’s down there. That’s a fact. But to what degree I can only surmise.” She leaned forward, her face stern. “That temple we discovered is fourteen thousand years old. And there’s no doubt that a temple such as this one—one that dwarfs the likes of the Great Pyramids of Egypt—would not sit alone. I believe the arterial that Hillary discovered may lead to a network of tunnels that lead to a city buried beneath the sands.”

“You get all that from the discovery of one tunnel?”

“No. I get that from the clues of the temple.” Her appearance remained hard and determined, the creases of her brow deepening. “The temple of Eden was made up entirely of black silica, a product found half way across the planet. After what we discovered inside that ship lying in the Yucatan Peninsula, then matching the archaic script from that ship to the writings discovered on the walls of Eden, there’s no doubt that Eden was created by the same type of lost technology. The question is: does the temple of Eden sit alone? And I’m banking that it doesn’t. In fact, I think Eden is the centerpiece of a magnificent city. Remember how the walls shifted by weights and balances?”

He nodded.

“Doorways were always opening and closing, always revealing new passageways.”

“If what you say is true, if you believe Eden to be the centerpiece of man’s first great civilization, then it could be incredibly massive.”

“The temple of Eden easily dwarfed Cheops and was made entirely of black silica that housed the most treasured idols of our time, the bodies of the Primaries, the parents of mankind. Historically speaking, the largest temples have always served as the central point of every civilization from Giza to Mesoamerica. I don’t think Eden is any different. It
is
the centerpiece of something much larger.”

“And you think Hillary knows this?”

“Hillary is a brilliant man. So the answer is ‘yes.’ He’s thinking the same way I am. I’m sure. I’ll bet he’s salivating at the thought that somewhere underneath lies a city far greater than Troy.”

“If this is the case, then it would take decades to unearth.”

She nodded. “But it’s well worth the task, don’t you think? But another question arises.”

“And what’s that?”

“There may be things down there that have gone undisturbed for centuries, perhaps millenniums. What if we upset the balance that had gone untouched on for ages?”

“Then we accept the challenge.”

“At the potential cost of human life?”

“This time we’ll be better prepared,” he told her. “We at least
know
what could be down there.”

She fell back in her seat just as dinner arrived. After the waiter set the plates down and left, the conversation continued.

 “It’ll be a completely different ecosystem down there,” she continued. “The environment will be one that has morphed to fit its surroundings after the implosion.”

John was pleased to hear her talk like this, with passion and love for what she did, talking like an archeologist filled with enthusiasm. “Then we’ll adapt,” he finally told her.
Like anything else in life, you either adapt or die.

She picked up her fork, stabbed a piece of meat, and held the morsel inches away from her mouth. “I hope we can,” she said. “But we both know the same thing about Eden.”

“You want to jog my memory?”

“We both know that Eden does not allow for
some
things to adapt . . . That it picks and chooses who it wants to live or die.”