As the door closed behind him, Martín looked down at the handful of items he was carrying. His assignment was certainly outside the normal remit of the ESA, he thought to himself, shaking his head. But although he was initially apprehensive, he quickly realised he’d just been given a golden opportunity to satisfy his own curiosity, as well as that of his boss.
He strode to his desk and opened up a browser window on his laptop, and started tracking Dr Gail Turner down.
Chapter 37
Seth Mallus shut the door and took his seat opposite Dr Patterson at the imposing desk. Bright sunlight poured through the window of the meeting room. Outside, an old man cycled past whistling and in the distance a group of children could be seen playing with a football on the sandy beach. Palm trees swayed gently as seagulls drifted on the warm breeze.
Dr Patterson was looking out of the window with interest.
“It’s amazing what can be achieved with modern technology, Doctor,” Mallus told him. “When my father was a boy, the most impressive computers could barely play chess. Now, in simulator windows like this they can make us think that we are enjoying a summer’s day in California, while in the distance, sitting at a small table, two men who don’t even exist are themselves playing chess to the level of the Grandmasters.”
One of the boys playing football on the beach was arguing with the others. He was holding the football close to his chest, and shouting at the top of his voice. Dr Patterson could not make out what he was saying, but the outcome was clear. Three of the other boys suddenly jumped on him, trying to wrestle the ball away from his grip. Within a minute, they had seized it and were triumphantly marching off to their friends, where they quickly resumed their game. The first boy picked himself up from the sand, nursing his jaw. Blood was dripping from his nose. He stole a glance at the other boys as he retreated to the promenade by the beach. The three dimensional effect was staggering, to the extent that had he not been assured it was a computer simulation the thought would never have crossed his mind.
“Man will never change, Dr Patterson. Our playground simply gets larger, the footballs more expensive, and the games more deadly.” He swung his chair round to look at the scientist. “The strong and powerful continue to make the rules, and there is one absolute certainty: the longer you play, the more likely you are to get hurt.”
Patterson wasn’t sure what Mallus was alluding to, but his threatening tone was making him nervous. “I see,” he lied.
Mallus leant forward and pointed to the scientist’s folder, which he had placed on the desk in front of him. “Tell, me; since we last saw each other, has anything enlightening sprung to mind?” he asked.
“I’ve made some progress, but nothing noteworthy. I was very surprised when -”
“You turned the news on this morning?” Mallus finished the sentence for him.
“I didn’t expect them to find it so soon. And I certainly didn’t expect to see it on TV.”
Mallus looked at him closely then shook his head. “The leaks to the press have caused us to accelerate our project somewhat, but there is still too much that we do not understand regarding Aniquilus, too much that you have not been able to tell us, despite your best attempts. This is why, if all goes well, Dr Gail Turner will be joining you tomorrow to start helping.”
Patterson looked at him in disbelief. That he was assigned some help from one of the other research teams was one thing, but Dr Gail Turner...
“She can read the text, from what the reports say, largely without the aid of a translating device like you, Doctor. And you know everything about Mars and a great deal about Aniquilus. Of all the people in the list you provided me with, I believe the two of you will make the best pairing.”
There was a shout from the virtual world outside the window, barely audible through the ‘glass’, and Patterson looked up to see the same fight over the football happening all over again. Following his gaze, Mallus shook his head and snapped a command at the screen, which promptly changed to a sprawling cityscape; Mallus’ office had gone from a beach to the topmost floor of a virtual skyscraper.
After a short pause to take the view in, Mallus looked at him intently. “Something has to be done to stop it, Doctor. The book is the key, I’m certain of that. I’m also certain that we don’t have much time left.”
Chapter 38
Gail’s phone had not stopped ringing all morning. She had cancelled her remaining lectures and seminars for the day and returned to her office with David Hunt to look at the Mars findings in more detail. Despite speaking to dozens of people, her mobile still had over thirty missed calls, and her desk phone had more voicemails than she dared count.
She held her head in her hands and exhaled loudly.
“Gail, I know this may be hard, but you may have to accept that Amarna and Mars are linked,” David said apologetically.
Looking up at him, she scowled before burying her face again. “Easy for you to say,” she mumbled. “You’re used to people trying to discredit you! This is Egyptology; I’ll be hung out to dry!”
Professor David Hunt knew exactly what she meant. Over the years, dozens of weird and wonderful theories had been put forward regarding the pyramids, the Sphinx, and the pharaohs; all of those theories had been ridiculed by Egyptologists. Often, they would simply not bother trying to disprove the theory, but would dismiss it out of hand. Gail was worried about keeping her career intact and away from disrepute.
“Look at the bigger picture, Gail: they’ve found evidence of intelligent life on Mars!” he said. “And those creatures used the same symbol as your Amarna people. You couldn’t have gone to Mars to plant evidence any more than you could have carved the Stickman into all those shelves in Amarna, so they can’t possible claim that you made any of this up, can they?”
“That’s not the point!” she whined. “The Egyptian authorities are renowned for refusing to authorise archaeological excavations if they believe an unfavourable alternative theory is being developed. They famously stalled excavation of irregularities in Khufu’s pyramid because Japanese and French researchers couldn’t satisfy their demands that it would significantly advance science. The second I openly admit to a link between Mars and Amarna, I can kiss my access to the Amarna Library goodbye, and there are still over three thousand books that we haven’t even opened yet!”
“Not this time: this is science, Gail! You can see as well as I can that those symbols are identical. There is only one possible reason for that isn’t there?”
Gail sat holding her head for several minutes as David waited patiently for an answer. She looked up. “There is another possible explanation.”
He looked her in the eyes and his face fell. “Gail, don’t do this!” he pleaded with her.
“But you have to admit it’s possible, don’t you? That the Mars photos are faked is a hell of a lot more likely than the alternative, don’t you think? Why do you so readily believe that they are genuine?”
“The truth is that regardless of where those images came from, regardless of how authentic they may be you simply don’t want to accept that there may be some inherent link between the two sites,” he told her, firmly. “You’re grappling for a conspiracy theory that disproves the relationship between the two, instead of objectively looking at all the evidence and judging it on its own merits.” His eyes met hers and softened. “The reason I can still work here, despite all my years trying to prove my unpopular theories, is because I have never forgotten that archaeology is a science, and that scientific method is the foundation of everything that we do.
“I know that there is a twenty-three thousand year old village on the edge of the Caspian Sea because of scientific evidence, not because that’s what I wanted to be true. Had it been only four thousand years-old, it would still have been an important find. As it is, it helped fuel my career for the past fifteen years. Look for the evidence to support a link between Amarna and Mars, and you may be surprised. There may be something in the texts that you have already seen that may now make more sense.”