Nothing New Under the Sun, page 26
“Well, to use your analogy, I think I am holding quite a few little mythical golden birds in my hand at the moment,” she smiled.
“Definitely, you have more leads to follow than many archeologists who made great discoveries ever had.”
“You know I have been wondering lately. Those inscriptions and carvings on cave walls all over the world – were they left there as messages? Or are they advertisements of their achievements?” Mackenzie asked.
“That, my dear Mackie, is a refreshing thought. I will have to think about it, but my initial response would be, they are messages for us to dig deeper.”
Chapter 37
This nagging feeling
Just as dawn broke through the darkness, on the lawn in front of the cabin back at Freydis, Carter’s graceful movements flowed freely as he practiced Tai Chi. He held the sword in the way he’d been taught. Looking at the tiger, he could see it hovering in the background before him, looking for that opening. Carter snapped up the sword, and the tiger held back when it saw the blade. The tiger was careful this time.
The ritual came to an abrupt end when his cell phone rang with a sound indicating the call was coming in on the secure line. Very few people had access to that line; it had to be important.
“Good morning, Carter.” It was James Rhodes. “How are you doing there in the backwoods?”
“I’m in God’s own country, Jim,” Carter laughed. “You should see this place. The sun is breaking through the trees, and everything is glowing. The birds are singing, and the air is fresh! This, my friend, is what I call paradise.”
“Your grandfather loved the place. I’ve never been there, but the pictures he showed me were beautiful.”
“That chasm in your life can be rectified easily if you would come up for a visit. Say the word and I’ll pick you up in Quebec City. We have plenty of room for you to stay and a horse to ride.”
“You know, I was actually calling to arrange for you to come down to D.C., but your offer is very tempting…” He went quiet for a few moments. “I guess whether we meet here or there won’t make a difference, and that way I get a chance to see the place you Devereuxs have been yapping about so much.”
“Done deal, your life will never be the same after this!” Carter laughed. “Just let me know when to pick you up at the airport. Oh, and don’t forget to bring your hiking boots, you’re going to need them.”
At noon the next day, Carter greeted Rhodes as he came out of the terminal at Jean Lesage International Airport. Shortly after, they were in the air, soaring over the Canadian countryside. James’ mouth was agape as he took in the spectacular beauty of the scenery below them.
Over the sound of the plane’s engines and the distraction of the beauty below, Rhodes filled Carter in on the latest test data collected by the survey teams out in the field. Fifteen sites were being examined as possible locations for the nuclear explosions in ancient times. Nine sites had been ruled out after thorough testing and analyses. Five locations had all the telltale signs of a nuclear explosion: inordinate amounts of Trinitite, soil and rock fused into a glass-like substance, indications of a blast radiating from an epicenter, and abnormally high levels of radiation.
The sixth location revealed extensive damage from a heat blast, similar to what would be expected with a nuclear explosion, but had low levels of radiation and startlingly high volumes of Helium-3. This site had the scientists scratching their heads.
“Low levels of radiation and high levels of Helium-3?” Carter looked at Rhodes. “That’s noteworthy. Do they have any suppositions about it?”
“Well, as I’ve said, the first five sites can be explained, but that last one is flummoxing their brains. I brought all the test results and reports along for us to study.”
When they landed, Mackenzie was waiting for them. James got out of the plane and looked around him. The air was fresh. It smelled of life and vigor. He took one deep breath of the fresh mountain air and said, “Now I know what you meant yesterday when you said this is God’s own country. This is unequivocally awe-inspiringly beautiful. No wonder Will and you have been tied to this place.”
“Not just the two of us my friend, Mackie thinks she has lived here in a previous life! And Liam – I don’t know how we are ever going to get him back to the city with us when the time comes.”
Mackenzie came up, hugged and kissed Carter and pecked James on the cheek, welcoming him to Freydis. While Carter put the plane in the hangar, Mackenzie helped Rhodes load his luggage into the electric cart.
“I was just telling Carter how beautiful this place is.”
“It’s the most beautiful place on Earth,” she said. “I don’t know how we’re ever going to be able to go back to Boston.” Carter got into the back seat while Mackenzie drove them to the cabin.
“Carter I have something fascinating to show you both later tonight. I made an intriguing discovery today.”
“Carter told me about your research on the way here. I am fascinated and very keen to hear more about it.” Rhodes replied.
***
Later that night, after a dinner of fresh salmon caught by Ahote and Liam earlier in the day, and fresh homegrown organic vegetables, they settled down in front of the fireplace. That's when Carter reminded Mackenzie about the surprise she promised them earlier.
While Carter opened a bottle of vintage port and prepared a platter of cheeses, dried fruits, and walnuts, Mackenzie showed James the research she had been working on and had already shared with Carter a few days earlier.
“So where are you heading with this research Mackenzie?” James asked.
“At the university I have been working on an absorbing project about the improvement of the function of human red blood cells.” She stopped and got a devious little smile on her face. “And it was all going fine until someone body-slammed me outside a building on the campus.” She was looking at Carter.
“Accidents happen, my dear,” Carter grinned. “As I accidently took you to coffee a few days later.”
“I still haven’t figured out how you pulled that one off.”
Carter laughed. “Jim wait, let me just set the record straight. The accident was real, not arranged. The most fortunate accident of my life, but I have to admit the first coffee date was a brilliant scheme.”
“Aha, there it is! You have admitted it, scoundrel. So it was a scheme and all these years I have been worried I was losing my mind!” Mackenzie looked at Rhodes. “And you employ criminals like this?”
James put his hands over his ears and laughed. “I’m not listening. I like both of you very much, so please don’t ask me to choose who I believe.”
Carter handed them each a glass of port and placed the platter on the table in front of them.
When the laughter subsided, Rhodes looked at Mackenzie to continue. “Okay, so despite the endless distractions caused by Carter’s incessant nagging to marry him, I managed to carry on with my work and started looking at respirocytes.”
Carter was just shaking his head at Mackenzie’s witticisms.
“Respiro what? Just don’t ask me to pronounce that word three times in a row quickly.”
“Respirocytes. An artificial red blood cell. Right now, it’s still a theoretical concept. It’s a nano-synthetic red blood cell, which can outperform the natural human red blood cell. It may well be up to 200 times more efficient than the natural cell and can supplement, or entirely replace, the function of the body's normal respiratory system.”
“Amazing! So is that where you are heading with your current research?”
“Yes, my primary objective is to find something in ancient history that could perhaps help us build such a respirocyte generator.”
Mackenzie went on to talk about her work. She told him how the respirocyte could be of great benefit to humanity by way of disease eradication. She also talked about where the idea had originated.
“I can see how significant that would be. I’m intrigued. So what’s next?”
“Mackie,” Carter said, “Why don’t you tell him what you’ve found from the survey work that’s been done in the underground city in Peru?”
“A while back,” she began, “I found a paper on blood transfusions from younger mice to older ones. The older mice had increased vitality, and now some researchers are talking about trying it on humans. The technique has been around since the 19th century. Parabiosis, they call it.”
She explained that the effects lasted only for a limited time, but were still regarded as a significant discovery by the project team, which was at the stage of getting ready to start trials on humans to see if they could bring relief to the elderly with diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
“Our team down in Peru,” Mackenzie continued, “sent me a picture of a wall mosaic showing a pregnant woman donating blood. It’s obvious what is happening, and I’ve never seen anything like this before. Whoever lived in the city knew about this method to restore vitality to aged cells. Don’t you find this fascinating?”
“It does seem like more than a coincidence to me,” Rhodes agreed. “Don’t the aboriginal people in Australia practice blood transfusions with a hollow reed? I can recall reading about that somewhere and always wondered.”
“They do. I’ve seen Chinese medical texts dating back to 2,650 B.C in which the doctors described the function of the heart and exactly how it pumped blood through the arteries and the human arterial circulatory system.”
“It falls in line with a theory I’m developing,” Carter explained. “I have a strong sense an advanced civilization may have existed thousands of years before recorded time. What if some of the things we’ve been uncovering are part of that lost civilization?”
“Lately, there’s certainly a lot of evidence coming to light that supports that hypothesis of yours,” Rhodes agreed.” I’m getting the feeling that in one way or another, these people were heir to ancient knowledge.”
“I was interested in Mackie’s research on the respirocytes as a way to account for evidence of gigantism in prehistoric humans,” Carter said as he took a sip of wine. “The Earth might have had a higher oxygen concentration in previous ages. We know the atmosphere has changed drastically over the millennia.”
“Carter and I had that conversation a long time ago, come to think of it. It was during that first bogus coffee date!” Mackenzie laughed and pointed a finger at him. “He told me then how he learned about respirocytes when he was looking into the reason for gigantism amongst humans in the past.”
“And what did you find?” Rhodes asked.
“When I remembered about the conversation, I started wondering if higher levels of oxygen did indeed exist in the atmosphere back then. And I found quite a few scientific studies, showing that sometime in the distant past, the world had about 30% oxygen in its atmosphere compared to only 20% that we have today.”
Rhodes was deep in thought as he looked at Mackenzie, waiting for her to continue.
“There is plenty of evidence from the City of Lights in the Sahara Desert to back it up,” Mackenzie pointed out. “Everything I’ve read and seen shows a city built for people who were much taller than we are. Even air analyzed from bubbles inside amber drops shows a higher concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere. Humans are limited by how tall we grow because of our skeletal structure, but high levels of oxygen in the atmosphere could provide a feasible explanation for gigantism. Just look at the dinosaurs and how big they were. Granted, they were probably a lot slower than elephants because of the time it takes for neurons to fire, but we haven’t seen creatures of such size for millions of years.”
Carter and Rhodes stared at her. It was obvious she had a lot more to reveal.
“Based on what has been discovered at the City of Lights, I set out to find more supporting data about giant humans, animals, and plants. I was not disappointed. There are masses of evidence from all over the world. Houses and graves, fossil footprints, bones, artifacts, the Bible - all these tell the same story about the existence of Titanic humans, incredible lifespans, superiority, and nobility. But, sadly it seems we, their descendants, have all but forgotten them.”
She pulled her laptop closer and searched for a file. “Dr. Carl Baugh, of Glen Rose Texas, constructed a large high-pressure oxygen chamber, also known as a hyperbaric biosphere. His purpose was to recreate the conditions of our original world.
Here’s what he says: “We’ve been doing extensive research into the ancient atmosphere, the one that produced the fossil record. Our research indicates that essentially everything was larger in the past. For instance, the club mosses, which today reach sixteen to eighteen inches, often approach two hundred feet in the fossil record. The great dinosaurs, with their relatively small lung capacity, reached tremendous stature. Seismosaurus could reach his head almost seventy feet in the air. Something has to explain this anomaly in terms of today’s atmosphere.
In today’s atmosphere, we have fourteen point seven pounds atmospheric pressure per inch at sea level. But to oxygenate the deep cell tissue of these great dinosaurs, we need much greater atmospheric pressure. Research has shown that when you approach two times today’ s atmospheric pressure, the entire blood plasma is saturated with oxygen.
Our research indicates there was about 27 pounds per square inch of atmospheric pressure in the past. That would beautifully solve a problem even paleontologists admit exists.
In addition, the oxygen supply in the fossil record has been found to be 30 percent oxygen compared to 20 percent today. Ancient air bubbles trapped in amber have been analyzed and revealed this heavier concentration of oxygen. If we had those conditions today, we could run two hundred miles without fatigue.”
Carter started laughing. “Mackie, now you will have to admit how valuable that first coffee date turned out to be!”
“Yeah, but only if you will admit that you were a tricky rascal in setting it up!”
Carter held his hands up in surrender. “I admit I am guilty as charged.”
Rhodes just shook his head at their little quips with each other. “Mackenzie, I’ll see what help I can get you with your work. This research of yours is of great consequence. You need access to all the resources we have and everything we can get for you. I have a higher level of clearance than most people because of my position in the federal hierarchy, and there are people I know who can help you in big ways.”
“That will be magnificent! Thank you very much.”
“It will require special clearance for you, but I don’t think it will be a problem once I tell Hunter about your research.”
“And I have to ask you,” Rhodes said while nibbling on a bit of cheese, “what are you doing to protect this research of yours?”
“Protect?” she asked. “Protect it from what? I’m not trying to patent anything. This information should be freely shared with all scientists.”
“I am not so sure about that. In fact, I’m definitely not at all sure.”
“Why is that?” Mackenzie frowned at him.
“Do you realize what the implications of your respirocyte research could be?”
“I’d like to think it would improve our quality of life and cure a lot of hematological diseases.”
“Yes, I agree it would indeed. Nevertheless, this technology could also have all kinds of negative uses. Suppose someone decides to build an army of super-soldiers with it. Think of what terrorists could do with men who could run for ten miles on a single breath or stay underwater for hours at a time with no scuba gear. And then we haven’t even considered greed – money. Can you imagine to what lengths big pharmaceutical companies will go to get an exclusive hold on this technology?”
Mackenzie and Carter went quiet when the reality of what Rhodes was saying dawned on them.
“He’s got a point there, Mackie,” Carter responded. “The implications of this technology go further than human health. Remember, the same fire that heats a home can also burn it down.”
Mackenzie stared into the fireplace. She was troubled - she had enjoyed her research so much and had only noble intentions, but what Rhodes was saying was true. She never gave it a moment’s thought that anyone could possibly have malicious intentions. “So how do I begin to protect it?”
“I’d backup everything on a dedicated server that is never connected to the Internet,” Rhodes said. “At least, make sure you have copies of it all. Make hard copies of the most important data. If you have a set of notebooks, make sure each of them is signed and dated. You can’t be too safe these days. There is an old motto in the archeological world, which I am sure Carter will confirm. Good archeologists keep their work secret until they have confirmation.”
“Okay, point well made. I can set up a system to secure my work and make sure it’s safe.”
Carter nodded in agreement.
***
The next morning Rhodes sat on the deck outside and watched Carter show Liam the complicated moves of Tai Chi. Carter had promised to take the boy with him to his class next time they were in Boston and introduce him to his master. It was good to see Liam so close to his father. The boy was at the stage in his life where his dad was his superhero. Carter is the best role model any boy could have; Rhodes thought to himself.
After breakfast, Carter and Rhodes strolled to a ledge where they could look out over a large part of the ranch. It was a beautiful lookout point where Carter liked to go when he needed time to think in private.
Rhodes briefed him on the meeting Hunter Patrick had with the President, Vice President and the others. “Hunter said the Veep acted like a jackass. He told me the man thought A-Echelon consists of a bunch of Don Quixote’s. However, on the positive side, the President took him seriously and promised him the full cooperation of the other national security agencies. He is adamant that he wants to have more information about this.”
“I can understand when the few people who know about us here at A-Echelon sometimes think we are in the crazy business Jim. It’s because the blind are leading the blind. We, especially you and I, on the other hand, don’t have that luxury; we can’t afford to make assumptions.”
