Uncontacted, page 20
A horseshoe-shaped reception desk was situated against the far wall, staffed by a topless tribal woman with sagging breasts, tusk through her nose, talking on the phone while absentmindedly twirling a pen in one hand. Behind her mounted on the wall were two large flat-panel monitors, each appearing to show the same type of computer model that Antonio had seen in Stel’s lab, with the dots growing exponentially in number on the left screen, and shrinking rapidly on the right. A series of wall-mounted clocks displayed local time in twelve international cities, including London, Mumbai, and New York.
The guards eyed him but said nothing, so Antonio walked up to the desk. The woman covered the phone receiver with one hand while saying in perfect English, “Good afternoon, sir, how may I help you today?”
At first Antonio was at a loss for what to say, and he began to stammer, “I…Uh—“ while the receptionist frowned at him. But then he told himself just to go with it, to simply state his business, as he would in any other type of setting like this. He tried again. “Hi, my name is Dr. Antonio Medina, and I’m here to collect the sacred stone and deliver it to its rightful location.”
There. I said it. He immediately felt better after airing the words, like a weight had been lifted from him. The receptionist smiled pleasantly and spoke into an intercom. “Dr. Medina is here for the contents of his safe deposit box.”
A male voice came back over the intercom, also in English. “Send him in, please.”
The receptionist pressed another button and a wall panel slid open to reveal a short hallway leading to a closed steel door with another armed, tribal guard in front of it. She nodded at him and resumed her phone call, and Antonio walked into the new area.
“Your ID, Sir,” the guard said, also in English. Antonio fumbled for his wallet, wondering if he still even had it, but it was there in his front right pants pocket. He took from it his driver license and presented it to the guard, who looked at it closely while scrutinizing Antonio’s face. “Born February 28?” He shot Antonio a withering stare.
“Actually, it was the 29th, but…”
“But they move it a day either side to save you the hassle. I get it, I’m a leap year baby too!” The guard smiled while cutting him off, before opening a door and extending a hand in that direction. “Right this way, please.”
Antonio led the way into the new space, the guard following behind him. “Turn right, please,” he said from behind. Antonio did and looked through an open doorway into a small cube-shaped room. In the center of the room, the half-meteorite was positioned on a waist-high pedestal. A matrix of red lasers crisscrossed the enclosed space. Antonio waited before approaching any closer.
“It’s okay, they’re just for show. I like that Tom Cruise movie. Go ahead, you can walk right through them.”
Antonio was still unsure about it, but the guard smiled amicably and so he proceeded to walk to the pedestal. He held his breath as he broke the first of the lasers, but true to the guard’s word, nothing happened, at least not that Antonio could tell. He caught movement above and looked up to see a ceiling mounted security camera tracking his movement. He reached the pedestal and stood there eyeballing the sacred stone.
He nodded, confirming to himself that it certainly appeared to be the genuine article, that it looked exactly like the other one that now lay on the table of the Internet India Café in Mumbai. The guard walked up beside him, still smiling, but saying nothing as he eyed Antonio expectantly.
“May I?” Antonio nodded to the artifact.
“By all means!” The guard extended a hand to the stone.
Antonio reached out and grabbed it by two hands. He gently lifted, not sure if the meteorite was attached to the pedestal in some way, but it came away easily. He cradled it against his chest and made eye contact with the tribal guard. “Now what?”
“I will escort you back to the elevator. Come, let us go.” The guard turned and made for the exit without waiting to see if Antonio had questions.
“Wait a minute,” the ecologist said, striding briskly to keep up with the guard. “I meant, after I take the elevator up, then what do I do with the sacred stone?”
But the guard was even further ahead of him now, and not answering. By the time Antonio reached the front office, the guard was huddled in conference with the receptionist. Both of them looked up and smiled warmly as Antonio entered. The guard rejoined him, waving toward the main exit.
“The elevator to take you back up to the house is just outside these doors, Dr. Medina.”
“But where do I take this once I get up there?” Antonio started walking toward the exit.
“Why, to the Amazon rain forest, of course. To the place where it belongs. It is why you are here, no?”
“Yes, but…” Realizing the futility of this conversation, Antonio bid the man goodbye and went to the elevator. It was already down here, waiting with doors open. Antonio stepped inside and hit the button labelled “H.” The doors closed with a ding, and Antonio cradled the meteorite as the car began to rocket upwards.
Chapter 39
On the ride up, Antonio began to worry. What if Stel was there waiting for him when the doors opened? If so, and he was just standing there with the stone occupying both hands, he was as good as dead. So he set the meteorite down on the elevator floor so that he could have his machine gun ready when the doors opened.
Tensing as he felt the vertical deceleration and then heard the chime, Antonio stood to the left side of the door, so as to give him a little cover should the doors open to a full-on shootout. But for all his worry, when the doors parted there was no one there. The laundry room was empty save for the washer and dryer. He couldn’t see most of the kitchen from this angle, but he would just have to proceed with caution as he moved through the rest of the house, as he had done earlier. He had to be able to move around, so he practiced hefting the stone with only one arm, his left, since he was righthanded, wielding his pistol (smaller and lighter than the full-automatic weapon, better for single-handed firing) in his right.
Satisfied he could do it, while at the same time hoping he would not encounter resistance, Antonio moved cautiously into the kitchen. In the absence of his opponent, his thoughts turned to what he was supposed to do with the stone now that he had it. The tribal guard in the subterranean lair had told him, “Take it to the Amazon rain forest.” Antonio took that to mean he had to get back out of the house, where the challenge would be completed and then he could, outside of this game, fly the sacred stone to Brazil.
Crouching low as he moved through the kitchen, Antonio made his way back to the entrance hall, a particularly risky spot because of the overhead stairwell, which provided a high vantage point for Stel to shoot from if he was at least halfway down. The front door was an obvious feature to stake out, as Antonio would have to stop there, turn the knob, or undo the latch, whatever the case may be, while holding the heavy stone. It was risky. So he decided to cross all the way through the entrance hall into the living room to see if he would draw Stel out, without stopping at the door.
Taking a deep breath, he ran as quietly as he could to the living room. Once there he descended the step and turned left, flattening himself against the wall. He tried to keep his breathing as quiet as possible so that he could listen for Stel’s footsteps, for doors opening and closing, or any other activity that might give away his opponent’s presence. He heard nothing out of the ordinary, though, only the repetitive knocking of an off-kilter ceiling fan, and after a while his gaze began to rove about the living room.
He focused at first on hiding spots for Stel, but before long his peripheral vision caught a glowing object. There, on the coffee table! A glowing outline. At first he thought there was a fire, but after watching it for a couple of more seconds, he knew that wasn’t the case. He left his position against the wall and began to walk toward the light. Just before reaching the table he recognized what it was: a book. One of the coffee table books now had a golden glowing outline around it.
And not just any book, either, he saw with a start, but View to the Amazon rain Forest. Intrigued, Antonio set the stone down on the table and, after a last awareness check, looking around for Stel, he focused his attention on the book. It was the same one he’d taken a look at before, he was certain of that.
Reaching out slowly, he touched the cover, unsure of what the ramifications might be. But nothing happened; the glow didn’t let up, his finger felt no different, so far so good. So he pulled the cover back a little, testing what he could and couldn’t do. Once open, the pages were totally normal, as books go—not illuminated or with any other magical qualities about them—and he recognized them from before as being the same, the same high quality color photographs of the Amazon.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw another glow start up, and when he looked he saw that the half-rock had begun to fluoresce again. A faint greenish hue. Like the rain forest from whence it came, Antonio reasoned. He flashed on the other times he’d seen the stone glow that color, and he took it to be a positive sign that he was so far doing the right thing.
He picked up the stone, cradling it to his body with one hand. With his other hand, he began flipping through the pages of the book, the whisper of leafing through heavy paper the only sound in the room. The stone’s radiating light increased dramatically as Antonio flipped through the images: the rain forest canopy from above, the mighty Amazon river close up, piranhas, tribal fishermen on crude rafts…and a few pages later, there it was.
A distant view of the unknown tribe’s country near the cave system where Antonio found it. The caption accompanying the photo read, “Vast, unspoiled tracts of old growth forest like this one conceal many secrets, biological, ecological, and even spiritual, within their primeval confines.”
Antonio let go of the pages, stopping on the double-page spread.
A door crashing open upstairs startled him, and then he heard the pounding of Stel’s footfalls as he ran along the second floor hallway, heading for the stairs. Instinctively, Antonio started to reach for his gun, but then stopped himself. The stone glowed intensely, a vivid green that was nearly blinding to look at.
Stel was barreling down the staircase now, the spiral nature of it slowing him down, preventing him from jumping all the way down in great leaps. Still, he would be here in a few seconds, shooting to kill, his morality blinded by the very radiance of the artifact he sought. But as Antonio gazed upon the sacred stone, it had the opposite effect. He knew exactly where it belonged and why it must be there. This artifact, this piece of space-borne technology belonged to all of humanity, for the good of everyone, and not only to one small group to be used for control and domination.
“Where are you, Antonio? It’s not up there. We need to work together to find this thing. I’ll make you a deal: if I find it first, I’ll split it with you, if you find it first, then—“
Antonio set the meteorite onto the open pages of the book. It shimmered and radiated light so bright that he had to shield his eyes. While he couldn’t see, he could hear Stel running out into the entrance hall. The stone and book together made noise, too, like static electricity discharging, not particularly loud, but an energetic discharge of audible frequencies.
Stel’s voice faded into the background and Antonio peeked at the stone through his fingers. It now looked more like a hologram. He could see right through it to the pages of the book. Only now, the photograph was more like a video; he could see the tops of the trees swaying in a breeze as a flock of black birds passed overhead, from left to right across the pages. The fainter the stone became, the more vivid was the scene of the rain forest. It didn’t take long, but Antonio watched until the meteorite seemed to dissolve into the book, to become an everlasting part of it.
And then he felt strangely detached from everything, lightheaded, but at the same time very aware that he had accomplished something, and yet that achievement came with a side-effect of confusion. He felt like he had after he had solved the puzzle in the simulation with his father.
Antonio closed his eyes.
Chapter 40
London, England
Stel seemed to awake as if from a dream. He was standing in the private Bilderberg Group laboratory, the men from the Group as well as the scientists and technicians staring at him with attention so undivided it was as if he had just walked on water.
“What in God’s name is going on here?” one of the suits asked, backing slowly away from Stel. “What just happened—where did you go?”
But Stel couldn’t even begin to explain it. The event—dream, hallucination, out of body experience, teleportation—whatever it was—was so rich, so immersive and lucid that he couldn’t find the words. Besides, he wasn’t sure where he went, anyway. The group sensed his inability to answer and moved on. One of the Bilderberg executives pointed to the empty tabletop.
“Why did you return but the meteorite did not?” He shot Stel an accusatory glance. The technicians and scientists closed around him in a circle. Stel hung his head while he answered.
“I lost the game. I’m sorry. I did my best.”
#
Mumbai, India
“Another coffee, sir?” An attractive female Indian server pointed to Antonio’s mostly empty cup with a long, green-painted fingernail. Antonio wondered if this beverage prompt had to do with occupying the table too long without buying anything. He had no idea how long he was gone for in real time.
Slow to respond, like a sloth, Antonio looked up at her and nodded. She gave him a strange stare, but nodded and turned away back into the hustle and bustle of the Internet café. Antonio looked at his table. The Andaman stone! It was still here, resting as it had been behind his backpack. Unglowing, it had assumed its natural dark space rock color. His entire table looked to be exactly as it had been when he’d left…or “left,” as the case may be, since he wasn’t exactly sure.
Antonio collected his things from the table and put the stone back into the pack. He left a bill on the table sufficient to pay for his coffees with a decent tip. The he stood, shouldered his backpack, and walked out of the café.
Epilogue
Six months later
Andaman Islands, Indian Ocean
A deep pit inside a cave, with a most unusual rock at the bottom of it, a rock containing a piece of technology that came from space. Tribal warriors guarded the entrance to the cave, never leaving it unattended. It was their rock, as it had been for millennia, and they would guard it for longer than their concept of time allowed them to comprehend. Though their ranks had been decimated months before, enough of them survived, having been outside of the village when the slaughter occurred, to begin rebuilding the tribe.
In the village, the reconstruction had already begun. Decimated huts were torn down and built anew, the expanded graveyard was carefully plotted and tended, and new paths and guard lookouts were carved out of the rain forest. On the mud flats, two hunters aimed bows and arrows at a passing helicopter bearing the insignia of the Indian Coast Guard. The chopper flew over their island without slowing, and the men went back to hunting boar in the woods on the edge of the beach.
#
Brazilian Amazon
Deep within the complex labyrinth of crisscrossing tunnels, darkness in the cavern was almost absolute until it opened up into a phosphorescent subterranean labyrinth, within which was a circular cage of stalagmites. The sacred cage had been barren for a time, but now it was complete once again. The half-meteorite occupied its rightful place, the place it had claimed for thousands of years, guarded once again by tribe members who understood not what it was, only that it was important beyond words, that it was somehow at the core of their very existence. As far as they knew, it was as it has always been, and as it always will be.
The sun set over the Amazon rain forest, bathing the canopy in reddish orange hues, and all around the world, another calendar ticked over another day.
#
New York City
Antonio Medina sat in the television studio that looked out on Times Square. The publicity in the wake of the looted jungle artifacts had been greater than he would have predicted, and although he’d received numerous interview requests, the one he was giving now was the first, an exclusive. He hadn’t felt ready to talk about his experience before today, he’d needed time to process it all.
He sat on a chair facing his interviewer, a well-known blonde news magazine host who sat cross-legged in a skirt that was perhaps a little too short.
“Dr. Medina, you’re an ecologist.”
He nodded.
“Tell us, in layperson terms, please, what that means. What is it that you do?”
“At its core, ecology is the study of how organisms relate to each other and their surroundings. Throughout my career as a professor at Texas A & M University, I‘ve specialized in the ecology of rain forests, and the Amazon in particular.”
The interviewer smiled. “I think people forget sometimes that Amazon isn’t just an online retailer, it was actually named for the world’s largest rain forest.”
“And river, that’s right.”
“So your intimate knowledge of the interplay of the species there means that you are very familiar with the jungle, including some of the native tribes who live there, is that correct?”
