The Blood Line (19 page)

A new noise started then and it was a moment before Ana Maria recognised it. The mysterious stranger was screaming in frustration, an eerie inhuman noise. She caught sight of him in the distance striding through the dust then suddenly there was a small flicker of lightning and he vanished.

Unable to understand what had just happened Ana Maria sat alone in the desert and cried.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

‘F
ather, I’m back and I’ve brought Sam.’

‘Good,’ said Tarak turning to Kya. ‘Well done. How is he?’

‘Angry still, but he thinks he might have useful information. He wanted you to have this set of papers.’ Kya handed over the bundle of things which Sam had printed in the library. Tarak took the pages greedily.

‘Sam is asking to see Weewalk.’

‘Oh, he’s already gone,’ said Tarak distractedly, flicking through the bundle of papers Sam had printed, looking only at the headlines and titles. Then suddenly he stopped. ‘Tamam Shud,’ he whispered. His face paled.

‘What is it?’ asked Kya.

Tarak read aloud as he looked in worry at the page.

“The Somerton Man Mystery. On 1
st
December 1948 at 6:30 in the morning a man was found dead on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, South Australia.

When the police arrived they went through the usual process of checking the body for identification and clues as to how the man had died. Unusually, they found neither. The corpse was lying on the sand, with his head resting on the seawall as if he had laid down to sleep. In his pockets were a used bus ticket to the beach, an unused train ticket, a comb, some chewing gum, some cigarettes and a box of matches.

The police made an immediate plea for witnesses. Some came forward to say that they had seen the man lying in the same spot at around 7pm the previous evening. They had presumed him drunk or asleep and had not checked him closely. No-one seemed to have seen him arrive or could offer an explanation as to how he had died.

With nothing to hint at the cause of death the police left the body with a pathologist and concentrated on uncovering the man's identity. The man was thought to be around 40-45, perhaps British in appearance and in top physical condition. He was slim, healthy and had the kind of muscle structure in his legs which one might see in someone who did a lot of running. He was 5 feet 11 inches tall with hazel eyes and fair hair. He was wearing good quality clothes consisting of a white shirt, a blue and red tie and brown trousers. Unusually, given how hot it gets in Australia in December, he had been wearing a brown knitted jumper and a fashionable coat. Also unusually, for a man wearing a suit in 1948 anyway, he was not wearing a hat. It was strange that he was so warmly dressed, almost as though he had suddenly arrived from somewhere colder. But, more strangely, all the labels from his clothes had been removed. The police began to suspect that this was a man who did not want to be identified. They could not have been more right. The mystery was to deepen.

Whilst the police were making inquiries the pathologist continued his work. Dental records were checked and matched no known individual in Australia. The autopsy offered little by way of evidence. The man seemed to have suffered some kind of internal bleeding. He had eaten a pasty about three or four hours before his death. The pathologist thought it likely that some kind of poison had been used, but he could not say for sure what the cause of death was. Normally, with a poison one can see evidence of vomiting or convulsions. Here neither was present.

So unusual was the case that the decision was taken to embalm the body to preserve it. This was the first time the police had ever taken such steps. An inquest into the death was postponed for, as it happened, about six months whilst work went on to uncover the man's identity.

The day after the body was found a small article appeared in an Adelaide paper about the grisly find. The next day, whilst announcing that the Somerton Man's fingerprints were not on any database the police also released a photograph of the dead man to the media.

This triggered something quite extraordinary for over the next five years the police collected testimony from people who claimed to know the Somerton Man. Over that five years the police had hundreds and hundreds of witnesses assert that they knew his identity. Literally hundreds of people came. They all knew him, knew him without a doubt. So, why did the police not make public the man's identity? Every one of the 250 names they received was different. It was as though the man had cloned himself and every one of his clones had gone off to live different lives.

One of the first witnesses to come forward was a man who claimed to have had a drink with the man a few weeks before. The Somerton Man had given his name as 'Solomonson'. A month later the body was identified as a wood cutter named Robert Walsh by several people. However, this was soon proved incorrect when the absence of a defining scar was noted, leading to much confusion from those identifying the body. Others identified the body as a missing friend, a missing stablehand, a steamship worker and a Swedish man. 28 people from the Australian state of Victoria said they knew him. He was identified as a seaman named Tommy Reade but this was soon disproved, just like all the other identities suggested.

So far so strange.

Around six weeks after the discovery of the body a brown suitcase was discovered in the cloakroom of Adelaide train station. In the suitcase, along with items of clothing, was a reel of orange thread not normally available in Australia. It was an exact match to some thread sewn into the pocket of the dead man's trousers. The clothes in the suitcase had all had their labels removed apart from some which showed the name T. Keane. A worldwide search revealed that no-one named T. Keane had been reported as missing. But what about the orange thread sewn into his pocket?

When unpicked it was found that the dead man had a hidden pocket within his trousers. Inside this tiny pocket was a tiny piece of rolled up paper. On that piece of paper were printed the words 'Tamam Shud' in a distinctive font. When translated it was found that the words were taken from the last page of an unusual book called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The words meant 'finished'. The police released this clue into the public domain and a man came forward to reveal that he had found a very rare first edition copy of the 1859 version of the book in the back of his car, parked near where the body had been found. The central theme of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that one should live life to the full and have no regrets when it ended. This seemed to be relevant. When checked it was found that the words Tamam Shud had indeed been cut from the back of this book.

Where the words were torn out there was a series of letters written in faint pencil. At first it was thought that this might be something written in a foreign language but subsequently it was realised to be a code.

W R G O A B A B D

W T B I M P A N E T P

M L I A B O A I A Q C

I T T M T S A M S T G A B

A small x appears above the 'O' in the third line. To this day the code has never been translated despite analysis by professionals and amateur experts from all over the world.

Also found in the book was a telephone number. This was traced to a woman who had owned a copy of the book but had given it to a man named Alfred Boxall. The woman was asked if she could identify a plaster cast of the body. She agreed to take a look and assured the police that she did not know the man but it was noted by the police that on seeing the cast she had been completely taken aback and had nearly fainted. It was as if she had seen a ghost.

The police naturally thought they had found their man. But then they found evidence that Boxall was still alive and well with a complete and undamaged version of the book.

Over the years repeated attempts have been made to crack the case. Progress has been hampered because some of the evidence has been destroyed or gone missing. At some unknown point the book itself disappeared. To this day the case is still 'open'. One of the greatest parts of the mystery has been the lack of any clue as to what the man died of.”

Tarak put the pages down and ran his hands through his hair. ‘Tamam Shud,’ he whispered to himself before turning to Kya. ‘We have a big problem,’ he said. ‘Box has finally succumbed to his pursuer. The world just became a much more dangerous place.’ He shook his head. ‘I wonder when this happened.’

‘Wasn’t there a date at the start of the article?’ said Kya.

‘Yes, we know what year this man was in when he was killed but I wonder how long ago he arrived there.’

‘Um, does it matter?’

‘No, perhaps not. But either way this is very bad news.’

Kya waited for him to continue.

‘These words ‘Tamam Shud’. These words coming to light mean that Alfred Boxall is dead. It’s his message to those in the know that his nemesis has finally caught him and killed him. We should have done more to protect him. I just never thought Qayin could actually best him. Box, as he is, was, known, has been pursued for years by a product of the most dangerous line, the Blood Line.’

‘Hang on,’ said Kya. ‘Didn’t it say that the police found this Alfred Boxall alive at a later date?’

‘Misdirection is easy when you can time travel using lines. The scrap of paper is the defining clue. Qayin has won. We need to get hold of that book, break the code and guard that line.’

‘Sam has found other information too,’ said Kya. ‘He’s explained it to me. From what he’s uncovered it looks like it isn’t a random strike from a comet or asteroid which destroys his world, and it isn’t some ancient God called Pyxidis who gave birth to Mu. Sam thinks it’s the Riven King who causes it all. He’s misdirected us all somehow.’

Tarak waved a hand. ‘Yes, well. It’s all quite obvious when you think about it. But with the discovery of the Blood Line looming we have bigger problems. We need to protect our own time, Kya.’

Sam stood in the doorway. ‘Wait. You knew? You knew that it isn’t an accident. That it can be stopped?’ Sam shook his head in disbelief. ‘You knew all along.’

Tarak stared back at Sam. ‘It is no accident. But can it be stopped? The King must have already won, or how could Mu exist as the future? How could he even have the plan if it has not already worked? You see it is futile to try to beat him in this time. I just want to protect Mu. To save what people I can of the future. There our destiny is less sure.
We
have something to fight for. I’m sorry Sam, but your world is doomed and there is nothing you can do to stop it. It’s already happened or we wouldn’t be standing here now.’

Sam railed. ‘You’re just trying to save your own skin. You won’t exist if the King is stopped in this time, before he kills us all.’

Tarak lifted his chin. ‘And what would you do? If you stop him today, whilst your world still exists, then Mu won’t come into existence. Mu is what appears once this world has ended. Like your world appeared after the dinosaurs disappeared. Mass extinction events happen, Sam. That’s just the way it goes. Your people have had their chance. If you save them, and I don’t think you can, then Weewalk won’t ever appear. Kya won’t ever appear. And Hadan won’t ever appear. Do you see what this means? If you stop the Riven King you won’t exist, your grandfather will never be born. How can you stop him if you don’t exist? You have to make a choice as I have. Both worlds cannot exist and you’re as much a part of Mu as I am. It’s them or us. You, me, the whole of Mu only exists because the Riven King succeeds in ending this world. And how great is this world anyway? Greed, war, corruption, pollution. Why save it at our own expense? It’s diseased.’

‘You’re as bad as the King,’ said Sam through gritted teeth. ‘All these people. We have to stop him, even if that causes us to disappear. We have to try. And Mu is not much better. Everyone lives in fear of the King.’

‘But that, Sam, is what I am trying to stop. I am trying to make Mu a better place where we can begin again. That is why I needed you to kill Ferus.’

Sam shouted. ‘You cannot allow this to happen! There has to be something we can do.’

Tarak had the decency to look miserable. ‘Sam, I don’t believe you can stop the King. I think the Universe has decided that Mu will exist. One world has to die. Stop the King before he acts and Mu ceases to exists – all those people in Mu, some of whom you have met, will never come to be. But in the future we have a chance to rebuild properly. I just don’t believe that you can unpick the events which lead into Mu’s existence. You more than anyone have come to see how intrinsically linked they are. Mu has been leaking into your world for millennia. You cannot stop it existing. The past will change as much as the future. Give up Sam. Give up and help me save my world. Our world. It can be ours.’

Sam shook with anger. ‘I won’t abandon billions of people here. If I can stop him I will.’

‘Then everyone you currently care about, including yourself, will no longer exist. But, no matter. You will never succeed. There is one thing we can do together though. We both wish to stop the Riven King from becoming more powerful. If he finds the Blood Line neither of us will succeed. If you want to protect people we need to stop the Riven King from using the Line. We can’t fight more than one of him.’