The Secret of the Ancient Alchemist (14 page)

“
All life
is in flux. Our stars burn out just as we do. We live in
uncertainty and chaos. Even the best of minds suffer. Was there
really a better state for Mankind?”

He was sure
there was. The voice told him so, but, he had read of it. According
to the Secret Book of John, there was life without worry, life that
was imperishable on a planet that was perfect. But, the imperfect
world he lived in had to change. The mindless state was salvation
and no one was alone. He recalled again that people had seen
flashes of light there. He did too in his moments of meditation. It
was as if something was scanning the mind.

The fact
that light filtered into minds through a state of mindlessness
wasn’t new.
Illuminationism
,
a doctrine of Greek and Persian philosophy emphasized illumination
in thought.

Augustine, the
philosopher, noted humans needed to be illuminated by light.
Buddhists spoke of a deep light seen by those who meditated and
scripture tells of an Epinoia or a reflection of a supreme light
that can trigger the mind’s ability to create.

“
Alas,”
he conceded, “there probably weren’t too many perfect minds in the
cosmos anymore.”

He stretched
his arms and picked up a note from his desk staring at five
words.

Zama zama ōzza
rachama ōzai

His
curiosity made him pace the floor searching for a meaning. He had
copied the odd line from an ancient text, the
Pistis Sophia
. It baffled him to the core. Somehow, he
felt the line was connected to Magdalene’s vision mentioned in the
gospel. He didn’t get further with the strange words. He jumped,
startled by the body he ran into.

“
You must
be more careful, Dr. Hart,” Helen Dupon, cautioned.

“
Sorry,
Dr. Dupon, I didn’t see you.”

“
I came
to remind you of the emergency meeting later. Hope to see you
there.”

“
Su...”

Hart didn’t
finish his word. The NSA shook from a quake that struck with some
force. Car alarms sounded as panicking feet rushed out the
building.

“
Answer
the damn phone, Marin!” Riley vented his frustration at his UN
office. Marin’s phone was stuck on busy tone. Giving up, he started
his trek to a café two floors up. He didn’t get far as a second
tremor came. This time, a rumble rose from the bottom to the top
floor of the building. Screams of panic poured out from every
space. No one moved. T

There was
nowhere to go. Then, as if the heavens decided to show mercy, it
all stopped.

“
Ron!”
someone screamed out.

He turned and
looked at the petite woman who was scampering to him, a look of
horror on her face.

“
Ron!”
she cried out again.

“
Agatha,
please calm down,” he said, placing his arm around her body. “Get a
grip on yourself.”

Amid the
blaring sirens of the earthquake warning system, he looked at her
frightened face and thought of how many were derailed as they were,
belittled by the forces of nature, left to pick up the pieces of
wrath and hell. Records spoke volumes. Southeastern Iran, 2003,
thirty one thousand dead, Indonesia, two hundred thousand,
Haiti-uncountable. The figures spun around in his head but the
greatest one had yet to occur: California.

“
Is this
ever going to stop?” she wailed holding on to his shirt.

“
It’s
just a tremor,” Riley consoled looking at her face that had gone
pale. He cursed beneath his breath. Seismic sensors for much of New
York City were yet to be installed and he wondered what Mayor
Ferelli was doing about it.

“
This is
happening almost every day. I’ve seen the reports and things don’t
look good. Do something!” Agatha wailed again.

“
We’re
working on it. Trust me.”

What Riley
needed was a miracle and at the moment there was none. He thrust
his hands in his pockets and began heading out the door.

“
Wait!”
Agatha called back. “There were a couple of messages for
you.”

“
Tell
me.”

“
Carl
Reinholdt called, said he needed to speak with you
urgently.”

“
The
musical conductor? Why?”

“
Something about Alejandro Ferelli.”

“
The
Mayor’s son?”

“
Maybe
it’s about the new conservatory. I’m not sure. Says he’ll call
again, or, he’ll see you at the conference on Friday. And, Dr.
Strauss called concerning the reflectors. Said it was
urgent.”

Riley hoped
that they were continuing to reflect heat as planned and that
nothing had gone wrong with them. It was Plan B after all.

“
You
should call him back, Ron. He seemed anxious.”

“
I will.
Thanks.”

Riley didn’t
have much time to think about calls. The voice messenger attached
to his watch went off. He listened in horror.

Deadly Tsunami
warning. Mobilize emergency services.

With a touch of
his forefinger, the sound vanished. He headed out wondering when
Marin would return his call.

Chapter 34

The heat of the
day was rising when he entered the Seismic Research Observatory in
the Bronx, yet he shivered in the stark coldness of the seismic
processing room. Monitors poured out data from many states and
seismographs ran the length of the carpeted floor. The phone rang
constantly.

He caught a
glimpse of Marin in the distance. Marin was engaged in conversation
as he approached.

“
Have you
checked the seismographic readings on the EPGZ yet?” Marin’s
assistant, Ted Thompson, asked.

The EPGZ fault
line was responsible for the Haitian earthquake and was similar to
the California fault line. Not something Marin was happy about.

“
No, I
haven’t, Ted.”

“
Looks
like the zone will generate an earthquake soon. If that happens,
tsunamis will be heading to San Onofre. The damned things will hit
nuclear reactors.”

Marin put his
coffee down and turned to the main Vax computers that received
seismic data from across the globe. But, even in the extreme
coldness, he could feel heat rising beneath his collar. It was
definitely a fault line he needed to worry about.

“
Are you
going to give out any warnings?” Thompson inquired.

“
Not
yet.”

“
I see,”
he reacted, lowering his eyes. He wasn’t sure the decision was a
right one.

Standing in the
room, the men stared at the ominous seismic signs. Neither spoke.
With a sigh, Thompson headed to the second floor.

Marin
turned to Riley.

“
Sorry, I
couldn’t return your call.”

“
When is
everything going to calm down?” Riley was desperate for an answer
but Marin shook his head.

“
There
aren’t any signs of seismic reversal anywhere. I can’t give you an
answer, I’m afraid.”

Twenty minutes
later, in a city of tall buildings, Riley held his steering wheel
tightly to curb his anxiety heading back to his office. He was
disappointed that Marin couldn’t provide him with the assurance he
needed, that earthquakes would be no more, at least, not in the
near future.

“
I don’t
know what’s going on anymore,” he cried.

At
twenty-eight, Riley headed the Global Resource Division of the UN
and was one of few persons to have successfully developed a
technique to determine glacial loss.

“
How are
you?” A woman called out to him at the elevator door as he stood
waiting to get to the sixth floor.

His head bent,
Riley heard nothing.

“
Ron!”
she called again. “Are you deaf?”

“
Sorry,
Thelma, my mind was far away.”

He knew Thelma
Dickson had eyes for him since they had met at a party last
Christmas.

“
You
should try and relax, Ron,” she suggested as they both entered the
elevator.

“
Yeah, I
guess I should.” Shy and lost for words, he fidgeted with his
Samsonite case searching for something to say. “You look really
nice today, Thelma”

“
Thanks,”
she said beaming. “So do you.”

‘
Floor five
’ the
elevator’s automated voice announced, much to Riley’s relief. He
always had a secret fear of women. Flirtatious types made him very
nervous.

“
Call me
sometime, Ron. Take the pressure off your job a bit.”

“
Sure, I
will.”

Thelma
sauntered past him in her high heels and suit. She entered her
office and disappeared from view.

It wasn’t long
before Riley sat in his chair and loosened his tie. He gazed at the
Manhattan’s skyline, wondering if it would really all end in a
cloud of smoke. Through the glass frame, he could see police cars
and Special Forces jeeps speeding along East 42nd Street. He turned
around as Agatha Stevenson knocked on his door and came in.

“
Just
heard. Someone opened fire and shot two people near Central Park.
People are panicking, Ron.”

He ignored the
matter. “Have you booked the hall for next Friday, Agatha? Are you
sure it’s 3F, the only room where the air-condition works properly.
We expect a lot of important people at this upcoming meeting.”

“
People
are clamouring for a man called Bentley.”

“
Who’s
he?”

“
An
archaeologist, I believe.”

“
Don’t
know him. This time I want everything to be done right, Agatha.
This is a very important meeting.”

“
Don’t
worry so much.”

Riley wished he
didn’t have to but things were getting out of control and there
were too many questions and too few answers. His head was
spinning.

“
Has the
agenda been finalized?”

“
You’ll
deliver the opening remarks and Mayor Ferelli is going to talk next
about building codes.”

“
That’s
fine. Make sure the satellite equipment’s set up properly, not like
the last time, okay? Anyone should be able to pick up this
conference.”

“
Yes,
sure.”

“
And,
don’t forget the caterers and the flowers.”

As Agatha left,
he turned and picked up a remote. He flicked the television on
hoping to catch the news.

“
Panic
broke out on the streets of New York City today after a number of
tremors struck the city,” an anchor read. “Crowds gathered at
churches around the city to pray, some, to demonstrate. We have it
live for you.”

“
We the
people of this country,” a man shouted on a microphone in Central
Park, “would like to see Arthur Bentley. We know you’re working on
an Inca date. We know you’ll be at a conference in Paris. We want
to speak to you in person, NOW. Where the hell are you?”

Behind him,
crowds carried placards bearing Bentley’s name. Many more chanted,
“We want Bentley, we want Bentley, we want Bentley…”

Riley stared as
a screen appeared with images of the archaeologist and Olsen. The
images grew bigger and bigger as the crowds shouted, “We want the
Date! We want the Date!”

He skipped the
channel. Bentley’s face appeared again. It was another five minutes
before the item changed.

“
A
genetics lab in South America called SARDS is to be closed after
several cases of mutations have been reported,” he heard this
time.

Riley doodled
with a pencil on a notepad trying to curb his agitation. The whole
world was in a big mess. Floods had worsened in Europe and the Far
East to the point of chaos and the Maldives were just one of many
islands to have disappeared under water. The Red Cross was running
from one end of the earth to another and the UNHCR, the
organization mandated to oversee refugees, was out of options.
Brazil had moved millions of farmers off hillsides and had
replanted them all. Solar powered cells were providing energy to
Bangladesh and much of Africa. Hybrid electric cars were in and
biofuel production had soared. While green economists counted
dollars, Friends of the Earth and Green Peace pounded doors. Planet
earth was in deeper shit.

“
Damn!”
he shouted as his pencil point broke. Flinging it aside, he
snatched the phone and dialled.

“
Hart!”
he called out.

“
I’m not
deaf, Ron.”

“
Listen
to me, damn it. I need answers from you!”

“
I
already gave you the answer. Why aren’t you at the CDP press
briefing? I’m here.”

“
I don’t
have time for that. Marin told me you’re taking two weeks off.
You’re taking two weeks off? Why the hell are you searching for
pages of an ancient text? You’re not going to find them
anyway.”

“
You’re
so sure?”

“
No one
knows anything about the missing pages of the Gospel of Mary
Magdalene. No one!”

“
You’re
quite an expert on ancient texts, Ron. What if I told you the pages
are purposely being hidden?”

“
By
whom?”

“
I’m
going to find out. Someone in this wide world of ancient secrets is
going to give me answers about who we are and where we’re going.
Our inner realm is a portal to a new world. I know it
is.”