The Tenth Cycle: A Thriller (A Rossler Foundation Mystery Book 1) (41 page)

Because there were some leading physicists in Israel, Raj and Sinclair were focusing their attention on anything that appeared to have anything to do with energy generation or particle physics. These were areas where science had advanced to the point of understanding something likely to be radical and mind blowing, but hadn't yet solved the problems. Within a few days, they had uncovered something about fusion.

Baruch was summoned, physicists who were sworn to secrecy until the major announcements were made arrived at the villa. The translation of the fusion data stunned them, but they rushed to replicate the instructions on a small scale. This alone was going to change the world, as plans for larger scale pilot plants were available in the records. Soon no one in the world would lack for abundant, clean, ultra-cheap energy. Although they hadn't yet proved anything on a grand scale, the physicists involved were unanimous in agreeing that the previously-unknown technology would work.

Now there was nothing to stop the group from making the announcement. Daniel called Luke on the secure phone and arranged with him to fly to New York the next day and go to meet with Aaron Selleck. Then Luke phoned Selleck, asking to meet with him the next day at ten a.m. on a matter he couldn’t discuss over the phone. Recognizing Clarke as Sarah’s last name, Selleck became excited to hear news of Daniel, who’d disappeared. He agreed to meet.

At ten o’clock the next morning Luke was invited into Selleck’s office as arranged, the two men shaking hands and introducing themselves. At five minutes past, Luke’s strange looking phone started ringing. He answered and after a short how-are-you-doing-and-is-everyone-still-ok said, “Ok giving the phone to Aaron now.”

"Daniel, good to hear from you!” said Selleck. "Do you have good news for me?"

"I do indeed," Daniel said. "How would you like to take a little business trip to Tel Aviv?"

"Rossler, what have you been smoking? Tel Aviv? What’s there?"

Daniel laughed. “Don’t worry Aaron, I didn’t smoke anything, there was no time for it, and I don’t do that shit anyway. I am really in Tel Aviv and I need to talk to you urgently and face-to-face. So please hear me out.”

“Ok, I am all ears,” said Selleck. 

“You know, Aaron, I've always trusted you, and you and the Times have been good to me. I'm about to return that favor. There's a big, big opportunity here, for the Times and for you. Most probably the biggest opportunity the Times has ever had. But only if you can keep it secret until I give the word.”

By now, Selleck was on the edge of his chair, thinking
spill it, already
. But he could hear that Daniel was serious, and that he wouldn't be rushed in the conversation. Nevertheless, he said, with a bit of impatience, "Okay, I get it. So what do I have to do, and what is it that I need to keep secret?"

Having had a bit of practice, Daniel was now able to give a succinct introduction that was sufficiently convincing, followed up with a peek at the translation of the passageway greeting that Luke showed him at Daniel’s direction. He began with telling Aaron that they had broken the code they'd been looking for, and that the information was explosive. Luke peered at Aaron closely as Daniel made these revelations, and as he betrayed nothing other than intense interest, judged him ready for the kicker.

Daniel said to Selleck to ask Luke to give him a document which Luke handed to him. 

Selleck began to read. His eyes widened and he turned white, alarming Luke. As Aaron finished the reading, color flooded back into his face and he clutched at his chest and dropped the phone on the desk. Luke sprang from his chair, "Mr. Selleck, are you all right?"

"Yes, just let me get my breath.”

Luke grabbed the phone and told Daniel that Selleck looked bad for a minute, but that he apparently was going to be okay. “Just give us a minute so he can recover,” he advised.

Daniel wondered how many more reactions like this their announcement was going to cause over the next few days after it was published.

Selleck had the phone back. "Jumpin' freakin' Jehosaphat, Rossler is that for real?”

“It's for real, Aaron, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's only the greeting - the amazing thing is that they included an entire encyclopedia, complete with index. We're waiting until some of the advanced science our linguist has discovered in the records can be confirmed, both to validate the story for the Times and to quell the inevitable outcry. You know that people will be screaming 'hoax' as soon as you publish this. We have to have our ducks in a row to prove them wrong."

"Agreed," said Selleck, beginning to recover a little from his shock. He opened his drawer, retrieved a prescription bottle and put a small pill under his tongue. "It almost gave me a heart attack, and I was kind of prepared. I can just about imagine what the churches and the evolutionists are going to say. This may be the only time they ever agree. What do you want specifically, Daniel?"

Impressed by Selleck's immediate grasp of the situation, Daniel said, "We're prepared to give you the exclusive plus ongoing publishing rights. But I think you will agree that this is far and away beyond my contract with the Times. We've used our own resources and time on discovering it."

"Agreed,"

"Okay, I'd like you personally to write it up.  I’d like you to come and interview us here in Tel Aviv, and I believe that the story will be one-hundred percent guaranteed to earn you, personally, a Pulitzer."

"Why aren't you going to write it yourself, Daniel?" Aaron said, fearing he knew the answer. He was right.

"Aaron, I have to resign from the Times, I'm sorry. This is so big that we have already set up a non-profit organization to continue study and control as well as we can how the information is used. We plan to distribute it as widely as possible, so that everyone has a fair chance at benefiting. Plus, we feel that doing so will allow the cooperation the greeting mentions to happen, and sooner rather than later. I'm afraid I'll be too busy to discharge my duties to the Times.

"Nevertheless, we'll need startup funding. I'm asking you to see to it that the Times gives us generous compensation for the exclusive and ongoing rights."

Now completely calm outwardly, though adrenaline was coursing through his veins at the thought of a Pulitzer for him personally, Aaron responded. "All right. When I see you I we can talk money but rest assured if this is what you say it is, money is not going to be an issue.”

“Let me know your flight details,” said Daniel. I’ll make arrangements for someone to meet you at the airport and bring you to us. Have a safe trip.”

The following day, a much disoriented Selleck flew to Tel Aviv on El Al. He was met by a fellow who looked like no one would mess with him, and delivered to the door of a large walled villa. He could get used to this! Inside, Daniel greeted him, with Sarah and a couple he didn’t know right behind him. Of course, Raj he knew. To Raj he said with a smile, “Nice holiday spot you picked, Raj.”

"Am I finally going to get more of this wild tale you warned me about?" he teased Daniel.

"Probably more than your heart can take. Did you bring your little pills?" Daniel retorted.

"Yes, but it won't be that much of a shock this time," he said.

"Don't count on that. You are planning to stay a day or two, aren't you? Let's have something to eat and if you would like to have a quick swim to cool you down. We can go to the conference room afterward and get started. Leave your bags here, someone will collect them and take them to your room.”

Selleck was too curious to accept the offer of a swim first. “No, thanks, but I’m on pins and needles about what you have to tell me. I’d rather get started right away.”

Daniel had prepared a Q&A document that was well-organized to tell the story in chronological fashion, leaving out the murders and Sarah's kidnapping, because they didn't want those crimes to overshadow the importance of the discovery. As Aaron went through the questions, with Daniel and Sinclair answering for the most part, he jotted down phrases next to the answers that were on the pages. Before they were an hour into it, he knew that this was going to be the most sensational story he'd ever worked on. Ever seen, even. If this didn't give the Times a shot in the arm, nothing would.

No one could refute the science that was coming from the coded records; not only the clean energy from fusion reactions, but in just a few short days, one medical researcher had instantly cured the colds of several volunteers, using a formula for a pleasant-tasting potion found in the medical codes. He considered that substantiation enough considering that even with our advances in medicine doctors still couldn’t cure a cold, only treat symptoms.

After several hours of questions and answers spanning two days and a pleasant evening's swim the night he stayed at the villa, Aaron flew home. The group had admonished him that, while he could publish everything else they'd given him, he couldn't reveal their location. He promised them a story worthy of their accomplishment, to be published in two days’ time.

Before he left they talked money. Selleck offered them $3 million for the exclusive and ongoing rights, confirming that he was authorized to commit to that amount. He arranged then and there that the money be transferred into the name of the Rossler Foundation.

After Selleck left, and while everyone else returned to trying to occupy the long hours of anticipation before the announcement, Daniel sent a message to the family back home. 'Be sure to watch the major news networks two days from now. All hell's about to break loose.' A chorus of 'way to go', 'congratulations' and 'go Rosslerites' responses came through from Jacksonville to Asheville and Boulder. The family was on board, and it was about to get very exciting.

Luke, however, had something else to say. 'Expect an angry call from the President, or at least from someone high in the government, Daniel. You guys might want to put your heads together and think what you'll say when he demands you return to the States or hand over that data.”

“Good idea,' Daniel responded. 'We'll do that tonight.'

~~~

WORLD HISTORY ALL WRONG - THE WORLD ABOUT TO CHANGE

"In the year 25,992, the Supreme Council of Knowledge, commissioned the least of their number, I, Zebulon, to build this monument and record our history for Those Who Come After. In all the cycles, this has never been attempted before.

We of the tenth cycle believe that we have achieved more than any cycle before us, and, knowing our fate, wish to leave evidence of our knowledge. With this knowledge, perhaps you, our children, may continue our progress and stop the cycles of destruction that have held our kind to less than our full potential for two hundred and sixty thousand years."

Thus read the message to us from our forefathers, left in an obscure code in the blocks of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. Previously thought to have been built approximately 3,500 years ago, we now know that it was in fact built much earlier, although the date has not yet been established.

In the most earth-shattering, far-reaching and life-changing archaeological discovery of our current civilization, Daniel Rossler, an ex-NYT journalist and Dr. Sarah Clarke, a recently-tenured young professor of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, in Providence, Rhode Island, has turned the world as we know it on its head.

The couple, assisted by brilliant IT specialist Raj Sankaran and world famous linguist Sinclair O' Reilly as well as several of their family members, have discovered a hidden message in the blocks of Great Pyramid of Egypt at Giza.

Not only will their momentous discovery destroy the theory of evolution; it is expected to send current historical and academic thinking into turmoil. Among the discoveries: the ancient Egyptians did not build the Great Pyramid; the real pyramid builders were from a civilization predating ours by perhaps more than 30,000 years. This discovery has proved that human civilizations go through cycles of birth, growth and destruction lasting about 26,000 years each. We will not know for certain until more translation has taken place, but it is believed that our current civilization represents the eleventh cycle. Human beings indistinguishable from ourselves and civilizations much more intelligent and advanced than ours, have inhabited the earth for more than 260,000 years. 

More important than the historical facts about the builders is the fact that a civilization preceding ours has left us their combined scientific knowledge, gathered over their 26,000 years of development.

Although to date the Rossler Foundation's research has just scratched the surface, they have already unveiled the existence of an extensive library of information consisting of hundreds of thousands of what we today call "books" and "records". The records, which are expected to eventually run into many millions, cover subjects ranging from fusion technology to medicine, astrology, politics, religion and other technologies which we currently still relegate to the science fiction realm. 

For example, schematics for a breathtaking Star Trek-type medical device resembling a handheld scanner that can scan a patient's body in a matter of seconds, spitting out DNA data, vital signs information such as heart rate blood pressure and oxygen levels in the blood, as well as giving immediate warning of more than 500 diseases, even cancerous cells and the onset of conditions known to cause dementia, has the medical scientists involved jumping with excitement.