Time Storm Shockwave (12 page)

***

The three of them spent the day trying to obtain information. The reports they could get through the static were similar from one country to the next, and when evening came, the Aurora Borealis shone even more brilliantly than it had the night before. Mark suggested that it was evidence of an even stronger solar flare and might explain the loss of communications.

Not one of them was
completely convinced that a solar flare’s electromagnetic interference could cause such a massive communications blackout.
However, there seemed nothing better to do than to wait it out and hope that it would pass within a day or two.
Their dive in search of the pyramid would help pass the time, and if it truly did have something to do with the reason Dierdra was trying to kill Mark, time was of the essence.

The next morning dawned clear and beautiful. The sea was calm and incredibly clear, leaving them with only one difficult decision. Who would
dive
with Mark first? The circuits of the rebreather unit Mark had been using during the EMP had been fried beyond repair. However, he had two more that were still intact.

Because of the nature of his research and his relatively unlimited resources, most of the electronic equipment Mark had on the yacht was housed in a customized Faraday cage. He also had installed high voltage, instant breakers that were made specifically for EMPs.

Stewart had told him on more than one occasion that Mark was over-prepared, but he always used the same argument, “There is no such thing as
over-prepared
. It’s like being
over-qualified
, it isn‘t real. The nature of my research leaves me vulnerable to electromagnetic anomalies and I don‘t want to lose my equipment.”

After that, he would rant about society’s ills for an hour; there was no stopping him. Stewart had learned quickly to avoid the topic. Having only two rebreathers presented a problem now because the three of them could not dive all at once and they had no time to spare. Stewart
dove
with Mark first, and it took them only thirty minutes to locate the controversial pyramid. The two stayed in constant contact with Ashlyn. Stewart was the first on the radio to report to her.

The radio signals had more static than usual, but she could hear them. “I can’t believe it Ashlyn, Mark was right! I don’t see what else it could be.”

“I wish I was down there. Hurry up you guys”—Ashlyn prodded—“I want to trade places.”

Mark echoed Stewart’s excitement, “
You have got to see this! There ought to be coral growing on it, but there isn’t. It seems to be smooth on the surface, almost like glass.”

“You’re
right”—Stewart’s excited voice boomed over the radio—“that can’t be naturally occurring.”

Is there any evidence of the culture who built it?” Ashlyn
asked.

“
No”—Mark answered—“only the top few feet is exposed. That might explain why no one has previously noticed it.”

“Mark, didn’t you say that
Dierdra’s reason for wanting to kill you was so that you couldn’t find what was down there?—” Ashlyn asked perplexed “—I don’t see how this could be what she was talking about, maybe they don’t know about this.”

“That seems a little too coincidental to me.
News of a pyramid would be huge, but …you’re right, I don’t think they would kill anyone over it—” Mark hesitated “—I don’t see how any of this fits together.”

“T
here has to be something else”—she argued—“NP is into technology, not archeology. We have the GPS coordinates. Why don’t we get out of here? Maybe we can figure it out with your notes. Dierdra could be back anytime, and the pyramid can wait.”

The men were
too excited about it to care anymore, and didn’t budge from the spot—her arguments made no difference.

Another hour had passed. “Mark,” Ashlyn was adamant, “we need to get out of here!
Dierdra promised to return and kill you, and I’m sure she meant it. I don’t see how this could be so important to them.”

“Maybe you are
right”—Mark said—“but it adds up with the research I have been doing. I’m willing to leave, but you’ve have to come down and see this first. Stewart is on his way up.”

“
Alright”—she conceded—“just make sure that Stewart doesn’t come up too fast.”

“Hey, Ashlyn, I’ve been diving
here for a while. I know what I’m doing.

“I know,
sorry”—she responded—“I’m just nervous.”

***

Ashlyn
waited impatiently until Stewart finally surfaced—he was all smiles. Entering the vivid, blue water, she knew it would be easy to find Mark. The water was almost perfectly clear. She had dived many times in previous years, but had only used standard scuba gear until she met him. She had come to love the rebreather system and wanted one for herself, though their price might prove a deterrent.

There
wasn’t anything unusual about her descent. However, she couldn’t help being amazed, even now, at how incredibly clear the water was. In most areas, visibility was about one hundred feet, which made it possible to see him and still see the ship above her.

The feeling was incredible.
Having a full-face mask made it easier to concentrate on her surroundings. On the other hand, it was strange; she was accustomed to the sound of bubbling as she exhaled. The helmets created an eerie quiet. It was great to be able to communicate with the others via the voice activated radio network.

They wore wetsuits to prevent hypothermia even
though it wasn’t terribly cold. Now that she was under the water, she was grateful for the warmth. Though the water in the Bahamas never dropped too low to dive a little, it did get rather uncomfortable in the winter. It was now November first. The water was seventy-five degrees, not bad on the surface, but it would be much colder down below.

She passed through a
large school of fish on her way. She reached out to touch them but only managed to feel one slide against her hand. They were skittish and turned away in sudden unison. It didn’t take long to reach the bottom with her weight-belt pulling her. She glanced up, making sure that she could still find the yacht. The clarity of the water helped the sun to penetrate through it easily.

The ocean was teaming with life, even here away from any coral reefs. She began crossing the short distance to where Mark was still carefully removing silt from the object. Even with the several yards she had yet to cross, she could easily see that he had been right. It could be nothing else but the tip of a pyramid. She stopped abruptly when a shark pass
ed between the two of them.

“Mark?”

He looked over and motioned with his hand, as well as saying over the comm. system, “Come on! What are you waiting for?”

She pointed to the shark. As an experienced diver, she knew that she was probably in no real dang
er. She held her ground anyway, frozen momentarily by human nature.

“There’s
a shark, did you notice it?”

He glanced at
it, unconcerned, “Actually there are several. Sharks have a natural tendency to detect electromagnetic fields, but it’s only a lemon shark, and they tend to be more docile than some of the other types.”

She didn’t find his words tremendously
comforting; however, the thought of Dierdra’s return propelled her forward. Ashlyn tried not to disturb the ten-foot animal. Once she got a little closer, she did indeed notice that there was more than one circling the area. She was not a timorous person, but she found herself trying to calm her breathing, hyperventilating under a hundred feet of water was not a smart idea.

Suddenly,
the sharks left the area as if they were spooked by something.

“Did you see that?”

Stewart, monitoring the conversation from above, interjected, “That happened before; I’m not sure what they are afraid of.”

Mark studied one of his meters and answered them both, “The electromagnetic field originating from this spot fluctuates; it just spiked.”

“But I thought you said they were attracted to electromagnetic fields?”

“They are
—” he motioned for her to come the rest of the way “—they won’t be back for a while.”

“How do you know?”
she asked just as she reached his position.

“Shark electromagnetic senses are kind of like a dog’s
ability to smell. A little attracts them. A lot can be unpleasant to them.”

Her adrenaline level was way over its normal
level from worrying about Dierdra—this wasn’t helping. However, Ashlyn began gently wiping away the sediment, copying his behavior. He had been absolutely correct; the pyramid was smooth, almost like glass, with only about four feet exposed.

“Why would a pyramid be emitting electromagnetic energy
?” she asked.

Stewart piped in on the
comm., “It’s probably not coming from the pyramid, just near it.”

“Actually it is
Stewart—” Mark said flatly “—at least one scientist has measured electromagnetic energy coming out of the top of the pyramid at Giza.”

“You’re kidding,” she exclaimed.

“Not at all”—he responded—“I watched a documentary about it once. The hypothesis was that the pyramids had nothing to do with tombs. There actually isn’t any evidence inside them to support the burial theory, but you know how scientists are.”

“You mean like you
—” Stewart joked over the radio “—what was the scientist’s name? I mean the one who measured the energy?”

“To be honest, I don’t
remember”—Mark admitted—“I watch a lot of documentaries. I just found it interesting. The Nile River used to flow much closer to the pyramids, and there are networks of passageways underneath the ground there. They compared it to a design by Nicola Tesla, which produced some kind of free energy. We don’t really understand much about it.”

“It seems as if that would be easy enough to validate
. Why don’t they just send someone else up to confirm his measurement?” she asked.

“The government there is
very protective of their historical sites and won’t give a permit for further investigation. Anyway, it probably doesn’t have anything to do with this”—he focused more intently on what he was doing—“I was just throwing out the thought.”

He
noticed a lionfish that was hovering near where she was working. He pointed it out to her and told her not to touch it because of its venomous spines. She had seen one before, although it had been a different color. This one was about a foot in length and orange with black stripes.

“Maybe it should be called a tiger fish,” She suggested, but
he didn’t comment.

He seemed intently focused on some reading on a piece of equipment he was using. She was anxious to get out of there
, and it didn’t seem to her that there was much more to see.

“
Mark we need to go—” she reminded him, but he was not listening “—maybe I should go skinny dipping down here,” she said to see if he was listening to her at all.

He glanced at her for a second but didn’t respond.

Stewart, still on the radio, reminded her of that fact.

“I was only joking Stewart, just trying to speed Mark along.”

He responded to that, “You know, I could have been down here all day yesterday, but you—”

“I don’t think this is the time or place for an argument.”

“—I’m just saying.”

There was no reason to stay.
Stewart had taken pictures while he was under, and carefully documented the find.

“So Mark, a
re you planning to dig the whole thing out with your hands?”

His smirk was clearly visible through his facemask.

Ashlyn couldn’t see the value of removing the silt slowly when his life was on the line. “I’m going to look around and see if there is anything here that Dierdra would be more likely to be trying to keep you from finding.”

“
Okay”—he said absently—“but don’t go too far. I don’t want to lose you.”

Chapter 11

If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and
gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through, it will
blow up everything in its way. —
Émile
Zola

~

Ashlyn headed toward what appeared to be a drop off in the sea floor
. It was south, about fifty-feet ahead of her. The seabed had many sudden changes in elevation. She wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of falling off an underwater cliff. Her weight-belt was necessarily heavy due to the depth she was diving, and the compression of her neoprene wetsuit was now causing a slight buoyancy problem—the deeper she went, the heavier she would become. In an emergency, she could always drop her belt, but that course of action might cause her to ascend too rapidly. Cautiously, she looked over the edge.

In relative terms, i
t appeared to be a gradual slope. She glanced back at Mark who seemed oblivious to what she was doing. She decided that she had plenty of time to explore. Though it wasn’t terribly steep, it was more so than she had at first thought. She made sure to hold onto rocks and sea vegetation along the way in order to control her rate of decent. At about one hundred and fifty feet, she stopped. Not having found anything of interest, and fearing that she might go too deep, she began to ascend.

Suddenly, she lost her
handholds. Losing control of her buoyancy, she half fell— half tumbled down the angled slope, pulled by her weight-belt. She was about to use her quick release to stop her descent, when she caught hold of an outcropping with her right hand. It held her, and she checked her depth meter. It read one hundred and seventy-five feet. Going down had been a bad idea, she would have to take much longer to decompress now.

Kicking her feet, she could feel nothing below her.
She was not in a favorable situation, but her pride kept her from calling to Mark. The sunlight didn’t help much at this depth, so she removed her flashlight from her belt and shined it down below her. Half expecting to see a deep abyss, she was surprised by the sea floor, which was directly beneath her. She estimated it to be only a few feet, so she let go and gently landed on the rocky surface.

She investigated her surroundings. Just beyond where she was standing, there was
a further drop off with the same angled slant. Thinking about the shape of the pyramid, she realized that it might not be entirely buried after all. Rotating fully, she found a cave entrance. Entirely engrossed in what she was doing, she forgot that she was on a timetable.

“
Ashlyn”—Mark called—“where are you?”

The
silly idea of hide and seek came to mind. She wasn’t in any danger, and she thought it might make up for his carelessly ignoring her before.

Then reason hit, it wasn’t safe to play any game at that depth, “I’m not too far.”
However, her answer was intentionally cryptic.

He looked around in every direction. In spite of the incredibly clear water of
the Caribbean, and the hundred-foot visibility, he couldn’t see her anywhere.

“I thought you w
eren’t going to go very far, I don’t see you, and that’s not very safe.”

She
couldn’t resist a little tease. “What? …Why is it safe for you to go wandering around on the sea floor by yourself, but not me?”

“Ashlyn, come on.”

She could hear the concern in his voice now. She felt a bit selfishly pleased.

Stewart interrupted, still on the
comm. system, “Hey, what’s going on down there?”

Mark answered, “Ashlyn is hiding from me.”

She noticed an eel poking its fanged head out of a hole in the rocks and decided she had better be a little more careful about where she put her hands.

“Ashlyn, where are you?”
He was beginning to sound upset, not angry, more worried. She chided herself for feeling happy about it.

“Okay
—” she gave up her game “—I’m about fifty feet south of you, and about seventy-five feet below you.”

“What?
Why did you go down?—” He noticed the drop off “—are you okay?”

She had been so worried about his reckless behavior. He had ignored her every fear. It was hard not to feel a little payback pleasure.

“I’m alright Mark. I think I might have found something down here that you might be interested in.”

***

Topside, Stewart was getting annoyed, and anxious
. Ashlyn had been drilling into them the need to get out of there before she went into the water, and now she had gone off sightseeing.

“Ashlyn
”—he complained—“you were the one who was in such a hurry to get out of here. What’s going on?”

“I found
something I need Mark to see.”

“
Alright”—he gave in—“just remember Dierdra could return at any moment.”

***

Ashlyn had been exploring and
was waiting for Mark. She had about decided that Mark may have been right about the pyramid being what Dierdra was trying to hide from him—right thing, wrong place.

He
stood at the top of the drop off and looked down into the darkness, “Are you down there?”

She walked out of the cave she had been exploring, onto the small ledge that had broken her fall and shined her flashlight up at
him as she spoke, “Do you see my light?”

“
Ashlyn”—he complained—“why in the world did you go down there? That isn’t the depth your weights were set for.”

“
I know”—she answered—“I’ll explain later. I need you to come down. Be careful, it’s steeper than it looks.”

“Are you sure it’s important?”

“Seriously—” she exclaimed “—you dragged both of us down a hundred feet to see what you found. You can come a little further to see this. If you come straight down where you see my light and hold onto things you’ll be okay.”

He took a deep breath and headed over the edge.

It only took him a few minutes to make his way down to her, but before he got there, she told him, “There is a drop off just below you, but it doesn’t go very far. It’s maybe ten feet."

“Move your light a little, it’s blinding me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She pointed it down at her feet so that he could see the bottom.

Standing on the ledge he said,
“You scared me half to death. I don’t know whether to hug you or spank you.”

She smiled and began to say something but then remembered that Stewart was listening. She altered it and only said,
“Come this way, I’ll make it worth your while.”

“Okay
guys”—Stewart reminded them—“I’m listening, cut the mushy stuff.”

“Sorry Stew
art, I forgot you were up there,” she lied.

“Thanks a lot Ashlyn.”

Mark could see her grinning through her facemask, and shook his head. “Be nice”—he said softly to her and then to Stewart—“she’s only teasing you.”

“Just hurry up you guys. I’m alone here
, and Dierdra could be back at anytime.”

Mark nodded his agreement to her and said, “We will be as quick as we can, I promise.”

Ashlyn pointed into the cave with her
gloved hand where it led him into the cave. His face changed to surprise, and he followed her in.

Their buoyancy was off
, so they had to push against the bottom as they swam in. It didn’t take long before he saw why she was so excited. There before them more of the pyramid was exposed, along with an entrance.

“There is a cave down here”—Mark told Stewart— “we’re going in.”

***

Apparently, the radio signal was blocked by the cave. Stewart was getting more frustrated by the minute. He decided to go in search of a distraction. He still couldn’t find any broadcasting from the United States. He tried tuning into other satellites, but didn’t hold out much hope of finding one in English. It was still better than waiting for Dierdra to show up and kill him. Ashlyn had given him a gun, but he had his doubts about being able to defend himself.

Greatly surprised, he picked up a channel in English. It was someone with a strong Australian accent, but he welcomed it. It wasn’t news
—some kind of comedy show—he watched it anyway. Finally, a news broadcast broke in for an update. North America was still experiencing wide spread communications outages, but that’s all he could find out. Nothing was making any sense.

The electromagnetic field that had been fluctuating
wildly the whole time they had been over that spot in the sea. He assumed it was the cause of the communication problems. He had totally lost interest in the pyramid and couldn‘t wait to get out of there.

Diving frequently had helped him face his fears, however, now his anxiety was mounting. Being by himself, waiting for someone to kill him, now that was an entirely different problem. He put his head into his hands, praying they would come back up to the boat soon.

***

Mark had been trying to contact Stewart. The signal was being blocked by the odd material that the pyramid was made from, but it didn’t stop Mark from being able to communicate with Ashlyn. The opening must have been down there for centuries, but even inside the tunnel entrance, it was as smooth as glass. The slippery surface was making progress hard because the passage was sharply angled up and long. They finally dropped their weight-belts because it was difficult to ascend in the narrow shaft, they simply didn’t have the space to kick properly. They would pick up their belts on their way out.

She
stopped suddenly. His momentum made him run right into her.

“Hey, why did you stop?”

She didn’t answer. Then she began moving again. It appeared that the tunnel opened up in front of her, and it seemed oddly lit.

“Mark, I can’t believe this.”

He started to ask what, when he saw what she was talking about. Not only did the tunnel widen to a room, a lighted room to boot, it was devoid of water.

She
climbed out of the central pool onto a marble-like floor, and he quickly followed her. They didn’t speak; neither knew what to say.

***

At an
underground depth of over five hundred feet lies the world’s largest particle accelerator, the Hadron Collider. Contained in a circular tunnel seventeen miles in diameter, the collider crosses under the borders of Switzerland and France several times. It uses a cryogenic system of liquid helium to keep the over one thousand and six hundred superconducting magnets at an optimum temperature.

Its purpose is simply to provide a way to study the unexplainable and unproven theories of physics. Areas of research include such things as the understanding of antimatter, dark matter, electromagnetic energy, magnetism, black holes, exotic particles, relativity, weak and strong forces, and even gravity itself.

Over ten thousand scientists and engineers, with the cooperation of over one hundred countries, make the Hadron Collider the largest co-operative, scientific project on Earth.

Scientists from all around the globe
work together to prove or disprove the existence of other dimensions, and wormholes, putting quantum physics and string theory to the test, in the hopes of eventually changing theory to fact. In spite of the disasters plaguing North America, they decided to continue, arguing that the knowledge to be gained might be critical to solving the earth’s ever-increasing cascade of problems and unexplainable events.

***

Stewart
repeatedly checked the radio. To compensate for his anxiety he continued watching the English station he had found earlier. He hadn’t been paying that much attention until the word
electromagnetism
caught his attention. Apparently, a group of scientists and concerned citizens in Geneva were gathering to protest against the tests being planned at the Hadron Collider, fearing the opening of a black hole.

He thought the arg
ument was weak, but then again, electromagnetism was, in part, what Mark was working on.
Stewart found himself wishing that he knew more about physics.
He didn’t understand the research that they were doing out there, but he knew that Mark believed that naturally occurring electromagnetic events were the source of many of the mysterious and unexplained happenings in the Bermuda Triangle.

Even Ashlyn had reported mysteriously traveling through time. Stewart was still not sure how much he trusted her, but Mark had confirmed the incident. In spite of his unusually argumentative attitude of late, Stewart trusted Mark
completely. Stewart switched off the TV. Watching the mostly-static bits and pieces of insane and nonsensical news was causing him more distress than the absence of his friends.

He went up to the flybridge and looked
out at the sea on every side, hoping to see them—maybe the radio was just broken. He didn’t think that Dierdra would think twice before killing him this time. He decided to stay up there until Ashlyn and Mark returned. It was at least the best vantage point. Stewart had checked the time when he had lost contact with them. It hadn’t been that long, but given the circumstances, it seemed like an eternity.