Beasley nodded. “That’s not uncommon. Naga is Sanskrit for snake. The Naga in this part of the world is a sacred snake. It plays an important part in the mythology of Southeast Asia and in Hinduism. In fact, it is probably the most important symbol in that part of the world. In Hindu mythology, the Naga is coiled beneath and supporting Vishnu on the cosmic plane. The snake also swallows the waters of life, these being set free when Indra hits the snake with a bolt of lightning, rupturing the snake’s skin.
“What’s interesting,” Beasley continued, “is that the word has meaning far beyond the borders where the Sanskrit language is used. In Egypt and even Central and South America, the word Naga is used, but in those places it means one who is wise. In China the word Naga is representative of the dragon and is associated with the Emperor or the ‘son of heaven.’”
Beasley continued. “There are some fringe groups that believe the word Naga is one of the few words from an earlier, universal language, that has survived into ‘modern’ language. The language of Atlantis.” Beasley ignored the looks that statement brought him. “Of course, the serpent myth is larger than simply the Sanskrit word Naga. Even Christianity’s oldest myth features a serpent.”
“You say this thing was what you shot?” Freed was staring at the first picture.
“Yes,” Dane answered.
“I want a full brief-up on Angkor Wat before we land,” Michelet said. “I want to know everything there is to know about it.”
Beasley shrugged. “I can do that in ten minutes because we don't know much about it at all.”
“Just get it ready,” Freed said in clipped voice, before turning back to Dane.
They questioned him in more detail but despite the nightmares that he'd had over the years, he wasn't able to elaborate much. He sensed that Freed knew he was holding something back, but Dane told them as much as they needed to know. What was his own, Dane felt he could keep to himself.
“I've got a question,” Dane said during one of the brief pauses between questions directed his way. “How do you propose to get us into the area?”
Freed pulled a piece of acetate from under the map and laid it on top. “This is an outline of the no-fly area that the Air Force imposed during the Vietnam War.”
It showed an inverted, triangular shape covering several hundred square kilometers of north-central Cambodia. Dane examined it. The eastern angle of the triangle ran along the river that he had crossed so many years ago.
“Where exactly did your plane go down?” Dane asked.
Freed used an alcohol pen to mark a spot on the overlay. It was about five kilometers inside the eastern edge of the triangle. “Right about there,” Freed said.
“When did the plane start experiencing trouble?” Dane asked.
Freed marked another spot, this one about ten kilometers further east from the last dot, just outside the triangle.
“It's bigger,” Dane said.
“What's bigger?” Michelet asked.
Dane pointed. “The triangle. It’s crossed the river, if it affected your plane that early.”
The other three stared at the map.
“This ancient guard house you saw,” Beasley prompted.
“Yes?” Dane said.
“Where was it?”
Dane looked at the map. “If this is where you say I was, then it was on the high ground, here to the east of this river.” Dane allowed his mind to project the contour lines of the map into a three dimensional mental image. “It was right here.”
Freed noted the position. “It might be a good place to start.”
“That's your job, Mister Freed,” Michelet said. He turned to Beasley. “Now it's time for you to earn your money. Tell me about Angkor Wat and this carving of the creature that Dane says his team leader shot.”
Beasley nodded. “If you want to know about Angkor Wat, I have to give you an overview of Cambodia's history first, because Angkor Wat comes later.” Beasley waved a fat hand over the map. “Around 800 AD this entire area was under the control of the Khmer Empire. Most people have heard of Angkor Wat, which is the massive temple complex built in the ancient city of Angkor Thom right here, but the first capitol of the Khmer was at Angkor Kol Ker.”
“I thought you said that was a legend?” Michelet interrupted.
“Sometimes all we have to work with are legends,” Beasley said. “And often there is quite a bit of truth in legend. After all, they just don’t spring up from nothing. There is always a seed of something real at the core of every legend.”
“Where did the Khmers come from?” Dane asked.
Beasley shrugged. “If I could answer that, I'd have solved one of the greatest debates about that part of the world. No one really knows. Historically, the Khmer seem to have appeared out of nowhere and then a millennium later the kingdom disappeared and the city was deserted. From the Fifth to the Fifteenth centuries the Khmer empire was the greatest in Southeast Asia and the city of Angkor Thom, which contains the temple of Angkor Wat, was one of the greatest cities of the world.”
Beasley continued. “But at the very beginning of the empire, before Angkor Thom was founded, the Khmer capitol was reportedly at Angkor Kol Ker. The city was abandoned and the king moved south in 800 AD to found Angkor Thom. It has always been a subject of debate among Cambodian scholars as to the reason for that move and the location of Kol Ker.”
“When was Angkor Kol Ker founded?” Dane asked.
“The Khmer Empire was first mentioned in Chinese histories in the 5th Century which is why I said earlier that the Empire lasted a thousand years. But even those histories say the Khmer Empire existed long before then. Some suggest for several thousand years before that, which is quite remarkable if you think about it. In fact,” Beasley seemed to be relishing his role as resident expert, “in an ancient Chinese text about the Xia State, usually considered the first Chinese unified state in the third millennium BC, there is an obscure reference about an Empire far to the south whose people came from over the large sea.”
Dane frowned. “What large sea?”
“I would assume the Pacific,” Beasley said, “given the geography of that part of the world, although for the ancient people of that time, even the Sea of China would have been considered a very large body of water.”
“If it was the Pacific,” Dane said, “then that’s saying the Khmer came from the Americas three thousand years before Christ was born?”
“Possibly much earlier than that,” Beasley said.
“But-” Dane shook his head. “But I thought the Pacific wasn't crossable given the state of navigation and ships of that time.”
Beasley shrugged. “It isn't just ships. Civilization itself didn't supposedly start anywhere on the planet until about 3,000 BC, in China and Mesopotamia. So how did this people obviously coming from a highly civilized place, cross the Pacific and settle in Cambodia at a time when historians tell us civilization didn't even exist? Quite a puzzle, eh?
“All of you gave me a strange look when I mentioned Atlantis, but there may be more to the legend if you start connecting the dots world-wide. I wouldn’t bet the farm on it with what I know right now, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of such a place really existing and the founders of Angkor Kol Ker being refugees from it.”
“Where was Angkor Kol Ker supposed to have been?” Dane asked, remembering the dying words of the CIA man and wanting to stay focused on the immediate problem.
Beasley's hand made a wide swath over the map. “No one knows exactly. Best guess is to the north and east of Angkor Thom and the later palaces built in that region. Most likely in the area where we are going, the remote Banteay Meanchey Region. The jungle can completely cover a place in a few years and there certainly has never been much detailed mapping of the area done.”