107
Ronin stepped into view as Clay and Caesare emerged from the cluster of boulders below him, lumbering in their steps and with Caesare limping slightly. Their weapons were nowhere to be seen and their packs now bounced loosely upon their backs with each step.
The shorter Ronin wore little expression. Still, he kept his own weapon pointed past them until they climbed high enough to where he stood. “Are you injured?”
“Not too bad. Could’ve been a hell of a lot worse.”
DeeAnn slowly rose into view from where she was hiding, her eyes wide with concern. “What… happened?”
Both men looked at her, then each other, pausing for a moment before Clay shook his head. “Don’t ask. Let’s just say the coast is clear… for quite a while. Are you guys all right?”
“Yes,” Ronin responded. “We are unharmed.”
Clay merely nodded.
Dulce and Dexter gradually appeared as well, poking their furry heads up slightly to the left of DeeAnn, but remaining cautiously at a distance. They had all obviously heard the chilling sounds from below.
Clay lowered himself onto a rock, still breathing heavily. No one spoke until Caesare broke the silence, while staring further up the mountain. “Uh… Clay,” he uttered, motioning with his head, “look familiar?”
Clay raised his head to see Caesare peering uphill at several large boulders — reminiscent of what they had seen in South America.
108
When the giant vault was finally opened, the entry looked nearly identical to the one they’d found in Guyana. A smooth, sheared face of cliff wall hosted a door several feet as thick as it was wide, cut into solid rock. Even the electromagnetic switch worked the same.
Inside, several inches of thick dust covered the rock granite floor where hundreds of huge glass pillars had stood for more than a millennium, each full of a green liquid swirling around chains of tiny spheres.
But what was different about this vault was that it was bigger. Much bigger. The sunlight from the doorway lit only a small portion of the cavern, but it was obvious to both Clay and Caesare that this one held more.
And the walls looked… different.
At a point just before the light’s rays faded back into darkness, the southernmost wall revealed some sort of carving. It appeared to be a set of symbols with lines, or seams, down each edge. As if it was some of kind of rectangular panel. Or cover.
“Oh my God,” whispered DeeAnn. “This is what you found before?”
“Yes.”
She approached one of the green glass pillars and studied it. “What are those things—” Her sentence faded before she could finish it. She looked closer and nodded thoughtfully. “Those are the embryos.”
Clay turned around and looked at Caesare. “This place is definitely bigger.”
“Yep.”
“You see this on the wall?”
Caesare squinted and peered at the strange markings. “I didn’t see that in the other one.”
“Neither did I.”
They found themselves interrupted by another voice from the doorway. The voice was similar to Ronin’s and one which all three of them recognized.
“You have done well, John Clay.”
They turned to see several distinct figures, partially silhouetted by the sunlight outside.
Clay’s lip curled upwards as he stepped away from the wall. “Well, hello there, Palin. Nice to see you again.”
“As it is you,” the older man replied. “And of course, Mr. Caesare and Ms. Draper.”
Caesare stepped closer and shook his hand with a smile. “I guess we should thank you for sending Ronin.”
Palin peered at his soldier. “It was not entirely magnanimous, I’m afraid.”
“No, I suppose it wasn’t.”
Palin looked away and studied the giant pillars, reaching high toward the rock ceiling. “This is what you found with your first vault?”
“More or less.”
His eyes eventually returned to Clay. “We are grateful to you. You have again come through in our hour of need.”
Clay grinned. “Well, it wasn’t entirely magnanimous.”
“So what now?” Caesare asked, leaning on his good leg. One of Palin’s men moved past, kneeling down behind him, examining his bandaged leg.
“Now our work continues,” Palin answered. “We will keep trying to save what’s left of our planet. Hopefully we can achieve a greater foothold by studying and replicating the liquid that you found. Your last location was destroyed too quickly.”
“You can take that up with the Chinese.”
Clay glanced back to the pillars. “Why did they do it, Palin? Why would an alien race leave behind such a large supply of their DNA?”
Palin considered the question. “I do not know. Perhaps as a safety net for their own future. Or perhaps something else. Whatever the reason, you would do well to remember what I told you. Your Earth is unique. It is not the only habitable planet, there are many thousands, but your planet contains some unique properties.”
“We know, the water,” Clay replied.
“The amount of water,” Palin corrected. “Yes. That is one. Both of our planets are also on the edge of the galaxy, where looming astronomical threats are rarer. And each with an evolution that is still relatively immature, particularly yours. Because of these things, your planet is valuable. A water world ripe for the picking.” Palin glanced down at Dulce as she and Dexter both peeked out curiously from behind DeeAnn.
Palin continued. “Your Earth is a beacon. It has been for a very long time. What has been left here should come as no surprise. And is likely not the only one. Your planet is sure to have been noticed by many other races. Some more capable than others of reaching it.”
Caesare glanced at Clay. “Wait. You’re saying there’s more?”
Palin shrugged. “Most likely.”
Clay nodded thoughtfully. “So… what do you need from this vault?”
Palin looked back at his men. “We will not disturb it. It does not belong to us. We will study it only.”
“And try to reverse engineer the liquid?”
“Ideally. Our evolutions are not so far apart as you might expect. Only one or two hundred years. The liquid you found here is an advancement, even to us.”
“A hundred years doesn’t seem like much.”
“It is not,” Palin mused. “But more than enough for many more mistakes. Ones which you have yet to make.”
“Well, let’s hope we can learn from you,” Clay replied.
“Perhaps. Unfortunately, neither of our races seems to learn lessons as well as we should. It is why history, for both of us, repeats so frequently.”
Clay thought about Palin’s words. “We need to hide this, Palin. Better than we did before. And stop the leaking.”
With hands behind his back, Palin nodded. “No one shall find this.”
“We’ll also need a way to contact you.”
“Other than waiting for you to follow us,” Caesare joked.
Palin grinned. “Of course.” He nodded at Ronin. “You will no longer have difficulty contacting us.”
There was a short silence and just as Clay was about to respond, Caesare’s satellite phone rang. He stepped closer to the doorway and slid the pack off his back to fish it out.
“Hey, Will. Is that you?”
Caesare paused, listening. As he did, the cheeky expression suddenly disappeared from his face. He looked immediately to Clay. “The Pathfinder was attacked.”
“What!”
He continued listening. “There were casualties,” he added somberly.
Clay’s first thought was instant: Alison.
Caesare’s eyes softened. He pulled the phone away from his own ear and reached forward, offering it to Clay. “I think you’d better take this.”