FORTY
Halfway to Santiago, Colchev finished watching the video from Fay’s camera for a third time. He concluded that there were two possibilities for where they would find the xenobium at the Nazca plateau. Either it was at the Mandala geometric figure or it was somewhere in the pyramid of Cahuachi.
The photo from Ivan Dombrovski’s lab in 1947 proved that the Russian scientist had found a ball of xenobium three inches in diameter as a result of his search all those years ago. The unnamed cave had pointed the way, he’d recorded, but Dombrovski never explained why he didn’t bring the xenobium back with him. The only puzzle piece Colchev had been missing was the location of the cave. Thanks to Fay Turia and Tyler Locke, he’d found it.
The problem now was deciding where to begin the next part of the search. Fay was going to help him decide.
He walked to the rear of the Gulfstream, where Fay stared through the window at the ocean below.
He took a seat opposite her. “Mrs. Turia.”
She turned her gaze on him, her eyes blank. “What?”
“You seem to be an expert on the Nazca lines, and I need your assistance.”
She barked a raspy laugh. “You must be dumber than the sheep on my station.”
Colchev wasn’t accustomed to women talking to him like that. He clenched his armrest tightly. “If you don’t help me, I don’t have a reason to keep you alive. You’re saying I should just shoot you right now.” He drew his pistol and aimed it at her head.
Fay didn’t flinch. “Go ahead. I’ll be dead in a few months anyway.”
That was not the reaction Colchev was expecting. He lowered the pistol. “What do you mean?”
“I mean I have malignant pancreatic cancer. Apparently it’s not a pleasant way to go, so you’ll actually be doing me a favor by pulling that trigger.”
He’d never seen someone so unafraid of death. Men he’d threatened like that were more likely to wet their pants than talk back. He put the gun away and tried a different tactic.
“I’m giving you a chance to save your granddaughter.”
Fay’s eyes softened. “You will not hurt Jessica. I won’t allow it.”
“You will allow it if you don’t help me.”
He didn’t tell her that the armed Killswitch would have irradiated the entire island with gamma rays. It was quite likely that both Jess and Tyler were now dead or soon would be, along with the two models Colchev had left behind in the hotel.
He leaned forward to make his point. “If, for some reason, my mission fails because you didn’t help me, I will have no choice but to hunt your granddaughter down and kill her.”
“How do I know you won’t do that anyway?”
“Because I won’t have any reason to.”
“I’m not naïve. I’ve seen your faces. I know that you have something called the Killswitch. And I know you’re after more xenobium. Why would you let me live?”
“I won’t go into the details, but I will tell you that Washington, DC, will cease to be the center of global power once this is over. Once America is on its knees, China will fall with it, as dependent as it is on the US economy. Moscow will take its rightful place on the world stage as the dominant force, and so I will have nothing to fear.”
“The US will go to war with Russia.”
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take, but I don’t think so. After all, if they are attacked by their own secret weapon, how can they blame Russia for the attack? No, the US will have too many problems at home to want to start another war. Besides, why do you care? You live in New Zealand now.”
“I’m still an American.”
“Mrs. Turia, I admire your patriotism, but I’m going to succeed whether you help me or not. However, it will go faster if you point me in the right direction. If you don’t, I guarantee that I will carry through on my threat. Your granddaughter will live in fear for the rest of her days, never knowing when or where I’ll strike. You don’t want her to go through life like that, do you? I may let you go just to deliver that message to her.”
Fay glanced out the window again before she looked back at Colchev. “What do you want me to do?”
Colchev smiled. “I need your expertise. I’ve narrowed down our search to two spots based on the video you filmed in the Rapa Nui cave. The first is the center of the Mandala and the second is the Grand Pyramid of Cahuachi. You seemed to indicate that the Nazca animal symbols were important to the search. What do they mean?”
“I don’t know. We were hoping to learn more when we got there.”
“Got where?”
She sighed heavily. “The Mandala. The alien told me it’s in the center of the figure, buried under the starburst pattern.”
“The alien?”
“The one I met at Roswell. He drew it in the dirt before he died.”
“You met an alien?”
“Of course! What do you think started all this?”
“You’re talking about the Roswell incident.”
“Yes. A spaceship crashed. An alien climbed out and saved me. He gave me the wooden engraving and then drew a rectangle in the dirt before he died.”
Colchev stifled a chuckle.
“You don’t believe me?”
“Actually,” he said. “I do. For reasons that you can’t comprehend. Is your theory that the same aliens visited the Nazca people?”
“How else do you explain the xenobium? A material like none other found on earth falls from the sky at Tunguska, remote Western Australia, and the ancient Nazca plain of Peru. Obviously an alien spacecraft crash landed just like at Roswell, but the spacecraft power source survived. Given how many times they’ve visited our planet over the last few thousand years, it’s only reasonable to assume they’ve had some accidents.”
Colchev smiled. “That’s a fascinating theory.”
“There’s no other possible explanation.”
“So you think the xenobium is buried in the dirt at the Mandala?”
Fay nodded. “We think that’s where it landed over fifteen hundred years ago. The Nazca people buried it there so the gods would be able to retrieve it.”
“And you’re sure it’s not in the Grand Pyramid?”
“I can’t be sure of anything, but the chambers inside the pyramid have been searched thoroughly. If the xenobium was there, it would be gone by now.”
“That would be very bad for you and Jessica.”
Fay looked scared. “That’s why I’m sure it’s at the Mandala. When you find it there, I expect you to keep your promise.”
“Of course.”
Colchev returned to the front of the plane and told Zotkin her wild story.
“Do you believe her?” Zotkin said.
Colchev shot him an amused look.
“I mean about the burial place for the xenobium,” Zotkin said quickly. “The rest of her theory is obviously ridiculous.”
Colchev looked back at Fay, who had resumed staring out the window. “She’s a tough old woman. I really believe she’s more afraid of losing her granddaughter than dying herself. I think she took my threat seriously.”
“And if the xenobium isn’t at the Mandala?”
“Then we’ll take her to the Grand Pyramid of Cahuachi. We may still need her to interpret the symbols.”
“Tonight?”
“No, it’ll be dark soon. We’ll start the search at sunup.”
“She better be right,” Zotkin said. “We only have two days left.”
“Yes,” Colchev said. “Only two more days for the United States to enjoy its position as the world’s lone superpower. And then it is our turn.”
FORTY-ONE
A high-pitched screech jolted Jess awake. Until she sat upright and experienced a mild head rush, it didn’t register that she’d actually been asleep.