“Thanks for saving our lives,” Sam said. “Is there anything we can do to make you more comfortable?”
Dmitri shook his head. “Nothing will extend my life, but there’s something I need.”
“I’m sorry,” Sam said.
“I’ve had a very long life,” Dmitri said. “As the result of a unique genetic disorder shared by less than twenty people throughout history, I’ve lived much longer than anyone could imagine. Time, you see, blunts all instruments, even death.”
Tom applied pressure to the top of Dmitri’s abdomen where the greatest amount of blood spilled out. “Are you immortal?”
Dmitri started to laugh. It was halted a moment later, as blood came up through his mouth. “Do I look immortal? No. We can die, just like everyone else. We just age very slowly, that’s all.”
Sam wanted to ask him what genetic disorder the Master Builders all shared, and how long had he lived, but a single look at the man’s ashen face made him realize the man wouldn’t be conscious much longer. So instead, he just asked, “What do you need?”
Dmitri spoke quietly, lacking the strength to push his diaphragm any harder. “You have the Death Mask and the Four Horsemen. When the time comes, as it will soon, you must complete the prophecy.”
“We might be able to get you to a hospital within the hour.”
Death smiled. His ashen face, calm and accepting. “No. You and I both know I don’t have that much time.”
Sam asked, “What would it have done — if Famine had succeeded in joining the Four Horsemen?”
“You still don’t know, do you?” Death was incredulous.
“No.”
“It brings the rise of the Third Temple.”
“I thought the pyramid in the Kalahari Desert was the Third Temple?”
“No. The Third Temple isn’t a place. It’s a new cycle of evolution.”
“Come again?” Sam asked.
“The Third Temple is the name for the third group of human survivors.”
“Of what?”
“The apocalypse that’s coming our way.”
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Sam stared at the dying man in front of him, terrified he would die before revealing the hidden secrets of the Death Mask. He placed a hand on Dmitri’s shoulder and said, “Please, you need to tell me what it’s meant to be.”
Dmitri said, “It was an ancient covenant designed to protect the Death Mask. There were four keepers. Each living in different parts of the world to keep the keys separate until the right time for them to come together.”
“The Death Mask was about to bring forth this apocalypse?”
“Yes. It was going to trigger a series of micro changes inside the volcano. The subsequent result would cause one of the largest volcanic clouds ever seen on earth. The result would trigger a new ice-age. Those who were worthy of the Third Temple would survive the destruction to rebuild a new order, while the vast population of the human race would succumb.”
“But why?”
Dmitri paused, as he let out a deep, guttural cry. “Because by saving the few, it was the only way to save any.”
“So you believe the Death Mask is vital to the continuation of humanity?”
Dmitri said, “It’s probably the most important device ever built and the great masters who built it spent generations perfecting it for this very purpose.”
Sam asked, “Then why did you stop Famine?”
“Because it’s not time, yet.”
“I don’t understand. When is the right time?”
“Soon. Maybe before the end of this decade. I don’t know.”
“Why?” Sam leaned closer to hear the man’s fading voice. “What’s going to happen?”
Dmitri coughed some more blood. “Have you ever been to the Göbekli Tepe?”
“The ancient astronomer’s temple just north of Syria on the Turkish border?”
“Yes. How familiar are you with the Pillar 43?”
“The Vulture Stone?” Sam opened his computer tablet and brought up some saved information on the ancient temple. “It was designed to show a snapshot of the sky at the time of the comet impact, which is calculated by the authors of a recent archeology paper to be around 10,950 BC.”
“That’s right. In addition, some recent archeologists have questioned whether the stone concealed two messages. The first being the image of the comet that struck, leading to the mini Ice Age known as the Younger Dryas. And the second, being that the ball-like object is the sun in Sagittarius at the time of the winter solstice between the years 1960 and 2040.”
“Meaning?” Sam asked.
“That the Vulture Stone marked a coded message, conveyed across time by the Göbekli builders of 11,500 years ago, the age of Enclosure D where the stone was found.”
Sam considered the revelation.
Could it have really been a warning to humanity telling us that during this 80-year window the comet responsible for a terrifying impact event at the commencement of the Younger Dryas event might once again threaten the world? It was a daring, bold, and a somewhat disturbing proposition that once made, would unlikely be forgotten. But was it right? Was it even appropriate to interpret the carved imagery of Göbekli Tepe's Vulture Stone in this way?
“It seems hard to believe.” Sam’s face was set hard. “Is this what you’ve heard, or are you telling me what the Vulture Stone meant?”
“It’s one of the theories the current archeologists believe.” Dmitri coughed some more. His eyes were heavily glossed over, like his internal light had finally succumbed. But then his eyes lit up, as though another surge of adrenaline gave him the tenacity to finally tell the truth. “I don’t know what the truth is about Pillar 43.”
Sam persisted. “What do you know?”
“Pillar 43 was a lot less important than Pillar 44.”
Sam watched as Dmitri took a pause in his speech, either due to his failing strength, or for dramatic flair. Sam glanced down at his tablet, where an image of Göbekli Tepe's enclosure D stared back at him.
His eyes met Dmitri’s at the sudden revelation. “There was no Pillar 44.”
Dmitri smiled. “There used to be a Pillar 44 within enclosure D. It was slightly taller than the other T-shaped stones, and depicted the burning tail of a comet. It was aptly named the Death Stone. The ancient astronomer’s chart accurately identified another major comet — this one having the power to destroy the vast majority of life on earth in the future — a period in time that is rapidly approaching.”
Sam looked at his eyes and knew Dmitri was speaking the truth. Dead men and those near to it, rarely find the need to lie.
“It’s true, isn’t it? Sam asked. “There is some foreboding disaster approaching earth.”
“Yes. I’m afraid so.”
“When will it hit?”
“I don’t know. Somewhere between 1960 and 2040, but the method for knowing for certain has been lost for many years.”
“The ancient’s predicted the exact date of the collision?”
“Yes. But it’s been lost forever now.”
“How?”
Dmitri said, “The Death Stone mapped the comet’s precise movements until it reaches earth during winter solstice.”
Sam said, “If a second stone did in fact exist and there was a world-ending comet on its way, those who discovered it would have brought the knowledge to the world?”
“They did.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it was my brother who found the stone. He notified a delegate of the UN. The next day, they came and removed the stone and put it on a ship. My brother called me and told me all about it, and then was killed in a car accident on his way home.”
“What are you saying?”