He didn’t notice the stepped ceiling or the faces of the eight other statues wrapping around the room. He paid no attention to the tables stationed over a dark brown stain on the stone floor, or the lab equipment and specimen cages they held. He only saw Richard Ridley.
Two of him.
They stood to either side of a third man, whose body and head were concealed by a hooded cloak. But he appeared disfigured somehow, like a hunchback. The three men were speaking with hushed voices, impossible to discern. In fact, King wasn’t certain what language they were speaking.
Then it hit him, they’re speaking the mother tongue!
But were they having a conversation or doing something more nefarious?
King’s question was answered by a puff of grit that fell from above. He saw it fall slowly past his face and land on his arm. He turned his head up, tracing the fallen dirt’s path back up.
Two football-sized blue eyes, twisted with rage, stared back at him. The statue’s head had turned around! Its puglike nose was pulled up to reveal a snarling mash of sharp teeth. Though clearly Sumerian, the statues were not designed to look human. Not fully human at least.
Before he could move or shout a warning to Alexander, the statue sprang to life, wrapping its large arms around his ribs in a crushing bear hug. He marveled at the speed and silence with which the golem moved. It seemed Ridley was perfecting the art. Then the pain struck as his body was pinned in a stone embrace. His weapon and gear pushed against his body, making struggling painful and escape impossible. He pummeled the golem a few times, but his efforts were fruitless. It couldn’t feel pain. Hell, King thought, it probably can’t feel anything.
He was lifted off the ground and turned around. Twenty feet away, Alexander was being treated similarly, though his arms were pinned to his sides while King’s remained free. But he continued to fight against his bonds. The injuries Alexander received were healing as quickly as he inflicted them on himself, but even he was unable to break free.
The two Richard Ridleys and the hooded man faced the pair.
Ridley’s voice filled the chamber, “Welcome, King,” but neither of the Ridleys had spoken.
The man in the middle is also Ridley, King thought. Ridley 1.0. But what’s wrong with his body?
“And our unknown adversary I presume?” Ridley said.
King saw the cloaked figure’s hood turn toward Alexander as he spoke, confirming his suspicion that he was also Ridley.
“We have much in common, you and I,” Ridley said. “Though you seem to lack my ambition.”
Alexander remained silent, his arms shaking as he tried to pull them free of the golem’s grasp.
“Or is it that you just lack the brains? After all, you were born into a world that was flat. You would have had no concept of the world as a whole. I respect what you’ve done, the lives you’ve lived. But you have been small-minded for thousands of years. Of course, you didn’t have the mother tongue. It was gone before your time. Even if you could speak the language, the lack of technology would have created logistical problems. How could you reach a planet full of people?
“Happily, that’s no longer a problem.” Ridley reached into his pocket and pulled out a flash drive. “Fifteen seconds of audio to change the world. When I’m done there will be one language again. One god. The human race will be united under me for all time.”
Ridley turned back to the table, opened a laptop, and plugged in the flash drive. King followed the cable leading out of the laptop. It hung down to the floor. From there, the cable stretched out between two of the statues and ended at a row of blinking servers. He hadn’t noticed them before, hidden in the darkness. Several more cables came out of the servers, many descending into the stone floor, and just as many rising up through the ceiling.
“You’re connected to the whole world?” King asked.
As the computer booted, Ridley turned around. “It’s a simple matter really, though not possible without the help of my Russian friends. How is Rook, by the way? Did he run into any trouble in Siberia?”
King remained stoic. Rook’s fate was something he couldn’t worry about right now.
Ridley smiled when King didn’t take the bait. “The Russians have given me access to land lines, cell towers, and satellites around the world. Their hackers have arranged for a thirty-second, all-access pass to the rest of the world’s communications. Of course, the Russians believe my goal is to hack into and collapse the U.S. financial market, but they won’t complain when they learn the truth. No one will ever complain again.”
Ridley tapped his head. “Because the real hack, that’s up here. In the human mind. Did you know that there was a time in human history when the human race was docile? Call it the subservient gene or naïveté gene. Whatever you like. We were loyal, loved unconditionally, and lacked cunning. Like biped cows. We had free will to choose whether or not we would, say, eat an apple or a grape, but knew nothing of good and evil. And then, something flipped the switch.” He snapped his finger. “And we changed. We became killers, consumed with greed, lust, and envy. The original speaker of the mother tongue made us this way. I’m going to fix things.”
“So you’re flipping the switch back?” King asked. “Is that it? You’re going to save the world?”
With a nod, Ridley said, “That’s exactly what I’m doing. The human race will know peace again. There will be no war. No hate. No fear. We will be innocent once again. I’m simply modifying the language, redirecting humanity’s adoration from the original speaker of the language—to me.” Ridley stretched his arms out. “‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ You see? It’s all been prophesied.”
Ridley smiled. “But you’re still wondering how? Oh ye of little faith. Some things are beyond human comprehension, King. The origin of the universe. The emergence of life on our planet. The same science that developed the theory of evolution and the big bang theory tells us both are statistically impossible. Yet here we are. The universe exists. The human race has evolved. And it all came to be … because of a language. Whether it’s the language of God, an alien tongue, or the tones of the universe, I don’t know. I don’t yet understand its origin, but I do understand its power.”
“Like a child with a loaded weapon,” King said.
Ridley considered King’s statement for a moment, his expression darkening. “Do you understand how a nuclear sub works? Stealth technology? The Aegis combat system? Could you even tell me how to smelt the metal your weapons are made from?”
In fact, King could answer most of those questions, but the stone giant’s grip around his chest had begun to tighten. Were Ridley’s mood and the golem’s actions tied together? If Ridley grew angry enough would the golem respond by killing him? “Point taken,” King said, fighting to hide his pain.
A smile returned to Ridley’s face and the grip on King loosened. But then he said, “You should be glad you’re here, King. This is one of the few places on the planet that is protected from the change. But I’ll take care of you personally. You and your little girl.”
King’s insides ached with rage, but he didn’t fight his bonds. Buying time for the others to act was his primary goal. If he had to remain behind while they blew the place to kingdom come and made off with Fiona, he would do so willingly. The words of his father came back to him. There is no greater love than a father who is willing to lay down his life for his children. If it came to that, he would. And with that, King realized how truly attached he’d become to Fiona.