Blackbird

Chapter 25: Renegades

He took a sip from his drink and then placed the ancient text under the table lamp. But his mind was somewhere else-

"How did they even find me?", he wondered-

"I don't even own a phone!"

He took a deep breath and tried to focus on the text. He hadn't seen anything quite like it. It was not ancient Hebrew or Turkish. Strange letters like those of Celtic runes written by hand on a papyrus adorned the entire piece which might have looked quite appealing before.

"Must be Akkadian or Sumerian!",thought Patrick as he typed in his login credentials into the laptop.

He had a secret server where he kept his entire journals about discoveries and findings. Pictures taken of old books and maps and even his dad's diaries were perfectly scanned and stored in it. This was his secret- his ultimate store of knowledge. He scrolled through the pictures one by one and looked into his dad's journals trying to match the writings. The script looked familiar but he couldn't remember where he had last seen it. He scrolled through many folders on the laptop until he found the one titled -

"An account of the ancient mesopotamian history and literature"

This was one of his dad's forgotten journal that he had painstakingly scanned and uploaded into his private server. He opened the scanned images one by one and read through the contents-

"The ancient land of Mesopotamia or modern day Iraq has been home to many mysterious civilizations dating back far more than modern academia currently suggests..."

- read Patrick curiously, he never had time to read these journals and he never imagined these would ever come in handy.He continued reading -

"Modern day mainstream scholars often do not bother to dig any further than the Akkadian or Sumerian cultures which existed around 4000 BCE and they are hardly to blame for there doesn't exist much evidence of such a pre historical civilization. Except for a few clay tablets and sculptures of the dieties worshipped by those people. I am talking about the Annunakis here - the dieties who were worshipped by the ancient people..

..."

- Patrick was intrigued when he read the word "Annunaki" and so he kept reading.

"The Epic Of Gilgamesh- an old poem belonging to that era mentions about these ancient people and their dieties..."

"Annunakis were Gods of the first civilization of the earth- this is what I've come to believe after my extensive research works. They helped to shape humanity's future- by teaching them about agriculture and crops, pottery and weapons, literature also seems to have propagated during that era as many cuneiform or clay tablets with curious writings have been discovered today- of course they are in a pretty bad shape but we can make out the important details necessary…Their accounts were recorded in the form of clay tablets and were held sacred by the later civilizations.People sang songs and wrote poems about these ancient beings but the records were lost in time. I believe that some ancient historians even knew the true language of these Gods and must have recorded in their cuneiform tablets…"

Patrick kept on reading and matching the samples of the scans with his papyrus. An hour later after an intense study he found out that the papyrus was not of that age and time but was merely an inspired work refering to the old ages- it was probably written during the middle ages by some unknown historian but it wasn't in any known language new or old! He reopened the scans again and continued reading-

"I call it 'the language of the Gods' because it cannot be spoken by any mere mortal- it can however be written down and understood or translated but can never be spoken in any human tongue…I have been fortunate enough to come by a peculiar looking tablet that was written in the same obscure language and have started to translate it… ", Patrick was intrigued and continued-

"I have made an attempt to reconstruct its vocabulary and grammar and made the following dictionary so that I can

continue to understand the ancient world…", Patrick opened the next scan and as soon as he did he saw pages and pages of weird scribbles and their corresponding meanings in English. He matched the scribbles with his papyrus. The words started to make sense. After an hour he made a crude translation of the language in the papyrus. It read:

"Here lies the gateway to anywhere and nowhere..."

-and then the rest was torn off. Then right below it were drawings of weird humanoid figures with elongated heads who seemed to worship in a circle around a portal looking structure that had a huge spiral in the middle. Patrick continued translating

the text beneath it, which had been smudged and torn in places-

"the true of heart shall pass,

with an offering of blood and sweat,

on the hand of the doorway he shall pour,

his true intentions and his soul...

Beware the greedy and evil ones,

for thou shall incur the wrath of Anki …

On a dark moonless night,

When one looks at the sky,

one shall find the passage …

white stones shall guide the way,

into the final place of the ancients…

The door leads to anywhere and nowhere,

to heaven or to hell…

Anyplace your heart desires,

and which your soul seeks truly…

Folow Orion in heaven,

Place thy hands on the gate,

Speak the lord's name thrice…

As in heaven, so on earth…"

On a warm sunny day, in the middle of the ocean, the Cordoba floated upon the bouncy blue waters while three divers prepared to jump into the water. Bishop and her team watched anxiously as the divers descended into the deep ocean. She had an iPad in her hands which showed the live feeds from the divers body cameras attached on their heads. Mike - her assistant and intern curiously peeked over her shoulder to keep track of the divers movements. Bishop's heart started to pound as the divers kept swimming deeper and deeper into the dark waters below. She moved towards the railing of the boat with her iPad fearing she might lose the signal. Mike followed her with his notes almost stumbling upon some ropes. The other team members were Rhodes - a 27 year old nerdy biologist, Rico- a 28 year tech geek, Nina- a 27 year old talented Ukrainian oceanographer and Johnson- a retired Navy seal- who handled security for the whole team. Mike was the nervous looking awkward and shy 22 year old graduate who interned for Bishop and helped her with her various projects.

Bishop bit her nails as the divers slowly swam deeper and deeper into the dark sea. She could see various types of marine and aquatic life on their cam- feeds but she was waiting for something big, something that would change her life and her career forever.

Prof. Bishop Mary Bridges- she was a 32 year old acclaimed historian,linguist and a college professor with a degree in classical music, living a quite and peaceful life in the city- until the day two men in suits from the government approached her claiming that they need her help to uncover a mystery that lies at the bottom of the ocean. At first she refused, saying that there were better people than her who could help them but they told her that there was none with her 'skill set' and that she would be the ideal candidate for the job. She was quite flattered and accepted the offer- besides the pay was too damn good!

"Thank you ! We have also taken the liberty to pick a team of professionals for you…", they said.

It has been two days in the ocean with her team of professionals and she desperately needed to find the mysterious anomaly underneath the ocean. The captain of the Cordoba- a small cruise boat -walked up to her from behind and tried to take a peek at the live feed.

"Find anything missy?", asked the captain.

"Still 50 metres to go Mr. Swanson...", replied Bishop.

"Ah well I might as well get some rest... me legs been aching like anything..." , replied Swanson and went back to his cabin.

Digby Swanson was a veteran british sailor who has been sailing ships since he was a teenager and has been captain of the Cordoba for twenty odd years. A short humble and polite man who now gave tours on his cruise boat, some say he was a decorated world war veteran but he barely spoke about his early life.

Bishop went back to her monitoring but suddenly the feed went black. She panicked and called Rico for help who said that there must be some kind of magnetic interference underneath the waters thats stopping the feed. Arielle didn't care about this techno mumbo- jumbo and asked Rico to fix it while she walked up and down the aiske with her hands on her hips. She looked towards the sky- the sun was shining brightly and the sparkling waters below reflected the sun rays like tiny diamonds. The ocean stretched from one corner to another like a blue capet of water and it made her feel like she was lost in an endless loop of ocean. Suddenly Rico called her - the feed was working again.

She ran and grabbed the iPad and saw this bizzare sight that seemed like it was from a fantasy movie.There was this shipwreck- old and ancient- only a part of it withstood the pressure of the ocean the other parts lay there scattered on the ocean floor. She saw on the feeds of the three divers that almost a half of a huge ship- probably the front half lay almost untouched through time. It seemed as though there was still a cabin inside. She marvelled at the decorated exterior of the wreckage- it was probably painted white with intricate carvings, like a royal ship or most probably a burial ship- like in many ancient cultures where people send off their deceased into the ocean on decorated ships and set them ablaze.

Arielle waited for the most important part now- the big reveal - is there anything inside the wreckage? The feed went black again as the divers went to take a look inside.

"Ugh! ", Arielle cried out in frustration.

Half an hour passed and one of the divers came out onto the surface.

"There's a bloody coffin inside... no gold...no treasure!", he said.

Arielle's eyes lit up with excitement as she heard the news.

"Bring it up!", she yelled back at him. The diver put back his mouthpiece and gave a thumbs up and dove back. Fifteen minutes later the three divers pushed up a ten foot long coffin onto the surface. Johnson and the captain tied a chain on it and pulled it onto the boat.

Everyone on the boat gathered around the ancient moss ridden sarcophagus and wondered who or what's inside. Arielle immediately had it taken into the cabin and ordered that no one was to try to open it until they reached ashore. Her job was almost complete, this was what they trusted her to do. But she knew finding the sarcophagus was the easy part, opening it was a different matter altogether.

It was 3 pm in the afternoon now and her team started to examine the sarcophagus. It was made of some kind of metal alloy and there was no rust on it despite the fact that it was underneath the ocean for about a thousand years. Arielle had instructed Rico to scan the sarcophagus with his thermal imager to see if they could get any clue as to what's inside it. Nina and Rhodes were busy brushing away the dirt, sand and the moss from it. After a few minutes of scanning Rico reported that surprisingly his imager couldn't penetrate the interior of the sarcophagus which deeply puzzled him. The thing was huge- ten feet in length and about four feet in height. It was made of some kind of black metal alloy and once the debris was cleared the surface looked smooth and good as new, as if it was underwater for only a few hours. But curiously enough there seened to be no openings on it and it seemed like it was just one solid block of metal. Rico estimated that it must weigh around ten kilograms, which was weird when compared with the size of it. Nina struck the surface slowly with a small hammer and the whole thing started to ring like a bell for a few seconds. She was shocked and thought it wasn't wise to mess around with it and left it to be examined by the others. Arielle observed silently and then asked her team to pack their equipments and get some sleep- it was time for them to head home.

"Take us home Cap'n!", she told Swanson.

"Aye aye missy! Home it is...", replied Swanson and steered the boat back towards

civilization.

It was only 6 hours before they reached home but Arille couldn't wait to find out what was inside the sarcophagus. Once ashore she had to meet her employers and hand the artefact to them. As the boat steered towards land she saw the sun setting on her left - an orange hue painted the waters of the ocean and far away she could see dolphins plunging out of the waters and diving back in. Her thoughts went back to the day she received the file containing heavily redacted details of this bizzare operation-

"A mysterious shipwreck some hundred miles off the gulf of Mexico has been discovered... This underwater wreckage is reported to contain a powerful artefact that can help shape the future of the world...The location... Much has been debated about the contents of what lies beneath and many of our scientists have indicated that it contained "the source"... If it is what we believe it is then opening it won't be an easy task ... Secrecy must be maintained and our regular task force can't be deployed ..."

Arielle felt that she needed some proper sleep before they reached the shore. As she walked towards her room, she could still hear the sound of the dolphins from afar - maybe they miss her already, she thought and lied down on her bed. The sound of the waves crushing underneath the boat and the cold wind of the ocean made her fall asleep soon...

About 5 and a half hours later Arielle was woken up by the sound of the boat horn. She got up from her bed and went into the captain's cabin.

" Fifteen minutes to land missy... pack ye bags!", said Swanson slowly steering the boat into the harbour.

Arielle quickly went back into her room and started packing her bags. The others had already finished their packing and were coming out from their rooms with their belongings. Mike followed suit and came stumbling out of his room with his huge bag of notes and belongings. Arielle could see cars and armed millitary men waiting on the harbour and she prepared herself for another long journey to their base.

He wondered why would anyone write such a poem- instructing exactly where to look and how to get there. Furthermore the Turkish word "Hoyuk" that was smudged out puzzled him too. The very existence of this word on an ancient text meant that someone in the modern world knew what this poem meant and had this text in his or her possession. Who knew that this old piece of ruin would hold so much mystery.

He drew a deep breath and rubbed his eyes and began to wonder what the text meant -

"The final place of the ancient must indicate one of the Tepes like the one here… but follow Orion? As in sky?", thought Patrick trying hard to make sense of the words.

He looked at his watch again- it was midnight-12 a.m. He wasn't feeling sleepy anymore, so he decided to take a walk outside.

"Is there really 'a gateway to anywhere'? But that would mean that there existed some kind of time portal in the ancient days…",

he kept thinking as he walked towards the excavated mound. He looked around, the entire camp was silent and the security guards were patrolling the perimeter. Hans' tent was dark -

"Old fox must be sleeping soundly now that I'm here to do his dirty work…", thought Patrick walking in the darkness towards the excavation site.

Far away he could here the howling of a wolf in the barren mountains.

He began to feel a strange kind of anxiety as he got closer to the mound. It was left unguarded with a single lightbulb hanging on a pole. He stopped for a brief moment and looked up towards the dark starlit sky. There was no moon that night and the constellations shone brightly