Blackbird

Chapter 16: The Great Explorer

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…"

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

It was a bizzare sight to witness the stones lighted up dimly on the ground amidst the ruins. Patrick followed them but after five stones the trail ended.He kneeled down and began to remove the dirt with his hand trying to find the rest. Sure enough he found another buried under the layer of sand. He kept doing this until he found another and then another. He kept following the trail until he stood inside the mound. There were no more stones to uncover.

"Holy Christ! The text is indeed true… But what next?", thought Patrick as he looked around the site.

It was dark and silent inside the mound. The lightbulb was a few meters away in the entrance. He suddenly began to feel cold as light breeze began to blow.It was getting creepy but Patrick was excited to uncover the rest of the mystery.

He looked ahead and stretched his hand forward in the darkness trying to grab a pillar in front of him.He could barely see anything.

"Damn I should have brought my flashlight!", he thought, immediately regretting his decision of being there at this ungodly hour.

As his hand touched a pillar it felt warm. He raised his other hand behan to feel the ancient rock pillar. The warmth soothed him. He almost felt like hugging it!

Then he turned towards his right and then left- there were two other pillars around him but they felt colder. He then realised that he was deep inside the excavation zone where the giant pillars stood. Somehow he felt like moving ahead and then his hand touched another pillar behind the first one- this one felt warm too. Patrick looked upwards. In the darkness he could make out the height of the two pillars stretching almost 20 metres upwards.He then touched one with his right hand and the other with his left. Both of them felt warm -

"This must be the gateway… the pillars of the gate…", he thought.

"The name of the God… I need to say the name of the God… Jesus?… no… what was the name of the ancient God… Anki? Yes!" he thought trying to remember the text.He then placed his hands on the pillars again and began to whisper-

"This is it baby… come on show me what you got… ahem… Anki… Anki… Anki…", he uttered the name three times with his eyes closed and held his breath anticipating something miraculous to happen.

But nothing happened. He tried again and then again but the ancient pillars stood silently in the dark.

"Ugh! Bloody thing must be broken…", he removed his hands and kicked the ground with his right foot. Something cracked - like a clay pot. He looked down but could hardly make out what it was in the darkness. He touched it - it was indeed a clay pot- a small clay pot shattered on the ground.

"Oh dear! I have ruined an ancient artefact …", he felt like a criminal inside his heart, after all he loved ancient ruins even though he stole them, he never broke or destroyed a single piece. He began to look for pieces on the ground and then it him- that cold desert breeze but this time he felt different - calm and quiet.

He picked up the broken pieces of the pot and placed them in his hands. In the darkness he looked at them.He felt guilty as if he were a thief stealing from the graves of the ancient people. He drew a deep breath and thought about this entire mission-

What if there's really an ancient portal here? What would a greedy dog like Hans do with this level of power?Was he not equally guilty for helping him? He knew whatever mystery this place held- once Hans and his men lay their hands on it, the result would be bad, really bad. Hans could have the power to destroy or control the world. And even if there was nothing there it wouldn't matter because Hans would blow this place up to find what he's looking for.

"He will never find out the secret if this place, I won't let him know…", thought Patrick surprised at himself at this sudden change of heart. Something in the air made him realise the truth…

"Who's there?", a loud commanding voice yelled from behind. Patrick was startled and he quickly turned around.

Patrick saw lines of houses as far as the eye could see. The village stretched on for miles in all directions but one particular image surprised him the most. From where he was standing he saw four huge pillars and a dome far away in the desert. The dust and sand made it quite blurry but he could still make out a gold and white coloured shiny dome a few kilometres from the village. He was amazed and confused. Where on earth was he?

The generator was broken and some men were trying to fix it while Hans toiled inside the makeshift tent in darkness and heat under the light of a hurricane lamp.A big strong man enters the camp strapped with a sidearm and a knife on either side of his waist. Hans was still stooped over the map with both of his hands on the table.

"We need him Rocko...we need the expert.", said Hans looking at the man.

"The Archaeologist sir?",asked Rocko.

"Yes him...or else we will be digging holes in this desert for weeks...I need someone to interpret this map ...", said Hans sitting down on his chair.

"But that would expose this project...we agreed to keep quite Sir...", said Rocko walking upto the table.

"I know what we agreed upon...pay him, pay him a s**t ton of money and tell him to be shut his mouth...and bring him here asap..", replied Hans annoyed at being questioned about his decision.

"Heh..ok...I know how to keep him quite Sir..I will inform Hanna.." , said Rocko tapping his sidearm.

"Remember we need him asap...we only have a few days here or else people are going to notice....and tell the men to fix the generator now... ", said Hans in a commanding voice while picking up his glass of whiskey.

"Yes Sir ..." said Rocko and exited the tent