CHAPTERВ 2
20° 40» 25» N
88° 34» 31» W
Chichen-Itza, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
October 2,В 1520
Oooooo-aah-oo-oo-oo-oo… Her eyelids parted heavily. But the picture before her eyes was indistinct. There were yellow-green flashes of light through the milky haze of age. She did not immediately realize why she was awakened, whether it was because of the deaf groans from the depths of the hut or from ordinary kicks in the womb. The kicks have recently become more frequent. The child felt the lack of water in the mother’s womb and demanded liquid. This will be Tolana’s first childbirth, but she did not know how to soothe a fragile fruit. Her husband’s mother Ma-Is, was an old woman and could barely move a leg. Surprisingly, she was still on her feet! Almost all her peers were old women, who were teachers of the tribe and supervised the tribe’s younglings. One after another, these women simply dried up in the eyes of Tolana over the past three weeks. Each morning, they hung out coloured blankets at the doors of their huts, giving the sign that they were still alive. Then they went back inside and lay motionless in the dry vacuum until sunset. Where no signal was hoisted, the priest of the tribe of Vak Balama sent two warriors. Wrapped in blankets, the dead were carried past the Place of One Thousand Columns and past the Temple of Chtuloq to the end of the cornfield that had not harvested crops. The bodies were cast and covered by piles of stone to prevent wild animals, mad from heat, hunger, and thirst, from ripping apart the corpses. Every corpse lay on top of old graves, and again everything was buried by stones. A foul stench was all around. The warriors covered up their faces, leaving only a slit for the eyes.
At night, the burial mound was surrounded byВ burning torches, cries scared off animals, the trunks ofВ dead trees were beaten byВ beetles, and drums were banged.
Tolana woke up every morning before dawn, carefully straightened her shoulders and clasped her hands at the waist, making steps like a duck to go to a thicket near the village surrounding the city wall to collect the dew drops on the broad leaves of ol-ka-hyo. Large drops were shaken off into the flat clay dish, while small drops were simply licked by the tongue. An hour later, her tongue swelled. And so – every morning for the past four moons was like this. There was no other water.
The child inside her demanded water and food. He wanted to live. According to the prediction of the old grandmother, not much time was left until its birth – only two moons. Walking became increasingly difficult for Tolana. Initially, she could reach the Sacred Cenote by carefully treading barefoot on stone-like scorched earth. She approached the edge of the sinkhole and stared intently into its depths. Has the water come – have the gods become kind? But the same sweet smell of rotting corpses hit her nostrils – the poor girls, among which was her little sister. Tolana was taken aback by disgust, felt sick, and in recent days threw off her trips to the dead cenote.
She wanted to immediately gather the morning moisture from the leaves, but the sun was already high and Tolana realized that she overslept. She felt her tongue being torn by sharp pain. Caressing her face with the palm of her hand, she felt the scab of dried blood. Two fingers reaching the swollen tongue, Tolana touched the scar in the middle. Although it had healed, each movement of the tongue caused pain. Pain was also present in her large stomach, already beginning to sink down – a sign of labour approaching. Tolana leaned her head, moving it side to side, trying to shake off the numbness and restore the events of yesterday. Pain anywhere else did not respond, as it lived only in the stomach and at the tip of her tongue.
Gentle rustling and moaning made her look around, and Tolana recognized the source of these sounds – in the corner of the hut, on old rags and covered with a striped blanket, her husband, Kuluangwa, was moaning. The entire lower part of the blanket was covered in spots of dried blood. Kuluangwa lay on his back and hazily whispered something. Tolana stooped below to parse the words of her husband.
«Tomorrow… everything will be fine! Vak Balama said that, remember? Tomorrow will rain… Chaak has already drank. We did it… He is now satisfied. He shall give us water. He should… our child.» The man’s voice broke and died.
В«Yes, Kuluangwa,В» said Tolana, barely moving her swollen tongue.
She put her head on her husband’s chest and closed her eyes. Memories of yesterday flashed in her head. She remembered the parable that the high priest Vak Balama told them yesterday in the temple.
The path chosen by the other tribes was one of defeat, giving away all that they had under their chests and armpits, so that it would blossom. Such a bloom meant that each tribe that was brought as sacrifice for Chaak had their hearts ripped out. But before that, Chaak conveyed his powers to the Balama clan – Balama-Quitzé, Balama-Aqaba and Iki-Balama… my glorious ancestors. He transmits this force to this day and this power has never deceived us. We are accustomed to abstaining from food while awaiting dawn. We are awake, waiting for sunrise. We guard the Great Star that rises first before the sun when the day is engaged. Our gaze is fixated on there – the sunrise. There, from whence came our gods.
But that was not where we got our power and sovereignty from. We conquered and subdued the large tribes and small tribes when we offered them as sacrifice to Chaak and the Holy Grain. We offered him the blood, flesh, chest, and armpits of all those people in order to water and to revive the Holy Grain. And a great power has come to us. Great was our wisdom when we accomplished our deeds in the dark. But then came a time when Chaak demanded more. It was not enough for the Holy Grain of Chaak. Our offerings were not enough for the one of the six sacred grains that He brought to our land. And He said to me – and I to you, «Children of the Corn, express your gratitude before your last exodus! Do what is necessary – prick your ears, pierce your loins, and commit your sacrifice! That will be your gratitude in front of me – and I will repay you.» And I, Vak Balama, your priest, tell you – it is time to do everything that Chaak wants for the irrigation and flowering of the Holy Grain.
Tolana also remembered for how long, how awfully long, she dragged Kuluangwa across the narrow steps down from the top of the temple. She remembered how hard the child fought in her womb, resisting every strain of the mother. The warm hands of old Ma-Is helped drag Kuluangwa into the hut, put his limp body into the corner on a low couch and covered him with a blanket. But what came before this? Her memory was confused, and she could not recall the events. Kuluangwa was breathing hoarsely, while Tolana’s head rose and fell with his every sigh. Then he stretched with a groan, exhaling pain, straightening his muscles that had stiffened at night. The blanket harbouring his body slipped to the floor and Tolana looked up, not fully realizing what had opened in front of her. She gasped. What she saw made her tightly shut her eyes. Kuluangwa’s entire lower body was covered with scabs of dried blood – his legs, hips, ankles, and feet. A large, ugly, black, and red body part faintly trembled between his legs like a sponge. What once took an active part in the tender creation of a small creature in her womb had turned into an unimaginable nightmare. And now Tolana remembered yesterday.
CHAPTERВ 3
34° 38» 17» S
58° 21» 12» W
Buenos Aires, Argentina
October 14,В 1972
The day was drawing toВ anВ end.
«Diego! Diego, what is it with you! Why don’t you ever listen to your mother? You’ll smash your head in such darkness. How much longer can you fool around? Come home right now… ri-i-i-ight no-o-o-ow!»
There was no answer.
В«Die-e-e-ego!В»
«Give me a moment, mama! Well, until the next goal… we have to break the tie!»
«So, you’ll be rushing around till the morning?»
«No, we’re gonna finish soon!»
The mother walked away from the third-floor window, taking with her the faded laundry that had been baking under the merciless sun on a rope crossing Santo Domingo Street. Downstairs, in the darkness illuminated only by the dim lights of a few windows, a throng of teenagers was chasing a ball, excitedly shouting something ungodly. This game, already lasting dozens of halves, started in mid-afternoon from the moment school finished. The boys played in the yard among the crowded block houses, the walls of which were completely covered with graffiti. Here and there, the facades were clung onto by tin shacks – pantries for all sorts of junk, garages for broken trucks, motorcycles, and bikes. Between the huts as well – dried up laundry. The boys’ game was accompanied by a cacophony of screaming traders, roaring babies, rattling cars, melodies of bossa-nova, and sounds of salsa.
On one side, the goalposts were represented by a dusty gateway arch overgrown with stunted vines. On the other side – a pair of empty boxes. The short kid who responded to the call of his mother seemed to have played the best in this poor neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Taking the ball to his chest, he easily moved it from his torn knee to the shin. Smoothly beating the opponent, the boy made a masterly kick to send the ball rocketing between the two boxes.
В«Go-o-o-al!В» One group ofВ boys rushed toВ hug the striker, while the other stood inВ silence at the gate, rolling the ball.
Meanwhile, the capital ofВ Argentina was descending into aВ warm October night.
«You shouldn’t be like this to him, Dalma,» said Diego, the boy’s father, in whose honour the boy was named. He came from behind and gently put his arm around his wife’s shoulders.
«After that adventure of yours with him in Mexico, he’s crazy on that football.» Dalma nervously freed herself from his arm, «You know, he even sleeps with that stupid ball in an embrace. Our little Maria sleeps with her doll! But at his age, he shouldn’t be sleeping with toys!»
«Well, he’s still a child. Ten years – what do you want?» Diego paused. «By the way, yesterday I spoke with Antonio Labruna, the schoolmaster.»
В«Yes, IВ know Antonio!В» retorted Dalma. В«And?В»
«Well, he said that… in general, our little guy is not doing too well in school…»
В«Oh, is that it?!В»
«…but on the other hand,» the father continued, «he’s so good at football! A genius! Antonio wants to put him on the senior school team for city competitions. You remember how he was bullied like a little chicken a year ago because he couldn’t put two movements together with the ball in gym class. And now…»
«…And now our boy has surpassed himself by kicking a stupid ball around the street!» She said with disappointment, «We need him to spend more time on the important subjects, yet you continue to indulge him…»
«Don’t you worry so much, Dalma? Everything will be alright. Our boy will fulfill his dream. You’ll see – he’ll become a hero of Argentina!»
Dalma grunted, while Diego went on, fascinated, despite the sarcasm in the look of his wife. «We, the working people always need football! It makes us free! It elevates our mood, provides food for an evening of chatter with a glass of wine. By the way, let me open a bottle for dinner! It’s better than grumbling and frowning all the time. And all the sciences will eventually come to Diego with time. He’ll learn to read and write.»
«It would also be good if he at least learned how to count so he doesn’t end up like his father, who has nothing in his pockets to count. Yes, and you’re babbling about football like at some rally… «Football makes us free!’… you bore me to sleep!»
«Alright, alright, I’ll talk to him,» Diego gave in, seeing where Dalma was going.
At this point, little Diego stumbled clumsily through door. He was aВ sturdy and ofВ short height for his ten years ofВ age, covered inВ dust and with eyes glowing. His left hand firmly pressed aВ black ball against himself.
«Papa, papa! Mama! Five – three! We killed them!» Diego was raging with pride.
«But you said, up until the first goal…» His mother frowned with displeasure. «I warmed your dinner twice!»
«Yes, I rolled them a fourth, and then, while thinking to leave or not, I sent a fifth to the right. And then, Aunt Samantha turned off the light in her window… I couldn’t see my ball, so we had to go home.»
В«And who scored the first three, son?В» his father asked with aВ sly smile.
В«Also me, papa. Who else?В»
Dalma seemed to have replaced her anger with compassion, going into the kitchen and warming the dinner for a third time. The father patted Diego’s curly head and leaned to his ear, quietly, conspiratorially whispering: «Central striker Diego Gonzalez, while mama is busy with dinner, I have something for you.»
Slipping through the dark corridor past the door into the kitchen where his mother rattled dishes and cursed as she dispersed the smoke from the stove, they entered Diego’s small room, full of hanging pictures with covers of sports magazines. The father closed the door and said, «Maybe it’s time you stopped kicking around,» he started from afar, «this filthy, old, black ball, of dark Mexican origins?»
«But pa-a-apa…» Diego cringed at the thought of being deprived of his single favorite preoccupation.
«Don’t even start,» the father went on in a deliberately strict manner.
«But why? I promise that I will do my homework on time. I won’t ever skip school. I promise! I promise! I promise!» Big tears flowed down his face.
«Oh, I never knew that you could cry!» The father chuckled, «Alright, don’t howl, I just wanted to say that you’ve played enough with this prehistoric ball, Diego. Why don’t you look under your bed? I think there is something waiting for you now for four hours!»
Diego gave his father aВ suspicious glance and crawled under the bed, from where aВ moment later came out aВ hysterical cry ofВ joy.
В«OlГ©! OlГ©! OlГ©!OlГ©-Г©-Г©-Г©! Thank you, papa!В»
Like aВ brisk snake, he crawled out from under the bed and his trembling hands lay aВ brand-new football, covered inВ shiny black and white hexagons.
«It’s real! Leather! The guys will be so pleased. Maybe our team will even be allowed to play on a real field now!»
The father, still pretending to have a stern face, said, «But you must promise your mother and I that this will not harm your schooling! Especially – mathematics.»
В«OfВ course, papa,В» Diego was barely listening toВ him as he swept into the kitchen, В«Mama, ma-a-a-ma-a-a, look what IВ have! Papa gave me this, aВ ball from real leather!В»
«I hope you won’t have any more problems at school, understand?» The mother tried to sound resolute, «Now go wash your hands, you little monkey… with so-o-o-ap!»
В«Yes, mama, IВ promise!В»
«What’s the matter with your hand?» She grabbed Diego’s wrist, as he was about to slip by. Dried blood protruded along the edges of the dark plaster glued over his entire left palm. «Your sore has still not healed? Tomorrow we go to the doctor – my uncle Savigna. What is this… three weeks have passed, but the cut has not healed! You’ll catch an infection! How are you going to play without your hands?»
В«But IВ play using my legs,В» responded the central striker with an infectious boyish laugh as he headed toВ bathe.
There, left alone, and furtively glancing at the door, Diego grimaced as he ripped the dirty plaster. Then, his face turned pale and serious as he washed the wound in the cold running tap water and, raising his hand closer to the face, studying it carefully. Indeed, the wound began to tighten. The boy dabbed it with a piece of toilet paper, which quickly turned into a faint pink colour. Diego quivered his hand, brushing a momentary stupor, and pasted the plaster back into place. Then with both hands he «combed» his rough curls, showed himself his pink tongue in the mirror and to his mother’s «Di-e-e-ego!» he shouted back: «I’m coming, ma-a-a!»
CHAPTERВ 4
To: Head ofВ Intelligence Directorate, General Staff ofВ the Red Army, GeneralВ I.I.В Ilichev
From: Head ofВ Second Chief Directorate, Anglo-American Residence, LieutenantВ K.M.В Litvinov
November 27,В 1942
OPERATIONAL REPORT
Comrade General,
OurВ U.S. resident В«RockwoodВ» revealed that the object ofВ our interest was present during the so-called Baltimore Experiment. It is established that the agency В«Nixon, Kraft and Locksmith,В» presented byВ Mr. Morgan, had aВ contract with the U.S. military for the supply ofВ sensitive equipment. On the day ofВ the experiment, Mr. Tesla was secretly brought byВ the secret service agency В«TangerineВ» toВ the port ofВ Baltimore from New York on aВ five-seat plane (reg. no. 685-AS).
The Baltimore Experiment (for your reference)
According to our data, the U.S. military attempted to build a ship invisible to the enemy’s radar and magnetic mines. Using the calculations derived by Mr. Einstein, the destroyer «Aldridge» was installed with special generators. To our knowledge, the project attracted Mr. Tesla’s attention. His participation in the experiment was highly confidential. The reason that the participation of Mr. Tesla was given the highest degree of secrecy confirms our hypothesis that Mr. Tesla used an unknown mechanism of his own invention in the experiment. In addition, we know that an elevated degree of activity of the Abwehr, the German counterintelligence agency, was directed not at the outcome of the experiment, but at the object that Mr. Tesla brought aboard the destroyer.
During the test conducted on Oct. 28, 1942В inВ dock no. 4В ofВ the Baltimore port, two events happened. First, the ship, surrounded byВ powerful electromagnetic field discharges, not only disappeared from the radar screen, but literally vanished inВ the truest sense ofВ the word inВ aВ green cloud. Second, after some time, the В«AldridgeВ» reappeared inВ another place, byВ the exit into the waters near dock no. 12. InВ the opinion ofВ doctors, the crew on board was completely distraught,
Our agents interviewed all possible witnesses to the experiment. In particular (for a bribe of 465 dollars), we received the most interesting testimony from senior sailor Mr. Ramirez Allende from the transport ship «Andrew Furuseth,» a vessel that was part of the control group of the Baltimore experiment. Mr. Allende personally saw how the «Aldridge» melted in a strange, greenish glow to a buzzing sound surrounding the destroyer’s force field. Other witnesses indicated that immediately after the discovery of the ship, Special Forces were thrown on board to block all approaches to the ship and all exits on board. Soon after, a speedboat brought a man (Mr. Allende’s photograph identifies the man with exact certainty as Mr. Tesla). The man was immediately escorted to the bridge, from which he returned shortly. He was carrying a metal suitcase in his hands. While descending back into the high-speed boat, according to Mr. Allende, the man (Mr. Tesla) suddenly exclaimed «Oh, shit!» as if from a burn and let his bag out of his hands, throwing it aside. The bag opened and a small ball rolled onto the deck – this object radiated a striking green glow, like a fire welding. The glow lasted for several seconds, and then stopped. Gunmen accompanying Mr. Tesla put the ball away in the metal box. A trace of burnt wood was clearly visible on the deck of the ship.
The most interesting item in Allende’s testimony to our agent was the description of the effects of the experiment. Some incredible things have been happening to the men that returned «from nowhere.» They seemed to have fallen out of the real course of time (the term «frozen» was used). There were cases of spontaneous combustion. Two of the «frozen» men suddenly ignited and burned for eighteen days. Despite all efforts, rescuers in the hospital were unable to stop the burning of the bodies. There were also other oddities – for example, one of the sailors of the «Aldridge» disappeared forever, having passed straight through the wall of his apartment in front of his wife and child. We cannot confirm these accounts, as it is likely that Mr. Allende exaggerated some of his testimony to receive more money.
According toВ agent В«Rockwood,В» the U.S.В Navy leadership denies the Baltimore Experiment, claiming that nothing ofВ such nature occurred inВ Baltimore this year. However, we found documents showing that Mr. Einstein has been inВ the employ ofВ the U.S.В Navy Department inВ WashingtonВ D.C. this year. We have copies ofВ the leaflets with the calculations made byВ hand byВ Mr. Einstein, who has aВ very distinctive handwriting. (The copies are translated and forwarded toВ the Second Division ofВ the GRU[4 - The Main Intelligence Directorate ofВ the Soviet Army General Staff]).
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Dr. Carl Laysler (one ofВ the physicists on this project) has been inВ our employ since receiving the assignment. Dr.В Laysler, according toВ our information, told aВ closed Congressional hearing on the case that U.S. military scientists planned toВ make aВ warship invisible toВ radar. AВ powerful electronic device was installed on board this ship. This device was able toВ produce energy, the power ofВ which was enough toВ supply electricity toВ aВ small-sized city.
We have aВ verbatim transcript ofВ his explanation:
…The experiment is remarkable, but terribly dangerous. It has too much influence on the people involved in it. The experiment used magnetic generators, the so-called «de-magnetizers,» which worked at resonant frequencies and created a powerful field around the ship. In practice, this could give a temporary withdrawal from our dimension and might mean a spatial breakthrough, if only it was possible to keep the process under control!
Curiously, Dr. Laysler has never seen this device. However, he believes that it would have taken up at least one-third of the vessel’s area. Nonetheless, he did not see a single loading of large-scale electrical equipment take place on board.
The intent of the experiment was for a strong electromagnetic field around the ship to serve as a screen for radar beams. Dr. Laysler was located on the shore to watch, record, and monitor the experiment. When the device was running, the ship disappeared. Sometime later, it reappeared with all sailors on board dead. Some of their corpses turned into steel – the material from which the ship was made. During our conversation, Dr. Laysler was very upset and it was evident that the sick old man still feels responsibility and guilt for the deaths of the seamen on board the «Aldridge.» Laysler and his colleagues on the experiment consider that they «sent the ship to a different time, with the vessel breaking up into molecules, and in the inverse process there was a partial replacement of organic molecules of human bodies by metal atoms…»
We have proposed aВ theory that Mr. Tesla may have participated inВ the project as aВ possible owner ofВ the device, but Dr. Laysler categorically denied this. According toВ Dr. Laysler, the military did not inform the team ofВ scientists involved inВ the project ofВ who manufactured the device.
One week after the experiment, the В«AldridgeВ» was put into reserve byВ the U.S.В Navy. The logbooks ofВ the В«AldridgeВ» disappeared. ToВ our knowledge, they are inВ the ownership ofВ the 7th Operational Department ofВ theВ CIA.
