When all possible logical explanations were removed, only one remained — and the very one she couldn’t accept as truth. Nostradamus could in fact see the future. Which meant everything else might be true and the world was approaching its greatest danger.
She read the first page again.
Dear Zara Delacroix,
I am writing this letter first. You see the information in this book is going to take nearly my entire life to transcribe. In case I run out of time, I want you to first know the truth.
I was not the first to learn about the fate of humanity. I may be the last, if you fail to do what is necessary. Unfortunately, I don’t know what that is. As a Seer, I receive a wealth of information. It has been passed down through the ages of time — but the masters keep some things from me. As you may well have guessed by now, I don’t see it in chronological order. Sometimes I can guess when something will happen because the event is close enough to my present day to allow me to make the connections.
For example, I may know someone in the vision. But most often, I know exactly what will happen, but no idea about when the event took place. You see for me, these events HAVE already happened. I have spent my life documenting the major events. All events affect the future, but it is only the major ones that have enough energy to disrupt the final outcome.
It is the final outcome of humanity that I leave with you in this book today.
I spent my life searching for a solution. I see the future as a series of events, held together by the strings of time. We can all see time, but for some reason I was always able to see the relationship between these strings. The closer the strings are together the more changes occur. The longer they are apart, the better. Massive strings can’t be changed, so don’t bother trying, as I have, and have always failed.
All strings have an end time. Some only decades in the future. Others last millennia, but all events lead to the same outcome — the human race will become extinct in your lifetime.
There was one event in which the strings of time are allowed to continue. Only one event that suggests the human race may continue. It is not a certainty, and I know very little about what will happen once you read this. Your timeline may even continue for millennia, although I’m rather pessimistic about extending the course of the human race by that much. I can’t say what life is like or if people are happy or sad, or will ever know how close they came to extinction. I’m blinded past this point. I know very little about you, or why you were chosen — I don’t even know if THEY picked you, or if you were a randomly selected anomaly in the fabric of our existence.
Do you know what event I’m talking about?
You, Zara Delacroix — finding my book.
By now you would have spent years doubting if I ever saw the future or was just a charlatan. In truth, I was both. Yes, I saw parts of the future, but in reality — I merely saw aspects, which I transcribed in this book. I had visions every single day. Hundreds of visions. It was a most unpleasant life. I spent years trying to learn to block them out, but they simply came back stronger and more vividly. I documented these events, but I was never able to make sense of when or where the events occurred. Consequently, I learned very little about the future. There is an equation, which you will need to find to apply to this book if you are going to make any sense of it. In one of my visions, which I believe, if I’m to trust my instincts, took place many millennia in the past, an equation was formulated to determine the time of these events. It was created by an ancient civilization, lost to antiquity millennia ago.
I don’t know who they were, or where you will find their equation, but I do know you must if you’re ever to decipher the truth and save humanity.
When I follow the strings of massive events, this is the largest of them all. It is the only one which has the potential to keep humanity alive — and while there is life, there is hope. So take this book, and use it as you see fit. I can’t tell you what is expected of you, or why this changes the world. The answers in this book can be used for great power. You may save the world, but you might just as readily expedite its demise.
And to do that you must stay alive. I wish I could tell you everything you need to know, but I have written too much already, and your time is running out — fast!
As you read this the last of the burning Saharan sun is fading over the horizon. I will tell you the last thing I know about your future. Very soon, you must go for a long walk in the dark. You go alone to clear your mind
THEY will be after you. I believe the very last thing THEY want is for you to interrupt the future. Forget your past. All want to betray you. Watch the infinite starlight and free your mind from the trappings of your beliefs — they’re about to be shattered forever.
Run now or you will die — and then humanity will have lost.
Chapter Nine
Zara felt her lips go dry and her throat sting with fear. She’d never been superstitious, but every ghost of her past generations was telling her to run. She closed the codex and locked the latch. The book weighed less than a few pounds. She placed it into a small backpack, along with a single bottle of water. The water wouldn’t get her very far, but neither would trying to walk across the Saharan desert as Nostradamus had suggested, so what did it matter? She then carefully replaced the heavy brass lid onto the chest and spun the dials until they locked firmly. Confident that would give any thief at least some pause Zara breathed in the last of the warm desert air and stepped outside the tent.
The camp was alive with celebrations. Campfires burned. Zara smelled the rich aroma of Ashahi tea, the traditional drink of the Tuareg nomads during times of celebration. Made from Gunpowder Green Tea, it was mixed with sugar and mint and served by pouring from a height of over a foot into small tea glasses with a froth on top. Her eyes glanced at the sky above. It was ink black and peppered with more stars than she could count in a lifetime. She smiled. It meant there wasn’t a single cloud anywhere.
Massive thunderstorm tonight, hey? Some prediction, Nostradamus!
“Adebowale,” she greeted him. Her voice was a dry croak. The unique mixture of fear, elation and relief jamming her tongue to the roof of her mouth. “Any problems in the camp?”
“No, Doctor — should I be expecting any?” He asked, looking down to meet her hardened eyes.
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m just concerned by the enormity of the discovery. Definitely no late arrivals, an unexpected camel train filled with nomads perhaps?”
“No Doctor. Do not worry, the prophecy will be safe. What did you read that made you turn pale? I thought you said Nostradamus was nothing more than a charlatan?”
“He was!” she reaffirmed with an innocent smile. “But a very good one.”
“The best Seers often were, I am told.”
She looked up at the sky. It was crystal clear and filled with stars unrestrained by the ambient lights of a major city for more than a thousand miles. “What do you think the chances are of a thunderstorm tonight?”