An instant later the man pulled her inside, and the door below closed. Inside, the helicopter was lit up with hundreds of instrument displays. It looked more like the cockpit of something out of a Sci-Fi film than a helicopter. She doubted more than a couple countries in the world possessed such technologies. A moment later, the contents of her gut rose, as the helicopter dropped its altitude and left the side of the mountain.
“Are you all right, Doctor Swan?” the man asked.
“Having just saved my life, you can call me Billie.” She smiled, revealing a set of perfectly even, white teeth. “And yes, I think I’ll live.” She eyed the man in front of her. He pulled up the dark visor of his helmet, revealing the most intensely blue eyes she had ever seen, reminding her of the ocean.
The man smiled back at her.
It was a warm and reassuring smile. For all Billie knew, her troubles were only just about to begin. She had no idea who owned the helicopter or why they had gone to the effort of saving her life. But this man’s smile seemed to disarm those fears in an instant.
Behind them, a large explosion rocked the site where Ahmet, at Jeremy’s request, had set a large timed, bomb. The helicopter, now several hundred feet out from the explosion site, gave a minor shudder, as the blast-wave slipped across its smooth airframe.
“What was that?” the man asked.
“A bomb was set to go off at the entrance to the Temple of Illumination.”
“That would make sense, Dr. Swan.” The man nodded as though he were merely discussing tomorrow’s weather forecast. “By the way, my name’s Sam Reilly, and I’ve been looking for you a long time.”
Chapter One
Sam Reilly sat down at a small table with three chairs, positioned outside an empty café that overlooked the gated entrance to the underground city. Tom Bower pulled up a seat opposite and sat down in silence. The sky above was a myriad of dark grays, ochre, and purple shades of predawn, speckled with a few remaining stars. To the north, nearly a hundred hot air balloons competed with the rising sun for space along the horizon over the Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia.
A waiter with short dark hair and a thick mustache approached. “Good morning, gentlemen. You’re up early to see the balloons?”
Sam nodded. “That and we want to beat the crowds at Derinkuyu.”
“A good idea,” the waiter replied. “But you know they don’t open until nine, don’t you?”
“That’s okay. We’re happy to wait until then,” Sam lied. “Besides, it’s a surprisingly warm morning.”
The waiter smiled as he poured water into two empty glasses. “It’s the warmest summer we’ve had on record. I’ve heard that large amounts of the snowy caps of Mount Ararat have started to thaw for the first time in more than two hundred years.”
“Is that so?” Sam asked, genuinely interested. “We were thinking of doing some climbing over the next few weeks. It might be interesting to climb the sacred mountain.”
“Good for you,” the waiter said. “What can I get for you?”
Sam said, “Just a coffee, please. Black. No sugar.”
“And for you, sir?” The waiter turned his gaze to Tom.
“I’ll have the same, please.”
“Of course, sir.” The waiter smiled, cheerfully, and disappeared inside the shop.
Sam studied the café in a glance. It had been built into the soft volcanic rock face, along with the flock of gift-shops, restaurants and other tourist traps which had popped up to cater for the ubiquitous tourists who had flocked to the region to see the nearby underground city. None of the shops had existed before 1963, when a resident of the area found a mysterious room behind a wall in his home during a renovation that revealed access to the tunnel network and led to one of the largest underground cities ever discovered.
Next to him, Tom Bower sat with the same expression Sam had seen fixed to his friend’s face for the past six weeks. It was set with the hardened stare of a man who knew that definitive action was needed, but had no means of determining what that action should be. Tom’s dark brown eyes were fixed on the horizon, while his mind was a thousand miles away, searching silently for answers. At a guess, Sam assumed Tom was recalling the pyramid they’d discovered on Infinity Island six weeks ago.
The submerged island had risen after a large tectonic shift had disturbed the base of the Mediterranean Sea. Inside the pyramid they had discovered a Looking-Glass. It was the second one that Tom had witnessed, and the first Sam had seen. The device was built by an ancient race known as the Master Builders, who were unrecognized by the history books. They used the device as a means of visual communication between temples that spanned thousands of miles. It was made out of a translucent orb, capable of conducting sound and light hundreds of times faster than any other material found on earth — either natural or synthetic.
Like the first looking-glass, this one displayed the current views of a number of temples, as seen from above. If the device had been built today, Sam would have accepted it was merely powered by some sort of video calling system, such as Facetime or skype — but it had been constructed thousands of years ago, by the Master Builders. They were perhaps the most intelligent, far-reaching, and longest surviving group of people in existence. At times, Sam harbored the possibility that some of them remained, scattered throughout the globe — of course, it was only a theory, and there was no proof.
This time, the device showed a series of ancient dilapidated temples, and one modern temple currently under construction. Inside were hundreds of people — primitive in their appearance — and quite dark skinned. Their faces were painted blue. They were almost completely naked, with the exception of some kind of loincloth. Both women and men were bare breasted. And all of them were working vigorously to finish building the chamber. They all looked focused. Almost mesmerized by their desire to perform their task without any consideration for their own rest and wellbeing. They were working hard and constantly. No one was whipping them. There was no one guiding them. But like a group of ants, they were all simply taking part in completing their individual tasks so that the main project could be completed. And then there was one who didn’t belong.
She was slightly shorter than the other women, and her complexion was much lighter and smoother. Her face shared the same intense focus as those around her. She was mesmerized by what she was doing, as though she was performing the work of the Gods. She looked like a slave, or someone who’d been drugged heavily with amnesic and hypnotic medications. While all of the men and women there looked muscular, her appearance was more lithe and athletic. She had a different sort of bone structure, altogether. She wore a pair of tan cargo shorts and a white tank top. Above her right shoulder was a small tattoo of a pyramid. She was definitely pretty. Sam gritted his teeth as he thought about the discovery. Her name was Dr. Billie Swan and two years ago, before she disappeared, Tom Bower had aspirations of one day marrying her.
It had been six weeks now since they’d discovered that Dr. Billie Swan was still alive, and was now working as a slave on the construction of the new temple. The pyramid, along with the looking-glass, had sunk back into the ocean and they had no means of tracing where the image had come from. With the only direct link to the new temple being destroyed, this was their first lead to anything that might suggest the Master Builders were building again.