The waiter returned and handed them their coffees. Sam thanked the man and took a sip. He smiled. The coffee was rich, and surprisingly good. It warmed him from the inside, and made him feel confident about the meeting with the stranger who’d contacted him forty-eight hours ago.
After the pyramid had sunk back into the Mediterranean Sea and with it any direct connection to where Billie had been taken, Sam had sent out a series of requests through a network of antiquity dealers, archeologists, and climatologists around the world. The request was simple — Have you ever seen anything like this, and if so, where? Attached was a photograph of the ancient script written by the Master Builders. To date, the ancient written language had only been discovered in a total of five locations. Of those, three were no longer in existence.
There was only one positive response, and it came two days ago.
Mr. Reilly. I believe I have seen something written in the same script. In the past three years since I discovered it, I have made more than a hundred enquiries about its origins. So far no one has been able to identify who wrote it. I assumed it was an ancient civilization, because there was nothing similar anywhere, on any document. I’ve searched the archeology archives, internet and spoken with many archeologists. None has seen this type of script before. Last year, I had a section of the wood it was written on carbon dated. To make the mystery greater, the results returned with a dating of around 400 years old, which places it somewhere around the early part of the 16th century. It definitely doesn’t match any form of written language anywhere within Turkey, and definitely none from such a recent century. If you’re interested, please come to Derinkuyu. I would love to hear from someone who’s seen it before and might be able to explain its origins.
Attached was a copy of the image the stranger had found. It was indeed written in the language of the Master Builders, and if his carbon dating was correct, it was by far the youngest known writing by them that he had ever seen. The question remained, could it be possible a descendent of the Master Builders had survived, and was currently in the process of constructing a new temple?
Sam considered the possibility as he sipped his warm coffee.
“Mr. Sam Reilly?” A man asked as he entered the café.
Sam nodded. The question came from a short man in his mid-forties. He had an olive complexion and gregarious smile.
The man offered his hand. “My name is Kahraman Sadik, and I’m so glad you came straight away.”
“And this is an associate and good friend of mine, Tom Bower.” Sam stood to greet the stranger, taking his hand. “Can I get you a coffee or tea?”
“Pleased to meet you both,” Sadik said, his eyes furtively darting between the two of them. “I’m afraid we must leave right away. I’ll tell you what I know along the way, and you can fill in what I long to hear, but we must leave now. We must descend underground before the sun’s fully up.”
“Descend?” Sam smiled, awkwardly. “Where?”
Sadik grinned. “Why into the depths of Derinkuyu of course, where no tourist has ever been.”
Chapter Two
Sam stood up and placed a red ten lira banknote on the table to cover the bill. He studied Sadik trying to decide whether the guy was crazy and had just seen the image of the Master Builder’s script on the internet or something, or whether he really had something to offer. Sadik’s eyes were wide, and constantly glancing around furtively. He was out of breath, like he’d just run half a dozen blocks or something.
“You okay?” Sam asked, looking at Sadik.
“I’m fine, fine. We just need to be below ground before Derinkuyu is open to the public, shortly after sunrise.”
“Okay. We’ll follow you.” Sam looked at Tom. He didn’t need to say anything. It was obvious Tom shared his instant distrust of the stranger.
They left the café and followed a series of stone walkways and stairways along a shallow valley, where the once eternal stream that carved its way through the region appeared long departed. The path traversed upward and downward thirty or more feet as they moved in and around a variety of caverns that formed the local houses and shopfronts for the vicinity.
“I thought the entrance to Derinkuyu was back there?” Sam asked.
“It was,” Sadik confirmed. He glanced over his shoulder, behind him — holding his gaze purposefully for a few moments, as though he was expecting something. He smiled briefly, and turned to Sam again. “I’m sorry. What did you say? Ah, that’s right. The main tourist entrance? Yes. It was back there. There are many entrances to the ancient subterranean city. I’m taking you to one of the most northern ones. It’s actually a ventilation shaft. Very few people know about it.”
Tom’s lip curled into the slightest of grins at the lie, but he remained silent.
Sam met Sadik’s eye, and asked the question. “And still, we need to be inside before the sun comes up?”
“Yes,” Sadik confirmed.
“Why?”
“Because you’re not the only person to take interest in this discovery.”
Sam said, “Someone is watching the entrances?”
Sadik nodded. “There are many people watching all of the entrances.”
“You said you discovered this piece of wood with the unique writing on it almost three years ago. Have they been interested in this location since then?”
“No. Only for the past six weeks.”
Sam asked, “Why?”
Sadik said, “Because you posted your damned query about the ancient script on the internet, and suddenly nearly everyone I showed the image to over the past three years is dead.”
“And yet you trust me?”
“No. But what choice do I have. If you wanted to discover something the others hadn’t, you wouldn’t have been posting it so the world could see, would you? Two of my very good friends have died — I need to know why.”
“And you think I might provide those answers?”
“I think you’re the only one I’ve ever met who has an idea who wrote that strange script.” Sadik took a pause to catch his breath. “And once you’ve seen where I found it, I’m hoping you’ll be able to provide me with some of those answers.”
“I’ll do my best.” Sam regathered his thoughts as he carefully followed Sadik. “In the last six weeks, has anyone else approached you to see the strange markings?”
“Yes,” Sadik confirmed. “There were two other people interested in this information, just this week.” Sadik nodded. “And they were both willing to pay big.”
“What did you say?”
“I said I’d sent the piece of wood away to Europe to be studied by experts, but I’d love their input when it gets back.”
Sam said, “Good man.”
Speaking to Sadik, Tom asked, “Do you have any idea who’s following your movements?”
“No.” Sadik crouched down, close to a stone wall marking out the edge of a small open field.
“Then how do you know you’re being followed?” Sam asked.
“I see them. There are people who don’t belong here. They act as though they have a purpose, but they have no other purpose than to watch me. I’ve carefully checked all the entrances over the past few weeks. Every single one has been guarded, with the exception of this one.”
“This one isn’t guarded?” Sam asked.
“No.” Sadik increased his pace, walking straight past the entrance and going further up the hill beyond. “Very few people know about its existence.”
“So what are you afraid of?” Sam asked.
“The two men who are following us right now.”
Sam glanced behind him. There were two men, casually walking along the path about thirty feet apart. Both looked like tourists. Sadik stopped and both men kept walking past them. Sam glanced at Sadik who shrugged and kept walking. Two hundred feet along the path, Sadik stopped again. The two men had stopped in a cave to buy something. Sadik waited and in a few minutes both men walked past them again.