It was impossible.
And yet she tried.
The jungle is wrong. It’s evil. We must not follow. We want to go home…
They weren’t quite thoughts, as much as feelings. She didn’t shout the words out. Instead, she simply felt the strong emotions of fear, distrust, and the need to escape. The sensations became stronger. More forceful and uncomfortable. She tried to make them stop. Like a child, she wanted to crawl under her blanket and pretend she was somewhere else, a place where monsters in the dark didn’t exist.
A few minutes later, she spotted Billie. She stepped out of the thick jungle and into the clearing. Behind her, Sam, Tom, Veyron and Genevieve all followed. They slowly came and stood next to her. Each one remained silent, standing there, staring at the Black Smoke as it disappeared into the jungle.
When the Black Smoke was completely gone, Billie turned to face her. “Now what?”
Elise grinned. “Now we go home.”
Chapter Sixty-Two
Sam looked at Billie. She’d just finished getting dressed and had signed herself out of the hospital. She was back to her normal, intelligent, cynical self — filled with confidence bordering on arrogance. It was good to see her back to normal.
He said, “There’s one thing I really don’t get about all this.”
“Really?” Billie said, “Just one?”
“Okay, one thing that’s been bothering me… and you might happen to know the answer.”
“Shoot.”
“Why did the Master Builders focus on the biblical reference with the covenant of the Four Horsemen?”
“I’ve had a lot of thoughts about that. I believe they were concerned that none of them would be alive when the time came to trigger the Death Mask. You see, the Master Builders had a genetic disorder that allowed them to live extremely long lives, but they were far from being immortal. Like all people, they could die from traumatic events and their numbers were lessening. What’s worse, is that the same genetic disorder that extended their lifespan was recessive — meaning in most cases, their children didn’t possess the same disorder.”
“Most adults outlived their children?” Sam asked.
“Yes. So most ceased to have children of their own.”
Sam said, “How awful.”
“So the Master Builders needed to enlist the help of ordinary people.”
“But why focus on Christianity?”
“You have to understand that at the time of the early fourth century, Christianity was spreading like wildfire in the region. Armenia was the first to adopt it as its country’s religion. It was the simplest means of maintaining an ongoing covenant that needed to extend well past any one person’s life expectancy.”
Sam nodded. “And Gregory the Illuminator?”
“At the end of the third century, when Gregory made a pilgrimage to the Gods he thought he spotted in Mount Ararat, he found the Master Builders. They told him of the Four Horsemen, and instructed him to keep the pendant of Conquest. They told him to return to his king and tell him to renounce his pagan ways. That in the years to come the king would become possessed by a demon, and that only he alone would be able to cure him.”
“Go on.”
“King Tiridates III was angry, but so concerned by Gregory’s conviction that he ordered the man locked in the dungeon of Khor Virap. The rest is history.”
Sam smiled. “The Master Builders poisoned King Tiridates III until Gregory’s release?”
“There’s no proof, but it’s definitely a high likelihood. Either that, or Gregory did perform a miracle.”
“And your grandfather. How did he become part of the Four Horsemen?”
“My grandfather followed a very old story about the day Gregory the Illuminator was thrown into Khor Virap. It said that he was wearing a pendant of a horse made of ivory, but that by the time the man was released, he no longer wore any jewelry at all.”
“Your father visited Khor Virap?”
“Yes. He found a buried container inside the deep dungeon and a note from Gregory relating the story of the Four Horsemen. My grandfather spent most of his life trying to locate the hidden temple inside Mount Ararat. In the end, it’s what got him killed.”
Chapter Sixty-Three
Sam watched as Dr. Elaine Creswell, M.D. entered the room. She was a couple years shy of sixty, and one of the leading experts in the world on the topic of neurology. She focused specifically on unusual neural pathways. Things like secondary pathways that sometimes start to grow after a stroke has caused a blockage in the usual pathway, or sometimes to circumvent information that is failing to be processed at the sight of a brain tumor. The aberrant neural pathways were uncommon, but not unheard of. She had spent a life studying them with the hope that such pathways may one day lead to a solution for patients with spinal cord injuries.
“Good morning, Dr. Creswell,” Sam said.
“Morning, Mr. Reilly. I have something I want to show you.” She glanced at Billie. “In private, I’m afraid.”
“No problem,” Billie said. “I was just leaving.”
Dr. Creswell waited until Billie left the room and then closed the door. She placed a radiology report in front of Sam. “This is the report from Elise’s MRI.”
Sam met her eye. “What does it say?”
“Elise has an enlarged posterior cerebrum.”
“She has a large brain?” Sam asked. “Hell, I could have told you that. She’s several rungs above genius status on the MENSA IQ ladder.”
“It doesn’t quite work like that. This isn’t normal, and at first it quite worried me.”
“You think it’s a brain tumor?”
“At first I did. I ran all the tests. There’s nothing malignant or concerning about this. It appears to be her normal cerebral structure. Most likely the result of some sort of strange hereditary process.”
“What do you think it means?”
“You want to know if it could have had anything to do with why everyone was affected by the Black Smoke, except Elise?”
Sam nodded. “Was it?”
Dr. Creswell said, “The posterior cerebrum is concerned with a number of cerebral functions, but communication is up there with its highest priority. The Black Smoke appeared to heighten the natural excitation of the neural responses in that region — in ordinary people — elevating it to a level where high frequency radio waves can be interpreted.”
“But you’re saying that aspect of Elise’s brain isn’t normal.”
“No. In Elise’s case, that region of the brain is already enlarged.”
Sam asked, “What does that mean?”
Dr. Creswell shook her head. “I’m not certain, but it appears she has the ability to interpret high frequency sound waves without the chemical enhancement from the Black Smoke, and…”
Sam waited, but the Dr. appeared uncertain about giving him the next bit of information. “What?”
“And I think she was capable of transmitting high frequency radio waves, too.”
“Thank you, Dr. Creswell, for your work.” Sam thought about the revelation for a moment. It was a reasonable explanation. The only possible reason why Elise was unaffected by the Black Smoke — not just unaffected — she was able to convince the rest of them to return to the helicopter.
She said, “We’ll need further tests, to know for sure.”
A strong woman’s voice interrupted the conversation. It both took charge and simultaneously dismissed Dr. Creswell. “I don’t think that will be necessary.”
Sam smiled and turned to face her. “Madam Secretary, I was wondering when you would show up.”
The Secretary of Defense closed the door behind Dr. Creswell. She looked at Sam with concern heavy in her face. “Well?”