The Belial Stone(34)

“Good.”

“She said they were rushing Paul’s autopsy. She told the M.E. about Paul’s skills. Dr. Nichols had some theories, but she didn’t want to say anything until she’d run some tests. Hopefully they’ll be back sometime today.”

He handed her a cell phone. “Jake gave that to me last night for you. I gave Rocky the number. She’ll call you when she has something.”

Nodding, she pocketed the cell phone and then looked past her uncle into the garden. “I still can’t wrap my head around what I saw. How could those guys get shot, stabbed, hit by a car, and keep going? What are they?” She glanced back at him. “My money’s on a secret military cyborg program.”

Patrick let out a chuckle. “I think you’ve been watching too many movies.”

“Really? Have you got any better ideas?”

Patrick was silent.

Laney looked at him closely. “You do, don’t you?”

He put up his hands. “I don’t know if it’s an idea or just a crazy thought. I think I’ll wait for some more information.”

“Uncle Patrick…”

He held up Drew’s paper. “I can, however, offer my opinion on Drew’s paper.”

“You’re just trying to distract me,” she grumbled.

“Yes, I am,” he agreed with a smile. “It’s actually impressive work. He talks about Gobekli Tepe, which, of course, is fascinating in its own right. But it’s his claims about what the sister site may hold that are the most intriguing and terrifying.”

“A sister site? Are you kidding? Where?” She pictured the ancient Turkish site: all those tall obelisks arranged in circles dating from before the dawn of civilization. Gobekli Tepe was an incredible find. But a second? That was beyond incredible.

“He doesn't say, but he makes a good argument for its existence.”

“That’s amazing. Drew is going to have a blast…“A pit formed in her stomach. “I mean, he would have had a blast excavating it.”

“That was my first thought, too. It’s what Drew dreamed of when he became an archaeologist. It’s what all archaeologists dream of. But I’m afraid this sister site may have more than a strong archaeological impact. If Drew was right, it could uncover a weapon I fear mankind may not be ready for.

“A weapon? I don’t understand. What do you mean?”

Patrick’s face was somber, his eyes deadly serious. “Drew writes of Atlantis. He argues that we’ve seen glimpses of it, but acknowledges that very little evidence has been found. He even speaks of their final devastation that all but wiped them from the face of the earth.”

Laney nodded, thinking of Plato’s description of Atlantis, as well as the accounts of Pliny, Plutarch, and Strabo. “Right, they were said to have been destroyed in one day by the rising of the sea. Most people argue that refers to perhaps some form of tsunami or great flood.”

“Drew mentions that as well. But rather than being a natural phenomena, he argues that the destruction was brought about by a weapon.”

“Where did he get that?”

“From Edgar Cayce’s readings. According to Cayce, a stone was used as the energy source for Atlantis. It was later changed into a weapon and resulted in the destruction of Atlantis.”

Laney looked at her uncle. “You're not believing this, though, are you? There's no proof.”

Patrick smiled. “Actually, that’s the part that surprised me. He offers proof.”

“You're kidding.”

“Have you ever heard of megafauna?”

Laney shook her head.

“Megafauna, or mega-mammals, are extinct now. Technically, a megafauna is any animal over a hundred pounds that is not domesticated. Generally, though, it is used to refer to large-scale mammals. According to the fossil record, unusual megafauna existed around the time of the last ice age. They included animals such as the short-faced bear and the giant sloth, which was about the size of a Volkswagen bus. Even more interesting is that they actually all seemed to disappear from the fossil record at about the same time: 50,000 years ago.”

“But I thought Atlantis was destroyed in 10,000 BC.”

“That was the final destruction. Drew was talking about the second destruction.”

“The second?

Patrick’s eyes twinkled, and Laney knew he was enjoying this part. Archaeological mysteries always intrigued him.

“Yes. Remember, Atlantis was actually an archipelago, not a single unitary land mass. According to Cayce, Atlantis underwent three destructions, each one shrinking the size of the civilization until the last one destroyed it. For the second destruction, Cayce mentioned that a weapon was used to address, as he puts it, ‘the problem of the large animals.’ But there was a miscalculation. The weapon ended up setting off a cataclysmic event. Drew argues that a similar, intentional event happened for the last destruction.”