The Nemesis Origin

XXXVII

Ethan watched as Lucy patiently peeled away the dense layers of frozen fabric wrapped around the mummy. The material had been woven with great care by skilled artisans hundreds of years before, the colors in the fabric still visible despite it being as hard as wood and difficult for Lucy to remove without damaging it.

As she slowly removed each layer so the figure trapped within gradually began to emerge, and it was rapidly evident that the remains within the burial shroud were anything but normal. It was subtle at first, what to Ethan seemed to be a slight imbalance between the size of the body in the shroud and the size of the head. But as more layers were revealed so it became clear that the individual inside the shroud had a skull shaped nothing like a human being.

Lucy labelled each layer as it was removed, sealing each of the ancient fragments inside plastic bags for later analysis. With forensic perfection she began to reveal the figure huddled inside the shroud, until suddenly she exposed a vivid length of jet black hair still bound in place, two strands of it woven between links of brightly colored fabric in dense plaits.

Ethan moved closer, fascinated as Lucy began to reach up to remove the final layer of fabric that covered the face of the figure within. Both Lopez and Jarvis also drew closer, Yuri moving in from the other side as slowly Lucy took hold of the last layer of fabric and gently removed it to reveal the mummy’s face.

There was an audible gasp from Yuri Polkov and his hand flew to his mouth as the final piece of fabric was folded aside by Lucy’s delicate touch and they stared into the eyes of a young girl who had died several hundred years before.

It was clear that the girl had been immensely beautiful, her features elegant and symmetrical. Ethan was stunned to see that her skin still maintained a natural tan color, her eyebrows delicately arched and her lips full and sculptured. The once dark orbits of her eyes had dried out long ago but her eyelids were closed as though she were merely asleep, small ears tucked close against the skull and her face serene and peaceful.

But above her face extended a skull that was far larger than normal, her hairline at least three times higher than that of an ordinary human being and her cranium shaped like a teardrop that ended in a narrow cone hidden beneath a thick blanket of glossy black hair.

‘My God, she’s beautiful,’ Yuri whispered as he struggled out of his chair once more for a closer look. ‘I could never have imagined…’

Draped across the girl shoulders and her chest was an immensely valuable solid gold necklace, forged in complex coils that looped in and out of each other. Her clothes were woven of the finest fabrics of her time and would have held enormous value to the Inca people, perhaps even more so than the gold. That she had been treated with the utmost respect in death was undeniable despite her obvious youth and the fact that her life been snatched away from her by the blow of a blunt instrument that had left a dent in the back of her skull.

‘Ritual sacrifice,’ Yuri observed as he hobbled around to one side of the mummy. ‘She was killed before her prime, struck from behind while watching the rising sun as a sacrifice to the gods that gave the Incas their knowledge and understanding of the universe.’

Lucy nodded, their predicament momentarily forgotten in the face of discovery.

‘Her throat is marked by ligatures,’ she observed, pointing to a line of dark bruising circling her neck. ‘She was garrotted after losing consciousness.’

Ethan saw that the girl’s tiny hands were gently folded before her, likely placed there by her killers after they had struck her down. She seemed at peace, and Ethan remembered what Lucy had said about sacrificial victims being plied with alcohol before their deaths to induce a state of stupefied semi-consciousness, the mediaeval equivalent of humane execution.

‘What happened to her skull?’ Lopez asked. ‘How did it end up like that?’

‘It’s the result of ritualistic deformation,’ Lucy said as she examined the skullcap closely without touching anything.

Ethan step forward as he looked at the remains. ‘Does this mummy contain the DNA that you’re looking for?’

Lucy shook her head instantly. ‘No, she is an example of cranial deformation and not a victim of something genetically inherited.’ She looked up at Yuri and smiled. ‘These remains are worthless.’

Yuri scowled at her. ‘How can you tell?’

‘The shape of the skull, can’t you see it?’ Lucy asked as though it were obvious. ‘Lots of people think that these skulls found all over Peru but mostly in the Paracus region are somehow the remains of alien children, but this has been disproven repeatedly because although you can alter the shape of a skull you cannot alter the brain volume. That’s what differentiates between skulls that were deliberately deformed by boards simply changing the skull’s shape, and the remains of skulls that have a brain volume far larger than an ordinary human child or adult.’

‘You’re lying,’ Yuri growled.

Lucy shrugged. ‘You know that I’m not. Go ahead, check the remains for yourself. I’ve seen enough of these skulls to know at a glance that this is the result of ritualistic deformation and not a genetic distortion. You lost your son for nothing, Mr Polkov. You wasted your time. The only people who will be interested in this mummy are museums, exactly where these remains belong.’

Ethan’s gaze drifted to Yuri and the old man suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs. ‘Take them to the mountain and kill them! Kill all of them!’

Ethan, Lucy, Lopez and Jarvis were marched out of the tent at gunpoint as the stretcher bearers followed them out into the cold wind, their weapons pointed at their backs. The sky above, once hard blue, was now filled with tumbling cloud coming in from the distant oceans, caused as the warm air rose up against the mountain range’s flanks, then cooled and condensed out into cloud. Ethan knew that the weather could change in the blink of an eye here on the mountains, much as it did in the Highlands of Scotland where he had made his new home. He noted the lowering cloud base and the banks of fog drifting over the high peaks and obscuring the snow line.

‘Over there!’

Yuri Polkov pointed to a dense drift of snow that had built up along the edge of a deep magma flow that has long since frozen solid, the black rock vivid against the white snow alongside it. Ethan judged the snow to be at least three feet deep, sufficient that it would probably never melt even in height of summer.

Ethan looked over his shoulder and saw the camp below them as they climbed, gradually receding until it was once more no longer visible behind the lower magma flows, only the tips of the helicopter’s rotors peaking from the ridgeline. The visibility was dropping quickly, thick moisture in the air and the threat of further snowfall increasing by the moment.

‘Forget it,’ Lopez whispered to him as she noted the direction of his gaze. ‘We can’t make a run for it and there’s nowhere to go anyway.’

Ethan peered sideways at their Russian escorts as they reached the dense snowbank. ‘We need a distraction.’

‘We’re not going to find one up here.’

Jarvis and his men reached the snowbank and set the dead guard’s body down. Ethan joined them, and then the Russians pulled collapsible shovels from their rucksacks and tossed them to Ethan and his companions. Yuri Polkov pointed at the deep snowdrifts.

‘Start digging,’ the Russian sneered. ‘You didn’t think we were going to do for you, did you?’

Ethan picked up one of the shovels and turned to Jarvis, whispering from the side of his mouth as he began digging.

‘I was hoping that you called the cavalry?’

Jarvis offered him an apologetic glance. ‘I’m afraid that my resources this time are limited. I did manage to send a message, but I don’t know if it will reach the intended recipients.’

‘Who did you contact?’

‘Stop talking!’ a Russian yelled as he rushed up and jabbed his AK-47 into Ethan’s back.

Ethan winced beneath the blow and fell silent as they gradually excavated down to the rock below, a thin grave of ice and bitterly cold rock. Ethan’s shovel hit the stones as alongside him Lucy and Lopez dug out a few more chunks of snow and then found themselves standing on the bedrock.

‘Perfect,’ Yuri snarled as he cocked the pistol in his grasp and looked at his companions. ‘Now, let’s shoot the men first and enjoy the women to ourselves before we put them in afterward.’

The mercenaries sniggered in delight as they took aim at Ethan and his companions. Ethan was about to suggest paying them double in order to let them live when he heard a strange sound drift across the mountain tops, a droning that rose above the blustering gale. Ethan looked up from the rifles aimed at him and peered into the grey sky as he sought the origin of the sound, but the winds were in the wrong direction and were snatching the noise away.

The Russians turned and looked over their shoulders up into the slate grey sky at the tumbling cloud. Ethan judged the distance to them, but he knew that he wouldn’t make it before a bullet found its mark even from the wildly inaccurate AK-47s.

Suddenly, from the grey clouds appeared a pair of bright white lights that swept like headlight beams to point directly at the Russians. The two lights seemed to hover in the clouds, pointing accusingly at the Russian gunmen.

‘What the hell is that?’ Lopez yelled above the wind and the rising drone of noise emanating from the lights.

Ethan felt a supernatural awe creep beneath his skin, and then suddenly the droning noise leaped in intensity as the lights brightened as something rushed toward them. From the low scudding clouds burst the shape of an aircraft, twin engines turning above broad, straight wings and a pair of bright landing lights blazing like white suns as the Catalina thundered down. Ethan’s eyes widened as he realized that the aircraft was on a direct collision course and then it suddenly pulled up, its engines roaring as the belly of its fuselage suddenly gaped open.

‘Cover!’

Ethan ducked down and pulled his hood over his head as from the belly of the Catalina an immense cloud of water crashed down, the intense cold turning half of the water volume to ice in an instant that showered the mountainside with a dense hail of rain ice that pelted the Russians like bullets as the Catalina roared overhead and left a blizzard of hail and snow behind it.

His head down and protected by his hood, Ethan rushed forward even though he could not see where he was going. The hail hammered down around him and he heard the Russians crying out in panic and disarray as one of them loomed before him where he crouched on the mountain slope, his hands over his head to protect him from the onslaught of ice. Ethan wasted no time as he swung one boot on the run and it slammed into the Russian’s head with a dull thump that snapped his skull to one side and sent him sprawling across the rocks.

Ethan saw the AK-47 spin from the man’s grasp as he lost consciousness and Ethan jumped for it. He landed on top of the weapon and rolled his shoulders across the ice as he stuck his legs out to lay prone on the ice. He aimed the AK-47 at the other three Russians as they struggled to find their feet in the aftermath of the Catalina’s attack.

Ethan squeezed the trigger as he found the first target. Two shots cracked from the rifle’s barrel and struck the man in his back, severing his spine as the AK-47’s barrel jerked upwards. The Russian collapsed onto the snow as the second man turned and tried to swing his rifle to bear on Ethan’s position.

Two more shots rang out and struck the Russian in his belly and shoulder, the man twisting violently as he screamed in agony and collapsed onto the snow.

The third and farthest Russian whirled and fired at Ethan from the hip, the bullets hurtling this way and that and churning up the snow around Ethan as he held his own rifle tight into his shoulder and fired a single shot. The bullet struck the Russian in his chest and spun him around in mid-air to land on his back on the snow, his heart shredded.

Yuri Polkov aimed the silver pistol at Ethan, but the old man was forestalled as Lopez’s voice called out.

‘Freeze, Yuri!’

Ethan glanced across and saw Lopez gripping the AK-47 she had salvaged from one of the fallen Russian mercenaries. Ethan got up and strode across to Yuri, the AK-47 trained on the old man as Ethan reached out and snatched the pistol from him.

Yuri Polkov flinched, his once cruel eyes now wide with fear.

‘What do we do with him?’ Ethan asked over his shoulder.

‘You can have the remains,’ Yuri pleaded. ‘You can have them!’

Ethan heard the sound of the Eurocopter’s engines starting up further down the mountainside, and he realized that if they didn’t move fast none of them would get off the mountain alive.

‘Looks like your own people are clearing out without you,’ Lucy observed with a grin.

‘We need those vehicles and preferably that helicopter!’ Ethan said.

‘Yuri should be arrested and handed over to the authorities,’ Lucy insisted.

Ethan looked at Jarvis, who shook his head. ‘He’ll slow us down too much and the weather’s closing in fast. He wanted to prove there’s no god — how about we grant him his wish?’

Ethan nodded as he turned and set off toward the plateau below. Lucy, Lopez, Jarvis and the remaining guard turned and followed him, Yuri left standing beside the snow drifts as he began trying to pursue them.

‘Wait!’ Yuri yelled as he hobbled after Ethan and his companions. ‘What about me?’

Ethan did not reply and neither did any of the others. Together they dashed down the mountainside even as ahead the Eurocopter’s blades began turning ever faster. Ethan ran hard down the steep slope and hit the magma flow just as the helicopter was vanishing inside a swirling maelstrom of snow dislodged by its powerful rotors.

‘They’re getting away!’ Lopez yelled.

Ethan dropped down once more into the prone position, this time atop the lava flow and looking down toward the plateau, and he aimed the AK-47 at the Eurocopter as it began lifting off. He opened fire and saw the shots impact the side of the helicopter, and then suddenly Lopez was alongside him and their rifles clattered deafeningly loud as the bullets hammered the cockpit and engine bays.

The Eurocopter’s engines howled and then screeched with the sound of rending metal as something gave within them. The transmission assembly burst through the upper fuselage as it tore itself apart and the helicopter spun through three hundred and sixty degrees as it tilted wildly to starboard and plunged back down onto the ice.

‘Down!’

Ethan ducked his head as he rolled off the rocky magma flow and a cloud of supersonic fragments of shattered blades and engine parts raced by overhead, smashing into the snow as the helicopter tore itself apart and came to rest on its side further down the mountain.

Ethan leaped to his feet and scrambled over the magma flow to see three of the four all-terrain vehicles belching diesel fumes as their engines started and they began pulling away from the encampment, the billowing tents left where they were as Yuri Polkov’s men made good their escape.

‘They’ve got the mummy,’ Ethan yelled as he spotted the mummy’s remains stuffed into a metal cage in the rear of one of the trucks. ‘Go for the rearmost vehicle’s tires!’

They were within thirty yards of the vehicle as it began to pull away, and Ethan threw himself down onto the hard rocks and pulled the AK-47 into his shoulder once more as he took careful aim and fired single shots one after the other at the spinning tire.

The all-terrain vehicle’s tires were designed not to be punctured, but nonetheless they could be shredded as a hail of fire ripped into it, Lopez firing with deadly aim alongside him. The shape of the tire broke down in front of Ethan’s eyes and the rear of the all-terrain vehicle slumped as the wheel was exposed and bit deep into the rocks. He heard the engine screech as the two occupants struggled to make good their escape, and Ethan shifted his aim to the windows of the cab as it passed by and fired two shots.

The window shattered and one of the men slumped forward as the bullet struck him in the forehead and sprayed blood across the glass and windscreen. The vehicle swerved violently to the right and its bumper collided with a rocky outcrop and pulled the vehicle to a halt as the engine failed.

Ethan got to his feet and rushed to the cab, Lopez hurrying to the opposite side and jabbing her weapon up at the window. Ethan yanked the passenger door open and the dead occupant tumbled out of the vehicle and thumped down onto the cold rocks at his feet. Inside the cab, the driver was likewise slumped over the wheel, one half of his face missing where he had been struck by a lucky ricochet.

Ethan hurried to the back of the all-terrain vehicle and checked the rear to see a spare tire firmly affixed to the rear access door. Inside, strapped to the rear seat, was the mummy. Satisfied, he turned to see Jarvis making his way down the hillside toward them. He looked up into the cloudy sky and saw the Catalina circling overhead just below the cloud base, its navigation and anti-collision beacons flickering as it turned away and began descending towards the north.

‘Arnie?’ Ethan asked Jarvis as the old man reached them, clearly out of breath. ‘You called Arnie?’

Jarvis gathered his breath and gestured to the Catalina with a jab of his thumb. ‘He’s been a busy boy, working for us, and handsomely paid I might add.’

Ethan watched as the Catalina disappeared into the clouds and Lopez hauled the dead bodies of the drivers out of the vehicle.

‘Where’s the mummy?’ Lucy asked, distraught as she saw the carnage around them.

‘We’ve got it,’ Ethan replied. ‘We need to work fast. Let’s get that tire changed!’

Lopez turned from her grisly work, her features quizzical. ‘What’s the rush? Lucy said that those remains were worthless, that she’s just a victim of ritualistic Inca head distortion, right?’

Lucy shook her head. ‘That’s true, the mummy itself has no use to us as its skull was deformed by her own people when she was born. But the women and girls chosen for sacrifice were considered special, and I think that I know why. The gold that she wore, and the expensive clothes, they were not for her.’

‘Well who were they for then?’ Ethan challenged as he yanked a jack from the rear of the vehicle.

Lucy smiled. ‘I’ll have to let you know about that.’

Ethan turned to Jarvis. ‘Where will Arnie go?’

‘Presumably back to the lake,’ Jarvis said. ‘But right now it’s not him I’m worried about.’

‘What do you mean?’

Jarvis lifted the satellite phone out of his pocket. ‘I didn’t just send a message to Arnie. I thought we were going to die, so I sent a signal out as widely as I could on an agency distress channel.’

Lopez’s features sagged. ‘Oh, no.’

‘I’m afraid it’s not just the cavalry coming, but everybody else too.’

Ethan wasted no more time as he helped Lucy and Lopez switch the tire out and then climbed aboard the truck. He started the engine even as thick snow was falling all around them, the skies darkening as the storm closed in.

Ethan turned on the headlights, and in the beams he saw a shadowy figure struggling against the wind down the mountain, leaning on a thin cane and waving desperately at them. Yuri Polkov’s heavily lined features, grey with cold, stared out at them from beneath his hood as he cried out, his mouth agape but his voice snatched away by the winds.

Ethan crunched the truck into gear and drove away from the plateau, and the old man’s phantom-like form vanished into the bitter, windswept darkness.