Trifariam, The Lost Codex (2012) (64 page)

The astronomer, who had until then remained quiet, shed more light on the young professor’s explanations. He seemed to know all about those astronomic characteristics. “That isn’t the only configuration of light that occurs with the stones on the face. When dawn breaks on the summer solstice, half the pyramid is illuminated and the other remains in darkness for the first few minutes. The same thing happens during the winter solstice, but it is at dusk instead and the halves are the other way round.”

James remembered the phenomenon he witnessed at the Great Pyramid of Cheops just days before.

The President stood up as his subordinates looked at his expectantly. He took a deep breath and sounded concerned when he spoke to them. “Supposing the last piece is in that pyramid, how will we find it?”

“We have taken a scanner capable of carrying out a detailed X-ray of the pyramid to Yucatan and we have the technology available to get inside as necessary, even if it means causing damage to the monument, but we need more time. The Mexican police will burst onto the peninsula at any minute and we won’t have the means to hold them back.”

“How long do you need the scanner?”

“At least eight hours.”

“And how long have we got?”

“We could keep the police back for an hour before causing an international conflict. When the time has run out, we think they will attack us. This is undoubtedly their most precious monument, and they will defend it as if their own lives depend on it.”

“Fuck!” The President turned to look at the two professors. They alone had found the first two pieces. “Gentlemen, where do you think it could be?”

James sighed. “It’s difficult to say in this case. We always had some kind of clue, a symbol or carving to show us the way, but there’s nothing here except…”
The scar!
he thought.

James slowly rubbed his hands. The wound didn’t sting but the symbol etched on his palm again caught his eye. That symbol, unbeknown to him, could have some meaning in Mayan semiology. All the officials noticed James’ strange behavior; he seemed absorbed in his own world. Even the archaeologist in Chichen Itza got closer to his monitor to see the look of astonishment on James’ face.

“What’s the matter?” asked the President again.

James put out his arm and showed the palm of his hand to all those present without uttering a word. They all got up together to form a circle around him. The computer technician took a snapshot of the scar and displayed it on the main screen in the room.

“Mr. Oldrich, what does it mean?”

James didn’t reply.

“Why are you showing us that tattoo? What are you trying to say?” asked the Secretary.

Despite Richard elbowing him in the ribs, James remained silent.

“Mr. Oldrich, if you would do us the honor of answering our questions.”

“I think that it represent a Mayan number,” he said firmly. “When I stole the
Trifariam
from the laboratories, part of it heated up and inflicted a kind of scar on my hand. It was an unpleasant sensation, like a force field was blocking all my muscles and I couldn’t shake it off. When the heat faded, I had the marking on my hand.”

The Director of the CIA stood up, enraged. “Mr. Oldrich, what made you think that you should hide such an ‘insignificant’ detail from us? Do you realize that you have held up the investigation?”

The Secretary tried to calm him down. Now was not the time to cause a scene. “Calm down, Mr. Cheney. I’m sure that if Mr. Oldrich had really thought it was something important, he would have told us immediately. So, tell us more about these Mayan numbers.”

James remained silent, thoughtful, it seemed like he hadn’t been listening.

Richard stepped in before things got heated again. “If you will allow me, Mr. Secretary, I can explain it to you.”

“Very well. Tell us.”

“Just like other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Mayans used the vigesimal numeral system or, to put it another way, base-twenty. They didn’t use it for mathematical calculations, but for measuring time. They only used three symbols: a kind of shell to represent zero, one dot for the units and a line to represent groups of five units.” Richard took a deep breath. It would be better to explain it visually. “Does this computer have an internet connection?”

The technician nodded.

Richard opened a webpage and typed in an address. He then showed them an image.

“Here you can see the first nineteen numbers, including zero. It is important to remember that the Mayans represented large numbers as powers of twenty, some below others as levels. You always begin by filling in the lower levels, so when a level reaches twenty units, you have to add an extra unit to the level immediately above it. For example, imagine the number 8131. It would look something like this.”

Richard moved the cursor onto a link which read:
EXAMPLE 3: NUMBER 8131
and double-clicked on it. He didn’t need to explain a thing; they understood it perfectly.

8131 = (8000x1) + (400x0) + (20x6) + (1x11)

The President looked up at the scar James had on the palm of his hand. “So according to you, the number on Mr. Oldrich’s hand is - ”

“149!” cried James. “And not only that. For the Mayans, the first day of the year was 26 July, so Day 149 would correspond to our 21 December, the day of the Apocalypse. I’m almost certain that the number refers to step 149 on the pyramid, which would be number 58 on the second face.”

Before the President could give the order, all the team at the Yucatan Peninsula got to work. They would immediately scan the area described by Mr. Oldrich.

“Sir,” interrupted the technician politely. “The numeral system Mr. Matheson is talking about is very similar to the binary system used by computers today.”

“What do you mean? Tell us more.”

“Binary is a numeral system in which the numbers are represented by group of ones and zeros. For example, the numbers zero to seven would be 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111.”

While the computer technician was giving them a more concise example, James thought about what he said. He understood exactly where he was coming from. It was incredible to think that a civilization which existed two thousand years ago could have designed a numerical system so similar to the binary system used by computers.”

“Imagine the binary number 1010001. It would correspond to our number 81 because 1x2
⁶
+ 0x2
⁵
+ 1x2
⁴
+ 0x2
³
+ 0x2
²
+ 0x2
¹
+ 1x2
⁰
= 64 + 0 + 16 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 = 81.”

The Secretary of Defense was amazed. “How is that possible?! And the Mayans had such a perfect numeral system?!”

Richard didn’t even answer that question. Everybody had heard them talk at great length about what Mayan culture had achieved. He didn’t understand why he was so surprised.

The President began to speak, this time more decisively. “Mr. Lephant, can you hear me?”

The monitor was showing the image of the Pyramid of Kukulkan, but there was no sign of Mark Lephant.

“Mr. Lephant, are you there?”

“Mr. President.” A faltering yet excited voice eventually filtered through the speakers. “I’m here.”

“Sweep the following area of steps immediately - from 55 to - ”

“We’re on it, sir. We’ve just received the first pieces of information. You’re not going to believe it.”

All the officials turned to face the monitor. They were waiting for a reply.

“What’s going on?”

“According to the scanner, there is something about two feet inside the stone itself. It is circular and small in size. The density study shows that it is inside something larger which is rectangular in shape and less hard than the rock, but more dense. It could be a metal box.”

“Get it out of there immediately!”

“But sir, we’ll have to destroy the monument. The Mexican people - ”

“Didn’t you hear my orders?! Get it out of there right now, even if you have to tear down the whole pyramid! That’s an order!”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

I
t had already been thirty minutes since the scanner detected the presence of a circular object beneath one of the steps of the Pyramid of Kukulkan. The scientific team, headed by Mark Lephant, used a special drill to destroy the steps without the underlying structure being damaged any more than necessary. Thanks to the fantastic job done by the Army, there were no tourists around to get in the way of the mission. However, they had to work quickly because they were aware that the Mexican police had been alerted of their illegal occupation of the ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula.

The tension in the Area 51 meeting room was increasing. They all carefully monitored the measures taken by the team. Some of them even had to close their eyes when the huge drill began to pierce one of the steps, breaking it into a thousand pieces.

One of the helicopters had just landed at the foot of the pyramid. The Air Force had warned the Army of the presence of several police cars who were approaching at high speed.

The infernal racket produced by the drill as it bore through the stone stopped just as another helicopter landed. The cameras showed a circular hole around three feet in diameter, into which Lephant had already ventured to insert half his body. Even though the images didn’t show what was going on inside, James had a feeling that the archaeologist was digging with his bare hands to take out what he had found. He was right.

After more than five minutes of uncertainty, Lephant emerged from the hole with a golden box in his hands. It was circular and had a diameter of less than eight inches. It seemed to be made of gold.

When he opened it, the camera zoomed in on the object inside. Everybody smiled except for James, who had a bad feeling and couldn’t stop himself from warning him not to touch the object inside, but it was too late. When the archaeologist’s dusty fingers came into contact with the object, his body tensed, his pupils dilated to fill the whole of his eyes and became gray, his chest puffed up slightly as if his heart wanted to jump out and, eventually, he fell catatonic to the ground. He had suffered a cerebral infarction.

Two minutes later, the Area 51 scientist’s cellphone began to vibrate among the din which had filled the room when they saw the archaeologist slump over on their screens.

The President was aghast.

“Mr. President,” interrupted the scientist. “When Lephant touched the piece, it activated some kind of internal mechanism in the
Trifariam
. Something incredible has happened in the laboratories.”

“What is it?!” cried the Secretary.

The scientist quickly stood up, what his colleagues had told him had left him puzzled. It was impossible. “It’s the Devil’s Eye,” he eventually replied.

“It can’t be!” shouted the astronomer. “Are you sure?!”

The President was starting to get impatient. “The Devil’s Eye? What the hell is that?”

The scientist remained silent and it was up to the astronomer to clarify matters.

“The Devil’s Eye was the name originally given to black holes.”

The President got up from his seat, looking for one of those present to confirm this information with a look. “Are you telling me that this object created a black hole in one of our laboratories?”