Chapter 45

45

May 14, 4:55 P . M . ANAT

East Siberian Sea

Elle followed the rest of the group down the tunnel behind the frozen waterfall. She was the last in line. She glanced back at the exit, where the two giant thrones flanked the ice wall—one carved with sea life, the other with a riotous garden.

But her thoughts were on another.

She had hated to abandon Tucker. Marco, too. Earlier, as she was leaving, the young shepherd had taken a few steps toward her, as if preparing to follow despite whatever spooked him. He only stopped when Tucker had whistled Marco back to his side.

Still, Elle knew she had to continue on. She pictured the state of the bodies in the tent. Whatever lay hidden here would most likely need her expertise.

Knowing that, she hurried forward and followed the bobbing lights of the others. After the chill of the icy waterfall, the warmth of the passageway was welcome—if not the smell.

The sulfurous taint to the air grew heavier.

She pushed through it, tasting it on her tongue.

Ahead, the tunnel delved steeply, heading deeper underground.

"Everybody stick together," Gray called out. "Close up our ranks."

Elle joined the two from the Polar King , Omryn and Harper.

Ahead, Anna and Jason followed Gray and Seichan.

Lights swept along the walls, illuminating carvings etched full around. It was quickly evident that the same motif found on the giant thrones continued along this passageway. To the left, the surface swam with images of sea creatures. To the right, a dense garden climbed with thorny vines and drooping flowers.

"What does this all mean?" Anna whispered, searching around.

Jason drew to a sudden stop, turning to one side. "Don't know. But look at this totem." He bent closer. "It's set off in its own niche. As if significant."

They all gathered to him. Inside the cubby, a sculpture depicted a beautifully rendered whale. Its eyes looked ancient, almost mournful.

" Balaena mysticetus ," Omryn intoned, naming the specimen. "In English, ‘the mystic whale.'"

"Or as they're more commonly known, the bowhead whale," Harper added. "These beasties are unique to these waters. They can live for up to two centuries, making them the longest-lived mammal."

Gray ran a finger along the totem's back. "From this level of artistry, the species must have been highly regarded by these Hyperboreans."

"By all the Arctic people," Omryn corrected. "Many groups, including the Chukchi, have myths and legends tied to such grand creatures."

Elle drifted to the far side of the tunnel, drawn by another piece of sculpted artwork. Directly opposite the whale totem, the wall had been deeply carved, showing a collection of strange flowering plants with spiky thorns. They looked very much like what had been engraved on the throne. Only these examples looked as finely rendered as a botanist's anatomical drawing, so perfect that they appeared to have sprouted from the wall, then calcified in place.

As Elle studied them, she knew she had spotted this specimen before, depicted in another manner.

She drew the others' attention from the whale totem. She pointed her flashlight. "I believe these are the same plants we found drawn in the Greek book. The page marked with the word sarkophágos . Or ‘eater of flesh.'"

Gray drew out his tablet and pulled up that sketch again. He held it before the carving.

"You're right," he said. "They're the same. Even down to the vine snaking out from one of them."

He glanced back the way they had come.

Elle could guess what he was picturing.

The bodies in the tent.

A frightful thought intruded, likely shared by Gray.

She voiced it aloud. "Maybe these specimens fed on more than just insects. Maybe the Greek word written on that page was not a name, but a warning ."

"Eater of flesh," Gray said.

By now, Jason had drifted farther down the passageway, video-recording the stretch of wall on that side. "There are more carvings over here, framed in niches. Two of them. Related to whales."

The group crossed and inspected the artwork, while Jason recorded everything.

The first niche showed small boats and tiny figures, likely the Hyperboreans themselves. Above, a flotilla of whales swam across the stone. There was a sense of majesty and pride in the depicted scene.

"It's a whale hunt," Anna noted. "And the two most prominent specimens appear to be bowheads again."

Jason drew them two steps farther down. "And shows what happens after those hunts."

Elle frowned as she shifted over.

The next niche was more gruesome, depicting the slaughter and butchering of another bowhead. It appeared the laborers were harvesting something vital from the cetacean. The rendering was cruder, almost as if the artist was ashamed of what he had been forced to illustrate.

"What are they trying to show with all of this?" Anna asked.

No one had an answer.

To seek more meaning, Elle turned to the opposite wall. Another niche sat across from the whale hunt. Again, this diorama showed workers laboring intensely. Only strewn across the floor and hanging on racks at the back were dried plants.

Elle waved the others closer. "This diorama illustrates another extraction process—only from plants this time. Most likely the same carnivorous specimen from before."

"But to what end?" Gray asked.

"Maybe this end," Seichan called out. She stood several meters farther down the tunnel, having drifted off on her own.

They continued toward her, sensing the press of time. She stood where the passageway ended at a domed chamber.

As Elle approached, the sulfur in the air grew intense, increasing with each step. It burned her eyes and nostrils. She coughed harshly, as her body struggled to clear her lungs.

The Aussie doctor held everyone back, shrugging a med pack from a shoulder. "We can't stay down here long, folks," Harper warned.

The doctor soaked a pile of 4x4 gauze sponges, then passed two or three to each person. "Keep your mouth and nose covered. Wipe your eyes down regularly."

Elle followed her instructions, grateful for the relief.

The source of the burning stench was readily evident. It rose from the middle of the next chamber, where a deep pit bubbled with noxious black mud. It cast up belches of sulfurous gas, staining the air a foul yellow. The same, in powder form, was caked on the floor, walls, and ceiling.

"It's a mudpot," Jason said. "A blister of that geothermal energy that warms this place."

"Only this will suffocate us if we don't keep moving." To hurry them on, Seichan pointed to what had caught her attention. "What do you make of these?"

Framing the entrance to the domed chamber, two tall pots—amphora-like jars—rested to either side of the tunnel.

"Whales and plants again," Elle said. "Like on the walls."

Jason held a wad of gauze over his lips and nose, while recording the pot on the left. "It's not just whales carved into this pot, but all sorts of sea creatures."

Gray moved to the pot on the right side, examining its carved images.

Elle followed and dropped to a knee, sweeping her light over its sculpted surface. "It's the same carnivorous plant again."

Gray stepped back to allow Jason to continue filming. "Both pots are empty," he noted, "as if waiting to be filled."

Gray pointed his flashlight back the way they had come. He cast his beam down one side of the tunnel, then the other. His expression was pinched with concentration.

Elle joined him. Despite the danger, curiosity throbbed through her. She noticed Gray's expression softening, as if he were coming to some understanding.

"What are you thinking?" she asked him.

He turned, not rudely, just still ruminating. He faced the chamber with the bubbling cauldron. Three passageways extended outward from it: to the right and left and directly across the pit.

"We need to see more," he simply stated and strode along the lip of rock surrounding the boiling mudpot.

The others followed. He cast his light into the two side tunnels as he passed them. The one to the left was covered in images of whales and sea life. The other was inscribed with a tangle of malignant-looking plants.

Same motif again.

Gray aimed for the far tunnel, where niches framed its entry. He was plainly drawn by the two amphorae inside, each three feet tall and sealed with lids. They were identical in appearance. One half of each pot had been carved with whales. The other half of each pot was inscribed all over with plants.

Gray brushed the caked sulfur off a pot. "Two sides of the same coin," he muttered.

"But what's up there?" Anna asked, pointing higher.

Above the passageway, another niche had been carved. Only this one was huge, half the size of the tunnel's mouth. It showed figures gathered in a cave. Some looked as if they were beseeching their gods, raising their arms high. Others were down on their knees. Strange totems lined the back wall. The roof of the niche was inscribed with strange symbols and shapes.

"It looks like a ceremony or ritual," Anna whispered.

Omryn nodded. "The Chukchi people do something like this. A prayer for the well-being of a family."

Gray nodded, as if this made sense to him, then he passed into the tunnel under the niche. Elle kept up with him, no longer wishing to lag behind. The rest followed. The tunnel was short and featureless—but the chamber it dumped into was not.

Anna entered behind them, gawking all around. "This looks exactly like the carving outside."

Elle nodded.

The ceiling bore the same arcane symbols. Totems stood stacked along the walls. In the room's center, an elongated shallow depression stretched three meters, lined by rune-like markings. More of those two-faced pots rested along the walls.

Elle wandered deeper inside, forgetting for the moment the burning stench outside. She swore she could hear ancient chanting, the beat of drums, but it had to be her imagination.

Jason, though, noted another oddity. He lifted his camera and examined the device from all angles. "It stopped filming. The visuals were clear, then started waving, before going dark."

Gray crossed to a wall. He pressed a palm against it, then removed a spoon from his pocket. It was tarnished nearly black. Elle recognized the same patina from the pots and pans at the campsite. He must have pilfered the utensil before the team left.

He placed the spoon against the wall and pulled his hand away. It remained in place. "Lodestone," he said, turning to face the group. "This entire cavern has been carved out of a magnetite vein."

Jason stared down at his camera. "Those energies must've knocked out the electronics."

"It's likely affecting us, too," Harper warned.

Elle searched the chamber. "But why build this room out of lodestone?"

Gray crossed to the divot in the floor. "To be a place of healing. People have long believed that magnetism can cure disease, relieve pain."

Harper joined him. "Don't be so dismissive, commander. There are many proven therapeutic benefits from magnetism. Treating headaches, depression, high blood pressure, insomnia, even multiple sclerosis."

As Gray took this in, his face returned to that pinched, thoughtful look. He stared toward the exit, likely picturing the dioramas that led them here.

Elle kept her attention in the room, on the collection of two-faced pots, showing the strange plants on one side, and whales on the other.

As she did, she was suddenly thunderstruck.

Gray turned toward her, maybe hearing her gasp.

"All those carvings in the tunnel," she said. "I think they're ancient flow charts. Showing how these people manufactured a product that they harvested from whales ."

"And plants ," Gray added. "Considering where this all led, to a place of healing, I believe they were recording recipes for the production of a medicine."

Elle turned to one of the room's pots. "Which once done, required combining the two medicines to create a final elixir."

Gray stared over at the trough in the floor. "The final treatments must have been performed here, in this magnetic chamber, leaning on the energies of the room to enhance the elixir's effects."

Seichan joined him. "Even if you're right, what disease were these ancients treating?"

Gray turned to her, as if the answer were obvious. "Old age."

Anna covered her mouth, then lowered it, as she clearly made the connection, too. "All those stories about the amazing longevity of the Hyperboreans. While not immortal, it's said they lived to extraordinary lengths." She stared around the room. "Could it be true?"

"Are you asking if the medicine worked?" Gray shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not sure how the harvested essence of a whale and a plant, combined with magnetism, could achieve such a result."

The ship's medical doctor raised a hand. "I may know."

All eyes turned to her.

"I've always been fascinated by ancient remedies, especially among the northern people. The Inuit, the Dorset, the Sámi, even Omryn's people. But I'm still a Western scientist. Last year, I came across a research paper from the University of Rochester in New York regarding the longevity of whales, specifically Balaena mysticetus ."

"The bowhead whale," Elle said.

Harper nodded. "It's why the paper caught my attention, especially considering the oceans I travel through."

"What did the study show?" Gray asked.

"As I mentioned, the bowheads can live for up to two hundred years. The Rochester study discovered the source of this astounding longevity. It was because bowheads possess a unique set of genes that suppress cancer. The genes miraculously repair damaged DNA, the leading cause for most cancers. The reparative agent is a strange protein—CIRBP—that's produced by those genes. After this discovery, those same scientists have been trying to find a way of engineering those genes into us. Trials with mice have already been partially successful."

"And you think these ancients stumbled into a successful way of doing that?" Gray asked.

Harper shrugged. "The tribes out here, living a hard life, cut off and isolated, had to develop innovative strategies to survive. Many of their native remedies required complicated formulations—producing pharmaceuticals that baffle modern medicine, yet have shown to be effective."

Omryn nodded at this.

Anna waved behind them. "And keep in mind, these people were clearly advanced. Look at the city they built."

Elle offered her support, too, leaning on her background. "I told you before how carnivorous plants carry many analogs to mammalian genes."

"Parallel evolution," Gray said.

She nodded. "Such species also produce an astounding number of enzymes, some whose function we don't fully understand. They're unique to these carnivores. Maybe these ancient people learned to utilize those enzymes to take advantage of the bowheads' cancer-fighting genes. Maybe to extract that CIRBP protein. Or maybe even to achieve gene transfer into the patient." She lifted her palms. "I don't know, but someone should research this, to see if it's possible."

Harper nodded her head, as if ready to do just that.

Jason added a few final words, approaching from a different angle. "Remember the Hyperboreans were said be huge , too, toweringly tall. Maybe, beside the whale's longevity, the treatment also instilled a level of gigantism."

Seichan sighed heavily, clearly done with this matter. She offered a more cynical outlook. "Or maybe the Hyperborean shamans were just very good at spreading their own hype, spinning a tall tale about their snake oil—or whale oil, in this case—which grew more outlandish as the story was passed from ear to ear."

Gray straightened, still looking undecided on the matter, but not on another. "Okay, we've gained all the information we can at this point. We should head out. Maybe that solar storm has subsided enough for us to reach the outside world, to share what we discovered."

"If not," Jason said as they departed, "let's hope Captain Kelly and the others managed to strand that Russian patrol boat. Or all of this will have been for nothing."

The group quickly returned to the room with the mudpot, greeted by its noxious belches.

Anna clutched her wad of gauze tighter over her mouth. "This stench certainly can't be healthy. No wonder Marco and Kane were so bothered."

"In the past, this chamber must have once been better ventilated." Gray stared down the side tunnel inscribed with sea life. "I wager that passageway once led to the open sea, where the Hyperboreans set off on their sacred whale hunts."

Elle turned the other way. "And that tunnel must lead to where they grew their specimens."

She drifted in that direction, wanting to get a view of that long-dead garden.

Support to do so came from Seichan. "I see light shining back there."

Gray joined her, stared for a breath, then nodded with a frown. "Maybe it's another way out."

"A back door," Seichan said. "If we need it."

A look passed between the two. Their worried expressions were easy to read.

Elle understood.

Those two expect to need it.