Blaine McCracken - 10 - Pandora's Temple by Jon Land

Author:Jon Land
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781453224625
Publisher: Open Road
Published: 2012-11-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 45

New Orleans

“Named for Pandora herself, dudes,” Captain Seven continued, “a woman Zeus ordered Hephaestus to fashion out of clay, or some shit like that, to punish mankind for Prometheus stealing fire from the gods. According to the myth, she was entrusted with a jar and told never to open it. But curiosity got the better of the bitch, so off came the lid and out flew all the evils of mankind, unleashed on the world. Then she seals it again, leaving only hope inside, so the equation never got balanced. At some point the jar got mistranslated as a box, but you get the point.”

“You’re saying it wasn’t a myth at all,” McCracken concluded. “You’re saying Pandora’s jar really exists.”

“You realize how crazy this all sounds,” Folsom said, shaking his head.

“If you’d seen what we did on board the Venture, I believe you’d feel different, B-rat. A Level Six event, remember? And no more nuts than that alien invasion you’ve been prepping for.”

Folsom blew out some breath.

“You weren’t in the Mediterranean five years ago, B-rat. You didn’t see what I saw there either.”

“Which was?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Could have been the temple. Tsunami got me before I could be sure.”

“A tsunami,” Folsom repeated. “And how long before you were rescued?”

“A day or so.”

“A day or more at sea with no food or water after surviving a shipwreck? Doesn’t lend much credibility to your recollection.”

Folsom’s comment was enough to bring Captain Seven up close to him, right in his face. “Let me tell you something, B-rat. I might be a burnout, but as these boys’ll tell you, when it comes to the job, I got the clearest head known to man and I’m only telling you what the cameras showed. So kiss my ass.”

“You try looking for the temple again?”

“You bet. Only whatever it was I caught a glimpse of before the tsunami hit was gone. Like it flat out disappeared again. Don’t ask me how. Dudes who sent me there told me to pack it in, so I did. Didn’t want to give me the time I needed to find what I knew was down there somewhere.”

Folsom backed off, arms raised as McCracken moved in between them. “Assuming you’re right,” he said to the captain, “how exactly did the temple end up under the Mediterranean Sea?”

“Another part of the story, if you want to hear it.”

“No,” snapped Folsom. “I’ve heard enough.”

“Then hear this, B-rat: How many atoms of dark matter you think it took to remake the Venture at the molecular level? Normal explosions generate incredible heat and percussion. The result is char, melting, debris, pretty much utter destruction at the physical level, which means the molecular level too. There was no heat associated with what happened on the Venture, no percussion, no searing, no residue—nothing. The dark matter atoms released by the drill encountered traditional matter atoms and, with apologies to the coneheads at CERN, you got your big bang, all right. For an immeasurable shadow of an

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.