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  Mick closes his eyes, drawing slow breaths as he forces his adrenaline-racked muscles to calm.

  Dominique can hear the whirring of the tape recorder. She clears her throat, covering the noise.

  He reopens his eyes, his gaze softer now. Are you familiar with the Popol Vuh?

  I know it's the Mayan book of creation, their equivalent of our Bible.

  He nods. The Maya believed in five suns or five Great Cycles of creation, the fifth and last of which is set to end on December 21, the day of this year's winter solstice. According to the Popol Vuh, the universe was organized into an Overworld, a Middleworld, and an Underworld. The Overworld represented the celestial heavens, the Middleworld-Earth. The Maya referred to the Underworld as Xibalba, a dark, evil place said to be ruled by Hurakan, the death god. Mayan legend claims the great teacher, Kukulcan, was engaged in a long, cosmic battle with Hurakan, pitting the forces of good and light against darkness and evil. It's written that the fourth cycle came to an abrupt end when Hurakan caused a great flood to engulf the world. The English word, 'hurricane,' comes from the Mayan word, 'Hurakan.' The Maya believed the demonic entity existed within a violent maelstrom. The Aztecs believed in the same legend, only their name for the great teacher was Quetzalcoatl, the underworld deity known as Tezcatilpoca, a name which translates to 'smoking mirror.'

  Mick, wait-just stop a moment, okay. Forget about the Mayan myth. What I need you to stay focused on is the facts surrounding the calendar and how it relates to that deep-space transmission.

  The dark eyes blaze at her like onyx lasers, the look causing her to shrink. I can't discuss the science supporting the doomsday prophecy without explaining the creation myth. It's all related. There's a paradox surrounding the Maya. Most people think the Maya were just a bunch of jungle-dwelling savages that built some neat pyramids. The truth is, the Maya were incredible astronomers and mathematicians who possessed an unfathomable understanding of our planet's existence within the galaxy. And it was this knowledge that allowed them to predict the celestial alignment that led to yesterday's radio signal.

  I don't understand-

  Mick fidgets, then begins pacing again. We have evidence that shows the Maya and their predecessors, the Olmec, used the Milky Way galaxy as their celestial background marker to calculate the Mayan calendar. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, about 100,000 light-years in diameter, made up of approximately 200 billion stars. Our own sun is located in one of the spiral arms- the Orion arm-about 35,000 light-years from the galactic center, which astronomers now believe to be a gigantic black hole, running straight through Sagittarius. The galactic center functions as a kind of celestial magnet, pulling the Milky Way in a powerful vortex. As we speak, our solar system is whipping around the galactic center point at a velocity of 135 miles per second. Despite that speed, it still takes Earth a good 226 million years to complete one revolutionary cycle around the Milky Way.

  You're running out of tape. Mick, the signal-

  Be patient. As our solar system moves through the galaxy, it follows a fourteen-degree-wide path called the ecliptic. The ecliptic crosses the Milky Way in such a manner that it periodically moves into alignment with the central bulge of the galaxy. As the Maya looked to the night sky, they saw a dark rift, or dark elongated band of dense interstellar clouds, beginning where the ecliptic crosses the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius. The Popol Vuh's myth of creation refers to this dark rift as the Black Road, or Xibalba Be-a nexus shaped like a giant serpent, connecting life and death, the Earth and the Underworld.

  Again, this is all fascinating, but how does it relate to the deep-space radio signal?

  Mick stops pacing. Dominique, this radio signal-it wasn't just some random transmission beamed across the universe; it was purposely directed toward our solar system. From a technological standpoint, you can't just transmit a radio beacon halfway across the galaxy and hope it somehow manages to reach a specific planetary speck of dust like Earth. The farther the beacon has to travel, the more the signal breaks up and loses its strength. The radio transmission SETI detected was a very powerful, precise, narrow beacon, indicating to me, at least, that whoever, or whatever sent it required a particular galactic alignment, a sort of celestial corridor that aimed the transmission from its point of origin to Earth. In essence, the signal traveled through a sort of cosmic corridor. I can't explain why, I can't explain how, but I felt the portal of this corridor as it began opening.

  Dominique sees the fear in his eyes. You felt it open? What did it feel like?

  It was a sickening feeling, like icy fingers moving inside my intestines.

  And you believe this cosmic corridor must have opened up just enough to allow the radio signal through?

  Yes, and the portal's widening a little bit more each day. By the December solstice, it will open completely.

  The December solstice-the Mayan doomsday?

  That's right. Astronomers have known for years that our sun will move into alignment along the exact point of galactic center on December 21, 2012-the last day of the calendar's fifth cycle. At the same time, the dark rift of the Milky Way will move into alignment along our eastern horizon, appearing directly over the Mayan city of Chichen Itza by solstice midnight. This combination of galactic events occurs only once every 25,800 years, and yet, somehow, the Maya were able to forecast the alignment.

  The deep-space transmission-what was its purpose? -

  I don't know, but it portends death.

  Justify his schizophrenia. Blame the parents. Mick, it seems to me that, aside from one isolated incident of violence, your continued incarceration has more to do with your fanatical belief in the apocalypse, a belief shared by tens of millions of people. When you say humanity's coming to an end, what I'm hearing is a belief system that was probably spoon-fed to you from birth. Isn't it possible that your parents-

  My parents were not religious fanatics or millennialists. They didn't spend their time constructing subterranean bunkers. They didn't arm themselves with assault weapons and food supplies in preparation for Judgment Day. They didn't believe in the Second Coming of Jesus, or the Messiah, for that matter, and they didn't accuse every autocratic world leader with a bad mustache of being the Antichrist. They were archaeologists, Dominique-scientists, who were intelligent enough not to ignore the signposts that point to a disaster that will wipe out our entire species. Call it Armageddon, call it the Apocalypse, the Mayan prophecy-whatever makes you happy-just get me the hell out of here so I can do something about it!

  Mick, stay calm. I know you're frustrated, and I'm trying to help you, more than you know. But, in order to gain your release, I have to appeal for another psychiatric evaluation.

  How long will that take?

  I don't know.

  Christ- He paces faster.

  Let's say you were released tomorrow. What would you do? Where would you go?

  Chichen Itza. The only chance we have of saving ourselves is to find a way inside the Kukulcan pyramid.

  What's inside the pyramid?

  I don't know. No one knows. The entrance has never been found.

  Then how-

  Because I can sense something's there. Don't ask me how, I just do. It's like when you walk down a street and can just sense someone's following you.

  These board members are going to want something more solid than a feeling.

  Mick stops pacing to give her an exasperated look. This is why I asked you to read my father's journal. There are two structures in Chichen Itza that are linked to our salvation. The first is the great ball court, which has been aligned precisely to mirror Xibalba Be, the dark rift of the Milky Way, as it will appear on 4 Ahau, 3 Kankin. The second is the Kukulcan pyramid, the keystone structure of the entire doomsday prophecy. Every equinox, a serpent's shadow appears on the northern balustrade of the pyramid. My father believed the celestial effect was a warning left to us by Kukulcan, representing the ascent of evil upon mankind. The shadow lasts exactly three
hours and twenty-two minutes-the same interval of time shared by the deep-space transmission.

  Are you certain about this? Make certain you verify these facts in your report.

  As sure as I'm standing here, rotting in this cell. He starts pacing again.

  She registers the click of the recorder as it runs out of tape and switches itself off.

  Dom, there was another story on CNN-I only caught the last blurb. Something about an earthquake hitting the Yucatan basin. I need to find out what happened. I need to know if the earthquake originated in Chichen Itza, or in the Gulf of Mexico.

  Why the Gulf?

  You haven't even read the journal entry concerning the Piri Re'is maps?

  Sorry. I've been kind of busy.

  Jesus, Dom, if you were my intern, I'd have flunked you by now. Piri Re'is was a famous Turkish admiral who, back in the late fourteenth century, somehow came upon a series of mysterious charts of the world. Using these charts as a reference, the admiral constructed a set of maps that historians now believe were used by Columbus to navigate his way across the Atlantic.

  Wait, these charts were real?

  Of course they're real. And these charts reveal topographical details that could only have been acquired using sophisticated seismic soundings. For instance, Antarctica's coastline appears as if there's no ice cap even present.

  What's so significant about that?

  Dom, the map is over five hundred years old. Antarctica wasn't even discovered until 1818.

  She stares at him, not sure of what to believe.

  If you doubt me, contact the United States Navy. It was their analysis that confirmed the accuracy of the cartography.

  So what does this map have to do with the Gulf, or the doomsday prophecy?

  Fifteen years ago, my father and I located a similar map, only this one was an original, thousands of years old, like the one Piri Re'is found. It was sealed in an iridium container, buried in a precise location on the Nazca plateau. I managed to snap off a Polaroid just before the parchment deteriorated. You'll find the photo in the back of my father's journal. When you look at it, you'll see an area circled in red, located in the Gulf of Mexico, just north of the Yucatan Peninsula.

  What's the mark represent?

  I don't know.

  Wrap this up. Mick, I don't doubt anything you're telling me, but what if. . . well, what if this deep-space transmission has nothing at all to do with the Mayan prophecy? NASA says the radio signal originated from some distant point more than eighteen hundred light-years away. That should give you some measure of comfort, right? I mean, come on -she smiles- it's a bit unlikely that we'll be seeing any extraterrestrials arriving from Orion's belt within the next sixty days.

  Mick's eyes widen into dark saucers. He steps back, grabbing his temples with both hands.

  Oh, shit, he's losing it. You pushed him too far. Mick, what is it? Are you okay?

  He holds up a finger, motioning her to stay back, to remain silent.

  Dominique watches him kneel on the floor, his eyes-dark windows to a mind whirling a thousand miles an hour. Maybe you're wrong about him. Maybe he really is certifiable.

  The long moment passes. Mick looks up, the intensity of his glare positively frightening.

  You're right, Dominique, you're absolutely right, he whispers. Whatever's been predestined to eradicate humanity won't be arriving from deep space.

  It's in the Gulf. It's already here.

  JOURNAL OF JULIUS GABRIEL

  In order better to understand and ultimately resolve the mysteries surrounding the Mayan calendar and its doomsday prophecy, one must explore the origins of the cultures that first rose to prominence in the Yucatan.

  The first Mesoamericans were seminomadic, appearing in Central America around 4000 BC. Eventually they became farmers, developing com, a hybrid of wild grass, as well as avocado, tomatoes, and squash.

  Then, sometime around 2500 BC, He arrived.

  He was a long-faced Caucasian with flowing white beard and hair, a wise man who, according to legend, arrived by sea along the Gulf of Mexico's tropical lowlands to educate and impart great wisdom unto the natives of the region.

  We now refer to these educated natives as the Olmec (meaning: dwellers in the land of rubber) and they eventually became the Mother Culture of all Mesoamerica, the first complex society of the Americas. Under the influence of the bearded one, the Olmec would unify the Gulf region, their achievements in astronomy, mathematics, and architecture influencing the Zapotec, Mayan, Toltec, and Aztec-cultures which eventually rose to power over the next several thousand years.

  Almost overnight, these simple jungle-dwelling farmers were suddenly establishing complex structures and extensive ceremonial centers. Advanced techniques of engineering war incorporated into the designs of architecture and public works of art. It was the Olmec who originated the ancient ball game, as well as the first method of recording events. They also fashioned great monolithic heads out of basalt, ten feet tall, many weighing up to 30 tons each. How these enormous Olmec heads were transported still remains a mystery.

  Of greater importance, the Olmec was the first culture in Mesoamerica to erect pyramids using an advanced knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. It was these structures, aligned with the constellations, that reveal the Olmec's understanding of precession, a discovery that gave rise to the creation myth recorded in the Popol Vuh.

  And so it was the Olmec, and not the Maya, who used their unexplainable knowledge of astronomy to create the Long Count Calendar and its prophecy of doom.

  At the heart of the doomsday calendar is the creation myth, an historical account of an ongoing battle of light and good against darkness and evil The hero of the story, One Hunahpu, is a warrior who is able to access the Black Road (Xibalba Be). To the Mesoamerican Indians, Xibalba Be equated to the dark rift of the Milky Way galaxy. The portal to Xibalba Be was represented in both Olmec and Mayan artwork as the mouth of a great serpent.

  One can imagine the primitive Olmec, looking up at the night sky, pointing to the dark rift of the galaxy as a cosmic snake.

  Around too BC, for reasons still unknown, the Olmec chose to abandon their cities and split into two camps, diversifying over two distinct regions. Those moving farther west into central Mexico became known as the Toltecs. Those venturing east would dwell in the jungles of the Yucatan, Belize, and Guatemala, and would call themselves the Maya. It would not be until AD 900 that the two civilizations would reunite under the influence of the great teacher, Kukulcan, in his majestic city of Chichen Itza.

  But I get ahead of myself

  Cambridge: 1969. It was from there that my two colleagues and I set out to unravel the mysteries of the Mayan prophecy. Unanimously, we decided our first stop should If the Olmec site of La Venta, for it was there, 20 years earlier, that the American archaeologist Matthew Stirling had unearthed his most startling discovery, an enormous Olmec fortification, consisting of a wall of 600 columns, each weighing in excess of two tons. Adjacent to this structure, the explorer had located a magnificent rock, covered with intricate Olmec carvings. After two days of intense labor, Stirling and his men were able to unearth the mammoth sculpture, which stood 14 feet high, seven feet wide, and nearly three feet thick. Although some of the carvings had been damaged from erosion, the image of one magnificent figure still remained: a large Caucasian male with a long head, high-bridged nose, and flowing white beard.

  Imagine my fellow archaeologists' shock at finding a 2,000-year-old relief clearly depicting a Caucasian, the artifact created 1500 years before the first European had even set foot in the Americas! Just as perplexing was the depiction of a bearded figure among the Olmec, for it is a genetic fact that full-blooded Amer-lndians cannot grow beards. Since all forms of artistic expression must have roots somewhere, the identity of the bearded white man remained yet another enigma to be solved.

  As for myself, I immediately theorized the Caucasian to be an earlier ancestor of the great Mayan t
eacher, Kukulcan.

  We don't know much about Kukulcan, or his ancestors, although every Mesoamerican group appears to have worshiped a male deity who fits the same physical description. To the Maya, he was Kukulcan, to the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl-a legendary bearded wise man who brought peace, prosperity, and great wisdom to the people. Records indicate that, sometime around AD 1000, Kukulcan/Quetzalcoatl was forced to abandon Chichen Itza. Legend tells that, before leaving, the mysterious wise man promised his people that he would eventually return to rid the world of evil.

  Upon Kukulcan's departure, a demonic influence quickly spread throughout the land. Both the Maya and Aztecs turned to human sacrifice, savagely killing tens of thousands of men, women, and children, all in an effort to usher in the return of their beloved god-king and forestall the prophesied end of humanity.

  It was in the year 1519 that the Spanish Conquistador, Hernan Cortez, would arrive from Europe to invade the Yucatan. Though they easily outnumbered their enemy, the Mesoamerican Indians mistook Cortez (a bearded white man) as the Second Coming of Kukulcan/Quetzalcoatl and laid down their weapons. Having conquered the savages, Cortez sent for the Spanish priests, who, upon their arrival, were horrified to learn of the human sacrifices, as well as one other shocking ritual: Mayan mothers were strapping wooden boards to their infant's heads in an attempt to deform their newborn child's developing skull. By elongating the skull, the Mayan would appear more godlike, a belief no doubt inspired by evidence indicating the great teacher, Kukulcan, had possessed a similar elongated cranium.

  Quickly proclaiming the Maya practice to be an influence of the Devil, the Spanish priests ordered the shamans burned alive and the rest of the Indians converted to Christianity-under penalty of death. The superstitious fools dun proceeded to torch every important Mayan codex in existence. Thousands of volumes of text were destroyed-text that no doubt referenced the doomsday prophecy, and may have contained vital instructions, left to us by Kukulcan, to save our species from annihilation.