The missing link, p.10
THE MISSING LINK, page 10
“Anaconda!” Jorni gasped. Elliot didn’t say anything, but Anacondas didn’t have poisonous teeth. He had heard that in the Amazon some incredibly oversized examples had been found, but this wasn’t an anaconda. It was a venomous snake. He was pretty sure it was probably the largest venomous snake he had ever heard of. An unknown species that they had encountered.
Now it became clear how Marco had died. Considering the size of this beast, the amount of poison it pumped into its victims had to be enormous. Enough to kill anything the size of a simple human instantly.
“No anaconda,” Elliot said and lowered the rifle, finally taking out his cell phone. He took five quick photos of the thing. The snake was easily fifty-feet long, and four to five-feet wide. It was massive, like some ancient, pre-historic snake, that used to hunt dinosaurs. Elliot gestured at Jorni to stand next to it; very reluctantly he agreed and knelt next to the head, which had been half ripped away by Elliot’s shot. Elliot took another photo. As he looked at it, he could already see the social media posts denouncing it as a fake.
“We should go,” Elliot finally said. Jorni pointed to Marco and Elliot sighed. “Can you carry him?” He made motions with his hands to show the meaning of his words; Jorni shook his head. “Then we need to leave him,” Elliot said, pointing with his thumb towards the camp. Glancing at his fallen comrade, Jorni silently agreed with a nod, then followed Elliot.
****
He didn’t care about the small cuts made by the ferns, or even the heat, but he made his way out of the valley as fast as possible. They were almost out, when he saw the final monstrous surprise. Between the trees, rose a large brown structure, almost as if a giant kid had built a rough sandcastle out of brown clay. It was nine-feet high and easily twenty-feet wide.
“Ruins?” Jorni asked, using one of the few English words he knew. Elliot shook his head. He was pretty sure this wasn’t man-made. This was created by termites and, when he saw the scale of it, he simply didn’t know what it would do to his sanity if he saw the size of the termite that had built this thing.
With quick steps, he simply passed it at a respectful distance and against his instincts, he tried to not look around too much, until they reached the camp.
Once they arrived, Elliot clapped Jorni’s shoulder and was given back the unused handgun. Then, he made his way to the ‘command tent’, as he called it.
Atiko and Yuen were both there. They immediately swiveled around from their lab equipment and pulled down their masks.
“Did you find him?” Atiko asked.
“He’s dead,” Elliot said, searching around for a water bottle. He found one and took a sip, sitting on the single plastic chair.
“What has happened?” Atiko asked.
“He got killed by snake.” Elliot took out his phone. “We found him near the river at a small clearing.” He showed the picture of the dead snake.
“An anaconda?” Atiko asked; everybody seemed to know those mostly.
“No, that’s a tree viper,” Yuen said. “Very deadly, actually. Among the most venomous snakes in the world.”
“How big do they usually get?” Elliot asked.
“They’re rather small, but very venomous, like—”
Elliot skipped to the picture of Jorni kneeling next to it. “What the . . .” Yuen lost her reluctant politeness for a second and looked at Elliot.
“No, I didn’t do this with photoshop. This thing was massive, a giant snake, larger than Jorni. It almost got him.” He leaned his rifle against the table next to him. “It had bitten Marco in the back, killing him instantly.”
“Well, if it injects the amount of poison analogue to its size . . . that would kill about anything,” Yuen said.
“That’s absurd,” Atiko said. “You say there’s an unknown giant poisonous snake species in those forests? The Yucamama of legends, so to say?”
Elliot had forgotten about the legend he had so arrogantly brushed aside earlier. Now, he nodded and shook his head the same time.
“Let’s say I now clearly understand where the legends of a snake god come from,” he admitted.
“Well, now it’s dead. Thanks to you,” Atiko said.
“That wasn’t all we saw. I encountered a bug the size of my fist.” He closed his hand to a fist to demonstrate the size.
“There are some very large bugs around here,” Yuen said.
“We also saw three alligators, that might easily have broken the record for the largest specimen ever recorded. Spiderwebs of giant extent and, now that I think about it, I don’t want to know how big those spiders are . . . And a termite nest, the size of a two-story house.”
“What do you mean?” Atiko asked.
“What I mean is . . . we might have to rethink your theory why men existed here that were larger than usual men,” Elliot said. “Oversized specimens seem improbably likely in this area.”
Atiko looked at him and he saw the thoughts whirling in her head. Finally, she nodded.
“Somatotropin,” Yuen said, and all eyes fell on her. “The growth hormone, produced in the pituitary gland, leads to enhanced growth. It basically is managing the human growth process but, when it’s disrupted for any reason, patients get artificial somatotropin to accelerate their growth. Before they figured out the dose early experiments led to unhealthy overgrowth. Large men and women suffering from back-ache and the like.” Yuen looked at Atiko. “Our species must have produced this hormone in larger masses to grow to that size. But now, maybe they didn’t produce it. Maybe there is something around here they digested that contains somatotropin or a similar substance.”
“Good thinking,” Elliot said. “There were no birds or mosquitos down there, I realized. None whatsoever.”
Yuen nodded. “Well, the mosquitos probably couldn’t handle the growth. Their respiratory system can’t upscale to that size. The birds . . . they’re mostly predators, hunting insects. Maybe their prey got too big for them to hunt them.”
“That and the giant spiderwebs,” Elliot said.
“Yes, they might have fallen prey to the native spiders long ago, if they reached the size that they could comfortably hunt them,” Yuen agreed.
“Anyway, we might be in the neighborhood of a few very, very dangerous beasts,” he said. “We should consider evacuating.”
Atiko sighed. “Yuen, would you leave us alone for a moment, please?”.
Yuen took off her laboratory coat and left without a further word, so obedient. Elliot wanted to tell her that wasn’t necessary. He didn’t. He waited until she was out and then gazed at Atiko.
“We found the entrance, Elliot. A few more days is all we need now. Maybe a week or two.”
“Atiko, you can come back. Nobody knows of this site, so you have time. You can organize proper security and return,” Elliot said, but he saw in her eyes it wasn’t truly an option for her.
“Those animals have so far stayed in their territory, right?” she said.
“That might have been pure luck. I’m not a zoologist, and neither are you, but we both know animals move around, stroll off their path, get lost. Not to mention, some of the predators might migrate once they understand what delicious meal awaits just up the hill.”
“We do double shifts and place guards at the perimeter of the camp.”
“In the midst of the jungle?”
“We can have two men clear it a little. Set up movement sensors; we’ve got those.”
“Ineffective. Too many moving animals in the forest.”
“Elliot, when you climbed down into those ruins with Teller, was that the least risky, most reasonable approach? It wasn’t. You did it because you wanted to see what was down there. You wanted to be first. I want the same. This tomb is my Himalaya ruin. Take every safety measure you can imagine, and I’ll push our men to the limits. But I won’t give up now.” Atiko crouched before him and took his hands. “I know you, of all people, understand.”
“Atiko, listen. You’re right.” He gave a deep sigh. “It was reckless of us to climb down into those ruins. But I lost Teller there. Almost died myself, and also put a woman—who means a lot to me—in grave danger. It was a mistake, okay? Me and Teller, we overestimated our ability to handle the situation and he paid the highest price for it. I just try to keep you from making the same mistake.” Elliot looked into her brown, almond eyes. She smiled.
“We’ve been here for months, and nothing has happened. It’s a certain risk, I agree. But it’s a calculated risk I’m willing to take. Will you help me to lower that risk as much as possible?”
Elliot sighed. What should he do? Without her they could probably not evacuate. Running out there and telling the men to run away from the monstrously-sized animals would make them panic, but it wouldn’t change anything. They were in the middle of nowhere, in the Amazon rainforest.
“Okay. I’ll come up with a couple of measures. We need more fires at night. Way more fires, also at the perimeter.”
“Anything you can come up with is highly appreciated.” Atiko smiled—he hated that smile. It was probably meant to be warm and nice, but truly it was triumphant. That smile was part of why it hadn’t worked with them.
Chapter 11
When Yuen finally returned, and Atiko left to swear her men in on double shifts, Elliot remained in the tent under the pretense of it being the only room with an air conditioning—powered by solar panels.
Yuen went back to work silently, but it wasn’t long before she broke the silence. “It’s not an archeological sensation, but it’s a scientific one, nevertheless.” She turned to Elliot.
“I would say it’s both. Researching how a human subspecies with extreme growth developed and lived is certainly an archeological challenge, worth the effort. It must have been a unique civilization we’re looking at here. Unlike any other that ever existed. Imagine how strong these people must have been, with a body simply upgraded like this.” He walked over to her. “Atiko mentioned that she sent back samples for analysis to New York. How is that working?” He stood next to Yuen, who grinned enthusiastically.
“Funny you ask, because she got that trick from you, actually!” Yuen turned to face him. “You wrote these two papers on drones. One was THE USE OF DRONES IN THE ARCHEOLOGICAL PROCESS — NEW METHODS POWERED BY FUTURE TECHNOLOGY!”
Elliot sighed. The paper on using drones to map ancient structures and creature exact 3D maps. It had been one of his greater achievements as a scientist.
“Yeah, I remember.”
“The second one is way more interesting and got way too little attention. THE USE OF DRONES IN THE FIELD — A STUDY OF ARCHEOLOGICAL PROCEDURE ENHANCED BY MODERN TECHNOLOGY. We used it as our playbook and got a long-range delivery drone; a prototype from the military, I believe. We use it to send the samples to a hunting resort, about ten miles from here, where we got someone to put them on the way with UPS to our laboratory. That allowed us to quickly get samples into the research process, without losing any time on site.”
“I see. I think you might be the first dig to actually use that paper.” Elliot had to smile. It made him a little proud that it indeed worked. “You think I could use the drone to deliver a sample myself?”
“What do you want to sample? The snake?” Yuen asked.
“When I was down there, I recognized a black fungus growing there I haven’t seen anywhere else.”
“Some specimen of fungus are known to produce hormone-like material.”
“Exactly my thinking. And they send out spores, meaning even if they are not eaten, everything down there could breathe them in. I would love to take a sample and send it to a friendly lab in London, see what they can come up with.”
“I don’t see why not. But you would have to ask the permission of Professor Ishimura, obviously.”
“Obviously.” Elliot nodded. “What’s actually your job title?”
“My job title?”
“Yes; you don’t seem to be an archeologist, but you know a lot about a wide range of topics.”
“I studied Applied Sciences at MIT, did my Masters in Chemical Analysis. The professor recruited me right out of the program and offered me a chance to work in an exotic place, on one of the most spectacular discoveries of modern science; how could I say no?”
“Yes, how could you? Anyway, you seem to know a lot about zoology and plants—”
“I have what they call an eidetic memory. Everything I read I can recall. A perfect memory.”
“Impressive.” Elliot said.
This made her blush and giggle a little, with her hand covering her mouth. “Thank you, Professor.”
“No, I have to thank you. And it’s Elliot.”
“I prefer Professor Brand, if you don’t mind. I fancy academic titles,” she explained.
“Sure.” Elliot smiled at this strange, but obviously competent, young lady and left the tent.
****
The security measures were simple. Ten large fires set around the camp—because all animals feared fire, and it would hopefully keep them away. Additionally, two armed guards circled around, checking for any intruders. When Elliot brought back the shotgun, he kept the pistol. Not that he was a great shot or anything, but being armed added a sense of security he simply needed.
Another fire was created on the site, to give the workers additional light. The generator was linked to a floodlight, that made the entrance clearly visible, as the workers began to work themselves through a stone plate, that had only been insufficiently documented—by scientific standards. They would usually spend days studying it, before even touching it. But Atiko was pushing their efforts and a minor missed opportunity was a little sacrifice for her to reach her final goal—the opening of the tomb itself. It would take hours, as they basically had to wear off layer by layer of the stone, grinding themselves into the tomb. Explosives would be too risky, as they hadn’t yet determined how stable the ancient structure was. For the same reason, heavy drills were out of the question. Elliot watched the men with the grinding machines working on the large round stone plate for a while, then he went to Atiko’s tent.
As he entered, she was washing her hair, using a bowl of warm water. She wanted to look good for the pictures, he assumed.
“May I?” Elliot asked.
“Of course,” she said, pressing her hair between two ends of a towel. “Nothing you haven’t seen before, right?”
“I actually don’t remember ever having watched you washing your hair,” he admitted.
“Ah, I remember us showering together very well.” Atiko smiled at him, now the private version of herself again.
“Oh yes, I remember that, too.” Elliot couldn’t hide his amusement.
“What can I do for you?”
“I got two men on guard duty and fires all around the camp. Should keep any strolling giant animal away. But I also wanted to ask how Rodrigo is?”
“Oh, he’s more stubborn than the two of us combined. I offered to call Alyssa and get him to a hospital, and he laughed at me and promised he would be back on his feet in no time. I think we need to consider flying him out anyway. I think he’s in shock. I wanted to ask him tomorrow again,” Atiko said.
“Did he tell you about the attack?”
“His memory is very fuzzy, but he got attacked by what he described as a worm with a thousand legs.”
“A caterpillar?”
“Yes, and you will love this; it was the size of a pit, he said. I’ve seen some spookily large things around here. But his must have been exceptional. So, I guess he will be alright.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“But that’s not what you came here for, right?” She sat down on her field bed. Elliot had forgotten her talent to look through his intros.
“No, I want to use the drone—the delivery drone. I think the local fungus might have something to do with the growth. I saw a type that seems to only be present down there. Worth a try. I’d send it to Peters to have a look.”
“Peters? God, haven’t talked to him in ages. How is the old daredevil?”
“Still the best at what he does. Got divorced last year. I had a few drinks with him afterwards.”
“Who didn’t get divorced!”
“Yeah.” He smiled, but the topic wasn’t something he felt comfortable with right now.
“You’re not trying to steal my discovery, are you?”
“Our deal stands: everything we publish on this site and connected to it, your name goes first, mine goes second. Yuen ends up mentioned,” Elliot assured her.
“Okay, I’ll have it prepared in the morning.” Atiko nodded. “Looking forward to seeing what he makes of it.”
“Thanks.” Elliot turned to leave.
“I really appreciate what you’re doing here for me, Elliot.”
He turned back around. “I came to help, so—”
“Yes, but we aren’t only colleagues, right? I never told you, but I’m sorry we couldn’t make it work. Truly sorry. Took me years to get over it.” Elliot didn’t know what to say. Atiko continued. “Truth is, Elliot, we are too much alike. Two candles, each trying to burn as bright as possible. We can’t be too close to each other, or one will absorb the light of the other.”
“I had never anything but admiration for your work,” Elliot said.
“Yes, so did I. I still have. Until today, I read every word you published. Which made me realize you’ve published a lot less lately.”
“I know. I concentrated on the university stuff—”
“Ah, c’mon that was always only a bonus for you. Why don’t you work on the Ancients anymore? Don’t tell me the bad reviews scared you off! We both know you couldn’t care less about those.”
Elliot looked at her and realized she might be among the few people who understood. “There was a second discovery, one almost more mind-bending and spectacular than the first.”
“Where?”
“Oh, I can’t tell, and if I could you would simply not believe me. But what I found there made me reconsider. There’s science that might have consequences on a scale I’m not ready to . . . influence people. I don’t want to be the next Oppenheimer, you know? So, I decided the secrets I was seeking, maybe they’d better stay secret. For now.” Elliot felt almost ashamed and didn’t know why.
