“Sure,” Alyssa said.

  “Did you know who I am? You seemed to approach me rather directly.”

  “Ah, one doesn’t deceive you so easily, hm? Maybe Elliot mentioned you.”

  She suddenly called him Elliot. “What did he say?”

  “That he wished you could see this. He said he wished Ashra could see this and I asked him a little about you. He showed me a pic. So yeah, I kind of recognized you when you came into the bar.”

  “What did he say about me?”

  “Not much. He didn’t have to. He had that look when he said your name, you know? That look men have sometimes when someone means a lot to them. My husband never looked like this when talking to me. He used to call me Puta then, mostly.”

  Ashra didn’t want to smile, but she couldn’t help it.

  She stayed silent for the rest of the ride and planned in her head, what she was going to say when she met him again. It wasn’t so easy. They had barely talked lately. But they had been through a lot together. Himalaya. Karachi. Antarctica. Not to speak of those wonderful peaceful months in London together. Yet, she wasn’t sure if he wanted her here. There was a chance she would find him at work and not wishing to be disturbed. Then, she’d have to explain that killers had tried to track him down and he had to leave. How would she convince stubborn, charming Elliot Brand of that?

  “Approaching target area.” Alyssa ripped her from her thoughts. Boris was awake, looking at her. “Miller wishes to speak to you.”

  “Put him through,” Ashra said, gazing at the other helicopter flying next to theirs.

  “Ashra, are you there?” Rupert asked.

  “Yes, just been informed we’re approaching our target.”

  “Well, yes. Which is why I thought we should address those trust issues once again.”

  “Can’t that wait until we are on the ground?” Ashra saw large hills rise to her left, overgrown with trees. They passed over them and circled slowly to the valley below. That was the valley Alyssa had referred to. Not far away there was a river running through it.

  “I think it can’t. There’s something I couldn’t get out of my head. What did Matt find out for you? You didn’t ask about hotel reservations, did you?”

  Ashra stiffened in her seat. Boris stared at her with cold eyes. Ashra’s hand wandered to her pocket. “He did exactly that.”

  “You had him contact London, right? Confirm my orders?”

  “Rupert, I think we should really—”

  “I wish you hadn’t done that. Not only do I have to kill him now, but you could have been so useful with Brand.”

  “I guess that assassin was to lure me into this?”

  “Yeah, was kind of a risk, but I had to improvise when you showed up. Too good a chance to finally locate him,” Rupert admitted to his act.

  “And I guess you’re not working on behalf of the British government then?”

  “Not exactly.” Rupert sighed. “Goodbye Ashra.”

  Ashra saw Boris’s radio blink and she knew hesitation would be her death.

  She drew her gun, as he drew his.

  Ashra was just a little faster—she fired a single shot into his forehead.

  “What are you doing?” Alyssa screamed.

  “Break away!” Ashra yelled back. She looked aside and saw the door of the other helicopter slide open.

  Two of the mercenaries knelt there, their assault rifles aimed at them. Ashra took aim, but she knew there was no chance she would hit them with a handgun at this distance. The other side could hardly miss.

  And they didn’t.

  Before Alyssa could do anything, she saw the muzzle flare and a number of clonking sounds and flying sparks.

  “Eduardo, what are you doing?” Alyssa cried. Ashra felt the helicopter starting to shift. “Lost the rear rotor! Losing altitude. Hold tight, we go down!”

  And as she screamed, Ashra put the gun away. She grabbed whatever she could, as the large helicopter began to rotate around its axis, spinning faster and faster. “We go down!” Alyssa shouted rather unnecessarily. They hurtled towards the green canopy of the trees. Ashra clenched her teeth and pressed her legs against the seat opposite her.

  All she could do was brace as much as possible and . . . pray.

  She had no time to pray—around her, the branches began to break as the rotors ripped into them. The helicopter tipped forward, beginning its uncontrollable fall . . .

  Two Weeks Earlier

  Chapter 9

  Elliot jumped out of the back of the helicopter and grabbed his bag.

  “Thanks for the ride; been a pleasure, Alyssa,” he called to his pilot. The woman held up her hand, her thumb pointing up.

  “Anytime again. Take good care of yourself, handsome!” She laughed. With a broad grin, Elliot turned away from the aircraft, holding his straw hat with one hand—so that the wind produced by the rotor didn’t blow it away—and with his backpack in the other, he stepped away from the large black chopper.

  At the edge of the clearing, he saw Professor Atiko Ishimura, wearing long khaki trousers and a blouse. She smiled. He knew how rare the sight of her smiling was; he approached her with his own broad grin.

  “Professor?” He nodded to her.

  “Professor Brand,” she replied. They both laughed and he dropped his backpack and gave her a hug.

  “So good to see you, Atiko. How are you?”

  “I think I lost a few pounds from mosquito bites alone and this heat is unbearable, but otherwise I am damn fine. Especially now that I see a familiar face.”

  “How long has it been? Five years?” Elliot asked, turning one last time to wave Alyssa Acosta goodbye as she left. She returned the gesture from her cockpit.

  “We had a video call like two weeks ago,” Atiko said.

  Elliot laughed. “I meant since we met in person. Those video calls, I relied a lot on them lately and I found them to be . . . not really a substitute for personal contact.”

  “Ah, your girlfriend went back. To Tibet, right?”

  “Nepal,” Elliot said with a nod.

  “How are things between you? I’m a bit surprised you didn’t bring her along.”

  “We’re taking a break, I think. Might be a permanent break for all I know. We both have a hard time leading an open and honest discussion about it.” Elliot couldn’t keep back a deep sigh.

  “Sorry to hear that. And, to answer your question, it has been seven years since we last met in those lawyer’s offices to sign our divorce papers.” She smiled at him.

  “We had dinner afterwards,” Elliot remembered.

  “Yeah, which was a terrible idea, wasn’t it?” She hadn’t lost any of her famous, brutal honesty.

  “The food was good.”

  “Nah, it was terrible cheap sushi.”

  “Right, I remember.”

  “Come. I want you to meet the team. It’s about twenty minutes from here.” She turned around and stomped in her heavy boots into the forest. He followed her.

  “How is your dad?” Elliot asked.

  “Tried to retire. I had him come over for the conference this summer.”

  “Tried?”

  “Yeah, it lasted six months this time. His personal record. Now he has taken a job in Berlin, moved there. He’s totally excited about it.” Atiko sighed. “You know him. He’ll die digging up something.”

  “Isn’t that the death we all hope for?” Elliot felt the soft ground under his feet, as they made their way through the sea of ferns spreading between ancient, winding trees, reaching high into the sky, blocking out the sun. It wasn’t helping with the heat though. The Amazon in summer was a hostile and unwelcoming place—humid and hot.

  “I hope to die in the circle of my friends and family.”

  “Speaking of which, how is Howard?”

  “I wouldn’t know. Probably happy with his secretary.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Yes, ouch. Guess we are both back on the market,” Atiko said, without a hint of irony.

  “Well, you must be desperate, if you invite your ex-husband to your camp over summer,” Elliot mocked her.

  “Oh, you’re so full of yourself, Elliot!”

  He knew she spoke to few people like this. While most people considered her to be the perfect, uptight, disciplined Japanese woman, Elliot knew that wasn’t entirely true. She had a rebellious streak.

  “I haven’t invited my ex-husband anywhere. I’ve invited Professor Doctor Elliot Brand, the author of the article on . . . what did you call them? The Ancients? Forbearers of the human civilization?”

  “I actually dropped my studies of this specific topic recently.”

  “Well, then be ready to pick them up again, because I think that I have something here for you that you’ll find most interesting. I actually look forward to hearing your opinion on what we found . . .”

  He didn’t give her the satisfaction of showing how curious this message made him. Curious enough to come here and spend his summer holidays in the Green Hell, as the Amazon was still called. A name he always thought it truly deserved.

  A centipede that was easily the size of his arm, crawled down a tree. A shiver ran over his back. He had spent his time in deserts, both those made of sand and snow, but the jungle was always a very different experience. So much life in such a place, both flora and fauna. He never felt more like he wasn’t welcome anywhere. This wasn’t made for humans. Nature needed none of them here. It had created a perfect balance of animals living in symbiosis with plants, a system of predators and prey, growth and death that sustained itself perfectly. A human could be nothing but a disturbance here.

  “Then, let’s see what you got there,” Elliot said, and almost fell over a root rising from the ground like a tripwire.

  ****

  The camp was larger than he had expected. Ten tents had been set up in a cleared area around a large central plastic plane, covering the dig itself. In an area where it rained almost daily, this was probably necessary to protect your findings. A dozen workers and assistants were busily working as they entered the area.

  A young man—probably a local—in a green T-shirt and short trousers, stepped forward.

  “Ricardo, this is Professor Elliot Brand. Elliot, my right-hand man and most reliable foreman of a dig I’ve ever known, Eduardo Pinoza.” Atiko had suddenly a more formal tone and even her movements seemed more stiff, direct and tense. She was adopting the persona of Professor Ishimura right in front of his eyes. Elliot was probably among the very few people on the planet who knew that wasn’t truly her.

  “A pleasure to meet you, Eduardo. I’m Elliot.” He extended his hand, and by offering his first name, put a smile on the man’s face.

  “Pleasure is on my side, heard so much about you, Professor. Elliot, I mean.” He then looked at Atiko. “Shall we show him?”

  “I guess that’s why he came all the way.” Atiko sighed. “I’ve got this, Eduardo; you make sure the guys meet their milestone today.” She didn’t even look at the man’s disappointed face, but went over to the largest of all the white tents and entered. Inside, Elliot saw the ‘prop room’, as archeologists called it; a place where they collected all the findings they had made. A young Asian woman turned and gave him a shy smile. She was wearing a white lab coat. From his time in Asia, he could immediately say she wasn’t Japanese.

  “Elliot, Yuen,” Atiko said, now more in a hurry. “She prepares the exhibits.”

  “Hey,” Elliot raised his hand. In the center of the room was a glass tube, in which a fluid bubbled. In it, floated the object he assumed he was here for: a skull. A skull, unlike any he had ever seen. It looked human, but it was larger than any human head.

  “It’s twelve inches wide and eighteen inches in length, with a circumference of . . . what was it, Yuen?” Atiko turned to her lab assistant.

  “Thirty-six inches, ma’am.” Yuen took off her mask and smiled as stood Elliot inspected it.

  “Where did you find it?” Elliot asked, his eyes remaining on the skull as he leaned forward. It wasn’t yet entirely fossilized, which meant it wasn’t even ten thousand years old.

  “Near the city. The giant’s city. I did the trip last year, for the first time. Eight hours through dense jungle, with the Northern Territory populated by what they call Africanized killer bees. It’s marvelous. A city created for people much larger than average humans, clearly. Hawthorne is digging there, Mayerson, Roberts. Everyone who has an American university degree has gone there. But I had the feeling they might all be wrong,” Atiko explained.

  “Of course.” Elliot smirked.

  “That’s not a city they found. It’s the temples of that race. A pyramid, and a settlement around it, that was supporting the religious practices. But everyone assumed temples and cities were at the same spot, like their settlement, but actually it might have made sense to keep them separated, so I started looking and found stone structures nearby. We set up a small dig and found that one.”

  “Then, what are you doing here?” Elliot asked. “Has it been dated?”

  “It’s around five-thousand years old, with the precise results coming next week from New York,” Atiko said.

  “Wow.” Elliot nodded. “Pretty recent.”

  “Yes, and regarding your other questions? I talked to the local tribes. There’s indeed a legend of ancient giant humans living in these lands. But when we dug a little deeper, those legends placed them not near the city we found, but in this region. Near the valley to the south. So, I started looking and we found . . . Yuen, why don’t you show him?”

  Elliot finally managed to turn his head away from the skull and followed the young Asian woman as she stepped over to the tables covered by white sheets. She removed them carefully and underneath, was an assortment of bones—all of them looking like enlarged versions of human bones.

  “Skeletons. We’ve yet to find a complete set, but we found a leg.” Atiko pointed to the end of the table. “A shoulder, and we’re right now gathering what appears to be a hand.”

  “How tall have they been?” Elliot asked.

  “Assuming their measurements were roughly the same as ours, they would have been around nine feet tall. Those samples are at least from three different bodies; probably remains of victims of an animal attack. We found bite marks on the leg,” Atiko explained.

  “Nine feet? Wow.” Elliot laughed.

  “The first proof of the existence of giants,” Yuen proudly said, Atiko looked at him.

  “Not . . . entirely,” Elliot shook his head. “The Smithsonian had to admit recently they have destroyed several exhibits of giant skulls in their early days, as they were considered not to be in line with the scientific beliefs of their time. Magellan reported he saw giant humans in Greenland and on a site in Yucatan, Harlow found a footprint of the size of 42AA.”

  “I told you, he’s a walking library,” Atiko said to Yuen.

  “But nothing was this conclusive. Nothing could place them to a region,” Elliot said. “What are you digging for now?”

  “We believe it’s a tomb. Our spectroscopy has identified a bubble of air underground. We’re trying to find the entrance right now,” Atiko said.

  “A tomb?”

  “Yes, in there we could find a complete set of bones, a full skeleton.” Atiko smiled.

  “That’s amazing, ground-breaking work. Your dad must be so proud of you.” Elliot laughed.

  “I haven’t told him yet. Nobody knows, except those on this site—and you.”

  “Why?” Elliot asked. “You should easily get funding for this, so you can expand your dig?”

  “Well, I was about to go public, when I read a paper of a certain archeologist that got me thinking; what had we found here? It was about ancient, pre-human civilizations.” Atiko looked him in the eye. “Civilizations of proto-humans that were much larger than we are. Giants, so to speak.”

  Elliot understood now why he was here. He let all the facts he had just learned sink in, then shook his head. “Those aren’t my Ancients. Their skulls were human-like, but not actually human, and we dated their civilization back to a time before mankind or earliest progenitors of the human race, but these are pretty recent.”

  “You found a nine-foot skeleton at the entrance of that city in Himalaya, you wrote. You also theorized that this species might have bred humans as a slave race. I loved how you threw Darwin out the window like it was nothing.” She gave him a mild smile.

  Elliot looked at the skull again. “Yes, there’s a . . . common ground in my findings and yours, but a couple of hundred thousand years divide them.”

  “Then, how could they be connected? Give me a hypothesis.”

  “Did you do a genetic analysis of them? Any material you could isolate?”

  “We’re working on it. That’s what Yuen is doing here, preparing samples and sending them to New York.”

  Elliot folded his hands. “Okay, the size is the same, the region is not. This seems to be humans, while they were humanoid and close to us, significant differences were visible even when looking at them superficially.”

  “I’m waiting for your hypothesis,” Atiko pressed.

  “They could have bred with early forms of humans. That could explain our leaps in evolution we made around the Stone Age, actually. If so, these giants could be the result of hybridization. Homo Erectus and the Ancients formed a sub-species, which turned into humans. One part splintered though, and while we lost that giant size over the millennia, they remained among themselves, pure blooded so to speak. This could be the offspring of a race that is the missing link between us and them . . . but that’s only a theory.”

  “It was what I was thinking, too. So, before I go out with this, I hoped we might test this hypothesis and at least have a look at their genetic code. If these were offspring of their hybrids, we should find some interesting sequences there,” Atiko said.

  “That would . . . be proof of their existence.”

  “Oh, what I’d do to see those faces of all those idiots who ridiculed your paper!” Atiko winked at him.

  Elliot had never held it against anyone, that they were skeptical. The proof he had been able to secure was paper-thin and he knew his theory challenged a lot of well-established scientific facts. “Well, what can I do to help you?”

 

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