The Covenant of Genesis

‘Somehow I don’t think so,’ Sophia said, aiming her torch ahead.

They had reached the end of the passage, the cold azure light illuminating the exit . . . and also revealing that it was blocked. Glassy ice covered the arched opening, angling claustrophobically down to the stone floor.

And even if the ice had not been there, getting out might still have been difficult. Nina could make out the silhouette of what appeared to be a barred metal gate inside the archway.

‘Bollocks,’ Chase murmured. ‘End of the line.’

‘We should have brought those gas cylinders with us,’ said Sophia. ‘We could have melted through.’

‘Wouldn’t make any difference. Look how thick it is. Take days to get through all that - even if we could open the gates.’

Nina was more interested in what lay to one side of the gate. ‘There’s something here, in the ice.’ She directed her flashlight at it, trying to make out the objects. ‘They look like bowls, metal bowls.’ A word in the Veteres language appeared to have been painted on the side of the largest.

‘Something here an’ all,’ Chase said from the other side of the archway. ‘It’s another record player.’

‘Weird. Why have one here?’

‘Maybe it’s the gate guard’s iPod.’ He turned his attention to the buried gate. ‘Reckon this is the way to the tree of life?’

‘Well, we had the tree of knowledge, so . . .’ Nina tailed off. ‘Huh. I just realised how biblical that is. In the Book of Genesis, the Garden of Eden contained the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge.’

‘The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, actually,’ Sophia corrected, moving back down the passage.

‘Well, you’d know about the second one,’ sniped Nina, before turning back to Chase. ‘That’s kind of a coincidence, though. If it is a coincidence.’

‘So these people might have had something to do with the Bible?’ Chase asked.

‘I don’t see how; the time gap is way too big. Even the oldest parts of the Torah only date back to around the tenth century BC. But . . .’ She frowned, thinking. ‘Some sort of race memory, maybe? An idea that passed down over a hundred thousand years . . .’

Sophia’s urgent voice dismissed her musings. ‘Over here! There’s another room!’

Nina and Chase jogged to her. Behind one of the pillars was a narrow gap in the wall, a low passageway. ‘Can you see what’s inside?’ Nina asked.

‘Only that it’s not very big. I can see the back wall.’

‘Let’s have a look,’ said Chase. He began to break away the icicles obstructing it.

‘Eddie, come on!’ Trulli yelled into the radio. Still no response.

He looked up. The two Hercs had flown overhead, and were now circling back round.

‘It’s probably just a supply flight on its way to Vostok or Dome Charlie,’ Bandra said patronisingly. ‘They didn’t expect to see anyone here, so they’re overflying us to make sure we’re all right.’

‘If they didn’t know we were here, how come they were heading right for us?’ Trulli shot back.

‘Does it matter? Why, are you expecting trouble?’ The Indian scientist’s smirk fell when he registered Trulli’s serious expression. ‘Are you?’

‘Why do you think I’m trying so hard to get hold of Nina and Eddie?’

‘Well - but why would there be trouble over an archaeological find?’

The Australian gave him a look of disbelief. ‘Haven’t you ever read anything about Nina? People are always trying to kill her!’ He gave the walkie-talkie one last try, then glared at it in disgust. ‘The radio in the plane’s got more power - I’ll try to hook this up to it and get through to them.’ Another glance skyward. The C-130s had angled away, turning into the wind. They would pass a couple of hundred metres from the site. ‘I don’t know how they found us in the first place, though.’ Bandra’s expression became shifty. ‘What?’

‘That, ah . . . that may be my fault,’ Bandra admitted. ‘Last night, when we returned to the ship, I . . . I contacted UNARA.’

‘You what ?’ Trulli shouted.

‘I’m the leader of this expedition, not Dr Wilde! I sent a detailed email to New York to complain about the way I’d been treated!’

‘And did you tell them about the find?’ Bandra’s guilty countenance was all the answer he needed. ‘Well, that’s bloody marvellous! You’ve just led the bad guys right to us!’

‘Bad guys?’ Bandra snorted. ‘This isn’t some Hollywood movie!’

‘Maybe not,’ said Trulli, pointing at the approaching planes, ‘but what do you call that?’

The rear cargo ramps of both aircraft had lowered. Men and machines poured from them, white parachutes snapping open to send them drifting towards the frozen plain like a line of dandelion seeds.

‘Get to the plane,’ Trulli warned everyone. He ran for the parked tilt-rotor, clutching the radio.

The last icicles smashed on the cold floor. Chase crunched over them and emerged in the room beyond. He switched on the lantern as Nina came through the low opening, followed by Sophia. ‘Another one?’ Nina asked, seeing one of the primitive gramophones in a corner.

‘Yeah. They really like their decks. But I don’t think that’s what the room’s for.’ He lifted the lantern higher, illuminating one wall.

Nina’s eyes widened. ‘My God!’

It was another inscription, blocks of text scribed into a layer of plaster. But this one featured something the one in Australia lacked.

A map.

It was not an accurate cartographical representation; instead, it was more like a linear account of the various places visited along a journey, what appeared to be coastlines strung out along its length between points labelled with more ancient writing. Nina recognised numbers and compass bearings: the direction and number of days’ sail from each point?

‘The land of cold sand,’ said Sophia, pointing to the symbols at one end of the map. ‘This is where we are now. Antarctica.’

Nina traced the route back. It was apparently a long voyage across open sea to another land - Australia? Then up the coast to . . . ‘That might be the site north of Perth. If it is, then . . .’ Her excitement rose as she continued. ‘This could show the spread of the Veteres culture across the world - if these at the end are Antarctica and Australia, then these other coastlines would be Indonesia, Southeast Asia, India . . .’

‘Which means,’ Sophia said, looking at the other end of the map, ‘this is their origin. The point they expanded from. Where it all began.’

‘God, yes,’ gasped Nina. Heart pounding, she ran her finger along the frosted wall. Westwards from India along the coast of what was now Pakistan, Iran, the mouth of the Persian Gulf . . . which at the time of the Veteres would have been closed off by the lower sea level, the Gulf itself nothing but an inland lake. Along the coast of the Arabian peninsula, another settlement there—

‘Oman!’ Sophia cried, stabbing a finger at the mark. ‘That’s the site I visited with Gabriel eight years ago, it must be. The Covenant had destroyed it.’

‘Looks like they missed quite a few, though,’ said Chase. There were at least a dozen places given as much prominence as the Oman site, and numerous smaller ones.

‘They’re still there to be found,’ said Nina.

‘Unless the Covenant has already found them,’ Sophia pointed out.

Nina’s finger moved faster across the map. ‘They can’t have got them all. Arabia, across the entrance to the Red Sea, up its coast . . . and then they go inland.’ She looked at the others. ‘Into Africa. That’s where they came from. Africa!’ The trail of the Veteres to the coast crossed a river, leading some distance inland back to its origin: three trapezoidal symbols, the topmost having four winding lines - more rivers? - running outwards from it.

‘So that’s why their statues look like that one you used to have,’ Chase realised. ‘Same people.’

‘Different times,’ Nina replied. ‘These people had already moved out of Africa at a time when we thought early humans were only just starting to form the most primitive societies, in places like Ethiopia and Sudan.’

‘That would fit with the map.’ Sophia stood, regarding the text above it. ‘The first words here are something like “The journey of the people of God, from . . .” I assume that’s a name. The name of their homeland, maybe. But