He smoothly pulled off the tarp and beheld the swirling patterns in wonder.
“You know how this works?”
Professor Salvador Diaz looked at his captors with disgust. The man in the green jade mask covered in snakes was particularly unsettling, but he stood his ground. “Even if I did, I would never tell you.”
The Snake King gave a sad smile, only partly visible through the slit in the jade mask. “I thought this might be your response. This is why I had some of my men take your niece as well.”
Diaz jumped from his chair and stared at him with a burning hatred. “No! No one would do something so evil!”
“Think again, old man,” the Snake King said. He turned to Carlos Mercado. “Show him your phone.”
Carlos stepped forward and held out his phone, allowing the old man to see the screen. When he saw it, he recoiled in horror. There, on the tiny screen of the cell phone, he saw a picture of his young niece, gagged and bound and scared out of her mind. Two men he had never seen before were smiling into the camera. They each wore bandanas and were holding flick knives.
“You bastards!”
Carlos laughed and put the phone back in his pocket.
The Snake King’s face remained calm and mild. “An understandable reaction. I take no offense. You will, however, now see more clearly why it is so imperative that you give me what I want and assist me with this device.”
“You’ll have to comply,” said Atticus, hands tied behind his back. “They’re maniacs.”
Diaz listened to the words of the old English professor and started to pale. “Please, don’t harm her! She is only young. Just twenty-three. She is getting married in a few months. Let her be, I beg you.”
“Her welfare is entirely in your hands, Professor Diaz. Help me activate and control this device and I will contact the team holding her and have her released. Refuse, and I will have her head deposited on your front lawn.”
Diaz looked like he was going to be sick. He raised a hand to his mouth to hold back the vomit and worked hard to shake the image from his mind. “I will do as you ask,” he said at last. “Anything to save young Cristina.”
“You are a smart man, Salvador,” the Snake King said, giving the old man’s cheek a few disrespectful pats. “I knew eventually you would come to the sensible position and give me what I want.”
The old man buckled, dropped to his knees and began examining the capstone. He was intrigued by the smoky patterns in the metal and began to feel strange sensations as he stared into it. Pulling back before he was overwhelmed, he soon found his way to the enigmatic pyramid’s base.
“Interesting,” he muttered, picking up the chipped ohmmeter his captors had given to him and taking some measurements. “Very interesting.”
“What is it?’ the Snake King barked. “What do you see?”
Diaz stopped what he was doing and twisted his neck around to look up at him. “Where did you get this device?”
“That is none of your concern. You are here to make it work. That’s all.”
Diaz sighed. “But something’s not right here.”
Behind him, Carlos Mercado said, “I think I heard something outside.”
“Then check it out, amigo,” said Tarántula. “Now.”
“Si.”
The Snake King looked at Diaz. “What do you mean when you say something is not right, old man?”
“First, I cannot identify this particular metal. It seems to be silver and yet it’s not. It shares certain similarities with copper, but it is not copper. The mechanism inside the device seems at once both ancient and modern. It vexes me.”
“Do you understand how it works or not?” the Snake King said. “My patience is running low.”
Diaz looked back to the capstone and crouched down again. Dipping his head to study the base one more time, he mumbled what sounded like a positive affirmation. “Interesting… intriguing.”
The Snake King’s eyes blinked behind the mask. “What does that mean, Professor Diaz?”
“It’s all very odd, but I think I can see through it to the basics. It appears to be some sort of crude ferromagnetic apparatus for producing a natural waveguide.”
“Like a conductor?”
“Not exactly,” Diaz said. “There is a difference between a conductor and a waveguide.”
“Explain.”
Diaz was still exploring the mechanism deep inside the capstone’s interior. “A waveguide is any structure or device which guides waves.”
“Are you trying to be funny?” the Snake King said. “Do I need to remined you that one phone call to my associates and your niece is dead?”
“I am not trying to be funny!” Diaz said hurriedly. “I am answering your question.”
“Then get on with it.”
“Very well…as I said, a waveguide is a device which guides waves. These could be soundwaves or radio waves or electromagnetic waves. A waveguide is designed to channel and focus and transmit the waves in a particular direction while retaining as much of the original energy as possible. The entire planet is a kind of natural waveguide, formed by the relative positions of the earth’s surface and the ionosphere. It resonates at 7.83 Hz, or what we call the Schumann Resonance. These waves can be channelled and used for a number of purposes.”
“I am not a scientist, Professor Diaz.”
“Let me give you an example. The HAARP facility in Alaska can be utilized to cause tropical cyclones anywhere in the world.”
The Snake King laughed. “Conspiracy theory drivel.”
Diaz crawled out from
