ENCOUNTER by Hep Aldridge (bill gates books recommendations .txt) 📕

moved and the huge pyramid structure he saw? I mean that one over there,” pointing at the one across the plaza from us, “it’s big, but not of the magnitude he described in his journal. And he never mentioned anything about finding or following a paved roadway to the city, which is something I’m pretty sure he would have commented on. And look at this place; it’s not a Chichen Itza or Machu Picchu. It is way too futuristic looking.”

I had been scanning our surroundings and looked at him and said, “You’re right; from what I remember, this place doesn’t fit his description at all, and he said he and the chief made it to the city and back in one day. There’s no way that would be possible if they came here.”

“So, does that mean there’s another lost city around here?” Reggie asked.

“It would seem so,” Doc replied. “And if that’s the case, those guys may find it before finding the road. That could tie them up for days.”

“But we would have no way of knowing that. The cameras are only planted on our route, and if we use the drone to surveil the surrounding area, looking for them, we run the risk of them spotting it,” Joe said.

Another ancient city close by, bad guys nipping at our heels, and this unbelievable discovery we just made—that was a little much to process all at once.

Dimitri said, “Okay if this isn’t the city from the journal, how do we know it’s the place that can lead us to the library? What if it’s the other city, wherever it is?”

“Well, I think we have a couple of things going for us,” Doc said. “The priest never mentioned the road, and he never said anything about a cloak. In his day, it probably would have been described as a “magic veil or holy thing” covering the city. If he saw it, I’m sure he would have mentioned it. I’m guessing this city is more important than the one he was taken to. That’s why the road was blocked, and it’s cloaked. The chief may not have even known about this city. I wouldn’t be surprised if the road, this city, and its cloak don’t pre-date the other city by quite a bit, and I do mean quite a bit—possibly thousands of years.”

“You may be right, Doc,” I said, “so how does that help our situation?”

“As I said earlier, it could buy us some time. We need to find out all we can about this place and determine if it indeed holds the clue pointing us to the library.”

“Then we had best use our time wisely. Eduardo, how fast can you run and how far?” I asked.

Eduardo smiled and said, “You know I am very fast, Senor Colt, and I can run many miles.”

“Good, here’s what I’m thinking. The mercs won’t be heading out until morning, and that still puts them about two days behind us if they find our trail and the road. Since Eduardo is much more used to operating in this thin air, he goes out at first light and gets the camera you placed on the road today and runs it, say another mile or so, back down the road and sets it up. Joe, you can direct him from the rockpile and decide on the camera location. That would give us an earlier warning and advantage if the mercs do find the road.”

“Joe, we know our Comms RF signal and your connection with the cameras won’t pierce the cloak, but do you think you could rig a hardwire from the laptop outside the cloak to your tablet inside the cloak and get a signal?”

Joe was sitting there with a furrowed brow as he pondered the question.

“Not sure, but it should be easy enough to check out. I’ve got some shielded cables in my kit. In fact, let me finish eating, and give me about half an hour, and I can have an answer for you.”

“Excellent. Dimitri, I would like you and Reggie to work out a defensive strategy for the rockpile, firing locations, fall back positions; you guys know the drill.”

“You got it, Colt. We’ll take a look at it first thing in the morning,” Dimitri replied, and Reggie nodded her agreement.

“Tomorrow, the rest of us will start with a more thorough search of the city.” Now, I felt like we had a decent plan, but I still had a knot in my stomach. I wonder if this is what Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie felt like at the Alamo. Don’t dwell on it, Colt; let it go.

We sat in silence, all looking around as we finished our meal, taking in our fantastic surroundings. The architecture of many of the buildings was futuristic and unique, if not downright strange. Nothing about them was conventional, except for almost all having windows of some sort. There were round, oblong, rectangular, cone-shaped, and truncated pyramid shapes. Most all were multi-story, some turning into spires reaching skyward hundreds of feet. The pyramids were thirty to forty feet tall with multiple entrances—a strange mixture of futuristic yet visually pleasing styles for sure.

Finally, Joe broke the silence when he said, “These are some pretty diverse building styles. I can’t see any two that are the same.”

I said, “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Wonder what that’s all about?”

After a few thoughtful moments, Doc said, “Well, it could be one of a couple of things. The shapes may have something to do with their function—what they were used for. Or an even more interesting one from an anthropological perspective, they could represent different groups or cultural habitats—like families or businesses from foreign countries replicating part of their culture in their building style and design.

“Now, that would be interesting,” O’Reilly said. “So, instead of one alien culture, we may be dealing with inhabitants of multiple origins. If so, this rabbit hole we’ve jumped into is as weird as Alice’s.”

I laughed, as did the others. There