(8) Residual evil...

Elsewhere...

"Wait a second!" Lara blurted out mid stride. "Why would there be a native tribe like this in Mongolia in this time period?"

"I don't follow," DK called back, dodging a fallen tree trunk protruding from the snow.

"Mongolia was-" Lara started, then dived into a roll as several spears sizzle past her head. She elegantly popped back up into her run full sprint, "-civilized by at least a hundred years ago."

"Are you sure?" Michael answered quizzically.

"Idiot, they're wearing loin-cloths in the snow!" Rachel added peeved, "what more evidence do you need that these guy don't belong somehow?"

"Okay, everybody freeze!" The party stopped altogether with the wildly ranting tribesmen closing in behind them. "You're right." Michael said calmly, despite the fact everybody's adrenaline was pumping. He raised his arm and formed an ice barrier between them and the onslaught of spears.
"A technique I learned back in Blizzard Lake... that should hold off the attack temporarily." But the look of sweat and paleness on his face showed that his energy was severely depleted.

"But if what you're saying is true, then where'd they come from?" DK asked, throwing Lara a skeptical glance.

"I think I know," Rachel suddenly piped in. She pointed toward Michael's head. "Does that look familiar?"

"Huh?" Michael reached for the top of his head, feeling something slimy. "Shampoo?"
Then it began to burn his hand. "Ow! I guess not."

"That looks like black slime from that tentacle that DK sliced off of you, back in our time," Lara noted. "It's part of their source."

"Their source?" Michael repeated.

"Remember? Their energy source was the hatred and doubt in people's hearts. They captured and transformed it into that tangible energy source that's on Michael's head right now." Rachel said.

"That's what spawned those monsters we fought in our time," DK piped in, stating the obvious.

"Great, liquid darkness. Something we don't need right now." Michael said with a humph.

At that moment, the barrier shattered, shocking everyone into remembering what was going on in the first place.

"Whoops, almost forgot about those guys." DK glanced at the others as they started to run full speed again.

"So are these people for real or not?"

Just then, one of the tribes people tripped on a snow-covered tree branch and fell flat on its face. However, to the shock of the party, when face met floor, the being instantly burst into the same liquid darkness it had formed out of and evaporated without a trace.

They immediately stopped running and glared at their artificial attackers. "Well, that explains a lot."
"So can I...?" Rachel said, reaching for her swords. DK nodded, charging up his arm cannon. Rachel grinned, unsheathing her weapons. "Okay boys. Gather around. There's plenty of me to go around." Then with a warrior's cry, she propelled upward into the air and dived into the fray, causing dark slime to splatter all over the white landscape.

DK blasted a few of the tribesmen into shreds. Lara casually stood back, realizing there was no real need for her assistance this time.

Michael took a step forward, then collapsed.

After the dust and snow settled, all that was left of the battle was the residual goo on everyone's weapons.

Lara and Rachel shook their weapons clean.
"Puh! Gak!" DK coughed, wiping grime from his face, "Well, that was fun, if not a bit messy."

Rachel and Lara giggled at the lame joke. Then they noticed Michael, doubled over in pain.

"Michael! Are you alright?"

Michael smiled weakly. "I just need some time to recharge." he said before passing out.

"Michael?" Rachel attempted to shake him awake. "Michael!"

Instinctively, she used the tip of her sword to fling the liquid darkness residue on Michael head away, which DK incinerated midair with a small blast from his arm cannon. Then he quickly blasted the remaining globules of slime that remained from their fallen foes.

"We need to get him to some type of shelter, quickly!" she said, concern etched all over her face.

"But where are we going to find..." DK began.

"Hey, guys" Lara interrupted. "is that what I think it is?"

The group looked in the direction she was pointing.
Sure enough, Winter Lake loomed in front of them, large, icy, and frozen over.

(7) Treading deeper...

Meanwhile, in Kazakhstan...

As he emerged from the vehicle, Jay noted the unsettling silence that captured the landscape.

"It's so... quiet," he thought out loud. The driver stepped out of the vehicle and nodded. "Since that incident I informed you about, no wildlife has dared near this area. I find it ironic that we have chosen to do just that."

"Irony is irrelevant," Rufus replied, pocketing his PDA and closing the door to the jeep.

Jay took off his jacket. "It's a bit warm here too." The afternoon sun blazed from an odd direction, reflecting off of some clouds in the distance. The light cast haphazard shadows off the three ruined buildings ahead of them.

"Here." Rufus took Jay's jacket and threw it in the jeep, then put on a pair of aviator sunglasses.

"I will wait here," the driver suddenly offered, "I am curious, but I value my sanity. No offenses to you two of course."

"Of course," Rufus retorted satirically, starting off towards the ruins a few thousand feet ahead. Jay followed quickly.

The sights to behold quickly made Jay forget about the eerie silence. In the distance, the hills were quite striking, clashing severely with the ruins in front of them. A slightly overcast sky blew past them gracefully.
At about a hundred feet from the ruins, the plant life that had been scattered about on the ground around them suddenly disappeared.

"That's strange..." Jay said quietly, "It's as if something is keeping the plants from growing any closer to the ruins." Rufus shrugged, but didn't respond.

Ahead of them, the closest of the three ruined buildings rose up to meet them. It seemed to be the most complete of the three buildings as well. The outside wall was made of a dark gray stone, intricately stacked in a brick-like fashion. Except for a small hole near the top of the building, no point of entry was visible.

Suddenly, Rufus slowed his pace.
"Jay. There is something else you should know." He continued to walk, but eyed Jay warily.

"Until recently, nobody knew these ruins existed. About a year ago, a lengthy storm bombarded this valley; a storm unlike any the locals had ever experienced. Harsh rains, heavy winds, and massive hail stones tore up the ground, totally reshaping the landscape. In the process, these ruins were revealed. Or at least parts of them were uncovered. It was not too long after when my father and his original excavation team came to investigate. As it turned out, the ruins had been pretty well preserved, so digging them up was a piece of cake. A few months later, they were ready to study what they'd found."

Rufus paused as they reached the building, then finished up by saying, "We need to figure out what they discovered... and if it relates to my father's disappearance."

Jay put a hand on the rough bricks of the building's exterior, expecting it to be warm from the heat of the sun bathing it. Oddly, it was cold to the touch.
Next to him, Rufus spoke, "I think the entrance is on the other side."
Jay nodded, then backed up to look at the hole he'd seen earlier. At this range he could make out its spherical shape easily, which was about the size of a softball. "Weird," Jay muttered, "What's the point of a window that small?"

It was then that Jay realized Rufus had disappeared. He quickly made his way around the side of the building and walked its length to the other side. Along the way, he was able to gauge exactly how big this structure measured. In this case, it appeared to be about a hundred yards long. Jay guessed the back side had been about half that length. Above he noticed chunks of stone missing from various places about the wall. As he rounded the corner to face what Rufus maintained was the front of the building, Jay noticed a pointed stone overhang that jutted from the face of the building, essentially an extension of the roof. Just under that, but above the main entrance, was a aquamarine blue circle, etched into the stone of the building's exterior.

"Weird, eh?" Rufus hollered from behind Jay, who whirled around, slightly startled.

Rufus pointed to the other two buildings which also carried the same pointed overhangs. He scratched his head, and then pointed to a dirt speckled circular pedestal which stood at about an equal distance from all three buildings, about three feet high and wide enough for someone to lay down across.

"They all seem to point at this pedestal, which strikes me as the focal point of this whole establishment."

Jay shrugged. "It must serve some purpose, but what?"

Jay also noted that the other two buildings had circles etched above their doorways, but they were forest green and crimson red alternatively.

"I don't know," Rufus started, "but I'm going to find out." He walked past Jay into the first building, through an opening that appeared to have once held a door of some sort. From inside he heard Rufus's voice echo. "I'm sure we can find some notes and things in here somewhere. Maybe they will help us."

Jay nodded, walking into the building. "We can only hope."
No more than ten feet in the door, Jay met a wall covered by large black tarp. To his side, Jay noticed a opening leading farther back into the building. "Rufus?"
No response. "Rufus?"

"Sorry." Rufus reappeared through the same opening, shrugging. "I didn't find anything back there, but I got distracted by the writings on some of the walls."
He pointed back at them. "But I have no idea what they mean."

Jay glanced through the doorway, although realistically uninterested. "It's a history of this village."

Rufus blinked, surprised. "And... how would you know that?"

Jay raised an eyebrow. "Know what?"

"What that writing says?" Rufus eyed him curiously.

"I-" Jay stuttered, "I... I honestly, I don't know. It... it just came to me."

Rufus was at a loss for words, but he broke an odd silence quickly.
"Okay. This is no time for jokes."

Jay shrugged, leaning against the black tarp on the wall. "Whatever."

Rufus turned to exit the building and heard Jay yelp as he lost his balance. Whirling around, he witnessed Jay tripping and grabbing for something to keep himself upright. In this case, the tarp had to suffice. But it was not hung securely and easily separated from the wall. Jay cried out as he hit the floor and was covered with a mass of black. As Jay struggled to pull himself out from under the tarp, Rufus could only stare in awe at what had been revealed.

Glistening in the light being projected through it from behind, a large crystal panel stood before him, high up on the wall. It was not huge - maybe four feet by four feet - but the vibrance of the light shimmering through it made it seem larger.

"Wow." Jay finally pushed away the remainder of the tarp blocking his view, "It's... wow..."

Rufus noticed the refracted light aiming to and fro in multiple directions. He also noticed that the square panel of glass carried a woven oval shape in its center. "I wonder what this thing does..."

"Maybe this was a church of some sort," Jay suggested.

"Nah," Rufus responded, "This building seems too small."

Jay shrugged. "Then I give up." He headed back towards the entrance.
"Where do you suppose we'll find that artifact anyway?"

Rufus answered as they walked back outside. "I don't know where the artifact is, but I'm assuming it is around here somewhere, because my father never brought it back with him - he was supposed to send it somewhere to be re-dated if you recall - but I checked with them. They never received it."

Jay suspected that the artifact had disappeared along with Mason, but said nothing of this theory.
It was after all, only a theory.

They reached the second building quickly, which was in even greater disarray than the first. The entrance was almost twice the size, due to the fact that a large chunk of the wall had been knocked out, including the door. They could immediately see another tarp covered wall, along with a portable table and a couple of foldable chairs. Rufus first went to the table, which was covered with dirt, papers, and some archaeological tools. He began reading the papers as Jay pulled off the second tarp to reveal another glass panel, although it bared a woven center that resembled the letter "X", made up of two crossed lines.

"These papers are records of the dig," Rufus explained, pausing to read more of them.

"It looks like they stopped digging right after they found the artifact in question, but..." A confused smirk spread across his face. "The only records taken after that date are written in some bizarre language. It doesn't even look native, like Arabic or anything... Odd..."

Jay checked his watch. More time had passed than he realized. "We need to find that artifact."

Rufus looked back at him. "You don't have to remind me, Jay. Are you on a schedule or something?"

Jay shrugged. "No... I..." He let his voice fade , then bolted out of the building impatiently.

Jay eyed the third building as he neared it.

Rufus will be reading those papers for awhile, he thought. I can save us time by checking the third building right away.

Halfway to the third building Jay stopped, then cocked his head.
What was that noise?

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a blemish in the dirt, off to the left, away from the third building. From that same direction came a low pitched hum, barely audible.

"That's odd."

Jay walked towards the inconsistency to get a better look, the hum still ringing in his ears. He found a small dirt mound, freshly created.

"Too small to be a grave."

He approached it without hesitation, then began digging away at the dirt. Less than a minute later he pulled out a shiny piece of silver, shaped like a cross with a loop on top. Jay would've assumed it was an Egyptian Ankh except that it had a large, dark violet crystal orb set in the center of its loop. Also, the bottom ended in a point, treaded with grooves in a screw like fashion. When he saw the bizarre inscriptions on its side, he realized he was holding the artifact they had been looking for all along. For some odd reason, the inscriptions seemed familiar, though Jay couldn't reason why.

As he stood up, Jay realized the hum had faded away.

"Weird..." he shrugged, turning to face an approaching Rufus.

"Jay... I think I figured out what happened to my father."

(6) An Unwelcoming Committee...

Meanwhile...

"Ugh." Rachel found her head buried faced down in a pile of snow. She righted herself up, still disoriented from the time jump. She shook and patted the ice out of her naturally blond hair. Blinking a few times, she found that she was in some sort of snowdrift. She immediately looked around for her comrades.

"D.K!" she called. "Lara! Michael! Where are you guys?"

"Here." D.K. and Lara were trudging up behind her, brushing off snow from their bodies.

"Where's Michael?" D.K. asked. Rachel shrugged. Then she let out a quick shriek and immediately jumped up. She had felt something moving directly underneath her butt.

"What the..." Rachel peered closer and saw that she was sitting on Michael's face. Michael let out a moan of anguish.

"Pain...crushing...warm...soft..." he babbled in delirium.

"Sorry Michael! I didn't see you there!" Rachel and the others dug him out of the ice and propped him up.

Michael shook his head clearing out any cobwebs left in his head. "I thought you were on a diet," he mumbled.

Rachel looked at him for a split-second before smacking the back of his head. "I am, you jerk."

"So this is Blizzard Lake." D.K. said. "I've only heard of it, but never actually seen it."

"You mean, Winter Lake." Rachel replied. "It doesn't become Blizzard Lake until..." She looked around with a puzzled expression. "Actually, nobody knows exactly when this place becomes Blizzard Lake."

"Man, look at this place." Michael said, rubbing the back of his head. "It looks completely different than from the last time we were here." He grinned. "It's also a whole lot warmer."

"You call this warm?" Lara said through chattering teeth.

"Hey, it could be worse." Michael said. "At least we don't have to worry about being attacked."

Of course, the moment he said that, a spear thunked right between his legs. The party looked up and saw a native tribe charging at them, weapons flailing, shouting in their native tongue.

Rachel started to whip out her weapons when D.K. shouted "No! We don't know what it'll do to our time line!"

"Then what do you suggest?!" It didn't take them two seconds to figure out the answer to that.

"Run!" The party ran in the opposite direction.

Rachel glared at Michael. "You had to freakin' say it. 'It could be worse.' Why didn't you just keep your mouth shut?"

(5) Back to the Present...

It was no mystery what these coordinates implied, and Jay knew exactly what had to be done.
As they left the coffee shop, Rufus discussed Jay's participation in finding Mason Biggs.

"It's apparent that you're inexplicably connected to my father's disappearance, and according to his last communication, you are the only person who can find him. If you help me find my father, I will pay you what he had agreed to pay you for your services, only in this case it will be for helping find him."
Jay zipped up his coat, staring out at the gray skies above. "Actually, I was already planning on helping you. Although I can't explain why, somehow I feel I need to do this..."

"In any case," Biggs Jr. insisted, "I will pay you for your assistance."

Jay nodded in agreement. "So where do we begin?"

"We need to find out where those coordinates from my father's business card point. I already have my suspicions we're looking at someplace in Kazakhstan, although I want to be absolutely certain."

Jay raised an eyebrow. "So...?"

"Get some sleep," Rufus suggested, stifling a yawn, "you'll need it. I'll send my driver over to pick you up first thing in the morning. Then, we'll meet at the airport." Jay nodded.

Rufus flagged down a taxi cab. "In the meantime, I have to get back to my hotel and make some calls to arrange everything. Also, I have some connections in the Pentagon. We can get recent aerial photographs and maps of the area before we head over there."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Jay replied, looking down at his watch.
One AM. Definitely time to get some shut-eye.

Rufus stepped up to the taxi as it eased up to the curb, then turned back. "Thank you, Jay."
Jay waved off the comment. "Don't thank me yet. Your father is still missing."

...

Jay hurled the alarm clock across his bedroom as it blared a local radio station's rock and roll music. It shut off mid-air as the momentum unplugged it from the wall, then rebounded off the bathroom door and into a pile of dirty clothes. Luckily, Jay had glanced at the display before practicing his shot put technique. It was just after 9 o'clock. No sooner had he gotten out of bed, then he heard a car horn blare from outside. Checking the window, he spotted a dark silver limousine, apparently converted from an Ashton Martin sports car.

"He has good tastes. I'll give him that," Jay muttered to himself, throwing on some jeans and a t-shirt. He grabbed a small suitcase he packed and set it next to the door. Running into the bathroom, he quickly cleaned himself up.
Once outside, Jay eyed the limousine, hoping it actually was the driver Rufus was supposed to have sent.
The driver side door swung open and a clean shaven, gray haired, neatly dressed man stepped out.

"Are you Jay?" he queried in a worn British accent.

"That would be me," Jay answered stepping up to the vehicle.

"Excellent. I was instructed to take you to the airport by my employer, Rufus Biggs."

...

Ten minutes later, the limousine pulled up to the city airport's international terminal.
Jay stepped from the passenger's door, as the driver opened it for him, then reached for his suitcase.

"Jay! Just in time," Biggs Jr. walked hurriedly from the terminal entrance to the limo, "Our plane leaves in fifteen minutes." He slipped the driver a couple twenty dollar bills. "Gas money. Fill her up, if you could. Then take a few days off." The driver nodded, then got back in the vehicle.

As the limousine pulled out of the drop off zone, Jay and Rufus hurried through the entrance.
"I have a private jet which will take us directly to the where we need to go," Rufus explained, directing Jay to a hallway far off to the side, "One of the perks of running a business like mine."

...

In just a half hour, the duo was airborne, comfortably resting in plush seats that were part of Rufus's private jet, aptly named the Bigg One. Jay sipped a cola as Rufus restlessly typed away at a laptop in front of him.
Abruptly, he stopped.
"Here we go," Rufus swiveled the laptop so Jay could see the screen, "what you're seeing is a bird's eye view of Winter Lake, Mongolia. This is where those coordinates pointed." He pointed in the general vicinity, then punched a few keys, which zoomed out the shot to show more land area.
"My father was last seen at this site, near Eltemu, Kazakhstan." Rufus pointed to an area west, and just slightly south, from the area of Winter Lake. As Jay scanned the map, he realized that Eltemu was over 200 miles away from Winter Lake.
"You're positive this where those coordinates point?" Jay questioned.
"I got this information from my friend at the Pentagon, and they typically know what they're talking about."
Jay shrugged. "Good point. Although it seems unlikely that we'd find your dad 200 miles from where he disappeared, right?"
"I honestly do not know what to believe at this point," Rufus replied with a strained tone of voice, "but I know my father is an decent man. I know he wouldn't give you information that would lead us astray."
Jay nodded. "Fair enough."
"On that note," Rufus continued, "we are going to land at an airstrip near Eltemu, then investigate the site where my father disappeared for any additional information. Afterwards, we will head to this Winter Lake in Mongolia."
Rufus closed the laptop, which then powered off automatically.
"According to my contacts, he did not bring a whole lot with him for his trip to Eltemu, so it probably won't take that long for us to check things out."

...

"You weren't far off," Jay sighed, staring out at the barren landscape in front of him. A mud stained field, it contained some scattered shrubbery and three collapsed structures that could have been houses or small buildings of some sort. To be frank, Jay hadn't seen much of anything since he left the airstrip.
"This place looks deserted."

As their jeep near the location, the driver spoke in a thick accent.
"You are not mistaken, sir. After your friend disappeared, the locals that were assisting him in this dig refused to come back. They believe that something unnatural has occurred here, so it would be extremely bad luck to return here again."

"So...," Jay had to know, "why would you risk coming here?"

The driver paused, a stricken look on his face. "I suppose you could say my curiosity outweighs my fear."

Their vehicle hit a dip in the road and bobbed violently.
"Sorry," the driver spit out, compensating by thrusting the wheel quickly.

Rufus waved it off, shifting in his uncomfortably unpadded seat. "No big deal, we're almost there anyway."
He plucked a personal digital assistant from his coat pocket and tapped a few keys. "Jay, I have a copy of my father's most recently published report of findings from this site on my PDA here. It seems that they stopped the digs about three weeks ago. This after finding an "unidentified" artifact dated to over three centuries ago. From what I read, it seems they encountered some confusion about its origins. Although it dated to about 350 years ago, the inscriptions on its surface matched those of some artifacts from another site that dated to about 1500 years ago. I guess this discrepancy halted the dig, because my father wrote that the artifact was to be re-dated at another location."

Jay contemplated this as the jeep slowed to a halt. "This artifact may be of some importance to us."
Rufus nodded. "I agree."
Then the driver cleared his throat. "There is something else you should know, sirs."
He looked at Rufus. "I was told something very disturbing by a local who worked for your father..."
He paused, as if struggling to continue.
Jay leaned forward. "Go on."
The driver nodded.
"He told me that an artifact, quite possibly the one of which you speak, was causing disease among those who came too near it. Not disease you can see, but disease in the mind... disease of the soul."
The driver squeezed his eyes shut, as if trying to recall the conversation more accurately.
"At first, it was only minor outbursts. Panics. They subsided quickly. But then workers began to break out in screaming tantrums. They began to pull out their hair in unrooted angst. Many were taken to local hospitals for help. The few that remained quickly thought up any excuse to leave."
The driver cocked his head. "But... for some reason Mr. Biggs was immune to its effects. He continued to study it until he went back to the Americas unannounced. I know this because I drove him here and back almost everyday."

Rufus stuttered at the news. "S-so, do you know how he disappeared?"

The driver slumped down in his chair. "When he returned from the 'States I took him back just once. I usually wait to see if he needs me to pick up anything from the market in town for his day's meals. But he told me just to take the day off and pick him up in the morning. I returned the next day... but he was nowhere to be found."
The driver sent the car into motion once again. "That, sirs, is everything I know."

A dead silence pervaded as Jay and Rufus took this all in. The driver broke it quickly.
"We have arrived, sirs."