“And spoiled the surprise and diluted the dramatic effect of the demonstration? I fear my showman’s spirit would not allow that.”
Kane eyed the harp, thinking back to the infrasound wands wielded by the hybrids at Dulce, to the instrument played by Aifa in Ireland. They all seemed related, devices operating on the same principle. He knew it wasn’t a coincidence.
Slowly he rose to his feet, towering threateningly over Sindri. “I don’t like being used as a fucking guinea pig, little man.”
Sindri stared up at him, not in the least intimidated. “Neither do any of us, but it’s a situation we had no choice but to accept.”
“What did the instrument do?” asked Brigid. “How does it work?”
“Every energy form has its own balanced gap between the upper and lower energy states, each size of the gap giving a particular frequency to the radiation emitted. If the radiation within this particular frequency falls on an energized atomlike living matterit stimulates it in the same way a gong vibrates when its note is struck on a piano. Harmony and disharmony.”
Sindri smiled, displaying his excellent teeth. “I hope you don’t think my little demonstration of its principles was a breach of manners.”
“Not at all,” said Kane. “You have perfect manners.”
“And pretty damn imperfect morals,” Grant said.
Sindri’s face lost its beam. For a second, rage looked out of his eyes as a glare that glittered. It was instantly veiled. He wheeled around and marched across the floor.
Grant whispered to Kane, “You sure you’re okay?”
Kane nodded. “Yeah. I actually think I’m better off than I was before.”
Brigid’s eyes narrowed. “Explain.”
Sindri called with quizzical impatience, “Gentlemen and lady, if you will please join me?”
They joined him under the colossal head suspended by the network of cables. Tapping the chin with his cane, Sindri declared, “This morose fellow is who started all the trouble, began the entire sequence of events which led to this moment.”
“Who is he?” Brigid asked.
Sindri sighed and shrugged. ‘ ‘His name, if ever he had one, is lost in the mists of prehistory. Perhaps he had many…Ra, Lugh, Odin, Yahweh.”
“I have no idea what you mean,” said Brigid icily.
Sindri said, “In 1976 the satellite probes of the Viking Mars Mission transmitted more than fifty thousand photographic images of the planet’s surface back to Earth. The image on frame 35A72 of the Cydonia Plains became the mystery of mysteries of the late twentieth century. A vast stone head, over a mile and a half long by one mile wide.”
Waving to the head looming above him, he continued, “This is a model of the mysterious Mars masque built to a fraction of the scale. I can testify the original is much more awe-inspiring. As you may have guessed, the photograph of the face was debunked by the authorities of the day as a result of natural erosion, tricks of light and shadow.”
Kane looked the head over again, trying to visualize the size of the original. He found he could not.
“Of course,” Sindri continued, “although the possibility of an extraterrestrial civilization in our solar system was publicly sneered at, a furious, concerted and covert campaign began to investigate and lay claim to any artifacts this nonexistent Martian civilization may have left behind.”
Sindri gazed up at the face, and his expression mirrored the majestic sadness etched into it. “They left behind very little of value. Wherever they went, whatever happened to them, the Danaan took their secrets with them.”
Brigid had worked very hard in her years as an archivist to perfect a poker face, so her reaction was restricted to an almost imperceptibly raised eyebrow. Grant seemed momentarily frozen, and Kane’s whole body tightened, as though a jolt of current coursed through him. He echoed, “The Danaan?”
Sindri cast him a curious glance. “Yes, that was the name they were known by. Or more accurately, what they were called in Terran mythologies.”
Kane stared at the head with a new intensity, whispering, “Son of a bitch .”
Sindri asked, “You know of them?”
Grant answered gruffly, “How could we?”
Ignoring him, Sindri said urgently, “You must tell me what you know, how you know. I need your cooperation.”