Inevitable Fate (Part 3).

David narrowed his eyes as the bright light hit his face. Warm humid air enveloped the body, new unfamiliar smells penetrated into the nose, confirming that they were far from home.

"Welcome to Peru, kids," Marcus grinned contentedly, wiping a slight sweat off his forehead. The transcontinental transfer is no picnic. The man felt a sharp decline in strength, but, of course, he was not going to admit it. Half an hour - and he will recover his strength, and if not, then the magic thing, implanted into his body the day before, will help to replenish the necessary amount.

"Are you sure we are where we need to be?" David looked around but did not notice anything unusual. Dry soil underfoot, boulders, plants typical for the area - nothing around gave a hint that the place was special.

Marcus chuckled, "No, well, initially I had the option to use the energy of the Avenue of the Dead. Imagine, Teotihuacan, we are climbing the Pyramid of the Sun, and performing our ritual at the top, just like the ancient Aztecs. Although I'm not sure about the sacrifice, the blood of the virgins or the heart of the lamb," the man made a wistful look, "It would be spectacular though! Just like in the movies! Oh, I even see the name of this future blockbuster - Fragments of Time or Marcus Taubert saves the world!"

"Then it's better to be called Fragments of Modesty," David interrupted him, "In your case, there are probably no fragments of modesty left." Anderson looked at his wife. Elena gazed into the distance and was lost in her own thoughts. He followed the woman's gaze but again did not notice anything outstanding - ordinary boulders, only larger.

And only looking more closely, David noticed that their shape was not the same as the stones should have.

"Gate of the Gods," explained Marcus, "This place was discovered not long ago. But it has already overgrown with many legends. It is said that the researcher who found this place came to the conclusion that there is an entrance to another dimension. And here there are various anomalies, the magnetic field goes off scale, and people see unknown entities. Nice place, isn't it?"

"I don't even know," David frowned, "Thanks for not giving us the cave this time." Somehow recently, abnormal enclosed spaces did not delight the man. In one of such spaces, he almost died himself, in another one he almost lost his wife.

This particular place, as Marcus put it, the Gate of the Gods looked completely harmless.

"Is this a tourist attraction?" he clarified, noticing several signs not far from them, "Will outsiders interfere?"

Marcus raised his eyebrows as if he had heard not a question but an affront, "Hey, you're insulting me. Within a radius of ten kilometers, the entire territory has been detached by the military since midnight. At normal times, entry here is possible only with the permission of the government of Peru, and now even more so. So no one will notice neither how we got here, nor how we will get out, having done the job."

The man took a laptop out of his bag, opened the program and checked the data, "So far everything is stable," he handed the computer to David, "You will monitor the indicators. This is the general energy background, this is my data. If you notice a sharp jump to the red zone," Marcus pulled a pistol from his bag and handed it to Anderson, "Shoot right away."

"Why do we need this?" Elena was distracted from her own thoughts and looked anxiously at her father.

Marcus touched his daughter's shoulder and stroked it, hoping to reassure her, "This is a precaution measure," turned to David, "Do you remember what happened to Rick when he could not handle the amount of energy that came through the chips? This is unlikely to happen to me, but it's better to play it safe. If you notice strange behavior in me - shoot without hesitation."

The pistol was of a strange shape, with an oblong body and a wide muzzle diameter, ten to twelve millimeters.

"What is it charged with? With the gun of such a size, there should be armor piercing bullets or something like that," David asked.

"There's a serum that's blocking abilities."

"The one that Daniel created?" David was surprised, remembering how he himself urged his brother before the trip to Mexico. After all, with this serum, they planned to get rid of Marcus.

Taubert seemed to have read the man's thoughts, "It will not be possible to get rid of me completely, I have already tested its effect on myself," Marcus did not specify with what pleasure Daniel thrust a syringe with serum into him, and how he was upset that the effect was not so strong, as the elder Anderson had hoped. Marcus was sincerely surprised that Daniel was even able to create something like that. "But you will have a minute or two in case of an emergency."

"Could there be an emergency?" David clarified with caution.

Marcus took off his glasses, hung them around the collar of his shirt with a temple pad, and looked at the tall stone structure, which outwardly looked like a piece of rock, like the others next to it.

"I hope not," he rubbed the back of his neck where a small chip could be felt under the skin, "Although I have no idea how the energy of six billion people will feel."

The plan was to collect the energy of as many people as possible and direct it through one of the energy centers that were located in different parts of the planet. Marcus's chip could store the energy of everyone else who had the chips installed. It was a kind of server where data from all over the world was collected.

Little by little from each, so as not to harm one's health. This was the main goal of the entire campaign of MarcTechnologies for mass chipping of the population.

If the planet's energetic protective dome depended on the emotions and thoughts of the people living on it, then why not take advantage of this from a technical point of view? Gather the energy of the majority and let it pass through yourself, pouring the necessary feelings and dreams into this force.

Marcus didn't know if it would work, but he really hoped. Yes, it looked like a deception of the divine forces, but maybe they won't look at the method and the result will be enough for them?

They stopped in front of a red stone slab. It was over two meters high. The terrain was streaked with cracks confirming its age, but it was not the main reason why this place was unique.

One side of the slab was as flat and smooth as if a stone had been cut with a knife. Diagonally, there were lines similar to those left by the excavator bucket when it scoops up the ground. But soft ground soil is one thing, and a hard stone is something completely different.

In the center of the rock were carved even deepenings, like a door, about seven meters wide. And in the center of the door, there was a hollow where a person could fit, like a keyhole.

This structure was clearly not of natural origin, but even modern humanity could not create such a thing.

Elena touched the surface of the rock and ran her hand over the patterns hidden by the centuries-old sand.

"This gate is the property of the Inca civilization. In ancient times, they were used by the most talented of heroes to go by "the way of the gods" to the better worlds. Many of them disappeared forever, and some returned with knowledge inaccessible to mere mortals," said the woman.

She felt a slight tingling sensation on her fingertips. Streams of energy, like invisible lizards, slid from the surface of the stone and ran down the woman's hand. The skin flared, shimmering in blue patterns from wrist to shoulder, and faded.

The laptop beeped, signaling a slight power surge.

"What was it?" David pulled his wife's hand away from the surface of the stone and examined Elena for possible damage, but there were no visible marks on her skin. "Are you okay? Doesn't it hurt anywhere?"

Elena smiled, her husband, as always, had a maniacal scrupulousness about the safety of the woman, "It's okay, don't worry. This is a common reaction in places like this to particular energy. The gate is not completely sealed, so it should work."

"How do you know they are not sealed? And what kind of energy are we talking about?" David looked into Elena's eyes, feeling the hidden implications in her words, but in return received only a slight soft smile. Lately, she often smiled this way that it was not clear - either joy or sadness was hidden behind the corners of her lips.

"My daughter had an imaginary friend as a child," Marcus interfered into their discussion and Elena glanced sharply at the man, "She called her a fairy. But it seems to me that this fairy had a different name. Can you remind me what it was?" he looked defiantly at the woman. Elena's blue eyes flashed sparks that he had seen a couple of times before. Such eyes could not have belonged to an ordinary human being.

The woman chuckled, "What a naughty boy. I asked you to keep your mouth shut. You ruined such a surprise," she sighed and turned her head to David, whose face was filled with slight bewilderment.

Elena put both palms on the warm surface of the rock, "The Teser family has special abilities for a reason," blue patterns appeared on the woman's skin, like vines of grapes twisting around her arms. They flowed from shoulders to fingers and moved to the surface of the stone, capturing the area of the ancient gate.

"This is because the first descendant of Teser was only half human."

The rock flashed with white light, the energy flowed along the surface to the edges of the stone gates along narrow channels, froze, and then quickly rushed to the center, flashed at one point, highlighting a small hole, and went out.

Elena winced and hung in her husband's arms. The woman was breathing heavily, sweat came out on her forehead. "Ugh, it looks like I miscalculated my abilities a bit," a guilty smile flashed across her face as she saw David's displeased face. "But now we know the exact spot for the key."

The man sighed, it was useless to say something to this stubborn woman. David kissed Elena on the temple, "I guess we can now start with the main plan."

Marcus nodded, "I suppose so," then he picked up the pendant and the ceremonial knife. But when he put both parts together, the expected effect did not follow.

The energy in the stone of the pendant was supposed to combine the kukri with it into a single artifact, but this did not happen.

"What the hell?" the man tensed. Now that they were so close to achieving their intended goal, this situation was suspicious.

Elena grabbed the pendant from Marcus's hands and opened it. Inside, where the "Heart of Infinity" was supposed to shine, there was nothing but the inner metal of the decoration. The pendant turned out to be not the right one.

"Elena, do you know what happened?" Taubert looked slightly pale, an unpleasant premonition was growing inside the man, like an avalanche, gaining strength every second.

"This is not the pendant we need," she replied quietly. The slight smile that had been present on her face for the past few days faded, giving way to anxiety. And this change was the least liked by Marcus. Elena's reaction was too obvious to understand that it shouldn't be this way.

"Wait, I'll call Armand. Nick was in the office, maybe he knows what's going on," Taubert dialed his brother's number and after the second ring tone his brother picked his phone up. Armand's voice was cheerful, so everything was all right on their part, "Armand, where is Nick? Call him."

David looked at Marcus as he was listening to his brother, and Taubert's face grew more serious and serious. He disconnected the call and put the phone in his pocket.

"They are not there."

"Who is not there?" asked David, feeling something unpleasant scratching inside his chest.

Marcus swallowed the lump in his throat and closed his eyes for a second, "Sean and Nick. They are not there. They are gone."

David opened his mouth to ask for details, but the laptop in his hand made such a high-pitched squeak, louder than when Elena touched the rock.

The indicators of the energy background jumped to the maximum, going into the red zone as if they were in the epicenter of a nuclear explosion.

A sharp gust of air burned them with dry heat, and all sounds disappeared under an invisible cover of silence. The bright midday sun flashed and was covered with a gray haze, plunging the space into twilight.

"Are you looking for me?" an icy voice, without a shadow of emotion, sounded from above.

Marcus raised his head and his heart froze, trapped in the tenacious claws of black eyes, in which true darkness was swirling.

Nick was sitting at the very top of the cliff, playing with a chain with a pendant.

"I think I got these little things mixed up. So, I decided to correct the mistake," the corners of his lips quivered in a barely noticeable grin, his eyes remained indifferent.

They were as black as the gloom that enveloped Marcus's mind every time he closed his eyes.

Nick straightened up and looked at the people below. He opened his mouth, his lips moved, but not a single sound was heard.

A moment, and everything around went dark. The sun was still in the sky, but night fell on the earth.