Teddy sat at his computer long after the boys and their uncle had gone to bed. He couldn't get Jimmy's warning out of his head. He needed information. And when he needed information, he knew who to turn to: Konstantinos Katsaros, his brother-in-law and the foremost conspiracy theorist and propagandist for ancient aliens in the world.
Teddy had been studying arcane texts in the Bible for years and had often done battle with his deeply deceived but stubbornly convinced relative about the ancient origins of man. Along the way, he had come to respect Konstantinos' vast knowledge of ancient art, architecture and writings—his middle sister's husband might have been a kook with bad hair, but he was a kook with a vast mental archive of information that might help Teddy find what he was looking for.
Konstantinos' library was even more impressive. He would fall out of his chair when he saw what they had discovered today. To hold never-before-seen footage of a megalithic city in his hands would leave him nothing short of drooling. Teddy quickly hit the send button on the photos, followed by the FaceTime key on his phone. It would be good to talk with the younger boy's as well. He knew they were happy visiting their aunt, but he missed them
"Teddy?" The cherubic, stubble-covered face of his brother-in-law appeared very large on the iPhone screen. Teddy had to look up his nose for a second before he adjusted the screen.
Admittedly, Konstantinos' visage was not much of an improvement—above the round flushed face that stopped short of having a real chin, Konstantinos sported a patch of dark hair that stood almost straight up in a style favored by fringe politicians and conspiracy theorists. The hair made him look wild-eyed and crazy enough to possibly be telling the truth.
"Konstantinos! How are the boys?" Teddy wanted to see them desperately and hoped his sister might overhear and bring them onto the phone.
"Good! Good! I see you sent some photos. I haven't had a chance to look at them. You'll have to call back." Konstantinos was always too busy to help unless the artifact in question might somehow support his theories.
"Brother? Is that you? Jonah and Amos—your father is on the phone!" Thankfully his sister had heard his voice. "Give them the phone, Konnie!"
"Very well—I'll look at these photos while you talk to the boys." Konstantinos was the professorial type, loving when he stopped to focus on the boys, but always easily distracted by his passion.
Teddy said his goodbyes and blew kisses to the boys. They were running off to play before he had even finished. "What do you think, Konnie?"
"Very intriguing—all of the telltale signs of their handiwork. Am I seeing bright blue Andesite?" Konstantinos hair shook as a single entity when he nodded his head.
"Yes. And it appears to go all the way down to the foundation. I wasn't able to confirm, but it went at least halfway down before our lights gave in to the shadows. What do you think of the doorway and the altar?" Teddy felt a certain camaraderie and a sense of serenity discussing his finds with Konstantinos, despite their diametrically opposed views.
"The doorway measures twenty two feet high. The center Trilithon at Stonehenge measures twenty-two feet high. The Gate of the Sun was also originally twenty-two feet high, as are many other megalithic doorframes. It could be coincidence… but the altar is only six feet long." Konstantinos was pinching his non-existent chin.
"What about the creature—what do you think of that?"
"I think it was some weird Cuban jungle animal that had the fur washed off its paws. Probably knocked around in the surf. You can't let your imagination get away from you." Konstantinos failed to notice the irony.
Teddy signed off and stared at the blank screen for a while. Why couldn't Konstantinos see what he could see so clearly? He remembered the presence he had felt in the temple—dark, foreboding, enraged and bitter. That hadn't been an ancient alien.
"Dad?" Joshua called out to Teddy from the forward cabin.
"Yes? Are you alright?" Teddy had been staring at the blank screen reliving what had happened in the temple.
"I can't sleep."
"You want to have some hot cocoa?" This had happened more than once since the boys had lost their mother. Sometimes they talked about her, sometimes they talked about something else. A lot of the time, they just sat together quietly.
"If it's not too late?"
Teddy got up to heat the water. Joshua emerged from the forward cabin followed by Caleb rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Teddy had just set three cups of cocoa on the dining table when Bones came out of the aft cabin scratching his belly.
"You want some cocoa?" Teddy offered.
"Nope. Anybody hungry? I am making scrambled egg sandwiches with mayonnaise and ketchup." It was midnight. Suddenly, Teddy knew how all their groceries were disappearing.
"Dad, I've been thinking about that thing on the beach. What do you think it was?" Joshua displayed the open countenance of the seeker. Caleb stood behind him with spooked, but sleepy eyes.
"Honestly, I don't know. But I believe it may be part of the truth we are out here seeking." Both boy's eyes grew wide and their shoulders pulled in as if they were cold.
"You must have a theory?" Caleb piped up.
"I have many theories, but I have something even better: I have a source." Teddy reached for his Bible. "I already showed you Genesis 6:4 where the Bible describes fallen angels creating a new race called the Nephilim by mixing angelic and human DNA.
Turn to Jude 1:6—'And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he had reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.' The same thing is mentioned again in second Peter 2:4—'For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.'"
The Bible appears to be teaching that angels sinned by leaving their own habitation, the world of spirits, to enter the world of flesh, and despising their first estate, which probably refers to their positions of authority and purity.
"Is that all we know?" Joshua set his cup down.
"It's all we know for certain because it's all the inspired Word of God tells us, but the Bible makes reference to two additional sources: The Book of Enoch and the Book of Jasher." Teddy reached for a couple of stapled internet printouts. "Although these books are not considered part of the inspired Word of God, they seem to track the book of Genesis quite closely and they expand on the discussion of fallen angles and giants."
"What do they say?" Caleb's eyes were tired and he was clearly spooked.
"Jasher 4:18 says: And their judges and rulers went to the daughters of men and took their wives by force from their husbands according to their choice, and the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the earth, the beast of the field and the fowls of air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke the Lord; and God saw the whole earth and it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth, all men and all animals."
"That sounds just like the Genesis account!" Joshua was tracking.
"No. It also talks about the mixture of animals. What is up with that?" Bones stuffed the last of his second egg sandwich into his mouth.
"Some people believe that Greek mythology, including mixed creatures like centaurs, satyrs and minotaurs, might have more truth to it than we think. Take a look at the Book of Enoch 7:5—And they began to sin against birds, and against animals, and against reptiles, and against fish, and they devoured one another's flesh, and drank the blood from it."
"Holy Vampires, Batman!" Bones spewed the tea he was drinking out his nose at the mention of drinking blood.
"Maybe so. Maybe so. In Genesis chapter 9, after Noah's flood, God specifically gives man permission to eat animals, but forbids him from drinking the blood. Think about it." Teddy threw the papers on the chart table and sat back with his arms behind his head, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"The Bible treats giants as genuine, we all know the story of David and Goliath, and it takes issues like drinking blood very seriously. These other two documents appear to provide the reason why—fallen angels mixing the DNA of men, angels and animals!" Teddy looked pointedly at Joshua who looked over at Caleb, it was hard to tell who was more scared
"That's why we are out here seeking evidence for the truth." Teddy wanted to be clear that the books of Enoch and Jasher didn't hold the same authority as the Bible, but they might be providing clues to ancient history just as Greek mythology certainly contained many grains of truth.
"Nope. That is why you are out here seeking the truth. I just like diving." Bones noisily chomped on some saltines he'd found in the trawler's cupboards.
"What about the giants the Israelites faced when conquering the Promised Land?" Joshua pushed.
"It's time for bed. That's enough questions for tonight, but I will leave you with this tidbit: God did sometimes command the Israelites to destroy every man, woman and child… and all the animals too. Why might He do that?" Teddy had a twinkle in his eye.
"Dad?" Caleb looked down.
"One last question." Teddy worried he might have gone too far for the boys.
"Why do you think this is all so important?"
"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. Luke 17:26-27" Teddy stared into the far distance at something no one else could see.
"Who said that?" Joshua shivered involuntarily.
"Jesus."