“Neither did my father. But being a rational man of science, he wanted to find out. And so he dedicated his life and sacrificed his family’s happiness in pursuit of the truth. He spent decades investigating ancient ruins in search of clues. And in the end, what he found was so unfathomable that it literally pushed him to the brink of madness.”

“What did he find?”

Mick closes his eyes, his voice inflection softening. “Evidence. Evidence deliberately and painstakingly left for us. Evidence that points to the existence of a presence, a presence so malevolent that its ascension will signal the end of humanity.”

“Again, I don’t understand.”

“I can’t explain it, all I know is that—somehow—I can feel its presence growing stronger.”

He’s struggling to remain rational. Keep him talking. “You say this presence is malevolent. How do you know?”

“I just know.”

“You’re not giving me a whole lot to go on. And the Mayan calendar’s not what I’d call evidence—”

“The calendar’s only the tip of the iceberg. There are extraordinary, unexplainable landmarks scattered across the face of this planet, astronomically aligned wonders, yet all pieces of a single, giant puzzle. Even the world’s greatest skeptics can’t refute their existence. The pyramids of Giza and Chichén Itza. The temples of Angkor Wat and Teotihuacan, Stonehenge, the Piri Re’is maps, and the drawings along the Nazca desert. It took decades of intense labor to erect these ancient marvels, the methodology of which is still a mystery to us. My father discovered a united intelligence behind all of this, the same intelligence responsible for the creation of the Mayan calendar. Of greater importance is the fact that each of these landmarks is linked to a common purpose, the meaning of which has been lost over the millennium.”

“And their purpose is?”

“The salvation of humanity.”

Foletta’s right. He really believes this. “Let me get this straight. Your father believed that each of these ancient sites was designed to save mankind. How can a pyramid or a bunch of desert drawings save us? And save us from what? This malevolent presence?”

The dark eyes stare into her soul. “Yes, but something infinitely worse—something that will arrive to destroy humanity on the December solstice. My father and I were close to resolving the mystery before he died, but there are still vital pieces of the puzzle remaining. If only the Mayan codices hadn’t been destroyed.”

“Who destroyed them?”