‘Yes. Everything they told my father about Xibalba, everything they programmed into the Balam’s astrology charts … it was all one big calculated lie. This planet isn’t in the Orion Belt, and that red giant out there isn’t Betelguese … it’s Sirius. And that white dwarf, it’s Sirius-B!’

‘What’s the difference?’

‘Don’t you get it, Mother, we’re not hundreds of light-years from Earth, we’re on Earth!’

‘What?’

‘Xibalba is Earth … only Earth hundreds of thousands … maybe millions of years in our future!’

‘No … Jake how can that be? Look at the red sky—’

‘The atmosphere’s changed, the dust particles scattering light differently.’

‘But there are no oceans.’

‘They must have evaporated. Maybe it was the loss of the ozone layer, maybe even a massive green house effect. The seas could still be frozen beneath the planet’s surface … same thing happened on Mars.’ He stands, then reaches out to touch the serpent. ‘And these poor creatures … do you know what they once were?’

She shakes her head, still in shock.

‘They were whales, mother, whales that were cloned and genetically altered to serve their posthuman masters.’

‘I … I don’t understand.’

‘Toothed whales evolved the ability to echolocate. The posthumans used this ability to tap into the nexus. They enslaved the whales … altered their genetic pattern, then rewired the poor beasts with cybernetic implants. The mammal’s ability to communicate in harmonics enabled the posthumans beyond the nexus into the spiritual realm.’

Dominique rubs at her temple. ‘Jake, if this is Earth, then who were the transhumans and posthumans?’

‘They’re us. They’re what happens to Homo sapiens in a million years. They’re the ones who built the floating city and this genetics lab and sea.’ He spreads his arms out. ‘Take a good look around you, Mother, this is the future of the late, great planet Earth.’

‘One future,’ she reminds him. ‘If the caldera triggered this, then maybe the Guardian can stop it.’

He nods. ‘Father said only a Hunahpu could prevent the second cataclysm.’

Dominique stares at the beast, seeing it as if for the first time. ‘The creature seems to know you.’

‘It accessed my mind … my memories back on Earth. It knows I mean it no harm. It’s here to take us to Mick.’ Jacob helps her to her feet. ‘Don’t be scared.’

‘I am scared; just do what you have to do.’

He nods, then closes his eyes, pushing his mind to enter the nexus, allowing him to communicate with the beast.

Dominique’s heart skips a beat as the viper’s head stirs, its gaping jaws hyperextending open before them, exposing hideous ebony fangs, surrounded by hundreds of needle-sharp teeth.

And then a second viperous head appears, identical but smaller, jutting outward telescopically to protrude from the mouth of the first.