‘Who was the great Kukulcán? The Mayans describe him as a tall, Caucasian man with long, flowing white hair and beard and blazing aqua-blue eyes. Quite the mystery, considering the first white men didn’t arrive in Mesoamerica until the early 1500s … 500 years after Kukulcán’s passing! Adding to this mystery is the fact that, in every successful ancient culture, there has been a great teacher whose description is almost identical to Kukulcán’s. In Giza, Egyptians worshiped this wise man as Osiris, at Stonehenge he was Merlin. In Nazca and Sacsayahuman, the Incas revered him as Virococha, and among the Aztecs he was Quetzalcoatl.

‘Mysterious wise men … each introducing science and civilization to their assigned peoples. The Bible describes them as giants, men of reknown. I’ve identified them as extraterrestrials, humans from another time, another place. And they came here to save us from the cataclysm that will arrive on the winter solstice of 2012.

‘I am not here to debate the existence of ETs and UFOs with Mr. Borgia. As archaeologists, we know real doomsday events have overwhelmed our planet’s inhabitants throughout its history. As scientists, we know our Earth lies within a cosmic shooting gallery of asteroids and comets. We know that 65 million years ago, an asteroid, seven miles in diameter, struck our world at the same ground zero that would eventually become the Mayan homeland, ending the dinosaurs’ 200- million-year reign. Was it predestined or an accident? Could such an event happen again? It’s been estimated that 2,000 such civilization killers continue to cross Earth’s orbit, though to date, we’ve only accounted for one in ten.

‘The Mayan calendar was left to us 2,000 years ago as a warning. Should we heed it, then perhaps we can save ourselves from whatever cataclysm lies ahead.

‘Or, as is the nature of our species, we could simply ignore the warning signs until something terrible happens …’

PART 1
CONCEPTION

Time is not at all what it seems.
It does not flow in only one direction,
and the future exists simultaneously with the past.

—ALBERT EINSTEIN

We cannot change anything until we accept it.

—CARL JUNG

1

JANUARY 21, 2013: 30 DAYS A.N.D.E. (AFTER NEARDOOMSDAY EVENT) WELLINGTON, FLORIDA

The Dojo is sixty feet long and thirty feet wide, its walls covered in mirrors, its floor made of polished wood. Master Gustafu Pope, fifth-degree black belt and former karate champion of Argentina, turns to his ‘Bushi’ warriors, all seated along one wall in a lotus position. ‘Richard Rappaport. Andrea Smith.’

Hearing her alias, thirty-one-year-old Dominique Vazquez jumps to her feet. Like the rest of Master Pope’s students, the ebony-haired, Hispanic beauty is dressed in full Bogu—protective armor. Her chest and stomach is covered by the Do, her waist in the Tare, her hands and wrists by the Kote gloves. She slips the headpiece known as the Men over her long ponytail, the heavily padded base protecting her face, throat, and the sides of her skull.