Yes. Fortunately, humanity was granted a second chance when the Guardian took the Balam back through the wormhole and ended up at Earth, 65 million years in the past.

And what’s to prevent us from failing again? Manny’s not even Hunahpu. I don’t see how we can win over this Abomination.

You’ll win this time because I’m going to help you. I can be your eyes, advising you which road to take. I can prepare you in much the same way the Guardian tried to prepare me.

Then do it, teach me! Tell me what happened to you after you entered the serpent’s mouth and disappeared.

I didn’t disappear, Jacob. I entered the Guardian’s pod and moved beyond light speed. As the stars passed by like taser fire, I realized the reality of my decision. What seemed like seconds to me would be decades to everyone on Earth. You, your brother, your mother—everyone of my era would be long dead by the time I arrived on Xibalba, wherever that hellish world might lie.

I panicked. I screamed. I ordered the Guardian to return me to Earth.

But it was too late. The highway I was traveling on could only move forward—and it was a dark road that led to the origin of man’s evil.

The Guardian promised they would never abandon me. Those were the last words I remembered hearing before I lost consciousness.

When I awoke, I was shocked to find myself aboard an Earth shuttle, bound for Mars.

I don’t understand? Were you remote-viewing the scene, still unconscious aboard the Guardian’s transport pod, or was it real?

The event was real, only I was living it as someone else, someone from my past but your future. Let me tell my tale, and you’ll understand.

What clued me in to the time period was the space vehicle itself. It was not a shuttle like those NASA had designed and flown during my teen years. This vessel was infinitely larger, with private berths to accommodate fifty-two passengers and a year’s worth of supplies. Nor were we alone on our voyage. There were eleven other shuttles accompanying us, twelve in all, like the twelve tribes of Israel—all crossing the great desert of space on our journey to the Promised Land … Mars.

You were on a scientific expedition?

No, I’d say it was more like a pilgrimage. The great holocaust I told you of had just overwhelmed humanity. Billions had perished, and billions more were destined to die. Something horrible had happened back on Earth … a cataclysm that caught the general population by complete surprise. But the upper echelons of the government knew, and that’s why we were aboard those space shuttles.

They kept it a secret?