Grace's hand flew to her mouth. "I don't know. I shut it off when we had breakfast in the underground parking garage under that mall. I can't remember if I turned it back on." Fishing it from her backpack she discovered it was off. "How did you know it wasn't on?"

"I was just guessing. But something gigantic just pa.s.sed us. And if it was using stealth-cloaking technology, the jammer should have disrupted it. That's why I asked if it was off."

Grace clicked the jammer back on. "All this time they could have been tracking me," she said. "I wonder why they haven't."

Pasadena Sun August 12, 2026 Solar Flares Disrupt Communications Between s.p.a.ce Stations NASA has reported that its formerly manned s.p.a.ce station has been completely evacuated of both its U.S. and Russian staff. The last personnel from the s.p.a.ce stations run by China and Pakistan boarded s.p.a.ce shuttles today. Global-1 Station is the only one that has not yet been evacuated.

"These precautions have been undertaken as Meteor 1 quickly approaches Earth," Gus Hardy, a NASA representative, stated at a press conference yesterday. "Although its trajectory is still calculated to bypa.s.s Earth, the s.p.a.ce stations themselves are considered to be at risk. This risk has been amplified by the fact that unusual solar activity has disrupted communication signals both here on Earth and in s.p.a.ce. "Drone technology is especially in jeopardy since it depends on transmitted signal devices," Hardy went on to say. "Disruption of these signals on the scale that we are currently experiencing could prove disastrous."

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) warns that citizens might also be experiencing difficulty with smart phones, e-mail, and other electronic devices disrupted by solar flares. "Be prepared for static on the line and dropped calls to a greater degree than normal," Beth McGhee, an FCC spokesperson, stated. "We have even seen disruption in the use of electronic pa.s.ses at toll booths."

Neither spokesperson was willing to comment on how long this disruptive activity is likely to last.

Eric drove his motorcycle up the sloped road leading into the abandoned city of Walpi, atop the first mesa in Hopi territory. Seated behind him, Grace squinted into the glare of first morning sun bouncing off the flat rooflines of the square, ancient adobe homes stacked one upon the other in three tiers.

Eutonah was already there, standing on the flat stone that created a sort of courtyard in front of the tiered homes. With her was a Native American in a traditional feather headdress. His skin was tanned and deeply lined but his posture was youthfully erect.

Stopping the motorcycle in front of them, Eric locked it into its stand and went to embrace the man and then his mother. "Grace, this is my uncle Russell, who raised me," Eric introduced the man. "Uncle Russ, this is my very good friend, Grace Morrow."

Grace extended her hand and Uncle Russell clasped it in his two strong, rough palms. "The Daughter," he said, turning her wrist so that her bar code tattoo was revealed. "The lines your father has carved in your arm will pull down the sky." His voice was level, thoughtful. Grace didn't perceive any judgment or blame in it, only a statement of fact.

His words chilled her. Pull down the sky? What did that mean?

"Where are the others?" Eric asked Eutonah.

"They are gathering at Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly. We will join them later, but I have had a vision. Chief Russ is the only one I've told of it, and he has dreamed similar things."

"The knowingness has come in a dream," Chief Russell stated, "just as it was foretold."

"What have you seen?" Eric asked.

"Here is where we will find the second part of the prophecy," Eutonah told them. She beckoned for them to follow her back toward the stacked cubed village. The too-bright sun made the mottled adobe walls glow with an iridescent yellow. Beads of sweat were already forming on Grace's forehead and upper lip.

They followed Eutonah into the shade of an adobe building on the first level. The shadowy, empty s.p.a.ce was low but expansive, seeming larger than an ordinary home. Eutonah led them down a narrow ladder into a lower tier. She didn't speak until they had all come down the ladder. "This is a kiva," she explained, "a sacred underground place of worship. It is well-known that this is here." Again, she beckoned for them to follow her, leading them to a stone bench at the far end of the kiva. Kneeling, she threw all her weight into pushing the bench. Eric and Grace dropped down beside her, lending their help.

Grace was sweating with the effort before she felt the stone budge. Encouraged by the movement, the three of them exerted all their strength, forcing the stone bench to move nearly three feet. Eutonah rocked back on her heels and gave a cry of elation. "It is exactly what I saw in my vision!"

Getting onto her belly, Grace peered into the darkness of the opening below the stone bench. Eric joined her, flashing a pen light into the vast, black hole. "The mesa is hollow," Eric concluded.

Grace looked up to Eutonah. "Are you saying the rest of The Bar Code Prophecy is down there?"

Eutonah pointed toward a pile of climbing ropes and equipment in the kiva. "I brought these down earlier. There are a rope and a halter for each of you," she said.

Grace stared at Eutonah, speechless.

"You're kidding, right?" Eric said.

"I've never been more serious," Eutonah replied. "Your uncle agrees with me. The rest of the prophecy is down there."

"You are the Brother. I know because in my dream vision it was you who held the missing piece of the tablet," Chief Russell added.

"In your vision was I alive or dead?" Eric asked, his joking manner only barely disguising his fear.

"I could not tell," Chief Russell admitted in a matter-of-fact tone.

"And if I don't find anything, does it mean I'm not the Brother?" Eric asked, getting to his feet.

"Yes," Chief Russell replied.

"Okay then," Eric said, heading for the pile of climbing gear. "Let's get this over with. Frankly, it's so dark down there that I don't think I'll find a thing. And I wouldn't mind not being the Brother. It's more responsibility than I'm really in the mood for right now."

"This is nothing to joke about, son," Eutonah scolded.

"Who's joking?" Eric asked as he pulled on a climbing halter.

As they went back and forth, Grace silently got into her own halter. Eric had spent enough time watching her back - now it was time for her to return the favor.

"Whoa, Grace," Eric said when he finally saw her. "You're not coming. It is way too dangerous."

"There are two halters here," Grace argued, looking to Eutonah for support. "You meant me to go down there, too, didn't you, Eutonah?"

"It is foretold that the Daughter and the Brother must work in accord," Eutonah said.

"Mom!" Eric protested. "We have no idea what's down there. The walls could be crumbling. We don't even know how deep it is or where this tablet could be."

"You need Grace," Eutonah insisted.

"I can do it," Grace said to Eric. "You yourself told me I was one of the best climbers you'd ever met."

Eric gave in. "All right. Let's do it."

Grace looked to Eutonah for confirmation and Eutonah gave it with a nod. Clicking off her signal jammer - there would be no need for it as she descended deep into this rock - Grace was swept with the feeling that what she was about to do was somehow the most important thing she had ever attempted in her life.

Grace hung in midair from a climbing rope tied to a pillar in the kiva. Around her was complete blackness.

"Grace!"

"Where are you, Eric?"

A flood light snapped on from the opening above, making Grace blink and turn from the sudden light. Eric hung just feet away. Instinctively they reached for each other, their fingers intertwining.

"Are you all right?" Eutonah shouted as she moved the light's beam around, revealing rock walls in the immense opening. It was comforting to be able to see something in this world of infinite quiet and total darkness. They had come with flashlights clipped to their harnesses, but Eutonah's light was brighter and cast a broader beam.

Grace inhaled deeply to calm her nerves. The air was cool and helped her to focus. There was a narrow ledge running along the surface of the closest section of the rock wall. With a tap to his shoulder, she pointed it out to Eric.

"Over there!" Eutonah shouted down. "There's an opening in the rock. I saw something like it in my vision. Try to get to it."

Still holding hands, Eric and Grace rocked their bodies back and forth until they were swinging wide. Soon they were bouncing onto the edge of the ridge but unable to grab hold. Separating, they swung - kicking off and swinging back - slowing at each interval until the movement was a controlled bounce. Finally, Grace spied some jutting rock and reached for it with two hands, gripping until she could pull her entire weight onto the ledge. Eric did the same, landing about three feet farther away. With her face turned to the side, Grace inched toward the opening in the wall. Eric quickly caught up to her and was right behind.

As Grace was about to enter, she felt a tug at her waist and was unable to go farther. "You don't have any more line," Eric told her. "Me neither. We have to unhook."

Grace peered at the carabiner tethering her to her climbing line and then to Eric. This line was all that connected her to the world above.

"It's okay," Eric a.s.sured her, holding her line. "We'll keep the lines."

Reluctant but knowing there was no choice, Grace unclipped. Eric still held her line as he unhooked his own. Clipping the two lines together, he looped them around an out-cropping of rock.

"They'll be there when we come out," he promised. Then, looking up, he shouted to Eutonah, "Mom! Keep as much light on this opening as you can."

Grace led the way as they made their way into the opening. Grace could stand with only inches of room above her head. Eric needed to stoop. He took out his light and swept it around the cavelike opening.

Grace gasped at what his light revealed. Sleeping bats clung to the walls. The light made several of them stir, forcing Grace to fight down panic. What if they all awoke at once and began swarming the cave?

Eric shone the beam on the floor and put his finger to his lip. With his light still down, he moved stealthily around the cave, searching for any kind of stone tablet. Grace moved beside him, scanning the rock floor, trying to block out the occasional chitter of a bat they had half roused.

There was nothing there. They would have to continue searching elsewhere. Grace did not relish the prospect of going any farther into this frightening black s.p.a.ce.

"Let's get out of here," she whispered.

"Okay," he agreed. "I just want to look at this mark here on the wall." Cupping the light from his flashlight to avoid disturbing the sleeping bats, Eric held it to the back of the cave wall. "It's a circle," he observed, stepping closer to it. "So people did come -"

Eric suddenly tottered backward as the ground under his feet gave way.

Grace grabbed his arm to keep him from falling over, but his weight only pulled her forward.

In the next second, they were both falling through darkness.

"Grace, are you all right?"

Lifting her arms, Grace probed the complete darkness for Eric and found his face. "My knee really hurts," she replied, wincing. "What about you?"

He flicked on his flashlight, revealing a lower section of the cave. The floor they had fallen through was about fifteen feet above them. Above them the bats were swirling frantically, distressed by the sound of the crash, squeaking and flapping their wings.

"I'm okay," he said. "I hit my head but it's not bleeding."

Eric swung his light beam around the s.p.a.ce. Clay plates, jugs, and urns - some broken, others intact - were strewn across the earthen floor. Grace saw where her flashlight had rolled and crawled to it. Adding her light to Eric's, she saw a pictograph on the wall.

"Eric, look," she said.

"It's like some kind of timeline," Eric observed as they stood studying it. A large stick figure of a man stood to the left. At his feet was a horizontal line with various markings on it - small drawings that seemed to indicate various events. The last one showed a boat with squiggly black marks pouring downward. "This could be the British Petroleum oil spill back in 2010," Eric said.

"It keeps going, though," Grace observed, sweeping her light to the right. There was a thick black vertical line crossing the horizontal timeline and jagged lines emanating from the center crossing marks. One line reached all the way to a circle ringed with a corona of fire.

"I wonder if that represents Big Mountain at the sacred Four Corners," Eric said, shining his light on it. He turned to Grace. "The Four Corners is where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado meet. My people consider it a spot of very high energy, the most sacred place."

"But that's where they're mining," Grace said, recalling the line of Global-1 mining trucks.

"Let's keep looking for the other piece of the tablet," Eric suggested, moving his light from the wall and surveying the rest of the s.p.a.ce with its light.

Grace crouched low to the ground and tried to get a closer look at the dishware there. It was white and had various figures of strange creatures etched into it. Eric joined her, inspecting the engravings on the clay. "I wish we knew what this all means," he said, picking up the broken half of a dish.

Grace shined her flashlight in his direction to illuminate him as he spoke and she noticed the piece he held. "Look at the inscription on that pottery you're holding," she said, shining her light directly on it. "It's a small version of the picture on the wall but it goes on even longer."

Eric checked the pictograph in his hand. "You're right."

They looked at each other excitedly. "I don't think this is a plate, either," Eric added, turning it. "It's completely flat."

"And broken at the top," Grace added. "Do you think it could be the other half of the prophecy?"

Eric stood, still inspecting the broken pottery. "What I think is that we should get this back to my uncle right away."

"How are we going to get out of here?" Grace asked. The cave wall curved up to the ceiling, and the opening they had made when they crashed through was at the center. "Even you can't climb upside down."

"Get on my shoulders," Eric suggested, crouching. But when Eric was standing, clutching Grace's ankles, she still could only touch the top with the tips of her fingers. Her attempt to jump up sent them both crashing to the ground as the ancient ceiling crumbled under her grasp.

A bat flew down and swirled around the room, making Grace cover her head. And then suddenly it was gone. "It didn't fly back up," Grace said to Eric. "I was watching the opening."

Three more bats descended and disappeared the same way. The next time it happened, Eric trained his light on them, following their exit path. "Come on," he said. "They sense some way out."

At the far end of the s.p.a.ce, they found an opening just large enough to fit into. Grace swallowed hard as nerves threatened her. Where did it lead? Would they get stuck? But then she realized: They didn't really have any other option. With a new-found determination, she pushed herself into the opening. Eric followed.

They crawled through complete darkness. Occasionally a bat whizzed past them, making Grace flatten to let it go by. In about fifteen minutes, Grace heard a sound ahead of them, but couldn't tell what it was. It might be rushing water, but it seemed louder than that. It encouraged her that they were coming close to something at the other end. "I think we're almost there," Eric called ahead to her.

The tunnel let out in a large cavern with stalact.i.tes and stalagmites that met in the middle to form columns. More bats roosted in the ceiling and side walls, while some flew in from other openings. Eric and Grace followed the sounds in a downward slope until they were sloshing through knee-deep water that gradually grew more and more shallow.

Grace squinted into a shard of light. Reaching out, Eric took her hand as they walked toward the opening of the cave, the sunlight growing ever more blinding. Slowly their eyes adjusted.

There was nothing there.

And yet something was making the sounds of motors and engines. There was a tremendous gust of wind.

All at once, as if out of nowhere, the cloak of invisibility was lifted.

Stretching for as far as Grace could see, Global-1 trucks and machinery gouged the land, clanking as they dug. Blackened water ran down high sluices continuing along miles of above-ground pipe. High in the air, Global-1 drone helicopters hovered, their whirling blades glinting in the sunlight. Uniformed Global-1 police brandished laser rifles as they patrolled the perimeter.

Still holding hands, Grace and Eric backed up, not wanting to be detected. Abruptly, they collided with Eutonah and Chief Russell, who had come up behind them.

"How did you get here?" Eric asked.

"Uncle Russ knows a path around the mesa. We drove until the road ended and then we hiked," Eutonah told him. "When we saw you weren't coming up, we figured you'd try to come all the way down, and we wanted to meet you. I can't believe what we've uncovered here."

"You've jammed their stealth cloaking signals!" Eric realized.

Eutonah held out the signal jammer. "This thing is powerful," she said. "I heard the noises and thought I'd give it a try."

"Unbelievable," Grace murmured, taking in the ma.s.sive mining operation.

The Global-1 workers were descending from their machines and trucks, realizing that they were visible. Voices rose in alarm as they tried to contact each other and discovered that their phones wouldn't work.