The Fifth World Read Online Free PDF Page A

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    â€œI’m sure you understand the scientific jargon better than I do, miss. But what just happened, though you and many other people may not realize it, is that earth has experienced a blast of cosmic energy so powerful that it produced a dimensional leap. Our position in the universe has shifted, and just as was foretold thousands of years ago, a new world has been born.”
    â€œThat’s ridiculous!” replied Tess. “Who are you people? Where did you come from?”
    â€œWe are the survivors of the Mayan people, miss. Descendants of those few people who remained on this plane of reality when our ancestors transcended dimensions at the end of the Third World. The world that just left us—forever, in fact—was the fourth.”
    â€œWell, I . . . I haven’t noticed a thing!”
    â€œOh, really?”
    The man’s ironic smile, fixed on his face, made her wary.
    â€œHave you tried to make a phone call? You won’t be able to,” he said, laughing as he watched Tess unsuccessfully dial the emergency number from her cell phone. “Have you heard anything at all on the radio in the past few hours? No. And from now on you won’t, not ever again. Have you tried plugging anything into an outlet? You might as well say good-bye to all that forever. In the Fifth World none of that will work anymore. The sun has altered the electrical balance in the ionosphere and, as such, in the entire planet.”
    â€œJust like that?”
    â€œLook!” One of the other men with them pointed upward. The night sky had transformed into something phantasmagoric, surreal. The silvery sky seemed to have morphed into a spongy substance that flowed as if dragged by the wind. It was a kind of aurora borealis, one that was nothing like anything any human had ever before seen on Earth.
    â€œNow do you believe us?” the man asked. “Everything is mutating. Even you. You don’t realize it, but your entire molecular structure and DNA are changing at this moment.”
    â€œRight . . . ,” she said, quivering. “So, what do you want from me?”
    â€œWe’ve come to deliver you a message: ProfessorJack Bennewitz is waiting for you at the Teotihuacán ruins. He wants to explain everything.”
    â€œJack . . . ?” Tess was unable to finish her sentence.
    F OR THE UMPTEENTH TIME, BILL DAFOE checked, but without luck. The conventional communications grid, including the high-resolution microwave signal, was down. The order to search for Tess Mitchell hadn’t made it beyond the four walls of the embassy. Instinctively, he leaned out the window of his office on the sixth floor of the building. To his surprise, all the Christmas lights lining Serrano had gone dark. Not a single bus traveled down this street, one of Madrid’s main arteries, and even the many Santa Clauses that just a few hours earlier had been clogging the sidewalks of this commercial zone had disappeared into thin air. The city seemed deserted.
    â€œI have to check something,” he said to Eileen, and bounded down the stairs. The elevator, along with all the electricity in the building, had gone dead as well.
    When he arrived at the building’s front gate, the Marine Corps guards and the National Police in charge of watching over the embassy precinct were in a state of distress. Everything had stopped working. Even—and this was the strangest thing of all—the diesel engines of the two assault tanks that the Spanish police used to guard the surrounding streets.
    â€œBill! Now that’s funny!” shouted the officer responsible for allowing outsiders to gain access to the building. He knew Dafoe from their years as schoolmates back in Lexington, Kentucky. “With this damn blackout I had no way of calling up to let you know. You’ve got a visitor. In the waitingarea.”
    â€œA visitor?”
    â€œYeah . . . Let’s see,” he said,