The Bar Code Prophecy by Suzanne Weyn Page A

fascination and her desire to look away. A sidelong glance at Eutonah revealed that the woman’s face had become a stone mask, reflecting nothing but absorption in Eric’s progress.
    When Grace dared to look at Eric again, he was withdrawing a stone tablet of about twelve by eight inches from the opening. He tucked it into the belted waist of his jeans and began his ascent.
    Only when his hand appeared above the edge of the mesa did Grace feel it was safe for her to move. Scrambling to the edge, she clutched his wrist to assist his return. Before rising, he passed the stone tablet up and she took it from him with her free hand. Eutonah laid on her stomach and helped pull Eric up and over to safety.
    “Thanks,” he said, lying on his back beside Grace and his mother.
    “Here’s why we think there is a tenth prophecy,” Eutonah revealed, sitting with the tablet on her knee. Leaning in close to Eutonah, Grace saw a series of pictographs, straight lines, and stick figures. Below these were writings in English, as if someone had interpreted the meaning of the pictographs. Eutonah began to read the engraved writing:
    Our brother shall return. He will bring with him the innocent daughter fathered by the master of destruction. The heavenly bodies will know her every move by the lines of destruction the father has carved on her arm. She will flee him but the master’s warriors will not stop until they pull the heavenly bodies to the earth and then …
     
    The tingling that had rung in Grace’s skull returned full force. Her hands flew to her head and she squeezed her eyes shut. Eutonah’s hand encircled Grace’s wrist and she was traveling once more.

 
    When Grace reopened her eyes, she was once again in the dank, harshly lit subway storage closet. Eutonah and Eric were with her. “The time ran out,” Eutonah explained. “The helmet runs on a timer for our own protection.”
    “Do you know the rest of the prophecy?” Grace asked.
    “What you heard is all anyone knows,” Eutonah told them. “During the meeting of chieftains, we used the prophecies to lead us to the stone tablet hidden in the mesa wall. Several of the elders interpreted the pictographs, but the tablet was broken. Somewhere there is a missing piece.”
    “What do the elders think it means?” Eric asked.
    “You are too young to remember this, but back in the year 2012, many people believed that the Mayan calendar had predicted the end of the world would arrive in December of that year,” Eutonah said.
    “Obviously it didn’t,” Eric pointed out.
    “The date seemed to come and go without event, but there are many of us who believe it was the beginning of the end,” Eutonah countered. “It was the year Jonathan Harriman invented the bar code tattoo and Global-1 first launched it in Asia. It took only another thirteen years for the tattoo to spread through Africa and then Europe before it got to America in 2025.”
    “So you’re saying the Mayan prophecy did come to pass, after all?” Grace said.
    “Yes. It just happened very quietly,” Eutonah said with a nod. “But there are those among the chieftains who believe that we are in the final stages of the prophecy.”
    “What’s supposed to happen?” Eric asked
    “No one knows, but much of what happens in the end will be up to the two of you.”
    “Us?!” Grace cried.
    “We think Eric is the brother mentioned in the prophecies,” Eutonah replied. “He combines the blood of two great Indian nations. His father was descended from a line of Hopi chieftains. On my side he is descended from powerful Cherokee shamans, spiritual men and women with highly developed gifts.”
    “And me because my biological father is Jonathan Harriman?” Grace deducted. “Is he really the Master of Destruction?”
    “It might not ever have been his intention to harm anyone,” Eutonah allowed, “but the thing he invented and the company that has grown rich and so powerful because of his invention makes