The Belial Search

by R. D. Brady

  But her words had fallen on deaf ears. Now, she still wrote her pieces, even though she knew they wouldn’t change anything. She still needed to pay the bills.

  But there were other ways to change the world. And she had been blessed with a new mission. Everything happens for a reason, she thought.

  She walked down the hall to her office. Everything in the office was bright white—the walls, the furniture, the carpet, the drapes—everything except for her bright red desk chair and red desk accessories. She loved this room.

  Humming a tune, she sat down at the desk and pulled out the file in the red folder in the bottom left drawer. Placing it on the desk, she booted up her desktop computer.

  She smiled when she checked her email. She opened the email from “lotus friend” and read the five lines quickly. Pulling out a sheet of paper, she jotted down the name from the email. Then she crossed off the name right above it. She smiled and hummed as her pen crossed through the name of Sheila Lachowski.

  CHAPTER 30

  Lemuria, the motherland of all civilizations.

  Laney sat in the back of the Chandler helicopter, her mind awash with everything she knew of the fabled civilization. Compared to Atlantis, very little was known about Lemuria, or Mu as it was more commonly called.

  Laney had always thought of it as Atlantis’s sister archipelago; whereas Atlantis was found in the Atlantic, Lemuria was alleged to have been located in the Pacific. And, like Atlantis, Mu was not a single landmass, but was instead a string of islands. It began off the coast of South America and extending deep into the ocean.

  And just as the survivors of Atlantis were believed to have settled along the countries lining the Atlantic, the survivors of Mu were believed to have settled along the shores of the Pacific, including in the regions that would become modern-day California and Mexico.

  Laney also knew the Lemurs in Madagascar were named after the fabled continent. The name Lemuria, in fact, originated with zoologist Phillip Sclater in 1864 to explain why lemurs were found on Madagascar and India but nowhere else. Sclater proposed that there must have been a continent or landmass stretching from India to Madagascar that, by the time of his writing, had sunk to the ocean floor. Sclater hypothesized that lemurs must have once lived on this ancient continent of Lemuria and had been separated when the continent sank.

  Madame Blavatsky, the twentieth-century theosophist, had mentioned Lemuria as well. She said that Lemuria was a lost spiritual homeland. Then again, Blavatsky and her followers also said Lemurians were telepathic giants who had dinosaurs for pets, so Laney wasn’t sure how much stock she should put in the Russian psychic’s reports.

  The most cited source when it came to Lemuria, though, was James Churchward.

  The story goes that a priest in a library in India showed Churchward some texts in an ancient, forgotten language. The priest was worried that once he passed, there would be no one left who knew about the ancient works. Churchward then spent eight years learning the ancient language, allegedly the world’s first language, in order to translate the texts. He eventually came out with six books on the topic, in which he spoke of a technologically advanced civilization that was based on the principle that all people should be kind to one another—as crazy as that idea might sound to the modern world. Churchward maintained that the island civilization once held sixty-four million people, and that at the time of its destruction it was two hundred thousand years old.

  Even Cayce mentioned Lemuria in his readings—although sparingly, and those mentions were often cited by Cayce’s critics as being proof of his unreliability. But in 1932, he spoke of the location of the ancient civilization, and later, science discovered that there had indeed once been a land that had stretched off the coast of South America and into the Pacific. Parts of it were believed to have remained above water until the end of the last ice age.

  Laney couldn’t remember much more than that, but she knew Jen had studied the myths of Lemuria as part of her doctoral studies, and had given her a call. Jen had promised to do some quick research, and she would be waiting with Henry and Jake when Laney returned.

  Jen also promised to get her Uncle Patrick over from the school for the conversation as well. He had been consumed with Edgar Cayce since their first run-in with the psychic’s predictions during their search for the Belial Stone. If anyone had additional knowledge on Lemuria, it would be him.

  Laney leaned her head against the window of the chopper and stared down at the ground, her concern growing. For the last three years, Atlantis had been a specter in the back of all the danger she had faced. In one way or another, the former island kingdom had reached into modern times and caused all sorts of violence.

  And now Cain was suggesting that it wasn’t just Atlantis they needed to concern themselves with, but Lemuria as well—a second ancient civilization, one that predated Atlantis by thousands of years. And if Cain was right, it was the mother of all civilizations.

  Her head began to ache and she closed her eyes. Another ancient civilization causing trouble. This is not going to be good.

  CHAPTER 31

  Lou, Danny, and Rolly sat in Henry’s office with Cleo. It had taken some talking to get Yoni to agree to let them come to the estate, but some of the guards were heading back anyway, and seeing as they had Cleo as well, they were able to convince Yoni it would be safe.

  Danny and the others knew Laney had asked one of the analysts to look into Cleo’s background, and they had decided to try the straightforward method of getting answers: they were going to ask Laney what she had learned. But they weren’t sure when Laney would be back, and Danny wasn’t sure which analyst Laney had asked. Lou and Rolly wanted Danny to hack into some files and find out, but Danny wasn’t quite ready to violate Laney’s privacy that way. He did, however, take a quick peek at her calendar and saw that she had a meeting with someone about Cleo scheduled for today. So here they were.

  All three heads turned at the brief knock in the door.

  A slim, balding man stepped in with a nod, holding a file. “Hey, Danny.”

  “Hey, Jim,” Danny said. “This is Lou and Rolly.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Jim said as he scanned the room.

  “I’m looking for—” Cleo raised her head, and Jim’s eyes grew wide.

  Lou patted Cleo. “It’s okay. She won’t hurt you.”

  “Um, right,” Jim said, not taking his eyes off Cleo. “Have you seen Laney?”

  “Something came up—an emergency,” Danny said. “Can I help you with anything?”

  Jim shifted the file in his hand from one hand to the other. “No, I don’t think so. It’s just a little research she had me do.”

  “You want us to hold on to that for you?” Lou asked.

  Jim looked at the four of them and shook his head. “I’m sure it can wait. I’ll send her an email and let her know. Nice meeting you all.”

  “You too,” Lou called, trying not to smile as Jim hurried out of the room. Then she turned to Cleo. “Don’t worry, baby. We know what a sweetheart you are.”

  Cleo rolled back on her side and swatted a paw at Lou, who laughed before rubbing her belly.

  “Well, I guess we know who’s been looking into Cleo’s history,” Rolly said.

  Cleo rolled onto her stomach and sat up, tilting her head as if she was listening.

  “Yeah, but he didn’t give us the file,” Danny said.

  “Well, now that we know who it is, I’m pretty sure you can figure out a way to look at that file, can’t you?” Rolly asked.

  “How? He took the file with him,” Danny said.

  Cleo walked over and sat directly in front of Danny, staring at him.

  “Uh, hey, Cleo,” Danny said.

  “I think she wants you to find out what’s going on,” Lou said with a smile.

  “Why me?” Danny asked.

  “Probably because you’re the only one with the skills necessary to hack into Jim boy’s computer and find out what’s on th
at file,” Rolly said.

  “Yeah, but how does she know that?” Danny asked.

  “She is wise in many ways, our Cleo,” Lou said. “Now, come on. Let’s see what’s in the file.”

  Danny groaned, then headed for the conference table. Lou, Rolly, and Cleo followed. They sat around Danny staring at him expectantly.

  “Could you all look somewhere else? This is going to take a little bit,” Danny grouched.

  “Sorry.” Lou turned to Rolly. “You finish Father Patrick’s ethics paper yet?”

  “Finish? Don’t you mean start? It’s not due until tomorrow.”

  Lou shook her head. “Seriously? You need to start—”

  “Okay, I’m in,” Danny said.

  Rolly raised his eyebrows. “I though you said it would take a little bit.”

  Danny frowned. “It did.”

  Lou laughed. “Okay, okay. What does it say?”

  Danny scanned a document on the screen. “It looks like Laney asked Jim to find out where Cleo came from.”

  “Really?” Lou rolled her chair so she was right next to Danny and could read the screen as well.

  Rolly rolled up on his other side. “What did he find?”

  “He traced her back to a lab in New Mexico.”

  “Does Cleo have any littermates?” Lou asked.

  Danny shook his head. “No—not anymore.”

  Lou winced and reached out, running a hand through Cleo’s pelt. “Sorry, girl. Looks like you’re an orphan just like us.”

  Danny pointed to the bottom of the report. “Jim went through some of Amar’s files. He traced Cleo’s… I guess ‘creation’ back to a doctor named Anthony Ruggio. He has an MD and a PhD in biological engineering. He owns the genetics lab out in New Mexico. But from what Jim has here, the place is on the up and up.”

  Lou looked at Cleo. The idea of her being created in a lab seemed so cold, so uncaring. She reached out and hugged her.

  “We should go talk to Dom,” Rolly said.

  “Dom?” Lou asked. “Why?”

  Rolly smiled. “Because if Ruggio is some evil scientist, who would be more likely to know than Dom?”

  CHAPTER 32

  Cleo was waiting for Laney on her porch when the car pulled up. “Thanks. Have a good night,” Laney said to the driver as she let herself out.

  “You too, “ he called.

  Cleo rubbed against Laney’s side as she made her way to the porch. “Hey girl,” Laney said with a smile. “Where is everybody?”

  Back.

  She frowned. “And what are you doing here? I thought you were at the school.”

  A vision of Lou, Danny, and Rolly sitting in Henry’s office popped into Laney’s mind.

  Laney nodded. “Ah. Well, do me a favor and stay with them, okay?”

  Cleo rubbed against Laney one more time before turning toward the main house. Her tail swished behind her as she disappeared through the bushes.

  Laney headed inside, dropped her bag by the bottom of the stairs, and made her way through the kitchen to the back yard.

  “There she is.” Her Uncle Patrick stood to give her a hug.

  “Hey there.” Laney returned the hug and smiled over his shoulder at Jen and Henry.

  Jake walked up, kissed her on the cheek, and took her hand. Laney grasped his hand with another smile.

  “You okay?” he asked as they headed over to where Jen and Henry sat.

  Laney took a seat on the couch across from Henry and Jen. “Yeah. It was actually, in a weird sort of way, nice.”

  “Really?” Jake asked.

  Laney shrugged, not wanting to go into the interaction with Cain right now. They had more pressing concerns.

  “So, Mu, huh?” Jen asked.

  “Mu,” Laney agreed, moving a throw pillow from behind her back to get more comfortable. “All I really know about it is that it was alleged to have been an archipelago off the North and South American coasts.”

  “According to what I could find,” Jen began, “it was huge. It extended off the coast of Peru for almost three hundred miles, then it turned and went on for another three hundred fifty miles, right toward Easter Island.”

  “According to who?” Jake asked. “I mean, is there actual proof of a sunken archipelago?”

  “Actually, there is,” Jen said. “In the 1990s, two ridges were found under the Pacific. The Nazca Ridge runs in an almost straight line for 275 miles from Nazca, Peru to the Sala Y Gomez Ridge, which in turn extends for 350 miles west to Easter Island. Both were above water before the last ice age. So yes, an archipelago stretching that far is definitely possible.”

  Patrick nodded. “And recent years have uncovered more and more land under the Pacific that at one point was above the water. There are numerous groups that maintain their existence dates back to a people who escaped a great dangerous flood in the Pacific. Japan, Australia, even North American Indians talk about a great flood. The Hawaiians also mentioned the flood to Captain James Cook when he first traveled there on one of his three trips to the island.”

  “Yeah, well, he was killed on one of those trips,” Jake said. “Are we suggesting the descendants of the peace-loving Children of the Law of One killed him?”

  Jen put up her hands. “No—just suggesting that there’s a similarity in tales across both sides of the Pacific.”

  “So what about Easter Island?” Henry asked. “What is its connection to Mu?”

  “Well, Easter Island is at the tail end of the alleged archipelago,” Jen said.

  Laney remembered what Jen had said about Easter Island before: that when King Hout-Matua arrived, the island was already populated by tall redheads. History seemed to be littered with tales of ancient tall redheads bringing civilization to the world. Viracocha with the Incas, many of the mummies found in China, even Eric Eriksen and Christopher Columbus were allegedly redheads, although it was safe to say that spreading peaceful tidings was not exactly their forte.

  “Mu was flooded, like Atlantis?” Jake asked.

  Patrick shook his head. “Not exactly. The submersion of Mu was gradual, allowing the people time to escape.”

  “Cain said Mu was the motherland of civilization,” Laney said.

  Patrick nodded. “According to Cayce, Mu was the predecessor of Atlantis. It was in full swing at least fifty thousand years ago.”

  Jake’s eyes grew large. “Okay, that’s just not possible,”

  Laney smiled. “And yet every time one of us says that, we find out it is indeed possible. And discoveries like the Ipiutak Site bolster that possibility.”

  Jake groaned. “The Ipiutak Site? Do I even want to know?”

  Laney smiled. “It’s found 130 miles north of the Artic Circle. Some argue it’s the oldest site of human civilization.”

  Henry raised his eyebrows. “North of the Arctic Circle? That’s tough living.”

  “Maybe. It’s a series of lodges, eight hundred or so, enough to house eight thousand people. It’s the largest settlement found that existed prior to the arrival of Europeans. In fact, none of the settlements nearby ever achieved anything remotely close to its size.”

  “You said it was the oldest. How old?”

  “Well, that’s the problem. There are no artifacts to date. The site was used by more recent cultures, which muddles the history. But they know it’s at least three thousand years old.”

  “That’s it? You said it was potentially the oldest.”

  “Well, like I said, it’s muddled. The site is at least three thousand years old. But if you look at the last time when that part of the world was livable, you’re talking fifty thousand years ago.”

  “But that’s—I mean that’s—” Jake said.

  “That’s the same time that Mu was alleged to exist. And it is in the right area,” Laney said.

  “Okay, but besides legends, is there any proof of a Pacific civilization?” Jake asked.

  “Well, it depends on how much stock you put in legends,” Patrick said. “
Take the moai statues. There are nine hundred of them, all made from basalt. That seems like an awfully difficult achievement for anything less than an advanced civilization. And I can’t imagine they’d do all that work for mere ornamentation, either.”

  “So what was their purpose?” Henry asked.

  Jen shrugged. “I looked into that after Jake told us about the moai left at the murder scenes. Apparently there are some who believe that the moai were able to keep the ocean at bay through some form of resonance.”

  “Resonance?” Laney asked, a chill falling over her. The Belial Stone had used resonance. It had been the power source of Atlantis.

  Jen continued. “The story goes that when the poles shifted, the power was lost, and they become merely statues.”

  Laney knew the last major pole shift was over eight hundred thousand years ago. They couldn’t be that old. An extreme weather incident was more likely. They had been known to move the poles thousand of miles, and that would be enough to throw off any sort of technology relying upon them.

  “How long ago was Lemuria supposed to be in existence?” Henry asked.

  “Well, its first destruction was said to have occurred around 12,000 BC,” Jen said.

  “Is there anything besides rumors to support that?” Jake asked.

  “There is proof that there was a worldwide event that occurred around that time,” Jen said. “That was at the tail end of the ice age, and there were three sudden ice melts that caused the sea level to rise sixty-six feet. Low-lying and coastal areas were inundated. It’s believed that there was a series of great earthquakes, which would have triggered huge tsunamis.”

  “But Mu survived that,” Jake said. “So what finally destroyed it?”

  “One theory is that shrapnel from an exploding star came close to Earth’s orbit. The shrapnel from the explosion shot by the planet, with small particles breaking off around 3800 BC and crashing to the Earth. In 2800 BC, the shrapnel returned. Then in 1680 BC was the final submersion.”