by M. B. Lewis
“Listen,” he said.
Everyone in the small party paused, heads titled to focus on any sound. Kadie heard nothing.
The German scanned the back of the line, then beyond them toward the cars.
“Ve are being followed,” he said.
Curt looked behind him. “By who? There’s nobody back there.”
Loping wolves scurried in the distance, too far away to be concerned with their small group.
The German shook his head. “I don’t know. I can sense it.”
“Okay,” Patricia said. “Let’s keep moving.” She patted Kadie on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, dear. He gets a little jumpy sometimes.”
They walked for almost an hour before they found a small sapphire-blue stream that sparkled in the sunlight that pushed its way through the foliage. The point man confirmed on the map and satellite imagery that this was what they were looking for. He showed them how the stream trickled west until it widened into a creek, which would broaden further into the channels mentioned in the writing. The farm, he said, would be at the base of the hill where the channel started.
Kadie’s eyes narrowed, and she wiped the sweat from her forehead, still skeptical of their plan. She didn’t think they would find anything, and she continued to try and wrap her head around this. She would do whatever she could do to help save her brother, and right now, the best thing was to figure out where these guys went wrong because when they reached that location, they were going to be angry.
Curt pushed Brian from behind, calling the boy names and picking on him. The anger welled up inside Kadie until she wanted to take a bat to Curt’s head. How could a man be so heartless? How could she have been so blind, so foolish to think he was something else?
Duke checked behind him as well. The anger on his face was evident. Perhaps she’d be better off letting Duke take care of Curt when this is all over. Curt killed Mac, and Duke was not the type of man who would let that go unresolved.
After another hour, they reached their destination—a vast, empty valley between the hills. From here, there was no visible indication of a hidden cathedral.
“Spread out,” Patricia ordered. “Everyone start searching.”
“What exactly are we looking for?” Duke spoke up, his displeasure evident. He shifted his upper torso; his bound hands no doubt straining his shoulders.
“We’re searching for remnants of a building. A cathedral. It could be anywhere around here.” Kadie picked up on the intensity in Patricia’s voice. The executive vice president was a little too giddy. Kadie knew that would end when they didn’t find anything here.
Brian was told to sit down in the clearing while the group searched the small valley. They could attempt to escape, but the group had wandered so far into the forest they would be caught before they found help. While the group began its search, Brian sat at the edge of the clearing and removed Rupert from its container. Kadie stood by as the boy calibrated the small drone, then synched his iPhone to the controller. Within minutes, he had the drone hovering a few feet over their heads.
“Kadie, watch,” he said.
She slid closer to him to observe the picture on the tiny screen. He had the camera pointed at them, and Brian giggled. In a flash, the drone climbed upward, above the tops of the trees that surrounded the clearing.
“We can see if there awe any buildings near here.”
She smiled at her brother and ruffled his hair with her fingers—what a smart boy. The drone hovered a hundred feet above them, and Brian used his phone to tap out the course he wanted the drone to fly. When he activated the course, Rupert went to work on the west side of the clearing, showing Brian and Kadie the vast valley from a birds-eye perspective. They would have an answer long before the team found anything.
After about ten minutes, Patricia had noticed they still stood at the mouth of the valley and walked back toward them.
“Ingenious,” Patricia said. She stayed there and monitored the drone’s flight up the long valley. Unfortunately, it didn’t appear any sort of building was anywhere close to here. The drone began its journey back toward their location on the East side.
About halfway to their location, a loud boom, quickly followed by another, echoed through the valley. The video screen went blank.
“What happened?” Brian said. Kadie had a feeling she knew but didn’t want to say anything. Patricia gave Kadie a disappointed look and meandered back into the valley. Kadie stared into the distance, but no one other than Patricia was in sight. “Can we go l-look for Rupert?”
“I’m not so sure we would find him, Brian. There’s a lot of empty space out there. It might be better that we stay here.”
After another forty-five minutes, the group gathered near Brian and Kadie. Duke was the first to arrive, his hands still bound behind him.
“Are you okay?” Kadie said.
“Yeah. Our Delta Force Commando shot at a bird or something out there.”
Brian began to wail. Duke turned to Kadie.
“Did I say something wrong?”
Kadie shook her head. “No. Brian had his drone out. We searched the entire valley. On its way back, we lost connectivity—right after the shots were fired.”
Duke nodded. He put the pieces together. When the rest of the group showed up, Curt tossed the drone at Brian, missing his leg by mere inches.
“I think this belongs to you,” he said. “I thought I was shooting us some dinner, but it turned out to be a robot.”
Tears poured from Brian’s eyes as he bent down and retrieved Rupert. Kadie wrapped her arm around Brian’s shoulders and gave him a reassuring hug. Curt’s action was unnecessary—just another opportunity to reveal just who he truly was.
“Okay, people,” Patricia said. “Let’s make our way back.”
43
Altinova, Turkey
In the Arepo Valley
* * *
Kadie gazed into the sky as the sun began its journey toward the horizon in the West. Once it became dark, it would be difficult for them to find their way back to the cars. Maybe the darkness would help them escape.
She heard a loud whistle across the valley and saw the Curt waving in the distance. The group wandered toward him.
“Well, it’s getting dark,” Curt said. “We need to head back to the vehicles. ” He turned to Patricia. “This was a waste of time. We’re definitely in the wrong place.”
Patricia fumed at the comment. “This is a process, Mister Baxter. Every potential location we eliminate gets us that much closer to the actual location.”
“Doctor,” Curt replied, “this was a total miscalculation. We’re not even close.”
Kadie struggled to fight back a smile as the two compatriots bickered back and forth, clearly angry with each other. Duke didn’t hide his smile either.
Curt scowled. “What are you grinning at?”
“Just enjoying the show,” Duke said.
Curt thrust a fist into Duke’s mid-section, and the pilot doubled over and fell to his knees. He struggled to maintain his balance; his hands still bound behind his back. Curt walked behind him and kicked him between the shoulder blades, sending Duke face-first into the grass.
“Stop!” Kadie rushed to help Duke up. Curt backhanded Brian as she reached Duke. Brian yelped as he fell to his side. Kadie turned to face Curt, her eyes wide and teeth clenched. “What is wrong with you? You’re an animal.” She helped Duke up and ran to Brian, who was standing up on his own, his eyes burning with anger. The boy had courage despite his differences.
“I never—l-liked you,” Brian said, sobbing.
“Oh, shut up, you freak.”
Curt was despicable, she thought, and she hated herself for being attracted to him in the past. Kadie steered Brian away from Curt, and they walked toward Patricia. The GDI executive seemed frustrated. The failure of their first and only real clue took its toll.
“What are you trying to do?” Kadie attempted to appeal to Patricia’s sensiti
vity.
“I’m trying to find the Scroll.”
“Well, for someone with a Ph.D., you’re not being very smart about deciphering these clues.”
Patricia’s face contorted into a scowl. “What do you mean?”
“You brought me here for a reason. Yet, you had a clue in Latin and never asked me for my interpretation. I told you I didn’t think this was the right place, and you ignored me.”
“The clues all pointed toward here,” Patricia said. “The Sator Square distinctly mentioned Arepo, and it’s too coincidental to have an Arepo farm in Helenopolis.”
“I agree the Sator Square is an important clue, but I think it’s telling us who to look for, not where to look.”
The anger and frustration on Patricia’s face melted away. “Go on.” The tone of her voice softened; Kadie could tell she learned from her mistake.
“For the first several hundred years after the death of Jesus, the Sator Square was used by Roman soldiers who considered themselves Christians to identify themselves to each other.”
“There were Roman soldiers who were Christians?” Duke said.
“Yes, although they weren’t referred to as Christians back then.”
“How does the Sator Square identify someone as a Christian?” Patricia said.
Kadie pulled out a pen and paper from her purse and began writing. “The Square, when approached as a giant anagram, presents us with another puzzle.” She turned the paper around to show the group what she had done. The letters had been re-arranged into one vertical word and a horizontal word. The remaining letters were placed in each of the four quadrants:
“The Square, when arranged as an anagram, forms a new palindrome, both again using the letter ‘N’ as the focal point. This time, the letters become two words that form the shape of a cross.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Curt said.
Kadie disregarded his comment. “The two words, Pater Noster, are Latin. They mean Our Father, the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer.”
Patricia’s eyes gleamed. She was starting to understand. “What about the extra letters?”
“The A and the O mean Alpha and Omega. Jesus said he was the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.” Kadie glanced at Brian and Duke. Brian nodded, and Duke seemed amazed. “The Sator Square wasn’t telling us where to look. It was telling us who to look for—Roman soldiers.”
“Okay,” Patricia said. “I’ll buy that. We’re looking for Roman soldiers. But the question remains, where?”
“What is the line in the text about the channels?”
Patricia removed the handwritten copy of the message from her pocket. “The wedge in the valley leads to the entrance of the city of channels.”
“But it doesn’t say channels. It’s written in Latin.”
Patricia’s face was blank. “Canālis.”
“Yes. And another word for canālis is canals.”
“Surrounded by mountains of granite and stone.”
“Buildings,” Kadie said. “They’re not talking about ancient Helenopolis, they’re talking about—”
“Venice.”
Kadie nodded. She could see Patricia processing the new information.
“It makes sense,” Patricia mumbled. “But then again, it doesn’t. Constantinople was pillaged during the Fourth Crusade. The Roman Empire didn’t exist anymore.”
“True,” Kadie said. “but their descendants did. The Venetian Army was contracted to fight on behalf of the Byzantine Empire. When they couldn’t pay, the Venetians ransacked Constantinople. Many of the treasures and religious artifacts were looted and brought back to—”
“Saint Mark’s Basilica.”
44
The journey out of the forest felt as if it took twice as long, but Kadie found comfort in the trek. Curt had backed off his abuse of both Duke and Brian, and Patricia seemed to relax some since Kadie deciphered the clue to reference Venice. The answer had been in front of them the entire time, but it was so obvious they ignored it. Patricia only wished she had deciphered the clues sooner and saved them from this experience in the woods.
They reached the vehicles in a little over two hours, and the sun to the West sat just above the horizon. The seating arrangement was as before, except Patricia told Curt to untie Duke. He protested, but she convinced Curt that Duke wouldn’t do anything as long as they had Kadie and Brian.
And she was right. She thought Duke would do anything to protect them. But why? Why did she think that? Did he say he would? No, he had never mentioned anything like that. They never had any kind of discussion about their safety. He’d always been there . . . at least since she’d known him. She trusted his character, and that said a lot.
Kadie settled in the back seat with Brian and gazed out the window. The sun dipped below the horizon as they drove back toward Istanbul. She watched the beautiful transformation of day into night and relished the beauty God had created in the world.
God.
Kadie chuckled to herself. She actually gave God credit for creating the world. Her attention shifted to His Son.
Over the last few days, she had experienced so much so fast. Life and death situations, some of which she still wasn’t out of yet. But the most important part was the self-realization that she believed in God and wanted to be saved by His Son Jesus Christ. Was it because she feared the end was near? She didn’t want to think so, but maybe. Since they’d met Duke, her curiosity had been piqued, and she began to question her salvation.
She turned to her brother. “Hey,” she whispered, “when did you decide you were a Christian?”
His eyes grew wide, and the corners of his mouth surged upward, but he was hesitant to respond.
Kadie looked forward at the two in the front seat. “It’s okay,” she said softly to Brian. “We can talk.”
Brian still appeared fearful, but he did his best to speak in a hushed tone. “I w-was in Sunday school . . . and we sang the song that said J-Jesus loved all the little children in the world. I thought—I’m a little child in the world, and Jesus loves me. It was only fair—that I love him back.”
Kadie smiled at her brother as her eyes welled up. It was a simple answer to a complicated question.
“But even when we lost Mom and Dad, you never lost your faith?”
Brian shrugged his shoulders. “God has a p-plan for everyone. After Mom and Dad died, you were there for me—but you c-couldn’t be there for me all the time . . . But Jesus was. And he still is. He can be there for you too, Kadie.”
The tears that had welled in her eyes now trickled down her cheeks, and she hugged him. “I hope so. I—I want him to. I’m just not sure how.”
“I could tell you,” he said, “but I might not get it right. You better ask Duke.”
Kadie pushed back. “Duke?” Her eyes squinted, and her mouth pursed to the side. “What are you up to, you little matchmaker?”
Brian giggled and hopped in his seat. He turned to look out the window because he tried to hide his big smile and red face.
“Okay, we’ll talk to Duke. He seems to be a good Christian man.”
Brian nodded enthusiastically. “He is coming t-to my—birthday pawty.” She smiled and kissed him on the forehead.
Traffic picked up as they drove closer to the city. She found it ironic that she had decided to accept Jesus Christ as her Lord and savior in a land where she could very well be killed for acknowledging her belief. Yet, that didn’t faze her. As the sun nestled on the water, she wondered . . . would Jesus love her? She had been a non-believer for so long, how could she possibly find comfort in a savior she’d mocked and ridiculed? How could God ever forgive her?
The small caravan steered to the hotel property, and Duke checked behind him to ensure Kadie and Brian were still there. The SUVs pulled up to the entrance of the hotel so the valets could park them. Everyone stepped out of the vehicles and gathered at the front steps. Kadie and Patricia both had put their hijabs back on, something
they usually didn’t do at the hotel.
Curt popped Duke on the head from behind. “Don’t try any funny stuff while we’re here. I’ll kill the girl and her brother without blinking an eye. I might even make you watch.”
Duke turned and stared into the man’s eyes. Curt was telling the truth—he would kill them. Right here. But Duke didn’t see a warrior, he saw a coward. A gutless coward who preyed on the innocent to build his ego and sense of power.
“I believe you,” he said.
“Good. You’ve got a lot of work to do. We leave for Venice tonight.”
Duke stopped. “I don’t think so.”
Curt moved in Duke’s face. “I don’t care what you think. We’re getting our bags and leaving tonight.”
“You see, this is why we knew you weren’t a Delta guy. You don’t have one clue about international travel.” Duke’s tone dripped with sarcasm.
Patricia moved toward them, her driver behind Kadie and Brian. “What’s going on?” she said.
Duke thumbed at Curt. “Dingleberry here wants to fly to Venice tonight.”
“Is that a problem?” Patricia said.
“Not if you fly commercial. If you want me to fly, it’s going to take some work. And I’m not doing anything until I get some sleep.”
“Sleep?” Curt was obstinate.
Duke gave him a look of disbelief. “Yeah, sleep. Unless you want me to doze off and fly us into the side of a mountain.”
Curt turned to Patricia. “Let me kill him now, and we’ll fly commercial. Please?” His request was more for show, and Duke wasn’t impressed.
“No, we need the plane.” She turned to Duke. “What do you need to do?”
Duke stood with his hands on his hips, then scratched his head. “Well, I’ll need to build the flight plan. Then I’ll need to get diplomatic clearance to enter Italy. There’s some coordination that needs to take place. But I’m not doing anything until you ensure Mac’s body is sent to the U.S. Embassy to be returned home and I get some sleep.”