by Aiden James
“It became necessary for our Order to intermarry with the Spaniards to remain inconspicuous. Our Hebrew female population steadily shrunk over the centuries and many of us had already taken Indian women for brides anyway. Since increasingly hard to remain a secret to the rest of civilization due to our growing dependency on local trade, we disguised the castle as a monastery and ourselves as monks. By 1750 we began receiving emissaries from the Roman Catholic Church. The growing instability throughout the continent made it vitally important to align us with the Church, and that alliance has continued to the present day.
“But the Vatican never knew our Essene identity and legacy until the early part of the twentieth century. During the last two hundred years our brethren have successfully infiltrated many Christian groups, and this protects us from religious persecution as well as our vast treasures throughout the world from plunder and exploitation. Over time the Vatican has become a very useful and powerful ally, and our influence in Rome is strong. A good deal of important information is shared between our organizations, and we quickly learn what leaks through to the Roman Catholic Church from the various countries where the Church’s presence still thrives.
“So, to directly answer to your question, Jack. Yes, the Vatican is most certainly aware of the eight towers on their way to your home, Alabama. Through the assistance of Jesuit scholars in Rome the connection between the items sent to Dr. Oscar Mensch from Pakistan and Ricardo De Gallies’ Cristal Del Sol was first realized, the day before Dr. Oscar Mensch’s murder in Tuscaloosa.”
Francisco relaxed in his chair, enjoying the remainder of his cigar and seemingly distracted by the billowing smoke climbing toward the ceiling. Meanwhile, Jack helped himself to more cocoa. The conversation shifted to more casual subjects, allowing the Kenney brothers to become better acquainted with their Bolivian hosts.
***
By the time ten o’clock rolled around, they had polished off the cocoa and wine. Not many cigars left, Jeremy successfully achieved the buzz he desired from the chicha. When Francisco was ready to retire for the evening, Jeremy suddenly sat up and leaned over to Jack. After a short whispered conversation between them, he told Francisco they changed their minds about the backpack, and were willing to let him examine its contents. Francisco was immediately delighted.
“Perhaps I will take a moment to do that before I retire to my room,” he told them, smiling warmly as he excused himself from their presence.
Shortly after he left the reception area, Rafael announced his intention to retire for the evening as well. He motioned for the two young servants to come to him.
“This is Petirah and Roberto,” he said, introducing the Indian girl and boy to them. “They will escort you to your suites this evening, and if you need anything else before you retire, be sure to ask them for it right then. After they leave you, you will be on your own until morning.”
The servants led the brothers to a beautifully sculptured staircase located on the left side of the reception area. Jack and Jeremy struggled to keep up, catching the youngsters just as they reached the second floor’s landing and prepared to climb up to the third floor. Rafael called suddenly to them from the second floor’s walkway.
“Remember what you learned this evening, my friends!” he whispered forcefully, offering an impish smile. “Tomorrow you will find out why we are known throughout the world as ‘Servientes De los Angeles’.”
He waved again before disappearing in the torch-lit shadows near his room.
“So, these guys are known as the ‘Servants of the Angels’?” Jeremy mused softly, as they followed the servants climbing past the third floor’s landing. “Obviously, it’s got something to do with all of the angel artwork around here…. Francisco and Rafael better be ready to answer my questions tomorrow, man. I’ve about had it with their evasiveness.”
“My sentiments exactly, Jeremy,” agreed Jack.
The servants led them from the stairwell onto the fourth floor. As they walked along the torch-lined colonnade on a colorful Mediterranean-styled runner that covered most of the walkway’s length, they noticed each room had the same immense doorways prevalent on the first floor. The walkway surrounded the reception area far below, and the brothers’ suites were on either side of the floor’s first corner. Petirah opened the door to Jack’s suite using the same strange device employed downstairs, and then motioned for him to follow her inside.
“I guess I’ll see you first thing in the morning,” Jack told Jeremy, just before entering the suite.
“I’m sure you will,” said Jeremy. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten that shit about Genovene from earlier tonight. I want a full report before breakfast. You hear me, Jackie?” Roberto opened his suite’s door. “In the meantime, I’ve got some smoking to catch up on!”
He paused to show Jack the small handful of cigars he picked up from the table downstairs along with a lighter and followed Roberto into his suite.
Petirah led Jack inside his darkened suite. For a moment it appeared his sleeping accommodations would be rudimentary at best. A pleasant surprise came once she moved over to the wall next to the doorway and flicked on an electric light switch. The main room was quite large and for the most part modernly furnished, with plush carpets and an inviting king-size bed piled high with warm blankets and a thick comforter.
Petirah moved over to a tall fireplace located near the back of the bedroom. Soon a blazing fire roared to full strength, which the servant girl brought down to a more manageable level before showing Jack his bathroom. This room completely modernized, with a large Jacuzzi tub and multi-faucet shower, the granite floor and walls had been polished to a high gloss.
Once Petirah made sure he had enough towels and other necessities to last through the night, she turned down his bed for him and then showed him one last feature of this room. In the far right corner of the bedroom was a small doorway that appeared at one time to have been a window. The doorway led to a small balcony overlooking one of the icy streams that trickled down the mountainside. As the sky was clear, a vast multitude of stars and the moon’s brilliance just a few days past its fullness offered one last temptation to keep Jack from immediate sleep.
As soon as she left him alone, he got himself ready for bed, slipping into some nightclothes left for him by his bedside. Surprised the clothes were exactly his size, he wondered again at the Essenes’ mysterious knowledge of him and his brother.
He stepped over to the fireplace, embracing its warmth before turning his attention to the balcony’s doorway. After tightening the sash around his waist he opened the door, shivering slightly from the late evening’s chill. Fortunately, the wind was absent. He imagined the wooded hillsides were often shrouded in darkness in this remote place. The moon’s brightness caused the frost-tipped Kenua trees on either side of the balcony’s view to glisten. The gurgling stream sparkled as it wound its way below him toward the river on the other side of the castle.
“I sure could get used to this, Jackie.”
Jack whirled around. Jeremy stood less then ten feet away, smoking one of his cigars near the edge of the balcony to his room. It surprised Jack that he hadn’t noticed the cigar’s pungent scent sooner.
“You scared the shit out of me!” he reproached his brother. “How long have you been out here, anyway?”
“Just long enough to be on my last smoke for the night and watch your own fascination with this incredible place,” he said, sending a chain of smoke circles into the air. “You know, Jackie, it might not be such a bad thing to be holed up here for awhile—after we take care of our business in Alabama tomorrow. I got the feeling tonight that we’d be more than welcome to come back here if we wanted to.”
“I felt the same thing,” Jack conceded. “But, I’m not sure I could stay away from the States for long, man. That’s where I belong. If I did stay in a place like this, it would only be with the understanding that I’d be going back home to Alabama eventually.”
“Well, le
t’s seriously think about it anyway,” said Jeremy. “Now, about that shit with Genovene...I’ve been asking myself why Francisco would even ask such a thing, unless she’s still following you around. Like that time we visited Grandpa’s old haunts by the clearing near the Black Warrior. I’ll never forget the creepy feeling Grandpa and I had while you were completely freaked out, man, slapping at yourself like you had a copperhead in your pants. I’m wondering now if I should prepare myself for more of that shit.”
He took another puff from his cigar and flicked the remainder near a group of short, gnarled evergreen trees along the stream bank below.
“You really shouldn’t have done that!” scorned Jack. “It’s all we’d need, a fucking forest fire in the middle of the night!”
Irritated, his rebuke was mostly playful.
“What? I don’t believe Smokey the Bear knows how to find me here, Jackie boy! At least not in this part of bum-fuck Bolivia!” Jeremy teased back. “Besides, there’s way too much snow around here for a fire to take hold. Just the same, I’m going to call it a night before I get tempted to light another of these delicious little fuckers.”
He stepped back in his room and prepared to close the balcony door.
“I wouldn’t stay out here too long since we’ve got a big day ahead of us tomorrow! Good night, bro!”
“I’m headed back inside myself!” Jack called after him. “Good night, Jeremy!”
He moved back inside his room and soon lay in his bed, enveloped by the room’s warmth and comfort. He watched the shadows caused by flickering flames from the fireplace dance across the walls until his eyelids grew heavy. He then prepared himself for the certain scolding that awaited him from Dr. Mensch.
Part V
Las Cavernas Segradas
The early morning sunlight streamed into Jack’s room when he awoke the next day. A young woman’s voice accompanied several light knocks on his door.
“Señor Kenney, please wake up!”
The knocks resumed as he stumbled from the bed to the doorway and asked who was there.
“It is Petirah, Señor Kenney,” the sweet voice announced.
Jack struggled to pull open the door, and once he did, the beautiful young servant girl from the night before was standing there. Near naked, he peered shyly around the edge of the door and asked what she needed from him.
“Señor Luciano sent me to awaken you,” she explained. “Breakfast will be ready in twenty minutes.”
“What time is it?” he asked, wiping the sleep from his eyes while he suppressed a powerful urge to yawn.
“It is ten minutes past seven o’clock.”
“Tell Francisco I’ll be down soon.”
She smiled bashfully before turning away from him.
“I will tell him, Señor Kenney!”
Her voice echoed against the walls as she ran down the colonnade toward the stairway. Jack shut the heavy door to his room and moved to the bathroom. He quickly shaved, brushed his teeth, and jumped in the shower. When he dressed and put his watch back on, it read 6:28 a.m. Alabama time. It took him a moment to remember he was an hour ahead in Bolivia. He opened the door to his room and hurried over to the stairs, just in time to see Jeremy step onto the main landing three floors below.
“Hey, Jeremy, wait for me!”
Jeremy had just disappeared from view, but his face reappeared near the stairs, looking up at Jack.
“You’d better get your ass down here now, slowpoke!” he called up to him. Jack scrambled down the stairs. “Hopefully, we’ve got a three minute grace period to work with, ‘cause on account of you neither of us are going to be there by seven-thirty.”
He barely waited for Jack to hit the main floor before he hurried to the reception area.
“Are we supposed to go straight to the dining hall?” asked Jack after he caught up with him.
“I’d assume so, since I wasn’t told to go anywhere else,” said Jeremy, his tone still irritated. “Man, you look like you’ve been rode hard and left to die, like some dude who hasn’t slept worth shit in about a week!”
“Yeah, same to you, bro.” Jack grinned wryly.
“Now that’s the spirit, my boy!”
Jeremy grinned and slapped him heartily on his shoulder. When they reached the dining hall the same servants from the previous evening opened the doors to allow them inside. The room was filled with familiar faces from the night before.
“Good morning, Jeremy and Jack!” said Francisco.
He stood next to his seat at the table’s head, his smile warm as he motioned for them to come take their seats next to him. Jack noticed his eyes seemed dim, as if deeply troubled about something.
“I trust that you found our accommodations to your liking, although I am sure you both could benefit greatly from additional rest.”
“Our rooms were great,” said Jeremy, surveying the table’s marvelous spread. An incredible array of breakfast items served on silver banquet trays, some were universally standard while others definitely belonged to this region of the world. “Do ya’ll always eat like this?”
“For the most part, yes,” said Francisco. “Please help yourselves to whatever you like, as you will need your energy for today’s agenda.”
They loaded their plates, sticking mostly to what they were familiar with like eggs, hash browns, bacon, and pancakes. Ready to dig in, Francisco stopped them so he could first offer a simple prayer of thanks. They now noticed Rafael’s absence from the room.
“Rafael chose to eat earlier and is making final preparations for the trip into the caverns after breakfast,” Francisco explained. “But, you do not need to rush as much as you did to get down here on time.” He laughed.
“What kind of gear do we need for this trip?” asked Jack, sensing this wasn’t going to be a simple jaunt through caverns similar to the one they traveled through yesterday.
“Well, for one thing, both of you need to wear spelunking suits and sure-footed boots,” said Francisco. “Not that we intend for you to do a great deal of intensive climbing or anything extremely dangerous. The subterranean environment can be treacherous, especially now, when underground floodwaters make some passages in the mountain nearly impassable.”
“What time should we return to the castle?” asked Jeremy. “You told us last night we needed to go back to Alabama for the Cristal Del Sol. Is that still the plan for today?”
Once Jeremy mentioned their planned return to Alabama, Jack suddenly realized Dr. Mensch hadn’t visited him during the night. Though he couldn’t remember what his dreams entailed, he felt certain the professor hadn’t reached him here in the castle. Perhaps Genovene couldn’t reach him either. He began to smile until Francisco answered Jeremy’s question.
“It is indeed the plan for today,” he told him. “We originally planned to leave around six o’clock this evening. But, developments in your homeland require us to get there sooner. We will leave shortly after lunch today.”
“What kind of developments?” asked Jack, worriedly.
Francisco hesitated before answering him, which only made it worse. Jeremy seemed to grow uneasy as well. Despite Francisco’s poise and quiet confidence, his eyes betrayed his underlying distress. Something terrible had happened since last night.
“It is too early to say exactly, as the news we received this morning was incomplete, and as such, difficult to fully interpret,” Francisco told them, perhaps aware this weak answer wouldn’t satisfy either of them. “I am asking now for your trust; that you will allow me to research what we have learned until you return from the caverns. Hopefully by the time we leave here this afternoon, we will know more.”
“I can’t wait that long,” Jeremy told him, and looked over at Jack, who nodded in agreement. “Surely you can tell us something about what’s going on, can’t you?”
“No, I can not!”
Francisco forcefully pushed his plate away and stood in haste, very upset. The soft voices of the other Essenes conversing
while they enjoyed their breakfast ceased. He walked briskly toward the hall doors, where he stopped and turned to face Jack and Jeremy’s bewildered faces.
“Since we already discussed the main reasons for our expedient return for the Cristal Del Sol, there is nothing more you must know right now,” he said, his tone calmer. “By this afternoon, I will have finished my examination of the writings and other items in your backpack. Once again, I ask that you trust my discretion. ‘The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment’.”
Without waiting for their approval, he turned and exited the room.
“I will see you sometime after one o’clock for lunch, my friends!” His words echoed from outside the doorway.
Neither Jack nor Jeremy was hungry any more. At Jeremy’s urging, they finished their food to ensure enough energy for the upcoming trip into the mysterious caverns.
“Proverbs ten, verse twenty-one,” said Jeremy softly, while he scooped up the last of his eggs and bacon.
“What’d you say?” asked Jack.
“That was a Talmud, or Old Testament, verse he just quoted to us.”
***
Finished with breakfast, they sat in silence, listening to the hushed conversations at the other end of the table. Hurried footsteps soon approached the hall from the reception area.
“Good morning, amigos!” Rafael poked his head in through the doorway. “If you are done eating, I am ready to get started with your tour!”
Outfitted in spelunking attire and boots, he motioned for them to follow him. When they neared the main fireplace, he pointed to one of the couches where similar clothing and boots lay ready for them to dress in.
“Four of our best men will join us this morning,” he advised. “As soon as you are dressed appropriately, we will meet them at the entrance to the caverns.”