The girl remained speechless for several seconds. “And this Jedediah actually got people to believe him? To follow him?”
“In droves. For the past two hundred years their numbers have been growing. They keep to themselves mostly and try to avoid contamination from the outside world while they wait for the Second Coming. When Jedediah Proctor died, he passed on his prophetic powers to his successor who is known as the Diviner. This Diviner claims to get direct revelation from their god about what they’re supposed to do. He’s like the Pope and what he says goes. Weird, huh?”
Cassie nodded. “Weird doesn’t begin to cover it.”
Maddie continued. “I wouldn’t care how weird their cult is if they minded their own business but now they’re messing with us. When Erik followed Leroy Hunt from Sybil’s apartment on the night he broke in, he ended up at the Blessed Nephilim headquarters out in the sticks.”
Cassie was mystified. “I don’t understand. If the Arkana collects artifacts that are pre-biblical, what would these Nephilim guys want with the stone key?”
“Aha!” Maddie jabbed the air for emphasis with a sharp fingernail. “That’s the $64,000 dollar question and we still don’t know the answer.”
“Maybe it’s like what Griffin said. There are lots of overlord sects that would try to destroy the Arkana if they could.”
“You mean one artifact at a time?” the older woman asked jokingly. “That’s got to make for pretty slow going. Besides, the Nephilim don’t know we exist.”
“They don’t?” The girl was flabbergasted. “Then how did they track down Sybil? They had to know she was the Pythia.”
“I don’t think they did. I’m guessing they just blundered across an artifact that they wanted at the same time Sybil was going after it. She was an antique dealer so they wouldn’t question why she might want it. Something like this has happened a few times before.”
“With the Nephilim?”
Maddie leaned forward across her desk to retrieve her lighter and a pack of cigarettes. “I haven’t had a cigarette all morning and I’m dying for a smoke. Let’s continue this discussion topside.”
The pair walked to the elevator where Maddie swiped her keycard. Once they started their ascent she picked up the thread of the conversation. “Now where did I leave off?”
“You said that the Nephilim had taken some Arkana artifacts before this,” Cassie prompted.
“Right. These other episodes happened before I joined the Arkana so I’m vague on the details. The first time was about twenty five years ago in the Balkans. Somebody from the recovery team was murdered and an artifact was intercepted. Then about ten years ago, something similar happened in the Middle East. A team of ours was after an Asherah artifact. She was the main goddess of the Canaanites before the Hebrews invaded the area. By the time we figured out what had happened, two of our operatives were missing and the artifact was gone. We eventually traced that theft to the Nephilim too.”
Cassie felt a vague sense of uneasiness at Maddie’s words. Like a memory was being jogged loose somewhere at the back of her consciousness. She dismissed it for the time being, more intent on understanding the strange behavior of the Nephilim. The elevator doors opened on the second floor. They strolled down the long hallway with its vacant offices and meeting rooms.
When they reached the bell tower staircase and began to climb Cassie said, “It just doesn’t make any sense. If the whole point of their existence is to sit around waiting for Judgment Day, then there’s no reason why they should care about some old goddess artifact much less kill to get it.”
Maddie paused to catch her breath before saying, “I’m beginning to think it has something to do with their current Diviner. His name is Abraham Metcalf. The Nephilim have been around for two hundred years and the Arkana a lot longer than that without our paths ever crossing until right around the time this Metcalf took charge of the organization. It might be he’s got an agenda that we don’t know about.”
The second they cleared the top of the spiral staircase into the tower, the Operations Director walked directly to the couch, sat down and lit up a cigarette. “You know I promised Griffin that if the stairs ever got to be too much for me, I would quit cold turkey. I might be a little winded but I guess my habit is safe for today.”
Cassie sat on the sofa slightly downwind of her companion. “So the Nephilim are living here in the Midwest?” she asked.
Maddie laughed ruefully. “I wish they could be corralled that easily but they’ve gone global. They have satellite communities everywhere and their so-called apostles are out beating the bushes for missing Nephilim as far east as China.”
The girl felt puzzled. “How do they know when they find one? Is there a DNA test? A secret handshake?”
“In the screwiest bit of circular logic ever, they believe that if a guy joins their cult then that proves he has angel blood. He’s doing what he was meant to.”
Cassie shook her head. “Unbelievable. But I still don’t get why anybody would want to join up with them. I mean if their Diviner expects them to act like a bunch of lemmings, what’s the appeal?”
Maddie blew out a long puff of smoke, cocked her head to the side, and considered the question. “Try to imagine you’re some poor schmuck with a boring life and low self-esteem. Somebody comes along and tells you you’re descended from a line of angels. You’re better than human. Who wouldn’t like to believe that?
“Besides, I think some people get turned on by the idea of Armageddon. Things go wrong in their own lives and they automatically believe the whole world needs an overhaul. And who better to make that happen than some overlord god hurling thunderbolts. They can fantasize about a big sky daddy who’s going to kick the asses of everybody who’s ever been mean to them. Then they figure their lives will get better. Of course that assumes they think they’re on his good side.”
“Still, why would anybody blindly play follow the leader like that?”
Maddie waved her hand in the air to waft her growing smoke cloud away from Cassie. “Faith is a tricky thing. A real slippery slope. It has to be balanced with some kind of reality check which people who join these organizations tend to avoid. Hundreds drank the Kool-Aid at Jonestown. A dozen people from Heaven’s Gate committed suicide to board a spaceship. Eighty more loonies let David Koresh blow them up at Waco. Cults are made up of people who let somebody else make their decisions because they don’t trust themselves to know what to do.”
Cassie grew somber as her mind drifted off to another topic. She thought about a man with wavy hair. “So now that you know about this Leroy Hunt character what are you going to do to him?”
“At the moment, nothing. He’s part of a bigger puzzle. We need to find out why the Nephilim wanted him to steal the key in the first place. Singling him out for retribution at this stage isn’t going to help us get the answers we need.”
The girl felt crestfallen. “So you’re telling me that this guy is never going to have to pay for what he did to Sybil?”
“All in good time.” Maddie gave a knowing smile. “I have a feeling we’re going to cross paths with him again very soon.”
“At the Nephilim headquarters?” Cassie asked hopefully.
“Nope. Somewhere in the vicinity of the lock that fits that stone key. Griffin tells me he should know where to find it any day now.”
Chapter 24 – The Object Of My Rejection
Five minutes after the Operations Director escorted Cassie from the building, she called Erik into her office. The young man wore a sullen expression. He appeared ready for battle.
“Have a seat,” Maddie said tersely.
Erik slouched into a chair and folded his arms across his chest, defiantly propping his feet on the edge of Maddie’s desk.
She looked at the worn heels of his loafers. “You need new shoes,” she commented.
He gave a wry smile in spite of himself. “Am I busted, chief?”
Maddie shrugged. “I don’t know. Why
don’t you tell me your side.”
“My side of what?” Erik asked defensively.
The Operations Director shot him a reproachful look. “I think this would go faster if you stopped tap dancing.”
The young man let out an exasperated sigh. “What did she tell you?”
“She said you were rude to her.”
“So Little Miss Tiny got her feelings hurt? Maybe I should send her flowers or something.”
His comment was met by dead silence.
He apparently reconsidered his approach. “You know this whole situation is nuts!”
“You don’t like her? She seems OK to me.”
Erik rubbed the back of his neck. “She isn’t one of us.”
The Operations Director was taken aback. She remained silent for several seconds before countering, “Her family has been part of the organization for generations.”
“Maybe her family has been, but she was raised as an outsider without a frigging clue what the rest of her relatives were doing.”
Maddie sighed. “So she came from the outside. Way back when the Arkana first got started, everybody came from the outside.”
Erik laughed humorlessly. “You know this is different. All of us, everybody who’s in the organization now was raised in it or married into it or recruited into it after being screened. From the time I was sixteen, I knew about the family business. I also knew I wanted to be part of it someday. I had years to get used to the idea. And there’s a good reason why it should take years.”
Maddie was about to offer an objection when Erik added softly, “Or do you need to be reminded about your ex?”
“Don’t go there,” the Operations Director’s voice dropped to a low growl. She didn’t want to have that fiasco thrown in her face. She had thought about bringing her then-husband into the Arkana but she waited seven years before opening the discussion. Just about the time she was ready to bring him in, he decided to clean out her bank account and head south of the border with a newer model.
“It was a good thing you waited to tell him,” Erik explained. “That’s all I’m saying.”
“Then you’ve said enough about it. Cassie isn’t like that.”
Erik sprang out of his chair and began to prowl around the office restlessly. “How do you know what she’s like? How do any of us know? That’s just my point. Because she’s an outsider she’s a wild card.”
Maddie tapped her long fingernails on her desk pad. “She seems pretty level-headed to me. I think she’s stronger than even she knows and you aren’t giving her enough credit.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Erik swung around to face her. “You didn’t spend days outside Sybil’s apartment listening to her little sister coming unglued. The kid was crying all the time. What I saw…what I heard… was just a lost little girl looking for somebody to cling to because she was scared of the dark.”
“You think Faye made a mistake to trust her?” Maddie’s question was pointed. She was daring Erik to utter the unthinkable.
He looked profoundly uncomfortable and jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I trust Faye’s judgment. I always have but this time, I don’t know. Maybe she let her feelings get in the way. She felt sorry for a stray puppy and wanted to adopt it.”
“Sit down, you’re giving me a neck ache,” Maddie commanded irritably. “It’s not as simple as you make it sound. She isn’t just a stray puppy. She’s also the new Pythia.”
Erik threw himself back into his chair and leaned forward. “Based on what? One psi episode? Maybe two?”
Maddie raised an eyebrow. “You think we should have a stricter testing protocol? Maybe tie her up, throw her in a lake and see if she floats? I mean, what the hell, Erik? Can you even hear yourself?”
“She’s just a kid,” he insisted.
“A kid with special gifts. When Sybil started having visions, nobody asked whether she should be the Pythia or not.”
Erik looked down at the floor. “Sybil was different.”
“How? How different could she be?” Maddie challenged. “She was Cassie’s sister for Pete’s sake!”
“She was one of us,” the young man said quietly. “We knew where her loyalties were because it took years for her to go through training. And now, we’re stuck with her baby sister who in two weeks goes from knowing zip about us to poking her nose into every corner of the operation.”
Maddie leaned back in her chair and folded her hands across her middle. “I thought you were the one who said she should be told about what Sybil was doing. Oh, don’t give me that look. I was sitting right next to you at Faye’s kitchen table when you said it.”
Erik began to kick his chair leg irritably. “Sure, she should have been told something, but I didn’t mean everybody should line up and take a number to spill the beans to her. This is insane! What’s the rush? Why is Faye pushing everybody to explain the Arkana to her in five minutes or less?”
The Operations Director broke eye contact for a moment. In a nearly inaudible voice, she admitted, “I don’t know. There’s something going on behind the scenes. I can feel it but Faye isn’t talking. For now, we have to trust that she has her reasons for giving Cassie unlimited access to the Arkana.”
Erik snorted in disgust. “By the time you’re all done giving her the grand tour, she’ll know absolutely everything about the Arkana. And we don’t have a clue what she’s going to do with that information. It’s like handing a loaded gun to a two-year-old. What if she starts blabbing stuff to people outside?”
Maddie stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “And why would she do that?”
The young man shrugged, at a loss. “I don’t know. Maybe something sets her off and she sours on the organization. She wants out because it’s harder than she thought it would be.”
The Operations Director was rapidly losing her temper. “You’re making an awful lot of assumptions about what she would or wouldn’t do!”
“And so are all of you!” Erik was nearly shouting now. “And don’t even get me started on what she’d be like out in the field. What a joke! I can just see her having a seizure the first time she picks up a tainted relic. And the one person who could have trained her on how to protect herself is dead.”
Maddie stood up, towering over Erik. She was out of patience and about to terminate the discussion. “Let’s just boil this down to what’s really bugging you. What’s the worst that can happen by letting Cassie in?”
The young man rose out of his chair and leaned over Maddie’s desk, staring her straight in the eye. “Someday… I don’t know when but it won’t be long… that kid is going to bring the whole operation crashing down around us. And when that day comes, don’t expect me to say I told you so because there won’t be anybody left to tell. Maybe that’s what it will take for you to finally understand what I’m saying. She’s going to get us all killed!”
Chapter 25 – Motion Sickness
Daniel knocked hesitantly on the door of his father’s office. It was ten o’clock on Wednesday morning. This was the day and time the Diviner had appointed for a weekly progress report. The ordeal was always embarrassing for Daniel, almost excruciating in the way it underscored his incompetence. Every week he could see the feverish anticipation in his father’s eyes when he entered the room and every week he could see that anticipation change to cold disapproval at his lack of progress. He hoped today would be different.
“Enter,” a voice commanded from inside.
When Daniel let himself in, he saw that his father was in a meeting with two western community leaders. He felt a spiteful sense of pleasure at their crestfallen expressions. Misery loves company. Apparently his father was no better pleased with these two than he was with his son. They scuttled from the room after murmuring a greeting in his direction. Their eyes were downcast, their shoulders hunched as if to ward off imaginary blows. The Diviner had a way of exposing the hidden weaknesses of his flock. At least Daniel could see that there was nothi
ng personal in his father’s abuse. Castigation was as natural to him as breathing.
Abraham regarded his son grimly. Daniel wasn’t even to be treated to that fleeting look of anticipation this week. “I expect you have nothing new to report,” the Diviner said sourly.
“Then you’d be wrong,” the young man thought to himself though he didn’t dare say the words out loud. Instead he adopted a mild demeanor. “Actually, I do have some news, sir.”
The old man’s head snapped to attention. “Then sit down and tell me what you’ve discovered.”
Daniel felt somewhat disinclined to slouch today. He strode purposefully across the room and sat in the visitor’s chair in front of his father’s massive desk. The chair was low. It did not allow level eye contact with the Diviner. A person would be forced to gaze upward to carry on a conversation. The young man speculated that this was no accident. He sat up straight and tried to look directly into his father’s face.
“I believe I’ve translated one of the lines on the key,” he announced matter-of-factly.
There it was. That look of intense fascination. He was to receive it after all.
“Have you, indeed!” Abraham exclaimed. He sprang out of his chair and began to pace, his hands clasped behind his back. “Tell me everything.”
“It’s written in a language that hasn’t been spoken for three thousand years.”
“Excellent, excellent!” The old man could barely contain the jubilation in his voice. He stopped pacing and came to stand next to Daniel’s chair. “I suspected that might be the case. What does the message say?” he prompted eagerly.
The Granite Key (Arkana Mysteries) Page 13