The Polish Discovery: The Society of Orion 1-3 (Colton Banyon Mystery Book 17)

by Gerald J. Kubicki

  “I’m not sure of the words, some have more than one translation,” the professor replied nervously as he held his head in both hands. He now had a huge headache.

  Goss had contacted the professor four days ago. It had taken him months to find the right person to do the translation. The man, Professor Albert Crane, was a professor of ancient languages from the University of Lodz in Poland. Goss promised the professor enough money to equal his yearly salary to complete the translation in a week. Goss was an impatient man.

  Of course, the old man, Goss, had no intention of ever paying out the money. Once Goss had control of the talisman, the professor would become one of the many missing persons in modern day Europe. Goss looked forward to that occasion. It would mean that he could move through time. He would be able to change the course of history.

  “Here, try these words,” Professor Crane said as he handed a slip of paper to the old man.

  The general read the words, but nothing happened.

  Chapter Ten

  Loni held her gun straight ahead. She pointed it at the dapper dressed man standing by the desk. He did not seem at all surprised that she possessed a gun, nor did he seem afraid. Her eyes searched the room and she quickly located Professor Orlich. She then changed her stance. She pointed the gun at him.

  The professor was seated on a small couch against the wall. He cowered while he put up his hands in defense. “Don’t shoot. I was just following orders,” he cried out.

  “Who’s orders?” Loni barked.

  “His,” the professor said as he pointed to the short man.

  Loni quickly swiveled and aimed the gun at the now smiling well-dressed man. “Get your hands in the air,” she threatened. The man complied but looked past her to Colton Banyon who had just entered the office.

  “Ah,” the man remarked. “At last we meet, Colton Banyon.”

  “And who might you be?” Banyon retorted with a hint of anger in his voice. He had balled up his fists, he was ready for action. The first thing he was going to do was wipe the grin off of the ringleader’s face. He owed Loni that.

  “My name is Albin Wilk,” the man stated like it meant something to Banyon.

  “Okay, Albin. Why did you kidnap us?” Banyon quickly asked the question as he wandered up near the desk.

  “You were not supposed to be kidnapped,” Albin explained. “My men were just expected to contact you and escort you to this office, but your firebrand girlfriend here impulsively attacked my men,” Albin Wilk snobbishly replied, making it sound like it was their fault. “If she hadn’t taken her shoes off, my men would not have initiated the attack. His logic seemed stupid to Banyon.

  “Want me to just shoot him,” Loni said with vengeance. “I can put a bullet hole somewhere on him where it will be very painful, but not do too much damage. Maybe then we can get some answers.” Banyon was thankful that Loni was so accomplished at war, but the truth was Loni was incredibly impulsive. She often jumped in with both feet before she understood the situation. Her reckless approach had often gotten them into trouble. He wondered if this was one of those times.

  “What is it that you want from us, Mr. Wilk?” Banyon carefully asked.

  “I just want to have a chat with you. I have a proposal for you to consider,” Wilk answered in a calm voice.

  “First, answer this question.” Banyon ordered as he tried to read the man’s face. “Did you set up this phony dedication to lure me to Warsaw? And why here?”

  “Ah, very good,” Wilk responded. “I was told you are a deep thinker,” Wilk said and pointed at Banyon.

  “That’s not an answer,” Banyon said in a frosty voice. “Tell me now or I’ll let Loni do some damage. Then we’ll just walk out the door.”

  “Very well,” Wilk said. “Yes, I did arrange the fake ceremony through the idiot professor there on the couch. I wanted you to come to Warsaw because this is where the items I seek were last seen. There are also other reasons why you are here.”

  “What is it you seek, then?”

  “This should be a private discussion,” Albin Wilk remarked. “Let me dismiss the others first.”

  “Loni stays with me and so does the gun,” Banyon said as a negotiation.

  “Of course,” Wilk agreed with a nod of his head. He ordered the other men out of the room. They were told to close the door behind them.

  “So, let’s have our chat,” Banyon opened. While Banyon didn’t like the man, there was something about Wilk that made him curious to find out what he wanted with them. He seemed very sure of himself.

  “This must be Loni Chen?” Wilk remarked. He gave his undivided attention to her, attempting to take both her hands in his. “I’ve heard so much about you, and you are as lovely as I pictured.”

  Loni took a step back. She continued to aim her gun at him. “I was much lovelier when I had my whole dress. Now I’m just pissed.”

  “Yes, of course, I owe you a new dress. It will be in your hotel room when you return,” he said with a smile as he wrote a note. He walked over and slipped it under the door. “The professor will take care of it,” he told her. It told Banyon that there were men just outside the door. This made him nervous. Wilk pointed to the sitting area.

  They moved to the couch and chair where the professor had reclined. Wilk sat in the chair while Loni and Banyon sat on the small couch next to each other. Wilk crossed his short legs, like an aristocrat. He pulled on his pants leg to make the crease line up perfectly. He then brushed off some imaginary lint from his pant leg.

  “You and I have something in common, Colt. We are somewhat competitors, but share a lot of common background.”

  “Right now, it is Mr. Banyon to you, Mr. Wilk,” Banyon quickly clarified. “Why do we have something in common?”

  “You don’t recognize my name do you,” Wilk said.

  “Should I?”

  “Perhaps the name Wilków will jog your memory. It is a town not too far from here, on the Vistula River.”

  Banyon felt a flicker of recognition, but could not place it. “I don’t think I have been there,” he replied.

  “No you probably have not. But your ancestor Jakub Banyon lived there. In fact, he owned the entire town and surrounding countryside.”

  “I know he was a nobleman. That meant he owned large tracts of land in Poland. I also know that when a nobleman owned lands back then, he also owned the peasants who worked the land,” Banyon the historian recalled.

  “That is correct,” Wilk stated with a nod of his head. “And do you recognize my name now?”

  “Yes, I think so,” Banyon said slowly. “Wilk must be a derivative of Wilków, the name of the town. During feudal times it was common for surnames to be taken from the function that people performed, like blacksmith would become Smith, or from the place where they lived. I’m guessing that your ancestors lived under my family during those times.”

  “You are once again correct,” Wilk said and slapped his knee.

  “Now tell me,” Wilk started. “Can you translate Wilk to its English meaning?” He leaned back in the chair to listen.

  “I have no idea,” Banyon admitted with a shrug of his shoulders.

  “The translation of Wilk into English is the name “Wolf”.

  That got Banyon’s attention.

  Chapter Eleven

  Colton Banyon was now suddenly concerned. His spirit contact was named Wolf. Is this just a coincidence, he wondered, or is there something else going on here. He decided that he had better hear what Wilk had to say.

  “Go on,” he replied acting nonchalant while rolling his hands.

  “You are acquainted with Wolfgang Becker, aren’t you?” Wilk asked like an interrogator. He watched Banyon for any sign of reaction. Banyon was able to remain calm, but Loni suddenly crossed her legs. Banyon then knew that telling a lie would delay the well-planned process that Wilk was implementing. He wanted to get to the bottom of this charade. He decided to tell a half-truth.

  “I
’ve heard the name before,” he smoothly said.

  “Yes, you have,” Wilk commented. “Now we are actually getting somewhere,” he then clapped his small hands. “Actually, you know him as Walter Pierce or Wolf. Does that ring a bell?” The fact that Wilk said “know”, instead of “knew”, suddenly bothered Banyon. He wondered if Wilk had special powers like his own.

  “I hardly knew the man,” Banyon responded with emphasis. “I only met him a couple of times before he died,” Banyon replied truthfully.

  “And yet, he willed his entire estate, totaling many millions of dollars to you, Colton Banyon,” Wilk said knowingly.

  “How could you know that?” Banyon quickly asked. The last will of Walter Pierce was a secret document, only a few people even knew that it existed.

  “We know all about Walter Pierce,” Wilk replied. “He was watched all his…”

  “Who are we?” Banyon interrupted.

  “I will get to that in a minute,” Wilk responded. He dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand.

  Loni was becoming very impatient. “Get to the point Wilk. I need to go wash my hair,” she yelled out.

  “Ah, the point...you are very direct Loni Chen,” Wilk said as a compliment. “The point is that Wolfgang Becker, aka Walter Pierce, had a middle name. The name came from his mother’s family. His grandfather bought a weapons company in Germany in the late eighteen hundreds. The name of the company bore his surname before the Nazis took it over. The name was ‘Wilk Weapons’.”

  “Franz Wilk was his grandfather?” Banyon suddenly shouted as he put it together. Banyon knew Wolf’s grandfathers’ first name was Franz, but now realized that he never knew his last name.

  “My God,” Loni suddenly exclaimed. “They make the world’s best sniper rifle, Colt. It’s called the WKW Wilk.”

  “Yes, but that is not important to this discussion,” Wilk replied before he continued. Loni gave a huff, and crossed her arms, and then her legs.

  “Well, it is important to me,” she grumbled.

  Wilk gave her a frosty look, but then continued. “Wolfgang Becker was very close to his grandfather. He always took his advice and counsel. Franz Wilk told Wolfgang, during a visit to Germany, that he would meet a Banyon in his future. He told him that the Banyon might have a special talent. He told him it was his duty to protect that person at all costs until it could be determined if the talent was real. He also gave him instructions on how to contact us if that person displayed the talent. That person is you, Colton Banyon.”

  “This is too unbelievable, Mr. Wilk,” Banyon roared with agitation. “How could Wolfgang’s grandfather possibly know that he would meet me? He died before I was even born. You’re talking about something supernatural.”

  “Colt, I assure you this is all true,” Albin Wilk replied in a soothing voice. “The Wilk family has protected the Banyon family since Jakub Banyon bought our village in the late seventeen hundreds. We arranged the sale so we could be near him. What he had in his possession, we have protected since nearly the beginning of time.”

  “You’re a secret organization,” Loni blurted out.

  “There is a strong bond between our families. We know where all the Banyons in the world currently live.”

  “So, how did this man, Wolfgang, or whatever his name really was, become assigned to me?” Banyon asked the question with sudden growing interest. Nothing is as it appears to be, he thought.

  Wilk seemed pleased to have made a point. Banyon hadn’t denied anything yet. “We knew your grandfather had immigrated to Eastern Long Island in the early nineteen-hundreds. The Wolfgang Becker family was already there since the eighteen-seventies. Wolfgang was the logical choice to cover the Banyon family on Long Island. At first, he watched over your father. But after he came back from the war, when you were born, he began watching over you. When you began to talk about seeing ghosts, he realized you could be the one. Some of your family didn’t believe you, did they?”

  “As I recall, he was obsessed with the house,” Banyon said. “He wanted it back. My father didn’t want to move.”

  “That is only partially true,” Wilk quickly replied. “Remember, there was once an ancient tablet hidden in the house. It was surrounded by a curse. The curse drew him to the house. That’s where he found you.”

  Banyon was now very concerned. He stood up, paced the room while he gestured with his arms. “So, what you are telling me is that my life was preordained, that I was destined to be protected by Wolfgang, or Walter or Wolf, from the very start. Is that correct?” Banyon now had the uncomfortable feeling that he could not trust Wolf.

  “You had to pass the test first,” Albin Wilk responded. “That took some time before we were sure.”

  “What test? What are you talking about?” Banyon flapped his arms some more. It was clear to him that Albin Wilk knew more about him than he did. This was very unsettling especially since Wolf had never mentioned anything about the Wilk family, or his mission to find a Banyon with the power to talk to ghosts.

  “Throughout the centuries, ever since your ancestor, Jakub Banyon, died, we have been attempting to find a Banyon with the same skill level that your ancestor possessed. You see, he was not only a remarkable man, but he had an advanced sense of telepathy. It was a sense that we were able to use successfully. We have been following all the Banyon family members since then to see if any of them demonstrated the power. There have been many from the Wilk family watching over many of the Banyon family in the past two hundred years, but you are the only one who passed the test,” Wilk explained.

  “What was the test?” Banyon asked in frustration.

  “You were able to communicate with a spirit,” Wilk said in a soft voice. “It was, in fact, Wolf’s father. It happened back in the old house where you both grew up. I believe that Miss Chen was with you as well.”

  “That’s right,” Loni exclaimed as she bounced on the couch. “Don’t you remember Colt? I didn’t see or hear anything, but you followed the ghost’s instructions and we found a body. You said that you were predisposed to spirits and I wasn’t.”

  “I remember it very clearly,” Banyon admitted as he turned to Loni. “I was scared out of my wits, but kept on going because you were by my side.”

  “Oh, you say the nicest things,” Loni gushed and smiled at him.

  “And Walter Pierce or Wolfgang Becker watched it all,” Wilk told them. “He then contacted our organization and we set plans in motion.”

  This sent a shiver down Banyon’s spine. He now realized that Wilk knew Banyon and Wolf could talk to each other. Oh, my God, he thought. My life, as I know it, is over. Banyon understood that if other people became aware of his gift, he would be hounded with requests or worse. A government or a criminal organization could capture him and use his power to their advantage. He would never be free again. His team would also be under siege. His worst nightmare was now happening.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” he lied and thrust out his chin. “I was tricked into going to that house.” The Patel twins had actually used their sexuality to get Colton Banyon to his old house. It was per Walter Pierce’s instructions. Wolf already knew that Banyon was predisposed to ghosts, but didn’t know if he could communicate with one. It was the final test for Colton Banyon.

  Wilk did not appear frustrated and retorted. “Who do you think informed Wolfgang to look up a shaman named Abu Patel? We have used his services before. Our initial meeting took place in Jerusalem. The process took almost an entire year. He spent it in India. He disappeared after the house burned down, do you remember?”

  “I thought he was consumed in the fire,” Banyon admitted. “It wasn’t until he was buried that I found his grave near where I lived in Chicago.”

  “We had set our plan in motion before he died,” Wilk informed him. “He volunteered to be sent to limbo so that he could talk to you. He was quite excited by the prospect.”

  “Is the Patel clan involved in this?” Ba
nyon asked angrily. He wondered if he could trust them anymore.

  “They know nothing about your family history,” Wilk explained. “As far as we can tell they are as loyal and dedicated to you as Loni here,” Wilk pointed to the woman on the couch.

  “So, what are you saying then?” Banyon asked with dread. He was sure he wouldn’t like the answer.

  “I’m saying that we know you can speak to the spirit named Wolf. We also know he has helped you find and recover many artifacts. We now need your help. It is time for you to join us.”

  “Who the hell are you people?” Banyon screamed. He was cornered and knew it.

  “Why, we are the ‘Society of Orion’, of course.”

  Part Two

  The Problem

  Chapter Twelve

  When Albin Wilk said that he was part of the “Society of Orion”, Loni immediately reacted. She leaped off of the couch and grabbed Banyon in a death grip, standing on her toes so she could grab his neck.

  “Colt, I’m frightened,” she cried out. “What does all this mean? It seems like everything is changing!” Loni was a strong person, a fierce fighter and competitor, but when it came to things that she didn’t quite understand she became a little girl. He hugged her back while he stroked her silky black hair.

  “Everything is going to be alright,” he calmly told her. When he looked up, he noticed that Albin Wilk was looking at her beautiful toned legs. This made him angry.

  “But Colt,” Loni pleaded into his chest. “We have one of…”

  Banyon cut her off. “Not now Loni,” he said. “Wilk said he had a proposal, let’s hear what he has to say.”

  Loni and Colt already knew about the “Society of Orion”. During their last adventure, they had run across the organization while researching an artifact they had liberated from some bad guys in the desert in Nevada. The artifact had been hidden for many decades. Banyon was sure that no one on his team had leaked their discovery. It was currently in a hidden chamber in a museum in New Delhi, India.