“How long ago was the journal found?” Banyon asked with concern.
“It was found in January. It was published in the newspaper in early February,” Wilk said. “When I went to our annual meeting in late February, I was instructed to attempt to find the weapons by using you, Colton Banyon.”
“So all the other members of your society know of me?” Banyon screeched and flapped his arms.
“You may be hearing from some of them as well,” Wilk cautiously answered. “Some of their weapons are missing as well.”
Banyon was now beside himself with anger and concern. The knowledge of his ability was now worldwide. Wilk had told him that there were fifty people in the society. “Do all your members know about me?”
“No, only the six other heads of each chapter,” Wilk replied. “We discussed you when we last met.”
“So, that was when you cooked up this phony dedication to lure us here to Poland,” Loni completed the circle.
“Yes, I’m afraid that is true,” Wilk said as he hung his head.
“Why didn’t you just contact us and ask for help?” Loni asked. “Why did you wait so long?”
“I think I made a mistake,” he replied sheepishly. “One I hope to rectify now.”
Chapter Fifteen
No one spoke for several minutes as Banyon and Loni contemplated the impact of all they had learned. Banyon realized he was going to need help. The weapons could be spread out all over the world. He couldn’t be in several locations at the same time, but he knew people who would help and not ask any questions. He slowly began to form the basis of a plan in his mind. It was what he did best. He also decided that part of the plan would not be discussed with Albin Wilk.
“Okay,” Banyon announced with new vigor in his voice. He clapped his hands while becoming animated. He began to pace the room while talking. There suddenly seemed to be more energy in the small dusty space.
“I think you must have a plan already,” Loni said with a shy smile. “I know that look in your eye.”
“I believe I have a workable plan,” Banyon agreed. “The first thing I need to know is the power of each weapon. I need to know which ones are the most dangerous. We will grab those first. We are going to have to get some help to go after all the weapons, though. I will handle that,” he remarked. “Next we need to find a secret place where they can be stored. Finally, we need to find a way to discredit the journal written by Jakub Banyon. That will ensure that no one will consider it viable.”
“Your plan seems reasonable,” Wilk commented cautiously.
“So tell us about the weapons,” Loni demanded. “No, Wait,” she quickly added and threw up her hands. She got up from the couch, and went to the desk in search of a piece of paper and a pen. She understood that some notes were going to be needed to plan the recoveries. Colt was the thinker, she was the doer. She quickly returned with a pad of paper. She turned it the long way to make notes.
“Tell us the name of each of the talismans, the last time it was seen, what it does, and if it has been activated recently,” Banyon clarified what he needed. Loni made several headings on the paper to organize the notes.
“Very well, I can do that,” Wilk said. He began to search his memory.
“Tell us what it looks like as well. It will help in case we have to sneak in somewhere to steal it back,” Loni added. She always thought tactically.
“As I told you, there are actually fifteen weapons,” Wilk started. “The only one that I have is the Insight talisman. You possess the one called Influence. By the way, we would like to have it back,” Wilk emphasized strongly.
“I’m going to have one of my team deliver it to you personally while we are still here in Poland,” Banyon said smoothly. This bothered Loni. She looked at him with a question in her eyes. The Banyon team had never acknowledged possession of any artifacts. They certainly never returned one. She wondered why Banyon had agreed to return this one.
“Good, thank you,” Wilk muttered. “The next weapon is named Courage. It was last seen in seventeen ninety-one. It was loaned to a knight to fight for the revolution that was going on at that time. It, like most of the talismans is round. It gave the wearer increased courage while protecting them with a force field. No arrow, bullet, or knife could penetrate the force field. It has not been active.” Loni made quick notes and left room on the paper for the people assigned to collect it.
“Got that, Loni?” Banyon asked as he turned to his partner and winked. This told her that he was setting more than one plan in motion. It was their little code.
“Should I add a column to list whether it is a defensive weapon and/or an offensive weapon or both,” Loni sweetly asked Banyon as she acted like a secretary. She crossed her pretty legs on the couch.
“Good idea, Loni. It will help us to prioritize which ones we go after first. The Courage talisman is a defensive weapon.”
“The next weapon is called Reflection.” It is also round and allows the wearer to become essentially invisible for as long as an hour. It makes a person look like no one is there, but of course, they are. It disappeared from the vault during the invasion by the Nazis in late nineteen thirty-nine. It is not active. We believe that it must be part of some undiscovered Nazi plunder.”
“Maybe you and I can find that one. We could make a little extra money too, Colt,” Loni sang out.
Banyon ignored her, but thought the same thing. “Offensive weapon,” he said for her to record.
Wilk continued. “The next one is called Imagination. It looks like a big club. Orion always carried a club into battle. The holder can hold it up, and imagine what he wants to build. Whether it is a bridge, a wall, a fort, or building, it will suddenly appear and be completely finished. The structure will always be made of wood, but the wood is described as impenetrable as stone. It has been inactive since it disappeared around nineteen hundred. The head of the society at that time loaned it to a nobleman who claimed he wanted to build a new home. He was a Society of Orion member who promptly disappeared. It was activated in 1908 for a short period of time, somewhere in the wilderness of Siberia. But he also took …”
“That’s definitely a defensive weapon in todays’ world,” Banyon commented as he interrupted the story.
“I didn’t finish,” Wilk complained. “He also took another weapon with him,” Wilk said to complete his sentence.
“Oh!” Loni exclaimed.
“The other weapon he took is called Deliverance. This one is a dangerous talisman,” Wilk emphasized.
“How so?” Banyon turned and gave Wilk his full attention.
“It looks like a black rock with etchings on it. It weighs about five pounds. When it is put on the ground and activated, it can draw things from the sky.”
“Like what things?” Loni asked as she tilted her head, sending her long hair cascading over her shoulder.
“It can draw asteroids and comets from space,” Wilk replied. “The talisman was activated only once. It was also in the year 1908. It also took place in Siberia. We speculate that the nobleman had immigrated to Siberia, and was trying to clear some land. We think he blew himself up.”
Loni’s head snapped up. “Can I use your computer?” Loni suddenly yelled out.
“It’s not mine, it belongs to the professor, but I’m sure he would let you use it,” Wilk agreed. Loni ran to the machine and started typing at lightning speed. Banyon and Wilk said nothing, but came over to the desk. They looked over her shoulder as she raced through a search engine.
“What are you doing?” Wilk asked. He turned to Banyon for an explanation. Banyon shrugged his shoulders.
“I remembered something. I need to look it up.” She said as she continued to type furiously. Suddenly, Loni let out an expletive. “Son-of-a-bitch,” she yelled. “It is called the Tunguska Event. It took place in late June of 1908.”
“The date sounds right,” Wilk admitted with concern.
“According to Wikipedia, many scientists beli
eve the blast came from an asteroid or comet. It exploded near the ground in the uninhabited wilderness of Siberia. It was 1,000 times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. More than 80 million trees were destroyed. There were no known casualties. But they have never found any fragments or even a hole in the earth. Could it be the Deliverance weapon?” She asked.
“I’d mark that one as offensive,” Banyon commented. “And put it at the top of our priority list too.”
“How come you didn’t know about this Albin?” Loni blustered at Wilk. “Couldn’t you see the coincidence?”
“I…I,” Wilk stuttered. “It was before my time,” he finally replied weakly. This made Banyon think. He wondered if Albin Wilk was capable of the long term protection of the Orion weapons. Everything was not his fault, a sure sign of a poor bureaucrat. Or was he just blatantly incompetent.
“Colt, if this weapon got into the wrong hands, they could blow up Manhattan or Washington,” Loni speculated with frustration as she threw up her hands. She had arrived at the same conclusion that Banyon just thought.
“But it hasn’t been activated since 1908,” Wilk argued.
“But how do you know that someone hasn’t read the journal, and is out there right now trying to find Deliverance?” Loni said with sarcasm.
Albin Wilk now appeared to be very nervous. “This is all happening on my watch,” he lamented. “My reputation will be ruined,” he cried out like a little boy. But Loni wasn’t going to give him any sympathy.
“You sat on this information for four months before you contacted us. Are you an idiot?” Loni screamed at him.
“Calm down Loni,” Banyon pleaded and stroked her back. “We need to work together to find the weapons. We can place blame later.” She looked up at him, and realized Banyon had something up his sleeve.
Wilk started back to his chair where he felt more comfortable and in control. He was about half the way there when he stopped and pointed. “Look!” he exclaimed.
Banyon and Loni swiveled their heads and saw that the Insight talisman had suddenly activated and produced a hologram. They rushed over to view the picture.
It showed an old man dressed in a Nazi uniform and grinning ear to ear. An oval talisman hung from his neck. The background looked like a library in a castle.
Chapter Sixteen
“Uh-oh,” Wilk uttered as all the blood drained from his face.
“Is this the picture you saw the last time this talisman was activated?” Loni quickly asked him.
“I’ve never seen this one before,” Wilk replied weakly. “This is a new activation,” he answered with alarm.
“So there is another weapon that has been activated?” Banyon said in disbelief. This would multiply the effort which was needed to end the crisis. There were now activated weapons as well as weapons that could be found and activated by anyone.
“This one is called Time,” Wilk noted as he studied the hologram. “As you can see, it looks like a flying saucer. It disappeared in the final plunder of the weapons vault in 1940. It is the strangest of all the weapons.”
“What does it do?” Loni asked as she picked up her chart to write down the information.
“It distorts time,” Wilk replied. “Whoever wears the talisman can go back or forward in history, for a short period anyway. My understanding is that they can place themselves two days in the future or two days in the past at will. The talisman contains some kind of greenish liquid that glows when the weapon is in use.”
Banyon and Loni both looked at each other and blurted out the same word at the same time.
“Vril,” they both said in unison.
“What’s Vril?” Albin Wilk asked and scratched his head.
“We have run across this stuff before,” Loni said, “a couple of times to be exact.”
“Vril is supposed to be the ultimate power source. From what we know, it combines several energy-generating systems, like the wind, the sun, and the tides with some sort of essence from something living, like a soul. The result is an unlimited energy supply that could power spaceships. It also could bend time,” Banyon explained.
“We don’t know whether it comes from earth or someplace else,” Loni said as she pointed to the sky.
“I don’t understand.” Wilk uttered.
Banyon filled Wilk in on Vril. “Hitler and the Nazis spent considerable time and money attempting to find and utilize Vril,” Banyon told the startled Wilk. “They managed to create, or found, a small amount of it during the war. Several high ranking Nazis worked on the project. Some of them disappeared near the end of the war with all the research and any samples of Vril.”
“It is well documented that Hitler and many of the top Nazis were members of the Thule Society. Later they combined with the Vril Society,” Loni chimed in.
“Their ultimate goal was to go back in history and change some events. I’m sure you can understand what they wanted to change,” Banyon said.
“I had no idea, it was before my time,” Albin Wilk said in horror as his hand went to his mouth.
“Their beliefs were all based on a science fiction book written in 1871, called The Coming Race,” Banyon added. “Vril is very dangerous. Now it appears to be in the hands of an old Nazi. If he has the records of the Nazi experiments, he might be able to change the course of history. All of us could suddenly be speaking German right now.”
“But how could it contain something living,” Wilk questioned. “According to the Orion scrolls, the God Poseidon found the talisman on the sea floor. It could have been a million years ago,” Wilk exclaimed.
“Or longer,” Banyon replied.
Chapter Seventeen
Two days earlier, five men exited a single engine plane in the small river city of Krasnoyarsk. It was in the Evenkiysky District of the area known as Siberia. The leader was a scientist from Moscow. His four companions were all Russian Special Forces men assigned from a base in the Ural Mountains. The men knew how to survive in the remote hostile environment of the deep-tundra wilderness. They all could scuba dive, something that might come in handy during the trip.
They were immediately whisked away from the airport in a military vehicle and taken to the docks on the Yenisey River that bordered the city. There awaiting them was a unique boat that was loaded with five ATVs and a mountain of equipment.
There was also a two man crew to pilot the boat through the almost uncharted waters that they would face. Their goal was to travel upstream, and eventually to enter the long Podkamennaya Tunguska River. Once they reached the southern swamplands, about half-way down the river, they would proceed on land using their ATV vehicles. The trip would take two days to reach their destination, Lake Cheko.
“It’s going to be hot and humid in the swamps,” the Special Forces leader yelled to the scientist over the roar of the boat’s engine as they skipped along the wide river. “Bugs will be as big as your arm,” he added. “And we might run across some bear or mountain lions. I hope that you are prepared?”
“I’ll be alright,” the scientist replied as he smeared lotion all over his exposed parts. “Just make sure that you follow my orders.”
“You mean Volodya’s orders don’t you?” the soldier replied using the nickname of the leader of their country.
“Yes, of course, comrade,” the scientist agreed nervously. He had no allusion that he was heading up the operation. The military was in charge.
“What does he want with a piece of rock anyway?” the Special Forces leader asked out of curiosity. He had not been briefed on the importance of the rock.
“Perhaps you should ask him on your next visit to the Kremlin, when you present him with the trophy,” the scientist replied evasively with a laugh.
No thanks,” the man replied. “I want to live a little longer.
Chapter Eighteen
The magnitude of the crisis was growing by the minute. They now had two weapons that were top priority to recover, and Wilk was only half done with his recap o
f the talismans. Banyon was very concerned. He suddenly realized that his plan would require some luck.
“Let’s get to the remaining weapons,” he demanded grimly.
“Well, the good news is that the rest of the weapons are all part of one overall armament,” Wilk stated. “As a result, they should all be in the same place.” He added, “The bad news is that it may be the most powerful of all the Orion weapons. And it has recently been activated as well.”
“Great,” Loni muttered sarcastically and rolled her eyes.
“Does it have a name?” Banyon asked to move the long-winded Wilk along.
“It is unique to Poland,” Wilk replied. “It is called ‘The Magic Belt’.”
“Why is The Magic Belt unique to Poland?” Loni inquired as she wrote the name on the paper.
“Legend has it that some crafty thinker put the belt together around sixteen hundred,” Wilk started. “He combined eight of Orion’s weapons on one belt. It’s actually more of a sash,” he added. “But the idea was that a single knight would have an entire arsenal on him as he went into battle.”
“So you’re saying someone from the Society of Orion in Poland put it together, right?” Loni asked.
“I’m not sure, it was before my time, but I think that it might have been someone from our fold,” Wilk replied. It irritated Loni that he always threw out a disclaimer whenever talking about the weapons.
“What can you tell us about The Magic Belt?” Banyon pleaded.
“It was passed around among many nobleman and knights from that period on. It eventually fell into the hands of the noblemen Casimir Pulaski, who took it to the colonies to fight for freedom during the American Revolution.”
“You mean ‘the father of the American cavalry’?” Banyon asked in surprise.
“Yes,” Wilk answered. “He used it many times during battles. He also used it while scouting for the revolutionary army. Anyway, he passed The Magic Belt to Thaddeus Kościuszko in the middle of the war for independence because he was going to the Southern front and decided he didn’t need it anymore.”
The Polish Discovery: The Society of Orion 1-3 (Colton Banyon Mystery Book 17) Page 7