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

by Gerald J. Kubicki

  Dewey & Beatem was a law firm based out of Chicago, Illinois. Colton Banyon initially worked there as a “finder” for the US government. Specifically, he worked for the President of the United States, the only other person that knew of Banyon’s ability to find things. The managing partner of the firm was Bart Longwood, a former roommate of the President. Dewey & Beatem was a legitimate law firm, but also handled black ops when required by the government. Only first names were used at the firm for security reasons.

  All the people at the firm had special skills. Banyon had used many of them successfully in past operations while making a pile of money for everyone involved. But during their last adventure, Bart decided he wasn’t making enough money from Colton Banyon despite over-charging him for everything. He attempted to spy on him to discover his secrets. This led to a confrontation which resulted in Banyon owning forty percent of the firm. He no longer had to pay the excess charges, and could utilize the special talents of the employees whenever he needed them. The President had given Bart the choice of losing the government’s business or gaining a new partner. Bart was no fool.

  “Have you talked to Wolf yet?” Loni asked expecting him to have all the answers already.

  “I’ve been dreading it,” Banyon truthfully told his partner. She rushed over to him and threw her arms around his bigger body as if to protect him.

  “I’ll stay with you for support,” she announced. Usually she left the room to prevent any distraction.

  “Well, I guess that I have to do this,” he replied reluctantly. “You take notes,” he said and handed her the chart.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Meanwhile, back in General Ludwig Goss’s castle, the old man continued to berate the professor of ancient languages. The general used fear as his prime motivator. He had always used fear to make things happen, even when he was a young officer in Hitler’s army. He had learned it from the master himself. He also understood how to use treachery to his advantage and Professor Crane would soon understand how treacherous the old man could be, once he completed the translation.

  “I’m running out of patience,” Goss croaked strongly. “You need to complete the translation now.” He waved the Luger at the professor. The professor quickly understood that he was no longer a guest in the castle, he was a prisoner. But Professor Albert Crane was a smart man.

  “And I’m running out of information to draw from in these old books of yours,” Professor Crane replied indignantly. He stopped working and threw up his hands. He was extremely tired and irritable himself. “Why won’t you let me return to my office in Lodz? I can do a proper translation there. You don’t even have a computer to use to cross reference my work. It’s impossible to move ahead without more data.”

  “I have no use for a computer. I can do calculations in my head,” the old man replied arrogantly. “I have always used peons like you to answer any other questions,” he spit out with distain.

  Professor Crane understood that a peon was someone of no value. The statement told him the general had evil intentions for the professor. He also knew that in this case, the general was using the term to show how little he thought of him. He was a peon.

  “A computer is used for more than mathematical calculations in today’s world,” Crane argued sarcastically. “If I had access to one, I would be able to gather more information. I could translate this chant faster. Isn’t that what you want?”

  The old man was quiet for a few seconds while he rubbed his chin stubble. “My grandson has a computer,” the old man offered. “He uses it to watch pornography, and little else I’m afraid. I will have it delivered to you immediately. Then you will have no more excuses. Do I make myself clear?”

  “It will definitely move things along,” the professor said carefully. He also understood treachery and was sure the general did not intend for him to ever leave the castle alive. He hoped he could use the computer to send a message without the old man noticing. It was his only chance at survival. He had already found the right translation to power the talisman, but knew that once he made the talisman work, the general would have no further use for him. He would become less than a peon.

  Goss reached out and pressed a button on the phone on the desk. After a few seconds he spoke, “Fredrick,” he said to a butler. “Collect my grandson’s computer. Bring it here to the library immediately.”

  “As you wish sir, it will be done,” a voice replied from the phone speaker.

  While the old man waited he rocked back and forth on his feet as he recalled the momentous events which had brought him to this glorious point in history. It had all started when he joined the Hitler youth program in the nineteen-thirties. He was the son of a lowly farmer, but he quickly showed he was very intelligent. He could do complicated calculations in his head. Soon he was identified as a candidate for special schooling and was enrolled into a program to develop much needed scientists for the motherland. By his middle twenties, he was rated as a physicist, given a commission in the Nazi organization with the rank of Colonel, and sent off to work on advanced wonder weapons for the Fuehrer. By that time he had become indoctrinated in the Nazi beliefs and had become brutal, arrogant and cunning. The same qualities he displayed even today.

  While working on wonder weapons in deep underground bunkers in Poland, Goss became exposed to the energy source known as Vril. The Nazis had lots of information and theories about Vril, but were unable to get it to work properly. They did possess a tiny amount of Vril but Goss had no idea where they had originally found it. They also could not reproduce it, not yet anyway.

  He witnessed a test flight of an anti-gravity machine shaped like a saucer in 1939. It happened in a meadow in central Poland. The machine took off from the ground and suddenly disappeared into thin air. A few seconds later it reappeared and settled on the ground. General Hans Klammer, the head of the project, told Goss the machine had actually bent time. It had returned to the past for a brief period. This got the physicist thinking, he was soon obsessed with the secrets of Vril.

  In 1940 he was given some free time to plunder a small village called Wilków, near Warsaw. It was a perk allowed to him for working on secret projects. It was the favorite pastime of the Nazis. Many of them amassed great riches from plundering during the war. Goss became one of them.

  While foraging around the village, a soldier approached him. He led Goss to an underground vault. When he entered the space, he discovered that it had already been picked clean, but went about a systematic search of the small room. He was rewarded when he came across a small panel in the wall. It had been jammed shut. The men that had plundered the vault had left it closed because they couldn’t get the panel open. Goss and the soldier used their knives and were able to lever it open. Inside they found a basket full of diamonds and the talisman that he now wore. He knew immediately that the saucer-like talisman contained Vril. Goss quickly turned. He shot the soldier in the head. He wanted no witnesses to his find.

  Being inherently devious, he never told anyone about the diamonds or the talisman. By the time the war ended, he was able to mask his identity, steal or copy all the information on Vril, and set himself up as a peace-loving aristocrat.

  He spent all the years since the war attempting to understand and make Vril work. He knew he could only move through history a few days at a time. But he calculated and theorized that once he was two days back in history, he could go back another two days from there. Since the change was instantaneous it would have no effect on a person’s body. He believed he could actually go as far back in history as he desired. Then he would be in a position to make the changes he planned for the world. And now over seventy years later, he was about to make it happen. He was quite proud of himself.

  A knock on the heavy library door jolted General Goss out of his fantasy. “Enter,” he bellowed.

  A man dressed in the uniform of a butler entered. He wore white gloves as he hurried into the large room. He pushed a cart which contained a tower comp
uter and monitor. He quickly brought it to the desk. He had the machine up and running within minutes. “We have Wi-Fi throughout the entire castle,” he told Professor Crane. He then bowed and left the room and closed the door behind him.

  “Thank you,” the professor said out loud with relief. He began to punch keys. He soon accessed the data base at the university. As he kept an eye on the frowning general, Professor Crane fired off an urgent email to the Hamburg police.

  “Help, I’ve been kidnapped,” it said. The message included the address of the castle. The professor figured that it would take at least two hours before the police came to the door. He hoped that he could hold off the general until then. The old man had suddenly told Professor Crane what his plan was just before the computer arrived. He even explained the newspaper article from four months ago about the journal. The professor was sure he wouldn’t have done that if he expected Professor Crane to remain among the living.

  While the email probably saved the Professor’s life, it brought an unwanted complication to Banyon’s recovery plan.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Colton Banyon stood in the center of the room. He preferred to stand when talking to Wolf. Sitting made him feel like the spirit was next to him. That seemed creepy. He held a copy of the chart that Loni had made to remind him of the topics for discussion. They had made the copy in the hotel’s office area as they came in to the hotel. Loni reclined on the couch with paper and pens ready to write whatever Banyon told her. She had also gone to the bedroom to get her laptop. It sat quietly on the coffee table ready for her to start pounding on the keyboard in case he wanted her to research anything. She felt they were prepared.

  “Wolf, are you out there?” Banyon started just as he always did.

  “We have much to cover today.” The voice came as a professional reply. “Ask your questions.”

  “Have you been following our discussions with Albin Wilk?”

  “I have actually been working on this project for a rather long time. I’m almost up to speed,” the spirit replied like a detached computer. Banyon quickly realized the spirit was being very cautious. He supplied the answers he decided Banyon should hear, not necessarily what Banyon wanted to hear. He had done it many times before. Banyon wondered why he was doing it now. It made him angry.

  “Why have you lied to me?” Banyon suddenly roared. Loni nearly jumped off the couch when Banyon screamed. The paper and pens went flying.

  “I have never lied to you, Colton,” the voice in his head patiently replied. “I am incapable of lying while under the curse. You know that. I merely have omitted some information which was not useful to you.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about being a Wilk, and the whole Society of Orion thing?” Banyon shot-gunned his questions.

  “There are many things I have not told you yet,” the spirit admitted. “My focus has always been to hunt old Nazis. We just hadn’t reached the point where the discussion of how I actually got here was important.” Banyon knew Wolf was often selfishly motivated. He sometimes bypassed Banyon’s needs to satisfy his own.

  “Well, what is actually going on Wolf?” Banyon pleaded.

  “I don’t have all the answers yet.” The spirit replied coolly. It sent a chill down Banyon’s spine.

  Banyon decided to bite off small pieces at one time, thinking maybe he could put the information together himself. “Is everything that Wilk told us about your background true? Have you always been my watcher?”

  “Yes, he has stated it correctly. I have been watching over you since you were a boy,” Wolf replied.

  “Is everything about Jakub Banyon true?”

  “That is also all true. You should be proud, he was a remarkable man.”

  “What about the Orion weapons, are they real?”

  “The weapons themselves are real. They do work as Albin Wilk has told you. I can verify that fact.”

  “You’re not giving me the full answer, there must be more to them then you have stated. What are you not telling me?” Banyon hissed.

  “Some of the weapons are already or about to be in evil hands. It could be dangerous to go after them. You’ll need to go after the dangerous ones first.”

  “Is there anything else you haven’t told me about the weapons?” Banyon was losing patience with Wolf. While he could not lie, he sometimes made it very difficult to get a straight answer from him.

  “I have not found the true origin of any of these weapons yet. But I don’t think they came from earth. I also don’t know if a man described as Orion ever lived.” Wolf reluctantly replied.

  “Not from earth? So where did they come from?” Banyon shouted.

  “I can’t give you that information, I don’t know.”

  “Why not? All you have to do is follow the timelines,” Banyon argued.

  “Colt,” Wolf pleaded. “It’s not that simple. Even I have limitations.”

  “Explain that?” Banyon said in a frosty voice.

  “Once I have found the timeline that I want to trace in history, it takes real earth time to research. In most instances we have only dealt with the recent past, a few years maybe. That can be quickly researched. These weapons have been around for a very long time. They make my job much more difficult.”

  “Oh,” Banyon paused for a second. He is trying to tell me something, Banyon thought. “How fast can you review history?”

  “We’ve discussed this before, Colt,” the spirit reminder Banyon. “I can research an entire day, 24 hours, in one earth second. That means that I can cover two months in an hour or four years in one earth day. To go back five thousand years takes roughly three and a half earth years.”

  “Wow, I never realized that. How long have you been researching the Orion weapons then?” Banyon quickly asked the spirit.

  “Ever since I got here,” Wolf explained. “Right now that is over five years. These items could be millions of years old. We may never know when or where they came from,” the spirit said unhappily.

  “How old do you think they are?”

  Wolf’s answer was disturbing. “The facts are these; the earth is over four billion years old. Who knows what has happened during that time. There could have been entire civilizations that have flourished and disappeared without a trace. Aliens could have colonized the earth and then left. The weapons could just be space junk left by them. They could also have been floating in space for millions of years and suddenly fell to earth. Right now, I’m considering the first option.”

  “Are you suggesting that humans are not the first inhabitants of Earth? That sounds crazy. Archeologists have not found any traces of any civilization before us.”

  “Colt, only a very small percentage of the existing rocks on earth are actually four billion years old, something like eleven percent. The rest of the earth had been recycled many times by the actions of volcanoes and water. There would be no traces to find.”

  “Well, I suppose that you should keep researching the weapons then,” Banyon said to save face. He could not control what Wolf researched anyway. He then asked another question. “Are you at the limit of your abilities now?”

  “In order to take on any additional tasks, I’m going to have to eliminate one that I am currently working on,” Wolf replied.

  “But you can tell me where the weapons are right now, can’t you?” Banyon cut to the heart of the information that he needed.

  “I am viewing all of them as we speak. There are fifteen items to research, plus I need to watch over you and some others. It is a huge burden. It has stretched my abilities to the limit.”

  Wolf had earlier explained to Banyon that he viewed history by looking into a large picture window like screen. He could divide up the window into many sections and study them simultaneously; all he had to do was think about it to get started. The screens then ran until he found what he was looking for in history. He also could view current streaming history, but that required additional screens.

  “So, have you
been researching these items while also helping me with other cases all along? Is that correct?”

  “Yes, Colt, but I’ve had nothing to report,” he replied. “Remember, I’m also researching the transmitter you found on Mt. Charleston. I have nothing new there either.” Banyon had found a strange transmitter about a year ago. It had led to complications with the Federal government. The origin of the transmitter was a mystery. Now Banyon knew that it was very old.

  Banyon was beginning to feel a little bit of sympathy for the spirit. He had been working hard, day and night, for all these years and had never complained. He had never even used a cross word with Banyon. Banyon could not say the same. He looked at Loni who gave a shrug. She had been sitting patiently on the couch with nothing to write. He gave her the wait a second sign with his finger.

  “Can you eliminate anything that you are watching,” Banyon cautiously asked. “I need you to check out the history of Albin Wilk, and his colleague Professor Orlich. I need you to watch them as well. Something doesn’t seem right about those two.”

  The spirit didn’t reply for several seconds. “Well, if you kept Loni at your side, I wouldn’t need to have a separate window for her until we gather some of the weapons,” he reasoned. “I can see both of you if she is near you.”

  “Loni, you are not leaving my side until we collect some of the weapons,” Banyon quickly told his little partner.

  “I’m not leaving your side anyway,” she quickly answered with a questioning look. “I’m sticking to you like glue.”

  “Are there any others that you can eliminate?” Banyon asked.

  “If I’m watching Wilk,” the spirit reasoned, “I’ll know where the Insight talisman is also located. He always has it in his pocket.”

  “Good, good,” Banyon uttered and nodded his head. “How long will it take you to check them out?”

  “You’ll have to give me a few hours at least. I can either watch them or do research on them. It is your choice.”