Once again, as was happening more and more lately, Santo forgot the curtesy of a greeting kiss. He was about to sit across the desk when her saw her pout. Jumping up and coming around to her, the neglect was quickly corrected. For a reason that he did not understand, she wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him in tight for a prolonged hug. He whispered in her ear,
“Has it been a tough day?”
When finally released and he returned to the chair, she answered,
“You don’t even want to know. I think those damn Great Grays are laughing at me. I can’t get their computers to do exactly as I programed them to do.”
He shook his head and said,
“Maybe that’s their revenge for what the Duchess did to them.”
“Well, if it is, they are going to lose. I’ll figure it out eventually.”
Understanding that he came into her office for a reason, she saved her programs, gulped coffee and asked,
“Are you here for a reason or just to sit there and look good?”
He said,
“I sent you some sensitive Vatican material about an hour ago. Have you had a chance to look at it?”
“Yes, I did actually. I’m assuming that it satisfied your question about why the Vatican invaded King Rhymen’s kingdom so long ago.”
“Yes, and as it turned out, it might have been for a very good reason.”
“Are you suggesting that the Vatican attacked the ancient Rhymen kingdom to rid the country of storybook witches?”
“Yes but only in the context of what they thought were witches.”
He then said,
“The document mentioned flying shields coming out of clouds but that was just a people at the time describing what they saw in the context of their limited understanding of it. Of course, now we know different and what they really saw.”
She understood cultural cross-over limitations. If you do not have knowledge or words for what you see, you naturally relate it to what you understand. They were not flying saucers but rather simply flying shields. Santo continued,
“Naturally I suspect that the references to ‘underworld’, at least to the Vatican might be a reference to hell. Perhaps they wanted to close that gate and prevent demons, or witches from entering what the Vatican assumed was their kingdom, their world to protect. They probably saw it as a purging of evil.”
Maria had no problem accepting any of his assumptions. She had seen and heard it all before. She was however critical of the Vatican’s hypocritical view on aliens and said,
“Considering that in those days the Vatican had on their advisory council members of the Great Gray and even at times Sky People, calling them angels and heavenly advisers I’m surprised that the so-called witches were referred to as an instrument of the devil.”
“Yes, said Santo, “but remember in those days many of the different aliens had been at war. The Great Earth War was long over but animosity and hatred between the conflicting sides was still strong. Even today the Great Grays have not forgiven the Sky People for their part in convincing the Vatican to move to Avignon. After hundreds of years, that animosity still exists. Obviously the so-called angels knew that the witches were really the Anunnaki and convinced the Vatican they were an evil to be destroyed. Maybe the counselling Sky People or argumentative Great Grays suggested the raid to rid the world of a gate hidden in the castle.”
Surprised at such a bold assumption, Maria slowly lowered her coffee cup and asked why he would think that. Santo replied,
“Because of the Anunnaki obelisk located near the kid’s treehouse. Remember they saw a black ghost walk out of it. In fact it was an Anunnaki dimension skipper that destroyed Zak Zander’s research papers. That obelisk was another transfer post for them. What was it doing on the ancient King Vladan Rhymen estate? I suspect that the ‘Witch of the Manor’ was not a witch at all but an Anunnaki female that the king married. There is no doubt in my mind that the ancient Rhymen kingdom and the Anunnaki were once allies.”
She formed a disbelieving scowl and said,
“No, what purpose would that serve?”
“I don’t know and your guess would be as good as mine. Remember what you discovered about this so-called passive genetic recolonizing program the Anunnaki initiated generations ago. Maybe they needed human contacts to monitor its progress. I don’t know, but it leads me to suspect that because of those connections what the kids found in that library was an Anunnaki gateway to their world or at the very least, to one of their worlds.”
Maria sat in disbelief staring at Santo. He knew that the look was one of being lost to thought and she was pondering what he had speculated. Finally she said,
“Maybe. History has taught us that the only thing the Great Grays and the Sky People ever had in common was a mutual hatred of the Anunnaki. I think you might be right in thinking it was by the recommendation of the Great Grays and the Sky People that the Vatican should raid the castle to close the gate.”
Santo added,
“So we are in agreement then. The Holy Army of the Vatican was used to close an Anunnaki dimensional gate?”
She nodded her approval.
Satisfied that he had solved the puzzle of why the Vatican raided the ancient Rhymen kingdom, he was prepared to get up and leave her to her work. However, looking across the desk, he saw she was in deep thought and so stayed seated. Finally she pointed a finger at him and said,
“There are still many questions to be answered and I think one of them should be what are we going to do with that dimensional gate the kids discovered. Obviously it has not been closed. In accordance with our new House of the Nazarene mandate, such gates must be closed.”
Seeing that Santo was nodding his approval, she continued,
“We will have to have a little chat with King Rhymen.”
Santo agreed and added,
“Do you think he knew about this history of witches and gates to another world and who they really were?”
“Maybe, but he certainly will after we talk to him.”
She then added,
“I can’t help but wonder if Gustav knew this history, would he have ordered you and Waldorf to steal those documents from the Vatican vaults giving the estate and treasury back to him.”
Santo understood the reasoning and said,
“Are you thinking there might have been evil intent behind the King’s request for Gustav’s help in returning the kingdom to him?”
“I don’t know. I hope not. I would hate to think that if Gustav knew about it, what would be the purpose of returning the treasury and land to the rightful current king?”
She got up and walked to the door with him. Before reaching for the handle, he turned to her. She was expecting a kiss goodbye but got a strange question from him instead.
“Who is in charge of hiring the gardeners?”
Although taken aback, she shrugged her shoulders and said,
“I asked Helga to approach King Rhymen’s Royal Gardener for those recommendations. Each of them was put through a vigorous security scan.”
She then asked,
“Why? Is something wrong?”
He told her what Cardinal Leone Alighieri had said about taking time to smell the roses in the garden. Then,
“How did he know we had a rose garden on the estate?”
She was quick to grasp the allegation and said,
“A spy? You think we have a Vatican spy in our midst?”
“Why not? We have a spy in the Vatican.”
Right away one suspicious gardener sprung to mind and she said,
“I’ll have Romero replaced right away.”
“No,” said Santo, “Waldorf once told me that knowing who your spies are is a great strategical advantage. He can be controlled and fed false information. I’ll put Han Lee on him and see what he does and who he reports to. I’ll also have my team double check the property for unauthorized surveillance cameras.”
This time she got an all to
o quick peck on the cheek and he was gone.
Chapter 37
It was a warm day in the mid-afternoon. The curving path through the garden of tall hedges and seasonal blooms was thick with the therapeutic essence of lilac. The blaring sunlight greatly accented vivid colors of the vibrant garden. Little trails off the main path were lined with benches and on sunny days like this, this was where many of the Nazarene scientists preferred to eat their lunch and on occasion sit and discuss solutions to secret projects.
When two scientists had finished their lunch and discussing their project, they left the bench and returned to the laboratory. Nobody in the garden noticed or cared that Romero was pretending to weed near the newly unoccupied bench. Nobody, save one person saw him casually bend over and pull what looked like a small dark package from under the bench. Standing secretly on the other side of the rose garden, Han Lee smiled and whispered, “Gottcha.”
For the rest of the scientists, none paid attention to the woman leisurely strolling through the main path seemingly enjoying the essence of the garden. A wayward blond hair was casually swiped away from her eyes.
At Maria’s laboratory, Jessika stopped and saw the warning sign posted on the door. ‘knock before entering’. Thinking it was a great idea, she made a mental note to get one for her door as well. Like in Maria’s office, too many people were simply barging in and startling her. Hell, with three kids she wished she had one on her bedroom door too. She remembered how Maria shocked her just this morning. That was when a devious thought lit up. Should she get revenge and do the same thing to Maria right now? Should she just barge in and then offer her one of the diapers in her bag? However, wisdom prevailed. Best not to get the boss mad.
When Maria heard the soft knock she was at a computer unheard of in today’s science, her Great Gray universal pulse processor. It was analyzing and computer growing strands of alien DNA codes pulled from the interior of the Black Knight. She wanted to get a likeness of all the various alien species that once lived on this planet.
She wanted to know what they looked like, especially the enigmatic ‘Ant People’ of the Americas. Why were they referred to as Ant People and what did they really look like? She was sure they did not look like ants but nevertheless for some strange reason the indigenous people refereed to them as such.
She also wanted to know if any human genus had traces of other than Anunnaki codes in their DNA. She was still trying to understand where the various alien tribes went after the Great Earth War. Did they leave the planet or were they assimilated into the human genetics? While in deep concentration, she was not pleased to hear a distracting knock on the door.
With reluctant permission granted, Jessika entered and walked up to Maria’s desk. Maria saw the folder in her hand and assumed it was for her. She was right. She sat across from the boss and placed the file on the desk but did not slide it forward. This prompted Maria to ask,
“I presume you have some information for me?”
When Jessika nodded, Maria’s pulse quickened. She really wanted the alien language on the satellite identified. With great enthusiasm for the reply, she hurriedly asked,
“So what alien species created the Black Knight then?”
Jessika’s eyes drifted to the file and said,
“Well, I guess the biggest mistake was in assuming that the characters were of alien origin.”
Surprised, Maria blurted out,
“Not alien? Surly you are not suggesting that it is a human based language?”
Jessika nodded and Maria’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
“I ran every program Zak had on alien written languages and no search came even close to matching this one. I even widened the parameters hoping perhaps it was an evolved language but again with no hits. Then, mostly on a whim stemmed from frustration, I ran all known human written languages including the dead ones through the search engines with the same negative results.”
Again Maria’s eyes bore down on the closed file flat on her desk. She knew that Jessika did not come here just to present an empty file. Maria’s circling finger indicated for Jessika to get on with it. Understanding the command, she crossed her legs, sat up straight, swiped a lose hair from her eye and began.
“Like I said, I accessed every file Zak had on all known alien languages but came up empty. I had meticulously researched every possible avenue trying to locate its source.”
What she said next was accented with a pointing finger.
“What you probably do not know about us scientists is that we are well connected to others throughout the world. When I reached a dead end, I sent samples to others asking if anybody could help me.”
Suddenly frowns waved across Maria’s forehead. The House of the Nazarene is a secret House, an organization known only to an elite circle of trusted people. The last thing she wanted was the world knowing of them. Seeing the dagger eyes stabbing at her, Jessika understood that she had said something wrong. Quick to understand her error, she corrected it.
“Perhaps I should have said that I only sent out requests for help to scientists in our organization.”
And just like that the frown disappeared and she was ready to once again listen.
Pleased that she was not going to be accused of breaking confidentiality laws, Jessika took a deep breath and explained,
“None of our laboratories throughout the world had records of such a language. Even Doctor Marls in Switzerland was unable to help. Although claiming that he was far too busy for trivial questions he eventually denied any knowledge of it in his records.”
Maria sucked in a disappointed breath and conceded to defeat
“So that’s it then.”
However, when Jessika’s eyes lowered to the file, a spark of hope sprang forward. Maria snapped,
“Okay, let’s have it. What’s in there?”
Jessika reached for the file, took out a piece of paper and asked,
“Did you know that Waldorf has been negotiating with an elite group of Russian scientists in the hopes of opening up a laboratory in Moscow?”
Maria cast eyes to the ceiling. Of course she knew that. What did Jessika think the leader of the House of the Nazarene did day in and day out? It was a dry response to an ill thought out question.
“Yes, I know where my scientists are and what Waldorf is up to.”
Jessika again saw the scorn and immediately corrected,
“I’m sorry, there was insult intended. I guess I should have meant it as a rhetorical question.”
With a nod that Jessika saw as forgiveness, she continued,
“Well anyway, five of the scientists that Waldorf is negotiating with have already been approved and put on the confidential list. It was one of those, a Professor Vlad Novokoff that received my general inquiry and responded favorably to it.
She then slid that paper over to Maria and pulled another from the file. She said,
“After assurance of confidentiality, he admitted seeing those characters on files in top-secret army archives.”
She then paused and looked straight into Maria’s hopeful eyes and divulged what this meeting was all about.
“To repeat, my mistake in searching for the source of the language was searching in the alien files.”
Then as if proud to drop the bomb she added,
“Apparently it is not alien but rather a language with no roots to any other in the world. Here is the kicker, it is still used today by an isolated people hidden somewhere deep in Siberia.”
Jessika saw Maria surprise and delight of the phrase, ‘still used today’.
Although understanding Jessika’s research into the language obviously fit House of the Nazarene protocols, it was still on the edge of unbelievable. Stunned, she said,
“That satellite has been up there for thousands of years. Are you implying that an ancient human civilization once had enough scientific knowledge to build a satellite and fill it with the DNA of every known living thing on Earth?�
�
“No, I’m simply reporting the results of my findings to you. Those speculations are up to you.”
Once again, as so many times in the past when presented with something that sounded impossible and outright unacceptable, Maria had to remember all the impossible and strange things she had encountered in her years with the House of the Nazarene. If she was to present a memoire of her adventures and discoveries to the world, she understood that a padded cell would soon be waiting for her. Although she thought it impossible for an ancient human reaching back into the Cro-Magnon era might have the intelligence and technology to create the Black Knight, she understood that she at least had to listen to Jessika. Maria then said the only thing she could think to say.
“Talk to me.”
Jessika pulled another paper from the file and said,
“Although Professor Vlad Novokoff does not know who these people are, he knows his government has a file on them. He also said that for some reason his government is blocking every attempt by outsiders to discover their location.”
Maria was quick to understand somebody in the elite of the Russian government knows who and where these people are. She also understood that if it were true, then a very long time ago there was a human civilization with knowledge of genetics and had the ability to put a satellite into orbit. If those people are still around today, no wonder the Russians want to keep something like that secret.
The Noah Satellite Page 17