by Joanne Pence
Kohler nodded. “What would you do with them?”
“Take them to the pillars. We would put them together, touching each other, The Book indicates that if we heat the philosopher’s stone, a special gas will be released. Lionel and I have collected some cinnabar, which can be found throughout this area. We will mix it with the stone, and see what happens.”
“You have cinnabar?” he asked, both skeptical and surprised.
“Yes.” She knew Jake and others could find her some red rocks. “Give us the stones, and we’ll do the rest.” She held out her hand.
His gaze hardened. By now, the other villagers were listening, and all appeared equally reluctant to part with their precious stones. “We’ll go with you,” Kohler said. “So we can see this for ourselves.”
o0o
“Only five men have gone with Charlotte and Lionel to the pillars,” Michael said. “I didn’t see Arnie Tieg with them.”
“He’s probably in the guard tower,” Jake said. “And most likely will be watching us.”
“We have to do something about that,” Michael said.
It took some convincing, but they got Brandi to go alone to the guard tower. She stood at the bottom and called up to Arnie. “Hello?”
“What do you want, girl?”
“Nothing.”
“Then don’t bother me! You’ve got work to do. Two plump rabbits to prepare for our dinner, and meat to dry for the winter. Get busy! They’ll be hungry when they get home.”
“But…I can’t. I mean, I can, but…it’s too much for me to do alone! I don’t want to skin them, or touch all that inside stuff,” she wailed. “It’s too disgusting!”
“What do you mean alone? Everyone is in the community house.”
“Not anymore. They went into the tunnel, and told me I’m too much trouble to go with them!” She began to sob loudly. “They said I should stay and cook. But I can’t!”
“The tunnel!” He ran down the stairs. “Those bloody—”
As he reached the bottom of the stairs, and turned to run toward the tunnels, Michael stepped out from the side of the community house. Tieg noticed the movement, and spun toward him just as Michael swung a thick piece of firewood against the side of his head.
He dropped like a stone. Jake helped Michael bind and gag him.
“I did good, didn’t I?” Brandi all but danced with excitement. “I always wanted to be an actress.”
“You did just great,” Michael said, causing her to beam with pride.
“Take the kids,” Jake said to Quade and Melisse who had been watching from the community house. “We’ve got to find those weapons, but if we can’t, at least you’ll have a good head start.”
“We’ll go, as we agreed,” Quade said.
“If you find a Beretta,” Melisse said. “It’s mine. Those bastards took it from me.”
o0o
Charlotte and Lionel needed to string out their deception as long as possible to give Michael, Jake, and Quade time to find the weapons and escape with the students. Both of them took frequent rest stops and complained about fatigue and aching backs and hips as they walked the four miles to the pillars.
Charlotte and Lionel climbed the mound with the villagers and sat in a circle. The prior night’s heavy rainfall left the ground damp, but the morning was warm and sunny. They then announced that they needed a small campfire, and descended the mound.
Finding dry twigs took time, but eventually, they gathered enough to build a fire.
Once the fire blazed, the five men placed their philosopher’s stones in a clay pot, and placed it on the fire. Kohler added in Arnie Tieg’s to complete the six pieces that made up Abbé Gerard’s original stone. Each of the six pieces had been set in gold, and made into a pendant. “The gold will melt if the fire grows hot enough,” Kohler said.
“That may be a good thing,” Charlotte said. “That way, the stones will touch each other more directly.”
“Where is the cinnabar?” Kohler asked.
“I’ve got it. I’ll use it when the time comes. Now, we must read.” She opened The Book of Abraham the Jew and began reading the ancient Greek aloud. She was unsure of the meaning or pronunciation, but no one could call her on it if she was wrong.
“I want to see the cinnabar now,” Kohler insisted, “before this goes any further.”
Charlotte didn’t want to do it, but she removed the four small rocks Jake had found in the stream.
“That’s not cinnabar. They’re red pebbles,” Kohler said.
“Have you seen cinnabar before it’s removed from its natural setting? I have, and this is it,” Charlotte said as forcefully as possible. Most people had no idea what the mercury sulfide ore looked like, or even that it most often resembled a brick red quartz.
Kohler looked suspicious, then nodded. She felt a flood of relief. He didn’t know. She continued to read from the book.
When she hoped enough time had passed, she stood and threw the fake cinnabar into the fire while she continued to read aloud. She expected nothing to happen. She planned to put on a sad face and tell Kohler and the other villagers that her plan failed.
But a few seconds later, the philosopher’s stones began to glow. The village men gasped in awe.
“It’s working!” Lionel shouted. “We did it! The gateway is going to open!”
The villagers let up a cheer. Just then, Arnie Tieg came running toward the mound, waving his arms. He carried two full quivers of arrows, as if he expected a battle. “Don’t trust them! It’s a trap! The others escaped!”
A shot rang out. Ben Olgerbee fell. More shots followed. A bullet hit Gus Webber next. The others scrambled and rolled down the mound to find cover. Charlotte peeled off her jacket and used it to pick up the crucible with the philosopher’s stones, and then followed Lionel who had paused to pick up the book. The villagers were well ahead of them both.
o0o
“Damn!” Michael said at the sound of gunfire as he and the others hurried through the pine forest toward the pillars. “High-powered rifle fire. It’s got to be those mercenaries.”
“The sound seems to be coming from the direction of the pillars,” Jake said.
“Yes, but who are they shooting at? And why now?”
They were already moving fast, but hearing gunfire, they began to run. They had spent two hours searching all the huts and the tunnel for the weapons taken from them and Melisse. They almost gave up but decided to do a more thorough search of the storage shed. They found the weapons in a barrel filled with wild onions.
Before they left, they saw that somehow Arnie Tieg had freed himself of the ropes they used to tie him. They had no idea how he had managed it, but he was gone. No one doubted he would head straight for the mound, which meant Charlotte and Lionel were in trouble.
Almost as quickly as it began, the shooting stopped and the land became eerily quiet.
o0o
Charlotte and Lionel no sooner reached the foot of the mound when Derek Hammill stepped between them and their escape route. He flashed them a smile more threatening than friendly. “I knew you could get us out of here. And you’ve got the book. A two-fer! Our lucky day!”
Charlotte immediately recognized Hammill from Jerusalem and Paris. Her gaze riveted on his; her stomach knotted. “Who are you?”
“Who we are isn’t important,” Hammill said.
Lionel glanced at her, worried and confused. “What’s going on?”
“The only thing for you to worry about is how to get us out of here. Go back up to those pillars.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Charlotte said.
Hammill laughed. “Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Charlotte,” he said. “You don't want us to kill your friends, do you? All we want is the book, and to go home again. You give us the book and open that ‘gateway’ as you call it, and we won’t hurt any of you. We’re quite reasonable. We aren’t killers. You can trust us.”
“Like hell.” She s
neered.
“Down!” Nose shouted and fired into the trees.
At that same moment, arrows flew toward the mercenaries. The village men fought back.
Bullets and arrows flew at each other, cracking rocks, snapping brush and tree limbs, and ricocheting all around.
Charlotte and Lionel ran in the opposite direction from the village men, and also away from the area the mercenaries ran toward.
“This way!”
Charlotte turned at the whispered sound. She saw Michael with Jake behind him. They both carried rifles.
“We’ve got weapons and supplies, plus some of Ben Olgerbee’s magic poultice in case anyone gets hurt,” Michael said, glancing towards the mound where the fighting raged on. He handed her the poultice for safe-keeping, and she zipped it shut in a jacket pocket. “Quade is leading the students to a creek. They’ll wade through the water, head south, and wait for us. Let’s get out of here!”
Michael knew that whatever happened, Lionel would never let go of The Book of Abraham the Jew. He never felt so happy to be right about anything as he did then. He found a plastic rain poncho in his backpack and wrapped the book carefully in it so it would stay dry even if it fell into a creek or pond. Lionel wanted to carry it until he felt how heavy the rations and rifle magazines made the backpack. He quickly agreed to let his brother have the honor, although his face contorted as he released the book.
Charlotte put all six philosopher’s stones around her neck and tucked them under her shirt while everyone’s attention was on the book. She found she couldn’t bear to part with them.
Chapter 57
New York City
JIANJUN LAY IN THE trunk of the car driven by Bob, Calvin Phaylor’s nurse. He tamped down his fear with the belief that if Calvin Phaylor wanted him dead, Bob would have killed him in Vandenburg’s apartment, the same way Bob killed Vandenburg. The nurse simply followed Phaylor’s orders, but why did Phaylor have Vandenburg murdered?
As fit his logical, computer-like brain, he laid out the facts.
Point A. Years ago, Calvin Phaylor learned about the Chinese and Danish scientists and their discovery of the Mormon settlement documents including Francis Masterson’s Journal. That started him on his findings about alchemy and Idaho. That set everything else in motion.
Phaylor would have quickly realized the possibilities: The Book of Abraham the Jew, alchemy, immortality. He then needed to eliminate the two men who knew most about it so he could take it over himself. The hard part would have been to get the Chinese scientist out of China. PLP’s international symposium on genetics provided the perfect cover.
Getting rid of the Dane had been child’s play in comparison.
Point B. Vandenburg seemed to know nothing about the recent murders in Paris and Jerusalem. Calvin Phaylor must have been behind them as well. He used Vandenburg, manipulated her because of her daughter. He told her about Idaho and the Secret Expedition. She provided him with the perfect cover, while he hid behind the scenes. Through her, he got the right people involved, people like Michael Rempart.
Phaylor wanted Michael and Lionel involved, but why? What was special about them? That, Jianjun wasn’t able to answer.
Point C. Phaylor knew what happened in Mongolia, not because he had been told by a member of the Chinese government, but because he had paid for the information, paid for Batbaatar’s help, and paid to have him killed so he wouldn’t warn Michael and confess all he knew.
Phaylor must have been the one who sent people to steal Lady Hsieh’s body. Also, getting permits to allow Michael into Mongolia to dig, although difficult at first, suddenly became easier, way too easy in hindsight, than Jianjun ever expected. Perhaps Phaylor’s money helped pave the way there as well.
Phaylor might also have sent someone to follow Lionel and Michael in Idaho, perhaps to steal The Book of Abraham the Jew from them as soon as they found it. Jianjun wondered if that was why Michael was missing now. Was his boss, his friend, already dead?
Jianjun refused to consider that possibility.
Vandenburg became a liability to Phaylor. She spent time and money, became far too invested in the results, and expected to own a part of them. She probably found out things Phaylor didn’t want her to know. Phaylor was close to everything he wanted, and wasn’t about to share.
The car stopped, and Jianjun held his breath with fear. All other questions vanished from his mind, replaced by only one: Was he a dead man?
Chapter 58
QUADE AND MELISSE urged Rachel, Brandi and Vince to move as quickly as possible through the brush and rocky uneven land toward the stream Quade and Michael found several days earlier. Brandi chattered nonstop about how nervous she felt when she lied to Arnie Tieg, and how she had managed to fake crying for his benefit.
They halted, wide-eyed, at the sound of gunfire.
“It’s far from here,” Quade said, trying to reassure the students. “The pillars are in a valley, and sound reverberates and echoes in these mountains. We’re fine. We’ve simply got to keep going.”
“What do you think it is?” Rachel asked. “Michael and Jake rescuing Charlotte and the professor? Or—”
“We can hope,” Melisse’s firm tone cut her off and discouraged anyone from voicing other possibilities. “Now go on. Hurry!”
The group ran. The gunfire stopped for a while, but then started up once more with even more shots.
When the group reached the stream, they waded into the water to hide their tracks.
At first they barely noticed the cold as adrenaline and fear pumped through their veins. They slipped, crawled, and lurched their way for nearly a quarter mile before their feet and legs grew so cold and numb they were forced out.
On dry land, they limped from the banks, their feet going from being numb to burning, making every step agony. Once sheltered by trees, they stopped. They didn’t dare build a fire for fear it might give their location away to someone they didn’t want to find them.
Melisse stayed with the students while Quade returned to the stream, the agreed-upon meeting place, to remain on the lookout for Michael and the others.
The students huddled together, mute, cold, and frightened.
o0o
Michael, Jake, Charlotte and Lionel reached the students and Quade an hour later. They found a sheltered area to build a fire and discuss what to do next. “Someone's paying a bunch of real bad asses to hunt us down,” Jake said as he and the others huddled barefoot beside the campfire letting their shoes and socks dry off. “Who are those professionals with their high-tech weapons?”
“I’ve seen their leader before,” Charlotte said. “I watched him kill someone in Paris, and he tried to kill me there, as well as in Jerusalem.”
“He followed you here,” Jake said. “But why?”
Charlotte shook her head, perplexed. “He never said who sent them or who they're working for.”
“Whoever they are,” Michael added, “they'll be coming this way soon. Both Gus and Ben Olgerbee were shot, and most likely are dead. The others won’t be able to stop them for long. We've got to keep moving.”
“We should go to ground that will give us some advantage,” Charlotte said. “Straight up steep, slick, mountain slopes. Their weapons are heavy. They’ll slow them down over time.”
Jake and Michael glanced her way, impressed at how quickly she learned out here.
“There’s one other thing that gives us some advantage,” Michael said.
“What’s that?”
“The mercs are missing their shots far more than highly trained pros should. I can only guess it has something to do with an imbalance of the air, or a magnetic pull, or who knows what, emanating from the pillars. Bullets aren’t flying straight. It’s something I suspect the villagers take into account for the flight of their arrows. If you fire your gun or rifle, remember that the bullet’s trajectory will curve slightly toward the pillars, and aim accordingly.”
The others nodded, glad to hear that s
omething leveled the playing field in some small way. Though exhausted and chilled, they stomped out the fire and headed for the jagged gray cliffs that loomed above a wooded ridge.
Finally, they reached the top and all lay flat, hugging the ground and breathing heavily. Jake sat up first. He scoured the horizon for any sign of their pursuers. Rachel handed him a roll of unleavened bread and a piece of goat cheese. “I took some food before we left,” she said as she handed some to the others as well.
They all felt much better, even a little optimistic, with food in their stomachs. The students sat near and listened to the discussion of how to proceed.
“It may be possible to negotiate with them,” Lionel said. “They don’t want to be stuck here anymore than the rest of us do. They said that!”
“They aren’t to be trusted,” Charlotte murmured as she stifled a shudder as she remembered all she had seen of Hammill’s deadly activities.
“Until we know who they are, we’ll have no idea how to negotiate,” Michael said. “And I’m sure one of us knows a lot more than he’s saying.” His gaze drilled Simon Quade.
Jake also looked at Quade for an answer.
Quade’s small smile upturned his red cupid-bow lips. “I’ll tell you, but you won’t like it. About fifteen years ago, Phaylor-Laine Pharmaceuticals began engaging in strange activity that caught the attention of several government agencies. PLP looked into alchemy.”
“PLP?” Jake said, incredulous. “A big company like that studying alchemy? I don’t think so.”
Charlotte perked up at the name mentioned, remembering seeing the letters PLP in Dennis’ notebook. Quade captured all her attention now.
“We assumed they wanted to find a way to create gold,” Quade said. “If they could, they wouldn't have to worry when their latest wonder drug killed or crippled a bunch of people. They could easily pay off all lawsuits.”
“As usual, follow the money,” Jake said with disgust.
Quade faced Charlotte. “Since your husband was the best scholar the CIA had in ancient Near and Middle Eastern studies, he investigated Phaylor Laine's interest in The Book of Abraham the Jew.”