“What about the other two weapons?” Loni quickly asked.
“I don’t know,” Banyon admitted. Both weapons were medallions on a chain. “Father Hector had not mentioned them before.”
“Check the note,” Loni ordered.
Banyon reached into the box and grabbed the folded piece of paper. He quickly opened it and stared at the message. A bit of shock covered his face.
“What does it say?” Loni demanded impatiently.
He turned the paper around so everyone could see. It said, “You will need these weapons in the caves.”
“That’s it?” Loni croaked and flapped her arms in frustration. “We don’t know what the weapons do nor do we know how to make them work and he sends us this stupid cryptic message.”
“Hold on a minute,” Maya interjected. “If they are an Orion weapon, they must be in the codex.”
“You’re right Maya,” Banyon proclaimed as he jumped to his feet. “Every time Father Hector gives us a clue, it leads to additional information. He wants us to read the codex.”
Maya pulled the book from her satchel and put it on the desk top. “I haven’t had time to even look at it yet,” she remarked. “I hope I can read it.”
She opened it to the first page, leaned over it and began studying the script. She was so absorbed in attempting to read the codex she didn’t notice that her long dark hair cascaded over her shoulders and hid her lovely face. No one could see the look of satisfaction which quickly covered her fine features.
When she finally looked up, she told them what she had found. “The codex is written in cuneiform. It is the most ancient form of writing we have ever discovered — so far anyway. These characters probably date back to at least three thousand B.C. This is an incredible find.”
“Yeah, yeah, but what’s it say?” Loni said as she showed her impatience again.
“There is an entire prologue here. It goes on for several pages. It will take me a long time to translate it,” Maya explained.
“But did you find out anything about the two weapons?” Mandy asked?
“Not yet,” Maya replied. “But there are drawings of each weapon next to their names and uses. I haven’t seen these weapons — yet.”
While Maya rummaged around the codex, Banyon began to wonder why Father Hector expected them to read the book. He could have just told us about the weapons like he did the other ones.
“Found them,” Maya cried out happily. “They were near the back.”
“Well tell us what they do already or I’ll start pulling out your hair like I did to your sister,” Loni spouted. Everyone knew she was kidding — except Mandy who was deathly afraid of Loni. A look of horror crossed her face.
“The first weapon is called Strong,” Maya said. “According to the codex it gives the strength of ten oxen to anyone wearing it. The chant to make it work is here also. There is even a chant to make it stop,” she said with a hesitation.
“Why are you looking perplexed?” Loni quickly asked.
“It has an interesting side effect,” Maya responded.
“Oh, what’s that?” Loni asked.
“It says here that the user thinks like an oxen,” Maya explained.
“Well what do oxen think about?” Loni shot back.
“I believe mostly they think about food and rutting,” Maya replied.
“Sounds like most men I know,” Mandy quipped. It got her an evil eye from Loni.
“In any case, we can use it to move boulders and rocks in the caves,” Steve exclaimed with excitement.
“Father Hector must have known there are obstacles in the caves,” Banyon agreed.
“The second medallion is called Speak, Maya replied. “I’m not too sure of the translation, but it appears that whoever wears the trinket will be able to communicate with anyone by telepathy. They just have to think of who they want to talk to and what they want to say. The person will hear them directly in their brain and can reply, just by thinking. Oddly, it does not require a chant according to this.”
“This I need to try,” Mandy said excitedly, but quickly toned her enthusiasm down. “You know to make sure we have the translation right.”
“Actually,” Maya interjected as her finger touched her chin. “That’s not a bad idea.”
“Alright, give it to her,” Banyon reluctantly agreed.
Mandy placed the talisman around her neck and stared at Colton Banyon. His face immediately turned red. Soon hers was red too. She quickly pulled the talisman over her head and handed it to Banyon. “It works,” she simply said.
No one questioned her statement as they all had received a call from Mandy. The device seemed to work at an unbelievable speed. She had asked Banyon if he wanted to go camping and he could be on top. He had replied “No”.
Loni suddenly appeared by Banyon’s side and turned her backside to him. “Can you tell that I have blue panties on? Can you see them through my pants?”
Banyon laughed.
Chapter Eight
Colton Banyon glanced at his watch and realized they only had four more hours before he and Loni had to meet with Ahmad Fasi. They needed a plan of action.
“Loni, call Timmy back in Chicago. Have him find out everything he can about Ahmad Fasi. I want everything he can produce by 7:30 P.M.”
“On it,” Loni said.
“Maya, I want you to translate the prologue in the codex. My gut tells me there is something important there.”
“I’ll sit right here,” she replied as she looked up from the book.
“Steve, I want you to make sure our weapons are in working order and make a plan to takedown these guys away from the hotel.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Banyon then turned to Mandy. “I want you to call Heather, fill her in on everything and tell her to get down here as fast as possible. Also tell her to put around the clock surveillance on the ferret.”
“But then no one will be there to run the company,” she complained.
“Tell her to put someone in charge. She can scuba dive. I need at least four people to enter the caves and Loni, Maya, you and I can’t scuba dive.”
“Alright, I’ll tell her,” Mandy agreed.
“Thank you,” Banyon said as he got up and headed for the door of the office.
“Where are you going?” Mandy asked.
“Me? I’m going to the bathroom.”
Part Two
Bad
Chapter Nine
“We’ve only two more days before the rest of the team arrives here and we start our hunt for the Tayos caves,” Ahmad Fasi announced to the six men in the room. “We need to clear up this trivial matter tonight. Our benefactor is paying us a huge amount of money to find the caves. We must not disappoint him.”
“So why bother with these people?” A man named Mohammed asked.
“They have some trinkets I desire,” Ahmad Fasi replied arrogantly.
“Do you think this infidel, Colton Banyon, will be a problem?” one of his men asked as he cleaned his gun. “I mean, will he fight us?”
“Colton Banyon, ha,” Fasi snorted with contempt in his voice as he strutted around the large room. He held a brandy snifter in his hand and a cigar in the other. “His is a middle-aged idiot American. He has probably never faced real danger before. He will fold when pressured. The rest of his friends are women. What damage could they possibly do to us?”
“So we’ll take the weapons from him tonight in the restaurant, right?” the same man asked.
“I didn’t say that, my friend,” Fasi replied and waved his finger back and forth. “Banyon may not be devious, but Father Hector most certainly was. I’m sure he has provided Banyon with a plan to stop me for taking the weapons. He never believed I should get them.”
“But the weapons belong to the society and you are head of the society,” another thug said. “They rightfully belong to you, don’t they?”
“Thank you,” Ahmad Fasi said and bowed. Fasi kept many
secrets close to his vest. He never told his people there were other chapters of The Society of Orion. They all thought he was the only head. He liked it that way.
“We will get the weapons for you, my lord,” Mohammed said with the intensity of a zealot.
“But I doubt this man Banyon will bring the weapons tonight,” Fasi countered.
“Why not? You warned him,” a third man cried out.
“I didn’t sense the fear in him that I had hoped,” Fasi explained. “I believe he will come expecting an attack from us. He will be prepared.”
“So what do we do?” The first man asked.
“We out-think him, that’s what,” the leader responded. “That’s what we will do.”
“You must have another plan,” Mohammed responded.
“We will proceed with the plan we discussed earlier. But when I sense he has become overly concerned, we will pull back. Melt into the woodwork per se.”
“Why?” the same man asked.
“It’s very simple really,” the arrogant Arab said. “When he leaves the restaurant, the first thing he will do is check on the weapons to make sure they are safe. We will follow him and swoop in to claim our victory.”
“And what happens to Banyon?” a fourth man asked.
“Well, we can’t have two heads of the society, can we?” Fasi responded.
Chapter Ten
Colton Banyon considered how complicated his life had become as he rushed to the bathroom. There seemed to be people chasing him and trying to kill him on a regular basis. He was required to perform tasks for the President which most people would not dream of undertaking. He had to solve mysteries and put together crazy plans almost daily. Now he also had a law firm to run. But his biggest concern was the relationship circles around his life. They were the most dangerous threat and caused him the most time and energy. He had to constantly juggle them.
To Banyon, managing the circles was critical to his survival. There were circles within circles within circles. He was beginning to have trouble remembering who was in what circle and who to trust with what information.
The first circle was the entire world — all humanity. Banyon had solved many mysteries that could have affected the people of earth and in the end he had managed set things right. Humanity knew nothing about Colton Banyon or that he even existed. But if they did, people would be bombarding him with requests to find things. Some of the requests could include threats and even torture. He would never have a moment’s rest.
The next circle was the people he worked with — the Dewey & Beatem people for example, who knew he had secrets, but were happy he could solve mysteries and provide information — seemingly from thin air. Many of those people wondered how he was so successful. He needed to keep them guessing.
Then there were the contract personnel like Kenny & Carol Cole. They knew some of Banyon’s secrets. They knew he was the head of one of The Society of Orion’s chapters and the weapons he possessed were supernatural. But they knew nothing about Banyon’s team and what he was capable of accomplishing.
Next was the actual team, the Forever Ours team. Several of the team, namely Mandy, Heather, and Steve were relatively new to the team. They didn’t know Colton Banyon’s deepest secrets. Currently he hadn’t exposed them. He had to maneuver around them all the time during his cases.
The original team, the four Patel clan members and Loni knew the secret of Banyon’s success, but he had secrets he hid even from them. Only Loni actually knew everything about Colton Banyon and he was sure she would keep his secrets. Then there was Banyon’s most inner circle member, Wolf.
Wolf wasn’t somebody. He was the essence of a spirit who lived in an in-between world. Wolf had actually been a living person at one time, but his spirit was now tied to Colton Banyon. Banyon had met Walter Pierce when he was alive and thanks to a curse by the Patel clan’s grandfather, they could communicate now that he was dead. Banyon had to ask questions out loud and Wolf would answer in Banyon’s head.
Over the years Colton Banyon had learned how to best utilize Wolf. Wolf could see anything he wanted to see on earth in real time and could research history by following the energy trail left by a person or event. That was how Colton Banyon was able to find things quickly. All Wolf needed was a time, a place, and an object or person.
As Banyon entered the bathroom, he decided that he needed to reduce the circles around him and then add one more. The circle would include the people who knew about a new subject — aliens.
Chapter Eleven
As soon as he locked the bathroom door, Colton Banyon addressed Wolf in the usual manner.
“Wolf, are you there?”
“I have not heard from you in some time,” the spirit replied in Banyon’s head.
“I’ve been kind of busy. Was Father Hector murdered?” Banyon immediate asked.
“Ahmad Fasi snuck into the mission and injected him with something to stop his heart.”
“Why didn’t the autopsy expose that?”
“Colt, this is not America. The coroner did what he could with the tools he had. Besides, Father Hector was very old.”
Banyon became enraged and silently vowed to seek revenge. “Did he know Fasi was after him?”
“Colt, from what I can gather, he arranged his own murder. It is all part of the plan for you to takedown the Arab. That is why he had Father Bartholomew send Fasi a message. He knew you would figure it out. Ahmad Fasi was already in Ecuador.”
“So he knew he would die and sacrificed himself to force me to go after Fasi. Is that what you are saying?”
“It would seem so.”
Banyon was not really shocked to hear what Wolf had said. He knew Father Hector had not only been a very devious monk, but he apparently understood human emotions very well.
“I know he’s after the Orion weapons, but is Fasi after the Tayos cave treasure too?” Banyon then asked.
“It is not his ultimate goal. He has a buyer for whatever treasure he finds,” Wolf responded. “He is really after the metal library.”
“The metal library!” Banyon repeated. “Why?”
“He would have proof of aliens and it would make him a very important person. There might also be formulas and weapons which could make him invincible.”
“What is actually in the metal library?”
“You know I cannot see underground without a person involved, Colt. I have begun researching back in time to find out when they were placed there, but it could take me many earth years to determine that. I can only research four years in day.”
“Do you know anything about the metal library?”
“Only that Previne would know more than me.”
“Good tip, I’ll call her when we’re finished,” Banyon remarked. “Does the secret treasure the monks control have anything to do with Ahmad Fasi?”
“No, it is a separate quest set up by Father Hector.”
One of the issues that Banyon had with Wolf was he didn’t always answer the question asked. He answered what he wanted Banyon to hear. Banyon sensed that this was one of those times. “What’s in the separate pile, Wolf,” Banyon asked strongly.
“You’ll know what to do as soon as you see it,” the spirit replied. “It has nothing to do with Ahmad Fasi.”
Banyon mulled that over in his mind and decided to move ahead. He was running out of time. “What weapons does Fasi have with him that he can use against us?”
“He has three weapons with him and eleven more back in Morocco. He has a palatial home just outside of Casablanca. The three weapons he has with him are not offensive weapons and you should not concern yourself with them.”
“What do you mean?” Banyon stammered.
“The first one is called Seeker. It enables him to see underground and is how he has been able to find things. He intends to use it to find the caves and the library. It can do no harm to anyone.”
“What about the second one?”
“It is called Same. It a
llows the person wearing the special glasses to project an exact duplicate of themselves which will perform exactly as the user desires. It was how he snuck into Father Hector’s bedroom to murder him. The original person is there in spirit — they see and hear normally — but their actual body is somewhere else and safe. The user can remove the glasses at any time and the duplicate will no longer exist.
“Son-of-a-bitch,” Banyon uttered. “I’m going to make him pay for that.” Banyon punched the wall in the bathroom and hurt his hand. Wolf made no comment.
“Alright,” Banyon said after he had a moment of rage. “Can you tell me about the last weapon?”
“It’s almost silly,” the spirit said. “It is called Repel. It prevents anything organic from getting within five feet of the user.”
“Why did he bring that one?”
“Ahmad Fasi is a bit of a dandy. He doesn’t want to deal with bugs and snakes in the jungle.”
“Okay, but I’m curious, how do you know so much about these weapons?”
“I have observed him using them,” the spirit replied. “And don’t forget, you can turn them off by using the codex.”
“I’ll remember that,” Banyon acknowledged. “So what is his plan for tonight?”
“I thought you would never ask.”
Chapter Twelve
When Colton Banyon blew back into the mission’s office the first person he saw was Maya. She was hard at work studying the Orion Codex at the desk. She now wore glasses which made her appear intelligent as well as beautiful. She looked up with a gaze of astonishment on her face.
“What’ve you uncovered?” he quickly asked.
“Colt, the prologue is unbelievable. Wait until you hear what I’ve translated,” she all but yelled with excitement. “Nothing is what it seems.”
The Society of Orion Book Five: The Tayos Caves (Colton Banyon Mystery 18) Page 3