“And the program speaks English, which wasn’t even invented four thousand years ago,” Banyon said.
“There’s one more thing, Colt,” Maya said. “Many of these weapons are not made just for protection. They can be used for offensive too.”
“Hmm,” Banyon uttered and scratched his head. “What do you make of the metal tablets?” Banyon then asked.
“While we were traveling here I studied the one we brought back,” Maya responded. “I’m sure the etchings on the top are geographic locations.”
“And I bet that inside the metal tablets are plans for cities,” Banyon offered.
“My God, you’re talking about an invasion,” Maya stammered.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
When Colton Banyon and Maya returned to the control room, they discovered that Carol Cole was still asking questions. Banyon waited for the hologram to answer the last question.
“Yes, that would be correct,” the image responded.
He then asked. “Can you tell me how many people live on Matos?”
“My last update indicated there were approximately four billion people there,” the image responded. “Of course, that was over four thousand years ago.” The fact told Banyon that if there were an invasion, the earth was doomed. The planet could not possibly support another four billion people. It meant only one thing, elimination of earth’s current population.
“One last question,” Banyon said. “How large are your mother ships?”
“That’s a strange question to ask,” the image said defensively. “Why would you need to know that?”
“I’m just wondering how much wood the mother ships can carry,” Banyon responded. “You know if we helped gather wood for you.”
“Oh, in that case, one of our ships can carry four million cubic feet of wood.”
“Or how many people?” Banyon continued.
“I do not have that answer,” the image responded and gave a suspicious look at him.
“Well, I think that we’re almost done here,” Banyon said cheerfully. “Only Maya and I need to be here to wrap things up. Why don’t you guys head back now and remember what I told you,” he said to the rest of the team. They started to slowly move towards the door.
“I’m afraid you can’t leave,” the hologram said in a hard voice. “You must place all the devices in your bags on the shelf first.”
“But that would leave us defenseless,” Banyon responded to buy some time.
“The devices can’t leave the room,” the image ordered. “They belong to my people.”
“And earth belongs to my people. You’re planning an invasion. We can’t let that happen.”
“I am programed to stop you,” the image said. “I’ll do what is necessary.”
“And so will we,” Banyon responded defensively. There was a few seconds of quiet as the hologram seemed to process what Banyon had said.
“It’s activating the weapons,” Maya suddenly screamed. She immediately started to chant, but all three devices were glowing. She could not hope to stop all three at once. It looked like the end for the team as they stood frozen in place. They knew that running would not save them. It looked like they would be burned, repelled and blown out of existence in a few seconds.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
But, Colton Banyon had a plan. He had noticed something and immediately decided to take advantage of it. He stepped forward to the stone shelf. He grabbed the crystal and yanked it from its pedestal. The hologram image disappeared and the devices went dead. It was suddenly very quiet in the room. He took his gun by the handle and violently smashed it down on the crystal. It shattered into pieces.
“Crush the other crystals,” Banyon ordered.
“With pleasure,” Steve replied as he pulled out his gun and ran to the shelf.
“Maya retrieve the weapons from the wall,” Banyon said. “The rest of you, pile the metal tablets in the middle of the floor.”
Banyon then grabbed the obelisk from the stone ledge and threw it as hard as he could against the wall. It broke in half. He then turned his attention to the black box. He hurtled it against the wall, but it appeared to just bounce off the stone. He stared at it and came up with another plan.
When the rest of the crystals were smashed and the metal tablets were piled on the floor. Banyon scooped up the black box and placed it on top of the pile.
“Okay,” he shouted between breaths. The violent exertion had left him panting. “Everybody run back to the main cave. I want only Maya and Loni here.”
The room cleared in a hurry. Banyon stood breathing heavily with the two women wondering what he had in mind for them. After a few minutes, Banyon spoke.
“Maya I want you to activate the Determination weapon and melt down the metal tablets. Loni, I want you to stand by with the Shield weapon. If the fire becomes too intense, I’ll need you to activate it once we huddle together.”
“How did you know to grab the crystal to stop the devices?” Loni quickly asked.
“That part was easy,” Banyon responded. “The aliens don’t know to protect themselves. Did you notice that the hologram didn’t mention anything about our returning the tablet? They didn’t even know it was gone. It didn’t notice Maya over in the corner either. Their idea of defense is to hide things. They live in a push button society and can’t fathom the notion that there could be such a thing as violence directed at them. As a result, their machines are not protected from violence.”
“I get it. That makes sense,” Maya added. “No wonder Orion was able to kill so many of them. They didn’t know how to defend themselves.
“We can use that against them if we run into any more Sumi,” Loni said cheerfully.
“Right,” Banyon replied. “Now before we start the fire device, I want you to put a few bullet holes in that black box,” Banyon told her as he pointed.
“Wow,” I finally get to do some violence of my own.” She aimed the machine gun and pulled the trigger. The bullets blew the box to pieces. Bullets ricocheted all over the room, but the three of them were standing outside the doorway.
“Okay, Maya, do your stuff,” Banyon said. Maya grabbed the Determination device and chanted. A spit of fire erupted from the front. It filled the entire room within seconds. Loni nervously fingered the Shield device as the temperature in the hallway quickly shot upward.
After a few seconds, Maya chanted again and the fire disappeared as quickly has it had started. Banyon peeked into the heat filled room and saw a puddle of metal where the pile once stood.
“Mission complete,” he sang out. “Let’s head back to the main cavern.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
They found the team huddled around the table and chairs in the main cavern. Carol was pounding on her laptop, the rest of the team sat there looking dejected.
“What happened to you?” Heather asked as she shined her light on them. Banyon glanced at Loni. Her hair was all singed and most of her clothes were burned away. Maya had even less clothes left on her body. He laughed.
“Our roast got a little out of hand,” he quipped. “But the control center and everything in it was destroyed.”
“Well that is just great,” Loni squawked. “We came here expecting to find treasure and are leaving with nothing — again. I’m going to have to spend days in a beauty shop as well.”
“Now hold on there,” Banyon said. “We are leaving here with ten more of Orion’s weapons. We destroyed a control center for a possible alien invasion. We stopped a white supremacy plot to take over Ecuador and we know where we are going in ten days to collect more Orion weapons.”
“Two hundred and thirty thousand,” Carol suddenly shouted out.
“What are you talking about?” Loni screamed at the young girl.
“That’s the number of people a mother ship could transport to earth at one time,” Carol explained.
“We may need that information someday,” Banyon uttered.
“But we need to
find the other two control centers,” Maya declared.
“I think we have several tips,” Carol said.
“I know it sounds like Previne has found one in India, but where could the other one be located?” Mandy asked.
“Well I collected a bunch of information from the hologram,” Carol offered. “And we know these people are creatures of habit. They do the same things all the time, over and over again.”
“Go on,” Banyon said.
“We know the chariots traveled all over Greece, right?”
“Yes,” Maya responded.
“The hologram told me they only had a range of six hundred miles. Three hundred miles out and three hundred miles back.”
“Okay,” Mandy agreed.
“We also found a sarcophagus from modern day Turkey in the caves, right?”
“You’re right!” Heather exclaimed. “That means the control center is somewhere in the intersecting range of the chariots.”
“And since they are creatures of habit, they would have built it in the same kind of environment,” Carol explained. It would be a desolate area where they could control a river.”
“You’re on to something,” Banyon said with excitement. “What would you need to narrow the location?”
“Oh, just a few days with Timmy,” she said with a blush. That drew a smile from everyone in the group.
“Well, let’s get back to the surface,” Banyon said. “We have one more task to perform.”
Chapter Forty
When Colton Banyon finally climbed back to the top of the cliff, he found Mobi waiting for him. The Indian stood in the same place he was when Banyon had left. He had been true to his word.
“Are you satisfied with your trip into the Tayos caves?” he asked delicately.
“We accomplished our goals. There are no more artifacts in the caves,” he declared.
“You look like you were in a fire,” Mobi said with concern.
“It got a little hot in there,” Banyon admitted.
“Should I go and raise the wall to fill the lake?” Mobi asked.
“Yes, we’ll go with you,” Banyon said.
On the way to the rapids, Banyon debated telling the Indian about what they encountered in the caves, but decided it would serve no purpose and only alarm him.
When they reached the area where the button to bring up the wall was located, Mobi pulled out his mirror and shined in on the triggering mechanism. The wall rose quickly.
“The caves are once again protected,” he said.
“Not quite,” Banyon replied.
Loni stepped forward and drew up her machine gun. She sprayed the hidden rock-like button with the whole magazine of bullets. The ground gave way and the rock splashed into the water.
“Now they are protected,” Banyon said.
End of Book Five
Bonus Reading from my next book
The Society of Orion: The Moroccan Affair #6
Chapter One
Timmy, the computer geek, burst through Colton Banyon’s office door at the corporate headquarters in Chicago. He hadn’t knocked. He carried an open laptop in his slim arms and paid more attention to the device than to where he is was going. He took several steps into the office before he noticed that there were several people gathered around Banyon’s large work area. They were all standing and looking at the oversized monitor on the desk top while talking. They didn’t look very happy. The discussion stopped and they now glared at him.
“Oops, I’m sorry Dude,” he uttered and stopped dead in his tracks. “But this is important man.”
Colton Banyon looked up from his computer screen and took off his reading glasses. At first he wanted to chide the exuberant young computer genius for barging into a meeting without knocking, but he knew Timmy would sulk and become moody. Banyon needed him to remain functional.
“What have you got?” Banyon asked flatly.
“Well, you wanted me to report anything important that I found about Ahmed Fasi immediately,” Timmy replied.
“Let’s hear it,” Banyon replied evenly and stood up straight while sighing. He wanted to hear what Timmy had to say, but he already had a lot on his plate. The sleeves on his white dress shirt were rolled up and his tie was askew. Banyon was beginning to feel his age, which was over sixty.
The geek knew that they had clearly been working intently on something before he had suddenly barged in. It looked serious, but Timmy wanted to know what they were discussing.
Timmy quickly responded. “Fasi’s been quietly advertising all over the internet that he is looking to hire twenty armed mercenaries to go on an expedition. He gives the location as somewhere in the southern provinces of Morocco. I think he means in the disputed territories of Western Sahara.”
“When?” Banyon demanded.
“In five days,” Timmy responded.
“Does he say why he is going there?” Banyon asked with new interest.
“From what I can gather, he’s going there to find some old artifact. He says the mission is sanctioned by the King of Morocco and he will also have a platoon of thirty Moroccan soldiers with him for protection.”
“My God, that would mean he will have at least fifty armed men with him!” Heather Vance the President of Dewy & Beatem exclaimed. “He’s up to something, I’m sure of it,” she remarked as she placed her hands on her attractive hips in annoyance.
Heather was dressed in a blue woman’s suit that was tight to her curvy body. It was accented by an open-necked white silk blouse. Her long auburn hair was pulled into a ponytail. She was beautiful, lethal and a member of Banyon’s unique team.
Banyon was pensive for a few seconds and then said, “Timmy, keep digging. I’ll catch up with you as soon as I finish this meeting, okay?”
“Oh,” he said reluctantly. “You need to talk to Carol Cole too. She told me she found something that you need to see,” Timmy added. “She wouldn’t tell me what it was.”
“Tell her I’ll be right there,” Banyon responded wearily and waved the geek out the door. Carol was working a special project for Banyon. The information could be good news, but would add more stress, something he didn’t need right now.
“You got it boss,” the barely out of his teens geek responded nervously and backed out of the room like there were zombies tracking him. He slammed the door.
***
“Let’s wrap this up,” Banyon said to the others in the room. “I have to make a report to the board of Forever Ours, LLC in a few hours,” he said as he scanned his Movado watch.
The people in the room were the management team for the law firm of Dewey & Beatem. Now that the Patel clan was back in town, Banyon had to update everybody on the condition of the firm, both financially and personnel wise. This would be the first meeting of the board since the Forever Ours, LLC had purchased the law firm three weeks earlier and there had been many changes.
Chase Sanborn, the newly appointed director of the Las Vegas office, stood next to Banyon. He was dressed in his usual cowboy brown suit and bolo tie. His tall and slender thirty-year old body was covered by a brown ten-gallon hat.
“We’ve completed all the personnel moves and have found places for all the people we couldn’t transfer,” he said. “The other offices are all closed now. We’ve managed to keep all the black ops and people with special skills as well.”
“Good,” Banyon uttered. “Closing the four other offices will give us more flexibility and reduce the operating expenses dramatically in the future.”
Heather reported next. “We’ve lost two important clients in the transition. They represented five percent of our revenues. Overall though, we appear to be in a solid position with our clients.”
“As long as the President keeps giving us work, we’ll be fine” Banyon reminder them. “But we haven’t had any assignments from him in several months.”
“Which brings us to the financials,” the chief accountant, Beth Raynor interjected. “They are dismal.”
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“How bad?” Banyon inquired.
“Very,” the accountant responded dramatically. “Since we have been taken over by the LLC, we have closed four offices and transferred over thirty people. Revenues have dropped substantially and the cost of taking so many people to Ecuador on your last little adventure was very expensive,” the accountant reported. “In addition, you spent over one hundred thousand dollars in gifts to the mission down there.”
“I don’t need a lecture,” Banyon sarcastically replied. “Do we have enough operating money?”
“No,” Beth responded. “In two days we will be insolvent.”
Banyon was stunned by the revelation. After a few seconds of thought he asked. “How much money will we need to keep running for a month?”
“Three million dollars,” Beth replied. “That’s if we don’t pay the bonuses you have submitted recently.”
“How is our credit at the bank?” Banyon quickly asked Heather.
“We haven’t had time to establish any,” she answered in a worried tone.
The pressure of running a business was squarely on Banyon’s shoulders and he was feeling the heat. “Okay,” Colton Banyon said. “I’ll present this to the board this afternoon. I’ll let you know what we are going to do later today.”
Chapter Two
After they finished the meeting, Heather and Banyon swung by the office that Loni and the Patel clan shared as their work area. While none of them actually were employed at the law firm, they had all demanded a presence there since they were part owners. The corner office was next to Banyon’s area and had a small balcony, separated by floor to ceiling glass doors that over-hung the huge reception area of Dewey & Beatem. It was just like the one Banyon had in his office.
“Loni we need to go see Timmy and Carol right now,” Banyon announced as they came through the door. It had been closed until he opened it. He and Heather suddenly stopped in their tracks and stood in confusion. Something wasn’t right.
The Society of Orion Book Five: The Tayos Caves (Colton Banyon Mystery 18) Page 10