The Lost Power: VanOps, Book 1

by Avanti Centrae

  Once out in the air, she took a deep breath, appreciating the fresh coolness of the evening. The Dome shone in the half-light above her, gorgeous in its dominion over the plaza.

  She skirted the flank of the mosque, walking along its side toward the Dome. She kept an eye out for trouble.

  After about a hundred paces, she turned a corner. Their goal was a single-arched gate across the stone-lined plaza. Bear, Will, and Hana caught up with her, and she turned left, heading for the dark mouth of the portal, walking along the tall stone arches of the structure.

  Soon, the group left the protective mosque wall and headed into the open court. Few people were about.

  When they were about halfway to the gate, Maddy felt Will and Hana hang back. She turned. They stood next to each other, looking up. Will pointed at something. Maddy glanced that direction. The sky was beginning to darken and a thin crescent moon had risen, hanging over the Dome’s right-hand edge.

  A crack broke the night’s silence. Stone chips from the plaza floor bit into her leg. Bear had already grabbed her elbow and was yelling “Run!” by the time she realized shots were being fired.

  Maddy ran for her life! Her thigh and shoulder burned anew as she sprinted toward safety.

  As they rushed toward the gate, Bear ran between the shooter and her, protecting her. Brief flashes came from a set of arches on the other side of the trees, in the direction of the Dome. Thunk! She could hear bullets thudding into the old stone wall behind her.

  The darkness of the gate beckoned, and she and Bear rushed through. Missing Will and Hana, she immediately turned. Her heart sank. Hana was lying on the ground, Will’s hand to her neck, checking her pulse. “Will!”

  As she peered back through the trees for the source of the violence, Maddy saw a single weapon spitting fire. A man, clad in black, was barely visible. He strode toward them.

  “Will! He’s coming!” Maddy yelled.

  Will dropped the false clue and dashed for the gate. Sirens sounded, not far away.

  “She’s dead! Hana’s dead!” Will panted, blood on his cheek, as he thrust himself through the gate like a sprinter crossing the finish line.

  Bear pulled Will farther into the shadows and shut the faded-green wooden door, unsuccessfully attempting to lock it. “Nothing you can do for her now. C’mon!”

  In front of them was the covered Mughrabi Gate Bridge. With its peaked roof and wood supports, it reminded Maddy of gold-mining era covered bridges from California. Charming though it was, she knew they’d be sitting ducks in there unless they moved.

  They ran for it.

  The timber ramp was deserted. Their footfalls sounded loud in the twilight. Maddy skidded a sharp ninety degrees to the left, nearly ran into an old man wearing a suit and a black kippah on his head, sprinted down the straightaway, turned a small corner that led more steeply downhill, and glimpsed the opening. Her thigh ached.

  Before their feet left the wooden planks, Bear halted and put his arm out to stop them. “Listen. I don’t think we’re being followed.”

  They listened. No footsteps, no gunshots.

  “Maybe he was happy getting the fake clue. I can’t believe they killed Hana.” Will’s voice broke and his chest heaved.

  “Maybe the police have scared him off.” Maddy’s breath came in gasps, too.

  Poor Will, another loss.

  With tenderness, she reached out and wiped the blood off his cheek.

  Bear was not breathing hard. “How’d they find us? Could Carlos have known we’d be here?”

  Maddy walked briskly through the opening and headed right, into the heart of the Old City. “No clue. Still, let’s get out of here.”

  “Agreed,” Bear said. “If we’re still being followed, let’s hope the town is enough of a jungle to throw ’em off.”

  CHAPTER 44

  Jerusalem, Old City, Armenian Quarter, July 8, 9:30 p.m.:

  Inside a noisy internet café deep in the heart of Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, Will leaned over a sink and fought back the bile in his throat. They were on the run again. Worse, he was sick about losing Hana.

  He had been standing next to her, looking at the crescent moon, when the bullet whizzed through the air and struck her in the forehead. The mental image was gruesome. Will wished he could have done something, anything, to stop it.

  In the restroom, with pain roiling inside his gut, he felt sucker punched. After wiping the rest of the blood off his cheek, he almost started to cry, overwhelmed with grief all over again. Something held the tears back, and he splashed cool water over his face to clear his head and emotions.

  Eventually, he threaded his way around men smoking water pipes to the small table where Bear and Maddy sat. They had wraps and Armenian coffee in demitasse cups. Except Bear, who had ordered his usual iced tea.

  The smoke from the water pipes reeked and burned Will’s eyes. A single tear stole out of his left tear duct. Wiping it away, he made an impulsive decision to quit smoking. After all, he’d made it for a week without a smoke and didn’t miss it as much as he feared he would.

  In the back of the café, the mood at the table was somber. Will sat down, sipped at his coffee, and just stared at his beef and pepper wrap. He wasn’t hungry. Hana was a hell of a fine woman.

  Maddy reached over and grabbed his hand. “I’m so sorry, Will. And I know words just don’t cut it. I’ll miss her, too.”

  A tapping sounded overhead. Softly at first, but it picked up steam until it sounded like a rapid, staccato drumbeat.

  A rainstorm.

  The sound on the café’s tin roof made it hard to hear the conversation. At least they wouldn’t be overheard.

  Will held back a moan. “Thanks, Maddy. I can’t believe we had to leave her just lying there.”

  “We had no choice.” Maddy paused and looked at Will, her green eyes alight with compassion. “She wouldn’t have wanted you to die, too.”

  Will’s throat closed up for a second.

  “How on earth do you think they knew where we were?” Maddy asked.

  “I have no idea how they tracked us down again,” Will replied.

  Bear took a bite of his sandwich. “And who’s they? Carlos or the Russians?”

  Maddy grimaced. “I hoped we had lost them both. My god, we were underground for a week.”

  Will looked around furtively. “If they tracked us here, we’re screwed. We need to move as soon as we can.”

  Bear showed them the front page of an International Herald newspaper. “I think the situation is even worse than we knew. Get a load of this.”

  The headline read, “Russia Denies Using E-bomb on Chinese Town.” Bear went on, “I read this article while you were in the bathroom. This weapon poses a serious threat. Whatever it was that was used on that town, it knocked out all the electronics: TVs, radio towers, computers, all of it.”

  “Will and I heard about that the night we stayed in our old Tahoe house. I can still see the image of the melted TV. It was quite disturbing.”

  “Yes, these weapons are extremely dangerous. From a military perspective, they could wipe out missile targeting systems, airplane and helicopter controls, comms and nav systems, and even sensor systems.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of,” Will said.

  “What about work arounds?” Maddy asked.

  Bear took a sip of tea. “Our troops might still have manual weapons that would work, but without intel and a way to communicate, we’d end up shooting each other.”

  Maddy pointed at the paper. “So, do you think it was Russia?”

  Bear set the paper aside. “There are some analysts who are thinkin’ that it might have been a terrorist group like ISIS, but I bet it was actually Russia.”

  “Commie bastards,” Will muttered.

  Bear ignored him. “The UN has denounced the use of the e-bomb, and pundits are sayin’ the saving grace is that a good source of superconductor fuel has yet to be found.”

  “Superconductor.”
The pieces of an idea clicked into place, and Will spoke excitedly, his grief forgotten for the moment. “That’s it! That gold cylinder. Bear, let’s see those pictures.”

  Bear pulled up the images of the cylinder on his GoPro.

  “It shows obelisks floating above trees. See?” Will pointed. “Floating! Do you know what floats in nature? Not much. But superconductors do!”

  Maddy and Bear exchanged a blank look.

  Will felt like an alien. He leaned forward. How do they not see this? But they weren’t engineers with a physics fascination like he was. “Obelisks! There were obelisks on both pages the king showed us. Remember?”

  “Yes, but so what?” Maddy asked.

  “That Egyptian priest-type person was holding two ruby-red obelisks up to the sun in a V. And on the cylinder, it looked like the same obelisks, floating. What if that’s what we’re hunting inside the châsse? What if those obelisks are made of a superconductive material?”

  Maddy’s narrowed eyes held caution. “Interesting idea, Will, but what exactly is a superconductor? I’ve heard the term but don’t get it.”

  “Okay.” Will tried to slow down. “Let’s start with the basics. Superconductivity is the ability of certain materials to conduct electrical current with nearly zero resistance.”

  “Why is that a big deal?” Maddy asked.

  “Well, ordinary conductors have resistance, which restricts the flow of electricity and wastes some of the energy as heat.”

  “Like copper?” Bear asked.

  “Yeah. Copper. Not a great conductor compared to a superconductor, though. Theoretically, an electrical current flowing through a loop of superconducting wire can persist forever with no power source.”

  Maddy nodded, a thoughtful look in her eyes. “Indefinitely? Wow. That’s neat. More powerful computers could be built.”

  “Yes, exascale and quantum computing, and there are tons of other potential applications.”

  Maddy drank from her small coffee cup. “Why isn’t there more of it?”

  “Superconductivity was first observed in 1911, but the problem has been that cold temperatures are typically required.”

  “How cold?” Bear asked.

  “When first discovered, it was below minus two hundred four degrees Celsius, near absolute zero.” He could mention the temperature in Kelvin, but since they were more used to Fahrenheit, he did a quick calculation and continued, “Or minus four hundred degrees Fahrenheit. But scientists keep finding ways to raise the temperature. Last I heard, the record was around minus ninety-four degrees Fahrenheit.”

  “Still, that’s cold,” Bear said.

  “Yes. Anyway, one of the other unique things about superconductive materials is the Meissner effect.”

  “What’s that?” Maddy asked.

  “This guy Meissner realized that some superconductive materials also expel magnetic forces at certain temperatures. So, you can get quantum levitation as a result.”

  “Levitation? Y’all aren’t pulling our legs here?” Bear asked.

  He looked around and all the nearby tables were empty. Good. “Yes, no joke, it’s a proven scientific phenomenon. Which brings us back to the obelisks--I think they’re made of a superconductive material!”

  “Will, you sure you’re not reaching here?” Maddy asked.

  “Think about it, Maddy. It fits. Why else would the Russians want us dead? We’ve been told we’re after an amazing source of power. Maybe the material in the obelisks themselves is enough to power another e-bomb?”

  Maddy swallowed and paled. She must have felt nervous. Maybe she was getting it.

  He continued, “You see? It makes sense. Superconductive items can defy gravity! Scientists are just now starting to understand all the things superconductivity can enable. Today, most MRI systems use a superconducting magnet. And that high-speed train in Japan uses superconductors. It was clocked at almost six hundred two kilometers per hour.”

  They both tilted their heads at him.

  Maddy’s left eyebrow rose.

  How’d I forget? Miles per hour, not kilometers. “That’s three hundred miles per hour.”

  Maddy and Bear both nodded. Bear’s eyes widened.

  “Applications are being revolutionized all over the place. Superconductors are extremely powerful.”

  “Do you think knowing they’re that dangerous could be why Ramiro hid the obelisks?” Maddy asked.

  “Absolutely. I’m sure he didn’t want them to fall into the wrong hands. Who knows what else they can do?”

  “I still wonder how the Russians knew they existed.”

  “Maybe our cousin, Prince Carlos, told them in exchange for assassinating his father someday.”

  “Eww.” Maddy frowned as she nodded. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”

  “I know. I have no idea how they found out, but do you have a better explanation?”

  “No.” Maddy fell silent as she considered.

  Bear spoke. “Hey, y’all remember that it was Alexander the Great on the first page of the codex? Maybe wielding one of the obelisks?”

  “Sure, but why are you thinking about that now?” Will spun his small flashlight around his finger on its keychain, still excited.

  “What if the obelisks themselves are some kind of weapon? What if it’s their superconductive properties that make them dangerous?”

  “We do keep hearing they have power.” Will shrugged. “Science is still unraveling the mysteries of superconductivity. It’s possible.”

  “Okay, consider this. Perhaps when he was in Egypt, Alexander discovered the obelisks, and they helped him win all those battles. He was a brilliant strategist, but maybe he also had an advantage. An unusual weapon, like the obelisks.”

  Will nodded.

  “He ruled from Asia to Persia, much of the known world at the time. Any object of power that might have helped him is surely somethin’ to be reckoned with.”

  Will tapped his leg. “I can see that. Then Ramiro obtained the obelisks thirteen hundred years later and decided he needed to protect them.”

  “Or protect the world from them,” Maddy added.

  Bear looked down at the newspaper and then back at Will. “But perhaps the obelisks as a weapon are a stretch. Let’s think about what we do know.”

  “Okay,” Will agreed.

  “From recent news, we can assume the Russians are after a source of superconductive material. We can also assume they want us dead.”

  “Unfortunately, yes,” Maddy said.

  “So, if we also assume for the moment that you’re correct about the obelisks having superconductive properties, and it’s obvious our government would not want Russia to enable that e-bomb--that means our mission to find the châsse is critical to stopping a potential war between the US and Russia.”

  “Yes, I believe so. We’re in the middle of a dangerous game.” Odd that this conclusion made Will start to feel a little better. “If we can stop the Russians, perhaps all the deaths, Dad, Maria, Hana, won’t have been in vain.”

  “Good lord. This is up to us to stop?” Maddy shook her head and finished her wrap. “I feel woefully unprepared.”

  “Me, too,” Will said.

  “But I guess we better figure out where the center of the Pagan Empire is. And fast. Bear, do you have any ideas?”

  “Let’s double-check with the internet, but I’ve been thinkin’.”

  “About pagans?” Maddy asked.

  “Yeah. And empires. I suspect either Vilnius in Lithuania or Bagan in Myanmar. Because Vilnius was known as the Jerusalem of the North, I’m guessin’ we need to head there. It also seems to be more centrally located to where Ramiro might have traveled. Bagan is pretty far to the south.”

  With just his eyes, Will glanced around. “I hope we can’t be traced at these public computers.”

  Maddy touched the necklace at her throat. “They wouldn’t know what to key in on, so unless they’re watching all searches in Jerusalem tonight, I think we’
re okay. I can also use a special browser.”

  Maddy got up and walked over to a machine that sat in a row of computers along the wall. Will ate his wrap and took a look at the e-bomb article while Bear watched the door.

  After about ten minutes, Maddy came back over and sat down. “Mr. History here is right. When I search for the Pagan Empire, I get both Burma/Myanmar and Lithuania but for different reasons.”

  “Okay, why?” Will asked.

  “According to Wikipedia, Burma was home to the Pagan Kingdom, which was an empire in Asia from around 850 to 1300, and was responsible for the spread of a form of Buddhism. The name comes from the name of a town, Pagan, which became Bagan.”

  Will scowled. “I don’t buy it.”

  “Let me finish. The Lithuania connection has more to do with what we think of as non-Christian pagans. Lithuania wasn’t fully Christianized until 1387. Before that, it was known as a center for pagan worship. After the setbacks of the Crusades in the Holy Land, the popes had a Northern Crusade against Lithuania and other European pagan nations. Apparently, the Baltic tribes were the last people in Europe to convert to Christianity.” She turned to Bear. “Nice work.”

  Bear blushed a little at Maddy’s praise and chewed on an ice cube. “So, at the time of Ramiro, Lithuania was a hotbed of paganism.”

  “Yes, but I’m not seeing much that would make it the center of an empire, per se.”

  Will finished his wrap and wiped his mouth. “But what did Ramiro have to do with Buddhism in Burma? That’s pretty far off his beaten path.”

  Maddy crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I agree, but the clue read, ‘Find the center of the Pagan Empire,’ not go to the last holdout of pagans.”

  “I need more of this lame iced tea but think we should head north, to Vilnius.” Bear got up and went over to the counter.

  “What do you think, Will?”

  “I think he’s right. From the perspective of a thousand years ago, Lithuania looks a lot closer than Myanmar.”

  Maddy held her ground. “Just because it is closer, doesn’t mean it’s where we should go.”