by J. F. Penn
Morgan clutched the key in her hand and looked away from the seething mass of writhing gold and black bodies. If it didn’t open the door, it must fit in a different place. Then she saw it. On the wall to her right, a good few paces away, three mandalas were carved, each with a keyhole in the center. It was the final test of the seeker. If she moved towards the wall, the wasps would be alerted and would attack. She would have seconds to place the key before they reached her, so there would only be time to try one of the mandalas. She needed to decide which before she moved or she would die here like these men, stung to death, overtaken by toxic shock and venom. Morgan breathed quietly. The wasps still didn’t move against her which was puzzling. She looked down and saw a semicircle of light around her from the grille above. It was as if this protected her until she stepped outside the light towards the keyholes. More confident at the task now, she looked again at the mandalas. What was the difference between them and which was the right keyhole?
Each mandala was a highly decorated carving with an image at the center. The paint had faded but Morgan could see that the keyholes were part of the intricate design of each central figure. On the right, a glorious rainbow of color illuminated the Sephiroth, the tree of life. It was a Kabbalistic image that Jung used in his writings and drew in the Red Book. The center mandala was a dark vortex of swirling shades in grey and black with slashes of vermilion. It was a destructive and almost cruel image, the keyhole a dark void at its heart. On the left, a many-legged crocodile spun around the keyhole, its limbs dropping off into a pool of blood below as a man chopped at them with a sword. Morgan shook her head. Even years of study in Jungian symbolism made this a difficult choice because they were all valid in some way. She closed her eyes and focused within. Doubts and fears flooded her mind, images of Faye and Gemma crying, Jake’s bloodied face, the bodies they had left in their wake, and then Elian’s bullet riddled body. In the maelstrom of emotion, she knew what it must be.
Having made her decision, Morgan took one last look at the wasps and ran forward with the key outstretched in her good hand. As she stepped outside the light circle, the buzzing became loud and angry as the wasps took flight. She reached the wall and plunged the key into the center mandala as she felt the brush of tiny furred bodies against her skin and winced at the first sting. The mandala represented the shadow self, the dark side of the psyche that Jung believed must be embraced in order to become whole. It had to be the correct one.
A flash of doubt entered her mind as the key plunged in. Then there was a cracking sound and the cavern filled with light. A high-pitched noise made her hunch over and cover her ears. She turned to see the bodies of the wasps drop out of the air, stunned or dead. Morgan wasn’t waiting to find out if they recovered. She ran to the center plinth, stepping around the bloated corpses and fallen wasps. She opened the box, took out the final Pentecost stone and ran for the door.
The silver-haired man was waiting, and as she came through, he sprayed a cloud of suffocating fumes into her face. She coughed and fell to the floor, feeling him take the stone from her. Her vision narrowed and she sank into inky unconsciousness. The last thing she saw was the pale horse tattoo, a witness to her failure.
Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
May 26, 4.19pm
Morgan came to in a groggy state, her mouth dry and head throbbing. She tried to sit up, reaching for her gun instinctively. Then she saw Jake.
“It’s OK. You’re safe. Relax now,” he said.
Morgan realized she was lying on a couch in the study. Jake was looking down at her, his head bandaged. He offered her a glass of water and helped her to sit up.
“What happened? What time is it?”
“It’s thirteen hours until Pentecost dawns, and we’ve got the men from Thanatos restrained outside. We’re leaving them for the authorities. While you were down in the tunnels, Jared and I had our own little adventure but how are you feeling?”
She sank back into the couch, visions of the killer wasps and dead men left in the vault swimming before her.
“Physically, like a two-ton truck hit me. Mentally, I’m confused.”
Jake sat on the side of the couch.
“What’s puzzling you?”
Morgan shook her head.
“I’m finally starting to believe that the stones must have some kind of power. If a physicist like Wolfgang Pauli protected this one with such elaborate measures, if he was so convinced of its importance, then I have to take it seriously. But at the same time, I don’t really care. I just want Faye and Gemma back. Has Everett phoned with the final destination? When do we leave?”
Jake motioned to the other men to leave the room, and shut the door behind them. They were alone.
“Everett isn’t getting the stones, Morgan because the myths are true. There is real power in them so we can’t have them loose in the world especially with the comet approaching its zenith. You’ve seen what Thanatos will do to get them. They seek to use the stones to ignite a religious war, a symbol with power to galvanize support of extremists. We can’t let that happen.”
Morgan’s head was throbbing and Jake’s words were slow to register.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m ordered to take the stones back to ARKANE. It’s my duty to make sure that their power isn’t given to Everett or controlled by Thanatos. I’m sorry, Morgan, but you can’t take the stones. You can’t exchange them for Faye and Gemma.”
“No!” Morgan shouted as she sprang off the sofa, rage crushing the physical pain she felt. She was like a lioness defending her pride, her family. She would not give up now when she was so close to saving them. She staggered, trying to get her balance with her bandaged arm.
“Everett is a killer. You know he’s murdered in his quest for the stones, which means my sister will be next. I must give him the stones, or he’ll kill them. Jake, why are you doing this to me after we’ve been through so much?”
Morgan couldn’t believe that Jake would walk away from this. His betrayal cut into her, twisting her guts so she felt a wave of nausea. She reached out to take his hand but he stepped back. She could see he was wavering but his allegiance to ARKANE was too strong for their brief friendship to sway him.
“Those are my orders,” he said. “I have to take these stones back to England, to the ARKANE vault, to prevent them getting into the wrong hands. If they are kept apart, then the power cannot be called again. We can get the US authorities involved to help you with Faye and Gemma.”
“But there’s no time,” she pleaded. “Pentecost is only hours away and I can’t go empty handed. He’ll kill them.”
Morgan touched Jake’s arm, trying to get him to look at her. He had been a protector on this journey and they had become close, perhaps too close at times. She knew he had already gone further than he needed to help her and she felt a glimmer of hope that she could persuade him to stay. But he pulled his arm away and turned to leave.
“It’s over,” he said. “Come with me and we’ll explain everything to the police.”
A flash of anger sparked in her as he turned. At herself for trusting him, and at him for betraying her. She kicked hard into the back of his knee and as he started to fall, she grabbed the lamp from the table and swung it at his head.
“You bastard, you never meant to help me, did you? All the time you’ve been waiting to get the stones, so you could just take them from me. You’ve been using me, just like Ben said you would.”
Jake blocked the blow as he fell and then twisted on the ground, kicking her legs from under her so they were both on the floor. He moved fast, but she sprang up again ready for his attack, ignoring the stabbing pain in her arm and the blinding headache that threatened to overwhelm her.
“This is crazy, I’m not going to fight you,” he said. “I’m taking the stones. We’ve called the authorities to help you finish this, for ARKANE doesn’t deal with the purely criminal side. We just want the stones. You know I would help
you if I could.”
Jake moved back as she swung at him with her good arm and then launched a kick to his head which he blocked. Backing towards the wall, he could see the fury in her face, blood soaking the bandage from her shoulder wound. She was like an Amazon goddess in her rage and he admired her. Hell, he wanted her. This stunning, fiery woman, lean muscle and curves that attracted him even as she threatened violence. He was torn between Marietti and his duty to ARKANE, the mission and this woman, who he had grown close to in the last weeks. He had been stunned by her intellect, and had spent too long trying to put thoughts of her body from his mind. She grabbed the lamp again and swung it hard. This time it connected. His eyebrow split and blood began to ooze from it.
“Give me the stones, you bastard, where are they?” she shouted, coming at him with a flurry of blows. He hit back at her then, defending himself but still loath to engage in the fight. She blocked his moves but couldn’t land any of her own, weakened by the shoulder injury and exhaustion. Then he had to do it: time was of the essence. He punched her wounded arm, sending her twisting down onto the couch again, holding her shoulder and moaning.
“I’m sorry, so sorry,” he said. “Forgive me.”
He went to her then and held her as she gasped in pain, breathing in the scent of her hair as he rocked her onto his lap, her breasts soft against his chest.
“I didn’t want to hurt you, Morgan, but you’ve got to stop.”
She pulled slightly away from him and then head-butted him full on the bridge of his nose. Blood started dripping from it and he wiped it away with the back of his hand. Morgan jumped up, pulling her gun from the side table and pointing it at his head.
“Give me the stones, Jake. You’re not important to me, my family is. I will hurt you, ARKANE, Everett, Thanatos, whoever I need to in order to get them back.”
He held his hands up.
“OK, OK. Let me get them for you, just let me up.”
“I will kill you if they die,” she said, keeping the gun trained on him.
As he got up he dived for her, pushing her arm up so that the shot went wide into the wall. He flipped her over roughly, pinning her down. Morgan lay panting, face down on the floor, angry that she had let him do this. Her reactions were slowed by her injuries but that was no excuse. Jake’s knee was in her back, her good arm twisted behind in his vice-like grip. This time he wasn’t letting her up.
“Are you finished now?” he asked, twisting her arm tighter. She gasped out a ‘yes’ and felt him shift, then cold metal clicked into place around her wrist and the leg of the couch. She spat her words at him.
“Why won’t you help me? You know Faye and Gemma will die without the stones.”
“I’m sorry but you must understand that my mission is to stop the twelve being in one place. That cannot happen so I’m taking these stones back to England today and you’re staying here.”
Morgan bent her head, crushed by his words, feeling the ache of her bruised body, the helplessness and frustration overwhelming her. She wept then, silent tears that welled up and could no longer be held back. Jake stood, wrenched between his desire to comfort her and knowing that he couldn’t see her again, this woman who so fascinated him with her vulnerability and strength.
“I can’t help you, Morgan. I just can’t. The risk is too great and my duty is to ARKANE, not your family. The power of the stones is too great to let loose in the world. There will be authorities here to help you soon. A call came through from Everett and the coordinates are here on the table. It’s near Tucson, Arizona. I know you’ll get Faye and Gemma back, but I can’t let you take the stones to him.”
Jake placed the key to the handcuffs on the floor so she could reach it by shuffling over and walked out, leaving her alone.
May 27
Biosphere 2, Oracle, Arizona, USA
May 27, Pentecost Sunday, 6.32am
As the day dawned, Joseph Everett walked up through the Biosphere to check on the final preparations for his Pentecost enactment. He would wait for the evening when the flames from the pyre would be the most stunning, and he was sure Morgan Sierra would come with the stones. Her sister and niece were the perfect bait. The comet would reach its zenith at 8pm so he would perform the sacrifice then but for now, he wanted to survey his chosen location for the ritual.
The Biosphere had been constructed in the little town of Oracle, Arizona, between Tucson and Phoenix. It was a shining white mini city bleached by the high Sonoran desert, overshadowed by the Santa Catalina Mountains. Joseph was proud to own this place and often brought business colleagues here for meetings to impress them with the complexities of its habitat.
Biosphere 1 was the earth’s own living system and Biosphere 2 was a radical experiment based on recreating life on earth. It gave him more than a few business metaphors to use in negotiation. The complex stretched over three acres housing a complete self-sustaining ecosystem, built in the late 1980s as a research facility to investigate the possibility of living in such closed environments in space. The weather could be manipulated and the effects monitored on the five separate bio-systems within. Joseph had kept it running partly as a research facility so it could continue to fund itself.
The main Biosphere experimental area was enclosed in a modern ziggurat of stepped triangular glass and steel panels, each designed to withstand impact from outside and pressure from inside. Joseph walked up the main path, looking down on the ocean complete with coral reef and passing the savannah, mangrove swamp and fog desert. He headed towards the human habitat, a small but self-supporting pod within the tiny world. Several experiments had been carried out where people were locked within the dome, the longest for two years. After closed system research was halted, the Biosphere was eventually sold for development. Joseph had put up the most substantial funding that had bought the Biosphere in 2007 which gave him access whenever he wanted and his own private casita for when he wanted to stay. It was a peaceful place for him, especially at night when he wandered around the ecosystem thinking and staring at the stars through the great glass ceiling. He had even brought a few of the young female researchers here at night. They were keen to see the habitat in darkness, lit only by the stars, and they all knew about his money and connections. The airlocks meant the place was also sound-proof, and they were paid well not to talk of abuses in the dust of the savannah.
The glass panels opened the area to the wide expanse of Arizona sky. The quality of light was stunning inside the complex and, as he walked through the rainforest, Joseph smiled. He particularly loved being there during the extreme weather that the area was famous for. In summer, the heat pounded the land, but when storms came, it was glorious. Web lightning slashed the sky, thunder crashed and rolled down the Sonoran hills, torrential rain bringing the red dust in streams along the roads. The rain on the glass roof was a reminder of the power of nature to destroy and renew again. This was an inhospitable landscape and here Joseph Everett felt peace for today he would use it to welcome a new Pentecost.
En route to Oracle, Arizona, USA
May 27, Pentecost Sunday, 5.35pm
With her shoulder patched and out of a sling, Morgan drove towards the Biosphere, going over the plan in her head. After unlocking the cuffs and finding Jake and his team had indeed left, she had escaped Clark University by stealing a baseball cap and jacket from a student locker room. She had pulled the cap low and passed for a student on the grounds, only just missing the FBI team who pulled up to escort her. She knew that the authorities would never make it in time to save her family. She had cursed Jake’s betrayal but knew she still had time to find Faye and Gemma, even without the stones to trade for their lives.
Away from the University, she had called Ben and told him what had happened. He had been calm and reassuring in the face of her rage, as if he had expected the deception. He had said not to trust ARKANE from the beginning and sure enough, they had cheated her of the stones and betrayed her trust. She was livid with anger at Jake, ash
amed of herself for trusting him. She had almost let him through her barriers, had reached out to him, but her fury would have to wait. First, she must save Faye and Gemma from Everett’s fire.
Ben had contacts all over the Christian world and had sent her to the Teresian Carmelite convent in a nearby town. He had called in a few favors and arranged for the nuns to provide a flight to Arizona, as well as cash for the journey. It was amazing what a spiritual network could arrange at short notice. She had rented a car at the airport and would still be able to make it to the Biosphere by the early evening of Pentecost.
The desert was scrubland near the city, but as Morgan drove out from Tucson towards Catalina and then Oracle, the hills began to overshadow the road. Clouds scudded across the sky, the wind whipping them into peaks of fluffy white. A red-tailed hawk hovered overhead, wings barely moving as it rode the currents. This was a landscape that Morgan felt she knew. It was like the desert around the cities of Israel. She knew the terrain and she understood driving into danger. This was where she felt most alive and it stunned her to feel this way now after closeting herself in the safety of academia for the last few years. Now she channeled her anger at Jake and ARKANE into planning her next move.
At the convent she had collected a number of stones from the garden, roughly the size of the Pentecost stones. It wouldn’t fool Everett for long, but it would at least get her into his presence and might buy her some time. She felt the gun in the holster at her back and the cool of the knife strapped against her calf under her jeans. She had swapped the blood soaked top for a Clark U t-shirt. The nuns had dressed her shoulder wound and given her painkillers, but she would need more serious medical help in the next twenty-four hours if she was to recover full use of her arm. Right now, she had to get to Faye and Gemma.