The officer nodded and ducked back out.
With an almost irritated look, Darlington picked up the phone and pressed the 4 button. “Hi Chaplain.”
“Hello Kim, how are you?”
“Coming from all directions, just like usual.” The chaplain had a way of getting people to put down their pens for him, partly because he was so well-liked, and partly because everyone was afraid of picking up bad karma. “What can I do for you?” she asked.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’ve been sent down to D.C. to help after the bombing here.”
Darlington glanced back to her folder. “I did hear something about that. How’s it going?”
“Well,” he replied, “it’s a tough situation as you can imagine.”
“I sure can.”
“The reason I’m calling,” he continued, “is I was hoping to get your help with something.”
“Sure, Padre,” she mused and turned another page in the folder.
“If memory serves, I believe you have a friend at the FBI.”
“That’s right,” Darlington replied. “In the Boston branch.”
“Well Kim, I’m wondering if I might get your help in trying to get something expedited. I have some pictures I need to submit for analysis and was hoping we could get it turned around quickly.”
“I can give it a try,” Darlington answered. “What kind of pictures?”
The chaplain cleared his throat on the other end. “This may sound a little strange, but they’re pictures of someone here I’d like to find out more about.”
Darlington stopped perusing her folder and looked up, thinking. “I take it this is someone you can’t ask, or no one there knows?”
“That is correct,” the chaplain answered. “It’s someone on the investigation team.”
“Doesn’t the investigation team require clearance?”
“Yes, they do,” he replied “That’s where it gets a little curious. He has clearance, but evidently it’s a very high clearance.”
“Hmm…” Darlington thought out loud. “So, this guy has some special clearance and no one knows who he is?”
“Exactly,” the chaplain said. “I managed to snap some pictures of him on my phone, and I’m hoping your friend at the FBI can quickly run them through their system and see if they can get a visual match on him.”
Darlington shrugged. “Like I said, I’ll give it a shot. You want to email the pictures over to me?”
“Of course. I will do that right now. Thank you.”
“My pleasure, Chaplain.” She was just about to hang up when he interrupted.
“Oh Kim, one more thing,” he said. “Have you seen Cheryl Roberts lately?”
“Mmm…I saw her a couple days ago. If I’m not mistaken, she had today off. Why?”
“Well,” he said, “I’ve left a number of messages for her in the last couple days but haven’t heard back.”
Darlington frowned. “That’s strange. She’s pretty responsive. I’ll look into it and see if anyone has talked to her.”
“Wonderful, thank you Kim. I do appreciate your help.”
“No problem, Padre,” she said. “I’ll give you a ring when I hear something back.”
She hung up the phone and turned back to her case.
Darlington was still engrossed in the folder twenty minutes later when someone knocked on her door.
“Come in,” she answered with a hint of exasperation.
“Deputy Inspector?” asked a large man as he opened the door.
“Yes.”
Ramirez took a small step inside. “Hi, my name is Mike Ramirez. I’m part of the computer forensic team downtown. Am I bothering you?”
Darlington inhaled and leaned back in her chair. She shook her head and motioned for Ramirez to sit down, which he did.
“I’m trying to find officers Griffin and Buckley. I was told you might know where they are.”
Darlington furrowed her brow. “You know I haven’t seen them. I know they had to drive to Washington D.C. a couple days ago.” Now curious, she leaned forward and looked out through her glass door. She could see both of their desks on the far side of the room, but both were empty. “Strange, they should be here. Did you ask the officer at the front desk downstairs? Maybe they’re sick.” Both sick at the same time? She didn’t believe that as soon as it rolled off her tongue.
“Yes, I did. The woman downstairs didn’t know anything either,” Ramirez answered.
Darlington was getting an odd feeling. “Why are you looking for them?”
“They came to see me just before they left for D.C. It was about their case. I had some more information for them, but I can’t get a hold of either one of them on their cell phones. I sent one text to Officer Griffin a few days ago that went through, but everything I’ve sent after that has bounced back.” He leaned forward in his chair. “I took the liberty of looking at the system, and it looks like both of their cell phones may be turned off.”
“Both of them?”
“It looks like it,” Ramirez said. “I believe Officer Griffin was having a problem with his phone before they left, so I thought maybe that was the reason. But checking the carrier’s system logs, it looks like his service was successfully ported to a new phone he purchased just north of D.C.”
Darlington looked at him curiously. “How did you get access to the carrier’s system logs?”
He gave her a quick wink. “I’d rather not say.”
Darlington leaned forward and dialed a number on her phone. She left it on speakerphone. A voice quickly answered. “Personnel, 19th Precinct.”
“Hi Tina, it’s Kim upstairs,” Darlington announced.
“Oh, hi Kim.”
“Tina, is there any time or special hours submitted for Griffin or Buckley in the last few days?”
Tina paused for a moment. “Nooo…I haven’t seen anything come over.”
“They had to drive down to D.C. a few days ago to see someone at the State Department. Do you remember when they came back from that?”
“I don’t.” Tina went silent as she looked again. “Oh wait, I have a note here. Looks like we got a call from that State Department office saying our guys missed their appointment. Said they would have to reschedule.”
Darlington looked across her desk at Ramirez. Something didn’t feel right.
28
Oh boy. Christine thought to herself. These guys have gone off the deep end!
Rand watched Christine take a step backward. “You’re not a believer,” he said matter-of-factly.
“In God?” she said. “Oh sure I am, of course. Although, I haven’t been to church in a while.”
“But you don’t believe me?” Rand asked.
She looked over her shoulder at Avery and stepped away toward the other wall so she could see them both. “Look, maybe you have some special genetic thing going on here, but I think that’s quite a leap from, you know, being sent by God.”
“I see,” Rand said. “Are you sure about Sarah’s gift?”
“Her gift,” Christine said, a little taken back. “Meaning what, the aura thing?” She shrugged. “I can only believe what she tells me, but she saved our lives by keeping us off an elevator that fell eight stories. And she knew what was about to happen in that McDonald’s. She also tried to save my cat.”
Rand lowered his head slightly but kept his eyes on her. “Christine, I think you need to prepare yourself for the possibility that what Sarah sees is something entirely different than what you think.”
“What do you mean?” She watched Rand and Avery exchange looks again. They were doing that a lot.
“What Sarah sees,” Rand said, “is not an aura or some energy field. What Sarah is able to see is a person’s soul.”
Christine did not reply. She simply stood there, stunned and staring at Rand. Eventually, she blinked and looked at Avery who made it clear that she was the only one startled by what he said.
“What did you say?�
��
“It’s not an aura,” Rand repeated.
“You said it’s their soul?” she asked slowly.
“That’s right.”
Christine continued to stare at him. She didn’t know what to think, but she was coming around to the conclusion that even though these men came to her rescue, they were nutty, to put it mildly. She felt her brain shift into a different gear. How do I get out of here?
Rand watched her calmly. He expected this was going to be difficult for her. It sounded like she was not religious which didn’t help matters. She was going to need some extra convincing.
“Can I,” she started, “just chat with Sarah for a few moments?”
“Of course.” Avery took a small step to the side and opened the door. “Sarah!” he called. “Can you please come here for a minute? Christine’s eyes opened wide. That was not what she had in mind.
A moment later, small footsteps could be heard coming down the hall. When she reached the door, Avery opened it up wide, and when Sarah looked at everyone, she seemed less surprised to see Rand than Christine was. Instinctively, Sarah crossed the room and stood in front of her.
“You okay?” Christine asked and patted her shoulder.
“Mmm…hmm.”
“Sarah,” Rand began, “do you recognize me?”
Sarah looked up at Christine with her big eyes. “What does recog-nice mean?”
Christine smiled. “It means, do you remember him?”
Sarah nodded. “He came to the safe-” she wrinkled her nose. “What did you call it again?”
“The safe house.”
“Oh yeah,” said Sarah “He came there. And to McDonald’s too.”
Rand smiled. “Sarah. We wanted to talk to you, about how you can see people in your special way.”
Sarah tilted her head, unsure. “My mommy said I wasn’t supposed to talk about it to other people.”
Rand nodded. “We understand. But we think this is a time when your mom would have wanted you to share with us.”
Sarah silently looked up at Christine who put her second hand on Sarah’s shoulder and nodded back.
“Okay,” was all she said.
This time Rand looked at Christine. “Sarah, what do you see when you look at Christine?”
“A yellow shadow.”
“Can you show us where?” he asked.
Sarah turned and looked at Christine. “It’s all over, but mostly here,” she said, circling her hand in front of Christine’s chest.
“And what do you see when you look at Mr. Avery?” Rand asked.
Sarah looked over at Avery. “He’s yellow too.”
“And yellow is good?” Rand asked.
“Yes.”
Rand spoke to Sarah again but was still looking at Christine. “And Sarah,” he said. “What do you see when you look at me?”
Sarah’s expression became nervous. She looked at Rand but quickly turned back to Christine.
Christine looked down at Sarah supportively. “It’s okay Sarah, you can tell us.”
Sarah slowly turned back to face Rand. “He doesn’t have one at all.”
29
The cabin abruptly bounced as the jet’s wheels touched the runway, and the high pitch of the engine’s reverse thrust shrieked loudly outside, slowing the aircraft.
As the plane slowed and began to taxi, Aaron Bazes remained slouched in his leather seat, looking out the window at the bright lights of Tel Aviv. The last several days had painted a grim picture, and he was now the unfortunate messenger. This was a trip home he was not looking forward to making.
The new Learjet 85 passed the terminal’s main gates and proceeded to a smaller private section of the airport. When the doors opened, Bazes reluctantly stood and walked down the empty aisle to the front of the cabin where the attendant handed him his bag.
“Is there anything else I can get you, sir?” the attendant asked.
Bazes never heard him.
The private gate afforded him a distinctly better experience traveling in and out of the country. To begin with, it was spacious and plush and void of any security personnel whatsoever. In fact, the entire building was designed for and dedicated to just a handful of people, and Bazes was one of them. He passed only one person on his way to the driver waiting for him outside, and that one person was the sole customs agent who sat at the desk as more of a formality than anything else.
The agent bowed his head slightly as Bazes approached and stopped on the other side of his desk. He withdrew and swiped his Ambassador passport under the scanner. He then placed his hand on the small, brightly lit screen as it passed up and down, capturing a high resolution image of his hand print. With that, he quietly walked down a long, well-decorated and immaculate hallway into the chilly air outside.
The dark underground corridor was very old and lined in rough limestone with a finer limestone serving as the exterior finish. It was the same stone used to construct the Egyptian pyramids. And while the stonework were of similar age, the difference was that everyone had seen the pyramids, but only a handful of people on the entire planet knew this hallway and the chambers ahead had ever even existed.
Bazes’ footsteps echoed as he walked calmly down the dimly lit corridor. At the end, it opened into a larger room. In the middle of the room was a giant, six-pointed star carved into the floor and emblazoned with gold. Bazes stopped before the circle and closed his eyes. After a short prayer, he stepped inside and smoothly slid down onto his hands and knees. Without interrupting the motion, he continued down until his lips touched the cold floor. He silently rose and rocked back onto his knees before falling forward and pressing his lips to the floor again. His twelfth time was as slow and deliberate as his first, symbolizing the original Twelve Tribes.
Bazes slowly raised his head and looked at the glass structure before him. Standing at nearly ten cubic feet and made of thick, clear glass, it was vacuum sealed and maintained at a perfect temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit and zero percent humidity. Before the structure, engraved in the stone floor and also lined in gold was a single sentence in Hebrew.
“…for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:7)
Behind the glass stood a large, cube-shaped, wooden box and behind it a thick canvas fabric made of cotton, layered neatly atop dozens of long, wooden staves bundled on the floor. Beside the folded cloth was a chest made of ancient acacia wood with a bronze cover, and next to that, sat a heavier cover made of solid gold with two angelic statues at either end.
Bazes stared at the artifacts and finally closed his eyes once more, dropping down and touching his forehead to the golden lettering.
What stood before Bazes was one of the most sacred artifacts in all of human history, moved when necessary, but hidden and protected for thousands of years. Together the pieces made up the fabled Tabernacle of Moses. The sacred place where God chose to meet his people during their forty-year wandering in the desert. On the floor behind the glass was the legendary Atonement Cover on which Moses stood to communicate directly with God and which served as the lid to the Ark of the Covenant.
Bazes sat in a chair with his hands folded on an ancient wooden table before him. Around him were twelve men dressed in Techelet blue, hand woven Talliths with golden tassels along the arms. They were seated in a semicircular arc around Bazes, six on each side. Few people knew who these men were, yet they were secretly some of the most powerful men on the planet. Their faces were just barely recognizable in the dim candlelight, but it didn’t matter; Bazes knew each voice and seat position by heart.
“We are happy to have you back,” the man in front of him began.
“Thank you,” Bazes replied in a low voice.
“What did you find?”
Bazes lowered his head gently, dreading what he was about to say. “It is him.”
All twelve men looked at each other grimly.
“Are you certain?”
Bazes nodded. “I am certai
n.”
“How do you know this?”
“Inscriptions were left in the cathedrals. They were not difficult to find. I believe they were left for us. A message, to mock us. I also had some traces analyzed and they all matched. The type, issuance, and grade are all the same.”
“What did the inscriptions say?”
“Prepare,” Bazes frowned.
“What about the written records?”
Bazes nodded. “It took some time and the records appeared to be altered, but the details and signatures are unmistakable.”
“Does anyone else know?”
“I don’t believe so,” Bazes said shaking his head. “We are the first.”
An old man to the speaker’s right lamented, “What do you think he will do?”
“I do not know for certain. I only have fears.”
The old man nodded. “Then what do you fear he will do?”
Bazes glanced around at some of the other men before looking forward again. “Something very terrible.” If they didn’t like what he just told them, they were going to like what he said next even less.
30
Rand opened the front door and quietly stepped out onto the front deck. Christine was sitting in one of the chairs, her hands propped up on her knees and covering her mouth.
She said she needed to be alone for a little while, so Rand was careful to keep his distance. He stopped several feet behind her. There were no sounds around them except for the breeze moving through the trees.
“As you can probably guess, I’m a little freaked out right now,” she said without turning around.
Rand said nothing.
After another long silence, she lowered her face into her hands and shook her head. “Why would he do this to us?” She stood up and looked at Rand then turned and looked in through the kitchen window. She could see Avery and Sarah sitting across from each other in the small living room. Sarah was watching the board very carefully while Avery taught her how to play checkers. “What god would do this to her?”
Amid the Shadows Page 12