by Sean Salazar
Al climbed in, “What do you mean?”
“Sir, all I know is that you are heading west.”
“Okay,” Al said, handing over the book and key. “Just make sure Ed gets these.”
McCoumb saluted and slid the door shut. The pilot increased power and lifted off immediately. Al threw his feet up on the cloth seats and went back to sleep.
Chapter Forty-two
Ed, Alex and Natalie arrived in Gap Mills in the midst of light rain and a communication blackout. There were virtually no civilian cars going in either direction. The SUV pulled over and Ed pointed out the two churches and the small graveyard in between.
“I am so amazed that you were able to figure this out,” Natalie said, as a soldier opened the door.
“Sometimes,” Ed said, gripping his leather bag, “we just get a little lucky.”
Alex chimed in, “I’m quite sure Al and Vance slightly improvised.”
Once out of the SUV a soldier reached out his hand as water poured off his hat, “I’m Captain McCoumb. It is a pleasure to meet you. I was with agent Al Robek in Iraq when the first underground city was discovered.”
“Oh, I know of you,” Ed replied shaking his hand. “This is Alex and Natalie.”
He shook their hands and handed over a small black bag. “Agent Robek asked me to give this to you. It’s a black book and a strange-looking key.”
“Thank you,” Ed said, placing the items in his bag
Getting back to business, McCoumb then pointed, “Up that small hill is what agents Robek and Mahoney found.”
“Lead the way,” Natalie said sweetly.
“Yes ma’am,” the captain replied, keeping a straight face.
Through the rain and mud, they trekked up a short hill to a freshly dug hole that several armed men guarded. Ed stood on the edge and eyed the tombstone lying on its side.
Alex bent down, dug his fingers under it, and flipped it over.
Natalie wiped the mud off with her hands and glanced up at Ed, “Tavnit marks the spot.”
“Tavnit marks the spot,” Ed repeated. He then carefully climbed into the mud-soaked hole. Stepping to the side of the casket, he scanned the bones and then peered into the shaft. Water and mud were pouring inside, mixing with the web of tree roots.
Captain McCoumb lowered himself down with a splash. He knelt next to the shaft. “We cleared some of the roots making it easier to climb down, but the wood ladder is very old. We tested it, nailed in a few weak ones, but they’re okay for now, just use caution going down.”
“Thank you,” Alex said, climbing in.
McCoumb pointed to two ropes going into the shaft. “These form a ladder which will take you to an even lower level and that is where you will find what you’re here to inspect. There is also another entrance that my men are digging out right now that leads to a small barn a short distance away. I have a man down there with flashlights so if you need anything else, just tell him and I will get it immediately.”
Ed glanced up at Natalie, “Are you up for this?”
“Definitely,” she said.
Alex pointed into the shaft, “Let’s just get going.”
Ed squeezed into the muddy shaft and began climbing down.
One by one, they made their way down the shaft and into the gold room.
The golden ground, now covered with muddy boot tracks, led in all directions. Ed then saw the table and walked up to it. “This is an amazing find.”
Natalie walked around, observing the room, and asked, “So, what’s up with all the gold walls?”
“In the olden days,” Alex said, “gold-lined rooms and chambers in the Middle East and North Africa were not uncommon.”
“Oh,” she replied, stepping over to the table. “I would like to have a gold room please.”
Alex pointed at the surface of the table. “West Coast, East Coast, Florida, and Cuba. What we have here is a three-dimensional map of North America.”
Ed aimed his light aver the table, stopping on small markers in the shape of miniature squares and pyramids. He identified a spot and a square marker where he estimated Washington, D.C. would be, pursed his lips, and blew the dust away. He then wiped the dust next to the square marker revealing etched-in writing. “It’s Holy Script.”
“That,” Alex said pointing, “looks to be your complex under the White House lawn.”
Ed nodded, “Could be.” He then pointed and ran his finger along a miniature mountain range and stopped at a small square. “Then this could be where we are now.”
Alex stepped closer and aimed his light directly at the square marker. “Vladimir Kalinchenko may be right about the Templars’ having a temple possibly under that small graveyard. Look there.”
Ed leaned in closer and eyed the spot Alex was indicating. Immediately he noticed a small circle crudely scratched into the surface with a dot in the middle. “I see what you’re saying,” he said.
Natalie looked at the spot and stepped to the other side of the table. “So what is this?”
“It’s a Tavnit,” Ed answered. He could tell that she could hardly contain her excitement.
She looked it over, “You said that Tavnit is a scale model; so this is a scale model of North America?”
“Yes,” Alex replied, “but it is most certainly a replica long before the United States was founded.”
She aimed her light across the table stopping at a marker. “If those other markers are actual sites, then is this pyramid here an actual pyramid?”
Alex stepped around to her side of the table, analyzed the small pyramid marker she had her light aimed at. After a few seconds he asked, “Ed, what do you make of that?”
Ed reached into his pocket and removed a map. He unfolded it and placed it on the table orientating it with North and South. He then flattened it out carefully. “Al sent a picture of this and as a precaution I brought a map to compare it.”
Alex pointed his light at the map. “Well, you got lucky again. That pyramid looks to be in the Northern California area.”
Ed looked closely at the map and the pyramid a few times. He then touched the tip of the replica of the mountain on the table, “Yes, according to the map, this is in the vicinity of Mt. Shasta.” He then touched the tip of the pyramid. “This pyramid is directly southwest of the mountain.
It looks to be near the Black Butte Mountain near Mt. Shasta.”
“Could that mean that a hidden pyramid is there?” Natalie asked.
“We won’t know for certain until we go look,” Alex said, pointing to another spot. “Where is this?”
Ed glanced at the mountain range and then at the map. “That is the State of... or should I say a mountain range in Wyoming, I would guess.”
Natalie moved her light back and forth between Washington D.C., Virginia, and Wyoming. “I don’t understand,” she said. “What does all this mean?
Ed waved his hand over the table and explained, “All this could indicate several things but an understanding of ancient history is important if you are to follow what I tell you.”
“Give me a try,” she said.
Ed gave Alex a look and he nodded. “I, or should I say, we believe, that most of the ancient structures from Lake Titicaca in South America, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey and many more, going back thousands of years, were once mining facilities.”
She looked puzzled. “I haven’t heard that one yet.”
“Well,” Alex interjected, “it’s most likely the case, although what you will learn from hanging around a couple old English vets is not taught at any university.”
“I’ll buy that,” Natalie said. “So the Brotherhood wants this table to find old mining sites?”
Alex glanced across the table. “Yes, but more important, what is inside the sites.”
“First let me say that the prime directive of the Brotherhood has been secrecy,” Ed said, “although the truth has come to light recently.”
“The church massacres?” she asked.
Ed nodded, “Yes.”
“Leading to the ultimate price for mankind,” Alex added.
“Huh?”
“Essentially,” Ed continued, “we are here looking at this map table because of circumstances. For example, one question would be, were we meant to find the hidden message in the chamber under D.C.? Were
we meant to find the messages those dying men left behind?”
“I see,” Natalie said. “You’re saying we found the messages by accident.”
Ed then watched her focus on a small batch of writing near a mountain range. She then reached out, gently wiped it, and examined it closer. “What language is this writing? I don’t recognize it.”
“It’s time that we tell you a story,” Ed said.
“About that writing?”
“Yes,” Alex replied. “Considering that you are part of our team— by default mind you—it would only be prudent if we clarify who we are.”
She frowned with skepticism. “I don’t get it.”
“To understand that writing and what this table signifies,” Ed said, “is to understand our past. To understand the Brotherhood, one must understand the past. Not the past that you have been taught, but the true history of mankind.”
She leaned in closer to see the writing and stood up. “Okay, gentlemen, so what you’re telling me, and from what I’ve learned so far, and no matter how crazy all this sounds, I’m starting to believe you.”
Alex tapped the table with his light. “And just to confuse you more, allow me to say that Biblical scholars or theologians recognize that Biblical tales such as the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, the great flood, the Tower of Babel, were based on much earlier texts from Mesopotamia, including the Sumerians.”
“And,” Ed added, “even the Mesopotamians and the Sumerians obtained their writings from even earlier events going back thousands and thousands of years all the way to the Gods of antiquity.” He swung his light across the table. “This relic here is probably over five thousand years old.”
“And the writing even older,” Alex added.
“How can that be?” she asked. “Language did not exist then.”
Ed held his light on the Holy Scripts writing for a few seconds and continued, “We hypothesize that on Mt. Sinai, when the lord God Yahweh handed over the first set of the Ten Commandments to Moses, it was written in that language.”
She leaned in again and looked closer at the writing. “Really?”
“Then of course,” Alex added, “he smashed the tablets in response to the Golden Calf incident.”
Natalie ran her light over several landmarks on the table, briefly stopping on the Holy Script near each one. “Okay, so why is the writing not taught in schools?”
“That’s a bit of a story,” Alex interjected, “but in essence the Brotherhood has been hiding it.”
“Why?”
Ed stood next to her, aimed his light on the miniature pyramid in Northern California, “To cover our past.”
“Well,” she said in an accepting tone, “I guess I have some learning to do.” She looked at Ed. “Can you read it?”
Alex laughed. “It’s an extremely complicated language, although we have compiled a huge database over the years getting us a fairly close translation.”
“So may I ask, is what you’re telling me going to discredit the Bible? If so, my professors would jump all over it.”
“No, my dear,” Ed said. “Minus a few translation issues, we would never discredit the Bible, it being more accurate in pure history than even most theology professors realize.”
Natalie also held her light on the pyramid, looking both excited and confused. “I’m doubtful,” she said, “but if it’s true, finding a pyramid in California could be huge and will throw everything I have been taught out the window.”
“Not really,” Ed said. “I suggest reflecting back on the mythology classes you took in school. Take a second look at the Greek, Middle Eastern, Indian, South American stories of Gods and men. Then, imagine if you will, the possibility of the stories being true.”
She smiled. “Like a pyramid in California?”
“That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Alex said. “Now the Holy Bible comprises multiple books that we use extensively. There are other sources deemed Lost Books. Some of which are stories relating to mankind perishing during the Biblical flood called the Epic of Gilgamesh, or a book called the Atra Hasis.”
Ed aimed his light at the square marker he suspected was in Wyoming. “This is interesting.”
“This table,” Alex continued, “has possibly put us a step ahead of the Brotherhood.”
“What do you mean?” Natalie asked.
Ed held his light directly at the square marker in Wyoming. “Ms. Churchill relayed a report of a Brotherhood sighting in Wyoming, and I would bet that it’s not by accident.”
Alex leaned against the table with both hands. “Something important must be there.” He glanced up at Ed, “Jackson Lake?”
Natalie pointed. “I feel like I’m missing something. What about that square marker you two are focused on?”
Ed looked at the paper map and then back at the marker confirming his concerns. “That is clearly in the Rocky Mountains, and by comparing this map, I would go as far as to say that it’s the Teton mountain range but...” he paused, eyeing something that looked like a miniature channel going from Jackson Lake to the pyramid near Mt. Shasta, “Alex, take a look at this.”
Alex moved in position to see it.
Ed pointed. “This groove could represent a small channel or river traveling from Wyoming to California.”
“That is interesting,” Alex said.
Ed followed it with his light as he pulled the map over. “So let me see. It starts at Jackson Lake, travels down to...” He paused, comparing the map and continued, “the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and then over to Mt. Shasta.”
“What do you think it is?” Natalie asked.
“It reminds me of something,” Ed said. “You know when we were under Baalbek, Lebanon, Al and I found a water channel.”
“And Al also reported one under Iraq,” Alex said.
There was a brief moment of silence as Ed and Alex contemplated what it was. Then suddenly Ed slapped the table causing dust to bounce up, and yelled out, “Shibboleth!”
“What?” Natalie asked.
Alex quickly looked down at the small channel. “The Masons gave Al a word and said he found it.”
Natalie shook her head.
Ed retrieved a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. “This is the message that Al sent. It states that the Masons apprehended him, told him to investigate who financed the discovery of America, something about Alexander the Great, and the word shibboleth.”
“Shibboleth,” Alex said, thinking out loud, “is a pure Hebrew word that signifies, among other things...a water channel.”
“Dear God,” Ed said. “The Masons know about the water channels, and they are protecting it.” He then took out his camera and took several close-up pictures of the table from different angles and the channel, focusing closely on its path through several states and mountain ranges. “If the report of the Brotherhood knights shooting it out with hunters is near where this marker and channel are, then I am going to conclude that the Brotherhood is looking for it. Alex, I suggest that we direct Al to the Teton Mountain range and Jackson Lake immediately.”
Alex pushed himself away from the table and answered by nodding his head. “I concur that would be a good move.”
“I suggest that we inform Major Reeves that he is going to have a guest for tea and that there is possibly an underground complex below him.”
Natalie looked back and forth, from Alex to Ed, “I don’t get it.”
Ed smiled. “Well, my dear. What I will tell you is that we have Her Majesty’s soldiers in Wyoming, near Jackson Lake now.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Teton Mountain Range, Wyoming
T
he helicopter pilot blacked out its lights and cruised in the last few miles, touching down at the edge of what looked to Al like a dark forest.
The voice came over the intercom, “This is as close as we go, sir.”
“Any instructions for me?” Al asked.
“No sir, only that I am to drop you off here.”
“Where am I?”
“We’re in the Teton Mountain Range in Wyoming.”
“No shit,” Al said surprised, sliding the side door open. The chilly air hit him hard as he jumped out of the chopper. He grabbed the black bags, closed the door, crouched down, and waved at the pilot indicating that he was clear. The chopper lifted off, blowing dust all around him.
It was evident that he was clearly alone. The forest in front of him was nothing but a pitch-black shadow. The cloud cover blocked any available moonlight, giving everything around him an eerie emptiness.
He crouched near the ground for several minutes waiting for something to happen but there was nothing but the sound of insects buzzing about. The visibility was barely a few feet and the only activity was the motion of the tall grass moving back and forth from the breeze. Several more tense minutes went by before he sensed movement coming from the direction of the forest.
That must be the welcoming committee, he thought.
He remained crouched as the subtle sounds of the guests approaching got closer. Then several completely blacked-out figures approached him. It was so dark that he could not determine how many there were.
“Mr. Robek,” one of the dark figures whispered in a British accent.
“About damn time,” Al answered back, noticing the men were wearing night-vision goggles.
“Humbly apologize about this. Virtually all communications are broken.”
“I had a hunch you were going to say that.”
“Major Reeves, eleventh SAS company at your service, sir; we met briefly in Damascus before your Lebanon operation.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Excuse me.”
“Aw nothing,” Al answered. “I apologize for anybody who assisted me, especially in Damascus.”
Major Reeves continued, “We have been tracking the knights and they are here.”