The Eye of Moses - Vatican Knights Series 22 (2020), Rick Jones [learn to read books txt] 📗

shifted from lens to lens to capture his movements. As he walked out of range from one CCTV, he was caught by another as he approached it.

Mr. Da Vinci had never met Salt up close and personal, but he knew everything there was to know about a man who fell in alliance with the core tactics of a Christian terrorist group, and then justified his actions in the name of Heaven. How many have died by his hands because he had lacked tolerance towards others? This was a question Mr. da Vinci asked himself whenever he looked into the cold and unforgiving eyes of Johannes Bossert.

As the cameras continued to skip from eye to eye to monitor Salt’s movements, Mr. da Vinci opened a second channel with a small grid appearing at the lower left corner of his screen. After typing a few commands from his keyboard, he was summarily connected to Mr. Spartan, who had set up a BGAN system in Lucerne.

Inside the box at the lower left corner of Mr. da Vinci’s screen, Mr. Spartan’s image appeared. “Mr. da Vinci,” he said in greeting, though it sounded more like a statement.

“Mr. Spartan . . . we have contact.” And then the Grand Master began to tell the field principal everything he needed to know.

* * *

Salt enjoyed times like this when the day—though it had a cold snap to it—was sunny with absolutely zero chance of raining or snowing to tarnish the moment. The sun was high and brilliant, the mountain peaks capped, and the sky was as blue as he could ever remember.

God’s gift to man, he thought. Yet it’s slowly being diminished to a wasteland that could end up as a rock floating through space.

Then from the magical beauty that surrounded him, his thoughts eventually gravitated towards his purpose in the scheme of all things. Over the ages, mankind had suffered through the consequences of war, genocide, and persecution. And ruled by the governing principles of greed, individualism, and competition. Totalitarianism would prove to be a benefit that would establish concentrated ways of thinking and living and the worshipping of the one true God. Greed, individualism, and competition would be completely stamped out, as would war, genocide and persecution.

Is this the dream of madmen? he considered. Or is it the dream of finally creating Utopia by ushering in the New Age of Enlightenment. In time, fail or succeed, he knew that history would brand him as a sinner or a saint, depending upon the outcome.

He hoped it would be the latter as he looked heavenward and at a uniform blue sky with not even a smoky contrail from a jet to blemish it.

Then he looked at the lake, which was as smooth as glass and as pure as ‘pure’ could be.

Beauty was the landmark of Switzerland, he thought.

How long would it take before someone pressed ‘the button’ and made it all go away under a sweeping wave of nuclear fire? Leaders were like children with loaded guns who knew little about how to use their powers appropriately. And then: It’s just a matter of time.

Taking a sidelong glance at a distant precipice that housed the Shadow Klan, Johannes Bossert honestly believed that mankind, if something wasn’t done to curb their suicidal path of self-destruction, would not last another ten years. If this was the case, then he might not see the birth of his first grandchild. So, everything depended upon Elias Caspari and the power of the Eye of Moses.

In Salt’s mind, everything he did was due to the design of God’s plan. He would kill those who compromised his position without a conscionable pang of guilt, knowing that he would be forgiven. And possessing the Eye of Moses, once a celestial gift to free the Jews from bondage, was now a gift to free mankind of sinful ways. Johannes Bossert, who was a zealot but didn’t see it that way, honestly believed that extremism was the only true measure to take.

Walking the streets of Lucerne with his thoughts in the proverbial clouds, the CCTV cameras continued to observe Salt as he walked within eye-capturing ranges, all the way to his residence, which was a high-end apartment complex.

From their home base in Cochem, Germany, the Consortium now had their starting point.

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Lucerne, Switzerland

Inside a safehouse in Lucerne, the members of the Consortium were setting up base command. Mr. Spartan had set up the BGAN system, which was a mobile workstation that if it had a line-of-sight to one of the three geostationary satellites to receive a feed from, then Mr. Spartan’s team would have global coverage on a secured line. Currently, Mr. Spartan was in communication with Mr. da Vinci over the satellite feed.

“Salt is still in Lucerne,” Mr. da Vinci told him. “We have him entering an exclusive residence for those with high incomes, which says a lot about the pay of mercenaries.”

“Where?”

Mr. da Vinci told him.

“I’ll assign a unit to locate and mine whatever we can from him,” said Mr. Spartan. “It’ll be up to you as to what you want done to him after we obtain the necessary information, however.”

“Confirm the data to see if he’s being truthful . . . Then terminate him. Salt will never surrender his extremist views when it comes to achieving the means. He’ll keep killing those whom he thinks will stand in his way. Always. There’s no salvation in his future.” Then he added: “Your primary objective outside of finding the relics is to terminate Elias Caspar as well. Allow Hayden to seek out the relics. He’s more than capable of handling that part of the mission core. I want you and your team to neutralize all hostile elements and then blow the facility after it’s been located. Caspari is a cancer that needs to be cut away before it has a chance to metastasize.”

“Understood.”

“Killing is not our way of fulfilling a mission, Mr. Spartan. I know this. And I can see the warring of