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

“Copy that.”

“And Mr. Galileo?”

“Right here.”

“You still have your Sem-charges?”

“I do.”

“Place them strategically so that we can take this mountaintop down. Mr. Plato and I will provide you with proper cover. Once the Sem-charges are positioned, set the timers for twenty minutes. Once done, communicate that they’ve been set and enabled. Everyone on the team will synchronize the countdown using their watches as the timeframe reference to withdraw.”

“Twenty minutes?” Mr. Plato sounded nonplussed. “Are you kidding me? You think that’s enough time for Hayden?”

“It’ll have to be. We need to conclude this in ten. If we fail, the charges won’t. The facility stands upon the precipice. The horn of the mountain will collapse.”

“Spartan,” it was Mr. Galileo. “If Kimball doesn’t make it, if the dark particle is aggravated by the Semtex concussions, you’re taking a risk of not only blowing away this mountain, but the city of Lucerne and God only knows what else. Maybe half the planet for all we know.”

Mr. Spartan knew that Mr. Galileo was right. No one knew the true power of the dark particle embedded inside the head of Aaron’s rod. It was, after all, a remnant of the Big Bang, a powerful explosion so great that particles continued to race and stretch across the universe.

One particle.

One element.

And one chance to see the mission through.

“Then I guess we’ll have to put our faith in Kimball, won’t we?”

And then from Mr. Galileo came a flat ‘Copy.’

Gunfire continued to erupt all around them as members of the Shadow Klan closed in from all sides with their weapons raised and leveled.

Mr. Spartan, after reaching for Mr. Donatello’s rucksack and dragging it close, rummaged through the pack and discovered the Semtex charges. Wadding some of the clay into a small brick, Mr. Spartan slapped the wad underneath the console and readjusted the method of detonation by using a dead man’s switch. Keeping the switch close, Mr. Spartan, now crawling along the floor using his elbows and knees to pull him along, could sense the Shadow Klan closing in on his last known position.

Bullets and rounds continued to punch holes in the surrounding walls or skipped off the floor around him. Shards of shattered concrete broke off into pieces that nicked the skin of his cheek, causing it to bleed. But Mr. Spartan pressed on, the man crawling on his belly to gain new ground, new territory. Then as he was about to reach cover, the point of an assault weapon pressed against the crown of his helmet.

Mr. Spartan, looking up to see his assassin, saw the twisted and smiling face of Max Ueli.

“Well, hello, Sunshine,” the Klansman told him. “Did you really think that you had a chance?”

The man’s disfigured smile flourished.

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

As sharp as Kimball’s mind was, he still erred in direction only to realize it abruptly and got back on track, though valuable time was lost. Within three minutes, despite the numerous turns, the emblazoned characters of L-6 stenciled on the pillar caused him to feel a measure of relief.

He had made it to the Vault.

Racing across the floor of this immensely sized room, he saw the pedestal and the crucible that sat upon it. Before him was the treasure chest that contained Aaron’s rod. In awe, Kimball approached the chest as though it were the Ark of the Covenant, and as something so prestigious that it was worth the slow advance. Then as he stood over it, he could see a light pulsating from the seam that parted the trunk’s lid from the actual chest, even with the clamps locking the trunk tight. Was the Light so powerful?

Then with his outstretched hands, he laid them upon the trunk’s lid. It was warm to the touch with the sensation somewhat all-encompassing in an uplifting way. Slowly, and at one clasp at a time, Kimball Hayden undid them and raised the lid. An aura of amber light eclipsed his features with the illumination so bright that the red light of the chamber’s alert system had given way to the magnificent cast. The glow was radiant and warm, if not pleasing and oddly inviting. As bright as the particle was, the light did not appear to bother his eyes.

Reaching into the chest, Kimball was careful not to grab a part of the staff close to its head. Gripping the rod and finding it smooth to the touch, he removed it from the container and held it before him. Here was a relic that pre-dated Jesus, he heard himself say. And in the head of this staff encased within its crystal cocoon, the particle of all life.

Inside the crystal cocoon, the dark element seemed to rotate slowly on some unseen axis, the atom rolling and spinning as if to showcase its true wonder.

With reverence, Hayden carefully placed the staff upon the floor, removed the tethering devices from his rucksack, and began to prepare the item for transport. It had always been biblically noted that anyone who touched the surface of the Ark of the Covenant often died from the action. Kimball Hayden attributed this to science, however. The particle was electrically charged and the ark itself covered with gold, a precious metal that also happened to be a conduit. If the crystal cocoon was somehow touching the metal, then the particle’s charge could have ignited the entire Ark as a live wire. Anyone who had touched the Ark would simply have encountered a fatal electrical dose. If this was the case, which he believed it was, Kimball Hayden brought a rubberized sleeve, then slipped it carefully over the head of Aaron’s rod. Since rubber was a nonconductor, it would also neutralize the staff’s effects.

Now to secure the crucible, the vessel that summarized the future according to Michel Nostradamus. Kimball quickly noted the odd symbols inside the wall of the bowl, the cyphers that were the key to unlocking many fantastical secrets. In the hands of some, these mysteries could be used in black measures, such was the way of Elias