Eye in the Sky Bk 02: Artifact Ch. 05

"Mark, it isn't enough. Can you intensify it?" Sawyer held his hand.

He nodded and the arc increased and sparks began to jump from metal to metal around the engine room. The big generators howled and faltered as Marcus slumped to the floor.

"Run and get a cold, wet cloth," Sawyer told Ben. "He's unconscious."

Ben ran to the galley and came back with a wet dishtowel and a bottle of water. The heat was oppressive in the engine room and Lawson picked up Marcus' slight form and carried him into a cabin. Sawyer sat beside him and bathed his face with the towel while the others hovered anxiously around. He opened his eyes.

"I'm sorry Sawyer, I couldn't touch it. I don't know what it's made of ,but I can't destroy it. I don't know anything other than some ceramics that could stand up to that kind of heat. We'll have to do something else."

Ben gave him the water bottle and he drank half of it. "I'm okay," he said. "Time for plan B."

"What if we drop it in some deep part of the ocean?" Ben asked.

"That sounds good, but there have been at least three or four trips to the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean. It could be found if they discovered what we did with it," Bannon said.

"Well, we could drop it in a volcano, maybe," Ben suggested.

"I favor the ocean thing," Oliver said. "If we could cover our tracks it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Drop it in the Southern Ocean somewhere and just sail away and never look back."

"That's what we'll do then," Sawyer said. "You start south and we'll go home and get to work."

Oliver took the party from Arizona back to their Lear and they said their goodbyes. "I want to thank you for helping us," he told them. "I know you didn't have to and I'd like you to know that we'll always be grateful. Maybe when this is all over you'd like to come to the tropics for a vacation. We'd be happy to have you anytime."

Sawyer kissed his cheek. "Thanks, Oliver, you're a good man. We'll take you up on that. Kane told me about the nude beach," her big brown eyes twinkled.

Lawson hugged him and he shook hands with Mike and Marcus. They climbed aboard and the Lear whined its way down the runway and into the sky.

Chapter 6

The Nimbus was moving leisurely south and its passengers were exhausted in the middle of the afternoon. They lay on cushions on the back deck, dozing occasionally and talking about the events of the last few days.

"That was probably the most intense two days I've ever had," Oliver told them.

They all agreed that any more intensity would probably kill them all.

"They are the coolest people I've ever met," Ben said, "but they would wear me out. I just hope they can do something."

"I think they'll find a way," Kane said. "They seem like pretty competent people to me. Well done, Oliver. You pulled a trick out of the bag I didn't expect. I didn't even know it was possible.

"Yeah, well it was a small bag. How many people do you know who could pull something off like Sawyer did? I took a chance and it paid off. There weren't a lot of good options. I thought about sending it to someone like Pakistan where they're sort of medium sized, semi-powerful and armed with nuclear weapons. They wouldn't really be big enough to do anything much with it, but the nukes make them unattackable."

"That makes sense, but I'd pity the poor people that were living under that regime," Kane shuddered.

"Yes, I know, but another scenario would be to give it to some nut-job group and let them fight it out with the government. The eventual victor would probably be so badly weakened that they wouldn't be able to do much harm for years."

"We could have given it to some breakaway republic somewhere in a big, dangerous country and let them fight it out," Bannon said. "Even if they succeeded they would still be surrounded by a big dangerous enemy and the country they broke away from would have a little dangerous enemy inside it and they would still have so many problems they wouldn't have time to mess with anyone else."

"Well, no use to think about all the what if's now. We're headed south."

They actually headed more west than south for a while and Oliver was very mysterious about their destination. They tried various ways of getting the information out of him, but he was implacable. He would only tell them that they would like it and that it was a surprise.

As it turned out, they were surprised as they approached land. The Nimbus continued straight ahead and they supposed they must be putting in at a port. As they approached, they saw what appeared to be a river left the harbor and traveled inland. To their shock The Nimbus turned into the river and was picked up by a tug. The tug continued up river and they saw a large dam ahead. On the right side of the river there was a large concrete wall the height of the dam, standing downstream. They were conducted inside and a gate closed behind them. A horn sounded and water began to pour into the chamber formed between the walls and the gate. In minutes, The Nimbus had risen until they could see over the top of the walls. A gate opened ahead of them and the tug's engines throbbed as it pushed them into a channel above the dam.

"Do you know where we are now?" he asked them.

"I think I do," Kane said. "What do you kids think?"

They had no idea and Oliver finally had pity on their curiosity and allowed Kane to tell them.

"I think this is the Panama Canal," she told them. "Is it, Oliver?"

"You've got it, baby. This is going to save us a lot of time. This is the greatest engineering feat in history, kids."

They stood at the rails for a couple of hours in their excitement but the novelty of the cut faded and they grew bored with the whole process because progress was so slow. The passage seemed interminable, and the young people took up chess to pass the time. Kane and Oliver took chairs to the forecastle and talked.

*****

In Arlington, Virginia, Agents Johnson and Brown sat uncomfortably in the office of the director of DARPA. He was not pleased that they had failed to retrieve either the book or the statue. The two targets had disappeared without a trace. They had traveled to Nassau on a commercial flight and boarded a helicopter. The lack of proper clearance and documentation on the part of such non-secure airports was deplorable. There was no way to track private flights in and out of Nassau, and they were reduced to aerial searches for helicopters and satellite surveillance photographs. If the helicopter was under cover it would be a long and tedious process. There were thousands of islands, and without the identity of the owners of the helicopter the task was daunting.

"I'm telling you these people have no idea of proper security procedures," Brown said. "If it had been any airport in America we would have registration numbers, flight plans and logs and we would know exactly where they went."

The Director was very unhappy. His agency was tasked with weapons development and research, and this was definitely in their jurisdiction. The secretary of defense had made clear in no uncertain terms that this was the highest priority mission they had ever undertaken. The thought of this artifact in unauthorized hands was appalling. If it were to fall under hostile control or into the hands of terrorists, the damage could be incalculable. The failure of his agents was unacceptable.

"Gentlemen, you are going to assemble five teams. You are going to the Bahamas and you are going to find these people and take control of the asset. You are going to take any steps necessary to recover the asset. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir. We didn't expect two academics to flee like that at the first contact. Our asset at the University was reluctant to cooperate, and it was necessary to use our information about her relationship with her secretary to secure her cooperation. By the time we got addresses, they were off the island. They received help from someone, probably the persons who discovered the artifacts. We might have recovered the book had Dr. Knowles been cooperative, but we are convinced that the statue was not in their possession. When you say 'all necessary steps,' does this include the elimination of the discoverers and the two academics?"

"It includes all necessary steps," the director said. "If they can be taken, that would be preferable. They may have intelligence that would be valuable. If the information can be extracted, they need to disappear. The secretary of defense has briefed the President and she agrees that it is vital to national security to gain control of the artifact."

*****

At that very moment the First Husband's cell phone rang at the White House. He saw that it was from the former First Lady and answered. They were both attending a charity function the next day and he supposed some arrangements about speaking needed to be concluded.

He spoke on the phone for a minute and went to find his wife. "It's John," he told her. "Something about the dogs."

"What is it, son," the President asked. "I'm very busy right now."

"Madame President," a young woman's voice surprised her. "My name is Sawyer Raleigh. I'm sorry to bother you like this but I need to speak with you. You are going to clear an hour tomorrow to meet with me from 1:00 to 2:00 tomorrow."

"I know who you are and I'm going to do nothing of the sort," she answered. "How did you get this number, and how dare you make demands? You may have had my predecessor wrapped around your little finger, but you did tremendous damage to this country. If you ever try anything like this again I'll have you arrested and be damned to your connections."

She cut the call off, trembling with fury.

"George, clear my calendar after lunch for an hour tomorrow. I'm meeting with Sawyer Raleigh," she was surprised to hear herself say.

"Why the hell would you do that?" her secretary asked. "That girl is a traitor to our country. She nearly destroyed your predecessor with all those leaks to the press."

"Do what I told you," she snarled. "Did I tell you that you could question me? Just clear the damned hour and keep your fucking mouth shut."

"Yes ma'am," he gulped. "I'll do what you said."

She was prepared to be outraged when Sawyer and Mike were ushered into the oval office the next day. The very idea of the humiliation that the country had endured at the hands of this bitch made her tremble with fury.

Sawyer and Mike sat down in front of her desk without being asked. "Thank you for seeing us, Madame President," Sawyer told her.

"I have no idea why I agreed to see you; I'll give you five minutes."

"No, you're going to give me as long as I want," Sawyer contradicted her.

She discovered that this was true. She was going to give them as long as they needed.

"You're going to call off the hunt for the Caribbean artifact," Sawyer told her. "You're going to tell DARPA that it was all a hoax and then you're going to order all the records destroyed and you're going to forget it ever existed."

"I'm doing nothing of the sort. Listen, you little bitch, I'm the President of the United States and no one orders me around. Are you from the Templars? If so, I want you to know that I've been authorized to seize the head. The Grand Master has approved the United States priority in this matter. I'm sensitive to your claims, and we recognize your ability to use the artifact. We'll cooperate with you so long as the security interests of this country aren't put at risk. You will be granted access. I thought we had reached an agreement. Are you backing out on the deal?"

"I see," Sawyer said. "Be quiet for a minute."

She concentrated and the President sat at her desk in silence for several minutes. Sawyer turned to Mike.

"This is way more complicated than I thought. She really has a deal with the Templars. I had no idea that they even still existed. She doesn't even know who they are. The secretary of defense is involved, if you can imagine that. He doesn't know who they are, either. He's never seen his contact but he has a phone number. This is going to get ugly, Mike."

"It always is when you've got slimy bitches like her involved," Mike agreed.

Sawyer turned to the President. "You're going to arrange a meeting for me with the Secretary of Defense, then you're never going to mention my name again. You're going to call off the search and you're going to destroy the records and you're going to dismantle your eavesdropping program because it is violating civil liberties. Do you understand?"

"Yes," the President nodded. "I'm going to protect civil liberties. That's my job. The whole thing is a hoax and I'm going to be reporting to you on my progress or if I'm contacted regarding the hoax again. I'm going to fire everyone involved with the wiretapping scandal and I'm going to replace three of my cabinet members."

Sawyer stood. "Let's get out of here Mike. This woman makes my skin crawl. It feels like cockroaches have been running around in my mind."

The President's orders came too late to save the lives of two of the DARPA teams. They had stumbled across a satellite photo of a helicopter on Darby Island and attempted an amphibious landing. They ran into a buzz saw. The Brazilian mercenaries were ready and cut them to pieces on the beach. Twelve men died and their remains were fed to the sharks off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.

The remaining teams were pulled out and the official search for Baphomet was over.

*****

Although the official search was finished, the interest on the part of Gerald Ward was only beginning. The wiry Swiss businessman was puzzled. When the Templar Grand Master had been informed of the discovery of the artifact by his asset at DARPA, he had moved quickly to reacquire it. They had appeared to be on the point of success twice. Somehow the artifact had slipped through their grasp when the ham-handed DARPA agents had frightened the two researchers into flight. Then, for some reason, the American's had pulled the plug. He still couldn't understand what had happened there. The secretary of defense was a frightened man. The President, for some reason, now regarded the whole affair as a hoax and had ordered the operation terminated in no uncertain terms. The Americans were a bust and he knew from experience that the Swiss were hopeless. The nation lacked ambition, but he had hopes for the British.

He called his secretary in for instructions.