The Society of Orion: The Orion Codex (3 page)

Chapter Six

Banyon now asked the most important question. “How did you meet the head of the society in Ecuador?”

Kenny explained. “Our father was a career diplomat with the United States government. He was stationed in Quito, Ecuador for many years. Our mother died ten years ago so we lived with him near the embassy there for the last ten years. His passion was finding the Tayos caves and we spent much of our childhood roaming the jungles of Ecuador looking for them. The caves are our passion too.”

Carol continued. “When he died last year, we met the head of the society at our father’s funeral. He told us he could help us with our quest, but we needed to do some work for him first.”

“So
he
sent you to Poland,” Loni said.

“Yes,” Kenny replied.

“Can you describe him?” Banyon asked.

“At the funeral, he appeared to be an old, very poor priest,” Kenny noted. “He stood maybe five feet tall. His frock was thread bare and the soles of his shoes had holes in them. He appeared to be a mestizo, someone of mixed blood. About seventy percent of the people of Ecuador are mestizo.”

“Did he say where he was from?” Maya asked.

“He said he was a priest who worked for the poor in Cuenca in the southern Ecuador, but we didn’t believe him. I think it was a disguise,” Carol responded.

“But you worked for him anyway. Why?” Loni asked.

“Not at first,” Carol said. “But he sent us a formal invitation to come to Cuenca. We were told to go to a school run by the Catholic Church. There two monks blindfolded us and took us for a ride. When they took the blindfolds off we were standing in a room which was filled with gold and artifacts. He told us it was only a portion of what had been recovered from the Tayos caves. He said he would allow us to recover some of the treasure if we helped him.”

“Sounds like an offer which was hard to pass up,” Loni agreed.

“Yes,” Kenny continued. “He then told us about The Society of Orion. He said he was the head of the Ecuador chapter, but needed help in Poland. He couldn’t go there because he was too ethnic and too old. He didn’t explain that the weapons worked and were usable. We found that out in Poland. He didn’t lie to us, but omitted a lot of useful information.”

“So then you agreed to help him, right?” Maya asked.

“He gave us a handful of gold coins to sell to finance our trip and promised to give us the directions to the caves when we completed our mission.”

“Okay,” Banyon uttered. “But what was his name?”

“He said his name was Father Pedro. Pedro is a common name in Ecuador though,” Carol said.

“We have told you everything. Can we go now?” Kenny whined.

“No,” Banyon replied. “Mandy, I need to talk to you outside the room.”

***

“Gas up the jet and tell the pilots we are going to the nearest airport to Cuenca, Ecuador. Have them get enough provisions for seven people,” Banyon ordered.

“But there are only five of us,” she replied.

“We’re taking the kids with us. Also draw some weapons from the armory.”

“When will we leave?”

“In about two hours.”

Mandy scampered off to get things started.

***

When Banyon returned to the room he found the rest of the team in a deep discussion with the Cole siblings.

“What kind of artifacts did you see in the room?” Maya the archeologist pressed them.

“There were paintings piled almost to the ceiling in the room,” Carol responded. “We saw many household items made from gold which looked European as well. There were also a number of strange looking gold pieces and statues. Some had bird and animal heads.”

“Colt!” Maya howled as she turned toward him. “What they are describing could be Hitler’s lost treasure. We know that many Nazis escaped to South America with loot.”

“Well, there is a large German population in Cuenca,” Kenny agreed.

Banyon could feel the excitement grow in the room. Everyone sensed the thrill of a treasure hunt. “We’re leaving for Ecuador in two hours,” he stated.

“Good, then we can go,” Kenny said as he started to get up.

“Not so fast,” Banyon announced.

“Why, we’ve told you everything,” he blustered.

“Because Father Pedro sent us an invitation just like the one you got. It was hidden in the memory stick you brought. We’re going to look for the Tayos cave and also find out what the good padre wants from us.”

“We can’t afford a trip to Ecuador,” Carol wailed.

“You’re going on the company payroll,” Banyon announced “We’ll split any artifacts that we find as well. Is that agreeable?”

“That sounds like
another
offer we can’t refuse,” Kenny said brightly and sat back down with a smile.

“But I have nothing to wear,” Loni shrieked. “I can’t go in this beautiful dress.”

Chapter Seven

Banyon returned to his office. He was finally alone. He had sent Loni and Maya home to change and to pick up some clothes. Mandy, Steve and Banyon all kept an emergency travel bag in the office in case they were called away in a hurry.

Mandy was downstairs at reception making all the arrangements for the trip and Steve had gone with the Cole siblings to collect their belongings at the cheap motel where they were staying. Everyone was due back in an hour.

Banyon was kind of excited about the upcoming adventure, but had many concerns and worries on his mind. Especially since they had just bought the company
that day
and now everyone was going out of town. Banyon and the Patel clan had invested almost all of their savings to buy the firm.

He also worried that the Cole children knew more than they were admitting about Banyon and his team.
Do we need to “Freud-a-size” them?
Previne and Heather were both not available to make the Coles’ forget — if that was needed. The team would also not have anyone headed to Ecuador who could make people there forget. This was a big risk for them. They relied on “Freud-a-sizing” to keep their secrets. It was a hypnotic process developed by Sigmund Freud, but never published because Freud was afraid it would not be used for good.

Then there was The Society of Orion. He wondered what they really knew about each other and him.
Did they communicate? Are they spying on us? Would they attempt to recover their weapons?
There were over a hundred weapons still out there and any of them could be used against his team.

He knew the Orion Codex was the actual written history of all the weapons and in the wrong hands it could be a huge problem. Anyone could make the weapons work.

Finally, he wondered about the Tayos caves.
Could all this be a trap?
Many people had searched the huge caves and now the Coles said they were all looking in the wrong caves.

***

Once Banyon identified the issues, he started to address them. His first call was to Heather Vance. He told her to drop what she was doing and return to Chicago to keep the office going while he was gone. Heather immediately agreed and said she would be in the office within two hours. Her plane for Washington D.C. hadn’t left yet.

He then decided to talk to Wolf. Wolf was a spirit who was tied to Banyon by a curse. He could see anything in real time and could follow history back in time. All he needed was a name, a place, and a time to start. Banyon had to ask questions out loud and could not ask about the future. At first Banyon was frightened of him, but Wolf had turned into a valuable asset and Banyon’s deepest secret.

“Wolf, are you there?” he said in a whisper.

“I’m here my boy,” the old voice replied in his head. “This looks like a splendid adventure.”

Banyon wondered why Wolf had said that. Wolf sometimes told Banyon what he wanted him to hear and not what Banyon asked. Banyon never knew why.

“Are the Coles who they claim to be?”

“Yes, I was able to check their background. Their father was obsessed with the Tayos caves. They are who they say they are,” the spirit replied.

“Did you find the Orion Codex yet?” Banyon was sure he needed to find the book and Wolf would have already been working on its location.

“I don’t have the necessary information to locate it,” Wolf answered sadly. “I have no place to start my research.”

Banyon wondered what that meant. “Haven’t you found the monk Father Pedro? If you have located him, you should be able to back-track to the codex.”

“There’s
no
Father Pedro in Cuenca,” the spirit explained. Banyon was not surprised by the statement, but he was puzzled.

“Did you follow the history of the Coles? They said they met him at their father’s funeral and they also met him in a room filled with artifacts,” Banyon said.

“They did meet a monk at the funeral, but as soon as he left, his energy trail disappeared. Also, I was able to follow the Coles to a church in Cuenca, but then they disappeared for several hours. This has never happened before.”

“I’ll bet he is using one of the Orion weapons to somehow cloak his movements. Can you verify that?”

“Like I said, this has never happened before. Something caused the disturbance in the energy history. I assume it was a weapon.”

“What about the memory stick sent to the Coles? Can you back-track from that?”

“Actually, the memory stick was bought at a local electronics store. Carol Cole uploaded an attachment from an email on her laptop. That is what they brought to Edgar.”

“And you can’t track emails, right?”

“I cannot.”

“So we are heading to Ecuador without any good information. Is that correct?”

“So far, I would say
yes
.”

***

Once Banyon finished his conversation with Wolf, he immediately placed a call to Timmy. The geek swept into his office a minute later. As usual he was dressed in jeans and a pull-over shirt. He was tall, lanky, and under twenty-five years old. Developing his social skills was one of Banyon’s goals. Timmy loved to look at women from a voyeur’s point of view. He would mentally undress them as he stared.

“What can I do for the great god called dude,” Timmy said as he approached Banyon’s desk. He bowed like a servant would.

“Timmy,” Banyon opened. “In a few minutes I’m going to give you a laptop computer. I want you to find out where the email with the information for the memory stick came from.”

“Piece of cake,” Timmy replied.

“Also, I want you to do some research. I want to know everything you can find out about a city called Cuenca, Ecuador, the Tayos caves, and rumors about hidden treasure there.”

“It’ll take me a couple of hours,” he replied professionally.

“Call me on the phone on the jet. We are headed for Cuenca in less than an hour.”

“Is this for extra pay?” Timmy asked hopefully.

Before Banyon could answer, Loni and Maya came through the office door dressed in their treasure hunting outfits and pulling small suitcases. Both women were attired in all-black body-hugging leotards and black running shoes. Their long hair was loose and cascaded down their backs. They wore dark sunglasses.

“Hi, Timmy,” Loni gushed.

Timmy the geek lost his train of thought. He turned and rushed out the door.

Part Two

Ecuador

Chapter Eight

An hour later, the seven travelers met in the front reception area of Dewey & Beatem. Mandy was now dressed in the same black leotards as Loni and Maya. The difference was that she wore tan cargo shorts over the leotards and a tan safari shirt. She told Loni that she didn’t want the men looking at her butt.

Banyon and Steve had changed to light colored pants and golf shirts. The Coles were dressed the same. Their suitcases and weapons cases were piled up near the door.

“Give me your laptop,” Banyon said to Carol Cole. She was holding it loosely by her side.

“Why? It has all my important stuff on it,” she protested.

“I want to track where the email containing the directions came from,” Banyon replied and held out his hand.

“No, I need it,” Carol countered and clutched the laptop close to her chest.

“You’ll get the laptop back in a few seconds,” Timmy said as he entered the lobby. He reached out his hand for the device.

“Well…hello handsome,” Carol purred and slid over to the geek. She ceremoniously presented the laptop while bowing. She then batted her long eyelashes.

“Ah,” Timmy said jovially. “Finally I have met someone who appreciates the power of the world’s best hacker.”

“Well, I’m kind of a geek too,” she replied shyly.

“You ever play anything on the internet?” Timmy quickly asked.

“Game of War,” she replied.

“That’s my favorite too,” Timmy gushed. “What’s your handle?”

“Enough,” Banyon demanded. He and the rest of the team stood with their mouths open. They had never seen Timmy connect with a woman before. “Timmy will you just retrieve the data from the machine,” Banyon said strongly.

“We’re done,” Timmy said and handed the laptop back to a now blushing Carol. He showed the memory stick in his hand. “I downloaded everything I needed from her hard drive. I can work from that.”

“Everything?” Carol asked with a mischievous smile. “Pictures too?”

“I’ll be able to see everything,” Timmy responded and also smiled. Banyon was pretty sure there were some provocative pictures of Carol on the hard drive and she wanted Timmy to find them.

“Oh, for Christ sakes, let’s get out of here before they decide to become Facebook friends,” Steve uttered and began picking up bags.