The Society of Orion: The Orion Codex (7 page)

Chapter Seventeen

Once he had locked the door to the bathroom, Banyon addressed Wolf with a question.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Father Bartholomew? You must have known he worked for the church.”

“Like Father Hector, I wanted you here,” Wolf explained. Banyon knew Wolf was sometimes very selfish and had unusual motives.

“So, both you and Father Hector are manipulating me. Is that right?”

“Yes,” the spirit replied in a sad tone. Banyon knew the spirit had done it before.

“Is Father Hector telling the truth?” he asked.

“It will take me ten to twelve earth days to answer that correctly,” the spirit replied. “But from what I can tell, he is a saintly person who doesn’t lie.”

“What about his paranoia about the Germans? Is it real?”

“From what I can gather, Carl Walther’s people now plan on following you into the jungle. Colt, these men are very evil. They have killed several people in just the last few days.”

“Why?”

“They are taking the houses of several local people who are next to the compound so the new men arriving have a place to stay. Since they control the police and military, the deaths are recorded as accidents or drug related.”

“Who are these new people?”

“They are all ex-patriates from many countries. They all have criminal records and needed to leave their old countries. They are all white supremacists.”

“We are definitely eliminating these guys,” Banyon snorted. “Did they also kill Carol and Kenny’s father?”

“He was about to file a report about them. They beheaded him and made it look like a cartel hit.”

“Damn it,” Banyon shouted out. After a few seconds of uncontrollable rage, Banyon asked, “do you have ideas on how to proceed?”

“Well, Maya did tell the one assassin that she was there for the Orion Codex. I think it would be the place to start.”

“Then that’s what we will do first. What’s going on at the German compound?”

Chapter Eighteen

When Banyon rushed into the old library, he found the place in an uproar. His team was busily checking guns and ammunition in preparation for a gun fight. There was look of grim determination on their faces. Father Hector was not there. The other monks were gone as well. Father Bartholomew sat with his head down and sweating at a library table. He appeared exhausted. Banyon already knew the message he brought. The Germans were on their way and wanted to kill Banyon and his team. It was retaliation for the unsuccessful ambush.

“The Germans are coming with ten armed men and they want to kill everyone in the compound, even the children,” Father Bartholomew exclaimed breathlessly. “We must evacuate before they get here. I don’t know what else to do,” he said and started to cry hysterically.

“We can fight,” Banyon replied with force. “That’s what we will do.”

“No need,” Father Hector announced as he entered the room looking confident and calm. “Mr. Banyon, may I speak to you privately in the hallway?”

Once they were outside the room the padre spoke. “I think it is a good time to go after the Orion Codex,” he said. “The compound would be left unguarded or lightly guarded at best.”

“But my team needs to protect you and the children,” Banyon roared.

“I will make sure the Germans never get here,” the monk replied. He held out an oval object for Banyon to see. “This is the Orion weapon called
Climate
. I’ll use a tornado to overturn their vehicles far from here. Some of them may die, but it should stop them.”

“What if it doesn’t?” Banyon wasn’t sure how the monk could control a tornado.

“In that case, I’ll just have to zap them with a little lightning from the
Zeus
weapon. It’s a shame they are not coming by water though. Then I could use the
Water-Wall
weapon and drown them in a giant wave,” he said as casually as if he was picking out vegetables for a soup.

“And you always have the
Covers
weapon if you need it,” Banyon added.

“I’ve done this before,” the monk said. “We will be safe.”

“Hmm,” Banyon said as he considered the monks plan. “And we can go to the compound and collect the codex. Sounds good to me, but I’m going to leave some of my people here, just in case.”

“Here take this,” the monk said and handed Banyon a ring. But it was not a normal ring, it was huge.

“What does it do?”

“This weapon is called
Shield
. Whoever is wearing it need only to spin it one hundred and eighty degrees. A clear force field will immediately envelop the wearer. Nothing can penetrate the force field and they can simply walk away.”

“That’s incredible,” Banyon responded. “But it is too big to fit on any of our fingers.”

“You have several women who could wear it as a bracelet,” the monk replied. “We have used it before.”

“You are an interesting man,” Banyon muttered.

“Now hurry,” the monk ordered.

“I’ll leave the Coles, Steve and Mandy here,” Banyon told the monk.

“I’m heading to the belfry for a better view. It will be dawn soon,” the monk replied as he hurried down the hallway.

Chapter Nineteen

“How long before we reach the Salesian mission?” Carl Walther demanded. He sat next to the driver of the pickup truck containing five of his men. A second truck followed with the rest of his troops.

“Just over the ridge,” his man replied. “We’ll be in the open meadow, but only a one minute away from the front door, especially at this speed.”

“Good,” Carl replied evilly. “I want to surprise them.” He went back to cleaning his weapon.

As they passed over the ridge, the driver shouted. “Look at those angry looking clouds over the mission. They look very menacing.”

Carl Walther looked up. “Clouds of doom for the people in that mission compound,” he said and laughed insanely. Then he went back to cleaning his gun.

“Something is happening,” the driver suddenly screamed and attempted to brake. “Son-of-a-bitch, it’s a tornado and it’s heading right for us.”

“We don’t get tornados here,” Walther told the driver just as the high winds slammed into the two trucks.

Chapter Twenty

About ten miles away from the mission, Banyon, Loni and Maya sat in the Hummer at the front edge of the Walther compound. Banyon asked Wolf if the way was clear. The spirit told him there were two armed guards outside in the back of the house drinking beer. Banyon decided to go in on foot. Loni held one of the handguns and Banyon toted a machine gun.

There had been a disagreement about who would go inside the building and grab the Orion Codex. Loni was usually the one who snuck into buildings, but Maya reasoned that Loni might not recognize the codex and argued that she should go. Banyon had settled the argument for them by noting that the ring fit Maya’s wrist better even though it didn’t.

***

When they were near the front door, they crouched behind a bush on the sparse landscape. Banyon handed out earpieces and told them the plan.

“Loni and I will position ourselves on each side of the door in case there is trouble. Maya, once you are inside don’t hesitate. Father Bartholomew said the codex is on a table in the corner of the dining room. Once you grab it, turn the ring and get out of there.”

“I’ll let you know when I’m coming out so you can start running,” Maya told them. “I may have to turn off the weapon to run though.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Loni said impatiently.

***

As soon as Maya entered the house she realized that it was very dark inside. There was just some weak light coming from a hallway which led to the back of the house. The front area was completely dark. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness while moving to the center of the entranceway. She knew the room she was looking for was on her left, but the darkness seemed impenetrable. She had not brought a flashlight.

Soon she spotted a light switch and was debating whether or not she should turn it on when a door at the edge of the hallway flew open and a man carrying a machine gun stepped out.

He had his head down while attempting to stuff his manhood back into his pants as he left the bathroom. Maya froze in place. The man stood facing her as he completed his task. When he raised his head he saw her lovely silhouette a few feet in front of him. He reacted immediately.

“Intruder,” he screamed in German alerting the other guard that someone was in the house.

Maya quickly stepped forward and kicked the man in his groin. He bent over in pain. Maya reached for the light switch and turned it on. She ran into the dining room area. She spied the codex and rushed for it. With horror she realized the man had recovered and had managed to grab her arm — just as she latched onto the large codex. She swung the heavy book and hit him in the head, stunning him for long enough for her to turn the ring.

A clear oval-shaped bubble suddenly engulfed Maya and the codex. It had appeared so fast that the man attacking her lost his hand. He had been reaching for Maya when the shield severed his arm up to the elbow. It bounced around in the bottom of the shield. Maya was horrified and screamed.

“Open the door,” she yelled into the earpiece once she recovered, but quickly realized the shield also prevented any sound from entering — or leaving. Banyon could not hear her.

Her next terrifying thought was;
how will I open the door to get out of here?

She was a foot from the front door when the other armed guard entered the room and began firing his machine gun at her. The bullets just bounced off of the shield like rain. The first man, despite a mortal wound, was also firing his machine gun.

She immediately changed course and headed back to the dining room knowing Banyon and Loni would hear the shooting and come through the door firing.

Maya backed into a corner and stood there as bullets pinged off the shield. Her diversion worked. The front door flew open and Loni stepped into the hallway. Her first shot caught the shooter square in the forehead. Her second shot hit the man with the severed arm in the chest. It was suddenly very quiet in the building.

Maya turned the ring and shouted, “Let’s get the hell out of here.” As she sprinted towards the door, the severed arm clunked to the floor.

***

A half hour later, Carl Walther and his three remaining men entered the compound and noticed the front door was open. They had survived the tornado and had managed to turn one of the trucks upright and decided their attack was over.

Walther’s entered the building and after a few seconds, he screamed. “Banyon!”

Chapter Twenty-One

When Colton Banyon, Loni and Maya returned to the Salesian mission, they found only Father Hector was still awake. The rest of the people, including his team had gone to bed. He handed the monk the codex and told him to place it in the vault for now.

“You need to get some sleep,” Father Hector said. “I will stand guard until you wake up.”

“Why is everyone sleeping?” Loni asked.

“Because you will need the rest,” the monk evasively replied.

Banyon suddenly felt there was another plan afoot by the devious monk. “Why?” He asked.

“Because tomorrow afternoon you are leaving for the jungles,” the old man replied. “To find the Tayos caves.”

“Why so soon?” Maya asked.

“Because I sent Father Bartholomew back to the German compound with a message that you were heading out tomorrow,” the old monk replied.

Banyon knew from talking to Wolf on the way back that Carl Walther was still alive and had revenge on his mind.

“What the hell?” Loni exclaimed with anger. “If he catches us in the jungle we will have to fight and we only have two machine guns, a sniper rifle and two hand guns. He might bring twenty armed men. We’ll all die.”

“Actually, I expect he will have thirty armed men,” the monk responded.

“Have you
lost
your mind?” Banyon shouted in anger.

“Not at all,” the monk uttered indignantly. “We must eliminate all the German supremacists. It is safest to do that in the jungle otherwise no one is safe in Ecuador.”

“But it is not safe for us,” Loni spat back.

“You will be perfectly safe as long as you follow my plan.”

“Your plan? What plan?” Banyon roared.

The monk ignored Banyon’s rant. Instead he pulled a talisman from his pocket and offered it to Banyon. “This is another Orion weapon that I possess. It is named
Call.
He then went on to explain his plan.

Chapter Twenty-Two

It was well after noon when Colton Banyon finally woke up. He looked around the small room and noticed that all the bunk beds were empty. They were freshly made up with clean sheets.
Was I so tired I didn’t even hear them get up?

He bolted out of bed and quickly realized he was naked except for his underwear. His clothes were laid out on the floor all cleaned and pressed.
Was I drugged?

He quickly dressed and went off to find his team. He found them outside the front of the building loading the Hummer. There were provisions, ropes, tents and everything else they needed to head into the jungle in search of the Tayos caves. Loni saw him and ran over.

“You’re finally up sleepy head,” She grinned and hugged him tightly.

“What’s going on?” He asked in a groggy voice.

“We’re getting ready to leave. Isn’t it exciting? The monks went into town early this morning and bought all the things we’ll need for our trip,” she said like they were going on vacation.

“The monks are helping?” Banyon uttered.

“Look, I even have a new satchel to carry the Orion weapons.” She stood back and showed off a large brown leather purse. It hung from her small waist. A long belt loped over her shoulder to hold it in place. “Maya has one too for the Orion Codex.”

“Does the rest of the team know where we are going and why?”

“Of course,” she replied. “Father Hector met with us and gave us precise directions a little while ago. He said he couldn’t wait for you to get up.”

“Does the team know about the Germans and the danger we face in the jungle?” Banyon was in total confusion. It seemed like Father Hector was taking control of his team.

“Colt, he explained his plan to us last night. Don’t you remember?” Loni said sweetly.

“I remember, but then I think the wine made me sleepy,” he replied while he thought about it.

“Yeah, you fell asleep, we practically had to carry you to bed,” Loni explained. “Anyway, we’re almost ready to go. Do you want to get something to eat first? The monks have set up a buffet in the kitchen.”

On the way to the kitchen, Banyon stopped off at the bathroom. It was deserted.

“Wolf, was I drugged last night?”

“No, you were just tired,” the spirit replied.

“Are the Germans heading for the jungles? And do they intend to try to kill us?”

“Yes,” the spirit said. “But you will have a three hour head start and will be able to set up your ambush.”

“Ambush? What ambush?”

“The one to stop the Germans, of course,” Wolf answered. “Father Hector went over it last night. Don’t you remember, or were you already asleep?”

“Can you fill me in?” Banyon asked.

“Well, of course,” Wolf said. He then told Banyon about the plan.

“What do you think about Father Hector’s plan?”

“The society has used the
Call
weapon with excellent results in the past, so I am confident it will work.”

“What are you talking about?” Banyon asked in bewilderment.

“It happened in 1848 in Salt Lake City,” Wolf responded. “And the reason Neil Armstrong visited Ecuador in 1976.”

Before Banyon could ask another question, the door to the bathroom flew open and several children came bustling into the room. Banyon decided to question Wolf later and left the room.