The Third Key (GUARDING THE LIGHT) (15 page)

“G
ot it,
but it’s been closed for a while
. I have to dig up and remove the stone.
Send down
Mic
hael and two
mor
e guys
as soon they arrive.
”

“
I’m on it. They’re on their way”, Gunnar replied.

However, the men also had to be cautious on the zigzag corridor, so when they arrived,
Jason
was already half-
way
done
.
Tanto
knives are short and durable, perfect in these situations
.
However, Jason was grateful for the
strong flashlight
s
and full gear
that the men carried
for
this sort of work
.
The only
problem were
the echoes.

“Keep your voice
and movements
down,
boys.”
Jason
whispered
. “This
would be
faster
with C4 but we need
t
o keep quiet
.
”

After
twenty minutes,
four
men
were able to remove big
piece
s
of stone
,
one by one. A ti
ny passage
open
ed
, just enough to pass
through
.

As
they moved closer to
the
Altar Room,
Michael
handed
Jason
a hard black bag.
Jason
felt
almost euphoric
– he knew that
his chance
s
of defeating
Quabil
had
j
ust
grown
stronger
.
He couldn’t help himself; he
had to take a look. Michael brought exactly what he
wanted
him
to bring. No shotguns, no Scorpios or Desert Eagles – on
ly a pair of butterfly swords. The l
aser
-
sharp
swords
had blades
as
long
a
s
his
forearm
. With black-and-red engraving
on
the handle contrasting with the silver-
blue
glow of
the blades, they gleamed with power
even to
the inexperienced eye
.
Anyone
experienced in the
art of c
lose combat knew that in
the
hands of
a
master,
these weapons were deadly
.
They move faster and are more
dangerous
than
Ja
panese Katana sword
s,
or any other
type of
edged weapon
.
O
ne of
t
he greatest
living
masters
of
the
art of the Butterfly Sword
smiled in an underground corridor
,
pleased
to be r
eunited
with his dear
friends.

The s
mall g
roup
of warriors
continued
moving towards the Ritual Room
following Gunnar’s directions
. Just before the entrance,
there was a
bigger corridor that seemed
brighter
and more airy
. Just when they
stepped in
, they heard
what they had feared -
voices! They stopped and
took
offensive positions, ready to attack the enemy
.

Voices
and steps were getting closer.
Jason
signaled
the ‘ready 3, 2, 1’ gesture
with one hand, holding a Butterfly sword in the other hand. The o
thers had
Glocks
, Scorpios and Eagle Deserts ready
in their hands
.
All eyes
waited for the
“Go!”
sign,
but
Jason
signaled
‘
stand down
’
.
The men were confused,
but
soon
Michael and
others
could
see t
he reason
– a group
with a
fat
priest and three monks
passed by, carrying
boxes with wine bottles. They couldn’t know that
their sure
deaths
had been
second
s
away.

As
the footsteps faded into the distance, the warriors quickly entered the
abandoned
room
.
Everything
inside the Ritual Room was covered by dust, mold and
heaps of old objects – the A
ltar
was invisible through the
mess
.
After
fighting
with dust and spider web
s
they located i
t, just where it should be – in the
south-east
corner of the
room, directly
below
the church.
The
Alt
ar had the unusual shape of the
Kabbalistic
Tree of Life
carved in the
middle
.
They
all thought the same thing:
“we are just minutes away from finding th
e
Third Key
”
.

Now,
it was only a question of time, a very
short time
. They were still very careful, but
Quabil
was obviously not here
,
and they had to move fast before he got near the Temple of
Tyn
.

Part 6

St. Peter's-on-the-Wall

XIX.

Moments
after
the
dying man
breathed out
the location,
Quabil
was moving
.
Time was not his only advantage -
demons possessed data research technology
hundreds
of times faster
than humans
.
He knew
exactly where to go,
shortly
after the
location was revealed
.
Quabil
had been chosen especially for his
extremely ‘
action oriented
’
nature
.
These qualities could have been used for good, but with his black and demonic personality and mindset, they could not be much appreciated by
humans
with
a heart
.

A
fter
he fought
Jason
the first time,
Quabil
had been
killed
;
but he was also ‘resurre
cted’
and electronically enhanced into a near cyborg
by topnotch scientists within t
he Demonic Alliance
.
They turned him i
nto
a living killing
machine
and empowered him with black magic
–
to a much higher level
than ever before
.
This time,
he didn’t need a team
.
He
could easily kill
hundreds of humans.
But that was not the plan for now.
Quabil
was sent
to
quickly move in and out,
opening the Diamond Gate for the army of demons that
were
ready, waiting
to pour in through the gap
.
Once he had the
Third
Key
,
his mission
would be over…and so would everyone else’s.

The plane shuddered upon landing at the
s
mall private
airport.
It was eerily still
,
and
everything worked as planned
.
Just 10 minutes from
landing
they
were
packed with
two cars
were heading towards their goal.
Quabil
had
arranged
a
second
Range
Rover
filled with equipment and we
apons, just in case – that was the name of this game – before
the
Diamond Gate
opened. He still had
to keep
a low profile -
no
unnecessary exposure
.
It was an annoyance, but at the end of the
day,
all was going well
.
He was in possession of two Keys and only
the
Third Key
separated
him fro
m the ultimate goal.

From the airport,
the
d
rive to St. Peter's-on-the-Wall at
Bradwell
-on-Sea lasted only 40 minutes.
The r
oads in this part of Essex
were lovely,
and driving
was
a smooth experience.
This
St. Peter's-on-the-Wall
was
one of the oldest chu
rches in this part of the
world
, but
Quabil
was only interested in his goal
:

“We are near the
Third
Key,
the
last that separate
s
us from the utmost success and glory.
Let’s
keep
this clean and
simple. The k
ey is below the altar –
let’s
get it
. I will do the rest
”.

Both cars parked
on the side
of
the road, in front of the St. Peter’s
church
parking lot. Taking
his
two assistants,
Quabil
headed straight
towards the main gate
while
the
t
hird
man
guarded the
Range Rover
s
.
Quabil
didn’t need a team to tell him how to get
where he
wanted to go
; his right brain
implant easily
allowed him
to connect
to
any database,
Internet
network
or
device
.
He sometimes gave a vacant
impression of no presence – while in fact he was just
searching
the screen
of
whatever data he
was analyzing at
the moment.
He hacked into and set off the alarm system of
St. Peter’s complex,
and the nearby
church
and ministry school.

The s
irens
and lights
went off
. While
panicking
people began to clear the area
,
Quabil
and
his killers
entered the main
church hall where
the
Altar
was easy to find. As they
began searching
,
a
security guard with
a reddish face and grey hair
appeared in front of them,
trying to clear the church
.
W
ithout warning
,
h
e was killed faster
than
thought
.