Stone of Fire: An ARKANE Thriller (Book 1)

Chapter 28

Tel Aviv, Israel.
 May 24, 1.30pm

      Back on the plane, Morgan sat with the laptop roaming the ARKANE search engine. She was hunting for the myths of Simon the Zealot, the last Apostle who held a Pentecost stone. Jake had told her that the ARKANE search engine was a powerful tool linked to the secret archives of the world’s knowledge. ARKANE was trying to digitize the remaining hidden scriptures of the world so they could be indexed and analyzed. They even had a clandestine team in the Vatican who were cataloguing the secret archives there. This team photographed texts with hidden cameras and the images were archived at the London base. Morgan was absorbed in knowledge suppressed for millennia, hidden as dangerous and seditious and she wanted to lose herself in this esoteric labyrinth. Every document she found was some new temptation to read and become immersed in. For an addict of learning, this was a powerful drug and she felt the pull of desire to dive deeper.
     Martin Klein had written algorithms to tag items with keywords for easier relational search. He was also working on a huge map of all the different faiths and traditions, linking common elements and trying to track the spread of ideas across the world. Jake had told Morgan that Director Marietti had a vision of establishing some kind of evolutionary religious psychology, a grand scale spread of ideas demonstrating how similar the faiths were instead of how divisive. ARKANE had published a number of papers from the study in mainstream journals. Unfortunately, most of the knowledge they had access to had been gained by less than legal means, so much of the ground breaking work could not yet be published. But the ARKANE network was growing, with scholars interested from all fields so this database was surely the best place in the world to search for a missing relic.
     Morgan sat back in her chair, rubbing the base of her neck and rolling her shoulders. They had been at it for hours now, trying to track the path of Simon the Zealot across the early world of the early first century. They couldn’t leave Tel Aviv until they knew the next destination. Time was running out to find the final stone before Pentecost, but still they sat in a hangar waiting.
     “No wonder Everett’s father couldn’t work out where the stone might be,” Morgan said with annoyance. “This guy went everywhere. His notebooks trace the same possibilities we’ve found, but there’s nothing conclusive on where Simon might have ended up.”
     Jake looked up from his laptop, where he was reading Martin’s findings on the physical properties of the stones. He had extrapolated the effect of the stones when they were together based on the miracles of Varanasi and modeled the impact if they were somehow activated together.
     “So what have you found so far?”
     “There are so many accounts but Simon the Zealot was definitely a great traveler. He is said to have gone into Egypt and across North Africa to Carthage, then on to Britain before heading back East and being martyred in Persia. He was killed by being sawn in half, hence the saw he is often shown with in hagiography. One of his arms ended up as a relic in a church in Cologne, Germany but there are possible sites for his body as far away as England, Egypt or Tunisia in North Africa, and even back in Iran. How do we even know where to start?”
     Jake leaned over to look at the map on the screen.
     “We left this one for last because it’s the most difficult to find. We knew that,” he said with encouragement. “Just try to narrow down the options.”
     “But we don’t have time to just sit around here.” Morgan said. “I have to check in with David soon, and he’ll go crazy if we don’t know where we’re headed next.”
     She jumped up, nervous energy making her pace the length of the highly equipped cabin.
     “I need Ben’s help,” she said. “The Blackfriars have access to so much history and tradition and maybe ARKANE doesn’t have everything in the database. Ben will be able to research at the same time as us and hopefully turn up some new information. He’s a walking encyclopedia of the early Church, so he might be able to shed some new light on the options.”
     Jake hesitated as he knew Marietti had some history with Father Ben. He had warned Jake to stay away from him as much as possible and keep him in the dark about their journey. But the first priority of the mission was to find the stones, so he nodded.
     “There’s Skype installed on the laptop. Go ahead.”
     Morgan turned to the monitor, put on her headphones and skyped Ben. Technology was welcomed at Blackfriars and Ben was often in his study. He was there when she called and Morgan smiled to see his old face on the tiny screen. He embraced new technologies as much as he loved the crumbling old books of the Bodleian Library. His face was delighted at first but then creased into a frown.
     “Morgan, where have you been? I’ve been so worried about you. The police are still investigating the murders here, calling them a terrorist attack on a religious institution. I’ve kept your name out of it so far, but those men are still after you.”
     “I’m fine, Ben,” Morgan smiled. “Really. I’m sorry to have been out of touch. It’s been a whirlwind few days. We’ve found several more of the stones but I can’t tell you much right now. There’s no time. We only have a few days left and I need your help with a problem I can’t seem to solve.”
     “Of course, what do you need?”
     “I need to know about Simon the Zealot, where he went or may have ended up, and anything you can find on his relics.” Ben nodded in the little video screen, “and I need it soon.”
     He looked directly into the camera.
     “I understand the haste, Morgan. You’ll be desperately worried about Faye and Gemma.”
     “It’s not just that. Our deadline is the feast of Pentecost itself when the comet will be at its zenith. Everett wants to re-enact the fiery event and call down the power of the stones.”
     Ben raised one shaggy eyebrow.
     “Pentecost is a grand myth, Morgan. It is a metaphor for the might of the Holy Spirit empowering the church through the Apostolic tradition. Why does he think the power of the stones is actual truth?”
Morgan glanced over at Jake, aware that her own doubts were crumbling under the weight of the evidence showing the possibility of a latent power.
     “Something real happened at Varanasi,” she continued. “But whatever the truth really is, I need to take the remaining stones to him by Pentecost in order to have Faye and Gemma returned safely and I have to go along with what he wants for now. But this last stone seems to be the hardest one to find.”
     “Of course,” Ben said. “I’ll head to the library now. There is knowledge here that even ARKANE doesn’t know about. I’ll get back to you with what I find as soon as I can. ”