Stone of Fire: An ARKANE Thriller (Book 1)

Chapter 36

Biosphere 2, Oracle, Arizona, USA
 May 27, Pentecost Sunday, 6.35pm

      Faye stood by the sink in the Biosphere pod, peeling carrots for dinner. She had kept up a routine of domestic chores to try and behave normally for Gemma, who was playing by the table on the slate-grey carpet. They had been inside the human habitat of the Biosphere for several days now and had not seen anyone since the airlock was closed on them. But it was comfortable enough and there were provisions for a few days, plus books and DVDs for Gemma so she was entertained. They had not been treated badly and were mainly ignored so it could be a lot worse. Since the trip out to the kiln Faye hadn’t even seen Everett, for which she was grateful. After that horrific experience she had clung to Gemma, desperate to get her to safety but not seeing any way to escape. Then they were transported here and locked in. Faye was still unsure why they were here, but she held out hope that Morgan was coming to find them. Still, in moments of weakness, the face of the burning man from the kiln haunted her and the flames of memory licked her skin. She shivered. Knowing what this man was capable of, she didn’t think it could be a happy ending.
    When they’d thrown them in here the guards had said it would be over soon. She had been tense at first, waiting for the noise of the door opening, the laugh of the bully threatening her. She had kept Gemma close, not letting her out of her sight, barely sleeping for fear of what would come next. But after several days with nothing happening, she tried to relax and treat this as an adventure for Gemma to keep her calm. The whole experience seemed to alternate between long periods of boredom and sharp visceral terror. Then door slammed open and all her fears were realized.
    Faye dropped the vegetables in the sink and snatched Gemma into her arms, holding her close. Two men stood at the door, guns at their belts.
     “It’s time to go. You won’t need anything, just you and the girl.” They indicated the door. “Get moving. It’s time, and he’s waiting for you.”
     Gemma whimpered, sensing her mother’s fear. She was almost too heavy to carry now so Faye grasped her hand tightly, walking between the guards into the main dome of the Biosphere. They stumbled through the rainforest section and up to a platform at the highest point, overlooking the mesa, the ocean and out through the glass onto the plain. Up on the top platform, she gasped in horror.
     Joseph Everett was putting the finishing touches to a high funerary pyre. Wood was stacked in a rectangle with a bed of thinner logs on top, ropes laid ready to tie someone down. Another man sat in a wheelchair to the side. He was a pale, thin version of the man who had abducted them. Everett beckoned her over.
     “Come, come. See my wonderful creation. It has wood from all kinds of holy places. I wanted to make a perfect offering to God on this day of healing and creation, through destruction of course.”
     Faye whispered, “What do you want from me? What are you going to do with my daughter?”
     He gestured at the pyre.
     “Surely that’s obvious. It will be like suttee, the ancient Indian custom of immolating yourself on the husband’s funerary pyre. Of course, your dear husband is not here, but it doesn’t matter. I need a final sacrifice for the stones as we call down the power of Pentecost. It will amplify the power of the stones.”
     He turned and pointed at the wheelchair bound man, who stared vacantly into the distance, untethered to this world.
     “This is my brother, Michael. He’s going to be healed today and your sacrifice is the catalyst I need to bring the power down to earth.”
     “No!” Faye cried, pulling Gemma into her arms. She tried to turn and run, but the men grabbed her and held her fast. “Just let Gemma go, then. Please. I’m begging you. She’s only a baby.”
     “I might let her go if your sister shows up and you go quietly. A sacrifice of twins must surely be the most fitting, since we are twin brothers. I shall consider it, but time is running out.”
     He motioned to the men. One tore Gemma from Faye’s arms, and the little girl started screaming, reaching out to her mother. Faye tried desperately to get to her until a man held a cloth over the child’s mouth and she passed out. Faye stopped struggling then, surprising the men who held her. She seemed strangely calm as she spoke.
     “You’re wrong about this sacrifice and the stones. There’s nothing in what you speak of in the Bible that relates to the true Pentecost. There’s no human sacrifice in the Christian tradition. There’s no power except from God himself.”
     “Ah, that’s where you’re wrong” Joseph said, his own stone hanging on his chest. “The stones are made from a unique radioactive rock that resonates with the Resurgam comet. It’s beyond our knowledge whether they were originally empowered by the death or resurrection of Jesus, but the healing powers of the Apostles came from these stones. The Pentecost fire was forged from the stones, the collective power of the twelve being in one place at the same time but they were split when the Apostles left Jerusalem and today, for the first time in history, they will be together again.”
     A radio crackled, and a man made a sign to Joseph.
     “Excellent, it seems your sister is here. Just in time. We only have a few hours left of Pentecost, the fiftieth day. And she is alone, just as I asked.”
     Faye sagged then, collapsing to the ground. If Morgan was alone, then it was over and they would all die tonight. Joseph indicated the pyre, and the men hoisted her up onto it, tying her hands to the heavy logs. She screamed then, afraid to die this way. From the end of the huge dome, she heard Morgan’s voice calling her name.

***

    Morgan had let the men hustle her into the building and then she heard the screams of her sister. She shouted, “Faye” before one of the men backhanded her into silence. They roughly pushed her up through the Biosphere sections, guns tight against her back. As she walked, Morgan scanned the place for possible escape routes and weapons. She noticed that it was a strange mix of natural habitats existing right up against each other under the glass dome, but there was nothing she could immediately use.
    As they reached the top canopy in the rainforest habitat she saw Faye shackled on a funeral pyre, Gemma slumped on the ground guarded by men with guns, a man in a wheelchair and, finally, Everett in person.
     “Dr Sierra, I’m so glad you could make it. Let me see the stones.”
     She clutched the bag tightly, wanting him to fight for it.
     “You have to let Faye down first. I’m only giving you the stones in exchange for my family. Backup is outside. I’m not here alone as you might think.”
     Joseph laughed at her bluff. “We know ARKANE abandoned you. No private jet for you this time.”
     He waved his hand and the man behind her punched her heavily in the kidneys. She went down then, her body exhausted, drained and in pain from the beatings and bullet she had taken in the last few days, but she still held the bag with the stones close to her body. Everett kicked her, hard in the side and she groaned and rolled slowly over. Faye was screaming again, straining against the ropes to see what was happening.
     “Please no, don’t hurt her.”
     Joseph leaned down.
     “It’s time to give them up, Morgan. If I shoot you in the head now, these stones will be empowered by your death. I don’t need to burn you alive after all.”
     He held a gun to her forehead. She let the bag go and he took it from her.
     “Excellent, now let’s take a look.”
     He emptied the bag out on a table in front of the pyre to join the stones he already had. There were high-tech gadgets laid out, including a Geiger counter. Morgan knew it was all over then. He realized within seconds that she was trying to trick him and spun around.
     “Where are they, you bitch? Did you come all this way just to die?” he shouted in frustration, his voice echoing around the dome. In fury, he ran back, kicking her harder in the ribs, landing his boots wherever he could on her body. He would beat her to death for cheating him out of the stones. Morgan heard Faye screaming her name as she felt her world slipping away.

***

“I’d stop that if I were you.”
     The words halted Joseph. He turned to see the ARKANE agent Jake Timber pointing a gun at the head of the guard in front of him and holding a bag in his hand.
     “I have the real Pentecost stones, Everett so it’s me you want after all. Just let them all go and I’ll give them to you.”
     Joseph growled deep in his throat.
     “I don’t bargain for what is rightfully mine.”
     He ended on a shriek as his frustration spilled over. He grabbed a gun and shot the man Jake held as a shield, at the same time using another guard to stop the bullets as Jake fired in return, killing two guards who raced towards him. A bullet grazed Jake’s hand and he dropped the stones, ducking away into the undergrowth of the rainforest as the other guards charged him.
     “Kill him!” Everett shouted to the remaining guards as he swept up the bag. “I will have my sacrifice.”

     Jake ran through the thick foliage that slapped at his body as he pushed into the rainforest. It was dense with liana and palms, dripping with water that was raining down constantly on the ecosystem. The smell of rich wet earth was a tangy reminder to Jake of his time in the jungles of Borneo. He knew he had to draw the men away and lose them in this maze of trunks and vines, then he could double back to the pyre. He had gone directly against Marietti’s orders to come here, but he would not leave Morgan alone again. After he had left her in Worcester, he had been haunted by nightmares of his own family, hacked to bloody limbs by a vengeful group of youths high on methamphetamines. If he had been there to protect them, perhaps their deaths would have been prevented, or he would have gone down with them, a fitting place to die. He couldn’t care about Morgan’s family, but he found himself thinking of her, heading to almost certain death, risking her life for her family as he would have done for his. They were alike in so many ways, yet both so independent he knew they couldn’t admit to a mutual need. Still, this time he had made his choice and he would face whatever consequences he had to.
    He ducked behind a palm tree, listening to the men crashing through the undergrowth after him. They were almost drowned out by the sound of the wind that was building outside and rattling the biosphere glass. A huge storm was fast approaching. Grabbing a liana from one of the trees, Jake wrapped it around his hands, waiting for the guards to go by.
     As the men ran past on the narrow boardwalk, Jake leapt out and wound the vine around the last man’s neck. A quick flick and he pushed him off the boardwalk, the man’s fingers scrabbling at the constricting vine, dropping his gun in the undergrowth as he choked. Jake bent to pick up the fallen gun as the other man turned and shot wildly at him. He dived for the man’s legs, toppling him to the ground. In a wrestler’s grip, he flipped the man over and slammed his head hard down onto the boardwalk again and again. The body went limp. Then an agonized scream pierced the noise of the storm.

***

Hearing Faye’s scream, Morgan groaned and rolled over onto her side, sharp pain stabbing through her ribs and into her chest. Wounded but not out just yet, she was lucky Jake had appeared when he did. She fleetingly wondered why he had come back, after leaving in such a definitive way. She could see Joseph examining the stones at the table near the pyre and by the look on his face, they were real. He saw her looking at him.
     “It seems we will have our sacrifice today, after all. You and your sister, the twins, are the perfect final offering for the stones. Michael doesn’t yet have your energy but he will soon. The stones will heal him and restore his mind and we shall be true brothers again.”
     They heard shots down in the rainforest, and Joseph smiled.
     “I wouldn’t expect Jake to rescue you again, Morgan. We’ll summon the new Pentecost now. Finally the twelve stones are together again.”
     He wheeled Michael closer to the pyre. Faye lay still now, her eyes on the little figure of Gemma on the ground. Morgan looked around desperately for something she could use to stop this madness. Joseph placed six of the stones in a bag of netting and draped it around his brother’s neck. He paused to wipe some drool from Michael’s mouth and whispered, “Not long now. Soon you’ll be restored to me.”
     In that moment, Morgan saw that his fanaticism stemmed from a deep love of his wounded brother, and she understood that both she and Everett would both do anything to save what remained of their family. Then he lit a taper and held it to the bottom of the pyre and Faye began to scream again.

     As the flames started to catch at the base of the pyre, storm clouds gathered over the Biosphere and turned the sky black from the nearby town of Oracle to as far away as Tucson in the Catalina foothills. It was as if a heavy lid of cloud had dropped over the area, the shadow darkening to a radius of only a few kilometers. Lightning began to flicker inside the clouds, metallic blue streaks against the burnt orange sky lit with the final rays of the smothered sun. Purple sheets of rain bruised the land, punishing the saguaro cacti as they raised their dusty gray arms to God like desperate believers. Crimson and silver-blue cracks broke the clouds and hurtled to earth. Jagged lightning strikes came closer to the stepped ziggurat of the Biosphere as the earthy grumble of thunder rattled the windows of the adobe houses nearby. High above the clouds, in an event not seen for two thousand years, the eye of the comet storm reached the Earth’s atmosphere.
     Inside the glass dome, Joseph laughed and shouted up to heaven.
     “It has begun. The twelve are reunited and I call down this power from heaven.”

     Clouds covered the rocky outcrops surrounding the Biosphere, their tops shrouded in thick swirling darkness as the wind grew in intensity and volume, pounding the structure and engulfing it in fury. The howling increased as the rain pounded down, wind whipping it into the sides of the structure with increasing speed. The steel creaked and moaned, trying to hold together beneath the ferocity of the storm. Lightning crackled even closer, luminous veins connecting sky to earth as electricity supercharged the air.
     The first strike hit the north side of the Biosphere ziggurat, lighting the rainforest in brilliant magnesium white and the deep explosion of thunder followed immediately. The storm was on top of them. Forked lightning split the sky, visible branches breaking into splinters of light while thick bolts smashed into the glass and steel. Wind tornadoed the building, encasing the Biosphere in its own hellish vortex. Then the first cracks appeared in the glass and spread quickly, raining shards down on the remaining guards below. Joseph seemed unaware of the falling glass, reveling in the power of the storm but his men ran for the exits, unwilling to risk their lives for this madman. Torrents of water poured down on them now, and Joseph held his hands up to the unseen forces as the wind whipped around him.
     Morgan rolled over and crawled towards her sister, moving slowly but surely out of the line of Joseph’s sight. He was totally manic now, cackling and dancing in the rain and the wind. The stones were glowing as if they were sculpted from volcanic magma, torn from inside the earth. Joseph held the largest in his outstretched hands towards the splintering roof. He was oblivious to them now, focused only on the stones and the storm. Morgan climbed onto the pyre behind Faye and pulled the knife from her boot. She cut the bonds that held her sister to the smoldering pyre, the smoke of the wet wood hiding them from Everett. Morgan almost felt pity as she looked down at them, the brothers together, one a silent witness to the other’s madness. Then she saw Gemma lying on the ground, soaked by the rain. Pulling her sister off the side of the pyre, they crawled around to where the little girl lay motionless by the edge of the rainforest where she had been dumped by the fleeing guards.
     Lifting Gemma and holding the little face tightly to her neck, Faye started for the exit, stumbling a little as Morgan covered her escape. Then Jake appeared, sweeping Gemma into his arms and helping Faye down the stairs. He met Morgan’s eyes briefly and she nodded, no time for words. It was enough for now that he had come back for her. They ran down through the rainforest and onto the desert mesa, past the ocean. No one stopped them. The men had deserted Joseph as the end seemed to be in sight and the Biosphere was clearly failing in the face of the tempest. As they reached the exit, the creaking of the structure turned to a mechanical scream as the supports started to break and buckle under the dense rain and hail, lightning superheating the steel.
     As they ran from the building, a bolt of pure scarlet scythed apart the clouds above the Biosphere. Morgan turned to see it strike the platform where Joseph stood next to Michael, his hands on the wheelchair. It seemed to flicker around them gently, lighting their limbs and touching their necks where the stones hung then it became a pillar of flame connecting heaven to earth. Growing in intensity, it lit the scene in a crimson glow. Morgan watched, transfixed, as Michael rose up out of his chair and embraced his brother, the two frozen in the ruby light from above that split into a million drops as the rain hammered down. Was it a miracle, she thought, and in that split second, Morgan cast aside her skepticism and believed in the power of the stones, a divine phenomenon ignited by the storm. Then the light around the men exploded and they were lost in the glare. Morgan blinked and the moment was gone. Had she really seen something deep in the flames? She and the others ran out into the rain to escape the destruction as the Biosphere collapsed behind them.

***

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