When his father died in 1972, Hans began to sell off some of the relics to amass a fortune. He also began to study all the artifacts in his secret stash. He discovered that he possessed the entire collection of Philon’s Mechanic treatise and immediately went to work on creating the device called a Switch. He was unable to make it work however — and it stood gathering dust for many years — until The Oracle Philon was found by Professor Lisa Lange a year ago. The smaller codex provided the answers that would make the Switch work. It was a well-publicized event.
Hans quickly invited Professor Lange, who found the codex, to his home to let her look at parts of the treatise he had in his possession. His purpose was to determine if she could be bribed to provide him with a copy of the newly found directions. While researching the professor, he discovered two things. First was that Lisa Lange looked like his ideal Aryan woman and second, that she had a history associated with paranormal activity. Their meeting was delightful, but he could not convince her to sell him the codex.
As soon as she left, he had one of his men find someone to bribe and soon collected a copy of the Oracle Philon. From there he was able to build the first working model of the Switch. But Hans Keidel wanted twelve working models, one for each vortex, which was why he sent his sons to Africa to find more meteorites in the very place where Philon found the first meteorite.
He did have one small problem with the Switch that he still needed to solve. He had a hard time making it work and especially turning it off. He knew it required someone with some form of ESP or extrasensory perception and the only person he could trust was his youngest son Lars. Lars claimed that he could talk to people from the past. After much testing, his “sixth sense” was judged to be weak but usable.
But Hans was a realist. He knew he had to find several people with stronger ESP as well. The name Lisa Lange once again popped up in his devious mind.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Back at the Pit, the tension was suddenly unbearably thick. You could almost cut it with a knife. Once Dr. Darby had indicated that she knew that all the MAD team members had some form of ESP, the room became full of a deadly silence. Each person contemplated what she had actually said. There were variant degrees of fear and hatred.
“Why would you say that?” General Simon Stone spewed out in a threatening voice usually reserved for violence. It was clear that he was angry.
“That’s a stupid accusation,” Kaley screamed a little too loudly.
Professor Lange and Malcolm said nothing, but stared at each other in shock.
“I know all about the MAD team,” Dr. Darby implied coyly. “The President, recommended you to me for this mission. He said that it was important enough to use you and you would understand.”
“This is outrageous. I want out of here,” Kaley continued shouting and was now flailing her arms wildly.
“Everything about this weather related crisis is science based,” the doctor quickly said. “That’s true, but the need for a people with paranormal expertise is required to stop this threat and you all fit the bill,” Dr. Darby explained. “And for your information, my doctorate is in Parapsychology, the study of the sixth sense. I might actually be useful to you.”
“This is nonsense,” Kaley erupted as she fought back.
“No, it most certainly is not,” Dr. Darby said firmly.
“The President never mentioned a word of this to me,” General Stone said through narrowed eyes. “And I report directly to him.”
“We didn’t want to expose any of you to this problem until you were properly vetted by me,” Dr. Darby announced. “We did all of that and measured your sixth sense while we processed you into the base.”
“I did feel some sense of being probed,” Professor Lange admitted thoughtfully as she put her finger to her chin. “I just thought it was some boys being frisky.”
“I also know that each of your gifts is different,” Dr. Darby added. “To work together you should know what each of you is capable of doing, shouldn’t you?”
“Some things should be left to management,” General Stone abruptly blustered as he fought to not reveal the secrets of his team.
“And that lack of information could get you all killed,” Dr. Darby spat back in retaliation.
Everyone at the table was quiet for a minute. Then the professor spoke. “So, I wonder. What’s your gift Malcolm?” Lisa unexpectedly asked.
“I’ll answer that,” Dr. Darby quickly announced, as she turned to the now slightly annoyed Malcolm.
But before she could continue Malcolm spoke. “Okay, I’ll tell you,” he said. “My name has not always been Malcolm Short. Many years ago I changed it because I am clairvoyant and was hounded by people who wanted me to do things for them. They were not always good people and I realized that I would never have peace because of my gift.”
“I knew that Malcolm, and I have tried to protect you,” Simon Stone said sincerely.
Malcolm continued. “Mostly I act as a Medium and use my power to find things. Basically I can find anything given enough time. I talk to a ghost or spirit who does research for me. I have to ask something out loud and his words come in whispers. I have no control over what information he provides me.”
“Can you give us an example?” Dr. Darby asked. “Some intimate thing that is not general knowledge.”
“What would you like to know?” Malcolm asked.
“Does Lisa Lange have a tattoo?” Dr. Darby immediately asked. Malcolm raised an eyebrow, but repeated the question out loud.
“That’s not a good question,” Kaley screamed. “He’s seen her without clothes.”
“But not where the tattoo is located,” Malcolm retorted and turned to the professor. “It’s in the center of your crotch. It’s an ancient symbol isn’t it?”
Lisa uncomfortably crossed her legs and nodded her head in resignation. Now everyone knew about her tattoo. “Yes, I have one,” she managed to croak.
“Also, sometimes my researcher spirit provides me with unexpected information too,” Malcolm continued with an evil grin and turned towards Kaley.
“I’m going to kill you Malcolm,” Kaley screamed like a madwoman and started to come out of her chair, but Dr. Darby was right next to her and pushed her back.
“Like what?” Dr. Darby politely asked.
“Like, Kaley has the same tattoo in the same place on her body.”
“Bastard,” Kaley snarled.
“It’s one of the hazards of ESP. Sometimes you know more than you want to know,” Dr. Darby pointed out.
“I’m just getting even for all the times you have humiliated me Kaley,” Malcolm declared.
“And Kaley, I noticed that you knew what he was going to say before he said it. Didn’t you?” Dr. Darby pointed out.
“I…I…,” Kaley gasped as she floundered for an answer.
“It’s called Precognition,” the doctor immediately jumped in with an explanation. “You are able to see things in your head before they happen and can change the outcome. That is why you are so good at fighting and also flirting. You use your talent to manipulate the environment in your favor.”
“And you’re an unquestionable sadist as well,” Malcolm accused her. “You torture men because you already know how they will react to you and how to destroy them.”
“Dammit, alright, I admit it,” Kaley responded in a stoic tone and threw up her hands in surrender. “I have had this ability my whole life. It has gotten me into trouble more times than I can count. But it has also gotten me out of trouble too. I see it as a curse. I’m sorry that I hurt you Malcolm. It all started before I was born.”
“Kaley, you don’t have to explain your early life. The juvenile file is closed,” Simon Stone jumped in and said with empathy. “And yes I know everything in your background, but what’s important here is that you are very talented and gifted. That’s why I took you in as my charge. We need to work together.”
“Sorry, I usually don’t work well with
others,” she responded in a dejected voice and she started to cry. Her emotions had popped to the surface as the discussion was traumatic to her. Several people now knew that she had a weakness.
Dr. Darby cleared her throat to get their attention back and continued. “And you Simon Stone have the ability to move physical things around,” the doctor continued. “It’s called Psychokinesis or sometimes Telekinesis.”
“Actually, it is a lot more complicated than that, my dear,” the old man replied with a touch of arrogance. “I can also dabble in electromagnetic rays, several types of physics and, of course, Tachyons. But my main focus is moving things.”
“What’s a Tachyon?” Malcolm quickly inquired.
“It’s like the framework of an email or an instant message that I can send back in time. Whoever I designate will receive the message. But it only works up to a few minutes in the past, like ten minutes. I can tell someone to change course because I already know the outcome and want to change it.”
“Show us that you can move something!” Malcolm said. Suddenly the pen in front of him stood up and wrote a quick note on the paper.
“What’s it say,” Dr. Darby asked.
Malcolm picked it up and showed everyone. “It says, ‘how’s this’?”
Lisa now knew that it was her turn to speak. “I guessing that some of you know about me,” Lisa Lange said with concern. Everybody at the table nodded their heads.
“We know that you have quite a record with our government,” Dr. Darby said. “You seem to have received the highest score of psychic force we have ever measured.”
“I inherited it from my Grandmother, Marie Orsic, Lisa explained. “She was the medium that actually drew the first flying saucer during a séance in 1919 in Germany. It’s well documented.”
“I’ve read many things about Maria Orsic on the Internet,” Dr. Darby admitted. How does your gift work?”
Lisa explained. “If I want to learn something from someone that I know or can see, I just have to send them a ping. Their brain will automatically answer, the person can’t stop it. I also can send them suggestions as well.”
“And what about people you don’t know or see?” Dr. Darby asked.
“It doesn’t always work, but I can conduct a séance just like my grandmother did. I would need something that belonged to that person though,” Lisa replied with a touch of embarrassment.
“Explain,” Dr. Darby continued.
“Don’t do it,” Kaley erupted, but was quieted down by Malcolm.
“A séance requires at least three receptors, they are women. We hold hands and chant. Any message we receive is written by one of us on paper or cloth. We don’t have any control of what the message will say.”
“And how do you qualify as a receptor?” Dr. Darby asked with curious tilt of her head.
“Well, they have to have long hair because the hair is the antenna,” Lisa responded. “We all have to be naked, and we all have to have the tattoo.”
Malcolm suddenly turned to Kaley. “You’re one of them!” he exclaimed.
“I told you not to tell them,” Kaley screamed. She banged her small fists on the table and began crying in earnest.
“Kaley, please calm down,” Dr. Darby quickly said. “No one in this room has any reason to let our secrets out. We must trust each other.”
The discussion moved to the how to use each gift during a mission, but was interrupted when Malcolm noticed something on the monitor.
“Look at that!” He pointed.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The little voice in his head had told him to look at the monitor. At first he didn’t see anything, but soon realized that there were two small dots moving across the Eye of the Sahara.
“Can you zoom in on those dots?” Malcolm asked. Dr. Darby pressed some keys and soon the MAD team was looking at two vehicles speeding towards the center of the huge eye-like formation.
“Who are those guys?” Malcolm asked out loud. The expression on his face changed from concern to shock. “It’s the neo-Nazis,” he screamed.
“Are you sure?” Dr. Darby asked she scrambled to get a closer look.
“What’re they doing there?” Malcolm quickly asked. His expression now turned from surprise to fear. He turned to the rest of the people in the room and said. “They’re hunting for meteorites to use to power eleven more Switches.”
“We have to stop them,” Dr. Darby shrieked. “They already have at least one working Switch weapon. If they had more, they could create havoc in the world. Not to mention the additional natural disasters that they would bring on earth.”
“Well it looks like we are definitely going to get into some action,” General Simon Stone uttered with a gleam in his eye. “We’re going to go and capture them.”
“What?” Malcolm screamed. “I’m no field agent. I’ve never even shot a gun.”
“Yes you are. Besides you have the rest of us to protect you,” the general replied. “Get over it. We go on all our missions as a team. Do you understand?”
“How do we get started?” Lisa Lange asked anxiously as she looked around with wide eyes.
“I need to order up a fast jet to get us to Africa first,” the seasoned military man answered. “Then I need to get two snipers to watch these Nazis in the desert until we get there.”
“No need to do that,” Malcolm interjected. “We can keep an eye on them from the satellite and once we get close I’ll use my spirit to pin point where they are camped.”
“Good,” General Stone replied. “I’ll get on the transport.”
“And what are we going to do when we get there?” Kaley asked.
“Well we’ll do most of the planning during the plane ride, but we are going to break them and find out what they know,” the general responded and clutched his fist, “then we a going after the rest of the devices.”
“Good,” Kaley said evilly and cracked her knuckles. “I really want some action now.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sheikh Ali Farhat was suddenly not feeling well. He sat in the back of his opulent Gulfstream jet plane. He was headed to Karachi to meet with the Majra, the supreme leader. He had lost his normally ravenous appetite and just pushed the food around on his gold ringed plate. He didn’t drink alcohol — like a true Muslim — but he did like a cigar once in a while. But the customary after-dinner cigar now handed to him by his steward completely repulsed him. He snapped at the longtime employee like he was a slave.
“Get that away from me,” he screamed and immediately rushed to the bathroom to expel the small amount of food he had ingested. He barely made it in time.
When he looked into the mirror, he noticed a small burn on his forehead and quickly pulled up the sleeve on his right arm. He noticed several additional burns above his wrist. He began to panic as he realized that the asshole Raja somehow exposed him to some sort of radiation.
The Marja won’t meet with me if I appear sick, he quickly thought. I need him to agree with my decision to eliminate the weapons project and Dr. Raja. If he doesn’t agree, it will be my head because I have already given the order. He’s dead by now.
As he stood in the bathroom of his plane, he decided that he needed to cover as much of his body as possible so the Marja could not see the burns. The Marja would never know that he had been affected by the weapon.
He also decided that he would give the Marja the diamond that Dr. Raja had trusted him with holding. It would help smooth over the financial losses they would incur in closing down the project.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Meanwhile, Doctor Mohammed Seyyed Raja was hurrying to catch a plane. He was feeling much better now and could think clearly. The poison from the meteorite was working its way out of his system and even the burns were healing.
He had realized some time ago that his services to the Cure were going to be permanently terminated when he finished making the Switch work properly. So he had taken precautions to make sure he survi
ved.
One of the security guards in the cave where he worked was actually an international smuggler named Dax. He was hiding out in plain sight from authorities in several countries. Dr. Raja befriended him and made the well-connected man an offer of the extreme riches he could make by extorting money from people. All they had to do was threaten to expose the town to a weather system created by the Switch. Dax had understood the potential and readily accepted.
The two of them killed everyone else in the cave and took the equipment they needed. They then booked an airline and headed for Karachi to eliminate anyone there who knew about the Switch. It included the banker and the Marja, if they weren’t dead already. Once they were dead, no one would know who was causing the havoc. Dr. Raja was now master of his own destiny.
Dr. Raja had been told that there were two other Switches that people were trying to get to work, but he was not afraid of them. He knew that the supremacists in Chicago had one, but Dax said that he could get it from them at any time. He had many nefarious friends in that city.
He also knew that the Americans had one. They experimented with the weapon at the infamous Area 51. Dax had arranged for someone inside the secret American base to plant cameras and microphones discreetly around the labs. They provided much of the new information Dr. Raja received on how to work the device better. The man Dax employed inside the organization claimed that he could destroy and make everything useless including the device whenever he wanted.
Dr. Raja also believed that he had found the secret to make the Switch work properly. He knew that he needed a person with paranormal powers to aim the Switch. His solution was to use an Iman who believed they talked directly to Allah. There were actually many of them in Pakistan. He rationalized that if they could talk to Allah they had ESP.
He had also notified the two men who had activated the Switch in the Devil’s Triangle. It had destroyed the small island in the Pacific Ocean. He told them to meet him in Karachi and to bring the device. They didn’t know it, but their usefulness to the doctor had also ended.
The Oracle Philon Page 11
