Get a grip, Neo. Focus on what it’s at stake.
“But which one is the oldest?” Lydia asked, feeling lost among the numerous trees.
“Nobody knows their real age. Studies have found that all trees have the same genetic marker, and were originally formed from the same sprout,” Neo answered while exploring different websites.
“When a tree is hollow inside, it is difficult to tell its age. It could be that some sprang from much more ancient roots.”
Was she walking the same steps as Juda did millennia ago?
At least she had to be sure this was the right place. It seemed that something was happening; the vial started to vibrate rapidly.
“Neo, will it explode?”
“I can detect an increase in the temperature of the device; it’s currently at 4120C. Indeed, it is becoming hotter. The last time I checked, it was at 2500C.”
“Will it trigger a meltdown?”
“How did it last for so long?” She was sure it was powered by a nuclear power source, maybe even nuclear fission.
“Imagine if this technology could have been replicated. Free energy for everyone.”
“Great idea Lydia. Let’s take it step by step.”
Lydia was repeating in her mind the last clue:
“Here is the secret vault of old days, in Gethsemane, you’ll find the tree of life, and as you plant this seed, if the secret word is chanted, the eternal life shall be forever yours.”
“We have the secret word from the Heraklion Museum. We just need to find the right tree. But there are so many…”
§CHAPTER 96§
SALVATORE DID not know what to do. Would his Holiness understand what he had just witnessed? Everything was hanging by a thread…
“Elijah, I need you to keep everything that happened here a secret. Nobody should ever know that we have ever been here.”
“His Holiness has sent us here to do God’s work. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Sir, you can always trust me.”
“I don’t want to question your decisions, but are you sure it’s a clever idea to leave a woman alone at this hour?”
“Don’t worry, Elijah, I am sure Lydia can take excellent care of herself.”
“Sir, I need to leave you a few moments. I think I had too much tea before,” Elijah said calmly.
“I also would love a cigarette, but I promised I’ll abstain. Or maybe not.”
Elijah exited the car and went behind the garden wall, asking the guard in Hebrew for instructions to the restroom.
◆◆◆
The garden had an inner metallic fence that during the day would allow tourists to admire the ancient olive trees without being able to touch them.
But this fence was nothing compared to the external tall stone walls supplemented by additional metallic spikes to block any intruders.
Inside the garden it was pitch black. Neo activated the XGlass’ lights, but Lydia had another idea.
She took out the ankh vial, whose various shades of light were splashing around violently.
Lydia jumped the fence and looked around for any signs of the sacred tree of life.
The garden had several straight inner paths made of white pebble stones. She was reminded of holidays she spent in her childhood on the Mediterranean Sea with her mom and dad beside her running along sunny shores to catch little crabs lost on the beach.
All these were distant memories now.
“I am sure the guard would have a meltdown if he saw that I jumped over the fence,” Lydia said in a naughty tone.
Looking to her right, Lydia noticed the illuminated golden dome of the Temple Mount. But something else caught her attention.
There was a faint violet light coming from the trunk of one of the olive trees, and it seemed to be absorbing the ankh’s spark.
§CHAPTER 97§
THE CLOSER LYDIA approached, the more intense the light from the trunk became.
In the middle of the trunk, there was a deep hollow area.
Lydia peered inside, and she was surprised to discover a metallic cylinder was rising up from the ground.
At its top was the flower of life shape; the whole of it vibrating. The outer rings intertwined into organic movement giving the impression it was alive.
Lydia felt her chest growing tight as bile rose to her throat. She could not believe that her quest was nearing its end.
“Try placing the vial inside the cylinder,” Neo said, while frantically typing a line of code for an algorithm he just wrote.
He was trying to understand if there was a pattern in the pulsation of the light.
Lydia bent herself over the hollow and placed the vial inside, leaving visible only the external parts of the round-shaped upperpart of the ankh.
She then said with a loud voice:
KERANANAKEJE
It fit perfectly, but nothing happened. There was no change in the pattern of the light.
“Neo, am I doing something wrong? It doesn’t seem to be working.”
“I think both the objects together actually form the Grail. This is an epic discovery,” Lydia exclaimed.
“I calculated that the light has a movement pattern: every three seconds, the sequence repeats.”
“I think you must recite the secret word precisely at the start of the pattern.”
“Try to place your hands on the ankh. When you said the word before, there was a slight energy burst, and the vibration dislodged it.”
“I’ll tell you exactly when.”
Lydia took a deep breath and waited.
“Now,” Neo exclaimed.
She touched the vial again and chanted the secret word.
The contents began to calm turning to a silverfish color. The rings of the flower of life stopped moving.
She felt a strange energy protruding through her body. She felt revigorated, and then there was just pure darkness, a complete nothingness.
§CHAPTER 86§
MARK HOPKINS slid his silencer gun under the glass and swiftly executed the guards in charge of monitoring the museum’s security cameras.
Clean shots splashed their brains on the monitors. He felt no remorse, remembering his training in Afghanistan.
From there, he had access to the entire museum database.
Where is she?
Checking the video cameras, he spotted her staring at a strange disk in front of several tourists who were trying to get a good view.
What is she up to? I have my target so close. Should I execute her? I still have twenty minutes.
His cell phone started to vibrate. It was another encrypted call.
His hand shook as he picked it up.
“Mark, did you find Lydia?” It was the voice of the Vice-President.
“Yes, Mr. Vice President, she is safe and sound. I have her in front of me. She is checking out something in the Heraklion museum.”
“Good, my son, please protect her and do not worry. I am sure your family is fine; we are doing our utmost to bring them home safely.”
His mind was a battlefield. The smell of fresh splashed blood wafted through the shadows.
He had smelled death before but never wanted to go to that place. Yet here he was, back in a living nightmare that he had experienced in Afghanistan.
He looked at the electrical control panel and spotted the master switch.
Before she exits the museum, I’ll cut the lights and execute her.
But first, I need to find out what she is up to and what she will do with the disk.
◆◆◆
§CHAPTER §98
“LYDIA, ARE YOU OKAY?” Neo asked in desperation, but there was no answer.
She seemed frozen in time, paralyzed like a statue looking at the same point without the slightest movement.
Neo then understood that something went wrong.
Just before screaming to her, in hopes it would jolt her to life, he heard a loud bang. It likely came from a gun, and he feared the worst.
Turning around, she saw Elijah several meters in front of her collapsed on the stony path with his body convulsing uncontrollably.
His hands were wrapped around his neck, trying to stop the blood from hemorrhaging.
His hand tried to reach a gun that fell next to him, but another shot hit his hand, and he recoiled in pain.
“Lydia, you have to hurry up,” Salvatore said, putting his gun back into his suit.
“I am afraid our location has been compromised. Elijah just tried to kill you.”
“I do not know who to trust anymore.”
“I cannot believe that his Holiness would be capable of such a deed,” Salvatore muttered to himself.
Lydia grabbed the now inert ankh vial and started to approach Salvatore.
“Are you okay my love? I thought you were shot.” Neo said desperately.
“So, the driver wanted to kill you and the Phoenix is not giving up?” Neo asked worried that the entire situation was out of his control.
“We have to go to New York. I need my lab to understand what just happened to me.”
“I hope there I can make some kind of discovery to share with the world.”
“The Vice President is our only chance. We need to contact him,” Lydia said, full of hope.
◆◆◆
§CHAPTER 99§
VATICAN
“WHAT HAVE I done?”
“Haven’t I already sacrificed so much for you, God?” the Pope whispered lamenting. All my life, I’ve tried to serve You, and now to have a failure of this magnitude, it is inconceivable.”
“I pray that Salvatore is not dead. I refuse to believe he could have betrayed me. It’s beyond my understanding how this situation has escalated to such a level. The entire world is suffering from this cruel plague.”
“So many dead people are filling our morgues and cemeteries. In some countries, there are more victims than in World War I.”
“Is this virus the way to punish me and my failure to save humanity?”
“Our Church has failed You, God, and we deserve to be punished. In the end, I must the one Saint Malachy was referring to. I was blinded by the glory of this holy office. I failed to see the truth in front of my eyes…”
◆◆◆
§CHAPTER 100§
LYDIA STILL felt dizzy. She was trying to understand what has happened to her.
Something was not normal. She felt a small tingling sensation all over her body.
It was a feeling similar to sun exposure in search of the perfect tan. Your slightly burned skin will try to regenerate, and the old skin peels away to make way for the new skin.
“Neo, I have to get to my lab quickly to test my blood.”
“I feel something is happening to me, and I cannot explain it.”
“In the hollow of the tree, the ankh vial reacted to my touch in a way I would have never expected.”
“Salvatore, will you drive me back to the airport?”
“I just contacted the Vice President for his kind offer to fly me to New York.”
“I am sure he will help me find a lab where I can perform some tests on myself.”
Salvatore looked at her while his arm wrapped around her waist. He answered without even blinking.
“Of course, Lydia. I want to see you safe, and for the moment, I cannot trust the Pope.”
“I’ll have to fly back to the Vatican and clear up this entire mess.”
“What did you discover in the tree’s hollow?”
“I do not know exactly what happened, but I want you to take the ankh vial to his Holiness, which I believe, together with the device inside the hollow, represents the Holy Grail.”
“Show it to him and explain the situation.”
Lydia explained to him the origins of Jesus and his Atlantean heritage.
Salvatore seemed hypnotized by Lydia’s words, and he felt that everything made sense now, this information will change everything…
“I feel so weak, it was like all my energy has been drained. I need to rest.”
Lydia collapsed in his arms, to the shock of both Salvatore and Neo.
§CHAPTER 101§
THE PHOENIX knew he had one last opportunity to obtain the information Lydia possessed.
The death of his faithful servants and his inability to stop Lydia del Biondo clouded his mind and was slowly enraging him.
I’ll kill her myself. How could they have all failed so miserably? I should never have underestimated her. She was so lucky, but someone was protecting and guiding her every step.
Maybe even God was punishing me for my defiance. I am the real Savior. I am the one Jesus Christ entrusted all his secrets. I won’t let a simple girl destroy everything I’ve built.
He closed his eyes, and he finally saw a path, a potential outcome where he could still succeed. Church bells were ringing, and then it all became clear to him.
This was an ominous sign, as when I started my journey. Every beginning has an end. The secret is to have the capacity to write your own fate. I am the Phoenix, always reborn, emerging stronger than ever before.
◆◆◆
§CHAPTER 102§
NEO WAS SPEECHLESS, but the fact that he did not have any power to help Lydia was driving him mad.
He felt frail and could barely move his hands. His breathing was also becoming heavier.
I could have never imagined that this moment would come so fast, Salvatore thought.
He checked Lydia’s pulse and took comfort that despite being weak, she was holding on.
His biggest regret was not being able to tell Lydia how much he loved her. The beat of her heart was reverberating through his mind.
If only I could put my head next to your heart to feel it next to my skin…Is this the end?
Perfect timing. Just when Lydia needs me the most, she turns to Salvatore. Am I going to die alone?
Her video flow was still active, and he could see Salvatore’s hands carrying her past the sleeping guard who didn’t realize what had just happened in the sacred garden.
Salvatore gingerly opened the car door and lay Lydia on the back seats.
Neo could see the starry sky through the transparent roof as Salvatore drove off to the airport.
He started to have even more difficulty breathing. I need my oxygen. He tried to move from his screen towards the storeroom, where he kept a reserve tube.
Slowly moving his fingers on the wheelchair’s electric pad, he thought he heard a noise coming from one of the balconies.
It was already too late; several masked people broke through the glass.
Neo didn’t even have the chance to utter a word before one of the masked figures shot him.
He felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder, and then he completely lost consciousness. From the back of the room, he briefly heard a distorted voice speaking through the breathing apparatus of the mask. “We have him! The target is acquired.”
The last thought that crossed his mind was: Will I ever see Lydia again?
And then everything went dark…
§CHAPTER 103§
01H23, OCTOBER 4TH
THE CAR STOPPED in front of a private charter plane as Simon Lightgood promised. It was fueled and ready to depart for New York.
“Lydia, we have arrived,” Salvatore said, gently shaking her.
She woke and gave him a scared look, “what happened? Where are we?”
“You fainted; I think the experience in the garden took a bigger toll on your body than expected.”
“We are at the airport. Your plane to New York is awaiting you.”
“I don’t have any words. How can I thank you Salvatore? You saved my life, and for this, I will be forever grateful.”
She touched his arm, and he felt a strange connection. It was like he had always known her.
When their eyes met, it was as if their bodies’ molecu
les were fusing together, their minds and emotions becoming one.
“You can always count on me, Lydia del Biondo. We shall meet again,” Salvatore said with a charming smile.
Lydia exited the car graciously. She was still exhausted but, at the same time, felt energized by the things to come—so many mysteries to discover and the ones she carried inside herself.
“Neo, I am boarding the plane to New York. Are you there? Please answer, Neo.”
She tried several times and then gave up.
His signal was active, but she could not see anything besides a dark screen with a faint reflection.
This is not normal. He never left me like this.
Something must have happened. Dark thoughts crossed her mind while the plane door closed behind her.
§CHAPTER 104§
ARRIVING IN the plane, she could only think about Neo’s fate.
Lydia tried again to contact him but couldn’t. She had nobody to turn to. Maybe the Vice President would be able to help her by contacting the secret service to find out what happened to Neo.
I don’t even know where he was living. In order not to compromise his location, she never asked where he was located.
She was still trying to grasp her experience in Gethsemane.
Was this what the religious scholars would have called an epiphanal experience?
She refused any service. She could not eat or drink, nor did she feel the need. Oddly enough, she felt full.
But it was due to worry and anxiety after trying one more time to reach Neo but failing.
Instead, she felt the need to purge herself. The private jet came with its shower cubicle and the softest towels she had ever felt. There were also Caudalie cosmetic products based on natural ingredients sourced from grapes.
While in contact with the water molecules, her skin seemed refreshed, absorbing the humidity voraciously.
The Jesus Christ Cypher Page 21
