The Polish Discovery: The Society of Orion 1-3 (Colton Banyon Mystery Book 17)

by Gerald J. Kubicki

  “I need to put on a different top first,” Previne explained the obvious. “Colt, you and Eric load the men into the cart,” she ordered. “Let’s all change tops to the same color,” she said to her sisters. “I think gray would look nice. Then we could all be dressed like Loni. “And don’t forget your fanny packs.” Previne was back to being her usual bossy self.

  ***

  They came out of the elevator with Colton Banyon pushing the filled cart, the rest of the team surrounding it. They had covered it with a sheet. The front desk clerk noticed them. She called out something in Polish.

  “Bargaz,” Banyon responded and kept going. Loni had looked up the translation before they left the room. It was the Polish word for luggage and it seemed to satisfy the slightly nervous clerk. They had anticipated the question. They passed through the front door and were immediately confronted by the doorman. He politely asked another question in Polish.

  “Nie,” Previne answered. It meant no.

  He continued down the sidewalk, crossed the street into the park in front of the hotel and headed onto the grass. Once they were out of sight, Banyon stopped pushing the cart. He turned it on its side. The four now awake mercenaries tumbled out. Fear was in their eyes.

  “Don’t worry, we are not going to hurt you even though you tried to kill us,” Maya said cheerfully as she pointed the gun from man to man. “Now sit up straight,” she ordered in an angry tone.

  “Okay, you guys head back to the hotel,” Previne said. “My sisters and I can handle these men.” Banyon, Eric and Loni turned on their heels and jogged back to the hotel while Banyon pushed the empty cart.

  Pramilla addressed the men. “You are going to have to pay attention to her,” Pramilla explained. She pointed to the woman in the middle. “Can you do that?” The men nodded weakly.

  “Good,” Previne said sweetly. “Now look into my eyes.” She began to chant, and eventually tossed some glitter into the air which she pulled from her fanny pack.

  The men sat motionless. “You done?” Pramilla asked.

  “They are under now,” she said to her sisters.

  The spell wasn’t actually magic. It was an advanced form of post-hypnotic suggestion that had been developed by the great psychopathologist Sigmund Freud in the later part of his life. He had never published any documents about the procedure because he was afraid the Nazis would get hold of it. He told one person who wrote it down in a book. Previne had obtained a copy of the book while working a mystery a couple of years ago.

  “You will forget everything you know about the Orion weapons,” Previne started. “You will forget you ever knew Albin Wilk. You will forget everything you have experienced today since you got up this morning.” She turned to her sisters, “Anything else?”

  “Tell them they can no longer remember how to be mercenaries,” Maya said.

  “Tell them to pee in their pants,” Pramilla offered, but only got a blank stare from her sister.

  “Now when you hear me say, ‘wake up’, you will come out of your trance,” Previne told them. The three women suddenly bolted back towards the hotel.

  “Wake up,” the men heard from the distance.

  The men woke up to find they were tied up, but couldn’t remember why. They also noticed they had wet pants.

  Chapter Two

  Oh Sok and his two security men were already high in the air, flying to Teheran, Iran. They had to take a military transport from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang because there were no commercial flights out of the country and no one but the country of Iran would let a North Korean plane land. From the Iranian capital, they would take a commercial jet to Paris, France because France was one of the few countries who would let Iran land a plane on their soil. From there, they would take another commercial flight to Warsaw. The entire trip would take more than twenty four hours, but they would land in time to get to the Banyon Arcades for the exchange.

  Oh Sok spent his flight time giving his men instructions on what he wanted them to do minute by minute. He believed his plan was well thought out and meticulous. The men sat in their harnesses staring straight ahead stoically. They both wore dark sunglasses which hid their faces because they thought it was cool.

  ***

  Michael Orlov was also on his way to Warsaw for the meeting at the Banyon Arcades. He had recovered both talismans on the tundra, and found his way to the boat on the Podkamennaya River where he had bribed the captain. His men all had mysterious accidents along the way to the boat. He reached the boat alone. The captain made good time and delivered Orlov to the port city of Krasnoyarsk in Southern Siberia. From there, he rented one of the numerous private planes used to cart goods and people around the wilderness of Siberia. He had the pilot fly him to Astana, Kazakhstan, where he was able to catch a commercial flight to Paris, France. He would land in Warsaw three hours before the North Korean delegation.

  Both men dreamed of riches and fame as they flew westward to Warsaw.

  Neither man, however, understood that there were people plotting against them. They didn’t know that they would be betrayed in the next twenty-four hours.

  Chapter Three

  Loni and Eric were the first group to reach their destination that morning. They pulled up to the curb outside of Josephine Wilks’ large house in a shiny BMW. It was the same house Albin Wilk had claimed to be his own. They sat in the car for a few minutes to survey their surroundings. Eric wanted to make sure that no one noticed them. Loni made a phone call while they waited. She was not surprised with what Banyon told her. Satisfied the street was empty, they kicked open their car doors and headed for the back of the mansion.

  It took Loni only a few minutes to defeat the locks on a door by the kitchen. She sprinted inside and punched in the security code for the alarm system. Banyon had supplied it to her. Eric was right behind her with his gun drawn.

  “That was easy,” she said to Eric.

  “Yeah, almost too easy,” he replied cautiously. “Let’s clear the house before we go to the basement.”

  Loni quickly drew her gun from her fanny pack. They stayed together while they methodically searched room by room for anything that didn’t seem right. It took almost twenty minutes to clear the big house. Finally, they returned to the kitchen to enter the basement through the door there. They crept down the stairs with their guns aimed forward. When they reached the bottom of the stairs they found a light switch. Loni hit the switch as they both crouched near the steps. A large empty dank basement appeared.

  “There is nothing down here,” Loni exclaimed. She flapped her arms in frustration.

  “Yeah, and no person either,” Eric declared. “You’d better call Colt again.”

  Loni opened her phone and placed the call. “Colt, there is no one here.”

  “Where are you?” he asked.

  “We’re in the basement about twenty feet from the hidden door. We cleared the upstairs, and didn’t find him.”

  She was referring to the mercenary from the Goss castle. He had sworn to kill Wilk for leading his men into an ambush. He was one of the new people Wolf was tracking. Wolf had reported seeing him in the house earlier in the morning. He was waiting for Wilk to return home. He was armed and ready to kill him.

  “He was hiding in a closet on the main floor,” Banyon told her after talking to Wolf. “He is about to start down the stairs. You should hide.”

  “Hide where?” Loni responded as she looked around. “It is completely open and empty down here.”

  “Get behind the steps,” Banyon said after a few seconds. “You’re going to have to take him down.” Loni grabbed Eric by the arm. They retreated behind the open steps while she whispered into his ear.

  They heard the steps creak. Soon they saw a shadow come slowly down the wooden steps. He was a burly man with a sawed-off shotgun in his left hand. When he reached the bottom of the steps he carefully looked around but saw nothing. Loni and Eric were in the shadow of the steps caused by the overhead lig
ht.

  “Wilk,” the man bellowed. “Come out and get your medicine. I know you are down here. If I have to search for you, I’ll kill you slowly.”

  The only word Eric and Loni understood was “Wilk’ as the man was speaking Polish. But it told them enough to understand that he was after the short man. Loni pushed her gun into Eric’s hand. She stepped out from under the steps before he could stop her.

  “I’m the maid, don’t shoot” she said with her hands raised. She looked scared. The man quickly trained his gun on her. There was anger in his eyes.

  “Who are you?” he quickly asked in Polish. Loni immediately made like she was frantically sweeping and cleaning.

  “Ah, dziewica,” it was the polish word for maid. The big man nodded his head in understanding. He relaxed his grip on the shot gun. That was when Loni struck.

  She leaped towards the man and chopped down with both of her arms on the hand which held the shotgun. It rattled to the cement floor. She literally bounced off of his larger, stunned body, but acrobatically landed on her feet. She twirled and kicked out with her left leg attempting to hit him in the chest, but the mercenary had seen the move before. He managed to grab her leg by the calf.

  She was in a very awkward position. She faced forward with one leg on the floor. Her other leg was behind her in the grip of the mercenary. He put both hands on her calf and began to lift causing her legs to split farther and farther apart. She knew if he got her off the floor, he would simply fall on her. It would be all over. He was twice her size. He had raised her leg almost straight up when he suddenly let go. Eric had hit him with the butt of his gun, but the man didn’t go down. He turned to face his second attacker with rage in his eyes. He put up his hands in a boxing position.

  Eric immediately went into his own boxing stance. He danced around the slower mercenary who followed him with his eyes but remained fixed in one position. When Eric danced close, the mercenary took a wild swing at the ex-SEAL. Eric stepped inside his punch. He connected with a left hook which spun the man around. Loni was ready. She leaped in the air and hit him with both feet in the face. He began to totter. He dropped to the ground when Eric hit him in the face again. They quickly tied him up placing a gag in his mouth. They leaned him against the steps.

  “Wow!” Loni exclaimed. “That was harder than I thought,” she said as she brushed grimefrom the floor off her body.

  “He almost ripped you in half,” Eric shot back. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m pretty flexible, you know,” she replied.

  “It was kind of sexy though. You looked like a ballerina,” Eric commented.

  “Yeah, and danger like that makes me hot,” she giggled.

  “What should we do now?” Eric asked as he assessed her response.

  “Let me call Colt,” she answered. “This guy is on Previne’s list. You go find the talisman.” She hit a button on her phone which dialed Banyon while Eric went to look for the hidden vault.

  “Loni, are you okay,” Banyon said into the phone.

  “I’m fine,” she replied. “We captured the mercenary and have him tied up. He is real big, so you’ll need to send Previne here to make him forget.”

  “Previne and her sisters are going to be out of pocket for a couple of hours. Why don’t you find the two items? Load the car, and then wait for Previne. Can you do that?”

  “We can do that, but I’d rather be with you right now,” she responded in an almost sexy whine.

  “Can’t be helped, the Dewey & Beatem people are due here any minute. I’ll need to give them their assignments. Eric will take good care of you.”

  “Oh, I almost forgot,” she said. “This guy only speaks Polish. Is that a problem for Previne?”

  Banyon thought for a second and then replied. “I don’t know. I’ll send the ferret with Previne to translate.”

  “Okay,” she said cheerfully. “I’ll see you when I see you.” She hung up the phone and went in search of Eric. She found him inside the vault. He had left the door open for her to follow. He was standing on a ladder. He was taking down the light fixture.

  “Need a hand, big boy?” she said as she scampered through the small vault door.

  “I’m good,” Eric replied and continued working on the fixture.

  “How can you see in the dark?” she asked. He held a penlight in his mouth. He handed it down to her.

  “Just hold the flashlight steady,” he asked. But Loni stepped close. She put both hands on his narrow hips to steady him while pointing the light upward. Is she caressing my ass? Eric thought.

  He finally removed the old fixture and pulled out the Courage talisman. He looked down to hand it to her. Loni grabbed it and put it in her fanny pack, then put her hands back on his hips. He then replaced the ornate fixture.

  “Turn the switch back on,” he told her. He thought he heard her say, “I’m already turned on”. The room was now bathed in light.

  When he climbed back down the ladder she grabbed him giving him a huge hug. Her body was warm and soft.

  “Let’s find the box. We need load it into the car,” she said hoarsely.

  They found the box with all of the fake talismans in it behind a cabinet. Eric hefted it. He followed her out of the vault and up the stairs, watching the hypnotic swaying of her hips as she climbed.

  Soon they were back in the basement. “What do we do now?” he asked.

  “We have to wait for the Patel sisters,” Loni answered. “It’s going to be a couple of hours according to Colt. We’ll have to find something to do to entertain ourselves.”

  “Well, I can think of one thing,” he replied seductively.

  “No touching,” Loni said sadly. She and Eric were both attracted to each other, but knew if they succumbed to their desires it would create a huge problem for both of them. Wolf would tell Banyon and Pramilla would probably kill them both. Previne would help.

  “I noticed a deck of cards upstairs in the living room,” Eric offered. “Want to play strip poker?”

  “Okay,” Loni said cheerfully. “But you should know that I cheat,” she added as she turned towards the steps.

  “Yeah, me too,” He replied.

  Chapter Four

  The Patel sisters were not able to immediately go to the Wilk mansion because they were out of town, over an hour away. They had rented a car and drove down to the city of Lodz, southwest of Warsaw. They were currently sitting in the rental car studying their mark. He was seated at a table at an outdoor café near the university. They observed him sipping a coffee. He was also eating a sweet bun. But they noticed he was mostly watching the young women who paraded along the sidewalk going to and from classes.

  “How do you want to handle this?” Maya asked Previne professionally.

  “I’m thinking we should use the three-pronged dragon approach,” she replied thoughtfully. Both her sisters nodded in agreement.

  “I’ll go first,” Maya offered.

  “Okay, give me five minutes to get into position,” Previne advised her sisters. They left the car and headed off in different directions.

  ***

  Professor Albert Crane was indeed looking at all the young women who passed his outdoor table. He often came to the café to think, pass the time, and enjoy the many women who paraded down the sidewalks. While he normally enjoyed this distraction, he had other thoughts on his mind today.

  He had finally returned home late last night. After Detective Dobbler took his statement he let him leave the castle. Professor Crane was trying to make sense of what had happened. He tried to put everything in order in his academic mind.

  He had been invited to the Goss castle to translate some ancient writings. He was then held captive until he completed the work. The chants he translated activated some sort of talisman which could move through time. The old man wanted it to go back in time to change history he remembered. The old Nazi had died when the police Crane had summoned, stormed the castle. The detective had made him say the
chant, but he had actually translated two chants, and used the one that sent the talisman to the future. He thought he could recover it from inside the metal ship. Suddenly, some mercenaries showed up, and the firing started. He had slipped away to grab the device, but ran into a young Asian woman who stole it from him. Who was she? How do I get the talisman back? The ancient talisman would be an incredible find. He intended to recover it. He just had to figure out how.

  “Oops,” he heard, and was pulled from his thoughts when he noticed a woman bend down right next to his table. She bent down to retrieve a purse she had dropped. She was dressed in white shorts and a grey top. Her ass was less than a foot away from where he sat. She scooped up the purse and continued down the sidewalk swaying her hips. She glanced over her shoulder at him as she faded away. He was fascinated to discover that she was not only beautiful but appeared to be Indian. He eventually lost her in the crowd on the sidewalk, but immediately noticed her walking straight back his way. I wonder if she is a student, he quickly thought.

  As she brushed past his table without giving him a glance, he turned in his seat to admire her strutting down the walkway. Soon he lost her in the crowd again. When he finally turned back around, she was sitting across from him at his table. She looked straight into his eyes.

  The startled professor spoke in Polish. “How did you do that?”

  “Do you speak English professor?” Previne inquired sweetly.

  The professor failed to notice that the two other women who were identical to the woman across from him had moved in behind his chair. They were there in case he answered the question wrong.

  “Of course,” he said indignantly. “You could not be a professor of history at the university and not understand English.” He said trying to impress the woman.

  “Good,” Previne replied sweetly. “Now look into my eyes.”