A Dubious Race: The Phoenician Stones (A Colton Banyon Mystery Book 14)

by Gerald J Kubicki

Banyon took the confused Heather by the arm and led her through the opened glass door onto the balcony. He stood there with his arms crossed and watched as Lisa burst through the downstairs office door. She startled Mandy as she speed-walked by her and headed to the front door looking guilty. Mandy reacted and began to follow her. Mandy had heard Banyon and Steve discuss Lisa on her Bluetooth. She was right behind her when Lisa reached the door. Lisa pushed on it, but it wouldn’t open.

  “Going somewhere?” Banyon spoke from the overhanging balcony.

  Lisa’s face was red as she turned towards him. Banyon could see something in her mannerisms. It was fear.

  “Open this door,” she demanded. “I have a gun in my bag,” she yelled. “Let me out now, Banyon.”

  Banyon pressed his Bluetooth. “Mandy,” was all he said.

  Suddenly, Mandy was standing beside Lisa. The gun from the bag was in Mandy’s hand. A look of surprise was on the professor’s face. Mandy had pickpocketed the gun without her even noticing.

  Steve flew through the door and into the reception area. He grabbed Lisa by the arms and looked up at Banyon. “What do you want me to do with her?”

  “Take her bags and bring her back to my office,” Banyon said like a dictator. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this right now.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Mandy entered the office first. She carried Lisa’s bags. Lisa came second, propelled through the doorway by Steve. He had both of her arms pinned behind her back. She looked very vulnerable and looked like she was going to start crying again. He gave her a rough shove which launched her into the air and onto the leather couch. She landed in an unladylike position. She quickly recovered and sat up straight while smoothing out her dress. She tried to look as dignified as she possibly could but wouldn’t look anyone in the eye. Everyone around her was angry.

  “Is this Lisa?” Heather asked and pointed her finger.

  “Yes,” Banyon said impatiently.

  “How come I don’t remember her?” Heather blustered.

  “She Freud-a-sized you so she could get away,” Banyon explained as he stared at the professor. He couldn’t figure out what had come over Lisa.

  “You bitch. Nobody treats me like that.” Heather snarled and went to slap Lisa across the face, but Steve grabbed her arm pulling it down.

  “Down Heather,” Steve croaked.

  “Mandy will explain what you missed,” Banyon said reasonably.

  “Come over here on the balcony,” Mandy quickly said. She wanted to get the angry woman away from Lisa. “I’ll fill you in on what’s happened.”

  “Why’d you do it? Why did you run?” Banyon asked evenly as he stood with his arms folded in front of the professor.

  “I didn’t mean any harm to anyone,” Lisa said through pouty lips. “I just had to get away,” she added and started to cry again.

  “What about the gun?” Banyon asked angrily. “Why do you have a gun?”

  “I needed it for protection,” she softly replied.

  “I don’t understand — protection from whom? Why leave now? We are here to help you Lisa.” Banyon scolded her. “We are on your side.”

  “I’m so confused,” she wailed. “I’m not thinking straight. I’m scared too, Colt.”

  “Scared of what?” he continued.

  “Too many people have found out,” she sobbed while real tears ran down her cheeks. No one bothered to get her tissues this time.

  “You’re not making any sense, Lisa,” Banyon now said roughly. “Found out what?” Banyon asked in frustration.

  “They have found out that I have discovered a hidden supply of Vril,” Lisa screamed at him. “You know what that means.”

  “You’ve found some Vril?” Banyon was suddenly also worried. He did know what it meant. This can’t be a good thing, he quickly thought. Many people chased after Vril. Almost all of them had bad intentions. Banyon had been involved with the ultimate energy source before. Many people had died.

  “That’s right,” Lisa responded sadly. “Those same people know I’m the leader of the Society of Vril and that I have the book of Vril. As you know the book explains how to unleash its power. I know you understand what that means.” Banyon just nodded his head in agreement. This is a serious problem, he now thought.

  “What’s Vril?” Steve suddenly asked.

  Banyon ignored him. “So you thought you needed to go into hiding and protect the knowledge in the book? Is that your answer?”

  “Yes,” she sobbed and nodded her head. “Can’t you see that it is the only way to keep everyone safe? But I wanted to make sure the stones and Joey were would be protected first. That’s why I came to you, Colt.”

  “But how did someone find out about you?” Banyon asked as he tried to unravel what she said.

  “I made a mistake and told them,” Lisa responded sheepishly.

  “How the hell did that happen?” Banyon roared and threw up his arms in disgust.

  Lisa shrugged. “The other two members of the society quit when they learned about what had happened on Lake Mead. They said they were afraid for their lives and could not continue. Without them, I can’t perform the séances properly. I needed new members.”

  “What actually happened on Lake Mead?” Steve uttered as he remembered that Banyon told them the training exercise never happened just a few hours ago.

  “I’ll fill you in on that later,” Banyon said sharply in dismissal. “We need to find out who knows about Vril first.”

  “Oh, I know the two people alright. They also helped me to do the translations of the stones,” Lisa said softly. “I thought that they were my friends.”

  “Let me guess,” Banyon said with a nod of his head. “They are both young women like you and are both college professors, right?”

  “I was trying to recruit them into the society,” Lisa said with embarrassment. “But they both told me that they didn’t want to do the séances naked.”

  “You do séances naked?” Steve exclaimed as a fantasy passed through his brain.

  “Yes,” Lisa responded. “It is the only way to receive the messages,” she said like he should understand.

  “You receive messages naked?” Steve said as he gave a quick scan of Lisa’s lovely structure.

  “That is the only way,” Lisa explained clinically. “I need at least two other naked women to do a séance properly.”

  “Did you know this Colt?” Steve quickly asked as he turned to him with his mouth open.

  “Of course,” he replied. “In fact we did a session at my home. The Patel sisters and Loni were part of it.”

  “They were all naked?” Steve exclaimed.

  “Let’s get back to the point,” Banyon quickly interjected realizing he should not have told Steve about the séance. He was having distracting thoughts.

  “Yes, let’s do that,” Lisa agreed as she shifted her dress to cover her legs in embarrassment.

  “Why do you think these women are a threat to you?”

  “Because I believe that one of them intends to publish everything written on the stones,” she wailed. “She has already sent an outline to the dean of the department. He sent me a copy of it.”

  “Why would she do that?” Banyon wondered.

  “The academic world is very competitive,” Lisa said in frustration. “You either publish or die. She is on the ropes with the university and is desperate to gain recognition.”

  “That sounds illegal,” Heather said angrily.

  “Not if she changes some of the findings. It’s all a matter of interpretation,” Lisa explained. “She can write anything that she wants and still get it published. This is not an exact science, you understand.”

  “So she is not actually threatening you, right?” Banyon knew what Lisa had said was true.

  “But I think she has told someone about the stones. They are the threat. I’ve received four emails requesting information about Vril in the last two days. Someone also keeps calling my phon
e and leaving a message.”

  “We need to find out who these people are and what they really want,” Banyon said. “Give me the names and addresses of your friends. Also we’ll need a copy of the emails and the voicemails.”

  “I have all that here,” the efficient professor said as she took a folder from her bag and handed it to Banyon.

  “Mandy, will you run this down to Timmy?” He called out to the women on the balcony. “Tell him to find out what he can about all of these people.”

  “On it boss,” Mandy replied as she skidded to a stop in front of him. She grabbed the folder and sprinted out the office door. Banyon knew he could easily get the information from Wolf, who was probably already researching the people now, but didn’t want to divulge his secret to the new members of his team just yet.

  “Now let’s talk about what you found written on the stones,” Banyon said and clapped his hands.

  Chapter Fifteen

  This time when Joey looked out the window, the four sentinels were only a few feet from the house. He studied their dour faces and realized that both the sentinels and he were from the same tribe. His grandfather had told him the watchers had been tied to the land for hundreds of years. They never did anything — they just watched — but when they moved closer to the ranch, it meant that company was coming. They were the early warning system.

  Joey looked past the Indians and noticed a cloud of dust spewing from the desert. He tracked it and saw a bright red jeep speeding towards the house. That must be my first protector, he thought. He gathered up his weapons and went out onto the front porch stepping through one of the fog like sentinels in the process.

  The jeep skidded to a halt a few feet from the porch and Loni quickly jumped out. He was shocked by the tiny Asian woman who now stood before him. She was dressed in white Capri pants with a checkered flannel top. She wore cowboy boots and dark sunglasses. Her head was covered by a large pink cowboy hat. But, what shocked him most were the two lethal six guns strapped to her small legs and the long Bowie knife attached to the belt.

  She had dressed this way before. Banyon called it her Loni Oakley look. She quickly opened the back door of the jeep and pulled out three rifles, one was an automatic machine pistol. She threw the straps for the rifles over her shoulder and held the machine pistol in her small hands.

  “Hi, I’m Loni,” she spoke in a sweet voice and headed to the porch with her hand out to shake.

  “Joey Brownwater,” he stammered back. He didn’t know what else to say. She seemed so small and fragile.

  “I understand that we may get some company before the rest of my people arrive. Got any place where I can stash my jeep? There is no sense advertising that I’m here.”

  “The barn,” he muttered and pointed.

  Part Two

  The Phoenicians

  Chapter Sixteen

  “What did you find on the stones that concerns Vril?” Banyon asked specifically.

  “We discovered the hidden location of a long lost supply of it,” Lisa explained. “The directions are clearly written.”

  “That’s unbelievable! Where is it?”

  “I’m not sure I want to tell anyone,” Lisa said nervously as she looked around the room. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “Stop being obstructive,” Banyon ordered. “You can trust everyone is this room. Where is the Vril?”

  “Near Portage, Wisconsin,” she said sheepishly.

  “Are you sure?” Banyon said as he scratched his head. The information didn’t fit any background he knew about Vril.

  “I’m very sure,” she replied. “The writer of the stones went into great detail about how one of their ships had landed in Atlantis and traded some cargo for an ‘ultimate green energy source’.”

  “Atlantis, but nobody has ever seen Atlantis. No one has ever found a trace of it,” Steve said and flapped his arms in disbelief.

  “The Phoenicians did,” she replied confidently.

  The stunned Banyon didn’t know what to say. “Maybe you need to start by explaining everything you know about the stones.”

  ***

  Mandy returned from talking to Timmy. She and Heather stood behind the couch where Banyon and Steve now resided. Lisa sat across from them. She once again spread the three pictures on the table and started out with a lecture.

  “The first thing I did was have a forensic archeologist verify the age of the markings on the stones. The writings started about 1200 B.C. and the last writings were completed around 1000 B.C., so several people were contributing writers over that time. The stones are native to the upper great lakes region around the upper Michigan peninsula. Because of the high copper content, we are pretty sure that they originated on Isle Royale.”

  “Lisa, isn’t that where archeologists have found an ancient copper mine?” Banyon the historian asked.

  “That’s right Colt,” she said with a devastating smile. It was just like the one she gave her students when they made a correct answer during class. “The copper mine there had a very rich deposit and was near the surface — which made it easy to work. It was also huge. Isle Royale is an island that is forty-two miles long and several miles wide, the copper was everywhere. The island is located in Lake Superior several miles south of the Canadian mainland. Currently, the scientists studying the site believe that more than 1.5 billion pounds of copper was taken from the ground. From artifacts found around the dig sites they were able to determine the heaviest activity in the mine. It was between 1500 B.C. and 1200 B.C.”

  “As I recall, the real mystery is this — where is all the copper?” Banyon noted. “There certainly weren’t enough local Indians to demand that much copper around that time. Someone mined it and carried it away.”

  “It went to the Mediterranean according to the stones,” Lisa quickly threw out.

  “How could that be?” Heather suddenly spoke. “I mean the Great Lakes were landlocked at that time. They couldn’t just sail down the St. Lawrence Seaway. There were too many waterfalls and obstacles back then. Niagara falls alone would stop them.”

  “That’s because they didn’t sail their ships down the seaway,” Lisa agreed. “They took a longer route. But it was safer and more easily managed. According to the stones, they traveled across Lake Superior and down the Fox River in Wisconsin in barge like ships. When they reached the area, which today is called Portage, Wisconsin, they transported their cargo over land to the Wisconsin River and ultimately to the Mississippi River. The word portage means to transport things between waterways. The two rivers are less than two miles apart at that point. On the Mississippi they kept ocean going ships to send the copper to the Mediterranean markets.” Lisa paused to let that sink in. She then continued. “According to the stones, the round trip took three years, but there were many vessels to carry the copper. It was a well-known trade route according to the stones.”

  “I recently read that some blood sacrifice stones were found right here in Chicago. Scientists believe that the stones were Phoenician” Heather offered.

  “Yes, the Chicago River which runs right through downtown Chicago. It was another portage,” Lisa explained.

  “But how could they find where they were going?” Mandy asked.

  “We know that the Phoenicians were able to navigate by using the North Star.” Lisa replied.

  “But I thought the Copper Age ended long before 1500 B. C. The Bronze Age was in full swing.” Banyon stated. “Why would people want that much copper?”

  “Good question Colt,” Lisa remarked and nodded her head. “To make Bronze you need both copper and tin. The major copper mines in the Sinai and the island of Crete in the Mediterranean were mined out by then. Copper became scarce and also very popular as a household item for pots and utensils. It was a perfect item for traders.”

  “So the Phoenicians, who were the world’s traders, cornered the copper market,” Banyon the businessman now understood.

  “If I hear you right, people from Europe
were here over three thousand years ago? Are you telling us that Columbus didn’t discover America?” Mandy burst out. “This is too fantastic to believe.”

  “He wasn’t the first here — not by a long shot,” Lisa replied. “Scientists have recently discovered settlements from the Vikings in Nova Scotia dating back to 1100 A.D. There are also many unexplained artifacts found across America. But the stones prove that the Phoenicians were here first. In fact, some archeologists now believe that Columbus found an ancient map that gave him directions to the new world. I believe that it was a Phoenician map.”

  “Wow! That’s too much,” Mandy exclaimed. “I guess we will have to rewrite all the history books then.”

  “Mandy,” Lisa replied smugly. “They are rewritten all the time when it comes to archeology.”

  “So explain how the Vril got to Portage, Wisconsin?” Banyon interjected. “That makes no sense to me.”

  “According to the stones, a ship got blown off course on its way to the copper mines,” Lisa started. “After a few days of wandering, they found a large island. The people there were very advanced and had many work-saving devices powered by an energy source they called Vril. The captain of the ship immediately believed that the island could become a new trading partner and negotiated a trade for some of the Vril. He intended to take it back to his home port and have it studied for its trade value. When he got to the portage site, he decided to bury the Vril and pick it up on the way back from the copper mines. He didn’t want anyone to know what he had collected.”

  “Why do you believe that it is still there?” Heather asked.

  “The evidence is clear,” Lisa offered. “The captain could not read or write. So when he got to the settlement, he had one of the elders write down what he knew about Vril and where he had buried it. He kept the location of Atlantis to himself unfortunately. The captain was very excited about his find, so the wise elder decided to keep a copy. A year later, they found out the captain and his crew perished while crossing Lake Superior in a storm along with their cargo while heading back to the portage.”