The Lost Power: VanOps, Book 1

by Avanti Centrae

  Eventually, the feeling faded and she brought her hands to her lap and tried to light a piece of paper on fire. It didn’t work.

  A curious mix of bliss and frustration filled her, and she decided to pursue breakfast.

  After donning her monk robe again, Maddy grabbed her backpack and headed to the dining hall. She was almost there when the master appeared from a dimly lit corridor on her right, Nanda, his shadow, in tow.

  Maddy repeated the hands to the nose greeting they were shown last night. “Good morning.”

  “A fast learner!” The master teased, through Nanda’s translating ability.

  “Perhaps,” she countered. “I do have some questions for you about the exercise.”

  “It is early yet for the food. Would you like to step into my office?”

  Why not? “Thank you. I would appreciate your guidance.”

  Nanda and the master turned and walked back the way they had come. Maddy followed at a close distance. The hallway was not straight, winding in a leisurely arc around to the right.

  It wasn’t long before they walked through a doorway and into a room with a large desk, an open space with cushions, and another rug on the floor in front of an altar. The best part of the room was a stunning picture window that looked out at Mount Popa, the nearby dormant volcano and the monastery’s namesake.

  Maddy stood for a moment and took in the panoramic, sweeping view of the sky with its wisps of orange and red clouds. She could work in an office like this. If she had to be in an office.

  The master pointed to the cushions in front of the altar. “Please, let’s sit here.” Nanda lit a candle in front of a Buddha statue and sat down to join them. “Now, what is your question?”

  “It has taken me years to be able to feel my energy at all,” she began. “This morning, doing the exercise, I felt hot energy moving up my spine.”

  The old man nodded, eyes lit with understanding and delight.

  “In aikido, we’re always told that our power center is below and behind our navel. How do I focus that energy in my hands from that spot? Can you give me a clue?”

  His face broke into a smile. He thumped his chest and said through Nanda, “The heart is the clue. It is like a lens that concentrates the sun’s rays. Connect the heart to the power center with your mind’s eye and try it again.”

  “Thank you.” She bowed her head. “I will try later.”

  After Nanda translated, the master cocked his head, looked out the window for a moment, and turned to her. “I sense that you should try now.”

  She sat up straight with surprise at his interest but also knew time was short so she didn’t argue.

  As he had asked, she knelt and sat on her feet. Her arms went above her head and she began to chant. Although her eyes were closed, she could feel his attention on her.

  As she chanted, she visualized her heart, big as the sun, getting energy from behind her navel.

  “Good. Now imagine someone you love,” the master said in a quiet voice.

  Her thoughts bounced between Bear and Juergen, like and lust. She lost her sense of concentration.

  He laughed. “A child. Imagine a child you love. That love is pure.”

  She obeyed. AJ filled her mind, and she imagined giving him a huge hug, her heart full and bright. That image steadied her and she could feel the energy grow in her heart.

  “Now put your hands down, spread them apart as I did yesterday, and send some of that energy to them. See your hands getting white.”

  Maddy complied and could feel the warmth.

  In the background of the room, someone moved. There were rustling sounds, like paper being crumpled. Something slid on the rug in front of her, a tray perhaps, but she stayed focused, sending heat to her hands.

  “There is some paper on my tea tray in front of you. Cup your hands around it and continue seeing your hands white with heat from your heart.”

  She cupped her hands as he had done yesterday to let the energy and heat bounce between them. Doubts swirled in the distance, but she ignored her mind and focused on the chant, the heat, AJ. There was a white heat, a glow that she could sense, balled up between her hands. She concentrated on growing the ball of heat.

  The sound was what she noticed first. A crackling, like when she used to light the kindling in the wood stove on a cold night in Lake Tahoe.

  Fire!

  Her eyes flew open, her concentration lost. But it didn’t matter, the paper on the tray in front of her bore a tiny flame that was gathering momentum. A wide smile blossomed on her face, matched only by the twin grins that the master and Nanda wore as they looked between her and the paper.

  She had done it!

  Maddy glowed with pleasure. Relief that they could get moving again flooded her, too, and she knew Will would be pleased.

  The master beamed at her for a long minute and then said something to Nanda in their language that she didn’t understand. From around his neck, the master handed Nanda a small key on a long gold chain.

  Nanda walked over to the master’s desk and, using the tiny key, unlocked a drawer. He brought back a bright red-and-gold jewelry box and handed it to the master, who looked Maddy in the eyes. “What you seek are obelisks made of a special, ancient mineral.”

  He paused to let that sink in.

  Maddy wasn’t surprised, based on what they’d seen in the codex at the castle, and Will’s scientific mumbo-jumbo. But it was nice to know they’d been right. She nodded at him to continue.

  “These obelisks can be used as a weapon when you run your energy to them like you just did to the paper. Your energy amplifies the energy in the obelisks. Used together, they will burn with the energy of a thousand deadly suns. Be careful when you learn to use them and use them only for good. You must guard this secret with your life.”

  This news confirmed their assumptions. The obelisks were a weapon in their own right and perhaps could fuel an e-bomb. No wonder the Russians want them!

  Maddy nodded again, more solemnly this time. A promise made.

  The master turned the front of the box toward her and opened it. Her breath caught.

  Inside the box was an ornate necklace, gorgeous in its jeweled splendor. The chain was finely worked gold, the ornament oval and about an inch long.

  He handed it to her and she examined it. It had a gray-green precious stone in the center, upon which was carved a pyramid, surrounded by two smaller pyramids. The outer circle of gold around the stone was inlaid with tiny chunks of jade and garnet. There were two small pearls in the circle as well. She turned the amulet over. The back had a raised sixteen-pointed sun. Recalling the Egyptian symbols on the obelisks in the codex back at the castle, she wasn’t surprised by the pyramids but didn’t recognize the sun symbol.

  “You will need this where you are going,” the master said.

  “It’s...it’s stunning.”

  “You might bring it back someday, but yes, for now, keep it safe, keep it with you, and use it to guide you to your last destination.”

  Maddy put the amulet over her head, moving her mother’s necklace aside.

  As soon as she tucked it under her robe, a helicopter whirred in the distance. The picture window revealed a dark spec on the horizon, growing larger by the second.

  Where are Will and Bear? Juergen?

  “You must go now. Nanda will help you leave. Remember to listen--”

  On her feet and headed toward the door, backpack in hand, she completed the farewell, sure now what it meant. “And feel the Power.”

  She had found her power and knew where they needed to go, but with a helicopter bearing down on the monastery, would she live to find the obelisks?

  CHAPTER 69

  7:00 a.m.:

  Will heard a helicopter in the distance.

  He’d been awake for a good ten minutes, lying in bed, and reviewing the events of his evening after they’d all gone to bed in the Popa Monastery.

  First, he cornered Maddy and had asked
about the big secret that Bear was keeping about a prior commitment. In brief, she told him that Bear was training with a covert group of cutting-edge intelligence officers and would give him more details later.

  Quite a surprise: Bear was a baby spy. Will had a healthy distrust of all things government, so although he trusted Bear, he was wary of this news and made a mental note to get the specifics from him.

  Next, curious about everything the master had shown them, Will practiced the exercise in the tiny monk’s cell that he was given as a bedroom. There was barely room for him to kneel on the rug next to the bed, but he knelt there anyway and worked the exercise for a while. He didn’t feel a thing, and discouraged, had lain down on the comfortable bed to nod off.

  Instead, memories of his time with his wife flooded his thoughts. The meeting at work when her smile lit the conference room on fire and he realized he found her attractive. Their first date at the Italian haunt in downtown São Paolo where they shared noodles and talked over espresso. The first time she spent the night on his live-aboard sailboat and they merged with the stars until the first light of day. Their large family wedding, lakeside, at the Parque Ibirapuera in São Paulo. It had rained, but they had a blast anyway. The night, a month ago, when she told him she was going to have their baby.

  At the memory of the child, the grief had taken him over, and this time, he didn’t fight it. It was an avalanche, a tidal wave, and drowned him in unfamiliar sorrow while the weight in his stomach and chest anchored him to the bed. Tears finally flowed, an unfettered ocean.

  This morning, part of him felt so ashamed that he had cried that he wanted to hide under the covers. But he felt lighter and knew that it had been needed. Now he could get on with the business of healing his heart.

  In the light of morning, he was considering how to accelerate their time here at the monastery when he became aware of the sound. At first, it was the distant, irritating drone of a fly.

  Thirty seconds later, Bear knocked on the door. “Argones. Wake up! We’ve got to go!”

  Will swung his feet onto the floor and started to dress in yesterday’s clothes. “I’m up, I’m awake! How can you tell we’ve got to go?”

  “I recognize the sound of that helo. It’s military grade.”

  Expletives danced through Will’s head. Within thirty seconds, he was dressed back in his monk’s robe and had thrown open the door. Bear looked pale in the dim light of the hallway and had also chosen to keep with their disguise.

  “I guess breakfast is out of the question?” Finding his own gallows humor amusing, Will laughed to himself.

  “Shut up. Let’s go find Maddy.”

  “Where do you think she is?”

  “Let’s start with the dining hall and that big garden area.”

  As the only pseudo public area that they’d seen here, it seemed a logical choice. “Let’s go! But I do want to know more about the Bond business.”

  “Later!”

  They ran.

  Last night it had taken them just a handful of minutes to get from the dining hall to their rooms, but today it seemed to take an hour, even though they were running. Within seconds, Bear outstripped Will.

  Soon they hit the dining hall. It was relatively empty, so they kept going, and when they came out into the Grand Garden Will could see why. Most of the monastery’s young monks were milling about in the garden area, curiosity about the helicopter having drawn them away from their breakfasts. They were all looking to the south, and Will could hear the sound of the helicopter getting closer.

  Frantically, he looked around for an exit. He had no idea how they were going to get off the mountaintop death trap. They’d be easy prey on those 777 stairs.

  Will scanned the crowd. Although most monks wore look-alike robes, he was able to spy Maddy standing by Nanda near where the Grand Garden met the Private Pergola. She had also dressed in her monk’s robe. Juergen, Dieter, and Elena were in the center of the open space, necks craning to look up at the helicopter, standing out like sore thumbs in their street clothes.

  Bear saw Maddy, too. “There she is!”

  She yelled for the monks to take cover, but in their curiosity, or helicopter-induced deafness, they ignored her.

  As the noise became intense, Will and Bear pushed through the throng toward Maddy. They made it to the center of the Grand Garden. Juergen stood five meters away, hand shading his eyes so he could see better.

  “Take cover!” Will shouted to him.

  “What? Why?” Juergen demanded.

  “It’s military and might be after us!”

  Comprehension lit Juergen’s eyes and he began to push through the crowd toward Maddy. Bear and Will moved in the same direction. Dieter and Elena split and ran toward opposite walls.

  Faster! They had to move faster!

  Nanda motioned them to come toward him. He’d moved to one of the several doorways that lined the Grand Garden and held open the door. They were still eight meters away. The helicopter was closing fast from behind them.

  Automatic gunfire ripped through the air. Pop! Pop! Pop! The stone patio behind Will’s legs erupted and sharp bits of stone bit into both of his calves. He choked back a shout at the same time that Bear swore. Monks around them let loose primal screams full of surprise and dismay.

  Juergen stumbled and fell. Will smelled blood and fear as the helicopter roared away overhead, its shadow blocking out the morning sun for a long black moment.

  CHAPTER 70

  7:27 a.m.:

  After the helo roared off, Bear felt a stabbing, shooting pain on the outside of his left arm and smaller points of agony on his calves. The back of Juergen’s shirt was bloody. The noise of the rotors was still deafening and threatened to take him back in time to a mountaintop in Afghanistan that he’d rather forget.

  Bear pulled himself into the present as he noted a telltale hole in the back of Juergen’s left shoulder. Just to be thorough, he ran over and reached for Juergen’s neck to see if there was a pulse at the carotid.

  Juergen’s neck felt hot and slippery with sweat. No pulse!

  Will pointed in the direction the helicopter had gone. “We have to go!”

  Knowing that it was hopeless but wanting to try everything, Bear pulled Juergen over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry and headed toward Maddy and the open door that Nanda held. She stood just inside the darkness, still twenty feet away. Bear put his head down and sprinted toward her.

  The helo raced back toward them and let down another trail of automatic gunfire fifteen feet to Bear’s left. Will made the door. Lungs burning, Bear lunged toward the opening. And then the helo was past and Bear was inside.

  They were in a broad hallway. Hands reached up to take Juergen off Bear’s shoulders. They laid the body on the floor and Maddy repeated the exercise of trying to find Juergen’s heartbeat. She choked. “I can’t--”

  Nanda leaned down next to her and also felt for a pulse. There was blood on Juergen’s chest. The bullet must have gone clear through him. Bear could also see that Juergen’s eyes stared up at nothing, so between that and the lack of a heartbeat, Bear knew the man was gone. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Bear lowered his head in defeat. Remembering other fallen, his throat closed with emotion, and he shut his eyes.

  In a moment, he realized that a small part of his heart felt lighter, relieved, for which he berated himself. Unless the man was a mole for the Russians, who were following them somehow. The guy had seemed tense all the time.

  Maddy looked at Nanda, beseeching him. “I don’t feel anything. Nanda, do you?”

  “No. He has departed.” Nanda shut Juergen’s eyes by running his left hand down over them. “I will say prayers later and we will arrange for burial. Now, I must get you to safety.”

  Tears welled in Maddy’s eyes. She bowed her head for a moment, crouched next to the body. Will put his hand on her shoulder and Bear took the time to look at his left arm. He could still hear screams and commotion on the other side
of the door. A bullet had grazed the flesh on the back of his arm, along the triceps muscle. It was a four-inch-long wound but gratefully not deep.

  “Let me help,” Maddy said. While he was looking at his wound, she had gotten control of her emotions and stood next to him.

  She reached down, tore off a part of Juergen’s shirt, and tied it around Bear’s arm. Their eyes met for a moment, she touched his cheek, and he knew she understood his feelings and accepted them. In some way, perhaps she felt the same, as any conflict in her heart was over. A twisted knot, deep in his chest, loosened and he exhaled with relief.

  “Come now!” Nanda said. “That may have to wait.” He set off at a trot down the hallway.

  Bear agreed with him and motioned for Maddy and Will to follow Nanda. Bear took up the rear guard, his calves complaining from shallow, bloody divots.

  After heading deep into the compound for two minutes, Bear could still hear the helo, a distant fly buzzing around a corpse.

  They jogged farther down the hallway, took a left, continued for another minute, and then pulled up in front of a narrow door. Nanda opened it and pulled out several brooms and mops. He reached up, pushed a small button, and the entire back panel of the closet shifted to the right, revealing a circular staircase cut into a dark, narrow stairwell.

  Nanda pulled a long black flashlight and a small pack from the wall and handed the flashlight to Maddy and the pack to Will. Maddy turned the flashlight on and pointed it down the tight spiral staircase. The tree-trunk-wide pole in the center supported stairs that jutted between the center shaft and the stone wall. The air smelled fresh, and Bear figured there were air shafts somewhere on the long way down. It was an impressive escape route.