The Stone of Secrets

by K. L. Nelson

Emmett, where are you?

  Chapter Twenty Six

  The professor found herself being rushed down more corridors. The director had given the command to the men: “I want her ready in ten minutes!” No one wanted to be responsible for it happening in eleven.

  Skye was familiar with the tactic. A captor wants to keep his prisoner busy. She didn’t doubt there was a reason for the rush. But the side benefit was to keep her mind racing, to weaken her defenses. It didn’t work on Skye. Her body may have been running, but her mind was calm. She told it to be.

  Myna was waiting in a strange room. She began applying makeup the instant Skye sat down. Another woman had her hair going at the same time. In minutes the eyeshadow was applied and blended perfectly as before, and her hair was tied up in a gold ribbon in the most interesting shape.

  “Hey, good job guys!” Skye commented stealing a glance in a nearby mirror.

  In the next room the robe was slipped on and clasped, and again they were on the move.

  The next room she was rushed into wasn’t nearly so pleasant. It was a long dark room in the basement. Skye instantly recognized the aura. Pictish symbols were carved into the crown molding surrounding the ceiling. Banners hung along both sides of the elongated hall. An animal head was mounted to the stone wall between each banner. The only light was coming from the flame of torches at the head of the room. There was one on each side of the sacrificial table, just like the underwater room at Predjama. This room was cleaner and larger, but it was the same room. And this one was still in use.

  Skye fought the dark feeling that enveloped her as she was brought into the room. The men were holding her tightly by the arms now. She knew this wasn’t going to be good.

  A door slid open at the head of the room and the director walked in. As the men held Skye, the director opened a large book on the podium and began reading in an unknown tongue. Even though Skye had deciphered the Pict language, she’d never heard it spoken. She listened intently to the words, wishing she had more time to learn how to speak the language. It was an odd time to do research, but to her it was still fascinating.

  After chanting for some time, the director opened a box and removed a large chain. Each of the twenty three links was comprised of a pair of solid silver rings. There was a penannular ring on one end with engraved Pictish inscriptions. Skye instantly recognized it as a Whitecleuch Chain, a Pictish artifact unearthed by erosion in the nineteenth century. But this example didn’t look like it had spent six centuries buried in mud. The flawless surface of the silver reflected the torchlight like it was radiating its own fire. It was immaculate. Skye realized she was looking at an original piece handed down from the Picts themselves. The one picked from the muddy drainage ditch was extremely valuable. The one the director was holding now was priceless.

  He held the chain up by each end and descended the stairs. Standing before Skye with the chain held up, he spoke again in Pictish. This time, to the delight of the professor, another man stood by and offered a translation of this part of the ceremony:

  Our mothers bled to give life

  And brought forth seven kingdoms from the womb

  As each generation is blessed by those who went before

  And gives life to the next

  So also the right to rule comes from she who ruled

  And is given to another by blood as the links of a chain

  The director then placed the chain on Skye’s shoulders and fastened it behind her neck using the penannular ring, forming a choker. It was heavy on her collar bones.

  The director stepped back and spoke. “There is more to this, but I am afraid it will have to wait. We are needed at the control room. It seems things are starting to get interesting.”

  In minutes they were back in the control room. The atmosphere was much more anxious than before. The compound was under assault.

  The screen was showing a cloud of soldiers parachuting into a meadow a mile away. It was more soldiers than Skye had ever seen in one place. She smiled. The cavalry was here.

  At the same time, she knew this could turn out very badly. She hoped the FBI had gotten the signal and had a plan to disable the laser. They must have seen the demonstration via satellite. She knew the soldiers wouldn’t be there if there wasn’t a plan. She had to trust.

  Skye was given a chair in front of a holographic interface. A man placed the barrel of his gun against the side of her head.

  “Well this is cozy,” she quipped.

  Emmett, where are you?

  ***

  Under the sea at the bottom of the cliff, a team of Navy SEALs entered a water port. The underwater tunnel led straight to their target: the electrolyte power generator. Surfacing inside the huge cavern, the team removed their masks and started unloading their satchels. Each man was carrying an M183 demolition charge assembly. One of them contained enough explosives to completely disable the generator. They had six.

  Jake Smithers looked up at the machine they were about to turn to scrap metal.

  “What is that thing?” he asked.

  Emmett replied, “Well I don’t know what they call it in Utah, but where I come from they refer to it as a BMT.”

  “What does that stand for?” Jake asked, taking the bait.

  “Big Metal Thingy,” Emmett replied. “And it’s going to make a nice boom.”

  The team placed the charges around the circumference of the BMT and started back for the water.

  “Wait,” Emmett said as he looked at the other end of the cavern. “I have a better idea. You guys up for a little action?”

  “With you?” Smithers replied. “It’ll be just like old times!”

  “Count me in,” Hooper Daniels said.

  The other three SEALs were younger. They’d only met Emmett hours before, but somehow they knew this was going to be a mission they would never forget.

  “Let’s do it!”

  The six men checked their weapons and started up the spiral staircase on the other end of the cavern. They had fifteen stories to climb, and they had to do it fast.

  ***

  The soldiers moved closer to the compound through the trees, but the camera was seeing it all. Dozens of Pact militiamen were ready with automatic weapons inside the wall. Fifty more were guarding the facility. Whoever was left after the laser deployment would easily be taken care of. If there was anyone left.

  Suddenly, eight of the men guarding the building dropped dead at once. Everyone took cover. “Snipers!” someone shouted.

  Hector spoke into his comlink, “Control, we are taking sniper fire. There are at least a half dozen. Do you see them?”

  Inside the control room, technicians split the display and started feeding from different cameras around the compound to search the trees for the snipers. It was clear now that the paratroops were used as a diversion while the sniper teams got into position.

  Skye held her breath as the staff searched the trees. She could hear reports of more men falling to sniper fire. But the more the snipers fired, the more likely it was they would be found.

  The director grew impatient. “Switch back to wide angle,” he told one of the techs. When the screen was one large image of the advancing troops, he swiped his hand across the entire thing. Targets were marked all over the screen and the weapon began powering up. The director turned to the man holding the gun to the professor’s head.

  “If she doesn’t fire on my command, shoot her!”

  Skye took one last look at the big red button and closed her eyes. She thought of all the people she would have liked to say goodbye to.

  Suddenly a massive explosion rocked the compound. Debris shot upwards from the silo and out the rotunda. The building went dark and every holograph disappeared as power switched to emergency backup. The interfaces came back up in seconds as the generator kicked on, but the main weapon was offline.

  Automatic weapons fire was heard down the corridor. The director wailed and ran his hands through his frazzled hair, pulling
out a couple of clumps in the process. The atmosphere changed as people noticed the look in the director’s eyes. Skye sensed that if things didn’t go as he had planned, there would be even more bloodshed. “You two,” he said, pointing to some men near the door. “Take her to the ceremony room and secure her.”

  The men didn’t waste a second. They grabbed Skye’s arms and rushed her once again back to the ceremony room downstairs. She heard the click of the large steel doors locking behind them. It was quiet now, eerily so.

  As the men held Skye in the ceremony room, another door opened and the medieval rack was brought in.

  “Is this really necessary?” Skye complained as the men began to secure her in the shackles.

  Skye recognized the rack from the image the director had shown her, but there was something different. She noticed wires. Big wires. Large electrical cables ran along the floor to a crude control panel, where a man stood ready to administer the shock.

  After she was secured to the rack, the whole thing was tilted back. She felt the weight of her body draw her against the electrodes positioned at various points on her body. It was terribly uncomfortable. But she knew discomfort was the least of her problems.

  “You have seen we are a people of great ceremony,” the director said as he approached the professor.

  “I hadn’t noticed,” Skye replied with hatred in her voice.

  The man smiled. “Quite so. Well, it turns out there is a lot of cultural inertia after centuries of doing things a certain way. These rites were handed down to us from our ancestors. We must keep them, or we deny their gift to us.”

  “Your ancestors are likely ashamed of you,” Skye said calmly. “Anyway, you’ll soon find out won’t you?”

  “Indeed. But there is something else we have learned along the way that has helped us get to where we are.”

  The director moved closer to Skye. He spoke inches from her face.

  “There is a beauty in pain. Suffering enacts a cleansing of all dross from the soul. Truth can be found only when everything else is burned away. Only at the brink of death will you know who you truly are!”

  As he spoke he revealed the true level of his insanity. He was passionately addicted to inflicting torture. And torture was how he hoped to make the professor complaisant. He really believed intense suffering was the secret to changing her into the Empress Matriarch.

  The director fell into euphoria as he spoke. “You will feel such agony,” he breathed with eyes closed. He turned and walked to the podium at the head of the room.

  “You are insane,” the professor said as he ascended the stairs. “Your operation is falling apart. Everything you have done will be destroyed.” Her words did not affect him. He was the captain of a sinking ship, consumed inside his madness. Skye braced herself for the worst.

  The director began reading from the book.

  Omwah difdinai ti sochthanir dramada

  Cumbrinia tranaldin dinameria Um fiti…

  He nodded to the man standing at the rheostat control. The voltage shot through Skye’s body, making her jump in agony. She immediately discovered that lifting one part of her body off the electrodes only put more pressure on the remaining electrodes, increasing the conductivity at those points. The system had been refined through years of sinister experimentation. It was crude but effective.

  “That was the first setting,” the director informed her. “How do you feel?”

  “Didn’t feel a thing,” the professor replied panting. Her whole body ached from the jolt.

  Nosterium podina tu dinanori decthani

  Om dunati sherno belisiori nod tannimum

  This time, the shock was a full order of magnitude higher and lasted longer. At least it seemed that way to Skye. She cried out in pain as the voltage shot through her, contracting every muscle in her body. She thought her bones would break from the involuntary strain she was putting against the iron shackles. When it was over, she could hardly breathe.

  Omwah ti podina beradi cumbrinia

  Dumabrin che naphtani

  Suddenly an ear-splitting explosion rocked the building. The steel door into the ceremony room was blown open and Skye could hear automatic weapons fire behind her. Bullets flew everywhere. The men in the room were no match for the intruders. One by one they fell dead as they tried to resist the onslaught with handguns.

  But the director disappeared through the door behind the podium.

  “Skye! Are you okay?”

  Emmett was a sight for sore eyes. “I’m fine,” the professor replied. “Just get me out of this.”

  “What is all this?” Emmett asked as he went to work freeing her.

  “These crazies think I’m their queen.”

  “Wow,” Emmett replied. “I’ve never been to a coronation. Not sure I’ll ever go to another one.”

  As soon as she was free, Skye fell on Emmett and locked him in a firm kiss. Hooper looked at Smithers.

  “I had a feeling it was about a woman,” he said.

  “I thought they’d killed you,” Skye said after the kiss.

  “So did they. They threw me in the river. Can you believe that? A Navy SEAL!”

  As Emmett released Skye, he felt her falling and quickly retightened his hold. He looked at the rack. He wasn’t sure how long she’d been on there, but he suspected she wasn’t in the mood to recount the ordeal.

  “Okay missy, hang on. You’re getting a ride out of here!” Emmett picked her up and carried her past the rubble while the others went ahead to clear the hall.

  “Emmett, we need to get upstairs to the control room,” Skye said.

  “Why?”

  “I have some unfinished business.”

  The team made their way to the top of the building, where soldiers from the U.S. Army Rangers had captured the entire staff and were busy processing everyone.

  Skye had regained enough strength to stand on her own. She recognized many among the captives who were techs from the control room.

  “Sargent,” the professor ordered a nearby soldier who seemed to be heading the operation, “I need everyone wearing a lab coat escorted back inside the control room immediately.”

  The soldier looked at Emmett.

  “Better do as she says, Sargent. She’s the queen!”

  With everyone seated at their stations the professor, still in full dress and wearing the Chain of the Matriarchs around her neck, began shouting orders.

  “I want this entire building shut down except for that laser,” she said. “Divert all backup power to the weapon.”

  “But ma’am,” one of the techs said. “It’ll overload the system. Without the electrolyte convertor there won’t be enough power to…”

  “Did you like working for that crazy old sadist?” Skye interrupted.

  The man looked around. Everyone in the room was watching him.

  “Not really…” he answered.

  “Then do exactly as I say. Power up that generator. I want every last volt going to the injector.”

  The whole staff began feverishly working to get the laser online. On the screen, the director’s helicopter was retreating over the Baltic. Skye put her finger on the image to select the target and walked over to the terminal. Looking at the display, Skye put her finger into the holographic Big Red Button. “Goodbye, father,” she whispered.

  Transformers began exploding throughout the building as the thin laser beam shot towards the helicopter at the speed of light. The beam was far weaker than before, but it was enough to pierce the ship’s fuel tank and destroy it completely. The entire building went dark, but not before everyone in the room saw helicopter parts flying out of a massive ball of fire over the Baltic. The director was dead. In the darkened room, the whole staff stood and cheered.

  As the professor exited the control room, she paused at the sergeant.

  “Go easy on them,” she said. “They’ve been through a lot.”

  Emmett and his team couldn’t believe what they had just seen. �
�How did you know the weapon would work?” he asked.

  Skye shrugged. “I got bored one day and read a tech manual.”

  “What else have you read?” Emmett asked in amazement.

  Skye looked puzzled. “A lot of things,” she replied.

  Emmett stood speechless as the professor walked away.

  “Are you sure you want to get mixed up with that woman?” Smithers asked.

  “Smitty,” Emmett replied, not taking his eyes off the professor, “I think it may be too late.”

  Hooper laughed out loud, and the other SEALs joined him as they hurried to catch up to the woman in the silk robe.

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  The waitress at the Moonfish Café stared at the unruly party of nine in the corner, the only people left in the restaurant besides her. She’d been on her feet all day. She just wanted to go home. But their conversation was showing no signs of letting up. She wondered how people could be so happy without having consumed any adult beverages. She sighed and went back to figuring up their bill. This time she would drop the bill on the table and leave quickly before they had a chance to order another plate of appetizers. Or maybe she would just tell them to lock up when they left.

  Skye, Emmett, Smithers, Hooper, Lindsay, Sebastian, Andrew, and Damien laughed out loud as Mert spoke. He told of his latest fraternity prank that had gone horribly wrong.

  “…It turns out the flamingos were upset about the bubble bath in the fountain,” he explained. “They started attacking people. A chemistry major was chased all the way to her lab!”

  Smitty and Hooper then told of an incident in basic training where Emmett had put talc on the ceiling fan in the officer’s lounge. The room was filled with white dust when the sergeant hit the switch.

  “The whole platoon was doing pushups for the rest of the day,” Hooper laughed.

  The professor noticed Mert nodding in deep contemplation. “Perhaps we shouldn’t give out any more ideas…” Skye said nervously. “I still have to go to work at the university.”

  When the laughter settled, Skye turned to Emmett. “I still don’t get where you got all those Army Rangers on such short notice,” she said.