The Complete 8-Book Guardians Adventure Saga

by Summer Lee

  Sir Edmund and the tech who had been listening in, got a brief audio feedback and then silence. “Miss Night-cloud!” Sir Edmund screamed, but Magena heard nothing.

  “Blast it all! Do we still have ears on Mr. DiBenedetto?”

  The tech nodded.

  EIGHTEEN

  Daniel’s eyes widened and he froze as soon as he walked into the large den and saw an older man sitting behind the mahogany desk. There were bookshelves on every wall filled to capacity. There was a large globe on a stand next to the desk.

  The man stood up, without showing any surprise at all. “Good evening. May I help you with something?”

  Daniel closed the door behind him and walked confidently to the desk, speaking Italian. “Il Sig. Sabotini...”

  “In English,” Sabotini interrupted, as he smiled. “Please.”

  “Mr. Sabotini,” Daniel managed. “I’m glad I found you! Your guard...”

  “Was sent away by you,” Sabotini interrupted again. “I really should get new doors. They are like tissue paper. Anyone in my office can hear what’s going on just outside the door. Let’s dispense with any unnecessary lies and get down to business, Mr. DiBenedetto.”

  “I came to Turin on personal business.”

  “Bravo!” Sabotini said, as he clapped slowly. “Your being forthright is a nice change of pace. I am usually surrounded by yes-men. Frankly, I’m sick of it. I want to hear a differing opinion once in a while. Now mind you, I don’t want anyone in my employ who is argumentative or disagreeing with me for the sake of disagreeing, but it is welcomed.”

  Daniel smiled. He felt comfortable around Sabotini. That bothered him a little. “I’m your man for speaking my mind, chief. That’s who I am.”

  Sabotini looked at Daniel in deep thought. “Yes. Perhaps, you are the right man after all. I have something to discuss with you, but first you must do something for me. This discussion is for your ears only.”

  Daniel nodded and wondered if Sabotini was setting him up. He knew about the wire, but the Fresno native would be all alone without his connection to Sir Edmund. He was compelled by whatever proposal Sabotini had for him though.

  Curiosity won out.

  Daniel took off his wire and handed it to Sabotini. The elder man smiled, walked to his bathroom, and threw the wired device into the toilet. He then flushed.

  ***

  Again, a loud audio feedback made Sir Edmund and his tech take off their headsets.

  Sir Edmund was more than upset. “Blast it all! They have both taken off their wires before we could get a solid confession from either Mr. or Mrs. Sabotini! We were... so close.” He put his elbows on the table in front of him and placed his face in his hands.

  The mobile command base was nothing more than a white van with an elaborate amount of technological devices within, such as GPS, satellite, and internet equipment. There was a dish and a larger antenna on the roof, so they had to park in an inconspicuous area, about 5 miles from the mansion.

  “Sir?” the tech asked, with a soft tone. He didn’t want to upset Sir Edmund any more than he already was. “Should we go in? They might need back up?”

  Sir Edmund sighed and looked at his tech. “I think not. They both deliberately disengaged the wires within the immediate vicinity of both the host and hostess. This must have been something they both concocted at an earlier time, without bringing us into it. The ball is in their court now and we will do nothing but observe. Please drive the van within eyeshot of the mansion. We will have to do this the hard way from here on.”

  ***

  Tarin laughed hysterically.

  She didn’t even try to contain her amusement. When she did manage to calm down a bit, she looked at Magena. “You are truly a precious commodity. I value your ability to remain true to yourself in a situation where you could not possibly know the outcome.” She stepped on the wire, just to make sure it was completely out of commission. “Are there any more surprises?”

  Magena shook her head. She felt embarrassed by her outburst. She had always been able to handle adversity. Her parents taught her several ways to push out anger and fear. It still wasn’t enough. Her path had changed so drastically that she wondered if she wasn’t dreaming or in a coma. It was all just too strange to believe.

  “I apologize for yelling,” Magena said, trying to regain some composure. “I am sorry for everything.”

  Magena opened the door and ran down the hallway toward the entrance. As tears fell, she couldn’t believe how she allowed to get herself into that situation. She had to get herself far away so that she could call her father. She needed his guidance.

  She also needed her Heavenly Father’s guidance. While saying a silent prayer, she rushed out of the mansion without looking back. She didn’t know or care if anyone was chasing her. She just had to get away.

  She looked at the ground and ran faster once she was clear of the driveway. She then ran straight into someone. The force of the collision made her fall backward to the ground.

  She looked up and saw Daniel standing and rubbing his stomach.

  “Wow!” he exclaimed, wincing in pain. “You pack a wallop!”

  Her tears started to flow even more, as she attempted to get off the ground. “Don’t try to stop me, Daniel! I’m done! I have had it with this whole thing! I didn’t sign up for this! Now if you’ll help me up, I’ll be on my way.”

  He offered her his hand and helped her to her feet. “Why the tears, Mags? So things haven’t gone your way since we got to Italy. You have to make the best of things. Look at me. I was completely cut off from everything I knew, and here I am with a smile on my face. My whole world was turned upside down, Mag... Magenta. You just have to keep going with your chin up.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, as she looked around. No one was chasing after them. “Why did you leave? Did you see Angelo Sabotini?”

  “Uh... yeah. About that,” he said nervously. He kept looking over at the house. “Let’s just say that I think it’s in our best interest to go back inside.”

  She stepped back and away from her traveling companion. Her heart started to race, thinking about going back in there. “No! I’m out! Don’t you understand English? No more! If I have to hitchhike back to Fresno, I will!”

  He sighed, trying to remain calm. “Listen. Tarin called Angelo after I left. He then called me. She was really impressed with you, just like he was with me. We have a shot at something big here.”

  She didn’t like that. “Did... they make you an offer of some kind?”

  His reluctance to answer told her what his response would have been.

  “Oh no, Daniel.” She started to walk away from him. “You’re just giving me even more reason to leave. I want no part of any deals that you made with an alleged thief! Who knows what else he could be involved in?”

  “It’s not like that!” He matched her walking speed. “I’m not going to force you, but he wants us to do something that could be amazing.”

  She stopped, took off her heels, and grimaced at the pain in her feet. “Us? Why can’t you do it? Just you. I’m sure you’re more than capable of completing any task that Mr. and Mrs. Criminal have for you!”

  He tried to force a smile. “Hey. You even said alleged thief. This may be my best chance to prove to my family that I can make decisions and money on my own. I’m not the sharpest cheddar in the cheese case, but you know I’m fairly smart. Do you think I want to get involved in something dangerous without a safety net? Heck, no! I don’t have anyone who will come looking for me, if I get lost in Italy. I need this, Magenta.”

  She saw the seriousness in his face and heard the sincerity in his voice. Even in the way he said her nickname. Then she remembered that he was a psych major. “How do I know you’re not playing some mind game with me, just to get what you want? I haven’t been included in any decisions you’ve made so far.”

  “Neither have I!” he exclaimed with frustration. “Aw, come on, chief! I’ve been sucked up int
o this little vortex of trouble right along with you! When have I actually had a chance to make any decisions on my own! I’m even wanted by the law, for crying out loud!”

  He had a point. She hated to admit it, but he was as helpless in their situation as she was. Maybe even more so, because he was a fugitive. “I don’t like this. I don’t want to be here anymore. My mother always told me that I should go with my gut. My gut’s telling me to run.”

  “It’s a normal fight or flight response,” he responded, with a comforting tone. “When people are pushed into high stress scenarios that they’ve never been in before, the first reaction is either to stay and fight through it, or to run away from it. That’s normal. How are you ever going to experience anything different and amazing, if you have your head buried in the sand? This may be your one opportunity to go someplace that you’ve only dreamed about.”

  Magena gave him a sarcastic look, while looking around. “Where do you think we are, Daniel?”

  He put his hands up in mock surrender. “Okay! Okay! I’ll give you that. If we do this, we’ll get the Shroud of Turin back. I actually think we’ll get the real one and the copy that was stolen from the cathedral.”

  Her interest was piqued at the mention of the shroud. “We haven’t had much luck getting it. Maybe I could just stay in the background with Sir Edmund. We have to include him in this! Don’t we?”

  “Alright!” Daniel answered, with renewed excitement. “You are right.”

  “A question. How did you know where to find me?”

  “Tarin phoned me, and I saw you out the window.”

  “Oh.” She raised one brow. “So, what do you have to do?”

  He looked apprehensive, but knew that she needed to know. “There’s this woman in the Bible. So see? It’s like a Biblical expedition! Her name was Jezebel.”

  She stood with a disgusted look, while she crossed her arms in front of her. “Yes. I know of her. She was the Queen of Israel. She encouraged her husband, King Ahab to worship false gods. Things didn’t end well for her. What about her?”

  “He wants to send us to Israel.” Daniel waited a moment for her reaction. She had none. “He wants something pertaining to Jezebel and it’s supposedly in Israel.”

  “What’s that?” she asked, without really wanting to know the answer.

  “Jewels,” he answered, almost in a whisper.

  She smirked. “Jewels? He wants Jezebel’s jewels?” She broke out into laughter. “Do you think that if they do still exist, it’s going to be a walk in the park? Oh sure! We’ll just go into Israel and pick up the Jewels of Jezebel! Maybe after that we can go get the crown jewels in England! Ha ha!”

  “I’m serious, Mags.” Daniel was not going to join in her laughing. “I’ve seen some maps and he even showed me the shroud in good faith. The copy of course. It was the same one that was stolen from the cathedral.”

  She stopped laughing. “Do you know that for a fact?”

  “No, but it sure looked convincing.” His eyes pleaded with her.

  “All expenses paid?” She asked, with trepidation. “What about my research?”

  He nodded. “All expenses paid and you will have access to every artifact Sabotini’s collected. That includes the jewels.”

  “If we did find the jewels, they belong in a museum!” she said.

  His smile returned. “He had that covered too. He just wanted them for a little while and then he would turn them over to any museum we wanted, with the stipulation that you could do your research any time you wanted. Me too! He would also make sure my name was cleared with the law, as well! All of this is dependent upon whether we actually find the jewels and one other thing.”

  “Aha! I knew there was a catch!” She started to walk away again.

  “He doesn’t want to be implicated in any crimes... by anyone... ever.” Daniel caught up to her once again. “He’s willing to make a deal with Carlton... Sir Edmund. He’s willing to put it all in writing... with witnesses!”

  “You did a lot of talking to him in a short time span,” she said, suspiciously.

  “Yeah,” he replied, matter-of-factually. “We got a lot of talking in. Look, Mags. I heard what our options are and frankly, we need to take this offer.”

  “Oh yeah? What are our options, Daniel?”

  He sighed and looked at the ground. “We take his offer, or we’ll never make it out of Turin... alive.”

  “Under one condition.”

  “What is that?”

  “We find the real Shroud of Turin first.” She grinned. “I need two days on the computer to finalize my research.”

  “Like what?”

  “The stitching pattern, which appears to be the work of a professional, is quite similar to the hem of a cloth found in the tombs of the Jewish fortress of Masada. The Masada cloth dates to between 40 BC and 73 AD. This kind of stitch has never been found in Medieval Europe. I think that will give me my proof. ”

  “It’s a deal.”

  “We will start with this information,” she said. “The shroud was moved to Turin in 1578, where it supposedly remains to this day. The Chapel of the Holy Shroud was completed in 1694, where the shroud has been ever since.” She sighed. “Prove me wrong.”

  POSTSCRIPT

  Daniel DiBenedetto filled out his report for the university.

  He wrote: “New experiments date the Shroud of Turin to the 1st century AD. They comprise three tests; two chemical and one mechanical. The chemical tests were done with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy, examining the relationship between age and a spectral property of ancient flax textiles. The mechanical test measured several micro-mechanical characteristics of flax fibers, such as tensile strength. The results were compared to similar tests on samples of cloth from between 3250 BC and 2000 AD whose dates were accurately known. A chapel was constructed to house the shroud. It was located outside the Turin Cathedral and connected to the Royal Palace during the reign of Duke Charles of Savoy. The chapel displayed the Shroud of Turin, a religious cloth, believed to be the burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth. The Shroud is a linen cloth woven in a 3-over-1 herringbone pattern, and measures 14’3” by 3’7”. These dimensions correlate with ancient measurements of 2 cubits x 8 cubits— consistent with loom technology of the period. The finer weave of 3-over-1 herringbone is consistent with the New Testament statement that the “sindon” (or shroud) was purchased by Joseph of Arimathea, who was a wealthy man.

  “In 1532, there was a fire in the church in Chambery, France, where the shroud was being kept. Part of the metal storage case melted and fell on the cloth, leaving burns, and efforts to extinguish the fire left water stains. Yet the image of the man was hardly touched. In 1534, nuns sewed patches over the fire-damaged areas and attached a full-size support cloth to the back of the shroud. This became known as the ‘Holland’ backing cloth. The Shroud was moved to Turin in 1578, where it remains to this day.

  “In 2002, a team of experts did restoration work, such as removing the patches from 1534 and replacing the backing cloth. One of the specialists was Swiss textile historian Mechthild Flury-Lemberg. She was surprised to find a peculiar stitching pattern in the seam of one long side of the shroud, where a three-inch wide strip of the same original fabric was sewn onto a larger segment.

  “The stitching pattern, which she says was the work of a professional, is quite similar to the hem of a cloth found in the tombs of the Jewish fortress of Masada. The Masada cloth dates to between 40 BC and 73 AD. This kind of stitch has never been found in Medieval Europe.

  “The 1988 Carbon-14 tests done at Oxford, Zurich and Arizona Labs used pieces of the same sample cut from a lower left corner.

  “On Jan 20, 2005, a paper was published in a professional journal by Dr. Ray Rogers, retired lead chemist with the original science team STURP. Note: The 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project involved approximately 35 scientists directly examining the Shroud for five days. It was the best until then.
New evidence has shown conclusively that the sample cut from The Shroud of Turin in 1988 was taken from an area of the cloth that was re-woven during the Middle Ages. Here are proven excerpts:

  “Pyrolysis-mass-spectrometry results from the sample area, coupled with microscopic and micro chemical observations, prove that the radiocarbon sample was not part of the original cloth of the Shroud of Turin. The radiocarbon date was thus not valid for determining the true age of the shroud.

  “As part of the Shroud of Turin research project (STURP), 32 adhesive-tape samples were taken from all areas of the shroud and associated textiles in 1978. It enabled direct chemical testing on recovered linen fibers and particulates.

  “If the shroud had been produced between 1260 and 1390 AD, as indicated by the radiocarbon analysis, lignin should be easy to detect. A linen produced in 1260 AD would have retained its lignin; indeed, the disappearance of all traces of vanillin from the lignin in the shroud indicated a much older age than the radiocarbon laboratories reported.

  “Because the shroud and other very old linens do not give the vanillin test [or test negative], the cloth must be quite old. A determination of the kinetics of vanillin loss suggests that the shroud is between 1300- and 3000-years old. Even allowing for errors in the measurements and assumptions about storage conditions, the cloth is unlikely to be as young as 840 years.

  “A gum coating is easy to observe on... radiocarbon yarns. No other part of the shroud shows such a coating.

  “The radiocarbon sample had been dyed. Dyeing was probably done intentionally on pristine replacement material to match the color of the older, sepia-colored cloth. The dye found on the radiocarbon sample was not used in Europe before about 1291 AD and was not common until more than 100 years later. Specifically, the color and distribution of the coating implies at repairs were made at an unknown time with foreign linen dyed to match the older original material. The consequence of this conclusion is that the radiocarbon sample was not representative of the original cloth.