by K. T. Tomb
“He’s too kind,” she quipped. Evidently, her sarcasm was lost on Engel, because he did not react. He continued speaking.
“I am quartered just down the hall,” he announced, “so if there is anything that you need, you only need to ask. You’ll note that there is an intercom here by the door with which you can make contact.”
“You won’t be posted outside my door to make sure that I don’t run away?” she asked.
“There’s really no need, Miss Phoenix,” he replied, waving toward the window. “There’s nowhere for you to go. We are completely surrounded by water. If that is all…?”
He let the question hang in the air and she considered another sarcastic remark, but decided against it. She really just wanted to be left alone so she could start sorting through things. “No, thank you,” she replied.
“Very well then,” he said, turning away from her, stepping through the door and glancing back at her as he closed it behind him.
“Well, Phoe,” she muttered aloud. “Now what?”
Chapter Eleven
“I think we can safely say that unless Phoe and Casey set out on a cruise together, they have been kidnapped.” Kadan made the announcement as he and Jeremy entered Peter’s house.
Everyone in the room stared at him and waited for the explanation that they hoped was coming.
“Can I get a ‘Hi, Kadan, it’s good to have you back’?” He smiled.
Kadan had faced tragedy in his family; cancer at a very advanced stage to be exact. He’d sat by his mother’s side and made her as comfortable as possible while he had watched the inevitable take its course. Jeremy, though something of a computer geek himself, had taken his place in that particular role and had done a fantastic job, but even he would admit that he was no Kadan.
“We are sorry for your loss, Kadan,” Charlotte jumped in.
Eric followed her lead and expressed his condolences as well. It was the first time that any of them, other than Jeremy and Peter, had spoken to Kadan since his mother died. The momentum that Kadan and Jeremy had created by walking through the door came to a sudden, silent halt.
Peter waited for what he thought was the proper amount of time before speaking. “So, what were you saying?”
“That made everything awkward, didn’t it?” Kadan said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean… Well, never mind. Anyway… um. Unless Phoe and Casey set out on a cruise together, they have been kidnapped.”
“Yes…?” Peter asked.
“You know that I told you that I was going to run a GPS trace on Casey’s phone, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it took a little bit, because I had to go through a lot of call records before I was able to figure out which number was Casey’s. Casey called his mom about the same time that Peter was talking to Phoe.”
Peter had been uncomfortable with the fact that Kadan pretty much had free rein to look at practically anything and everything that any of them did, but he’d gotten used to it. He just hoped that Kadan never had a reason to have anything against him. “Okay, so you were able to trace Casey’s phone. Assuming that he’s still with Phoe, where exactly are they?”
“Northeast of New York City, about 12 miles out in the Atlantic,” Kadan answered.
“That is a rather odd place for them to be,” Charlotte put in.
“You think?” Eric responded.
Peter sat quietly, processing the information and then asked another question. “Did you see any particular reason that they might be in that particular location?”
“Were in that location,” Kadan corrected him. “They haven’t been there since 9:37 a.m. the same morning that Phoe’s cell went offline. I went back and followed the pings and they led from a warehouse in Dutch Kills and then out into the Atlantic before it went dead.”
“Okay, so, what’s out there or what was out there?” Peter asked.
“Open ocean,” Kadan said.
“Well, they had to be going somewhere, right? They must have met up with something out there. How did they get out there?”
“I’m way ahead of you,” Kadan replied, sitting down at the table and tapping away at the key on his laptop. “I’m working my way into satellite imagery around that time to see if I can come up with something. Give me a few minutes.”
Surprisingly enough, no one spoke for several minutes. They just sat and listened to Kadan doing his magic on the computer.
“Dude, you want me to check on anything?” Jeremy asked, setting up his laptop across from Kadan. “Like look for ships or something that might have been in the area or flight plans?”
“Look for flight plans,” Kadan replied without looking up from what he was doing. “Like departing between 9:00 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. With the timing from the pinging at the warehouse out to where the phone went offline, it has to be an aircraft, probably a helicopter. I mean, you don’t see that many private aircraft carriers tooling around the Atlantic outside New York Harbor, right?”
“Gotcha,” Jeremy answered.
“Okay, I’m into the satellite that I need. Setting my time lapse. Got it!” He stared at the screen and watched it ticking away the time lapse.
Peter stood and moved behind Kadan so that he could watch what was going on. That brought Eric and Charlotte from the sofa to stand behind him as well.
“Geez, guys, a little cozy here, don’t you think?” Kadan commented.
The comment had little effect.
“I was right,” he said after a few seconds. “Helicopter, right there.”
Peter strained his eyes to try to pick out the helicopter. It blended into the waves very well.
“So, where are you headed?”
“Got any tail numbers?” Jeremy asked.
“Nothing yet,” Kadan responded. He did some more clicking and maneuvering on the screen and the helicopter became larger. “Still can’t make out any numbers. What do you have where timing is concerned? Let me figure this out.”
“Figure out what?” Charlotte asked.
Her question was ignored. “It had to have left Dutch Kill around 9:07 to be where it was at 9:37.”
“Got it!” Jeremy exclaimed. “Flight destination is a cargo ship by the name of Edelweiss. Went out and returned at 10:06 a.m. The helicopter is owned by Zortec Enterprises. Let me see what that is. Just a private helicopter charter.”
“So, they didn’t go much further after they dropped the phone into the drink,” Kadan said. “We ought to be coming up on the Edelweiss any second.”
“Let me look at the Edelweiss. Gotta be German, right?” Jeremy said.
“There it is,” Kadan announced. “That has to be the Edelweiss.”
“So, you’re saying that Casey and Phoe were taken out to a cargo ship called the Edelweiss by someone?” Peter asked.
“That’s what I’m saying,” Kadan replied. “Time lapse shows that they were on deck less than five minutes. Dropped and gone.”
Kadan paused the time lapse and opened a new window. He too started searching for cargo ships and companies with a ship known as the Edelweiss in their fleet. “This could take a while, guys.”
It was a hint for them to stop looking over his shoulder.
“I’m calling Simon.” He searched his received calls and then pressed the recall button. “You’re sure of this, right?”
“Yes,” Kadan replied.
“How sure?”
“What you got, Peter?” Simon’s voice came on the line before Kadan made his response and Peter never heard him say, “Very sure.”
“We think that the two of them were nabbed and flown by helicopter out to a cargo ship known as the Edelweiss,” Peter reported.
“What do you know about it?” Simon asked.
“The guys are working on it,” Peter asked.
“Okay, I’ll get Jonathan linked in with them and we’ll pool our resources.”
“Who would do something like this?”
“Somebody with some big balls,” Eric responded as
ide.
Peter shot him a quick look and shook his head.
“Well, there are a limited number of people who have the resources to even consider it,” Simon replied. “My money is on one of three. As soon as someone comes up with a shipping manifest that connects them to a particular company, it will narrow the field rapidly.”
“So, that leads to the why? It can’t possibly be related to what she’s currently working on, right? No one knows what she was working on. She told me, but I didn’t let anything slip,” Peter said.
“I’ve got some suspicions,” Simon replied. “I’ll know more once we narrow the field a little bit.”
“Jonathan’s online with us now,” Kadan announced.
“Okay, Jonathan is linked to my guys,” Peter told Simon.
“Let’s let them do their thing,” Simon responded.
“Okay, well, I’ll…” Again, he was speaking to dead air.
Chapter Twelve
Times of Israel
Schoolboy Unearths First Century Artifacts in Judean Hills
It all started with an elementary school field trip and a shard that was picked up by one of the students inside of a cave in the Judean Hills northwest of Shoresh (approximately 16 km west of Jerusalem), on the edge of the Neve Ilan Forest. Unknowingly, a nine-year-old, whose identity was not disclosed, recovered a piece of a pillar that possibly came from the royal house of King David himself. The site, when opened up for excavation did not reveal any other secrets from King David’s time, but it did open up a treasure-trove of artifacts from the first century.
Well-known archeologist and treasure hunter Elias Ben Goshin, in charge of the scene, told reporters that, “It is much too early to tell what we have actually recovered until we have had a chance to do more extensive classification and examination of the artifacts, but I can tell you that there are some pretty significant items among what has been recovered from the cave.”
Elias Ben Goshin is best known for his recent discovery of a shipment of gold coins dating back to the Fatimid Caliphate, which he and his team discovered off Israel’s Mediterranean Coast. Though little more information was obtained from the interview, Ben Goshin promised that what he had uncovered would “create quite a stir in both the Christian and Jewish worlds.”
“You do understand that if you attempt to contact anyone or anyone attempts to contact you, it won’t bode well for Casey, right?” Kraus warned.
Engel had made the call to Kraus in order to obtain permission for Phoe to go to the site of the Judean Hills dig. After a few moments, he had handed the phone to her.
“I understand,” she responded.
“Good. There’s no reason that this should be a disagreeable enterprise,” Kraus responded. “You have been made comfortable and no harm has come to you?”
“Other than the fact that I’m being held captive, you mean?” Phoe groused.
“Every employee is held captive by their employer, don’t you think?” he countered.
“You know what I mean.”
“You don’t seem to be in as good of humor as you usually are. Have my associates not been helping you properly?”
“They have done fine. I’d rather have my own team.”
“Miss Phoenix, my people are equally as competent as any member of your team. I’m sure you’ll get used to working with them. It sometimes takes time for everyone to, how do you say it, get on the same page? Perhaps you will find a new home here, yes?”
“Ummm, no, I’ll recover the shroud, if it exists. And then we’re done, got it?”
“I’ll think you’ll see things differently in time.”
“I think I won’t.”
“Regardless of how you feel at this moment, I think that once you’re in the swing of things, you’ll start to like working for me.”
Since there was no point in responding to the statement, she moved the conversation to a new subject. “So, am I going to be able to go to the site or what?”
“You may go, but on a very limited basis. You will be allowed to examine the artifacts that have been recovered. They will be brought to you. I don’t need to have you alerting anyone to your whereabouts.”
“Sometimes it is necessary to view the actual site to get perspective,” she pressed.
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible. Perhaps, if you prove yourself trustworthy, you can go on site to the recovery of the actual shroud.”
“There is no shroud, just a napkin,” she responded.
“Well, even the face cloth, if proven authentic would be very valuable, don’t you think?”
“If it exists.” She did not want Kraus to have even the smallest amount of satisfaction.
“I think we both already know that it exists,” he chuckled.
“If you buy into all of this speculation and highly questionable evidence.”
“I’ve wasted enough of my time discussing this with you. Please put Engel back on the line.”
Engel, who had stood near her waiting patiently, accepted the phone from her and spoke in German to his employer. Even her limited knowledge of German was enough for her to understand that he was listening to a string of orders and confirming his understanding of them. She turned away, realizing that there really wasn’t much point in listening to the conversation.
“We will leave in the morning,” he said as he disconnected the call. “You will be expected to stay very close to me the entire time.”
“Fine,” she replied. Being close to him gave her the opportunity to watch him more closely and try to figure out how to use him to her advantage. An idea came to her suddenly. She lowered her eyes, turned her head slightly and smiled as she looked up at him again. “I mean, that won’t be bad at all.”
“Very well, I will call you for breakfast,” he snapped, suddenly becoming uncomfortably rigid.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Engel turned on his heel and left the room. She had just figured out what it was that she had seen in him before. He had a thing for her. He was trying to stay focused on his duty, but he was clearly attracted to her. She would start dangling that in front of him and see if it provided an opportunity for her down the line.
There was no mistaking that Engel intended to keep a very close eye on her. About the only two places that he didn’t go with her was to the toilet and to bed. He sent Greta in his place for those two necessities, though Phoe had seen that he would have liked to stay with her even while she slept.
She picked up on him admiring her, but it wasn’t in the typical, lustful way that men often did, it was more like a junior high boy watching a girl at the school dance. His shyness in that particular respect made it harder for her to take advantage of him, but she began a slow, subtle manipulation anyway.
Though she didn’t get to go on the actual ground where the excavation was taking place, the site in the Judean Hills had recovered several, very interesting items. Of those, though it hadn’t been named by those in charge of the dig, was, indeed, the text of Lenthius that they were seeking. It was brought in to her by a young man that she recognized as being a junior member of Elias’ archeological team.
Elias was an archeologist of sorts, more of a treasure hunter, but also a friend of Peter’s. He had recently made a discovery of coins from the Fatimid Caliphate. It had boosted his prestige among archeologists and treasure hunters alike and had been a key find in helping lead Phoe to the recovery of the Seal of Solomon. Though he said nothing, the young man looked at her several times, trying to place her. It had been a while since she had been around Elias and his team, so she was pretty sure that the young man had recognized her, but couldn’t place her. She avoided any situation that might cause him to make the connection and she was quite relieved when he left.
“I could really use Peter’s language skills right now,” she muttered.
“First century Hebrew?” Greta asked as she moved to her side. “It is piece of pie for me.”
“Cake,” Phoe corre
cted automatically.
“Cake?” Greta asked.
“The saying is ‘piece of cake.’” She wasn’t sure why she corrected her, it just grated on her nerves to hear the phrase wrong.
Greta ignored the correction and went to work. She scribbled away in a notebook as she read, translating as she went. It was very evident by the speed of her work that Greta was very knowledgeable of first century Hebrew. It was a little more than 15 minutes later that she called out. “Here is what we are looking for.”
Phoe moved up beside her and looked on. Greta’s notes were in German, of course, but Phoe’s smattering of Hebrew helped her to confirm that what Greta read to her was fairly accurate.
It was, essentially, a recipe for preserving the cloth and a means of sealing it away from the elements. It still wasn’t certain that the cloth was the authentic covering that had been placed over the face of Jesus, but with two separate accounts of the same conversation, it certainly lent a great deal of credibility to the claim. There was one huge bit of information missing still: where was the cloth?
Chapter Thirteen
Satellite coverage allowed Kadan to track two helicopters coming in and departing from the Edelweiss.
The one was tracked back to New York, but the other started northeast before its image was lost. Jeremy and Kadan had taken turns pouring over satellite images, flight plans and other information, but had come up with little. The team—including Charlotte, who refused to be left behind had gone to New York—had hoped to find even the slightest clue and perhaps gain some insight into the identity of the person who rented the helicopters that had gone out to the Edelweiss and back. They’d been, essentially, stonewalled.
“Do we have an identity yet?” They’d been in New York for two days but hadn’t uncovered anything new. “Do we know who has them?”
“I’ve narrowed it down to two possibilities,” Simon replied. “Ownership of that particular vessel is a little bit blurry. However, given the brash nature of the act, there are really only two people that would be arrogant enough to attempt such a thing.”
