Stone of Fire: An ARKANE Thriller (Book 1)

Chapter 11

ARKANE Headquarters, London, England.
 May 19, 11.30am

      Jake used the elevator from the vaults below up the eight floors to the penthouse of the ARKANE Institute and stood silently in the doorway to the grand office. Dr Elias Marietti sat at his desk gazing out the bay window, the grey London light giving his face an unhealthy pallor. Even at the beginning of summer, the sunlight had an ashen pall from the pollution of the great city. The study light was on and papers were strewn across the large mahogany desk. Marietti had told him the desk had been the property of George Frederic Watts, an English painter in Victorian times, who had seen visions of God but rejected religion in his own life. The Director had seen the irony in that. One of Watts’ paintings also hung on the office wall, a loan from the Tate Gallery: ‘She shall be called woman,’ a powerful vision of the creation of Eve, a life force blown from above into a figure surrounded by nature and cloud. Jake knew that Marietti lived a solitary life, so he surrounded himself with culture as an intellectual escape.
     Jake coughed to get his attention. Marietti turned in his chair but didn’t get up. He waved to the facing chair and skipped the small talk.
     “This is an important mission, Jake. The celestial events associated with the Resurgam comet are accelerating and we cannot have those stones loose at the height of the comet’s trajectory. I’m also concerned by the timing of the advent of Thanatos.”
 “Martin wasn’t able to provide much information about the organization,” Jake said, “but I’ve heard some ugly rumors about what they’re capable of.”
     Marietti sighed, leaning back in his chair. Jake could almost see the weight of responsibility on his shoulders. He also saw the veiled look in Marietti’s eyes as the Director spoke, as if he hid some deeper secrets.
     “Thanatos was formed after the Second World War, a splinter group searching for powerful occult objects based on the research of the Nazis. They used perversions of ancient prophecy to proclaim the end of days. I thought we had defeated them then, but clearly they went underground. Their return now means events will accelerate from here for Thanatos has no regard for the lives of individuals, only a blind pursuit of what they define as religious truth.”
     He paused. Jake knew there was more Marietti wasn’t telling him.
     “So what about the stones of the Apostles?” he asked. “Does that mean they really do have power of their own if Thanatos want them so badly?”
     Marietti looked grim, his brow deeply furrowed.
     “After Varanasi we collaborated with the Vatican to verify the miracles. From the preliminary investigations, it looks like they were real. The stones are made of a certain kind of radioactive material with magnetic and other properties not seen in any other rocks known on earth. We don’t know how they are used or how Varanasi happened, but they certainly have some kind of power. You have to ensure they don’t reach the hands of these fanatics because even without the miracles, they are a potent symbol that will unite fundamentalist groups.”
     Marietti passed a photo across his desk.
     “While Thanatos are the primary threat, we also have Joseph Everett, a businessman and rising star in Arizona politics. His father was a freelance biblical researcher and stole one of the stones. It seems Joseph is carrying on the tradition and aims to collect them all.”
     Jake took the photo.
“Kidnapping Morgan’s family seems like a desperate attempt to speed up the process, but why does he want the stones?” Jake asked.
     Marietti handed him another photo.
     “We think this is his motivation. It’s his brother Michael, a mentally and physically ill twin held in a local psychiatric hospital. Joseph visits almost every day and after the power demonstrated at Varanasi, we think he believes the stones will help heal his brother.”
     “Do you think he’s working with Thanatos?” Jake asked, studying the photos.
     “No, Everett seems to be entirely focused on his brother but Thanatos want the stones for a larger purpose and we’re only seeing a small part of their plans. I think they will take his stones too before this ends.”
     Marietti looked away, his dark eyes black in the dim light, bushy eyebrows overshadowing a craggy face that had seen so much. He was silent for a moment. Jake knew this man had paid a high price for the position he now held and shared little but he didn’t want to know the secrets that Marietti kept hidden. The Director stood and walked around his desk. Jake pushed back his chair, realizing the interview was over.
“Your focus must be on retrieving those stones, Jake. They haven’t been in the same place since Pentecost over two millennia ago. Alone the stones are powerful: together with the comet they could be catastrophic.”
     Marietti put his hand on Jake’s shoulder and Jake felt the weight of responsibility and trust this man had in him.
     “I need them back here, but I’m too old for this now. It’s time for you to step up, Jake, a new generation of ARKANE. We’re coming into an age where the spiritual and supernatural are embraced again. These are dangerous times to have any artifact revealed to the world that gives credence to a particular faith. So you must bring them back here … at any price. No individual is worth more than this. Remember that.”

    Jake left the office and walked out onto The Strand, one of the busiest hubs of London traffic and tourism. He merged into the crowd and was carried along back towards Embankment tube station. As he walked, he considered how he was going to work with Morgan Sierra. He felt a strong attraction to her, both physical and through a sense of kinship for their disjointed lives, but his loyalties ultimately lay with ARKANE.
    He remembered when he had been recruited by Marietti while in Africa, overseeing aid in Sudan. His British special military team had been ordered to stand by and hold as the National Islamic Front had slaughtered Catholics, including children. It was a political decision, and there was nothing they could do but wait it out. Marietti had been sent from the Vatican as a representative of the Holy See during the hideous war that raged senselessly for years. Late one night they had both been awake and stood on a verandah together in the dark listening to screams in the distance. Jake had cursed God that night, feeling their blood on his hands, and Marietti had explained to him how it was not God but man who twisted faith into something evil. Religion had torn humanity apart for millennia and it would never stop but there was a way to be part of the solution.
    That night Marietti had told Jake of ARKANE, a covert group solving spiritual mysteries and supernatural enigmas, attempting to understand a world beyond the physical but not tied to one religion. ARKANE sought to understand the myths behind religious artifacts in order to harness their power and keep them safe from the extremist fringes. After Jake had completed his tour of duty in Africa, Marietti had contacted him again and recruited him but it seemed a long time ago now. He had seen so much since that day.
     Just as he arrived at the entrance of the underground train station, his cell phone rang. He answered it on the first ring.
     “Jake, it’s Morgan. They’re still after me. I was attacked at Blackfriars. I think it was Thanatos again, but with some serious firepower this time.”
     “Are you OK?” he asked, amazed that they would attempt something so serious in broad daylight.
     “I’m fine now, but clearly they’re not going to stop until they have my stone. We need to get out of here and start the search, and I know where we need to start looking.”

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