The Royal Stones of Eden (Royal Secrecies Book 1) (9 page)

A news story caught my attention when I heard the name Glastonbury. I turned up the volume with the remote, and I listened intently as the reporter narrated:

“Today, during an archaeological digging in Glastonbury, remains of a skeleton were found, along with several ancient artifacts dating back hundreds of years, some dating to over a thousand years old.”

While it was true that there were artifacts found, the report said that the discovery was a result of a cleanup and investigation after a fatal plane crash. A plane had plummeted into the grounds of an ancient abbey, in Glastonbury. It was not a planned or government-authorized archaeological site. It was an accidental find.

The man who was in charge, the man who organized the accident cleanup, was an Egyptian, named Hajen Habib. He was a skilled archaeologist and gemologist who was sent there to assist in the preservation of the ancient historical site while the accident was being investigated.

I moved to a footstool close to the television. I looked closely at the screen that showed a video of Dr. Hajen Habib of Cairo. The video showed him as he toured the crash site with monitoring equipment. He wore protective clothing, but there was something particularly noticeable around his neck.

As I looked more closely, I saw that it was a necklace, and on it was a blue stone that looked just like my mum’s stone. I grabbed my coat on the back of my chair. I reached into a pocket, and I pulled out the necklace my mum had given to me. With a sense of urgency, I picked up the phone and called Robbie. I had to tell Robbie of my information.

“Robbie, this is Peter," I said with some drunken excitement. "Look! I am sorry that I left in a hurry, but I...”—I was not able to finish because of the interrupted and repeated words of Robbie.

“I said your father is dead, Peter. He died this afternoon—I’m sorry Peter”—Robbie had an awkward but expected pause. So much was happening—and all at once—I thought.

“Robbie,” I said after I took a moment. “After the funeral—after my exams—I am going to Wales. I am going to see Uncle Willie unless I see him at the funeral. And then I am going on a little trip. It's urgent.”

“Peter,” Robbie broke in. “I just spoke to Uncle Willie on the phone. He said he would be down for the funeral in three days, but he needed to see you first.”

“Right! I will postpone or proxy my exams—whatever I have to do. I must see Uncle Willie first, and then I will come back for the funeral in three days.”—I had almost said goodbye when I heard his probing question.

“Peter? Where are you going after that?” Robbie pried.

“I’m going to Cairo, old boy,” I boasted.

Chapter 6

David’s Retreat

“Mattie?—Mattie?”—David was insistent. He was not concerned about the early hour. He had to wake Mattie. He had to tell her about his meeting with Peter. He went from room to room, flipped on light switches, and called out her name.

The black calico cat that roamed the condo started to stir. She jumped from the bed to a chair and the chair to the floor. Pili hopped to the beat of each stressed syllable that she heard.

“Pili!”—David spoke to the cat. “Where is Mattie, huh?”

Then David heard the sounds of a fumbling key and rushed to the front door. It was Mattie. She carried in a box of donuts purchased from a 24-hour pastry shop and sat them down on the nearby wobbly kitchen table.

“David! I was worried!—you didn’t call!” David felt Mattie’s hasty and warm embrace briefly then pushed her away to speak.

“Mattie, we gotta leave—we gotta leave now! Pack an overnight bag—maybe enough for a few days.”—David attempted to pull her into the bedroom while he talked. “Haj is alive, and Peter is
not
who we thought he was!”

“David, wait! Stop it! Right now!” Matting asserted as she chopped her words. She stopped and stood in the doorway of the crowded bedroom. She removed her jacket and crossed her arms.

“What is this all about? I thought it was some kind of joke or even a lie at first! I mean the idea of you meeting someone who has been dead for five years! I mean honestly! This is getting crazy!”—the caffeine from the pastry shop gave her a headache. What she needed was more of it, she thought. More was always better.

“Mattie, I need you to trust me,” David slowed his pace and stood and faced her as he grabbed her by the shoulders. “We don’t have much time. Peter will be on to us soon. He’s involved in something very criminal. He’s got Haj locked up in some kind of prison in his office in Holliday! At his corporate office! He’s had him there for a very long time. I promise I’ll tell you more, once we’re out of here. But will you please trust me for now? You can sleep later! We
have
to go!”

Mattie unfolded her arms and breathed a deep sigh in an attempt to give into David’s madness. She was not convinced yet but stepped into the bedroom and walked over to her nightstand where Pili waited for her master’s attention.

“What about Pili? Should I call a neighbor? Should I leave her some cat food?”—Mattie petted Pili and looked for her blanket.

“Leave Pili here! Leave food and call a neighbor later. I don’t want anyone to think that we’re gone for good or doing anything unusual.”—David realized that his requests must have sounded weird or unusual to Mattie because David was not usually a spontaneous kind of guy.

Mattie rotated her eyes in bewilderment, and then she reached for an overnight bag from a tall dresser and started to push clothes into it. She grabbed items from several drawers and went through the motions in her caffeine high, but she didn't know why.

“I’m exhausted. Where are we going?” Mattie said as she made a small attempt to understand the madness.

“San Francisco!”—David grabbed a small suitcase in the closet on his right side of the room.

“Ok. Once again. Wait!”—Mattie comically paused. With wider eyes, she talked while she walked out of the bedroom and stepped into the cramped kitchen. Breakfast waited at the table. She opened up the donut box and looked back to the bedroom. David feverishly continued to pack.

“We are driving to San Francisco? That is like a fifteen-hour drive isn’t it?” she spoke while she chewed the sugar and dough.

David peeked out from the bedroom to speak—“We are taking a plane. A sort of—security plane—from my company.”

Mattie heard him while she shoved part of a donut in her mouth. She looked for instant coffee in the stuffed kitchen cabinets. The cabinets needed new brown paint, she thought. The floor needed new tile. Where was the damn coffee, she asked herself. More caffeine would sort everything out, she thought.

David nagged, “Mattie? Baby? We don’t have much time. We can eat on the plane if you want.”

Mattie did not know what surprised her the most. Does David own a plane? Are we truly going to San Francisco? Is it almost dawn? Am I dreaming all of this? She felt dizzy and euphoric. She was much too giddy to list her objections, so she succumbed to the situation. She left the kitchen, returned to the bedroom, and continued to pack.

David sorted through his luggage, sprawled on the plush comforter on their bed. His suitcase had false sides and bottoms that he opened and inspected. It was full of various devices with wires and dials. He reached up to the top of the shared bedroom closet and grabbed his Beretta Bobcat, hidden behind a stuffed teddy bear, but Mattie saw him take it down. She mumbled something then turned away.

David had to ask, “What was that?”

“I thought you said you got rid of that?”—Mattie showed little concern for a proper answer—the sugar rush had not yet begun.

“I was going to, but…”—David stopped mid-sentence. He suddenly spotted something on the wall. Something flashed and blinked, just above the interior bedroom door.

He pushed his suitcase back on the bed to give him some room. He slowly sat on the bed, and he stared at the white smoke detector, just above the architrave of the door frame. Something was different about it. He quietly but rapidly waved his arms to Mattie to get her attention. He held a finger to his lips to silence any response from her. When she finally looked at him, she stood and remained briefly motionless at her dresser on the left side of the room.

“Honey, did you remember to change the batteries in all of the alarm clocks and smoke detectors?”—David intentionally mocked and condescended. He wondered if Mattie had understood all of his inferences and his game. They were being recorded, and the bug was in the smoke detector.

David moved silently and gradually toward the kitchen. He lifted one of the kitchen chairs. He tried not to make a single sound. He carried it into the bedroom and placed it underneath the bedroom door frame, just below the smoke detector. He stepped up on the chair and cautiously inspected the object, and then he motioned to Mattie. He mouthed something silently to her. She did not understand his mime, but she instinctively played along.

“Oh no! Honey, I forgot to change the batteries. Maybe you should check everything out.”—Mattie started to enjoy the game. She grinned back playfully at David.

Then David grabbed the outer part of the smoke detector. He slowly turned its outer shell to open it up. He saw an oddly shaped battery with purple wires and flashing diodes. David pulled one of the purple wires out. The flashing stopped.

“Ok, so much for that!”—David got down from the chair and showed Mattie the device that he had taken down with him. “Someone was listening in,” he confirmed. “Feed the cat and let’s go!”

They finished their packing and hurried to begin the short fifteen-minute drive to the airport. Although it was a brief drive, Mattie managed to doze off in the car. She drifted into a peaceful dream state as a result of her sheer exhaustion. She did not wake from her dream until she was disturbed from her slumber by a sudden disturbance underneath her. It felt like the floor dropped out from below her.

Mattie opened her eyes and looked around. She observed that she was in a reclined airplane seat, strapped in by a seatbelt. She rubbed her eyes and looked at her surroundings. She was in a very dimly lit airplane cabin. She looked to her right and saw David strapped in a reclined seat beside her.

“Sorry, that was a little turbulence.”—David reached out a reassuring hand to her and rested it on her arm.

“Where are we? How did I get here?”—Mattie stretched her legs while David pushed a button on a panel on the arm of his chair. Lights slowly came on in the plane’s cabin, and several of the window panels lifted. The sunlight poured in its rays as they highlighted and painted everything in a warm glow. The cabin was full of the smells of recycled air and deodorized carpet.

“This is my plane, the Tiger 7. Are you hungry?”—David unbuckled his seatbelt.

The Tiger 7 was a refurbished Boeing 737. The first-class seats were very plush and comfortable. The area that they were in was formerly an original first-class seating area. It was modified to sit only eight, four on each side of the plane, two rows of two seats on each side. Each of the two seats was physically joined and placed next to oval windows. In front of the seats was the enclosed and locked cockpit door, and behind them was a latched door that was not locked. It led to the rear section of the plane where there was a dining area. The sounds of the Tiger’s engines were calming, rhythmic, and consistent to Mattie. Anything steady and reassuring was a good thing, under the circumstances.

David explained to Mattie that they had traveled to San Francisco. The plane had even landed, but then it quickly had departed for Las Vegas, only to leave there as well. David explained that because someone had bugged their condo he wasn’t taking any chances.

David offered to escort Mattie to breakfast at the rear of the plane, and a confused Mattie followed him. Over a meal served by two attendants, one male, and one female, David explained everything that had happened at Peter’s offices the night before. They dined at a petite but elegant table while Mattie’s mind reeled in astonishment. She thought of the implausibility of a security company owner enjoying the kind of wealth that she had seen.

“We are now heading to Monterey and will be there soon. We better take our seats in the front.”—David said this while he wiped his mouth with a cloth napkin that had been moistened and warmed by an attendant.

“Monterey, California? By the Bay Area? It is mind-blowing enough that our dearest of friends is on some kind of secret government project, so-called—and that he kidnapped another friend of ours—and our lives are in danger. That by itself would be unbelievable except for the fact that my former boyfriend and wannabe fiancé has some kind of spy plane and life that I never knew existed—now suddenly I’m going to Monterey—I mean honestly—what is really going on here, and why have you been lying to me about who you really are and what you do?”—Mattie was on the verge of hyperventilating.

“Lying? You wanna talk about lying, Mattie? You really wanna talk about lying? Is that where this is going?”—David was obviously just getting started with a rant of his own.

David got up from the table and reached for a black briefcase on a shelf near a window. He then opened it and propelled its contents on the table. Some of his orange juice spilled and their plates bumped to the side.

“What about this Mattie? Huh?”—David waited for a response from Mattie. His eyes gave her a rare look of anger.