Truthseekers (31 page)

Lone Bear and Phillip Glenville decided to go with the others. They wanted answers, Lone Bear especially who was very weak internally, yet
externally showed great fortitude and bravery. The team helped them with Rocko even throwing an arm around Phillip and supporting him when the pain in his legs became too great. Phillip hopped along and just smiled at the big man helping him despite his own injuries. Rocko just kept looking at him, humphing.

Sophia was a woman in her early sixties who lived in a small home not far from the caretaker’s home belonging to Minos. Her surname of course was Minos as well. The place had a homely feel to it, surrounded by olive trees that were several hundred years old. There was an old car in a portico to the side of the home and it was obvious from the state of the place that she had found life tough and had struggled to keep the home in any sort of reasonable condition.

Minos called out to her on knocking so as not to alarm her. Somehow she seemed strangely unalarmed to see a dusty, bloodied lot of Westerners and an Indian chief with a ponytail at her doorstep. She simply shook all of their hands, smiling only at Abbey and Stacey, and welcomed them inside. They sat down and Minos went to the kitchen and fetched a pitcher of fresh lemon water and some glasses. He also grabbed some bandages from the bathroom and gave them to Phillip and Lone Bear. Abbey quickly splashed some antiseptic on Lone Bear and reapplied some bandages. He was in a bad way and they would get him immediately to a doctor, but they knew there was no way he would go yet. Rocko noticed he didn’t even wince as Abbey applied the antiseptic. That was one tough old Indian. After a few minutes of fussing over water and bandages, which seemed to be in plentiful supply, everyone had taken a seat and looked to David to start.

“Mrs Minos… Sophia, if I may. You would have heard the explosion. Many people have chased us here to this place. We come from all over the world… Um… I’m not sure where to start. You see my business partner Rocko here and I…” Sophia put up her hand and stopped David in his tracks. She was diminutive, grey and wore the black clothing of the Greek women in mourning. She wore a cross around her neck with the image of Jesus on it. Her face was creased but her eyes were bright. She was a
little overweight, but she looked like she had had a long harsh life and in David’s mind he could have been out by ten years on guessing her age.

“Mr Clark… David… if I may. I can see the hooked X on the chief’s arm. I know he is one of the custodians. I know of him. I have never met him. They kept me away on his visits for very good reason. I know about Chief Ghost Wolf. He was a wonderful man. I had known of him all my life. I was deeply saddened by his death. I know what he protected. I also know that when the Hopi say it is time, then it is time. I can’t imagine what you have been through to get here, to find us. Certainly you are all geniuses [David was sure he saw Rocko straighten and spread his shoulders] to have done so. The world is an awful place. It has been under control all of my life and many lives before me by the most evil of people. There was nothing I could do, except wait and maybe I would die before things changed, but I live a simple life and I am away from what the modern world seems to want. I don’t have computers, fast cars, fashion, and I eat what myself and my family grows. That’s the way we Cretans have always lived, and one of the reasons we are one of the longest-living cultures on the planet.”

Sophia got up and went to the old sideboard. Mostly it contained pottery, a few plates and some linen that had not been put away. She opened it and took out a bottle of ouzo and some small glasses. “It’s for times like these that I keep this here. I have quite some story to tell you and I think maybe you will need a glass or two of this,” she said.

“I’ll test it,” Rocko stood up, “After all, we don’t want all you geniuses to be poisoned by a little old lady.” And with that he downed a shot and put the bottle on the table.

42

Sophia took a shot of ouzo herself, although she just sipped it, smiled and placed the glass on the table. You could have heard a pin drop in the room except for Lone Bear’s breathing, which was becoming a little more laboured as time went on.

“My family holds the bloodline of Christ,” said Sophia and David felt the chills run up his spine. Abbey held his hand firmly and stroked his arm. She was intent on letting this woman speak. Professor Miltosis and Lone Bear remained transfixed. Stacey squeezed Phillip’s arm and looked at him with a huge loving grin. Rocko took another shot of ouzo.

“I do not have the gene. My ex-husband did, however. He was only second-generation Greek. Many years ago
his father came to Crete from America with his guardians. They had lived amongst the Indian tribes for many centuries and many had tried to find them, even Christopher Columbus. They were always protected by Knights of the Temple, the most revered ones. It is said that the first knight to protect our bloodline, when the Church split into two groups in the twelfth century, when two popes Innocent II and Anacletus collided with different agendas, was Hughes de Payan himself – the original Grandmaster of the Templars.”

Sophia looked at all their faces intently and continued.

“When the Templars were crucified by King Phillip the Fair and Pope Clementine V in 1307, they escaped with the current incumbent of the bloodline who was at that stage Baron Dion Chancery. They arrived in America and hid there. They headed west from Newport Rhode Island to the area around Lake Superior. They had studied Minoan architecture, sailing and navigation. That’s how they got away. Haven’t you noticed how much this Palace of Knossos reminds you of buildings built by the Templars? They knew about us. They revered the Minoans. They gained a lot of their wisdom from us, especially the ability to sail and to build, and their sacred geometry which the Minoans also shared with the Egyptians.”

David was taking every word in and savouring it. “Go on Sophia,” he said. Sophia took another small sip of ouzo.

“The Templars went to Lake Superior because they knew we had mined there thousands of years ago. They knew about the tribes that were there. So they set up in that region, but then it was time to leave about fifty years later. Can you imagine having the greatest asset in all of humanity with you and constantly looking over your back?” Sophia looked deep into David’s eyes.

“No I can’t,” replied David humbly.

“Well I can… but that comes later,” Sophia smiled, and visibly everyone moved forward on his or her seats.

“The knights left America and they came here. I can only imagine how fearful they must have been. Yet they felt exposed in America. The voyage from America to the Aegean was long and they diverted
overland several times to remain silent and undiscovered. Yet by the early eighteenth century Napoleon had crushed so much of this part of the world. He had invaded Egypt and had troops here on our doorstep, French people. The Knights were scared of the French still, even though they knew Napoleon himself was a Templar. They knew that the New World was still developing and so they returned. At this stage the Chippewa and the Hopi had become great friends and thus a great secret was shared. The Hopi had said it was a prophecy that was carved into a rock in their tribal lands for years before. They became party to this great secret.”

“What stopped people coming out or going to the Scottish Church? They were allies and loved Jesus after all.” Rocko had stopped doing ouzo shots for an instant and become inquisitive.

“It was all about timing. Everyone knew about the carvings in Babylon, Sumeria of the time between Pisces and Aquarius. We have all learnt to follow the signs and not our heads or hearts. That is why I am talking to you today. I wouldn’t have done this twenty years ago. It simply wasn’t the time.” Sophia smiled at Rocko. He reached for the bottle and she continued.

“But in the early part of the twentieth century America was no longer safe. The big industrialists ruled and the families had come together, 13 of them. We had to hide again so Ghost Wolf’s father and Grand Oak again sent the children back here. He had Ghost Wolf tattooed with the hooked X, always the marker for those who protect the one, and Lone Bear’s father was tattooed as well. Those two were the watchers, until such time as Lone Bear’s father unfortunately died and Lone Bear took over, but he was too young and things went astray. It was a horrible time.”

It was at this point that Stacey couldn’t help herself. She even put up her hand to be respectful.

“Excuse me Sophia. I am sorry to interrupt, but what happened to the Templars. I thought they were the Watchers?” Stacey smiled her sweet smile and Sophia smiled back.

“They still are. Isn’t that right, Chief Lone Wolf?”

Lone Wolf looked at the others. He was weak but with an inner strength that had so far to go. If not then the Eagle would never have let him go to Sophia’s house.

“It is. I am a freemason, 33
^rd
degree, as was my father before me and his before him. We always considered ourselves Templars and as much as Minoan DNA flows in my veins so does that of French knights of the fourteenth century. Ghost Wolf and I belonged to an elite lodge that a few indigenous leaders belong to globally. That is why we have been able to avoid the families. We too are very connected people. I love my tribe and will die for them, but my duty before God comes first.” Lone Wolf leaned back and focused again on taking long slow breaths, breathing through the pain.

“I missed that one, damn it,” Stacey said looking sheepishly at David.

“You are a very smart girl,” said Sophia, “and beautiful too. But we all miss something. I and my husband missed something hugely important that almost cost everything and I guess that’s what you really want to know about.”

“All in good time,” smiled David and then looked at Lone Bear. “Although we may need to move the story along a little.”

The morning was in full swing and they had been at Sophia’s now for around an hour. Whilst they were exhausted, battle weary, they were not moving an inch. The clean-up being supervised by the Eagle was well underway. Abbey had her comms back in and the Eagle had checked in and said things were returning to normal, although there were a lot of spectators at the hotel, but police had it cordoned off.

Sophia smiled at the group and looked at them all individually as if looking into their souls. She then went on:

“I met my husband in a normal way. He had this unique look to him, blond hair, blue eyes, slightly red skinned. Not at all Cretan in many respects. I too was very blonde in those days. We stood out. We met through the church. He wasn’t a big fan on going, yet the church used to have good socials. It was a time when the world was changing. The Vietnam War was over and we wanted to build a life together. He always
had a strange friend with him. The man was silent and seemed to watch everything. He was by my husband’s side constantly. It was one of Ghost Wolf ’s people. I did not know that then. So we married and on our first night together I got such a surprise. You see my husband’s parents were gone and he was an only child. They were always only children, the chosen ones. It was a way of controlling the bloodline and keeping it pure and decent. I really didn’t know that much about him I guess. When he took off his shirt for the first time he had this strange tattoo. It was alike an upside down V, now I know it as a Chevron and a circle below it and it was on his heart. I was amazed. I didn’t know anyone with tattoos in those days.”

“He would be less conspicuous today for sure,” Rocko chimed in, but David’s look quietened him down. Sophia graciously didn’t get sidetracked.

“He told me this crazy story. Everything I have told you and more. It was fairy tale and at first I thought he was joking or in fact crazy. But over the weeks that it sunk in, with his different look, the bodyguard and simply his knowledge and way, I started to believe him. In the end in my heart I knew it was the truth and I have kept it to myself all these years. Even my brother in law here does not know.” She reflected to Minos who seemed as spellbound by the story as anyone in the room.

“He is not really my brother in law, just a friend of my husband’s, who had the same name. I always used to call them brothers.” Sophia stood and reached over and kissed Minos on the head. He glowed a little red from pride.

“One awful day something happened. We had become close to the priest at the local church. We were both Catholic, not Orthodox, although my husband practised many faiths and got along with them all. I never liked the priest, and he started to see something in us. I think it may have been when he saw us together with Ghost Wolf on one of his visits. They were always so secret, yet the priest just had a habit of dropping in. Then one day…” Sophia stopped as if remembering and David saw a burden come upon her but she raised her head and continued.

“I got pregnant. We were so happy. But when the baby came. There was not one, not two but three of them. I had triplets. It was crazy. My husband was beside himself. He said we were only meant to have one. There were two boys and a girl. Stevos was my first born, then Ana then Yanni, all of them blond haired and blue eyed. I never thought such children would come from me. My husband loved them all of course, but as they grew and were around three years old Ghost Wolf visited. That’s when the priest saw him. My husband said we may have to move after that, but we didn’t. You see I didn’t want to and then one night they came.”

“Who came, Sophia? It’s ok…in your own time.” David could see the old woman’s heart start to race.

“Three men, one in a suit, about fifty years old. The others called him Mr Black. The other two were Militia types as cold and nonhuman as I have seen. My husband argued with them for ages, but Black said it must happen. They castrated Yanni in our home and sterilised Ana. I could do nothing. They tied me up and I heard the screams of our children. It was too much for Ana, she collapsed and she died right here on this very floor. Then Black got angry. He said to my husband that they would take Yanni as insurance. They took him. He was gone. In one awful night two of my children were gone. My husband lost everything. He lost his soul that night. He said: what good was it if he was the blood of Jesus that he could do nothing even to save his own family?”