The Belial Stone(71)

Tom knew the only reason he’d survived this long was because of Seeley. He couldn’t imagine trying to get through this hell without him. They say that when soldiers went to war, they became brothers for life. Seeley was his brother. If he died, Tom knew he’d be following him into the body pit soon after.





CHAPTER 57



Laney and Jake finished cleaning up the breakfast dishes as Patrick and Henry got settled. Yoni was outside coordinating with the men.

Handing Jake the last pan, she leaned against the counter, drying her hands on a towel. “So, now we plan a raid on the castle?"

Jake gave her a small smile. “That’s the idea.”

“Can’t say they covered that in my doctoral program.”

“No worries, Doc,” Yoni said as he walked in the kitchen with a large duffel bag. “We got you covered.” He held it up.

Laney looked at the bag, which was almost bursting at the seams. She knew it was one of the bags her uncle and Henry had brought, filled with weapons. “Like I said, not really my area. But I’m in.”

She put away the last of the dishes and joined the rest in the living room. She took a seat on the couch, her uncle next to her. Yoni and Henry took the two club chairs, while Jake leaned against the wall across from her.

Her eyes kept drifting over to him and she forced herself to focus on Henry. Okay, quit acting like a teenager. Life and death issues here.

Henry leaned forward. “We have two goals. First, we need to get the men out of there. Second, we need to make sure that if the Belial Stone is there, it doesn’t fall into Gideon’s hands.”

Jake interrupted. “But how realistic is the existence of a Belial Stone? Isn’t this all myth?”

“Well, we’re in a time when many myths are being proven to be more fact than fiction,” Henry said. “The city of Troy was believed to be a myth until its discovery in the late nineteenth century. Even the Iliad is beginning to be viewed as potentially a recounting of an event rather than a work of fiction.

Patrick jumped in. “For generations, the people of India have spoken of a highly advanced civilization that existed in antiquity just off the coast. It had been written off as a myth by Western academia. But then side scan sonar in the Gulf of Khambhat revealed underwater structures and subsequent dives uncovered artifacts dating to before 5500 BC. The dates place an ancient civilization in that area earlier than the civilization at the Fertile Crescent.”

“And they found the hobbits.” Yoni interjected, taking a handful of grapes from a bowl on the coffee table.

Everyone turned to stare at him.

“What?” he said. “You didn’t hear about the hobbits? Some cave on this island in the South Pacific. They found all these skeletons of little, tiny people.”

Laney smiled. “Actually, Yoni’s right. They did find skeletons of about a dozen dwarves who existed at the same time as modern man, about 18,000 years ago. They only reached about three feet tall at their full height. Their discovery has thrown our understanding of the development of modern man into a bit of a tailspin. We didn’t make any allowances for different species of man coexisting. Myths, it seems, may actually hold kernels of truth.”

“But an ancient weapon of mass destruction?” Jake asked skeptically.

Patrick nodded. “Drew made a good case with his interruption of the mass fossil beds found in caves across the globe. They all disappeared at the same time.”

“And all civilizations have flood myths. From the Bible to the tales of Gilgamesh, there are stories of floods that destroyed civilizations. So, why not a cause?” Laney said.

Patrick leaned back against the couch, his hand on his chin. Laney stifled a grin. It was his ‘thinking man look’. “My readings on the stone seem to be suggesting it’s some sort of acoustic weapon.”

“You mean like LRAD?” Yoni asked.

“What’s LRAD?” Patrick turned to look at him.

“LRAD stands for long range acoustic device. It’s a sonic weapon used by law enforcement and the military for crowd control, among other uses.”

Laney couldn’t keep the surprise off her face.

Yoni winked at her. “Hey, I’m not just a pretty face."

Henry grinned. “Yoni’s right, at least about LRAD. It was first used against the protesters at the G20 Summit in 2009 in Pittsburgh. But now it’s being employed across the globe: against pirates off the coast of Somalia, whale activists in Japan. It’s even been reported to be have been used in China.”

Jake nodded. “And it’s been modified so that it only affects those under twenty, for use against loitering youth.”