The Belial Stone(72)

“It can be made age-specific?” Laney asked.

Jake nodded. “As you age, your hearing range becomes more limited, even as early as twenty. The sonic blast they’ve developed targets those who can hear at the lower range of the scale. It causes discomfort, nausea. But I’ve never heard of it being used in as a WMD. It’s just not powerful enough.”

“Theoretically, it’s possible,” Henry mused, his large frame making the wingback chair he was sitting in look like a child's. “The idea is that by creating strong enough acoustic waves, you can create such extreme resonance that a structure will be destroyed. There’s been rumors that the military is working on just such a weapon, although I don’t believe we’re anywhere near that capability yet.”

“But we may have had that capability thousands of years ago,” Patrick said thoughtfully. All heads turned towards him.

“The horn of Jericho. The Book of Joshua describes how, after walking around Jericho six times, David blew the horn and the walls crumbled. Archaeology backs up the story to a certain extent: In 1997, an Italian team found that parts of the wall of Jericho did indeed collapse around 1,400 BC. Of course, they don’t attribute it to a sonic weapon, but to earthquake activity in the area. Who’s to say they’re not both right? Maybe a sonic weapon triggered an earthquake that collapsed the walls.”

“I’m afraid my science background is a little lacking. How can sound destroy walls?” Laney asked.

Henry looked around the group. “Resonance as a destructive force works by matching the resonant frequency of a target. For example, we’ve all seen a high note shatter a glass. For that to happen, the glass is forced to absorb more and more energy at its natural frequency. The end result is that it shatters.”

Jake shook his head. “But there’s a big difference between being able to shatter a glass and create an earthquake.”

Henry nodded. “True. But the idea of creating an earthquake is not that far out there. Tesla was rumored to have created an earthquake-producing machine called the Tesla oscillator back in 1898. So we know that, in theory, others have embraced the idea that you can utilize resonance for destructive purposes, even on a large scale.”

Patrick nodded his head. “I wonder if the stone works as some sort of acoustic tuning fork, for lack of a better term. Something that focuses, directs, and shoots out sound at a level equal to the natural frequency, the result being the destruction of the object.”

“A sound weapon,” Laney said.

“Exactly,” Patrick said.

“But wouldn’t it only damage the immediate area?” Yoni asked.

Henry shook his head. “Not if you chose the right area. The Western seaboard of the States is littered with quake sites. If you set those off, you would have a domino effect of earthquakes. A strong enough one could even force the super-volcano under Yellowstone to finally blow. That could take out the whole United States.”

“And the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan have horribly demonstrated the vulnerability of nuclear plants to natural disasters,” Laney added. A meltdown at one or more of those would set the world on a slow, agonizing downward spiral.”

“Great,” Yoni grouched. “So if this guy sets this thing off, we either have an immediate death by volcanic eruption or a slower death by radiation poisoning. Good times.”

“But,” Jake said, “that might not be a concern. Kensington is in all likelihood viewing the stone as an energy source. It would help him cement his political ambitions. Any weaponized goals would probably come long after that. And we don’t know for sure our fallen angel friend would set it off, do we?”

Laney and Henry shared a look. She hadn't mentioned Gideon to them yet. And apparently neither had Henry.

“Okay you two, spill it. What do you know?” Patrick demanded.

“We found out the identity of Paul’s companion,” Henry said. “His name is Gideon Wright. From all reports, he goes just by Gideon.”

Jake pushed himself away from the wall. “Gideon. Are you sure?”

Laney looked up in alarm. Jake’s tone’s was urgent. “Jake? Do you know him?”

“No. But I know of him.” He looked at Henry. “He’s linked with a spate of international terrorist incidents, including the attack on the school in Chechnya. Right?”

Henry nodded.

Jake closed his eyes. “He was dangerous even without any supernatural abilities. But I haven’t heard anything about him since 2004. Where’s he been?”

“He was working with the Syrians. But he began showing up in the background of pictures with Senator Kensington a few years ago.”