CHAPTER 28
Baltimore, MD
Laney placed Drew’s paper onto the wrought-iron table. She’d taken refuge on the expansive, back veranda on the Chandler estate after the meeting had broken up.
Needing to sort through everything, she’d picked up a copy of Drew’s paper to finally read it. She’d had the paper for almost forty-eight hours and she still hadn’t had time to sit down and really go through it. If she was going to find answers, she knew that’s where she needed to start.
Now that she had read it, though, she wasn’t sure she was any closer to finding those answers. She stared out at a family of deer munching away on the grass a hundred yards away while her mind tried to pull together the logic of Drew's argument. Her uncle was right, Drew did seem to argue that there was an ancient weapon of mass destruction buried at a sister site to Gobekli Tepe.
Her uncle had said that Drew had attributed that information to Cayce. That, however, was only partly true. He had also attributed it to the Book of Enoch. Drew mentioned that the Book of Enoch also referred to an ancient weapon. But that was all he said. He didn’t elaborate.
Laney had only a passing familiarity with the book. She knew it was popular at one point within the early Christian church. She certainly didn’t remember any mention of an incredible weapon. She was most familiar with the last part of the book, which depicted Enoch’s visit to heaven. Toward the book’s beginning, he spoke about Watchers or, as they are better known, fallen angels. But try as she might, she couldn’t recall anything about a particular weapon that fit Drew’s description.
She looked up at the windows that made up one side of Henry’s office. Henry and her uncle were manning the phones, calling in every marker, favor, possible source, to see if they could track down any information about the sister site. Danny was scouring the internet for information as well. Jake was getting in touch with his military contacts.
She felt useless. A criminologist could tell you why people did horrible things, not where they were doing them. And she wasn’t really making any headway with Drew’s paper. All she had were more questions.
If she had spoken with him before, maybe… Grief welled up inside her. She blinked back the tears. How could he be gone?
Looking to distract herself, she focused on the family of deer again. Four of them stood eating grass, occasionally glancing around before returning to their meal. A rabbit skittered across the ground not far from them and birds called to each other from the trees. She smiled at the innocence of the scene.
All that was missing was for the woodland creatures to join hands in a sing-along, and then the movie scene moment would be complete. I’ll have to get Max out here. He’ll love it.
Her smile faded. The baseball-sized hole that had taken up residence in her chest reminded her that wouldn't be happening. She couldn't go near Max, or Kati, right now without endangering them.
Dropping her head into her hands, she thought of Drew, his smile and excitement whenever he spoke of his work. Unbidden, the image from her dream returned, followed by what she imagined Tom was probably going through. It was all just so evil.
Unburdened, the family of deer continued to munch away. What a simple life. No gun battles, kidnappings, murders. Just meandering through green fields all day.
“Can I join you?”
She glanced up, surprised to see Jake behind her. “I didn’t hear you come up.”
“It’s my military training. It teaches us how to sneak up on pretty girls.”
She grinned. “What an incredibly useful expenditure of taxpayer money.” Although her tone was light, his words gave her a thrill.
She pointed at the family of deer in the distance. “I was just thinking about how idyllic their life must be.”
Sitting in the chair next to her, he said, “Maybe for those guys. But most deer spend their time avoiding hunters, desperately foraging for food, and trying to keep from freezing in the winter.”
She looked at him for a long moment. When she spoke, her tone was dry. “You know, you’re really ruining my Disney moment here.”
He let out a chuckle. “Sorry. I’m sure Bambi and his friends are living the high life.”
She smiled. They sat in companionable silence for a few moments, enjoying the peace.
“Any luck upstairs?” she asked.
Jake sighed. “No. If there’s a dig site, no one seems to have heard anything. The other three are still looking for some leads, but I’m not hopeful.”
“I’m sure we’ll find something soon.”
“Maybe.” The sound of Laney’s cell phone interrupted her reply. She glanced down at the caller ID before answering. “Hey, Rocky. How are you? How’s Mike?”
“I’m good,” Rocky answered. “Just a couple stitches and a few pints of blood. Mike’s in the ICU, but they’re talking about moving him to a regular room soon. He’ll have to take it easy for a while, but they expect him to make a complete recovery.”
“Thank God. At least that’s one piece of good news.”
“Well, I also have some news from Dr. Nichols. Although, I’m not sure it fits in the ‘good’ category.”
“Hold on a sec. Jake’s here with me. I’m going to put you on speakerphone.” She punched the speaker phone button and placed it on the table. “Okay. Go ahead. You said the M.E. came back with some results. Let me guess, Paul’s not human.”
Rocky was silent.
Laney glanced at Jake. “Rocky? I was kidding about that not-human thing.”
“Well, you might not be that far off. The Doc explained it to me and, to be honest, I don't understand all of the science behind it. Hold on. I wrote this down.”
The sound of shuffling papers could be heard through the phone. “Okay, let’s see. She said something about healing involving a rush of platelets that create something called a fibrin clot. That happens within minutes. Followed by um, angiogenesis, collagen deposition, granulation tissue formation, epithelialization, and wound contraction.”
Jake glanced at her, one eyebrow raised.
She shrugged. “Uh, Rocky? Any chance you could dumb all this down for us?”
Rocky chuckled. “Yeah. I had the M.E. do that for me, too. Long story short, the entire wound healing process works exponentially faster in our boy. His platelet count is off the charts, which means he creates a fibrin clot almost instantaneously. He heals at lightning-fast speeds. In fact, the M.E. said that some of the shots to his heart already showed evidence of healing.”
“Then how did he die?” Jake asked.
Laney could hear the smile in Rocky's voice. “Well, apparently someone shot him point-blank in the heart multiple times. It was shredded. There was simply no way for him to recover from that fast enough.”
Jake leaned forward. “Has the M.E. ever heard of any other cases like his?”
“She could only find one case, about twenty years ago in San Diego. Guy was seventy-five. He'd been shot and still fought off his attacker. The two took a fall off a second story balcony. Guy was impaled through the heart by an iron fence. Same thing – heart was completely destroyed.”
“Ouch.” Laney shuddered.
“But that’s all she could find. She’s doing a wider search because I think now she’s just curious.”
“So he heals almost instantly?” Laney thought of Paul’s face after the shotgun blast. What an incredible ability. “That’s got to come in handy. Was there anything else?”
“Yup,” Rocky said, “Apparently Paul, whoever he is, was also rather physically gifted. He had higher than normal levels of type I muscle fibers. In fact, his body consisted of only this type. Which means, he utilized oxygen more efficiently, which should have made him incredibly powerful.”
“I think we can all attest to the truth of that statement,” Jake said.
“No kidding,” Rocky said. “Dr. Nichols said professional athletes, through hard training, can increase their type 1 muscle fibers by sixty percent. That’s only a fraction of what Paul had.”
“So he is a superhuman?” Laney asked.
“I guess that’s about as good a term as any,” Rocky replied.
Laney struggled to assimilate the information with what they knew about the men’s abilities. “But where did he come from? And how did he find another superhuman? I mean, one guy was Asian and one was Caucasian. They can’t be genetically related.”
“I don't know. But I do have officers scouring the area around the church to see if any cameras picked up a shot of his friend. Maybe we can ID him.”
“Any luck ID-ing Paul?” Jake asked.
Rocky’s frustration came through loud and clear. “No. But I’ll let you guys know as soon as we have something.”
Laney nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Rocky. Take care, okay?”
“You, too.”
Laney looked at Jake after Rocky had hung up. “Superhumans? Is that even possible?”
“Well, before my experience in Afghanistan and yours yesterday, I would have said no. But now?” He shrugged.
Laney blew out her breath. “Okay, so we know these guys are physically gifted. We think they’re grabbing men to work at a dig site and we think the site may be in the U.S. This all seems to be related to Drew’s paper. We need to get more information.”
“Any suggestion as to where we get that information?” Jake asked.
Laney looked away, focusing again on the family of deer. She had a feeling that as incredible as it might be, all of this hinged on Edgar Cayce and the Book of Enoch. Drew had used both as references in his paper.
She struggled to remember more about Enoch, but there was just nothing there. All she could remember was that Enoch was Noah’s great-grandfather, and the book was about his trip to heaven. The individual details, though, were fuzzy at best. How on earth could that be related to any of this
And then there was Edgar Cayce and his past-life readings on Atlantis. Somehow, Drew and Priddle had linked them together. But that link wasn’t clear in Drew’s paper. If she’d had the chance to talk to him about the paper, she would have advised him to make the link clearer. But she’d never have the chance now.
Her uncle could probably fill in the blanks on the Book of Enoch, but she only had a passing knowledge of Cayce. They needed someone with a more detailed knowledge of the man.
She looked at Jake. “I don’t suppose you guys have anyone on staff that specializes in the work of twentieth-century psychics?"
Jake's expression was thoughtful. “Actually, I think we might.”