The Cleric's Vault (11 page)

Chapter 24

Las Vegas, Nevada

Sean
stared at the book in disbelief.
 
He’d heard rumors that such a thing existed.
 
But in his line of work he heard a lot of things.
 
Adriana
was turning out to be a woman full of surprises.
 
“May I?” he asked, longing to see the pages within.

“Of
course,” she motioned for him to proceed.
 
“Put these on.”
 
She
produced a pair of white gloves from a pocket.
 

After
he slipped them on, he cautiously opened the first page of the old book.
 
Fortunately, he had learned enough
Spanish over the years to be able to interpret most of what he saw.
 
A lot of the contents were just
gibberish, mentioning conditions, supplies, etc.
 
There was a picture of the golden leaf drawn on one page,
probably from the description the shaman had given.
 
But what came after that was what interested Sean.

This morning, before the sun arose, I left our camp
in secret and climbed high up into the mountains.
 
So much of this rugged terrain looks the same.
 
I feared that I would never discover
the relic I sought.
 
My suspicions
were becoming greater that the medicine man who had led us to this place had
either deceived me or believed that I was not clever enough to solve his
riddle.
 
When I had reached the
peak of a nearby mountain, I sat in quiet prayer as the sun began to peek over
the mountain range to the east.
 
As
I finished, I noticed a beam of sunlight shining through an odd hole located in
a stone formation about one hundred feet away.
 
The strange alignment of the rocks appeared to be manmade,
the hole itself bored out through the center of a large, square stone.
 
I turned to see where the light was
shining and found that a tiny dot of sunlight rested on a rock about twenty
feet away.
 
Curious, I walked over
to the spot and upon further inspection realized that the stone-- about the
size of a man-- had been put there by humans.
 
I checked behind it and noticed there was a narrow sliver of
space.
 
With renewed vigor, I
climbed up onto a ledge behind the large stone and leveraged it with my feet,
pushing with my back against the wall.
 
The giant piece toppled over and I fell down and into the opening of a
cave.
 
Inside I found an ancient
leaf of gold, which was illuminated by the ray of sunlight shining into a stone
chamber.
 

I do not know who left this relic here but they
went through much trouble to hide it.
 
Standing before it, I realized that I could not remove it from this
sacred resting place.

Perhaps the medicine man believed I could not remove
it or perhaps would not.
 
He told
me only the worthy could take the leaf to re-unite it with the others.
 
And the person who did so would have
the power of the gods.
 
I deserve
no such power.
 
The person who
accomplishes this must be of a purer heart than mine.
 
Still, I wonder where the other pieces are.
 

Sean
finished reading the passage and turned the page.
 
There were no other entries.
 
He looked back at Adriana and handed her the book.
 
“Others?” he asked, curious.

“The
others Coronado refer to are known as the Sumar Plates.
 
They are supposed to point the way to
the second chamber.”

Emily
spoke up suddenly.
 
“Second
chamber?
 
What if no one found the
first one?
 
Couldn’t we just skip a
few steps and get to the end?”

Their
host turned to her as she spoke.
 
“The path from one chamber to the next cannot be completed without the
stone from the previous.
 
Each
stone, like the one discovered in Georgia, have unique qualities.
 
The original stone does not point the
way to the second chamber, only the first.”

“The
stone we found at the chamber looked exactly like the first one except for the
message on one side and the picture on the other,” Sean stated.

Adriana
looked uncertain.
 
“The message
from each stone points the way to the next.
 
It would be impossible to find the chambers out of
order.”
 

She
took the diary back to the safe and laid it inside carefully.
 
“Did you happen to notice anything
usual about the stone’s shape?”

Sean
took a minute to think but nothing came to mind.
 
A beeping noise suddenly sounded from her front jeans
pocket.
 
Adriana reached in and
looked at her cell phone.

“What
is it?” Emily asked.

“Looks
like we need to be leaving,” Adriana replied with a concerned look in her
eyes.
 
“I believe they found us.”

Chapter 25

Las Vegas, Nevada

The
two black Ford Explorers were parked behind a few abandoned campers on the
plain at the foot of the mountain.
 
The rotting remains of the trailers provided the only cover in the
desert plains leading up to the mountains.
 

“How
long are we going to sit here,” Angela said into her microphone as she wiped a
bead of sweat off of her forehead.
 

James
responded from the other SUV.
 
“As
long as it takes.”

“As
long as it takes for what?
 
Our
engines to blow up?”
 
He ignored
her snide comment.
 
“What if they
decided to just hang out for a few days?”
 
Frustration was evident in her voice.

“We
were ordered to hold back and observe.
 
I’m certain they will be on the move soon.”

*****

“What’s
the problem?” Emily asked as the three left the stone corridor and closed the
heavy door behind them.
 

“I
have a perimeter warning system here,” Villa answered.
 
“Someone is on the premises.”

She
led them back up into the house to a small room that was probably meant to be
an office but instead looked like a small security center.
 
Six computer screens displayed camera
views of different places surrounding the property.
 
She typed a few keys and the screen with a blinking red
border zoomed in.
 
Two black SUVs
sat waiting by a couple of old RV campers down near the base of the
mountain.
 

“Our
friends from last night?” Sean asked.

“Probably,”
their host answered as she zoomed in on one of the trucks with a toggle.

“Looks
like they’re waiting to ambush us.” Emily theorized.

“Maybe,”
he said.
 
“More than likely they’re
waiting to see what we’re going to do next.
 
If they were going to keep trying to kill us they’d have
already come up the mountain.”

“What
are we going to do next?”

Both
women looked at him expectantly.

“Well,
we can’t just sit here all day.
 
I
say we make a run for it.”
 
He
looked at Adriana.
 
“You up for a
little car chase?”

She
smiled and twirled the keys on her index finger.

Villa
guided the SUV carefully along the mountain road until they came to the last
hidden turn near the bottom.
 
She
looked back at Sean who was strapped in and ready.
 
Then she punched it, kicking up dirt and gravel behind them.

The
black Audi roared across the desert plain back towards the city.
 
Up ahead they could see the campers and
just behind them, the two trucks of their pursuers.

Suddenly,
Sean’s phone started ringing in his left pocket.
 
It was Joe.
 
“Hey Mac.
 
I’m not sure I
got a lot of time to talk right now.
 
What’s up?”

“In
more trouble?”

“You
know me.”
 
Sean said as the Q7
sailed off of the dirt road and onto asphalt again.
 
He turned and looked behind them, switching his cell phone
to the other ear.
 
In the dust
cloud behind he could make out the two black vehicles pulling out and heading
in their direction.
 

Joe
chuckled.
 
“Yeah.
 
I do.
 
Listen, Sean.
 
I
just got off the phone with Tommy a few minutes ago and then tried calling him
back but he didn’t answer so I thought I’d give you a shout.
 
You still in Vegas?”

“Yeah,
sorta.”
 

Adriana
veered the car into the outskirts of town.
 
Their vehicle was much faster than the two chasing
them.
 
He just hoped they didn’t
see any police.
 
With the crazy
scene that was surely still going on over at the Venetian, he doubted many
would be out giving speeding tickets.

“Good,”
Joe’s deep southern accent brought his mind back to the phone call.
 
“You need to go to the Grand Canyon.”

“I’ve
been there before.
 
Not sure if I’m
going to have time to do it again today, buddy.”

“Not
for sight seein’,” McElroy corrected.
 
“Tommy gave me the interpretation for the second stone.
 
I believe that the first part of the
clue leads to Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico.
 
It talks about two lions guarding the
way.”

“So,
why The Grand Canyon if the first place is Bandelier?”

“Tommy
is already headed to Bandelier.
 
The next part of the riddle talks about eagles wings guiding the
way.
 
I didn’t really think about
it while I was on the phone with him, but I did a little looking around after
we hung up.

“There
is a place called, ‘Eagle Point’ at the Grand Canyon.
 
That’s where I think another piece of the puzzle is.”

“Are
you sure?
 
I mean, there could be a
few dozen places named after eagles or other birds in this country.
 
Why that spot?”
 
Sean speculated.

“It’s
the only one that makes sense.
 
If
we go on what we know based on the first chamber, the people that left the
clues did so in a general area.
 
All the ones we found before were within a few hundred miles of each
other. Stands to reason they wouldn’t change that method now.”

“Ok,
ignoring the fact that these locations are much further apart, before one clue
led to the next one.
 
You’re making
it sound like there is no order to it this time.”

“I
thought about that too.
 
This new
riddle is different.
 
Even though
the location perimeter might be similar, the way to get there doesn’t have to
be.
 
From what I can tell, you
don’t need to visit the spots in any order this time.
 
Well, except the last one.
 
Plus, you will need to find three items.
 
They should look like leaves.
 
We are still working on the third
location.
 
I’ll let you know if we
find it.”

Sean
smiled.
 
He realized that Adriana
had already found one piece of the puzzle.
 
“We already found it, Mac.”

“Really?”
Joe sounded amazed.
 
“How’d you do
that?”

Sean
looked into the back of the cargo area.
 
A towel lay on the floor, bundled as if it was wrapped around
something.
 
“It’s a long
story.
 
I’ll explain when we get
back.”

“We?”

“I’ll
explain that too.”

Adriana
swerved onto a side street then another, trying to lose their followers.

“Thanks,
Mac. I gotta go.”

“No
problem, Sean.
 
I’ll let you know
if I can figure out any other part of this thing.”

Wyatt
hung up the phone as Adriana pulled the car into an alley between a pawn shop
and a tattoo parlor.
 

“What
are we doing?” He asked.

She
glanced over at him.
 
“Giving them
a chance to lose us.”

A
few tense minutes went by as they waited to see if the people chasing them
would appear.
 
The only thing that
cut the quiet in the air was the easy hum of the engine and the gentle blowing
of the air conditioner.

Adriana
turned to Sean.
 
“Who was that on
the phone?”

“My
friend Joe.
 
He’s an expert in
Native American history.
 
Says we
should go to The Grand Canyon.”
 
She looked uncertain.
 
“He
said he thinks that Eagle Point is where we can find another clue.”

“Is
he sure?
 
That’s a few hours from
here,” Emily asked.

“I
wondered the same thing.
 
Joe said
he thinks that’s it.
 
I trust
him.”
 
He paused.
 
“You ever been to The Grand
Canyon?”
 
Emily shook her
head.
 
“What about you?” he asked
Adriana.

“No,”
Adriana answered bluntly.
 

“Oh,”
he smiled.
 
“Now there are
two
reasons for us to go.”
 
A cute grin crept onto the side of her
mouth as she eyed him.
 

She
didn’t say a thing as she stepped on the gas and steered the Audi back out onto
the road towards the interstate.