The Royal Stones of Eden (Royal Secrecies Book 1) (5 page)

“That shirt isn’t exactly correct, is it?” Mattie asked.

“It was five dollars,” David said, with a quick comeback.

David then changed the subject with a random question. “So
your
parents are dead also?” he asked her without any discretion.

“That was years ago. Why do you ask?” she said, with a look of circumspection.

“You’re an independent woman—someone that takes care of herself?”

“Absolutely—but I’m not so independent these days—age creates experience,” she said as she raised her eyebrows.

“After school, I want just a simple life. I just want to be settled down.”—she didn’t mean to use the word “settled.”

“I meant to say that I’ve had my share of heartache. I want some normality. That’s all,” she clarified.

David looked at her. He was in a daze. He wondered how such an innocent and charming girl could have stayed hidden so well in the world. How had she managed not to allow herself to be taken by someone, he thought. David was an archaic kind of guy.

Then, at her suggestion, they both went to the open living room and sat down on a homey, old, and fluffy couch. She wanted to watch the sunrise through the spacious windows in the front of the house, where there was a clear view of the eastern sky, but in less than two minutes Mattie was asleep. She rested her fatigued head on David’s soothing chest, and he leaned his back on the sofa arm and placed his feet up on a nearby ottoman. He slept and dreamed of a new year. It was the tired and restful dream of possibility that whirled in both of their minds. They were invigorated by the discovery of a young and fresh love. It was a long and refreshing rest.

Several hours later David finally awoke and opened his rested but confused eyes. He was still on the couch, but he was under a blanket and fully sprawled out under its length. Mattie was not with him, and the clock on the wall read 3 pm—but the delightful and full smell of fried bacon permeated the room.

He trudged into the kitchen. Mattie had cooked a breakfast of bacon and eggs and was full of an alert smile.

“I thought some real food was in order,” she eagerly declared. “I went to the corner market.”

“Excellent! I’m starving!” David slurred as he wiped his eyes and stretched his drowsy face. This part of independence had his approval. It served his interest.

After a rather late breakfast, David asked Mattie to let him show her something in his bedroom.

“Oh my god! What kind of line is this?” she said to David, who returned a grin.

“Seriously, I want to show you something,” he insisted.

“Alright. Lead on,” she submitted reluctantly, and David took her to his upstairs room.

Shelves of what looked like mathematical or geometrical models of various types filled David’s room. Every shelf had either a weird figure or odd shape on it. The room looked like a science project.

On one shelf, there were old wooden boxes with designs engraved on the wood. Some designs were in the shape of straight lines. Others had squares or circles on them. On another shelf, there were several sealed glass tubes with what looked like colored water in them. On yet another, there were metal shapes of various designs.

“Wow! What are these things? I thought you studied history, not science?” she said with curiosity.

“Actually, as far as school is concerned, I’m just trying to graduate. I study a lot of science on my own. History and archaeology are my official concentrations. I like science, but I could never really hold my attention to it in class,” he said.

Then David opened a box and removed a glass vial from within. It was a glass tube filled partially with a liquid that glittered with a silver color.

“What is it?” Mattie asked.

“It’s a magnet!—I think,” David said proudly as if it was supposed to mean something. “I have always had a fascination with magnets, and I created this one,” David lied, but he wanted to impress his new girlfriend. The truth was that he had received it from an old prospector during a recent archaeological site dig in southern Utah.

“You created this?” Mattie asked amusingly and suspiciously.

“Yeah, well it was supposed to be a new energy source of some kind—I was supposed to be wealthy enough to own an island. I guess that never happened,” he frowned.

David to his surprise was suddenly knocked over to his bed. Mattie grabbed him and shoved him down.

“You talk too much this morning!” Mattie quipped and then giggled at his reaction. Mattie had not told David of her aspiration to become a modern woman. Mattie’s desire to break away from an unrevealed past of inhibition was awkward and unnatural, but it was spontaneous.

David felt Mattie’s warm embrace. Her chest quickly pressed down against him, and their lips opened and kissed feverishly. David’s right hand proceeded to go underneath Mattie’s T-shirt, but he stopped with a sense of uncertainty. She took hold of his hand and put it underneath her shirt, giving him full permission while she kissed him. He slowly glided his hand upward, under the shirt and against her warm and calming skin. He realized that she had nothing on but the T-shirt, as he reached for and touched her breast. He felt a raised nipple against his probing but curious fingers.

She caught an occasional breath between the kisses. Mattie moaned intensely as David reached deeply for her. He gently but firmly squeezed her skin with his amorous grasp. She discharged moans of release from the tension that had built up within her. Mattie felt an undisclosed and unsuppressed self-control while David felt the initial cold grip of her firm but soft hand reach inside his pants. In the passion of the moment, they both lost their control. The barriers between two acquaintances completely broke down, and they became true lovers.

The kissing and the touching turned more passionate as they gradually removed all of their clothes, one piece at a time. They reveled in the playing and enjoyed the game. It was a full afternoon. They napped, but only after making love to each other. David released himself into her loving folds, and they forgot their past. They lost themselves in each other.

They awoke at sunset after a protracted and unrushed snooze. David caressed Mattie and played with her hair with restless fingers.

“Hey! Let me show you something else,” David sparked as he reached for something on a nearby shelf.

“Stay in the bed, David! It’s chilly,” she begged him.

“Hang on,” David insisted.

David grabbed the vial with the magnet in it. He opened the tube, and he jerked the covers back. He poured some of the liquid into Mattie’s exposed belly button.

She screamed playfully, “David! What are you doing?” She looked down at the liquid. It had transformed itself into something other than liquid.

The glittering and silver liquid started to form the shape of a ball. It jumped up and down. It moved from within her belly button to the outside of it. Back and forth it jumped.

“It’s alive!”—Mattie blurted out with a smile of discovery.

“Don’t worry! It’s just energy. That’s all. It’s not alive. The magnet reacts with elements and creates a movement that then produces a simulation of life—but it
is
extremely cool, though, isn’t it?”—David had conquered love and science, but he did not explain to her how he had obtained the liquid. Maybe another day, he thought.

Mattie watched in amazement as the odd and life-like magnet jumped on her stomach to its random beat and rhythm. Magnetism and attraction were in the room. Their eyes locked together, and they held each other’s hands. It was their first day together.

David and Mattie did not get married, but they did live together, from that day onward. They continually enjoyed the simplicity and art of holding hands. They stayed mesmerized and in love. Five years later, they still were very much attracted to each other.

David’s mind had gone back to the past. He thought of a time that was five years ago and before.

“David, let’s please go home now,” Mattie insisted as she attempted to pry him out of his chair. “You can tell me about our Cairo adventure tomorrow.” He was in a daze, but she finally got his attention and led him out of the pub and into the brisk desert air of Salt Lake City. His daydream was over.

David was determined to share some of the details of the Cairo trip that he had kept to himself. Perhaps he would even share the story of the man in the cloud, the one who appeared to him on the day his dad died.

Just before they started to walk away from the pub, David’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He opened his old-style flip phone and answered as a gust of wind whipped into them.

“Hello?”—he said it mundanely, annoyed by the late-night call.

“What? Who is this?” he scowled and frowned. “I understand. I’ll be right there.” David had a strange look on his face, and Mattie became overly curious and panicked.

“Who was it?” she pleaded.

“That was Haj! Haj is alive.”—his tone mixed with anger and inquisitiveness.

Chapter 4

The Meeting

Peter held his .357 Magnum against Haj’s temple. He slowly began to withdraw the weapon while he still maintained a direct aim at Haj’s head.

“Very good, Haj! Very well done, old boy!”—Peter complimented his forced participant.

“When David finds out everything, he’ll kill you. You lied to him. You kept my existence secret for five years!”—Haj stared a hole through Peter’s shallow soul.

“Oh, hardly! If anything, he’ll be thanking me by the time our meeting is over!”—Peter didn’t blink. “Besides—David will never hear
you
or your
ravings
, which he will conclude are from a wild lunatic.”

Peter backed away from Haj’s holding cell. He powered down his cell phone, the same one that Haj had used to call David, just minutes before. The secure area had, in addition to the metal bars, a force field of alternating red and purple beams that became active as Peter stepped away from Haj. Metal bars rose from the floor that had lowered earlier to allow Peter access. In addition to the lasers and metal bars, a thin layer of clear plastic shielding with the deceptive look of clear glass rose between the lasers and bars. The metal bars, along with the shielding, moved into designated ceiling grooves above the cell. They sealed tightly, and the cell became completely sound proof. Haj pounded the clear panel and screamed, “
No!
You bloody
…” The sound stayed in the cell.

A few miles away, an impatient David Hughes raced his Cavalier to the J & H pharmaceutical company in Holliday. Mattie had asked him, “How do you know it really
was
Haj?” Her skeptical question ran through his mind as he drove closer to Peter’s company headquarters. Haj had told him to come alone and to meet him on the third floor. He had said there was no time for explanations. So after he dropped Mattie off, just in front of their downtown condo, a soberer David Hughes rushed to find out the answer to Mattie’s question. Was Haj truly alive, he wondered.

David and Mattie lived in a condo near Temple Street, not too far from the Mormon Tabernacle and Temple Square. The condo was a gift from Peter, to entice David to work for him. David had only accepted for Mattie’s sake. It was a different life from the old house in San Francisco, but it was an agreeable downtown atmosphere. It sported a lively and youthful arena. Neither of them was very religious, let alone a member of one particular faith. Instead of a religious appeal, they were both drawn to the multi-cultural atmosphere of Salt Lake City because it bustled at any given weekend with various cultural activities, concerts, and shows. After all, Mattie played in the symphony on occasion, and it was extremely convenient.

In less than fifteen minutes, David arrived at the J & H pharmaceutical company and rushed up to the guard shack. He stopped abruptly at the security gate, where a security guard greeted him. His first impression of the guard was that he was overbearing, overweight, and very unfriendly.

David managed a security firm in the Salt Lake area, and he usually had no problem with security or in managing people in a tactful manner. However, tonight, David was rushed and to the point. He started with a rude demand.

“Call Peter! Get me in, as soon as possible,” David commanded with a particular degree of insolence.

“Sir, Mr. Jenkins isn’t expecting any visitors tonight. I’m sorry. You need to leave. So turn your car around, and leave the premises!” the guard retorted with expectation.

Suddenly an intercom voice was heard over the guard shack speaker, “It’s ok! Let him in.” It was Peter’s voice.

David bolted through after the gate lifted. He parked and got out of the car in a dark parking lot on the east side. The lights in the lot were minimal.

He looked at his Rolex watch and saw it was about 1:45 am. A light flashed green on its face. He pushed a button on the side of it and watched the green light change to a flashing red light. A separate circular hand started to move in a clockwise circle around the numbers. After a second pass around the numbers, the hand stopped at the number two on the clock face. When David turned to his right, the hand moved back to the number twelve, almost as if it gave David some direction.