The Society of Orion Book #7: The Turkish Findings (Colton Banyon Mystery 21) Read online

  “Gunnery Sergeant Joseph Gersch,” Banyon uttered.

  “Only now he is Professor Joseph Gersch and a full-time member of our team.” When Banyon had met Gunnery Sergeant Gersch, he was in charge of security at the safe house. Banyon had saved his life and the gunny sergeant had saved Banyon’s life as well.

  “Is he coming here?” Banyon questioned.

  “He will arrive within the hour.”

  “What about Chase Sanborn and Timmy?” Banyon suddenly demanded.

  “They are not members of my team, but I have used them just like you have on several missions. Chase is very ambitious and smart as a whip. He needs money to start a family. He is also very discreet. He is under a government contract to never divulge anything he does for us.”

  “Okay, I can understand that,” Banyon acknowledged. “He has been a valuable asset for us as well.”

  “Timmy is even more transparent,” the colonel explained. “While he is also under contract, his real motivation is Carol. He would do anything to impress her.”

  “I guess I can see that too,” Banyon admitted and nodded his head.

  ***

  “What do you know about the Sumi?” Banyon asked.

  “Quite a bit actually,” Colonel Cole responded. “The SIM team was set up in 1948. I am the third head of the project.”

  “Hmm,” Banyon uttered. “Did it have anything to do with the Roswell UFO incident in 1947?”

  “Yes, it does,” Jerry Cole agreed. “One of the Sumi sleds crashed there. The occupant died, but soon after another sled appeared to search the area. We shot down his sled and captured him. He name was Zoda, but he was mortally wounded. He lived for only two days. We collected a lot of information from him which we can use against the Sumi.”

  “Jerry, some of my people, the Patel clan, found a depository in Northern India. When they explored the caves, they found the place empty,” Banyon announced. “What do you know about that?”

  “I can only tell you what the records say,” the colonel replied. “I wasn’t even born then. We discovered the cave in 1949 while studying the disappearance of forests in the area. The SIM team at that time had no idea what they had found. They thought that they had discovered an ancient tomb and brought in an archeological expert to examine the things in the room. There were two large statues in the room.”

  “What was the expert’s name?” Banyon inquired.

  “His name was Abu Patel. He was a well-known treasure hunter at that time,” the colonel said. “He took the statues and put them in a museum. Why did you ask that?”

  “He was the Patel’s grandfather,” Banyon responded. “Abu had told the girls about a mysterious cave near where they were living. They explored it recently.” It was clear to Banyon that the colonel had not made the connection to him. Abu Patel was the reason that Banyon could talk to Wolf.

  “Interesting coincidence,” the colonel responded and rubbed his chin.

  “So what happened?” Banyon asked to get the colonel back on track.

  “In a way, it was blind luck. The SIM team didn’t know anything about computers as they were not in general use back then. They also didn’t carry an Orion weapon so it didn’t activate the hologram. They simply took the weapons off the walls and packed up the three computers in the control room. They thought they had found some sort of ancient transmitters.”

  “So the DoD placed them around the United States and has been monitoring them to see who came by to check on them, right?” Banyon muttered.

  “That’s correct.”

  “I found one on Mt. Charleston a couple of years ago. It almost got me sent to a secret government facility.”

  “Yes, we discovered that people with high telepathic abilities could hear the signals and decided the transmitters were alien. You have to understand that the DoD at that time didn’t know what the Sumi looked like or anything about them. They thought that maybe they walked among us and wanted to capture some.”

  “But didn’t you know that they were blue?” Banyon asked. “That would be a clear giveaway.”

  “The Sumi have been known to use makeup to change the color of their skin,” the colonel explained. “However, you must understand that they have lived in a Utopia for several hundred million years. They have lost much of their ability to be creative and to adjust. We can use that against them.”

  “So you do know some of their weaknesses,” Banyon exclaimed.

  “Yes, we do,” the colonel said with a smile. “And we have a few surprises planned for them too.”

  Chapter Four

  “How many Orion weapons have you recovered so far?” Banyon asked this knowing that there were four chapters of the Society of Orion that he hadn’t visited yet.

  “We didn’t get any from the society members initially, but Father Hector helped us to collect most of them just recently. We did collect two weapons from the Sumi that the SIM team members have run across back in 1948. We found three more in the cave in 1949,” the colonel responded. “But we haven’t recovered any in the last sixty-five years.”

  “Do you know which of the Orion weapons you have?” Banyon quickly asked. “What do they do?”

  “No, and we have not been able to make them work either,” the colonel replied sadly.

  “Do you bring them with you at least?” Banyon inquired. “It’s important that we know what function each one performs. It will help in finding ways to neutralize the Sumi.”

  “I thought it would be a good idea to bring them so Kenny has them in his bag.”

  “Good,” Banyon responded brightly. “I’ll have Maya look at them. So far she has been able to identify all the weapons and has got them all to work.”

  “I’ll have Kenny give them to her as soon as we’re finished here,” Jerry Cole promised.

  “What about the weapons from the other Society of Orion chapters? How many of those do you have?”

  “Well there is a bit of a problem there,” Colonel Cole explained.

  “Oh?” Banyon uttered.

  “Yes. Only three chapters were willing to give up their weapons. We collected thirty-five weapons in total from the society, but can’t make any of them work either.”

  “Where are the weapons?”

  “Joe Gersch is bringing them with him today.”

  “So that means that there are only fifteen weapons unaccounted for. I have sixty-five and you have thirty-five. The five you collected a long time ago were not Orion weapons. The last chapter of the society must have the other fifteen. I bet that we could even identify which are unique ones,” Banyon explained. “We just need to go and get them.”

  “Yes, but do you know where the rest of the weapons are located yet?” Colonel Cole asked hopefully.

  “Not yet,” Banyon replied. “I was hoping that you could help with that. I need a person’s name, a place and a time to start looking.”

  “The representative I met with was a priest named Father Paolo. He lives in Vatican City in Rome. I met him there two weeks ago today.”

  Banyon was not surprised. The Vatican had a long history of hording artifacts and unusual objects. They also had many ties with the dreaded Nazis.

  “I’ll bet that the society member that loaned the weapons to the Nazis was from the Vatican,” Banyon uttered with disgust.

  “Correct,” Colonel Cole explained, “but Father Paolo told me that they would not lend the weapons to anyone else under any circumstances. He said that the publicity was too negative.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Banyon huffed. “But the weapons they control may only be duplicates of ones we already have. We may not need them at all. We need to quickly analyze the ones your team holds before we decide whether to take on the Vatican.”

  “Okay, I’ll get Carol to help with the analysis,” Colonel Cole offered.

  Not wanting to expose the codex to the SIM team, Banyon replied. “That’s okay, Jerry. The three Patel sisters are more than capable and are familiar with mo
st of the weapons.”

  “Alright, if you insist,” the colonel replied with dejection. He wanted his team to know what Banyon’s team knew.

  “I do,” Banyon responded evenly.

  “Well, let’s get started then,” the colonel announced and slapped his hands on his knees.

  “What do you want to do first?” Banyon asked.

  “Carol has a presentation about the Sumi weaknesses. The background would be good for everyone.”

  “You go ahead and get them started Jerry, I’ve got to go to the bathroom first,” Banyon replied.

  Chapter Five

  “Do you have enough information to find what we need?” Colton Banyon yelled out as soon as he locked the bathroom door in the bedroom.

  “I’m working on it now,” Wolf replied in Banyon’s head.

  “What can you tell me so far,” Banyon asked. He knew Wolf could research history at a rate of four years per day and could do multiple searches at the same time.

  “I’ve found the Sumi basecamp. It is located in the Preah Vihear Province in Northern Cambodia. It’s pretty remote there. There looks to be about a hundred Sumi on the site.”

  “What are they doing?” Banyon asked.

  “Why, they are building a city, of course,” the spirit responded.

  “Why haven’t they been spotted yet?” Banyon asked thoughtfully.

  “They are cloaking the area so they can’t be detected, but I went back to when they arrived and counted them. I can’t see through the cloak either.”

  “So we don’t exactly know what they are building then, right?” Banyon pressed.

  “I can’t see into the cloak. They are using supplies from the shuttle ship and materials under the cloaked area.”

  “How big an area are we talking about?”

  “The cloak is covering a circular area of over a mile across.”

  “I didn’t know that they had a Covers device could blanket that large an area, did you?”

  “Colt, I watched them unload a Covers device that was four feet across. When they turned it on, it cloaked the whole area.”

  “Uh-oh,” Banyon uttered. “Does that mean that they have been able to enlarge their weapons?”

  “It would seem so,” Wolf responded.

  “I don’t know what kinds of problems this information will make for us, do you?”

  “They are still the same weapons, but just on a bigger scale,” the spirit replied.

  “I guess that you’re right,” Banyon reasoned. “Is there anything else that you can tell me?”

  “They haven’t gone unnoticed, Colt.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m currently watching three heavily armed men entering the cloaked area. The cloak makes the area invisible, but doesn’t stop anyone from going inside.”

  “Are there any villages or other people now trapped under the cloak?”

  “I counted three small settlements and maybe two hundred people in the area. They are all farmers and natives.”

  “Can you find out where the armed men came from?” Banyon asked with a little panic in his voice.

  “I’ll do that while we continue to discuss the rest of the information that I have collected for you.”

  ***

  “Where is the other depository?” Banyon asked when they were finished talking about Cambodia.

  “The second depository is located inside a hill on a small island in the Marmara Sea that is south of Istanbul. It is called Vasa Adasi and is very remote. Only two thousand people live there year round. It is a big vacation spot for the Turkish people and the population can swell to ten times that amount during the summer months,” Wolf explained.

  “Good, it is off-season,” Banyon remarked. “Will you be able to guide us in at night?”

  “There is a problem there too,” Wolf remarked.

  “What?” Banyon screaked.

  “The shuttle ship dropped off four Sumi on the island yesterday. They are currently in the control room working with the transmitters.”

  “You can see them?” Banyon questioned. Normally Wolf couldn’t see underground.

  “Colt, they are humans just like you, just an older race, so I can see them underground,” the spirit responded.

  “We’ll have to find a way to deal with them,” Banyon commented. “What can you tell me about the control room?”

  “There are three transmitters there. They also have a metal library with metal books there. The Sumi are opening the books and studying them. Then they’re transmitting information to the Cambodian site. There is also a large carriage in the corner. It appears to be made of pure yellow amber.”

  “That’s the burial chariot for their king,” Banyon replied. “We found their King’s sarcophagus in the Ecuadorian cave, remember?’

  “The two statues from the second depository are currently in Previne’s museum in India,” Wolf added. “The Sumi intend to bury their dead leader on the Cambodian site with the chariot and the statues.”

  “But we closed their first site so they can’t get the sarcophagus out. Can they?”

  “They have already used the Seeker device to find it and have used the Mover device to dig it up. It is currently being transported to Cambodia.”

  “We should bring the statues to them as a peace offering,” Banyon said out loud. “Do you think that it would help?”

  “No,” Wolf replied. “They see the invasion of earth as Manifest Destiny for the Sumi people.”

  ***

  Banyon finally got to the third subject after more discussions with Wolf. He was starting to become very concerned. There were many obstacles to his tenuous plan.

  “Have you located the seventh chapter of the Society of Orion?” Banyon asked.

  “Yes,” Wolf replied. “I have also seen the weapons and there are fifteen, just as you surmised.

  “Can we get to them?”

  “It will not be easy,” the spirit explained. It’ll take some good planning and maybe even some luck.”

  Banyon just groaned.

  Chapter Six

  When Colton Banyon finally returned to the main room of the large penthouse suite he encountered a beehive of activity. There were seventeen people crowded into the medium-sized room and they all were busy. The list of people included the nine members of the Forever Ours team plus the three shooters from Dewey & Beatem, Tom Dick, and Harry. Three members of the SIM team, Colonel Cole, Kenny, and Carol were also present. In addition, Timmy and Chase who worked for both teams occupied the room.

  Colonel Cole was in a corner talking urgently into his cellphone. He didn’t look happy. Carol was setting up an easel and directing people on where to sit. Maya, Pramilla, and Previne were standing over the dining room table examining the five Orion weapons that Kenny had given them and searching the codex for answers. Loni was holding a discussion with the Forever Ours team and Timmy was pounding away on his laptop. It looked like a political campaign office just before election time.

  “Let’s get started,” Banyon yelled out. “I’ve got some of the answers we need.”

  Colonel Cole immediately raced over to Banyon. “Colt, we are running out of time. Two more starships have taken up orbit behind the moon.”

  “Christ!” Banyon roared. “That means there are almost a million Sumi here for the invasion.”

  “The Pentagon is considering firing some nuclear missiles at them. But I think that their ships are far too fast and will just avoid them,” the colonel lamented.

  “And you would be right,” Banyon remarked.

  ***

  Carol clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention and motioned for them to take a seat. “This won’t take long, but I think it is very important,” she announced.

  Loni said nervously, “I hope you have a way to stop the Sumi. It looks like they will be here soon.”

  Carol replied. “You’ve heard the phrase: ‘Know your enemy’, right?”

  “Of course,” Mandy
shouted back.

  “Well I’m going to tell you everything we know about the Sumi,” Carol responded. “You judge if it is enough to stop their invasion.”

  “Go ahead,” Colonel Cole uttered and rolled his hands impatiently.

  “Let’s go over their physical characteristics first,” Carol said and wrote Sumi on the easel. “They are actually exactly alike us. They have the same organs and the same type of blood. They are real humans. They just have been around a lot longer and have lived on a distant planet for around the last five hundred million years, but there is no doubt that they were from earth originally. In short, everything you learned about earth’s development in school is wrong. People inhabited the earth over a billion years ago.”

  “Where’s the evidence?” Heather asked suspiciously.

  “Good question,” Carol replied and pointed at her. “The earth turns over its crust every couple of hundred million years or so. The tectonic plates are always on the move. When they collide, one plate forces the other down and the heat below the surface turns everything into molten rock. The oldest fossils we have ever found are only a little over two hundred million years old. Anything five hundred million years old is long gone. So any trace of their civilization has been recycled long ago.”

  “But don’t our scientists agree that the earth was unsuitable for life before that?” Heather asked.

  “They are still disagreeing about the meteor that killed the dinosaurs and that happened only about 66 million years ago,” Carol pointed out.

  “Let’s move on,” Colonel Cole ordered.

  “Here are the characteristics of today’s Sumi,” Carol said as she wrote. “They are a least seven feet in height and range up to ten feet tall. They are in very good physical condition and their brains are much larger than ours. They have very advanced technology, but are basically devoid of moral emotions. They are a formidable enemy.”

  “You forgot that they are blue,” Mandy pointed out curiously.

  “That’s because they may not be blue when you encounter them,” Carol fired back. “They have been known to somehow alter their skin color, but even if their skin appears to be white, there is still a hint of blue. The only real giveaway is that their eyes are always bright yellow, the iris and the cornea.”