The Devil's Paradise Page 7

  “It’s a fucking cell phone!” said Jeremy incredulously. “It might not even belong to Oscar. And if it does, who’s going to be listening to our conversation? After all, he’s dead!”

  Jack backed off, though still worried about what might happen if they used the phone. “You’d be better off trying to reach Grandpa, if you’re going to call anyone.”

  “Now, that would get us in trouble for sure!” said Jeremy, the smug look transformed to one of scorn. “Think about it, Jackie. If we contact Grandpa in any way, the assholes trying to find us are going to know about it right then. Hell, I’ll bet they’re with him now, just hoping we’d be that stupid!”

  He stepped away in disgust from the desk, but then his face softened when he saw Jack’s wounded look.

  “Jackie, I know you’re worried,” he said, more gently. “I don’t want you to worry about Grandpa—he’ll be all right. They won’t hurt him, I’m sure of it. But that’s only as long as we steer clear of him until the heat on us all simmers down.”

  He moved back over to where Jack stood, in front of Dr. Mensch’s desk.

  “Now, Deshawn’s like family—you know that.” He placed his hands on Jack’s shoulders, forcing him to look eye to eye. “He’ll do anything for us, and I can guarantee he’ll keep his mouth shut about all of this. He’s the best contact we’ve got right now, since we don’t know how long we can stay here before this Dr. Quard-e-Lazim or his men show up again. I mean, he owns the place, right? You and I are trespassing at this very moment.”

  “Yeah, I imagine they’ll be back at some point,” agreed Jack. “But, what if the cops know you and Deshawn are best buds, man? What then? Don’t you think his line may be tapped, too?”

  “I’ve already considered that,” said Jeremy. “It’s why I’m only going to try his cell phone. You know how he is, man. He’s probably out there right now trying to score some pussy as we speak. If he’s not there, then he’ll be at the gym. He’s never home for long, so if he takes a jaunt our way, no one should be the wiser about it. If nothing else, at least using a cell phone to call his cell phone seems like the best way to try and avoid detection at this point.”

  He gave Jack another smug grin to sell this. Jack still worried a cell phone call might still give away the location of their present hideout. He prayed silently the FBI hadn’t figured out who Jeremy’s closest friend was yet, and if they had, that somehow Deshawn Wheatley would still come through for them. He had to. There was no one else besides their grandfather, Marshall Edwards, whom they could fully trust.

  Jack nodded his consent to Jeremy’s intention.

  “All right, then,” said Jeremy, his smile broadening. “Do you want him to bring you anything in particular? I’m going to ask him to bring enough to get us by for a couple of days until we know what to do next.”

  “Nah, whatever you want should be fine with me,” said Jack, moving toward the stairway. “Just don’t stay on the line too long.”

  “I’m not planning on it. Here goes.”

  Jeremy dialed Deshawn’s number and told Jack once it started ringing. A moment later Deshawn answered. Jack headed upstairs to use a restroom and grab the remaining beer and whatever else he could find for them, remembering to take his flashlight with him before leaving the basement. The phone call ended before he reached the main floor. He overheard his brother’s portion of the conversation with Deshawn, and felt satisfied that Jeremy kept the conversation short and to the point. But he also felt increasingly uneasy. It was wrong to involve Deshawn Wheatley, or for that matter anyone else, in such an unpredictable and dangerous situation.

  Part III

  The Cristal Del Sol

  Going through the upstairs’ rooms seemed somewhat different from earlier, when Jeremy had been with him. Jack wondered if this was what heightened his senses, or maybe the fact that instead of a guest of Dr. Mensch’s he now felt like an intruder in Dr. Quard-e-Lazim’s residence. Regardless, he chose not to linger on the main floor of the house. Once he took care of his personal business, he grabbed the food from the pantry and the beer from the refrigerator. Ready to return to the basement, a clicking noise suddenly emanated from the living room.

  He stopped to listen, standing in the kitchen while he waited for the noise to repeat. But he heard nothing. His heart pounded heavily within his chest. Then the noise resounded once more. Only this time, a soft hum followed it.

  Jack shut his flashlight off and carefully set the beer carton down on the kitchen island. Quietly, he walked toward the living room. The hum grew louder in the darkness, resonating from the very center of the room. When within a few feet of the sound, he aimed his flashlight in its direction and turned it on. Immediately the hum stopped. A box rested on the floor before him. Symbols similar to those inscribed upon the crates downstairs covered the sides of this box. Cautious, he leaned forward, hoping to steal a peek inside where one side of the lid was slightly ajar.

  Fearful of a hidden menace, he grabbed a tasseled pillow from a nearby silk-covered couch and used it to push open the lid. But nothing stirred within the box, its contents silent.

  Pointing the flashlight’s beam onto the box’s top, Jack peered inside. A transparent sphere slightly larger than a basketball rested within the box. The light’s rays refracted beautifully through the sphere, and he knew this had to be the object Genovene forced Dr. Mensch to keep upstairs.

  The Cristal Del Sol.

  The living room floor had been barren when he and Jeremy first arrived, less than two hours before. Someone deliberately placed the box there for him to find. Since unlikely anyone had entered the house since their arrival, whoever did this was already present and possibly still there now. Another human being or perhaps some phantom like Genovene? Either possibility made his skin crawl.

  He decided to take the box with him to the basement, intending to leave the beer on the kitchen island. If Jeremy wanted it bad enough, he could come back for it himself. Hell, he might even join him in returning upstairs, but damned straight he wasn’t coming back up here alone again.

  When he lifted the box, Jack changed his mind on the beer and food. The object was extremely lightweight, just as Dr. Mensch stated in his diary. Almost as if the box lay empty. With it tucked safely under his arm, he grabbed the peanut butter, crackers, and beer, along with a butter knife from the kitchen drawer.

  As he entered the stairwell a shiver raced up and down his spine. Someone watched him, intently, from just a few feet away. He whirled around, peering into the kitchen’s dimness while thrusting his flashlight’s beam in front of him.

  No one was there.

  He thought about investigating the main floor again, but now Jeremy called to him. He closed the basement door and ran down the stairs, and didn’t look back until he reached the bottom. The mysterious voyeur remained unseen, the basement’s door still closed.

  “So, did you decide to bring the entire kitchen with you?” teased Jeremy, as Jack approached him carrying the box and beer. “Deshawn’s on his way and will probably be here within the next half-hour with some real food.”

  “I figured as much. Did you tell him anything about what’s down here?”

  “No, I didn’t. All I said was he needed to get his ass over here as soon as possible, without anyone else knowing about it,” Jeremy assured him, grinning impishly. “The only other thing I said was he’d be glad he came, and if not, I’d make it up to him somehow. So, what took you so long up there anyway?”

  Rather than tell him, Jack sat the box down on the desk and placed the beer carton next to it. Jeremy hadn’t paid close attention to the box until Jack sat it down, but he now noticed the Sanskrit symbols along the box’s side.

  “Is that what I think it is?” he asked. His weary eyes gleamed with excitement.

  “Yeah, it’s got to be the ‘Cristal Del Sol’ inside there,” confirmed Jack. “But, I found the box sitting in the middle of the living room floor, man. You know as well as I that there was
n’t anything like this up there earlier. Somebody put it there, and I’m pretty sure they’re still here, somewhere in the house.”

  The gleam in Jeremy’s eyes faded and he reached for the pistol under his belt, motioning to Jack that he would be right back. As before, the creaks and groans from the hardwood floors upstairs announced his progress in investigating the upper levels. Jack released a low sigh of relief when Jeremy’s confident footfalls announced his imminent return to the basement.

  “There’s nobody else here, Jackie,” Jeremy told him, sounding relieved. “It’s pretty spooky in some spots, though. It reminded me of how it used to be at the old farmhouse in Carlsdale when we were kids. ‘You think maybe Genovene and her pals are here?”

  “‘Could be,” said Jack, a little surprised his brother came to this conclusion so readily. “Are you thinking this on account of Oscar’s references to her in his diary, or did anything else make you think it’s her up there?”

  “I can’t say for sure. It’s probably just me being tired and letting Oscar’s last diary entries run a little with my imagination—and yours too,” he said, snickering. “In light of everything that’s happened and the crazy shit we’ve found down here, I’d expect us both to be a little jumpy. Who knows? Maybe that box was there all along.”

  “Maybe…but I seriously doubt it,” said Jack, frowning while considering that possibility. “The reason I even found the box was because of some weird noises. It happened when I was in the kitchen and I tracked the noises to the living room. They led me right up to the box.”

  “What kind of noises?”

  “A loud click happened twice, and then a weird humming sound followed the clicks,” said Jack, looking at the box sitting on the desk. “I’d turned off my flashlight in the kitchen until I reached the source. I didn’t know what I’d find, but once I turned my flashlight back on the noises immediately stopped.”

  “Let me get a better look at this thing,” said Jeremy, moving over to the box.

  Jack joined him, and used his flashlight to demonstrate the same dazzling light display he witnessed earlier. The light’s beam refracted through the sphere in a rainbow array of colors. Jeremy stood speechless, slowly stretching his hands toward the object as if unsure how to touch it. He gently grasped the sphere and carefully lifted it out of the box. As soon as it cleared the box’s edge, it began to hum again.

  Perhaps fearing the thing might be alive, Jeremy let go of it. The sphere hovered in the air near the desk, steadily glowing brighter. It slowly drifted to the floor, landing softly on the cement floor like a birthday balloon.

  “That’s so fucking incredible!” whispered Jeremy.

  Before Jack could stop him, he picked up the crystal sphere and threw it into the air above their heads to where it nearly touched the ceiling. It hummed louder, glowing even brighter, suspended near the ceiling until it drifted down again. Once it touched the floor, its luminance dimmed until it grew silent, bouncing softly near their feet.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  Jeremy smiled mischievously. Even before he reached down and picked up the crystal sphere rolling nearby, Jack knew what his brother intended to do.

  “No, man, wait!” he pleaded. “What you’re thinking is a bad idea! A very bad idea!!”

  Too late.

  “You know, Jackie, you worry too damn much about everything!” Jeremy called over his shoulder, moving quickly over to the circle of tables. He didn’t stop until he reached the center table. Holding the sphere up near his shoulders he turned to face him again. “You must learn to live a little, bro! Besides, following one’s instincts is the most important step to consider when using the scientific method!”

  A feeling of dread swept over Jack, and he ran toward Jeremy just as he tossed the Cristal Del Sol into the air above him. The sphere hovered beneath the ceiling, glowing brightly. Then it began spinning rapidly, its hum much louder and its color changing from bright white to fiery orange, and then finally to an iridescent crimson sending bolts of plasma-like lightning across the room. Jeremy hardly looked like a scientist as he scrambled away from the sphere, seeming much more like a frightened kid who lit an M-80 firecracker and barely got out of the way in time.

  He and Jack both dove behind the professor’s couch. The crystal sphere spun faster, and the ground beneath their feet shook angrily. The earth’s rumbling grew louder and more violent until all at once it abated entirely. As the quake subsided they heard Dr. Mensch’s wireless phone ringing.

  “I don’t recall that ‘one’s instincts’ has anything to do with the scientific method, Jeremy,” advised Jack as his brother moved over to where the phone sat on the desk. “Perhaps you can tell me where ‘scared shitless’ fits in there, too.”

  “Boy, you’re a regular comedian tonight,” replied Jeremy, glaring at his brother once he reached the phone. “Okay, so one’s instincts aren’t so important to the scientific method—I’ll give you that, smart ass!”

  He answered the wireless device before it rang a fourth time, warily keeping an eye on the Cristal Del Sol until the last of the plasma streams died away. The crystal sphere’s spinning slowed, and as it did, its color mellowed to a soft golden glow. It drifted to the basement floor near the center table.

  “Hello,” said Jeremy into the handset. “Yeah, man. Did anybody try and follow you?...Good. That’s very good. Well, hold tight and I’ll be over there in the next minute or so…. Yeah, you’ve got to see what’s down here, Deshawn. It’s sure to blow your mind, man. See you in a minute.”

  “I believe he may have just saved our lives, Jeremy,” said Jack, watching him set the phone in its cradle. “For now, I’m going to put that thing back in its box to keep us out of any more trouble. ‘Out of sight, out of mind’, right? And, out of your careless hands.”

  “All right, funny guy, you’ve more than made your point,” said Jeremy, frowning disdainfully. “I’m going to help Deshawn carry the food and supplies in here from the alley, so I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  He headed for the old furnace and the hidden doorway behind it.

  “I’ll wait for you by the door!” Jack called after him, walking over to the silent sphere beneath the center card table.

  By the time he returned the Cristal Del Sol to the box on Dr. Mensch’s desk, Jeremy was already inside the underground tunnel heading toward the storage shed. Jack walked over to where the old furnace sat and waited for him and Deshawn.

  ***

  Nearly five minutes passed before Jack heard the two’s laughter echoing through the passageway as they approached the basement. A moment later, the door swung open and Deshawn Wheatley’s backpack and duffel bag appeared through the doorway. Another burst of laughter accompanied Deshawn’s arrival in the basement.

  A tall muscular man, his African heritage was plainly evident in the jewelry and long cornrows he wore. Strikingly handsome, with soft brown eyes and chiseled facial features, he once received multiple modeling offers for sports apparel magazines during his basketball career at the ‘U of A’. After his playing days ended last year, he turned his focus to the only career he’d ever wanted. Smitten long ago by the same passion that captured his buddy Jeremy’s fancy, his stated dream was to become a successful archeologist. Unlike Jeremy, whose emphasis of study was in South American antiquities, Deshawn focused most of his graduate work on researching ancient African cultures. The past school year had been a difficult challenge and he looked forward to more enjoyable ‘hands on’ experience during his final year in the University’s graduate program.

  “Whoa! What have we here?”

  Deshawn sat down the backpack and duffel bag while he paused a moment to view his surroundings.

  “Hey, Deshawn!” greeted Jack, warmly.

  “What up, Jackie?” He extended a powerful hand for Jack to shake. “Jeremy tells me you’ve gotten him into a horrible mess. But since his ‘beauty marks’ are a hell of a lot worse than yours, this certain
ly must be all his doing instead!”

  He smiled broadly, his powerful personality infectious as ever.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” replied Jack, smiling as much as his tired facial muscles would allow.

  “Hey, wait a second, Jackie! It’s been me saving your ass time and time again these past few days—just like always!” Jeremy chided playfully. “Seriously, Deshawn, you’ve got to take a look at this shit down here. Let me take the duffel bag and we’ll head on over to where we’ve set up camp tonight, by Oscar’s desk.”

  He grabbed the duffel bag and Deshawn slung the backpack over his shoulder, and the three headed to where the desk sat. Once they reached the circle of tables, Deshawn slowed up long enough to steal a peek inside two of the crates, the ones belonging to Mithra and Jehovah.

  “Is this shit what it appears to be?” he asked, obviously surprised by the crates’ contents.

  “Sort of fucks with your head, doesn’t it?” said Jeremy, chuckling. “Before you look at anything else, you’d best take a look at Oscar’s journals and other stuff he’s got in some boxes by his desk. Trust me. It’ll save you the head swim you’ll likely get otherwise.”

  Deshawn nodded silently as he and Jack followed Jeremy over to Dr. Mensch’s work area. After Jeremy set the heavily laden duffel bag on the floor near the couch, Deshawn laid his backpack next to it.

  “So, there’s a television set—excellent!” enthused Deshawn. “Have ya’ll turned it on yet?”

  “No, we haven’t,” said Jack. “We’ve been too occupied with everything else since we got here three hours ago.”

  “I believe you two are in for quite a surprise!” Deshawn straightened up and popped his back and then his ring-laden knuckles, as he prepared to turn the television on. “If this thing’s hooked up down here, then this should be interesting—unless there’s no cable. If there’s no cable, then we might be fucked as far as enlightening ya’ll on the latest developments in the search for the ‘elusive Kenney brothers’.”