CHAPTER EIGHT
-OH! MENY PADME WHAT?-
The black envelope had been lying on her desk for over an hour, patiently awaiting her curios eyes to reveal its treasures and yet, she could not bring herself up to open it. “What is wrong with me? I have been waiting all my life for something like this, and now that is happening, I can’t open the damned thing! Why am I so scared of it?”
She started at the envelope one more time, and took it in her hands determined to open it, but she put it back again. “Oh common! I am too old for this!” she took a deep breath and spread the pictures on the desk and one by one inspected each graphic. Her hands were shaking and she was sweating profusely.
She sighted quickly at the Coptic writing, the pupils of her eyes got wider as she read the Italian and Latin quotes “Hmmm this looks like a gospel but …I never heard of this one before” She put the graphic down. And picked up another one, the second her eyes rested on this graphic her jaw drop down and made her feel overwhelmed. “Nope! This is not possible!” She thought, resting the documents in the desk. “I need some fresh air”. She opened the window to take a few minty deep breaths, her nerves calmed down and her heart recover its normal rhythm, and she stretched her legs and arms and went back to the desk.
“This is impossible!” she said aloud.
She sharpened her sight and analyzed the image centimeter by centimeter, there was no doubt, the figure on the picture was a man standing up on an earth sphere that showed the portion of north, central and south America, all the way down from Canada to Argentina.
“This can’t be possible! In the late fourteen century, the Europeans thought the earth was flat” But there was more, the figure had seven circles along his body, exactly where the Hindi’s claim the chakras are located. Above his head, was a drawing similar to the solar system found in the Sumerian tablets, except that in this depiction, the planets were about to be engulfed by the open mouth of a serpent.
The serpent’s body ran down all the way to the core of the earth, roughly located by Peru in the Pacific Ocean. “What does this means? …why are they together? They were from the 14th century no doubt, Sven had a corner he stole from the original documents and the test results were what he had expected"
She took one more look at the writings, she knew she had never read them before, but she was not an expert in this field, her only option was to outsource some expertise but whom!
She analyzed the overall symbolism but a second good look at it revealed something else within the first one of the circles an almost faded tiny ‘OM’ in the genital region of the figure. She looked for more close ups of the other areas, and saw that each of the seven circles had a different symbol inside, barely visible. “That’s it!” She picked up the telephone frustrated.
“I need a laptop with an internet card ASAP please?”
Not long after an employee brought a laptop to the room.
“If you need a full office with fax and copier capabilities, we can arrange that as well madam, it will take me less than twenty minutes to get it ready for you,” he said.
“No for now, but can you get me a notebook, a pen and some pencils please?” she said.
“Right away madam” was his words before closing the door behind him.
Ten minutes later she was heavily, abusing the computer, everything she need it was just a Google away. She looked for the meaning of the word OM, they all pointed to a common mantra used in Buddhism and Hindi religious services, as well as those who practiced meditation. “Om Mani Padme Hum” she grabbed her reading glasses and concentrated her sight on the computer screen.
“In Hinduism, this mantra was very powerful to the believers, and did not have a translation in the English language. It was somewhat like; a sacred tool to the Tibetan faith, often carved onto rocks or written on paper then is inserted in prayer wheels to increase its effect. -Ok then” she scratched her head “So guys, what are you doing mingling with Jesus?” She said holding both documents side by side. “What a heck is going on!” She smiled.
Meanwhile a man sitting in a car parked on the street reported to his superiors.
“She is way off! … Are we still on? He asked.
“Yes, just make sure she does not go anywhere before we can take care of her,” said the voice on the telephone.
“Ok, is everything ready then?”
“Everything is ready”
--O--------O--------O--
Meanwhile back in Dallas, Greg and Geeko were sitting in the living room with the scientist’s widow.
“Everything?” Greg said discouraged.
“Everything!” they left the filing cabinets but they took both of his computers, they said they need it clarify this case”
“I am not surprised, they found a lot of drugs in his system, and they want to make sure it was an accident and not a suicide instead,” Greg said.
“He was acting very strange, for the last three months or so, I could not even recognize him,” The widow said.
“Is that him?” Geeko said, picking up a weeding photograph from the coffee table.
“Yes, but he was far from what you see in that picture, when I married him, he was a happy and optimistic man … but since he met that man he changed completely”
“What man?”
“He met another scientist in a conference in Houston, they hit it off from the get go, since that day he could not get rid of him”
“He did not like him?”
“Oh no! Far from that! He adored the damned man, but I did not like him at all. I meet him once for a dinner, here at my home and from the second I met him I knew he was trouble” she said looking for something in her purse “Here, this is his card”
Greg took it and put it in his wallet.
“Why are you so sure he was murdered?”
“Is not me, he was sure he was going to get killed. He told me that he was working in something with that man I told you about. And what they had found was good enough to be killed for”
“Did he say anything else? The nature of the research they were doing maybe?” Geeko said.
“When he met that man, he became obsessed with the dooms day on 2012, he sold the vacation house we had in Florida, to buy an under ground space big enough for all of us in California. Viva or vivo something like that is the name of the company”
“I never heard of it,” Greg said.
“I have! Vivo is their name. They are all over the internet, is actually a real estate company that specializes in underground shelters”
“Yes, we have a spot in one of their facilities” she said.
“All of this is really scaring me Greg”
“Tell me about it! He talked about it so much that now I do not know what to think myself,” she said.
“So did they take all his documents and journals as well?” Greg said.
“No, because those are not in his office, he worked there but his research was done in “The boys’ room” as he called it. We have a spare bedroom that was never used so he converted it in his “Stuff” corner. Follow Me,” she said standing up “I’ll take you there and please feel free to roam around and take with you anything of help for you book, I am throwing everything in the trash tomorrow”
“Why would you do that?” Geeko said.
“Because if he really was after something that important, I don’t want it in my house,” she said climbing up the stairs followed by Greg and Geeko.
--O--------O--------O--
Back in Switzerland, things were not any better either. Hope had continued storming her brains out looking for possible hints, anything that could give her something to use as a foundation and go from there. She was getting frustrated, and her research kept on going on in circles, every lead so far, had come back to the starting point.
“Not a damned thing! I wish I knew more about eastern traditions; I should have taken that course when I had the chance! I am so mad at me …idiot, I am a total idiot!” She stepped out of her desk for a minute, and walked to the bay window to distract herself.
The panorama was beautiful; the sunset was reflected back in the water of the Geneva Lake, making a lavish display worth the cover page of national geographic.
“…Hinduism is one of the oldest mystical traditions known to man, Two thousand years older than Christianity! So the existence of this document is not at all surprising! What’s surprising to me, is the map below his feet,” She thought as she absorbed the landscape and look in her brain for alternatives.
Down at the street, a man was watching her from his vehicle, phone in one ear and his binoculars in his eyes, he observed her for a long time looking at the lake, completely lost in her thoughts, and then out of the blue she looked at his direction and rushed back in, closing the window behind her.
“She saw me! What do I do?”
“Leave! Before she calls the police, we will take care of her later”
The man dropped his binoculars quickly, and stormed out of the street as fast as the traffic allowed.