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Luke had written on a map of the South Pacific and countries around it, including South East Asia. He was trying to figure out some order or symmetry about Wade Tucker’s fantastic claims. He could see Christmas Island was well below the equator and the Golden Circle area was north and west. He drew a line connecting them. He was going over in his mind everything Mother Lode had told him via short wave. He had insisted they were at the three locations in the Caribbean, which was the triangle that they had stabilized in 2012 at the Solstice. He also claimed to be on Christmas Island, in the Mekong River area and a bunch of islands. What is the common denominator of all this? Luke thought about everything they had learned in the frantic rush to beat the solar ionization. The key had been the eye of the bear, and that completed the site at Bermuda. The triangle thing could be at the base of this problem. There had been a lot of talk by the Mexican leaders and the Mayan legends that the poles might reverse. Maybe that is what happened. Tucker didn’t die; he just got caught in some kind of magnetic reversal of the poles.
What if the Polaris of the Caribbean star layout was now a different place, because of the magnetic change to the South Pole? That is a crazy notion but what if, Luke reasoned. The rock hieroglyphs at Oraibi, and teachings from Red Feather, had Ho convinced Turtle Island would flip over. It could be the magnetic north that flipped, this is what the shamans were talking about. Feeling a tingle of excitement at the possibility of a breakthrough, Luke stared at the map. If the tip (that used to be Bimini Atoll/ Polaris) was upside down and on the other side of the globe; Christmas Island could be the new Polaris, the anchor of magnetic energy. Luke took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes and looked at the Mer-ka-ba. There it was again. He was looking at a blurry six-pointed star, the sexogram. He smiled a little at that, remembering Katrina’s outburst. Hack Jensen was closing in, he studiously pursued the idea. There would be two other points to create a reverse triangle. That had to be it.
Two other points in the South Pacific? H-e-double hockey sticks, yes. “Hell yeah!” he burst out loud and immediately glanced over his shoulder, surreptitiously. Quit swearing, Hack, he told himself sternly. You put the round earth between the two triangles and you have a three- dimensional six-pointed star of immense proportions, Luke Jensen realized, excitedly. The triangles had a tractor type beam that pulled anything that fell into it, it could pull them anywhere it wanted. Magnetic pulsar energy and it matched the little Mer-ka-ba artifact from China, the human body, the Mayan map of the galaxy, probably the cell, the atom, and the smallest DNA particle. This energy might even be the bond that holds the double helixes together in everything; every known part of people, the earth or space. The same principle, thought Luke.
Renie and Smokey came into the room and watched as Luke spread out his maps and notes. They looked at each other and shrugged, you never knew what his brain was doing.
“I think I finally got a break through on the Mer-ka-ba, Smokey and the problem with Mother Lode Tucker.” Luke announced, gleefully.
He grabbed a ruler and charted two more lines; one from Christmas Island to the east, out into the South Pacific, the same distance as the line to the Golden Circle. Joining the third leg the exact distance, he located the spot. It was in the Marshalls; there was one small round island nearby, Eniwetok. A quick check with Google Earth and he ascertained it was uninhabited. It had been the site of forty-three atomic test bombs, Operation Ivy. Two huge seventeen kiloton bombs, code-named “Cactus”, had left enormous craters, one on the island and one near it. The off-shore crater was a deep lagoon now and the land crater had been covered with a gigantic concrete roof called the Runit Dome. It was America’s idea of radioactive cleanup, put an 18” concrete lid over it, for a paltry 239 million dollars.
“That is most likely the other place where Tucker keeps landing. This thing they are trapped in is a giant, earth sized Mer-ka-ba. I just know it, it’s a way-out theory but as a working hypothesis, it is still standing up. I don’t think it’s dangerous—it has to be a soft energy, not destructive. It is built from the subtle energy surrounding the earth but part of it has developed radical behavior. Mother Lode told me he is at quite a few different places, some in the Caribbean and some of them in the South Pacific. I think I know six of the places he might land.” Smokey studied the triangle Luke had drawn. “It is straight through the earth from the one we discovered, in Indochina but, with the magnetic point at the southern tip, not the north. It is the shape of two tetrahedrons, we had fire in the Mexican area triangle and this is water.”
Hack had finally got his student’s interest; it was the closest thing to match what Dom Joi had told him in the jungle. “Dom called it fire and water. Fire up, water down,” agreed Smokey. “It makes sense to me,” Smokey could feel the shamans. He was not apprehensive about the direction Luke was taking their discovery. He somehow felt the presence of Red Feather. The energy Ho was replicating was probably already in the earth, it just needed organizing and the Black Mariachi could organize; there was no other explanation for his experiences at the monastery and for the rescue by the Vietnam vet, Samson.
“It is starting to make a lot of sense, Pahana.” Smokey was on fire about the idea the artifact was connected some way to global energy. It would explain why he and even Hack had heard from Tucker. Maybe the Mariachi Tucker had was keeping him alive, too? Maybe he hadn’t hallucinated, at all.
“Enough sense to get a charter Bell and fly over there?” Luke asked Smokey. “I need you to leave some things on this island, Eniwetok, for Mother Lode. You feel like traveling a little?
“It’s something to do,” nodded Smokey. “I’m goin’ a little crazy sitting around here. When, now?”
“I don’t know exactly when he will be there, or how long, but if we leave him some radio equipment and a computer, with sat Wi-Fi boosters, gas cans and a generator, he can probably contact me. It’s how we can plan the rescue. You in, Smokey? I’d go but there is Kat and the new baby; besides, I feel like I need to be here and monitor our people. We are spread all over the map, about like 2012 in December.”
Luke felt as if he had a command post here in Hawaii with several battalions in the field. There was Ho somewhere in the Golden Circle, he hoped, and Makaewalani in Vientiane with Yuto’s company. Moose and Victor were looking for them, Tucker and his group were lost everywhere, now Smokey was heading into the South Pacific. Annie had called early from Washington.
She was meeting her old friend, Rudolph Wolfe, the Executive CEO of the international organization UNESCO, who had played a crucial role in getting the spherical crystal out of the Smithsonian. She intended to bring him up to date on the dealings with Tanaka Resources, the Xayanburi Dam and the power struggle swirling around the old site of Ta Muen Thom. Her connections were proving vital to the global progress of MJD. The perception, in progressive circles, was she had helped, almost single handedly, to save the nations from disaster. She had cemented her pull with the authority of the Heritage preservation groups. These lobbies had powerful sway in Congress and with governments everywhere. She intended to have a spotlight shining right in Tanaka’s eyes.
Moose had called in. “Hack, old buddy, you are not going to believe a couple things we found out,” he claimed.
He reported the generator was back on and no one could figure out who started it. Neither they nor Ho had the smoky dark crystal. Something or someone overturned Yuto’s sabotage attempts. They had never had one quit and they had never had one start without the Black stone being present directly above the gold and crystal formation. Luke had been as baffled as anyone before but now it dawned on his mind Mother Lode had landed near there, he might have been the one who, unknowingly, started it back up. Luke elected to keep the theory to himself. Moose could be uncharitable, if he could find flaws in someone’s thinking and telling Moose Tucker was alive was asking for ridicule.
The other news Moose shared was Victor had joined him to help solve the criminal element and he had found evidence of foul play in Yarlung Tspango Canyon. They were positive Dom Joi had been murdered. The cable tram lines had been laser cut.
When he told Smokey, Irene and Katrina, the news set Smokey’s square Indian features into a hard, dark mask, covering a fury, which Luke hadn’t seen since they met him on the Isle de Mujeres and finally killed Xolotl.
“Get me that flight, Hack, I’m in this deal, if nuthin’ else, for Dom Joi.” The flat tight voice of Smokey Joe contrasted greatly from the laid-back Navajo with whom they had been living.
Luke knew first-hand of what Smokey was capable. Beneath the laconic, disinterested, sometimes cynical reservation exterior, a brooding intensity lurked, dangerous as a hungry wolf. He had assassinated the thieving lawyer. Luke had witnessed the peaceful Indian cut Xolotl open and rip his beating heart out. It didn’t take Smokey long to translate his anger or fear into motion. He was pacing around the Board Room at the Hawaii mansion, feeling as if he needed to get into some action. He had healed and the thought that someone had murdered Dom and tried to end his life had him on a slow burn for retribution.
“Get me out of here with the stuff,” Smokey said, solemnly. “I can’t stay here doing nothin’.”
On top of that, Kat and Irene had returned from shopping and business in Honolulu. Irene had brought them the Black Mariachi. Smokey and Luke were excited to see if it made any difference in the Mer-ka-ba. Smokey had laboriously read a few chapters of the Bible. He agreed his artifact could be similar but only if it lit up with a rainbow aura around it. He had seen it glow, at the temple, or at least that is what he remembered. Taking the rock from Renie, he gently slid the loose amethyst panel and dangled the stone inside. The edges of the large recreation/conference room began to glow. A palette of color surrounded the room and slowly concentrated around the Mer-ka-ba, rich and indescribably beautiful. Renie and Smokey looked at each other in awe, as did Luke and his wife. There was no visible way for electric power to affect the stones. Finally, Luke whispered to Smokey.
“Did you see it move, up at the temple?”
“Don’t know, can’t remember,” was the whispered reply. They sensed a presence, something in the room felt different and compelled them to reverence.
“How does it transmit or send sound?” Luke wondered aloud.
“I didn’t do anything to it, it just worked.” Smokey had no idea what they should do; he gently removed the Black Mariachi and wrapped Irene’s fingers around it. “I promised Ho I would leave this rock with you, Renie.” Turning to Luke, he ordered curtly, “Tell me where to pick up the gear. I’m headin’ to the Marshall Islands. Work out the exact GPS for me to leave everything.”
Smokey left to change into travel and working clothes and pack a duffel, while Luke gathered a laptop, a Wi-Fi booster and ordered the other components at a radio supply mall. They said good bye to each other and Smokey drove away in a Jeep he found in the garage.
About a half hour after Smokey left, Irene finally got a hold of the neighbor friends with whom Chloe had gone to the beach. They had been gone all of yesterday, all night, and most of today,
Renie worried. Her daughter, untrue to her promise, still had not made contact, leaving her mother anxious and mad as hell. The girls at the next-door estate had just got to their house, without Chloe. Kat and Renie grabbed baby Maddie and drove to the neighbors. After quizzing the sullen and uncooperative girls, they threatened to call the island police.
Katrina yelled at them, “If anything has happened to Chloe, I will get Five-0 to cuff both of you and your brother, where is he?”
“We don’t know where they went. She went with him and an Asian guy.” The oldest girl offered.
“He was real cool and Chloe was kinda all over him at the club.” the other girl pouted.
“You went clubbing? Where? and how did you get a minor in the door?” demanded Renie.
“One of my friends ID; we do it all the time—it’s no big deal. We just danced and listened to music. It was at the Club Luau,” admitted the first girl.
“So where do you guys think she went,” demanded Katrina.
“Don’t know fer sure but I think she spent the night with the Asian dude.” The other one said, brazenly.
Irene and Katrina said in unison, “She what?”
“Chloe was really into him, she might have run away,” the sister, with the attitude, added.
“All right, that’s it. Somebody’s going to jail, for aiding and abetting. We’ll get the police department to find her. I’m sure they will be by to talk to all three of you,” Renie said, in a choked voice. She confronted the surfer dude and, poking him in the chest, said, “And you, you were the responsible party. It was your surfing party and you didn’t keep track of the girls and the minor in your care. You took them to a night club—I am pressing charges against you, you will probably go to jail.”
She dialed the Emergency Police line and reported a possible runaway or maybe a kidnap victim. “Her name is Chloe Tanner, she was last seen with an Asian man at Club Luau. No. He’s a stranger and she is still seventeen. She is from Utah, on vacation. We will drive over there and fill out a complete report and give you all the information we have,” Irene was on the war path!
“Get in this car, girls,” Renie yelled. “It’s going to be a long day.”
Irene Tanner/Esplin was sick to her stomach. First Ho disappeared, and now, my baby.
She didn’t know if anyone but Ho could figure it out. Chloe was in big trouble, no matter what.