A Dubious Curse (A Colton Banyon Mystery Book 8) Read online

  “I have yet to even see it,” Lisa perked up.

  “It’s probably all written in German,” Maya said. “I think Lisa and I should go and explore what is in it. We can report back later, after we have read it.” Again, no one disagreed.

  “How are you coming with a curse to stop Harold from talking to Barry?” Banyon turned to Previne.

  “I’m pretty sure we will need two curses, but I haven’t finished looking at everything yet,” Previne replied. “I have my laptop in my suitcase. That’s why I went back to get it,” she told everyone. “But I need some help to pick the right curses.”

  “Then you and Pramilla should get to work on that subject right away,” Banyon ordered. “That will solve two issues.” Both women nodded their heads in agreement.

  “What about a long-term plan to protect the Vril book from the Effort?” Lisa piped up. “They will never leave me alone now that they know I have it.”

  “I have a plan for that, but don’t want to say anything right now, as Harold is probably listening,” Banyon informed her.

  Steve’s voice boomed over the loudspeaker, “Colt, you have an urgent phone call.”

  “That’s funny,” Banyon yelled back. “I didn’t hear my cell phone ring.”

  “We’re out of range for cell phones,” Steve said over the loud speaker. “But we do have a satellite phone in the pilothouse. Your call is on that.”

  “Coming!” Banyon called. “The rest of you have your assignments,” he said as he left the hot tub.

  Everybody exited the warm water, except for Loni and Eric. He was busy staring at Heather, but he quickly announced that he was going to help his lovely wife when Loni caught him staring at her. Heather said nothing, but she quickly walked to the other side of the deck and was replaced by Guido.

  “Hey, Babe,” Guido flirted at Loni.

  s soon as he answered the phone, Banyon’s ears were assaulted with feverish gibberish he could not understand.

  “Who is this?” he demanded.

  “It’s Timmy,” the voiced responded in a hurt tone. “Don’t you recognize my voice, man?”

  “What’s up, Timmy?” Banyon asked the nervous geek.

  “Dude, I thought I’d better warn you,” Timmy responded.

  “About what?”

  “There was nothing I could do, man. It happened so fast.”

  “Timmy, what’s happened?”

  “They’re coming after you, Colt.”

  “Who’s coming after me?” Banyon was already frustrated with the conversation. He had no idea what Timmy was talking about.

  “The spooks, that’s who!” Timmy screamed into the phone.

  “You’d better start at the beginning, Timmy,” Banyon patiently asked. “We’re getting nowhere this way.”

  “It’s about the pictures you sent me,” Timmy said.

  “Oh,” Banyon replied as he remembered sending Timmy pictures of the transmitter that he had found on Mt. Charleston. “Tell me everything from the time I sent you the pictures?” he asked the excited geek.

  “Okay,” Timmy started. “When I looked at the pictures, I couldn’t identify the devices. I’d never seen anything like it at all. So I accessed all my databases, even the top-secret ones, and I input the numbers and letters from the last picture. That’s when it happened.”

  “What happened?” Banyon asked, remaining patient with Timmy’s lackluster storytelling abilities.

  “All kinds of red lights began flashing on the screen, and a popup said ‘access denied’,” Timmy recounted excitedly. “It has never happened before. I didn’t know what to do, so I shut down the screens.”

  “But…” Banyon filled in.

  “Yeah, big ‘but’. Within an hour, there were two dark suits in my office and they weren’t happy.”

  “What did they want?”

  “They wanted the name of the person who had taken the pictures. They scrubbed my hard drive and took all the pictures.

  “What?”

  “I was scared, dude. They threatened me with the Patriot Act and said I could just disappear if I didn’t give them a name. You understand, I hope?”

  “So you gave them my name, right?”

  “They also wanted to know where you were right now.”

  “What did you tell them, Timmy?”

  “I told them Las Vegas.”

  “What do you think this means, Timmy?” Banyon asked after a short hesitation. He had no idea why the Feds were involved.

  “I think you walked into some very top-secret spy stuff, man. It may even have to do with aliens. You’re right near Area 51, you know.”

  “What agency did they say they were from?” Banyon asked quickly. “They must have shown you some sort of identification?”

  “They had NSA badges, but I don’t even know what that agency does for sure,” Timmy lamented. “I thought they intercepted cell phone calls and emails and searched them for keywords that might affect National Security.”

  “They are the watchdogs of information, especially cyberspace,” Banyon told him. “They track and monitor information flow and try to interpret what it means. They are heavily into decoding.”

  “Do you think the machines are some sort of alien communications stuff? I mean, are they listening to someone out there?” Timmy, like many people his age, was a follower of science fiction, especially any science fiction that involved aliens.

  “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out,” Banyon promised.

  “Well, you need to do something, man. I’m on their list now, and it is going to hamper my style, if you know what I mean,” Timmy said nervously.

  “Okay, thanks for the call,” Banyon said.

  “I hope I see you again, Colt. Don’t disappear on me, man. Remember, you have my best girls with you. I want to see them again, too.” Timmy hung up the phone.

  Steve looked at Banyon with a questioning look as Banyon stood in the pilothouse thinking. “Trouble?” Steve asked.

  “I’m not sure, but it could be,” Banyon replied absently. “I’d better find Bart.” He headed out the door.

  anyon headed directly to the upper deck pilothouse to be alone. He needed to talk to Wolf. As he reached the deck, he looked towards Kim and Skye. She was using her arms and hands to give him a visual description of something. Kim had a very worried look on his face. As soon as he saw Banyon, he attempted to gain his attention by rapidly waving him over, but Banyon was in a hurry.

  “Kim, I’ll talk to you in a few minutes,” Banyon promised, waving back at him.

  “We need to talk now,” Kim emphasized, his voice going up an octave. He stood with his hands on his small hips.

  “I have to make an important call and talk to Bart first.” Banyon held up the satellite phone for him to see. He quickly turned his back to them and entered the pilothouse. Once inside the enclosure, he checked to make sure no one was listening.

  He called out to Wolf as he watched Kim through the Plexiglas window, “What is the current situation with Barry Bass and the Effort?” A look of determination was on Kim’s face, and Skye stood with her head hung low.

  “He is holed up in a warehouse in Henderson with several of his men. He is licking his wounds, but is also busy,” Wolf replied

  “Busy?” Banyon repeated. “What is he doing?”

  “He has supplied Harold with the names of several wealthy people in Las Vegas. Harold is searching each one to learn their bank account passwords. They have already stolen over three hundred thousand dollars.”

  “How are they doing that?”

  “Once they have the account number and password, they are transferring the money to a dummy account and taking it out of the bank immediately. They have three accounts currently open.

  “So, they are stealing people’s money over the Internet?” Banyon asked.

  “They use an online transfer, and then, they go to the bank, collect the money, and close the account. The money becomes untraceable.”

/>   “Do you know how we can stop them?”

  “You can call law enforcement and have the police set up a sting in one of the banks. They could wait for one of Barry’s men to come in and collect the money, but you do not currently have cellphone reception. Perhaps you can make a satellite phone call, but I think that, considering your recent news, it would be best to stay hidden right now. The NSA is surely scanning all calls in your area, especially those made over satellite phones.”

  “You’re probably right about that,” Banyon commented as he scratched his chin. “What does Barry intend to do with the money?”

  “I don’t know the plan yet, but make no mistake, they still intend to get the book,” the spirit replied.

  Letting that subject go, Banyon turned to the next topic. “What have you found out about the transmitter we found on Mt. Charleston?”

  “Yes, that is the concern at the moment. Someone came and took it from the cave this morning,” Wolf told him. “They have moved it to another location on the mountain. They don’t want anyone else to stumble on the device.”

  “What about the history of the device?” Banyon wanted to know why the government wanted to kept it secret.

  “I have researched the machine back more than fifty years. It is part of a government experiment started in the 1950s,” the spirit started. “The experiment has been active since then.”

  “What’s the experiment about?”

  “It’s all about telepathy,” the spirit replied. “The forerunner to the NSA discovered evidence that there are people with the ability to send and receive messages telepathically. Just like Lisa can, and by the way, you can too. The experiment is meant to identify the individuals with that power. The government wants to ‘interview’ these individuals and see if they can harness any new advances in communications or decoding. They actually have three of these devices spread across the country. You found the one in the western region.”

  “But… how do they find the people?”

  “Anyone who reports getting a message from an alien or a suspicious source is interviewed. There are several keywords in each message. If the person uses the keywords, they are then ‘invited’ to do some tests. It is very clever.”

  “Let me guess, those people disappear, right?”

  “There is a very top-secret facility near Denver, Colorado. Only a few people know about it. Not even the President knows. There are currently seventy people who live there with no chance of ever leaving. They are also trying to use telepathy as a weapon.”

  “So, Lisa can never tell anyone else about her gift, right?”

  “Her silence has protected her so far, but the NSA is very powerful, Colt. If they find her, she will disappear.”

  “And they are currently looking for me and it will lead them to her, right?” Banyon suddenly understood the implications.

  “There is a planeload of agents who are about to land in Las Vegas and begin the search for you.”

  “Can they find us?” Banyon was suddenly more nervous.

  “You’d better take the batteries out of your cell phones immediately,” the spirit answered. Banyon quickly stripped the battery off his phone. He resolved to have Bart make an announcement to everybody else.

  “How can we stop them?”

  “You can’t. As soon as you activate any electronic device in your name, they will be able to track you.”

  “But what if they catch us?” Banyon knew that the NSA had a good record of ferreting people out.

  “I suggest that you lie.”

  “My God,” Banyon uttered. “If they find us, how would we ever explain Skye?”

  “They would collect all of you, Colt. All of you have secrets,” Wolf emphasized. This sent a shiver down Banyon’s spine.

  “I’d better start damage control. Is there more to tell me?”

  “There is more, but it is on a different subject. Go and take care of the current issue first.”

  “I do have one more question. Too many people are discovering that I can talk to you Wolf. Is there some way to limit the damage?”

  “The Vril book has the answer,” the spirit replied.

  Banyon found Steve and had him make an announcement over the loudspeaker. Everyone immediately disconnected their phone batteries. Banyon went to find Bart.

  After he explained the problem to Bart, he asked him if he could help.

  “I could call the President,” Bart offered. “But it will take some time to work through all the channels. This operation sounds very top-secret. The President may not even know anything about it.”

  “He doesn’t,” Banyon replied.

  “That will make it harder,” Bart explained.

  “Get the ball rolling,” Banyon ordered. “We’ll just have to find some way to stay out of sight of the NSA until they get pulled from chasing us.”

  “Alright, give me the satellite phone. I’ll call him now.” Bart said. He walked off to make the call.

  Banyon decided to fill everyone else in on the problem and turned to head into the cabin, but his way was blocked.

  “Mr. Banyon,” Kim started, holding his hand up to stop Banyon. He had Skye with him, and they both had a frightened look on their faces.

  “Kim. I’m very busy right now,” Banyon responded with a little heat in his voice. “Can this wait?”

  “I think I can answer a lot of questions about Skye and where she came from,” Kim announced. “But I’ve also pieced together some information which you need to hear right now,” Kim said forcefully.

  “Why now?” Banyon huffed as he tried to step around Kim. Skye quickly moved into his way and blocked him from leaving.

  “The reason Skye is in America is because she has been working on— against her will, I might add—a diabolical plan to bring down the financial markets of the Western world. In fact, it will affect the entire world. We need to stop them, before it is too late.”

  “Why come to me?” Banyon was even more concerned now.

  “I know you have unique abilities,” Kim explained. This only made Banyon feel worse.

  “What plot, and when will it unfold?” Banyon asked, disbelieving.

  “It is set to take place tomorrow morning. After the stock market opens in New York,” Kim replied.

  “You’d better tell me what you know,” Banyon said with resignation.

  eanwhile, Steve had piloted the houseboat into a small, hidden cove in the northern part of Lake Mead. He left the main body of water after traveling up about three-quarters of the lake and entered what one of the big lake’s many channels. The channel was narrow and turned to the right after about a hundred yards.

  Loni realized no one could see the houseboat from the lake unless they entered the channel. They had effectively disappeared with the big houseboat. Loni marveled at the view. Like many of the channels in that part of Lake Mead, it was surrounded by hundred-foot-high cliffs. The water was placid and deep. Loni looked over the side, but she could not see the bottom in the clear water.

  Lake Mead was manmade. It had been formed when the great Hoover Dam had been built in the 1930s. Before Lake Mead had been filled with water, the area had been the end of the Grand Canyon. It was very deep and with many dead-end canyons. The houseboat was now surrounded by sheer cliffs on three sides and in complete shadow—the sun was blocked by the cliffs. The houseboat couldn’t even be seen from the air unless a plane went directly over the top of it.

  It had one more feature. At the very end of the dead-end canyon, a twenty-foot-wide sandy beach had eroded from the cliffs. The cove was very private, quiet, and hidden, just the way Bart had planned it.

  “Guido, cast off the stern anchor, please!” Steve yelled over the loudspeaker.

  “Gotcha!” Guido yelled back and went to the anchor.

  “I’ll get the one in the bow,” Steve offered, moving towards the front of the boat. When they were done setting the anchors, he shut down the engines. The water-filled canyon was completely silen
t. The people on the boat stood in awe of the beautiful setting. The water was dark blue and offset by the sandy-colored sheer cliffs. The little bit of sky they could see was completely clear and light blue.

  “Wow,” was all Eric could say.

  “I can’t wait to go for a swim!” Loni gushed.

  “Heather, are you ready to do your thing?” Steve cheerfully asked. The sound of his voice echoed off the canyon walls.

  Heather left her post immediately and scampered into the cabin, lugging her big rifle. She emerged twenty seconds later, still wearing her tiny bikini, but, now, she was wearing mountain-climbing shoes.

  She stood tall at the back of the boat as Mandy tied a thin rope line around her waist. When that was done, she dove into the water, surfacing by the wall of rock on the right. The Patel clan, Lisa, and Loni all gathered to watch Heather in action. Mandy fed Heather rope as she began to scale the vertical cliffs.

  “She must be in awfully good shape to do that,” Pramilla commented to no one in particular. They could all see Heather straining and groaning as she moved from foothold to foothold. Strong muscles in her legs and back bulged with the effort. She was quite mesmerizing in her little bikini.

  “She is… I mean… I agree,” Eric blurted out. This got him a strange look from Loni, who had caught him staring at Heather earlier.

  “But why is she climbing the cliff?” Loni asked. “She’s not going to be a lookout, is she?”

  “So I can get up there and help her,” Steve explained as he appeared in only a bathing suit and climbing shoes.

  “Help her do what?” Loni continued, turning to face Steve with a furrowed brow.

  “We are going to set up an electronic surveillance system and satellite dish up on that plateau. Once it is set up and running, no one will be able to sneak up on us by land, sea, or even air. We will also have Internet capabilities.”

  “Are you sure?” Loni was skeptical.

  “I should know. I designed the system,” Steve said as he looked at his fingernails with feigned modesty.

  “Well, I’m very impressed Steve,” Loni said sincerely. “So, are you are going to climb the cliffs, too?”