Twelves - Chapter Two

Later that day.

Lisbon University is used to the rare and unusual. However, witnessing a man over twelve feet tall and weighing over fifteen hundred pounds strolling across main campus is more than many of the students and faculty is prepared to endure. The man moves with an ease of motion that belies his immense size.

 

 

 

Striding purposefully, the man enters a select building and oblivious to the commotion he is causing he approaches the desk of the secretary.

“Yes.” The secretary says without looking up.

“Mr. Moss to see Professor Woodrow Wilson, immediately!” says the gigantic man. The secretary looks up and is startled to see such an imposing figure before him.

“Yes Mr. Moss. Right away Mr. Moss! stammers the secretary. Mr. Moss is quickly escorted down a hallway. The secretary raps twice on a particular door.

"Come" is the curt reply from behind the door.

Mr. Moss swings the door open and as his massive figure fills the doorway...

 

"Ahh, Mr. Moss so good to see you."

 

Twelves - Chapter 1 continues

 

“ We’ll find Eddie, Professor.”, assured Suleiman.  “And we’ll find that missing manuscript too.”

“I have the utmost faith in both of you. I’ll arrange for copies of Edward’s reports be made available to you for your review. Bless you both and may our Lord accompany you on your journey.”, says the Professor.

“The Book of Revelation, how exciting. I wonder how far Eddie got in his search?” said Emily.
“I don’t know we’ll find out when we read his reports.”, said Suleiman.

“While you’re doing that I’ll start planning for our trip and I’ll reread the Book of Revelation for any  additional clues.”
 “Excellent.”, said Suleiman.

“I wonder who Eddie ran up against? , Emily inquires.
“Don’t know. Probably some collectors. Anyway we need to plan to deal with them should we come across them.”
“Weapons?”, Emily asks.
“Weapons.”, Suleiman said with a wry smile. “You can pack the Mausers.”
“Good. They’re all sighted in and ready to go.”
“I knew they would be, I knew they would be.”, Suleiman smiled.

From a balcony above a shadowy figure observes the departing couple.

Twelves - Chapter 1

Lisbon, Portugal. If you go to city center and go west until you get to the Academy of Science. 

Nearby is the Boulevard de Valte. There you will find the Society of Scientific Investigative Exploration. The Society is dedicated to the premise that scientific discovery points to the wonders of God. Some rumors persist within the Society that it was Sir Isaac Newton himself that wrote the charter for the Society. The Society endeavors to prove the bible correct and factual through scientific means .

 Society explorers routinely scour the globe looking for and finding evidence of biblical artifacts. Their collection is the world’s most expansive. Their professors are unmatched in their breadth and depth of knowledge of the Scriptures.

The office director, Professor Joshua Wolorwicz. Amidst ancient manuscripts and unique artifacts from around the world the professor sits behind his desk reading aloud the latest report to his invited guests;  Suleiman Gardoky and his wife Emily Wasteland, explorers and long time members of the Society, as well as, close friends of the professor.

“…and reports were fairly routine until this last one.", said the Professor. “ It appears its here that Edward’s search for a first generation copy of the Book of Revelation takes a turn to the bizarre. He goes on to say that he fears that others are on the trail as well and that he is going to try to get in with that group and see if he can gain some additional information. He finishes saying he’s heading off to the southern coast of Spain. That was over a month ago.”

 

“That’s not like Eddie. He’s a thorough investigator and a stickler for regular reports.”, Suleiman said.

“He was a great help mapping the tunnels we discovered under the Temple Mount last year, remember dear?”, said Emily.

“Yes, quite.”, affirmed Suleiman.

 

 

 

A Note from Gary: Sorry everyone. This is taking a lot longer than I had anticipated. I'm going to have to rethink this format. In the meantime please bear with me. I'll keep getting updates out as often as I can. Thanks for your patience.

Twelves - Prologue

 The southern coast of Spain, a lone fishing boat slips quietly into an old abandoned quay. The same kind of quay that dots the southern coast all along the Mediterranean Sea; used mostly by the Moors in their invasion of Spain and subsequently their retreat and few hundred years later. A man of slight build and ruddy complexion that speaks of many years on the sea exits the boat and moves swiftly but silently up the stairs. Pausing at the top of the stairs, he listens intently for any sound that might warn of anyone alerted to his presence.  As an added measure, the man draws a wicked looking knife, the blade gleams in the moonlight.

The man makes for a building nearby. The second floor is a light and he can hear muffled voices emanating from an open window. The slight man begins cautiously checking the lower floor doors and windows for some way in. All are locked or barred in some way. He concludes that any attempts to force open a door or window would surely alert those upstairs of his presence.

A rustle of cloth against a stone wall causes the slim man to stiffen.  Then a strong, powerful and seemingly disembodied voice proceeds from the darkness. “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie, you been snooping around ever since you came amongst us. Always seeking to learn what you had no business knowing.  Always where you shouldn’t be, are you trying to spoil our surprise? We just can’t have that now, can we?” Eddie lowers his knife, to afraid to put up much resistance.  Eddie knows his end has come. He closes his eyes and says a prayer. He just hopes this won’t hurt too much.

A groan and a gurgle and the quay returns to silence as a ghost moon drifts overhead.

Computer Crashed!

Sorry for the delay in starting the story. Remember the hype about getting upgraded to Windows 10?
Well, I decided to jump in with both feet. That was in August...by September things were still all fouled up. Reboots, restarts, resets all failed to resolve the issues.
What I figured out was that my computer cannot handle W10. So a big system purge lost files, etc. Back to W7...reloading from backup takes time.

Lessons learned?
1. Back everything up. A life saver.
2. W10 goes on new computers not older ones.
3. Wait to upgrade, let them get all the bugs out first.
4. Never believe the hype, most users will never ever use most of the features W10 offers.

Working to get back on track.

Check back regularly.

Thanks for your patience.

Gary