The group elected Gordon Hinckley, effectively ensuring Lindsey’s path to succession would never happen. Alexander was outraged. His family had contributed tens of millions of dollars to the church. The fundraising and outreach programs that he’d put together had helped double the church’s revenue in just a few short years. Yet, he’d been told he was too young to be elected and that his brazen pursuit of the presidency belied a character not in keeping with the traditions of a prophet. They claimed that some of his ideas were too radical and would set a bad precedent. In the proceeding weeks he resigned from his post with the council and officially left the church, effectively wiping his name from their record books. He vowed then to make the old fools would regret their mistakes. He never forgot that vow.
A warm breeze swept up the mountainside as he sipped his coffee. Caffeine was something the church had warned against. After his brisk exit he’d immediately revolted against most of their teachings, including many of the temperance beliefs.
His quiet reflections were interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone on the table next to him. He reached over and picked it up, hoping it wasn’t more bad news.
“We have their location, sir,” the voice came through the earpiece.
Weaver and Collack had done their jobs after all. “Where?”
“In the mountains outside of Las Vegas. We traced a call from Schulz’s phone a little while ago. We are moving in now,” the voice continued.
Lindsey wondered what Sean Wyatt was up to.
“Wait.” He thought for a moment. “Fall back and watch. They may still be of some used to us. Perhaps they will lead us to the next clue.”
“Yes sir.”
Lindsey hung up the phone and peered out into the vast desert. Let the pawns make their moves.
Chapter 23
The phone near the computer rang loudly. Joe McElroy was busy reading through the day’s news on the monitor when he heard the ring.
His wife was outside working in the yard. Since he’d gotten home from the hospital, he’d not been able to do the kind of things he had before. One day last week he went by his office at the ranger station at the state park just to grab a few things but other than that Joe had been resigned to staying at home while his arm healed. It drove him crazy being cooped up like an animal. Even though the things that happened a few weeks ago were harrowing, he had not felt so alive in a long time. Adventure was something that he missed but he was content with his life. He had a good woman, a great job, and a beautiful cabin in the woods. But helping Sean had brought out something in him that he’d thought was long since dead.
Another ring snapped him back to the cabin. “Hello?”
“Joe!” the familiar voice said loudly from the other end. “How you feelin’ buddy?”
“Tommy…,” he shifted uneasily in his chair. “I’m doing much better, thanks.” While he spoke he stood up and looked outside to make sure his wife was still blowing leaves. She was down the driveway a good hundred feet away accompanied by the distant sound of the machine attached to her back. “What’s going on buddy?” he asked, satisfied she wouldn’t know what he was doing.
“I need your help with something.”
Joe eased back into the chair at his workstation, eagerly anticipating what Tommy had to say. His beady eyes gleamed and his smile raised the beard on his face slightly. “What ya got?”
“The translation for the second stone.”
McElroy was already busy typing on the keyboard. He stopped suddenly. “Really? That was quick. How’d you pull that off?”
“A friend had some software that solved the riddle.” Tommy paused. “Now that friend is dead.” He paused a few seconds. “There are some odd lines in this one. It says, ‘In desert mountains above the meadows’ sand, the sunlight points the way. The lions watch the gate to the spider’s lair. Though the distance is great, take guidance from the eagle’s wings to the river between the great mountains in the southern land. Leaves of three unlock the door.”
Joe sat quietly thinking for a minute. The sound of the leaf blower still permeated the wall from outside confirming his wife was still busy. “Lions?” Joe sounded confused. “I don’t remember hearing much about lions in Native culture. Although there is one place….” He began typing furiously on the computer’s keypad again. After a few moments, he clicked the mouse on something that caught his eye on the screen. Bandelier National Monument. That’s probably your best place to start lookin’.”
“New Mexico?”
“That’s what Google says.”
“You’re not looking at Wikipedia are you? Because —“
“No,” Joe cut him off. “I’m looking at the government site. Bandelier had a Native settlement there a long time ago. They left behind some ruins and a couple of stone lions lying side by side on the ground.” He read a few more lines on the screen before continuing. “Seems that no one really knows why the two lion sculptures are there.”
“I’ll take a look at it. Any idea about the rest of the riddle?”
Joe typed in some new words and phrases into the search engine, but, as he scanned through the content, nothing caught his eye. “I’ll have to get back to you on the rest of it, buddy. Nothing is really popping out at the moment.”
“Okay, Mac. I appreciate your help.”
“No problem, Tommy. Sean still out in Vegas?”
“At the moment.”
Suddenly, Joe heard the door leading into the garage start creaking open. He realized the sound of the leaf blower was painfully absent.
“Sorry partner, I gotta go. Talk soon.” He didn’t wait for Tommy to say goodbye and hung up the phone just as his wife entered through the door.
Chapter 24
Sean stared at the book in disbelief. He’d heard rumors that such a thing existed. But in his line of work he heard a lot of things. Adriana was turning out to be a woman full of surprises. “May I?” he asked, longing to see the pages within.
“Of course,” she motioned for him to proceed. “Put these on.” She produced a pair of white gloves from a pocket.
After he slipped them on, he cautiously opened the first page of the old book. Fortunately, he had learned enough Spanish over the years to be able to interpret most of what he saw. A lot of the contents were just gibberish, mentioning conditions, supplies, etc. There was a picture of the golden leaf drawn on one page, probably from the description the shaman had given. But what came after that was what interested Sean.
This morning, before the sun arose, I left our camp in secret and climbed high up into the mountains. So much of this rugged terrain looks the same. I feared that I would never discover the relic I sought. My suspicions were becoming greater that the medicine man who had led us to this place had either deceived me or believed that I was not clever enough to solve his riddle. When I had reached the peak of a nearby mountain, I sat in quiet prayer as the sun began to peek over the mountain range to the east. As I finished, I noticed a beam of sunlight shining through an odd hole located in a stone formation about one hundred feet away. The strange alignment of the rocks appeared to be manmade, the hole itself bored out through the center of a large, square stone. I turned to see where the light was shining and found that a tiny dot of sunlight rested on a rock about twenty feet away. Curious, I walked over to the spot and upon further inspection realized that the stone- about the size of a man- had been put there by humans. I checked behind it and noticed there was a narrow sliver of space. With renewed vigor, I climbed up onto a ledge behind the large stone and leveraged it with my feet, pushing with my back against the wall. The giant piece toppled over and I fell down and into the opening of a cave. Inside I found an ancient leaf of gold, which was illuminated by the ray of sunlight shining into a stone chamber.