Hidden Thrones (7 page)

“Our
names are not important. What is important is the powers that be do not want to
see you here again. You
are considered to be a
trouble
maker, a fly in the ointment
if you will
.”

“Really?
A
nd who
exactly
is it that I’m making
trouble for?
”

“The
people
we represent are very powerful. Y
ou don’t want to piss them off
,
Mr. Bennett. I
t would be very unwise. Besides
,
you wouldn’t want
anything to happen to any of your new friends here in High Point
,
would you?”

Jack
suddenly felt a presence he recognized and had felt many times before. He knew
he had to answer cautiously for right now, even though he felt like ripping
into both of them. He would have to find out more before he
could go on the offensive. Then again, a
little sarcasm couldn’t hurt.

“That’s
quite a threat coming from the historical society. Is this common practice in
this area or should I feel special?”

“We
know who you are and what you do. I would be very careful from now on
if I were you
. Bad
t
hings can happen to good people,
you know.”

“Well,
I guess you guys h
ave nothing to worry
about then,” Jack replied with a smirk. “Hey,
I really would love to stay and chat
,
but I have an appointment with Jesus wh
en I get back. You’ve heard of H
im I
suppose, haven’t you?
Lord of Lords?
King of Kings
? Y
ou know
,
all that kind of
stuff. I would say have a good night
, but you probably won’t, so I guess I’ll
just go now.”

Jack
opened the door of his car and pulled out of the parking lot. Once he got a
mile or two down the road
,
a bead of sweat formed on his
forehead.
He thought to himself,
N
ever let them see
you sweat
. He wasn’t going to wait until
he got back
. H
e started his
“
meeting
”
in the car.

A
light
steady rain fell on Bath Avenue as Jack walked into CJ’s to meet Frank.
Due
to the weather, t
hey would be eating inside this morning
,
much
to Frank’s dismay
.
Jack was the first
to arrive for a change. N
ormally
Frank would be sitting at the table impatiently looking down at his watch
waiting for him
,
but not this morning.
Jack had too much on his mind to sleep or even think about updating his blog.
He had spent most of the night praying off and on and thinking about his
newfound
friends and enemies. There was so much to talk about
,
it made his head spin. Jack sat down and just stared out the window thinking
and watching the rain
steadily
come down.

Emily
,
who had been standing
nearby and
waiting with her pad in hand finally
approached Jack.
“Hi
,
Mr. Bennett
!
C
an I get you something while you wait.”

 She had never seen
Jack come in by himself before so she naturally assumed he was meting Frank or
someone else.

A
little startled,
Jack replied, “Oh, hi Emily. Y
es
,
please
.
I’ll have a cup of coffee
.
And Emily? P
lease call me Jack.”

Emily smiled and said,
“Okay
, Jack.”

In all the craziness
,
he had forgotten about Emily. He thought to himself,
What
am I going to do about that? Am I going to
do anything? I
guess asking her to call me by my first name is a start.

“Hey!
I
can’t believe you beat me here,” Frank laughed.
“What’s
gonna happen next?”

“Next? That’s a good
question.”

Frank s
at
down and said, “Okay, so
what have you got?”

Emily
arrived
with
Jack’s coffee.
She quickly focused her
attention to Frank
, smiled
and said, “Good
morning! What can I get you?”

“I’m starving!
How
about two e
ggs, home fries
, and bacon, crisp.
And lots of coffee,
”
Frank
ordered
with a smile.

“And you
,
Jack?”

Frank’s radar instantly
went up
. H
e was dying to say something
,
but decided to hold his tongue
just
for the moment.

Jack ignored
Frank’s
inquiring face.
“I’ll have the
Masala O
melet and a refill
on the coffee
, please
.”

As
soon as Emily walked away Frank dove in. “And you
,
Jack?
” he mimicked, his
voice an octave higher than normal.
“
Well, have we made a
decision?”

“I’m
thinking let’s just leave it at that.
”
Changing the subject, Jack asked, “How did you make out
in Washington?”

“Well,
con
sidering
I had less than twenty-
four hours
,
not too bad. I found
out that the good se
nator had a meeting in
D.C. on the down low
a few days ago with
s
ome
real
heavy hitters in the business world
and
another U.S. senator
.
It seems he belongs to
some secret society
-
so secret nobody knows what it’s all about.”

“What
about the Oslows?”

“That’s
where it
really
gets interesting. It turns out they were big contributors to
his campaign back in the day
. N
ot sure how that all connects just yet. It is going to take
some time to dig into all that.”

Emily
brought them their breakfast and refilled Frank’s cup first. She glanced at
Jack
,
and then
pour
ed
his coffee. For the
first time
,
Jack really noticed her eyes. They were a deep blue and seemed to sparkle
,
especially when she
looked at him. He alwa
ys thought she was
pretty of cou
rse
,
but so did everyone else. He just never thought of her in
this way. He wasn’t sure why it had taken him so long to catch on
,
but there was no doubt
in his mind about how he felt now.

Frank
waited
until
she
left and said,
“Wow
-
talk about a
connection. I can feel the heat from here.”
He
mock fanned himself.

Jack
turned his head and took another look at Emily
who
was
now standing at the counter. “This
is new ground for me. I’m going to
take it slow.
” Refocusing their
conversation, Jack said, “
Anyway
,
back to the Oslows. I
went over and over those files you sent
me
. Did you get a good look at them?”

“I
didn’t have the chance
.
I was in a hurry to get out of the station.”

“
Heidi
again? You better stay out of there altogether. That’s not the girl for you,
pal.”

Frank tilted his head
to the side and said, “I know, but she’s got it all going on.”

Jack gave him a stern
look. “Run, my friend. Run as fast as you can.”

“Yeah, yeah - don’t
worry it’s never gonna happen. So, what did you find on the report?”

“Are you ready for
this? The Oslows were originally from Iraq. They owned the house for ten years
before their deaths. The day they bought it, they paid cash. $545,000 - in
cash. We already know they belonged to a Middle East group called The Sons of
Nimrod, but what we didn’t know was that they were helping Saddam Hussein
finance the rebuilding of Babylon. Once built, they had plans to reinstate
worship to the ancient gods of Babylon which included human sacrifice.”

“Human sacrifice? Saddam
Hussein?” Frank sat across from Jack looking bewildered. “You’re not going to
try to tell me this was on the report, are you?”

“No, not that part. I
sent out a few emails to some folks I’ve known for a while in Kuwait. They got
me that info. Remember, we’re talking over forty years ago.”

Frank looked at Jack.
“So the Oslows were Iraqis? Oslow obviously wasn’t their real last name.”

“No, their real last name
was Sahar.”

“Okay. So, let’s try to
put this all together. They came to America over forty years ago, then
somewhere along the line connected with not yet elected Senator Wellsenburg and
decided to help him win a Senate seat. Bizarre.”

Jack finished his last
bite of his breakfast. “You just said you found out that Wellsenburg is part of
a secret society, but nobody knows what kind. What if Wellsenburg, in a roundabout
way, sold his soul to the devil in order to win the Senate race? You told me
yourself months ago that he has grown in power year after year and that he has
his eye on a presidential nomination.”

Frank’s head was
spinning. “Yeah, but that is a lot to wrap your head around. Although now that
I think of it, it does fit with what the demon creature said to the girl.”

Jack looked down for a
second and quietly repeated, “The spirit of Babylon is coming.” He leaned back
in his chair. “There’s more.”

Frank took a deep
breath. “Of course there is. What else?”

“Last night at the prayer
meeting, there were two people standing in the back of the room the whole time
I was speaking. They were taking notes and one was even talking to someone on
the phone. The same two people, a man and a woman, were waiting for me outside
in the parking lot after the meeting. They came over to me as I was getting into
my car and, basically, threatened me, and the prayer group, if I ever came back
there. They said they worked for powerful people and told me that bad things
can happen to good people. Frank, I got the same feeling off of them as I got
when I entered the Oslow House. It was weird, very weird.”

Frank was enraged. He
loved confrontations and wished he could have been there. How dare they
threaten a prayer group and someone like Jack!

“Are you kidding? Man,
what were their names?”

“I didn’t get their
names. They wouldn’t tell me.”

You could almost see the
steam coming off Frank’s head. “I’ll find out who they are and pay them a
little visit. Don’t you worry.”

“Slow down, buddy. I
don’t think that’s a good idea. I appreciate your concern, but there is more to
this than meets the eye. Somehow all these pieces fit together.”

Frank cooled down a
little, but he was still visibly upset. “So you think this has something to do
with The Sons of Nimrod and maybe even Senator Wellsenburg?”

“Don’t
you?
”

Frank
paused for a moment
,
rested his elbow on the table and rubbed his forehead. “I
don’t get it. Why should anyone in Washington care about a prayer meeting in
some small town? I mean
,
no offense, but why would they care about
Jack Bennett? Are you sure this
just wasn’t some bent
-
out
-of-
shape
,
small town officials playing God?”

Jack
leaned forward.
“Frank
,
I’m telling you it
goes deeper than flesh and blood. I can sense it! You have to trust me on this
one.”

“Okay.
I trust your premonitions or feelings or whatever. You know
more about this stuff than I do. So
,
what’s our next step?”

“I’m
not sure
. L
et’s
give it a couple of days
.
I need to pray about this and think it through.”

“Alright.
I
t
’
s Tuesday
-
we should meet aga
in on
Thursday to compare notes. I
f you find out
anything
before then,
call me. I’ll snoop around Washington and see what I can find out. Until then
,
you w
atch your back. In the meantime,
” Frank looked over
at
Emily and then back at Jack,
“k
eep moving forward
,
if you know what I mean.”

Jack
picked up
the check and gave Frank a look.
“I’ll talk to you later.”

Emily
was standing by the register when Jack walked over to pay the bill.

“How
was everythi
ng?” s
he asked looking straight into his eyes.

Jack
stood there for a moment not saying a thing
. I
t was only a few seconds
,
but
it felt like forever.
His heart
beat
quickened.
H
e was very nervous
, but
knew he had to make his
move
. I
t was
now or never. Finally
, he mustered
, “Good as usual. Ah, I was wondering
,
if you don’t have any
plans on Friday
,
would you like to have dinner with me?
”

Emily’s
eyes
immediately
brighten
ed.
F
inally
!
s
he thought to herself
.
“Sure!
I mean
,
yes
. T
hat would be very nice.
I’ll give you my address
. O
h
! A
nd my phone number in case something comes up.”

Jack
smiled. H
e
instantly
felt lighter
,
like a heavy weight
had been lifted off him. “How about I pick
you
up at seven. Is Regina’s okay
? Do you like
Italian food? They are the best around.”