England

     1.

     David Doyle sat back in his seat, his gaze never leaving the computer screen, as he rubbed his chin
     thoughtfully. Once a ‘Company’ man, Doyle now shunned the world he used to be so familiar with.
     They’d recruited him straight from college for his computer skills and initially he’d been overwhelmed
     and delighted by the technology and seemingly unlimited resources made available to him. Slowly the
     fascination and excitement turned to loathing and disillusionment, he hated the way his superiors
     trivialised the lives of ordinary people, treating them as pawns in a game that was played for the sole
     purpose of furthering their own careers.

     The day he resigned there was a strange atmosphere throughout the building, it was unheard of for
     anyone to walk away. It was a set procedure, you were recruited, manipulated whomever you could to
     secure your position and before you knew it, a 6-figure retirement sum, an honour in the Queen’s
     birthday list and a position on the Board of Directors of some industry privatised in the 1980’s.

     He’d felt a sense of relief leaving behind the musty corridors of power, but he’d been careful enough to
     create a backdoor or two in the systems he’s been working on. There was no way Doyle could go to the
     Press and blurt out everything he knew, for one thing, there was no proof. He decided to leak the
     information to people he could trust, they’d make sure everyone would get to know what their
     respective Governments were up to.

     The information on the screen blurred for a moment, Doyle rubbed his eyes, he was probably spending
     far too much time staring at a screen but he was onto something here. For two weeks now he’d been
     intercepting messages, which intrigued him. Something was going on in the Middle East, a discovery, he
     hadn’t worked out quite what it was but the information bouncing back and forth between London and
     Jerusalem worried him. A vague reference he’d seen in one of the messages made him hack into the CDC
     computer and discovered that a team of four doctors had been despatched to Israel to try and contain an
     outbreak of some strange disease. The details had been sent to London, but, so far, he hadn’t managed to
     break the encryption.

     Should he inform his contact at the O.S.I.R. or wait until he had more details? Maybe he’d have one more
     go at breaking the encryption that had eluded him so far……

     Canada

     2.

     The shadowy figure in the alleyway was staring at him, he couldn’t see the eyes to be sure of it, but he felt
     them boring into him. There was something darkly menacing about the figure, it seemed to exude evil that
     was almost tangible. An earlier rain shower left the sidewalk glistening and the air smelled damp and
     humid. Suddenly the figure lunged at him, it’s hideous, malformed features fixed in a grimace of loathing
     and hatred, Peter screamed and sat up in bed sweating and breathless.

     “Peter?” Sally Axon was awakened by her husband’s scream.
     “It’s okay, I’m okay…” he gasped
     “Not again, Peter you’ve got to see someone about these nightmares. We all get them, but this has gone
     on far too long.” She reached across and stroked her husband’s back to comfort him. It was 6 months since
     she’d met Peter at an Astro-Physics conference in London, their whirlwind romance had resulted in
     marriage and everything had been wonderful until two weeks ago. She smiled to herself, she hadn’t even
     wanted to go to the conference, she hated public speaking but she was glad she’d gone. Peter stood out
     from the crowd; she’d noticed him as soon as he walked into the lecture hall. Her concentration on the
     subject of her lecture was non-existent, she’d managed to do it all in ‘auto-pilot’ as she couldn’t stop
     looking at the man sitting in the aisle seat four rows up from the front.

     After the lecture, Sally spotted an old colleague and was deeply engrossed in conversation so she didn’t
     see the object of her desires walk up behind her. Not usually one to be lost for words, Sally was dumb-
     struck when he introduced himself “Hi, I’m Peter Axon, I work for the Office of Scientific Investigation
     and Research”. Once over the initial shock, Sally and Peter had spent the next few hours together
     discussing the finer points of quantum chaos theory and his work at the O.S.I.R. He was dedicated to his
     work and had never married, Sally’s hopes picked up. One week later she was Mrs Sally Axon. She had
     resigned from her job to accompany Peter back to Canada.

     When the nightmares started, Sally was sure Peter was just overtired. He’d flown to four different
     locations in as many days to investigate various phenomena. He’d spent three nights monitoring a
     possible haunting in a house in New England and the days writing reports on his findings there, that’s
     all it was, he was just tired.

     Now she wasn’t so sure. Peter had woken up sweating and shaking night after night and always the
     same dream. This wasn’t right; the lack of sleep was really affecting him now.

     Peter lay next to her staring at the ceiling in the cold grey light of dawn. “It means something,” he
     muttered.'What?' Sally reached over and stroked his forehead, wiping away the beads of perspiration.
     “The dream. It’s more than a dream, the figure I see is a demon…no, a manifestation of evil, but it’s
     a warning and I don’t know what I’m being warned about”
     “You should call Central Lab, tell Max you’re not coming in for a few days, he’ll understand”
     “No”
     “You haven’t had a break since the honeymoon, you’re entitled to a few days off”
     “No” Peter couldn’t bear to be away from the job he loved so much.
     “Well at least talk to Dr Henderson about it” she looked pleadingly at him “Okay…?”
     Peter nodded; he knew Sally was right, he didn’t dare tell her he’d nearly killed himself when he came
     off his motorcycle on the way to Central Lab only two days ago. A momentary lapse of concentration and
     he failed to negotiate a corner, just as well the traffic was heavy and he’d been going slowly at the time.

     3.

     The Office of Scientific Investigation and Research had undergone mammoth changes over the past year.
     There’d been that ugly business with the former Chairman and the funding had all but dried up. The
     Staff numbers were reduced considerably and many of the Senior Operatives had decided it was time for
     a career move. Then along came Oscar Remington, self-made billionaire and aficionado of the Paranormal,
     he approached the Directors and made them an offer. His injection of cash saved the O.S.I.R. and in return
     he took on the role of Chief of Operations. At first there was a lot of resentment but he proved himself
     quite capable both in his new position as well as in the field of the paranormal.

     “Max, would you come to my office”, Remington replaced the handset and waited for his Case Manager to
     arrive. He’d hand picked Professor Maximilian Donizetti after hearing about his exploits in investigating a
     number of paranormal cases in the British Isles. He’d worked freelance, travelling from place to place
     offering his expertise in cases ranging from lake monsters to mysterious disappearances and had quite a
     reputation for getting the job done with the minimal of stress to the experiencers. When approached about
     joining the O.S.I.R. Max has insisted his wife, Lucia, be taken on board too. Oscar had been happy to oblige
     as Lucia was a trained psychologist and her personable manner meant she had the knack of extracting
     vital information from people. She was now the O.S.I.R.’s Senior Data Analyst and had no shortage of
     enthusiasm for investigating life’s greatest mysteries.

     There was a knock at the door “Come in”,
     Max entered the room “Morning Oscar, nice to see you, to see you….”
     “Okay Max, it’s a bit too early for the jokes, can we get down to business?”
     Max shrugged “Sure, What’s up?”
     Oscar picked up a remote control and pointed it at the video screen, “Footage taken at an archaeological
     dig in the Negev Desert, Israel” The scene was one of sandy coloured rocks and dust and groups of men
     wearing robes, busily transporting the rubble from the dig. The camera panned round to a cave entrance
     where two men and a woman in safari suits stood, deep in conversation, although there was no sound on
     the footage. ''The man on the right is John Hetherington, Professor of Antiquities at the British
     Museum, London, on the left Andrew Kramer, lecturer in Ancient Hebraic Studies at the School of
     Oriental & African Studies, London and here’s the clincher, the woman is Amelia Kaufmann…”
     “Another leading academic, no doubt?” Max interrupted
     “Actually, no” Oscar paused the video, “She’s NIC” he looked at Max
     “NIC?”                             
     “National Intelligence Committee, American counter-intelligence with serious military leanings” Max
     still looked puzzled “Black Ops” Oscar explained
     “Ooo-ee, heavy duty babe” Max looked back at the screen “So what’s her connection, what’s our
     involvement?” He looked back at Oscar
     “Israeli Government wants us to check the authenticity of an anachronistic discovery at the dig.
     Hetherington and Kramer are running the show out there, I don’t know what the NIC’s involvement is
     right now but the Israelis are very, very nervous about something”
     “So what’s this anachronistic discovery?” Max didn’t like the sound of it.
     Oscar paused “Apparently the Brits have found some sort of electronic gadget encased in rock strata
     estimated to be 200 million years old”
     Max opened his mouth to comment, but words failed him, he looked to Oscar for guidance.
     “I think you need a full team, Axon, Henderson, Miles, Donaldson, Carradine, Drew and of course,
     Lucia. Axon will probably need help so you’d better take Winkler as well. If required I can have other
     Operatives join you on site once you’ve made the preliminary report.”
     “When do we leave?”
     “You’re booked on an EL AL flight from Pearson 0700 tomorrow”

     4.

     “Sally could be right, you need a holiday” James Henderson had just finished giving Peter a full
     medical “Physically, you’re in great shape, but the nightmares worry me. I’d like to put you under,
     maybe regress you……”
     “No…no..no..James, I haven’t got time for that. We’re off to the Middle East tomorrow, don’t forget,
     and I need to inventory the equipment and calibrate it ready for the trip”
     “ Well then, I suggest you go home and relax as soon as that’s done. We could be away for a few weeks,
     I don’t think Sally will be too pleased”
     Peter smiled, “You’re right Doc, couple more hours here and I’ll head home. See you bright and early
     tomorrow”
     Dr Henderson watched the Physicist leave. He’d never come across anyone quite so dedicated to his work
     as Peter Axon. James Henderson had joined the O.S.I.R. in 1993 and was promoted to Head Physician
     when Dr Anton Hendricks retired. After qualifying he’d worked as an ER Doctor, then moved into
     Psychology before heading to the East to absorb the culture and seek spiritual enlightenment. Back in
     the USA he’d built up a private practise and that hadn’t been easy to give it up, but the O.S.I.R. promised
     so much and Henderson’s time in the East gave him an insatiable desire to search for the key to what
     lies beyond this world.

     5.

     “I really don’t think you should go” Sally was looking at her husband hoping he’d capitulate, “Peter,
     this could be it, this could be what your dreams are warning you about”
     “I’ll be fine. You said I needed a holiday” He pulled Sally close and hugged her
     “We need a holiday, the two of us, together” She looked up into Peter’s face but she knew how important
     his job was and he wasn’t about to give up the chance of another investigation into the paranormal “Well,
     be careful, I want you to phone me every day, don’t go volunteering for anything dangerous and no
     heroics. ''Okay?” Peter smiled “Okay Peter? I mean it, I don’t want to lose you, I’ve found happiness for
     the first time in my life and I’m not about to let that go”
     “Sally, I promise you I’ll be fine”

     6.

     “You’ve reached the Donizetti residence, please leave your message after the tone”
     “Damn!” Doyle hadn’t counted on the answer machine being on, should he leave a message, warn his
     friend and hope nobody was monitoring the call? No,…….. he’d try again later.

     Max and Lucia arrived home. The light on the answer machine was blinking, Max pressed “Play” but
     when the tape rewound there was only silence. He reset the machine, “Somebody got shy and lost their
     voice” he shrugged towards Lucia. “Better get packed, we’ll have to be at the airport early for the check-
     in tomorrow”

     Max was awakened by the phone ringing, he managed to pick up before the answer machine cut in,
     glancing at the clock on the night stand, it’s large red LCD numerals proclaimed “01.27”
     “Hello?”
     “Max…” silence, but Max recognised the voice of his friend David Doyle
     “David, is that you?” Max waited for confirmation but it didn’t come
     “There’s more to this case than you know, ancient forces are at work..” the line crackled
     “David? What’s going on? Can you hear me?” the line went dead and Max looked at the receiver as if he
     was expecting it to reveal something more about the mysterious call.
     “Max, who is it?” Lucia sat up in bed
     “I don’t know, the line went dead. You’d better get back to sleep, we have to be up in a few hours”


     Continued on the next page........

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