Gene of Isis

rediscovered the mysterious miracle substance that made the ancients and their structures so mighty,’ Molier concluded.

‘Then what are we waiting for, let’s do it!’ Andre rose from his chair, eager to finally bring this excavation to a conclusion.

Molier’s phone rang and was answered by Tusca, who, upon discovering the caller, immediately handed the phone to Molier.

‘Yes?’ He listened intently to what the caller had to say. ‘Very good.’ He passed the phone back to his secretary. ‘That was Conally.’ Molier’s partner had returned to the site with Andre. ‘The crate is unloaded, so we should be good to go in half an hour.’ He handed Andre a headset equipped with a mini-camera and a microphone. ‘Good luck.’ Molier took up his remote and switched on the large screen mounted inside a wall cabinet behind him to check that the camera was operational. ‘I shall be watching with great anticipation.’

Prior to our dismissal, I had again centred my focus on Molier’s light-body. I managed to perceive his aura, which emitted a rather lovely silvery light. His chakras I could not perceive at all—they were not bogged with darkness—and nor could I see spinning vortexes of light. They were simply invisible to psychic vision. I turned my focus to Andre, who was the same, and Tusca also. Was my ability failing? From what I had learned, this could only be the case if my love for Albray was fading, and I knew in my heart that this was not the case.

I headed across camp toward my tent, wondering what the hell was going on. Ashlee had described Molier’s aura as golden, whilst his chakras were bogged with blackness—I saw no such darkness and an aura of silver. Was one of us wrong in our perception, or had the appearance of Molier’s light-body changed between Ashlee’s time and the present? If so, what could have caused such an alteration?

ORME, I answered myself. Molier had had access to the Fire-Stone prior to his confrontation with Ashlee. It was only more recently that the Highward Fire-Stone had come into his possession. I recalled Molier mentioning DNA technology among the many applications for ORME’s use. What effect might a few doses of the Star substance have had on Molier’s mutated DNA?

I only had half an hour in which to find a treasure stone and summon Albray back to my side, and I honestly didn’t fancy my chances of achieving the goal. I felt more compelled to get on the internet and find out more regarding the healing properties of ORME. I had to know exactly what I was dealing with, if I was to fare any better against Molier than my foremothers had.

When I punched ‘ORME’ into my search engine I was surprised by the number of references it produced. The website which caught my attention was that of the discoverer of the substance. Having been done out of his patent on the exotic matter, he might have a little more to say about the potential of the substance than any corporations investigating its varied uses. Not to be dispossessed so easily, the said farmer that Molier had mentioned earlier had published a series of lectures on his discoveries. I read down his list of researches: fuel cell technology, anti- gravity, teleportation, parallel dimensions, space-time manipulation, micro-transistors and nanotechnology, all of which incited my interest. I had no time to pursue any of this, and looked instead for any information on DNA and vampires.

Naturally, I did not find any reference to how this substance might affect the DNA of a vampire. However, the claim that the Highward Fire-Stone could dismantle a short-length helix of DNA and then rebuild it led me to wonder if it could have corrected Molier’s melatonin imbalance. If it had, Molier now had immortality without any major side effects, so why was he still so eager to unlock and toy with this deadly Ark? Was the attraction the prestige of going where no modern man had gone before, or was there something else about the Ark that was a factor—what it contained, for example?

Until recently, I had always thought that there had only been one Ark, which had housed the Ten Commandments, but now that I gave this some serious consideration it really made little sense. As Ashlee had observed so early in her tale, the Commandments were very similar to a prayer in the Egyptian Book of the Dead: for instance, ‘I have not killed’ was changed to read ‘Thou shalt not kill’, and so on. Why would these Commandments warrant the construction of a supernatural golden coffer? As I was certainly no expert on the subject, I thought I’d best expand upon my knowledge rather quickly.

Another search on the net revealed that the two-Ark theory was not as obscure or unpopular as I had imagined. There were many biblical references that could be read to imply that more than one Ark had been fashioned on this mount. One, the Ark of the Covenant, housed the Tables of Testimony—this Ark had allegedly come into the possession of St Bernard during the first crusade. These Tables of Testimony were said to have contained the sacred geometry that became the foundation of the Masonic movement, and the Order of the Children of Solomon used this geometry in creating the great Gothic cathedrals of France. It was certainly true that this order of Solomon did acquire unique knowledge after the return of the Templars from their excavation of the Temple of Solomon. So, what became of this Ark? The legend was that in order to protect the sacred knowledge from falling into the hands of the Inquisition, the Ark containing the Tables of Testimony was sent back to the Plane of Shar-on, utilising specific aspects of the geometry which had been incorporated into Chartres Cathedral at that time. This cosmic architecture was then dismantled, so that the retrieval of the Ark of the Covenant was impossible.

The second Ark was said to contain the Ring of Testimony. This ancient treasure was a ring of supernatural power, which King Solomon had passed down through many generations of his line. The ring was said to take the form of a ruby coil and it granted the wearer knowledge of all that man had ever known and would ever know. One theory was that the ring had been given to Moses by El Shaddai—which in modern Bibles was wrongly translated to ‘God Almighty’ or ‘Yahweh’. Still, I knew El Shaddai was a Semitic term that related to the Great Mountain Lord and Mesopotamian god, Enlil. Genesis says that Melchizedek, King of Salem, was a priest of this god, and his warriors were still guarding sacred treasures in his name. ‘Interesting reading, Miss Montrose?’

My shock caused me to swivel around quickly in my chair, and I found myself staring into Molier’s eyes. ‘So, it is true then…you have taken the ORME substance?’ A safe assumption considering that he had just walked across the complex in broad daylight.

‘Indeed I have, and it has proven most beneficial,’ he granted politely.

‘So why the need to lie to me?’ I asked.

‘An invalid is always less threatening than an able-bodied man, I find. People always tend to underestimate, and even pity, you.’ He smiled winningly. ‘How long did you grant me the benefit of the doubt, over your beloved Albray?’

A pang of fear reverberated through my body in that instant. Any doubt I might have had about this man was snatched from me, leaving me mentally naked before the truth. ‘My beloved who?’ I stalled, afraid to attack the threat head-on. Perhaps I could bluff my way back into my safety zone of sceptical disbelief.

Molier only smiled. ‘Come with me, please.’ He beckoned me with one finger.

‘I just need to—’