Since Aboud was a practical man, he saw no point in destroying something he might be able to use later. The body was still fresh enough to harvest odds and ends. He extracted the organs and removed slabs of tissue to culture several new batches of vaccine. After he had finished salvaging what he needed, the scraps were incinerated along with the most recent test subject. The matter should have ended then and there. Aboud shook his head.
When Joshua showed up with four sentries carrying another body bag two weeks earlier, the doctor began to think he’d gone into the waste management business. His benefactor’s son didn’t bother to explain how this latest subject had come to his untimely end. The chief of security quite literally dropped the remains on Aboud’s doorstep and presumed the doctor would know what to do.
Aboud sighed philosophically and prepared for another salvage operation. Once the body had been placed on his dissection table, he performed a cursory inspection to determine if it was still fresh enough to harvest. Aboud drew back in surprise when he realized that this particular body was quite fresh—in fact, it was still alive. He found himself wondering if Joshua and his men had even bothered to check for a pulse. As things stood, it would have taken more than a simple carotid artery test to discover the feeble heartbeat that remained. The man might not be dead, but he was hovering dangerously close to that point.
The doctor immediately performed a thorough examination of the subject and concluded that it might be possible to save him. Of course, he had lost a significant amount of blood from several bullet wounds. Aboud called in his team, and they all went to work. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on the doctor. His staff had spent months inventing ever more efficient ways of extinguishing life from the human body. They soon proved to be equally adept at forcing life to remain, no matter how unwillingly. The bullet wounds were cleaned and disinfected. Several blood transfusions later, it became obvious the patient would survive. Aboud dismissed his team and took charge of the subject from there. When the man eventually showed signs of regaining consciousness, Aboud sedated him. Less trouble that way.
The doctor finished checking his test results and rose from his desk. He whistled an old tune from his homeland as he walked into the decontamination chamber where his hazmat suit hung on a peg. There he methodically donned his coverall, helmet, and gloves as a prelude to conducting yet another experiment. After he had taken care to cover every square inch of his body, he moved on to the testing area.
His technicians had already strapped the unconscious blond man into the plastic chair. Aboud attached an oxymeter to the man’s finger. Then he gave a signal to his assistants on the other side of the glass wall. One of them waved back to indicate that the vital signs were being transmitted properly.
The doctor retrieved a gas canister from a corner of the room. Then he placed a breathing apparatus over the man’s nose and mouth. The subject twitched briefly. Aboud attached the tube from the canister to the mask over the man’s face. Then, he turned the valve on the gas canister to release its deadly contents through the breathing tube.
The man was returning to consciousness. He blinked and struggled to sit up. His eyes opened wide with alarm when he realized his predicament.
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Aboud said. “No matter how brief your stay may be.”
THE SAGE STONE PROPHECY
The Sage Stone Prophecy
Book Seven of Seven—Arkana Archaeology Mystery Thriller Series
http://www.mythofhistory.com
Copyright © 2016 by N. S. Wikarski
Second Revised Edition 2017
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Chapter 1—Past Perfect, Future Tense
Hyperborea – Circa 1000 BCE
The priestess stood just outside the cave entrance and pensively surveyed the landscape around her. She drew her cloak more tightly around her shoulders. Her long gray hair was covered today by a voluminous woolen hood. Though it was high summer, she shivered. She doubted that her aged bones would ever adapt to this chill climate. She had been born on a sundrenched island surrounded by an azure sea—a homeland now stolen from her people.
A primitive race of men on horseback had pillaged all the great cities on the island, setting themselves up as rulers over people far wiser and more civilized than they. These ruffians were driven by a mania for conquest. They had honed the skills of warfare to the exclusion of all else. As a consequence, they possessed no system of writing, no art, no music, and the gods they worshipped were as greedy and bloodthirsty as they. Because they understood nothing, they had destroyed many sacred objects while ransacking the holy temples for treasure.
Six precious artifacts remained at great risk. They were the most revered symbols of the Mother of All: a golden bee, a dove carved from lapis lazuli, a bull’s head spangled with sapphires, a coiled serpent set with emeralds, a jewel-encrusted labrys, and the
