Laura 01 The Jaguar Prophecy (12 page)

Three days later a package arrived by secure courier, it was from Nick. The package contained five CDs of Laura’s favorite instrumental music composers, a stubby pen, a journal, a necklace, and a letter from Nick saying that she should listen to music while she journals her new adventure.

She was shocked to receive the package, but it was so thoughtful of Nick that she decided to fly to Spain when she gets to Bahamas, having always wanted to see the Cayman Islands. She had seen a few movies that the islands were featured in, and they looked so exotic and interesting to her. She packed the CDs, pen and journal with her luggage and then wished the days away until she would start her adventure. She wished her parents could see her now.

Both Laura’s parents had died the year before in a car accident. A local municipal rubbish truck sped down the road at full speed, skipped a traffic light and slammed into her parent’s car, killing them on impact.

It was later discovered that an 18 year old kid stole the truck after robbing a local convenience store while being high on a mixture of cocaine and crystal meth. He thought that he was being chased by the police and tried to outrun them when he skipped the traffic light.

The lights he saw however that kept flashing behind him were the truck’s warning lights he had accidentally activated when he stole the truck and struggled to get it started.

It was then that Laura moved out of her parents’ house and into the apartment with Suzy. Her parents’ house is still on the market as Laura cannot get herself to sell it yet. Suzy is her family now.

On the day of Laura’s departure, she started to get second thoughts and Suzy almost dragged her to the cruise ship.

Laura decides that she has been daydreaming far too long and takes the bar of soap on the side of the bath and gives herself a quick wash. She stands up in the bath after opening the drain, and then switches on the shower head. Using the apricot hair shampoo supplied by the Resort, she washes her hair and rinses herself clean with the shower.

The towels are soft and fluffy and Laura almost does not want to put on her clothes, but she also does not want to give Victor the wrong impression, although she is yearning to kiss him again. Laura puts on the jeans and t-shirt given to her by Suzy. The jeans are tight fitting stretch jeans, blue in color, while the t-shirt is soft pink, also tight fitting as Suzy demanded. On the front of the t-shirt are two hearts in pink glitter, one over each breast.

Looking down Laura notices that her nipples are visible through her t-shirt. Somehow, it does not bother her anymore. She suddenly realizes how much she has changed in only a few days.

Victor does not move when he hears the door to the bathroom open.

“All yours,” he hears Laura say from the bedroom. His nose picks up the smell of jasmine and apricot.

Laura stops when she sees Victor sitting on the couch with a cushion on his lap and a pistol in his right hand. He slowly looks up at her. Her red hair is hanging loosely over her shoulders, she has no makeup on. The tight jeans and t-shirt show her slender figure perfectly and she is barefoot, the perfect girl next door. No, she is just another girl, orders are orders, and there is more at stake than one girl.

Slowly Victor stands up, directly in front of Laura. Without her noticing, he pulls the hammer back on the pistol with his thumb and slowly brings the cushion up to her stomach, then leans forward until his lips are next to her right ear.

Taking a deep breath, Victor comments softly at the same time as he brings the pistol up, pushing the barrel against the cushion, “You smell wonderful.” His finger slowly pulls the trigger.

Suddenly Laura turns her head and kisses him, causing him to freeze, the trigger still half pulled. Laura pulls her head back and looks directly into Victor’s eyes.

It is then that he sees something he has never seen before. A pure soul, and love, love for him. Slowly he releases the trigger. A smile breaks on his face and he lowers the gun, tucking it in his pants behind his back. Dropping the cushion, he places his left hand behind Laura’s back and pulls her tightly against him and kisses her while running his right hand through her hair.

Laura’s head starts spinning and it sounds like a waterfall is in her ears, her heart is trying to beat its way through her chest. This time Victor pulls away and while holding Laura’s gaze says, “There are sandwiches and salad on the kitchen table with some juice, help yourself. I’ll not be long, just going to take a quick shower, and then I’ll tell you all.”

Laura nods but can neither move nor think. Victor lets her go and walks around her towards the bathroom. Without looking back he goes in and closes the door behind him.

Slowly Laura brings her left hand to her lips and touches them softly, as if her fingers are Victor’s lips. The sound of water running brings her out of her thoughts and she turns to walk to the kitchen table, however her knees are like jelly and she half loses her balance, causing her to walk into the wall next to the television cabinet. She loses her footing and falls backwards onto her bum. Laura giggles at herself and puts her hands over her mouth for fear that Victor will hear her and come out, seeing her sitting on the floor giggling at herself like a school girl before her first date.

Carefully she gets up and slowly walks to the table where she takes a seat and helps herself to some of the food. Only now does she realize how hungry she is.

Laura can hear water running and presumes that Victor must be taking a shower. Her heart is still beating wildly and she feels like she is on cloud nine.

Victor takes a quick shower, and then puts the clothes on that he had brought with, black jeans with a black under armor sweatshirt, tight fitting, showing every muscle. He pauses before exiting the bathroom and stares at his reflection in the bathroom mirror.

“Are you sure about what you are doing?” His silence is his own answer. As he opens the bathroom door, he comments to himself, “This is going to change everything.”

He finds Laura sitting at the kitchen table eating a sandwich. Laura looks up and smiles at him. He returns her smile and wonders to himself, “Why me? She is so innocent and I have so much blood on my hands.” After pulling a chair out for himself opposite Laura, he pours orange juice into a glass and takes a big gulp, then helps himself to a sandwich. Just as he is about to take a bite Laura speaks.

“Why did you not kill me that first night? You killed everyone else.”

Victor freezes, the sandwich touching his lips. Slowly he lowers the sandwich. He actually does not have a real answer. He just could not kill her, nor could he let the men hurt her.

“I had no orders to kill you. My orders were only to retrieve the data,” he says, his voice cold and matter of fact. Victor does not want to lie to Laura; he sees no good coming from it.

“But you killed all those men, I don’t understand.”

“Nor do I.” Victor is looking at the sandwich in his hand as he replies.

“What will you do if they order you to kill me?”

Victor detects fear in her voice but does not reply. He slowly takes the cell phone from the table and brings his orders up onto the display, then places the phone down gently in front of Laura before speaking.

“Already have been ordered to kill you.”

Laura goes white and keeps on looking between the message on the phone and Victor. Finally she speaks.

“Wwwhat are you going to dddoo?” Her voice tremors in fear and it sounds as if she is close to crying. Victor looks up and smiles at Laura, then reaching over he takes her left hand in his right, and while squeezing her hand softly he replies in a calm reassuring voice.

“Laura, I did not upload the data, and I will let no harm come to you.”

Laura suddenly bursts out crying from relief and joy, she jumps up and leans over the table and hugs Victor. After a minute she pulls back and dries her tears with the back of her hand before asking, “Who are they and why are they after me?”

“That is a bit of a story. Let’s go to the living area where it’s more comfortable.” Victor stands up as he replies and gently pulls Laura up and guides her to the couch in the living room. After sitting down next to each other, Victor continues.

“The man you are friends with, Nick, he is a world class freelance internet hacker. He hires his services out to anyone with enough money. Various governments have used him over the years to find people and information for them. What no one knew was that he hacked just about every government’s secret files over the years.

“He managed to accumulate a list of 500 names and pictures of various government spies, with a full dossier on each of them, including who are double agents. The list and pictures are, however, only part of what is on the disc.”

Victor waits a second for the information to sink in then continues.

“What he also managed to do was, when the US government hired him to help secure their nuclear missile launch programs, he implanted hidden code that would allow anyone to remotely access and override the governments’ control over the missiles by using a specific program he wrote. That program is also on the disc. If the Russians or any other nation for that matter get hold of the program, it will allow them to fire any US nuclear missile from any internet access point at any target of their choice.”

Victor takes a deep breath and then continues.

“Nick contacted the Russian government with the information and tried to sell it to them. They agreed to meet, but Nick got scared. That’s when he set you up. He bought you a ticket for a cruise and sent you a parcel containing some items. The Russians believe that the disc was in the parcel. Then he contacted the Russians and informed them that he will have a contact on the ship with the data. As soon as the Russians transfer the money to his account, he will contact them and give them a description of the necklace his contact is wearing and where the disc is.”

Laura’s eyes widen as Victor speaks and she starts to turn white, fear choking her.

“Nick probably intended on having the Russians take the data from you by pickpocketing you without you ever knowing you were part of one of the biggest crimes of all times. Unfortunately the Russians double crossed him, found his home and killed him. They used his computer’s chat log to find out where you lived.

“The Russians sent five people to get the disc from you, but since they did not know who else was involved, they hired the three thugs that approached you on the ship the first evening. They thought you knew about the disc and would immediately hand it over to them if they threatened you.”

Victor pauses for a moment then, while looking directly at Laura, continues.

“I was following you and thought that you were going to make the exchange that night. However, when you openly sat there in the rain, carefree, I knew something was wrong, you were innocent and not part of the plan. When the thugs attacked you, it confirmed my thoughts and I decided to protect you.”

Laura thinks about all she has heard, and then replies, “So what government do you work for?”

Victor laughs before replying. “I am freelance, and it is a bit more complicated than you think, the disc contains more than just the list of names and a program.”

Laura gives Victor a puzzled look, but waits for him to continue.

“I was hired by the Pope himself; the Vatican wants me to retrieve the disc for them.”

“Why would the Pope be interested in the identities of secret agents and spies and nuclear missile codes?” Laura asks in surprise.

“They are not, except to maybe sell it to the US government, but what they are actually after is this file.” Victor had retrieved the file on his phone while he talked and opens the word document. Laura looks at the file, then at Victor, then at the file again.

“I don’t understand,” she says with a puzzled look on her face.

“It’s the directions to a lost city in Peru, rumored to contain a vast treasure. I thought with your thirst for mythology and lost worlds you would recognize the directions.”

Laura looks at the directions again, and then replies, “This sounds like Vilcabamba, the last Inca stronghold.” Victor nods.

“So the Pope is after treasure then?” Laura is a little bit disgusted about it.

“Not actually.” Victor smiles when Laura looks up, she is now even more confused.

“There is more, right?” Laura is now starting to get intrigued.

“Jup, it is said that hidden with the treasure are ancient scrolls from the lost city of Atlantis.”

Laura bursts out laughing and then asks in a sarcastic tone, “So what exactly are these scrolls supposed to contain, another lost treasure?”

“No, death,” Victor replies seriously. His stern tone and answer, together with the look he gives her, tells her that he is not joking, and nor is the Vatican.

“The Atlantians apparently had technology far beyond what we even have today. They found a way to harness the power of the God particle and use it to create devices of immense power, for war and to power their ships.”

Laura opens her mouth to comment on Victor’s reply, but words fail her at first and all she can eventually get out is, “God particle?”

“It’s actually currently called the Higgs like particle by scientists, but the media have dubbed it the God particle since its announcement on 4 July 2012.” Victor sees Laura is confused about all of this; she must not have followed the news he decides.

“Scientists have known that the original formulas for the standard model for elementary particles are not complete for a long time. They know there must be a twelfth particle, but they can only find eleven. The scrolls describe the twelfth particle, and how to harness its power. For years scientists have been looking for this missing particle in order to harness its power. The discovery of the atom bomb was actually a result of this research. Not until now have scientists been able to find the missing particle. Even so, finding the missing particle is nothing if you don’t know how to harness its power. The method of harnessing this power is contained in the scrolls, and they want it at all cost.”