Aeturnum (The Book of Adam 2), page 11
“So you didn’t tell your mom about the break-in?” asked Karl.
Adam shook his head and said, “No.”
Karl stood still, deep in thought. “And you think Ben did it,” he said, more as a statement than a question. “So, what do you think he was looking for? You’ve said that you never found the real Heartstone, only the fake.”
“Yeah, but I don't think everyone believes me. We think he was either looking for the Heartstone or my dad’s lapel pin for some reason.”
Karl considered the information for a moment. “I’m glad you came to me first boys. You probably should have told your mom, Adam, but in this circumstance, maybe it will be better that you didn’t. Not too many people in this town would believe you if you said anything bad about Ben, especially your parents.” He looked at each boy in turn before continuing.
“I would agree that it was probably Ben that searched your house. I’ve never completely trusted him. You saw his tattoo, so you know that he was a member of Aeturnum. What you don’t know is that he was their head of their security before coming here. Even I don’t know much else about his history, but I do know that he has been to jail in the past for breaking and entering.”
Adam got a chill as he remembered the comment from Ben about going to court before.
Karl looked at Adam. “Tell me exactly what the message said inside the fake Heartstone. Don’t hold anything back or try to hide anything. I need to know in order to decide what we should do next.”
Adam told him the message exactly and described the picture at the end. Karl had closed his eyes and listened intently, looking up only after Adam was finished describing the symbol.
“Ok, so what did you see in the Impression Stone you found in Killaly?”
Adam shrugged. “Nothing. I didn’t get a chance to connect with it, and I didn’t even think about trying, to be honest. I thought it would just be the same instructions as the other one.”
Karl nodded again, closing his eyes once more in thought. After a few moments he began to nod.
“Well, I am pretty sure I know what we should do next, but I need to know you boys are willing to trust me. You could get in pretty big trouble with your parents if you get caught. Do you want to hear more?”
The boys looked at each other. They remembered the excitement from the previous year as they hunted for clues, finding the tunnels and risking being caught. It had been exciting and scary at the same time. Each boy nodded to their group before nodding at Karl.
“Great,” said Karl.
“So, here’s what I think we need to do. That second Impression Stone is important. You didn’t know it, but Elianora was very adamant that we retrieve it. She sent most of us senior members to try and get it. Most of us tried multiple times. We even had to let John Gunderson in on the fact that something important was ‘protected’ by the good people of Killaly. I think Elianora knows it has information on it that will help her find the actual Heartstone again, so what we need to do is clear. I think Adam needs to connect with the other Impression Stone to see if there is any difference between the two.”
Adam winced. It would have been much easier to connect with it when it was sitting in his pocket the previous day instead of now when it was somewhere in Elianora’s house. The thought hadn’t even entered his mind with everything else that had gone on in Killaly.
“That’s not going to be easy,” said Adam. “I gave it to Elianora last night and she put it in a box with the other Impression Stone.”
Karl gave a nod as he absorbed the facts.
“I know she’s gone today and it was a last minute trip, so I’ll bet it has to do with what she found in the Impression Stone, although who she’s seeing or where she had to go is a mystery to me,” said Karl, “and I’ll bet she either took them with her or hid them somewhere that we won’t be able to find them. Knowing her, she won’t let them get too far from her yet.”
“Dad went with her, and they are supposed to be back by supper time,” added Mark.
Karl nodded silently, thoughts obviously running through his head. After some time, he spoke again.
“And Ben knows that too or he’d have been there as soon as she left this morning instead of getting you to fix his mower. I wonder - if you asked her,” he pointed at Adam, “she might let you see them again.” Karl seemed to be working things out as he spoke.
“Maybe you’d get enough time to connect with it if your friends could provide a distraction,” he continued.
“You think that she would let me see them if I just asked?” asked Adam.
“If there’s one thing I know about her, she trusts everyone more than she should, and I know she has a soft spot for you – especially after last summer. My biggest worry is that she will just hand them over to Ben if he asked because she trusts him so much,” said Karl.
It sounded reasonable to Adam, but he had another thought.
“I think we can do it, but the first Impression Stone only showed me images as I made my way through the Radome caves. Won’t the Killaly Impression Stone be the same?” asked Adam.
“You might be right, but you can connect with the stones much better now than you could last year. I haven’t seen that deep of a connection since your father. You might have a strong enough connection now that you can see the difference.”
“Hang on just a second,” interrupted Jimmy. “Aren’t we here because we suspect Ben broke into your house?” he asked Adam. “Now we’re planning on fooling Elianora to see the Impression Stones again and possibly go into the Radome caves? I’m not seeing the reason here.”
The boys looked at each other and realized that they were getting caught in the excitement of the moment.
Adam nodded. “Good point. Plus, why would Ben need to get the Impression Stone anyway? Didn’t Aeturnum take the Heartstone? And he knew I didn’t have the fake Heartstone, so what was he looking for?”
Karl grimaced. “There are a few things you don’t know. Once you found the fake Heartstone message, Elianora sent Ben back to his old friends to see if he could track the real one down. According to Ben, they don’t have it, and if they did take it, they wouldn’t have left such an obvious clue. They would have taken it and ran. You see, after the mid 1950’s, Aeturnum wasn’t given any more chances to study the Heartstone. They were told that the reason they couldn’t was the manpower required to make sure it was safe. They’ve been asking and asking, but every time it was being studied it was in danger of being found by Larix again – too many people knowing where it is makes for loose security. Elianora is torn because while she wants to help Mankind evolve as much as possible, she also feels she needs to protect us. She believes more and more that the next time Larix gets the Heartstone, he’s planning on killing the rest of the Teneo and half the population of the earth. So she has decided to keep it hidden since then. Aeturnum meanwhile has grown into a large company, known for a lot of food product innovation and chemicals. They’ve advanced quite a lot in the last number of years and believe that they should get another crack at the Heartstone – but Elianora has outright refused to ever let them see it again. Kevin would know them well – they are the biggest agricultural chemical manufacturer in the world.”
Kevin thought for a moment. “Aeturnum is Mongill?”
Karl nodded. “And their start came as the result of studies related to the Heartstone. While they couldn’t figure out how to make it work as a weapon, they did discover that it helped evolve the plants that were exposed to it. They developed new versions of agricultural plants that were much heartier and higher yielding, all as a direct result of having the Heartstone on site. Those seeds made them a lot of money, and now they have the resources to pay handsomely for getting the Heartstone back again.”
Karl paused and took a deep breath before continuing.
“I think you were right that Ben was looking for your dad’s pin. We were all beginning to think that your dad’s pin was the key to unlocking Brutus, even though we have all tried our own pins. All of the Sentinel League lapel pins aren’t created exactly equal. I mean, most of them are the same, but a few are slightly different. Your dad’s is one of those that is different. It’s much stronger than the others and has slightly different properties, so that’s why we thought it might work.”
The news about his lapel pin came as a shock to Adam. He wondered why Elianora and Gurpreet let him keep it if they knew how special it was.
“You still have it, right?” asked Karl.
“I keep it well hidden,” Adam replied. He didn’t tell Karl that most of the time he kept the pin in his pocket or under his pillow at night.
“I’m assuming that you needed your dad’s lapel pin to open the statue?”
Adam shook his head. “Nope. I had to connect with the statue to get instructions on how to open the mouth.”
“Really?” questioned Karl. “Interesting.”
“So you think the symbol in the fake Heartstone was a diversion?” asked Adam.
“Yes. At least, that’s what the senior members think now. I’ve discussed this with them too, and we think there are clues hidden in the Killaly Impression Stone and that’s why Elianora wanted it back so much. My feeling is that the fake Heartstone was actually an intentional diversion by Elianora. I also think she wiped her memory of it afterwards.”
Adam thought Karl was on to something, but still had concerns. “Won’t Elianora just figure out the clues and have a team retrieve the Heartstone? I saw her read the Impression Stone with ease, so she must have figured it out already.”
“Well, you know her. If she is the only one who knows the clues leading to it, she won’t be in a panic to find it anytime soon. You know her theory about the fewer people that know about a thing the less likely it will be leaked. She’ll take her time and plan out her next move. The problem is that Ben will want to know right away. He will ask her if he can protect the Impression Stones, being the head of security, and she’ll give them to him. He’ll have the Impression Stones figured out and tip off Aeturnum without her being any the wiser. As soon as Aeturnum finds the Heartstone, they’ll pay Ben and he’ll be gone. That’s my theory anyway.”
“I thought there were very few people who could read an Impression Stone,” said Adam.
“Contrary to what you’ve been led to believe, the ability to read an Impression Stone isn’t as rare as you think. And with the resources Aeturnum has, they’ll find someone that can read them if Ben doesn’t know someone already.”
“But isn’t Aeturnum just members of the Sentinel League? It shouldn’t be a big problem if they find the Heartstone,” said Jimmy.
“Well, if they happen to find the Heartstone first, how long do you think it will take for Larix to find out? He found out about Grayson when barely anyone knew it was here. Since Ben has left, Aeturnum’s security is far from great. If a couple hundred researchers start talking because they aren’t necessarily all Sentinel League members anymore, he’ll have it in no time. ”
That information hit Adam. He now understood Karl’s logic.
“So that’s why we need to get the information off that other Impression Stone as soon as we can. Elianora’s insistence on finding it tipped off Ben to its importance which in turn tipped off Aeturnum, so we need to do something quick. If we can locate the Heartstone maybe we can set a trap to prove to Elianora that we are right. She already has arrangements for the next location it will be moved to, so we just have to find it and secure it before anyone else does. Does that answer your questions?”
The boys slowly agreed.
“Good. I think that you need to read the Killaly Impression Stone tonight, as soon as Elianora gets back.” said Karl.
Adam nodded as his stomach tightened. Everything was starting to move fast again, as it had the previous summer, but this time he wasn’t sure he’d be as lucky.
“How are we going to distract Elianora?” asked Mark. “She’s got eyes in the back of her head.”
The boys agreed.
Karl frowned. “The stories I heard about your adventures last summer said that you guys are pretty good at causing a distraction if you need, or are those stories wrong?” He paused as they thought about it. “I have no fear that you can come up with something before you get there.”
The boys nodded slowly once more.
Karl looked at his watch again. “Anyway boys,” he said as he pressed the button to open the garage door, “I’ve got a meeting to get to. Insurance sales is a 24 hour, 7 day-a-week business. I’ll be back after lunch tomorrow. Do what you can this evening and come see me tomorrow afternoon, ok?”
They nodded and Karl smiled back at them.
“Good luck,” he said as he ushered them out the big garage door.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The boys walked to the end of the driveway and stepped off to the side as Karl backed his little car onto the street. Karl honked his horn happily at them as he drove away.
“Back to your place?” Kevin asked Adam as they waved at Karl.
“Yep.”
A couple of minutes later they were all seated in their usual spots.
“Well now, just how does he expect us to distract her long enough for you to connect with that stone?” complained Mark.
Jimmy agreed.
“It shouldn’t take long for me to connect with it,” replied Adam, “but it might take time to connect with it deep enough that I can tell the difference between the two. I might only need ten seconds, but as much as a couple of minutes.”
They all sat quietly, listening to the birds chirping outside and the gentle breeze rustling the trees.
“Is there anything we want to ask her?” asked Kevin, breaking the silence. “You know, like, I’m curious how those books work. Those pages are paper thin and yet I could watch video on them.”
“I’d like to know that too,” agreed Mark.
“Well I’ve been curious about that tree that grows all different types of fruit at the same time. That’s nothing I’ve ever even thought possible before,” said Jimmy.
They all nodded again.
“Do you think that asking her for those answers would distract her long enough to give me some time?” asked Adam.
“Maybe,” replied Kevin. “I think we’ll have to try it and see. You think you could get her to take you outside to see that tree, Jimmy?”
Jimmy grinned his used car salesman grin. “Not a problem. How about we get Mark to warm her up with a question about the video pages, then you say that you and Kevin want to see the Impression Stone because Kevin saw the other one last year and is curious, then me and Mark will get her outside to see that tree. As soon as we get outside, Kevin can be your lookout. That should get you enough time, right?”
Adam nodded. “You know Jimmy, sometimes your schemes scare me in a bad way.” Jimmy’s smile faded a little. “But this time it scares me in a good way. I say we give it a try.”
Jimmy’s smile shone even more than before.
“Ok, so we know that Gurpreet is with Elianora at the moment and they are supposed to be home by supper time. Mark, can you go home and as soon as your Dad gets back and you’ve eaten, come and get us.”
Mark nodded.
“You two,” he pointed at Jimmy and Kevin, “maybe eat something early and meet me back here. I’ll just wait in the garage for you until then. It’s just after 2:00pm now, so try and get back here by 5 if you can. Tell your parents we’re just hanging out.”
The other two nodded in reply.
“I don’t think I need to get home before 4:00,” said Mark.
Adam thought about it for a second. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It would look suspicious if we all hung out at home on a nice day like this, especially since Kevin just left his house. What should we do to kill some time?”
“We could go to the store,” said Mark. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starting to get hungry.”
Adam waited for Kevin or Jimmy to shoot Mark down, guessing it would be good.
“How can you be hungry already? You just ate lunch like an hour ago,” said Kevin.
“It’s all this excitement. It makes me feel like snacking on something,” said Mark. He smiled and looked at Kevin. “And besides, that was just my first lunch.”
Kevin looked at Mark with wide eyes. “Did you just make another ‘Lord of the Rings’ reference?” He hung his head.
Adam chuckled as Mark grinned back at Kevin.
“Why don’t we just wander around to kill some time,” said Jimmy.
They all looked at each other and each shrugged.
“Why not,” said Adam, and he pointed the way outside.
The boys began walking toward downtown, if you wanted to call it that. Downtown consisted of the post office, hardware store, the hotel, the bank, and the butcher shop. It was almost two blocks long if you included the gas station.
As they walked, a few cars drove past. Each one of the drivers waved to the group as is typical in a small town. Everyone knew everyone almost too well.
They stopped outside the post office to check out the bulletin board. A couple of items for sale, a few old business cards from salesmen that drove through every now and then. Nothing new had been added in a couple of weeks, so they continued on toward the grocery store.
“Hey,” a familiar voice yelled at the group.
Adam turned toward the sound. It came from the butcher shop. Marius Miller was standing in the doorway waving for the group to come toward him. Marius was the owner of Miller’s Meats, famous for their hand-made sausage simply known as ‘Miller’s Sausage’.
The boys looked at each other quickly and waited for Adam to lead the way across the street, unsure what Marius wanted. Marius smiled and stepped fully outside as they approached.
“Hi guys,” he said. “You looked like you’re bored. How would you like to make some money?”
Adam wasted no time responding. “Sure!” he said.
Kevin nodded, Jimmy shrugged and Mark eyed Marius with suspicion.
