The Eye of Moses - Vatican Knights Series 22 (2020) by Rick Jones (best novels to read for students .txt) 📕

ambitions became the ruling face of mankind. But on the eve of the extinction event that ended the reign of one dominant species in order to give rise to another, a flaming bolide had come from deep space and collided with the planet, sending crystallized shards of particle matter to spread over the face of the world. From this global seeding after the Great Collision, a small and living crystal of light had burned its way into the limb of an ancient tree. Over time the tree had withered and died within a desert landscape, with its wood becoming perfectly preserved over time through petrification. As centuries turned into millenniums with this evolution of time giving rise to humankind, a slave in Egypt would come upon this calcified rod with a glowing eye embedded within the staff’s head. Here, in the eyes of Aaron, was a staff that beheld the magic of his God.

When the staff was proposed to his brother Moses to use as a means for Pharaoh to let his people go, Moses had dipped its crystallized tip along the edge of the Nile. Almost immediately the surface became blood-red at the point of the rod’s touch and expanded outward. Whispers from those closest to Pharaoh claimed that it was a signal from Moses’ God, a power so great that nothing could combat or contest it. Some claimed that red mud from the north had spilled into the river, turning it red.

But the truth was far more complicated.

After Moses submerged the crystal beneath the surface, the power of the crystal and the particle within it ignited a red-algae bloom that grew exponentially. This became the first of the ten plagues.

Subsequent of this, the bloom changed the Ph levels, which became toxic to the fish and frogs. Therefore, when the frogs took to land in record numbers to avoid the poisonous bloom, the fish, whose dietary staple was to eat frogs’ eggs, had died off—the second of the plagues.

After having been forced from the river for an extended length of time, the frogs died off with their carcasses soon attracting lice and flies. Another of the plagues.

In turn, disease-carrying lice had caused bluetongue in cattle, a fatal virus that wiped out nearly seventy percent of Egypt’s livestock. Akin to the lice, the flies, who were also attracted to the frog carcasses, then spread the glanders bacteria to humans, which caused the plague of boils.

From this domino effect of a disrupted ecosystem came the Three Days of Darkness. Right after the plague of boils, a sandstorm lasting three days was so intense that it blotted out the sun, causing continuous darkness. During this time, the heat of the sandstorm collided with a cold front to cause hailstorms. And because of this weather system, the high winds pushed the locust population from Ethiopia into Cairo. In turn, locust dung combined with the wetness of the hail resulted in the creation of micro-toxins. Then as these micro-toxins were fed to the first born whose immune systems could not handle the poisons, this resulted in their deaths.

These plagues happened as a direct result of a faltering ecosystem. To the Egyptians it was magic. To the Jews it was the divine powers of intervention. But neither truly applied since they were caused by the natural effects between science and nature. In the end, however, it was the belief that the divine and mystical power behind the ‘Eye of Moses’ had forced Pharaoh’s hand.

The Eye of Moses, Mr. da Vinci thought, a dark particle that dated back to the moment of the Big Bang and something so powerful, that should it be gleaned and dissected from, could level entire continents if the properties of its powers were accurately harnessed for military applications.

Perhaps its use, he further considered, was Nature’s way of selecting mankind for extinction, as it did sixty-four million years ago when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.

Such irony.

For several hours he watched surveillance footage of the raid on the Croatian bunker on several different grids of the computer’s screen. He watched the hostiles move through the hallways from every possible angle, all progressing so fluidly along the floor that it appeared as if they were gliding. Then he watched them breach the vault’s door and enter the chamber, only to exit a few moments later with the prized possession of Aaron’s rod.

As gracefully as they moved through the hallways, their exit had been just as clean. However, Mr. da Vinci had noticed a blemish on the back of one of the commando’s wrist when the operator’s sleeve hiked back when he held his weapon at eye level and revealed a tattoo.

After he froze the frame, he then tapped the point of interest of the man’s tattoo on the touchscreen with his forefinger, then delivered a command to the voice-activated PC. “Zoom in,” he said.

The computer responded by closing on the exposed mark, though the footage was blurred and grainy. Then from Mr. da Vinci, he stated evenly, “High-definition cleanup.”

The pixels began to restructure themselves until the blurred image became sharper and cleaner. The mark on the back of the man’s wrist still appeared to da Vinci as a small inkblot, perhaps a mole.

“Zoom to capacity for high-definition cleanup,” he added.

The computer responded as the pixels started to concentrate on the point of interest to clear the image. Slowly, the mark started to come into focus. When the pixels had finished their assignment of piecing together a viable image, a small hitch of breath escaped Mr. da Vinci.

What he was looking at was a tattoo that belonged to members of an elite organization whose primary function was to appropriate prototypes of weaponry blueprints, and then use those plans to modify weapon designs, and then sell these tailored armaments on the black market.

He leaned slowly back into his seat. “The Shadow Klan,” he whispered. He continued to stare at the tattoo—that of a grinning skull whose eyes were covered with eyepatches to signify ‘global blindness against the