The Keystone Read online

it.”

  “Okay. But if I get fired then I'm blaming you.”

  They leave the museum in hope that Jared's old friend can figure out what the scroll says and that the solar system display will sort itself out.

  By morning they had reached Kidlington Airport in Oxford.

  “Where exactly is this friend of yours?” Jenna asked with a worried look on her face.

  “Well he's not exactly a friend, he's more of an acquaintance.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  “He lives in America. Washington to be exact.”

  “Oh goody, a seven hour journey suck in a 3rd class cabin.”

  “Actually I took the liberty of booking a business class flight in the universities name.”

  “Really? Can you do that?”

  “Why not? I just said that it was part of a research project for my class.”

  “Well aren't you clever, and a little bit sly. I will never be able to trust you again” She replied with a slight chuckle in her voice.

  After the beautifully relaxing journey, the plane began to land and the seatbelt light shone in each cabin of the plane. As the plane landed, the doctor and his sister grabbed their carry on luggage and awaited the seatbelt sign to turn off. When they left the airport Jared hailed a yellow taxi and put both of their suitcases into the boot of the cab. He directed the cabbie to the address of his 'friend' and they all travelled to their next destination.

  As they pulled up alongside a large Victorian looking building, they climbed out of the taxi and Jared paid the driver. They both walked up the endless cobblestone path towards a huge courtyard with a fountain, shrubberies, rose bushes and an assortment of flowers and fruit trees. They walked up the large but short stairs to two enormous doors. Jared grabbed the large dragon door knocker and banged it against the door three times. With no answer he did it again. Again nobody answered so he tried the door handles and pushed the doors open. He stepped inside with his elder sibling following cautiously behind. The room they had walked into looked like it hadn't been lived in for years. They continued through to the living room which, unlike the first room, looked like it had just been cleaned.

  “Strange?” Jared said to his sister, “I called him just before we arrived, this is the address he gave me. He seemed very interested in the scroll. Like he had been looking for it.”

  “Maybe he's just gone shopping.” she replied

  “No. I know him, he wouldn't go out if he was expecting company.”

  They roamed around the house a bit longer and found a large staircase leading down to a cellar. They followed the staircase down to find a note. It read 'Dear Jared, I am sorry to have left you at such a distressing time but I had some business to attend to. I have left food in the pantry and would be okay with you staying here in my home until I return. Sincerely Dr. Mark Berant. P.S. There is a safe in my office. The code is 8643. There should be enough money in there for you to get food and pay the bills until my return.'

  “I'll go look in the study for that safe, you go look in the kitchen to see if you can find anything to eat. I don't know about you but I am starving.”

  Jenna walked down the long narrow corridor to find the kitchen to the left of the hallway, as Jared climbed the long spiral staircase and found the study at the top, he walked into the office, towards the large oak desk. Under the desk was a small, metal, digital safe. Jared entered the code “8643” the safe bleeped but nothing happened. So he tried the code in the reverse order, thinking that he may have changed it's order to prevent prying eyes, and the safe made a bleeping sound again but this time it also made a clunking sound. He pushed the handle down and pulled the door open. Inside the safe was another box, similar to Jared's father's, however this one was white and looked as though it was made of ivory and the lid did not have a triquetra on it but instead had a picture of Africa carved into the surface. There was also a blue pager and a mobile phone. He picked up the box, the pager and the phone. He pressed the middle button on the phone and the screen lit up. There was a message on the screen which read “If you are reading this then you have found my note and realised that the code was backwards to prevent any random people getting into my safe. My name is Dr. Mark Berant and I have been kidnapped by a criminal organisation called the Crimson Killers. Their leader is Marco Belchavski. He hired me to find an artefact and when I told him that the code was unbreakable he got angry and took me from my home.” The message was dated a mere week before they had arrived at the house.

  “Hey Jenna!” Jared yelled down the stairs loud enough so that his sister could hear him.

  “Yea?” she replied in a similar manner.

  “Come up here a sec.”

  “Why?”

  “I found something.”

  “Okay. One second. I'm making a sandwich.”

  “Fine,” he replied in a exasperated manner.

  When she had finally finished her sandwich and made her way up the long spiral staircase, Jenna entered the room that Jared was in, walked towards a chair located in front of the desk and took a seat.

  “What's up?”

  “This,” Jared handed the phone containing the text message to Jenna, “I also found a pager and this box.” Jared placed the box and the pager on top of the desk.

  “Oh no!” Jenna said with great concern, “We have to help him!”

  “How? We don't know where he is or who these Crimson Killers are.”

  “Well we can use GPS tracking to find out where he sent the message from and from there we may be able to find him.”

  “Good idea. Only issue is, do you know how to do it? 'Cause I don't.”

  “Ummmm, no. But it's just a matter of searching online you can find everything on there.”

  “Okay. You do that, whilst I do some research on the Crimson Killers.”

  After hours of endless research, countless cups of coffee and a few toilet breaks, Jared and Jenna finally found what they were looking for. Jenna figured out how to track the phone using a simple application and Jared found out that the Crimson Killers, or CK, were a Russian organisation famous for torturing and killing their victims in strange and unusual ways. He also found that they don't kill anyone that they think will be useful, lucky for Dr. Berant. They figured that as long as Marco thought that the doctor could help him then he wouldn't kill him.

  “Before we leave we have to open this,” Jared stuck his hand into his backpack and pulled out the ivory box and placed it on the table once more.

  “What is it?” Jenna replied

  “It's like dad's, but white and in better condition. Plus it has a map of Africa on it.”

  “Okay. That's strange. Do you think they're linked?”

  “I don't know. I only met Mark last year at a archaeological conference. How could our dad know him without us knowing about it?” he said with a concerned look on his face.

  “You're right. It must be a coincidence.”