Quest of Oblivious Page 2

  King Flame had previously heard of the Gnomes but of course had dismissed them as myth. That is, of course, until he started construction on his secret base in the dormant volcano in the mountains of Wexford. He had stumbled upon an incredibly elaborate tunnel that could not have been entirely natural. Next thing he knew he was surrounded by dozens of angry and heavily armed Gnomes. Despite their small stature they more than made up for it with their immense and seemingly limitless levels of strength and endurance. Every sinew and muscle in their bodies bulged from the constant physical labour in the tunnels. That and their extremely bad tempers meant that fights were quite frequent. Hence they were extremely good warriors and not to be taken on lightly. Fortunately for King Flame he had read widely on the subject, albeit one that he thought lay in the realms of mythology rather than reality. He praised the immaculate construction of the caves for there is no quicker way to a Gnomes heart than flattery.

  Soon he was sitting down with them sipping a home made brew of some considerable potency. It was the start of a beautiful friendship. Initially they had agreed to respect each others privacy but it became apparent to King Flame that the tunnels were an incredibly useful way of moving around the country quickly and covertly. He persuaded the Gnomes to allow him to use the tunnels, to which they agreed on certain conditions. There were certain instances when they needed an emissary for the over ground world as they called it, and that role would fall to King Flame. He could never refuse them no matter what they requested. Once he had agreed to these terms they set about modifying one of their Drillporters, an ingenious device that was able to move with the greatest of ease through the intricate system of tunnels. It worked on an advanced, or perhaps a better word would be ancient, use of magnetism. It also featured a diamond drill at the front in case of any unexpected ceiling collapses or detours. The original Drillporter was too small for King Flame and his colleagues so a slightly bigger cabin was added along with controls more suited for humans.

  Ajnin was elected to be trained as the driver. King Flame decided that his highly-tuned ninja skills and reflexes would be best suited to the operation of such a sophisticated vehicle. Ajnin relished the task and while the Gnomes were not the most patient of teachers he was quick to learn and in no time at all had mastered the operation of the Drillporter. It was in that very cockpit that he had learned how to operate the unique underground machine in which Ajnin now sat, going through the pre-launch checks. Once everyone was on board he would gently push out the throttle and in a fraction of the time it took to travel overland they would be at their secondary base under the ancient tomb of Fionn mac Cumhaill.

  * * *

  Approximately two hundred miles away Paddy and Jack descended the dimly lit stainless steel staircase deeper into the hi-tech lair of King Flame.

  'This place is amazing' said Paddy as yet another light came on, triggered by Jack's movement, who was leading the charge.

  'Careful Jack, we don't know if it's booby trapped', warned Paddy.

  That thought made both of them immediately more conscious of the potential dangers. They moved with slightly more caution in their steps as they progressed down the pristine corridor to the door at the end. When they reached it a small panel to the left suddenly came to life.

  'That must be the door lock', said Jack.

  'Yes, but what's the code' answered Paddy. Jack shrugged his shoulders.

  'We could try guessing', he suggested.

  'When was Fionn mac Cumhaill born?' asked Paddy. Jack shrugged his shoulders again.

  'We could be here for some time', said Paddy.

  * * *

  Half an hour later Ajnin expertly guided the Drillporter into the docking bay of the ancillary base located under the cairn of Fionn mac Cumhaill. Spike was already releasing the door lock mechanism and was first out of the craft and onto the docking bay. On the wall by the door was another computer touch screen panel.

  'We've been compromised' said Spike as he scrolled through the information on the screen.

  'Oblivious?' queried King Flame

  'Can't say, it's the overground entrance. It's been sealed again and there seem to be no other signs of damage. Feels like an ambush', said Spike.

  'I've lost one base today and I don't intend to lose another,' said Flame. 'Time for some housekeeping.'

  With that King Flame strode towards the door. Spike keyed in the code and the hydraulic mechanism kicked into action and the doors gently moved apart. Spike and Ajnin fell in quickly behind King Flame as he marched down the main corridor that led to the central command room.

  * * *

  The main doors of the control room suddenly sprang apart in front of Paddy and Jack. Spike had entered the override code for access to the entire base in his rush to get the doors open before King Flame walked straight into reinforced steel.

  'How did that happen?' asked Jack as they cautiously stepped into the nerve centre of the base.

  'I don't know but I really don't think we should touch anything' said Paddy as they looked around at the many monitors, buttons and flashing lights.

  'This looks like a command station', guessed Jack.

  'You might be right' said Paddy.

  Just at that moment the doors at the far side of the control room hissed open. Before Paddy and Jack even had time to react a burst of fire shot from King Flame's palm. They managed to duck just as the fire ball shot past their heads and scorched the wall behind them.

  'Cease fire, cease fire', shouted Paddy as King Flame geared up for a second burst.

  'We're friendly', said Jack and this seemed to cause Flame to reconsider.

  'Who are you?' he demanded.

  'We're on holidays' replied Jack 'We found this place by accident. I was in the tomb and I could feel that certain rocks felt differently. I touched them and then the door opened'.

  'Hmm, that is interesting' said King Flame as he exchanged a knowing look to his left and right with Spike and Ajnin. 'There are only a handful of people in the world who could have opened that door. Quite amazing that you should choose today to visit.'

  'It looks like there's some kind of emergency', observed Jack.

  'Indeed there is', said King Flame who was now satisfied that Paddy and Jack posed no threat to the base. 'We were attacked this morning at our primary base. We suffered many causalities and have been forced to repair here to our reserve base. It turns out that Lord Oblivious, our enemy and the mastermind behind the destruction of our headquarters was after the Scroll of Ra. I believe he needs this to unlock the Diamond of Osiris. We have come here to see if we can locate that diamond'.

  'The diamond of Osiris', said Paddy. 'Weren't we going to go and see that tomorrow?'

  'Yeah', said Jack.

  'To see it, where?' asked King Flame.

  'It's on tour at the moment and is coming the National Museum in Dublin tomorrow. I've got two tickets to the opening', said Paddy.

  'Now that really is good timing', said King Flame.

  Chapter 6 - Found in translation

  Lord Oblivious unrolled the scroll of Ra to its full length. It was nearly a metre in height once unfurled. The ancient hieroglyphs were still in pristine condition and could be read as clearly as the day they were written. In order to advance the translation Oblivious had scanned the scroll into his digital imaging database. His powerful computer whirred to life as it began matching recognised symbols to make a preliminary translation. A progress bar appeared on the screen, 65% complete. Better than expected, thought Oblivious.

  He had envisaged that the scroll might contain many new and previously un-catalogued hieroglyphs which would have made his job much more difficult. He clicked on the program menu and chose the fine tune option. With this function he was able to make some minor adjustments and weed out some of the anomalies. He pointed the cursor on the touch screen and tapped over the 'Run' button. The progress bar popped up on the screen again, this time advancing a little bit further, 75% complete. With this Lord Oblivious had succeeded in decoding the majority of the text. Most of it seemed to be incantations and prayers to the gods. However, the final lines were impervious to the computer's translation. The remaining 25%. The essential 25%. As difficult as expected then, thought Oblivious.

  The symbols really didn't seem to correspond to anything Oblivious had ever seen before. He brought up the Rosetta Stone image on his screen and scanned through the symbols. The Rosetta Stone was the basis for all hieroglyphic translation and if the symbol did not appear there it may well be beyond translation. Lord Oblivious could find nothing there that came anywhere close.

  He stood up from behind the terminal screens and paced the library. Often he found that walking and talking aloud cleared a problem for him.

  'This is an ancient scroll from a secret fraternity', he said out loud to the empty book shelves.? 'Either it is a previously unknown and undocumented language or it is some kind of code'. A code can be cracked, he thought.? There are clues to a code. Perhaps the symbols from the remaining 25% are just that, symbols that match up to another object or scroll. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar thought Oblivious.

  He sat down again at the computer with renewed purpose. He highlighted the remaining symbols and did an image search for the same symbols on all possible Egyptology databases. He hit the 'Run' button again and the progress bar appeared, Searching. The progress bar gradually filled up and just at the point where it was full another dialogue box appeared on screen, 1 match found. Oblivious immediately clicked on the link and up came an identical image of the hieroglyphs on the Scroll of Ra. However, they had been carved into black basalt, which apparently formed the base of a diamond, the Diamond of Osiris.

  Another search quickly conf
irmed that the Diamond of Osiris was due to be in Dublin the next day as part of a traveling exhibition.

  'Now that really is good timing', said Lord Oblivious out loud.

  Chapter 7 - Switchy switchy

  Once King Flame had established that the Diamond of Osiris was due to be exhibited at the National Museum of Ireland a plan formed relatively quickly. Paddy and Jack already had their tickets so it made sense that they should go.

  'You'll be the perfect cover. Oblivious doesn't know you and he'll have no idea that you are working for me', said King Flame.

  'Er, do you think it's safe?' asked Paddy who was ever so slightly concerned that the school holidays and perfectly innocent visit to a megalithic cemetery was now turning into a international terrorist foiling operation!

  'You'll be fine', said Flame. 'If Jack is able to open the hidden entrance then he's still got a few more tricks up his sleeve to discover.

  Jack immediately raised his palms and Paddy prayed that it would not be the gift of fireballs that suddenly appeared from them.

  'Cool', said Jack as he made various thrusting motions with his palms kung fu style.

  'Your talents will show themselves when the time is right, you can't force them', said King Flame affectionately.

  'Now, go to Dublin and be on the look out for anything suspicious', he said.

  'And what should we do if we do see anything suspicious', asked Jack.

  'Good question. Here, take this', and with that Flame handed Jack and Paddy two very small devices no bigger than garden peas.

  'Put those in your ears. Don't worry they will shape to fit. With those you'll be able to communicate directly with us. To open a channel just say the word "Flabbergasted" twice,' instructed King Flame.

  Paddy and Jack cautiously put the pea sized devices in their ears. As soon as they were lodged they seemed to squirm a little bit and then retract a little bit further down their ear canals. Paddy looked in Jack's ear just as the pea disappeared down into his ear.

  'I really don't want to even think about this', he said out loud.

  'Perfectly safe', said Ajnin. 'It's Gnome technology.'

  'Gnome technology', repeated Paddy. 'I really don't want to know'.

  'I can give you a lift to Dublin and explain on the way', said Ajnin.

  'You have a car?' asked Jack.

  'Not quite', smirked Ajnin.

  'To be honest, we do have a car and we should really use it. Thank you for the offer though', interrupted Paddy.

  'Awww', said Jack who had been looking forward to hearing all about Gnomes and riding in some sort of amazing transportation craft.

  'Maybe another time then', said Ajnin.

  'That would probably be best, I have something in mind for Ajnin in any case', said King Flame.

  'Well, we better be off if we're going to get to Dublin before it gets dark, very nice to meet you all', said Paddy.

  'We'll contact you tomorrow if we notice anything suspicious', said Jack as he held his hand to his ear.

  'Should we just....' Paddy started as he pointed towards the door.

  'Yes, same way you came in', said Flame and Spike was already at the console entering the override code for complete base access as well as the main entrance.

  Paddy and Jack walked back towards the entrance they had come in and the doors opened before them. As had happened when they first entered the lights gradually illuminated as they proceeded down the corridor and snapped off again behind them once they had passed.

  Soon they were walking back up the steel staircase and out into the open. The rain had passed and the fine mist that had been covering the whole peninsula for much of the day had now lifted and there even a hint of sunshine coming from way out west in the deep Atlantic.

  They stepped back from the entrance and the stone slab slowly folded back into place. They looked out north and could now clearly make out Maebh's cairn atop Knocnarea. They could hear the tour guide explaining its mystical origins and it seemed like there were slightly better numbers now.

  'Bet they don't get to see this part of the tour', Paddy said and Jack chuckled.

  Chapter 8 - Thor hits the jackpot

  Paddy and Jack made it to Dublin in hardly anytime at all. Not as fast as a drillporter obviously but not too bad for an old fashioned internal combustion engine car. They had booked into a Bed and Breakfast near the city centre. The day had been a long and exhausting one so after some food they went straight to bed. Jack was first up the next morning. He shook Paddy awake who was a bit groggy after not having slept brilliantly the night before.

  'Tell me it was a dream', he croaked as Jack continued to prod him awake.

  'Flabbergasted, Flabbergasted', Jack said in quick succession.

  Immediately in Jack's ear came the voice of King Flame, 'I'm patching in your father as I don't want to have to say this twice'.

  'Say what twice?' asked Jack.

  'It's not a dream', said King Flame and hung up. With that announcement Paddy jumped out of the bed and got dressed without his usual shower. He went to the bathroom and washed his face in cold water several times.

  When he felt sufficiently awake he came back to the room and said 'To the National Museum I guess.? We can get breakfast on the way'.

  Jack of course was already dressed and, with this announcement, already half way out the door.

  They were the first people to arrive at the museum.

  'You two are eager', the security guard said as they presented their tickets. He told them that the official opening was not till later but they were free to look around if they wanted.

  Naturally, they made a beeline for the Diamond of Osiris display. There were lots of boards and information points building up to the diamond but they just wanted to get straight to it and make sure it was still there.

  It was the most brilliant gem stone that either of them had ever seen. It was housed in a glass case in the middle of a dimly lit room whose walls were covered in black felt. There were four spotlights in the corner of the room and one directly overhead the display case. They all shone directly at the diamond and made it sparkle all the more brilliantly. The diamond was on a small turn table that rotated ever so slowly and with the lights directly on it cast a display of colour on the walls similar to that of a disco ball.

  'That's amazing', said Jack. 'Even if it didn't have special properties it must be worth an awful lot'.

  'Definitely', answered Paddy and they both started to look around, noticing small cameras on the ceiling and walls.

  'I bet the case is bullet proof and will be connected to the alarm if there's any movement' Jack said.

  'You watch too much TV', said Paddy.

  'Well, you have to say that it does come in useful', replied Jack.

  'I'll give you that', Paddy couldn't help but agree on this occasion.

  There was a bench by the far back wall for visitors to sit. Jack and Paddy positioned themselves there, sure that if there was to be an attack it would happen first thing rather than later in the day when the gallery would be much busier and the diamond under greater scrutiny.

  They weren't disappointed. After sitting for about ten minutes staring at the diamond there came the sound of a large thudding sound. Then two huge men entered the room, one of them carrying a hammer.

  'Flabbergasted, Flabbergasted', Jack said as soon as they came into the room.

  'Flame here', came the answer into both their earpieces.

  'Two enormous men have just come into the room and one of them is carrying a hammer', said Jack and just as he finished his last word Thor drew up Jenny and in one blow came down on the display case. Although it was undoubtedly fashioned from the most durable and expensive of bullet proof and bomb proof compounds it was no match for Thor's hammer. A huge crack appeared down the side of the case. He hit it once more and this time it shattered completely, sending pieces of glass flying around the room.

  The alarm had been triggered on the first blow and now there were guards entering the chamber. The other massive man threw them to one side and both of them marched out of the room with diamond in hand.

  'They've just walked out with the diamond of Osiris. Should we follow them,' said Jack.