Track of the Beast: A Brock Stone Adventure

“Not most. Only three rooms.” Alex shrugged. “One for living, one for sleeping, and the third for tinkering.” Alex was an engineer and a mechanical wiz. He was always hard at work on some new invention or an improvement on existing technology.

“Constance is a friend of Trinity’s,” Stone said. “May I call you Constance?”

“Of course you may.”

“You are welcome to call me Brock, but I probably won’t answer. Everyone calls me Stone.”

“Because of the thickness of his head,” Alex added.

Constance let out a tiny laugh, but her smile faded immediately.

“Trinity is the reason I’m here. I haven’t heard from her in days and I’m worried. Have you spoken with her?”

Stone scratched his head, thinking. “It’s been several days, but that’s not unusual for Trinity. She told me not to worry. She’s in New Jersey covering the investigation into the Lindbergh kidnapping. They found that little boy’s body, you know. She said she might be keeping odd hours.”

Constance flicked a glance at Stone, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. “I made a promise to Trinity. If she went five days without calling me, I was to deliver a message to you.”

Stone sat up straight, a chill running down his spine. “What message?”

Constance let out a sigh. “She put it in writing, and I fear the water ruined it.” She took out a soggy envelope and handed it to Stone.

He took out the sheet of paper inside and unfolded it. As Constance had feared, the writing was smeared and illegible. He could only make out a few words:

Jefferson

Clark

John Kane.

“That’s odd,” Alex said, gazing intently at the paper. “That thing I discovered about the place we visited today.” He hesitated.

“Go ahead. If it might be connected to whatever Trinity is investigating, I don’t think we need to keep it a secret from Constance.”

“After Jefferson took office, he began aggressively searching for sites associated with the Illuminati. He wrote in his journal about a map of the West found in an Illuminati temple that he described as ‘nearly on his doorstep.’”

“Virginia, then,” Stone said.

“Not long after that, the Lewis and Clark expedition headed West.” Alex looked at Stone, shrugged. “The connection is thin.”

Stone scratched his chin. “The search for the pyramids has been linked to John Kane from the start. But Lewis and Clark?” Stone looked at Constance. “I need you to tell me everything you know about what Trinity is up to.”

6- The Pursuit

The Flying Wing that Alex and Moses had built was a modified version of the Emsco B-8, a two-seat, single-engine, low-wing, twin-boom experimental aircraft designed by Charles Rocheville in 1930. Unlike the original aeroplane, in which the pilots sat in tandem open cockpits, this aircraft featured an enclosed cockpit with four seats and a small cargo area, and boasted a broader wingspan and a larger fuel capacity. Rocheville had designed his craft for long-distance flight and had intended to fly it from Seattle to Tokyo. Fittingly, Seattle was their destination.

Constance knew that Trinity had traveled to the Pacific Northwest. She did not know what, exactly, Trinity was investigating but admitted she had made inquiries about Kane’s business dealings on Trinity’s behalf. The news was unsurprising to Stone, but still unwelcome. Kane was a dangerous man, but Trinity had a fearlessness that bordered on recklessness. Stone had long ago given up on trying to rein her in.

“You’re sure this thing will get us there?” he said to Alex.

“We’ve made it to Montana and haven’t had a problem yet,” Alex said. He sat in the copilot’s seat while Moses piloted the plane. “And if our new project works out as well as this one, Moses and I are going to be famous.”

“When are the two of you going to stop keeping this big secret?” Stone asked. “After all, it’s my money you’re spending.”

“Believe me, when this thing is ready, it’s going to make us all rich.”

“Stone’s already rich,” Moses said, his eyes locked on the sky in front of them.

“Really? Trinity didn’t tell me that.” Constance smiled at Stone. Stone had not wanted her to come along, but she had insisted that if they did not include her in the search for Trinity, she’d conduct her own search. Given the potential dangers involved in any investigation that touched on John Kane, Stone had felt it would be wrong to let her make a go of it alone. At least this way he could keep an eye on her.

“Speaking of Trinity, do we have any idea yet where to even look for her? Aside from somewhere in or around Seattle?” Alex asked.

Before Constance could reply, Moses spoke up. “There’s a plane coming right at us.”

Stone leaned forward and peered through the cockpit. Moses was right. A biplane was making a beeline for them. Stone recognized it right away. It was an Albatross D.V., the World War I era German fighter plane that preceded the better known and much more reliable Fokker D.VIII.