Prey For Me Ch. 10

Pt. X: Motive

Kim and Jack road to the scene of the fourth Lilith murder in Sam Hanson's Cadillac. It was a brand new Catera Sport. Ebony on the outside; and charcoal soft leather on the inside. Jack sat in the back and rather liked the way it handled. Sam rambled about all the features and specifications and Jack wondered why he did not get to the more pressing business at hand. He soon got an inkling as Sam headed up Route 95. Jack had a feeling this was going to be a long ride.

Sam filled them in on the way. "Dr. Michael Lewiston was Controller of the Desert Research Institute, commonly referred to as the DRI. The DRI was created more than forty years ago by an act of the legislature to be part of the University of Nevada. In 1968 the DRI became an autonomous nonprofit division of the University and Community College System which includes the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Nevada, Reno, the Community College of Southern Nevada, Great Basin College, Truckee Meadows Community College and Western Nevada Community College.

"The DRI is principally involved in international environmental research and employs several hundred scientists and technicians. Many graduate students, particularly doctoral candidates work on funded research projects in conjunction with obtaining their degrees.

"Of course the DRI is involved in anthropology and archeological research, in addition to paleaecology, vadose zone hydrology and the like. Not that I know much about all that. I got that terminology from Dr. Lewiston's staff. What I do know is that this late doctor was somewhat involved in ongoing projects in Mexico, California and Egypt. He also was in frequent contact with professors at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Alquads University.

"The doctor in his position as Controller also was ultimately responsible for the Operation of the Office of Technology Transfer. The mission of that office is to facilitate the dissemination of DRI research results and also to generate income to perpetuate innovative solutions to global problems.

"We are on our way to Reno where we will find the beginnings of the Dandini Research Park, a research and development park overlooking the city and surrounded by snow covered mountains. This is the latest DRI project to enhance collaboration among leading scientists around the world.

"Although Dr Lewiston resided in Las Vegas, he had a luxury two-story suite at the largest hotel and casino in Reno so that he could spend several days a week in Reno and oversee the Dandini Research Park project. Actually he had two suites. He also used the suite as an office and two employees assisted him. One is his secretary Nancy Strong. The other is his administrative assistant, Jerry Bannister.

"This late doctor was murdered in this office apparently. Two of my friends were the first on the scene. Jim Doyle is Washoe County Sheriff. He was formerly Chief of the Reno Police Department until he was elected as sheriff several years ago. One of his biggest supporters is my other friend, Tom Jordan, Deputy Chief, Detective Division, Reno Police Department. Both will be on the scene when we arrive and they will update us on their investigation.

"I asked Tom to check Dr. Lewiston's computer files in his office. The doctor's secretary, Nancy Strong, gave him the password and helped him muddle through the files. And you will never guess what he found. You will never guess who he was communicating with; the late Dr. Masterson, the late Dr. Moroski and the late Miyuki Huang. Tom forwarded the e-mails to me and I printed them out. Here they are." Sam handed Jack and Kim each a large stack of paper. "I only perused them briefly and wasn't making much sense of it all.

Sam continued, "I'll keep talking while you read. I spoke to Dr. Lewiston's administrative assistant, Jerry Bannister. He told me one of the late doctor's greatest interests was ancient phallic symbols. Penis amulets and charmstones. I understand many of these charmstones are thousands of years old which have been found all over South and Central America and many have been discovered in northern coastal California, not all that far from Reno, actually.

"That's very interesting, Sam, the interest in phallic worship," Jack interrupted. "Joshua Marshall's Native American friend Nathaniel insists Lilith, the original, was into phallic worship. He said Lilith was the inspiration for the legend of Ishtar and quoted from something called the Akkadian hymn, ' ... in lips she is sweet; life is in her mouth' and asked who does that sound like? According to him the worship of Ishtar centered around holy harlots, transvestites and phallic symbols. Nathaniel also insisted Lilith was also Medusa of Greek mythology and referred to Greek sculpture and painting frequently displayed the nude Medusa partially reclining or kneeling below the standing Perseus with her mouth open. He made the joke that beheading would be new terminology to describe what they both had in mind. Well, if our Lilith is a Medusa I guess she has her own concept of beheading. Talk about reversal of roles.

"Hey Jack," Kim blurted, "didn't you say the second professor murdered by Lilith, Dr. Moroski, taught anthropology and courses about magic, witchcraft, Native American religions and such at a college in Phoenix? This e-mail between Moroski and Lewiston talks about the Olmec and jade artifacts. Sam, this Nathaniel was just telling us about the same thing earlier today. Jack wasn't paying much attention at the time.

"Well, listen to this one," Jack offered. "In this e-mail Lewiston and Masterson, the first professor murdered are talking about the Nephilim, those giants of the bible, and those other giants, the Olmec. Kim, see if you can find any e-mails between Lewiston and Huang, the third murder victim. Huang didn't seem to be the intellectual type. I wonder what his connection was."

After ten minutes of silence, Kim spoke up. "This one is not from Miyuki Huang but it is from Kazua Masuda, Huang's computer guru. A string of e-mails between Masuda and Lewiston regarding something called the Golden Wedge of Ophir."

"I wonder what that is?" Jack asked. "You know, I thought the story those yakuza told about Huang having some secret software to create an unsolvable computer virus was bullshit. That's not what our Lilith wanted, even if the software does exist, which I doubt. This Golden Wedge of Ophir, whatever it is, might be more of a possible motive. It does tie Huang and Lewiston together. Do those messages say anything else of interest, Kim?"

"Need I remind you," Sam commented, "that Dr. Lewiston resided in Las Vegas most of the time. Perhaps Huang was actually in Vegas to meet Lewiston."

Another fifteen minutes went by before Kim exclaimed, "Yes, yes! The last message from Masuda to Lewiston says to meet Huang at the Comdex Convention on November 16 to make the exchange. Jack, isn't that the same date Huang disappeared with our Lilith?"

"Yes it surely is. I see now that this Golden Wedge of Ophir is also mentioned once in a message between Moroski and Lewiston, but all it says is something about 'the Wedge will soon be in our possession' and that is from Lewiston to Moroski shortly before he was murdered. I wonder if the exchange of this object was ever made. Sam, pull off at the next rest stop. I want to call Caitlin and ask her about this.

Sam pulled off Route 95 at the Beatty exit and Jack called Caitlin while the other two used the rest rooms and bought coffee. She was sleeping but quickly became very alert at Jack's new revelations.

"Jack, there is a biblical person named Ophir, the son of Joktan, mentioned in Genesis. There is also a biblical place called Ophir; the land of gold and jewels. Most say Ophir was in Arabia or India. A few say Ophir was in South or Central America."

"The 'golden wedge of Ophir' is also a biblical expression which appears in the book of Isaiah. Numerous controversies exist over what it means. Here is the quotation exactly, Isaiah 13:12, 'I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.' This thirteenth chapter of Isaiah mainly refers to the day of God's wrath. The end times.

"The Hebrew word for 'wedge' is 'leshonah' which means tongue or fork of flame or evil speaker or sceptre. Something like that. There is a legend of the ancient Incas that the Golden Wedge of Ophir was a golden sceptre wielded by Manco Capac who founded the city of Cuzco.

"Based upon what I just said, I would bet that this Golden Wedge of Ophir refers to some object of great value. Made partly of gold one would surely surmise. Perhaps also containing rare jewels found in Ophir, wherever that might be. The object in some way might resemble or be symbolic of a man. I say that because in that verse in Isaiah the wedge is compared to a man. 'I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir' to reiterate.

"Jack, remember the tattoo on the hand of Miyuki Huang, the third Lilith victim. It was an asherah, a phallic symbol. It was he same tattoo found on the brother of Goliath, Lahmi. Goliath and Lahmi, the giants. We didn't talk much about that tattoo on Huang. Now it seems to take on more significance.

"In the King James version of the bible the word 'asherah' appears forty times. It is translated to 'grove' or 'groves' in every instance. Unquestionably this is a mistranslation which many have since admitted. It was corrected somewhat in later English versions of the bible, which translate 'asherah' to 'sacred pillar' and 'sacred pole.' The asherah is associated with the goddess Ashtoreth but is not that goddess. The asherah was a phallic symbol that became an object of worship.

"This Golden Wedge of Ophir you are talking about brings to mind a verse in Ezekiel. Verse 16:17, 'Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and my silver which I have given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them.' Images of men. Phallic symbols of gold and silver and jewels.

"Jack, something tells me that what Lilith was after is a priceless phallic symbol made of gold and jewels which is many thousands of years old. I suspect that in the ancient world somewhere it was an object of venerable worship."

"Thanks, Caitlin, that helps considerably. Now I have some idea what we might be looking for. I'll call you again when I know more."

Sam and Kim were waiting in the Cadillac and they returned to the highway as Jack repeated his conversation with Caitlin. "Let's go back to reading these e-mails," Jack suggested.

"Hey guys, here's something of interest," Kim finally broke the silence of twenty minutes with. "This is in another string of messages between Moroski and Lewiston. Sir Richard Francis Burton, remember him? Those books like The Perfumed Garden of Sheik Nafzaoui and Vikram and the Vampire that our group of women who mysteriously disappeared became obsessed with. Burton apparently traveled extensively throughout South and Central America. Lewiston refers to a work translated and published by Burton, Iracema: The Honey-lips: A Legend of Brazil. Lewiston refers to Burton's interest in our Golden Wedge of Ophir in the same message."

"Here's another interesting one," Jack offered. "Moroski and Lewiston are talking about penis amulets. Lewiston is saying he acquired a 'palad khik' which means 'honorable surrogate penis' from an associate in Thailand. That particular penis amulet got to Thailand via Cambodian monks in the 8th century AD. Apparently they brought that one and others from India. The monks used the penis amulets for religious ceremonies. Others used them for such things as to assure gambling luck and to attract women. There is a reference to another of Sir Francis Burton's work, Arranga-Ranga or The Hindu Art of Love which Burton translated from the Sanskrit."

"What about this one," Kim stated not asked with excitement, "Lewiston was a Shriner. He was a member of the Zelzah Shrine Temple in Las Vegas. You are not going to believe this! Here are messages between Lewiston and Dr. Bernard Martin. You know, Dr. Martin of the Los Angeles Shriners Hospital and Al Malaikah Temple; the husband of Candace Pike Martin, one of the women who mysteriously disappeared. They are talking about Freemasonry in these messages."

"This puzzle is all starting to fit together better," Jack responded. "Caitlin informed me that Sir Richard Burton was a Freemason. And that The Book of Enoch was of utmost importance to Freemasons. The Book of Enoch which talks of the Nephilim, the giants."

Sam added nonchalantly, "You know of course many consider Freemasonry to be a phallic cult."

"Candace Pike Martin was a descendant of Albert Pike," Jack interrupted as Sam paused. "I learned that from Candace's friend, Carmelita. Albert Pike was a Confederate General who also was by far the most significant Freemason of his era. "What else do these messages say, Kim?"

Ten minutes later Kim spoke. "This is weird and I don't quite get it. They are talking about 'The Maltese Falcon' of movie and book fame. Lewiston is recounting to Martin the story of the Maltese Falcon, as it was told in the movie. I'm quoting here, 'In 1539, the Knights Templar of Malta paid tribute to Charles V of Spain by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels ... but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day.' What's the connection here? Stay tuned.

"Then Lewiston is talking about the Aztecs and chalchiuitl, jade. He relates an alleged conversation between Montezuma and Cortez that goes like this, 'Montezuma's words when making a presentation of jade to Cortez are very revealing: I will give you a very valuable stone which you will send to him (Charles V of Spain) in my name; it is chalchiuitl and gold and emeralds and is not to be given to anyone else but to him, your great prince. It was worshipped by our ancestors, the Olmec.' And then Lewiston says, 'The Golden Wedge of Ophir will soon be ours.' Yeow! The Golden Wedge of Ophir is another Maltese Falcon? That's about it from these messages. Not much else of interest."

Jack broke the long silence with, "Here are some interesting messages between the newly deceased Dr. Lewiston and our first Lilith victim, Dr. Masterson. You will recall Masterson was very interested in the Nephilim and the Sasquatch. They are discussing The Book of Enoch in this message.

"Masterson is referring to Azazel and suggesting he was the leader of the Nephilim. He talks of demonic possession and the like. Quoting from Enoch 8:13, he says, 'And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways.' I wonder what these 'costly stones' were and what the 'fornication' that follows was all about.

"Dr. Masterson quotes some other verses from The Book of Enoch. Enoch 9:6-7, 'Thou seest what Azazel hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were in heaven, which men were striving to learn.' Enoch 10:4-9, 'And again the Lord said to Raphael: Bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert which is in Dudael, and cast him therein. And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may not see light. And on the day of the great judgement he shall be cast in the fire.' The desert? Isn't that where we suspect our women who have mysteriously disappeared with the strangers might be?

"Then Lewiston quotes from the bible, Leviticus 16:8, 'And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.' He says 'scapegoat' is translated in the King James version from the Hebrew 'azazel.' Azazel is derived from two other words, 'ez' which means strong and obstinate and 'azal' which means to disappear or depart. Hence, 'Azazel' means the strong obstinate one who disappears.

"Oh, here's something else. They are talking about Isaiah 34:14, the one verse in the bible where Lilith, the screech owl, appears. The word 'satyr' also appears in that verse and Masterson is telling Lewiston that 'satyr' means 'devil goat' or 'Azazel.' Masterson also points out that the word 'desert' also appears in this verse, as in that is where these characters live. Pretty wierd!"

"What did I tell you, Kim?" Jack asked sardonically. "Where did I say we were going to find this Lilith and these Harley riding strangers who absconded with these beautiful women? The desert!"

"Yeah right, Jack," Kim replied sarcastically. "I'll believe that when I see it. Well, that's about it for these messages."

After many minutes of silence Sam expressed what he had been mulling over. "I don't know all that much about this Freemasonry business. But I have a friend who is very involved in anti-mason activities. We can talk to him some time if you want to. I do recall him telling me the Knights Templar in medieval times practiced phallic worship of the Baphomet goat god, also known as the goat of Mendes. Sodomy was supposedly a rite of the Templar initiation in those days."

"Kim?" Jack asked, "what was that crazy story Nathaniel was telling us about sodomy and the bible?"

"It went something like this. Due to subversive activity by the Nephilim, sodomy became prevalent amongst men in placed like Sodom and Gomorrha. Nephilim who survived the Flood, descendents of the fallen angels and Lilith and her sisters, particularly the Rephaim, developed an obsessive compulsion for sodomy. Nathaniel quoted the 19th chapter of Genesis, verse 1, 'And there came two angels to Sodom ...' God sent two angels to Sodom to see what was going on and they stayed at Lot's place. He quoted verse 5, 'And they (men of Sodom) came unto Lot, and said unto him, where are the men (angels) which came in to thee this night? Bring them out that we may know them.' The Sodomites wanted to engage in sodomy with the two angels. Then he quoted verse 8, 'Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man ... ' Nathaniel began to rant at that point with 'what kind of knowing are we talking about here?' and such. He insisted Lot offered up his two virgin daughters to dissuade the Sodomites, but was turned down, because the Sodomites had such fond memories of past liaisons with the Rephaim."

"Ah, yes," Jack signed. "I'm taking a nap the rest of the way to Reno."

"Me too!" Kim chimed in. "I'm brain dead after all this."

"Would you two mind if I did too?" Sam laughed. "That's OK, I'm fine. I already took a nap today. I do every afternoon."

When Sam arrived in Silver Springs, not far from Reno, he stopped and called Tom Jordan, Deputy Chief, Detective Division, Reno Police Department, and told him they would arrive in about half an hour and to have the witnesses and everyone involved assembled in the late Dr. Lewiston's suite.

Tom Jordan met Sam, Jack and Kim in the lobby and filled them in on what had happened before they went up to the suite and talked to the others. "The murder of Dr. Lewiston was much like the murder of Dr. Masterson you told me about, Sam. He was found lying on the canopy bed by his secretary, Nancy Strong. All the blood had been drained from his body and his penis had been amputated. He met the perpetrator, this Lilith, in the casino. They soon departed for his suite. Lewiston's administrative assistant, Jerry Bannister, you will meet in a few minutes. He actually met this Lilith because he was still up in the suite working late when Lewiston brought her up."