Crystal Skull Series: 2 Angel Orchid

By Gary Farmer

The country is India, the year is 1982, and the massacre of an entire sect of monks and nuns just happened in the streets during broad daylight. Emmitt with new found ancient powers seeks the next orchid, a teenage girl coming into woman hood tries to fulfill her destiny, an evil long banished to darkness will have it’s day in the sun again, and a forgotten bond will unit two heroes once again in battle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gary Farmer
• Release date: Dec 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370368785

Book preview

Gary Farmer

Crystal Skull Series: 2

Angel Orchid

First published by Gary Farmer in 2017

Copyright © Gary Farmer, 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Near The Indian Ocean

Bombay, India

Kathmandu, Nepal

Port Kochi, India

Trip To The Council Meeting

Kochi, India

Trip To Munnar

Getaway Driver

Spotting The Girl

Munnar Library

Seeking Shelter

Chasing The Girl

The Trip Up Anamudi

Blast From The Past

Hunting The Orchid

Spring The Trap

Trouble At The Temple

Into The Darkness

The Temple Throwdown

The Long Ride

Bombay Or Bust

Facing The Music

Babulnath Temple, Bombay

Here Comes The Calvary

The Divine Chakra

The Bombay Bash

Into The Catacombs

Kathmandu, Nepal

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

This book was greatly helped by the persistent support of my loving wife Kaitlynn.

This a story of fiction. All characters, corporations, institutions, and organizations in this book are by result of the author’s imagination, and if real are being used fictitiously without the intent of describing their factual conduct. Any resemblance of actual events, locations, and persons living or dead are coincidental.

Prologue

The board room on Centre Point’s thirty third floor was silent, as all the men in the room sat with their heads and eyes down. Their overseer was standing slightly exposed by the dim overhead lighting in the corner. Sumag shifted his eyes back and forth across the board room almost hoping one of the men sitting around the table would make the mistake of trying to stare at his unshadowed body. He was a Draconian reptilian with the rank of OverMaster, which is equivalent to the human rank of Captain. The humanoid reptilian race has an hierarchy that is highly selective and if you don’t want to be a slave, then you better have what it takes not to end up in shackles. Their race is ruled by King Zagan and he is one of the most ruthless dragons of a reptilian, you could ever meet.

Sumag I’m beginning to think promoting you was a mistake I need to fix. Your only mission was to make sure there were no more masks. LordMaster Johar said coldly. Am I getting this right? Now your reporting there has been one found and some human has already summoned Crystal Skull. It was an amazing feat to rise to LordMaster and Johar had held the position since the turn of the 13th century A.D.

If I could just go and take care of it myself there wouldn’t be any problems my Lord, it’s the incapable human dogs their not worthy of a single task. Sumag answered with his own disgust at the failure. He hated not being able to bask in the sun and feel it’s warm energy pass through his scales into the cold blood inside him. The living mother spirit of light was responsible for their banishment into darkness. She had made it their punishment for King Zagan’s attempt to openly enslave the human race two thousand years earlier.

Don’t whine Sumag it makes me picture you as a groveling slave more and more. You know we have no choice but to use the humans until we can leave the shadows and once again stand in the sun." Lord Johar said with a loud deep hiss.

Yes, My Lord. Then what are my orders come there and join your already immense horde of slaves or go after this Crystal Skull myself? Sumag asked

The only advantage we have now is that he doesn’t know we exist, you human brained lizard. Lord Johar yelled. Your going back to India Sumag, it looks like that sly bitch of a spirit is at work again and we can’t let her awaken the human protectors.

Yes My Lord. Sumag answered before he dropped his hand severing their telepathic link. He had never seen a Crystal Skull only heard the stories of King Zagan personally killing them off one by one. Sumag started to dream of what killing one would do for his own rank possibly even LordMaster he thought. As he pressed the rounded blood crystal on his wristband it began to glow and then after a bright flash the board room’s corner was empty.

1

Near The Indian Ocean

The water’s crystal blue surface erupted in a giant splash as Emmitt’s anchor made contact and started it’s quick descent to the ocean floor. He was finally in the Palk Strait between the countries of Sri Lanka and India after almost seventy days of straight sailing. Emmitt’s research on the Angel Orchid pointed him towards India, so the Panama Canal was the first leg of his journey from Belize. It took thirty days to make it half way across the Pacific and reach the Hawaii islands for his first chance to resupply. Hawaii was a beautiful sight and clearly stood out of the ocean’s flat water like a beacon from hundreds of miles away. As he sailed out of Port Honolulu with the supplies he needed it was hard for him to take his eyes off the island’s tall volcanic peaks until they disappeared from the horizon. His time in the vast ocean alone allowed for an ample amount of study on the mask and the capabilities of being Crystal Skull. Emmitt was already starting to embrace the flash of green through his mind every time the mask touched his face. He was only a couple days from his final destination, the coastal town of Kochi, India. This would be his last chance to take a dive without being seen before arriving in India, so he decided to stop in a isolated area and go for it. The clear warm cove he picked was nestled inside a cluster of archipelago islands that protruded from the ocean’s shallower coastal waters in little rock mounds concealing his anchored boat.

Emmitt stepped to the side of the boat placed the mask on his face and dove in the sparkling water as Crystal Skull. One of his first major discoveries on the trip was the green cellulose membrane covering his body was able to convert oxygen while underwater. It’s surface once submerged in water would instantly shift to a mixture of sea weed, kelp, sea grass, and multiple colors of algae. His only conclusion was the air came directly from the sea plants ability to convert carbon dioxide and sunlight through photosynthesis into breathable oxygen. He followed the rope down into a cloud of stirred up sea sand and secured the anchor at the bottom. The cove was forty feet at the deepest point, littered in small rock outcrops, tiny clusters of pink coral, and a thick carpet of sea grass. After all the scuba trips with his father along the Florida coast lines looking for sunken treasure ships, diving in the ocean made him think of home. If dad could see this. he thought while gliding effortlessly over and around obstacles on the cove’s floor. There was a warning jolt up his spine right before his peripheral vision noticed a dark shape coming through the water. As Emmitt turned towards the darkness speeding his way, the first glimpse of giant shiny white teeth made him aware it was a shark. The Hammerhead shark hit him in the leg taking most of his upper thigh off as it passed by in a gray streak. It was atleast a sixteen footer and acting like this cove was it’s personal territory.

His sappy wound calloused over in an instant, but he wasn’t able to keep track of the shark as it disappeared into the distant water’s haze. Being Crystal Skull is amazing. he thought caught up in the incredible healing ability of the membrane. It was like the way a plant always grows back after a severe pruning as long as it’s roots are still intact. Emmitt spun around quickly looking in all directions for the shark’s location with no luck. Then a flash of dark gray weaved in and out of the dark waters beyond his visibility. He knew it was rare for Hammerheads to attack, but when they did it was usually for keeps. As Emmitt turned to check his rear the head of the shark was right there just feet away coming from his blind side. His hands landed on the shark’s wide head and latched on with strands of kelp fired from his wrists. Now he found himself skull to face with the massive man eater that still had a chunk of green from his leg hanging in the corner of it’s mouth. The shark thrashed violently from side to side trying to shake him loose and get a another bite, apparently unhappy with the first not being the meat it expected. While the shark pushed him through the water backwards snapping its jaws, he tried to think of a way to end this without harming the carnivorous creature. Their speed through the small cove made the sea grass covering it’s floor zoom by like the shoulder of a highway when your doing sixty five miles per hour. He watched over his shoulder for an opportunity and when it came he shoved the shark’s head down while flipping over the top of it’s back. It continued forward going wide open, but at an increasing depth, until one of the rocks protruding from the shallow cove’s floor, stopped it in a sudden head on collision. Emmitt watched the big fish hit the bottom and skid to almost a complete stop while dazed. Maybe the old legend that punching a shark in the nose to stop it, was true after all. he thought with a slight smile on his skull. The shark slowly regained it’s senses after shaking the impact off, then swam out of the cove without turning back.

Emmitt shook his skull in disbelief at how quick his dive had been disrupted and turned into a shark wrestling match. His mind settled back on the beautiful environment full of life all around him. He could check the cove out a little better now that the shark was gone and not trying to turn him into it’s first vegan lunch. There were small nests of Clownfish mixed through the sea grass that were working the area’s around their chosen anemone. It’s a unique relationship the small fish have with the anemone, they keep it clean of algae that would be harmful and their provided with a steady food supply. The cove’s shallower side has a small reef that is only about fifty yards long, but it’s covered in a mixed school of flowing tropical fish ranging in every color of the rainbow. On the way back to his boat a pack of Barracudas were momentarily hypnotized by his sparkling skull as he passed by in a hurry. He had always been creeped out by the way Barracudas menacingly glided in quick darting motions from side to side and their mouths are full of mangled uneven teeth. Emmitt reached the boat’s anchor and began to dislodge it knowing the time had come to get back on the journey ahead. His hands froze when he looked up and saw there was the bottom of another boat’s hull floating next to his. Who could it be? he thought. And why did they have to pick the same cove as me?

He didn’t want to be seen as Crystal Skull so he pulled the mask from his skull and started the ascent to the cove’s surface. When his head cleared the water he instantly knew something was wrong with the situation. The boat next to his was a ragged skiff fifty feet long with long flags flying from it’s deck that were jet black. It was a pirate ship no doubt, there was a giant machine gun mounted on a swivel at the bow of the boat, a wide boarding plank already attached to his sailboat, and a crew of gun toting cutthroats aboard. Emmitt was able to count five pirates on the skiff, but three were already making their way across the plank to his boat. You.. you there out of the water now you hear. yelled the pirate standing behind the gun on the pirate ship’s bow after spotting Emmitt bobbing in the water.

Hey, nobody invited you guys to hang out. Emmitt responded before diving back down into the cove’s depths. The mask now had a low green glow to it when he raised it back to his face before making the transformation back into Crystal Skull. Of all the luck, first a shark now pirates this is like being in a movie or something. he thought while preparing a way to rid himself of these scallywags. Emmitt could see one of the pirates aboard his boat yelling orders back at the two men aboard the pirate’s ship, he was clearly the captain. From the failed attempt on his face to grow a descent pirate’s beard Emmitt decided to name him Captain Little Beard. The pirate behind the big gun continued scanning the water waiting for Emmitt to resurface like a normal person. It was going to be tricky but Emmitt’s plan involved luring the pirate to fire the big gun at him. When the pirate’s eyes caught sight of Emmitt’s crystal skull rise slowly out of the ocean in front of him they doubled in size. Then just like Emmitt expected the pirate slung the barrel of the machine gun his way and out of fright started to open fire. He dove down below the water’s surface before the bullets hit and from underwater fired a long strand of kelp that latched around the machine gun’s muzzle. With one hard pull the machine gun blasted across the pirate ship’s deck nearly cutting the command cabin in two before the pirate could release the trigger. After the second pirate standing at the stern of the pirate ship was turned to Swiss cheese by the machine gun’s stream of bullets the RPG sitting on his shoulder went off firing straight up in the air.

The booming percussion and fire ball caused by the exploding rocket sent Little Beard scrambling back across the plank with the other pirates at his heels. Emmitt watched as Little Beard yelled and pointed at the mess made of his ship while slapping the pirate behind the big gun around. When all the pirates began walking around the pirate ship’s deck pointing their large assault rifles over the edge at the water looking for him, he swam down to his boat’s anchor. From the knee down his legs became large roots securing each step he took backwards into the ocean’s floor. He pulled without them noticing until their plank came loose from his boat and fell in the water. Now that they couldn’t ransack his stuff, he set his eyes on finishing off their wounded vessel so they wouldn’t be able to victimize anyone else. Their motor was Emmitt’s first target, he covered it’s prop in a huge rat nest of kelp strands locking it up. It was time they take a swim he decided as his arms turned to huge strands of living kelp that shot out of the water around the pirate ship’s starboard side railing. The pirates aboard the ship panicked at the sight the kelp as if it was the tentacles of a giant squid grabbing their boat. They all followed Little Beard in shooting and chopping vigorously at the strands trying to free themselves from Emmitt’s grasp. His legs once again grew deep into the ocean floor as he positioned his body behind a huge coral outcrop and began to pull down. As the pirates watched the side of their ship’s hull inch closer to the ocean’s surface near to capsizing they began rummaging for anything they could find that would float.

Emmitt pulled with all the strength of Crystal Skull and watched their ship’s buoyancy slip sending it into three consecutive sideways rolls under the water. It jettisoned back up out of the water in an angled surge that landed the ship with its bow slowly sinking towards the cove’s bottom. The pirates were tossed off through the air into the ocean like fleas being slung from a wet dog. One of the pirates had missed the opportunity to grab any flotation device, he was now tangled in the straps of his own weapons, and being pulled to the bottom by their weight in a slow bubbly drowning. He watched the pirates scurry across the top of the water above towards his boat trying to find the closest dry footing possible. His one hand fired a strand of kelp around the anchor and the other fired a strand up out of the water around the sailboat’s mast. Then with a sharp snapping contraction, he was rapidly pulled up towards the surface in a streak of disturbed water. After breaking the surface of the water his body was catapulted high up in the air by the mast before he landed smoothly on the deck in a kneeling stance holding the anchor. It didn’t take no more than the sight of the membrane covering his body shifting back to land plants and the green glow coming from the eye sockets in his skull to send them swimming in the other direction. On the way across the Pacific he learned it was much easier to man the sailboat solo as Crystal Skull. He fired vines up to the sailboat’s rigging, loosed the sails one by one simultaneously, and then fired more securing them in their downed position. The sails made a solid whoosh sound when the air hit their surface inflating them and sending the boat sailing forward. Emmitt locked the wheel into a heading out of the cove so he could roll up the anchor line. As he began turning the crank’s handle it wasn’t long before it became apparent something was on the line. When he looked over the edge of the boat, the hilt of Little Beard’s cutlass machete caught him right in the side of the skull.

The strike upside the skull sent Emmitt staggering across the deck dazed as his skull rang like a bell. Captain Little Beard was clinging on the sailboat’s port side by the rope trying to climb over the railing. Emmitt’s senses straightened just as Little Beard got his feet over the rail and landed on the deck. He fired a vine around the captains feet tripping him as he charged with the cutlass raised high in one hand and screaming a warcry out his mouth. It was useless for Little Beard to struggle when Emmitt spun him up in a jacket of vines and then lifted him up in the air setting up an attack. This one was well thought out as Emmitt waited for the perfect surge of wind, then spun the boat’s wheel around sending the mast swinging over his head across the deck from starboard to port side. The swing was devastating on Little Beard, crushing his chest before sending him flying out into the cove like a home run ball leaving the park. Emmitt turned his skull towards the flat horizon and midday sun as the sailboat glided out of the cove back towards the Indian coast. Hmm..he must have shook it off and is back for round two. he thought