Twist of Time, page 29
Kate thought for only seconds. “Tell his Eminence Cardinal Leo that I said . . . yes.”
•••
It was typical of Thomas’ total isolation at the ACO monastery in Santa Barbara that he was not aware of Fallon’s trial. The monastery had no access to television, radio, or news media. One day he received a package by courier from Kate. It was the Templar diary, still in its protective case. Included was an article from the Baltimore Sun, titled: “Billionaire Winslow Fallon Sentenced to Life in Prison for Homicide.”
There also was a note from Kate, “The Templar diary helped convict Fallon. I believe it is your duty to continue writing it as the next monk after Brychan.”
Kate was standing on an outcrop of rock pounded by the Atlantic surf fifteen yards below. She carried a ceramic burial urn. As she looked down at the white foam it reminded her of the chalk dust on the blackboard where Nora had written:
Epitaph on the wind:
“We are made of the same stuff as stars . . .”
Kate took a card from her pocket on which she had made a copy. She removed the top from the urn and tilted it. As the wind caught Nora’s ashes Kate read aloud:
“May the atoms of my ashes
Travel the cosmos as far as
Wave and particle of light will
Sprinkle my Stardust.”
Kate tossed the empty urn and watched it shatter below on the frothy wet rocks. She touched the crucifix on her neck chain, said a brief prayer, and walked away.
One week later at the City National Bank of Los Angeles, Kate was in a safety deposit box private room. On the table was her deposit box. Whenever she opened it, she felt like she was visiting with her mother and father. She selected a document from among several and read it with a smile. Her parents’ marriage certificate declared that Grady Patrick Flynn and Ann Marie McCauley were joined in holy matrimony in 1977 by Monsignor Theodore Doolin at Sacred Heart church. She returned the page beside her mother’s rosary. From her inside coat pocket, she opened an envelope, removed a single page, and reread it.
Dearest,
In my 56 years of a life with many peaks, you gave me the rarest gift: I was your first. It can only be given once.
Now I give you all that I have: my ashes to return to the sea.
With love,
Nora
Kate closed her eyes, remembering the unexpected surprise and exhilaration of their first kiss, then placed the note among her other memories and returned the deposit box to the safe room.
On Friday the thirteenth of November, Kate arrived in Santa Barbara for a very special occasion, Thomas’ ordination as a monk in the Anglican Celtic Order. He was the only monk being ordained and was allowed one guest as a witness. From the moment she received the invitation she struggled with her feelings, though to refuse him would be unthinkable.
In the monastery sanctuary, Kate sat alone in all the empty rows: one initiate, one guest. At exactly midnight a bell tolled twelve and the procession of chanting monks led by Father Abbot Methodius proceeded down the aisle. As the only candidate, Thomas walked behind the abbot. Kate was surprised to see that instead of the usual blue denim, their robes were white with a blood red rope tied at the waist. In the ACO, a monk was ordained the same as a priest in the White Requiem Mass—a requiem for the former man now dead to the world and a Mass celebration for the monk entering a new life.
Kate watched as he approached. She had been apprehensive, but when their eyes met, she felt an instant calm. Whether or not they would ever see each other again, she knew that this was right.
Thomas lay prostrate before the altar as Abbot Methodius continued the ceremony. Kate was unknowingly witnessing the Order’s most guarded secret. Their founding in Scotland in 1845 was a well-executed deception. The Order was much older, going back to the seventh century BCE when the Roman Catholic and the Celtic churches were combined. A group of Celtic monks secretly continued the practice of prophecy and precognition, eventually incorporating the Templar New Jerusalem prophecy: “Watch; pray; be ready.” This was revealed to Thomas thirty days before his ordination, should he wish to withdraw. He embraced it eagerly.
This ritual fulfils the prophecy that the Templars would be reborn in the third millennium.
The date of ordination is always November 13, when the Templars went underground. The Anglican Celtic Order is the Templars reborn, spiritual warriors hiding in plain sight.
THE BEGINNING
NUGGETS FOR THE CURIOUS
Knights Templar
There is probably no subject about which so much has been published and so little actually known as the Templars. Writings about them first appeared in the twelfth century and continue to the present day. Their history, legends, and lore have been reproduced and analyzed in thousands of books and documents. Yet almost all their official records were hidden or destroyed by the Order just before their arrest and persecution by King Philip IV of France.
As a result, there was very little document evidence presented at their Inquisition trials; most of the testimony came from witnesses after being tortured. This, along with the accurate Templar prophecies, has fueled continuous speculation about their mysteries and wealth. Descriptions of their tactics and fierceness in combat have been taken from written eyewitness accounts of both allies and enemy Saracen chroniclers who respected Templar fighting prowess above all Crusaders.
The Zealotes, an exclusive combat group within the Templars, is fictional, though the model follows a long tradition of an elite fighting force developed within many military organizations.
Vatican Intelligence
Vatican Intelligence first appeared during the Napoleonic era in the early nineteenth century. Its existence was long denied. However, books and media articles over the years have kept alive confirmation of its existence.
During World War I, its staff numbered about a dozen, with their mission concentrated on codes and ciphers. It is rumored that Vatican codes have never been broken. By World War II, despite the failure of controversial Pope Pius XII to condemn the Nazi regime (an accusation which has since been seriously questioned), a great number of Catholic priests and lay men and women were in the German underground engaged in espionage and sabotage against Hitler’s Third Reich.
The Cold War saw Vatican Intelligence greatly expanded and its personnel increased due to the atheist Communist threat worldwide. By this time, it was organized along the same lines as other intelligence services. In the late 1950s, according to U.S. counterintelligence, the Soviet KGB rated Vatican Intelligence number one, Great Britain number two, Israel number three, and the U.S. number four.
Most historical data on Vatican Intelligence comes from published material. Current information is harder to obtain. The description of recruitment and operations are from the author’s own sources, two former U.S. counterintelligence agents. One was the handling officer of a Cold War operative working against the Soviets who was recruited away from the U.S. by Vatican Intelligence in 1957. This file is still classified.
The second source, a former counterintelligence agent, was with a surveillance team following two KGB operatives in Vienna when they spotted two men tailing them and their two Soviet subjects. The next day, when writing a report of the incident, he received the daily intelligence summary listing updates from various intel sources. In it was his surveillance of the KGB, reported by Vatican agents using cover names. They had processed and disseminated their data before he could write and file his report.
Battle of Bannockburn
The Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 won Scotland’s freedom from England. While there are many versions of the engagement, not all are in agreement. It is generally accepted that the invading English army was twice the size of the Scots; some historians have said even greater. The English were composed of battle-hardened infantry, mounted armored knights, heavy cavalry, and archers. The Scots were well-drilled peasant ground troops relying on the schiltrom “hedgehog” formation armed with twelve-foot-long spears.
The schiltrom was ordinarily used as a defense against infantry and cavalry but was vulnerable to archers. The difference lay in Robert Bruce’s preparing the ground he was to defend and his innovative strategy of using the highly mobile schiltrom as an attacking offensive unit. His phenomenal success against overwhelming odds has been studied by military commanders the world over.
The description of the battle tries to conform as much as possible to the several versions using some creative license. Beyond this, any errors are the author’s.
In an ironic footnote, Brother Andrew Baston, the famed Oxford poet that English King Edward brought with him to write a poem celebrating his victory over the Scots, was captured by King Robert Bruce. For his ransom, Brother Baston was compelled to write an epic poem celebrating Bruce’s victory over the English.
The Shroud of Turin
The revered and controversial Shroud of Turin, which appears to have been the burial cloth of Jesus, containing his image, has been a religious icon for centuries in the Roman Catholic church. The Church has made no official declaration as to its authenticity. One of the foremost American authorities on the Shroud was an Anglican Episcopal priest, Father Kim Driesbach, who devoted years to studying it while also serving as a parish priest and a Shroud lecturer.
He created an impressive museum with reproductions of photographs and scientific studies, including a remarkable laser-generated three-dimensional model of the Shroud image. Father Driesbach also wrote a definitive history of the Shroud’s travels from Jerusalem to Turin, Italy.
It was the author’s privilege to know Father Driesbach both as priest and friend, and was given access to his Shroud material before writing this novel.
Celtic Seer Tradition
The research on Celtic seers, wizards, prophecy, and precognition comes from a variety of published sources. Most famous are predictions from a fifth-century seer that some historians consider the prototype for the legendary wizard Merlin. His prophecies, written in verse, were believed so accurate that they were studied as predictions of coming events by many royal courts of Europe for several hundred years. The theory that Merlin and Saint Dubricius of the Celtic Church were the same person secretly living two lives has been postulated by some scholars.
GOLEM
Control of human behavior by computers via brain implants has been researched on animals for decades. It has been a popular theme in science fiction. Internet websites monitoring the subject have reported experiments by government contract with major corporations. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has been tasked with the mission of developing the neural interface between humans and computers to create Super Warriors. Many of these programs are linked with numerous corporate industries.
Artificial Intelligence—AI—promises to have an impact on computers comparable to what the printing press had on writing.
The Anglican Celtic Order (ACO)
The Episcopal monastery of Benedictine brothers in Santa Barbara, California that was tragically destroyed by fire was used as a prototype for the fictitious ACO. They are in no way associated with the Templars or the New Jerusalem prophecy; they are a monastic order of the Anglican Episcopal church.
The author also received invaluable information on monastic life when he visited with Trappists at the Roman Catholic Cistercian monastery in Conyers, Georgia.
About the Author
Gy Waldron is an Emmy Award–nominated screenwriter and director who has written chart-topping television sitcoms, dramas, miniseries, and movies. He has created three network series, including The Dukes of Hazzard. His writing for theater received an American National Theater and Academy Award.
Whether writing for screen, for the stage, or for readers around the world, Waldron is widely known for his unique blend of action, comedy, and suspense, always leaving audiences highly entertained.
With a background of serving in U.S. counterintelligence in Europe, he has written in both intelligence and real-crime fields. He draws heavily on his experiences when writing fiction.
A native Southerner, he now lives in Malibu, California, in a canyon between the mountains and the ocean where he is writing his next novel, Fugue.
Gy Waldron, Twist of Time
