Chapter 13

By this time the Temple of the Air was fully prepared and re-equipped for it’s new venture of discovery. Tolen had learned of Otto’s presumed death by now. True no body was ever turned up, but he assumed Elsa had died with the idiot somewhere. No big loss he told himself on the discovery of their loss. At the moment he had 181 slut witches and their 181 male masters or Junior Priests to draw Power from. Add to that the 100 cells of his psychic battery to power the Temple of the Air and the 200 or so other drugged up spare battery replacements. All together there were well over 600 people on board the vessel at this very moment.

Normally the 500 or so young women of childbearing age that mysteriously went missing in South America and the Caribbean would not have even been noticed because of the lack of police reports. That was if some dead bodies had not begun to show up in the Bahamas around Dunmore Town Island. It might still have gone unnoticed but for the condition of the 50 bodies the police did recovered.

The superstitious native fishermen and charter boat skippers that had fished the bodies out of the ocean had spread the tail that they had been drained of life by a Voodoo Vampire or Baron Samedi Veve himself. Finally the local police admitted they couldn’t handle it and called on Interpol for help.

INTERPOL, the International Criminal Police Organization, or Organisation internationale de police criminelle, in French, is based in Lyon, France. Contrary to popular belief, INTERPOL itself is not a law enforcement agency. INTERPOL provides investigative support, expertise, and training to law enforcement agencies around the world.

INTERPOL itself focuses on major areas of transnational crime. These are mainly terrorism, cybercrime, organized crime, human trafficking, child pornography, and drug trafficking. Lyon dispatched three investigators to the Bahamas, Senior Superintendent Pierre Clouseau, Inspector Elke Cardinale of the French Sûreté, and Doctor Maria Gambrelli, a forensic expert on loan from the French Institute of Health, granted the acting rank of Constable to investigate the grisly deaths.

“Well what have you found out Doctor”. Pierre demanded of Maria within hours of them landing on the Bahaman’s Capital of Nassau. Both Elke and Maria had learned on the flight over that Pierre was a pompous boring obnoxious ass. In his late 40s or early 50s, going bald, and over weight, all of which might have been overlooked if he actually knew his job, but he didn’t. Mainly poor Elke was left with doing the real work Maria had quickly learned, while Pierre took all the credit and bossed her around like she was his personal slave or something. It was all Maria could do not to give him a piece of her mind. This was the 21 Century damn it, women couldn’t be treated like this she said to herself.

“We’ve only just gotten here Pierre I haven’t even unpacked yet.” Maria complained.

“Well get on with it we haven’t got all year for you women to unpack. Chop, chop, girls.” He call over his shoulder as he breezed out of the room.

“And where does our lord and master think he’s going Elke?” Maria questioned Elke.

“My guess would be the nearest bar and strip club honestly Maria.” She laughed setting down on her bed. They had a dumpy single econo room with two beds, one straight back chair, and a bath, he had a full suite of rooms across the hall they had discovered. Maria wanted to complain but Elke begged her not to.

“Ok, lets go find the local cop shop, AKA police department, or what passes for one in the islands.” Elke said when they were unpacked.

“That sounds like a winner Elke.” Maria answered back grabbing her sun bonnet.

“What’s that for Maria?” Elke asked when Maria put it on.

“Some people don’t like sunshine as much as other people do Elke. Me and my branch of the family don’t sun tan we sun burn, ha, ha.” Maria laughed as she put on a thick pair of wraparound sunglasses she had too.

Hours latter Elke and Maria were back at their hotel room going over a thick file and making notes on what they had seen at the morgue.

“I’ve never seen anything like those bodies Maria. What ever did that to them it sure as hell wasn’t the salt water. I’ve seen dead bodies that came out of that. This is entirely different, and those eyes? It was like somebody had sucked the brain out from behind their eyes. What in this world does something like that to people Maria?” Elke demanded of her friend Maria.

“I sure don’t know Elke, I’m like you I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m sending all the information back to my bosses at the Institute of Health. I was able to get some good fingerprints with our new fingerprint scanner. I can run them through our data base and hopefully we can get an identification on them. INTERPOL does have one of the largest fingerprint date bases in the world.” Maria told Elke.

Within hours their Headquarters in Lyon answered that ten of the bodies were girls reported missing from the University of the Bahamas for over a year. That gave them a starting point for their investigation. They also had the fact that all the girls had traces of drugs in their bodies. Both women turned in early without seeing Pierre.

The next morning they got the full tox screening report on the bodies they had asked for. It appeared that all the women were on drugs. The list ran from, flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), ketamine. All the popularly known so called “date rape” drugs, to Opioids the addictive pain killers. It was somewhat strange though that there were both kinds in the bodies, the naturals and the lab produced verity. Opioids can be made from either the poppy plant like morphine and heroin or cocaine, or synthesized in a laboratory like fentanyl and other even more addictive synthetic drugs. They both agreed it was just another strange piece of the puzzle they had been handed. They both left without seeing Pierre, which was a blessing Elke said.

The University of the Bahamas is a fully accredited four year college. It is also reputed to be in the Top 10 of Party Central. Know primarily for it’s study all day and party all nigh attitude. A lot of it’s alumni are very rich and their children were grandfathered into the same Fraternities and Sororities they were as children. After Elke and Maria located the administration building they were shown into the University President’s office. Mrs. Olivia Wainright was an extremely well maintained 54 year old female Afro-American originally from New York City. Elke first asked her if she was aware that ten of her students were missing. At this Mrs. Wainright huffed that it wasn’t the University’s duty to keep up with the whereabouts of every student on campus. They were of legal age to take care of themselves after all.

Next Maria asked her if she knew the University had a drug problem. At that point Mrs. Wainright terminated the interview and told them they could take it up with the head of the Campus Police. She directed her assistant, a ditzy blond, to take them there.

Harry Longtree, Major Longtree to them, turned out to be a Danzel Washington look alike from the movie the Mighty Guinn, right down to Xavier Guinn’s Jamaican accent. The Major, that’s how he liked to be addressed, informed them that there was no drug use on campus, but he couldn’t control or be held responsible for what went on outside campus grounds. Furthermore him and the University had notified the proper authorities and the students parents or guardians when their teachers noticed they were missing too many classes. A proper search turned up they were gone and at that time their possessions were collected and put in storage.

Maria asked if they could see those possessions and was flatly turned down by the Major.

“I don’t think you quite understand Major, this is a criminal investigation sanctioned by your government, and we are the investigating officers, and you Sir are impeding and obstructing our investigation.” Elke almost screamed at him.

“Young lady ... ladies, there is no cause for your rude conduct. You are not the proper authorities nor the parents or guardians of the students in question and the college has a duty to safeguard that property.” The Major coolly replied.

“You’ve seen our INTERPOL credentials you pompous ass. Now let us see their possessions.” Elke demanded.

“Please leave my office at once young ladies before I call the proper authorities and have you forcibly removed from the premise for trespassing. Do I make myself clear ladies?” The Major ordered still sitting behind his large mahogany desk.

“Well you just do that Major. I’m sure the proper police will see it our way. We’ll just wait.” Elke huffed, and so they waited and waited and when the real police finally showed up they were arrested and taken to jail. They still couldn’t get in touch with Pierre, or their French embassy, but they were finally able to get in touch with the English embassy. The English ambassador personally explained the touchy situation. The following is the facts as explained to them by Benjamin Cordell, Benny to his friends, Ambassador by appointment of the Queen.

“You see the Bahamas old chap were a Territory of the British Empire ... um ... United Kingdom up until ... um... 1973. At that time they were granted their independence by the British Empire, long live the Queen, Rule, Britannia!, Britannia rule the waves, and all that other good rubbish. The country, well islands really, still remains a part of the British Commonwealth of Nations and recognizes the British monarch, our Queen, still as the head of their state.” He paused to let them digest that dribble. Then went on,

“Now this is where it gets rather sticky wicky ladies. Her Majesty speaks and acts as Queen of The Bahamas, rather than Queen of the United Kingdom on her state visits here. The Royal Family’s links with the country have been strengthened by regular Royal visits throughout Her Majesty’s reign in fact. As Queen of The Bahamas, Her Majesty plays an important ceremonial part and a symbolic role in the country. Although she is not involved in the day-to-day business of the Bahamas Islands the actual Government you see.” He paused and looked at them to see if they had followed that. Then moved on.

“As Queen of The Bahamas, the Queen is represented in The Bahamas by a Governor-General, with whom she stays in close contact via her Private Secretaries. The Governor-General actually runs the country. The Queen’s Royal style and title in The Bahamas is Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth.” He paused and waited, but neither said anything just looking bored.

“Now all that being said, the Queen has little control over the natives here. The same is true of England, Britannia, and the British Commonwealth of Nations itself for that matter. Furthermore now that Boris Johnson, England’s Prime Minster you know has come along and left the European Union, France has no power here either. Naturally when you show up flashing your French INTERPOL credentials around here you set off a few alarms and made it possible for the natives to show you just how much they resent the way they are treated by you European visitors. This was the perfect chance to flex their muscles at your expense.” He paused and shrugged his shoulders.

“When do we get out of here?” Both Elke and Maria asked together.

“Well that’s tricky too. The people you are questioning are very sensitive about the questions you have been asking. Missing young female students, drug use on campus, that sort of thing, they say that you have besmirched the stellar reputation of their University with your allegations.” He smirked.

“What allegations? We have fifty horribly disfigured, possibly mutilated bodies in your morgue recovered from this area by native fishermen and charter boat captains in this area within a month. All of those bodies have large amounts of illegal drugs in their systems. To top it all off, ten of them, ten that we can definably identify because their fingerprints were on file, are missing students from Bahamas University. Mr. Ambassador I’m willing to bet anything you want to name that the other forty we haven’t been able to identify yet are missing students from your university too. For some strange mysterious reason we don’t have their fingerprints on file now but we will. When we get the names of those other missing students and match up their dental and medical records I’m almost positive they will be students of that damn university too.” Elke confronted the Ambassador with her pet theory.

“That’s a horrible thing to insinuate Miss Cardinale...” Elke cut him off.

“I’m not insinuating anything you ... you ... you man!” She spit out in disgust, then calmed down and continued.

“Those are the facts and you are intentionally screwing up our investigation. Actually manhandling us and illegally arresting and falsely imprisoning two INTERPOL agents going about their rightfull duties. When we go public and start talking to the press and naming names we’re going to say that your government is shielding the real known killer or killers from prosecution.” Elke was almost to rant.

“Mr. Ambassador it is only a matter of time before we are missed by our two different French agencies, or we eventually get in touch with the French embassy or our Headquarters and they launch a very public outcry to the rest of the world about all this.” Maria added.

“I am afraid that you are absolutely right Miss Gambrelli, and you too Miss Cardinale. You both will be joining Mister Clouseau very soon. We had hoped to have him back here before now, but he proved to have more resistance than we expected for some odd reason. Who knew that bumbling incompetents like him would prove more resistant than good reliable agents?” He laughed.

“I don’t suppose telling you the truth now will hurt anything since your shortly going to join the ranks of the mind fucked sluts the High Priest turns out as rewards for our services. Several years ago a group of the High Priest’s Junior Priests went rouge on him and set up shop in the Colonies, our term for the rude Americans you know, as the Company. The fifty female college students bodies you found recently were the Junior Priest’s first act of rebellion. The High Priest himself is a psychic vampire you see, but he keeps it under control and very seldom takes enough psychic or physical energy from one of the girls to actually kill her.” He started explaining.

“What do you mean Mr. Ambassador?” Elke and Maria asked together in shock.

“Excuse me ladies I have an urgent call to take.” The Ambassador said, reaching inside his pocket for his buzzing and vibrating cell phone.

“Yes, yes Mallory I’m here now with the two agents. Oh, I see, that certainly changes things here. Yes, yes, good man, I’ll see you at the airport.” Turning his back to the agents and listening before putting his cell phone away, then turning back to them.

“Those bodies that were discovered recently were in cold storage until some idiot decided to dump them out there in the ocean. How was he to know it was the Sargasso Sea? How was he to know they’d just float around and around out there like that.” The Ambassador asked the two confused French agents.

“The rogue Junior Priests had learned the High Priest’s secret and drained those poor girls of their ... their ... well their natural vital body essence ... their life force in other words. They drained the poor girls to turn themselves back into some pimply faced teenagers again. They also took with them some of the “Slut Maker Virus” when they left. He has now dealt with that rogue element that called themselves the Company...” Elke broke into the Ambassador’s little spill.

“What does any of this have to do with us.” Elke demanded, well implored I guess is a better fit.

“Mister Clouseau was going to be brainwashed and call off your investigation and return to France with you two in tow as his own personal sex slaves thanks to the “Slut Maker Virus”. In time, when no more bodies showed up, that was an unintentional error by the way, the incident would have been forgotten about by the world. Well that would have happened if Pierre hadn’t had a small aneurysm in his brain that we didn’t see, and he died on us rather suddenly when it burst a short time ago...” Maria broke in this time.