property. It adjoined a sparse private bedroom and tiny kitchenette separated from the rest of the house. Joseph even cleaned it himself, keeping it off limits from everyone. It was landscaped into the hillside of the property, camouflaged by the mesquite and juniper trees. When the couple held business receptions at the house, no one even knew it was there. Unlocking the door with the digital keypad, Joseph stepped inside and checked the security camera for intrusions. Nothing. He hung up his jacket and grabbed a diet soda. Pulling another of his father’s diaries from the shelf, he began to read.
ARKANE Headquarters. London, England.
May 19, 9.15am
Jake Timber walked the short distance from Embankment tube station to one of the hidden entrances of ARKANE. It was a nondescript doorway on Duncannon Street next to the Halfway to Heaven pub, a surprisingly appropriate name given what lay beneath. Camouflaged behind famous sculptures and carefully painted, the location of the various entrances was known to only a few. Most visitors would approach the official offices of the ARKANE Institute at the corner of the Strand and St Martin’s Place where there were several floors on the top levels of the building and a semblance of diligent research was demonstrated. The windows could be seen from Trafalgar Square, flanked by Corinthian columns with a balcony topped by a flagpole, the Union Jack flying proudly in the breeze. A second tier of columns sat on the sixth level up from the ground, and it was here the Director of the Institute had his office suite. The public face of ARKANE had to be somewhere appropriate and imposing, but Jake knew it was a smokescreen for what really went on here.
He remembered when Marietti had first introduced him to the place and explained the history. Started as a purely Christian defense, the Arcane Religious Knowledge And Numinous Experience, or ARKANE, Institute had developed into the world’s most advanced, secret research center for investigating supernatural mysteries across all religions. It had an official face which ran publications and seminars and had experts speak from around the world, but it also had this secret wing that only a few in the top echelons of government knew about. It was called in to investigate when events went beyond the physical, when the police or other agencies needed experts in this unusual field. Their remit was circumscribed by a secret Act of Parliament that meant ARKANE worked above the law of the lands they operated in, hidden by the shadows between what could be proved and that which no one would admit to. In a modern world where ancient faith was now beginning to play an increasingly political role, they were often behind the scenes at the crux of international flash-points.
ARKANE were also called in whenever there was a situation that could be called supernatural. The people who worked in the small teams across the globe understood that there are other entities loose in this world, not human, not alien. There is an evil that humans conjure and use against each other even as it stalks their souls. There are words of power that can be used as weapons and a host of unseen things that were better off being denied. Myths that have spanned millennia are based on strands of truth and sometimes the evidence was hidden down here, in the vaults under London that belonged to ARKANE.
Jake put his eye to the retinal scanner and entered his password into the secure keypad on the elevator entrance. He entered and the elevator descended to the main level of offices below the throngs of tourists heading to Piccadilly Circus. The ARKANE Headquarters was built underneath the crypt of St-Martin-in-the-Fields church and extended right under Trafalgar Square in the heart of London.
In its current form Trafalgar Square was designed and completed by Sir Charles Barry in 1845. Barry had been a supporter of ARKANE and included the building of its
ARKANE Headquarters. London, England.
May 19, 9.15am
Jake Timber walked the short distance from Embankment tube station to one of the hidden entrances of ARKANE. It was a nondescript doorway on Duncannon Street next to the Halfway to Heaven pub, a surprisingly appropriate name given what lay beneath. Camouflaged behind famous sculptures and carefully painted, the location of the various entrances was known to only a few. Most visitors would approach the official offices of the ARKANE Institute at the corner of the Strand and St Martin’s Place where there were several floors on the top levels of the building and a semblance of diligent research was demonstrated. The windows could be seen from Trafalgar Square, flanked by Corinthian columns with a balcony topped by a flagpole, the Union Jack flying proudly in the breeze. A second tier of columns sat on the sixth level up from the ground, and it was here the Director of the Institute had his office suite. The public face of ARKANE had to be somewhere appropriate and imposing, but Jake knew it was a smokescreen for what really went on here.
He remembered when Marietti had first introduced him to the place and explained the history. Started as a purely Christian defense, the Arcane Religious Knowledge And Numinous Experience, or ARKANE, Institute had developed into the world’s most advanced, secret research center for investigating supernatural mysteries across all religions. It had an official face which ran publications and seminars and had experts speak from around the world, but it also had this secret wing that only a few in the top echelons of government knew about. It was called in to investigate when events went beyond the physical, when the police or other agencies needed experts in this unusual field. Their remit was circumscribed by a secret Act of Parliament that meant ARKANE worked above the law of the lands they operated in, hidden by the shadows between what could be proved and that which no one would admit to. In a modern world where ancient faith was now beginning to play an increasingly political role, they were often behind the scenes at the crux of international flash-points.
ARKANE were also called in whenever there was a situation that could be called supernatural. The people who worked in the small teams across the globe understood that there are other entities loose in this world, not human, not alien. There is an evil that humans conjure and use against each other even as it stalks their souls. There are words of power that can be used as weapons and a host of unseen things that were better off being denied. Myths that have spanned millennia are based on strands of truth and sometimes the evidence was hidden down here, in the vaults under London that belonged to ARKANE.
Jake put his eye to the retinal scanner and entered his password into the secure keypad on the elevator entrance. He entered and the elevator descended to the main level of offices below the throngs of tourists heading to Piccadilly Circus. The ARKANE Headquarters was built underneath the crypt of St-Martin-in-the-Fields church and extended right under Trafalgar Square in the heart of London.
In its current form Trafalgar Square was designed and completed by Sir Charles Barry in 1845. Barry had been a supporter of ARKANE and included the building of its
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