A short walk later, we arrived at the Solomon Temple. The sun was setting, and most of the visitors were heading home, but we had other plans. We walked towards the tunnel entrance and were approached by a guard.
Simona spoke Hebrew to the guard for a while, and then the attendant turned towards me. "So, Madeline Berkley from Australia, why are you here?" he asked.
"I am here to get a private academic tour of the Solomon Temple catacombs, with my fellow researcher from Jerusalem University, Miss Arya Simon," I replied.
"That won't be possible." The guard replied with a stern voice.
"But, why am I not allowed to go in? I have travelled so far to study these catacombs with my own eyes," I replied.
"The catacombs are closed on orders from the Israeli government. It is a matter of national security," the guard replied, with a hint of insecurity in his voice.
I studied the man. He was guarding alone, and I could sense that he was easy to influence. He would most certainly be in trouble later, if he let us through, but it was imperative for me to get through and uncover the secret that lay in those catacombs. This was the constant dilemma in life. There were rarely any clear cuts solutions between right and wrong. While I needed to get down in the tunnels, I didn't like the prospect of having this innocent employee punished. I shrugged off my moral objections, grabbed the man by the arm and looked into his eyes reassuringly. "We need to get down to those catacombs tonight. Strange things are taking place down there, and we must stop the perpetrators from causing more damage to the people of Jerusalem, and to humanity as a whole," I said.
The guard shuddered and stuttered out a reply. "But they know that I am working by myself tonight, if I let you past this entrance, they will come after my family."
"Who are they?" I asked.
"The mighty men in Templar robes, working with that authoritative and wicked government official, Ben Yehuda," the guard replied.
I gave the man a concerned look, but I could feel the excitement growing within me. We were close to something. "I am going to be honest to you," I started. The guard looked attentively at me as I continued speaking. "We are not really university scholars. We are here to save humanity from enslavement and fear."
I realised from the fear in the guard's eyes that I had made a crucial mistake. I should had kept up my façade, but now there was only one way to go, to move forward. I focused my psychic energy, grabbed the guard tighter by the arm, and knocked him unconscious with a psionic shock that I sent with my mind.
"What did you do?" Simona exclaimed in awe.
"I knocked him unconscious, he wasn't going to cooperate, it was the only way," I replied.
"But, how did you do it?" Simona asked.
"With my powers. I don't have time to explain. We need to move!" I urged Simona. She nodded, and together we rushed down the stairs to the catacombs below, leaving the unconscious guard where he was.