Architects of Armageddon by John L. Flynn

Author:John L. Flynn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2022-08-08T07:18:44+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Kate reached the small historic town of San Juan Bautista a little before two in the afternoon. The heavy fog on Highway 101 slowed her down and turned the hour-and-a-half drive on El Camino Real into three hours. The mist was thick in the vineyards and forest trees along the route, making her break for slower traffic on the curves and the long straightaways. She pressed on ahead, following the coordinates in her GPS system down San Juan Road to 2nd Street. She slowed her speed to twenty-five-miles-an-hour and kept driving until the GPS alerted her she had arrived at her destination. Kate made a U-turn and pulled into the dirt parking lot. The sign read:

EL CAMINO REAL

MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA FOUNDED JUNE 24, 1797

She climbed out of her BMW, looking around. The first thing she saw was the historical marker:

Mission San Juan Bautista

The fifteenth and largest of the Spanish missions, founded in 1797 by the Franciscan order.

The Ohlone Indians, the original residents of the valley, were brought to live at the mission by Spanish soldiers and baptized Catholic by the Franciscan priests.

Over its two-hundred-year history, a soldier barracks, nunnery, hotel, and livery stable were constructed around a large grassy plaza in front.

The farming community of San Juan Bautista grew up around the mission and rapidly expanded during the California Gold Rush to feed hungry miners.

The mission, sitting adjacent to the famed San Andreas Fault, suffered damage from several earthquakes but never entirely destroyed.

She stopped reading the plaque and scratched her head. Why did the coordinates lead me here? The old mission and several other buildings looked like they were deserted. The setting reminded Kate of the ghost towns from the Old West. Other than one other car that was parked on the street, she was all alone out there.

Kate was too good a police officer to dismiss the lead out-of-hand, and she took a physical inventory of her surroundings in case she may have missed something critical. She walked to the middle of the grassy plaza, looked, and listened. The plaza was lined on both sides by tall eucalyptus trees with the occasional pepper tree thrown in for good measure. Just beyond the trees, she saw the valley and hills off in the distance. To her immediate left was the Old Spanish mission, its cloisters a long corridor of arches that ran along the southwest side of the adobe building. The mission’s bell tower stood high above the trees at the end. On her right, Kate counted three structures nestled in the trees: the saloon, the old Plaza Hotel, and the livery stable. They were knit together by an old wooden sidewalk. Wooden barrels like the settlers used to transport water and other perishable goods were at odd intervals throughout the green and near the structures. An old dirt road made a circuit around the plaza and recalled a time when horse-drawn carriages were the primary mode of transportation. Behind her, on the opposite side of the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.