by Rob Jones
“But how will you get back in?” Diana asked. “How will we know it’s you?”
“You’ll know,” he said with a smile. “Ready, Lena?”
“I’ve been ready since you told me about the water tank.”
“Then let’s go!”
By the time they reached the tank, the Snake King had got into the chopper and was powering up the engine. He lifted the aircraft off the roof and rotated it in the air. Decker watched the wind throwing it around and guessed old Danvers had planned to be far away by the time the winds had reached this velocity.
Tarántula called out to him but he turned away and flew in the opposite direction. The wounded Mexican gangster broke cover and ran after him, reaching out with his bloody arms as he desperately tried to grab hold of one of the skids.
“He’s crazy!” Riley yelled.
Charlie and Cade fired on the chopper, missing by inches. “They’re both crazy!”
Tarántula grabbed the skid just as the chopper flew over the edge of the skyscraper. Riley fired and hit him in the back, forcing him to release his grip on the skid and fall screaming from the chopper. A few meters beneath the aircraft the wind caught hold of him and clawed him away at high speed. Decker watched in horror as the wind tipped the chopper on its side and sliced Tarántula in two with its rotors. Both halves of the gangster tumbled away in the swirling maelstrom as the Snake King struggled to right the chopper.
It was no good. The power of the wind was too much for the aircraft. It lost all stability and turned upside down before losing lift and tumbling down the side of the skyscraper. Decker and the others ran to the rail and leaned over the edge just in time to see the storm catch hold of the chopper one more time and throw it into the skyscraper on the other side of the street. It exploded in a ball of fire and dropped like a stone to the street below, streaking a long line of burning oil and flames and smoke in its wake.
“My God!” Diana said a prayer in whispered Portuguese.
Charlie and Cade shared a high five while Riley released his empty mag and replaced it with a new one, holstering the weapon. Selena turned away from the burning wreckage plummeting through the stormy air and shook her head.
Decker holstered his gun and turned to the Cuban professor. “Get that damned thing turned off, Diaz!”
“On my way!”
Decker was searching the roof for something. “And where the hell is my hat?”
EPILOGUE
The following day’s dawn broke hot and humid. A thunderstorm was gathering power just off to the west and by the time the crew met for breakfast, all dressed in shorts and t-shirts, it had already started to rain over the city. Their hotel’s breakfast room was situated on the east side of the building with an impressive, panoramic view of Midtown Manhattan and despite the bad weather, people were still walking along the street, shopping, working, some even jogging.
No one in the Avalon crew had the energy for any of that today. Not even Riley. Instead, they shuffled around the self-service buffet tables and piled their plates full of food. Atticus and Charlie and Cade stuck with plain, black coffee and toast with grape jelly. Diana, Acosta and Diaz chose mostly fruit and some healthy cereal with skim milk. Selena was happy with a single cup of tea with a dash of milk and some brioche with Chantilly cream. Riley and Decker had opted for a chunky omelet with green onions and Swiss cheese, washed down with hot black coffee.
As they shuffled back over to their table by the window and took their seats, Atticus was the first to speak.
“Bloody good breakfast, here. I do like this purple jam.”
Cade laughed. “We call it grape jelly. Purple jam. Pure gold dust, man.”
Selena rolled her eyes.
“What?” Atticus asked his daughter.
“All you ever think about is your stomach, Dad.”
“And what else is there think about?”
“That we almost died yesterday!”
“Almost, Lena,” he said cheerily. “That is the operative word. Almost. Ooh, real butter!”
She looked to Decker for sympathy and maybe found a little lurking at the back of his eyes.
“Atticus is right,” Decker said. “We might have almost died, but we didn’t. We survived and Nathaniel Danvers and his gang are all dead, including the men holding Cristina Diaz down in Havana.”
“And thank you all for that,” Diaz said. “You saved my family from endless suffering and pain.”
“It’s over now,” Selena said. “Like Mitch says, Danvers is gone.”
“And Danvers was quite insane,” Salvador Diaz said. “Not only did he think he was doing Huracan’s bidding, he also believed he was seeing the future when he looked into the capstone.”
“Wasn’t he?” Selena asked.
Diaz laughed. “Not at all. The capstone is made from a very mysterious metal I have never encountered before. Danvers told me he called it divinium, mostly because of his insane god complex, I should think.”
A gentle laugh rippled around the breakfast table.
Diaz continued. “I had plenty of chance to study this new metal when he was forcing me to operate the device, and what I found was intriguing. As is now obvious, the metal was an unimaginably powerful conductor, unlike any other I have studied. More than that, it grew intensely hot when in use and gave off fumes. This is a well-known phenomenon we’ve known about for a long time, and it induces in anyone too close to it something called metal fume fever. I recognized it at once so I kept my distance, but Danvers had no idea what was really happening. This caused him to have vivid hallucinogens based on his innermost fears.”
“So he wasn’t seeing the future at all?” Diana asked.
“I really don’t think so,” he said with an intriguing smirk. “Why, do you?”
A tense silence was followed by relieved laughter, then Decker said, “So, Lena… Earlier in the mission, you told everyone you had something important to tell us about the future of the Avalon crew. Later, when we were in Central Park Tower, you said there wasn’t going to be a next time for the Avalon crew. I think I speak for everyone when I say, we’re all ears.”
“Fine,” she said in clipped tones. She dabbed at the corners of her mouth with a linen napkin and dropped it on the table, lifting her chin proudly like a medieval princess. “I think it’s time we disbanded for a while.”
Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at her.
“Whoa, mic drop!” Cade said.
“Huh?” Riley said. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I think we should go on a break,” she continued.
Decker gently set down his fork with some untouched omelet on it and looked at her earnestly. “You’re serious?”
“I am.”
“But why?” Charlie asked.
“We’re not professional treasure hunters, Charlie, that’s why. You nearly went into a coma in Cuba. We all nearly died here in New York and the only reason we didn’t was pure luck.”
“I’m former SAS!” Riley said. “We make our own luck!”
“And I’m an ex-US Marine,” Decker put in. “It wasn’t luck that saved us.”
“But I’m a museum curator,” she said. “And my father is just an archaeologist too, and getting on in years.”
“I say, steady on Lena!” Atticus said. “I’m not ready for the knacker’s yard just yet.”
“And you’ll get there sooner than you think if we carry on like this!” she snapped. “And think about Diana! She’s a linguist, for heaven’s sake. What we’re doing is just crazy. Sooner or later, one of us will get killed doing this and I don’t want that on my conscience. This is why I feel we should take a bit of time out to reconsider what the Avalon crew is really all about.”
“She has a point,” Diana said. “Since I joined the crew, my career has taken a real hit.”
“But you get paid for working with us,” Riley said. “We all do. To the victor go the spoils, and we divide them fairly among us.”
“It’s not just that, Riley,” she said. “As a linguist, I have a reputation within the academic community. Flying around the world is fun, but scary and I am not a very brave person. I agree with Lena. I think we should go back to our lives for a little while and take stock.”
Riley scratched his head and stuffed a chunk of omelet in his mouth. He shrugged and mumbled something through the mouthful of egg.
“Charlie?” Selena asked. “What do you think?”
He also shrugged. “I think it was a great ride but if this is what you want then that’s just fine with me. There’s always work for me over in Thailand. Call me when you need me.”
She looked at Decker. “What about you, Mitch?”
“What about me?”
“Do you agree a break might be good for us?”
“Do you mean a break from what we do in the Avalon crew, or do you mean a break from the two of us?”
She rolled her eyes. “Let’s not be melodramatic, darling. I meant the team.”
He paused. “In that case, come with me.”
Everyone stopped eating and watched Decker take Selena’s hand as he walked her away from the table.
*
It didn’t take long for the elevator to reach the top of the Empire State Building. Stepping out onto the 102nd floor’s brand new observatory, Decker walked to the enormous window and gazed over Manhattan. It was a breathtaking view. The sun broke through a hole in the clouds and reflected off the East River. Behind them, some tourists snapped photos through the polished glass.
Selena sighed happily. “An impressive city.”
“I agree,” Decker said. “And I say that as a proud New Yorker.”
“Wait a minute. You said you were an Upstater and that you hated the city.”
“Sure, but I’m still a New Yorker. Besides, one of my grandmothers was born on the Upper West Side. It counts.”
She grinned and gave him a sideways glance. “All right, I’ll let you off this time.”
“Good, because I wanted to ask you a question.”
“Oh yeah? What sort of question?”
Looking out over the Manhattan morning, Decker turned the little box over in his pocket. With Selena and him it had not exactly been love at first sight, but now he couldn’t imagine being without her. He had made up his mind. He pulled the box out of his pocket and held it up between them. Opening it, he saw her eyes widen and her mouth fell open a little.
She brought her hands up to her mouth and widened her eyes in shock. “Oh my God!”
Decker shuffled around, blocking the view of the moment from a handful of tourists behind them. “Professor Moore, will you marry me?”
She looked into his eyes and stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the mouth.
“I think we both know the answer to that, Captain Decker.”
THE END
AUTHOR’S NOTE
So comes an end to another successful mission for the intrepid crew of the Avalon. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I always enjoy researching and writing about these exotic locales, not to mention the wonderful old treasures and legends. I tried to make this a leaner, faster adventure for the crew, and I hope you think I made that work.
A fourth adventure for the crew may be on the cards for 2021 but the next release will be the big one – Shadow of the Apocalypse (Joe Hawke 15). In this latest outing, Hawke and the rest of our beleaguered heroes end the nightmare they have been plunged into and prepare for a brand new life – and some very different adventures. I’m aiming for an autumn 2020 release on this one. Following this will be The Titanic Mystery (Hunter Files 3), slated in for November/December 2020.
Until next time Dear Mystery Reader,
Rob
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rob Jones has published 25 international Kindle bestsellers, including the Joe Hawke series, the Hunter Files, the Avalon Adventures, the Cairo Sloane series, the Raiders series, the Harry Bane Thriller series, the DCI Jacob mysteries and his brand new action thriller The Operator. Originally from the United Kingdom, today he lives in Australia with his wife and children.
If you would like to stay up to date with new releases and other information from Rob Jones, as well as get three free stories, simply click on the following link to his website and join his newsletter.
Other Books by Rob Jones:
The Hunter Files
The Atlantis Covenant (The Hunter Files #1)
The Revelation Relic (The Hunter Files #2)
Coming Soon: The Titanic Mystery (The Hunter Files #3)
The Joe Hawke Series
The Vault of Poseidon (Joe Hawke #1)
Thunder God (Joe Hawke #2)
The Tomb of Eternity (Joe Hawke #3)
The Curse of Medusa (Joe Hawke #4)
Valhalla Gold (Joe Hawke #5)
The Aztec Prophecy (Joe Hawke #6)
The Secret of Atlantis (Joe Hawke #7)
The Lost City (Joe Hawke #8)
The Sword of Fire (Joe Hawke #9)
The King’s Tomb (Joe Hawke #10)
Land of the Gods (Joe Hawke #11)
The Orpheus Legacy (Joe Hawke #12)
Hell’s Inferno (Joe Hawke #13)
Day of the Dead (Joe Hawke #14)
Coming Soon: Shadow of the Apocalypse (Joe Hawke #15)
The Cairo Sloane Series
Plagues of the Seven Angels (Cairo Sloane #1)
The Avalon Adventures
The Hunt for Shambhala (An Avalon Adventure #1)
Treasure of Babylon (An Avalon Adventure #2)
The Doomsday Cipher (Avalon Adventure #3)
The Raiders Series
The Raiders (The Raiders #1)
The Harry Bane Thriller Series
The Armageddon Protocol (A Harry Bane Thriller #1)
The DCI Jacob Mystery Series
The Fifth Grave (A DCI Jacob Mystery)
Angel of Death (A DCI Jacob Mystery)
The Operator
A standalone action thriller for fans of Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne
Visit Rob on the links below for all the latest news and information:
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @AuthorRobJones
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RobJonesNovels
Website: www.robjonesnovels.com
Copyright © 2020 by Rob Jones
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THE DOOMSDAY CIPHER is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and occurrences are entirely fictional products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to current events or locales, or to persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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