“Well, if it makes you feel better, I didn’t either until this week. My father told me, along with the master I trained with when I was young.”
“Master?” Niki wondered.
“It’s a long story,” Adriana conceded.
Niki seemed to understand. He looked around again and then motioned to the car. “I have somewhere safe we can go. Follow me. And stay close.”
“Which car is yours?” Sean asked.
Niki pointed at a black four-door Maserati parked in the far corner.
“I’m not going to ask,” Tommy groused.
“Okay,” Adriana said. “We’ll follow you.”
He then turned and strode to the luxury sedan and climbed in. The group was still looking on when the engine growled to life.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Tommy asked. “How do we know we can trust him?”
“I’m with Tommy,” Tabitha agreed. “How do we know he isn’t leading us into a trap? You heard him. He was raised by this Odin character, who by the way, I’ve never heard of. And we have a list of nefarious characters. You think a few minutes in a snowy car park are going to undo whatever he’s been taught for the last however many years?”
Adriana looked over her shoulder at the Maserati as it backed up and pulled away from the retaining wall at the other end.
“I don’t know why,” Adriana admitted, “but I trust him. I saved his life. That kind of debt is never forgotten.”
“Yeah, but you’re competing against someone who basically controls all of the world’s currency,” Tommy argued.
“I know. But some things are more important than money or power.”
Sean reached out and touched Adriana’s fingers. “I trust you. And if you trust him, that’s good enough for me. Come on.”
He tugged her gently toward the rental. It didn’t require much effort.
“Tommy?” Sean said.
His friend perked up.
“You mind driving?”
“Sure. No problem.”
The four climbed back into the sedan. Tommy steered the car out of the parking lot, following the Maserati closely so they didn’t get separated. In the back, Sean took his cell phone out of a pocket and typed a quick message to Emily. “Where are you?”
He looked out the window at the passing buildings. Some almost looked alive with the vibrant colors adorning the exterior walls, while others appeared drab, emotionless, devoid of creativity.
Sean’s phone vibrated in his hand. He looked down at the message, acknowledging it silently.
“On our way to Russia.”
“That was fast,” he typed back.
After twenty seconds, another reply appeared. “I figured you missed me.”
The comment brought a smile to Sean’s face. He’d always loved Emily, although there'd never been any romantic feelings on either end. To Sean, she was family. The two had been through more than a few storms together in their partnership at Axis.
“I’m a married man, Em. And the man you’re with could have me erased with the snap of his fingers.”
He sent the reply with a chuckle, which drew Adriana’s attention. She looked over at him and asked what was so funny.
“Just messaging Emily,” he said. “Apparently, she’s on her way to Russia, although she used a plural possessive. I wonder who’s with her.”
His phone vibrated again. “You’re not as funny as you think.”
He typed, “Who said I was being funny? Hey, who is with you?”
There was a long pause while he waited for the reply. The two-car procession continued through the city until they were back on their way toward the country, though this time in a different direction. Tommy was thankful for that, knowing that if they went back toward the restaurant there could—at that moment—be a legion of cops and investigators poring over the crime scene.
Another message came through. “June, the kids, and someone I just met. His name is Dak Harper. Says he knows who you are. Met Tommy, I believe.”
Sean read the text, then raised his head. “Hey, Schultzie, you know some guy named Dak Harper, right? Seems like you mentioned him after the Bolivia thing.”
“Yeah, I met him. Nice guy. Former Delta Force. I bet you and he could exchange quite a few war stories. Literally.”
“Maybe,” Sean said. “He’s on his way to Russia with Emily and your wife. Tara and Alex are coming, too.” He sent a quick text back to Emily, made a quick change in his settings, then stuffed his phone back into its pocket.
Adriana’s head snapped around again, a concerned expression stretched her face. “Why are all of them coming here?”
“I guess Emily felt like we could use some help,” Sean guessed. “Why?”
Adriana held his questioning gaze for a few breaths and then turned toward the window again to stare out at the buildings as they passed by in a blur. “I just don’t want any of you caught up in this.”
Sean nodded, understanding. “Look. I get it. This is your burden. Based on what you told us, dealing with this cult is your cross to carry. I know.”
Tabitha listened from the front seat, though she tried to make it look as if she wasn’t.
“But you are going to need as much help as you can get. We’re talking about a veritable army here. It will be a lot easier to fight the coming battle with an army of your own.”
Adriana straightened and stared ahead as she let the words sink in. “I don’t want to lose you. Any of you,” she said.
“You won’t.”
“You don’t know that. There are no guarantees.”
“Are there ever?” He winked at her and rubbed her shoulder.
Tommy flashed a glance into the rearview mirror at the two. He, too, was listening to the conversation, even though he felt he shouldn’t. It was impossible not to hear what the two were discussing.
“Hey,” he interrupted, “if you think that we’re not coming along for the ride on this one, then you’re sadly mistaken. You may be some super Ninja or something, from an ancient hardcore group of elite warriors, but you’re still a person. And more importantly, you’re my friend. Where you go, we go.” He faltered. “I mean, I can’t speak for MI6 over here, but as for me and Sean, we’re in.”
“I’m not backing down now,” Tabitha added.
“I don’t even know where we’re going.”
“Well,” Sean said, “I guess maybe this red diamond is going to tell us that answer.”
38
Russia
Niki slowed down and turned on his blinker. The convoy of two had been driving for twenty minutes and were now well outside the Moscow city limits. From the back seat, Sean watched the Maserati through the windshield, suspicion brimming in his thoughts like a bubbling stew.
The snowfall had slowed to a flurry, and fortunately, it hadn’t accumulated nearly as much on the roads. Farmhouse roofs were blanketed in white, as were the fields and hills. Clusters of hardwoods delicately balanced thin rails of snow on their branches, while the evergreens were flocked with inch-thick powder.
Tommy followed the lead car onto the snow-covered gravel driveway to the right and around a long curve toward a gray farmhouse with black trim and shutters around the windows. The tiled roof held a thin layer of snow, like everything else around it. A matching gray barn stood off to the right. The dilapidated doors hung loosely on the hinges, giving a narrow glimpse of the rickety stalls within.
“Looks like a perfect place to dispose of some bodies,” Tommy grumbled.
He wasn’t wrong, and Sean knew it.
Out here, no one would hear gunshots—suppressed or otherwise. No cries for help would fall on sympathetic ears. Sean’s gut wrenched into knots with the overwhelming feeling he’d just walked right into a trap. He subtly darted his eyes around, checking for an ambush on either side, but as they parked the car next to the Maserati, no gunmen appeared, and no shots were fired from the cover of tall field grass, or from the hundreds of good shooting sp
ots around the property.
If they were here to be executed, though, Sean knew the killers could be—and probably were—waiting until they exited the vehicle. His instincts told him to get out of there and speed away, but Sean didn’t deter his friend behind the wheel.
When the car had stopped, no one moved right away, even though Niki had exited his sedan. Sean, Tommy, Adriana, and Tabitha lingered in their seats, all thinking the same thing.
“Well,” Sean said, “if we just walked into a trap, I don’t think there’s any getting out of it now. I’d rather look down the barrel of the gun than sit here like an idiot.”
He pulled on the latch and opened the door. Leaving the warmth and safety of the car’s interior behind, Sean stepped into the icy embrace of winter once more. The others joined him and looked around the property, each expecting to catch a bullet at any second.
The only one who doubted it was Adriana. She’d put her faith in Niki, trusting that her kind act all those years ago still weighed heavily on the young man’s heart—despite all his benefactor had done for him.
Niki noticed the group looking around. “You don’t have to worry,” he reassured them. “No one knows we’re here. This is a safe house for the organization. We have them in locations outside of nearly every major city in the world. Usually, they sit unused for long stretches of time—as far as I know. Occasionally, there will be meetings in them, but only for mission briefings.”
Tommy momentarily considered asking what kinds of missions, then thought better of it, realizing he probably already knew.
Niki motioned toward a door on the side of the house and led the way over to it. He entered a code on a key panel and then stepped inside, holding the door open for the four newcomers.
The inside of the farmhouse was cold and bare. An antique wooden table and chairs sat off to the side of a kitchen that looked like it was from the nineteenth century, perhaps early twentieth. The only two appliances appeared to be relics of the 1950s—a refrigerator and a gas stove.
Firewood was stacked next to a hearth in the living room beyond the kitchen and dining area. An old leather couch sat in front of the fireplace with two recliners on either side.
“This house is off-grid,” Niki said. “I’ll start a fire to warm it up. We do have solar panels in the back that power the fridge and lights. It’s going to get dark pretty soon. There are three bedrooms plus this couch,” he indicated the sofa.
“So,” Tommy said, finally starting to settle in a little, “I guess we should try to figure out what this thing is.” He took the red diamond out of his jacket and held it out for the rest to see.
Niki spied the gem with only mild curiosity. “It’s the last of the twelve sacred gems of the Fellowship. In the Fellowship, it’s known as the lost keystone. They have been searching for it for centuries, ever since it was lost.”
“Stolen,” Adriana mused.
“Yes,” Niki said, surprised. “You know the story?”
“I do now,” she said.
“Then you know it was taken from one of the harbingers of the Fellowship.”
“Yes, though I must admit I don’t know much about the harbingers.”
“Ah,” Niki said. “Well, I’m fairly new to the order; at least I was. But from what I know, they were the ones who initiated the extinction events in the old days. You probably have heard or read about the stories of strange beings in dark clothes appearing outside of villages just before the Black Death struck.”
“We have,” Sean said.
“Then you know that those stories were the foundation for many grim-reaper legends,” Niki continued. “Thoth’s harbingers were messengers, catalysts that have jumpstarted biological and military catastrophes for thousands of years. And they all carry one of those.” He indicated the gem in Tommy’s hand. “May I?”
Tommy flashed a questioning glance at Sean, then nodded before handing the diamond to Niki.
The young Greek turned the gem over in his hand, inspecting every angle. Then, he turned to a candle and a box of matches on the kitchen counter. He carefully set the diamond next to the candle, plucked a match from the box, and struck it. In seconds, the candle glowed with a still, burning yellow flame. Niki blew out the match and set it down, then picked up the diamond and gently lowered the gem down over the candle. In the dim kitchen light, the group was immediately treated to an incredible show.
The candlelight spewed out of the tiny holes drilled into the diamond, casting what looked like a minimal planetarium view of the stars across the ceiling, walls, and cabinets.
Niki gingerly lifted the candle while holding the diamond and moved it to an island in the center of the kitchen. There, the view of the glowing dots played out more evenly across the ceiling.
“It’s just like the container,” Tabitha realized. “But what does it mean?”
“Looks like stars,” Tommy commented absently.
Niki remained oddly silent.
“They aren’t stars,” Sean disagreed. “It’s a map. An atlas, actually.”
“Yes,” Niki confirmed, breaking his silence. “These are all of the pyramids on Earth, both known and unknown to historians.”
“Known and unknown?” Adriana wondered.
“Yes. Many have remained undiscovered, but as we understand it, they are still capable of being activated. We estimate there are at least six more in the Amazon alone.”
Sean didn’t like the sound of that word, activated. He envisioned pushing a button to start a nuclear war, except this attack wouldn’t be nearly as overt. It would be subtle and would devastate the world’s population, sending it back to numbers more like those seen thousands of years ago. Moreover, it would be viewed by the survivors as some kind of anomalous event. They would never suspect it was carried out deliberately with the intent of diminishing the global population.
“So, we have to find the control center and shut it down,” Sean said. It was an oversimplification, to be sure, but his assessment was correct.
“Yes,” Niki agreed. “Although each of these keys is unique. If we destroy it,” he looked down at the glowing red gem, “the Fellowship will be unable to replace it, and their mission will be lost.”
Tommy took a bold step forward. He stopped close to the island countertop and stared at the diamond. “Then let’s take it on a boat out to sea and toss it into the deepest trench in the world.”
“Now, that would be a terrible waste,” a familiar voice said from somewhere in the house.
Everyone nearly jumped out of their shoes. Sean instinctively drew his pistol. Adriana, Tommy, and Tabitha all did the same, fanning out to cover the exit and whoever might be hiding around the corner in the living room.
“There’s no need to raise your weapons, Sean,” the voice said in a Swedish accent. “The entire house is surrounded. So please, put down your guns. There’s no reason we can’t come to a peaceful agreement here.”
Sean’s first scathing glare shot toward Niki, but the young Greek shook his head silently, indicating it wasn’t him who’d laid the trap. Sean searched Niki’s eyes for the truth. There were no lies in them. The boy Adriana had saved was innocent, at least in this instance.
The man who’d been speaking stepped out slowly from around the corner with his hands raised. “I am sorry, Sean. I truly am.”
“Magnus?” Sean blurted.
“Those who follow me call me Odin, Sean. Although I’m sure you put that together.”
He looked curiously at Adriana, scanning her up and down before looking at Tommy, then back to Sean, almost completely ignoring Tabitha.
“You’re the one in charge of the shadow caste, the Cult of Thoth?” Tommy said the words almost unconsciously. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Neither could Sean.
“Cult carries such a negative connotation, doesn’t it?” Magnus said. “But yes. I am the current leader of the order. It is my burden to bear, to maintain the Fellowship, as well as the balance of things throughou
t the world. It is our holy duty. Someday, when I die, it will pass on to a new leader. You can’t possibly understand how difficult it is to decide the fates of so many people.”
“Bit egotistical to call yourself the All Father, isn’t it?” Tommy quipped.
“Yeah,” Sean agreed. “Pardon us if we don’t feel sympathetic.”
“If you think I believe myself a god, you’re sorely mistaken. All of our leaders are given titles after the names of deities from the ancient world, and across several cultures. I am merely the shepherd tending his flock. When my time is done, a new shepherd will rise from our ranks to continue this most sacred of duties.”
“Killing innocent people?” Tabitha said.
Before Magnus could respond, Sean spoke up again. “Why, Magnus? I don’t understand. You were a mentor to both me and Tommy. You gave me a head start in life. I worked for you at one of your estates when I was in college.” The disbelief swirled in Sean’s voice, and if he were a person with less constitution, he might have been dizzied by the sudden revelation.
“Yes,” Magnus admitted as he stepped toward the counter where the red diamond flickered from the candlelight within. He plucked it off the stand, inspected it briefly, and then stuffed it in his pocket. “Been looking for this little bauble for a long time.”
He went back to where he was standing before and then rounded on the group. “Was I not a kind benefactor for you both? Tommy, when you believed your parents dead at sea, was it not I who encouraged you to push forward with your passion in archaeology? And Sean, didn’t you ever wonder who paid for your college tuition when your parents couldn’t? You never had to take out a student loan.”
Sean gritted his teeth. It was true. The Swede had been a generous mentor and benefactor. Magnus had come to Tennessee to examine the six-thousand-year-old rock art that had been discovered by some local hikers. At least that was the story Magnus had given Sean.
The truth was that Magnus had been in the area to visit Oak Ridge just outside of Knoxville. The Department of Energy still conducted research in the location famous for the Manhattan Project, and it was for this research Magnus dedicated an overseas journey to investigate. Of course, Sean didn’t know that. To him, the man was a historian and a philanthropist. It was the latter that led Magnus to some of the local high schools and universities as a guest speaker, which is how the two met.
The Milestone Protocol Page 32
