The Crypt

by Saul, Jonas

  “Who is it?” Sarah yelled.

  “Hotel management. Check-out time has passed. You have to leave.”

  “Five minutes.”

  “Okay.”

  She heard his footsteps retreating. “Damn. Our nerves are rattled.” She rolled over onto her back. “I thought a good night’s sleep would have calmed me.”

  Parkman was sitting back down. Rosalie was putting her weapon away.

  “We need to be more on the ball. One of us should have heard someone approaching the door.”

  Parkman nodded at her.

  “Okay. Let’s get out of here and get some food. I’m starving and we have a lot to do tonight.”

  “I have a feeling everything will work out,” Rosalie said. “It’s going to be a great day.”

  “Yes. It’s a good day to die.”

  After a late lunch of Hungarian goulash, the trio crossed the bridge into Slovakia. They drove in two rented cars that Rosalie had picked up, Parkman driving one and Rosalie the other.

  They met with Rosalie’s team and were debriefed on how extraction would work once the target was confirmed. With or without Armond they would all fall back, cross the bridge and make it to the helicopter. The plan was to fly to a military airport in Romania since Romania wasn’t part of the Schengen Agreement. After that they would fly Parkman and Sarah back to the States or wherever they wanted to go on a military jet. They didn’t work for Rod’s group, nor did they recognize his direct authority.

  Sarah was warned that Rod could have orders sent to them through their chain of command, but he couldn’t order them directly. Any orders coming their way they could avoid for a short while. Rosalie stressed that it was vital to get Sarah and Parkman out of Hungary as soon as this was over, and that Rod wouldn’t be looking too hard for her as he would think she was deceased.

  To Sarah’s relief the team of professional soldiers were dressed in civilian clothes. It had been decided before they arrived to attempt a surgical extraction. There would be no military assault for one man. This was supposed to be a group of law enforcement officers arriving to arrest an international criminal. The only difference was that these people were an elite group; one that could handle situations that would rattle a Green Beret.

  Armond, you have no idea what’s coming, Sarah thought to herself as they pulled up to the front of the Esztergom Basilica.

  They filed out as a group near the back of the parking lot. The rain was still coming down as they all separated and went their different ways. Radio communication had been established between the six-man team and Rosalie. Parkman and Sarah were considered civilians and only here for positive identification. They were supposed to stay close, but were ordered to fall back if a firefight took place.

  Fat chance, Sarah said to herself.

  She was still upset that her bomb threat idea was thrown out. They said that no one would attempt to bomb such a large and heavy building made of stone unless they had a seriously large device. Otherwise the damage would be minimal.

  Sarah argued that there’d be no bomb, therefore no working theories on damage. The point of the bomb scare was the fear of it.

  The team leader said that Armond would be able to see past that and know it was suspect. She could still hear him saying, “We will go in and attend mass and look around. He’ll turn up.”

  Bullshit.

  Parkman stayed close to her as they entered the basilica. Rosalie had fallen behind and was coming in a few minutes later.

  As Sarah entered the main church she could see that everything appeared the same. People stood throughout the interior. Others were sitting on the pews waiting for mass to begin.

  Parkman started off to the back and Sarah followed. She couldn’t believe how upset her stomach was. Usually when walking into a dangerous situation she had her wits about her, adrenaline ran high and she felt ready. But tonight was different. Maybe it was the rain bringing her mood down? Or maybe it was that she finally gets to see the end of Armond?

  To escape Rod she planned on faking her death. The ramifications of that went deep. It meant her parents would think she was gone too. A part of her knew that was going to happen when she came up with the plan but she hadn’t thought about how it would all work out after the fact. Her focus was on Rod and how she couldn’t live with him poking and prodding her like a lab monkey. Maybe after six months or a year she could attempt to contact her parents to let them know she was okay. Her dad would be pissed but he’d get over it. She knew her mom would cry and just be happy she’d returned. Maybe Rod would’ve moved on by then?

  Yeah right, she thought. I’m going to have to be dodging him for a long time.

  She watched as Rosalie entered the church and started for the front. After a moment Sarah saw more of the team enter. They’d all introduced themselves by name when they met at the helicopter. Sarah couldn’t remember any of their names but one.

  Bennett.

  Bennett had been the name of the first girl she’d saved from a kidnapping five years ago. Mary Bennett. Mary had even helped her out once all those years before.

  And now a man named Bennett was on the strike team to bring down Armond Stuart. Funny how things worked.

  She looked for Bennett but couldn’t see him anywhere.

  “What are you looking for?” Parkman asked.

  “Bennett.”

  “Why?” He looked at her sideways.

  “Because of his name. Mary Bennett was the first girl I saved from a kidnapping. Earlier, when we met the team, Bennett stared at me longer than the others. It didn’t creep me out though. It was like he knew something about me. Maybe he read something in the papers and was now seeing Sarah Roberts in the flesh. That kind of feeling.”

  “I’ll watch for him and tell you when I see him. But I’m sure it’s nothing. Maybe you felt he was watching you more because you recognized his name—”

  Parkman was cut off by an alarm. A high-pitched siren was resounding throughout the building. Sarah had her hand on her weapon, waiting to draw it but seeing no immediate threat.

  “What the hell is that?” she yelled to Parkman.

  He shrugged his shoulders.

  The siren stopped as fast as it had started. A voice over a loud speaker said, “Could everyone please leave the building. Please find the nearest exit and leave the basilica. This is not a drill.” The message was repeated in Hungarian.

  “What do we do now?” Sarah asked. “This is fucked. I thought we decided against a fire drill or a bomb threat.”

  “Maybe they went ahead anyway. They don’t think of us as equals. They could’ve done it without consulting us.”

  Sarah watched as the people who had come for mass were converging on the exits and leaving the building. Rosalie was standing by a column, watching her and Parkman. She gestured with a shrug of her shoulders too.

  Someone stepped up close behind Sarah. She spun around and drew her weapon as she looked into the eyes of the team leader.

  “Put that away. Do you have anything to do with this alarm?” he asked.

  “No. I thought you did.”

  “Okay. We’d better get you outside in case Armond or any of his men also evacuate. We’re going to want you two out there to ID them. We’ll stay inside and start a room-to-room search in the crypt.”

  Rendorshag, the Hungarian police, were entering through the main doors and showing people which way to go. The inside of the church was almost empty. Since the stairs to the crypt were near the main entrance on the left, Sarah hadn’t been able to see if anyone had come up from there. Armond could already be outside.

  She nodded to the team leader and started for the doors with Parkman following.

  Near the doors she saw Bennett. He was standing back behind a pillar, watching her and Parkman advance on the exit.

  “Don’t look now, but there’s Bennett at three o’clock. He’s watching us. This is getting strange.”

  After five steps Parkman said, “I see him too
.”

  They neared the doors. The police said something in Hungarian. Sarah shook her head and said, “Angol”. English.

  “You appear to be the last two. Please come with us.”

  “Go with you? Why? We’re leaving the building. Mass was cancelled.”

  “We understand. It’s this way,” the cop gestured and walked away.

  Sarah and Parkman followed. They reached the outer doors and stepped into the rain. People had gathered under the overhang and a few others were collecting under a tree to wait out the drill.

  “Come with us,” the police officer said again.

  Sarah looked at Parkman. Her eyes asked him what the hell was going on.

  “Where are you taking us?”

  Both officers were wearing thick bullet proof vests.

  Were they here for a bomb scare or expecting something more like a gunfight?

  The officer turned to face her. “We have a few questions for you. We’d like to check your passports. We are Hungarian police officers. At this point you have no choice. It will only take a few minutes and then you can return to the church once it’s been swept. Now, follow me.”

  The officer walked away from them toward the parking area. Sarah could see his little police car. His partner waited behind them. Parkman started walking and Sarah followed.

  This is weird. What are the odds they’d be subjected to a routine inspection of their documents during such a time?

  The officer in the front lowered his head because of the rain and turned to them. “We had a bomb threat. Most of the people we saw leaving the building we recognize. You two are the only ones we don’t know. This is all normal while the basilica is swept.”

  Fine.

  They got to the cruiser. The officer opened the back door. “Get in.”

  Sarah waited for a moment, standing in the rain as it soaked her hair.

  “Please get in. It is raining. We can do this easier in the vehicle.”

  Something was wrong. No way was this routine. Every radar bell she had was pinging, telling her to run. She looked around. No one was watching them. All of Rosalie’s team were still in the building. Things were going downhill fast.

  “What if we decide to not get in?”

  “Sarah…” Parkman started but didn’t finish.

  The officer had pulled out a gun.

  “Get in the backseat of my cruiser or I kill you in the street like the filthy dog you are. Armond is waiting in the crypt to see you.”

  Chapter 26

  The driver’s partner had slipped in beside Sarah in the back seat, a weapon pointed at her side. Parkman was ordered into the front. He was reminded that any hero shit would not only get him killed but would guarantee Sarah got a bullet too.

  They should be warning me, Sarah thought. People always underestimate the girl.

  They drove away from the basilica, the cruiser’s wipers trying in vain to keep the windshield clear of the incessant downpour.

  “Where are you taking us?” Parkman asked. “You are men of the law. I’m an American police officer. Are you even aware of what you’re doing?”

  “Shut up!” the driver glanced at him and then turned back to the windshield. “Janos, shoot the girl if this guy talks again.”

  The man beside Sarah nodded into the rear view mirror. Sarah looked at the back of Parkman’s head. He stared straight ahead.

  This was bad. She couldn’t come this close and miss Armond. Her whole existence had become focused on one true goal, and that was to stop the madman who hired these thugs. She was worried her luck had run out. How many times had she been shot and hospitalized? How many broken bones? How many injuries, cut skin and bruises to stop this one man? And yet she still walked upright. She was basically healthy and wanted to keep it that way.

  Vivian had apologized. What was that all about?

  Would this be it? Was she supposed to die for real? Wouldn’t her sister have warned her?

  The police officer turned the car onto the green bridge connecting Hungary to Slovakia and raced across.

  What is Rosalie going to think now?

  They took a hard right. A sign on the side of the road had the number 63 on it. A red building went by that had Steak House written on it in English. Sarah could barely make out the words through her rain soaked window. The driver drove another hundred meters and then turned in between two houses and stopped.

  Sarah looked at her backseat companion. The weapon he held stayed aimed at her.

  The driver turned to Parkman. “You. Out.”

  “I’m not leaving Sarah.”

  Parkman spoke. Sarah waited for the bullet, ready to attack. None came. Her hands unclenched. These people don’t keep their word. Janos, shoot the girl if he talks again, the driver had said only moments before.

  “You have no choice. This doesn’t involve you. Get out. No hero shit. Last chance for it to be done nicely.”

  She hadn’t been looking behind the vehicle as she was paying serious attention on the guy beside her. Two men walked up beside the police car. They were in uniform. It appeared they were police officers too. Neither one looked like they were wearing kevlar.

  “Parkman. We have company.”

  As she saw his head swiveling, his door was ripped open. Hands grabbed him around the lapel. Even though she saw his own hands cling to the doorframe, he was pulled from the vehicle as if he had no strength.

  “No!” Sarah yelled and grabbed her door handle. It was locked. She reached up and tried to find the knob to unlock it and then realized she was in the backseat of a police car. She couldn’t get out unless they unlocked the door from the front. But neither could her backseat companion.

  Arms flailed outside her window. Parkman was taking serious blows to his body. The driver eased along the front seat until he was at the passenger door leaning out to watch the fight.

  In the confusion, while the men outside fought and the driver stuck his head out the passenger door to watch, Sarah got ready.

  She felt a shift in the seat beside her. The guy leaned forward to see more of what was happening.

  She did her best to judge the location of his throat without looking directly at him. The kevlar came right up to his collar. She would have to make sure she did it right the first time. There would only be one chance.

  She raised her left arm to rest on the back of the front seat. She too leaned up to pretend to watch. A quick check using her peripheral vision showed that her elbow was around a foot from the guy’s exposed throat.

  She waited. He edged closer still. The driver leaned further out the passenger door, his attention diverted.

  With all the speed she could muster Sarah shot her elbow in a backward thrust at the guy’s throat. It held all the pent up anger at Armond; all the times she had been placed in dangerous situations because of him, all the times she had been duped by him, all the anger at having lost a sister…it all went into the blow to the throat that drove the cop into the back of the seat, his head banging the blind spot between the back and side windows.

  Her right hand reached under and wrestled the gun from his weakened grasp as he lost his fight for air. At the same moment the driver shouted something outside to his comrades. A quick look up told Sarah that he hadn’t seen anything.

  The men outside were almost finished, but grunts and groans were still coming from the fight, masking the backseat choking sounds.

  The cop in the front seat spoke again in Hungarian. The fight was over as the two cops outside stood up.

  The guy beside her had turned blue. She was sure she’d collapsed his trachea. He grabbed at his throat and gestured wildly but couldn’t catch a breath or make a sound other than the choking kind. She kept her left arm across his chest so he couldn’t lean forward to warn the driver.

  They’d stopped hitting Parkman and were pulling him away from the vehicle.

  Oh Parkman, I seriously hope you’re okay. They will pay for this.

  The driver leaned
back in the car and slid along the front seat after slamming the passenger door shut.

  The guy beside her had stopped making noise. The driver put the car in gear and went to start reversing. He spun in his seat and looked at Sarah. His eyes widened when he took in the situation. The car stopped as he hit the brakes.

  She was holding the gun up on the back of the seat aimed at his face.

  “Unlock the back door. Slowly.”