Order of the Black Sun Box Set 11

by Preston William Child

  “Now is really not the time,” Purdue shouted through the door. “Even if it's urgent. Even if someone lost their damn limb in the mess hall, come back later, and I’ll address it, aye?”

  “And what if it's what you were looking for?”

  He recognized that voice. It was Elijah Dane, who was quite possibly the only person in that moment that Purdue would have opened the door for—so he did. Elijah stood there, and like always, was busy adjusting the glasses on his nose.

  “What did you find?” Purdue asked feverishly.

  Elijah held up a folder. “It turns out the order did indeed try to find Genghis Khan's tomb before. And as expected, they failed just like everyone else who had ever looked for it. They couldn't find any trace of it. Apparently, out of desperation they even went to his memorial mausoleum in Ejin Horo Qi because they’d completely dried out of any good ideas.”

  “That mausoleum is just for show, though,” Purdue said. “There are no actual remains there. There never has been.”

  “Oh, I'm aware,” Elijah said. “And I would’ve told them as much had I been working here at the time. Instead, they wasted a whole lot of time trying to find anything in that tourist trap. Sure enough, there was nothing. So there's not much to go on with any previous searches either, I'm afraid. We're just going to have to carve our own path if we're going to pursue that legend.”

  “That's fine with me,” Purdue asserted. “I'd rather not try and repeat the mistakes of the people who came before, aye? One lesson I learned from all of this.” He tapped the books and scrolls in front of him. “It's amazing how much you can actually bring into your modern life. Lessons, ideas, it's never-ending.”

  “I'm glad you're enjoying the writings,” Elijah encouraged but didn't seem all that enthusiastic about it. “Just be sure to return them all to their proper places when you're done...” Elijah walked over to Purdue's desk and snatched a glass of water from it, dumping it out onto the floor. Purdue moved to yell at him but Elijah shook his head. “And I’d advise you not to have water anywhere near those papers. If you’d spilled this...that would’ve been it. All of that history would’ve been gone.”

  Purdue wanted to remind Elijah who the leader of the Order of the Black Sun really was, but Purdue didn't bother. He understood Elijah's need to be paranoid about all of the items from his collection. If anything happened to them, it’d be a huge loss to history, especially for Elijah. He liked everything to be in good condition and neatly placed in a safe location.

  “So you’re going to go through with this?” Elijah looked like he was trying to make conversation. “Searching for Genghis Khan's grave?”

  “Aye,” Purdue confirmed. “Something like that would be amazing for the order to find, especially right now when we need a big win. We need to show all of the new recruits what we are capable of here in the order. And we must prove to all of the Julian leftovers that they should get on board if they want to be successful, instead of complaining all day about minor changes that they shouldn't have even noticed.”

  “They’re a bitter bunch, aren't they?”

  “Yes,” Purdue agreed. “I'm going to need a team of people I can actually work with to find the tomb. That might not be easy. There are a lot of people who aren't ready for a big assignment like this, and there are others who I would never go anywhere with...that would probably kill me the first chance that they got.”

  “True,” Elijah said. “You'll have to be picky with your choices.”

  Purdue nodded. “I will be.”

  He’d need a great team to find something that so many other groups had tried for so long to find. He’d require it to be perfectly balanced and functioning on all cylinders if he wanted any chance to find the tomb. He thought back to everything he’d just been learning about the Mongolian conqueror and one question came to mind when considering who he should choose for his team.

  What kind of group would Genghis Khan assemble?

  4

  THE TOMB TEAM

  One of the benefits to running the Order of the Black Sun was having many more qualified allies for collaboration. As much as he loved Nina and Sam, there were some skills that they were better at than others. With the new Black Sun, Purdue had hand-selected proficient individuals to recruit so he could cater to a specific expedition with a suitable team.

  For their search for Genghis Khan's tomb, he knew Nina would be helpful. Her vast knowledge of so much history was always an advantage that Purdue preferred to have. She’d been a prisoner for so long and now mostly helped curate in the vaults. It’d be good for her to stretch her legs and see some sunlight again.

  In addition, August Williams was a behemoth of a man that had been part of the Black Sun before Purdue became leader. He wasn't a particularly bright man, having clearly only been recruited for his muscle, but he’d been rather bored since Purdue started changing protocols. They were doing far less underhanded tactics now so his ability to harm people until they gave the order what they wanted was kind of useless. Purdue's order didn't usually need heavies who would hurt people for information. However, having that extra muscle could always come in handy if they got into a bind. Among all of the older Black Sun operatives, August hadn't shown Purdue any real disdain compared to the others. If anything, August seemed a little indifferent. Maybe this would be a chance to actually win one of the carryovers to Purdue’s side?

  The rest of the team would be comprised of Black Sun operatives that Purdue had recruited. Outside of August and his muscles, Purdue didn't want to risk putting too many of the leftover agents from Julian's Black Sun onto the team—at least not with something potentially extremely valuable like the tomb. Purdue preferred to relegate their tasks to more mundane duties that he wouldn't mind losing if they decided to take off. No, Purdue needed people he knew that he could trust and didn't want any of the remaining megalomaniacs to ruin his expedition.

  Riley Duda was an obvious choice for the team. Not only had she been the one to find the bow and highlight the clue it possessed, but she’d already proven that she was very successful at finding lost things. She always came back to the compound with something of value. She also brought such a bubbly personality to the fold that it’d help give the team some positive energy on what could easily be a futile search. They may need her enthusiasm just as much as her other skills.

  Besides, Yusuke Sanada was one of the first people that Purdue recruited into the Black Sun when he started reinvigorating the order. He’d always heard stories about the explorer that traveled all over Asia, uncovering all sorts of pieces of lost history. Purdue had been there himself a few times but not as much as he would have if Yusuke hadn't beaten him to so many of its wonders. Yusuke may not have been world-renowned like Purdue, but Yusuke was renowned among historians. He’d earned himself the moniker of the Pacific Preserver. Unlike many of the other new recruits, Yusuke had already firmly established himself in the world. He was just continuing his work, but now what he found would be far better protected under the new Black Sun's supervision.

  Lastly, Purdue would be on this assignment personally. He'd spent far too much time back at the compound or at home while the Black Sun's operatives carried out expeditions that he usually would have gone on himself. It was the price he had to pay to lead unfortunately. He didn't get to be on the front lines as much, and he missed it. He missed the thrill of the search and the adventures. He needed to get off the bench and actually lead from the front of the pack, rather than stay behind.

  Once the team was gathered around a table, Purdue looked them all over with some trepidation. He wasn't used to working with such diverse people. He’d gotten so used to working with at least Nina or Sam Cleave at his side. Sure there were times when he’d receive temporary assistance from other people outside of his close colleagues, but this was a totally different feeling. These people were essentially his employees, and he was their boss. They weren't looking to him as a colleague or associate. To them, he was their lea
der and was higher than them on the invisible totem pole of life. They weren't on even terms with him and would be looking to him for all kinds of answers and decisions. It was a lot of pressure, and he kind of wished that he was just going to stay behind at the compound like usual and not work with all of them on the frontlines.

  After some brief, awkward introductions, he got around to the task at hand.

  “Our objective sounds simple enough, aye? We’re going to find the tomb of Genghis Khan. Unfortunately, people have been trying to do that for over seven hundred years and none of them have even been remotely successful.”

  “As far as we know,” Riley interjected with a wink. “Maybe someone found it but didn't want to announce it to the whole world? Or perhaps the discoverer didn't even know what was found?”

  “That could be,” Purdue conceded. “But as far as we know, it remains undiscovered and that's how he we have to treat this case. We only have a few clues to analyze.”

  Purdue pulled out the old recurve bow and placed it down in front of him, letting everyone get a good look at it. Riley's face lit up with recognition and pride as she saw it. She seemed pleased that the item she recovered was the catalyst for this entire expedition. Yusuke leaned in and looked very interested by it. August didn't quite share his interest from where he stood behind them. He just folded his burly arms and looked down like had no choice but to look at the old weapon. Nina just gave Purdue a supportive smile as he continued.

  “Elijah has spent the last few days making the markings on this bow clear enough to translate and has now given a rough translation that he believes to be accurate.” Purdue cleared his throat. “The conqueror rests at the farthest reach, at the end of the red line.”

  It wasn't exactly a clear message and was instead, far more of a riddle. He would have loved if the engraving said exact coordinates. That would’ve been incredibly helpful, but alas that was all the maker of it bothered to share with them. Still, having something vague was better than having nothing at all.

  “What's that supposed to mean?” August asked bluntly, looking around at everyone like they all knew something he didn't. It must have been hard, knowing that his specialty was drawing blood rather than drawing conclusions. “It's a bunch of nonsense.”

  “The farthest reach...” Yusuke said to himself, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “The farthest reach.”

  “Is this the only clue?” Nina asked. “I thought you said clues...plural.”

  “I did,” Purdue clarified. “There’s one more. Elijah did some digging and found that the Order of the Black Sun has searched for Genghis Khan's tomb before.”

  Purdue pulled out the file folder that Elijah had handed him earlier and plopped it down beside the bow. Nina took the folder and started rifling through the files, looking them all over carefully. It wasn't a large group of files, as the expedition hadn't been long and had borne them very little success.

  “It was a failed mission that they went on before. They’d very little information to utilize, so they spent most of their time just wandering aimlessly around Mongolia and the rest of Asia after scouring all of the most obvious places. They never put in much effort, those lazy bastards.” Purdue glanced at August who still had his arms folded. “No offense. I'm sure some of the names in that folder might have been friends of yours.”

  “So that's not much of a clue,” Riley said, having started looking over the files herself. “It just rules out a couple of places, but even then, the older Black Sun members might just not have looked hard enough in those places. So really all we have to go on...” She beamed with pride. “...is the bow I found.”

  “Which isn’t much,” Yusuke remarked and repeated the phrase aloud. “The conqueror rests at the farthest reach. The farthest reach of what?”

  “I'm not sure,” Purdue admitted.

  “So where do we start? It's not exactly pointing us in a specific direction.”

  Purdue had given that some thought as well. They could try and deduce the riddle on the bow but they might not get very far or end up in a completely different part of the world than they should be. The safest bet to start, was to check the places that others already thought were high possibilities for Genghis Khan to have been buried.

  “Most of the stories and legends agree that he was most likely buried home in Mongolia. So I think we should start the search there, and then see what happens after that.”

  “That seems like a leap of faith,” Riley mentioned.

  “It's more than we've had in some of our other searches,” Nina assured and smiled at Purdue. “We usually end up finding a way to get what we need in the end.”

  “I've been to Mongolia many, many times,” Yusuke admitted. “I never formally looked for the tomb, at least not anything official, but I’d gone on a few day trips just to see if I could find any clue at all. There was nothing. But, with all of you this time, perhaps you’ll see something that I didn’t?”

  “I hope so,” Purdue said. “I really want—no I need this one to be a success.” Purdue scanned the room again and nodded. “I just wanted to thank all of you for accepting this assignment. I know some of you are still pretty new to all of this...” He nodded to Yusuke and Riley. “And I realize others have some experience but aren't too familiar with the way I work...” He offered a small smile to August who just looked disinterested in return. “And then are some who are just sick of me at this point...” He turned to Nina who was just nodding. “But I really appreciate all of you for putting your best foot forward to try and help me find this tomb. Khan died in 1227. That's nearly eight hundred years ago. Eight centuries of people failing to find his remains. An important person like him shouldn't be missing from the world. We should at least know where his grave site is. So thank you for coming along on this adventure with me. I hope I don't let you down.”

  He was feeling hopeful and he hoped that his hopefulness wasn't completely misplaced. This team seemed solid. Of course he would’ve loved to be working with Sam Cleave or even call in someone like occult specialist Jean-Luc Gerard from New Orleans—people he was familiar with—but this was better for growth. He’d read something once in one of those nonsense self-help books that talked about how life begins once you're outside of your comfort zone. He didn't know if he believed that, but he was open to giving it a shot.

  “Pack up your things as best as you can,” Purdue instructed. “We leave tomorrow. Let's go find Genghis Khan!”

  5

  TURBULENT SKIES

  It was a long flight to Mongolia and Purdue spent most of it talking with Yusuke. The two of them had strikingly similar lives. Like Purdue, Yusuke had a vast fortune, so his numerous adventures across Asia had mostly been attempts to satiate his love of history and to curb his boredom. That was very much how Purdue started out initially. When you had so much wealth and could go anywhere at any time, it just gave you something actually interesting and exciting to do.

  The conversation grew quieter as the others started to fall asleep around them. Yusuke leaned in but glanced at a seat behind him where August's hulking body filled one of the chairs.

  “Do you think we can trust him?”

  Purdue followed Yusuke's gaze to August. Purdue actually wasn't sure how to answer that question. After all, he didn't entirely trust anyone who had been from the previous incarnation of the order. It was impossible to know how many of them were actually loyal and how many of them weren't just waiting for the right time to restore things to how they used to be. For all he knew, August could just be waiting for the right moment to push Purdue off a cliff. It wouldn't take much effort. There was no way Purdue could fight against someone that much larger and stronger.

  “Aye,” Purdue finally said, half-lying. “Right now, we've all got ourselves a common goal. August is a big scary lad, I'll give him that, but we may all have to watch each other's backs. August could break my back with his bare hands, aye, but he could do that to any mutual enemies we come across to, understand
?”

  Yusuke nodded but still looked back at August with some unease. “Everyone talks about how the Order of the Black Sun used to be full of killers, and criminals, and monsters. Is he one of those beasts?”

  “He might be,” Purdue said. “I'm not entirely sure. We can hope not, aye?”

  “But that’s how it was, yes? The Black Sun used to hurt a lot of people.”

  “They did,” Purdue confirmed. “Before I took over, the order was willing to go to whatever lengths they needed to if it meant getting what they wanted. Those lengths sometimes included murderer and all kinds of horrible shit. It wasn't a great team to be a part of. As you've been able to see, things aren't entirely like that anymore. I've taken measures to change all of that. And I've recruited people like you and Riley, who aren't here to hurt people. You're here because of the history. August was part of that more violent Black Sun, and I think he was indeed recruited because he could harm people. I'll say this, he wouldn't have been someone I personally brought on board. But, I’ve had to adapt and deal with some of the people that were from the previous version of the order. If August wants to be part of my new Black Sun, then he'll have to modify, too.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  “Then we'll see what happens,” Purdue suggested. “But who knows? Maybe he'll surprise us. The Order of the Black Sun that he first joined is gone. He’ll have to come to terms with that. This expedition might be his best chance to do that. And when he smashes someone to bits helping us, we might be glad someone like him is on our side.”

  Nina wasn't asleep yet. She was staring out the window, deep in thought. Purdue took a seat next to her and gave her a little one-armed hug.