Order of the Black Sun Box Set 11

by Preston William Child

  “It's possible,” Elijah said. “But given how much that would have meant to Octavian when he was made Augustus Caesar, we probably would have heard all about it in the history books.”

  Nina went over what she knew about Mark Antony's final days, silently in her head. It was nice having people to bounce ideas with, but she found that sometimes quiet contemplation was the best way to problem solve.

  It was in 30 BC that Octavian invaded Egypt. The notoriously skilled general, Agrippa, led his legions to remove Mark Antony and Cleopatra. They were crushed by Octavian's forces and Mark Antony committed suicide by stabbing himself with a sword—maybe it was the sword?

  That was impossible to determine but the thought did cross her mind. If he was going to kill himself with a sword, maybe it was the one that had been wielded by his late best friend? Perhaps he felt like he failed Caesar? Maybe...too many maybes. They needed something more concrete to use.

  “Nina.” The sound of Elijah's voice snapped her out of her own head and that long, rickety train of thought. “Sorry to interrupt whatever you were cooking up in there, but as I recall, you’re leading this endeavor...have you decided where it is we're heading to next?”

  “Let's take a long look around the city. We'll stop at anything that has to do with Cleopatra or Mark Antony.”

  “That sounds pretty broad and vague,” Elijah said.

  “It is,” Nina said. “But we've got to start somewhere, don't we?”

  August managed to hail a taxi by waving his huge arms around on the sidewalk. They all piled in; Nina took the passenger seat beside the driver while her three companions crammed into the back. August was a big man so Riley and Elijah were being squished against the doors on other side of him in the backseat.

  “Where would you like to go?” The driver asked. He was a young man with a tan, shaved head, and striking eyes.

  “Anywhere that has to do with Cleopatra,” Nina replied casually.

  “You’re a fan of the queen?” The driver asked curiously. “There are many great places for tourists.”

  “I am, yes,” Nina said. “But we're not here as tourists. We're here for work.”

  “I bet your work is much better than mine,” the driver grumbled.

  “We're looking for something here in Egypt. We're hoping it's nearby.”

  The driver looked intrigued but just nodded, bringing his attention back to the congested road in front of him as he drove. They rode through Alexandria for quite some time. It felt like hours and Nina was beginning to suspect that the driver wasn't really familiar with places that had to do with Cleopatra. She was about to ask him why it was taking so long, but the driver turned the wheel very purposefully in one direction. Maybe he really was taking them somewhere specific?

  The car turned down an empty alleyway and Nina started to get a little nervous. The driver had already taken them in all kinds of directions and none of them—especially this one—seemed to be bringing them any closer to their destination, or even to a main road. There was nothing ahead but a dead end, an alley surrounded by nothing but the walls of buildings.

  “Um...Nina...” Riley said uneasily from the back seat, looking around out the windows. Nina followed her gaze and saw a group of people coming out of the shadows toward the car. When the vehicle stopped, Nina looked at the driver who was just nodding.

  The driver suddenly spoke, in a more hostile tone than he had initially. “We know who you are. We know what kind of people you all are. We’re so tired of treasure hunters coming here and leaving with things that don’t belong to them...with things that belong here, to us.”

  Elijah bumped his glasses up his nose but Nina could see that even he was somewhat afraid behind those spectacles. “What we're looking for never belonged to Egypt actually. Its origin goes back to Ancient Rome.”

  “Yeah!” Riley looked ready to turn her panic into furious resistance. We're not looking for any sphinxes, scarabs, mummies, or any of that! Keep them! We don't want them!”

  The man in the driver's seat glanced out the windows at his gang who looked ready to pounce but were just waiting for his command. He gave a nod, and they all backed away. He looked from Nina then to the others in the rear view mirror.

  “Then what is it you want?”

  “An old sword,” Nina said. “One that belonged to Julius Caesar. We’ve reason to believe that it was here at some point...so here we are, understand? We're not trying to take off with any Egyptian heirlooms. We're just looking for any clues that would help us find Caesar's sword. That's all.”

  The driver looked at all of them curiously, like he was trying to determine their truthfulness just by sight alone. Those striking eyes seemed to have seen a lot of things. He wasn't old by any means but there was a lot of experience written on his face.

  “Who are you?” Nina asked. “What is this?”

  The driver hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath and speaking slowly: “My name is Odion, and I’ve been trying to protect the history of my homeland, the little bits of it we have left. I only wish I’d been able to much sooner. So many foreigners have come to this country to ravage it and take whatever they want. Filthy scavengers. I know that they’d even take the Great Pyramids themselves if given the chance. I could tell just driving by that you were here seeking something in Egypt. You had that same look that so many others have. Greed.”

  “We aren't here for the pyramids,” Nina reiterated. “Like we said, we're here to find Caesar's sword to bring it to the Palazza Nuovo in Rome. That’s all.”

  “And you think that sword is here? Why, because that man invaded these lands, had an affair with our queen, then got himself butchered by his own friends?”

  “You're well-versed,” Elijah muttered.

  “I’ve got to be, if I'm going to be able to protect what is ours. I never heard of a Roman sword being anywhere around here.”

  “So what were you going to do to us if we were looking for an Egyptian weapon instead of a Roman one?” August asked.

  “My friends and I would have convinced you to change your mind. We still might.”

  The threat didn't sound quite as menacing as it had before, at least not to Nina. They didn't seem like terrible people; they were just trying to protect what was theirs. She could understand that.

  “Please,” Nina said. “We just want to find the sword and then we'll leave. If there's any way you could help us, any way at all, it would be greatly appreciated. Even the smallest little thing might be able to help us find the sword.”

  Odion gave her a hard stare. “You’ll leave once you learn about the sword.”

  “Yes,” Nina said. “I swear to you, it's all we're after.”

  Odion slowly nodded. “There may be a place that mentions it.”

  7

  THE PROTECTORS OF EGYPT

  Odion had them put blindfolds over their eyes as they drove for quite some time. Nina could have sworn they were going in circles. Odion was probably deliberately doing that to scramble any internal navigation they had. He didn't want them to see how to get to their destination, that was for sure.

  The car pulled up to a warehouse. Odion let them all remove their blindfolds and they all filed from Odion's car, all sharing the mutual relief that they were no longer stuck in that alley, waiting to be beaten to death. Odion still seemed a bit intimidating, but that might have just been because he was still a bit suspicious of their motives. His men from the alley pulled up in a jeep a few moments after them, and that didn't make things any more comfortable.

  “You won’t take anything,” Odion said, addressing all of them. “You will not even touch anything. You can look. That is all.”

  “Understood,” Nina said. “That's fine with us. It's just what we said. We're looking for Caesar's sword, nothing else.”

  Odion nodded firmly and stared at Elijah, Riley, and August.

  “We agree, alright?” Riley blurted out, looking nervous. “Can you stop looking like you wa
nt to bite our heads off?”

  Odion grumbled and then led them toward the warehouse. The big front doors were locked with a chain and Odion pulled out a set of massive keys to get the chain off. He pulled the door open and led them inside to a large room.

  It wasn't the fanciest collection of artifacts Nina had ever seen. It wasn't as tidy and organized as a museum. It wasn't as gratuitous and self-promoting as David Purdue's old collection room used to be. It certainly wasn't as secure as the Order of the Black Sun's deep vault either. Items were strewn about, lining the room. They weren't piled on top of each other at least, but everything was kept messily side by side with no rhyme or reason to their placement. They were there to just be kept and enough room was left in case they found more.

  There were all kinds of things in the collection. Statues, old coin, weaponry, pottery, even a sarcophagus that was probably built for some long dead pharaoh. It was impressive, especially considering that this was an entirely independent operation. Most private collections like this belonged to rich people who could afford the items and the security to store them away; people like Purdue and the late Irishman, Galen Fitzgerald. Those were the people that Nina was used to seeing own these kinds of things. She wasn't expecting some unassuming little gang of Egyptians to have relics that some Egyptian museums would probably pay a good deal of money to acquire.

  “Where did you get all of this?”

  “Some of it was passed down through families. Some items were found buried in the dirt, or at the bottom of the river. Some treasures were rescued from people who tried to take them away from here. These are the possessions of our people and this is where they belong, safe in their original homeland.”

  That made sense to Nina, but the part about taking it back from people that tried to leave with it was a little worrisome. She still wondered how bad the beating would have been in the alley if they’d actually been after some Egyptian artifact and not a Roman one.

  Elijah looked around with that same expression he exhibited during their visit to the Palazza Nuovo; he wasn't impressed at all, and looked actually insulted by the conditions. He was probably imagining taking each and every one of those artifacts and bringing them back to the deep vaults with him, to store away in a much more secure environment.

  “Don't even think about it,” Nina whispered. “Don't touch anything.”

  “I wasn't going to,” Elijah said unconvincingly. “Just not an ideal place to store--”

  “Stop,” Nina hissed quietly.

  Riley and August looked much more impressed than Elijah did and Nina couldn't blame them for that. This was very impressive for a group of nobodies.

  “And ever come across anything Roman?” Riley asked, standing over a pile of old blades. She stood just out of reach so as not to alarm Odion or even risk being accused of touching anything. “Like the sword we're seeking.”

  “I don't believe so,” Odion said. “But that's why you're here. To see for yourself. And that’s all. You’ll check and then leave swiftly. Is that understood?”

  Nina didn't need to keep being reminded of the terms. It was like Odion was just showing off now, showing them that he had all of the cards. He just wanted them to see that he had all of this and they weren't allowed to have any of it; a taunt to a group of foreigners that he believed wanted to just rob him blind.

  Nina looked at a large piece of wall that had been broken off from its original resting place. It now lay on the floor, but the hieroglyphics on it were still very apparent. She couldn't make out what the glyphs were trying to communicate to her, but she knew it must have come from some place very, very old.

  There was a stone tablet resting on top of a little table nearby. It was partially covered by a cloth, but enough of it was poking out of the fabric to catch Nina's eye. She approached it slowly, and stood over it, leaning down to try and obtain a better look. She couldn't decipher the etchings that were carved across it, but it was some kind of Egyptian calligraphy, dating after they moved away from only hieroglyphs.

  “And what's this?” Nina asked innocently, inadvertently reaching her hand out toward it. Her curiosity was getting the best of her but her hand was stopped as Odion's fingers caught her wrist. He pulled her arm away from the stone tablet.

  “Something that you promised not to touch.”

  “Sorry,” Nina said and took an apologetic step back. “Do you know what it is, though?”

  “Yes,” Odion said. “That’s what I spoke of before. One of the only things in our collection that specifically talks about Rome. My great aunt used to be the keeper of all of these items. Now that responsibility has fallen on me. It’s my duty now.” He really enjoyed reminding them that this cache of relics belonged to him; it was actually starting to get irritating, and usually it took a lot more than that to annoy Nina. “When she turned this over to me, she told me about all of the things that she’d stored away secretively. That stone was writings from an Egyptian, sometime around the first few centuries after Christ and all of that. From what my great aunt could determine. She was always much better with dates than I was.”

  “And you said Rome is mentioned on it?”

  “Yes,” Odion said. “As you well know, the history between Egypt and the Romans was heavily connected. Those Romans came and got involved in all of our affairs, in things that had nothing to do with them.”

  “Like Caesar and Mark Antony,” August said proudly, like he was trying to prove what he'd learned.

  “Yes,” Odion said, not giving him any credit for making that connection. “But this was long after them. The tablet mentions a leader of Rome coming back to Egypt under the cover of night, and taking what was not his to take. He took this treasure back to the place he loved the most.”

  Nina's attention was practically laser-focused on Odion now. He was talking about something that she had never heard of before, and it was more than a little interesting. “A leader of Rome? An emperor?”

  “Probably,” Odion said with a shrug. “Just another powerful man who came to Egypt to steal from us.”

  “Who was it?”

  “The tablet doesn’t say,” Odion said. “The bottom portion of the slab is hard to make out though.”

  Nina wanted more than anything to rip the fabric off of that slab and to try to figure out what it said, but she wouldn't be able to just from looking at it. No, that slab would need to be very closely inspected for any clues that might give them more insight into this mysterious emperor.

  “And did your great aunt tell you what that emperor took?”

  Odion gave her a hard stare, looking much more hesitant now. He could probably sense how much he had piqued her interest and might have been somewhat intimidated to feed her curiosity anymore, now that he could see how rabid she was for more information. She couldn't help it. The story of that mysterious Roman emperor taking something from Egypt was too interesting not to delve into deeper.

  Cautiously, Odion continued. “Rome came looking for something that they felt was theirs. So, of course, they decided to take it by force under the cover of night. Absconded with something that had been in Egypt for a long time before then.”

  “Did it belong to Rome first?” Nina asked, trying her hardest to connect the dots.

  “How should I know?” Odion said. “I wasn't there...but does it matter? There were plenty of Roman things that were here. They had a long history with my people and had planted their roots very deep. Those things were here, though, not in Rome. So doesn't that make them Egyptian? What gives them the right to come all the way here and take something from our soil?”

  Nina didn't want to push any of Odion's buttons, but he did seem to have one very big one that was hard not to push. The ownership of things in Egypt was a sore spot for him, especially when it came to people taking them away. She tried to shift the focus back to the identity of the emperor himself.

  “You mentioned it was in the first few centuries AD, yes?” Nina asked.

  �
�That is what my aunt determined, yes.”

  That really didn't narrow it down too much. There were so many emperors during the Roman Empire's existence. It didn't help that a lot of them had very brief reigns and didn't live for long. Still, if she could figure out which emperor came to Egypt looking for something Roman, then it might lead to the lost sword even.

  It would be hard to do without getting a better look at that stone slab—but that seemed like impossibility. Odion would never give that up, and she’d vowed that they had no intention of taking anything besides the sword. Maybe she could convince him to loan it to them...she had to give it a shot. He might even surprise her, but she was going to have to make him that pitch very, very carefully.

  “Odion...you know...I really meant what I said about not wanting to take anything from you but...” Now that she was speaking, she really didn't want to say the words. She knew how bad it would sound, how hypocritical it would look. But there wasn't any choice right now; they needed that slab. They needed to know what Roman emperor had come and taken the sword from Egypt. The only way to know that was right there. “But we need to see that.”

  Odion's expression sunk and he glowered at her. Any shred of friendliness burned away right in front of Nina's eyes, and she was the one who set it aflame. “I said no. I’ve shown you too much when I shouldn’t have. I trusted you when it might have been wiser not to.”

  “That's not true!” Riley exclaimed. “You are right to trust us! We're not planning anything bad! We don't want to do anything to upset you. Really!”

  Odion was still staring at Nina. “And yet, you upset me anyway. You played to my weakness of believing you, only to let me bring you here and then start making demands.”

  “Not demands!” Riley was trying her hardest to pour water of this sinking ship. She was usually very good at getting someone to listen to her, or at least humor her, but Odion's decision was unwavering. His mind was already made up. Nina could see the anger, laced throughout his face, and knew that it wasn't directly toward just her team. Much of that fury was directed at himself, incensed that he’d ever allowed himself to think that he could bring them to such a safeguarded and secret place. He probably felt like his generosity, or gullibility even, had compromised their entire operation and put so many priceless Egyptian heirlooms at risk.