by Alex Lukeman
CHAPTER 61
Albert Halifax settled back in the soft leather and sipped whisky from one of Gutenberg's collection of fine single malts. The glow of a Tiffany lamp on the end table cast a mellow light over his polished wing tip shoes. He was on his third drink. Across from him, Gutenberg sat with a similar glass in a similar chair, waiting for Halifax to come to the point.
The British Chancellor of the Exchequer had arrived unannounced earlier that afternoon, accompanied by his personal bodyguard. The two men sitting in Gutenberg's study were the last leaders of AEON.
Halifax broke the silence. "A thousand years and it comes to this."
"What do you mean, Albert?"
"You know what I mean. Centuries of work undone and all because of an upstart group of Americans no one seems able to eliminate. It reminds me of Shakespeare, done badly."
"Shakespeare?"
"Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" Halifax quoted. "Richard the III." His voice was husky with the Scotch.
"It's not over yet, Albert."
"No?"
"No. Besides, it's not just the Americans. The Russians are responsible for most of the events of the past week."
"Russians, Americans, what's the difference? We're next."
"This isn't like you, Albert. Get hold of yourself." Gutenberg's voice took on an edge of steel. "You're safe here. Tomorrow the containers will be taken to the airfield. By the next day, the disease will be released over Moscow and New York and everyone will be too busy to worry about us. I should have done that in the first place instead of sending Schmidt. We only need to be patient a while longer."
"I can't say I'm sorry about Krivi," Halifax said. "Pushy wog. But I must admit, he was useful."
"Look at it this way. Albert. You and I now control all of AEON's resources. We'll find new men to take the place of the others and this time, we'll consolidate the power between the two of us. Lately things had become too..."
"Democratic?" Halifax finished for him.
"Yes, exactly."
Shouts sounded somewhere in the building. Then the sound of automatic weapons.
"What was that?" Halifax said.
Gutenberg stood. "Come with me."
Halifax rose as Gutenberg strode over to a wall of books. He reached up to the fourth shelf and tugged on a leather bound volume near the end. The bookcase swung open, revealing a lighted passage beyond.
The two men stepped inside. Gutenberg pulled on a lever and the bookcase slid shut. They were in a passage three feet wide, lit at intervals by bulbs overhead.
"You devil," Halifax said. "I haven't seen one of these servant passages in years."
"It's quite extensive. We can go anywhere on the first and second floors. There are peepholes in each room."
Intermittent gunfire sounded through the walls. The sounds were muted inside the passageway.
"This way," Gutenberg said.
They moved down the passage until they came to a corridor branching off to the right.
"What about stray rounds?" Halifax asked. His voice was nervous.
"We're safe in here. The walls are stone, nothing's coming through them."
Gutenberg stopped and peered through a small opening in the wall. A lever protruded from the wall. He pulled it down and a section of the wall opened into a dimly lit room. The sound of shooting was much louder.
"Where are we?" Halifax whispered.
"This is the gun room," Gutenberg said.
He went to a large glassed cabinet and opened it with a key he took from his vest pocket. One side of the cabinet held shotguns and rifles in an upright rack. The other side held a second, smaller cabinet with several drawers. Gutenberg pulled open the bottom drawer and took out a German Luger pistol and two loaded magazines. He inserted a magazine into the gun, pulled back on the toggle slide and stuck the pistol in his belt. He dropped the second magazine in his jacket pocket.
"This one's for you." Gutenberg handed Halifax a Walther .380. "It's loaded. I assume you know how to use it."
"Of course."
Halifax managed to sound offended. He reached around Gutenberg and took an engraved over and under shotgun from the rack.
"I prefer one of these."
Gutenberg shrugged. "As you will. Ammunition is right there."
Halifax loaded the gun. "Now what?"
"Now we find out what's happening. My men should have things under control by now."
A sudden burst of fire in the next room sent them scurrying back into the hidden passageway. The door closed behind them.
"That doesn't sound like it's under control," Halifax said.
"If you have nothing positive to say, keep quiet."
Without waiting for a reply, Gutenberg moved along the corridor and put his eye to the spy hole looking into the next room.
He saw two of his men lying on the floor. Both were dead. A man in gray battle dress and wearing a red beret stood over one of the bodies. Gutenberg recognized the insignia on his collar.
"Russians," he hissed under his breath.
"Russians? Why would they be here?"
"They're after me," Gutenberg said. "And if they know you're here, they're after you too."
"What shall we do?"
"Nothing. We wait until they decide we're not here and go away."
The shooting had stopped.
"You might as well get comfortable," Gutenberg said.
CHAPTER 62
Nick waited at the head of the stairs by the kitchen door. Ronnie and Selena were on the steps behind him.
"Ready?"
He pushed the door open. It moved a few inches and lodged against something soft and heavy. Nick looked through the opening and saw part of a brightly lit kitchen counter. A rack of metal pots hung over it. The shooting had died out. He pushed harder until the door was open enough to slip through. The body of a large man in a white apron and shirt had been blocking the door. His shirt was red with blood. A large knife lay near his hand. Vegetables were scattered over the floor.
"They shot the cook," Selena said. "Why do that?"
"He's a witness," Nick said. "Whoever it is, they're not going to leave anyone alive in this building."
"They must be after Gutenberg, just like we are," Ronnie said.
"Yeah. You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Russians?" Ronnie said.
"Probably Spetsnaz. Vysotsky's people."
"How many you think?"
"Not too many. Maybe eight or ten. They wouldn't need more than that."
Nick led them over to where the kitchen doors stood open to the rest of the Château.
"Too bad Korov isn't here," Ronnie said. "We might get by without shooting it out."
"You want to try and convince them we're on their side?" Nick said.
"Nah. Just sayin'."
Nick turned to Selena.
"You see movement, don't hesitate. Shoot it."
"What if it's someone like the cook? Not one of the Russians or Gutenberg's men?"
"Hear that?" Nick asked.
"Hear what? It's quiet."
"Exactly. The shooting's over. They've killed everyone they came across. You see someone, they're an enemy. Take them down."
She nodded.
"They don't know we're here. If I were them, I'd be headed this way to check out those vaults. I don't want to get stuck in this kitchen. We'll take it to them."
The doors from the kitchen opened onto a wide hall and staging area with tables where dishes could be set before being taken to the dining room. To the left of the staging area, stairs led up to the second level. To the right, the space was taken up by storage closets. Straight ahead, the passage continued toward the rest of the ground floor. Another body lay facedown beyond the tables. He was dressed in a suit. The stock of an assault rifle stuck out from under his body. His blood made a wide red pool on the floor.
One of Gutenberg's guards, Nick thought.
They moved past the body and took up posit
ions on either side of the opening where the hall moved on into the rest of the building. Voices sounded ahead, coming closer. They were speaking Russian. Nick held up three fingers and mouthed on three.
One. Two. Three.
On three, they leaned around the doorjamb and opened fire.
The first thing Selena saw was three men in gray battle dress and red berets. They carried short barreled assault rifles that looked ugly and efficient. The bullets knocked them down before they had a chance to raise the rifles. Out of sight in an adjoining passage, Selena heard someone start shouting in Russian.
Ronnie took a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin and hurled it down the passage. They ducked back. The grenade detonated and Nick ran forward into the hall. Without thinking, Selena followed. Someone looked around a corner and fired. The rounds whistled by as Nick shot him. She sensed Ronnie pounding along the hall behind her. She felt invincible, strong, adrenaline punching through her veins.
They passed the spot where the grenade had gone off. The walls and floor and ceiling were spattered with blood. Two bodies lay on the floor, blown apart by the grenade. At least she thought it was two. It was hard to tell.
Behind the wall, Gutenberg watched them go by. He recognized Carter.
Those are the people who have been causing so much trouble, he thought. Well, they won't be doing it for much longer.
The dining room had a long, polished mahogany table with a gleaming crystal chandelier hanging over it. Vysotsky's men opened fire as Selena started into the room. Bullets ripped into a half dozen oil paintings hung on the wall behind her. A round slammed into her vest and knocked her back into the hall and onto the floor. She gasped for air.
Ronnie and Nick fired into the room. The chandelier exploded into glittering fragments. The noise of the guns was deafening. A door opened on the opposite side of the hall. She rolled to her side and fired at the opening. Someone screamed and fell back into the room.
Then it was over.
The hallway stank of burnt powder and hot metal. The coppery scent of fresh blood seeped into the air. Nick came over to her.
"Give me a hand," she said.
He helped her to her feet. "You're okay?"
"It just knocked the wind out of me. I'm fine."
"I make it nine dead Russians," Ronnie said.
"That figures. Eight enlisted and one officer," Nick said.
"We still haven't found Gutenberg."
"He's probably hiding."
Somewhere a door closed.
"You hear that?" Ronnie said. "It sounded like it came from the kitchen."
They ran back the way they had come and into the kitchen. The body of the cook still lay on the floor. The door to the vault was closed.
"Didn't we leave that open?" Selena asked.
Nick nodded. "Somehow Gutenberg must've gotten past us and gone down into the vault."
"Bad move," Ronnie said. "He's trapped."
"Yeah. Maybe. Or maybe not. Why hide where he can't get away?"
"There could be another way out," Selena said. "Something we didn't see when we were down there."
"Only one way to find out," Nick said. "Let's go see."
In the vault beneath the kitchen, Gutenberg and Halifax stood in front of a tall wine rack.
"Help me empty this," Gutenberg said.
He began pulling bottles off the rack, two and three at a time. They shattered on the stone floor, splashing wine onto his dove gray slacks.
Halifax said, "My dear man, this is hardly the time for a glass of wine."
"Don't be an idiot, Albert. There's an old tunnel behind this that will take us outside the walls. This isn't the first time the château has been under siege. Now, give me a hand."
The two men began throwing bottles onto the floor. The wine spread in a growing pool around their feet. Soon the heavy wine rack was light enough to move. They pulled it away from the wall, revealing a dark, wooden door.
A rusted, iron ring hung from the middle of the door. Gutenberg took hold of the ring and pulled. With difficulty, it began to come open.
CHAPTER 63
Nick came down the steps, MP-5 held close by his cheek. He heard something scraping across the floor. He reached the bottom of the steps and saw Gutenberg and another man in front of a door set into the wall of the vault.
"It's all done, Gutenberg. Stop what you're doing."
Gutenberg froze. He turned toward Nick and raised his pistol. But he wasn't pointing at Nick and the others. The gun was aimed at the rows of steel containers.
"I wouldn't advise you to shoot," Gutenberg said. "Bullets will ricochet in here from the stone walls. If one of them hits any of those containers, you are all dead. It will take a week or so before they put your rotting, blackened body into the ground, but you'll still be dead. If you make one move toward me I'll fire."
"Nick, he means it," Selena said. "He's crazy."
Gutenberg heard her and laughed. "Crazy? I'm not the one who's crazy. It's people like you."
Ronnie whispered in Nick's ear. "I can take him. Let me take the shot."
"Don't try it," Gutenberg said.
"Looks like we have a stalemate," Nick said. "You know I can't let you go."
"You don't have a choice. I really will shoot, you know. Let me make a proposal."
Beside Gutenberg, Halifax started breathing heavily. He raised his hand and began rubbing his chest.
"Humor him, Nick." Selena's voice was quiet.
"I'm listening," Nick said. "What did you have in mind?"
On the side of the room, the big boiler fired up. The flames made a low, steady roar in the background.
"We're going into this tunnel," Gutenberg said.
Halifax clutched his chest. He gave a strangled cry, dropped his shotgun and fell against Gutenberg. The shotgun struck the floor and went off. The blast struck the big meter feeding gas to the boiler furnace. Gas poured out with a loud hissing sound. Ronnie fired at Gutenberg and hit him in the shoulder, sending his pistol flying. Gutenberg cursed and ducked behind the wooden door and pulled it shut behind him. They heard a bar fall into place on the other side.
The air in the vault stank of escaping gas.
"We have to get out of here," Nick said. "That gas will blow and we can't do anything about it."
"Which way?" Selena asked. She coughed.
"The way we came in. It's the quickest way out."
They ran to the stairs leading to the lower vault and scrambled down them. Fresh air blew in from the river, clearing away the cloud of gas that followed them. They went through the old door. The moon had come out, shining pale silver light over the river. Their raft was tied where they'd left it. They clambered in and paddled hard, away from the château. They'd reached the middle of the river before the gas exploded.
The sound was like deep thunder inside a mountain. A billowing gust of flame shot out of the open door in the lower vault. The retaining wall blew outward into the river, sending stones splashing into the water just yards away from where they fought to put distance between themselves and the building. Waves rocked the raft.
"Whoa," Ronnie said. "Look at that."
The foundation had been undermined by the explosion. The back wall of the building collapsed in slow motion and dropped into the water with an ominous grinding sound. Plumes of water fountained into the air and rained down around them.
One of the tall towers began to lean.
"The whole building is going," Selena said. "The vaults must have been destroyed. They were holding everything up."
The tower toppled onto the roof. A second tower crumbled, then the roof fell inward and the building collapsed upon itself. The noise was unlike anything Nick had ever heard. A great cloud of white dust rose into the moonlit night. The rumbling and grinding of stone went on for what seemed like a long time before the sounds died away.
The château was gone. Only the outer walls remained.
"Gutenberg," Selena said.
&nb
sp; "He was under all that. He has to be dead. Keep paddling. Don't forget those cylinders full of plague were in there."
"They must have been wiped out by the explosion," Ronnie said. "The fire would have burned off anything that got released."
"Probably, but I don't want to wait and find out the hard way that it wasn't."
They paddled downstream until they came to the narrow cove they'd used to launch into the water. Their rented van was hidden under the trees nearby.
"What about the raft?" Selena asked.
"Leave it. We don't have time to pack it up. We need to get away from here. Get changed."
They changed into civilian clothes. The weapons and gear went into an aluminum case. Their diplomatic passports would get them past inspection and back to their plane, waiting in Geneva.
CHAPTER 64
Nick sat in the comfort of a wide leather armchair in the forward cabin of the Gulfstream, sipping an Irish whiskey. They were two hours out of Switzerland, headed back to Washington. He could feel the tension leave his shoulders as Ireland's magic began working.
Selena sat next to him, head back and eyes closed, asleep. Ronnie was in a chair across the aisle, reading a magazine.
He thought about everything that had happened in the last few weeks. It was a blur. He thought about Adam and wished he could tell him that AEON was finally finished. Even though he'd never known his real identity, in some way Adam had become a friend.
Nick thought about the people he'd seen dying in agony in Brazil. He hadn't been able to stop that from happening, but they'd kept Gutenberg from carrying out his plan to kill millions more. An evil man. If there was a hell, Nick hoped Gutenberg was in it. It was what he deserved.
He raised his glass. "Pretty good work," he said.
"What is?" Selena was awake. She yawned.
"Stopping Gutenberg. I was just thinking about what an evil bastard he was. We stopped him. Like I said, pretty good work."
"Pour me a drink."
Nick took ice from a bucket by his chair, added it to a fresh glass and filled it with whiskey.
"Here you go," he said.
