Curse of the Druids

by Aiden James

  “Shit!” hissed Marie.

  “Yeah,” I added weakly. I couldn’t believe it, and yet, I should’ve expected it. After all, isn’t this the way things normally play out for me? There are no Disney adventures with sugar plum endings in my world. “Cut the engine, Ishi.”

  “Huh?”

  “Just do it. Trust me.” I scanned the area without waiting for him to comply. It could be an ambush… or maybe not. Logic told me to be wary of another vehicle carrying more Egyptians, or perhaps some hired local ‘extermination’ help. But I recognized the other cars, or I assumed I did. They all looked familiar. “You both stay here. Might be a good idea to wear the damned amulet again, but I’d duck down before putting it on. Just in case.”

  “Everyone’s either dead or being held hostage—that’d be my guess,” worried Marie. “You better not get yourself killed!”

  “Don’t worry—you can’t get rid of me that easily.” I took almost as much pleasure from Marie’s offended look as I did the fact her words revealed I hadn’t run out of time to make things up to her. Provided I didn’t get killed first. “I’ll grab our most important shit—laptops and the stuff that’s not exactly easy to replace. Anything either of you can’t live without?”

  “My prayer book and my journal,” said Ishi. “I will survive without the rest.”

  His expression told me there were more items he wanted, like his precious game systems, but perhaps considered the many narrow escapes we had in South America. I might come away empty handed or dead if I lingered too long, or stepped into a trap. Not beyond a realistic expectation. Obviously, the assholes knew we were staying at the B&B. And, worse, surely they knew we’d be foolish enough to return, despite what happened that morning.

  “Please be careful,” said Marie, her bottom lip trembling. Her look alone pulled on my heartstrings.

  Ishi started to ask a question, but I slid out of the car before either one could delay me any longer, shushing them both. With one last warning to stay low, I quietly closed the passenger door and scurried along the wooded areas and gardens to reach the main building.

  Frankly, I expected to be noticed by the crooks, an employee, or a guest. Yet, as far as I could tell, my presence went unnoticed. Perhaps, I caught a break by avoiding the main entrance and heading for the side door not far from the stairs to our second floor rooms. One might question why I didn’t check on the staff’s welfare—especially after not seeing anyone around. Not even a maid or maintenance man.

  This brings up Rule 141 and 142 from the Looter’s Handbook: “Save your skin to loot another day!” and “Never look for trouble, even if you know it’s somewhere close by. Grab your loot and run!”

  Cowardly? Yes. Practical? Absolutely. Something to inspire intense guilt nearly impossible to recover from? Unfortunately for me, that, too.

  I crept quietly upstairs, feeling the entire time that I was operating on borrowed time and would soon be discovered. Focused on grabbing Marie’s iPad and Ishi’s prized laptop, I almost forgot the prayer book and journal. As I went back into Ishi’s room to grab it, I heard angry voices coming from the main lobby. Angry men speaking in the same Masri dialect we heard that morning.

  I had to take a look, planning to investigate from a distance and then be on my way. But once I saw the innkeeper and staff being held at gunpoint by the five men I recognized from yesterday’s highway encounter, I couldn’t leave… not yet. Not without pulling these cold-blooded killers away, who wouldn’t be there in the first place if not for us. It took them less than a day to find our hideout, and now the lives of a dozen innocent people were at stake.

  Not happening on my watch.

  “Hey douchebags!” I called to them, from the breezeway next to the side exit. “How about pulling your thumbs out of your asses and come get your damned gold before I sell it all at wholesale prices!”

  While I wasn’t certain they wouldn’t shoot everyone before giving chase to me, it was the best I could do on short notice. Hopefully, the Egyptians clearly understood my words, since two of them turned toward me wearing perplexed expressions. No guarantees I hadn’t just royally jacked things up for all of us, it wasn’t until I added the universal symbol telling them to ‘bugger off’ that they turned their weapons on me alone and gave chase.

  I couldn’t provide much resistance while my arms and hands were full, and my latest prized knife was stashed in a holster tied around my left ankle. Not that it would’ve done any good. In truth, I soon realized I hadn’t thought this situation through very well at all—especially once I left the building and tried to follow the same path back to the car. A spray of silenced gunfire that sent bullets whizzing above my head took care of that notion.

  I sprinted for the car, praying fervently that Ishi or Marie were somehow aware of my present predicament. Impossible to know if they were sitting up or still cowering from view, as the Volkswagon appeared empty.

  Suddenly, the brake lights came on and the engine sprang to life. The front passenger door opened, seemingly on its own to anyone unfamiliar with the amulet’s curious properties. I didn’t dare stop, as more bullets filled the air around me. I dove in to the car and slammed the passenger door shut.

  “What in the hell’s happening?!”

  Marie’s piercing tone was especially unnerving, since I couldn’t see her. Nor could I see Ishi, though I felt the warmth of his breath and light scent of cinnamon from his preferred breath mints. A barrage of bullets shattered the top of the rear window, while others ricocheted against the roof. One of the taillights exploded, amid battle cries from five crazed assholes coming up fast.

  “Looks like we’ve got two cars we’re gonna have to pay for, darlin’, provided we’re still living. That’s what’s happening! Drive!”

  “Huh?!”

  “Drive, damn it!”

  Thankfully, it took nothing more to get her survival juices flowing. Marie floored the gas and we sped out of there. I expected more bullets—maybe even a kill-shot attempt or two. But our latest enemies had retreated back to the Audi. Which meant the reprieve would be short lived.

  The race was on to get to the highway. As Marie and Ishi began to materialize in the seats next to and behind me, I prayed for two more miracles: That we’d make it back to London in one piece, and out of England before it was too late.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “You sure you don’t want me to drive?”

  My question came when Marie struggled to remove the amulet and then insisted on putting it inside her purse I brought from Ishi’s room. An oversized model, I would’ve figured she could store a small arsenal inside. However, it looked like she’d have to dump out most of her makeup products and other contents to make room for our prize.

  “I’ve got it!” she insisted. “Shit! Can you resist the urge to grab the steering wheel, please?!”

  “Maybe we should pull over to do this?” worried Ishi, watching Marie repeatedly take her eyes off the road ahead.

  “I’ve got this damn it!”

  Whatever you say, sweetheart….

  It’s what I wanted to say, but anything abrasive could make the danger of weaving in and out of traffic more potentially deadly than it already was. Not to mention the odd looks we had received from quite a few occupants of the vehicles we passed. Could be the reckless lane changing going on…. Or, perhaps we were in some quasi ‘now you see us, now you don’t’ state. By the time we sped past Salisbury’s city limits, I could clearly see Ishi and Marie. But as long as the amulet rested on her lap, like a fortune teller’s glowing crystal ball, chances were high the three of us were invisible to the rest of the world.

  “You’re a great driver, babe, and I’m not trying to undercut your abilities in any way. But I can get us to the airport just fine.” I hoped I found the hair-thin line of sounding compassionate and persuasive. “Besides, you’ll be better handling the flight change information over the phone, since it’s all in your name—”

  “We’re n
ot going to the airport!”

  She lifted her chin smugly, and at first I thought it might be on account of the fact she had somehow succeeded in her mission to find a home for the Ambrosius Amulet inside her purse. Even managed to zip it up while navigating with her forearms and elbows. Glad Ishi missed that part, as his wide eyes alternated madly between both passenger windows in the rear of the car. Who could blame him? Especially after two near misses resulted in several blared horns in response.

  “She’s gonna get us killed,” he whispered, resignedly.

  “What in the hell do you mean we’re not going to the airport?” I demanded. “We can’t stay in this frigging country any longer. For Christ’s sake, can’t you see that?!”

  She took her eyes off the road to regard me. Honestly, the fairer sex seem to be the only ones capable of pulling off the transformation from homicidal anger to angelic peace with such speed and grace. A process that took at most five to six seconds.

  “We’re going to Scotland,” she said, calmly, like a sea left placid in the wake of a hurricane moving on to terrorize someone else. Again, how in the hell does any woman do that? “I can’t tell you why. At least not yet.”

  “Huh?! Don’t bullshit me… us!” I motioned to Ishi, whose focus had joined mine, completely on her.

  “You’re going to have to trust me,” she said, her voice softer, resolved. “I promise you’ll be glad you did…. In the meantime, I need Ishi or you to find us a hotel with a vacancy in or near Edinburgh.”

  “You’re going to drive up there?” I asked, and yes, in utter disbelief. “Have you forgotten that we’re being followed? Those guys will catch up to us—not an if statement here, but a when!”

  It was almost like she had completely forgotten our predicament from less than twenty minutes earlier. Hell, the wind whistling into the car from the shattered rear window should have served as a constant reminder of what was following us from some unknown vantage point, and of what could portend our fate.

  But changing Marie’s mind would be impossible—unless there was plenty of time to work with. Right then, there wasn’t opportunity to plan anything. No alternatives—none that I could see, anyway. Either to America by air or to Scotland by highway, it was dicey. In all likelihood, Yassir Ali already had someone waiting for us at Heathrow, and probably at the other airports as well. By now, his men knew our vehicle description and likely the license plate number, as well. They would eventually catch up to us on the road, too—it was logically inevitable.

  So, we were screwed in every way, whether it was by car, plane, or….

  “Ishi, do you still have your tablet hooked up for roaming?”

  “What do you need it for?” he asked.

  They both eyed me quizzically. At least for a moment, and then Marie’s round doe eyes of the deepest blue grew wide with terror.

  “Oh, holy hell, here they come!” She pointed to the rearview mirror.

  True. It was the Audi, flying toward us from the rear and gaining fast.

  Shit!

  “I need you to find a train station, Ishi—Quick!” I reached down to remove my knife from the ankle sheath. “Find one that looks like we can get to after we elude these assholes again!”

  “A few have popped up!” he said, frantically, after confirming our pursuers were less than fifty feet behind us, and closing. “We’re going to Edinburgh for Marie, right? How about this one… London Kings Cross station. I’ll give you the address, and enter the details into the tracking system…. “

  Honestly, I never thought we’d get much further, so I didn’t hear the details. If the Egyptians opened fire on us, we’d be dead. Or, they might opt to drive up along side us again to gloat before either forcing us off the road or rolling down the windows to shower us with bullets, or launch a grenade. The image of the assholes rolling down their windows appealed a little to the frontiersman fantasies I had carried with me since a kid. I could leap from our vehicle and into theirs, taking out the sons of bitches with well-placed punches and my Bowie knife. The bastards and me would then die in a fiery crash veering off the highway, an incredibly heroic fantasy….

  A big stupid fantasy that only worked in Hollywood.

  Suddenly, the car lurched forward as Marie floored the accelerator. In the next few minutes, I realized I didn’t know my gal well at all. Had no idea she possessed the skills necessary to not only elude the bad guys having trouble keeping up as she scurried across multiple lanes of traffic to make an exit that damned near took the Volkswagon’s front bumper in the process. Nor did I notice the police that soon came after us, until there were at least three cars in pursuit.

  “At least I lost the Audi,” she said, her eyes half on the road and half on the GPS guide telling her which streets to take. Mind you, all of this was done with no regard to anyone’s safety. I braced myself for a sudden deadly impact until the Volkswagon skidded to a stop under a bridge. “The train station is just a few blocks away, according to what I see here.”

  She pointed to the small GPS monitor in the dashboard and then cut the engine. Meanwhile, amid Ishi’s and my labored breaths, police sirens grew closer. From the sound of things, several more police vehicles had joined the chase.

  “We’re running out of time—Grab your shit and let’s get out of here!” urged Marie, throwing off her seatbelt and preparing to bolt from the car.

  Ishi cut me a look that begged me to take over the reins, but she was right. We needed to do another disappearing act quickly, and not the temporary ‘amulet’ kind. We loaded our arms with what we could comfortably carry, and set out on foot in the direction of the train station. Before we made it a hundred feet from the Volkswagon, the police arrived. In seconds, they surrounded all exits from beneath the bridge. There was nowhere to go.

  Marie and Ishi froze where they stood, while half a dozen officers exited their vehicles. That’s when I noticed a small archway to one side of the bridge. I grabbed them both and sprinted for it, ignoring the calls for us to stop.

  “Get the amulet ready, Marie!” I told her, as we neared the archway. Yeah, I know what I had just said… but I called an audible as we ran toward deeper shadows. Meanwhile, several flashlight beams crept up fast from behind. It would be quite an encore if playing Houdini this time worked as well as it had earlier. “Is it out—”

  “Yes!” she said, cutting me off. Just in time.

  Hard to tell when exactly we ‘vanished’ from sight, but the cops—four guys and two gals—shook their heads in disbelief as they investigated the area around us. I worried our body heat might alert them to something odd going on—especially when one of the females shivered. She looked right at me, squinting her eyes to see what her instincts said was standing there in the gloomy emptiness. I prayed she didn’t follow up on her gut and reach out to grope the air.

  “What is it, Shirley?” asked one of the men.

  “Not sure… just a feeling.”

  “We missed them,” said the other gal. “I guess we can try to find out who they are from the car.”

  “The car is empty!” one of two cops investigating the Polo called to the others.

  Ishi’s dessert tort from the sandwich shop was all they found. Marie would thank me later for remembering to take the rental agreement from the glove box, even though technically only the diminutive Tawankan’s ass would be in hot water. Just joking, of course…. But at least it would take a little while to match up the serial number with the rental car company, and then finally to Ishi.

  “All right, let’s get a team out here to process the Volkswagon,” said the first cop. “The rest of us need to spread out and find these guys. They couldn’t have gotten far.”

  “I think one was a woman, and another was a kid,” said the lady cop who kept looking toward me, and thankfully seeing nothing. “Could be a family on the run?”

  “From what?” asked the other girl, as they began to move out from our area. “Anyone get a good look at them, so we’ll have somethi
ng discernible to look for?”

  “Not sure… But I’ll recognize them if I see them again.”

  Two of the cops almost brushed up against us as they left to search elsewhere. We stood deathly quiet. It took me a moment to realize we still had our arms full of our shit. I was amazed that inanimate objects touching our persons had also become invisible. How did the damned amulet discern what belonged to us and what did not? I was beyond being amazed, and shook my head when I noticed Marie giggling.

  “How quickly you forget the miraculous,” she chided, apparently amused by my childlike wonder. “And, yet, you haven’t seen anything. Not really.”

  She refused to expound further. Ishi and I would have to wait for answers… hopefully not long. Damned straight our coy princess had some serious explaining to do.

  Nothing short of a detailed report would suffice. One where all the facts were honestly revealed.

  Chapter Fifteen

  We had enough cash to buy three tickets for the 2:00 p.m. train to Edinburgh. Since it was just after one o’clock when we stepped away from the ticket booth, it meant we had to survive another hour before our train would depart.

  Feeling a bit antsy, since it had seemed far too easy to enter London’s Kings Cross station and procure our passage north, I kept a wary eye out for our Audi buddies. I hoped our crowded surroundings served as an effective deterrent to getting assassinated. Of course, in a city known for its ethnic diversity, anyone of Middle Eastern descent came under suspicion. Equally important, we had to hide our wariness and nervousness.

  What about the police? That would be the most urgent question. Correct?

  Believe it or not, we walked right past three of the team looking for us. One cop hovered near the main entrance. Spotting him gave us ample time to collect ourselves and casually enter the train station, laughing jovially as if we had not a care in the world. This officer glanced at us a few times, but never lingered long enough to reveal he had made a connection from earlier. I recognized him as the one investigating the Volkswagon.