by Joel Goldman
Dekker rubbed his head and waved his gun at Jake. “What the fuck…”
Jake raised his hands. “Apology accepted. Fantastic. Let’s get down to business. Shaw ordered you to kill us but where’s the profit in that? We can do more for you alive than dead so what’s it going to take? Name your price and you’ll be a wealthy man before you know it.”
“That’s rich, is what that is, Jester. You thinking you can buy me off.”
“Hey, a hundred million pounds goes a long way. If we don’t give it to Shaw, we can give it to you. And, your crew can have a taste if you want to cut them in.” Jake turned to the guards. “Don’t worry. If Dekker stiffs you, you’ll still have your jobs.”
The four guards wrinkled their collective brows and stepped closer to Jake, guns leveled at him. One of them said, “A hundred million? For what?”
Jake said, “For returning the Magna Cartas Dekker stole from the British Library. Tomorrow is the big payday. But, if he’s holding out on you, we’ll guarantee you fifty grand each for letting us go. That’s got to be more than you take home in a year. Easiest money you’ll ever make.”
“This is bullshit,” another guard said. “Nobody said nothing about no big fuckin’ payday. What about it, Dekker?”
“Uh, oh, Dekker,” Jake said. “Your boys don’t sound happy.”
“Shut your yap,” Dekker told Jake, “before I shut it for you.” He gestured to the guards. “And that goes for the lot of you. Just do your fucking jobs and don’t pay this asshole any mind. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
“He’s right about one thing,” the first guard said. “A hundred million pounds goes a long way. And, we’ll be having our cut.”
The four guards formed a semi-circle behind Jake, their backs to Cassie and Gabriel. Well played, Cassie wanted to tell Jake. She and Gabriel exchanged quick glances and nods.
Cassie grabbed a two-foot long battle hammer, with a spike on one side and blunt hammer on the other. Gabriel yanked a five-foot long pike with a still sharp blade from the suit of armor next to him. They each took out a guard with swift blows to the backs of their heads before the other guards were on them.
One of the two remaining guards tackled Cassie. She let go of the battle hammer and grabbed the guard’s gun hand as he tried to aim the barrel at her face, forcing his shot to go high and wide, the sound ricocheting down the hall. Cassie slammed her elbow into the guard’s nose, then jammed her thumbs in his eyes. He rolled onto his side and she put him out with a double-fisted blow to his temple.
Jake drove his foot into the side of Dekker’s knee as he tried to shove Jake out of the way. Dekker howled as his leg gave way and Jake knocked the gun from his hand. Dekker clamped his other hand around the back of Jake’s neck, forcing him to the floor and pinning him with his good knee planted in the center of Jake’s back. Dekker yanked Jake’s hair, arching his neck, then wrapped his arm around Jake’s throat and squeezed until Jake’s eyes widened and rolled skyward.
Cassie found her battle hammer, took a roundhouse swing and connected with Dekker, breaking his hold on Jake. Gabriel finished the other guard then drove the back end of his pike into Dekker’s midsection and whipped it against his head until Dekker collapsed in a heap.
Jake struggled to his feet, rubbing his neck. “Thanks, but next time don’t wait so long before saving my life.”
Cassie smiled. “I’ll put you at the top of my list.” She retrieved a dagger from another suit of armor and cut her dress off above the knee.
“Radical, but practical,” Gabriel said. “My kind of woman.”
Cassie looked at him. “I am not your woman.” She handed Jake the battle hammer and retrieved a short sword from a knight, hefting it and tossing it from hand to hand. “Nice weight. Good balance. I’ll take it.”
“It suits you,” said Gabriel. “But you might want one of these.”
He started to pick up one of the guard’s guns when two more guards came running down the hall toward them, semi-automatics blazing.
“Follow me,” Jake said.
Relying on his memory of the castle’s floorplan, they lost the pursuing guards in the maze of hallways and stairs. Each time they got close to an exit, they saw more guards waiting for them
“They’ve blocked all the exits,” Cassie said.
“I know,” Jake said.
“So where do we go?”
Jake pointed at the ceiling. “Up.”
FIFTY
JAKE LED THEM TO A hexagonal rotunda with a domed skylight ceiling fifty feet above a marble tiled floor. A sweeping double staircase curved along the walls to a second story landing bordered by a wrought iron railing with intricate scrollwork between the posts. As they raced up the right side of the staircase, two heavily muscled black-clad guards burst through a door on the ground floor. One had a ponytail and the other had a ring of barbwire tattooed around his neck.
“Give me a break,” Jake said. “Where do they get these guys? Hulks R Us?”
The guards spotted them and opened fire with semi-automatic pistols. They fell to their knees, crawling as fast as they could. The iron scrollwork gave them cover even as it showered them with shrapnel.
The guard with the ponytail started up the stairs while the other took the left side to intercept them on the landing. Gabriel rolled onto his back and hurled his pikestaff at the first guard as he rounded the curve of the stairs. The blade sunk deep into the man’s belly and he fell backward screaming, his arms pin-wheeling.
Jake and the other guard reached the landing at the same moment. The guard took aim at Jake as Cassie threw her dagger, hitting the guard in the arm. Grinning, he pulled the blade from his bicep like it was a splinter. Jake charged him, driving the battle hammer’s spike into the guard’s thigh. His momentum took them to the floor. The guard raised his gun and Cassie slapped it out of his hand with the flat side of her sword. Jake got to his knees and slammed the blunt side of the hammer against the guard’s skull, leaving him limp.
Cassie plucked a comms unit from the guard’s ear and tucked it into hers. “Now we can listen in.”
“Gotta go,” said Gabriel, as he joined them, carrying his bloody pikestaff in one hand and the dead guard’s gun in the other.
He nodded toward three more guards that were heading toward the stairs, shooting at them. Cassie picked up the other guard’s gun and they returned fire before her gun ran out of ammunition.
“This way,” Jake said and led them down the second-floor hallway, consulting his mental map. “There’s another set of stairs at the end of the hall.”
Cassie caught up with him. “Careful. They might be using those, too.”
She was bleeding from a shallow cut at the top of her right shoulder. The track of a bullet that had barely missed her skull.
“You’ve been shot.”
She glanced at the wound. “A little.”
“A little? How can you…?” He stopped short as they heard guards coming from both directions.
“We’re trapped,” Gabriel said.
“In here,” Cassie said, and opened a door in the center of the hallway.
Jake locked the door and studied the room. There was a window overlooking the sculpture garden that didn’t open. There were no other doors. The walls were painted a soothing pale blue and padded settees were arranged across the floor in rows as if for an audience. A grand piano occupied one corner and a variety of antique instruments were on display. The wall opposite the door was lined with shelves stuffed with antiquarian books. The large, comfortable space looked familiar.
Jake said, “This is the music room.”
“Good guess, Sherlock,” Gabriel said. “We’re still trapped. Tresch’s army will be pounding on the door any second.” He examined the slide bolt. “And, this lock won’t hold very long.”
Jake went to the bookshelves, running his hand along the spines of each book.
“Jake, I know you’re a collector,” Cassie said. “But I
don’t think this is a good time.”
He ignored her and began pulling out books only to push them back onto the shelf. The footsteps in the hallway stopped outside the music room. The side bolt jiggled. The door opened a fraction but the bolt held. Then the pounding started. Cassie and Gabriel took up positions on either side of the door, sword and pikestaff ready.
Cassie said, “Jake, what are you doing? We could use a little help over here.”
Jake eyed a book with dark brown leather binding. The Latin title, Ibi Reconditum , was spelled out in gilded letters on the spine. He repeated the title out loud, trying to remember enough of his high school Latin to translate it.
“Ibi Reconditum, Ibi Reconditum, Ibi Reconditum.”
The lock began to give. Cassie and Gabriel braced their backs against the door.
“Jake, what are you saying?” Cassie asked.
“I’m trying to remember my high school Latin so I can translate this title. Ibi means there, but I don't know what reconditum means …”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Gabriel said. “The translation is There Is Stored. Now get over here and lend a hand before we’re overrun.”
“There is stored, huh,” Jake said. “Makes sense.” He tilted the book toward him until he heard the click of a latch within the bookcase. He turned to Cassie and Gabriel.
“That was it.”
“What was it?” Cassie asked.
“ There is stored means hidden passage.” He pulled the section of bookcase toward him. It swung open, revealing a dark narrow passageway in the space between two walls. “Saw it on Ghost Chasers when they did a special on the castle but I couldn’t remember which book it was.”
Gabriel said. “Go, both of you. I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”
Using Jake’s battle hammer, Cassie shattered the window and broke off the jagged edges of glass. “They’ll think we jumped.” She motioned to Gabriel. “C’mon. You can be the hero another day.”
Cassie followed Jake into the dark tunnel, turning sideways to fit through the slender opening. Gabriel ran and joined them. Jake grabbed the handle on the back of the bookcase, and pulled it shut as the door to the music room cracked and splintered. Pounding feet and shouted curses filled the room. They stood silent in the blackness, not daring to move. Or even breathe.
FIFTY-ONE
THE SHUFFLING OF FEET in the music room stopped. Cassie eavesdropped with her stolen comms unit.
“It’s Dekker,” she whispered. “They think we’re outside. He’s on his way to the sculpture garden.”
“Would somebody please kill that guy,” Jake said.
Gabriel answered, “Next chance I get.” He opened the flashlight app on his phone, casting a gloomy glow. “Where does this lead?”
“It’ll take us to a closet in the master suite,” Jake said. “When Lord Edwin Kilpatrick lived here, he used the hidden passage to sneak out of the bedroom while his wife slept so he could visit his favorite housemaid. At least, according to the Ghost Chasers. From there, we can take another staircase to the third floor, maybe all the way up to the roof. If they think we’re outside, the staircase might be clear.”
“And I suppose you have a helicopter waiting,” said Gabriel.
“Not exactly. But we do have a limo and driver.”
“On the ground,” Cassie pointed out, brushing an ancient cobweb off her face. “Why go up to the roof?”
“Because Dekker won’t expect that. There’s a big trellis covered in ivy on the south side we can use to climb down. It’s above a duck pond. Worst case, we pretend we’re cliff diving in Acapulco. I’ll text McNulty to meet us there.”
The passageway ended at a door that opened into an empty closet. They emerged into a large bedroom furnished with a four-poster, canopy bed draped in richly embroidered red silk. Two naked party guests lay on the bed, entwined, eyes closed and moaning. Discarded pieces of their pirate and Southern belle costumes were scattered along a path from the door to the bed.
The woman opened her eyes, shoved her lover to one side and started to scream. Gabriel clamped his hand over her mouth. The man scrambled off the bed, armed only with his erection. He was older, with dark, thinning hair and a flabby midsection. “Who are you? Get out of here.”
“It’s all right,” said Cassie. “We’re on a scavenger hunt.”
“Where is everybody?” Jake asked Cassie.
She listened to her comms unit. “Outside. They’ve cleared the sculpture garden and are spreading out on the grounds.”
“So far, so good. You folks be sure to get some rest,” Jake said to the couple.
He led them down the hall, toward the tower that anchored one corner of the castle. They reached the tower and climbed up a spiral staircase with narrow stone treads wound around a central iron post, passing the third floor until they reached the roof.
They stood for a moment in the cold, clear night air, looking out over the acres of parkland that surrounded the castle. The nearest artificial lights were distant pinpricks in the dark. Jake oriented himself and pointed south. “This way.”
Jake trailed Cassie and Gabriel as they ran side-by-side across the battlements encircling the castle. The duck pond was somewhere between them and the next tower.
“I guess you aren’t going to work things out with Tresch,” Cassie said to Gabriel.
Gabriel shook his head. “He’ll just keep coming after me… after us, unless we stop him.”
“We?”
Jake caught up to them and interrupted. “McNulty will meet us at the duck pond. I told him to expect an extra passenger but you’ll have to pay half the fare.”
Cassie smiled, pleased by Jake’s peace offering. Then she saw a muzzle flash from the tower, the sound of the rifle coming an instant later as Gabriel fell.
They flattened themselves on the stone floor, hidden in the darkness from the sniper as a flurry of bullets ricocheted off the battlement wall. When the firing stopped, Cassie glanced over her shoulder at Jake who gave her a thumbs up. She knew the sniper would open fire again as soon as they raised their heads.
For an awful moment, she was back in Bosnia, watching from the helicopter as the man she loved was shot in the back, collapsing in the snow as a pool of blood spread around him. She couldn’t watch Gabriel die again. She inched toward him.
“It’s my right leg,” he said.
Blood was soaking from a wound in the middle of his thigh. She pulled his belt off and cinched it tight around his thigh above the wound, staunching the flow of blood.
“Can you move?”
“I’m not staying here.”
He handed her the gun he’d taken from one of the guards. “I’ve got a few rounds left.”
Cassie said to Jake, “How close are we to the duck pond?”
“Best guess, fifty feet, give or take.”
“Help Gabriel up and stay behind me, low as you can.”
Jake slung Gabriel’s right arm around his shoulders and looked at Cassie. “Ready.”
“Go!”
The sniper got off two quick rounds before Cassie fired back, driving him to cover. They reached the south wall directly above the duck pond. She was out of bullets. An instant later, the sniper opened fire again, bullets cascading around them.
They climbed over the wall and out of the sniper’s field of view, the last of his shots landing harmlessly above them. Clutching the trellis Cassie studied the duck pond. The near edge appeared to be a few feet from the castle wall, though she knew her height three stories above ground skewed her perspective. It was impossible to gauge the depth of the murky green water. They began their descent when another guard opened fire from a third-floor balcony.
Cassie yelled, “Jump!”
They plunged into the icy water. The bottom was deep enough to cushion the impact without breaking their legs. Pushing off, they stayed underwater for as long as they could and made their way to the far side of the pond. Gasping, they pulled themselves out of th
e water.
“You guys okay,” Cassie asked.
“Any landing you can walk away from,” Gabriel said.
“Next time, I’ll take the elevator,” Jake said.
McNulty’s limousine broke through the trees beyond the pond, fishtailing and skidding to a stop, headlights blinding them for a moment. They stumbled and ran toward the car as gunfire erupted from the other side of the pond. Cassie and Gabriel fell into a sodden heap in the back seat. Jake took the front passenger seat and slammed the door as a hail of bullets rattled the limo.
He told McNulty, “Kill the lights and get us out of here!”
McNulty gunned the engine, heading back the way they’d first driven onto the castle grounds, letting the moonlight guide him.
“Not that way,” said Jake. “They’ll trap us on the bridge. There’s got to be another way to get back on the main road.”
McNulty said, “There may be. I drove past a service road but it dead ends in a pasture.”
“Go for it.”
Moments after reaching the service road, a black SUV appeared behind them. McNulty stepped on the gas but the SUV drew closer. Someone was leaning out the window and shooting at them. Jake couldn’t see who it was through the glare of the headlights but had no doubt it was Dekker.
