Clockwork Doomsday
Page 27
Roux snorted. “I thought both of you were out of your minds.” He glanced at the dead shark. “But it appears you succeeded.”
Annja checked her watch. “We’re almost out of air. We’ve got to go up.”
Cursing, Garin pulled the metal darts out of his leg. Then he jerked a thumb upward. “We go slow and take a look around. If Melina and her people were here, you can bet her grandfather won’t be far behind.”
Together, they swam for the surface.
* * *
THE SHADOW OF a powerboat glided over the ocean above Annja when she was still twenty feet under. She angled for it, matching its speed easily because it was barely moving across the lagoon. A moment later, she popped up beside the boat and grabbed on to the side.
A man grabbed her wrist and brought his rifle around. He wasn’t one of Garin’s people.
Summoning the sword again, Annja ran the man through and let him fall, letting go of the sword and calling it back to her instantly. It didn’t do much good, though, because the four other men aboard the rigid hull craft turned their weapons on her. She was just about to throw herself back in the water when Georgios Andrianou held up a hand and shouted, “Stop! Do not shoot her!”
The men held their fire, but they didn’t like it.
Annja still thought she had a chance if she ducked behind the boat and swam as deep as she could as quickly as she could. She was holding her position when Garin squeezed her leg reassuringly as he swam under the boat.
Georgios pierced her with his gaze. “Where is my granddaughter? Where is Melina?”
“Down there.” Annja held the sword out of sight, not knowing if anyone had seen how she’d killed the first man.
The island rumbled around them, slowly but surely disappearing beneath the waves. Black smoke hovered over the area, muting some of the sunlight.
“Where is the old man?”
Before Annja could answer that, Garin grabbed hold of the other side of the boat, announcing his presence. The mercenaries turned to face him, swinging their weapons. But it was too late. Garin had the big .500 Magnum in his fist and fired so quickly that the four shots sounded almost like one thunderous clap.
The heavy bullets knocked the men backward, dead almost instantly.
Georgios Andrianou held up his hands. “I surrender.”
Garin held the massive revolver trained on the man. “I seem to be missing a ship. I trust you’re to blame for that.”
There was no response.
“Tell me, did you offer the men on that ship the chance to surrender?”
Georgios’s lips tightened and he made no reply.
“And you turned your granddaughter into a killer.”
“My granddaughter was a very brave woman.”
“She tortured Roux for days.”
“She did what she needed to do.”
Garin nodded. Cold anger stirred in his black eyes. “I suppose, in the end, we all do.”
“Garin,” Annja said softly. “He’s surrendered. There’s no need to—”
The big Magnum roared and spat fire. The bullet caught Georgios in the face and reduced his head to scraps of flesh and splinters of bone. He toppled over into the Aegean Sea.
“There was a need.” Garin shook the empty brass out of his pistol. He reloaded the weapon, then held the boat steady as Roux and Annja climbed aboard. Then he heaved himself aboard, as well. “Now let’s see about getting a ride home.”
Roux took the controls, bringing the boat around and powering it back toward the salvage ship.
They could hear gunshots out on the ship beyond the lagoon. Three lifeboats rode in the water next to Titan, and it was obvious that the survivors of Kestrel were boarding the ship and working their way through the enemy crew.
“It doesn’t look as if we need to hurry,” Roux observed. “Seems as if your people will have things well in hand by the time we get to them.”
Annja was just as happy with that. She’d had enough bloodshed today. The sword vanished from her hand while Garin was securing weapons and making sure they were loaded.
More explosions rolled over them from the island. As Annja watched, the tallest peaks of Michalis’s island slid below the waves.
Epilogue
Sitting under a festive umbrella at a small table outside a bar along the coast of Lesbos, Annja had to agree with Professor Thodoros Papassavas’s assessment of the island. It was paradise. The beach was cool to the point that she needed a loose shirt over the yellow-and-orange bikini she wore. The wide-brimmed straw hat shaded her from the bright sun, and the big sunglasses allowed her to watch the fishing and tourist boats out in the harbor. A short distance away, a volleyball game was under way between college-age men and women.
Annja’s tablet PC lay at her elbow, next to the sweating glass that held only the icy skeleton of the drink she’d had.
“Do you mind company? Or would you prefer to be alone?”
Glancing over, Annja saw Roux standing beside her in a Hawaiian shirt over a white tee, cargo shorts and sandals...with black socks that came up to midcalf. A straw hat hung over his back and wraparound sunglasses covered his eyes. He carried a drink in one hand.
“Company would be appreciated.”
Roux nodded and sat across from her so he could also watch the sea.
Annja grinned at his drink. “If there was any more fruit in that, I think it would qualify as a salad.”
Studying it, Roux smiled. “Perhaps, but it is a very potent salad.” He sipped. “You’ve been busy the past two days.”
“I’ve been calling everyone I can to raise interest in a salvage operation of the island.”
“I take it from your expression you haven’t met much success.”
“Not yet, but I haven’t given up.”
“You realize not much may have survived, don’t you? Michalis seems to have been adamant about that.”
“I’d still like to see.”
A young female server came by and Roux flagged her down, pointing to Annja’s glass. Annja didn’t protest.
“In fact, I was just thinking about calling my producer and telling him there’s a legend of a ghostly minotaur haunting the island ruins.”
He snorted.
“All I have to do is tweet a few times. By the time something gets picked up on the internet, it’s the truth. Once it goes viral, it becomes legend.”
Roux shook his head. “After all the years I’ve lived, I’m still amazed at the ways civilizations find to lie to themselves. I truly thought Orson Wells’s October 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds would have taught people not to believe anything media put out there. And Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton should have taught them that leaders tell the biggest lies.” He put up his hands in twin peace signs. “I cannot tell a lie.”
“Nixon never said that. He said, ‘I am not a crook.’”
“I know, and Bogie never said, ‘Play it again, Sam.’ He said, ‘Play it, Sam. You played it for her, you can play it for me.’ Wonderful film.” Roux sighed. “People are so much better at creating fiction than they are at preserving the truth.”
Annja laughed, then thanked the server for her refill. “Papassavas translated the scroll I brought out of the island.”
“Oh?” Roux didn’t really sound interested, but Annja didn’t have anyone else to tell. Actually, she had told Doug Morrell that morning. Doug had been polite, then asked her when she planned on getting back to work. They were going to need material for Chasing History’s Monsters soon. Especially after the witch fiasco.
“It was a warning to anyone who found Michalis to not take the spider crystal for granted, that it was the most dangerous thing he’d ever made.”
“At least he knew that. Most of them don’t.” Ro
ux adjusted his hat, then sipped at his drink.
“‘Most of them’?”
“The people like Michalis who play with unfettered darkness.”
“Are you ever going to explain what that is?”
Roux didn’t answer. Instead, he said, “Joan’s sword doesn’t make you invincible, you know.”
She did know that. Still, she wouldn’t turn away from people who needed her help or things that made her curious. That just wasn’t her way.
“Where is Garin?”
“Still asleep, it seems. Or maybe he found someone to spend the night with. He was hitting the bars when I saw him last.”
The idea of Garin hooking up with someone bothered Annja, and then it bothered her even more that she was bothered.
Roux looked at her. “Isn’t this your first time to the island?”
“Yes.”
“Then why don’t we go for a walk? We should make some good memories while you are here.” Roux sounded wistful. “In its day, Lesbos was said to be a wonderful place. Come with me and let me show you where Sappho and Alcaeus were purported to write their marvelous poetry.” He held up his drink. “If we find more of these along the way, I may even be persuaded to recite some of it for you.”
Annja didn’t hesitate. She’d had nightmares about Michalis’s workshop and the great white shark for two days. She put her tablet PC in her beach bag and stood.
Smiling, Roux got to his feet and looked out at the sea. Then he turned and began walking, sandals crunching in the sand.
Annja quickly caught up to him and linked her arm through his. Then Roux began to talk, telling her stories of heroes and heroines, of gods and goddesses, and willingly she let him sweep her away.
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781460315903
Copyright © 2013 by Worldwide Library
Special thanks and acknowledgment to Mel Odom for his contribution to this work.
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