by Sean Ellis
“Dad, no.” Annie's pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears, but she did not give up. “Just let us walk away.”
“Do what you have to do,” whispered Kismet, nodding to Higgins.
Hauser fixed both eyes on Kismet. He raised the box with the Seed and waved it triumphantly. “Game, set and match, Kismet.”
“What about the experiment?”
Hauser laughed. “There was only ever one rule to the experiment; do not interfere. Oh, I’ve wanted you dead so bad I can taste it, believe me. I had hoped you would die in that Iraqi hellhole, but someone—” He rolled his eyes—his perfect, unblemished blue eyes—and mouthed a single word: Mom. “Decided that I had interfered by blowing up your ride and leaving you stranded, so she pulled strings like you can’t imagine, to ‘balance the scales.’
“Her interference made it so much easier for me to take over.” He had lowered his voice to a barely audible mutter for the aside, but then spoke clearly again. “But rules are rules. I’m not going to tell Higgins to kill you. But I am certainly not going to stop him.”
Kismet nodded to his nemesis—brother? “Then I guess I'll see you in Hell.”
As if Kismet’s words were the signal he’d been waiting for, Higgins’ thumb extended up to pull back the hammer, cocking the pistol and readying it to fire.
Time seemed to freeze. Elisabeth, standing beside Hauser, clutched his arm as if he were a prize she’d finally won. The security team around the perimeter of the courtyard had lowered their weapons again, and were watching as if hypnotized. Hauser continued to stare across the plaza at Kismet, holding the box above his head, as if daring the heavens to take it away...
And in a heartbeat, they did.
Higgins turned, swinging around slowly, almost ethereally, away from Kismet. His movements seemed almost without volition, as if he had been programmed like an automaton. His hand kept moving, smoothly adjusting, elevating slightly, and then he pulled the trigger.
The firing pin was released with a sharp ‘click’ and pivoted forward, striking the primer on the brass cartridge dead-center. The gunpowder charge ignited into a ball of expanding gas, driving the lead projectile out of the barrel at nearly the speed of sound. The bullet screamed through the air, but traveled only about thirty feet before striking its target with unfailing accuracy.
The metal box containing the last Seed of the Tree of Life rang for a split second with the impact of the 9-millimeter round.
An instant later, it erupted with a thunderclap that dwarfed the barely heard report of the pistol.
* * *
The detonation threw everyone aside like so much chaff. Kismet lay stunned in the aftermath, momentarily forgetting who and where he was. His senses returned after a blurred moment and he groped for Annie. She lay, dazed but apparently unhurt, a few feet away. Higgins lay supine, the pistol flung away.
Hauser and Elisabeth were standing, dazed and peppered with shrapnel wounds, locked together at the heart of a blazing inferno of violet light. Hauser’s arm was still outstretched, but it ended at his wrist, which was now just a ragged, oozing stump.
The flames grew around the pair like a blanket, dancing lovingly on the ravaged flesh of Hauser’s wounds. Tendrils of energy, the same hue as that which had burned in the cavern of the Fountain of Youth, caressed his skin, crackling on the stump of his maimed arm, probing into the deep shrapnel wounds, and wherever the flames lit, the injuries seemed to evaporate like smoke.
Kismet pulled Annie to him, and then together they crawled toward her father. Higgins was stirring, apparently unhurt. “Nick?” His voice was a distillation of misery. “I had to do it. Couldn’t let them have it—had to save Annie—it was the only way.”
The words struck Kismet. The betrayal in Florida seemed a distant memory, something he’d managed to push to the back of his mind in order to focus on his sole objective—getting Annie back from Prometheus at any cost. He didn’t want to think about what had motivated Higgins, and didn’t have the mental energy to second guess the man’s desperate decisions.
“It’s okay, Al.”
“I can't see.”
There was a shriek from behind them and Kismet looked up in time to see Hauser, his clothes in burning tatters but his flesh perfectly restored, thrust Elisabeth aside. She stumbled back, screaming as fingers of plasma reached out from Hauser to caress her, and then tightened around her like a cocoon.
There was a flash, and Elisabeth evaporated.
The flames arced back into an exultant Hauser. He stood there, contemplating the power coruscating down his arms and at his fingertips. Energy flowed like liquid into his nostrils and mouth, and for a moment, the fire seemed to be burning from beneath his skin, growing in intensity until the brilliance forced Kismet to cover his eyes.
He recalled something Leeds had told him during their first encounter, an idling speculation about how the miracles of Jesus Christ might be attributable to his possession of a similar Seed. Leeds had hypothesized that Jesus had somehow integrated a Seed into his own body, and that when a Roman centurion had pierced him during the crucifixion, the energies released had transformed the dying Christ into a divine being—an entity of pure energy.
That had been Leeds’ ambition all along. To find the Seed and turn himself into a god. And now it seemed that Hauser was undergoing such an apotheosis.
The Prometheus leader inhaled the potent forces, as if consciously willing them to pervade every molecule of his body, to infuse every atom of his being. As the unleashed power of the Seed grew from a violet flame to a burning white-hot fever pitch, his flesh was transmuted into living energy. Tissue boiled away, replaced by a vague outline of energy that flared brighter and brighter—
And then winked out completely.
EPILOGUE
Paid in Full
For a few minutes, Kismet wasn’t even sure that he was still alive. The light and fury of Hauser’s transformation had reached a crescendo and then...nothing.
He couldn’t see or hear anything.
But gradually, his other senses began filling in the gaps. The air was alive with ozone. His hands were touching something that was both soft and firm, and he recalled that he had been huddled together with Annie and Higgins...yes, he could feel human warmth in his fingertips, and a faint pulse of life.
The darkness was receding a bit. Familiar shapes were emerging out of a brown haze as his eyes began to recover sensitivity, one wavelength of the spectrum at a time. He saw the pillars of the colonnade surrounding the Court of Lions, but for a moment couldn’t penetrate the shadows beyond.
“What just happened?” Annie whispered.
Kismet shook his head; he didn’t have an answer.
Hauser and Elisabeth were gone, but so also was the Prometheus security team, vanished just as surely as if they’d been caught up in the conflagration.
He discounted that idea. It was more likely that, upon witnessing the destruction of the Seed and Hauser’s—death?—they had decided to evacuate the site. With the Seed gone, there wasn’t any reason to stay anymore.
And as Hauser had said, there was just one rule where Nick Kismet was concerned: Don’t interfere.
“Is it over?” Higgins’ asked.
Kismet could tell by the way Higgins’ eyes darted back and forth that his vision hadn’t recovered yet. He had been looking right at the Seed when it exploded, struck blind gazing upon the glory of God...
Something like that anyway.
Annie was tearfully hugging her father. Kismet wasn’t sure what to think or feel about the other man now. He understood Higgins’ motivations; they weren’t all that different from his own. His decision—his betrayal—had probably saved them all in Florida.
But it still stung like a son of a bitch.
He sighed. Some wounds took longer to heal, even with magic potions.
“It’s over. Come on. Let’s get out of here.” He gripped Higgins’ biceps and started guiding him toward the nearest gate.
>
“What happened?” Annie asked again, staring in disbelief at the spot where Hauser and Elisabeth stood a few minutes before. There was a faint starburst pattern on the paving stones, as if that place alone had been bleached by the sun, but that was the extent of the damage to the courtyard. “The Seed...what was it? Was it really from the Tree of Life?”
“I don’t know,” Kismet answered honestly. He had examined it briefly after Joseph King had handed it over; it did look like something from a fruit. But it could just as easily have been an artifact, something crafted as a receptacle for the unique energy that had sustained a select few legendary men throughout history and infused the water in a Florida cave with the power to restore life. He had once remarked that it was science, not magic, but now he wasn’t so sure. If it was some application of science, then it utilized principles that were beyond the grasp of anything he’d ever heard about—and wasn’t that the very definition of magic?
“I don’t know if there ever really was a special Tree,” he continued, “Or a Garden of Eden. Maybe everyone got it backwards. Maybe the whole idea of the Tree came from the fact that it kind of looked like a seed.”
“But...how did it do all that? Heal and destroy at the same time? And what happened to Hauser? Is he dead?”
Kismet just shook his head. “He’s gone. Maybe he transcended the flesh, became one with the universe...Maybe he just went ‘poof.’ The important thing is that it’s finally over.”
“You came back for me,” Annie realized aloud.
Kismet suddenly found himself locked in her embrace, her lips pressing against his. He did not resist. A moment later, she leaned back and tousled his hair. “So...you’re not exactly the older man anymore.”
“I’m sure the effects are just temporary. I hope they are. I have to shave twice a day just to keep this beard under control.”
“I kind of like it.” She kissed him again. “And I’m flattered that you were willing to sacrifice the secret of immortality to save me. I just hope it was worth it.”
Kismet gazed back at her, and then glanced at Higgins, who shuffled sightlessly along. The ordeal had cost a lot more than just the Seed.
But maybe the old saying was true, maybe time really did heal all wounds. It had taken more than twenty years, but it finally felt like the ordeal that had begun that night in Iraq was over. The chains that had bound Higgins to him were finally broken. He didn’t know if their relationship—friendship, camaraderie, brotherhood, whatever it was—would endure, but at least the shadow that had corrupted it was gone.
“Definitely,” he answered finally. “Because I got my friends back. Both of you.”
Higgins gave a wan smile and nodded, though Kismet could tell that his eyesight hadn’t yet returned. Maybe because he’d been staring right at the blast, it wouldn’t...
He took out his hip flask. “Al, you look like you could use a drink.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SEAN ELLIS is the author of several novels. He is a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resources Policy from Oregon State University. He lives in Arizona, where he divides his time between writing, adventure sports, and trying to figure out how to save the world. You can find out more about Sean at his website: www.seanellisthrillers.webs.com.
OTHER THRILLERS BY SEAN ELLIS
NICK KISMET ADVENTURES
The Shroud of Heaven
Into the Black
The Devil You Know (e-novella)
DODGE DALTON
The Adventures of Dodge Dalton in the Shadow of Falcon’s Wings
The Adventures of Dodge Dalton at the Outpost of Fate
SECRET AGENT X ADVENTURES
(Available on Kindle, Nook, and other ebook formats only)
Secret Agent X: The Masterpiece of Vengeance
Secret Agent X: The Scar
Secret Agent X: The Sea Wraiths
OTHER SEAN ELLIS THRILLERS
Dark Trinity: Ascendant (from Variance Publishing)
Magic Mirror (from Gryphonwood Publishing)
Callsign: King novellas with Jeremy Robinson
Table of Contents
Copyright
PROLOGUE
PART ONE Strange Bedfellows
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
PART TWO Audience with the Dead
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
INTERLUDE Deliverance
PART THREE Grave Secrets
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
PART FOUR Depths of a Legend
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
EPILOGUE Paid in Full
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
OTHER BOOKS BY SEAN ELLIS
