Maskeen ducked down, covering his head. “Please don’t shoot me! I don’t know what any of this is about. I beg you, don’t shoot me!”
The cowboy eyed the cowering lab assistant dispassionately. “Mister, get on up. I ain’t got no quarrel with you.”
With trembling hands raised above his head, Maskeen rose.
“Like I said, I ain’t got no quarrel with you,” Leroy repeated. “Less of course you’re a double-dealer.” He raised the gun and aimed it at Maskeen’s head. “So you tell me straight out. Are you a double-dealer?”
“A what?” the lab assistant quavered with rising hysteria.
“A double-dealer, old son. Somebody who takes money from the boss with one hand and sells him out with the other.”
Maskeen tried to form words but failed. All he could manage was a violent headshake.
“Course you ain’t. One look at that scared rabbit face tells me so. Put yer hands down.” Leroy replaced his gun in its shoulder holster. Then he put his hat back on his head. “Maskeen, is it?”
The man nodded shakily, lowering his arms.
“Congratulations, Maskeen. You just been promoted.” Leroy reached out and shook the man’s limp hand. “See the boss needs somebody to run the operation while it’s windin’ down. I think you’re just the feller for the job. You know the ropes, don’t you?”
Maskeen gulped. “Yes,” he agreed faintly.
“Well, it’s like this. The preacher says he wants you to make enough vaccine for everybody. You think you can do that?”
Maskeen stared at him helplessly. “Everybody? I have no idea how many people that is.”
“Me neither,” the cowboy agreed ruefully. “I expect it’s a couple thousand but don’t quote me on that.”
A look of panic crossed Maskeen’s face.
“Now don’t you fret none. Here’s my advice. You get your people workin’ round the clock on that vaccine til the boss says ‘whoa’. He’ll send one of his long-faced brood over here every couple days to pick up what you got. OK?”
Maskeen nodded dazedly.
Leroy clapped him on the back. “You play straight with the boss and do like he says. Otherwise, I might have to pay another visit and you wouldn’t want that now, would you?”
“No!” the man exclaimed loudly. “I’ll do whatever you want.”
“I know you will. Do yer job right and a month down the line you’ll leave this place for good with money in your pocket and no need to cross paths with me ever again.”
The new lab director relaxed slightly at the cowboy’s assurances.
Leroy glanced down at the body lying on the floor. “Before I go, we got to do somethin’ about this mess.”
Maskeen peered at him bleakly. “But what?”
“The boss tells me you got a nice hot oven in this place. Is that true?”
The director nodded doubtfully.
“Then here’s what you do. Round up a couple of yer boys. The kind who can keep their traps shut. Tell ‘em to bring a body bag. Then you zip up the trash and stick it in the oven. Easy-peasy.” The cowboy scowled at the floor. “Shame about the rug. A little stain remover and some elbow grease should get that right out for you.”
Maskeen stared at him open-mouthed.
“Well, I gotta saddle up and hit the dusty trail.” He tipped the brim of his hat and grinned. “Y’all have a nice day now, you hear?”
Chapter 44—Prophet And Loss
Erik busily flipped through the pile of papers strewn across Metcalf’s desk. On Maddie’s orders, he was making one final sweep of the Diviner’s office for anything he’d overlooked earlier. The field team would soon be flying back from Sweden which meant it was almost time for the final showdown between the Nephilim and the Arkana. If they hoped to foil Metcalf’s plan for global destruction, any small detail might be critical to their success. The Paladin swore under his breath. There was nothing here he hadn’t seen before. The Chatelaine would have to make do with the intel he’d already given her. Erik hoped it would be enough. He was on the point of leaving when he heard a key scrape in the lock. He froze. It was two in the morning. Who could possibly be moving around this late? He dove under the desk and pulled the office chair in close to his body. Luckily, it was a huge desk and there was room enough for both him and the chair.
He couldn’t see who had entered but he recognized the voice. It was Abraham Metcalf. He was muttering something that sounded like a cross between a prayer and a complaint.
“Lord, I beg for your aid. The devil besets me at every turn. He has sent his imp to break my rest once more. Annabeth pursues me from beyond the grave.”
His words lapsed into slurred incoherence. If Erik didn’t know better he might have suspected the old man was drunk. Then he remembered the gossip about the Diviner’s “medicine.” Whatever it was, he seemed to be under its effects now. He might even be sleepwalking.
Erik relaxed a hairsbreadth. If he was spotted here, maybe Metcalf would think he was a hallucination. Better yet, the old man might not even remember the encounter the following morning.
“I need the comfort of your revelations, Lord. Tonight of all nights. I can only quell the attack of demons with your words. Yes, yes. That will surely drive them away.”
To the Paladin’s relief, the Diviner didn’t pull out his chair and sit down. Instead, he shuffled to the other side of the office. Erik leaned down and peeped under the bottom of the desk to see what the old man was doing.
Metcalf pressed his hand against one of the carved wooden inlays in the wall and a panel door slid noiselessly aside.
“What the hell?” Erik murmured inaudibly.
The Diviner disappeared but the Paladin heard what sounded like a metal door opening in a hidden passageway.
Several minutes later the old man returned and sealed the wall behind him. He was talking to his god again. “As you can see, Lord, I have taken special care to preserve your holiest prophecy. Not safe in my prayer closet any more. No, no. Not after Annabeth. Her satanic master wanted her to destroy all the sacred writings. But I have protected this in my vault where her demon claws can’t tear it to pieces.” He trundled to the front of his desk and dropped what sounded like a heavy book on its top.
Erik could hear the sound of Abraham leafing through the pages, whispering gibberish all the while.
In a louder voice, he announced, “The devil shall not prevail. Your words tell me so, no matter how sorely I am tried. You imparted this foretelling to my predecessor but it was meant for me. For me alone! I will heed your command, Lord. I am faithful to the end.”
The Diviner flipped another page and began to intone a passage aloud from the book he’d retrieved. “‘And in the end times shall arise a mighty leader. He shall rule the Blessed Nephilim and set their feet upon the path of righteousness. His name shall be called Abraham for he shall be the father of his people as it was in the beginning. And he shall cleanse the world with pestilence and plague. He shall grind the Fallen to dust beneath his feet. But let him be mindful of the Bones Of The Mother. For whosoever shall lay hands on them will claim the Sage Stone and receive the power to change the world forever.’”
Erik stifled a gasp. He’d struck the motherlode. This explained everything. Metcalf’s insane quest for the Sage Stone finally made sense. The Paladin wanted to commit the entire passage to memory but doubted he could. His attention was immediately diverted as the old man started mumbling again.
“Phanuel, you’ve returned.” His voice sounded glad. “Lo, the Lord has taken pity on me and sent you. I have seen dark visions of late. Too many dark visions. I took double the medicine tonight but it wasn’t enough. It’s never enough these days no matter how much I take. Not like at the beginning when you showed me the splendors of paradise. A shadow has passed across my heart. Across my eyes. Banish the shades of night, I beg you.” Metcalf paused as if listening to a voice. “You want me to come with you?” He took a few paces toward the door. “Yes, of cou
rse. I will gladly follow wherever you lead. Open the gates of the celestial kingdom to me once more.”
The Diviner had apparently forgotten about his book of prophecies entirely. He was now engrossed in a conversation with an invisible angel. There was some kind of dialogue going on but Erik couldn’t make any sense of it. Metcalf walked out of the office and locked the door behind him.
Erik waited until the echo of the lopsided conversation had receded down the hall and out of earshot. Then he crept out of his hiding place to assess what he’d learned. It was finally clear to him why three surveillance cameras were pointing at a blank wall. Metcalf had concealed a secret vault behind the paneling. It probably housed all the artifacts he’d been accumulating over the years including what he thought were the genuine Bones Of The Mother. He must have felt the prophecy itself was at risk and stored it among his other treasures.
The Paladin considered it a lucky break that Metcalf had been pestered by bad dreams tonight and needed the reassurance of his sacred text. He grinned broadly. The book still lay open on the opposite side of the desk. The Paladin briefly examined the cover and realized it was a book of prophecies made by a diviner who’d lived a century earlier.
He drew a sheet of printer paper from a stack lying on the windowsill. Then he copied the prophecy verbatim. When Maddie had sent him on this errand tonight, she’d hoped he might find some tiny clue to give them a tactical advantage over the Nephilim. Erik felt confident that what he’d just stumbled across would help them shut down the Brotherhood once and for all.
Chapter 45—Do You Believe In Magic?
“We’re back,” Cassie announced as she strode into Maddie’s office at the Vault.
“So I see.” The Chatelaine looked up from her paperwork. “I’ve just been going over the status report Griffin emailed me. Is the Sage Stone secured in the cave?”
“Lars is guarding the site even as we speak,” the Scrivener assured her.
The visitors drew up chairs in front of the Chatelaine’s desk.
“So we’re gearing up for the final showdown.” Maddie pushed her files aside and regarded the two intently. “Would it be safe to assume a double-cross?”
Griffin and Cassie both nodded gravely.
“We’ll be lucky if all Metcalf does is cheat us out of the prize,” the Pythia said. “More likely he’s planning to kill us and drag Hannah back to the compound for keeps.”
“I wish I could tell you that you’re wrong, kiddo.” Maddie pursed her lips. “But based on what he’s devised for the rest of the world...” She trailed off ominously.
“Was Erik able to figure out what Metcalf is up to?” Cassie asked.
“Yup, and it’s not good.” The Chatelaine gave them a recap of the Diviner’s scheme to release pneumonic plague at targeted locations in every major country in the world.
Cassie and Griffin stared at her in stunned silence once she finished speaking.
“Wow.” The Pythia exhaled. “This is even worse than we imagined.”
“We might still have a chance to short-circuit the plague attacks,” Maddie told them. “It’s unlikely that Metcalf will give the green light to his minions until he has the Sage Stone in his hands.”
“So our job is to keep him from getting it in the first place,” Cassie concluded.
“Hi, guys. Welcome back.” Zach breezed into the office and took a seat on a corner of Maddie’s desk. “Sorry I’m late. I got held up in traffic.” Oblivious to the tense mood in the room, he turned brightly to the duo. “Kudos! I heard you actually found the Sage Stone.”
“We found its location,” Griffin corrected.
“What’s the diff?” The tyro looked puzzled.
“A whole lot.” The Pythia launched into an explanation of the reliquary scales protecting the artifact as well as the dangers of a cave collapse if any force was used to extract it from its hiding place.
“No matter what the risks are, we have to stop Metcalf from nabbing it,” Zach said.
“We?” Griffin raised his eyebrows.
“Maddie already told me she’s going with you to the rendezvous,” the boy said defensively. “And I’m going too.”
“Are you nuts?” Cassie stared at the tyro. “This isn’t a game, Zach. People could die.”
“I know,” he admitted in a small voice. “People like Hannah. I can’t stand by and let that happen.”
The Pythia turned toward Maddie. “I can’t believe I’m the one saying this but he’s way too young. Tell me you’re not letting him tag along.”
The Chatelaine gave a resigned shrug. “Here’s the thing. During my time as ops director, I’ve managed some unruly trainees but this kid is more trouble than a sack full of ferrets. He’s even got Erik’s record of tyro snafus beat all to hell. I swear, some days it’s like playing whack-a-mole just to keep him in line. If I forbid him to go, he’ll simply find a way to get there on his own.”
“True dat!” Zach gave an emphatic nod.
Griffin squinted at the boy. “What language are you speaking?”
Maddie continued. “We can’t have him popping up unexpectedly at the worst possible second and maybe getting us all killed in the process. At least if he’s part of the rescue party, I can keep an eye on him.”
“Bringing him with us is the lesser of two evils, I suppose,” the Scrivener conceded grudgingly.
“So how are we going to take the Nephilim down?” Zach searched their faces keenly. “What’s the plan?”
Cassie and Griffin exchanged startled glances.
“Honestly, we haven’t had a chance to think that far down the road,” the Pythia said.
“Then it’s a good thing that I did,” Maddie rejoined. “For the past few days I’ve done nothing but ponder ways to play this recovery mission.”
She paused to collect her thoughts. “Since we already know we’re walking into a trap, if we go in there with guns a-blazing everybody dies. We have to find a way to minimize the risk to Erik and Hannah knowing full well that our opponents won’t show the same restraint.”
A derisive smile played about her lips. “There’s one upside to an organization run by a tyrant. Obedient followers make lousy successors. When you hamstring a dictator, you paralyze his whole organization. That means our best strategy is to immobilize Abraham Metcalf.”
“Neat trick if you can pull it off,” Cassie said. “But how?”
“The Diviner is in a fragile mental state. As a cure for his raging insomnia, he’s been dosing himself with some kind of opiate that makes him hallucinate. The guy is hanging onto reality by a very slender thread which we’re going to do our best to unravel.”
Maddie’s explanation was met by blank stares so she elaborated. “We gaslight him into doubting his self-appointed destiny. Erik stumbled across some kind of goofy prediction when he was searching through Metcalf’s papers. The old man believes he was ordained by his god to possess the Sage Stone and that it will allow him to conquer the Fallen. When things go sideways because he can’t unearth the artifact, I’m betting he’ll start to fray around the edges.”
“But why wouldn’t he be able to unearth it?” Zach challenged. “I mean, you’re going to let him take first crack at opening the reliquary, right?”
“Yes, but he’ll be using his own set of artifacts to do it,” Maddie replied.
“I see.” Griffin turned toward Zach to explain. “His collection won’t work. The weight of the false relics is bound to differ, however slightly, from the originals which we possess.”
“The labrys key won’t turn in the lock if even one of those artifacts is a mismatch,” Cassie added.
“That’s what I’m counting on,” Maddie said. “After Metcalf flounders around for a while, we make him step aside and we use the real artifacts to release the Sage Stone. I want Cassie to be the first one to touch it.”
The Pythia chuckled grimly. “It ought to make his head spin when I point out that the Arkana not only collected the original B
ones Of the Mother and succeeded in opening the reliquary after he failed, but that we laid hands on the Sage Stone before he did.”
“We want to shake Metcalf’s confidence in his destiny to the core,” Maddie answered. “When he sees that events didn’t play out as foretold, he might fear that the Sage Stone won’t give him the power he expects. If he really is as drug-addled as gossip says, it will take him a few minutes to process all that. We know his people won’t attack unless he commands it. While they’re standing around waiting for him to give the word, we spring into action. We disable as many of his guards as we can, grab Hannah , Erik, the Sage Stone, and make a run for it.”
“I take it we’ll all be armed,” Griffin posited.
“You better believe it,” Maddie asserted.
“Even with firepower, your entire plan amounts to cut and run,” the tyro protested in disbelief.
“Here’s a wild idea,” Cassie offered. “What if the Sage Stone really does have some kind of supernatural mojo? Metcalf is staking his entire evil plot on the fact that it does. Since I’m the one who’s going to grab it first, maybe I can use it to protect us.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Maddie countered. “All those crazy stories about the mystical power of the Sage Stone are just that—stories. Nobody in the Arkana believes in that nonsense. We try to keep our feet on the ground.”
“Then how do you explain me?” Cassie objected. “The Arkana relies on a Pythia’s psychic powers to find artifacts. That’s about as airy-fairy as it gets. What if magic is just science that we still haven’t found a way to measure and understand?”
Maddie rolled her eyes.
“I’m serious,” the Pythia persisted. “There are things in this world that defy logic. Maybe the Sage Stone is one of them.”
“She’s right,” Griffin agreed. “Science has no rational explanation for a very long list of phenomena: spontaneous human combustion, telekinesis, incorruptible bodies that refuse to decay hundreds of years after death, just to name a few.”
The Sage Stone Prophecy (Arkana Archaeology Adventure Series Book 7) Page 26
