The Lost Power: VanOps, Book 1

by Avanti Centrae

  “Why is that?” Maddy asked, stiffening.

  That’s odd. Why is she holding her breath?

  The old man’s eyes twinkled. “There is plenty of rumor in the family about this quest for the châsse, some of which I suspect are additional verbal clues left by Ferdinand, or perhaps Isabella.” He nodded to the final page, “Why don’t we see if William can translate this first clue and then we will enjoy our coffee and, how do you say, gossip?”

  Maddy turned the book to face Will. In faded hand, the start of the quest was outlined in Old Spanish. Will translated: “‘Find the center of the world that looms over an abyss, a bottomless pit. Listen and you can hear the souls of the dead.’”

  CHAPTER 25

  Spain, June 29, 9:10 a.m.:

  Hear the souls of the dead’ echoed in Maddy’s head as she drove the rental car down the twisty mountain road, away from the baroque family castle. Dinner with the king had been revealing, both before and after they looked at the codex. Her head was still spinning with the idea that they were in a deadly race with the Russians to find an ancient artifact that may have been used by Alexander the Great. What dangerous power was hidden inside the châsse? What would happen if the Russians found it first?

  This morning, they had said their farewells in a large, central, rectangular courtyard that boasted a number of porticoes and two pools, one on each of the rectangle’s short sides. Although she’d enjoyed her time with the surprising Catherine, she was not sorry to see the castle fade in her rearview mirror. Too bad AJ couldn’t have seen it. Kids love castles.

  Bear had called shotgun and sat next to her with his usual stick of chewing gum in his mouth, looking out the window. Will was in the backseat, smoking, sitting sideways to make room for his long legs. Her backpack with all their essentials was on the middle of the front seat.

  Maddy thought back on the visit. “I think I know why the Russians want to kill us.”

  “Yeah, why?” Will asked.

  “Less competition for the châsse.”

  “Could be.” Will muttered something under his breath.

  “What?”

  Will slapped his thigh. “I just want to go home. What chance do we have against trained killers?”

  Maddy gripped the steering wheel tight with both hands. Their odds weren’t good, but she couldn’t let Will slip into despair. And there was no better choice. “Our best chance is to keep moving. To outsmart them.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  Maddy changed the subject. “Prince Carlos looked like he wanted to kill us, too. Didn’t he just seem like a slithering, angry snake to you guys?”

  “He was creepy. I remember hearing that his Siamese twin brother died when they were both boys. That could make a guy angry.”

  “Your disgusting smokes could make me angry. Why do you have to smoke in the car?”

  Will blew smoke toward her.

  Maddy exaggerated a cough. “Catherine told me about that death once she came out of her shell. It was called a swimming accident at the time.”

  “An accident, huh?” Bear asked.

  “Yeah. They were twelve. It was in the river down there by that hundred-foot waterfall we saw on the way up.” She glanced to the rushing rapids in the canyon below.

  To her right, on the other side of the road, was a tall, vertical cliff face. The drive through the canyon reminded her of Northern California rafting adventures with Vincent. They’d been planning a Class IV trip down the North Fork of the American River in late July. She bit her lower lip at the twinge of unwelcome emotion.

  “Was it really an accident?” Will speculated.

  After meeting Prince Carlos, Maddy wondered the same thing, and Catherine’s tone when discussing it had been...odd. The prince seemed callous, and Maddy had had a bad feeling when they left.

  “Who knows?” Bear responded. “What do y’all think about the clue?”

  Maddy was somehow glad that Bear now had the full story. “I’ve thought about it so much I have it memorized: ‘Find the center of the world that looms over an abyss, a bottomless pit. Listen and you can hear the souls of the dead.’ I’m looking forward to having internet access to do some research. In the meantime, the destination sounds grim but I have no idea where it actually is, do you?”

  “After sleeping on it, I think it means the Well of Souls, under the Dome of the Rock.”

  “The Dome in Jerusalem? Why there?”

  “The Well is a cave underneath the Dome. The name comes from a medieval Islamic legend that the spirits of the dead can be heard as they wait for Judgment Day.”

  “Why would Ramiro lead us there?” Will asked. “It’s nowhere near here.”

  “The why is a little harder, but I’m thinking that in his day, Jerusalem would have been a pilgrimage site, right?”

  “Sure, if you say so.” Will’s tone sounded doubtful.

  Bear blew a small bubble. “Well, as we were leavin’ dinner, didn’t the king mention that Ramiro came to power around 1035, when he was about twenty-eight, and died in 1063?”

  “Yes, I remember thinking it odd he also ruled for twenty-eight years.”

  “Okay, so the Dome of the Rock is situated in the center of the Temple Mount, the site where the Jewish First and Second Temples stood. Then, for hundreds of years, Jerusalem was primarily Christian. Thousands of pilgrims came by the cartload to experience the places where Jesus walked.”

  “Can you get to the point?” Maddy asked with a smile.

  “Hold your pants. After the Muslim Siege in 637, the Dome of the Rock was constructed between 689 and 691, if I’m rememberin’ right.”

  “How do you know all this crap?” Will asked.

  “How do you know all that engineering crap?” Bear riposted.

  Maddy felt intrigued that Bear became talkative when discussing history. “Touché. Bear, please go on.”

  Bear smiled. “Okay, so the crusaders didn’t capture Jerusalem until 1099!”

  “Thirty-six years after Ramiro passed on.”

  “Right. During his time, there was likely some Muslim pushback about Christians visiting the town, which is what historians think led to the Crusades. But if you consider Ramiro, during his life and for hundreds of years before, Jerusalem would have been a popular tourist-type destination. As a side note, the Knights Templar believed the Dome was the site of the Temple of Solomon.”

  Maddy considered this information. “Could Ramiro have belonged to the Knights Templar?”

  “The timing’s not right. The Templars weren’t officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church until around 1129.”

  Will jumped in, “Sixty-six years after Ramiro died.”

  “You’re good at math.”

  “Thanks, just not history,” Will said.

  “Leave that to me.”

  “Deal.”

  Bear continued, “Anyway, Jerusalem is full of history, religious history to boot, so if Ramiro were a religious man, and who wasn’t back then, it would have been a logical place to hide somethin’.”

  “After dessert, the king did hint that the clue pointed to the Middle East,” Maddy added, impressed that Bear knew so much history.

  Will blew smoke out his window. “Either that or he was trying to misdirect us.”

  Maddy hadn’t considered this possibility. “Why would he do that?”

  “What if we find this weapon, this power? Might we take the kingship from him?” Will asked.

  Maddy steered the car around another curve, grateful she was behind the wheel and not carsick. “In this day and age?”

  “The Russians want it. He might be worried. Or Prince Carlos might be,” Will said, to bolster his argument.

  “I could see Prince Carlos going for some misdirection,” Bear said.

  Maddy considered this but it didn’t add up. “But Prince Carlos doesn’t know about this quest.”

  “Maddy the Innocent. How could you live in that house, have relatives pop in every time somebod
y dies, and not know something was up? There’re probably even listening holes bored into that dining room wall,” Will said.

  “Good point,” Maddy conceded.

  “Listening holes! I like how you think, Argones. We should assume Prince Carlos knows. But back to where we’re headed. The king did mention that all the sites might not necessarily be as old as Ramiro. And don’t forget his passing comment about strange lights in Isabella’s rooms,” Bear said.

  Maddy added, “And he mentioned a rumor that the source of the power could come from the relic of a saint. That old codex cover had a saint on it, and he’d heard that Vladimir the Great’s finger bone might be in the châsse.”

  “And do you think a saint’s bones have some kind of supernatural power?” Will’s tone was sarcastic. “I’ll bet the king tried to mislead us, and there’s no new age or even old age saintly power that we’re going to find at the end of the rainbow.”

  Maddy piloted the car around yet another curve. At least they had made it down the hill and the road had leveled off.

  “Mr. Skeptic, why are you okay with coming along then?” Bear asked.

  “Going on the quest might lead us to the Russian killer,” Will said.

  His answer surprised Maddy.

  “You said you wanted to go home. Are you sure you want to find them?” Bear asked with quiet insight.

  “I do. If I can’t turn back time, I’d like justice for Dad and Maria, or at least revenge.”

  Maddy could see Will’s wry smile in the mirror.

  She considered Bear’s point and wondered if the three of them would be able to subdue the killer if they did find him. Will wasn’t exactly the Incredible Hulk and she didn’t exactly have a lot of real-world fighting experience. What if the sniper brought a team?

  They came around a blind corner, and the waterfall appeared in the distance. She found the narrow road up ahead blocked by several small Spanish-model cars. Some kind of accident?

  “Look out!” Bear yelled.

  As she braked to avoid the cars, shots rang out, hitting her windshield and the hood. Bear and Will both ducked. Maddy swerved and her mind raced.

  She ruled out stopping the car.

  She ruled out ramming the group of cars in front of them.

  She ruled out turning around.

  That left a swim in the river.

  She just hoped they could get out of the car--she hated feeling trapped. And all their goodies were in her backpack.

  Instead of braking, she gunned the accelerator. The car thrust forward and flew over a small levee. Maddy hit the auto-window “Down” button as they vaulted through the air and plunged into the water with a hard jolt.

  CHAPTER 26

  9:45 a.m.:

  Within seconds, the car sank into the river. Bear was glad it was summer and that he knew how to swim as he slid out of the passenger window into the cold, rushing torrent. He spit out his gum. Maddy sure was a quick thinker, but who were the bastards shooting at them?

  The river smelled of water weeds and summer days. Opening his eyes underwater, Bear looked around. Maddy grabbed her pack and squeezed out her window. Will was right behind her through his window.

  Bullets traced through the blue water. They swam downstream to avoid them.

  Once Bear finally came up for air, the river pushed him into a narrow gorge, below the enemy. The current separated him from the twins. Bear tried to yell at them, but got a mouthful of water for his trouble and could hear only rushing water.

  And now they had to deal with the river, which, judging by the lack of visible stones, was deeper than his familiar rocky rivers back home. But to be on the safe side, Bear kept his feet up and pointed downstream to avoid any submerged rocks, or hidden logs and branch snags, all potential death traps.

  Bear was a solid swimmer, but the swift-moving river was difficult. After a bend, the river left the gorge, widened, and filled with rocks. His feet bounced onto a hidden stone, then off and around to the right. It was hard to maneuver with his boots on and try as he might, he couldn’t make any progress against the current.

  Touching bottom for a fleeting moment, he tried to stand. The lethal current threw his ribs into a jagged boulder, which forced him to scramble back into the “feet downstream” position. Grasping at rocks also proved futile.

  The river narrowed again and the water roiled, taking him down into a trough and then up onto the crest of a wave. As he topped another upsurge, he got a glimpse of sky, indicating a drop-off. He grimaced. It was probably that huge waterfall he’d seen right before the shots were fired.

  He used all his strength to swim toward shore, twisting onto his stomach and pulling hard against the current. When he realized he wouldn’t make it, he slapped his palm against the water in anger, causing a tall splash, and turned his feet back toward the looming falls.

  He came up to the top of another wave with a sickening pitch. When his head popped above the water, he could see Maddy and Will were also headed for the waterfall. The sound of it filled his ears, roaring what could very well be their death song. His stomach gripped with fear.

  It could kill Maddy.

  He had to admit, if only to himself, that he did still have feelings for her. With desperation born of last chances, he pulled toward the shore with all his might, drawing an arm-over-arm backstroke away from the drop-off. He swore, but the current held him. And then he was hurtling over the falls like a cannon ball.

  For a long minute as he fell over the waterfall’s edge, Bear felt weightless, like he had during his parachute training. Time slowed as he got a peek through the water in his eyes and saw the river far below. Ignoring the scream in his head, he tried to keep his feet heading down as he fell.

  And fell.

  And fell.

  Then, with a bone-crunching splash, he hit, boots first. The jolt quaked his feet, spine, and head before he submerged, churning in an underwater tornado.

  Not knowing which way was up, he tumbled, his arms and legs askew. His lungs burned, and he started to get dizzy as he struggled in vain to move against the massive, washing machine surge. He realized this was a hole at the bottom of the waterfall and recalled the advice to ball up if caught. It was his nature to struggle, but since that didn’t get him anywhere, he gave in, clutched his knees, rolled a few more times, and was finally spit out into calmer water.

  Relief flooded him. He opened his eyes and turned until he could see the blue sky. With powerful strokes, he kicked up, broke the surface, and gulped the sweet, precious air.

  Right away, he looked for Maddy and spied her, wearing her backpack, not far from him in the pool. She smiled at him, their eyes locked and his heart felt warm liberation from his concern for her safety.

  Another deep breath, then he broke his eyes away. Will gasped for air behind him. Will’s head went down and didn’t come right up. Had he gotten caught in the same hole? Maybe took on some water?

  Bear dove toward him.

  Will struggled, just under the surface. Swimming up behind him, Bear put both his hands under Will’s armpits and pushed him up to the air. Will gasped and then went into a coughing fit while Bear held his head out of the water, kicking furiously.

  After a long bout of coughing, Will spit out the last of the water. “Bear. Oh my god! I got caught in a whirlpool!”

  “It caught me, too.”

  Will looked at Bear with wide eyes. “You just saved my life!”

  Bear had been too caught up in the action to think about it. “I guess I did. Just glad you’re okay. Can you swim now?”

  Will tried a few strokes and spoke back over his shoulder, “Yes, sir!”

  Will headed toward a small beach on the left bank of the river. Bear and Maddy followed suit. They dragged themselves from the river and collapsed on the beach.

  Bear threw a stone in the water while catching his breath. “I sure hope those shooters don’t come down here looking for our dead bodies.”

  “Yeah, we need to ge
t out of here fast,” Maddy agreed.

  CHAPTER 27

  Jerusalem, Israel, June 30, 1:35 p.m.:

  Inside a taxi, as they twisted and turned through the streets of Old Jerusalem, Maddy caught glimpses of the shimmering Dome of the Rock around corners and between buildings, a golden egg floating in a sea of sandstone.

  Maddy wondered again who had ambushed them at the river. The king? The Russians? Her best guess was that Prince Carlos, their cousin, had felt threatened by their hunt for the ancient artifact and ordered them killed.

  She was not only glad they escaped but also relieved she managed to grab the backpack with the diamonds and cash in it when they were forced to swim for their lives.

  After they had caught their breath, made sure Will was fine, dried off, and checked that the contents of the backpack were safe, they hiked to the nearest town and boarded a bus to southern France. Once over the border, they confirmed that they didn’t need a visa to visit Israel even with their fake passports. They then took a train to Marseilles and flew to Jerusalem without further incident.

  As they traveled, Maddy experienced a practical sense of anxiety when they were in public. Since leaving Lake Tahoe, she found herself watching the crowds for burned, blond-haired men and listening for Russian accents. After the attack yesterday, her antennae were also tuned for a Spanish threat.

  The sun shining off the cupola in the distance reminded her of the mosque’s strict visiting hours and that the clock was ticking.

  She said to Will and Bear, “So remember, we just have an hour this afternoon.”

  “Yes, we know,” Will replied, while Bear watched the world go by.

  “And if we can’t find anything today, it’ll be a long weekend.”