The Keepers of the Rose

by DJ Dalasta

  Elias was pissed off. His brow was creased to form little pockets and he dripped sweat as though he’d been sitting in a sauna. He hadn’t said a word since they lost Rock. For the moment, he brooded silently. Michael was sure he’d explode at some point in the near future, most likely in his direction.

  After Rock killed the pilot with two well-placed shots, there wasn’t anyone left in the chopper that could fly it. Luckily, there was a second pilot with the ground teams and he was quickly brought to the scene. By the time all that could happen, Rock had eluded them and disappeared somewhere on the roads of rural Tennessee. They continued the search for another couple hours but had to return due to low fuel. On the way back, they were dropped off at the blockade sight.

  Michael found the scene disturbing. It had the gritty feel of something out of a war movie. The ground was littered with metal bits, broken off from the collision of vehicles and they were mixed in with various small trails of blood and scraps of flesh. Wounded men were lain out to the side being tended to in a field type scenario. Their cries of pain weren’t going to ebb anytime soon. They should be rushed to the hospital but Michael knew Elias wouldn’t give them the luxury. He’d ship them off to his own doctors once they were stabilized. Otherwise they’d be left here for dead.

  Michael could ignore most of the scene without much of a problem. It was the line-up that he felt was inhumane. In the middle of the small clearing were four men and two women on their knees with hands held behind their backs and two men standing behind them, pointing guns. It was going to be an execution.

  Despite his feelings, Michael didn’t flinch. After Elias had killed Gavin and the other heads in Miami, he had made Michael second in command due to his knowledge of the parties involved. His sole purpose was to retrieve Rock Tilton and the rose and his reward for accomplishing this task would be his brother. Elias was holding Malcolm hostage and as long as Michael played along, he would live. It wasn’t a positioned he would have chosen, but it was what he’d been dealt.

  He confidently walked up to one of his men. “Fill me in.”

  The man rolled his head around and looked at Michael. His dismissive attitude told that he’d been in this situation before. “Five of ours dead. Three wounded. Three of the five were killed by gunfire, two by the collision. Only one of theirs dead, he’s still hanging out the truck.” The man pointed to the smashed vehicle. The fire had been contained but black smoke still billowed from beneath the crumpled hood. As he stated, one body hung out the window, half a torso inside and half out.

  “What about them,” he asked pointing to the line-up.

  They both looked at the prisoners. It was the only term Michael could use that fit their description. “The three men we took out of the truck, the other guy and the two women we found hiding back at the cabin.”

  “And the artifacts?” They were his highest concern.

  “We believe to have acquired the rose. It was in the back of the truck.” Michael sighed. Maybe he’d get Malcolm back sooner than he thought.

  “Like I said, nothing goes to plan.” Elias said, startling Michael as he came up next to him and patted him on the shoulder. He didn’t know what to make of the friendly gesture.

  “True, but we did get what we came for,” he responded. “The rose is yours. Congratulations Elias, you’ve accomplished what hundreds of others could not.”

  “Yes, it is mine,” his smug look showed he was pleased with himself. “But we still might have a little problem.”

  “That being?”

  “Rock and whoever else was in that truck got away.”

  “But they didn’t have the rose, they are inconsequential.” Unless they made copies, Michael thought. He hoped Elias wouldn’t draw the same conclusion.

  “I think we should probably make sure.” Elias pushed by him and came to stand before the four men and two women. He clasped his hands behind his back and began walking the line, studying each one. Most of them knelt with their eyes lowered and head down. The only one that didn’t was the boy on the end.

  He recognized that young man from Oak Island. Nate, he recalled. Anna’s assistant. The old man, kneeling next to Nate was Wallace Bimby, but the other four were unknown. They weren’t in any of the briefings or files he had been given. He wondered if they even knew what was going on.

  Elias finally stopped at the end and smiled into Nate’s unblinking eyes. “We have the book and the plate,” Elias said to him. “The rose is mine. Now I need to know if any copies were made and where those might reside.” He knelt down and came face to face with the boy, “Nate,” he said calmly. “I’m think I’m going to start with you. You seem, eager to talk.”

  The boy didn’t flinch at the threat laced within the words. “Go fuck yourself,” Nate said.

  Michael silently laughed. To his surprise, Elias stayed calm. “Everyone is always courageous at the beginning,” Elias responded moving a step over and stopping in front of Wallace. “What about you old man, care to enlighten me with any pertinent information?”

  Wallace coughed and then spit out a small trickle of blood. Some of it spilled out his mouth and slowly crept down his chin getting caught in the grey stubble just above his neck. His hands were tied behind his back and he couldn’t wipe it off. “I have nothing to say,” he answered.

  Elias remained calm as before and straightened and walked over to the next two people. “Ok. I guess you two are up.” He stood before the other two men. “Tell me your names?”

  “Marcus,” one of them answered.

  “Manuel,” said the other immediately afterwards. Michael could tell they didn’t know what they were involved with. They weren’t privy to all the information and as such thought cooperation was the best action. They were wrong. There was nothing they could do or say that would help their situation.

  Elias bent down to their level, settling on a single knee. “Manuel, Marcus. Is there anything you’d like to tell me about what you were doing here.” His voice was soft and controlled which was more eerie that if he’d been ranting and screaming like the man Michael knew he was on the inside. This Elias, the one he was showing now, was the more deadly one, the more devious and far more violent. Calm and controlled was much worse the erratic. An erratic man can be countered and fooled and dealt with much easier. A controlled man takes a more cautious approach. Michael didn’t like what he was witnessing. In this state, Elias would never allow his brother to go free. The threat of harm to Malcolm made it too easy to control Michael.

  The first man began stammering. His words were falling out quicker than his mouth could form them. “We were just, we were, just, just, we were translating that text and running tests on the things. That’s it. That’s it. Just another job, really we had no clue anybody wanted this or it was stolen or anything. We knew nothing. I never even met most of these people before.” He started heaving in big breaths. Michael thought he might pass out.

  “Same as him,” Manuel, the man next to him burst in. “We were just hired to translate and work out the equations and such. Like he said, we know nothing about this or you or anybody. Please, just let us go, we don’t belong here, you should let us go.” Michael knew they would tell Elias anything to live. It could be the truth and it might not be. But you could never know, weak people would give him any answer they thought he wanted to hear.

  “I don’t give two shits about what you think I should do. But I do need to know if copies were made, and if so where they are, and also where the fuck is Rock Tilton going. Those,” he cupped Marcus under the chin and brought his head up so their eyes met. “Those are the answers I need and if the next words out of your mouth don’t give me one of those answers, well, I’ll kill you.” Elias reached to his waist and drew out his gun and shook it lightly in front of them.

  “Wait, wait, but we don’t,” Marcus stammered. The blast caught Michael off guard and he w
inced at the sound. He opened his eyes as Marcus was falling sideways. His limp body collapsed in the dirt and blood started leaking from the hole in his forehead. His eyes remained open.

  Elias rose from his kneeling position, seemingly unaffected. He took out a cloth from his pocket and started wiping off his face where the blood spatter had covered him. He looked back to Michael, “I warned him.” Elias shrugged his shoulders in a helpless display as though he had no choice in his decision. “You heard me.” In the background one of the women started to panic, her breathing became fast and she started an uncontrolled whimpering. Turning back to his captives, Elias slowly stepped towards her.

  He bent his head down and whispered, “now I don’t know who you are and I have a feeling you didn’t know anything you were getting into with this. For that I’ll apologize. But truly there is no need for you to die. I just need to know if you made copies and if so where they are. It’s simple, really.”

  “I..I.. I don’t know,” she said. She started crying.

  “Ok, let’s take this step by step,” Elias said. “Did you make copies?”

  She nodded.

  “Good. That’s a good answer. Now do you know where they are?”

  The woman started crying again, “I..I.. don’t know.” Elias shook his head in feigned disappointment and moved over to the woman at the end.

  “Well hi. Unfortunately you’re the last stop for this group and I do hope, for everyone’s sake, that you have some better answers. Because if you don’t, I’ll kill her first,“ he brought his gun up and pressed it into the previous woman’s temple. The barrel squeezed firmly into the flesh. “Now, where are the copies?”

  The woman answered immediately. “The last I saw, the girl who is with Rock was making them.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Sayla.”

  Elias turned away. “Fuck that bitch,” he said to himself and cringed. “Just like her fucking father.” He quickly composed himself and turned back to the woman. “And where are they going?”

  “Somewhere in the Caribbean, I overheard, that’s all I know. I wasn’t involved in that conversation.”

  “Where exactly?”

  “I told you I don’t know that, but I do know they were going to find the missing pages.”

  “Missing pages? Interesting.” He turned to Michael. “Did you know about missing pages?”

  Michael knew better than to lie. He nodded. “There is a portion of the rose that is missing, Rock is trying to find it.” Elias looked briefly upset but didn’t say anything. He turned back to the woman.

  “But you don’t know where, right? The Caribbean is a big place.”

  “No, I don’t think they even know yet. They seemed jumbled.”

  “That’s too bad because at this point that’s the answer I needed most.” Elias shifted his gun to point directly ahead and killed the woman with a shot to the forehead. Once again, blood spattered into his face as the woman’s body jerked with the shockwave and then fell to the dirt. The first woman started wailing hysterically.

  “Shut up.” Elias said before wiping himself down. She didn’t hear him and the screaming intensified. “Shut up,” he repeated. But at this point Michael could see the woman was in shock and there was nothing any of them could do. There was only one option to get her to be quiet and Elias had no trouble exercising it. This time, Michael didn’t jump at the sound. He was expecting it. The screaming stopped abruptly, the body folded to the ground and once again the little road was silent.

  Elias took out his cloth and slowly wiped off his face. “I need to wear glasses when I do this,” he said more to himself than anybody else. When he was finished, he walked back towards Wallace and Nate. On his way, he turned to look the opposite direction and shot Manuel in the head. The blood mist didn’t reach his face and he grinned with amusement.

  He turned back and came to a slow stop in front of last two captives. He looked down at them and waited until they both looked up into his eyes. Michael saw the corners of his mouth tighten in an even more devious smile. “Now that we have the randoms out of the way, I think you two might know a little more.”

  Chapter 37

  Tennessee, August 2012