“That doesn’t matter, just call me, Jack. This is Sarah.”
Marko bowed and then looked at both. “I must learn how my family has become so popular outside Patinas. And for you to know of my sister, that is truly vexing. You must visit Patinas and allow my people to show you the hospitality of not only the Gypsy family Korvesky, but of our friends and neighbors as well. Tomorrow afternoon and into the evening we will be celebrating. I would be pleased to see you there.” He leaned over and lightly touched Sarah on the arm. “I insist, as I wouldn’t want to have to come looking for you.”
“We would love to accept,” Sarah said. “May I ask if we can bring some acquaintances?”
“Please, bring anyone you wish. It will be a real experience in the Carpathians.” He gestured around him with distaste. “Not this.”
“I think that would be a fine idea. We’re here to map the pass for NATO. I’m sure you’ve seen the soldiers around?” Jack said.
“I do not understand the ways of the military world, Jack,” saying the name as if he had just eaten a rotten piece of fruit. “But if it’s information on the pass you seek, my grandmamma will be happy to answer any question you may have. She’s what we would call a student of Patinas history.”
“We look forward to it, tomorrow afternoon then?”
Marko bowed and left the table without another word. The waitstaff saw him coming and they parted like the Red Sea when they saw the look crossing his dark features. His eyes were aglow with what could only be described as pure fury.
“Well, I didn’t expect that,” Sarah said as she took a drink of wine.
Jack was watching the retreating form of Marko Korvesky. The man looked quite a bit more impressive than he did in his dossier photo.
“I’m sure he didn’t either.” He looked over at Sarah and tossed his napkin on the table and stood. He shoveled out a hundred-dollar bill for the waitstaff and then assisted Sarah to her feet.
“Okay, I know that look, Colonel, what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that when he was sitting at his table I was feeling like I was being spied on from inside my own head.” He looked up as he waited for Sarah to step away from the table. “And don’t ask because I don’t know. I’ve never had that feeling before in my life.” He took her by the arm and started to leave. “It’s like he was draining information from me.”
“Such as?”
“He now knows the faces of everyone on our team and suddenly he asks that we all come up to see the pass.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have brought Niles and his team into the conversation.”
As they walked he thought. He stopped and looked at Sarah as they waited for the elevator.
“He’s dangerous, but in what way I just don’t know yet.”
“What do we do?”
“We have to allow Niles’s team to do their jobs and we still have to accomplish what we set out to do. Our mission here is to track the artifacts and make a connection to the history Alice has put together.” Jack pursed his lips in thought. “No, we stay and they go. We need to stick close to Zallas.”
“Damn it!” Sarah said as the elevator doors slid open.
“What?” Jack asked.
“We get stuck here with gangsters and the lowlife scum of the earth, and Niles and his team get to spend time with a legendary people, and possibly even more legendary creatures.”
“Yeah, they get all of the fun. Get in the elevator, shorty, before I do let you go dance with the wolves. And speaking of wolves I hope Ryan and Pete stayed out of trouble.”
“It’s Ryan, what could possibly go wrong?” Sarah said with a smirk.
* * *
Ryan was in his room and he had just stepped out of the shower after having been driven crazy by the oil in his hair and the scratchiness of his three-day-old trimmed beard.
As he toweled off, Ryan slid into one of the fanciest complimentary robes he had ever seen just as a knock sounded on his door. Ryan walked over and looked through the peephole and saw a nervous-looking Pete Golding trying to peer into Ryan’s room through the same peephole. Jason let out a deep breath and then opened the door. The computer genius was still dressed in his green Don Knotts suit and looked distressed.
“Hey, Doc, what’s up?” Ryan asked as he finished drying off his hair and then half turned and tossed the damp towel on a chair.
Golding danced from foot to foot and then looked up and down the hallway; Jason caught the meaning and then stepped aside for Golding to enter.
Golding stopped just inside the door and wrung his hands together. He turned to face Jason, who stood by the door with his eyebrows raised.
“Look, I know I’m not the physical man that you and the colonel, Will, and Carl are, I know that. And I just want to apologize for getting us into that trouble downstairs. I could have blown everything.”
Ryan shook his head. “Look, Doc, you did what any one of us would have done. Treating someone who’s just trying to do her job like she’s a piece of furniture or someone’s personal touch toy, well, I think you did what we in the Security Department would have done, only you did it without thinking. That’s rare and it shows that you’re starting to get field instincts.” Ryan hoped the speech helped the doc, even though none of it was true. He took Pete by the arm and steered him back to the door. “Look, I know this is only your, what, third time in the field away from your mistress Europa? I think you’re becoming a real asset, Doc, I really do.”
“You really think so?” Pete asked, beaming.
“I never say things I don’t mean.”
Pete smiled and then stopped before the door, making Ryan run into him.
“Would you mention this to Professor Ellenshaw? He thinks he’s the only one outside of the Security Department that’s worthy of field operations.”
Ryan laughed and looked at the professor and winked, leaning close as if to pass a secret. “Here’s a little inside intel, Doc, for your ears alone. The colonel said that he would rather have you on loan from the computer center than ten Marines, because you think out of the box. And if he would rather have you than ten Marines, Doc, where does that leave crazy Charlie? Eatin’ your dust, that’s where.”
“Ohhh,” was all Pete could say.
Ryan patted him on the back to get him moving back toward the door.
“And Pete?”
“Yes, Commander?”
“Take that suit off and get back to your white shirt and black tie, it’s more you.”
“Oh, I see,” Pete said as he started to unbutton his shirt.
“In your room, Doc.” Jason managed to get the door open and then Pete started to step out rebuttoning his green shirt when he suddenly stopped. Ryan made a face and slowly glanced around Pete’s shoulder and his heart sank into his lower abdomen.
Gina Louvinski stood at the door with her eyes neutral as she watched Pete suddenly lower his hands from his shirt buttons and then step back against the open door. As for Ryan he was frozen in what he thought was the most compromising position he had ever been nailed in, and that was including last month when he had been forced to dress as a candy striper to escape a Las Vegas hospital.
“Oh, excuse me, I … I … I just wanted to say,” the dark-haired Romanian placed a hand over her mouth and averted her eyes, “I am so, so, sorry to have—”
“Doc, go to your room … now,” Ryan said, recovering.
Pete squeezed past the stunned resort manager and went to his room.
“As I said, I am so sorry for disturbing your … your … I am just sorry. I wanted to thank you personally for what you did downstairs. I assure you if our own security were on the premises this kind of behavior would not be tolerated. You and your…” Gina looked lost for the right word and Ryan flinched when she finally found it, “Your friend.”
Ryan pulled the woman into his room and closed the door, shocking her.
“Look, the doc is my friend, but it ends there,” Ryan said.
The general manager of the Edge of the World looked Ryan over as he spoke. She noticed he was minus the oil in his hair, and the gold chains and jewelry were noticeably absent. And as she looked toward the dresser drawers she saw regular clothing neatly folded and not one was a garment of the garish variety. She looked at Ryan and suspected something was way wrong with her initial assumption about the small dark-haired man.
“Hell, I don’t even know how to explain this.”
The woman could tell he wanted to say something but then thought what was the use? She watched him take a deep breath and then a look of resignation came over his features.
“Oh, what the hell? Whatever you think I am, I probably am. Right now I’m too tired and my hand hurts too much to care.” Ryan reached out and opened the door.
Gina reached out and closed the door and then looked Ryan over.
“Are all Americans as strange as you two?” she asked as she took in Jason’s nice features without the cover-up of beard and oil and gold.
“Pretty much, yeah.”
The general manager became serious and then took a step toward Jason.
“The men you dealt with tonight are the type that won’t forget such a slight. The owner didn’t have them removed, so please, watch yourself.” She turned for the door but Ryan stopped her and turned her around and at the same moment kicked the door closed with his foot.
“I’m not afraid of those guys. After all, I’m loud, proud, gay, and I’m gonna stay.” Ryan took her in his arms.
For the next four hours Lieutenant Commander Jason Ryan, USN, proved to one very perceptive general manager of the Edge of the World that, indeed, he wasn’t gay, and also he was still Jason Ryan, naval aviator and king womanizer of the planet.
10
THE TEMPLE ARCH, PATINAS PASS, ROMANIA
Marko stood silently at the camouflaged entrance to the temple. He felt the heat as it poured from the cracks in the scared strata of the mountain as he stepped into the entranceway. His eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the oil lamps that stretched away into the infinite darkness of the immense staircase that wound down into the bowels of the mountain. He started down. Far below he saw the illumination of the temple lighting and he heard the flow of naturally boiled water as it bubbled up through the artesian pools far beneath the earth. The blast furnace of heat and steam made the walk down uncomfortable.
Marko was only halfway down the stairs when he heard a noise behind him. He stopped and peered into the flickering darkness cast by the oil lamps that lined the access to the temple. Seeing nothing, he was about to turn and start back down the staircase when he heard the low growl and this time he knew he had company. He reached out and removed the flaming bowl of oil that sat in a notch in the prehistorically carved tunnel. He held the bowl high in the air and that was when he saw the yellow eyes staring at him. They glowed angrily in the light cast by the oil lamp.
Stanus was standing on the steps twenty feet from Marko. His eyes were watching but the wolf wasn’t moving. The growling low in Stanus’s throat was unnerving.
“I’ve been searching for you, where have you been?” Marko asked as he gently placed the small bowl of flaming oil back into the notch.
Stanus growled once more and didn’t move. Instead of asking anything more, Marko slowly lowered himself to the three-thousand-year-old hewed stone. He took a deep breath and then looked back at Stanus, who was still standing motionless on the steps high above Marko.
“I know you think I have betrayed you, the Golia, and our people.” He held the wolf’s yellow eyes with his own, darker ones. “That ridiculous castle is as far as the human encroachment is going to get.” Marko made sure Stanus was looking at him. He was, intently. “But you will see that tomorrow soldiers will come. These are our soldiers, and a few Americans.” Marko laughed and then shook his head as he smiled over and up at Stanus, who wasn’t growling any longer, but had tilted its head as it tried to understand the words of the man without the spell being cast upon it. “You don’t even know what an American is, do you?”
Stanus flicked his ears as if saying, “Does it matter?”
“They are mapping the pass, as your ancestors once did, as my ancestor Kale once did. They are mapping it for the defense of the north in case war comes to the people not of this mountain. Not us, but the lowlanders.”
Stanus whined and then took three tentative steps down the staircase.
“The Golia must remain inside the temple for the next two days and then the men and soldiers will leave this place of the Golia and Jeddah. Do you understand me, Stanus?”
The wolf sat beside Marko and looked him in the eyes. The beast was a full four heads taller than Marko as he sat and looked down into the man’s face. Marko slowly lifted his hand toward the left side of the massive head of the wolf but the great beast pulled back out of touch. It was as if Stanus would not allow the joining spell to be cast. That made Marko nervous, but not for the first time around the great alpha male.
“We have set in motion events that will secure the safety of our mountain, our people, and our babies. Babies you have in the temple. We will never have to worry about security again. We have discovered after all these years what it takes to make sure we survive—money.” Marko held the gaze of the Golia and didn’t flinch. “You don’t know of money, do you? Think of gold, and gemstones—we have what the outside world craves. Like you crave the company of your Golia, they also must have things of material value.”
The wolf, without Marko casting the joining spell, had to be made to understand.
“This is why we must make sure nothing happens to either the soldiers that will come to map our home, or those men and women down below. I promise you, my friend, there will be no men allowed beyond the castle, just the soldiers, and they cannot be harmed. I cannot say this enough, Stanus—leave them be. I and my men will handle anyone who strays from the path. Keep the Golia babies safe inside the temple.”
Stanus didn’t move. It was like he was looking for the lie hidden inside Marko’s words.
“I know I told you that the newcomers would not breach the mountains and I swear to you it will not happen again. Grandmamma will have us destroy what is ours and abandon our home if threatened, but I say we can keep what is ours and remain where we have for the past three thousand years.”
Stanus surprised Marko by leaning into him and then rubbing its muzzle on the side of Marko’s face. Stanus was smelling him for any deceit, and luckily for Marko this time it was all the truth. He closed his eyes waiting for Stanus to disagree. It didn’t. The great wolf huffed as if to say, “We’ll see,” and then with one leap hopped over Marko and disappeared into the cavern that housed the greatest temple complex ever built by man.
Marko sat for the longest time and prayed he hadn’t made wrong choices in his partnership with the Russian. If he had, he knew he could end the entire dream that was their home and God’s personal dream that is the Golia.
That things would calm after the resort below was up and running and his people had a steady flow of untraceable money and not the artifacts Marko had had to steal from the temple to bribe not only the Russian, but also the interior minister. Tomorrow was Friday and after that if he could survive one more day and night without the Golia showing their fierceness to anyone, they could slide into safety on their mountain again and live in the way they had been denied for three and a half thousand years.
* * *
Colonel Ben-Nevin had his men dispersed as he compared his map to the terrain in front of the new resort. He had stopped his small convoy three miles to the west of the hotel and well away from the crowd of reporters and TV crews camped outside the front gates. His secret conspirator inside the Knesset had sent him the coordinates of the area the Israeli army had been alerted to. This information had been taken directly from the mouth of General Shamni himself when he reported to the committee overseeing foreign intelligence. The information was helpful in the fact it gave him a n
ew starting point. He knew if the major was heading for Patinas, this was the only way in.
“Sir,” one of his men said as he approached the colonel.
“What is it?” Ben-Nevin asked as he looked up from the map.
“Our eastern team reports a NATO camp that is just breaking up on the far side of the resort. They say it looks like most of the contingent is leaving the area.”
“Most?”
“There is a platoon-sized element still bivouacked.”
“Our contact was right about NATO being interested in the pass, but I thought they would take a little more time in getting it done.”
The messenger was about to turn away when Ben-Nevin called him over to the hood of the car where he had the map spread out. He hit the gas station–supplied map with a finger of his undamaged left hand.
“I want ten men right here.” He jabbed at a spot he had been studying closely for the past two hours. “If she’s near she will have to pass through right there. It’s the only spot near enough to the foothills to even get close to the road leading to the pass. Yes, this is the spot. Tell the men I will join them soon.”
The man nodded and turned away to gather the men when he heard the sound of an automatic weapon being charged behind him. It seemed the colonel was about to go hunting.
* * *
It had taken Charlie Ellenshaw over an hour and a half to fully awaken. He stumbled behind Everett as they slowly surveyed the area to the front of the resort. Carl stopped and studied the hotel and the security situation. Charlie knelt beside him.
“I hope Niles got through to Jack because I don’t think we could get into that place. If that’s their normal security force it rivals several small nations I’ve been to.”
“Impossible to get in?” Charlie asked.
Everett smiled and looked at the professor of cryptozoology. “Impossible? Nah, just formidable, Doc, just formidable.”
Carpathian: Event Book 08 Page 31
