Carpathian: Event Book 08

by David L. Golemon

  “Excuse me, but I see plenty of empty tables,” Ryan said as he ignored the menu offered by the waitress.

  “Mr. Zallas left strict instructions to the restaurant staff that the four of you should be seated together.”

  Collins listened to the exchange and at that moment he knew their cover was truly blown, or at the very least Zallas suspected that something was afoot with the Americans.

  “Is there any particular reason for that request?” Jack asked, looking at the young girl.

  “We were only left the instructions, sir.” She finally got Pete and Ryan to accept their menus as they acceded and sat at the table as the waitress poured coffee for the two newest guests while the hostess stood over them. The two waitstaff finally left.

  “Well, this can’t be good,” Ryan said as he opened his menu.

  “Very little is good at the moment,” Collins said as he sipped his orange juice. “It seems Mr. Everett and our good buddy Charlie Ellenshaw came up missing last night.”

  “What in the hell—” Ryan started to say but Jack held up his hand to stay the question.

  “We don’t know. The radios are crapping out on us. We also have a major storm heading this way and the Romanian army pulled out late last night to handle flooding in the south. I won’t even mention the fact we have missing trucks with our equipment inside of them, including our Sat system, so we don’t even have the fallback of communicating with Nellis.” He shook his head and then let out his breath in exasperation. “So that leaves us with twenty unarmed 82nd Airborne boys and two Humvees as backup if needed.”

  Sarah shook her head and then reached for her cup of coffee. As she did the deep, dark liquid in the cup shook and then settled, and then the cup vibrated once more and the brew moved again and then stopped. The geologist studied the tabletop and waited but the tremors didn’t continue.

  “If our cover here is blown I see no reason why we shouldn’t leave and get out there and find the captain and Charlie. I mean we’re back in the stone age here and believe me this Group isn’t used to that. Our well-planned Event has suddenly turned into a royal cluster—”

  Jack looked at Ryan, successfully cutting off the profanity-laced finish. But Collins knew the new naval lieutenant commander had a point. It was dangerous being in a place where the host suspects that you are not who you pretend to be. And now you have people missing in the field and no way to talk to anyone. Yes, the stone age, he thought. Jack took a sip of his coffee. He set the cup down and then he felt it. He placed his hands palm down upon the wood. He looked at Jason, Pete, and Sarah, each in turn.

  “I think the mission parameters have changed in the last twenty-four hours, and priorities have—” Pete started to say as he dabbed his mouth with his napkin.

  “Not now,” Jack said. Collins threw his napkin on the table and started to stand.

  “Where are you going?” Sarah asked.

  “You and I are going to Patinas. The least we can do is make Zallas and his henchmen work that much harder to keep track of us. We’re splitting up. You two stay and keep an eye out for Alice’s artifacts. If Zallas starts to get cocky head north to the pass. I love Alice but getting people killed over this is a little much. And I’m afraid our Mr. Zallas may be a little more deadly than even the Interpol reports say he is.”

  “Why are we going to Patinas?” Sarah asked as her chair was pulled out by Ryan.

  “Just as you did a few minutes ago, I felt the tremor.”

  Sarah was surprised that Jack had felt the earth move also before she had a chance to say anything.

  “And besides, I have something else to show you, come on.”

  The others followed Jack out of the restaurant and as they moved they all saw the two men follow who had been sitting at a table away from the group of Americans. Collins allowed the others to catch up as he stepped toward the large escalator that moved people to the top of the atrium. Jack walked to the base of the 170,000-ton people mover. He acted like he was tying his shoe and knelt over.

  “What do you make of this?” he asked Sarah.

  Pete and Ryan crowded around so most of the patrons moving between the restaurant and the casino couldn’t see what she was doing. Sarah knelt and examined the spot Jack was indicating.

  “I saw that yesterday,” Collins said as he finished with the act on his shoe. He stood and waited while Sarah examined the concrete that made up the base of the giant escalator.

  “This concrete and the reinforcement steel are only a few months old.” She ran her hand along the large crack in the concrete and then ran her small fingers deeper into the crevice and frowned. “Damn, this fault has to go all the way through to the rebar.”

  “As serious as I thought?” he asked.

  “That is not normal expansion of drying concrete. That fault is not natural, you can see where the two halves don’t line up and that means the entire escalator has shifted at its base and that indicates earth movement.” She pulled Collins away from the spot and she waited for Ryan and Pete to join them. “Jack, this entire valley is shifting for some reason.”

  Collins watched Sarah walk over to the waterfall and the hot springs bath beneath it. Without hesitation McIntire knelt once again and tested the water with her fingers, frowning only momentarily before removing them.

  “My best guess would be a five-degree rise since yesterday.”

  All four Event Group members knew time was running short.

  PATINAS PASS

  Everett waited for the large wolf to limp by him and Charlie. Anya was sure to walk between it and the two wide-eyed men. Mikla growled as it slowly slipped past. As it did, so, the two men had a chance to study the animal close up, something that would forever be etched in their memories.

  Charlie nudged Carl and nodded toward the ground where the Golia laid its paws. For the first time they saw the one thing that made all of the legends, fairy tales, and myths come true for both of them—they could actually see the tightness of the fingers as they were folded into a paw form with the thumb tucked neatly inside. The pads were on the outside of the fingers and served as the contact point for the feet while on all fours.

  Everett’s eyes went from the strangely folded-in fingers to the right hind ankle of the muscled animal. He saw the swelling under the weed-, straw-, and cloth-wrapped leg. He could clearly see that the pain of walking was sapping the giant’s strength.

  The wolf moved through the underbrush and disappeared behind the boy and Anya. Carl tried his radio and for a moment thought he got the colonel. When he didn’t raise him he reported their situation anyway in hopes Jack could hear.

  * * *

  Sarah, Ryan, and Pete stood in a half circle around Jack as he dipped his head trying to listen to his radio, which had suddenly come to life. Luckily he had the volume turned low so the passing crowd of mobsters, thieves, and killers couldn’t hear. Collins was half in and half out of a small alcove that had a bust of Julius Caesar on a pedestal. Sarah heard Jack’s frustrated voice as he tried to communicate with whoever was calling. Finally he hissed and stepped out from behind the group.

  “Billions of dollars in budgeted money, the most brilliant men and women in the world, the best equipment money can buy, and now we have to search for a pay phone, of which there probably isn’t one, all because we have these and no way to talk with any of our people.”

  “Who was it?” Sarah asked.

  “It was Carl and from what I could make out he and Charlie are all right and heading for the small village below the pass, and before you ask that is all I got besides something very cryptic that I’m not sure I want to clarify at the moment. In any case, Jason and Pete, you’re going hiking. Ascertain the situation with Mr. Everett and Ellenshaw if possible; if not, reconnoiter as far up as the castle. Report back the best way you can, if not, return.”

  “What was the message, Colonel?” Ryan asked as he and Pete leaned in closer to Jack and Sarah.

  “The captain said to tell Ali
ce that the three little pigs do have something to worry about on the mountain.”

  “What does—” Pete started to ask and then Ryan frowned and cut him off by holding up his hand.

  “Who was the nemesis of the three little pigs, Pete?”

  Light dawned in Golding’s eyes.

  “The Big Bad Wolf.”

  * * *

  Everett stopped and listened when the birds stopped chirping and the insects went quiet. Charlie was starting to pick up on the vibes Carl was putting out that something wasn’t right. It had been ten minutes since they were separated from the boy, Anya, and the Golia they called Mikla. Everett knew they couldn’t have gone far, as he and Charlie were only separated from them for the few minutes they tried to reach Jack on the radio and satellite link.

  “There are two scatterguns aimed at your backs and I would take it seriously when I tell you do not move.”

  Everett froze at the sound of the voice. Whoever it was that came upon them unnoticed was well practiced at doing so. He never heard as much as the laying down of a footstep. Carl slowly turned and he felt Charlie behind him do the same.

  The eyes were the first things Everett saw when he turned to face the man, eyes that were as dark as the night. The man raised the ancient sawed-off shotgun a few inches to make sure Carl knew that one wrong move and he would find out just how serious this man was.

  “Why are you here?” Marko Korvesky asked the two men.

  Everett waited while three more men came into view and all were carrying the shotguns. Carl sensed even more men hidden in the trees.

  “We’re looking for someone we lost; a woman and a young boy.”

  The man in the brightly colored garb said nothing at the information provided. He tilted his head and looked from Carl to the crazy white-haired Charlie Ellenshaw, who, to Everett’s immense pleasure had kept silent as he held his hands in the air.

  “I too seek a young boy and a woman, they are from my village.” The man continued to look at Everett but did not lower the lethal-looking shotgun.

  “Hello, Marko,” said a feminine voice from the direction of the tree line.

  Carl saw the look come over the man’s face as Anya spoke. He didn’t know if the look was one of pleasure or one of stunned recognition. The man slowly turned and faced the woman who stepped into the small clearing. The captain relaxed when he saw the genuine smile of a man who was pleased, uncomfortable but pleased, to see the girl. The man lowered the shotgun and took a step toward her.

  “Hello, baby sister. I would have expected you to come home with a bit more fanfare and not being chased through the woods by this rather large American.”

  Anya smiled. It was a tired expression on an even more tired body as she took the remaining steps to her brother and wrapped her arms around him.

  “I didn’t know how I would feel seeing you after so long. How I would feel about you being sent away and me having to stay.” He smiled and hugged her again. “But I was wrong. It is good to see you again.”

  “Marko, what is happening here? There are more people who know about us now than there has been in the history of our people. What has happened?” she whispered as even more villagers came in. Carl counted seven men altogether and they were all armed.

  “First, where is Mikla?” Marko asked as his demeanor changed faster than even Anya realized. “How badly is he injured?”

  “How did you know he was hurt?” Anya asked as her eyes went to Everett as he watched the exchange while being guarded by the men from Patinas.

  “Grandmamma broke her ankle—her right ankle.”

  “It was she?” she asked as she finally released Marko. “Damn it, why is she taking that chance, what if Mikla had been shot?”

  Everett was having a hard time following the harshly whispered conversation.

  “My concern exactly. I need to know where Mikla is, and I need to know why Grandmamma summoned you home.”

  “Mikla is—”

  The bolt of an automatic weapon being thrown caught everyone’s attention. Everett looked up and saw seven men all standing in a semicircle around the group. Marko’s eyes narrowed when he saw the men all aiming weapons at them. He and his villagers had been taken unawares because of the happiness he had shown at seeing his sister.

  “What is this?” Marko asked as he held his shotgun outward. He turned and gave Everett a menacing look. “I should have shot you immediately,” he said as he dropped the shotgun on the ground. His men did the same, but the looks they gave the intruders were far more murderous than Marko’s glare.

  “They are not together,” Anya said as she saw a few of the same men that had been part of Ben-Nevin’s team of killers. “These men work for a ruthless bastard called Ben-Nevin, a colonel in the Israeli Mossad.”

  “The Mossad?” Marko asked, finally turning away to face his sister.

  “Where is the wolf?” one of the men asked as he pushed by one of the villagers. Anya saw that is was a brutish-looking man who handed over his automatic weapon and then slowly pulled a knife from a sheath just under his shirt.

  “You men need to leave this place,” Marko said as he took a menacing step forward.

  Anya saw the look in his eyes and feared for her brother. He took another step and that was when the man raised the knife and poked it into Marko’s belly, but the small Gypsy continued with another step that actually sent the blade a quarter inch into his stomach. Marko just smiled as he leaned forward placing more pressure onto the blade. Everett grimaced as he realized this man was trying to goad the intruder into action.

  “Oh, this is not going to be good,” Charlie said as his eyes locked on something Everett couldn’t see. He turned and looked at Anya, who shook her head and then she blinked her eyes toward the ground with a nodding motion. Charlie’s eyes again widened when he realized what she was telling him.

  At that exact moment Marko hit the ground. The move was so fast that the assassin’s blade had no time to cut before the Gypsy was hugging dirt and grass. By the time the man realized what was happening the giant black wolf was on him. One minute he was standing with his knife poised to do its skillful work and the next the man was just gone. They heard a brief scream and then the men around them started shooting into the trees. Anya, Marko, the villagers, Charlie, and Carl were on the ground.

  Everett managed to keep his head up and his eyes widened when he saw the Golia spring from the trees again. This time it took a man by the throat and tore it free before springing back into the thick line of trees. The other five men tried to aim and fire and that was why they failed to notice Marko and the others reach for their dropped weapons. Soon shotgun blasts tore at the forest around them. There was no screaming, no shouts, and no warnings. The villagers ruthlessly took every man left standing. As for the wolf, there was no trace.

  The small clearing was silent and smoke filled from all of the shooting. Charlie was shaking badly, but it wasn’t from the gunfire. He reached over and shook Carl’s arm.

  “Did … did you see the size of that wolf? That wasn’t Mikla,” Ellenshaw said as his words ended in a high-pitched squeak.

  Everett saw Anya stand and run toward Marko and help him up and then he turned away and looked around him at the dead men as the villagers walked from corpse to corpse checking on the dead and dying.

  “Well, we didn’t need this,” Marko said, shaking his head. His eyes soon went to Everett and Charlie. His blackened pupils narrowed as he locked eyes with the larger, blond-haired American.

  “They saw Stanus,” he said as he took a step toward them.

  Anya saw the look in her brother’s eyes.

  “Yes, and they also saw Mikla. And they saved your sister’s life just half an hour ago from these very same men.”

  Everett finally realized just who it was he was looking at. Marko Korvesky, the Gypsy heir apparent.

  * * *

  Ben-Nevin waited patiently for the rest of his men. They had not answered the radios even
when the reception was good. The iron ore inside the mountains wreaked havoc on all communication outside of a landline. The colonel looked at his watch as he spied three of the men he had sent searching for the others come from out of the tree line. They shook their heads when they saw the colonel looking their way.

  “Well?” he asked, tossing the useless radio to his second in command.

  “We found what amounted to a sea of blood, and this.” One of the men handed over an AK-47 assault rifle. The barrel was bent. Ben-Nevin examined the weapon and then handed it back with what amounted to distaste. “Our quarry has left the area and we haven’t enough men left to search.”

  “How many men have we?” he asked.

  “Counting us five, eighteen men remain.”

  Ben-Nevin once more shook his head. He reached into his coat pocket and brought out the message sent from Tel Aviv and held it in his damaged hand.

  “This message was to convey to me that Tel Aviv has no more personnel to send us.”

  “So, what is your plan, Colonel?” the taller assistant asked as Ben-Nevin turned away and fixed his eyes on the resort sitting two miles distant.

  “I plan on recovering the people’s treasure, and the only way we can do that is to secure the ally recommended to us by our friends in Tel Aviv. Our contacts say he would be receptive to adding to his collection, and if not he dearly loves money. In either case we have no choice, it’s the Russian or we go it alone.”

  “What if this … this … casino owner already knows where the temple is, wouldn’t we be exposing ourselves if we brief him on what we are really after?”

  Ben-Nevin had a smile on his face when he turned back to face his two men.

  “What is life without a little danger and intrigue?”

  “Colonel?” his man asked, confused.

  Ben-Nevin wiped his face on a handkerchief and then removed his coat and brushed at the dust and pine needles that had become attached to the material.

  “When you have nothing left to lose, danger becomes a moot point.” Ben-Nevin placed his coat back on and then turned and looked at the Edge of the World resort once more.