The black SUV swerved in the road as they came around the last bend. Zallas’s eyes widened when he saw the men and women running into the night. They were streaming down the staircases on the outside while many others were pushing and shoving to get inside one of the cable cars that had just arrived. He saw the heavily overloaded car sag on the large, thick, four-cable lines. He screamed in anger as the automatic doors on the car slid closed, surely injuring several of his guests. He watched all of this from far below as his four-wheel-drive pulled up to the first cable tower as the car high above them broke free from the car barn.
Zallas saw people streaming on and off the two small elevators and he decided to bypass them and run for the stairs. Rain made the going slippery as even more of his men pulled up and joined him in their run up to the club and possibly the escaping villagers of Patinas. Ben-Nevin joined him in the enclosed stairs thankful for being out of the storm with his arm throbbing because of the bullet having ripped into him from his own people … Well, what used to be his own people, he corrected himself. The Mossad colonel knew what they were doing now was a waste of time. It was just the Russian not wanting to be made a fool of. There were far worse things in the world than that, and a hanging rope for traitors was one of them.
The Russian stopped when they reached the top as his guests were screaming and yelling trying to get down the same stairwell. Zallas started angrily pushing them out of his way and as he crashed through the top floor door he even heard one of his men shoot someone below. Dmitri Zallas was now beyond caring about his guests. He wanted what was his and he wanted his resort protected, and right now neither was happening. He walked quickly to the entrance, pushing a dark-haired woman out of his way and then kicking at her angrily, and when her escort tried to stop Zallas, he pulled a handgun from his large coat and shot the man without a second thought. Several more shots were heard behind him when his men saw the example being set by their employer. With the rumors of a vast treasure lost, the men had become murderous.
Pete turned and saw Zallas just in time as the men walked into the club and onto the balcony section. Golding, with no warning at all, pushed Charlie over the railing and then he jumped after him. Ellenshaw struck the floor and felt his ankle bend in a manner that wasn’t conducive to walking upright. He rolled and yelled while grabbing for his injured leg.
Mikla was near the stage roaring angrily at the frightened people as they ran one way and then saw Mikla and then turned screaming running in the opposite direction. Drake Andrews and the terrified Russian band had abandoned everything and were battling to get through the wings just offstage, but every time they thought they found an exit they were stopped by the humanity trying to flee the now shaking castle. The American singer heard the roar of the animal and that turned into a long howl. He screamed for no other reason than he wanted to, as he and the others battled for their lives to get out. One second there was nothing but shouting and panic, and the next everyone went silent as they swore they could hear gunfire—quite a bit of it.
* * *
The only operational vehicles they could find were two very old cars used by the Gypsies to travel the lower valleys. One was a thirty-five-year-old Citroën and the other a beat-up, faded red 1962 Chevy Impala that came to Romania in God knows what manner or circumstance. Jack, Sarah, Anya, and Major Mendohlson were in the Chevy’s front seat with Mendenhall, Alice, her potato sack with her rocks, and sitting beside her was Ryan. Jack was cursing the slipping clutch as he downshifted the old standard transmission. Anya screamed next to him as someone ran into the road waving his arms.
“It’s Carl!” Anya shouted, happy to see him as he skidded to a stop beside the sliding Chevy. Major Mendohlson hoped the Citroën behind them didn’t slide into them as they waited for the American to get out of the storm. Carl quickly squeezed into the back by almost crushing the Israeli commando when he pushed the front seat up.
“Nice car, Jack,” Everett said as he pushed Mendenhall over.
“Yeah, I’m afraid shit red was all they had,” he said as he put the car back into gear and peeled out in the mud and running water.
Carl saw Anya turn her head and look at him, happy he was still alive and ashamed she had left with Alice and not said anything to him. He shook his head and then winked. She turned back with a smile on her muddy face. Only Jack noticed the look as he tried to keep the old Chevy on the road.
He couldn’t prove it, but Collins could swear the road was starting to move under the worn tires of the Chevy.
* * *
Two miles deep into the mountain the music of Drake Andrews and his new Russian backup band had finished the sabotage the Golia had started. The vibrations caused by the amazing sound system installed at Castle Dracula had started to shake away the last restraints holding the anchor pins in place. The six-foot-thick steel pins started to rotate as they lost their hold on the earth. As they turned, the heavy gauge steel snapped at several points along the two-mile anchorage. The next thing to tear loose was the foundation settings that connected the anchor pins to the castle’s main foundation. The castle slipped a foot away from the facing and tilted toward the resort far below, making the highest parapet shake and actually break into three separate sections that barely hung on.
The furthest, deepest anchor pin gave way with a totality that would have been heard in Bucharest if it hadn’t been buried deep in the mountain. After the steel broke in two, the whiplash fractured the remaining strata that kept the thermal vents intact. The underground geyser erupted into the cracks of the mountain where it built up enough pressure that the resulting explosion blew out the strong but now loose anchorage of the sixteen foundation pins. The force of the collapse pulled the top of the mountain toward the south, creating an avalanche of massive proportions. The rock fall started and continued rolling as it picked up speed and debris. The top of Patinas Pass turned to a viscous substance that resembled a wave as it collapsed, sending the pass into Patinas, burying the small village for all time.
The resulting release of energy had only one place to go, and that was through the area of least resistance and that meant through the thirty-five-hundred-year-old City of Moses. The explosion rocked the city, knocking over the wonderful obelisks and columns. The giant walled gate with the proud depictions of the Jeddah in their heyday of service to Pharaoh collapsed and then the stone carved ceiling came down upon three of the most famous men in the history of the world and crushed their remains to dust and buried them forever.
In just seconds the work of two thousand Jeddah and numerous engineers of Ramesses II came down, never again to see the light of day.
* * *
Pete Golding struggled to get Charlie Ellenshaw up and running when several people ran past with three of them stopping to help them up. Drake Andrews didn’t wait for a thank-you as he and the other Russian musicians fled as Mikla roared again right next to them. They hadn’t seen the wolf when they had stopped and didn’t look back now. Ellenshaw watched the panicked people for a moment and then shouted to Pete.
“I think that’s about enough, maybe we should split now, want do you think?”
Golding nodded that yes, he did think that was quite enough.
“Mikla, go!” Charlie shouted. “Run!”
The wolf suddenly went to all fours and looked around him as if he were confused. The Golia howled and then ran for the front with people screaming and jumping from the path of the giant.
Charlie saw Mikla jump onto the high stage and threaten several of the guests as they tried desperately to get away from what they thought was a Castle Dracula special effect gone awry. Ellenshaw saw two couples in the far darkened corner of the club still sitting, talking and drinking among the chaos. Ellenshaw hurriedly ran to their table tripping over several men as they tried to push themselves as far away from Mikla as they could get. The beast was standing upright, roaring and swiping at people as they ran by. Charlie was worried that instead of leaving, the giant Golia was s
tarting to get its blood up and was becoming so excited that the claws would start slicing people in two soon if he and Pete didn’t get out of there.
The two men and two women finally looked up as they saw Ellenshaw with Pete close behind running and stumbling toward them. One man stood from the table and as he did three bullets stitched a line across his white tuxedo jacket sending the man slamming against the wall, spraying blood on his companions as he did. The women screamed and then two more rounds hit the tabletop shattering glasses and sending the remains of their cocktails flying. Charlie fell facefirst and then covered his head. Pete looked up and saw Zallas and his men standing at the railing of the balcony firing down. The bullets hitting the floor and walls around them were aimed at him and Charlie. Pete reached out and pulled Ellenshaw as close to the wall as he could for protection.
Mikla roared again as Drake Andrews with several of the young Russian musicians in tow had somehow not found their way out to the cable car platform where men and women were pushing and shoving to either get to the front of the line or they were slapping and shoving each other on the twin stairwells that wound down to the ground from the platform. Even these were causing more casualties among the guests than Mikla ever could as they were tumbling down the steel steps as if they were doing it intentionally, and it was one of these men that Jack nearly struck with the front bumper of the old Chevy as they skidded to a halt.
Even above the din of screaming guests and running feet, Jack could hear the sound of gunfire over the tremendous pounding of the door. Then they all heard the roar of a Golia and every man and woman inside the Chevy thought the worst—that one of the wolves was loose inside the club and was now in the process of killing everyone and that would not do for the secrecy needed for the species. Collins was thrown an Uzi without the silencer attachment as he, Carl, Mendohlson, Mendenhall, and Ryan all scrambled out of the car and into sheer madness as men and women in their finery splashed, screamed, fell, and rolled in the flooding mud caused by the raging storm.
As Collins hit the first step in the long stairwell to the top of the platform, the next cable car pulled in and Jack could hear the screaming, the jostling, and the cursing as men and women fought to be the first inside and away from the terrible things happening inside the club. As he hit the second platform of stairs on the way to the top with the others beating the steel stairs behind him, Jack flinched as first the body of a woman in an evening dress struck the side of the stairwell and spun off into the storm to strike the ground far below, then the body of a flailing man flew past striking the handrail on his way down.
As Sarah and Anya left Alice in the car with the smelly burlap bag, McIntire ran to the woman who fell to the ground. She checked for a pulse and in a flash of lightning Anya saw Sarah shake her head. Then she quickly checked the body that had landed only inches from his date. He too was broken and very much dead. Sarah knew if they didn’t get Zallas and his people under control soon they would have a disaster on their hands that would be capable of shining too much light on the Event Group. They had to save as many people as they possibly could and then get out of there without the Romanian authorities asking too many questions about the strange group of men and women that had attached itself to the NATO survey.
Another roar of the Golia sent Anya flying up the stairs as she realized one of the precious and irreplaceable beasts was actually inside the club and they were hearing a lot of gunfire.
* * *
Zallas stood next to the balcony railing and surveyed the disaster that his precious Castle Dracula had become. The Russian was so angry he failed to feel the massive stone blocks beneath his feet shift, and again most did not see that the liquid in the half-filled glasses was beginning to lean to the south with a prominent tilt.
Zallas turned and took the wounded Ben-Nevin by the coat collar to pull him to the railing and then shake him as he gestured at the catastrophe below.
“What have you done to my club?” he yelled as spittle flew from his mouth and into the Mossad agent’s face. “All of this and nothing from you!”
Ben-Nevin watched as the women and men continued to try to get out of the giant nightclub, most fearing the animal as it ran from spot to spot in a frenzy of excitement. His eyes widened at the familiar sight of Mikla, the beast that had rescued Anya on board the train just two nights before. Ben-Nevin slapped Zallas’s hand away from his coat collar and then pulled a nine-millimeter from his waistband. He took quick aim and fired into the crowd in an attempt to hit the wolf. Mikla went to all fours and practically flew up the wall and into a dark vestibule and vanished. Ben-Nevin then sighted a new target. The white-haired man and the strange fellow from the hotel were huddling in a far corner by the stage. It looked as if they were waiting to make a break for the rear door and the cable cars outside. Ben-Nevin took aim at the crazy-haired man.
* * *
Charlie Ellenshaw and Pete Golding had finally given up trying to separate the guests from the armed men that were in the mood to kill everyone in the confusion caused by Mikla. Charlie pulled Pete down closer to the floor when Ellenshaw had spotted the thirty or so men streaming into the club. They were Zallas’s as the automatic weapons attested. Charlie was getting ready to pull Pete to his feet when he was knocked down just as three bullets punctured the stone wall next to his head.
“Wow, man, I think that cat was trying to kill you!” Drake Andrews said as he rolled off of Ellenshaw. Charlie managed to look up and see the harried and now very much crumpled American entertainer. His black show jacket was covered in blood and the young people behind him didn’t look any better.
“Thanks,” was all Ellenshaw could say as more bullets struck the tables and the walls behind the group of frightened entertainers.
“Are you an American?” Andrews asked.
“Yeah, we’re Americans, but if we don’t get out of here we’ll never see the golden shores again,” Pete interjected.
A bullet pinged off the black wall behind them and one of the young Russian singers screamed in pain as she grabbed her arm. Drake pulled her closer to him and then covered her.
“We have to get these kids out of here,” Andrews said.
“Yeah, any suggestions?” Charlie asked. “If I’m not mistaken there seems to be a pretty angry Russian up there!”
* * *
Ben-Nevin had the white-haired man in his sights again and this time that American singer wouldn’t help him. Suddenly several angry hornets crossed in front of his face. He turned and looked and saw several men and to his surprise running along with them was Anya Korvesky, or as the colonel knew her, Major Mica Sorotzkin. She took cover quickly behind a large pedestal with a suit of armor on it. Zallas pushed Ben-Nevin away and then his men returned some of the fire directed at them by the Americans.
Zallas gestured for his remaining men to advance on the Americans and he didn’t care how many men he lost taking them out.
“Kill them all,” he screamed as he looked around at the shambles of his castle. He could not believe he had been talked into this by that Israeli traitor. He knew he always had to go for the brass ring even though he had enough money already to buy the factory that made the brass rings. He always had to have what others had, and now here he was. The castle was going to be a complete loss and now he had to make sure this disaster didn’t touch the much more valuable property below—the Edge of the World. That had to be saved after this fiasco. He looked at the cowardly Ben-Nevin and knew this man would die slowly in his hotel’s basement just as Marko Korvesky had earlier in the evening.
Jack chanced a look down over the railing and saw that the only guests left in the club were Charlie, Pete, and a group of terrified-looking young people huddling together by the stage. There was no way with the minimal firepower at hand they could extricate Ellenshaw and Golding.
“Jack!” Sarah shouted as she held the handgun out and pointed to the far wall closest to the cable car platform.
Collins looked to whe
re Sarah was pointing and then he jabbed Mendohlson and then yelled for Carl. He pointed to the same spot as McIntire. Their eyes widened. As they watched, the rip in the stone blocks where they had been cemented together was separated by a good eight inches and the gap was widening. Sarah knew the castle was starting to separate from the mountain. The tremor hit and that made all the gunfire magically cease for the briefest of moments as everyone realized at the same moment that something was starting to go terribly wrong with Dracula’s Castle. Even Zallas remembered Sarah’s dire warnings about a catastrophe in the making. Now the Russian was starting to see—and feel—her point. He was thinking maybe it was time to leave and sort this out in a better location, like his offices.
“The doc is pinned down by the stage, it looks like they may be the last ones to get out, he and Pete are with a bunch of kids.”
“Kids? Here?” Carl said as he accepted another nine-millimeter clip from one of the Israeli commandos. Everett popped up and downed one of the mobster’s hired killers, who grabbed his face and then fell over the balcony and then his body smashed into a table in the center of the room. “If we have to do this one at a time we may be here when this damn castle falls down,” Everett finished and then fired one more round at the mass of killers fronting them.
Carpathian: Event Book 08 Page 63
