“I think we better come back tomorrow with some people who know about caves and see that they think. I’ve a feeling this one’s been tinkered with.”
“That will really piss off all those archeologists trying to get in here. Why do you think the government is keeping them away? This seems an obvious spot for a dig.”
Andreas shrugged. “Who knows, but hopefully not because of Trelos’ influence.”
“More likely it’s the Foundation’s juice. Maybe it doesn’t want attention drawn away from its church? After all, this place probably honored ancient gods.”
“I doubt that’s why. You’ve got the excavated Temple of Poseidon on the other side of town, and that was pretty important back in the days of the gods. Doesn’t your guidebook say pilgrims stopped there to prepare themselves on their way to Delos?”
Kouros nodded. “Then what do you think is the reason?”
“An alien spaceship that our government doesn’t want anyone to find. Like the one the United States has been hiding for decades in one of its western states.”
“Mexico?”
“No, New Mexico,” said Andreas.
“Let’s get out of here.”
Andreas laughed.
***
They’d just stepped off the narrow goat path leading back from the cave when Andreas caught a glimpse of a figure in the distance highlighted against the sky. It was coming toward them quickly. Andreas motioned for Kouros to move forward and downhill. Andreas went off at a similar angle up the mound, staying as low as he could so not to silhouette himself against the horizon. They’d keep whoever was coming between them.
The figure abruptly turned and headed up the hill toward Andreas. Andreas crouched beside a wall, and waited until the figure was ten feet away before standing up. “Fancy meeting you here.”
Trelos stumbled backwards. He seemed surprised and clutched his iPod to his chest. Andreas walked down to him as Kouros came up from below. They met on a narrow plateau, with Trelos in the middle.
“Rather late for you to be out and about here, wouldn’t you say?”
No answer.
“Oh, we’re back to that again. It’s not going to work this time. So start talking.” Andreas reached over and pulled the earphones off Trelos’ head.
Trelos stepped back as if trying to protect his iPod and Andreas leaned forward to grab it.
That was when Andreas heard the buzz fly past his head, the crack of a rifle shot, and the sound of Kouros stumbling back and falling against a wall behind him.
“Yianni,” Andreas screamed. He grabbed Trelos by the throat and dragged him as a shield toward Kouros’ body. “Move from that spot and I’ll kill you myself.” He reached down, grabbed Kouros, and rolled with him over the wall. Andreas felt the bullet hit him in the side before he heard the sound of the shot.
“Stop! Stop! What are you doing? This is wrong!” Trelos was screaming but Andreas didn’t look to see at what. He was too busy trying to find where the bullet had entered his buddy. Kouros’ forehead was covered in blood.
Andreas heard another shot, this one from a pistol. He grabbed the communicator and yelled, “Tassos, what’s happening? Yianni’s been hit and we’re pinned down. Where are you?”
No response.
Chapter Twenty-six
Andreas slid along the wall until he was between Kouros’ head and the shooter. He couldn’t see Kouros’ wound. All he saw was blood. He brought his flashlight close to Kouros’ head and, blocking the reflected light as best he could with his body,, gently ran his fingers along his friend’s head until he found the wound: an ugly jagged cut high above the right temple. Andreas pressed his fingers against Kouros’ neck and felt for a pulse. He tore open the front of Kouros shirt. The bullet was caught in the vest.
Andreas dropped his head and said a prayer. That’s when he sensed the pain in his own side. It felt like a broken rib. He ran his right fingers along his vest and found a second bullet.
He wanted to look over the wall to see if Trelos was still there, but didn’t dare. The shooter was too good.
“Trelos, are you there?”
Nothing.
“I said, ‘are you there?’”
Andreas heard a very weak, “Yes.”
“Who’s shooting at us?”
Andreas heard something, but couldn’t make it out.
“What?”
“He’s coming,” said Trelos.
Andreas spun around and crawled along the wall toward Trelos’ voice. Whoever was coming probably was focused on where Kouros went down. If he moved away from that spot he might be able to get off a shot before the shooter could target him again. It was his only choice. He couldn’t just sit there waiting. Instinctively Andreas drew in a deep breath to calm himself, but a sharp pain at the broken rib stopped him. Instead, he closed and opened his eyes, crossed himself, and prepared to shoot at the first human sound he heard.
They were footsteps, but erratic, of a person moving quickly from one place to another, as if stopping to hide or listen. Andreas waited until the sounds were directly in front of him before jerking his gun and head together above the wall to fire.
He didn’t.
“Tassos!”
Tassos slid over the wall and dropped down next to Andreas. He was out of breath. “Thank God you’re okay? Where’s Yianni?”
“Over there.” Andreas nodded toward Kouros. “He probably has a concussion from hitting his head on the wall. But his pulse is good. The vest likely saved his life.”
Tassos drew in and let out a deep breath. “I was up near the top of the mound where I could keep an eye on what was happening down by the cave. I watched you come back up and around to where you saw Trelos. We saw him at the same time so I didn’t need to warn you.”
“I tried to reach you on the two-way after I heard the pistol shot,” said Andreas.
“I couldn’t tell for sure where the first rifle shot came from but I knew it was below me and to the left. That’s when I turned off the two-way, so it wouldn’t give me away.”
Tassos paused to catch another breath. “I got as close as I could to where I thought the shooter was. When I saw the muzzle flash on the second shot, I knew where to go. It came from inside a cluster of boulders. The pistol shot you heard was mine.”
“You took out the shooter?”
Trelos sat down on the wall above them and stared up the hill.
“Not sure, I heard a scream but when I got there the shooter was gone. The rifle too. I found blood but no telling how bad the wound. My guess is the shooter is still out there. That’s why I didn’t try you on the two-way. Didn’t want to risk giving away your position.”
A groan came from Andreas’ side of the wall.
“Watch him,” said Andreas pointing at Trelos. He crawled over to Kouros.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I rammed my head into a concrete wall.”
“Close. It was stone. Someone took a shot at me but the bullet missed when I leaned in toward Trelos. You caught it in the middle of your chest and it knocked you back to where you fell and hit your head on the wall.”
Kouros pushed himself up on his elbows. “Where’s Trelos?”
“Over there, sitting on the wall like he’s at a picnic watching butterflies.”
Kouros tried to get up.
“Hold on there, fella, you’ve taken quite a hit.”
“I’ve had worse.” Kouros stood up and stared at Trelos. “And given a lot worse.”
Andreas pulled Kouros back to the ground. “Careful, we haven’t found the shooter yet.”
Andreas looked at Trelos staring up the hill. “Who’s shooting at us?”
Trelos didn’t move.
“Did you hear me?”
Trelos nodded but said nothing.
“Asshole.” Kouros tried to lunge for him, but Andreas held him down.
Trelos shrugged. “I don’t care what you do to me. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
<
br /> “Yianni, forget about him for now. We need better cover. Can you walk?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“How about that building down there?” Tassos pointed at a small concrete shed at the bottom of the hill, adjacent to the eastern edge of the mound and across the road from Trelos’ house.
“It’s windowless,” said Trelos without turning to look. “You’ll be trapped inside with no way out but the door. We built it on top of a streambed running out of the mound to bring power and ventilation into the Vriokastro.”
“Who’s ‘we’?” said Andreas.
“My sister and I.”
“What about your brother?” said Tassos.
“No, Petros never comes here anymore. Not since our parents died. He lives up on the mountain. He has no idea what we’ve done here.”
“Does he know how to get inside the mound?” said Tassos.
“Some of the ways, not all of them.”
“Like through the cave?” said Kouros.
“That’s one, but we rarely use it. Tourists kept coming there trying to find a way inside the mound. A few years ago a young American couple almost found the entrance.”
“What happened to them?” said Kouros.
“A storm came up and they drowned in the cave. That’s when I decided to seal off anything suggesting there might be something more than the front of the cave. I also mounted a camera so we could see whoever came inside. It looks like part of the stone roof. And I put in a sensor that sets off an alarm if something heavier than a goat stands in the alcove inside the cave.”
“Guess that’s how the shooter made us,” said Kouros.
“But that means the shooter had to be inside the mound when we were in the cave.” Andreas looked at Trelos. “Who else knows how to get inside?”
“No one but my brother and sister.”
“And anyone interested enough in your activities to have followed you,” said Andreas. “Sort of the same way you found the Foundation’s secret hiding places. By trailing Foundation employees.”
Trelos shrugged. “It’s all over now.”
“What I can’t figure out is how you managed to find your way inside all those places once you located them?” said Andreas.
“It wasn’t very difficult. Much of what I needed was in old records, mainly in the Archeological Museum just down Megalochari Avenue from Panagia Evangelistria. Those records were my roadmaps into most of the places. Getting into the others was like solving elaborate puzzles, and I like puzzles.”
“Weren’t you worried about getting caught?”
Trelos gestured no. “I was careful. I never went to the same location more than twice a month, and I always took only what I could carry in the pack around my waist. Did you notice that I always carry my iPod in my hand, even though I have a waist pack?” He shook his head. “No one ever noticed that.”
“How did you handle electronic security?” said Tassos.
“It was a challenge at times, but they never installed anything sophisticated and I had all the equipment I needed to get around whatever they tried.”
“Where’s your equipment?” said Tassos.
Trelos pointed at the ground. “Here.”
“Speaking of ‘here,’ I think it’s time we get away from here.” Andreas pointed up the hill to the boulders where Tassos last saw the shooter. “My guess is there’s a way inside the mound from there.” Andreas looked at Trelos. “Am I right?”
Trelos nodded. “But I don’t think you’ll find anything. Anyone who knows how to get inside the Vriokastro could be anywhere by now.”
“Wounded and with a gun,” said Tassos.
Andreas nodded. “More of a reason to get moving. I’d rather be the hunter than the hunted.”
***
For those who believed in ghosts the evening was theirs. The figure that emerged from the very top of the ancient site was shrouded in black and moved like a cat. It held a broomstick in one hand, or at least something long, and found a perch on the east side of the peak. It watched four others making their way up the hill. The figure didn’t budge, just sat quietly holding the broomstick.
***
“Up there, to the right,” said Tassos.
The spot was a group of boulders about sixty feet from the peak. “They look like a coven of witches,” said Kouros.
“Just worry if one starts to move,” said Andreas. “Trelos, where’s the entrance?”
Trelos pointed to a dark oval about the size of a front door and ringed by the boulders.
“That’s where the shooter was, inside that hole,” said Tassos.
The four men made their way to the opening.
“Yianni, stay out here with Trelos. Tassos come with me.”
“You’ll never find the entrance without me,” said Trelos.
“He’s right,” said Tassos. “I couldn’t find it when I was looking around inside and it’s a rather obvious spot for tourists to explore.”
Andreas took Trelos by the arm and pushed him through the opening. “Fine. But don’t even think of pulling something.”
“I have no reason to. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“How about killing five people?”
“I know nothing about any of that.”
“What about robbing a church. Does that count as ‘wrong’ to you?”
“I didn’t do it for the money, my family is very rich. I was recovering what my parents had given away to strangers, so that I could do God’s work in a better way and, in the process, redeem my parents’ souls for all the grievous harm they’d done to me. And to my sister.”
“Yeah, I heard all about her broken engagement,” said Andreas.
“That is only part of what they did to her. She suffered much more difficult and tragic pain than that.”
“Frankly, I’m more worried about the pain the shooter’s causing us.” Andreas turned on his flashlight. “Just get me inside your mound.”
Five paces in Trelos stopped at two abutting boulders. To the left was an alcove filled with goat crap, candy wrappers, and empty water bottles.
“The leavings of visitors, I see.” Andreas shone his light on the ground in front of the two boulders. “Blood stains. And they end here.”
Trelos reached up, pressed his hand into an opening between the boulders, and fidgeted with something for a moment. He shook his head. “The release won’t work. It’s locked down from the inside. We can’t get in from here.”
“Where’s the next nearest entrance?”
“It won’t matter. If one’s locked down they’re likely all locked down.”
“How do we get in?”
Trelos shook his head. “We don’t. Unless whoever’s inside wants to let us in.”
“Terrific, a siege.”
“We could get in if we found the entrance used by the last one to get out.”
“Then there’d be no one left in there to catch?” Andreas pointed toward the outside with his flashlight. “You first. I wouldn’t want you getting lost on the way out.”
Outside, it was Yianni and Tassos who’d disappeared.
Andreas whispered, “Yianni? Tassos?”
“Above you, behind the boulders,” said Tassos.
Andreas pushed Trelos ahead of him toward Tassos’ voice.
“What are you doing up here?” said Andreas.
“The boulders give us cover on the east from a shooter below. And those,” Tassos pointed at stonewalls to the left and right, “give us at least some to the north and south.”
Andreas looked up the hill. “What if the shooter’s up there?”
“Then we’ve got a problem,” said Tassos.
“Add it to the list,” said Andreas. “We can’t get into the mound, everything is sealed from the inside, and whoever’s still in there could pop up anywhere. I better check out the peak, just to be safe.”
Andreas pointed at a boulder and said to Trelos, “Sit over there.”
“Be careful, Andr
eas,” said Tassos. “But don’t worry, if anybody shoots you, I shoot Trelos.” Tassos said the last words loudly and pointed his gun at Trelos. “Just in case anyone up there is listening.”
Andreas shook his head and started up the hill. It wasn’t as easy a climb as it looked. The path was off to the left but Andreas headed straight up toward the peak and the last twenty-five feet was on solid slippery rock. Twice he stumbled, once almost losing his gun.
Just before reaching the top he thought he heard a sound. Like fabric brushing against stone. He froze as his eyes darted about for the source of the sound. A pebble tumbled down the hill on the other side of the peak. It could be a goat or a lizard or a bird. Or the shooter. Andreas took a deep breath, winced at the pain in his rib, and charged the last few feet to the top.
There was nothing waiting for him. Thank God.
He did a three-hundred-sixty-degree scan down the mound. There wasn’t a living creature to be seen. Damnit.
The way back was easier. He took the path down the hill.
“Nothing up there that I could see,” said Andreas.
“Maybe the shooter is holed up inside the Vriokastro, bleeding to death from my bullet.”
“Aside from praying that you’re right, what do we do until then?” said Kouros.
Andreas sat down on a footstool-size rock at Trelos’ feet. “I think it’s time you give us some answers. Let’s start with why you killed the Carausii brothers?”
“I already told you. I don’t know anything about that.”
“My friend over here is very upset with you. You almost got him killed. So, unless you want things to get very nasty for you very quickly, I suggest you tell us everything you know about the Carausii brothers.”
“He doesn’t know.” The voice seemed more to mimic than be human speech.
Andreas swung his head around in the direction of the voice. Thirty feet to his left a shrouded face stared at him from behind a stonewall. And a rifle barrel pointed at his eyes.
***
Andreas swallowed. His gun was on his lap, but he didn’t dare go for it. “I guess if you wanted to kill me you’d have already pulled the trigger. Is there something you want to say?”
Target: Tinos Page 24
