The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 3

by Christopher Cartwright

  Sam’s hand was fixed rock solid as he pointed the Glock at Dmitri. “Where? God damn it!”

  Dmitri remained silent. His face set in a hard and impassive expression. His eyes, seemed to be watching something.

  Sam’s eyes darted between Dmitri and the Death Mask.

  Something about the skull seemed different. The skull never changed. Of course it didn’t, the ancient relic was an inanimate object, right? Only, somehow, there was something different about the eyes.

  Sam focused on them. They had turned more sinister, somehow. Were they mocking him? He shook his head, knowing the skull hadn’t changed shape at all. But still the feeling that there was something different about the eyes increased… then he realized what it was…

  Was it warning him?

  That was it. The skull was preparing him for something terrible and warning him against a tremendous evil. He felt his sixth sense go into overdrive. His skin was riddled with goosebumps. Adrenaline surged throughout his body.

  Had Death tricked him, somehow?

  Sam considered shooting the man right away. It might be the safest course of action. Instead, he heard a voice from behind tell him to put the weapon down and turn around. Sam turned slowly and put the Glock down on the floor – because the ghost at the end of the tunnel had just risen and was now pointing a shotgun directly at him.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Sam stared at the ghost.

  It wore the same yellow Gore-Tex climbing jacket, lined with bullet holes. That’s where the similarities with the body of the dead climber ended. The man in front of him had a slightly gaunt and ascetic face, with a patrician nose and unusually high cheekbones. Sam spotted the crucifix hanging round his neck and at its center a horse of pure obsidian.

  Sam recognized the third horseman – Famine.

  “Mr. Reilly, I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate you rounding up each of the Four Horsemen for me.” Famine smiled. “You have no idea how long I’ve searched for these.”

  “Are you forgetting someone?” Sam asked. “I see Death standing there, and you are already practically emaciated, so I’ll take your word for it – you’re Famine. I’m carrying War. But I don’t see Conquest, do you?”

  “Let’s just say Conquest will join us soon,” Famine said. “Now, I’ll have you place War in its recess.”

  Sam paused for a second and Famine shot Death in his left knee cap. The bony fragments splintered into more than a dozen shards.

  Death let out a deep, guttural roar. It lasted seconds and then was over; the practiced silence of a lifetime of pain and discomfort.

  Famine grinned. “I’ve wanted to do that to you for a few centuries now.”

  Death remained silent.

  “Okay. I’m placing the War pendant into its recess,” Sam said. “But I happen to know for a fact that Billie Swan wears Conquest, so you’re still one short.”

  Sam quickly removed the pendant from his neck and placed it in the obsidian recess.

  “Good.” Famine pointed the shotgun at Tom. “I’ll have you take Death’s pendant and place it in the recess now.”

  Tom glanced at Sam. He nodded. It was okay, there was nothing else they could do – yet. Tom removed the pendant and Death, his wrists still restrained with the cables, let him. Tom then placed the Death pendant into its stone recess.

  Famine removed his own pendant and threw it at Tom. “While you’re there. I wonder if you’d be kind enough to place this one, too.”

  Tom nodded and placed it.

  Nothing happened. The Death Mask remained cold. The three horsemen warmed up inside their placements, like horses preparing for battle, while the last of their army failed to show.

  Sam asked, “Now what?”

  Famine stared at him with a glint of conceit. He then removed a second pendant. This one was made of ivory and depicted a horseman carrying a broadsword and a crown. Conquest. “You didn’t really think I’d come all this way, and, as they say, play all my cards, if I already knew I was one pendant short of winning?”

  Dmitri glanced at Sam. “How could you of all people have been so stupid to allow all Four Horsemen to gather at the temple?”

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  The next few seconds happened fast.

  Sam was approximately seven feet from Famine and Tom closer to ten. He glanced at Tom. No words were spoken. Their eyes met each other with perfect honesty. There were few options left and none left much chance of survival. Each accepted the only outcome with magnanimity. A simple belief system and rule they each followed throughout their lives, which meant good must overcome evil at all costs – sacrifice was the ultimate litmus test of honor.

  They dived at Famine.

  It would take less than one of those feet for Famine to squeeze his shotgun’s trigger. Both Sam and Tom were betting that in the process of dying, one of them might reach the murderous creature and kill him before taking their final, agonal breaths.

  Famine met their attack with unrestrained disbelief. He jumped backward, adding more distance for them to cover, and rounded the shotgun to meet them.

  Sam heard the three loud bangs of gunfire next. Adrenaline surged through his body. He subconsciously tensed his body in expectation of pain from the shotgun blast ripping through his earthly flesh and he dived the remaining three feet to close the distance between him and Famine.

  The shotgun blast was the next thing he heard – the sound of his own death.

  He fell on top of Famine. His hardened fingers tearing at the man’s windpipe. A split-second later, Tom landed on the other side of him. The thunderous echo of weapons firing in the small tunnel, was suddenly replaced with total silence.

  Death said, “It’s over.”

  Sam shifted his position on Famine’s throat. The man’s entire body was still. His muscles were flaccid and blood ran down his chest and abdomen.

  In an instant, Sam took it all in. Famine, distracted by Sam and Tom’s advance had swung his shotgun round to stop them dead. At the same time, Death took the opportunity to dive to the ground where Sam had thrown his Glock. Then, instead of shooting Tom and Sam, Famine had to fire at Death. A split second before the shot was taken, Death fired three rounds, killing Famine instantly.

  But a shotgun shot was fired…

  Sam turned to Dmitri, who was still lying on the ground, where blood ran freely from the spread of shot pellets which littered his lower torso through to his feet.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Sam and Tom rushed to Dmitri’s aid. His eyes swept the man’s injuries at a glance. The spherical pellets of shot spread out from his lower torso to his feet. Blood dribbled from each wound. There simply were too many to plug. If they were right next to a trauma hospital with a team of surgeons, his chance of survival was about fifty-fifty. Buried deep inside Mount Ararat, where it would take more than two hours to reach a hospital, the outcome was foregone.

  “Thanks for saving our lives,” Sam said. “Is there anything we can do to make you more comfortable?”

  Dmitri shook his head. “Nothing will extend my life, but there’s something I need.”

  “I’m sorry,” Sam said.

  “I’ve had a very long life,” Dmitri said. “As the result of a unique genetic disorder shared by less than twenty people throughout history, I’ve lived much longer than anyone could imagine. Time, you see, blunts all instruments, even death.”

  Tom applied pressure to the top of Dmitri’s abdomen where the greatest amount of blood spilled out. “Are you immortal?”

  Dmitri started to laugh. It was halted a moment later, as blood came up through his mouth. “Do I look immortal? No. We can die, just like everyone else. We just age very slowly, that’s all.”

  Sam wanted to ask him what genetic disorder the Master Builders all shared, and how long had he lived, but a single look at the man’s ashen face made him realize the man wouldn’t be conscious much longer. So instead, he just asked, “What do you need?”
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br />   Dmitri spoke quietly, lacking the strength to push his diaphragm any harder. “You have the Death Mask and the Four Horsemen. When the time comes, as it will soon, you must complete the prophecy.”

  “We might be able to get you to a hospital within the hour.”

  Death smiled. His ashen face, calm and accepting. “No. You and I both know I don’t have that much time.”

  Sam asked, “What would it have done – if Famine had succeeded in joining the Four Horsemen?”

  “You still don’t know, do you?” Death was incredulous.

  “No.”

  “It brings the rise of the Third Temple.”

  “I thought the pyramid in the Kalahari Desert was the Third Temple?”

  “No. The Third Temple isn’t a place. It’s a new cycle of evolution.”

  “Come again?” Sam asked.

  “The Third Temple is the name for the third group of human survivors.”

  “Of what?”

  “The apocalypse that’s coming our way.”

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Sam stared at the dying man in front of him, terrified he would die before revealing the hidden secrets of the Death Mask. He placed a hand on Dmitri’s shoulder and said, “Please, you need to tell me what it’s meant to be.”

  Dmitri said, “It was an ancient covenant designed to protect the Death Mask. There were four keepers. Each living in different parts of the world to keep the keys separate until the right time for them to come together.”

  “The Death Mask was about to bring forth this apocalypse?”

  “Yes. It was going to trigger a series of micro changes inside the volcano. The subsequent result would cause one of the largest volcanic clouds ever seen on earth. The result would trigger a new ice-age. Those who were worthy of the Third Temple would survive the destruction to rebuild a new order, while the vast population of the human race would succumb.”

  “But why?”

  Dmitri paused, as he let out a deep, guttural cry. “Because by saving the few, it was the only way to save any.”

  “So you believe the Death Mask is vital to the continuation of humanity?”

  Dmitri said, “It’s probably the most important device ever built and the great masters who built it spent generations perfecting it for this very purpose.”

  Sam asked, “Then why did you stop Famine?”

  “Because it’s not time, yet.”

  “I don’t understand. When is the right time?”

  “Soon. Maybe before the end of this decade. I don’t know.”

  “Why?” Sam leaned closer to hear the man’s fading voice. “What’s going to happen?”

  Dmitri coughed some more blood. “Have you ever been to the Göbekli Tepe?”

  “The ancient astronomer’s temple just north of Syria on the Turkish border?”

  “Yes. How familiar are you with the Pillar 43?”

  “The Vulture Stone?” Sam opened his computer tablet and brought up some saved information on the ancient temple. “It was designed to show a snapshot of the sky at the time of the comet impact, which is calculated by the authors of a recent archeology paper to be around 10,950 BC.”

  “That’s right. In addition, some recent archeologists have questioned whether the stone concealed two messages. The first being the image of the comet that struck, leading to the mini Ice Age known as the Younger Dryas. And the second, being that the ball-like object is the sun in Sagittarius at the time of the winter solstice between the years 1960 and 2040.”

  “Meaning?” Sam asked.

  “That the Vulture Stone marked a coded message, conveyed across time by the Göbekli builders of 11,500 years ago, the age of Enclosure D where the stone was found.”

  Sam considered the revelation.

  Could it have really been a warning to humanity telling us that during this 80-year window the comet responsible for a terrifying impact event at the commencement of the Younger Dryas event might once again threaten the world? It was a daring, bold, and a somewhat disturbing proposition that once made, would unlikely be forgotten. But was it right? Was it even appropriate to interpret the carved imagery of Göbekli Tepe's Vulture Stone in this way?

  “It seems hard to believe.” Sam’s face was set hard. “Is this what you’ve heard, or are you telling me what the Vulture Stone meant?”

  “It’s one of the theories the current archeologists believe.” Dmitri coughed some more. His eyes were heavily glossed over, like his internal light had finally succumbed. But then his eyes lit up, as though another surge of adrenaline gave him the tenacity to finally tell the truth. “I don’t know what the truth is about Pillar 43.”

  Sam persisted. “What do you know?”

  “Pillar 43 was a lot less important than Pillar 44.”

  Sam watched as Dmitri took a pause in his speech, either due to his failing strength, or for dramatic flair. Sam glanced down at his tablet, where an image of Göbekli Tepe's enclosure D stared back at him.

  His eyes met Dmitri’s at the sudden revelation. “There was no Pillar 44.”

  Dmitri smiled. “There used to be a Pillar 44 within enclosure D. It was slightly taller than the other T-shaped stones, and depicted the burning tail of a comet. It was aptly named the Death Stone. The ancient astronomer’s chart accurately identified another major comet – this one having the power to destroy the vast majority of life on earth in the future – a period in time that is rapidly approaching.”

  Sam looked at his eyes and knew Dmitri was speaking the truth. Dead men and those near to it, rarely find the need to lie.

  “It’s true, isn’t it? Sam asked. “There is some foreboding disaster approaching earth.”

  “Yes. I’m afraid so.”

  “When will it hit?”

  “I don’t know. Somewhere between 1960 and 2040, but the method for knowing for certain has been lost for many years.”

  “The ancient’s predicted the exact date of the collision?”

  “Yes. But it’s been lost forever now.”

  “How?”

  Dmitri said, “The Death Stone mapped the comet’s precise movements until it reaches earth during winter solstice.”

  Sam said, “If a second stone did in fact exist and there was a world-ending comet on its way, those who discovered it would have brought the knowledge to the world?”

  “They did.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because it was my brother who found the stone. He notified a delegate of the UN. The next day, they came and removed the stone and put it on a ship. My brother called me and told me all about it, and then was killed in a car accident on his way home.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying – if high ranking members of the world knew that such an event was inevitable, would they tell anyone? What if they knew they had time to save some, but not everyone? What if, instead of alerting the world, they turned their efforts to building the world’s largest bunker?”

  Sam thought about it for a moment and shook his head. “What about the ship? Did your brother make a note of the ship that took the stone?”

  “Yes. He kept a record.”

  “And where did the ship go?”

  “I tried to follow it up, but the ship sank in transit and its entire crew and cargo was lost.”

  “Do you know where?”

  “No. They wouldn’t tell me, and if they did, I wouldn’t believe them.”

  “You think it’s still out there?”

  Dmitri nodded. “Someone’s studied it and knows the truth. Even as we speak, someone in high ranking government around the world knows the precise date.”

  Dmitri’s eyes stared vacantly above. He was close to death. Sam had so many questions to ask, but instead he asked just one. “Where’s Billie Swan?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Where could they be keeping her?”

  “I have no idea, but you were right about the pyramid numbers. Follow the numbers and they will
lead you to her.” Dmitri said. “I don’t have much longer. I was born in this temple nearly four hundred years ago. I want to be alone with the shrine of my ancestors before I die.”

  Without anything adequate to say, Sam nodded and stood up.

  Death gripped his arm. It was weak, but there was enough force to make Sam stop. Death looked at him, with his purple eyes fixed hard. “Tell Elise, there will be others like her. She will need to find them one day.”

  “The picture!” Sam suddenly recalled the cave painting toward the entrance. “It was of her?”

  “No. Her grandmother.”

  “Where are the remaining Master Builders?”

  “Scattered around the world – hiding.”

  “Why?”

  Dmitri gritted his teeth. “Because someone is actively hunting them.”

  Chapter Fifty-Nine – Black Sea

  In the mission room on the Maria Helena, Sam enlarged the image of the pyramid numbers on the digital projector. They were Roman Numerals and displayed three distinctly different sets of numbers. The first doubled to form the second and then the first and second combined to make the third.

  Sam stared at the numbers on the wall. Tom, Genevieve, Matthew, Elise and Veyron all stared too. He turned to Elise, who was well known for her codebreaking abilities. “These numbers tell us where Billie is being held prisoner.”

  Elise asked, “Is that what Dmitri told you?”

  “Yes. But it’s more than that. I’ve seen those numbers before.”

  “Where?”

  “Inside Atlantis,” Sam said.

  “What?”

  “When we found Atlantis, there were a series of numbers on the wall. I remember Billie taking a photo of Roman numerals nearly five feet high.”

  Matthew asked, “So what does it represent? It’s much too long to be a latitude and longitude.”