Relics

by K. T. Tomb

  Kapnos made eye contact with Edwin, nodded and handed the weapon over to him. Edwin thumbed the ejected round back into the magazine, slapped the magazine into the handle, pulled back the slide to chamber a round and then thumbed the safety. Kapnos made a motion with his hands that urged him to continue. After a moment of hesitation, Edwin flipped off the safety, released the magazine into his palm and then pulled back the slide to eject the chambered shell. Kapnos smiled, nodded and gave him a thumbs up signal before reaching into his pocket and throwing another empty magazine in Edwin’s direction.

  “Practice,” he whispered and then looked over his shoulder toward Danna, who was ending her call. He stood and spoke in a louder than necessary tone. He slapped Edwin on the back and opened his lips into a broad smile. “I better go get the guys ready, so we can escort you two into Mr. Marinos’ office, huh? I’m going to assume that you’ll have breakfast first?”

  “We are to meet him at eleven,” Danna replied.

  “We’ll be here on time, then.” He winked at Edwin and then turned toward the door to let himself out.

  Though no words were spoken by Kapnos during that brief time together, a message had been passed along by him. He believed in Edwin. He believed that, in spite of his lack of experience with weapons, Edwin was worthy of understanding and using one. He thumbed the pistol’s safety and tucked it back into his waistband as he watched Kapnos leave.

  Edwin realized that a transformation—which had begun with little more than a lighthearted suggestion that he join Danna in an archaeological adventure—had become complete. He was no longer just an accountant.

  He wasn’t sure what he had become or what label to put on it, but in his gut, he knew that he’d been transformed and he was ready to wear the cloak of that transformation on his shoulders.

  When Taavi had pulled them off of the case a few hours later, he had seen the wearing of that cloak come to a screeching halt. Something inside of him had rebelled against having to hang it up on a peg and he’d fought for the right to continue. Though, for a moment, it appeared that he’d lost that fight, when he’d looked into Danna’s eyes, he’d known that, she too, believed in him and he knew that in spite of the fact that they’d been ‘officially’ pulled off the case, that the two of them would go on alone.

  Halfway down the hall, which led toward the back alley where the car would be waiting to whisk them off to safety, Danna leaned in close to him. “So, what did you have in mind?” she asked.

  He’d recalled an intersecting hallway that was a few meters from the end of the hall and the doorway into the alley. Though he didn’t know where it led, he hoped that there was an exit at the end of it or that there was some way for them to slip away, unseen until they could leave the building without anyone seeing them. To do that, they needed to start down that hallway without being seen. “Come on,” he said, tugging on Danna to pick up the pace toward the intersecting hallway.

  They came adjacent to the hallway, just as Marcus opened the door. Hoping that they hadn’t yet been seen, Edwin pulled Danna with him and ducked into the hallway. They had scrambled a dozen meters down the hallway when they heard the explosion. Instinctively, Edwin looked back over his shoulder and saw the flash of light, the debris and a body go hurtling past the hallway’s intersection. With new motivation, the two of them hurried toward the door at the end of the hall, Edwin slipping the pistol from his waistband as they went.

  Before he pushed on the door in front of them, he looked up and saw the telltale symbol of a men’s room beside the frame. He pulled Danna in behind him. He was relieved that the room was unoccupied.

  “What do we do now?” Danna asked.

  There was a small, frosted glass window above the last stall and he pointed toward it with the muzzle of the pistol. “It’s not going to be pretty, but we have to go out that window.”

  Tucking the pistol back in his waistband, he stepped up onto the toilet seat, unlatched the window and pushed it open. “Come on, I’ll give you a boost.”

  Danna stepped up onto the toilet seat with him and he lifted her up through the opening. She wiggled through and he heard her drop to the ground outside.

  Edwin had never been great at doing chin-ups in school and pulling himself up into the opening of the window was a struggle, but he was finally able to squeeze his torso into the small space of the opening and wiggle through. It was far from graceful, but he made it through and dropped to the ground on the outside with Danna’s help to keep him from sprawling completely.

  “This way,” he said after scanning the empty lot. He’d seen a slender opening on the other side of the alley and he grasped Danna’s hand and dashed toward it.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?” Danna asked. “Taavi will think that we’re dead. We should go back.”

  “No!” he said, a bit too sharply.

  Danna looked at him with her eyes wider than normal. He saw the fear in them and realized that he had to calm himself or the both of them were going to be in a panic. He raised a hand and worked at leveling off his breathing. “I’m sorry.”

  Danna followed Edwin’s lead and worked at calming herself as well.

  When he had better control of himself, he spoke in a low tone. “It’s better if everyone assumes that we are dead.”

  Recognition came into Danna’s eyes as he spoke. “That explosion was meant for us.”

  “It was a lot quicker than I thought it would be, but they’ve figured out who we are and who we’re working with… were working with.”

  “So, we’re on our own,” she replied. Shaken by all that ‘being alone’ would entail, Danna began pleading with Edwin. “Then we should run and hide. We can start a new life somewhere together and let everyone assume that we are dead. Let someone else worry about the box. Let’s just get out while we can.”

  “Danna,” he said, searching her eyes with his. “There is nothing in this world that I want more than to have a life with you and I really don’t care where we are when we have it, but I want a life of peace and a life in which we can raise a family. I want our children to know their grandparents and our friends. I don’t want to be hidden away somewhere, fearing that we’ll be discovered. Besides, if Pandora’s Box falls into the wrong hands, there won’t be a safe place anywhere on the face of the earth.”

  He was right, of course, and Danna knew it, but she was afraid of what they might have to face if they continued pursuing the box on their own. Swallowing the lump in her throat, hoping that her fears would also, miraculously disappear because of the act, she let out a long breath, closed her eyes and replied with a single word. “Okay.”

  Edwin smiled at her and then changed the subject completely. “It’s a good thing that I spent a lot of time studying those case files and that I have a photographic memory,” he said.

  Danna hadn’t considered that the files were lost to them. “We’ll just go back to the hotel and get them.”

  Edwin stared at her a moment but didn’t speak as he watched her sort through their situation.

  “Only we can’t go back to the hotel. We’re dead and no one can see us,” she admitted.

  “Exactly,” he replied. “Besides, I’m sure that they emptied out our suite and the case files wouldn’t be there anyway. They had packed us up to leave and taken us off the case, but do not fear, it’s all right here.”

  Edwin tapped the side of his head.

  “Wonderful,” she replied, though she had her doubts. “Where to, then?”

  “Pyrgos,” he replied.

  “Isn’t Pyrgos on the other side of the Peloponnese from Corinth and we’re about 100 kilometers away from Corinth in Athens, in the opposite direction?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he responded.

  “You are aware that we’ll have to travel through a pretty significant mountain range that is about 60 kilometers wide without being seen, right?”

  “I am.”

  “Then le
ad on, my good sir,” Danna replied, attempting to lighten the mood. Without much success, she noted.

  “The important part is that no one who knows or recognizes us sees us,” Edwin clarified.

  “How will we know if we’re seen by someone who knows or recognizes us?” she replied.

  “We won’t,” he said.

  “That’s pretty comforting,” she replied, following him down the alley and across a street that was nearly a dozen blocks from Taavi’s office. Athens was full of life at midday and everyone was engaged in living their lives and going about their business. She and Edwin slipped in among them and blended into the flowing, human stream of the urban landscape.

  “Here,” he said, stopping and looking around him.

  “Here, what?”

  “You see that produce truck?”

  “Yes.”

  “That will get us to the Peloponnese.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because it is from a little town south of Corinth.”

  Before Danna could react, Edwin had already greeted the driver of the truck and began to chatter with him about catching a ride with him. After a few moments, the driver opened the passenger door of the truck and they climbed up into the seat while he went around to the driver’s side. Danna’s look had an unspoken question in it.

  “Charm,” he grinned.

  Through a series of connections and conversations that amazed her, Danna discovered, nearly twelve hours later, that they were in a small farming village along the bank of the Alfios Potamos on the western side of the Taygetos Mountains and settling into a small loft above a wine cellar.

  “So, how do we get to Pyrgos from here, or need I even ask?” she grinned.

  “I think we’ll stay put for a little while and sort through things before we make that journey,” Edwin replied.

  “I thought we needed to go to Pyrgos.”

  “Maybe we do and maybe we don’t,” he replied.

  “I just love it when you give me straight answers.”

  “The Archaeological Museum of Olympus is only about 10 kilometers from here. Pyrgos is the major city in this region, but it is highly unlikely that the original thieves went into Pyrgos after the robbery. LOKI’s people, however, probably did.”

  “Good point. From what I remember of the case files, we know that they started out from there.”

  “Why retrace their steps before the robbery? We need to know what they did afterward.”

  “But following the trail from the beginning helps us to develop their tendencies, doesn’t it?”

  “It does, but there is a greater chance that we’ll be seen if we go to Pyrgos.”

  “Why do I have a feeling that you’ve connected something else and aren’t telling me about it?”

  “Not connected, really.” He began his reply and then hesitated. “It’s really just a theory.”

  “What’s your theory?”

  “I think that our thieves buried the box and they buried it in those mountains.”

  Edwin pointed through the small window that faced toward the north. Danna could see the jagged ridges and peaks of the range of mountains in the distance.

  “Great,” she smiled. “We have to dig up half of Greece to find Pandora’s Box.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “You are certain that they are dead?” Andriy asked.

  “That is what our intelligence assets report,” Demitri replied. “They located the accountant, Edwin Douglas and his girlfriend, Danna Sharma. Miss Sharma was what some people call a tomb raider and was working for Mr. Marinos to recover artifacts that had been stolen or lost from museums over the last 40 years. We’re not sure of Mr. Douglas’ connection beyond the fact that he and Miss Sharma were involved romantically.”

  “Just tell me if they are dead,” Andriy sighed. He could care less about who they were or what their emotional attachment to each other was.

  “Our assets discovered that Mr. Marinos was removing them from the case because it was too dangerous and had set forth plans to have them relocated to safety. We were barely able to make our move in time, but a bomb was placed under the chassis of the car that they were to be in. The door had been opened for them to climb into the car and there was an explosion.

  “We have continued monitoring Mr. Marinos and the government agency that he works for and the two are confirmed to be dead by both he and everyone who was involved in the aftermath of the explosion. The Muslim Brotherhood in Libya is taking credit for the attack and it is being labeled as a terror strike against Greece.”

  Though the way things had gone for him since they’d barely escaped from the thief’s home continued to keep him skeptical, he was forced to accept what Demitri was telling him. If the two weren’t actually dead, then he would deal with them wherever they happened to pop up. For the time being, however, he had an impossible puzzle to solve, and neither the case files nor the men who had been sent to assist him with it were helping him.

  He dismissed Demitri, rubbed his weary eyes and returned to reading the same page that he’d gone over a dozen times. He knew he was missing something and he knew it was somewhere on that page or within the twenty or so that were scattered around him, but neither his eyes nor his mind could make the connection to break the case.

  “It’s probably foolishness,” he mumbled. “The police never solved it and they had a fresh case at the time. Here I am trying to solve the same mystery with cold leads.”

  “Did you say something, Andriy?” Cy asked, having heard the man speaking when he came into the room with Andriy’s dinner.

  “Nothing that you need to be concerned with,” he growled. “Leave the meal and go.”

  “As you wish.” Cy set the food on the table beside Andriy and retreated.

  Things had surely changed since Cy had picked him up at the airport. Andriy had been impressed by the man’s knowledge of Greece and the skill with which he was able to provide transportation for him to carry out his task. Why had he become so harsh toward Cy? Had the driver done something to earn his distrust or anger him in any way? The fact that Andriy’s mind had wandered off into worrying over hurting Cy’s feelings angered him as well.

  “Stay focused!” he scolded himself.

  Trying to figure out what a band of thieves had done or were thinking decades ago wasn’t easy. He ran back through the events to try to find the inconsistency in the story or the single clue that would create a link or a lead that hadn’t been followed up on.

  According to the reports, the museum had been broken into by hooded figures that were wearing black cloaks. It seemed a little overly dramatic, but several witnesses had given identical accounts and there was no reason to doubt what they had reported.

  His first consideration, and the one which he had formed into a working theory, was that the idea behind the elaborate costumes was to make certain that they were seen, in order to cause the superstitious people of Greece to believe that some evil force had stolen the box.

  It was a ludicrous idea, of course, but it had the effect of dividing how investigators saw the case. Some believed, just as he did, that it had just been an elaborate bit of drama to add to the mystique of the act and others believed that it was carried out by actual evil spirits or, as one investigator had said in jest, ‘the government, which is essentially the same thing.’

  He’d tried to switch sides of the argument and go with the ‘evil spirit government’ theory, but he wasn’t comfortable with it. It wasn’t necessarily that he didn’t believe that either was a possibility, he just couldn’t uncover enough evidence in the reports to suggest that it was what really happened.

  He sucked in a deep breath, blew it out and pulled the plate of food toward him. Tired and hungry, he devoured what was on the plate without tasting it or even having any awareness of what it was that he had eaten. He finished the meal and pushed the plate aside.

  Leaning back in the chair, his mind wandered back to the cramped little room
that he’d waited in before going in to see the Hammer. He felt just as trapped and unable to breathe then as he did sitting in the safe house room in Pyrgos, searching for a clue that wasn’t there.

  His mind continued to play out the remainder of the scene. He recalled the stares of the two men who stood guard in the room. He remembered how the snakes that had taken over his intestines had wrapped themselves up into a tight ball and he’d had to fight to keep from vomiting all over the priceless Persian rugs in front of the LOKI CEO. The power of life and death had been present in that room and it was being wielded by a man who, with a word or a slight gesture, could bring about a very quick end to Andriy.

  Feeling the overwhelming futility of his mission and realizing that he might very well return to whatever fate followed the Hammer’s command, he closed his eyes, rubbed his temples and forced himself to relax and think.

  Chapter Twenty

  Edwin’s mind was so stuffed with cobwebs that he could feel a massive migraine coming on; something that only occurred when he’d worked himself toward complete exhaustion. From experience, he knew that if he didn’t go out into the sunshine and take advantage of some fresh air in his lungs, he’d collapse and lose all capacity to function. He couldn’t afford that.

  “I’ve got to take in some fresh air, love,” he told Danna, as he stood up from the chair in the loft where the two of them had been sitting together and running over their memories of the case file over and over again.

  “I could use some air myself,” she said, rising up as well. They descended from the loft over the wine press, which was sitting idle because it was out of season. Together, they shuffled toward the large door where the grapes were brought in at harvest time.

  They had no sooner reached the door than one of the younger ladies of the household burst through it, giving them a start. Reactively, Edwin placed his hand on the grip of the pistol that he continued to keep in his waistband.