Harvey Bennett Mysteries Box Set 3

by Nick Thacker

  “Can you be more specific?” Canisius asked.

  “Are you aware of the recent history of your office’s dealings in the area?”

  “I… cannot say that I am.”

  “The Guild Rite, an ancient sect similar to Freemasonry, and a sect within the Jesuit Order, recently fought over control over land near the Chachapoyas region of Peru.”

  “That is… certainly new information to me,” Canisius said, now growing even more confused. “But I cannot understand what that has to do with —”

  “The deal you are participating in involves some of the same groups that were interested in the land in that area. We — the CSO — are interested in preventing one of those groups from completing that deal.”

  “Well, then it seems as though our interests are misaligned, Archie. I am very interested in completing this deal — whatever it may be — and getting back home.”

  “I am sure you are,” Archie said. “But again, I am afraid there is more at stake here than our own comfort. I truly understand your predicament, but I cannot express enough the —”

  “You cannot understand my ‘predicament,’ Archie, because I do not understand it. I have been here for days, waiting around for meetings that are laced in cryptic vagaries, messages that always carry an air of urgency, and living in perpetual anxiety and confusion as to what exactly this is all about.

  “I was sent here by my office to close a deal I know nothing about, for reasons I cannot even begin to comprehend.”

  There was a pause. “Yes, I see,” Archie finally said. “I do apologize. Please, I am not trying to waste your time. On the contrary, I strongly believe that by putting our heads together we can make sense of some of this.”

  Father Canisius was still irritated, but Archie’s words had piqued his interest. “I would like some sense, if only a little.”

  “Very well. I have told you just about everything, but I will tell you one more thing, in the hope that you will reciprocate with something I might be able to use to help my own team.”

  “And what is this thing?”

  “I do not believe the Catholic Church — your employer — is interested in whatever it is that is being purchased. In fact, I believe the price they will pay will be substantially less than what the actual cost of the asset will be.”

  Canisius thought about this for a moment longer. “That is your opinion, Archie, but you have not given me any details. Why should I believe you — and why should any of it change what I am doing here?”

  “I do not want to change anything. I believe your role here must be completed as they have requested. But I think the Church is covering up something they would like to keep hidden.”

  This statement felt like a personal attack, and Canisius steeled himself and took a breath before answering. “Just what is it they are trying to cover up?”

  Archie sighed. “That is where I must leave things. If I told you what I know, you would not believe me.”

  “Then we are done here.” I will not be made a fool, he thought. And I will not disclose information I do not even have.

  Canisius pulled the phone away from his ear and was about to hang up when he heard Archie’s voice once again through the tiny speaker.

  “This deal — do you have reason to believe is for some sort of defense technology?”

  Father Edmund Canisius looked up at the clouds passing overhead. He took a deep breath.

  I cannot continue this way. He wanted to come clean, to tell everything. The trouble was that he knew nothing. Nothing of importance.

  “Yes. I do believe that, Archie.”

  “As I suspected. And one of the parties to the deal, by chance, a company called the Orland Group?”

  Canisius swallowed. This is about to get considerably more complicated.

  51

  Julie

  Julie’s mind was racing. It was torn in two — one side of it wanting to escape as soon as possible, to get away from Garza and the strange mechanical-human hybrids that had taken out Beale’s force without so much as a second thought. The other side of it wanted revenge even more than it had before. She wanted to kill Garza, to see him die a slow, horrible death, a death only he deserved.

  And she wanted to save Victoria. She’d been drugged, by the same sort of chemical that Garza had used on Julie in Philadelphia.

  And there were others, too. She remembered what Archie had told Ben and Reggie about the local tribe that had been murdered. The Ravenshadow men, obviously hoping to keep their presence and work here unknown, had wiped out an entire village of men, women, and children.

  Never in Julie’s life had she felt so strongly the drive toward vengeance. It coursed through her blood, pushed her forward, flooded her mind. It pushed the sanity away — the safe side that wanted to flee stood no chance.

  They ran toward another doorway at the end of the hall, this one on the opposite side of the base. Julie guessed it was a corner that marked the edge of Garza’s additions to the original space. She tried to recall the picture of the map they’d found. If she was correct in her assumption, the two hallways they’d just run through lined the upper level of the base, marking the border around the larger, central room where the Exos had been.

  Had been.

  They had already seen one of the exoskeleton soldiers, and she knew there were more. Garza was playing his cards close to his chest — he obviously knew where they were, as he had hailed them in the communications room they’d been in first. He’d either seen them come in, or he had seen that they’d turned on some of the monitors.

  The fact that he hadn’t sent his entire army of Ravenshadow soldiers and Exos to their location meant that he was playing it safe. Either he had fewer men than they thought, or he was simply not worried about them.

  It wasn’t like Garza to underestimate them, so Julie had to assume there was another reason he hadn’t already sent in an overwhelming force to wipe them out. Maybe Beale’s group scared him, she thought. Perhaps he was worried Beale’s team was just an advance force, one that meant there were more US soldiers on the way?

  She didn’t dwell on it. Reggie threw the heavy door open — again, it was unlocked — and they ran down the stairs. There was no reason for stealth; their boots pounded against the metal frame with resounding thuds, loud enough that anyone listening in would be able to hear them coming from at least two levels down.

  They reached the bottom floor — the floor they’d decided would be their best bet at finding an alternative exit. She hoped they were right. If the Hall of Records was here somewhere, the original creators of this mountain city would have cut multiple entrances and exits. She’d seen it in Egypt, as well as in other places of historic interest. Anything as grand as a Hall of Records would be the first reason they would build inside the mountain. The city would be a secondary concern. And the city would have been created for the inhabitants, while the Hall of Records would have been erected for only the most worthy of individuals.

  In other words, it would have been a secret. Only the elite would know about it, and how to find it. That meant there would be a way into the Hall of Records, as well as a way out, that bypassed all of the city. Garza had adopted the same space the original city had taken up, so they were hoping there would be another space — and another exit — one still hidden somewhere behind these walls.

  When Reggie and Mrs. E reached the landing at the bottom of the stairs, they paused for Ben and Julie to catch up. If they were going to be spotted, it would be here, as they entered the hallway on the floor they believed was the primary level for Garza’s men.

  Reggie tried the handle. It was unlocked. He slid it down, gently pressing until it clicked with a nearly inaudible sound. Then he pushed the door open a crack, simultaneously swinging his rifle up and out the newly formed hole.

  He paused there. Julie knew the drill from his training. Lead with what shoots, not with what gets shot at. In other words, stick your gun out of the hole before you sti
ck your head out.

  The idea was that if anyone were going to shoot, they’d do it as soon as they saw the crack in the door. And since anyone shooting back at them was guaranteed to be an enemy, there was no harm in returning blind fire.

  But no one fired, and Reggie popped the door another crack. Julie listened, leaning toward the opening. Ben and Mrs. E stood back now, but both were gripping their assault rifles tightly, preparing for an onslaught.

  When none came, Reggie slid out and into the hallway. Julie could hear him whispering as he did. “It’s a corner, so we’ve got two fronts to watch out for. And it’s not as dark here but it ain’t bright either; light fixtures are florescents, spaced every fifty or so.”

  She nodded as Ben pushed her forward. It was well known that she was the best shot in the group besides Reggie, who had served as an Army sniper before his discharge. She practiced as much as Ben and the others, but she’d taken to it quickly and, according to Reggie, was a natural.

  She enjoyed the praise, but it was times like these that she wished she wasn’t quite as good with a gun. Entering the hall where she knew there were plenty of enemy forces, as well-trained as she was, looking to put a bullet through her skull.

  Reggie took the right side of the door, Julie fell to the left. She looked down her hallway, not even bothering to look to the right. Reggie would have it covered, and it would only be a few seconds before Ben and Mrs. E had entered the hallway as well.

  Mrs. E caught the door behind her and slid it shut silently.

  Now what? Julie wondered. While she was great with a weapon, she left it to Reggie to decide which direction they should head.

  “I think that’s the demonstration floor, where Beale and his guys were cornered,” Reggie said, pointing at the wall directly opposite their corner.

  That was Julie’s impression as well — the corner in front of her formed two edges of the large open space where the Exos lived.

  “Let’s go this way,” he continued, pointing down his hallway. “There’s not really any hard information suggesting it, but it seems like the base was laid out in a left-to-right format, so this way would be heading toward the ‘front.’”

  At the same instant Reggie finished speaking, Julie heard the distinct sound of another Exo crunching toward them from the other hallway. It had just begun rounding the corner, and she felt the vibrations of each step beneath her feet.

  “Also, let’s not get in front of that thing,” Reggie said.

  “Works for me,” Ben said.

  “Same,” Mrs. E said. They set off, walking next to one another, and Ben and Julie followed closely behind.

  52

  Julie

  The hallway they were jogging through was larger, and it was clear to Julie that this was, in fact, the Ravenshadow base’s main level. Rooms and side chambers had been cut into the stone tunnel’s walls, the entirety of the place sculpted out of the interior of the mountain base. The Ravenshadow men and their contractors had likely only done a few things: added electricity and water access from the mountain’s spring, set up the furniture, cut the stairwells and mounted the doors.

  Everything else seemed original. Julie saw that these walls, while not as smooth and well-formed as the smaller tunnel shaft they’d found earlier, had been cut by hand, with the precision and care of a master craftsman.

  While Garza’s soldiers were quite good at what they did, she knew none of them would have had the training or patience to pull off a feat like this. To completely cut out the interior of a mountain and convert it into a working and livable city was beyond even what Vicente Garza could do.

  “It’s incredible,” she whispered to herself. Ever since they’d agreed that this place had to be the original home of the Chachapoyas, descended from the ancient antediluvian Atlanteans, the signs began appearing in front of her, as if her subconscious had finally registered them. The walls, smoothly cut, met the ceilings and floors with a beveled edge. The hallways seemed to be of the same dimensions as those they’d found in Egypt, and the individual chambers and rooms the same style as those they’d seen beneath the Sphinx at Giza.

  It was, without a doubt, a structure related to the lost Atlantean race. But did that mean Garza had found the Hall of Records? Had he cleared it out? Sold it off?

  It was impossible to tell without knowing exactly where the actual Hall of Records was — and unfortunately they had more pressing matters at hand, like getting out of the place alive. If they could, they’d find Victoria and her father, but Julie was beginning to think those goals would have to be tossed aside.

  They’d walked into a trap, and they’d nearly been killed because of it. Had Beale’s team not betrayed them and left them for dead, they would actually be dead.

  Reggie held up a hand, and Julie and the others halted. They’d reached the opposite end of the hallway, and Reggie was about to turn left when he stopped.

  “Got a few Ravenshadow boys,” he whispered.

  “Can we take them?” Ben asked.

  “Sure,” Reggie said. “Four on three. But it’s the two Exos behind them I’m a little worried about.”

  Julie didn’t need to see them for herself. As soon as Reggie said the words she began to hear the telltale high-pitched noise of the Exos. She immediately turned around and glanced the other direction. “The one that was coming from the other way is also still behind us. I can hear it, and it’s getting louder.”

  “We’re going to be sandwiched in between them,” Reggie said. “And that’s not a fight I want to be a part of.”

  “There was a door about halfway back,” Julie said. “A big one. All the other doors have been unlocked, so maybe this one is, too. But —”

  “Let’s roll,” Reggie said, cutting her off.

  She was about to argue but decided against it. Better than fighting three of them on two fronts.

  Maybe.

  Reggie led the way once again, and she found herself running behind the massive man, inadvertently ducking behind his tall frame. She knew it would do no good if the Exo rounded the hallway before they could get inside. The machine’s shoulder-mounted machine gun would slice Reggie to ribbons — and she would face the same fate about three milliseconds after.

  Reggie reached the door just as the Exo turned the corner. It began firing before it had even finished turning, and Julie felt the impacts of the slugs smacking into the ancient walls on the opposite side of the hallway. She ducked, as did Ben and Mrs. E.

  When she looked up again she was facing the opposite direction, and she now saw the other two Exos and their Ravenshadow escorts at the other end of the hallway. They were raising their weapons to fire, and she closed her eyes, waiting for the first rounds to hit.

  “Julie, move!”

  Ben’s voice pierced through her mind, and she bolted into action once again. She grabbed at her rifle, pulling it up and preparing to aim…

  “Julie, go!” She met eyes with Ben, just as the first shots from the other two Exos and the soldiers hit. They peppered the wall above her head.

  Not enough time.

  She realized what Ben was telling her. Get away from here. Not enough time to fight back.

  They needed to get inside.

  The soldiers pressed forward, perfectly syncing their attacks and reloading so there was a constant barrage of fire. The Exos fought similarly, their turret guns blasting away pieces of stone and wall, obliterating it into sand that blistered Julie’s exposed skin.

  It would be only another second and…

  The soldiers had stopped moving. They were still firing, but they were still missing.

  She crawled on her hands and knees the rest of the way. Not enough time to focus on the Ravenshadow men and their machine suits.

  The door she’d noticed was recessed about six inches into the wall. Not enough to completely conceal them, but enough that she felt a bit more safe than she did waiting in the center of the hallway.

  The Exo standing alone on i
ts side of the hallway was firing at full speed now, and the noise was deafening. It was still hitting the wall directly opposite the CSO team, and it didn’t seem to be working to readjust its aim.

  Ben pushed past her, and Mrs. E fell in line behind him. Reggie was moving to push the door open.

  The firing stopped abruptly, but she turned and sprang through the open door anyway, entering the dark, open chamber. She immediately knew she was in a much larger space, as her palms smacked against the stone floor and echoed throughout the pitch-black space.

  She stood, sensing the others standing around her. Reggie was last through the door, moving his mouth as if trying to pop his ears.

  “Damn that was loud,” he said.

  “Reggie,” Julie said. “They weren’t shooting at us.”

  ‘Like hell they weren’t!” Reggie said, nearly yelling. “They almost got us, and if those Exos were any closer —”

  “She’s right,” Ben said. “They weren’t firing at us. They were corralling us.”

  “They were what?”

  “They were herding us, like cattle.”

  The look on Reggie’s face said more than he could have with words. Julie knew the truth, and now he did, too.

  She’d been hesitant to enter this room, because she knew what it was.

  They all knew what it was.

  In an instant the lights flicked on. Julie’s eyes were stunned, but quickly recovered. Her worst fears were realized.

  In front of her stood stacks of wooden crates and boxes, and just beyond that she saw the headless tops of rows of Exosuits, standing at attention. There were a few rows missing, and the Exos in the row that stood just beyond were empty, their human operators nowhere to be found.

  “Oh, shit,” Reggie said.

  “Yeah,” Ben said. “I was going to say that.”

  Julie heard a popping sound, like a cork being ejected from a bottle of champagne, and then she heard the rising, high-pitched sound hitting her ears. This time it wasn’t in the distance. This time it hit her, hard, as if it were a wave of water, slamming into her and the team in full-force.