Arkana Archaeology Mystery Box Set 2

by N. S. Wikarski

  Only one more relic to go. Together the Bones of the Mother would unfailingly lead the diviner to the greatest treasure of all—the Sage Stone. He would wield its formidable power to forge the world anew in God’s image. “In hoc signo vinces,” he whispered. “The hour is almost upon us!”

  Chapter 51—Hitting Home

  Leroy Hunt cracked open the door to Abraham Metcalf’s office and peered inside. One of Metcalf’s flunkeys had told the cowboy to wait in the entrance hall, but he figured if he showed up unannounced he might catch the old coot with his pants down and maybe learn something about where all the doodads were stashed. Leroy slipped inside the office, but the preacher wasn’t around. He found that strange. They hadn’t passed each other in the hallway, but Leroy wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Metcalf’s absence supplied a golden opportunity to scope out the room without being watched. The cowboy studied the surveillance cameras above the desk. Just like Chopper had told him, they were all trained on the opposite wall—nothing to see there but carved paneling. Why would a body waste all that tech on a blank wall? Leroy had a hunch that those cams were guarding a lot more than pricey oak veneer.

  He blinked once in surprise when he saw the wall move. It slid noiselessly to the side, and Abe walked out. The two men stared at each other in shock. The panel closed silently behind the preacher.

  “What are you doing here?” Metcalf demanded.

  Leroy decided to cover his tracks by playing innocent. He removed his hat and twirled it between his hands. “We had a meetin’. Don’t you remember, boss?”

  “I distinctly remember telling my assistant that you were to wait in the foyer!”

  Hunt made an elaborate show of scratching his head in puzzlement. “Is that what he said? I sure am sorry, Mr. Metcalf. I musta got confused.”

  Abe straightened the front of his coat. “Indeed, you did.” He scrutinized the cowboy’s face, trying to read how much his visitor had guessed about that secret panel.

  Leroy cultivated a blank expression.

  Eventually, the old man gave up. “Have a seat,” he ordered and then lowered himself into his chair.

  While his boss was getting settled, Leroy took a minute to assess what he’d seen. Sure enough, his hunch had been right. He’d lay odds that all the doodads were behind that paneled wall. Of course, there was bound to be more than a couple of inches of wood between him and his payday. If he had to guess, there’d be some kind of metal vault with loads of passwords and keycodes and such. Well, that was neither here nor there. When the time came, he’d get the old man to blab all the necessary passcodes. He had a way of making people talk, especially when they didn’t want to. For now, it was enough that he’d found the location of the stash.

  Metcalf cut into his thoughts. “What did you want to see me about?”

  “We got some unfinished business to discuss about Little Miss Hannah.”

  At the mention of the gal’s name, Metcalf sat bolt upright. “Yes, of course. This relic quest has driven everything else from my mind. Where do you intend to look for her next?”

  “Well, sir, last we heard, your little missus was learnin’ all about the big bad world at some school in Montana.”

  Leroy had deliberately mentioned the school just to get a rise out of Metcalf. The preacher turned white as a sheet. He couldn’t stand the thought of his child-bride getting any notions in her head that Abe hadn’t put there himself.

  “Far as I know, little Hannah is sittin’ tight in Billings. You want me to hop a plane and see if I can round her up for you?”

  Metcalf nodded so hard he looked like one of those bobbleheads folks put on their dashboards. Leroy suppressed the urge to laugh out loud. He slapped on his poker face and kept his mouth still.

  “Absolutely, Mr. Hunt. That must be your next priority. Bring her back to me as soon as you can.”

  The cowboy gave a jaunty salute. “You got it, boss. That gal will be back in your arms ‘fore you can say ‘Wedded Bliss.’”

  “Excellent.” Metcalf rose and walked to the door, opening it wide to indicate the meeting was over.

  Hunt stuck his hat back on and shuffled out.

  “Oh, and Mr. Hunt...” Metcalf called after him.

  “Boss?” Leroy paused in the corridor.

  “You are to be commended for a job well done in retrieving the most recent artifact. Carry on.”

  “Yessir.” The cowboy turned his back and ambled in the direction of the front door. As he walked down the endless corridors, he turned over another plan in his mind about where Hannah might actually be hiding.

  During the time when Leroy was overseas, he’d had something of a revelation—a notion that hadn’t occurred to him during all his weeks of following up one pointless lead after another. Somebody had sent him on a wild goose chase covering the entire United States of America... almost. There was one location that was missing from list of the places he’d visited. None of his fake leads brought him anywhere near the Midwest. That could only mean one thing about little Hannah’s true whereabouts. If Somebody had gone to such trouble to get Leroy out of Chicago, it was because Hannah had never left town in the first place. She was still here, and so was the Somebody who was protecting her. Leroy felt it was high time to dig up some dirt in his own backyard.

  Chapter 52—Tempests ‘n’ Teapots

  “Oh, my dears! It’s wonderful to see your smiling faces again!” Faye rose to greet Griffin and Cassie, hugging them each in turn.

  They had just returned from the airport and immediately headed for her parlor at the vault to give their report. The room looked much like Faye’s living room at the farmhouse. A fire crackled in the grate, and the underground windows displayed the light of a late autumn afternoon.

  “It was touch and go there for a while. We weren’t sure anybody was going to see our smiling faces ever again.” Cassie took a seat on the camelback sofa.

  Griffin tucked in beside her.

  A tea service had been set on the table in front of them, and Faye bustled forward to pour out cups for each of her guests.

  Cassie turned excitedly to her partner. “Look, Griffin. Tea. Real tea!”

  They drank down the hot contents immediately and held their cups out for more. Faye appeared perplexed by their reaction.

  “Please don’t ask,” the pythia entreated. “It’s a painful memory.”

  Cassie next scooped up a croissant. “Hello, you flaky delicacy. How I’ve missed you.” She passed the plate of pastries to Griffin. “Traveling to the top of the world sure gave me an appreciation for the comforts of home—a shower, a teabag, upholstered furniture, and any food that isn’t made from barley flour.”

  At that moment, Maddie rounded the corner. “Well, well, the prodigals return.” She immediately settled herself on the opposite end of the couch.

  “Did you receive the artifact?” Griffin asked anxiously.

  “Got it yesterday. It’s safe and sound and waiting for your department to catalog it.”

  “Where are Rabten and Rinchen?” the pythia asked. “I thought they’d be here for the big debrief.”

  “Already left on another assignment,” Maddie informed them.

  “Those two chaps are first-rate agents,” the scrivener said. “We couldn’t have completed this mission without them.”

  The chatelaine gave a pleased smile. “I’ll tell them you gave a glowing report of how well they handled the recovery.”

  Faye poured a cup for Maddie and handed it to her. “Speaking of our latest recovery, I haven’t had a chance to see it yet.”

  “Someone will bring it along in a minute,” the chatelaine replied. Changing the subject, she asked, “Who’s minding Hannah while you’re here? It’s not a school day.”

  “No, but her time is being spent in academic pursuits nonetheless,” Faye replied. She served herself from the tray and then returned to her plush armchair. “Zachary and Hannah are acting a
s ‘study buddies.’ Even as we speak, they’re preparing for their midterm examinations. I’ve been told that these things called midterms are a source of dread to teenagers everywhere.”

  “Good,” the chatelaine murmured. “I’m all for anything that keeps your grandkid out of my hair even for a day.”

  “Isn’t Zachary’s orientation going well?” Faye asked innocently.

  “He’s got more hands than an octopus when it comes to grabbing artifacts he shouldn’t and more unanswerable questions than the sphinx,” Maddie countered.

  “Perhaps you should drop him from the program then.” The memory guardian’s voice held a mischievous challenge.

  “He’ll pass muster,” the chatelaine relented with a grudging smile.

  Another figure entered the room. “Hey, guys.”

  Griffin shot out of his seat. “What’s he doing here?”

  Cassie’s eyes widened in surprise.

  “Relax, I come bearing gifts.” Erik strode forward, carrying the Kailash artifact. He placed it on the coffee table.

  “Oh my goodness!” Faye’s hand flew to her mouth in astonishment.

  The paladin took a seat on the arm of the sofa next to Maddie.

  Griffin sat back down, but both he and Cassie continued to glare at the new arrival.

  “If looks could kill,” Erik quipped.

  Maddie ran interference. “Chill out, you two. He’s here because there’s something he wanted to get off his chest.” She gave her protégé a sharp nudge in the ribs. “Isn’t there, Erik?”

  The paladin dropped his gaze to the floor. “Yeah, there is.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably and then looked at his former teammates. “I came to apologize.”

  Cassie and Griffin traded startled glances before directing their attention back to Erik.

  “Dude, I never thought I’d hear those words come out of your mouth,” Cassie said.

  “Better late than never, I suppose,” Griffin sniffed, still obviously offended.

  Erik continued. “Here’s the thing. I’m not sorry that I came back to the vault to take on a new assignment, but my timing sucked. I should have finished the Tibetan mission first.”

  “Apology accepted,” Cassie said warily.

  “What new assignment?” Griffin’s eyes narrowed.

  “Infiltrating the Nephilim.”

  “What!” Cassie and Griffin exclaimed in shock.

  Maddie intervened once more. “Hey, dial it down! It’s not the death sentence we all thought it would be. Turns out Boy Wonder here came up with a good plan. He’s been taking odd jobs with the contractors Metcalf hired for his secret projects. Kept his ears open and learned a few choice tidbits.”

  “Did you indeed?” The scrivener remarked archly. “What sort of tidbits?”

  “For starters, I got a line on the guy Metcalf hired to run his lab operation. The director’s name is Rafi Aboud. He’s spent decades developing biological weapons in the Middle East. Now that he’s working for Metcalf, it looks like Aboud is experimenting on something a lot bigger than guinea pigs. I’ve seen Nephilim walk into that hole in the ground but never come out. They go up in smoke—literally. A giant incinerator disposes of whatever mistakes the good doctor makes.”

  “So the diviner is allowing fatal experiments to be conducted on his own people?” Faye’s face had drained of color. “That is very disturbing news.”

  “What toxin do you think he’s cooking up?” Cassie asked.

  Erik shook his head. “Not sure yet—something uber-lethal. I’ll find out more in the next couple of weeks.”

  “I suppose it’s unnecessary to tell you to keep your guard up,” Griffin cautioned, his anger apparently abated. “It sounds as if this Aboud would welcome another test subject, no matter what the source.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Erik agreed. “I’m not looking for a one-way trip to the doc’s easy bake oven.” Changing the subject abruptly, he asked, “So how did your bait-and-switch operation go?”

  Cassie gave a shudder. “It was the longest night of my life.” Turning to her partner, she asked, “How about you, Griffin?”

  “I heartily concur. We’re lucky to be alive at all.”

  “Did Maddie tell you we got jumped by bandits on the way down the mountain?” The pythia directed her question to Erik.

  An unreadable expression crossed his face. “Yeah, we all got the short version of your last phone call to Home Office but not the details. How did you get away?”

  “By the barest stroke of luck, that’s how,” Griffin replied. “We managed to untie ourselves and subdue the evil-looking bloke who’d been set to guard us. A few moments later, we heard the rest of his associates coming down the trail.”

  Cassie picked up the thread of the narrative. “It was a good thing it was still dark. We tore out of that tent and never looked back. Behind us, we could hear a ruckus when the gang discovered their buddy trussed up in our place. They got sidetracked trying to bring him around which gave us some lead time. We ran for town as fast as we could.”

  “The Land Rover had already been loaded in anticipation of our pre-dawn departure,” the scrivener explained. “Needless to say, we made a speedy exit out of Darchen just as the sun rose.”

  The pythia eyed Erik with a woebegone expression. “For what it’s worth, you weren’t wrong about the snow.”

  “Huh. How about that.” The paladin crossed his arms, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

  “From the condition of the sky, we could tell a storm was already building as we drove out of Darchen,” Griffin added. “We’d only just crossed the Nepalese border when a blizzard struck. All the roads to the north were closed.”

  “If that snow had hit an hour sooner, we might have been cornered in town with those bandits still chasing us,” the pythia speculated. “As it was, we were looking over our shoulders all the way to Hilsa. They could have followed our tire tracks through the snow pretty easily if they’d wanted to. What a nightmare!”

  At her words, Maddie and Erik glanced at one another and chuckled.

  “My dears, don’t you think your reaction is a bit inappropriate?” Faye’s tone was mildly disapproving. “After all, Cassie and Griffin just suffered a very narrow escape.”

  The old woman’s comment only seemed to fuel the humor. Both Erik and Maddie burst out laughing much to the surprise of the other three.

  Finally, the paladin asked the chatelaine, “Do you want to tell them?”

  “Nope. You go ahead.”

  Erik got control of his facial muscles and let out a deep breath. “OK, brace yourselves. You were never in any danger.”

  “Are you delusional?” Cassie challenged.

  Griffin squinted at Erik as if he’d lost his mind.

  “How on earth is that possible?” Faye asked.

  “I was in the office when Maddie got your report from Nepal that you’d been snatched by a pack of thieves on the mountain. She asked me to do some digging to find out if we had any new competition for the Sage Stone. After a few phone calls to the right people in Darchen, I was able to piece the story together.”

  “We’re listening.” Griffin’s tone was frosty again. “Please do enlighten us.”

  “Turns out you weren’t the only witnesses when Hunt and Daniel swiped the relic. There was a guy camping not too far from the cave. He saw the lights and snuck up to find out what was going on. He caught the part of the show where Hunt took the relic out of the case, and Daniel hid it in his backpack. Of course, it was too dark for the camper to see their faces. All he knew for sure was that two thieves were looting the sacred shrine, so he ran down the trail to get help. By the time he pulled a posse together, the Nephilim had left town, and you two were ambling down Kailash. It was a classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The camper and his buddies figured you stole the artifact.”

  “That would be the reason they ransacked our belongings,�
�� Griffin observed.

  “Correct. And when they didn’t find it, they figured they’d better check out the shrine for themselves.”

  “So that’s why they left and headed back up the trail,” the pythia said.

  “They were halfway to the cave before it occurred to them that leaving you two alone might not be the best idea.”

  “And that’s why there was no guard initially,” the scrivener said.

  “Also correct. So they sent somebody back down to keep an eye on you.” Erik couldn’t help chuckling again. “From what I hear, you really did a number on him.”

  “When I get tied up and thrown in a tent, I take that sort of thing personally,” Cassie retorted. “Who were those guys anyway?”

  “That’s the funny part.” The paladin grinned. “They were pilgrims.”

  “Oh no!” Griffin gasped.

  The pythia couldn’t believe her ears. “Let me get this straight. The guy who sounded the alarm was just some random religioso who was camping out under the stars near the shrine. When he saw what happened, he got a bunch of other pilgrims to help him save their relic?”

  “Yup. That’s about the size of it.”

  “So, we mugged an innocent codger.” Cassie cringed inwardly. “Granted, he was a sinister-looking old dude, but in real life he’s probably a monk or a yogi or even somebody’s grandpa.”

  “If it’s any consolation, I’m sure his efforts to preserve Shiva’s relic will erase at least five lifetimes of bad karma. Much better than simply walking the parikrama,” Griffin joked.

  “Your great escape was the water cooler topic for days,” Maddie chimed in.

  “We’ll never live this down.” The pythia sank her head into her hands.

  “But seriously,” Erik spoke up. “You made the right call.”