The Sean Wyatt Series Box Set 4

by Ernest Dempsey

  “Would you like a menu?” the girl asked the gunman.

  “No,” he replied in German. “I was just leaving.”

  “That’s right,” Sean said. “Our friend here was just leaving. Although he might be interested in filling out a job application. He’s already dressing the part. Isn’t that right?”

  The gunman’s nostrils flared, and his jaw tightened.

  He spun around and marched away without looking back.

  “Guess he wasn’t interested,” Tommy said.

  “Guess not,” Sean said as he watched the gunman disappear into the pedestrian traffic. “But, I doubt we’ve seen the last of him.”

  8

  Aachen

  “Who was that guy?” June asked with a tremor in her voice.

  “I don’t know,” Tommy answered. “But we’ll find out.”

  “He had a gun, Tommy.”

  “I realize that.”

  June gasped. “You say that as if you deal with this sort of thing all the time.”

  Sean raised an eyebrow at his friend but didn’t need to say anything.

  “It happens from time to time,” Tommy said. “That’s the risk involved with recovering artifacts of this nature.”

  “Risk? He had a gun, Tommy. He pointed it right at us.”

  “I know,” Tommy said, putting his arm around her.

  She slid to the side to get out from under his attempt at soothing. “I’m sorry, I need to go. I don’t know what you all are involved with, but I’d prefer to not have guns aimed at me.”

  She stood up and collected her things.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” Sean said.

  “Sean, it’s been nice to meet you. Adriana, you as well.”

  “He’s still watching us,” Sean added.

  June’s eyes widened. She glanced around the pedestrian street to see if she could find the man’s face. He was nowhere to be seen.

  “Look,” she said. “Whatever that guy wants, he wants from you two…three. I don’t want to have anything to do with it.”

  Tommy stood up and tried to put his hand on her shoulder again. She shrugged it off.

  “When you decide to get into a career that doesn’t involve deadly weapons, feel free to give me a call.”

  She started to walk toward the cafe’s entrance.

  “Second floor. Red building across the street,” Sean said.

  His words froze June in place. “What? What did you say?” She looked back over her shoulder at him.

  “It’s not the guy we just met. He’s waiting for us around the corner. Doesn’t need to be in sight because he’s got a pair of eyes watching us from that red building over there.”

  She started to divert her gaze to the building he was referring to, but he stopped her.

  “Don’t make it obvious you’re looking,” Sean said. “Be casual. Second-story window, second one over from the white door below it.”

  June twisted her head slowly. Tommy and Adriana waited a moment before they stole a quick look. All three saw the same thing. A dark silhouette standing in the window moved suddenly, causing the cream-colored curtains to ripple in the window.

  “He ducked out of sight, didn’t he?” Sean said, staring into his cup.

  June nodded absently.

  “These guys rarely work alone,” Sean said. “Come back over here, and have a seat. They’re not going to hurt us. If they were, they’d have done it by now.”

  “Or they would have waited,” Tommy said.

  “Right. Which means these guys wanted us to know they’re here.”

  “Why would they want that?” June asked, still held in place by fear.

  “Who knows? Typically, they’ll do that to make a statement. In this case, it’s probably a warning.”

  “A warning?”

  Adriana jumped in. “To get off the trail we’re following.”

  Sean nodded in agreement. “That’s a good thing. Means we’re heading in the right direction.”

  “A good thing?” June blurted. “It’s a good thing to have a gun pointed at you?” Her voice rose with her level of anger.

  “That’s not what he meant,” Tommy said.

  Before she could protest further, Sean urged her to return to her seat. “Please. Sit down, June. You’re much safer with us than on your own.”

  “No. I don’t think so. I think I was safer before I met you three. I’m going back to the lab. Please don’t call me or follow me or whatever it is you do.”

  She walked toward the entrance to the outdoor eating area. Tommy stood up to stop her, but Sean kept him in place. “Hold on, buddy.”

  “Hold on?” Tommy said. “She’s in danger if she leaves here alone.”

  “I know. Just give her a head start.”

  “A head start? I’m not using her as bait, Sean. She’s a woman, a woman I happen to have feelings for. So I’m sorry if I don’t agree with the whole give-her-a-head-start plan.”

  He stormed by Sean and hurried after June. She’d already merged into the increasing current of people walking down the cobblestone street.

  “Would you use me as bait?” Adriana said, curling her bottom lip.

  “Not unless I was sure you’d be okay.”

  She didn’t seem surprised. “So you think June will be okay?”

  “She would have been if Tommy had stayed here. Now they’re both in trouble.”

  “We going after them?”

  He nodded. “Yep. Just as soon as that guy across the street steps out the door.”

  Sean reached across the table and picked up the folder. He stuffed it and the medallion into his rucksack.

  “Why do you think that guy was bluffing?” Adriana asked.

  “Someone who intended to hurt us wouldn’t have shown their face. They wouldn’t have come after us in broad daylight. And they wouldn’t have been so polite.”

  “Polite?”

  “Yep. He clearly said he didn’t want to hurt us.”

  “And you believed him?”

  Sean’s lips pressed together in a grin. “I’ve played cards long enough and been in this game long enough to know when a person is lying and when they’re telling the truth. That guy wasn’t lying.”

  “Which means what, exactly?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, staring across the street through the passing bodies. “But it looks like the spotter is on the move.”

  Adriana followed his eyes across the street to the white door in the red building. A man dressed in black pants, and a matching pea coat stepped out onto the street. His gaze was aimed in the direction Tommy and June went. The guy slipped on a pair of sunglasses and started after them, careful to stay close to the buildings to keep out of sight.

  “Are we going after them now?” Adriana asked.

  “Yep,” Sean said with a nod.

  He fished some euros out of his pocket and put enough on the table to cover their bill.

  “Shall we?” he asked.

  “Sure,” she answered with a cute smirk.

  They made their way out of the cafe and onto the street, keeping a careful eye on the spotter across the way. He was dipping in and out of sight between the other people walking along. Occasionally, he paused to pretend to look at fruit or some other items in the outdoor marketplace, probably because he thought his quarry had noticed him. All the while he never realized he was being followed. At least that’s what Sean hoped.

  From Sean and Adriana’s vantage point, it appeared Tommy was trying to convince June not to leave as the two made their way toward the next street, where Sean was 99 percent certain the gunman was waiting. More than once, June spun around and waved her hand at Tommy. Sean read her lips as she told his friend to go away and leave her alone.

  June turned right and started down an alley. The man across the street made a corresponding directional change and hurried to stay in pursuit.

  “No, what are you doing?” Sean said.

  “Going into an alley like that defi
nitely isn’t a good idea,” Adriana voiced Sean’s concern.

  “Yeah. What do you think we should do?” he asked as he twisted sideways to avoid a rather plump man in a gray suit and tie.

  “You’re asking me?” She sounded surprised.

  “Always open to good ideas.”

  “You go in behind this guy. I’ll go up to the next street, run around, and cut them off.”

  “You sure you’re fast enough?”

  She lowered her head and gave him a playfully irritated look.

  “Yeah. I’m fast enough.”

  Before he could question her, she took off, ducking and weaving through the pedestrians. It didn’t take her long to reach the next corner, where she disappeared behind the row of buildings. Meanwhile, Sean peeled off into the alley behind the spotter as he pursued Tommy and June.

  Now, in between the buildings on either side, June’s voice resonated louder than it had on the main street.

  “I told you, Tommy, I’m going back to work. Leave me alone. I don’t want to get involved with whatever you all are up to.”

  “June, please. Just listen to me. I’m sorry,” Tommy said. “Please. We really need to get back on the main street.”

  Tommy turned around and saw the man in the pea coat behind them. Sean ducked behind a garbage bin before his friend could see him.

  Seeing the spotter following them, Tommy knew they were in trouble. “June, sweetie. I think it would be a good idea if we go back to the cafe and chill out for a bit. Just let me explain things.”

  “What is there to explain? You and your friends are obviously involved with something dangerous. I’d prefer to keep that kind of danger out of my life. My car is just around the corner, so I’ll be fine.”

  She’d no sooner gotten the words out of her mouth than the gunman from the cafe stepped out from behind the corner ahead. His towel was gone, and now he held the weapon in plain sight in front of his waist, aiming it right at the approaching couple.

  June stumbled to a stop. Tommy saw the threat and stepped in front of her.

  “It would have been easier if you had given me the medallion at the cafe, Mr. Schultz. Now you’ve put yourself and your girlfriend in a bad situation.”

  “I’m not his girlfriend,” June said.

  “She’s not my girlfriend,” Tommy said almost simultaneously, though he sounded a tad hurt.

  “I don’t care,” the gunman said. “Give me the medallion and the folder.”

  Tommy shook his head. “Like my buddy said, you won’t fire that weapon here. Too many people will hear it. Police will be all over you within minutes. Then what will you do?”

  The gunman flashed a toothy grin. “Well, we can’t have that.”

  He reached around his back and produced a black cylinder. His fingers made quick work of the sound suppressor, and within twenty seconds it was attached to his weapon’s muzzle.

  Tommy swallowed.

  The spotter stepped up from behind and grabbed June’s arms. She shrieked for a second, but the spotter covered her mouth with a gloved hand. She struggled for a moment, until she felt something press hard into her lower back. Tommy spun around to rush to her aid, but there was nothing he could do. He saw the gun in the spotter’s hand.

  “Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” the first gunman said. He put out his hand with palm up. “Medallion. Now.”

  “I don’t have it,” Tommy said. “It’s at the cafe with my friends.”

  “You must think we’re stupid. You would never let something as valuable as that medallion leave your sight.”

  “What do you want with it anyway?” Tommy asked. “I guess a two-bit criminal like you plans to sell it on the black market. No one even knows what it is. I doubt you could get more than a few hundred bucks for it.”

  “We aren’t interested in money, Mr. Schultz. You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”

  Out of nowhere, a can of tomato sauce zipped through the air and struck the gunman on the side of the head. As he toppled sideways, the gun in his hand went off, sending the bullet into one of the wooden support beams of the building to his left.

  The spotter shoved June aside and took aim at the corner from where the can had been thrown.

  “Who’s there?”

  He heard rapid footsteps behind him and spun around in time to see Sean charging at full speed. Before the spotter could react, Sean plowed his shoulder into the man’s midsection and drove him backward toward Tommy.

  Sean let out a growl as he forklifted the guy an inch off the ground.

  Tommy stepped out of the way as Sean drove the guy into the ground. The spotter’s head smacked against the hard surface, knocking him out instantly.

  The original gunman recovered from the can striking his head. After a few seconds of staggering, he regained his balance and took aim at the new threat.

  He only heard two footsteps from his right before a foot snapped up and kicked the gun out of his hand. The gunman ignored the sharp pain in his hand and turned to face the adversary who dared interfere.

  “Ms. Villa,” he said, assuming a fighting stance.

  “And you are?”

  He swung a fast kick at her midsection. She knocked it down with a swipe of her fist. The kick was just a decoy to lower her defenses. He faked a jab, which she tried to block, and then sent a roundhouse into her right cheek.

  Her head whipped to the side, and she stumbled backward. The man didn’t relent. He jumped through the air and kicked hard with his right foot, landing the blow on the same cheek he’d just struck.

  Adriana tripped and fell backward, crashing into three garbage cans next to the corner.

  Sean and Tommy saw what happened and rushed to help. The gunman glanced over his shoulder and saw them approaching. He reached down, grabbed Adriana by the jacket, and yanked her up onto her feet. She winced in pain but was still conscious.

  The man produced a knife and pressed the sharp edge against her neck. “Stay back,” he warned.

  Sean and Tommy skidded to a stop just ten feet away.

  The man shuffled his feet backward. “I’m warning all of you. Leave this place. You do not know the power you’re meddling with. Those who raise the sword will die by it.”

  His hands moved suddenly, and he threw something onto the ground. He shoved Adriana forward and dashed down the adjacent alley just as the little metal disk erupted in a searing white flash.

  Sean grabbed her and dove clear of the blast radius. Tommy tackled June and covered her to keep any shrapnel from hitting her.

  “Tommy, you guys okay?” Sean asked, unable to see anything as his eyes started the slow progression of adjusting back to normal light.

  “Yeah, we’re okay. You guys?”

  “Yeah. It was just a flash bang.”

  Tommy sat up and waited for the world around him to slowly change back from bright white. “It looked like one of those disks you got from your buddy at DARPA.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Sean said. The white light had already started fading. He helped Adriana to her feet and then half felt his way over to the unconscious man on the ground. “You hear what he said about raising the sword?”

  He felt around in the guy’s pockets, but found no identification, money, or credit cards. The only thing he discovered was a single key. It was certainly old, since keys like that were rarely used anymore except for historical buildings. At the end of the stem, an interesting design had been carved out of the metal: a sword and a crescent moon.

  “Yeah. That verse from Matthew again.” Tommy said. His eyes had begun adjusting, and he could see Sean was holding something. “What’s that?”

  “A key.”

  “Key? To what?”

  “I’m not sure. But our friend here probably won’t tell us anything until he wakes up.”

  Sean noticed something on the spotter’s wrist and lifted the limp hand to get a better view. “Now that’s interesting.”

  “Wh
at?” Adriana moved closer and looked over his shoulder. Then she saw what he was examining. “The other guy had one of those, too. It was on the same wrist.”

  “You’re sure?”

  She nodded. “One hundred percent. I noticed it when he put the knife to my throat.”

  Tommy helped June onto her feet, and the two made their way over to the others.

  “They could have killed us, but they didn’t. Why?” Tommy said. “No one would have noticed back here. Not for a while, anyway.”

  “Adriana said they have matching tattoos, just like this one,” Sean answered. “That can mean only one thing.”

  “They’re not North Korean?”

  Sean snorted a forced laugh. “That, too.”

  “They’re part of a secret society,” Adriana said.

  “Which means now we’re facing two foes.”

  The faint sound of sirens whined in the distance.

  “Three if you count the police,” Tommy said. “I doubt they’d appreciate us here with this unconscious guy.”

  “Probably not,” Sean agreed. “And I’d rather not answer any of their questions right now.”

  “You’re just going to leave him here?” June asked, finally able to speak after several minutes of stunned silence.

  Tommy and Sean glanced at each other and then up at her. They answered simultaneously. “Absolutely.”

  “Where do we go next?” Adriana asked.

  Neither of the men had an immediate answer.

  “Right now, we just need to get out of here,” Sean said finally. “Quick, out that way.” He pointed to the side thoroughfare leading out to the next street.

  The four hurried to the sidewalk and then slowed down to appear less conspicuous.

  Sean’s eyes darted in all directions, keeping a lookout for more trouble.

  “We should go to Cologne,” Tommy said as the group turned right and meandered down the sidewalk. “We can investigate the sculpture of the Nine Worthies and see if there’s a clue.”

  “Sounds like as good a plan as any,” Sean said.