Order of the Black Sun Box Set 10

by Preston William Child

  “I understand,” Elijah said, pushing his glasses up the ridge of his nose. “But that sword...it's more dangerous than many of the other items he could have chosen. Not just to Purdue but to Victor as well. If he's not careful...”

  “If it means killing Purdue...then I'm fine losing a pawn or two.”

  Elijah thought about that for a few moments. Julian may have been fine with throwing someone's life away, but he didn't even consider the cost of losing something as powerful as the Scarlet Sword. That was what Elijah was most concerned with. He didn't really care if Victor made it back or not, but he hoped that at least the Scarlet Sword would be recovered—but that particular item would be difficult to bring back.

  The worry must have shown all over his face because Julian let out a cold, humorless laugh. “Not to worry, Mr. Dane. Things are going to turn out differently this time. Much better for us. I have no doubt that when this is through, David Purdue will be dead, and he will stay that way this time. I can almost guarantee it.”

  2

  CHAPTER TWO – THE USED BOOK SANCTUARY

  Purdue's morning strolls had become essential in maintaining his sanity. Many people would have given into despair after watching their worlds shatter, but Purdue refused to give into that. Instead, he channeled all of his trauma into resolve to fix things; not just the big things, but the little ones too. He may have had a rough time of it lately, but he was making sure that he was eating better, working out regularly, and maintaining good hygiene. It was a lot harder than it used to be. Vast amounts of money made it so much easier to keep healthy.

  More important than fixing his own health, though, was Purdue's desire to repair all of the damage that had been done to him by his enemies. He had come to fully believe that with enough preparation and determination, he might finally be able to defeat the Order of the Black Sun once and for all. Being dead in the eyes of the world had its perks. He didn't have to worry about any of the things he used to worry about; not even the battles with the Black Sun. No one was plotting his demise or how to steal from him. He didn't have much of value to steal anymore, besides the Book of Shadows he'd acquired in Salem and the pearl he'd found at the bottom of the sea. Excluding those items, he was almost dirt poor. The money he had left from his voyages at sea was used to pay for hotel rooms and necessities. He could no longer spend money so frivolously like he used to, which was also a good thing. It kept him much more humble than he used to be.

  His walks through town made him feel no different than anyone else. The rest of the world was busy about their daily lives. While walking on the street, Purdue would forget that his own life had been changed forever. He could just blend in with the crowds, as nothing more than another face passing by. He wasn't billionaire David Purdue anymore—he was just any other guy. One day, he hoped that he could be his old self again, but for now, he was content just living a quiet life, waiting for the right time to put his plans into motion.

  The local book store he went to was a small little shop that only sold used books. The inside of it had that scent of musty paper, and almost every book on the shelves was filled with old, yellowing pages. Nothing in the shop could have possibly been published after 1990, at the latest. It was like it had been frozen in time decades ago—but he loved it. He loved how quiet it was and how it seemed to have no care for the current events of the world. It was the perfect escape, a private pocket dimension where he could enjoy some serenity where everything outside didn't matter.

  He would flip through the books with all of their blemishes, coffee stains, and torn pages. It was a nice way to pass the time in between when he was trying to think about how he was going to go after the Black Sun next. He read all kinds of stories that he hoped would spark some ideas in his head, but so many of them were mundane compared to the adventures he had been on. After everything he'd seen with his own two eyes, a book had to be really good to completely capture his imagination.

  There were only ever a few stray people inside of the used book store at once. It wasn't exactly a busy place. If they had a few newer releases on their shelves, it might draw in more people, but he supposed that would defeat the whole purpose of the shop.

  The owner was an elderly gentlemen who always kept his golden retriever at his side behind the register. The dog looked just as old as its owner, and the pair of them would sit about, watching their potential customers quietly. Every time Purdue came in—which was a couple of times a week—the man would greet him with a polite “good morning” and say goodbye with a pleasant “you have yourself a nice day.”

  Most likely due to his advanced age, the owner didn't bother organizing the bookshelves throughout the store. There was no rhyme or reason to how any of the books were arranged; it wasn't my genre, by author, or even just alphabetized based on the title. A lot of people probably thought it was a mess, and perhaps it was, but Purdue liked to think of it as something of an adventure all its own. It made looking at each row very interesting, since the kinds of books you were looking at would change drastically as you looked. One moment, he would be looking at an old Stephen King thriller, and the next, he might see some book about understanding your faith and religion. Stray erotic fiction was even hidden between some covers.

  He sometimes felt bad that he mostly just looked around the store and rarely ever bought anything. The problem was that once he left the store, he needed to focus on other things. Bringing a book out into the world with him wouldn't do him any good, and he wouldn't feel relaxed enough to actually read it once he was outside the confines of that literary retreat.

  Purdue wanted to get his life back on track, but it was a place like that book store that made him appreciate what he currently had. The man he used to be would never have gone anywhere near a place like that. And no one would ever expect that a man who used to be a billionaire would be spending so much of his time shuffling through books that other people had disposed of. Just by being there, it felt like he was camouflaged.

  The used book store was the perfect getaway from all of his worries.

  A woman was looking over some tattered cookbooks and smiled when Purdue looked over in her direction. She was a petite woman with long black hair. She had a warm, friendly smile that caught his eye, and he felt like he should at least say hello to someone with that pleasant of a smile. It seemed rude not to.

  “Good morning,” Purdue said, holding some murder mystery novella in his hands. He pointed at the cookbook in her hand. “Practicing in the kitchen, aye?”

  She raised a confused brow and then realized what she was holding. “Oh! Yes. I suppose I am. I've always been rubbish at cooking. Unless, you like things black and burnt. Then I am a brilliant cook.”

  “Some things aren't too bad burnt,” Purdue conceded with a snicker. “Good for you, though. Always admirable to try and improve one's craft, don't you think?”

  “Exactly!” They were both laughing between themselves. The woman held out a hand to greet him. “I'm Kendra.”

  “David,” he replied, taking hold of her soft hand.

  He immediately realized that he shouldn't be using his real name. It just slipped out. He hated to admit how flustered this woman was making him, but he tried not to be too hard on himself. It had been a real long time since he had flirted with anyone. And this was his first time flirting with someone when he didn't have billions of dollars to fall back on if his flirting didn't work. He was a bit rusty, and his confidence in himself had been more than a little rattled.

  “Nice to meet you, David,” she said. “Do you usually spend all your time with your nose in someone's hand me down book?”

  “I didn't used to, no,” Purdue said honestly. “This has become a newer passion of mine. It's more for meditative purposes. I feel just very...I don't know, calm, here, I suppose. It's easy to lose yourself in all of this.”

  Kendra leaned in close, out of ear shot of the owner—but perhaps not out of ear shot of the owner's golden retriever. “Is this place us
ually this messy? Took me twenty minutes just to find a cookbook.”

  “I hate to break it to you, but the answer is yes. Though to me, that's just part of the shop's charm. I've been coming here almost every day for some time now. At this point, I've grown accustomed to it. I think I would be more lost now if they decided to organize it. There's something endearing about being able to find something completely random in a completely random spot.”

  “Seems like chaos to me,” Kendra said, looking around at the shelves. “But perhaps you can show me the method to all of the madness.”

  “Yes,” Purdue said with some surprise. 'Perhaps I could.”

  Purdue was taken aback by how forward she was. Maybe he wasn't as out of practice as he felt like he was. His money might have all been stripped away, but his charm may have stayed intact. That was good to know for the future.

  “You from around here?” she asked.

  “Not exactly, no. I have hopped all over the world, and I've just settled here for the time being. Not sure for how long.”

  “Hopefully you won’t leave too soon,” she said, much to his awe. “All over the world, huh? I love traveling, myself. Where have you been?”

  Purdue could have listed off dozens of countries or hundreds of cities. He could have named places that weren't even supposed to actually exist, but he had set foot in. His many quests for lost artifacts had taken him to so many places. It used to be easier back then, when he had a nearly infinite supply of money, and he could go anywhere he wanted with just the snap of his fingers.

  “A little bit of everywhere,” he said, still trying to stay as honest with her as he could. Something about her smile made him not want to be very dishonest. He would feel strangely guilty if he lied to such a charming person. “I've kind of lost track. There's been so many.”

  “Wow...how worldly of you.”

  “I have my worldly moments, aye,” Purdue said, hoping he didn't sound as stupid as he felt for saying that. He rebounded as best as he could, but shifting the attention to her own travels, “What about you?”

  “Similar boat,” Kendra said. “My work brings me all over. I spend a lot of my time in a lot of African nations. There's so much of the world down there that people don't even bother to notice. Amazing things.”

  “What kind of work do you do?” Purdue asked, genuinely curious.

  Kendra showed that bright smile again. “Conservation and preservation work, mostly. So many things are buried beneath the earth. We just have to dig to find them.”

  Purdue felt thoroughly impressed by this woman. It had been a long time since he felt completely swept off his feet by someone.

  “I've always had a passion for digging up treasures,” Purdue said but caught himself and added a little white lie to make it sound less interesting. “I am one of those people that brings metal detectors to the beach when I'm on the coast. Even if I just find one coin, it's a good day.”

  Kendra laughed. It was an infectious laugh. She bit her lip and looked away like she had somewhere to be. “I've lost track of time. I really should be going. I tell you what, I would love to talk to you more about my digs, and I would love to hear more about your coin collecting.” She pulled out a slip of paper and wrote a phone number down on it. “You give me a call, and we'll grab a drink to chat about it some time. No funny business.”

  “Aye, of course not. No funny business,” Purdue said, taking the paper and feeling beyond proud of himself.

  “It was great meeting you, David,” Kendra said with a wave and a giggle as she walked out of the store.

  Purdue didn't know what just happened. He just knew that he liked it and could have kept talking to her for a couple more hours, at least. He looked down at her number. Maybe he would have to take her up on that offer for a drink at some point soon. It would spice up this quiet life he had been living in hiding. He was just surprised she paid him any interest at all. The world was funny sometimes.

  The old man who owned the bookshop glanced at Purdue knowingly and then offered him a thumbs up. Given how connected he and his golden retriever were, Purdue half-expected the dog to give him a thumbs up too.

  Kendra walked out of the used book store and that warm smile vanished almost immediately. She wasn't particularly fond of this part of her job, but she knew she was good at it. She had always been good at making others feel happy. It helped her immensely when she wanted to get something. People would run all over the place to make her happy after she showed them a little bit of interest. Still, she could do so much more than charm strangers, but the Order of the Black Sun hadn't shown any interest in those other skills of hers. To them, at least so far, she was nothing more than a siren who could lure their enemies into traps with a simple alluring song or two.

  This one had been even easier than others. It must have been the loneliness and the isolation from being in hiding. It made him so very vulnerable and so ready for some kind of human connection. One offer to go out to drink, and she practically had him by the throat. She expected it to be so much harder than it was...the way everyone in the order talked about made him seem so much more dangerous than that. She honestly thought that her act wouldn't work on someone with his reputation, but it turned out even the most famous of men were just as susceptible as any other.

  Whatever. She got the job done and performed her role to perfection. All she could hope for was that her success would open up better opportunities and show her superiors that she was ready for an actual challenge. They needed to see that she was more than a pretty face, a friendly smile, and an infectious laugh.

  She strolled across the street and then kept walking down the sidewalks of Belfast for fifteen minutes until she came to a large alleyway. She walked right up to the man who had brought her to the city to begin with, when she was just one of many that was sent out in search of one particular target.

  The man she approached was tall and bald and looked at her with some anticipation. The cross-guarded hilt of a sword was poking out from the inside of his jacket.

  “You have news for me?” Victor Moore asked.

  “Yes,” Kendra said with some pride. “I found David Purdue.”

  3

  CHAPTER THREE – THE SWORD WIELDER

  Purdue was nearly done reading his murder mystery when he heard the door of the book shop open. The old man greeted his new visitor with his usual pleasantries, but Purdue didn't hear anyone respond. That was rather rude of them. He pushed those negative thoughts aside, though. He didn't need to be concerned about something like that; not when he should just be focused on the story in front of him.

  He never thought he'd be one of those people that had their nose buried in a book, yet here he was. The book had been so good, it had made him forget about the girl's phone number in his pocket for a brief time. He wasn't sure when he would call her to take up her offer on a drink, but he did plan on it at some point.

  There were footsteps around the shelf. The new arrival was probably struggling to decipher how the shelves were organized. Soon enough they would learn that the secret to the way that the store was set up was that there wasn't a set up at all. He was used to seeing people struggling to find what they were looking for. It was always a fun sight to behold.

  “David Purdue.”

  Purdue wheeled around with his book still in his hand, but part of his brain immediately shot to alertness. He hadn't been called his real name in a while. Outside of a handful of people that were mostly his allies, most people in the world thought David Purdue was dead.

  A well-built, bald man stood in front of him. He was enormous, a behemoth in comparison to Purdue. He stared down at him without blinking, looking like a beast ready to pounce on its prey. The enormous man pulled out an old short sword from the medieval times, but it gleamed with the dangerous intent of a newly sharpened sword.

  Purdue decided to feign ignorance. “Sorry, who?”

  The man moved with unbelievable speed, and it took every fiber of focu
s for Purdue to narrowly avoid his attacker's sword. When he avoided another swing, the man swung his free arm and knocked Purdue sliding across the floor to the other end of the room. Apparently this lunatic wasn't just unusually quick. He was absurdly strong too.

  The man was already nearly upon him again, striding toward him with violent resolve. Purdue pulled himself up to his feet, trying to regain his composure. He hadn't been expecting a fight, but one had found him anyway.

  “I don't know what the hell problems you've got, but I think you may have the wrong man, friend.”

  “David Purdue,” the man said coldly.

  Fair enough. He really did know who he was going after. But why?

  “By the judgment of the Order of the Black Sun, your life is forfeit.”

  The Order of the Black Sun? They knew he was alive? How? He'd been so careful about keeping a low profile. He'd stayed far away from places the old David Purdue would have gone. Hell, he had spent most his time out at sea. There was no way they could have figured out he was alive yet. But here they were. They Black Sun had found him anyway.

  Purdue wanted to ask his attacker more. How did they find out how he was alive? Why didn't Julian Corvus come himself? Why not bring more people? Was Galen Fitzgerald still as obnoxious as ever? Was Nina still alive? His attacker wasn't going to give him the chance to ask and didn't seem like a big conversationalist.

  Purdue settled with, “Who are you exactly?” as the man approached threateningly. “Seems fair that I know the name of the man who's supposed to kill me, eh?”