The Fourth Prophecy

by Ernest Dempsey

  Sure, he embellished a little, but there was no sense in leaving room for doubt in Martinez’s mind. The more he believed he needed the Americans, the better.

  “Fine,” Martinez relented. “Let them cross, but keep an eye on them.” He turned to Sean and Tommy. “If you try anything foolish, they will cut you down like grass.”

  “Like grass?” Tommy asked. “That’s your big threat? Or was that supposed to be a metaphor?”

  Martinez wasn’t amused. “Move, before I change my mind and order my men to kill you right here.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Sean led the way down the riverbank until they reached the place where the narrow row of rocks stretched across the water. If he didn’t know better, he’d have said those stones had been deliberately placed there a long time ago.

  He and Tommy paused for a moment, eyeing the rocks suspiciously. Then Sean stepped down the steep embankment and pressed his boot onto the first stone. He tested his weight and, happy it seemed stable, took a step over to the next rock. When he was several steps away, Martinez sent one of his other men behind Sean and then ordered Tommy to go; that way they could keep a closer eye on the men as they crossed the river.

  The going was slow and methodical. While the water certainly wasn’t cold, the best-case scenario was that they’d end up with wet socks and boots for the remainder of the venture. Worst-case scenario was they’d fall in the water and get eaten by something.

  Sean didn’t notice any predators lurking about, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. This part of the world was swarming with things that could kill a human in minutes.

  Halfway across the river, one of the men behind Tommy slipped on wet rock and his boot plunged into the water. The sound caused everyone in front of him to look back. The man clumsily lost his footing in the river as well and fell backward onto his rear, splashing in the water loudly once more.

  His arms flailed like he was being attacked by something, but the reality was he was just trying to get out of the water as fast as he could. The guy behind him reached out a hand and helped his comrade back to his feet. Before they knew it, the soaking-wet gunman was carefully crossing the rocks once again.

  Sean reached the other side and waited on a narrow path cut into the side of the slope. As the others arrived, he moved upstream to make room for everyone until all the others had made it and were ready to proceed.

  “Okay if we head toward the falls, boss?” Sean asked, his tone slathered in sarcasm.

  Martinez gave a single nod, either ignoring the way Sean asked or simply missing it altogether.

  “Point the light this way,” Sean said to the guy behind him.

  The gunman didn’t speak English, but he knew what Sean was asking and pointed his flashlight along the path leading to the falls. Sean kept a close eye on the ground as he moved toward the falls. When he noticed something in the corner of his eye, he didn’t twitch his head that direction. Instead, he shifted his eyes to the left and moved his head so slightly that no one behind him would notice.

  There it was again.

  Something was moving in the forest on the other side of the river. It was too dark to tell what it was. He glanced back down at the path and then again where he noticed the movement. Nothing.

  Whatever it was, it either went into hiding or it was doing something more sinister: hunting.

  Chapter 19

  Atlanta

  Erika squeezed the trigger a little tighter, ready to put a round through Alex’s head when the young man suddenly shifted his position. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone, looked at the screen, and then answered.

  He stepped back out into the stairwell, leaving Tara alone in the big storage room.

  Erika let out an irritated sigh and switched her aim to the young woman by the door. Killing Tara first or Alex first didn’t matter. They were both going to die.

  The door popped open again, and Alex beckoned her to come with him.

  The two disappeared into the stairwell, leaving Erika by herself with all the display cases.

  When the door clicked, she stood up from her hiding spot, keeping her weapon still pointed at the entrance just in case the two decided to come back.

  She moved backward until she reached the end of the long case she’d been using for cover and shifted to her right. Satisfied the two young researchers weren’t coming back anytime soon, she turned her attention to the tall vertical case holding the artifact she’d been sent to steal.

  The lights in the ceiling above abruptly switched off, plunging the intruder into near-pitch darkness. The only light in the room that remained was the strange glow from the artifact and from tiny points along the wall. She knew what those were.

  Lasers. The two meddlers must have reset the system. That meant she’d have to deal with the beams to get out. She pushed aside the fury raging in her head and focused on the solution.

  She stood perfectly still in the darkness, taking inventory of as many of the dots as possible. Then she bent down and pulled out another device from her bag. She pressed a button on the side of the little metal box and set it on the floor.

  An instant later, smoke started spewing out of both ends, filling the lower part of the storage room with a billowy white fog. Red beams appeared in the smoke, making it much easier to identify where to move and what areas to avoid.

  Unfortunately, the case she’d targeted was surrounded by laser beams. “I do enjoy a challenge from time to time,” she whispered to herself.

  Deftly, she raised one foot high and stepped over a beam. Again and again, she twisted and contorted her body until she’d reached the back of the vertical display case. She pulled the cutting tool out of the bag again and attached the suction cups to the glass.

  Funny, she thought, that the lasers meant to protect the treasures in this room are giving me the light to see what I’m doing.

  Not that she needed them. Erika had an assortment of lights on hand from glow sticks to flashlights to flares. Working in the dark was better with the lasers, though, because light had the tendency to drown out the beams. The last thing she needed was to trigger the security system. She guessed the room was equipped with a setup that sucked the oxygen out if there was a fire or other emergency. If she triggered that kind of alarm, she’d be dead in no time.

  She’d seen systems just like this one. It would take at least three minutes to unlock the door and override the alarm. Holding her breath wasn’t one of Erika’s strengths. She could make it a minute, ninety seconds tops. Then she’d be done for.

  Erika took another glance over toward the entrance and listened. Still no sign of the young researchers.

  She flipped a switch and then pressed a button to start the cutter. It took almost a minute for the hole to be punched through the glass. When the device finished, Erika pulled it off and carefully placed the piece flat on the floor.

  Staring into the glass box, she tilted her head to the side. Just as she suspected from her intel: The artifact was resting in a metal stand atop a pressure-sensitive base. If she snatched the relic now, all the alarms she considered before would be set off. Of all the steps she’d taken thus far, this one was going to the most difficult.

  She reached into the bag and pulled out her last two tools. They were both gray boxes the size of a television remote. Each had a narrow calculator-like display on the top with three buttons beneath. On the end of each was a pair of metal clamps.

  Before staking out the building, Erika had done as much searching as she could for information about this artifact. One of the publicly released tidbits was the size and weight of the thing.

  Knowing the exact weight was crucial. The pressure system IAA had in place was accurate to within one gram. With the information in hand, she’d purchased a custom-weighted piece of lead to use for the heist.

  She fished a tiny cotton pouch from her bag. She poured the weights into her palm and then slid the hooks she’d attached before through on
e of the clamps. Few things made Erika nervous, but as she reached the first device into the glass case, she could feel her heart pounding in her chest. One mistake, and she’d be dead.

  With the other hand, she inserted the second device into the case and centered the clamps around the artifact. Using her thumb, she pressed the button on the left, and the clamps started gradually closing. This move was going to be tight. If she so much as nicked the relic and altered the weight distribution in any way, the alarm system would be activated.

  She focused on her breathing, keeping it in a smooth, even rhythm. Her hands remained steady, almost perfectly still, while the clamps wrapped around the artifact. After what seemed like an hour, the mechanism stopped. The metal pinchers were securely gripping the object. Now came the hardest part.

  Erika pressed the center button on the other device with her thumb, and the LED screen turned on, displaying the weight of the lead attached to the clamp. She let out a breath and touched the platform with the weight, careful to make certain the digital scale on the LED screen didn’t change. Let one gram go too quickly, and the sensors inside the platform would trigger the alarm.

  She watched the narrow display as the first milligrams started to tick away. As they did, she lifted the device with the artifact ever so gently to make sure the milligrams she was losing on one screen were matched by the other.

  The task was half art, half science. She’d practiced the tactic in her hotel room, but time had been limited. This real-life run at it required total focus.

  Each minute crept by like sap oozing from a maple tree. Her arms ached from being frozen in the same position. Even though the weight at the end of each device wasn’t substantial, keeping her arms out like that started to take its toll. Her muscles screamed to move and stretch, but she couldn’t. One twitch in the wrong direction, and it would be curtains.

  Sweat rolled off her forehead as the readouts neared their goal. Her breath came quicker from fighting the muscles in her arms and shoulders. A bead of perspiration trickled into her right eye, stinging like a burning needle. She winced and noticed the scales went slightly off balance. Erika corrected the mistake immediately.

  Her head trembled, and it was all she could do to keep her hands from doing the same.

  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the device on the left hit the number she was looking for. A split second after that, the one on the right matched it. She carefully slid the counterweight off the clamp, leaving it sitting upright on the base within the glass box.

  Then she raised the other hand so the artifact would clear the lip of its metal stand and then pulled it out through the opening.

  Her arms and shoulders rejoiced at finally being able to resume normal circulation.

  Erika let out a breath of relief as she placed the two devices in her bag, along with the artifact. She closed the bag and slung it over her shoulder, securing it tightly against her back so it wouldn’t swing round too much and damage the item.

  She gazed out at the array of laser beams between her and the exit.

  One leg after the other, she stepped over the low beams and ducked under the high ones. Her body twisted and contorted to avoid cutting through one of the red lights. Fifteen feet from the door, a stabbing pain shot through her left calf. She grimaced in agony as the muscle bound up.

  The bag slipped off her shoulder and nearly dropped through a laser on its way to the floor. Erika reacted immediately, though, and whipped her left hand out in time to catch it on the interior of her elbow.

  She jerked the arm up and adjusted the strap on her shoulder to keep the bag from slipping again.

  That was close, Erika thought.

  She stepped over the last few beams of light and reached her hand out to the door. Her hand pressed against the bar, and the door opened, letting in the fluorescent glow from the stairwell. The lights above flickered on again, and the lasers automatically shut down.

  Erika waited for a moment to make sure the alarm didn’t go off. She glanced around the room, checking for any signs that’s she’d triggered something, but the area remained silent.

  She let out a weary sigh and stepped into the stairwell. Suddenly, a painfully loud siren started blaring just over her head on the wall.

  “Really?” she said out loud.

  Even as her feet flew up the stairs, taking them two at a time, she recalled what must have gone wrong for the alarm to go off. It didn’t take her long to come up with an answer.

  The system reset itself after the two researchers returned to the main floor. That, or they reset it manually when they left. Not that it mattered. The fact of the matter was that the alarm was going off, and soon the entire building would probably go into lockdown, not to mention the cops that would be showing up in the next few minutes.

  Erika reached the first basement floor in under ten seconds. Her legs burned as she arrived at the next level another ten seconds later. She barged through the door and rushed into the next corridor just as Tara and Alex reappeared at the other end. They frowned and pointed her way, realizing what had caused the system to go off.

  She didn’t wait around for introductions. Erika turned to her left and sprinted down the hallway away from the two young people standing in her way. There had to be another way to get back to her initial point of entry. Although maybe that wasn’t necessary. Any security personnel remaining in the building would be on their way to the underground storage bunker.

  If she could get to the front door before the police arrived, she could escape to her vehicle and disappear into the night.

  It would be close, but as she dashed through the passage it became clear that going out the back way wasn’t going to be an option.

  Erika hung a left at the next corridor intersection and ran by a series of offices, two bathrooms, a water fountain, and a breakroom.

  A hulking security guard unwittingly stepped out in front her just as she was about to round another corner. She ran into his brawny chest and bounced off, knocking herself a step backward.

  The man reached for his weapon, but her reactions were quicker. Erika snapped her right foot up in a quick kicking motion and smacked his hand away from the holster. He reached for the radio with his other hand, but she jumped up, pressed a foot against the wall to gain elevation, and then swung the same foot around in a wide arch. The base of her shin struck him in the side of the head.

  She dropped to the floor, landing on her feet as the stunned guard toppled over backward with a huge thud. His stunned eyes stared lifelessly up at the ceiling. She jumped over the body and kept moving. No reason to take the time to see if he was dead or just unconscious. The guy was out of the way, and that’s all that mattered for now.

  Erika pushed ahead, sprinting toward the next door she knew led into the lobby. She burst through and found herself standing in an atrium. The black marble tiles and matching support columns made the room seem even darker than it already was. The receptionist desk to her right was empty, as was the waiting area.

  She trotted over to the glass doors leading outside and started to push the handle when she halted. Her hand rested on the bar as she gazed out at the street. Were those sirens?

  Erika winced in anger. Then she looked out at one of the buildings on a perpendicular street and knew the cops would be there in less than a minute. She looked out at her car on the opposite street and knew if she made a run for it right now, she’d probably not make it. Her calculations could be incorrect, but the sirens grew louder.

  What to do now?

  She spun around and surveyed the area. Elevator. No one would expect her to go deeper into the building. She could hide out until the authorities left. Maybe there was a way to get into the ventilation system It might be a long night, but it was better than being caught.

  No. No way she could hide herself like that. Sooner or later, they’d figure out that she was still in the building.

  “Freeze!” a woman shouted from the other end of the lobb
y.

  Erika swallowed and put her hands out by her sides, slowly raising them. She cursed herself. Hesitation always resulted in bad things. She knew better, yet she’d hesitated with her escape. Now she was caught.

  “Turn around, very slowly,” the other woman ordered.

  Erika shuffled her feet inch by inch until she’d spun all the way around and was facing the speaker.

  Tara stood on the other side of the big room with a pistol in her hand, pointing it straight at Erika’s chest.

  Erika processed the situation immediately. Tara was still far enough away to make a miss highly probable. She didn’t know anything about the other woman’s marksmanship, but it was difficult for most people to be accurate from that range.

  Tara took a step closer.

  Erika leaned back ever so slightly and felt her backside touch the bar on the door. She stared into Tara’s eyes, sizing her up to see if she had what it took to shoot someone.

  “Stay right there,” Tara ordered. “Alex? Got her in the lobby!”

  There was no response. “Alex?!”

  The corner of Erika’s mouth creased. She pushed her butt against the bar and fell back.

  The door opened behind Erika’s weight and she tumbled through as Tara opened fire.

  Rolling backward for a second, Erika went head over heels into the warm evening air. Bullets smacked into the door’s glass but didn’t puncture it.

  “Bulletproof glass,” she said to herself.

  The sirens grew louder, and she instantly realized she’d gone from the pot into the fire.

  Blue lights flashed everywhere. The cops would have the place surrounded in no time.

  No more hesitation. She pumped her legs hard, running for her car off to the left. She was twenty feet from her vehicle when more gunshots erupted. There was too much space between her and Tara now. Even so, rounds pinged off the asphalt and plunked into the other cars nearby.