by M. B. Lewis
She read the inscription, which indeed was written in Latin, then flipped the tablet over to read the other side. Unlike the tablet from Saint Mark’s, this one had coherent writing on the outside. When she finished, she glanced at Duke, then turned to Patricia.
“We’re in the right place,” Kadie said.
55
Nis, Serbia
The National Museum Nis
* * *
Kadie continued to mull over their situation as the small group of seven marched out of the museum and piled into the limousine. Patricia was in the lead, followed by Hans, Kadie, Brian, Curt, and Duke, with Esteban bringing up the rear. Patricia pulled out a map right away, and Curt leaned over her shoulder to see what she was doing. The cathedral was just outside town, according to the map.
“We’ll go back to the hotel, get a few supplies, and then head out,” she said. “It isn’t far from here. By this evening, we’ll have the most powerful item in the universe in our hands.”
Kadie frowned. “What about us?”
“Oh, you’re going with us,” Curt said. “Don’t worry about that.”
“And after?”
“There may not be an after.” The GDI security man smirked at her, which made her skin crawl.
Kadie paused; Duke was right about Curt. He had been all along. What shocked her was Patricia. The woman turned out to be nothing like the warm, loving academic she made herself out to be. The thin veneer of platitudes and concern was an act. Driven blind by her ambition, Kadie was sure Patricia never saw the consequences of her actions.
The limo weaved its way through the streets and pulled up at the hotel. A Range Rover and Suburban sat out front. “Everyone out, we’ll be going in those,” Curt said, pointing at the sports utility vehicles. “Hans and I will go get some supplies, and we’ll be right back.”
“I have to go—to the bathroom,” Brian said.
“You can go in the woods,” Curt said.
Brian sat and looked frustrated.
“Please,” Kadie said. “Let us go inside and use the bathroom. It’s been a long morning, and it’s going to be a longer day.”
Curt snarled and turned back to Patricia, who nodded.
“We’ll go back inside,” Patricia said. “Same procedures. Nobody try anything stupid.”
Everyone went upstairs in pairs, except for Hans, Kadie, and Duke, who went up together. Ironically, they were the first ones back down. Curt came back with Brian, and Patricia and Esteban followed shortly after them.
“Hans,” Curt said, “come with me to get our supplies. The rest of you load up.”
Duke scanned the streets around the front of the hotel. Empty. Where was everyone in this town? Even worse, how did they find this cesspool of a hotel far from any sign of life? Duke calculated his chances. Curt was walking back and forth from a storage room on the first floor of the hotel. He dropped off backpacks containing flashlights, canteens filled with water, and military MRE’s. Hans remained in the back room, no doubt gathering supplies and giving them to Curt. That left only Patricia and Esteban to keep an eye on them. He could handle those odds. Plus, no one watched, Brian.
Curt went back into the room. Kadie and Brian went out to the limo, then Duke with Esteban behind him. Patricia lingered at the limo and spoke to the driver. They walked down the steps of the entrance. Now was his opportunity.
Duke turned and grabbed Esteban and thrust him headfirst into the doorframe. The impact sounded solid, but the move merely dazed him. Kadie turned at the noise, and her body tensed. Esteban swung wildly at Duke, who dodged it and threw a series of rapid blows to his midsection before his iron knuckles slid across Esteban’s jaw, sending him sprawling.
Curt, aware of the ruckus, turned and raced down the stairs toward the door, pulling his pistol from behind him. Brian moved out of his way as Curt ran toward the fight, but slipped his foot out slightly, sending Curt face-first down the front steps of the hotel lobby, the pistol flying from his hand and sliding across the street.
Duke landed another blow to Esteban as Kadie and Brian reached the limo.
“Let’s go,” Duke said.
Kadie and Brian’s eyes grew wide, and Duke wheeled around to see two men pointing weapons at them: a Glock 22 .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol and an AK-47 with a wood stock. Duke sighed and raised his hands slowly.
Curt pushed himself off the sidewalk, the side of his face streaked with blood. He staggered over to Duke and threw a hammer-like punch to the pilot’s stomach. Duke doubled over in pain, his knees falling hard to the sidewalk.
“I was starting to think you were just a coward,” Curt said. “I guess there’s a little life in you after all.”
Duke looked at Curt, who threw a punch across his jaw, sending him to the pavement. Kadie and Brian rushed to Duke and helped him to his feet. Duke spit blood from his mouth onto the dirty sidewalk.
Patricia walked in front of them, shaking her head. “Mister Ellsworth, you had done so well up to this point. Why do you want me to kill you now?”
“You’re going to kill us anyway,” Duke said.
Patricia said nothing. The two new men closed in around them, their weapons still aimed at the three of them.
“You must be the guys who followed us in the forest at Altinova,” Kadie said to the two new men.
The one with the pistol nodded.
“Were you the two with crossbows who chased me in Port Said?”
He nodded again.
“And attacked us in Istanbul?” she continued.
The one with pistol nodded again, and the other one laughed.
“That was a good move on the boat,” the man with the AK-47 said. “Caught us napping.”
“You sound American,” Kadie said.
“From Chicago.”
“You two didn’t think I would have more men at my disposal, did you?” Patricia said. “I sent Ray and Cliff here to Egypt once we caught onto Samuel. And they’ve shadowed us since Istanbul. We’re at the endgame now. I brought them in for the finale.”
“Thanks,” Duke said.
“We’ll need their help with the treasure,” Curt said.
“Treasure?” Kadie said.
Patricia gave Curt an irritated stare before she turned back to Kadie. “You don’t have to play dumb, my dear. The legend of the Scroll is based around the treasure. Constantine apparently tried to set up a small fund for his descendants just in case his empire crumbled around him. The legend of the Pilate Scroll says it is stored in the Cathedral of Helena, surrounded by gold, silver, and precious stones from around the world.”
“You won’t get any help from me,” Duke said.
Curt pressed his pistol to the side of Duke’s head. “Give me one reason why I don’t splatter your brains on the street, right now.”
“Somebody has to fly the plane,” Duke said.
“Maybe.” Curt leaned closer and whispered. “Maybe we don’t need a plane after today.”
Duke knew he was done for—assuming they found the Scroll. Curt holstered his pistol, and the two new captors shepherded the three of them into the Range Rover. Once inside, Kadie and Duke sat in the middle row, with Brian between them. Ray sat behind them. Hans and Cliff rode in the front of the Range Rover. Patricia and Curt were in the lead SUV with Esteban. Patricia said she feared Curt and Esteban might kill Duke before they got there.
Kadie could tell Brian needed his medicine. He stared straight ahead and was confused about where they were and what they were doing, both symptoms of an impending seizure. Her uneasiness garnered Duke’s attention. She couldn’t help it—they were in trouble. Patricia had some far-fetched scheme of cloning Jesus, and Curt Baxter was a psychopath intent on wealth. Their time left alive was limited.
The tiny caravan sped through town, and within a few minutes, was racing through the countryside. Duke couldn’t decide if the country was pretty or not. A low ceiling of clouds hung over the town and the countryside outside of Nis. The gloomy o
vercast painted the landscape in depressingly dark hues, resembling the environment where Hansel and Gretel might have met the witch.
It was a forty-five-minute ride, but once they reached the hills, they slowed considerably. They left the paved road and traveled on dirt roads into a small valley. The SUV bounced and banged along the dirt road; there was no telling how bad the ride in the limo would have been. After twenty minutes, they left the dirt road and rode on grass trails. Duke began to question how much longer they could do that.
Kadie stroked Brian’s hair as his head rested on her shoulder. Duke smiled. She really was a good, loving, caring woman. And she was a Christian as well. If he wasn’t dying of oral cancer, he might even—
BAM! The Range Rover hit a hole, and the three of them flew forward and impacted the front seat.
“Ugh!” Kadie blurted, lacing her arms over her face. Brian landed between the two with a yelp.
Hans and Cliff exited the vehicle. Hans radioed the SUV ahead while Cliff opened the back door.
“We’ll walk from here,” he said, pointing his pistol at them as they piled out of the back of the SUV.
They trudged along the tattered path to the Suburban, which was now two-hundred yards ahead of them. Sunlight peppered through the trees, barely lighting their trail. Esteban stood next to Curt and Patricia, who were engaged in an intense conversation regarding the hidden cathedral and what they might expect to find.
56
Nis, Serbia
The hill country
* * *
The scent of the fresh pines tickled Kadie’s nostrils. Despite the cool air, sweat beaded across her forehead and the nape of her neck. She let go of Brian’s hand and pulled her small elastic scrunchy off her wrist. Gathering her hair behind her head, she tied it into a ponytail.
Kadie trudged through the forest with the group, holding hands with Brian. Towering pines surrounded them as they followed the trail, which became more difficult to follow about forty-five minutes ago. The overcast cloud deck dissipated, and sunlight trickled through the dense forest, like flakes of snow for the first snowfall. The group stretched over a hundred feet as they shuffled single file and meandered through the woods. Their feet constantly slipped on the damp rocks and grass, the soles of their shoes losing the battle with Mother Nature.
Brian didn’t look well and had been out of his Lamictal for two days now. His complexion started to turn pale last night and remained so today. Lack of Lamictal wouldn’t do that. Maybe it was the stress. They had not talked about what was going on nor when it might be over. Brian could sense what was happening but didn’t know how to communicate his thoughts. Shoot, neither did she.
She wondered whether this would be another dead end. Would they find another clue that led them somewhere else? So much information had been found, they were fortunate to piece it together the way they did. But that begged the question—did they piece it together correctly? How would Patricia and her men handle the disappointment of another setback? Clearly, they had no qualms with killing.
At the base of a small hill, Ray, the point man, stopped and hollered at Doctor Hastings. The rest of the group, Kadie included, hurried to where the man stood.
“It’s the cave,” Patricia said. “We’ve found the entrance.”
“Maybe,” Curt said. “Let’s give it a look, shall we?”
Everyone zeroed in on Ray’s position as they removed the vines and limbs that covered the entrance.
Patricia beamed from ear to ear. “Finally. This quest has taken so long.” Ray worked frantically at the cave entrance to clear the debris. On his hands and knees, he shined his flashlight into the dark entrance.
“There’s nothing there,” Ray said. “The cave is only about five feet deep.”
“Maybe the entrance collapsed,” Curt said.
“You can see for yourself,” he said, standing and offering Curt the flashlight. “It’s a tiny natural cave. Nothing manmade about it.”
Curt snatched the flashlight and knelt at the entrance. He mumbled a few unintelligible words while he peered into the cave, then pulled out and tossed the flashlight back to the man.
“Let’s keep searching,” Patricia said.
“Sure would have been nice to have a drone to help us find what we’re searching for,” Duke said as he glared at Curt. The Delta Force impersonator answered with a non-verbal gesture.
The group spread out once again. The more they wandered around, the more Kadie convinced herself this was a waste of time. The thoughts plagued her consciousness. What if they were in the wrong place?
Thirty minutes later, a voice echoed across the open field.
“I found it!” Esteban yelled on the North section of the hillside.
Once again, the group gathered at the location. This time, it looked more probable.
Kadie and Brian arrived at Esteban’s location. Sure enough, it was a cave. A cave with a manmade door at the entrance about ten feet away. She inhaled deeply, mulling over the fact that she could be wrong—this might turn out to be the correct location after all.
Duke and Cliff reached the cave, followed by Curt, Patricia, then Ray. Curt pushed his way to the front.
“Has anyone tried the door?” he said.
“No,” Esteban said. “I was waiting for everyone else.”
“Move,” Curt said, approaching the door. He eyed it curiously as if it were a puzzle to be solved. Kadie studied the exterior of the door. There didn’t appear to be any cipher or cryptic writing. Curt reached for the handle, but the door was locked. He glanced back at Patricia, frustrated. Curt turned back to the door and ran his hands over it, pressing against the surface. Then, he leaned his shoulder into it. Eventually, he stepped back and kicked the door next to the lock.
His foot went through the door, ripping the lock and handle away from the doorframe. Curt pressed against the door and pushed it open, making a loud creaking noise. Kadie’s nose wrinkled as a stench wafted through the entrance to the cave; worse than any garbage dump that she had been around. Whatever they uncovered didn’t smell pleasant.
Duke leaned into her. “Decaying flesh, maybe? Must have been airtight in there.”
Cliff slid his backpack off his shoulder and removed several flashlights, which he handed to everyone but Kadie, Brian, and Duke. Kadie wondered how they were going to resolve the unspoken issue. If there was a treasure in the cathedral, would they simply use them as pack mules to lug more riches out of the cathedral back to the SUV? With the Range Rover totaled, there definitely wouldn’t be any room for extra passengers and treasure. They’d all be shot and left there no doubt.
The point-man turned on his flashlight. The bright LED beam made the cave appear as if it were bathed in daylight. The carved-out walls had several pictograms and symbols on the walls, but Kadie couldn’t tell what era they were from. She detected a more pressing problem.
“Okay,” he said with a smile. “Let’s go check it out.”
Kadie didn’t budge. “I can see spiderwebs from here.” She shook her head at Patricia. “I don’t do spiders.”
Ray pointed his pistol at her. “I’m afraid you do now.”
She shivered and searched Duke’s face for some kind of sign that everything was going to be okay. He seemed—peaceful. Was that the sign? He seemed ready for whatever they faced. Duke took her hand in his and patted it gently before Patricia pulled her away. The two new guys led the group into the cave, then Patricia, who pulled Kadie by the arm, followed. Brian was reluctant to go, and Curt shoved him into the dark passage. Brian yelped and started to wail. Duke lunged forward and put his arm around Brian to calm him down. Curt was right on their heels; Hans and Esteban brought up the rear. After about twenty feet of descending trail, the ground they walked on gradually turned into a crude set of stairs carved into the stone.
Kadie paused on the stairs, allowing Brian and Duke to catch up. The interior of the cave was just that—a cave. Kadie thought this might be a dead-end until
he heard Patricia scream. They hurried forward to see what happened. When they arrived at the crude landing on the staircase, Ray and Patricia stood over a pair of skeletons. The flesh had long ago withered away.
“How did they get here?” Kadie said.
Ray shook his head. “No telling.”
Duke moved forward to examine the corpses. “How did they die?”
Curt arrived and panned his flashlight around the ground and along the walls. “Maybe some kind of boobytrap. You know, like in Indiana Jones.”
“It’s Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Brian said.
“Shut up, Elmer Fudd,” Curt said. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter.”
Kadie clenched her teeth and steered Brian away from Curt, toward the back of the group that now stretched far apart, single file down the crude staircase.
“The steps are slippery,” she said to Brian.
They walked with caution until they reached the bottom of the stairs and the path leveled out. Kadie took a sip of water out of her canteen and then gave Brian some.
A loud crack came from the front of the line, but from her position, she couldn’t see anything. There was just a sickening crunch echoing throughout the chamber.
“Everyone freeze!” one of the point-men yelled.
Kadie thrust her back against the cavern wall, pushing Brian back. A rolling cloud of dirt and dust swirled in the air, blinding everyone in the tunnel.
“Brian, shut your eyes and breathe through your shirt.” Kadie grabbed the top of her shirt and pulled it over her mouth, filtering out the dusty air. Brian copied her actions.
It would be a few minutes before the dust settled. Nobody moved. Kadie kept her eyes closed and breathed through her shirt to keep the dust from getting in her lungs. Patricia was right in front of her, and after about a minute, she turned the corner and screamed. The others rushed forward.
Bright LED flashlights cut through the dust-filled air like laser-beams through outer-space. When Kadie edged forward around the corner, one of the point-men lay crushed underneath a large, hand-cut stone that had served as a boobytrap for the cathedral. It was Ray. Dead.