Staff of Judea

by Alex Archer

  “So where are we taking it?”

  Not wanting to say “her tent” and give him any ideas, she thought quickly. “Ephraim and I will be working on it in his tent, with the help of some of the students.”

  “Okay. Sounds good.”

  They were almost to the tent when the radio on Gardner’s belt crackled into life.

  “Command to Eagle One.”

  Gardner carefully passed the bag back to Annja before pulling the radio from his belt.

  “Eagle One here. Go, Command,” he said, then inclined his head back in the direction of his patrol route, indicating that he was headed off.

  Annja mouthed a quick “thank you” to him and then he was striding briskly away and she was breathing a major sigh of relief.

  She waited until she couldn’t hear his radio any longer, then glanced about. Satisfied, she hefted the bag and quickly started walking on a diagonal course away from camp.

  It was pretty dark, the thin sliver of moon barely providing enough light for her to see where to put her feet, but she wasn’t complaining. If she couldn’t see where she was going, the sentries would have an equally hard time seeing her.

  She walked about a hundred yards away from camp and then began looking for a good spot to set up. A long, flat table of rock that was roughly waist high seemed to be the best bet, so she clambered up. Unzipping the bag, she sorted through the items by feel, setting them in a semicircle around her on the rock. After that, it was simply a matter of putting it all together.

  She put her flashlight inside the bag and turned it on, muting most of the light. She took a blasting cap out of the bag and put it on the rock in front of her. It was a very small charge, used in excavation work to break apart rocks that were just too big to move by hand, and would do nicely for what she had in mind. She attached a detonation cord to the blast cap and then ran the cord to the timer. She set the timer for ten minutes.

  Next she took the boxes of spare ammunition out of the duffel, opened them and one by one poured their contents on top of the blasting cap until it was buried under a veritable pile of ammunition intended for the security team’s MP4s. The pièce de résistance was the three boxes of shells for a combat shotgun.

  She stopped and surveyed her handiwork. It looked good; when the blasting cap was triggered it should cook off some of the ammunition directly on top of it, which would then cause the rest of the pile to go off, as well. Within seconds it would sound like there was a full-scale war going on as round after round went off. As long as it gave Ephraim and his charges enough time to escape.

  One last check to be sure the det cord was connected properly to the timer and then she set the countdown for ten minutes, hit the switch and got the heck out of there.

  Chapter 25

  It took her seven minutes to reach the tent they’d chosen as their rendezvous point. She hadn’t seen nor heard anyone on her way back; the rest of the camp seemed to have settled in for the night.

  She slipped inside to find Ephraim waiting with the rest of their group.

  “All right,” she said softly. “Everyone know the drill?”

  There were nods all around.

  Annja checked her watch. “In about three minutes you’re going to hear a lot of noise. Don’t worry. It’s nothing that can hurt you. As soon as you hear it, though, I want you all to head across camp to where the Land Cruisers are parked. Take the last one in line. The keys are above the visor.”

  “What about you? How are you going to get out?” Susan asked.

  “I’ll be about five minutes behind you in one of the other vehicles, don’t worry.”

  “Why don’t you just come with us now?” Rachel said, but Annja shook her head.

  “Someone needs to draw them off your tail and I’ve got the best chance of pulling it off. You guys stay close to Ephraim and I’ll see you all shortly.”

  Gunfire suddenly split the night air, the shots coming fast and furious. To Annja it sounded like half a dozen people had suddenly started blazing away with everything they had and she smiled at the sound.

  Tony was waiting at the front of the tent. His keen eyes and reflexes would serve them better than Ephraim’s as they navigated away from camp and so he was the first out the door. Annja tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Go!”

  The others followed behind him in a steady stream until it was only Annja and Ephraim left inside the tent. He gave her a swift hug, then gripped her shoulders tightly.

  “I’ve changed my mind,” he said. “It’s too dangerous. Leave the map and come with us. We can worry about the staff later.”

  But Annja shook her head. “This is our one and only chance. You know it as well as I do. The minute Connolly gets his hands on the staff, it will disappear into his personal collection, secure behind an army of armed guards and modern alarm systems. No, our only chance is to beat him to it.”

  Shouts could be heard outside now as the security team responded to what they must have thought was a major attack. They didn’t have much time. “I’ll be fine,” she said. “Go. Now!”

  “All right, all right.” But instead of leaving, he dug into his pocket, pulled out a few folded sheets of paper and thrust them into Annja’s hands. “Here, take this,” he said. “You’re going to need it.”

  “What is it?”

  “Legend says the staff is secure inside the walls of the Fortress Mal’akh. While you were gone I wrote down everything I could remember about the legend. Along with the translated verse, this might help if you get there first.”

  Ephraim’s insight was priceless and she knew the information he provided would be extremely useful, provided they managed to get out of here intact.

  A chance that was growing slimmer every second they stood here.

  “Thank you. Truly. Now get out of here and get those students of yours to safety!”

  “Right!” he said. “Good luck.” And then he pushed out of the tent and into the night.

  Annja gave him a moment and then she followed suit. She slipped between the tents, heading for the one shared by Grimes and Connolly. She could hear the gunfire still going off in the distance, though now it was answered by the sharp crack of shots from several MP4s. She smiled. It meant that Grimes’s security team was still chasing down her little decoy.

  Who knew you could have so much fun with a blasting cap and half a dozen boxes of ammunition?

  She heard the sound of a car engine start up and knew Ephraim had reached the others. Cautiously she approached her employer’s tent.

  The lanterns were on and the flaps thrown back, giving her a good look inside. It seemed to be empty. She glanced around, sensing the trap but not seeing anything concrete to move her suspicions in one direction or the other.

  Where were they?

  Does it matter? her conscience asked.

  No, probably not.

  She slipped inside and headed directly for the steamer trunk she had seen Connolly remove the iPad from the night before. She reached to open the lid, only to find it was locked.

  Good thing I brought the key, she thought, and called her sword from the otherwhere. She slid the tip of the weapon into the seam where the lid met the chest and then pushed down sharply.

  It popped open on the first try and she let her sword vanish again.

  She dug through the contents, throwing aside what she wasn’t interested in, until she found the leather iPad case. She unzipped it, checked to make sure the device was inside and then closed it again.

  Annja stood, turned around…and found herself staring down the barrel of a gun for the second time in less than a week.

  Martin Grimes was holding the gun.

  “Going somewhere, Ms. Creed?” he asked with a very satisfied expression on his face.

  Just like t
hat she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the gunman at the Shrine of the Book had been none other than Grimes.

  Her expression must have given her away. He suddenly chuckled. “Figured it out, have you? Took you bloody long enough. I thought you were supposed to be smart, Creed.”

  He laughed, throwing his head back slightly as he did so.

  That was all Annja needed.

  She pulled her arm back and whipped it forward again, the motion reminiscent of an Olympic javelin thrower. Her sword materialized in her hand before it had even half completed its arc and the force of her throw sent it hurtling point first directly at Grimes. As soon as the sword had left her grip, Annja threw herself to the side, using her body to cushion the iPad as she crashed to the floor.

  Grimes’s gun boomed.

  Two quick shots in rapid succession.

  The first missed Annja by scant inches as she dove to the side, the slug disappearing through the fabric of the tent.

  The second bullet skimmed the edge of the blade as it hurtled toward him, changing the trajectory slightly. As a result, the broadsword slammed point first into Grimes’s right shoulder rather than piercing him through the spot Annja had been aiming for—the center of his chest.

  Grimes went over backward, screaming, the gun flying out of his hand to land halfway between him and Annja.

  She scrambled to her feet and called her sword to hand, the weapon disappearing from Grimes’s shoulder and reappearing in her grip as she crossed the room at a dead run. She kicked Grimes’s gun into the shadows, then moved around him in a wide circle, intent on reaching the entrance. He barely noticed, too busy trying to staunch the flow of blood from his wound.

  Annja burst out of the entrance and nearly ran over Hamilton and Beck as they raced to respond to the sound of the pistol shots from inside the tent. Annja knew how she must look, with a bloody sword in one hand and Connolly’s leather iPad case in the other, but she didn’t even stop. Instead, she pointed back of her shoulder and shouted, “Hurry! Grimes is holding them off so I can get this—” she held up the case “—to Mr. Connolly but he’s not going to last much longer on his own! He needs help!”

  For a second she didn’t think they were going to believe her. Beck, in particular, had a curious expression on his face, as if he were trying to work out what was wrong with the picture she was presenting, but then Hamilton was racing to Connolly’s tent and Beck moved to follow him.

  Her victory was short-lived, however.

  She hadn’t taken another ten steps before a line of semiautomatic fire stitched itself through the earth near her feet and Grimes’s voice filled the night.

  “Kill her!” he screamed.

  Chapter 26

  Annja jigged to the right behind a pair of tents, taking her out of Grimes’s line of sight, but the damage was done. Anyone in earshot would know something was wrong, and since they were all Grimes’s men, they were more likely to shoot first and ask questions later.

  She had to get to the vehicles!

  Unfortunately, she couldn’t outrun the radios Grimes and his men all carried.

  By the time she reached the edge of camp where the SUVs were parked, Grimes had used the radio to let the others know that Annja was persona non grata and to shoot her on sight. She knew this because that was exactly what they tried to do as she came running toward the parked vehicles.

  Bullets split the night around her, one coming so close she felt it move her hair, and then she was on the ground and rolling, trying to get out of the line of fire. She fetched up against a fair-size boulder and scrambled behind it, squatting down low and trying to catch her breath.

  The gunfire continued, the bullets slashing through the darkness around her, but none of them came close. The gunmen couldn’t see her anymore, so most of the shots were wild, though one or two ricocheted off the stone she was hiding behind.

  She had to get out of here, behind the wheel of one of the Land Cruisers. It would take her days to walk to the nearest town and she didn’t have food or water. Besides, she’d be overtaken by Connolly’s men that way.

  Grimes, of course, would know that. Which was why he was no doubt stationing his men near the trucks.

  She was about to realize that Grimes wasn’t content to wait for her.

  One minute Annja was curled up tight behind a rock, hidden from view, and then the area in which she was hiding was lit up as bright as day by two SUVs, pinning her in place.

  “You’ve got ten seconds to come out or I’m going to send my men in there with guns blazing, Creed,” Grimes shouted. He paused, and then said, “Do us all a favor and stay hidden, will you? It will be so much more fun that way!”

  “Ten…”

  She glanced around frantically, looking for a way out.

  “Nine…”

  She could guess what Grimes would do to her if he managed to capture her.

  “Eight…”

  No, she needed to move, but had to do it in such a way that she stayed out of sight.

  “Seven…”

  The light had revealed that the rock she was hiding behind was bigger than she thought when she rolled up against it in the darkness. That was good, because right about now it was the only thing between her and Grimes’s men. But the minute she came out from behind it…

  “Six…”

  Unless…

  The ground directly in front of where she was hiding ran straight for about twenty yards before it dipped sharply out of sight. She had no idea what was beyond that point—it could be an abrupt hundred-foot drop for all she knew—but right now it was about the only option open to her. If she took off running in any other direction she wouldn’t get ten steps before being riddled with bullets. At least this way she might have a chance.

  Might.

  “Five-four-three-two-one! Time’s up. Here we come….”

  She heard the engines race behind her and saw the lights shift position as the vehicles headed in her direction.

  It was now or never.

  Annja took a firm grip on the iPad case, breathed deeply to hyperoxygenate her blood supply and then took off running in a straight line directly away from the boulder she’d been using for cover.

  She made the first five yards without being seen. The ground beneath her feet was smooth and level, the footing even, and she was able to pour on the speed after her initial burst out of the gate.

  Behind her she could hear the roar of the trucks and the shouts of Grimes and his men as they taunted her with what was to come. She kept her head down and ran.

  By the time she hit the halfway point, however, her luck ran out. The floodlights of one of the vehicles caught her as she leaped over a rock in the middle of the trail and seconds later bullets stitched a path right past her left side as she deked in the opposite direction.

  “There she is! Over there!”

  The SUVs swerved to keep her in sight and more gunfire followed. She was closing in on some larger boulders that might provide cover, but for now all she could do was duck and swoop from side to side in an effort to escape the bullets.

  Pain flared along her right biceps as a bullet creased her skin, causing her to stumble. The motion actually saved her life as the gunner put several more rounds through the space she would have been if she hadn’t faltered. She caught herself against a nearby rock before pushing off and charging in the opposite direction even as the surface of the rock was riddled with hot lead.

  Her legs were burning, her heart was pounding, but she pushed on, repeating a phrase like a mantra in her mind.

  Stop and die. Move and live.

  Stop and die. Move and live.

  She ducked around a nearby boulder just as a bullet sent rock chips flying into her unprotected face, lacerating her cheek and right ear. She barely n
oticed, her attention centered on the drop looming directly ahead of her.

  Thanks to the floodlights behind her, Annja could see that the path she was following disappeared into darkness on the other side of the dip and she clenched her teeth as the enemy closed in from behind.

  The trucks behind her had to swerve to avoid the boulder field she was moving through now and for a moment she ran out of the light.

  She raced forward, reached the drop and continued down in a partially controlled slip-and-slide, kicking out chunks of loose earth and stone from the slope as she fought to keep herself upright and moving.

  If she stumbled now it would be over. If the fall didn’t kill her, Grimes’s men would.

  She heard the trucks stop somewhere above her and voices carried down the slope as doors slammed and men shouted for flashlights.

  She’d gained a few seconds, but not much more.

  With a jolt she found herself at the bottom of the slope. From what little moonlight there was, she could see that she had come down onto a wide, even path about the same width as a road. At first she had no idea what it was, but then she understood that she was standing in a dry riverbed, the sand packed solid beneath her feet.

  She didn’t think, just trusted her gut and took off to the left. A glance over her shoulder showed them coming down the slope after her, their flashlights bobbing in the darkness.

  She could hear her breath rasping in and out of her lungs. If she didn’t find some way of losing them in the dark in the next several minutes she was going to run out of…

  A sound intruded on her consciousness, a low rumble that seemed to be steadily growing in volume as if something was closing in on her. In seconds the sound was loud enough to drown out the shouts and jeers of the men chasing her. Annja had a sudden vision of a flash flood racing around the bend behind her, but dismissed the notion as crazy. There had to be rain for there to be a flash flood and the region had been bone-dry for weeks.

  She chanced a glance behind her but didn’t see anything. The rumble grew louder.