Carpathian: An Event Group Thriller (Event Group Thrillers)
Page 38
He blinked and then smiled. “Yes,” he said simply and as matter-of-factly as he could after seeing the man that was trying to kill his sister far more distinctly than her mere description of him.
“Well, are you going to tell them that now is not the right time for song and dance? There will be ample time for them to celebrate after I have seen to Mikla.”
Finally Marko heard the cacophony coming from outside the village. The locals were starting to gather, something he had been fearful of ever since his grandmother had mentioned Anya was returning home. The music was loud and the people boisterous, which caused Marko a pang of jealousy and also of worry that there were now too many Jeddah eyes around Patinas for what was happening far below at the resort. The gathering was not wanted or needed at this time.
“I will see to it,” he said as he turned and patted Mikla one last time on the cheek. The wolf whined deep in its throat and then stilled again. Marko left without looking at either woman.
“Your brother has brought great trouble upon us I fear,” Madam Korvesky said as she watched her grandson leave. “He has done this for a cause that he sees as just, but I fear will bring the world down upon us.”
Anya wiped tears from her eyes as she stood and faced her grandmother.
“This is why I am to stay?”
Madam Korvesky smiled and then looked her grown granddaughter over as she held out a hand for assistance to stand from her large chair.
“No, your mission for the Jeddah is at an end. We have no more reason for eyes on the world, and especially eyes placed in Israel.”
“I do not understand,” Anya said as she helped her grandmother over to the door that had been placed between two large sawhorses from the barn. She watched as the old woman placed a weathered hand on Mikla’s shoulder, being sure to stay away from the animal’s head. She wanted him sleeping for what she had to do. She patted him easily and the wolf huffed and then went still.
“We are at a crossroads, my child. The world has started to gather more knowledge than we can suppress.” She turned and faced Anya with a sad look. “And I’m afraid your brother is the cause. He was blinded and now he is beginning to gather his wits about him and truly see that which he has set in motion.” Madam Korvesky looked down at Mikla and stroked his thick fur as he slept. She ran her hand easily down the full length of the beast, limping as she moved.
Anya stepped over to assist but the old woman shook her head as her hand came in contact with the break in the right hind ankle.
“He did this thinking he would make life easier for the Jeddah. And now the world has learned many things, and this knowledge cannot leave here.”
“Fool,” Anya said as she shook her head at the naïveté of her older brother. “What are we facing?” she asked, now afraid of the answer.
The old Gypsy queen stopped as she felt the small break in the bone. She tilted her head and closed her eyes. She was feeling her own touch in her swollen ankle and she knew it was comforting not only to herself but also to Mikla. She nodded her head and then took a deep breath.
“It’s not as bad as I thought,” she said as she smiled and then rubbed the muscled leg of the Golia. “We’ll have you fixed up in no time, you clumsy wolf,” she said laughing at her own words.
“Grandmother, what are we facing?” Anya insisted.
“Nothing but the total end of our way of life.” The old woman said it far too easily for Anya to be sure she heard the statement correctly.
“Surely things are not that—”
“And I’m not sure if that is a bad thing.”
Now Anya was totally stunned. She grasped the old wooden door to stabilize her wobbly legs as she felt her heart break at the thought of losing the mountain and what they have protected for thirty-five hundred years.
Before Anya could say anything the old woman held her hand up to still the questions she knew was coming.
“We can discuss this after we take care of Mikla. We must hurry him to the temple as soon as he is able. The other Golia may relax when he returns unharmed.”
Anya watched as her grandmother prepared for the healing spells that would not only make the pain easier to bear for Mikla but also herself. She stepped up and took hold of her by her elbows and helped her walk to her kitchen that was only a few paces away.
“And then we can discuss this rather large American stray you brought home.”
“He saved my—”
Again the smile and the hand stopped Anya from speaking.
“And you know how I feel about strays. You were always bringing home some animal for healing or for loving.” She turned with her smile still in place. “But I feel this particular stray means something a little more to my granddaughter.”
The hand again stopped Anya from speaking and she became frustrated as her grandmother started rummaging through her boxes and cabinets for the items needed for the healing spell.
“I’m a Gypsy, my dear, and some of the stories about us are true. I know you’ve been absent for a long while, so I’ll let you have your doubts. But I can feel this man has caught your heart.” She stopped rummaging and turned to face the young woman who looked just like her when she was at the same age. “Hear me, girl,” she said, losing the smile and becoming deadly serious. “Things are going to change, and now may not be the best time for such things as your American stray to be near the Jeddah.”
Anya didn’t want to go into any form of denial with her grandmother. She was old and she wasn’t reading things like she used to. But the news about her brother was now starting to weigh heavily on her. She smiled and then kissed her grandmother on the cheek.
“Your visionary aptitude has gone astray, Grandmamma, the American has no interest in a Gypsy from the mountains.”
The old woman chuckled.
“You have been gone far too long. I have missed your smile so much. And I won’t even say what a horrible liar you are.”
Her grandmother took Anya in her arms and hugged her as if for the last time.
* * *
From what Niles could tell, the five men in the Army Humvee liked being in the procession of cars, vans, and other old and rusted vehicles. They nodded and pointed at vehicles they recognized from bygone days. Everything from rusted-out Chevys to French-made Citroëns.
“This is amazing,” Alice said from the backseat of the hard-riding Humvee.
“That’s one word for it. I thought most of these cars and trucks would have been scrap sometime after the Kennedy assassination. What do you think is happening to draw so many Gypsies to the pass?”
“I’ve always heard about it, but no one I have ever spoken to has ever seen a Gathering.”
“It’s a gathering all right,” Niles said as he watched an old and battered Toyota pickup slide by them with ten children and several more adults in the back. They were jabbering away and laughing. Niles shook his head. “A gathering of what I don’t know. Look at their clothes, the styles they’re wearing, it’s like I’m looking back in time at several different ages. The sixties mostly, but maybe even as far back as the eighteen nineties. It’s amazing.”
“Gypsies,” Alice said beneath her breath.
“What was that?” Niles asked leaning closer to her.
“These are what the real Gypsies are like, Niles. This isn’t Hollywood or what others perceive them to be, these are the real thing.” She looked at Compton and smiled and he saw that she was loving every minute of what was happening. Alice was finally in her element. “These aren’t the Gypsies you find in Paris, London, or New York. No, these are the ones that stayed close to the mountains.”
Niles watched the motley group of Gypsies inside a truck as it went past.
“Are you saying that these people are—?”
“The Jeddah.”
Compton was about to respond when the driver of the Humvee gestured forward.
“We have a village here and it doesn’t look like the others below, this one seems a little crowded.”
“I think this is about as far as we’re going to go, sir.”
Niles reached up and patted the driver on the back. “Okay, let’s go see what’s going on and ask if we can visit the higher reaches of the pass.”
As Alice stepped out of the vehicle she was amazed to see the friendly smiles and faces that greeted them. This was not at all like the closed society of Gypsy bands that roamed the Western world—these people were open and very much unsuspicious of others.
The men of the 82nd, along with Niles, Alice, Will Mendenhall, and Denise Gilliam, all watched jugglers and vendors, and then their eyes widened when a small brown bear with a collar around his neck and being led by a small Gypsy child with a gold shirt and black vest walked upright to many laughs from the children.
Denise had to smile when Mendenhall’s mouth came slightly agape at the sight. Even the engineers from the 82nd looked as if they were kids seeing a circus for the first time. One staff sergeant pulled on the sleeve of another and pointed to the two teenage girls dancing and swirling to the sound of a horn as they beat tambourines. The men were awestruck and Alice could do nothing but clap her hands together and smile. All the while Niles watched. It felt good to the director of Department 5656 to see her smile again. It had been a long haul since the senator’s death and she deserved this last Event call.
“What do you think, Alice?” Niles asked as he turned away and studied the milling crowd of happy Gypsies that must have traveled from every village and town from the Czech Republic and the Russian steppes to get here. As Alice said, these people were the real thing.
Alice smiled and looked around her and then up at the mountain peak. She was trying to envision the interior and spy the true and hidden secret of the Jeddah.
“This is a Gathering to announce something. Or maybe to welcome someone home,” she said looking over at Compton with a wink.
“You mean this could be for our missing Mossad agent?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean, and if I were to think clearly on this with her here and Captain Everett missing … well, there could be a connection.”
Niles got a worried look on his face as he glanced at the empty web belts of the 82nd Airborne engineers. It was what wasn’t on those belts that concerned him: They had no weapons of any kind.
“Well, shall we pay our respects?” he said instead of voicing any concerns about their vulnerability. He would allow Alice to ride the wave a little while longer.
“By all means, let’s.”
Alice and her Event Group walked three thousand years into history.
* * *
The sun was slowly sliding behind the mountains to the west bringing on a false evening that cooled the milling crowd of Gypsies outside the gate of the small house. Charlie Ellenshaw was studying the activity through the slats in the rickety old barn. He blinked when he thought he saw a familiar face in the crowd standing a head taller than the rest. Charlie removed his wire-rimmed glasses and rubbed his eyes and then replaced them and looked again. A smile slowly crossed his lips.
Everett was examining the barn for weaknesses in case he decided not to play gentle captive any longer. Thus far he figured he could be out in about as long a time as it took to raise a boot and kick out one of the ancient slats that had seen far better days. They were open on three sides of the barn. The fourth and back side was butted right up against the mountain which served as its rear wall and which must have played hell during the rainy season. Carl looked up and saw that the hay loft reached all the way to the broken roof where he spied the craggy rocks as they climbed high above the barn.
“I’ll be damned, they made it to the village,” Ellenshaw said as he turned and got Everett’s attention.
“The director?” Carl asked as he stepped down from a small shattered corral gate. “Well, Will is out there anyway, and a couple of the Army guys.”
Everett walked to the wall while brushing remnants of hay and Lord knew what else from his blue denim shirt. He went to the widest crack and looked out. He saw Will standing among the large crowd of Gypsies. He smiled when he saw Alice and Niles wedged between the engineers of the 82nd.
“Come on, we’ll go out the south side, there are fewer people over there and the wall seems ready to fall down anyway.”
Everett turned to face the cracked and broken wall and started to raise his right leg and boot. That was when he froze. He slowly lowered the foot and his hands which had been spread for balance during his kick. The yellow eyes staring back at him made the blood freeze in his veins. Ellenshaw slowly turned to Carl with a smile after viewing their friends.
“I can’t wait to report what we’ve seen to Alice, she’s going to … oh, shit,” Charlie said when he saw what had frozen Everett in mid-kick. The wolf was actually standing on the far side of the wall and was looking in at them. To Charlie the operative word was standing.
“Don’t move, Doc,” Carl said as he never allowed his eyes to look away from the beast that was staring in with those menacing yellow eyes. Its ears were up and the size of the animal as it stood on two legs made the captain feel as if he were but a small child facing a Great Dane.
Before Carl could blink an eye the animal leapt up and away out of their view. Everett took a quick step back as he heard the wolf on the top of the barn. Dirt, leaves, pine needles, and other debris collected over time fell on them from the massive weight being applied to the old wood above them. Their eyes watched the giant animal move across the roof, each beam of wood shaking and then bending under the wolf’s massive weight.
“That’s the big one, isn’t it?” Charlie asked as he leaned further back against the wall he had just been looking through. “The one Marko and Anya called Stanus … I don’t think he’s very friendly.”
Carl didn’t voice it, but he had to agree with Ellenshaw. The animal that had come to their rescue earlier seemed to him to be the surly type. And it hadn’t been too pleased to see him and Charlie with Anya and Mikla. And now here it was paying the prisoners a visit. Carl winced as he heard nails being wrenched free from where they had been secured for a century or more. Then before either could move a muscle the beast jumped into the barn and landed in the shadows and light beams coming in from the outside. The black giant came to its full height after absorbing the impact of its landing from thirty-five feet up. They both heard the deep growl coming from the wolf’s throat. Everett allowed his eyes to cover the distance from the angry countenance of the beast to the long and very articulate fingers as they curled and uncurled at Stanus’s sides as the animal moved its weight from one foot to the other keeping a balance that had been practiced since birth.
“This is the most amazing thing I’ve—”
“Doc, now is not the time for a Carl Sagan narrative.”
Stanus stepped forward into a large sunbeam that was slowly starting to dim as the sun moved further behind the western mountains. The ears were up but the growling was intensifying. The large head swung from the more formidable Everett to that of Ellenshaw, who managed to hold his ground even though he was facing a thing he said could never exist.
Before Everett could react, the beast moved with lightning speed and took the captain by the neck and then raised the 235-pound man clear of the dirt floor. Carl took hold of the thick muscled arm to alleviate the stress on his neck as Charlie made a move to assist. Stanus simply leaned forward and growled, this time his long black ears laid flat against his skull, giving every indication
that it was no longer tolerant of the men that didn’t belong. Stanus brought its ears up as Charlie took a step back against the far wall. The giant wolf that couldn’t possibly exist just two days ago finally brought its full attention back to Everett.
“Uh, can we talk about this?” Everett managed to squeeze the words out against the growing tightness constricting his breathing.
Stanus growled and then relaxed its hold on Everett’s throat as it leaned in and smelled the captain from the top of his blond hair to his neck. The intake of air was deep and slow as the Golia seemed to be deciding something as it breathed deeply. The mouth slowly opened and came forward. Everett was looking at the largest set of teeth he had ever seen. But yet the captain realized that the animal wasn’t threatening him, he was testing him to see if he would panic—at least he was hoping that was what the beast was doing. Everett opened his eyes and steeled himself to make the beast blink first. He was so intent on doing this that neither he nor Charlie heard the sound of the barn door being opened. Only Stanus allowed its eyes to flick in that direction as its large and sharply pointed brow rose as Carl seemed to have passed some sort of ritualistic test.
“Put the American down, Stanus.”
Everett, though he couldn’t breathe, recognized the voice that came from behind him.
Stanus turned its head to face the man Everett couldn’t see. The growl was deep and this time very menacing. The ears lay down once more and then Stanus unceremoniously allowed Carl to slide through its fingers until he landed on the dirt floor where the captain took a grateful breath as he leaned over massaging his neck.
“The mountain, Stanus, go home, you shouldn’t be down here, there are far too many who don’t know the Golia are here. Even amongst our own people there are eyes we would rather not behold the miracle. Go home, Stanus.”
Carl watched as Marko held his ground as Stanus took a menacing step toward the Gypsy. The arms were outstretched and the long claws were working to get at something. Everett could see Marko’s dark eyes looking at the moving claws. Then the confrontation seemed to end as Stanus stood straight and then the long, powerful arms relaxed as it took two tentative steps back into the shadows of the barn. It took two more. The yellow eyes going from Marko to Everett and then back again until the only thing they could discern in the darkness of the barn were the yellow eyes and then in a flash of black-on-black movement, Stanus vanished up and into the rafters and then they heard the weight of the beast as it crunched onto the wood of the old roof as it scrambled onto the mountain to vanish.