by Graham Brown
The night’s sky had given up its secrets hours earlier and Christian had found the stars he needed and plotted his course. Now all that mattered was catching up to Akash.
Christian had looked for him in the town of Ibis, but Akash had been there and gone and the town itself was in disarray after four bodies had been found. Akash had been busy, searching the town for anyone who knew of the legend. Christian guessed he’d found what he was looking for because the fourth murder was particularly brutal. Obviously the man had information he wouldn’t part with, so Akash took it.
Christian guessed Akash was no more than an hour or two in front of him. By morning he’d be in sight, and Christian had the advantage; Akash didn’t know he was coming.
The Land Rover climbed another huge dune, the big tires dug in and pushed it over the top. The next dune was smaller, and before long the sands began to flatten until Christian was driving across a dry lakebed. He stepped on the gas and picked up speed. It was like the Salt Flats in Utah. He couldn’t see the other side, but based on the satellite view it was at least sixty, maybe seventy miles across.
After an hour on the flats he could see the beginning of a set of foothills worn down to the nub by time and wind. He slowed the vehicle and turned his attention back to the stars until he’d gotten his bearings, but when he pressed the pedal down again, the engine began to sputter.
Christian checked the instrument panel. He saw no problems, no warning lights.
After sputtering for a moment, the engine quit completely.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
He cranked the ignition and the Land Rover started, but it stalled again seconds later. This time it would not refire.
He stepped out, popped the hood and looked over the engine. As far as he could see nothing was wrong with the vehicle.
He looked up. Dawn was not far off. With the morning sun coming, he was short on options. He turned and looked around the desert. It was salt flats as far as the eye could see, except for the small rocky outcroppings he’d been headed to. They looked like the best place to hide from the sun. He set out for them, thinking he’d find a cave and rest there and then head for the ruins the next night. His only hope was that Akash didn’t know the correct bearing.
Grabbing what he needed from the back of the SUV, he hiked off towards the foothills and the shade they could offer. An hour into his hike, the sky began to lighten and the morning sun warned of its coming appearance.
The light refracting off the sky slowed him a bit, but he had bigger problem: the foothills were actually much further away than he thought. And they weren’t foothills, they were mountains.
He quickly realized he should have stayed with the Land Rover, but now he was stuck in no man’s land. Which way to turn? Which way to run?
He turned back and began to run, jogging at first and then sprinting, but the sun rose quickly near the equator and like an arc of fire, it crossed the horizon line before he was within a mile of the Land Rover.
It hit him as if it had him in its crosshairs. Christian pulled his long coat up over his head to hide from the light, but his pace slowed. He kept on, burning and feeling as if he was aging with every step.
The desert grew hot around him and he began to labor, pulling the coat down to check his progress. The light hitting his eyes was excruciating and the Rover was still a half mile away. He tried to run but his legs were losing coordination. This was unlike Boston where the waters had shielded him or the oil platform, where he hid in the shadows waiting for Drake. The power of the Sun was beating directly down on him and it was draining him.
He trudged along, fighting a great desire to lay down. He knew better. He knew that meant the end. A day of total pain where he would be charred to death in the blazing light.
He kept going, his exposed hands burning. He couldn’t give up. He had to get to the Land Rover and shelter.
He fell to one knee, forced himself back up and pushed on. He wobbled like an old man. Five hundred yards to go but all he could think about was resting. He stumbled along towards salvation, fell again and found his legs would not answer the call to get back up.
He crawled for a few minutes before collapsing in the sand. It was hopeless. With all the energy he had left, he covered his face and arms with his long coat and burrowed his hands and feet into the sand, trying to force his way beneath it.
As the hours passed he became delirious and feverish, thinking he heard sounds in the distance. Before long he began to wonder. He heard the sound of an engine, and not just one, but many. And they were coming his way.
A small convoy pulled to a stop only a stone’s throw from him. He could hear men milling around. He wanted to yell, but he couldn’t talk, his throat was constricted.
“He’s over there.”
A minute later a boot was rolling him over. By some miracle, the man above him stood blocking the sunlight, his shadow protecting Christian. As the man’s face came into focus, Christian saw who it was. “You?" he whispered, recognizing the shopkeeper.
“Yes, my friend, it is I.”
“But how?”
The shopkeeper now looked like a Bedouin, a facial scarf unfurled and dangling down one side. “We were able to find you because the Rover had a tracking device in it. We knew to look for you, because we sabotaged it before you left.”
“But why,” Christian asked. “Who are you?”
“My name is Fahad,” the man said. “But the real question is: who you are, Christian Hannover, and who is your friend?”
“My friend?” Christian was confused. “I have no friends with me.”
“The man with no face,” Fahad replied. “We found him out here, just like you, dying in the Ocean of Fire. We should let you both die and be absorbed by the sand, but we need something from you first.”
“What could you possibly need from me?” Christian asked.
“Answers,” Fahad said. “Answers to many questions.”
Chapter 40
Christian was thrown into a cage that was secured in the bed of a pickup truck. A tarp was pulled over it covering it completely, perhaps to keep him from knowing where they were going. It also kept him alive. They began driving, but even when the tarp fluttered in the wind and he could see through it to the desert beyond, everything was blurred with the heat of the day.
Whatever their course, with every mile driven, he was getting further off track. The only comfort was that Akash was with them, but what of Drake? Akash belonged to him. Was he an advance scout of some kind? Was he alone?
Christian kicked himself for not taking the time to look deeper into Fahad’s mind in the shop, but there was no reason to suspect anything. Fahad was just a clerk who rented vehicles.
The convoy pulled into a camp of some kind and stopped. As the tarp was pulled back, Christian could see a number of tents. Fahad’s men got out and began to unload supplies. Five men walked over and dragged Akash’s cage off the back of the truck. Akash was in the fetal position and crammed into the corner in a desperate attempt to hide from the light. He wore the mask of gauze Christian had seen in Fahad’s thoughts.
Someone had taken a swipe at his head and just barely missed. But who?
Christian looked away from Akash and toward the main tent. Fahad and his men were sitting and talking, drinking water or maybe tea. He couldn’t hear what they were saying. He tried to read their minds to no effect. He tried to read their lips, but they spoke a language he didn’t know.
He guessed the topic of conversation was the people Akash had killed in Ibis, and how Christian knew him, and so on. It was clear they knew the half-faced man was a killer, but little did they know what really hid behind that mask.
He hoped they would come for him soon. If they brought him into the darkness of the main tent, a good portion of his strength would return, enough that he could regain control of the situation. Even beneath the tarp he felt better than he had in the desert.
In the tent, Fahad’s me
n finished their tea and began to get ready. Electric cattle prods, knives and some type of plank with a chain wrapped around it were arranged. This was not going to be pleasant.
Fahad walked out of the tent, looked skyward and held up his palms as if he was saying a prayer. He then walked up to Christian’s cage.
Good, Christian thought. Take me first, so I can explain what’s happening here.
Fahad stood a few feet from the cage looking Christian over. He threw a bottle of water into Christian’s cage. “Drink. Or you’ll die out here.”
“You’re going to kill me anyway, aren’t you?”
“That is yet to be decided,” Fahad said. “First, your friend will pay for his crimes. We know he’s the one who murdered our brothers in the town of Ibis. He’s also responsible for several deaths in Muscat as well. There is no doubt about that. Since you just arrived, we can conclude that it happened before you got there. But if you’re an accomplice, well then, you shall pay also.”
Christian drank some of the water. “He’s not my friend. He’s my enemy. Kill him if you want. In fact, I suggest you do it right now. But do it out here. Out in the open. Out under the sun.”
“I suppose you’d like us to kill him before he speaks, wouldn’t you?”
“Listen to me,” Christian begged. “He is a murderer, but others like him are almost certainly coming, others who are worse than him, far more dangerous.”
“Coming here? To this desert?” Fahad spoke with disbelief in his voice.
“Yes. To this desert.”
Fahad shook his head. “Listen to me friend, there is no hope of rescue. We’ve guarded this secret for thousands of years and never have two come at the same time, let alone others as you say. Intruders into our world are rare. We’ve had the occasional treasure hunter, sometimes an oil man, but they would always use us as guides and, of course, we never found anything.”
“You don’t understand what you’re dealing with,” Christian said. “We’re not treasure hunters. We’re not like anything you’ve ever known. Please, take me inside, get me out of the sun, I’ll explain everything to you.”
“Of course, of course. We would talk over tea, like civilized men, I suppose.” He tapped on the cage. “Don’t worry, my friend, we shall talk soon enough. And yes, you will tell me what you wanted with the Sphere of Power.”
“I don’t want the power, Fahad. I want to destroy it.”
Fahad walked away, shaking his head at Christian’s statement. He looked back as he spoke. “If it could be destroyed, we’d have done that four thousand years ago. The sphere is impervious. It is indestructible. It is not of this world.”
Neither are we, Christian thought.
Fahad motioned to Akash. “Take him inside and chain him to the stone.”
“No, Fahad!” Christian said, stumbling forward, falling into the sunny portion of his cage and crashing into the bars. “Don’t take him out of the sunlight, you don’t understand. Don’t put him in the darkness.”
Fahad ignored the warning, walking towards the tent even as Akash was being dragged from the cage.
“Listen to me Fahad!” Christian shouted with all the strength he had left. “Chain him outside. Keep him in the --.’
Christian’s warning was cut short as one of Fahad’s men jabbed him with a cattle prod. The electricity sent Christian flying back. He banged against the far side of the cage and crumbled to the floor.
He could barely move as he watched Fahad’s men lead Akash into the tent by the chains around his neck. There Akash was shackled to a great block of stone. They bound his hands and feet and ripped the gauze from his hideously scarred face.
“Don’t,” Christian pleaded uselessly.
It was too late. Fahad entered the tent and closed the flap, cutting off the sunlight, and from that point on it was only a matter of time.
Christian fell back demoralized. He lay there, huddled in the only part of the cage that was out of the direct sunlight, listening to the interrogation.
Fahad’s men were shouting at Akash, demanding answers. The sound of the cattle prods snapping came next and the stench of singed skin. He could hear them beating on him, pounding their fists and clubs on his dead body. They didn’t know. They didn’t understand. He felt none of it.
As Christian listened, he also counted the minutes that Akash had been in the darkness of the tent. It wouldn’t be long now.
He looked around for a weapon, but there was nothing to be found. This situation was grave and getting worse by the second. And then suddenly, Christian heard the sound he’d been waiting for, the snapping of the chains followed by the shouts of the men. Shouts turned to screams and then to gunfire as chaos erupted in the darkness of the tent. Bullets ripped through the canvas walls, tearing the same useless holes they would punch in Akash’s hide.
The screams continued and Fahad was thrown, bloody and beaten, through the tent flap. He crashed to the sand, half wrapped in the canvas. He tried to get up and then fell back to the ground.
Inside the tent, Akash was taking apart the last of Fahad’s men. He ripped arms out of their sockets, broke necks and impaled one man on a cattle prod that had been used against him. The men outside rushed into the battle, but they were killed as easily as the first group.
When he’d choked the life out of the last one, Akash turned his attention to Christian, grabbed a weapon and took a step towards him. In his rage, Akash had forgotten the sun, he roared like a lion when the light hit him and was forced back into the tent.
A standoff ensued. Christian huddled in the corner of his cage, weak and defenseless, Akash inside the tent, pacing back and forth like a caged animal, never once losing eye contact with Christian.
Christian could see the future. Hours would pass, the sun would fall and Akash would burst from the tent, far stronger than Christian. He sat down in the only corner of shade and tried to rest and conserve all his energy. He could only hope it would be enough to defend against the onslaught that Akash would bring.
Chapter 41
The wind blew hot and dry as the sun made its long slow descent into the west. Aside from re-bandaging his face, Akash hadn’t stopped moving the entire day. Back and forth, testing the shade, testing the sun.
Down range the blazing disk was being swallowed by the mountains.
“Night will be here soon,” Akash growled.
“I can see that,” Christian replied. “Looking forward to it, in fact.” As he finished the statement of bravado, Christian began to cough. He coughed so furiously he was spitting by the end. It was a ruse. And Akash bought it fully.
“Are you sure of that,” he mocked. “You sound like you might not make it to dusk.”
“Maybe you should come for me now, before my strength is reborn in the dark,” Christian warned. “You can’t possibly hope to defeat me once the sun is gone.”
Akash laughed. “I see you out there, hiding in the shade. You won’t be ready for me. Don’t worry, I’ll finish you quick.”
“Like you finished off whoever took half your face?”
At this Akash raged. “When I have the Dark Star, I will find her and torture her for all eternity. Drake too.”
Drake too? This surprised Christian. He remembered Akash as a loyal zealot in Drake’s hierarchy. But much had happened since the bayou. Anya’s strange actions. Drake’s incapacitation. Perhaps Drake’s grip on these lost souls was failing. Even if that was the case, Christian wasn’t sure it made things better. Instead of one enemy, he might face a hundred.
As he considered this, the first fingers of shade began to creep across the sand. Unfortunately they would envelop the tent, Christian’s cage and the land in between almost simultaneously.
“So who was it?” Christian asked. “Anya? Teodora? Certainly not Lucinious of Albania? I mean come on Akash, she’s a weakling.”
“It was Tereza,” Akash said.
“Ah,” Christian replied. “Well, I must admit, I’ve had my own problem
s with her.”
Akash stared at Christian.
“I’m just saying, at least we have that in common.”
“Shut up. I won’t let you trick me.”
“Just trying to make conversation,” Christian replied.
“I said shut up!” With that Akash launched one of the empty rifles at Christian, a lethal missile like projectile. It hit the bars of the cage and clanged off it. Christian fell back as if in shock and acted as if he could barely get up.
“You don’t have to…” he said, as if short of breath. “…you don’t have to kill me.”
“True,” Akash said. “But I want to.”
Akash was crouching down now, watching the shade crawl across the sand towards him. When it stretched across the entire gap between him and Christian, Akash stood and walked calmly out of the tent with a spear of sorts in his hand.
Christian didn’t make a move. He just stared like a cornered animal.
Akash reached the cage and lunged forward, extending the spear like a pike man of Sparta. Christian dodged it like a matador might dodge a bull’s horns and waited for the next thrust. Akash pulled back and thrust the spear forward again. It nicked Christian’s side leaving a diagonal slash from which Christian’s rust colored blood oozed.
Christian had no time to contemplate the damage as Akash was trying to run him through yet again. He dropped to the bottom of the cage, ducking under the latest stab, rolling to the corner and springing up again.
“I will pin you like an insect,” Akash raged.
Christian didn’t reply. He was getting stronger. His time in the shade and the gathering dusk were regenerating his power.
He stood and wobbled against the back of the cage, trying to bait Akash into one more careless thrust. Seeing Christian vulnerable, Akash did just that. He jabbed forward recklessly. Christian dodged the spike yet again, and this time he grabbed onto the spear and yanked hard. Akash was pulled face first into the cage and Christian’s free hand went to his enemy’s neck.
Akashi released the spear and tried to pry Christian’s hand from his throat. Christian grabbed him with both hands, trying to crush his enemy’s windpipe.