by K. T. Tomb
“No idea whatsoever, but according to this old document I found on one of the websites dedicated to her, she spent quite some time in the country as Count Dohna before moving on. I think Wiligut knew about this as well. He must have mentioned it in his diary, but the problem is that we don’t have any other entries from his memoirs except the two that we have right now.”
“So,” Chyna’s fingers drummed on the counter, “you’re saying that it might be here in Lithuania? But I thought that Wiligut had passed it on to the Freemasons?”
“He did, but they must have hidden it somewhere. With all the mystery that surrounds them, only the Lord knows what other tricks they could have up their sleeves?” Tony sighed.
“Where do you think the bow is, then?”
“The information says it might be in the Trakai Island Castle,” Tony told her. “But I should warn you, I found this on an enthusiast’s website; I don’t know how much truth there is to it. But I still think you should look into it.”
Chyna thought hard for a moment. If the bow really was in Lithuania, it could explain the attacks on her and her team. Someone clearly did not want her to get to it; but then that would just be the biggest mystery for her to solve: who was trying to stop them and why?
“Okay, I will. Trakai Island, you said?”
“Yup, that’s the place. It’s been through a lot of renovations in the past few years, so you might be looking at a lot of red tape. I’ll try to get you in, though.”
“Thanks, Tony.” Chyna smiled into the phone.
Even that far away, Tony was doing all he could to help with her work.
“Be safe, Chyna,” he finally said, and she imagined him smiling as well.
She could not wait to get back home to him.
***
Chyna had no idea what to do next; where was Lana when she needed her? Tony’s suspicions and her own concerns about Mark were growing steadily, and she was having trouble figuring out how to go about this possible new discovery. A part of her didn’t want to act on anything unless she had solid proof, but the other part did not want to compromise the mission and her team’s lives. Everything that had happened to them since they had arrived in Lithuania had only exacerbated the condition, and Chyna knew that she could very well cost her entire team their lives if she did not act fast.
She limped back into the living room to find Emilijus all patched up and talking to Oscar and Sirita. Mark stood away from the group near one of the windows, looking outside and whispering into his phone, only serving to reinforce her earlier conclusions.
She had approached the group when Mark joined her, his blonde hair now clean of the smoke and grime from the fire. His eyes looked troubled.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Chyna replied. “Who was that you were talking to?”
“Thyri,” Mark replied. “I was just updating her on recent events.”
“Okay,” Chyna nodded, not sure if she believed a word he said.
She turned to the group, who were bent over the diary she had managed to save from the fire. Chyna grimaced. Clearly, she was completely off her game; she should have kept the diary to herself and not let Mark see it. If he really was a mole, then it was better to keep sources and clues away from him.
“What’s going on?” She sat down on the sofa, and her body screamed at her as every tired and sore muscle was flexed.
“We found something.”
Emilijus looked like he was trying to contain his excitement given the circumstances they had retrieved the diary in. Chyna motioned for him to go on.
“Well, it was all Mark, really. He’s a genius, I tell you.”
He praised Mark, who looked a little sheepish in the face of all the attention.
Of course he does; he has a façade to keep up, Chyna thought.
“What did you find?” Chyna insisted. In her periphery, she saw Mark look at her strangely, but paid him no mind.
“Well, there seemed to be some markings and symbols in the diary that you saved, Chyna. We figured them out to be page and paragraph numbers of jumbled entries in the diary and what we have found is simply fascinating! It says here that the Ivory Bow was taken by a member of the Illuminati. Can you believe it? The Illuminati!”
Chyna knew who the Illuminati were, of course, but she didn’t for one minute believe what Emilijus was saying could be true. Just like the Freemasons, The Illuminati were one of the most secret societies in the world, locked in a perpetual war with the Church. They had gained much prominence after the fourteenth century, when the field of science and logic had started gaining power on the back of various important discoveries and the church had resorted to punishing those who they believed ‘were on the path to sin.’
The Illuminati were famous for their love of science, arts and advanced knowledge, and many prominent personalities over the years had been rumored to be members of the group. Unlike the Freemasons, whose existence was validated and confirmed by various sources, the Illuminati had always been shrouded in a cover of mystery, blood and awe; and varied speculations about the Illuminati’s supposedly bloodthirsty and terrible nature. Many believed they could very well kill to get what they wanted. There had never been any credible sources in the world to prove that they really existed. Some said they dissolved many years ago after being obliterated by the Church; others believed that they were still going strong.
As an archaeologist, Chyna had never brushed aside their existence as a mere rumor, but she also did not have a shred of evidence to prove or disprove their existence and neither had it ever interested her to research the group. As Chyna watched Emilijus drone on about this new development, she couldn’t help but think that the allusion to the Illuminati in the diary was a false lead.
“Emilijus,” she interrupted him, “I know you want to believe it, and I’m sorry to tell you, but I don’t think that where this is leading us is correct.”
There was a dead silence in the group after that.
“Chyna?” Mark was the one to break it.
“Oh, come on! The Illuminati? How can this be possible? We are talking about a society whose very existence is a doubt. How can the bow be with an Illuminatus? It’s obviously a false lead.”
“But Chyna, we decoded it ourselves. It’s all in Ethan’s records,” Mark protested, but did not say anything further even though Chyna got the feeling that he wanted to.
“With all due respect, Mark, Emilijus, it is possible that Ethan might have been wrong. I mean, he was clearly an enthusiast who was obsessed with it.”
Chyna felt bad saying this, but she had never been one to mince words. That, and Mark’s presence was now exasperating her.
“Chyna!” Oscar protested, “This guy died saving his books! His books! Does he sound like a simple enthusiast?”
“Ethan Vitrak was a great historian, Chyna Stone. You will not berate a great friend of mine like that.” Emilijus joined him.
“I am not berating him!” Chyna retorted, “I just don’t think that the Illuminati is where we should be looking. It’s logic really, guys. Oscar, Sirita, back me up on this. Emilijus, you don’t know how we do things and Mark is still a rookie. We don’t jump to conclusions and we don’t get slap happy and waste time chasing down ghost theories; we look at the facts. The truth is, when it comes to this Illuminati theory, there are no facts to follow. Did any of your fancy decoded passages tell you what the next move was?”
Chyna stood so that she could get a better look at all of them. No one answered her question.
“You see, it’s probably just a false door. Whoever put it there knew that anyone who was too eager would end up spending a lot of time chasing down the theory and getting absolutely nowhere.”
“Well, then what do you suggest we do?” Mark crossed his arms and Chyna resisted the urge to slap him.
“I actually have a lead. While you were busy decoding, a little birdie told me that Christina might have actually come to Lithuania during her exile, it’s a
lso been suggested that she was here for quite a while. My source believes we might find the bow at Trakai Island Castle and also thinks that Wiligut might have known about this, but we can’t prove that because it’s not mentioned in the portions of his diary that we have,” Chyna explained her side of the story to them.
“Nonsense! The bow was taken by the Freemasons!” Emilijus huffed.
“They could have hidden it in the castle. For what it’s worth, I think we should go there. If Christina really stayed in Lithuania, the castle seems like a plausible starting point.” Chyna shrugged and limped toward the bathroom, “I’ll be ready to leave in ten minutes.”
***
Trakai Island Castle did not look like anything that Chyna Stone had expected it to. Where were the black, soot-stained, huge walls of ancient stone and gargoyles? Where were the moats and bridges? What she saw looked like something out of a Disney princess story.
The whole place was finished in shades of orange and gold, lending an air of regalia to it that Chyna had only seen in a few other places. Sparkling azure waters surrounded the castle, making it look like the perfect holiday destination for anyone who was looking for seclusion, luxury and beauty at the same time. At any moment, Chyna thought she would see Rapunzel letting down her hair for Mother Gothel, or Snow White opening the windows to sing to birds gathering on her windowsill in the rising sun. Yes, it really was that beautiful.
She only wished she had better company than she did at present. As they walked through the castle grounds and toward the Upper Palace, which was where Tony had hinted the bow might be located, Chyna could feel the cold aura that Mark radiated, along with the looks that Emilijus was currently giving her. She knew she had been disrespectful, but it had seemed like the only way to get their attention and as they walked through the castle, she made a mental note to apologize to both of them, especially Emilijus. She couldn’t help but think of Lana again; somehow Chyna knew that if she was with them on this investigation, things would never have gone so off track. In any case, she wasn’t there so regardless of what had already happened, it was time for Chyna to regain full control.
Found History was her company and on this mission, as with all the others before, it was her reputation on the line. At the end of the day, Emilijus was just a source and the others were her employees. They worked for her and that meant her job was to do everything in her power for them to succeed and do so safely and their job was to do what she told them to.
Even though it was almost the weekend, the castle seemed awfully quiet. There were only a few people around, and Chyna wondered whether that was because the weather was too hot for sightseeing. She saw a hat vendor lingering near the entrance and absentmindedly thought she would buy something from him before she left.
After asking for some directions, Chyna and the two men finally found themselves on the stairs that led to the Upper Castle. Chyna looked around carefully and shook her head in distaste at the thought of the castle having fallen into disrepair. This was a beautiful specimen of architecture that had been built in three phases, but had been almost completely disregarded after it had lost its importance as a military fort. What a shame!
They were now inside and almost close to the main part of the Upper Castle, where they had decided they would start looking. Chyna could have continued thinking about the castle, but a sudden metallic clank interrupted her. It sounded like a metal grate or door was being opened or closed somewhere nearby. Why was it suddenly so dark?
She did not get a minute more to think about it, as a bullet whizzed past her and hit the wall to her left, sending dust and chips of stone flying into the air. Adrenaline kicked in, and as she turned to see where it had come from, her hand reached inside her jacket. She drew the pistol just as she looked up and saw it.
The Swastika.
It was printed boldly on the back of the black jacket she saw ducking behind a wall for cover. So that’s why the castle had been virtually deserted: it was a trap. Damn it.
“Chyna!” Mark’s voice coincided with a flash that went off from the far left, and before she knew it, she was on the ground. They had just missed.
“It’s an ambush!” Mark shouted as he struggled to get up. “Come on! We need to get out of here!”
It was only a second after Mark had spoken those words that all hell broke loose. There were not just two or four bullets now—there was a barrage of gunfire coming from virtually every direction pinning them behind the set of columns that they used as a barricade. Damn it, they would never be able to escape at this point.
“Where’s Emilijus?!” Chyna shouted, as she ducked behind a pillar across the hall, trying her best to dodge the shots long enough to devise a plan.
“Right here!” She heard his voice from the left. “They’re neo-Nazis! They must have known we were coming here! Someone must have tipped them off!”
His words went off like a trigger inside Chyna’s head. All other emotions left her as she turned toward Mark, to see him fire back at no one in particular. Chyna couldn’t help but notice that the precision of the gunfire from his end was considerably worse than she knew he was capable of, or maybe it was only her mind playing tricks on her.
“We need to get—Ah!”
Chyna’s heart plummeted into her stomach when she heard Emilijus cry out. Looking over, she didn’t see him anywhere at eye level. That was when she looked down and saw him sprawled out on his back on the ground. He was clutching his chest and his body shook a little before it was completely still.
She didn’t need any better lighting to tell her that Emilijus Kuklys was gone.
“Chyna, come on! I found a way out!”
She felt an arm come around her wrist, and she had never felt more disgusted with Mark Gunnar than she did now. She didn’t move, but she knew Mark had seen Emilijus as well; he halted for a minute before he resumed trying to pull her down the corridor with full force.
“Chyna, let’s get out of here! Come on, he’s gone! There’s nothing that we can do for him now!” She felt him pull at her again, but this time she resisted. Mark lost his grip on her; he was too out of it to say or do anything but look at her.
“Pick him up.”
“What? I’ll get shot trying to get his body out as well. Come on!”
“I said, pick him up! I’ll hold them off.”
Chyna gave Mark a look that dared him to challenge her one more time. When he saw her expression, he immediately relented.
“Yes, boss.”
Chyna took Mark’s Glock and set it down between her knees. Expertly, she reloaded both pistols and nodded at him.
“On my count of three, I’ll get to those columns up there and hold them back with my fire while you get Emilijus over your shoulders and out of the hallway. When you’ve cleared the exit, I’ll join you. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Good. One… two… three! Go!”
Chyna stepped out from behind the pillars and ran to the next bank of columns and opened fire toward the archway that their attackers were firing from. She managed to easily keep them from even taking a look out to see what was happening in the hallway, while Mark carried their friends’ body out the other way.
“I’m clear!” he yelled and Chyna started to back up as she continued to rapidly fire her guns at the Nazis.
They made their way down to the ground floor of the castle as quickly as they could with Chyna watching their back the whole way. She started the engine as Mark hauled Emilijus’ body into the backseat and as they sped away from Trakai Island Castle, Chyna still didn’t know what exactly had just happened and why they had been attacked.
One thing she did know was that she was going to make Mark Gunnar pay.
***
There was a silence in the car as they drove back to Vilnius, broken only periodically by Mark ranting in the back about leaving Ethan’s book behind and mumbling about other things. Chyna’s mind was positively buzzing; it was loud enough in her own hea
d for her to ignore everything that he was saying.
Soon, the scenery faded, and Vilnius came into view. Chyna felt sick to her stomach. She wanted to pull over so she could vomit into the grass by the side of the road, but there was no way that she would let Mark see her in such a state of vulnerability. Tony’s words were swirling in her mind as she let her eyes go briefly to the rear view mirror to look at Mark’s face. She wondered what more he could be hiding behind his childish, innocent eyes and neat blond hair.
“What the hell?”
The change in Mark’s expression at something on the road made her look quickly back at what was happening in front of her. Was this the same town of Vilnius that she had left a few hours ago?
Gone were the peaceful cafes, the off white walls and the beautiful courtyards. What Chyna saw before her at that moment was a picture of complete pandemonium. People were running about with anything that could be termed as a weapon; sticks, guns and even poles. The shutters were down in most of the shops, and those who had them open already had their windows shattered and spread all over the road. The little café on the corner where they had first met up with Emilijus was up in flames.
And in the middle of it all was the picture of Ethan Vitrak.
His image was everywhere as far as Chyna could see. People had put his image on banners and posters and plastered them all over the city. Some were carrying out processions, screaming and chanting slogans in Lithuanian.
“These are the town’s Jews. They’re protesting,” Mark whispered. “They must have heard about the attack on Ethan, and now they think their lives are in danger. Shit, this could go south fast.”
Chyna sped the car up, meandering through different streets that were not so crowded. Shaken out of her mad reverie, she stared through the windshield at the scene outside as she drove, but at the same time she couldn’t help having an epiphany.
Vilnius was burning… because Mark might have leaked information. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out to see that it was Tony calling. She put the phone to her ear almost instantly.