Judgment Day (Templar Chronicles Book 5)

by Nassise, Joseph

  Cade knew that if he stayed where he was it would only be a matter of moments before he was seen. He had no idea what they would do once they spotted him, but he was certain that a public scene was not going to help his situation. He needed to get all three of them out of sight and then deal with the problem as quickly and quietly as possible.

  He got up from his seat and began walking away from the duo, keeping his pace steady and relaxed while surreptitiously looking around him as he went. He found what he was looking for a few moments later.

  Satisfied that all was in place for what he had in mind, Cade abruptly stopped walking, forcing those immediately behind him to bump into each other as they sought to avoid running him down. The unexpected commotion drew the attention of those following him and when Cade looked back over his shoulder he found the two men angling toward him, like sharks cutting through a school of minnows.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Cade waited to make eye contact with one of the men who were following him and then, when he had, he quickly crossed the hallway and pushed through the entrance to the Employees Only restroom that he’d chosen for the coming confrontation.

  It was a large restroom, as restrooms go, with sinks on one side and a row of six urinals followed by an equal numbers of stalls on the other. He got down on his hands and knees and looked beneath the row of stalls, noting that they were all empty. The sight made him grin; he’d gambled that the employee restroom would be far less frequented than the public one and his gamble had paid off. A little privacy was going to make what was to come much easier.

  Cade moved to the fourth stall and slipped inside. Closing the door behind him, he stepped up onto the toilet seat and then squatted down so that his head wouldn’t be visible over the top of the stall.

  He was just in time. He heard the door to the bathroom open and then close, followed by the sound of footsteps approaching. For a moment Cade wondered if it might just be a random employee, but then the door to the first stall was kicked in with a bang and he knew his pursuers had taken the bait.

  The second stall door went the way of the first and Cade carefully made note of the time that passed between the first and second doors being kicked in. When the third door followed right on schedule, he knew he had them.

  He counted it down in his head, then grabbed the side of the stall and lashed out with both legs simultaneously. The stall door slammed open and struck the man on the other side just as he raised his foot to kick it open, taking him completely by surprise. He flew over backward, striking his head on the sink behind him as he went down.

  Cade charged out of the stall, ready to continue the attack, only to find his opponent already on the floor unconscious.

  One down, he thought.

  A glance to his right showed the other man headed in Cade’s direction from where he’d been standing guarding the door. His opponent was younger, stronger, and quite possibly faster than he was, but the former Echo Team commander had the benefit of experience on his side. Never mind the inclination to end this as quickly as possible.

  He let the other man close the distance between them and then, at the very last second, dropped below the knife strike aimed at his throat, letting it pass harmlessly over his head as he fell to his knees directly in front of the other man.

  It was a move his opponent hadn’t anticipated and as a result it left him momentarily open to counter attack as his brain tried to catch up with what was going on in front of him.

  Those split seconds felt like all the time in the world to Cade. He drove his fist upward in a savage upper cut that started near the floor and ended right in the middle of the guy’s groin, twisting his fist sharply as the blow struck in order to deliver as much damage as possible.

  The man mewled like a wet kitten and folded over to crash to the floor next to Cade. A sharp blow to the temple to put him out of his misery and it was all over.

  The entire fight lasted less than a minute.

  Cade climbed to his feet and searched the two unconscious men. He took the money and IDs from their wallets, but left the wallets themselves to make it seem as though the two men had been robbed. He didn’t find any weapons, which was actually a relief; he wouldn’t have felt right leaving them behind but getting caught with them would have been even worse. This way, he didn’t have to worry about it.

  He dragged the unconscious men into the handicapped stall at the end of the row and he dumped them in the corner beside the toilet. He locked the stall door and then slipped out beneath it. The men would be immediately obvious if anyone bent over to look into the stall, but he was betting that wouldn’t happen for a little while at least. No one wanted to be caught looking under stalls in an airport restroom, not even the employees.

  There was a “Closed for Maintenance” sign standing near the door and he took that with him as he exited the restroom. He shut the door and stood the sign in front of it, then turned to leave...

  Only to find Riley standing there waiting for him.

  “I’m on your side,” Riley said quickly, holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender.

  Cade scowled. “Put your hands down, you idiot, before you attract attention!”

  He grabbed Riley’s upper arm and led him around the nearest corner.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Saving your ass,” Riley replied, “Again.”

  Cade glanced around, making sure no one was paying them any more attention than usual. “I have the situation perfectly under control.”

  “Oh, really? So tell me, how were you planning on getting through security? Or getting on a flight, for that matter?”

  Cade stared at him but didn’t say anything.

  “Right. Just as I thought,” Riley said. He reached into his pocket, took out an envelope, and handed it to Cade. “Here. Take this.”

  Cade opened it and poured the contents – a passport and ticket, complete with baggage claim stub – out into his hand.

  “Where’d you get these?” he asked, as he opened up the passport and stared at his own picture on the inside. The name on the document – Gerald Swanson – was an alias that he had used for Templar operations in the past.

  “Courtesy of the Seneschal. Seems the old man has a soft spot for you. He was the one who told me where Johannson was keeping you.”

  Cade nodded, then caught his friend’s gaze. “Look, I’m sorry I hit you. I wasn’t sure...”

  Riley waved it off, then pointed at the ticket. “That flight will get you into Heathrow. You’ll have to make arrangements to wherever you’re going from there. The less I know the better, so I’m not even going to ask.”

  “You heard about the charges then, I take it?”

  “Yes, and before you say anything I know that they’re bullshit. If you stick around to fight them, I’m confident that you’d win, especially with the Seneschal on your side. But something tells me that you aren’t going to do that.”

  “I can’t,” Cade said.

  “Figured you’d say that.”

  Cade shrugged. “The truth is, I don’t have a choice,” he said wearily. “Something’s coming; something really bad. I can feel it down in my very bones. If I don’t rescue Gabrielle soon, it’s going to be too late. I know it.”

  Riley shook his head. “What if it’s already too late, man? What then?”

  “I have to try. She’s always been there for me, each and every time. She helped us recover the Spear. She got us out of Eden. Hell, she even led us right to the Adversary on the Isle of Sorrows! How could I possibly forsake her now when she needs me the most?”

  “You can’t,” Riley said quietly. “I understand that now. I’m here, aren’t I?”

  “Yes, yes you are. And I appreciate that more than you know.”

  They were both silent for a moment, thinking about all that had happened to lead them to this point. Cade was suddenly overwhelmed with the sense that he would never seen his fr
iend again. Through all the time they’d known each other, through all the dangers they’d faced together, he’d never been struck with such a feeling before. He found the timing to be unnerving, to say the least, and he shook it off, not wanting the negativity to impact what was ahead of him. He needed his A game and couldn’t allow doubt to creep in.

  You’ll both be fine, he told himself.

  Riley broke the silence first.

  “Three of you walked into that bathroom and only one of you came out. My guess is those two idiots aren’t going to stay unconscious forever, so you’d best get going. And don’t forget to pick up your luggage; it seems you have a friend in the packing department.”

  “I owe you, man.”

  Echo’s current leader smiled. “That you do. And don’t think I won’t collect.”

  The two men embraced and then Cade walked off, headed for the security checkpoint and his flight to London.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The flight from Edinburgh to Heathrow was uneventful. Once in London, Cade was able to secure a ticket on a flight leaving for Venice just thirty minutes after the arrival of his first flight, limiting his time on the ground and thereby limiting his chances of being spotted by any of the Templar patrols that were sure to be roaming the airport. By the time he picked up the duffle bag that Riley had shipped as his luggage, the sun was just starting to slip below the horizon outside.

  Cade caught a cab to a small hotel he’d stayed in before along the Canal Della Guidecca. Along the way, he broke the diplomatic seals that allowed the bag to pass through customs unchecked and then unzipped it. Inside were the weapons that had been taken from him at Rosslyn, including his sword case, a fresh set of civilian clothes, and an envelope containing a bundle of one hundred dollar bills plus a few loose twenties.

  “Bless you, Riley,” Cade said beneath his breath with a smile. He pulled out a couple of hundreds and the twenties; he’d use the former to pay for the hotel and the latter to square things with the driver when they arrived.

  An hour later Cade stepped back out of the hotel having showered, shaved, and changed into the fresh set of clothes Riley had provided. He dumped the old clothes in the trash, but took the rest of his belongings with him. His plan was to get what he needed from the Forsaken One and head back to the States immediately. He was determined not to leave Gabrielle in the the Adversary’s hands.

  Of course, he had to find the Forsaken One first.

  With his pistol now in a shoulder holster hidden beneath his jacket jacket and his sword stashed in the duffle bag he was carrying, Cade set off down the street in the direction of the canal. There was a line of water taxis waiting at the water’s edge and he started with their operators, looking for one who would be willing to take him to the island of Povelgia.

  To a man, they refused.

  The first two operators laughed at him for even suggesting it. The third operator claimed that the island was haunted and that Cade was crazy for wanting to go there; no way would he set foot near the place and the same went for his boat. The fourth began cursing at him in Italian the moment he mentioned the island. By the time Cade reached the fifth captain – a short portly fellow with a goatee standing there with cell phone in hand and threatening to call the police - Cade knew it was time to move on.

  The situation repeated itself with the next two groups of operators, but at least he found a grizzled old fisherman willing to take him across the lagoon for five hundred dollars American. It was highway robbery, and the old coot knew it too, Cade could tell by the gleam in the man’s eyes, but he would have paid double to get to the island as soon as possible.

  As far as Cade was concerned, he was getting the good end of the deal.

  The old man took the cash, flipped through it with his thumb, and then grunted in satisfaction. He gestured for Cade to take a seat in the prow of the boat and then fired up the engine with one quick yank on the starter cord. The outboard came to life with a growl like that of a wounded animal and for a moment Cade wondered if he’d made the right choice, but the fisherman’s deft hand at the wheel quickly dispelled the notion.

  The night was cool enough that Cade was thankful for the jacket he’d pulled on to hide his shoulder holster. The moon was full, providing plenty of light to steer by, but the confident way the old man handled the tiller told Cade that he could probably have maneuvered every inch of this lagoon while blindfolded.

  It was less than a half-mile from Venice to Poveglia, so the trip was over before it felt like it had even begun. As they approached the island from the north, Cade could see the bell tower rising up over the trees, standing watch some said, over cursed ground. There was something unusual looking about the tower and as they drew closer Cade could finally make out what it was; the arched windows on each side of the tower belfry had been bricked shut.

  It was from those very windows that the hospital’s chief surgeon had fallen to his death. Cade thought again about the rumors surrounding the incident; about the claims that the ghosts of the dead had pushed him out of one of those windows for his transgressions against the living.

  Unlike most people, Cade was well aware of just how much the supernatural world intruded on the living one. Your average skeptic might dismiss the idea of ghosts as nothing more than nonsense, but Cade knew better. He knew how hungry the dead could be. Not only did he consider the theory possible, but if asked he would have said he thought it highly likely, in fact.

  After all, he knew from personal experience just how unrelenting the dead could be when you pissed them off.

  Cade was expecting the fisherman to take the boat right into shore, but as they came within a hundred yards, he turned west and began running parallel with the shoreline.

  “Hey,” Cade shouted, from where he stood in the prow. “What’s wrong with right there?” he asked, pointing.

  The fisherman shook his head fervently and shouted back in return. It was hard to hear over the growl of the motor, and Cade’s Italian was rusty, but he thought the old man said something about the campo peste.

  Plague field.

  It hit him in the next moment, a wave of malevolence that washed out across the water from the shoreline in a thick, cloying haze that made his head pound and his guts churn. He had the sense that a thousand individuals had suddenly turned and glared in his direction and he knew immediately why the locals avoided the place at all costs.

  He glanced across at the tangled growth of vegetation stretching out from the shoreline over that part of the island and could imagine the bones of the dead lying there in the plague pit just beneath the soil in a tangled pile sixty, seventy, maybe even eighty feet deep. He knew that if he turned on his Sight he’d be able to see the ghosts of the dead, lined up along that shoreline, watching them as they motored on past.

  Cade looked away, before he would be tempted to do so.

  The fisherman took them around the west side of the island, to where a canal gave access to a crumbling old dock that stood along the water’s edge near the back of one of the abandoned hospital buildings. The building was covered in scaffolding, but Cade knew that this was more to keep the bricks from injuring anyone breaking the quarantine that was on the island than it was a sign of reconstruction.

  Cade could see the church tower rising up behind the building in the moonlight and he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away as the fisherman brought the boat to a gentle stop beside a decaying set of steps that came down to the water. Something about the tower just drew him to it.

  The old man pointed at the steps and said, “Alba.”

  Sunrise.

  “You’ll meet me here at sunrise?” Cade asked, just to be certain he understood.

  The old man nodded.

  “Good enough.” Cade grabbed his bag and stepped out of the boat.

  The moment he did so a bell rang out in the night air, crisp and clear and loud enough to be heard all the way across the island.

&n
bsp; It’s the dead welcoming their own.

  Cade shivered. The bell had been removed from the tower many years before.

  Apparently the fisherman felt it as well, for a look of fear crossed his face at the sound and he wasted no time in goosing the throttle and getting the hell out of there as fast as the boat would carry him.

  Cade found himself wondering if he’d have a ride in the morning or not.

  Worry about that later. You have to find the Forsaken One.

  He glanced toward the sealed bell tower. Somehow he didn’t think that was going to be as big a problem as he’d originally thought.

  Cade knelt down, opened his duffle bag, and removed his sword. He slipped into the harness attached to the scabbard and adjusted it so that the sword rode on his back with the hilt sticking up just over his right shoulder. It was his preferred carry position and made it easy for him to draw. His pistol, an HK Mark 25, already rode in a shoulder holster under his left arm.

  Satisfied, he headed out, leaving his bag of clothes and spare cash sitting there on the dock behind him. Somehow, he didn’t think anyone was going to bother it.

  He decided to cut through the building in order to reach the bell tower as quickly as possible and soon discovered that nature had long since started to reclaim its territory. Vines and creepers grew throughout the halls and in through holes in the walls and roof. Water stains and the smell of mold were prominent, but here and there he could see evidence – a section of mosaic tile on the floor, a scrap of colored paint on the walls - of what the place must have looked like back in its heyday.

  Here and there he found an abandoned piece of equipment, most of which were so covered by vines and creepers that it was often hard for him to recognize them for what they actually were. The same held true for the stark, institutional pieces of furniture he found in some of the rooms; straight-backed steel chairs, bed frames from which the mattresses had long since been stolen or rotted away.