The Granite Key (Arkana Mysteries)

by N. S. Wikarski

  “That’s right,” Erik persisted. “You’ve got no business being part of this world. You’ve never been trained for it. And because you don’t know what you’re doing, I end up risking my neck trying to keep you safe!”

  Cassie was speechless. How could he blame her for this mess? It was clearly his fault for being caught off guard.

  “You know what?” she challenged. “I am fed up with your attitude. You need to get over the inexperience of me because it’s seriously messing up your job performance. This whole trip you’ve been pouting that you had to babysit the greenhorns. You were so busy feeling sorry for yourself that you got sloppy and let your guard down.”

  Erik sent Cassie a killing look. Before he could follow it with a killing retort, Griffin rushed to smooth things over. “Really, I think we can continue this lively and interesting discussion once we’re well away from this place. Our principal concern at the moment ought to be escape.”

  Erik and Cassie stared ferociously at one another for several more seconds before the Security Coordinator broke eye contact. “I’ll go first,” he repeated. “Hand me my pack once I’m outside.”

  Chapter 42 – Site Unseen

  Erik climbed to the top of the rock pile. Holding his pistol, he poked his head through the gap in the dome. Apparently feeling that it was safe, he squeezed himself through the narrow opening and disappeared.

  “All clear,” he called down. “Send Cassie up next with my pack.”

  The girl didn’t argue. She wanted to get out of the tomb without further delay. She reached for Erik’s pack but sank under the weight of it. It was unexpectedly heavy. She wondered to herself if he might have packed a rocket launcher that he forgot to tell them about. Griffin helped her to hoist it up ahead of her through the opening in the rock.

  She had no trouble squeezing herself through the gap since she was the smallest of the three. When the cool dawn air hit her face, she almost sobbed with relief. Realizing that Erik was standing nearby, she blinked back the tears. This wasn’t something she wanted him to see. Especially not after what he had just said. She wasn’t going to give him any more reason to believe that she was the weak link.

  Griffin followed a few minutes later. “Well, that was bracing, wasn’t it?” he joked.

  Neither of his companions laughed.

  Cassie noticed the sky turning a lighter shade of grey. Twilight and dawn looked oddly the same. At least they could see everything in their immediate vicinity. Nobody else was around.

  “I don’t suppose we need these any more.” Griffin switched off his flashlight.

  Cassie realized her own was still on. She flicked it off absently.

  “We’ll have to cover this up,” Erik observed.

  “What?” Cassie didn’t think she’d heard him right. “We just spent hours carving out a hole in this dome and now you want to cover it up?”

  “We don’t know if our buddy the cowboy is going to circle back here,” the Security Coordinator cautioned. “If he thinks we got out, he’s going to try to track us down.”

  “Oh.” It hadn’t occurred to Cassie that Leroy might come back to make sure the job was finished.

  “Let him think we’re still inside.”

  “That makes sense.” Griffin looked around for something to camouflage the hole in the dome. “Luckily, the gap is just at ground level so it shouldn’t be too hard to disguise.”

  “We can pile some rocks against the spot,” Erik suggested. “Unless he’s looking pretty close, he won’t notice.”

  Cassie sighed at the thought of moving more boulders but, as she sternly reminded herself, she had no reason to complain. It was a miracle that they were alive at all.

  The trio gathered stones and brush and in a short time they had effectively camouflaged the gap in the dome.

  Cassie gazed at their handiwork. “I think that hole in the roof is going to collapse eventually.”

  “Eventually won’t matter,” Erik countered. “If Hunt circles back here it’s going to be in the next few days.”

  “Are we ready to quit this dismal spot?” Griffin asked.

  “Fine by me,” Erik agreed.

  “No,” Cassie blurted out, a troubling thought beginning to form.

  “Huh?” the Security Coordinator gave her a surprised look.

  “Guys, we have to go back to the entrance to the tomb.”

  “What?” Griffin sounded shocked.

  “I think we’re missing something. I think you two dragged me out of my vision too soon.”

  Erik rolled his eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  Cassie’s tone was serious. “No, I’m not kidding. I feel like there was something more I was supposed to see.”

  The Security Coordinator hoisted his pack onto his back and started down the trail. “I’m not hanging around here just because you’ve got a hunch. For all we know, the cowboy and his buddy could be on their way back here right now.”

  Cassie ran down the slope after him and grabbed him by the arm. She spun him around to face her. “Don’t you dare brush me off! This is important, damn it! All my life I’ve been moved around like a pawn on somebody else’s chessboard. First by my parents and then by my sister. Just a dumb kid who needs to be protected. A little girl who doesn’t know anything and shouldn’t know anything.”

  “You’re right so far,” Erik concurred.

  Griffin hurried down the hill after them, ready to separate the two if necessary.

  “Maybe I’m not a walking search engine like Griffin or James Bond Junior like you but I’m a part of this team for a reason. I’m the Pythia! My hunches matter and right now they’re screaming in my head that we need to go back to that boulder and you need to let me finish doing my damn job!” She glared at him defiantly.

  Griffin looked worriedly from one to the other.

  Erik stared at Cassie for a long moment, as if he were seeing her for the first time. Then, a slight smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. “OK, toots. Go for it!”

  “My name’s not toots,” she muttered. Turning in the opposite direction, she marched back to the top of the dromos where the boulder stood waiting. She looked down briefly at the trench. As Griffin had surmised, it was buried under a pile of rock. The retaining wall had collapsed completely. They would never have gotten out through the stomion. The sight made her shudder inwardly.

  Transferring her attention to the boulder, she could see it more easily in the gathering light. The two men caught up with her by this time. She sat down in front of the rock and looked up at them.

  “Now, you both stand back. Don’t touch me until I come out of it on my own, OK?” Her tone didn’t brook argument.

  The men looked at one another. Griffin nodded slowly.

  Erik shrugged. “Fine.”

  She took her jacket off and folded it up like a pillow. Placing it behind her neck, she leaned her head back against the smooth face of the boulder and closed her eyes.

  Once again she felt the strange sensation of the sky shifting from dawn to noon. The same spot but a different time of day. She was still the stone carver with the sinewy arms but she was working on a different section of the boulder. Much further down than before. She gazed up and saw the lily freshly carved at the top. She saw the two lines of symbols which Griffin had easily translated. She saw the deep groove in the middle of the boulder and the half symbols carved below it. But the stone cutter wasn’t working on any of that.

  Her eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright.

  “What?” both men asked simultaneously.

  Cassie smiled broadly. “I was right. There was something else. There’s another line of code.”

  “Where?” the Security Coordinator challenged. “I don’t see anything.”

  Cassie was on her hands and knees in front of the boulder. “That’s because it’s under this.” She started clawing at a heavy flat rock that had been placed precisely at the base of the boulder and in front of it. It seemed to hav
e been cut evenly on one end so that it fitted flush up against the larger stone.

  She turned to face her companions. “You guys up to some more digging? We need to move this flat rock out of the way.”

  Erik wordlessly removed his jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeves. Griffin followed suit.

  It took several minutes to dig out enough of the dirt around the base of the rock to allow it to move.

  They strained and pushed and pulled and eventually were able to drag it several inches away from the front of the boulder.

  Griffin inspected the spot, scraping the soil away from the face of the rock. There were dirt-filled carvings at its base. As the girl had said, another line of symbols from the key.

  “Cassie, I could kiss you!” Griffin exclaimed.

  “What about you?” she asked Erik archly.

  “Don’t press your luck,” he said, though he was grinning when he said it. Looking around the hillside in the early morning light, he added, “Maybe we should translate this at the hotel. I don’t like the idea of hanging around here any longer than we have to.”

  “Agreed,” Griffin said readily. “Just let me copy down these symbols and we can be on our way.”

  “Of course, you’ll have to move the flat rock back in place,” Cassie suggested sweetly.

  The two men looked at her in bewilderment.

  “Same logic applies, guys. You wanted to cover that hole in the dome in case Leroy and his sidekick came back. Do you really want to leave that rock over to the side so they can see the line of code they’re missing?”

  Griffin and Erik groaned but neither one contradicted her.

  For once Cassie got the last word.

  Chapter 43 – In The Name Of The Father

  When Daniel and Leroy returned to Chicago, a car was waiting at the airport to bring them back to the compound. They were to be taken to see the Diviner immediately. Daniel experienced nothing but dread at the thought of the interview. He felt as if he had aged several years during the week he had spent in Greece. In contrast, Hunt seemed elated, even jaunty, at the prospect of giving a full report.

  As they approached the compound, the car paused briefly at the wrought-iron gates with their Chi-Ro cross insignia. In days gone by, Daniel had always felt a sense of relief every time he crossed that threshold. It had always meant that he was returning to a comforting and familiar world. A world in which right and wrong were clearly defined. Obedience meant salvation. Now his only emotion was dismay. The Fallen Lands had proven to be far less simple than he imagined them to be. Evil was not something that the compound gates could keep outside.

  The two men silently entered the main house and were escorted into Abraham Metcalf’s office. When they were announced, the old man was standing at the window, hands clasped behind his back. He turned to face them with a feverish look.

  “Well?” he demanded without preamble. “What do you have to tell me?”

  “Lots of things, chief,” Hunt drawled. “Depends on what you want to hear first.”

  Metcalf had obviously exhausted his limited supply of patience waiting for them to arrive. Without further comment to Hunt, he turned his attention to Daniel. “What did you find?”

  Whenever his father fixed him with that intense stare, Daniel found it hard not to stutter. He took a deep breath before commencing. “We found the coded message on a b…boulder in the mountains of Crete.”

  “Excellent!” Metcalf gave a rare smile. “What did it say?”

  Mechanically, Daniel recited, “You will find the first of five you seek, when the soul of the lady rises with the sun, at the home of the Mountain Mother.”

  To Daniel’s surprise, his father didn’t fall into a fit over the message.

  “Five, is it?” Metcalf asked, musing to himself. “I had no idea they would be hidden separately.”

  Without waiting to be invited, Leroy threw himself into one of the visitor chairs in front of the old man’s desk. He fanned himself with his hat. Metcalf and Daniel remained standing.

  Abraham continued, “No matter. We will recover them all. Since you were able to find the message, the Lord surely intervened on your behalf. It is a sign.”

  “We had a little help,” interjected Hunt.

  Metcalf’s bushy eyebrows shot up. He scowled at Leroy. “What do you mean? Speak plainly!”

  Hunt wasn’t about to allow himself to be bullied. He looked up at his employer with a lazy smile. “Well sir, we were havin’ a rough go of it in Greece when one of your local boys had a stroke of luck. Turns out some other folks was lookin’ for that same message.”

  “What!” Metcalf thundered.

  Daniel jumped slightly, struggling to resist the urge to run from the room.

  Leroy continued unflustered. “Yup, like I said, one of your boys was out scoutin’ at some old ruin when he come across this other bunch who was talkin’ about the granite key and what all else I can’t remember.”

  “Who were they?” Metcalf leaned over Leroy’s chair.

  “You’ll never guess,” Leroy said coyly.

  “I don’t intend to,” Metcalf countered icily. “I repeat, who were they?”

  “One of ‘em was the little sis of that antique lady.”

  Metcalf drew himself up and folded his arms across his chest, trying to assimilate the information. “You mean her younger sister? Why, she was barely more than a child. A weak and fallible daughter of Eve. What could she have to do with the matter?”

  “A whole lot, from the looks of things,” Leroy replied. “She had a couple of fellas helpin’ her out. Fact is, they got to the rock before we did.”

  Daniel glanced nervously at his father. Metcalf’s complexion was turning a mottled shade of fuschia.

  “Daniel, explain to me how it is possible that an ignorant Fallen girl and her accomplices could have found the message before you did?” The tone of the question was unmistakably menacing.

  While Daniel attempted to frame a response, Leroy interposed. “It don’t matter how they got there first. We’re the ones who got the intel, chief.” Leroy looked particularly pleased with himself. “No need to fuss about them folks. They met with a little accident.”

  Daniel was appalled. He couldn’t get the image out of his head—Hunt taking aim to execute three innocent people, Fallen though they were. It was no accident.

  “Explain yourself!” Metcalf barked.

  “Well sir, it was like this.” Leroy warmed to his tale. “We snuck up on ‘em while they was translatin’ that key gizmo. Heard everything they was sayin’. When they was through I asked ‘em real polite to crawl back in the tomb they was inspectin’ so’s I could tie up some loose ends.”

  “You shot them.” Metcalf’s voice was matter-of-fact.

  “I would of done but I got a little help out of the blue.” Hunt chuckled at the recollection and slapped his knee. “Man, I tell you what, I couldn’t of planned it better if I tried.”

  Abraham gazed at him in perplexity.

  Daniel rushed to explain. “There was an earthquake. Boulders fell over the entrance to the tomb and the people…” he paused, unable to continue.

  “Sealed inside nice and neat,” Leroy completed the thought.

  “You’re sure they’re dead?” The question sounded businesslike.

  Daniel couldn’t comprehend his father’s attitude. Three people had died in a horrible accident, probably a lingering death from suffocation and the Diviner showed no more concern than if Leroy had reported stepping on an ant colony.

  “Yup, I’m sure. Like I told you, Mr. Metcalf, I take proper pride in my work. I always finish what I start. Me and your boy went back the next day to make sure they was shut up tight.”

  Trying to ignore the sense of despair creeping over him, Daniel added, “The entrance to the tomb was completely blocked after the earthquake. No one could have gotten out of there alive.”

  The three men were silent for a few seconds, each lost in his own thoughts.

/>   Finally Metcalf broke the reverie. “Very good,” he said approvingly.

  Daniel felt dizzy from the shock. He couldn’t believe the words that had just issued from his father’s lips. Tentatively, he said, “Father, I know they were Fallen but still—”

  “They were a threat,” Metcalf cut him off. “I believe Mr. Hunt acted appropriately. Just as Holy Scripture says in Joshua 10: ‘He left no survivor, destroying everything that drew breath, as the Lord the God of Israel had commanded.’”

  It was only with great difficulty that Daniel suppressed the look of disgust spreading across his face. He couldn’t believe that his father would actually quote scripture to justify Hunt’s atrocity.

  Abraham continued. “Because of Mr. Hunt’s quick thinking, our mission is no longer in jeopardy.” The old man paused as another thought struck him. “Do you think they had any other accomplices?”

  Leroy shrugged. “If they did, the trail’s gone cold. The only folks who knew where to look for them relics can’t tell a soul what they found out. Anybody else who was workin’ with ‘em is plumb out of luck. And if they ever do show up…” Leroy mimed firing a gun, “I’ll pick ‘em off as we go along.”

  Metcalf nodded. “I believe there is no immediate danger to compromise your expedition. Very good, Mr. Hunt, very good.”

  “I aim to please, sir.” Leroy gave a mock salute.

  Metcalf transferred his attention to his son. “We’ll need to plan the next step of your journey.”

  Daniel’s heart sank. He had been naïve enough to assume his father would let him scuttle away from this quest. Almost mechanically, he replied, “I need to spend a few weeks gathering more information. I believe the first relic is on Crete but there is more I need to understand about this reference to the Mountain Mother.”

  Metcalf nodded. “The entire resources of the brotherhood are at your disposal. You will meet with me every day to keep me apprised of your progress.”

  The old man walked toward the door, signaling that the interview was at an end. “Mr. Hunt, I trust you will be available for the next segment of this mission?”