Razk heard the disrespect in Santo’s voice but understood the logic. There was no clear rebuttal so none was offered. Understanding the finality of the decision, with nothing more to say, Santo stood as did Razk. Santo offered a small olive branch, a ray of hope saying,
“At any rate Commander, perhaps all is not lost yet. We are still working to disarm the satellite. However, just in case, why don’t you come away with me now?”
Razk shook his head and slowly replied,
“Thank you but no. Although I am not ordained, simply a laic of the church, I still possess a strong faith. I cannot believe that God would allow the destruction of this holy place.”
Santo, not a champion of biblical history nevertheless presented a strong argument for Razk joining him.
“Praying will not help here Commander. There were probably many priests saying the same thing when the Romans destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem in revenge for a Jewish revolt.”
Razk remained strong in his decision to stay, smiled and said,
“That was a Jewish thing. This is a Catholic thing. Besides, there is a bit of a kink in my faith. I also strongly believe one should be pragmatic. If God will not protect me, then I will protect myself. There are many secrets behind these walls and I know of one that will protect me.”
Recognizing an unwinnable argument, Santo accepted the decline of his offer. He did however offer some prudent military advice.
“Perhaps with only a few hours to go before God makes a decision to save this holy ground or not you should consider evacuating all those not held prisoner by the threat. You know, just in case.”
Razk replied,
“As I said Captain, I am also realistic. Your suggestion is already in effect. Since this morning, there has been a steady exodus of all those permitted to leave as well as a shutdown of all nonessential services.”
As Santo turned to leave, Razk stood stunned by a sudden realization. He called Santo back and with sincerity said,
“It has just come to me that an old enemy of the Vatican has now become a friend. Regardless of the outcome Captain, I thank you and your people for your efforts to save the faith as well as the Vatican.”
Santo said,
“All is not lost yet.”
“True and regardless, I will now forever call your House of the Nazarene a friend in need.”
For the first time in their perilous relationship, the two shook hands.
Chapter 41
Wearing a simple pantsuit and sipping an 1895 Chateau Lafite, the Duchess stood at the massive glass entrance to her fortress observing Gleb’s yacht drop anchor far below the base of the Volcano. Niko, forever sitting at his computer put his snack aside and said,
“I can’t scan the interior but from what I can detect, the ship has concealed armaments on deck.”
Her reply was nonchalant.
“They are animals. I expected no less.”
On board the yacht, Gleb was on deck holding tight to his Russkiy Toy dog and looking high up at the volcano precipice. The Captain approached with a report.
“With the swirling wind, this is as close as I can get you.”
Still eyeing the fortress, wishing he had one like that, Gleb responded,
“It is close enough. Lower the lifeboat and gather the boarding party.”
The lifeboat was a luxurious 21-foot Sea Ray Sundancer stolen from a marina somewhere in England. After five men boarded, Gleb turned to the Captain and handed him the dog. Recognizing that the Captain was surprised to be put in charge of his pride and joy, Gleb explained,
“The Duchess shoots dogs.”
He then turned to venture down the precarious gangplank and onto the Sundancer.
From high above, the Duchess observed the lifeboat pull away from the yacht and approach the base of the cliff. Niko tossed an empty candy wrapper into a pile of others, licked his fingers, and yelled over to the Duchess.
“There are six and I’m detecting that each is armed.”
Unfazed, she watched as the boat docked at the base of the precipice and six men in single file started their arduous trek up steep steps cut into cliff wall. She turned to Niko and commanded,
“Open the window.”
As the great glass pane lifted, a slight sea breeze invaded her domain.
Gleb and his five men cautiously entered the cavern. Ever alert for treachery and deceit they suspiciously scanned the surroundings. Gleb commented,
“Nice little dacha I suppose.”
The Duchess caught the sarcasm and responded in kind,
“Well, it’s not an ice covered village with frozen toilets near the North Pole but it will do for now.”
Recognizing the slight, Gleb retaliated,
“What will your house look like when you are finished with all this?”
After a sip of wine she coyly replied,
“My future house will be the world.”
The three female servants stood to the side ready to serve entrées. Gleb, more accustomed to beautiful women catering to his every need, noticed their frumpy appearance and made a rude comment.
“Do you not have beautiful women on this island?”
Looking him square in the eyes, she snapped,
“You are a pig.”
He bellowed and asked,
“Does this cave at least have Vodka?”
With trays, the frightened women then obeyed orders and mingled with the soldiers offering glasses of Vodka. However, every man refused the diminutive glasses and went directly to the table where the bottles were. Vodka was then guzzled like water. Gleb demanded,
“What is the purpose of dragging me away from a great party at Odessa?”
Now sitting on the couch and inviting him to join her, she said,
“Because we have business to discuss and I’m certainly not going back to that igloo you call a palace.”
As he sat, she noticed the pistol in his belt. With a deliberate effort to sound casual, she said,
“You don’t need to be armed here. I threaten with gold, not weapons.”
Undeterred, he uttered a philosophy of his own.
“We all control in different ways I suppose.”
Apparently one of the five soldiers did not share Gleb’s preference in women. His uncouth advances were far too intrusive for the one he was trying to impress, so she quickly backed away. Gleb, ever the businessman asked,
“So what business shall we discuss?”
She got right to the point.
“For the next phase of my plan I need boots on the ground.”
“How many men are you talking about?”
“All you have and more.”
The winged Euros he saw flying away when told that his men had failed to kill a baby were now migrating back to him. There was a touch of greed in his tone.
“Right now I can give you seventy-five of my best men.”
She quickly snapped,
“Not enough. I am prepared to transfer a 150 million Euros into your account for a small army.”
She looked across the room and yelled to Niko,
“Prepare the money transfer.”
Gleb got up, grabbed a bottle of vodka off the table and walked over to Niko’s desk. He saw the money amount on the monitor and transfer codes were ready to be entered on his approval of the contract. Gleb looked back at the Duchess who was projecting a queen like smirk and then snapped back to the monitor. She sweetened the pot.
“I’ll double it for double the amount of men.”
Before she could change her mind, Gleb quickly leaned over and pressed the ‘send’ key.
Chapter 42
While flying back to the Three Sisters from his talk with Razk, Santo shook his head at the pious passion of old men. His military zeal would never accept such a fragrant loss of life. The term ‘sacrifice’, at least for him had never been a necessity of military combat. ‘Live to fight another day’ seemed more logical. As he entered the canyon approaching the
cave of the Three Sisters, the term ‘stubborn old men’ came to mind.
Entering the cavern, he noticed a hive of activity around the other D-wings. The second he set down, a crew approached with armaments to be attached to the underbelly. As he walked up to Waldorf he said,
“I gather you have located the Duchess.”
“I think we have. The D-wing I sent over for Intel has reported in.”
Waldorf then activated a recording chip and Santo heard,
“This is the location for sure. The crater is filled with aerials, solar panels and I see a very antiquated D-wing sitting on a high ledge.”
There was a military tone in Santo’s voice.
“Good. Let me get into combat gear and I will to join you.” Walking toward his room, Santo noticed that Jessika was already dressed in army fatigues. He stopped and asked Waldorf,
“Are we so short on personnel that we have to use computer technicians?”
Anticipating the objection, Waldorf had an answer ready.
“She was the one who suggested that the three glass pieces need to be placed next to a stepdown interphase computer that your mysterious benefactor suggested the Duchess must have for the shutdown program to work. We need her expertise on this mission.”
It was something he had not considered. Agreeing, he again looked at her and commented,
“She looks confident.”
Waldorf proudly said,
“She is a member of the House of the Nazarene.”
Santo looked at the cave and then back to Waldorf.
“Not much of a House anymore is it.”
Walking away, he added,
“Very well, make sure she has a side arm.”
Maria was already in the apartment struggling to get into her fatigues when Santo entered. He did not like what he saw. Using his best military authority, he commanded,
“It’s too dangerous, you are not going.”
She snapped him such a stern icy glare that it stopped him dead in his tracks. Saying nothing, she then continued struggling into the outfit. Remembering that his philosophy was ‘live to fight another day’, he wisely added,
“Okay, but this is an attack into hostile territory. You have to promise to obey orders this time.”
As she struggled with her zipper, she offered an unimpressive reply.
“Yeah, sure.”
As Santo started to get ready, she zipped up her jacket and asked,
“How did things go at the Vatican?”
“It looks bad. Apparently they are willing to become martyrs for the sake of the faith.”
Stunned Maria said,
“You mean they would rather die than give up secrets of the faith?”
Santo reply was nonchalant.
“It looks that way.”
Her brisk comment bordered on blasphemy.
“Well that’s just stupid.”
Five D-wings were now flying in formation high over Africa toward the South Atlantic Ocean. As expected, Maria was teamed with Santo and Jessika was in Waldorf’s D-wing. The other three teams were part of the House of the Nazarene Security who survived the destruction and came to the Three Sisters the next day. They were all well versed in military assault tactics.
One hundred miles from the target, Waldorf set the attack plan into motion by communicating to all,
“Prepare approach formation.”
While they were skimming over the waves, suddenly all five dove into the ocean to disappear underwater. At a depth of fifty feet, at the same high rate of speed, they approached the island.
Waldorf called the advance scout.
“Intel report.”
All five D-wings heard an instant report from the one hovering over the crater.
“There is a heavily armed Russian yacht anchored on your approach side. Recommend taking that out first. Just minutes ago, I spotted six armed men enter the cavern.”
Waldorf responded,
“Very well. Remain cloaked and maintain radar avoidance. We will be in attack position within minutes.”
***
As Niko watched the acceptance of the codes and the money transferring, he noticed a glitch on his other monitor. Curious, his fingers blurred over the keyboard. Gleb, with eyes glued to a fortune transferring to his private account was astute enough to notice that Niko seemed very concerned about something. He asked
“What’s the matter? Is something wrong with the transfer?”
With fingers still a blur he replied,
“No. It’s all good. I’m just getting unexplained energy spikes.”
Hearing the concern, the Duchess approached and looked at the monitor. Seeing the anomaly, she cast a discerning eye to Gleb and harshly asked,
“Are you trying to hack into my system from your ship?”
It was a mocked reply.
“I wish I could.”
Looking for other reasons, she turned her wrath to Niko and snapped,
“That’s a glitch in the shield harmonics isn’t it?”
With full attention to the glitch, there was frustration in his reply.
“Yes, but I am not picking up a proximity approach.”
“Could it be radiation interference?”
“No, it’s the wrong signature for that. I’m sure it’s just a hiccup. Everything will be okay in a minute.”
Because Gleb’s only concern was the money transfer, he paid little attention to what was happening outside. The five Russian soldiers were busy pouring Vodka down their throats while making a fool of themselves with the women. They should have been paying close attention to the last moments of their lives.
***
The Captain of the yacht had strict orders not to put the damn dog down. He was edgy because his crew was snickering at him. Apparently he thought a man of such prestige should not be holding a damn dog. While pacing back and forth, something was troubling him. With salt in the veins, an old sea dog can feel danger. Apparently, so can a dog. It was struggling to escape a tight grip when it happened. Although it was a calm sea, a mysterious wave suddenly crashed into the side of the ship causing a violent roll. When the Captain lost his balance, the dog took advantage, broke free and scampered away. A huge wave crashed onto the deck washing some of the crew overboard.
Soaking wet, the Captain was desperately clinging to a railing when his startled eyes saw it. From the torrent of water shooting high out of the sea appeared five mysterious metallic eyes peering at him. Panic, fuelled by superstition and too many tales of monsters in the sea made him see the Kraken, a giant squid of Norwegian folklore raising high to swallow his ship. With water cascading off the Kraken, bolts of lightning shot out of all five eyes. With immaculate precision, both concealed 40mm guns and the lethal 50-caliber machine turret exploded.
With the ship neutralized, Santo ordered a cease-fire. He directed one D-wing to join the recognisance D-wing in the crater to help guard the back door. He then ordered Waldorf and Jessika to take up a defensive position outside while the rest attacked the cavern. Waldorf was not a happy soldier. Jessika was sitting beside him and saw his frown and look of a defeated soldier. She had heard Santo and Waldorf arguing back at the Base about a handicap that would restrict proper function on the battlefield. Because Santo would not allow him to join the attack, he reluctantly accepted the trivial job of waiting for the battle to finish before bringing Jessika into the cave.
***
Inside the cave, one of Gleb’s soldiers noticed something strange on the other side of the huge glass wall looking out into the vastness of the ocean. Not sure what it was, he walked over and looked down just in time to see the ship under attack. He yelled a warning to Gleb who immediately snapped his attention to the Duchess. The fact that she looked equally shocked did not deter his accusing glare of treachery.
In one quick motion, he snapped the gun out of his belt and pointed it at her head. Just as he was about to extract vengeance on the wrong person, the glass door violently exploded in
shards of glass. Distracted by the explosion, he neglected to pull the trigger. Recognizing the danger, she took advantage and bolted for the back of the cave. As the attacking three D-wings swooped into the cave the Russian’s response was to fire as many bullets at them as possible. However, when realizing that bullets were simply bouncing off their targets, fear took hold.
As Santo set his D-wing down he turned to Maria and demanded,
“Stay put this time.”
She was so shocked at his wild gaze and sudden severity of the command that she froze and mechanically nodded her compliance. Of the attacking force, Santo was the first to jump out of a D-wing and return fire. One Russian still firing at the other D-wings fell to Santo’s kill shot. The other canopies opened and a melee of shots echoed through the cave. Within seconds, five Russians were dead and one Nazarene soldier was shot in the leg.
The lone survivor was Gleb standing at the edge of the cave entrance holding Maria tight to his body and pressing a gun at her temple. Santo was about to call Waldorf to bring Jessika in when he noticed the troubled expression on one of his soldiers. Curious, he turned to see Gleb and his hostage. Maria, filled with defeat humbly said,
“I’m sorry Santo. He raced up and pulled me out of the D-wing before I could react. It all happened so fast.”
THe Sentinal Satellite Page 25