The Time Hunters and the Lost City (The Final Chapter in the Time Hunters Saga Book 5)

by carl ashmore

Drake looked stunned. ‘Dead?’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Mata Hari replied. ‘Slain by this man.’ She pointed at Will.

  Drake’s face showed genuine shock as Will emerged from the shadows. ‘William Shakelock … returned from the grave, I see. Well, well … now that is a surprise.’

  ‘And there could be many more surprises, Emerson,’ Uncle Percy said. ‘So why don’t we stop all this before anyone else gets hurt. You give me Excalibur and the Sacred Chalice and let that be the end of it. Let your story end here…’

  ‘But my story is only just beginning,’ Drake replied. ‘And you know more will get hurt, Percy. You’ve seen the markings in the Chamber of the Ancients, as I have. You know what’s to come.’

  Drake’s words stunned Becky to silence. The Chamber of the Ancients was a subterranean gateway in Ancient Egypt built by the Minotaurs. How on earth was it relevant? ‘What’s The Chamber of Ancients got to do with anything?’ she said. ‘And what’s to come?’

  Drake hesitated. ‘War, my dear, war …’ His eyes found Uncle Percy. ‘Have you really not told them, Percy?’ He chuckled darkly. ‘Of course you haven’t. More lies, then …’

  ‘What’s he talking about?’ Becky fired at Uncle Percy.

  Uncle Percy ignored her. ‘No lies, Emerson. I was just hoping to avoid any war, that’s why I haven’t mentioned it. And I pray we still can.’

  ‘I don’t think that’s possible,’ Drake said. ‘The Omega Effect would never allow such a significant modification of events … you know that. Our future is already the past. There is no changing what has been or stopping what is to come.’

  Becky glanced at Joe, who looked as bewildered as she was.

  Uncle Percy’s face hardened. ‘Then don’t think for a second I haven’t planned for it.’

  Drake smiled. ‘As have I. And in many ways, my knowledge of this imminent conflict is the reason I’m here at Rosebud House on this very date – 30th August 1964.’

  Uncle Percy’s eyes narrowed. ‘What do you mean?’

  Drake got to his feet, picked up Excalibur and began to pace. ‘Because it occurred to me that soon I will be coming to the end of one journey and commencing another entirely … and as a thorough man, I wanted to settle all debts before I take the next step in what shall be a glorious transformation.’

  Uncle Percy looked confused. ‘What kind of transformation?’

  ‘You shall see,’ Drake replied. ‘I want you to see. I want you all to see. But as I was saying, my pending transformation has triggered a desire to repay the two people who made me the man I am today. You see, Rosebud House is my ancestral home. I was born and raised here by my charming parents who, even as we speak, are soundly asleep upstairs. Of course, my three year old self is not here at the moment, I’m staying with a relative, like I often did, but I certainly spent many, many dismal hours within these wretched walls. And furthermore, the bricks and mortar reflect the characters of the two despicable slugs sleeping above us.’ He leaned forward and picked up the candelabrum. The candlelight pitched his face a deep scarlet. Then he turned toward the curtains.

  ‘What’re you doing, Emerson?’ Uncle Percy said.

  Drake didn’t even look back. ‘Obviously I’ve always known my parents died in a house fire … What I never knew until recently was it would be me that lit the match…’

  And without a hint of hesitation, he set fire to the curtains.

  Chapter 31

  The Giant’s Dance

  Within seconds, the curtains were a fireball of angry flames and black smoke.

  Emerson Drake looked back at the others, no trace of emotion on his face. ‘Now I think it’s time we left Mummy and Daddy to fry.’ He nodded at the Associates, who seized Becky, Joe, Uncle Percy and Will. Then he keyed six numbers into his portravella and said, ‘After all, this is where real fun begins…..’ He picked up the Sacred Chalice. As tentacles of crimson light encased him, he smiled at Becky and blew her a kiss.

  Repulsed, Becky scarcely noticed the powerful fingers of an Associate grasp her arm. Questions rattled her skull. What type of war was coming? What did Uncle Percy mean when he said he’d prepared for it? What did the markings in the Chamber of the Ancients have to do with their current situation?

  As a BOOM assaulted her ears, the sudden drop in temperature and the texture of soft pasture underfoot told her they were now outside. Looking ahead, her dread was fleetingly replaced by awe at the giant megalithic structure that filled her eyes. Guarded at ten feet intervals by armed Associates, it consisted of countless lintel-capped sarsen stones that formed a great circular ring. It was an ancient monument she recognised only too well:

  Stonehenge.

  However, the Stonehenge she knew had always been incomplete, many of its stones lost to history and time, but this structure was entire, intact, every stone in its place as if it had been erected that very day.

  ‘Is that Stonehenge?’ Joe asked with disbelief.

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘So why are we here?’

  A wisp of memory rushed into Becky’s mind. She was standing in the Chamber of the Ancients, staring at the bizarre markings on the corridor wall, which depicted humans and monsters engaged in an epic battle against the backdrop of a circular monument. She now knew that monument was Stonehenge. ‘Because there’s going to be a battle,’ she replied flatly.

  ‘Like the one in your freaky vision,’ Joe said.

  ‘Precisely.’ Becky gulped. ‘I said it felt like England. I wasn’t wrong, was –’

  Her words were cut short by an earth-shattering roar somewhere behind them. She and Joe spun round.

  For what seemed like an age, neither Becky nor Joe could find any words.

  In the end it was Joe who spoke first, ‘You know this battle you’re talking about? Well … we’ve lost!’

  On the horizon, outlined by a bleach white sky were thousands of soldiers, many on horseback, dressed in heavy leather armour and wielding bows, swords, lances and axes. Even more astonishing, however, were the great prehistoric beasts that paced angrily ahead of the army; twenty feet tall and twice as long, their muscular legs pounded the earth, terrifying the horses behind, many of which reared and snorted with fear.

  Speechless, Becky glanced at Uncle Percy and was surprised to see a look of indifference on his face.

  ‘Well, Joe,’ he said. ‘You always wanted to see Tyrannosaurus Rex. Your wish has finally come true … there are at least a dozen of them over there.’

  Emerson Drake’s gloating voice met their ears. ‘Fourteen to be exact, not to mention six Stegosauri, five Pteranadons, a dozen Utahraptors and many more powerful creatures, all of which are under my command, controlled as Cyrobots from a location far away from here.’ He smirked. ‘Furthermore, as you can see I’ve employed the services of perhaps the most brutal warlord the world has ever seen, not to mention fifteen thousand of his finest warriors.’

  ‘Let me guess,’ Uncle Percy said. ‘Attila the Hun?’

  ‘The one and only.’

  Uncle Percy chuckled sourly. ‘His services must have cost you a great deal.’

  ‘Money has never been an issue,’ Drake replied. ‘So are you ready to show your hand?’ When Uncle Percy remained silent, he continued, ‘Actually, you’re quite right - Why should we rush into this? Besides, there is something I wish you all to see before the fireworks begin. And I do think you’ve earned the right. Follow me.’ He swivelled round and marched through a gap in the stones.

  Uncle Percy, Will, Joe and Becky were shunted at gunpoint into the monument.

  With each step, Becky’s fear escalated. If Drake commanded Attila the Hun’s army what possible chance did they have, regardless of what preparations Uncle Percy had made for war? Drake had won before they started.

  But then something else occurred to her: her vision showed a battle between two great armies. But how could Uncle Percy get an army?

  Before she had a chance to dwell on this, Drake came to a halt be
fore five enormous trilithons fashioned in a horseshoe shape that surrounded a purple green sandstone slab. He pointed at the stone slab.

  ‘Percy, here on the Altar Stone rests the source of your final defeat, your failure, a failure from which you shall never recover. Cast your eyes upon it and know this is where my transformation begins. This is where I shall become.’

  Becky stared at the altar and saw three objects had been arranged carefully upon it, a strange silvery haze radiating from them like a heavenly mist.

  And then her heart stopped.

  The three objects were The Golden Fleece, The Box of Eternity and The Spear of Fate. She glanced at Uncle Percy and saw his face had drained of colour.

  Smirking, Drake placed Excalibur and The Sacred Chalice beside the other Eden Relics and then looked up at Uncle Percy, his eyes wild with repulsive glee.

  ‘Yes, Percy, as you can see I’ve acquired all five of the Eden Relics…’

  ‘B- but how?’ Uncle Percy exhaled.

  ‘Because I did what you were too conceited, too narrow-minded, too thick to do. I took time to understand the very nature of the Eden Relics, their history, their provenance, their mythology, the full extent of their powers. And I learned the Sword of Ages was the relic with the power to reunite them all. With that single relic, it was merely a matter of time before I found the others, no matter where and when you tried to hide them. Now the Eden Relics are as one … as they were meant to be.’ His grin widened. ‘And as you can see I have given them a home, I have built a new Garden of Eden. Over the years, many have asked why Stonehenge was constructed - well, I give you the answer: It was constructed for me … as my first church … and to be the site of my transformation …. My rebirth.’

  ‘Rebirthed as what?’

  ‘I shall become what I have longed for since I was a child, everything my Grandmother wished me to be. I shall become as God is … Possessing the Eden Relics gives me mastery over them, over everything they represent - knowledge, resurrection, evolution, invincibility and finally immortality… and with that, quite simply, I shall be a living God.’

  Seconds passed as Uncle Percy processed all Drake had revealed. ‘Then that shall be your downfall, Emerson,’ he said in a low, measured voice. ‘No man can be God. And here’s what I think …. I think the Eden Relics were given to mankind as an emblem of God’s power, not as tools to fashion a False God.’

  Drake inserted his hand into his jacket pocket and took out a small stone tablet covered in symbols. ‘Then why would God have created this?’

  ‘And what’s that?’

  ‘Again, your research proves severely lacking,’ Drake gloated. ‘This is the Palal Stone, and the prayer you see inscribed in early Elamite script is all I need to transfer the full power of the Eden Relics into my very being … for me to use those powers as and when I wish…’

  Uncle Percy was left speechless.

  ‘So I understand you will conjure up your army and do everything in your power to stop the transformation ceremony from taking place. But you will fail.’ Drake smiled cruelly. ‘Your humiliation will be complete.’

  ‘I won’t fail, Emerson,’ Uncle Percy said simply.

  Drake laughed. ‘I suppose I should admire your fortitude,’ he said,’ but I don’t. Your unfounded optimism is just another example of your nauseating egotism. And speaking of nauseating egotists that reminds me - there is still one more piece of the jigsaw to put in place, one more set of eyes to witness my becoming and make my triumph absolute.’

  Drake pulled out a pagidizor and pressed it. A ball of light appeared about twenty feet away, spreading outward, before exploding in a blaze of light, which promptly vanished, leaving three men in its place. Two bullish Associates aimed machine pistols at a kneeling man, who was partially naked and shivering. Covered head to toe in open sores, scars, dried blood and grime, the man’s hair was long and matted, edging a once handsome face, which was covered by a beard so thick and tangled it resembled a hedgerow. His body was barely more than a withered frame of bones, forged by years of torment few men could endure.

  With barely an ounce of energy left in him, the man raised his head slowly, and he stared at Becky and Joe. Seeing them, his deep brown eyes dampened, and for the first time in as long as he could remember his mouth found a smile.

  Looking at the man, Becky’s heart soared in a way she had never experienced before. And as tears flooded her eyes, a single word left her mouth.

  ‘Dad…’

  Chapter 32

  Operation Amicitia

  At that moment Becky felt as far from Emerson Drake and his Associates as it was possible to be. No one else existed in the world – just she and the father she’d not seen for seven years. Within seconds, she had sped to his side, dropped to her knees and buried herself in his arms like a petrified child waking from a nightmare. ‘Dad… Dad.’ Openly sobbing now, every inch of her body trembled powerfully.

  ‘Becky … Becky…’ John Mellor kissed his daughter’s face as if discovering it for the very first time. ‘When did my little girl get so big?’

  ‘You’ve been gone a long time,’ Becky said, desperate to tighten her embrace but afraid of causing his shattered body more pain.

  ‘I know,’ Mellor replied. ‘Where’s Joe?’

  Joe walked slowly over as if in a trance. ‘I’m here, Dad.’

  John Mellor forced himself to his feet, every slight movement causing him visible discomfort. ‘My son … my beautiful, brave son’ He pulled Joe into an embrace, who stared blankly in the distance for a second as if incapable of comprehending all that was happening. Then his face cracked with emotion.

  ‘I-I’ve missed you … Dad.’

  ‘And I’ve missed you, son, more than you’ll ever know,’ Mellor replied. He cupped Joe’s head in his hands. ‘I know you’re aware of your blood parents, and I’m sorry you found out the way you did … but never think I’m not your dad. I am …. And always will be. D’you understand?’

  ‘Y-yes.’

  John Mellor kissed Joe on the forehead. ‘I love you, Joe.’

  ‘I love you, Dad.’

  Drake coughed loudly. ‘I don’t know about anyone else,’ he sneered. ‘But I’m finding it very difficult not to puke.’

  Uncle Percy glared at him. ‘So what do we now, Emerson?’

  ‘Well,’ Drake replied. ‘Now we’ve had our touching family reunion, I suggest it’s time we went to war.’

  ‘And is that what you want?’ Uncle Percy said.

  ‘I think it’s written on the wall,’ Drake replied. ‘And as far as Chamber of the Ancients is concerned I mean that literally.’ He pocketed the Palal Stone, and then walked away from the altar. ‘Come on, Percy. I’ve shown you mine, now you show me yours.’

  Becky came back to reality with a start. Her delight at seeing her father again was dulled by the fact Drake had all five Eden Relics and a fifteen thousand strong army to defend them. Along with Joe she assisted her father, who was barely strong enough to walk on his own, and they followed Drake beyond the outer ring and out of the monument.

  Drake turned to Uncle Percy and pointed at Attila the Hun’s army. ‘Well, Percy, I’ve shown you what’s in my corner. Between the Hun warriors, my Cyrobots and my Associates I know the henge shall be protected long enough for my transformation. Now isn’t it time you showed me what you’ve got?’

  ‘Stop this now, Emerson,’ Uncle Percy replied. ‘If we continue down this path many will die … such is the nature of war, and I for one do not want that.’

  ‘And I for another couldn’t care less,’ Drake replied. ‘Surely you know me well enough to know that?’

  Uncle Percy’s jaw tightened. ‘Then so be it. If you want war that’s precisely what you’ll get. Just remember it’s with great regret I do this.’

  ‘A life of regret is a wasted thing.’

  ‘So is one without friendship, and that’s why you’ll lose today.’ Uncle Percy pulled the Maxidizor from his pocket. ‘
You’re quite right, ever since I saw the markings on the Chamber of the Ancients I knew this moment would come. Subsequently, I’ve been putting something called Operation Amicitia into place.’

  Becky’s ears pricked up. Operation Amicitia?

  ‘Amicitia?’ Drake said. ‘As in the Latin for ‘Friendship?’

  ‘Precisely,’ Uncle Percy replied. ‘Now you’ll never quite understand the sheer power of friendship, Emerson. You lead an empty life, a hollow life, a life without love or warmth or kindness. In fact, I’d go as far as to say you exist … but you don’t really live.’

  Drake simulated a yawn. ‘Would you now?’

  ‘Yes, I would,’ Uncle Percy replied. ‘The simple fact is your Associates, your followers, even Attila and his men– well, they’re here because you pay them, or promise them something … you reward them in some way. That’s how you get people to do your bidding.’

  ‘It’s not the only way.’

  ‘Well, no … you employ fear.’

  ‘That’s correct,’ Drake replied coldly. ‘And in my experience, money and fear make exceptional motivators.’

  Uncle Percy didn’t look convinced. ‘They can motivate, certainly, but they will never inspire loyalty, and it’s unwavering loyalty that wins situations like this - the kind of loyalty that makes a man or woman take up arms to help another, even lay down their lives if needs be.’

  He nodded at Becky and Joe. ‘The truth is, the courage, decency and the boundless humanity in these two remarkable young people does inspire that kind of loyalty in others, and it’s a loyalty that can’t be bought, that won’t waver whatever fear tactics you use. And it’s ultimately because of them, Emerson, you will lose.’

  Becky had no idea what Uncle Percy was talking about.

  Drake laughed. ‘Percy, you really are a vomit-inducing bore, aren’t you?’

  ‘Possibly,’ Uncle Percy replied. ‘But my point is a sound one.’ He pressed five buttons on the Maxidizor. From nowhere, spheres of light, some big, some small, appeared all around them.

  ‘And what I’ve discovered by working on Operation Amicitia,’ Uncle Percy continued, ‘is that Becky and Joe instil something in others you could never understand. People care for them deeply … and will do anything for them.’