In a chastened tone, Rou said, “We are sorry to have upset you.”
“Apology accepted.” Griffin’s stern expression softened.
The Pythia smiled. “OK, guys. Lecture over.”
Relieved to be off the hook, Rou immediately changed the subject. “You must tell us what happened when you were inside the cave with them.”
Griffin moved toward the door. “Since it’s well past dinnertime, I suggest we postpone that discussion until we’ve found a place to eat. Now that the Nephilim have left the area, we are at liberty to move about the village.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Rinchen eagerly approved.
***
Ten minutes later, the four Arkana operatives were wandering down the main street of Luoshui Village to find a restaurant. This wasn’t hard to do since the entire Lugu Lake district seemed to specialize in outdoor barbecues. They found an open-air eatery and seated themselves. Rou and Rinchen claimed a wooden bench together while Cassie and Griffin took the bench opposite. Between them sat a rectangular stone table with a recessed charcoal grill in the middle. A waiter provided them with plates, chopsticks, sauces, and food on skewers to cook and eat. Their meal consisted of pressed chicken and assorted chunks of vegetable including mushrooms and eggplant. They were also given yak butter tea and Sulima beer to wash it all down. As one or another of them turned the skewers and tended the food, they caught up on the events of the afternoon.
“Now you have to say what happened after the Nephilim entered the cave,” Rou urged.
“They totally bought it.” Cassie smiled triumphantly. “I took a run at the door like I was trying to escape. It’s a good thing I gave you my stun gun because they searched me.”
“Just as you thought they would,” the girl noted.
“That was a pretty big risk,” Rinchen said. “I mean, to dangle yourself as bait. That cowboy might have shot you point blank.”
“Oh, he wouldn’t do that,” the Pythia countered. “Leroy hates me too much to kill me outright. He’d want to taunt me first. Besides, Griffin and I have run into them often enough to know what makes them tick. Daniel needs us to get his artifacts and Hunt needs Daniel to stay employed. I figured we’d be OK.”
“It was a clever plan, if I do say so myself,” Griffin interjected. “We knew we wouldn’t have enough time to hide the artifact.”
Cassie flipped a skewer of vegetables to brown them evenly. “Which turned out to be a good thing since there was no guarantee those nimrods would manage to find it even if we did have time to hide it.”
The Scrivener handed plates and chopsticks across the table. “So we needed to stage a scene to make it look as if we’d been caught in the act of taking the relic.”
“Stage a scene is right.” Cassie picked up the narrative. “You should have heard Griffin. He really sold it. Called me ‘love’ and everything.”
“Why would he do that?” Rou squinted in puzzlement.
“The reason seemed pretty obvious to me,” Cassie replied casually.
Griffin abruptly dropped a bowl of dipping sauce with a clatter.
“Careful, butterfingers, or you’ll be wearing your food.” Cassie absent-mindedly righted the dish before resuming her explanation. “Griffin called me ‘love’ because it made our story more convincing. It would seem far less suspicious that he’d surrender the relic without a fight if the Nephilim thought we were involved. Right?” She turned to the Scrivener for confirmation. “That is why you said it.”
Griffin stared at her open-mouthed. After a few seconds he rallied. “Yes... um... Of course. That’s why I said it. ‘Love’ is a common endearment among the British. We apply it to everyone. Greengrocers, postmen. I thought it lent a certain verisimilitude.”
“And you should have seen Daniel’s face when Griffin threatened to destroy the inscription.” Cassie laughed.
“I wish we had a video.” Rinchen sounded wistful.
“And by the bye, thank you for lending me your pistol. It came in quite handy,” Griffin said to the agent.
“No problem. Good thing you remembered to hand it back to me on your way down the mountain. I wouldn’t have been a very convincing bandit without it.”
“Speaking of which,” Cassie prompted. “How did your part of the act go? Give us details.”
Rinchen slid a cooked piece of chicken onto a platter. “First off, Rou can mimic the worst Chinese accent I ever heard. ‘Harro’?” He turned to the girl with mock surprise. “Since when did you forget how to pronounce an ‘L’?”
Rou laughed softly. “You are a fine one to point a finger at me when you say things like ‘Where we’?”
Noting the puzzled faces of his listeners, the agent explained. “I needed to distract the cowboy with something so I pulled out a map and asked him for directions.”
“And while he read the map, I stunned him,” Rou summed up proudly.
“He never saw it coming?” Cassie asked.
“Nope.” Rinchen winked at Rou. “I have to say, this girl has a great future as a field agent. Cool as a cucumber in a crisis. It’s hard to believe she hasn’t had any training yet.”
Rou blushed with pleasure at the compliment.
Sensing how close the two had become, Cassie cautioned, “You’d better not be toying with this young lady’s affections, Rinchen. Your brother warned me about you. He said you’re a real heartbreaker.”
“What?” The agent gasped. “He’s one to talk. Rabten is the player in the family. I think he’s overcompensating.”
“What on earth for?” the Scrivener asked.
“Because Rinchen received the good looks,” Rou concluded sagely. “Rabten only received the brains.”
Cassie and Griffin traded baffled glances at the observation.
“Rou, surely you realize that Rabten and Rinchen are identical twins,” the Scrivener ventured.
The girl remained unfazed. “Oh no. Rinchen showed me pictures. I can tell the difference.”
“You see,” Rinchen agreed without a hint of irony. “She can tell.”
“Let it go,” Cassie mumbled under her breath to Griffin.
“Here is your stun gun.” Rou presented the object to the Pythia with both hands as if she were handing over a samurai sword.
Cassie pocketed it. “I’m going to send you one of these engraved with your name on it.”
Rinchen scratched his chin. “I know we had only minutes to put this plan together before the Nephilim got to the cave but here’s something I don’t understand. Why the bandit ruse? If all you wanted to do was put Hunt out of commission long enough to escape, you could have pistol-whipped him when you left.”
“Ah, there was more to the scheme than that, my friend,” Griffin retorted. “If I had dispatched him, he would have turned these villages upside down trying to find us and take revenge. We needed to make his departure a matter of some urgency.”
“That’s where you guys came in,” Cassie continued. “Luckily for us, you’re both Asian so you could pose as locals.”
“Bloodthirsty local bandits,” Rou piped up gleefully.
“If Daniel was convinced that the area is crawling with desperados, he would have believed the artifact was at risk here,” Griffin concluded. “Even Hunt would have to agree that their top priority would be to get the relic to a safe location.”
“And I think we guessed right.” The Pythia poured herself a cup of tea. “You two saw their getaway with your own eyes.”
Griffin leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head. “All things considered, our plan went swimmingly.”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Cassie confided. “Maddie texted me that the real artifact arrived at the Vault today.”
“Speaking of all’s well that ends well.” Griffin treated Rinchen to a quizzical look. “You’ll be escorting Rou back to Liaoning tomorrow, yes?”
“I’ll make sure she gets home safe and sound.”
Rou beamed at him adoringly
.
The Pythia nudged Griffin. “It’s time we booked a flight home too.”
“After our assorted trials during the past few weeks, I must say I’m looking forward to a quiet predictable environment. Thank heaven nothing eventful ever happens at HQ.”
Cassie’s gaze narrowed as she regarded her partner. “You know you’re just asking for trouble when you say stuff like that.”
“Are we about to have another dire prediction from Mr. Murphy?” Griffin’s eyes twinkled with mischief.
The Pythia sighed and gave a lazy smile. “Nope. I can’t bring myself to harsh your mellow on a night when the stars are this bright.”
Griffin looked upward. “They are indeed.”
Both Cassie and Griffin pretended not to notice when Rinchen slipped his arm around Rou’s shoulder as they too gazed up at the night sky.
Chapter 37—Nephilim Ninjas
Joshua sat in the front seat of a black van parked in the dirt lane behind the farmhouse. It was still quite dark out—two hours before dawn. A week earlier he’d acquainted his father with Hunt’s surveillance activities. As the Fallen man was still out of the country with Daniel and his trustworthiness in retrieving Hannah remained open to question, the Diviner decided to delegate the recovery operation to the spymaster. Joshua was to observe the activities of the household. When he was sure the time was right, he was to strike quickly to reclaim Hannah. No one was to be harmed in the process. This was less an indication of his father’s merciful nature than it was an attempt to avoid complications with the police.
Joshua stepped out of the van and went around to the back doors. He opened them. Three armed men wearing ski masks and black flight suits confronted him. “You know what to do,” he said curtly, pulling a ski mask down over his own face.
They all nodded silently and got out. Each one held a set of night vision goggles which they donned over their ski masks. The four men then climbed over the privacy fence into the garden and headed for the kitchen door.
***
Faye awoke from a sound sleep. She blinked several times, trying to orient herself. Checking the digital alarm, she saw it was four AM. Her heart was beating quickly with an unaccountable sense of anxiety. She didn’t know why but she could feel something wasn’t quite right. Then she heard a faint sound coming from downstairs. Had Hannah gotten up to find a snack in the refrigerator? She lifted herself out of bed and put on a bathrobe and slippers. Cracking her bedroom door open, she peeped around the edge. There were no lights on downstairs. Surely, if the girl was in the kitchen, the light would be on. Then she heard the faint tinkle of glass falling. Someone was breaking in. She seriously doubted that this was a random burglary. It wasn’t a matter for the police. It was a matter for the Arkana.
Scurrying to her dresser, she slid open the middle drawer and pulled out a cell phone. It was the one she used only to communicate with Arkana personnel. Maddie’s number was on speed dial.
She waited tensely for a groggy voice to answer. When it did, Faye’s words were succinct. “Maddie,” she whispered urgently. “Someone’s trying to break into the house. I believe it might be Leroy Hunt come for Hannah. Send help right away.”
She shut the phone off and hid it back inside the drawer. Rubbing her head distractedly, she tried to think of a strategy. At least Faye still had the element of surprise on her side. She cast around the dark bedroom, not seeing anything she could use as a weapon. In all likelihood, Hunt had come alone. Perhaps she could create a loud enough disturbance to scare him away. All she needed to do was buy ten minutes and Maddie’s team would be there. Her eyes settled on her purse, sitting on the highboy. She ran to it and dug into the front compartment for her car keys. Zachery had insisted on fitting out her old station wagon with an electronic security system. She found the key fob and hit the panic button. Immediately, her car horn blared. She looked through the blinds and saw the flashers blinking madly as well. The commotion would continue until she shut the alarm off or somebody came to see what the noise was all about.
“Granny Faye!”
She could hear Hannah shouting from down the hallway, her voice becoming louder as the girl ran toward her room. “Are you alright?”
Faye scurried out to meet her, keeping the key fob in her hand.
“It’s alright, child. I thought I heard a burglar.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two dark shapes running up the staircase. The old woman barely had time to react before they gained the second floor landing. Darting past her, they lunged for Hannah as a third man charged the old woman. He grabbed her but Faye put up a fight. She managed to knock his goggles askew, gouging him in the eye with her thumb. He grabbed for her arm but she squirmed out of his grasp. Losing her balance at the top of the stairs, she could feel herself twisting in the air. Falling backwards. Tumbling downwards. And then... nothing.
***
Joshua rushed to assist his men with Hannah. He darted past the body of the old woman, now lying motionless at the bottom of the stairs. The girl was screaming as his Argus agents tried to subdue her. The spymaster had come prepared for this. He held a chloroform-soaked handkerchief over the girl’s mouth until she stopped struggling.
Then he found the key fob which the old woman had dropped at the top of the staircase. He pressed the button and the noise outside instantly ceased. By this time, every dog in the neighborhood was barking. He peered out the front windows to see lights flickering on in several houses.
“We need to get out of here!” he commanded.
“But sir,” objected one of his agents. “What about that one?” He pointed down the stairs toward the old woman.
“Not our concern,” Joshua said coldly. “She probably broke her neck in the fall.”
“But if she lives, she might identify us,” another agent hissed.
Joshua wheeled on him. “And what could she tell the police?” he challenged. “That she caught a glimpse of four men wearing ski masks and night vision goggles in an utterly dark house? I think adding murder to our list of tasks tonight might invite more attention from the authorities than the Diviner would wish.”
At the mention of his father’s name, his men immediately stopped protesting.
“We need to get my father’s wife out of here. Now!” Joshua led the way down the stairs.
Two of his men carried Hannah’s limp body between them. A third man went ahead to climb the garden fence and receive the girl as she was lifted over by the first two. Joshua left the house last, closing the kitchen door behind him. In the distance, he could hear a siren’s wail. The sound grew louder. Presumably it was the police. He loped to the back fence and clambered over. His men were waiting in the back of the van. Hannah was unconscious but she’d been gagged and bound for good measure. The spymaster nodded and shut the doors on his crew. He climbed into the driver’s seat and pulled out of the lane, his headlights off. As he turned down a different side street, he saw an unmarked car pull into the farmhouse driveway—its red beacon flashing and siren howling. Even if the old woman was still alive, there was little enough she could tell anyone. Hannah’s abduction would be treated as most such events were treated in the Fallen World. Her face would eventually appear on a milk carton and her whereabouts would never be discovered. Joshua removed his ski mask and gave a satisfied smile. His father would be well-pleased with him this night.
Chapter 38—Planned Aggression
Zach pulled into the driveway of the farmhouse shortly before 8 AM. Maddie had called him an hour earlier to give him the shocking news— somebody had abducted Hannah and injured Faye. When he heard those words, he felt as if he’d been punched in the stomach and an hour later he still couldn’t catch his breath. The Chatelaine said that the attacker might come back to search the place. She wanted Zach to go to there and collect Faye’s cell phone and computer as well as anything else that might link the Memory Guardian to the Arkana.
The tyro was out the door before Maddie had time to hang
up. By ignoring the speed limit and barely slowing down for stop signs, he cut his usual travel time to the farmhouse in half. As he parked the car, he noticed a neighbor hovering nearby. Groaning to himself, he clambered out of the driver’s seat. “Hello, Mrs. Martin,” he said as he darted for the front door.
The neighbor intercepted him. “Oh Zach! I’m so sorry to hear about your grandmother.”
He felt a catch in his throat. “Thank you.”
“What happened? We heard the car alarm from the station wagon go off. It must have been around four o’clock. It woke up the whole neighborhood. Somebody even called the police. A squad car got here but there was already a car from Faye’s security company. Then an ambulance arrived and the driver explained that it was a medical emergency. The police left and the next thing I knew Faye was being carried out on a stretcher.”
Maddie had coached Zach on what to say in case anybody asked. He went into his story. “Gamma woke up with chest pains. I guess she must have known she was having a heart attack. She couldn’t walk so she grabbed her car keys and pressed the panic button to wake somebody up.”
“Thank goodness Ashley had the presence of mind to call for an ambulance.”
Zach had to stop and think for a minute. Ashley was the name Hannah used around outsiders. “Yeah, that’s what she did. After taking one look at Gamma, she saw what was happening and called for an ambulance. Then she... uh... rode to the hospital with her.”
“What hospital is Faye at? I’d like to visit her when she’s feeling better.”
Zach realized that whatever he told Mrs. Martin would be telegraphed around the subdivision in a matter of minutes. “She’s at a private hospital. No visitors allowed except for family. Please don’t worry.” He swallowed hard. “She’s doing fine. I just came to pick up a few things that she’ll need.”
“Poor Ashley,” Mrs. Martin continued. “She can’t stay here all alone with your grandmother away.”
The teenager paused. Maddie’s coaching hadn’t covered this particular question. He thought fast. “She won’t be. My folks offered to look after her until Gamma gets back on her feet.”
Secrets Of The Serpent's Heart (The Arkana Archaeology Mystery Series Book 6) Page 21