The Pandora Chronicles - Book 1 (A Scifi Adventure Thriller)

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The Pandora Chronicles - Book 1 (A Scifi Adventure Thriller) Page 17

by Attard, Ryan


  Excalibur peaked her head from behind the cabinet, with her gun trained squarely on Astrid. “Put your weapons down.”

  Astrid scoffed at her. “I hardly think so. We are seven, you are one, and I am well aware that Mister Solomon doesn’t carry a weapon. Which makes this very easy.”

  He jabbed Nick in the chest with his pistol and pulled back the hammer.

  “I’d do what he says, Agent,” Nick said, putting his hands up in surrender. “It’s not looking good for us out here. Don’t worry, this jackass won’t actually shoot me.”

  Astrid pressed his gun harder. “Oh, really?” He reached over and snatched the printouts that Nick was still holding in his hand. “I have the precise coordinates to El Dorado. Remind me again, why do I need you?”

  Nick offered him his most devious grin. “Because unless you can read Meso-American dead languages, you won’t be able to open the door.”

  “We have explosives.”

  “You can’t find this place with guns and bombs, Astrid, and you know it.”

  The Spaniard’s eyes narrowed. “And you know this, how?”

  “Because it was in that red book you made us steal in Venice,” Nick replied.

  “I can always obtain the book and read it myself.”

  “It’s hidden in the glove compartment of the truck we came in,” Nick said flatly.

  Astrid’s eyebrows shot up in utter bewilderment, and he nodded toward one of his men, who promptly went to retrieve the ledger.

  “You won’t be able to read a word,” Nick continued. “And that’s why you won’t kill us.”

  A flash of anger contorted Astrid’s face. “I can find other scholars.”

  Nick let out a small bark of laughter. “You’ll never find someone who can read all that. There are only four people on this side of the country who can help you. One is off the radar, another suffers from severe Alzheimer’s, one lies dead a few feet from us, and you’re currently poking your teeny-tiny gun at the remaining one,” he said with a satisfied smirk—not many people were able to work a phallic insult when held at gunpoint.

  Astrid didn’t get the joke, but he understood when someone was insulting him. “Tell your bitch to come out and drop her gun,” he growled.

  “Or what?”

  The smugness returned in Astrid’s voice. “While I can’t kill you until I confirm your story, I can make your existence a painful one.” To prove his point, he aimed his gun lower and fired. The shot went in between Nick’s legs, leaving a sizable hole in the floorboards. “It’s not the size of the gun that matters, but how you use it.”

  “Is that what women tell you?” Nick retorted.

  He may have put on a brave front but truly, he was scared. He had figured Astrid for one of those guys who wave their hands about and shout maniacally, but never actually staining themselves with blood. Now, he knew Astrid would not hesitate to pull the trigger.

  Excalibur got out of hiding and dropped her gun. Two men seized her roughly and bound her hands behind her back with a plastic strap. She scowled and glared at everyone, including Nick.

  Meanwhile, the lone mercenary retuned and handed the red ledger to Astrid. The lock snapped open easily and the Spaniard rifled through the pages, all the while muttering in his native tongue. Nick watched with increasing pleasure as he saw Astrid’s eyes widen with every page he turned.

  Suddenly, Astrid burst into a fit of yelling. Nick didn’t speak Spanish, but he would have bet money that Astrid’s language was not fit for translation. Once he was done with his cursing, Astrid shoved the book into Nick’s chest.

  “You can read this?” Without waiting for a response, he barked his next order. “Then, read it! Tell me what I need to know, and I might let you live.”

  “Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.”

  Astrid yelled out in frustration and fired off another round into the ceiling. “Tell me! Or I will kill her,” he screamed as he pointed his gun shakily at Excalibur.

  “You kill her, and you might as well kill me,” Nick replied. “I’m not telling you anything until you put the gun down and listen to me.”

  Astrid whipped the butt of his gun against Nick’s forehead, and he dropped to the ground. He saw Excalibur take a step, and instantly, a rifle barrel was inches from her face.

  Nick got up and held his hand out in front of him. “I’m all right,” he said.

  Astrid grabbed him roughly by the collar and pressed the gun to his face. “What do you want, Mister Solomon?”

  Nick groaned and cleared his throat. “What you seek doesn’t exist,” he said, looking Astrid in the eye. “There is no city of gold. But there is a treasure of much greater value. A substance which, if used correctly, could power a nation for an indefinite amount of time.”

  “What are you talking about?” Astrid spat.

  “A new source of energy,” Nick replied. “Why do you think the NSA wants a piece of this action? They don’t care about gold. The treasure this book is talking about is a source of infinite energy.”

  “Why should I care about this?” Astrid asked. “I want gold! Besides, there is no such thing as infinite energy.”

  “Think about it, man,” Nick said. “You would monopolize the world’s leading energy resource. We both know that oil is becoming as extinct as the fossils it’s made out of. You could control the future of this planet by controlling every single commodity.”

  Astrid looked at Excalibur. “Is this true?”

  “That’s classified information,” Excalibur shot back. “And you,” she spat towards Nick. “You’ve just betrayed your country.”

  “Bill me,” Nick replied, before turning to address Astrid again. “There is treasure in El Dorado. Only, it’s not gold, but something completely out of this world. Either way, you get richer.”

  Astrid’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you telling me all this? What do you want in exchange?”

  “Both me and her get to come with you,” Nick said. “Only I can get you through the site safely and to the energy source. But we both get to be there, alive.” He leaned close to Astrid as if sharing a clandestine secret.

  “I want to see it,” he whispered. “You get your jollies from being rich and powerful. I get mine from solving mysteries.”

  Astrid smiled at him, nodding, and Nick knew they had reached an understanding.

  Suddenly, Astrid pistol-whipped Nick in the face again. “Don’t ever give me orders,” he spat.

  Nick wiped blood from his forehead and stood up again. “You’re a businessman. Surely you can understand the concept of give and take.”

  Astrid pressed the pistol was so close to Nick face that the barrel pressed against one of his eyes. “I am not a big fan of the give part,” Astrid replied.

  “I’m shocked.”

  “Careful, Solomon. One day you might piss off the wrong person and end up getting shot,” Astrid said, waving his gun. “You have just become a precious commodity to me again. I don’t like having to throw away my toys before I’m thoroughly done with them.” He nodded at his men.

  “Load them up, and let’s go get my treasure.”

  Chapter 34

  When Captain Jack Finnegan sailed to the location of the artifact, he failed to mention a few details. Back then, it was no man’s land, with the natives fighting against the Spanish and British invaders.

  Nowadays, Cedros Island is a small settlement, where fishing and tourism helped support a quiet Mexican population. The island seemed to be on the precipice of civilization; still on par with the rest of the world, but its growth was taken at a leisurely pace, unlike the stressful stride of metropolitan cities.

  Astrid’s private charter plane took them on location as soon as Nick confirmed it, and once they stepped out on dry land and into the arid sun, he was struck with a terrible sense of déjà vu.

  Nick realized he had already been there, but not as himself—rather as Captain Jack Finnegan. Memories began flooding in, until he was violently jarred f
rom his thoughts by one of Astrid’s flunkies. They dragged him and Excalibur to a set of quad bikes near the edge of a forest.

  Nick gave the location of the cave to their guide, a mercenary hired by Astrid, whose face looked like a piece of dried up leather. The man wore army cargo pants and a sweat shirt, along with a machete which he seemed very enthusiastic about and a belt of AK-47 bullets, ammo for the rifle he had slung around him. He smoked with a fervency bordering on psychotic and spoke a total of three words in English, which he accented with a lot of grunts and erratic hand gestures. Nick referred to him Mowgli, because he did look as if he had been raised by a pack of wolves, and was stuck riding with him on the lead quad bike.

  Nick did his best to avoid wrapping his arms around the guide’s torso and instead clung for dear life on the support bars at the back of his seat. The terrain was not the most hospitable to navigate on, but Nick could recall worse. Still, with the way Mowgli drove his vehicle, it was a miracle they had arrived there in one piece.

  Throughout the ride, Nick saw various lapses in security and found dozens of ways he could flee. But this was foreign terrain, and he was utterly alone on this island. His enemies had guns, vehicles, and knew the land like the back of their hands—a lethal combination.

  Besides, he couldn’t leave Excalibur behind.

  Nick stole a quick glance at her. She was tied to the support bars and every violent turn made her shoulders stretch. There was a small line of red on her wrists where the plastic straps restraining her bit into her skin. She was smart enough to move her wrists so that the plastic cut the upper part of her forearms and wrists, not the soft part where the arteries were easily accessible, but she was panting and huffing, with strands of golden yellow hair plastered on her face and in her eyes.

  Nick felt himself jump from his seat and land heavily on his tailbone, sending pain signals along his entire body. Mowgli did not slow down as they went over a particularly steep hill. Instead, he grunted and gunned the engine. Nick would have let out a string of curses if his jaw wasn’t clenched shut and his eyes wide open. He squeezed the support bar tighter and remembered that his ancestor had faced a life-threatening situation on this island as well—and despite Finnegan having to fight his way through a tribe of local natives, Nick doubted if he could survive a quad bike trip to the site behind a Neanderthal who seemed hellbent on killing the both of them.

  As a distraction, Nick forced himself to go over his plan of escape one more time.

  He would use Astrid’s greed against him. Better yet, he would stand by and watch as the mercenaries suffered the same fate as the pirates who entered the cave all those years ago.

  Then, he would kill Astrid. That bastard had to pay for what he did to Brightmoore. He started all of this, and Nick would finish it—by finishing him.

  Once they were over the hills and on a relatively flat road, Nick pick-pocketed Mowgli’s lighter. He thought it was a very creative way to punish a chain smoker, and Nick was not above petty acts. Besides, he needed Excalibur to cover his back, and that lighter would set her free.

  Gritting his teeth, Nick prepared himself for what came next.

  Mowgli abruptly turned off his quad bike and yelled something to the rest of the men behind him. It sounded like, “We’re here,” but no one could really be sure with his unique language of grunts and mumbles.

  Astrid was the first one off his quad bike and, in his haste, stumbled face-first to the ground. None of the men laughed and for a while, the only sound heard was Nick trying, and failing, to stifle a giggle. The rest of the men tried their best not to offend Astrid, knowing how volatile he could be, and slowly dismounted from their vehicles. They lacked precision and tact, roughly grabbing their weapons and clumsily attaching flashlights. Only Mowgli hopped down with the agility of a monkey.

  Nick slid down from the quad bike and felt as if his pelvic bone had been sawed in half. He stumbled against a tree and tried to get some feeling back in his legs as Mowgli passed by him, machete in hand.

  “Pendejo (dumbass),” Nick heard him sneer.

  He considered retorting in kind, but was still feeling queasy from the ride. After listening to the rest of the mercenaries speak Spanish, it wasn’t hard for him to grasp the language, and they had no idea Nick could comprehend everything they said; including how they were going to divide their money and in which order they were going to kill Nick and Excalibur.

  So Nick wisely decided to downplay his abilities.

  “Keep smiling, asshole,” he muttered in plain English as he steadied himself. He looked over to Excalibur and saw a mercenary binding her hands with a fresh strap.

  “Go easy on her wrists,” Nick called out. He glared at Astrid. “If those things are tight, she can cut herself. And if she bleeds to death, I’m out of the picture, too, and you get nothing but sand up your ass.”

  Astrid looked like nothing would please him more than to slowly break each of Nick’s bones and toss the carcass to a flock of vultures. Instead, with pursed lips and glaring eyes, he walked over to Excalibur and shoved the mercenary away. He tightened her bonds himself, but kept it loose enough so she could freely rotate her wrists.

  “There,” he spat. “Now, the princess is comfortable.” He extracted his gun and grabbed Excalibur by her hair. “I grow tired of your insolence, Solomon. From now on, I give you orders, not the other way around. If you don’t like it, you can watch as I kill your woman.”

  Nick raised his hands slightly. “I’m sorry.”

  Astrid smiled and shoved Excalibur away. “There. Was that so hard?” He shouldered Nick as hard as he could before barking an order to his men.

  The mercenaries placed explosives around the large boulders covering the entrance to the cave, until one of them initiated a countdown and pressed a remote charge. There was half a second of tense quiet before the large explosion sent rock flying all around them. The tremor was enough to leave sizable cracks in the ground.

  Nick wrapped himself around Excalibur as they both crouched down behind the main convoy truck. Astrid was a few feet across from them, similarly crouched. Once the explosion died down, both he and Nick were the first to stand up and stare at the gaping black hole the explosives had opened in the rock.

  Even from out there, Nick could feel the ominous energy of the place, both inviting and terrifying.

  He swallowed hard and looked at Astrid. “Your treasure’s in there.”

  Astrid nodded. “Then let’s go get it.”

  Chapter 35

  They were well-equipped against the darkness. All of the mercenaries carried flashlights under their rifles and huddled together to create a wide beam of light.

  The entrance of the cave was far away, swallowed by the pitch black that seemed to consume the walls themselves. They had walked for only a few minutes, but the distance covered seemed like too much for such a short span of time. Every step triggered more of Nick’s residual memories and he could swear the corridor seemed a lot shorter from when Finnegan had come through all those decades ago.

  Could it be that the machine had somehow dug itself deeper into the ground? he thought. No, that would be impossible.

  Finnegan had jammed the orb, effectively shutting down the whole system.

  Maybe there was a backup generator of sorts? Or maybe there was more than one orb, and Finnegan’s tactic was just temporary?

  Nick’s trail of thought was disrupted when he saw the substance on the walls begin to move, like ripples in water.

  “Look at the walls,” he muttered, aware of how his voice echoed ominously.

  The party slowed down as Nick and Excalibur went over to a large section covered in gunk, a mixture of dried petroleum, lead, various metals, and thick veins of gold, silver and platinum. Astrid came over and ordered his men to illuminate the tunnel.

  “What is this place?” he whispered, mesmerized. At the sight of gold his eyes widened with lust and greed.

  Nick tore his gaze from the wall and lo
oked around.

  The tunnel loomed over them like a scene from The Lord of the Rings, with a ceiling that was so high they could not see where it ended. Glossy obsidian, clumps of minerals and crystals, copper, and other precious metals—they all reflected luminescence back in their own color, painting an ever-shifting picture.

  Even Mowgli gasped at the sheer awesomeness of the scene around them.

  Nick noticed movement on the walls, like insects crawling over each other. Images began moving, creating shapes and murals, a story communicated through pictograms and etchings.

  “What do they mean?” Excalibur whispered close to Nick’s ear. The reverence of the place automatically made everyone cease their talking, and when they did break the silence, it was in hushed tones.

  Nick placed his hand tentatively on the nearest picture. It felt cool and slimy, and shifted like a serpent until the figures and depictions became clearer.

  “It tells of a tribe of gods descending from the sun,” Nick said as he began moving along the walls, one picture at a time. “The gods saw that mankind was in need of help, and so they created a series of…”

  He squinted his eyes, pretending not to know the story. He had to make something up, so as not to give away the real secret within the pages of the red ledger, of the sheer power those artifacts held.

  “A series of magical, round objects, like miniature suns, I suppose, and gave one to each of the mankind’s leaders. They used these objects to strengthen their crops, to make rain during the drought and to fortify their bodies against predators.”

  Nick moved on to the next picture, with the rest of the troupe following him like a procession.

  “But soon, they were unsatisfied by merely making their people prosper. Their tribes expanded, and war broke out as they fought one another for land and territory. The orbs no longer produced sunlight and rain, but steel and stone. It became a contest to see whose spear was the sharpest and whose shield was unbreakable. The fire and water used to nurture them became weapons at their disposal too. And then, the gods had had enough, and nature turned on mankind.”

 

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