The Gods' Gambit

by David Lee Marriner

  He took out the screwdriver from the maintenance bag and screwed in the first screw. He was trying to do the same with the second when a group of seers clung to the grating and started pulling. The grating came off the frame and hung on with only one screw. The arms of the seers reached out to James’ legs. He kicked some of them but could not repulse all of them. The seers drew him to them by his ankles and trousers. He attempted to hold himself inside but the pipe’s walls were too smooth. The ferocious seers got the upper hand and dragged him out. He fell back down on the ground. The crowd jumped over him hitting and tearing at his clothes. Fortunately, he did not lose his presence of mind. He hit back and crawled to the wall beneath the pipe’s opening. There, he managed to stand up and push the attackers aside. Throwing swift, short punches and kicks, he knocked several of them down. This effective resistance stopped the seers. James realized that his machine gun and the tool bag had been lost during the fight but his handgun was still in the holster attached to his leg. He drew it and aimed at the people in front of him. In the same instant, he heard a metallic clicking coming from behind. James turned round sharply to see the grill-door opening. Several men stood there, their guns pointing at him. One man pulled the trigger. The bang and thwack on his head blended and then there was total darkness.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

  “Our honored guest is waking up,” spoke a mocking, haughty voice. “We almost wasted you. It would have been a great loss.”

  James opened his eyes. The man who had spoken these words – tall, blond, wearing glasses – stood a few steps away. He was dressed in jeans and a brown shirt. Under his belt was a Russian army pistol, a ‘Strizh’. James looked around. He was sitting in a massive wooden chair. The top of his head was wrapped in a tight dressing and he felt pain above his right ear. His last memory was a barrel pointed at him throwing out flames. James realized that the bullet had scratched his skull without causing serious damage. Instinctively, he tried to stand up but he couldn’t. It was just then that he discovered his limbs were shackled to the chair by metal chains.

  He found himself in the middle of an enormous chamber. From his position he could see a multi-storey complex constructed of metal and glass attached to the chamber’s walls. Not far in front of him there were two long electric carts. Behind them he could see four bundles of high-tensile cables indicating an elevator-platform, and the doors of a lift. At the end of the chamber, on his right, there were some long tables with electronic equipment on them. Four men holding Kalashnikovs came close to him, two on each side of the chair, watching him with undisguised hatred. James could see no one else around. He turned his head to the left as much as he could and he saw a strange sculpture. A long horned serpent with wings coiled round a pyramid with a severed top. The serpent’s mouth was half-open and James could see three rows of needle-like teeth. The whole sculpture was made of yellow stone. The scientific mind in James took over for a brief moment, deciphering the symbolism of it all. The pyramid represented the universe; the coiled serpent was the symbol of the Demiurge ruling over the entirety of existence.

  “How clever of you. To come to us all by yourself. Tell me, how many people are with you. What are your plans?” the tall man with the glasses cut off James’ thoughts. His voice was sharp and abrupt.

  James cast an appraising glance at him. He subtly stretched his arms trying to snatch them out of the chains. But they were too tight and dug into his wrist. It wouldn’t be easy to break free that way.

  “How did you discover our base?” the tall man with the glasses said through clenched teeth.

  “You are making a mistake. I’m a cave explorer. I got lost in the caves. My partners are outside. They’ll call for help,” James decided to try the cover story which he and Irina had created.

  “Miserable bastard,” the tall man spoke with contempt. He stepped quickly ahead and punched James in the jaw.

  “Hitting your guests is a sign of bad education,” said James calmly.

  The tall man’s lower lip trembled. He gave two more blows to James’ head. “Where are my manners? Welcome. I am Georgie. Nice to meet you,” said the tall man theatrically.

  “Surely, you always win fights with people tied up like this … Georgie,” James smiled. His front teeth were pink from the blood in his mouth.

  A series of blows rained down on his head and torso. The tall man, out of breath, stepped back and then kicked James twice in the stomach. James coughed. His face was bruised, blood trickled down his lips.

  Georgie had the expression of a snapping dog. He drew the pistol from under his belt, and aimed at James. His arm twitched.

  “You don’t have the guts,” said James looking him straight in the eyes.

  Georgie slightly moved the barrel and pulled the trigger. The bullet entered into the back of the chair a couple of inches from James’ head.

  “You won’t get away that easy,” said Georgie and returned the pistol under his belt. “I’ll watch you bleed. I’ll watch you going to a place worse than hell. Your friends will die too. As well as everybody who supports you. There is no hope for you and your kind.”

  James lowered his eyes to hide the pleasure he felt upon hearing these words. If Georgie used these threats, it meant that his friends were still free. The charges Irina and Sonam would have set would go off soon. Everything would be finished then. James thought that the only thing he could do was to postpone the ritual these people intended to perform on him.

  He realised that he had to antagonize Georgie if he was to keep his attention, so he stopped using the cover story. “Do you really think that after my death you would take over the world? That’s a big illusion. Your organization follows the visions of a group of crazy people you call seers. If they were real seers, they could have seen me coming. But that didn’t happen.”

  “You know too much for a cave explorer,” said Georgie.

  “Have you asked yourself if the thing you call the Divine Eye is a true artifact? I don’t believe you have.”

  Georgie’s facial expression changed from mocking, malicious to wondering, and intrigued.

  “You know too much,” he repeated. “But you are far from knowing the whole truth. The fact that the seers found you speaks for itself—”

  “I saw the seer who ‘had found’ me. The poor man was out of his mind. He might have read some of my books. That’s how my name had arisen in his mind. I am not the man you’re looking for.”

  “If you were not that man you wouldn’t know so much,” said Georgie.

  “Unconvincing argument. Many organizations are aware of your plans,” James nodded. “I can tell you this. Don’t you think it’s strange that you only found that Eye after millennia had past? What you have is a surrogate. The people who stay behind the real Rainbow Carrier have fooled you.”

  Georgie smiled. “Here is your big mistake. All this was foreseen and written down in the legacy of our ancestors. It reads that when the time is right the Eye will find us. That’s exactly what happened. One day, years ago, a young Indian peasant from Rajasthan came to one of our associates who runs an antique shop in New Delhi. The peasant was a dope who desperately needed some cash to buy drugs. He sold information about the whereabouts of the Eye for a handful of rupees. This is how the Eye came to us. As it had been foreseen.”

  Right after he finished his little speech several muted rumbles could be heard. Anxiety crossed the faces of Georgie and the four guards. James’ swollen lips moved in a scarcely perceptible smile. His friends were not only alive and free but they were causing problems. If they had managed to implement their plan these blasts would be just the first wave. They had to put charges in some tunnels and blow them up. That would close important access ways to the lowest central zone of the base. It would also distract Rodnov’s guards. The last charges to be set off were the ones put in the chambers with the fuel and the chemicals. They were armed with timers so James and his colleagues could have enough time to get away from the danger zone.<
br />
  Another blast could be heard much closer.

  Georgie took a two-way radio out of his pocked and started speaking into it in Russian. A minute later he put the radio down and addressed the four men, “Prior is coming.”

  He walked to a small table, which James hadn’t noticed until now. On there were some folded clothes and an odd elongated hat with a square rim and a golden veil attached to it. Georgie dressed himself in a long black robe colored with vertical blue and red strips. He wrapped his waist with a yellow sash, took the hat under his arm, and then went back to James.

  “Nice outfit. I didn’t know you were a clown,” said James. His voice resonated with confidence but he had put in a strong effort to mask the sorrow and the pain burning his heart. James knew that the tall man dressing like that could mean only one thing: the time for the deadly ritual had come. James was not afraid of death, but he painfully regretted that he had given himself into their hands so easily.

  “Look at me, Mister Whiteway. I am Perfecty. My place is at the top of the World Mountain.” Georgie spoke fanatically. His eyes were shining and out of focus as if he’d been drugged. “When you see these colors, shapes …” with the fingers of his free hand, Georgie indicated the strips on his robe and the sash. He then put the hat on his head. “It means you see your death. Prior, who speaks for the Demiurge, is coming. He’ll send you where there is only eternal misery.”

  Georgie pressed a button on the chair and its back began to fall slowly until it became flat like a table. Desperately, James tried to free his wrists. The pain was almost unbearable but he continued pulling. He felt his blood wetting his fingers. Suddenly, he stopped straining his arms because in the distance he saw three figures sliding on ropes that were hanging from the cave’s ceiling. Despite his inconvenient position, James could make them out – Irina, Lao, and Lino.

  “Yes. Trying to escape is futile,” said Georgie who had noticed James’ struggle. He and the other four men were looking at James and still hadn’t seen the three descending figures.

  Georgie leaned over him holding a knife. He pulled James’ shirt up and uncovered his stomach. “When Prior finishes with you I personally will take out your organs,” said Georgie with a demonic smile. “I’ll use an embalming technique developed in Sumer, the last kingdom ruled by a Prior. You make a curved cut under the ribs … It starts from here …” Georgie began slowly driving the knife into James’ stomach. James again strained to free his arms. He felt his left hand moving against the chains. The grip of the right one was somehow tighter so he concentrated his effort on the left. The streaming blood from his hand served as a lubricant. James lifted the left part of his body as much as he could in order to cover his hand. For a brief second, while the knife was penetrating his body, his hand slipped beneath the chains. Suddenly, Georgie spotted what he was doing. He roared angrily and lifted the knife above James. James realized that he intended to drive it through his left forearm to nail it to the chair. Georgie’s hand was still in the air when the shots of a machine gun rang out. One bullet ripped through Georgie’s forehead, blood splashing over James. He applied all the strength he had to free his hand but it was stuck.

  The shooting continued louder than before. One of the four guards had also been killed. The other three fled to take cover behind the electric carts. From there they returned fire.

  James felt a hand grabbing his shoulder. He turned and saw Lino squatting next to him.

  “Are you okay?” shouted Lino, worryingly.

  “Yes. Take out the screws from the chains,” said James.

  “Doing it,” said Lino and he tried to unlock the chain holding James’ left wrist. As the screws wouldn’t come out, Lino rose up to be able to use more strength and pulled again.

  “Bend down!” shouted James. “Bend down …”

  Before he could finish, Lino took out the screw. Almost simultaneously, a cascade of bullets hit his chest. He fell on his back on the floor.

  “Lino!” shouted James. With his free hand, he removed the screws from the chain restraining his right arm and legs and bent down. He rested Lino’s head on his lap. Lino opened his eyes. A strained smile crossed his lips. With his bloody hand, he took the Russian maintenance tablet out of his jacket’s inner pocket and passed it to James. “Never … give up,” he uttered. His head dropped. James felt Lino’s body becoming heavier at once. His friend was gone.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  The Pamir Mountains, Tajikistan

  James held Lino’s pale face tightly for a few instants before carefully laying his head on the floor. He looked around and saw Irina and Lao hiding behind some metal chests.

  “Lino?” shouted Lao to him.

  James nodded. Some flashing lights on the wall next to the elevator-platform attracted his attention. The platform started to move upwards, the red light next to the lift was also indicating upward movement. Somebody from the upper floors had called them.

  Prior.

  Others would surely accompany him. If they entered the chamber, James and his friends had no chance of escape.

  James’ mind was working frantically. He ran across to the body of the dead guard and took his machine gun. James saw his own handgun and the maintenance bag on top of the table on which Georgie had placed his ritual clothes. James had kept the three grenades he took from Kabir’s arsenal in the bag. Leaning low, he approached the table and took his belongings. The grenades were still in there. James activated one of them, counted to four, and tossed it behind the electric carts. The grenade exploded. Moans of the dying could be heard. James waited a few more seconds. Only one machine gun resumed firing from over there. Without protecting himself, James dashed off ahead. The guard who had survived the blast was still shooting at Irina and Lao. He spotted James late. The guard tried to turn his weapon on James while at the same time changing his position, but James had already reached a point from where he had a clear shot on him. The guard left his cover and the bullets shot by Irina and Lao brought him down.

  James looked at the red light indicating the lift’s movement. It was creeping upwards. He heard Irina calling him but he didn’t have time to respond. He activated the remaining two grenades and ran towards the lift. The first grenade he threw over the rising platform, the second beneath the lift’s control panel. He then sheltered himself behind one of the electric carts. The two grenades exploded simultaneously and produced a rumbling echo in the chamber. The platform squeaked and stopped; the red indicator of the lift still twinkling but not moving up any more.

  “James, let’s get out of here. More of them will be coming,” shouted Irina.

  James followed them to the place where the ropes were hanging down. Upon approaching them, he saw a ventilation shaft in the ceiling about three meters in diameter. Half of its protective grating had been removed and the ropes were bound to the edge of the remaining part. Lao went up first. He helped Irina and then James by pulling up their ropes. Just before James reached the end of the rope, shots were fired up at him from a small group of people who had suddenly rushed into the chamber. James heard the bullets hissing upwards but they missed him.The shaft, about twenty meters in length, was made of joined concrete rings. Its upper end reached up into a wide, steep tunnel. There was a staircase of iron steps leading to it.

  As James stepped onto the grating, Irina was already climbing the steps.

  “Where are the others?... Malee?” James asked by fits and starts, his breathing still agitated by the rapid climb.

  “Sonam led Malee and the other girl back on our old route,” Lao answered. “You go up. I’ll pull up the ropes and shut the grating.”

  When James began climbing the steps, bullets started hitting inside the shaft. The people of the cult were beneath them shooting upwards. James reached the tunnel at the end of which Irina was waiting unharmed. Seconds after him, Lao too jumped inside. His right arm was hanging lifelessly. A bullet had gone through his shoulder.

  “I’m fine. Let’s
not waste time,” he said in response to their worried looks.

  Without saying a word, Irina took a bandage out of her backpack, removed Lao’s jacket, and wrapped up the wound. James used the brief pause to find a route using the tablet on which there was still some of Lino’s blood.

  “We have a path to the open from here,” he said.

  “I know. Lino found this way,” said Irina.

  James felt the grief mounting in his throat. He coughed. “How did you find me?” he asked.

  Irina shrugged. “We had to decide where they might have brought you. The central chamber was the logical option.”

  “Thank you for coming for me,” said James.

  “You’d have done the same … Right … done,” she said finishing up with the dressing of Lao’s wound.

  “How much time before the charges go off?” James asked her.

  Irina looked at her watch. “Fourteen and a half minutes.”

  James took a last look at the tablet’s display.

  “Run!” he said.

  * * *

  The blast came soon after their flashlights illuminated the opening at the end of the tunnel. They felt as though the whole mountain shook. Dust and stone started to fall down from the tunnel’s vaulted archway. They ran, manoeuvring between the bigger pieces.

  “Don’t stop,” shouted James when they came out. “We must get further away from the rocks.” By which he meant the towering cliffs in which the opening of the tunnel gaped.

  Night was about to fall, the clear sky had already lost its brightness. They were still running when the earth beneath their feet cracked. A mighty underground rumbling echoed off the surrounding stillness. A hill about five hundred meters from where they were suddenly began to sink. Several other hills that formed a range with the first one followed its movement down. Huge pieces of rock crashed downwards, rolling and clashing with each other chaotically. Above the area that the hill range had occupied seconds ago an enormous dark cloud erupted. A tiny object appeared out of the cloud like a shooting star. A roaring of aircraft engines could be heard before the sound and the craft itself diminished and then disappeared into the distance.