Somewhere high in the Patinas Pass the first howl of the night was heard. It echoed through the pass and down the mountain making the night animals scurry for the cover of burrow or nest.
* * *
The five men stopped and listened.
“Don’t tell me that was a dog, damn it, I know a wolf when I hear one,” one of the men hissed from his position across the hard-packed road.
“Silence!” the Russian hissed as he scanned the area ahead with his night-vision scope mounted on the Springfield. He could see nothing but swaying bushes caused by the wind. It was virtually impossible to see actual movement around them.
The men continued moving slowly up both sides of the road. Every six feet the Russian would hold the scope to his right eye and scan ahead. As he did, movement in the small batch of trees ahead caught his attention. He saw a flash of black on black as something he could not clearly see shot up a large tree and then vanished as if it had never been there. The man’s experience in hunting dangerous prey made his hackles rise as he sensed the danger. As he lowered the rifle and scope he saw that the Romanians were starting to bunch together. He had seen this before not only hunting but also when he was serving in the Soviet army in Afghanistan in the eighties: men tended to bunch together like frightened cattle.
“Two of you into the woods on your side, go on, get over there, and you take this side and you and I will take the middle of the road and cover both sides with the scope.” The man who had been doing the interpreting nodded his head, as he was relieved to be near the man with the night-vision capability.
The men stood their ground only for a moment and then decided it was probably safer to face a maddened sheep dog than the Russian. They did as ordered, only at their own slow speed.
The Russian paused as the men broke into their teams. Finally he raised the rifle and scope to cover the sheer walls of rock rising on both sides of the road. The man he was supposed to meet should have been here. His instructions had been clear—stop and wait before he arrived too close to the highest point—the pass itself. Zallas had warned him that if he went further it was on his own head.
“What is that?” the Romanian asked in a hushed tone.
“Music. Yes, it must be music from above us in the pass. Listen. I even hear a violin, bells, no a tambourine, guitars and … now it’s gone.”
“Are they having a village party up there? How can we hear the approach of anyone with that kind of noise—?”
The Russian felt the hot wetness strike the side of his face and the blast of air as something broke from the tree line and struck. He was knocked off his feet as he tried in vain to bring the muzzle of the Springfield to bear. The Romanian hunter was gone. One of his loosely tied boots was still in the roadway as the Russian fought to regain his feet. He swiped at the wetness that covered the whole of his right side. The blood smelled coppery, enough so that the large man slammed his hand into his pants to swipe the sticky liquid from his skin. He tried to raise the rifle but a loud thump from his left made him turn.
“Oomph,” was the only sound made as a man vanished upside down up a large, thick pine.
The frightened hunter next to him stumbled backward as he aimed quickly and fired his old rifle up the tree. The report was loud in the darkness but not so loud as you could hear the man taken scream in pain as the bullet struck him somewhere in the bowels of the giant tree. Still lying on his back, the hunter fired again into the tree. As he took aim for a third shot a loud thump was heard and he felt the ground move as his companion’s lifeless, headless body slammed the hard-packed ground. As the hunter opened his mouth in a soundless scream he heard the trees around them and the cliffs above them come to life with movement. Dark shapes darted in and out of the rocks and trees. Some of the shadows were the size of a normal man, while the others were far blacker shapes and were even larger.
The two men covering the right side of the road were frozen just a few feet off the hardpan track. Try as they might their eyes could not penetrate the thick woods and rocks. The moon was starting to play tricks on their minds and vision as it started to mix with the trees and the mist that was starting to settle onto the ground from the mountain above them. It was as if God had sent a cloud down to cover the hunters like a death shroud.
“The tales about these mountains are true, I knew it,” one of the men said as he aimed into the night.
“Wait until you see something, you idiot,” the large Russian said as he manhandled the man from the left into the group of two. “And make sure you shoot at an animal and not the man I have come here to see.”
“We are two men down here, I think shooting into the trees right now and running may be the best recourse available to us. Of course we don’t have your experience,” one of the more brave hunters said as his eyes went left, right, and then left again.
“Calm down!” the Russian almost screamed as he himself was losing his confidence about delivering the message in his breast pocket to the man who controls the pass. “We will head back to the vehicles. Zallas can deliver his own messages.”
The other three men didn’t need persuading; they turned as one and started back down the road.
Before ten steps were taken the Golia were seen for the first time. They came from cracks in the stone wall to the right and left of the frightened hunters. They jumped from a hundred feet high in the air from the treetops, bounding from tree to tree only to hit the ground hard and then scramble to their feet. As the Russian raised his rifle to shoot, the animals all vanished. The leader of the remaining men lowered the scoped weapon to get a broader view of the road and the ground mist as it started to cover everything.
“Oh my God,” said one of the men in Romanian.
All four turned and saw the shape rise from the rolling mountain mist. The beast rose until it seemed it was looking down upon them like some vengeful god making ready to vent its wrath. The darkened shape was completely upright and its arms were held at its massively muscled sides. The animal breathed in and out deeply, creating a hollow, boiler sound that made the men’s hearts freeze. Its yellow, inner-glowing eyes found each man in turn. As the muzzle opened and its teeth were bared the men could see steam roll from the open orifice. The beast laid its long ears back and the black shape dipped its knees and then let loose a howl that shook the earth and awakened men five miles away who were asleep soundly in beds.
As the men closed their eyes against the onslaught of noise it ceased as quickly as it had started. The men looked around and saw that the giant of an animal was gone just as if it had never been there. The night around them had become as quiet as any of the men had ever experienced.
The Russian swallowed and then looked down at his American-made rifle and decided that he wasn’t armed very well for this sort of action. As he lowered the powerful weapon he heard the deep voice from the woods and the rocks and it froze his blood. The Romanians heard their language being spoken and the Russian his native tongue. If any of them had figured out that they were each hearing differing languages they would never have stopped believing in the magic that was the Carpathians.
The Russian hastily reached into his fur coat and brought out the item he was given by Zallas. He held it in the air and then tossed it into the middle of the hardpan road.
“I have brought what you requested. It is signed by Mr. Zallas himself. You made your point and he now wants these attacks to stop. The papers for the ownership of these mountains will arrive in the next two days from the capital.”
“Tell the Russian he has been warned one last time. The transaction has to be complete before certain of my family members arrive back into the pass. If not, our deal is off and we will retake what has been given to us by God. Do you understand my words, Slav?”
“Yes … yes … we will give him your message.”
“Not we, Slav, the Walachians will remain here with me. They have crossed into territory forbidden to them and they will not live to tell the tale. Now leave,
Slav, deliver unto Pharaoh that warning.”
Without hesitation and very confused over the reference to ancient Egypt, the Russian turned and started running blindly down the mountain. The Romanians saw this and froze as the night around them became a liquid sea of black shapes as they made their way down the craggy sides of the mountain. The hunters turned and started running after their employer.
The night once more turned silent and, far off in the distance, traveling the length of the mountain and filtering through the trees from the Patinas Pass high above, they all heard the sound of violins, tambourines, and guitars. Lost in the mix of sounds old, new, and very ancient, the men that had accompanied the message to the pass began to scream. The Golia did what they have always done—secure the safety of the people and themselves.
The Carpathian Mountains had truly awakened for the first time since ancient Rome ruled the known world.
* * *
Miles down the mountain, past the workers installing the last of the supplies for the new Dracula’s Castle, and even further down the mountainside to the resort—the Edge of the World—men and women turned to each other and for no other reason than an ingrained memory caught and expanded in their brains, they knew that something was out in the woods and mountains—things that men were not meant to see and the ancient memory of a time when man was not atop the food chain, things that once ruled the mountains were now loosed upon them once again.
Dmitri Zallas was being shown the interior of the casino and the plush accommodations of the hotel above. All the masonry was done in gothic-style prefabricated stone building materials that made the entire facility look as if it could have stepped from a novel of the dark ages. As Zallas was led on the tour by his junior partner, Janos Vajic, and his operations manager, Gina Louvinski, he was pleased with the staff training classes that were currently under way in the four-star restaurant and the inside the casino. The entire hotel staff was being flown in from Prague where Janos Vajic owned another property. Needless to say staffing a private party for twenty-two hundred guests was costing the partnership close to $18 million just for staff, food, and beverage, and that’s not counting the money the resort would lose in room revenue.
As the trio stopped just short of the waterfall that led into the giant dome and the world’s most expensive garden atrium, Zallas looked around at the private army of botanists and gardeners as they were also into their final preparations for the party two days hence.
“Now, how are we progressing on my pride and joy?” Zallas held up his hand when Vajic started to speak. “The short version, please, my friend.”
“The castle is complete. The food and beverage department delivered the last of their supplies this morning by cable car, whose operation made the final push to completion possible. We were wearing resort vehicles out running up and down that mountain.”
“Good, good. Now, may I see this marvelous cable car system that’s the engineering envy of every designer in the world?”
“Yes, this way to the elevator.”
As Zallas made his way past palms and many more plants that had no right to be in the desolate Carpathian Mountains, he saw the most expensive escalator system ever devised. It was wide at the base and narrow as it climbed the six stories to the top of the dome where the hotel’s guests could see the broad expanse of the atrium and the casino beyond through the eighty-five-foot-high glass partition. As they rode the glass elevator to the top Vajic and Gina could see that they had impressed their Russian gangster. The elevator opened and the trio stepped out onto a broad expanse that resembled something like a subway platform only far more extensively appointed.
“My goodness, brother Vajic, this is impressive.”
Zallas saw the richly decorated forty-five-foot-long car. Everything mechanical on the cable system was hidden with what looked like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. The sheer rock covering the opening to the four cable cars themselves looked as if it were a giant cave opening. Two long, rich mahogany-paneled cars were placed on the downhill side and two more on the opposite uphill side, which could not be seen from where they stood. The cars sat in what looked like one of the naturally formed cave systems the Carpathians are famous for. The caves were engineered to house the cars and give the hotel guests a small taste of Disneyland as they boarded the cars for the three-mile climb to the nightclub.
“You and your lovely assistant have done a splendid job, brother Vajic. I anticipate no problems this weekend; you have set my mind at ease.”
Vajic looked from his partner to Gina and then grimaced as he knew the subject had to be broached before the inspection of the property was complete. As Vajic pointed out the massively thick cable lines that were needed to support such heavy and richly appointed cars, he dared bring up the touchy aspect of opening in two days.
“Dmitri, I hesitate to ask but what of the attacks above the castle?”
“The supposed attacks you mean?” Zallas shot back as he stepped into the nearest cable car and walked over to the bar tucked in the corner and rummaged around and then found what he was looking for. He poured a drink of expensive vodka and then fixed the resort owner with a stare that had frightened many men from St. Petersburg to Chechnya.
“These men you have sent up the mountain, will they solve this problem or are we going to have to bring in added security for the one night the castle is open for your guests?”
Zallas downed the vodka and then poured another. He stepped from behind the bar and paced to one of the large windows at the end of the car. He slid the window open and took in a deep breath of the air that filtered in from the outside. If he leaned over just enough he could see through the rear of the cave’s opening and barely see Castle Dracula sitting three miles up the mountain. The lights were blazing and the night was still.
“I will have all of the extra security you will need. My guests…” Zallas hesitated and then smiled before downing his second large vodka. “My guests are the type of gentlemen,” he bowed toward Gina, “and ladies, that feel more comfortable away from authority but well protected in their pursuit of enjoyment. They will have their own security, but we will be covering their security with our security.”
“The attacks?” Vajic persisted, not showing how the information that every man and woman would be armed to the teeth inside his hotel scared him more than any children’s stories.
“Stop worrying about fairy tales, Vajic. I have made several inquiries, even before I sent the hunters up the mountain. There have not been any wolf sightings in these mountains for two hundred years. It seems the locals wiped them out because they favor sheep over monsters.”
“Then why did you send the hunters up there to hunt animals that don’t live in the mountains any longer?”
Zallas turned from the open window and took in both his partner and the general manager. The Russian gangster waved a hand in front of his face as if he were a magician.
“Ooh, the true mastery is one of illusion, my brother. Make people believe they are safe and it usually turns out they are. Give them confidence that they will be taken care of.”
“They don’t intend to hunt?” Vajic asked, looking from the ruffian Russian to Gina, who couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Hunt what, Janos? A sheep dog that’s mad at the world? A maniac that’s been driven mad by tending sheep for fifty years that lives in one of those remote villages up there? No, my man will deliver what was needed to another mere man up in the pass and there you have it, problem solved.”
“Dmitri, what we have here is a real problem with the staff: they hear the rumors and the people in this area tend to believe the old tales of the southern Carpathians.”
“Enough!” Zallas said as he tossed Gina his empty glass. “There is nothing mysterious up in those mountains. All you have is the superstition of a backward people that never knew the last century just ended. Vajic, there is nothing up there but men and women with the same weaknesses as everyone else in t
he world!”
As they stood by the open window of the cable car they all heard it.
Vajic looked out the window but the view from the small opening was limited. He could see the base of the castle but that was all. The tremendous howl of an animal that no longer existed in the deep mountains seemed to come from further up, closer to the Patinas Pass. Vajic straightened and then looked at his partner.
“That thing that can’t possibly exist just answered the question for us.”
“Can you feel it?” Gina asked as she stepped toward the open window.
“Feel what?” Zallas asked.
“Something has changed here. It’s like the mountains have come alive after many years of hibernation.”
“Oh, for the love of Stalin, am I going to have to get replacements up here for everyone who believes this crap?” an angry Zallas said as he turned and stormed out of the cable car. That left Vajic looking at Gina and they both knew that this was going to be a very stress-filled weekend ahead of them. The two followed the Russian. “Listen, the people we purchased these agreements from live up there. I am the only man here to handle them. I need certain information against these people and then we can move to secure the rest of the land.”
“The rest of the land?” Vajic asked as he tried to keep up with Zallas.
“Do you think we stop at the castle, my friend? No, no. I have visions of an all-encompassing resort with the finest ski runs in all of Europe.”
“The Patinas Pass?” Gina asked as she lowered her ever-present clipboard from her ample chest, sending the eyes of the Russian mobster down to her blouse. “It is my understanding that those villagers up there have no intention of selling or granting access to that area.”
“That is my worry, not yours. After this weekend I suspect that many attitudes in and out of the mountains will be changing for the better.”
Carpathian: Event Book 08 Page 15