Everett stood and started walking once more to the west. The lights of the resort still lit the night around them and Carl felt exposed. Finally he spied the road that led up the steep mountain. He was surprised when he saw two men standing by the side of the trail leading to the road. They talked a moment and then a third man came up and said something to them and then the three left. Everett took a deep breath when he realized how close they had come to walking right into the two men. He shook his head and then waved Charlie forward, silently cursing his stupidity in worrying about the lights of the resort when he should have been concentrating.
“Why don’t we just use the road?” Charlie asked when Everett continued to use the thin trees for cover.
“Well, Doc, if we—”
Before Carl could answer Ellenshaw, the noise of men shouting broke through the nighttime silence. They both heard men running. Everett reached up and pulled Ellenshaw down and they both waited.
“It seems awfully crowded out here in the woods for it being almost dawn.”
Everett had to agree with Charlie on that point.
Suddenly there were two sets of boots standing just above the small ditch they had crawled into. Everett shook his head when Ellenshaw started to move. The men spoke in a foreign language and Everett knew that language was not Romanian. He had heard it just two days ago in Rome. The two men hurried away and Everett rolled over onto his back until his eyes could see the fading lights of the stars as it neared dawn.
“How in the hell did they know to come here?” Carl asked those disappearing stars.
Charlie was about to ask the captain to explain when they heard the yelp of a large dog. Then another pain-filled cry came bursting through the trees. They heard men shouting and then a woman screamed an obscenity.
Everett reached behind him and pulled out the nine-millimeter.
“Come on, Doc, this doesn’t sound good.”
“Hey, do you have a gun for me?” Charlie whispered as loud as he dared.
“Damn, I accidentally issued it to Pete Golding,” Everett joked, knowing that would irk Charlie to no end. Then Carl slowly moved out of the small drainage ditch and into the trees. Ellenshaw looked lost for a moment and then frowned.
“Pete!” he cursed under his breath and then started after the captain.
It took several minutes for the woods along the road and adjoining trail to calm down from the excitement moments earlier, Carl and Charlie managing to keep out of sight.
Everett had a chance to see several of the men up close and he could see that they were not professional soldiers or even militarily trained. They acted like hired men from various professions and that made his job that much easier, as he could track the noisy men without being seen or heard.
After a long wait behind one of the larger pine trees, which were becoming far more sparse the nearer to the mountain they got, they watched eleven men as they started returning to the road in the same place they were before all the commotion began. All but one man, Carl corrected himself. This man silently stood his ground and listened to the early morning sounds.
In the weak light of dawn, Carl had a feeling of déjà vu as he watched the dark form standing just ahead of him and Charlie. The tall, thin man placed a hand on the tree and listened, and then suddenly vanished. Everett raised his head a little and tried to find out where the familiar form had disappeared to when he heard something. It was a small cry of pain as someone stumbled in the dim light of morning. Everett gestured for Charlie Ellenshaw to hold his ground and the professor nodded that he understood.
Carl moved slowly away from the last protected spot he had for a hundred yards. He kept close to the ground as he headed toward a large boulder that had tumbled from the mountain sometime in the past thousand years. Everett realized as he ran stooped over that he wasn’t getting enough exercise as he struggled to keep bent at the waist. Finally he placed his hands on the giant stone and knelt to catch his breath. He had felt exposed in the dawn light and knew he had been foolish to try to get as close as he could to where he thought the noise had originated. He finally controlled his breathing enough that he could listen. He heard the birds singing their morning songs and several of them even sprang from the trees above them. But of the strange noise he had heard, there was nothing.
Carl was about to turn away when he heard another cry and then a curse as someone was pushed from the small thatch of trees fifty feet beyond where Everett had pulled up.
“Traveling with a child has never been Mossad policy, Major Sorotzkin, you should know that.”
Carl saw the man and then the woman and boy. The child wasn’t the same but the woman was Anya Korvesky—the Mossad agent from Rome. And the man who held the two at gunpoint was the very same colonel that had tried to kill him and Ryan in the small antique shop near Vatican City.
“Well, imagine meeting you two here,” Carl muttered as he turned to make sure Charlie was still in his spot behind the large tree. His eyes widened when he saw that Ellenshaw wasn’t there. He hissed at having lost the professor. He angrily turned back to the strange scene ahead of him in the growing light. He then turned and made sure that the men who had left the area earlier were not returning. He guessed the arrogant man holding the woman and child at gunpoint thought he could handle this alone—which was right in line with Carl’s innovative plans.
“Did you not think we had the resources to trace your movements? All we had to do was watch General Shamni. Our people knew at the precise moment that the general discovered where you would be going. Did you know that he’s assembled a strike team, which means I have very little time to expose the truth of this mountain to all of Israel, or the most important of those people anyway.”
Everett watched the girl knowing she was fast and light on her feet. But as he did he knew she wouldn’t do anything to risk the life of the boy who clung to her.
“That will be the day when scum like you thinks he has a real soldier like General Shamni figured out.” The woman stopped walking but kept her hands where Colonel Ben-Nevin could see them. “I may not be his favorite right now, but he’s a man who loves his country, and you couldn’t think like him if your life depended on it.”
Ben-Nevin ignored the slight. “Now, where is that magnificent animal that saved you on the train? I must see the beast and know that the old tales are true.” He smiled knowing his captives couldn’t see it. “Because if the animals are real that means that other, more viable legends are also true.”
“Mikla died this afternoon in his sleep. He was too badly injured from a broken ankle that became infected.”
“This is a shame. I was looking forward to dispatching the animal myself and then mounting its head on my office wall.”
“You couldn’t outthink or outfight Mikla with an army of mercenaries.”
Ben-Nevin smirked, a gesture that Everett saw from his hiding place behind the large boulder. Then Carl winced angrily when the colonel shoved the woman in the back viciously with the barrel of his gun. She didn’t let out a sound as she was pushed forward, dragging the young boy with her. They stumbled and fell to the ground and Ben-Nevin moved to kick at the two prone forms.
Everett was just standing with his weapon held with both hands as he took quick aim at the colonel before he could bring his foot down on the defenseless woman. Suddenly he felt the sharp jab of a weapon as it was poked painfully into his spine.
“Don’t move,” came a heavily accented voice in English.
The sudden noise didn’t stop the kick that was delivered to Anya as she squeezed her eyes shut against the pain in her kidneys as the boot dug deeply into her. The boy, as brave as he could be, threw himself over Anya and waited for his turn. Ben-Nevin however had his attention drawn away by something beyond Anya’s hearing. She managed to raise her head and see a man walking toward them and from her skewed viewpoint the man walking with his hands up looked familiar. She felt the air part as Colonel Ben-Nevin stepped over her and her nephew
.
“This is fortuitous, I must say.”
Everett was angry but he tried his best to hold it in check after being caught unawares by the two men who had managed to get behind him without him knowing it. He figured these two or more like them had also gotten poor Ellenshaw and that was why he wasn’t by the tree. Carl felt as if he had let Charlie down by leaving him behind.
In the early morning light Everett saw Colonel Ben-Nevin turn from him to look at the woman he had just kicked. She was looking up at Carl and he could see her eyes shift as she recognized him from Vatican City.
“Is that the way you treat women where you come from, dickhead?” Everett said as the weapon at his spine was shoved a little harder at his insult. He half turned to the men behind him. “As for you, that damn thing has bullets; I suggest you use them instead of trying to skewer me with the barrel.” That elicited another sharp jab.
“Are all you Americans so arrogant?” Ben-Nevin asked as he moved toward the three men. He gestured for the man with the AK-47 at Carl’s back to back away, not out of any consideration for the captain but the fact that Ben-Nevin didn’t want anyone too close to this man. He had seen him in action and had respect for anyone that can move as quickly as he had seen this man do. The two men took a step back and Everett was grateful for the relief and the maneuvering room in case an opportunity presented itself.
“Just the ones I know,” Carl answered as he glanced behind to see how far away the two men were. They were better than he thought, standing out of arm’s reach.
“Witty. Do you have a name, or just a number?” Ben-Nevin asked.
“I have a name, but only my mama’s allowed to use it. You can just call me Popeye the Sailor.”
Ben-Nevin raised his pistol but didn’t aim it at Everett but just waved it slowly back and forth to make sure the large American saw the weapon.
“All right, Mr. Popeye, where is the funny-looking white-haired man you came into the hills with?”
“White-haired man? You guys must have seen a ghost because I—”
The AK-47 butt plate to the back of Carl’s ribs ended his reply before it was finished as he went to his knees from the impact. He felt his breath leave his lungs and then he heard a woman’s voice ask Ben-Nevin to stop. Everett shook his head and then managed with some difficulty to take in a breath of air. He slowly glanced back at the man who had delivered the blow. He was standing behind him with a look of satisfaction on his face. The man’s accomplice reached down and pulled Everett to his feet where he did his best to steady himself as air slowly returned.
“You guys from the Middle East don’t have a sense of humor do you?” Everett said as it felt as if his ribs shifted back to the right spot inside his body.
“I am not the kind that will stand here and bandy words with you, Mr. Popeye. I will ask once more who you are and who you report to. If you do not answer, as you draw your next painful breath the very next sound you hear will be that bullet you requested earlier as it enters the back of your head.”
“My name is Popeye and I work for a man named Wimpy, and I hate him because he never pays me for my hamburgers.”
“Shoot this man,” Ben-Nevin said as he angrily turned away from the American to concentrate on the woman and the boy.
Everett knew he was had so he made ready to at least go down without the bullet-to-the-head thing. He would rather go out with his hands wrapped around the throat of the man who had hit him from behind.
Carl tensed as he started to spring, but before he could move he heard a loud whack and then an even louder grunt. Then another swish sounded in the morning air and after that a loud, painful yelp came as Everett rose and saw that Charlie Ellenshaw had came up from behind the two men and coldcocked them with a large tree branch. Now Ellenshaw stood there with the branch in his hands looking as if he had done something horribly wrong. It was as if he was sorrowful for hitting the men as hard as he had. Everett ignored him and reached for the fallen AK-47.
Ben-Nevin turned at the unusual sound and then his eyes widened when he saw the very man he had just asked the American about. He was standing with a large limb and the other American was reaching for one of the fallen weapons. The Mossad colonel quickly brought up his own weapon and just when he thought he had a shot at the American a sharp pain raced from his leg to his brain in record speed. When the shock settled he looked down and saw a small knife sticking from his left leg. As he brought the weapon over and around he saw that another small boy had once more saved the day for the man and the woman—at least momentarily. The gun went to the boy and that was when his legs were knocked out from under him by Anya, who had kicked out at the last moment before the weapon discharged in her nephew’s face.
Ben-Nevin hit the ground and he immediately felt the gun fly from his hand. He rolled as fast as he could before the large American could aim the weapon he had recovered. He rolled until he felt his body hit an incline and then the speed of his roll increased. Ben-Nevin finally came to a stop and before anyone could take quick aim at him he stood and vanished into the trees.
Carl had tried to raise the automatic weapon and at least try a shot at the escaping colonel, but one of the men Charlie had laid waste to came to and grabbed Everett’s ankle, stopping the aimed shot before he could pull the trigger. Carl hissed and then easily turned the AK-47 around and thumped the man on the head.
“That’s for the hit in the ribs,” he said as he started to turn away and then turned and hit the man again with the butt plate. “And that’s for waking up at the wrong time.” The man crumpled and stayed down.
Charlie Ellenshaw was wide-eyed as he watched an angry Captain Everett turn away and walk toward the fallen woman and boy. He gingerly stepped over the two men he had hit with the branch, which he still clutched. As he stepped over the men he tossed the branch away and his eyes widened when he saw the other AK-47 lying beside the man. He reached for the weapon just as Everett reached for it and removed it just as it touched Charlie’s outstretched fingers.
“Sorry, Doc, this isn’t an M-16, it’s far more sensitive and one shock to my back is enough for one evening.”
“Damn,” Ellenshaw hissed as Carl turned away once more.
Everett saw the woman as she slowly rose to her feet. He turned and made sure no more surprises were imminent and then he removed the magazine from the weapon he held and looked at the loads. He reinserted the clip and then took in the woman.
“Looks like you had a rough trip?” he said. He didn’t exactly aim the barrel of the AK-47 directly at Anya, but it wasn’t pointed in the opposite direction either. Even the boy was scrutinized by Everett. It had been he who eventually saved Carl’s life and that demanded respect.
The woman didn’t say anything as she helped the boy to his feet. She looked around and then faced the captain.
“He will be back with more men, I must leave.” She started to turn the boy away but Everett made sure she heard the safety being removed from the automatic weapon he now held on her. She turned angrily. “We must leave; he wants you as much as me. The colonel will be relentless, he has no choice now. He intends to kill you and anyone else in his way.”
Everett raised the barrel of the weapon toward the sky away from Anya. She nodded her head in a quasi-thank-you motion and then pulled the boy further into the trees they had initially been hiding in when they had been discovered by Ben-Nevin.
Carl followed the woman, the boy, and Charlie about two hundred yards further into the hills. Finally he spied the road that led upward toward the strange-looking castle and the pass above it.
“Aren’t we a little too close to the road?” Carl asked as Anya finally stopped and looked around her at the early morning landscape. “I would think that Ben-Nevin and his friends would use this to track you, I mean it’s the most expedient route.”
The woman looked at Carl. “The colonel would never be stupid enough to expose himself on the open road on this mountain. This is the one place on e
arth that is not controlled by men from the outside … no, we have to cross the road here and retrieve something I left behind.”
“What in the hell is so important that you would risk—”
Everett became angry when Anya Korvesky sprinted across the road with the boy close behind. They soon vanished behind a small wall of stacked rocks.
“Damn it!” Everett said as he gestured for Ellenshaw to follow him across. The two men made it without anyone seeing them. Carl hopped deftly over the stone wall and was followed by Charlie, who hit the wall and flew over headfirst landing squarely on his chin.
“Jesus, Doc, can you make any more noise?” Carl said as he tried to see where Anya and the boy had disappeared to.
“Sorry, misjudged the height somewhat.”
“Damn, if I lost that woman again…” Everett muttered and then left the sentence unfinished. “Doc, did you hear that colonel ask the woman about an animal?”
“I must have missed that,” Charlie said as he looked for the girl along with the captain.
“Well, we can’t find them by staying put, let’s go this way,” Everett said as he pulled Ellenshaw to his feet, but before they could take a step he saw the woman not ten feet from them just standing and looking at them.
“If we are not to be caught again you two will have to travel with a little more stealth than what you’ve shown you are capable of.”
“Sorry, I’m afraid it’s my fault, I’m not a real field—”
“That’s enough, Doc. She has learned just about all that I care to give her for the moment. At least until she can explain why she was trying to out our agent in Vatican City.”
“I wasn’t outing him as you so quaintly put it. I was trying to discover what he had learned about the pass and my people. That is what I do.”
“Yes, I believe you’re part of a tribe called the Jeddah. Why you’re part of Mossad is something we have yet to learn.”
“And suddenly, you, whoever you are, know quite a bit about a subject that absolutely fewer than a hundred men and women outside this mountain have ever heard. Perhaps I was watching the wrong contact at the Vatican. Maybe I should have let the young priest be and waited to follow you, especially since you’re quite the historian.” The woman took two steps backward into the trees and vanished.
Carpathian: Event Book 08 Page 32