“Not off the top of my head, no,” Tommy shook his head.
Sean pulled out his smart phone and quickly typed in a few words into his Google app. A light breeze passed through the area again, carrying with it the scent of the city mixed with the familiar smell of rain. The wind picked up slightly and was joined by a few raindrops. A few seconds later, he was reading an information page about the verse written in the stone tree. “It says, ‘Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the Tree of Life and go through the gates of the city.” A few more raindrops began to spatter the ground and the sculpture. The breeze whipped up again, stronger than before. “What do you think it means, Schultzie?”
“May I suggest we figure this out inside?” Mauricio interrupted.
The others nodded and jogged across the courtyard to the doors they’d come through a few minutes before. Once they were inside the shelter of the church, the rain started pouring in earnest almost instantly. The men brushed the water off their arms as they looked around, once again in the entryway of the church.
“Wash their robes,” Tommy muttered under his breath, still trying to figure out the meaning of the text. He put his hand to his mouth, focusing on the thinly carpeted floor.
“What robes?” Mauricio asked. “Priest’s robes? Where do they keep priest’s robes?”
“Those would be in an office somewhere in the building,” Sean answered. The expression on his face showed that the gears in his mind had started turning.
Tommy shook his head slowly. “I don’t think we’re looking for robes,” he contradicted the thought.
“No?” Mauricio questioned.
“No. The verse said that those who wash their robes will have the right to enter the gates. There are two parts to the riddle there, but the robes are not one of them. The verse is referring to common people. So the robes are a figure of speech. It could be any clothes a common person would wear. It wouldn’t even have to be clothes. The act of washing is the important part.”
“So what are we looking for, then?” Sean asked.
Tommy stared beyond where his friend was standing, toward the entrance of the sanctuary. Beneath the arched doorway and to the left, a large baptismal font made of stone sat on the floor just in front of the threshold. Strange engravings surrounded the outside of the container’s lip. Beneath the odd symbols, pictures of people were carved into the stone. They were in a line as if they were waiting for something. Tommy walked past his comrades to get a better view of the front of the object. As he got closer, his suspicions were confirmed. The others watched him as he went over to the large bowl and got down on one knee. He traced a shape with his finger. The men joined him, looking at the engraving from behind where he knelt. “Baptism,” he whispered. “All the people here,” he pointed to the line of patrons on the stone, “they are waiting for baptism. Baptism makes the sinner clean. And gives them the right to,” he pointed to another, familiar shape in the stone, “the Tree of Life.”
The gun’s sights followed the first guard. Hunter’s finger tightened slightly on the trigger. He would have only a second to take out the other guard as soon as he dropped the first.
Raindrops started pattering the leaves in the tree overhead. A large gust of wind rolled through the plaza. Carlson could see the guard on the other side of the SUV through the tinted windows. The man was about to clear the back end of it and would be in the open. The other guy on his cell phone would only hear a muffled pop from the sound suppressor and in his confusion would be an easy target.
Suddenly, the rain picked up as if a faucet in the sky had been turned on. The guard he was targeting stopped moving and looked up. Then he turned back around and got in the front passenger side of the truck.
The other man did the same, effectively ruining Hunter’s plans. He didn’t have a clear shot. But maybe the storm would be to his advantage. He could take out one man in the rear vehicle then take out the other. With the noise of the pouring rain falling on trucks, they wouldn’t hear anything. Plus the guard in the front SUV was still on his cell phone. Hunter decided to make the best of the situation and scurried quickly over to the rear of the second SUV, careful to stay low as he moved.
Tommy’s theory made sense, Sean thought as he ran his finger along the rim of the baptismal font. He still had a question, though. “What do these symbols mean?” he asked.
His friend stood from his kneeling position.
“I have no idea. They look similar to some of the things we saw from the pictures of Crespi’s collection.” He took out his smart phone and started taking pictures of the object.
“What are you doing?” Will wondered.
“We may need to investigate this further at some point.” Schultz took a few more pictures then placed the phone back in his front pocket.
“Now what do we do?” Mauricio asked.
The rain was coming down hard outside, evidenced by the deep sound of it hitting the roof overhead. The low droll echoed through the hallway and throughout the sanctuary.
This time, Sean got down on one knee and started looking at the floor surrounding the font. He didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. “It isn’t bolted down or anything,” he stated after a minute of investigation.
“You think we need to move it?” Will asked.
Sean tilted his head and shrugged. “I mean, yeah. We’ll move it back.” He smiled as he said it.
Mauricio was already on task, stepping over to one side of the container and rolling up his sleeves. The other three joined in, with Sean and Will on the opposite side of Mauricio and Tommy, pulling it while the other two pushed. All four men strained against the weight of the object. The stone font turned out to be much heavier than at first suspected. Mauricio leaned on the container, pushing hard with his shoulder against the edge.
“I suppose,” Sean strained to talk through clenched teeth as he pulled, “it would be out of the question to take the holy water out?”
“Probably,” Tommy answered sarcastically as he continued to push with all his strength. The heavy stone basin started to move slightly, sliding on the smooth carpet surface.
“Keep pushing, guys; we almost have it,” Sean announced.
A deep rumble echoed through the floor beneath them as they moved the object.
After a few more seconds of heaving, Tommy looked down and saw an opening where the base of the container had been. It was a small round hole about six inches in diameter. He and the others stopped heaving as they all noticed the same strange cavity in the floor.
Tommy got down on his hands and knees and tried to peer into the dark space.
“See anything?” Sean asked as he and the others crowded around the little area.
Schultz said nothing. Instead, he reached his hand into the opening. The others silently watched, mesmerized by the moment, the sound of the rain the only noise filling the facility. Tommy’s arm was into the hole up to his elbow, and he was feeling around for something.
“Is there anything in there?” Will asked.
This time, Schultz nodded. A second later he pulled his hand out. Firmly gripped within it was a simple wooden cylinder, about six inches long and two inches in diameter. The surface of the round caramel-colored container was smooth; there appeared to be a cap on one end. Tommy inspected the piece thoroughly before looking again at what had first caught his eye on the lid of the cylinder. Some numbers and letters had been burned into the top reading, II Kings 5:10.
Sean was already on it, looking up the information on his phone.
Mauricio had decided to wander over to the window to take a look outside and check on his men. It was hard to see through the downpour. Both guards had apparently taken shelter in the black SUVs. Then, across the other side of the plaza, headlights from three vehicles came into view. They looked like they were in a hurry. No doubt it was the team of agents that had been watching them before. “Gentlemen,” he announced in a serious tone, “we have company.
”
Hunter was about to make his move toward the first guard when he saw the beams from the headlights coming from behind. He figured it would only be a matter of time until the group of assassins caught up, though he thought it would take them a little longer. Now he was caught in the middle with nowhere to run. The trucks whipped into the square and were coming around the corner. He had to act fast. So he did the only thing he could think of. He dove underneath the nearest vehicle. Since he was already soaking wet from the monsoon-like rain, he didn’t care that he was lying in a puddle. He just hoped that between the rain, the curb, and the SUV, no one would see him under there. The first vehicle in line pulled up about thirty feet behind just after he scuttled underneath.
“Stop right here,” Angela commanded. The driver obeyed, halting the SUV immediately. Two black trucks were parked directly in front of them. She couldn’t believe their luck. Somehow they’d managed to catch up.
It looked that the vehicle closest to them had someone inside; the faintly dark silhouette was somewhat distinct, even with the blurring of the falling rain. She quickly surveyed the building’s exterior. Without any prior planning, they wouldn’t be able to cover all of the exits. The church was too large, and there were too many possibilities. Splitting up and searching the building was their best move. “We’ll have to split up and search the place,” she said to the driver who was obviously awaiting instructions. She touched her earpiece and spoke into her microphone. “Team, this is Agent Weaver. I am in charge now. Our plan of attack is to go in through the front and split up by vehicle. My group will go forward and search the sanctuary and anything else straight ahead. We need Schultz alive. Kill the others.” She divided up the remaining men into two groups. Group one, she ordered to search the left part of the building. The other half were to go right.
“Don’t we have one of our own with them?” the driver asked.
“Not anymore,” she said coldly.
Will noticed the headlight beams flash on the walls and stepped over to the window. A quick look through revealed the three vehicles pulling in behind their own. He’d wondered how long it would take Angela and James to catch up. He watched as the group in the last vehicle opened their doors and stepped out into the rainy night.
Mauricio pulled his gun from inside his jacket. He touched an earpiece and said something quickly in Spanish then cracked open the front door.
“We need to hurry, gentlemen.” He stated the obvious.
“Got any more of those secret passages?” Sean asked, only a little hopeful.
His big friend turned around for a second, smiling at the sarcastic remark. “Not this time, amigo.”
Sean stepped quickly to the door and looked out at the scene in the street. Without warning, Mauricio’s guard in the second SUV opened his door and fired his weapon toward the new vehicles. A round caught one of the men in the stomach, sending him to his knees. The man behind the fallen assailant froze momentarily before lurching behind the second truck in their caravan. Mauricio’s guard in the front vehicle poked out of the driver’s side of his car and squeezed off four shots. One of the bullets caught a target’s shoulder, and the man fell backward behind the cover of his SUV.
Mauricio had an excellent vantage point in the doorway of the church. Calmly, he raised his weapon and aimed.
All hell had broken loose, and there wasn’t a thing that Hunter Carlson could do about it. He had his gun in hand, ready to fire in any direction. Bullet casings fell near him onto the wet pavement as the guard in the car above continued to lay down a consistent barrage toward the newcomers. He watched as one man took a bullet in the stomach and collapsed to the ground, writhing in agony. Then he saw three others jump behind one of the other trucks behind his position. He could see their legs and feet but not much else. A different-sounding gun fired from the direction of the church. Hunter looked back and saw one of the attackers who’d taken cover behind the second car had fallen to the pavement. The man wasn’t moving. A shot rang out again, and another of the men fell backward but managed to scramble to the other side of the car. Unfortunately for him, more rounds were coming from the driver’s side of the SUV in front of his position, and he was cut down almost instantly.
Angela felt a wave of panic for the first time in a long while. She ducked down just before a bullet pierced the windshield directly in front of her and thudded into her seat’s headrest, rupturing the black leather. Everything had turned to chaos in just a few seconds. Why weren’t her men in the other trucks firing back? As if hearing her silent question, the doors in the second truck opened, and a barrage of rounds was unleashed at the two guards.
The men in the second truck were more careful than the other group, making sure they used their car doors as shields from onslaught. One man fired shots toward the church, shattering one of the windows. Then the men in the back seat of Weaver’s vehicle opened up their doors and started firing. The two guards had maximized the element of surprise, but now they were outgunned and outnumbered. What had been a precise preemptive attack had turned into firing blindly from the cover of their vehicles in an attempt to keep the attackers at bay.
Angela sat back up cautiously, her own weapon in hand. She opened up her door slightly to assume a safe attack position. “Finish them,” she ordered. She raised her weapon and found the front passenger seat of the car directly in her sights.
A bullet shattered the window next to where Mauricio was standing, sending shards of glass across the thin carpet. He shut the door and jumped back. “We’re going to have to find another way out of here,” he said to the others.
Tommy clutched the wooden cylinder in one hand, a small .22 caliber Walther in the other. Sean also held his Ruger .40.
“There are probably exits on the other side of the building. That would be our best bet,” Sean said. “Can you get our rides over there?”
Mauricio nodded and said something in Spanish into his microphone again. “I told them to meet us on the other side of the building. We must hurry.”
Agent Weaver squeezed the trigger, sending a bullet through the back window of the SUV in front of her. A few seconds later the guard dropped to the pavement next to the vehicle. A bullet hole at the base of his right ear oozed blood. The first SUV’s engine revved and spun its tires on the wet street. The volley of bullets continued to pound into the metal of the rear door, and a spiderweb of cracked glass stretched across the back window. Weaver’s group continued shooting as the truck whirled around the corner and out of the plaza, narrowly making an escape. She jumped out of her position and ran forward to the guard she’d just shot. He lay facedown on the wet street, his head turned sideways. Her shot had gone through at the base of his skull and out the front left of his face, leaving nothing but a bloody crater of bone and tissue. The rain carried away a thin river of blood toward the curb. She had seen some gruesome things, but that sight was disturbing even for her. The rest of her team had joined her position and were awaiting orders. “Split up once we are in the church. Remember, Schultz alive. Execute the others. Find them!”
For the moment, Hunter Carlson was glad he’d hidden under the second SUV. Problem, was, he was still trapped in the wet and now bloody street underneath the truck. He’d seen the guard fall to the ground, shot from behind in the back of the head, the ugly visual just a few feet from his hiding place. He watched the feet come close to the body. Fortunately, no one bent down. Apparently, they were satisfied that the man was dead. The rain continued to pour, sending a stream of blood and water just past his head. Over the sound of the deluge, he could hear the woman barking out orders. They were going into the church to find Wyatt and his group. He knew they would most likely be heading toward an exit on the other side of the building. The team of killers ran off toward the entrance. If he was lucky, he could head off Wyatt at the back.
Slowly, cautiously, he pulled himself along the undercarriage of the SUV and over to the curb. He grabbed a rail step and pulled himself out from
underneath, careful not to draw the attention of any stragglers. He peered through the driver’s side window and saw the armed group entering the church. With his left hand, he pulled on the wet door handle. As soon as he did, the vehicle started dinging, signaling the keys were in the ignition. Quickly, he eased the door shut and ducked down, fearful the annoying alarm had caught the attention of the enemy. Another peek through the windows revealed that everyone had already entered the church.
Carlson let out a long breath of relief and opened the door again. He slid into the driver’s seat and started up the engine. Odds were, the other driver went to pick up Wyatt’s group from behind the church. If they hadn’t seen the guard get shot, they might be expecting both trucks. Perhaps he finally had an advantage.
Sean and the others ran down the corridor between classrooms and offices. The hit squad would no doubt be coming in at any moment. They turned right down another hallway that looked the same as the one before and kept pressing on. The floor panels in the hallways were hardwood and were significantly loud underfoot as they made their way, clacking and creaking with every shoe’s impact. Light flooded into the dim hall up ahead. An exit.
The men came to a halt at a pair of metal doors with a bar handle. Through the wire-enforced glass they could see the two bullet-riddled SUVs in the street. “Sean,” Tommy said quickly, “you and Maury take the first vehicle. Will and I will take the second. Meet back at the hotel.” Wyatt nodded.
Mauricio opened the door slightly to give a quick glance down the street in both directions.
Empty. The sounds of running footsteps echoed down the corridor. Their pursuers were right on their heels.
“Gotta make a run for it, boys,” Sean said. He opened the door and held up his gun to cover the others. “Go!” he ordered.
The other three men took off across the street toward the two SUVs. Once they were clear of the building, Sean darted toward the first vehicle. He and Mauricio jumped in quickly on the same side.
Sean Wyatt Compilation Box Set Page 52