by Tom Hunter
“That we are,” he nodded. “Well, whatever it is you’ve done, now you’ve worked your magic, perhaps I could give you a tour of the site? I know how much this place intrigues you, and I’d welcome the opportunity to show you some of our more prized discoveries up close. I could even throw in some tea and pastries to sweeten the deal.”
As Valentina continued to work her charm on Khalil, Pin took an advantage of his distraction to open up the tool crate.
“Sorry, Valentina, but Khalil will forget all about you ten minutes after we’ve left,” he muttered. “We need a more permanent solution to keep him on side.”
Carefully, he lifted up the lid of the tool crate, and reached in for the artifact.
“Oh, my lovely. It’s been too long,” he sighed, pulling out the papal cap. “Every moment away from you is agony.” He reached up to place it on his head… just as Khalil turned round to see what he was doing.
“St. Augustine’s secret!” he gasped. “You murderous, lying-”
He slammed his fist down on the alarm to summon help, but nothing happened. He paled, banging on it again and again, but to no avail.
“My men have defused it,” smirked Valentina. “But I suppose you’ve figured that out by now.”
“You’ll never get away with this!” cried Khalil, backing away towards the elevator to escape.
“Oh, I think we already have,” crowed Valentina, suddenly whirling round to kick Khalil’s legs out from under him. She stomped her foot on the floor, causing a wickedly sharp blade to slide out from the sole of her shoe.
Khalil scurried back on all fours, trying to avoid the knife as she kicked out at him. A suspicious looking green tinge spoke of a metal blade infused with a wicked poison conjured up in a Bruard lab.
“I really did like you, Khalil,” Valentina sighed. “I was so looking forward to that tea. Maybe in another life.”
Khalil reached the elevator. Fumbling for the button, he tried to pull himself up as Valentina kicked out again, slicing his thigh.
“You… won’t… win…” he croaked, staggering around as the fast-acting poison did its job. “The Lord will always prevail.”
“Not in my experience,” shrugged Valentina. Stepping forward, she yanked him to his feet. Spinning him round, she shoved him hard in the chest. Glass exploded in all directions as Khalil fell through a window, plummeting to his death below.
Gazing down, Valentina waved at the people who had already gathered around his body in horror. Knights, tourists, and innocent staff alike looked up to see what could have made Khalil fall, and she blew a kiss at them, as Pin and Pae came to stand by her side.
“I had hoped to keep a low profile for a little longer, but given the circumstances, I think right about now would be the time to launch the attack,” Pin suggested.
“Agreed.” Pae lifted his wrist to his mouth, pressing a button in his cufflink to activate the radio concealed there. “The comms tower has been taken. Repeat, the comms tower is under our control. Everyone must devote all their efforts to recovering the final artifact of St. Augustine, no matter what it takes.”
His mercenaries on the ground didn’t need telling twice. Unslinging their weapons, they began to fire indiscriminately at the crowd.
“Don’t kill all of them, for goodness’ sake,” barked Pae into his radio. “Capture some of the staff so we can question them. We’ll find the artifact’s hiding place so much faster once we persuade them to talk.”
Thirty-One
Samuel woke with a start. His neck and back were sore after a couple hours’ sleeping in the car, but he was too panicked to notice. He had sweat on his brow, and his blood had turned to ice water in his veins. He gripped the scepter as if his life depended on it. If what he’d just seen was true, it probably did.
He jumped, as Akhenaton wrenched open the car door Samuel had been leaning against. The rest of the team were already out of the car, stretching their legs and gearing themselves up for the final stretch of the journey.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” he smiled. “We all thought we’d let you have a little bit longer after your battle with the Terminator. We figured you needed it.” His smile fell away when he saw Samuel’s expression. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s weird,” Samuel replied. “I could have sworn I put the scepter securely away before I went to sleep, but when I woke up, it was in my hands. I must have reached out for it in my sleep. It’s the only explanation for the dreams I had. Well, not dreams so much as a vision.”
“Go on.” Akhenaton crouched down next to Samuel, so the others wouldn’t see them talking. Of all the team, he was the one person who wouldn’t dismiss what Samuel had seen and he wanted to offer his support when the archaeologist was so clearly upset.
“I dreamed I was standing at the base of a tall tower. This one had a tall cross mounted on top of it, so I couldn’t make out whether it was a communication tower or some sort of church steeple. Maybe it was both, somewhere under the jurisdiction of the Knights. Whatever it was, I could tell that it had been placed under spiritual protection.
“As I gazed up at the cross, the skies darkened. There was a distant rumbling of thunder. Lightning lit up the tower, striking it at the top, and the cross tumbled slowly forward. I had to jump back to avoid being hit when the cross landed, shattering into smithereens as it hit the ground.
“The storm intensified, the lightning turning into fire raining down from the clouds. I could hear the screams of the innocent as they fell, unable to protect themselves from the flames, yet I remained unscathed. There was a rumbling, and the tower collapsed in on itself, turning into rubble. All around me, ancient structures dissolved into the ground and I was struck with a sense of overwhelming loss. I felt guilty, like if I’d only gotten there sooner, I could have prevented it happening. As it was, all I could do was stand and watch as the world died around me. There was nothing I could do to save it.”
Akhenaton’s eyes widened. “Do you think your vision means the Bruard are already in Dougga?”
“I wish it were otherwise, but I genuinely believe they are,” Samuel nodded. “We have to leave here, like, half an hour ago.”
Akhenaton stood up. “All right, you guys!” he called to the others. “In the car. Now!”
“Why? What’s going on?” asked Basile, hurrying back.
“What’s the hurry? All this rushing about is bad for my blood pressure,” grumbled Waleed, sauntering behind him.
“I’ve had a vision,” Samuel explained. “If what the scepter showed me is correct, we’re already too late to beat the Bruard to Dougga. Doesn’t mean we can’t still stop them, but time’s running out.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” shrugged Josh. “Scoot over and let me drive. I’ll get us there fast.”
Samuel moved into the passenger seat, as everyone else piled in behind him. After actuating a seemingly random series of inputs on the controls, Josh had the engine roaring once more. The car raced off towards Dougga, each of its passengers hoping against hope that Samuel was wrong and they wouldn’t be too late.
Thirty-Two
“Oh no. Oh hell no.”
Josh yanked on the handbrake, but stayed sitting behind the wheel in stunned amazement at the scene that greeted them.
“I hate it when I’m right,” sighed Samuel. For once, no one had a wise crack to counter him.
What was once the ancient city of Dougga now looked like a modern day warzone. Gunfire rattled as Bruard snipers picked off Knights. However, the Knights of the Spring Dream were far from helpless. Despite their refusal to use guns, a fair few Bruard mercenaries lay around bleeding out, with an arrow protruding from their body. As with the other cells, the Knights’ aim was lethal, but they were woefully outnumbered.
An explosion rocked the ground near their car, and Samuel and his friends instinctively ducked. Rubble rained down upon the roof of the car. Dotted about the landscape, gas fires burned with no one rushing to put them out. No one was
left.
It was a scene from Samuel’s nightmare come to life.
THUD!
Shafira let out a little scream as someone banged against her window. Wearing a casual shirt and chinos with a camera slung around his neck, the unfortunate tourist had been caught up in the crossfire. He was lucky to still be alive.
“Get out of here!” he screamed. “They’re killing everyone! Get out of here before they get you too!”
“Wait! What’s happened?” Samuel leaped out of the car to get more information from the man, but he shook Samuel off and fled towards the desert to escape the fighting, joining the tiny handful of escapees.
“I think the Bruard’s what’s happened,” observed Josh, as everyone else left the car to get a better look at the situation. Covering his eyes to shield them from the sun, the pilot pointed in the direction of the distant comms tower. “And I’d bet you anything you like that the first thing they did was to take the tower. Otherwise, the Knights would have sent out an alert to the Tunisian army. They’re not stupid. They know when they need help, especially somewhere like this.”
“I’m not taking that bet.” Waleed, the gambling man, shook his head. “I’m not seeing any Tunisian uniforms ‘round here. Even if the Knights did somehow manage to call for help, I think it’ll be too late. Even with what happened in Oud Eillel, nobody’ll believe anything like this could happen here.”
“I don’t see many people ‘round the tower,” Samuel remarked, squinting to try and get a better look. “That makes me wonder whether the Bruard are bothering to defend it all that closely. I mean, now they’ve started active combat and all the Knights are caught up in defending the site, who’s going to bother trying to reach it? The Bruard’s focus is going to be more on hunting for St. Augustine’s treasure chamber. That’s what they’re here for. They’re not going to be looking behind themselves to see if the tower is okay. They’ve bought themselves enough time to find the last relic and once they’ve got it, it won’t matter if the army rolls up. They’ll turn their guns on themselves if Pin orders it, as he’ll have total control of their minds.”
He exchanged glances with Josh.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” asked the pilot.
“Yep. We all need to head to the comms tower,” nodded Samuel. “We have to get in there, whatever it takes. We can then radio for help before deciding on our next move. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ll feel a heck of a lot better knowing the army’s on its way.”
“It’s not a bad plan,” Waleed agreed. “But even with our guns, we don’t exactly have the firepower to deal with a full on assault, especially if the Knights decide we’re suspicious too. We could find ourselves being targeted by both sides and I don’t particularly enjoy being stuck in the middle of a raging battle. Arrow or bullet, doesn’t matter. Dead is dead.”
“Surely the Knights wouldn’t fire on people who aren’t with the Bruard?” protested Shafira.”
“They would,” Akhenaton told her. “Although we don’t know exactly where they’re hiding the relic, the chances are high it’s in this vicinity otherwise Pin wouldn’t risk tipping his hand so publicly. The closer we get to the artifact chamber, the more likely it is the Knights will see us as an equal threat. What’s more, there may even be information in the tower that will help us find the chamber. The Knights will want to prevent that falling into the hands of the unworthy, whoever they may be. Right now is not the time for me to reach out and make contact so they know we’re on the same side.”
“No, it’s not and an arrow in the back is a chance we’re going to have to take,” said Samuel. “We have to move on that tower. Getting reinforcements is our only chance of ending all this.” He looked round at each one of his friends, meeting them all in the eye. “I want you to promise me you’ll be careful, every one of you. We’re going to have to split up to make this work.”
Thirty-Three
BANG!
Josh, Shafira, and Basile ducked as a bullet ricocheted off a stone just above them.
“I’m not convinced these trenches are deep enough to offer us any real protection,” worried Shafira, crouching down behind an old wall. “And we have the easy job. How are the other three meant to find the artifact with all this going on when it could be anywhere in the city? We should have stayed together. We have no idea whether we’re going in the right direction. The Knights’ll have made sure the artifact’s almost impossible to find. If we’d stuck together, we could have pooled our resources, brainstormed…”
“And be caught together if the Bruard rounds us up,” pointed out Josh. “The other three can look after themselves. Akhenaton should be able to sweet-talk the Knights if it comes to it. I know it’s hard not knowing what’s happening to the others, but we’ve got to stay focused on our mission. Samuel’s plan gives us the greatest chance of success. If we can access the radio tower, we can contact the Tunisian military. The Bruard will scuttle away like the cockroaches they are once they’re faced with superior artillery. They’re not known for sticking around for fights they can’t win. With Samuel on the case, we’ll get the artifact before they can get their grubby little paws on it and we can all go home in time for tea.”
A carved stone not too far away from them exploded into dust.
“Such destruction! Such devastation!” wailed Basile. “This ancient city was an engineering marvel and look at it now. What a waste. What a waste!”
“Weep over your rocks later,” Josh snapped. “You can come and restore the city after all this is over. For now, we have to figure out a way to get to the comms tower and send a message to the outside world. I’ll be damned if I let the Bruard have the satisfaction of finding the final relic. Not on my watch.”
“That I might be able to help with,” Basile told them. “These ancient cities are built in a very logical fashion. The Romans loved their straight lines. If we turn left up that alley ahead and then head north, we should come out right by the open field surrounding the tower. Then all we have to worry about is how to make it across that stretch without someone shooting us.”
“All we have to worry about. Where’s Samuel with his scepter when we need him?” muttered Josh.
“There’s something else,” added Shafira. “Have any of you noticed that there’s a pattern to the shooting?”
As if to prove her point, she pulled them down just in time to avoid another shot.
“Now’s the time to get to that alley,” urged Shafira. “Everyone – go, go, go!”
The men needed no further telling. The three of them kept their heads down as they raced around the corner Basile had indicated. Exactly as he’d predicted, the alley ran straight ahead. They could just about make out the clearing with the tower at the end.
Basile yelped as a bullet narrowly missed his arm, burying itself deep into the wall of the alley.
“That’s it. I’m out of here!” He dropped down to all fours, crawling along the alley to present as small a target as possible. Shafira and Josh looked at each other, shrugging before mimicking him to go on all fours.
Soon the three of them were crouched at the edge of an open field. In the middle lay the crumpled body of a man. His broken posture suggested that he’d fallen from a great height, but his skin had a strange, greenish tinge to it that spoke of a more sinister death.
“Samuel was right to send us to the tower,” whispered Josh. “Look. There are only three guards as far as I can see. We can deal with three.”
Shafira and Basile peered cautiously out of the alley. As Josh had said, there were three guards stationed around the base of the tower, guarding the elevator that would take them up to the higher levels. Apart from those men, there was no sign of any other guards or snipers nearby.
“How confident are you all in your shooting?” Josh asked the other two. “Because as far as I can tell, we’ve got two options. Rush them from this distance and give them ample time to pick us all off, or use our not-designed-for-this
-distance guns and try and take them out first. Neither’s ideal, but I think we should at least try to shoot them from here where we’ve got a bit of cover. You never know. We might get lucky.”
“I’m not sure.” Shafira bit her lip. “I’ve practiced a little bit of shooting, but I’m no Annie Oakley.”
“I’ve hunted wild boars in the past,” Basile volunteered. “But that was with a rifle with high tech sights. I’m not sure my aim would be so good without them.”
Josh shook his head. “We’re just going to have to do this as best we can,” he sighed. “Stay behind me and follow my lead.”
Josh lay down flat on the ground, resting his elbows against some rocks to keep them as steady as possible. “Here goes nothing.” He pointed his pistol at the guard standing a little distance away from the tower. Pulling the trigger, he held his breath, desperately hoping that his bullet would hit its target…
…only to see it bury itself into the wall of the tower.
Josh swore as the three guards immediately dropped into a defensive stance in response, firing out in all directions.
“We’re going to have to make a run for it. Cover me!” he yelled, pushing himself up to his feet. Shafira and Basile exchanged worried glances before racing after him. Shafira winced every time she pulled the trigger, aiming in the vague direction of the tower without a real chance of hitting anyone.
Basile roared like a man possessed, firing off bullets so fast the Bruard guards could barely react. Even with their military experience and training, nothing could have prepared them for the wrath of the Frenchman bearing down on them.
By some miracle, one of Basile’s bullets hit a guard in the shoulder. The man screamed, clutching at the wound. He whirled around and raced off in the direction of the Bruard base of operations to get reinforcements.