Reno's voice came again in her ears—the others could hear him too but were all pretending not to be freaking out.
"Guys, what's the status? Olivia, come in."
"Stay put," she said without moving her lips. Diggs had taught her how to do that.
"Are you being held in custody?"
"Yes. By armed people."
"Do you still have the keys?"
Olivia took a moment to answer. What if these people have found a way to listen to their frequency? Talbot had done that, hadn't he? And Talbot sold them out. Then he seemed to have sold Emilio too, because in all the mentions that evening, his name never came up. And he was still in the church.
She said out loud to the guards, "I want to negotiate!"
Reno chuckled, said to Tami in the background, "We are still in play then. They still have the keys. Go, girl."
Get out of my head, Reno, she wanted to scream.
The guard closest to the table looked away from Liam's theatrics. He smirked. It was a disdainful expression; Olivia knew what it meant.
There was no way they were making it out of here alive. It was like a disease control measure. Go in, seal the area up, kill the infected.
"Tell that bitch we would like to negotiate. We can't sit here all night!"
"She won't listen, so why should I tell her? You had your chance," said the guy in a thick voice.
Liam mimicked him. "You had your chance."
"What's your name?" Olivia asked him.
"Gunnar."
"Well, Gunnar, why don't you go on and tell your boss I want to talk. The earlier she talks to me, the better for you. Don't you want to go home?"
His eyes shifted. He shrugged and said he didn't care one way or the other.
"Suit yourself then," said Olivia.
Gunnar nodded.
—
Two men of the Hand were guarding Emilio Batolini.
Three more men stood in the hallway. Their backs were turned to the Hacker; crossbows hung from their backs and automatic weapons. Hacker sized the two guys about 120 pounds each. He checked their wrists; they were average-sized, which meant they'd be average punchers.
Their legs were wide apart; they were probably good kickers as well. He stepped out of the dark and snuck up to them. He was five feet behind them before they realized he was there.
They turned around simultaneously, surprise on their face. Hacker grabbed the wrist of the one on the left as he brought up his fist; he twisted and broke it. The other guy's feet were coming up, but Hacker dropped ten inches and turned around, clearing that one off his feet. He spun in the air and fell on his side—all without a sound.
Most fighters learned to bear pain with silence. It was the ultimate warrior's courage.
He pulled his knife and stabbed the one with the broken wrist twice in the neck. The one who fell on his side was getting up, his hand going to his crossbow—mistake.
Hacker sidestepped and landed a fast karate chop on his temple. He collapsed like a sandbag. Hacker quickly cut his throat.
He dragged the bodies into the dark, pilfered a crossbow, and moved on.
The two guarding Emilio stood with their backs turned to the entrance. Bad strategy. They were facing their weakest source of danger.
Hacker aimed, shot the nearest one in the base of the neck. He fell forward, and his companion quickly went for his weapon, the automatic rifle hanging from his hip.
Hacker was already aiming at his forehead. His blood sprayed Emilio's face when the bullet went through his head. He fell on the pew in front of Emilio.
The Hacker went to work fast.
He pulled the bodies under the pew and tucked them away.
"Do you have the key?" Emilio asked.
"Yes."
"Where's the woman?"
"The bitch or, the bitch?" the Hacker asked.
Emilio gave him a wild look. "This is no time to be making jokes, you jerk!"
"Yeah, I'm welcome for saving your ass. Just so we're clear, my fees just went up threefold. Now let's get out of here. There's nothing we can do in the situation. There are too many of these robots."
"But we can't just leave," Emilio kicked his hand away.
"What the fuck do you want to do!?"
"Talbot! He sold me! Find him!"
"I don't know where he is, and even if I did, he'd be surrounded by a legion of these guys. He's important now."
Hacker succumbed to the silence. His sensitive ears picked up footsteps and talking; people were coming their way. They will find the hall was empty and suspect there's been an ambush.
Hacker pulled Emilio down into the pews.
—
Five minutes before the Hacker came out of hiding and attacked guards in the hallway and killed the ones guarding Emilio, Diggs got on his feet and walked around the great table.
He walked to the guy named Gunnar.
"Now, you either take me to your leader or fight now, and I kill you, or you kill me and explain to her why you killed the only one who knew how to find the keys."
Gunnar stepped back. He placed his hand on his sword and was about to draw when another guard touched his shoulder.
"Gunnar, why don't you take him to see her?"
The man looked at his colleague, nodded, and asked two of them to take Diggs to meet Amelia.
Olivia smiled.
She murmured, "Reno, come get us!"
—
There were guards every ten meters of the church grounds. They were on the roofs, sitting in the archways, hanging from the ceiling like chandeliers. They came out of the gloom as they passed. Diggs counted as they walked, calculated their distances, and checked weapons.
It would take some force to resist them and get out alive.
The next ten meters before the main church was missing two guards. The two men taking him to see Amelia had been calculating guard posts too because they stopped and drew their guns.
They took their weapons, so Diggs had none to draw, but he crouched and fell back.
The two cloaked guys drop into the main church. Yellow lights glowed from chandeliers in the ceiling. The pews spread out to the front of the church, empty. There was no one at the altar as well. The image of the cross stared at them reproachfully.
Emilio was missing. The guards had disappeared.
Diggs hung behind one of the men. He heard the coughing sound, knew what it was, and ducked on a pew as one of the men grunted and fell. He'd been shot in the feet.
The other one jumped on a pew too, his gun aiming everywhere. Diggs peeped under the pew he was on. He saw the eyes of the devil himself in the dark and the leer in his grin.
"Son of a bitch—" he breathed.
He grabbed the fallen man's gun. The Hacker jumped out of hiding and started shooting, but the Hand guy was one wicked acrobatic motherfucker. He flipped in the air, and all the bullets missed him.
The Hacker was momentarily shocked.
He tried again. The guy ran, jumping from one pew to the other, and with every move, he got closer to the Hacker.
The Hacker ran out of rounds just as the guy got within striking distance. Hacker ditched his weapon and was on the pew in a flash. The exchange of punches that ensued was blurry.
Knives appeared in both fighters' hands out of nowhere. They proceeded to try to cut each other. Diggs aimed. Emilio's head peeked from behind a pew where he's been hiding.
Diggs changed his mind and backed out of there.
As he went around the corner, he heard the sound of death sink in, and he knew by whose hand it had come.
—
Arnold Hirsh heard the sound fisticuffs.
He was up in the roof of the tomb listening to Andrew, and the woman named Amelia relived their lost romance. The sound came to him on the cold current of breeze flowing through the top of the church.
He started towards the sound of the fighting on a hunch that the only human he knew who would start a conflict in the present lock ja
m of interest was on site.
He found an opening in the roof that led out to the top outside and went through. Darkness could never be complete in any city. Jerusalem liked like a plantation of fireflies, but he didn't spend too much time contemplating the beauty outside. His job was inside the church, and his charge was wreaking havoc.
Time to take the Hacker. He'd like to take him alive, but he knew it was almost impossible. He didn't mind either way.
He was coming down the side of the church outside when he saw two Hand men talking outside. He raised his head and also saw a van driving too slowly down the street and park. The police cars he saw in the afternoon were gone.
Something was about to go down. Outside, people were coming in. For whom?
He crouched on, keeping his steps light and his breathing deep, and came down a pillar.
He hit the ground soundlessly. On both sides of him, men kept guard. He had made sure to land behind a pillar so that if anyone was in the hallway, they couldn't see him. Still, in a crouching position, he turned around and peeked around the wide pillar at Diggs, moving away in the shadow.
Where was Roy?
—
"Where are you going, Andrew?"
He looked at her, surprised. He looked around and waved at the place where they were standing. It was the museum of medieval artifacts. Weapons hung on the wall; some were encased in glass boxes of different sizes.
"We are looking for Solomon's tomb."
"No, we are not." She smiled. "You forget I'm one of the few people on Earth who knows you well. You are hedging."
She put her hands on her hips. "Just tell me where you hid it. I'll do the rest. I'll find it. Where did you keep it?"
"I can't tell you."
Amelia's eyes hardened. She inhaled deeply, her lips pressed against each other, like a schoolgirl whose heart has just been shattered by her high school crush.
"Don't make this hard for us all. I want the location of the tomb, the keys. Now!"
Andrew faced her again.
"What did they promise you, Amelia? A place on the council of the Hand? Wealth? Immortality perhaps? You know no man lives forever, it's all bullshit. It's all designed to control you—"
"And you could have all of that, and be beside me. Where is the tomb, and the keys?"
She looked at her guards. "Go and search the woman and all the others. Find the keys. Then kill them!"
To Andrew, she said, "You will tell me where the tomb is or kill your sister and every person with her. Then I'll have you killed."
"You know I won't let you do that. If you touch a hair on my sister's head, I'll make you all pay." He pointed at her.
"So be it."
—
12
Reno made Tami stay in the van.
"Stay in the comms. You are our getaway driver. I'm going in."
Hooded men stood at the gate. He sneaked past them and went along the wall. He heard voices on the other side. Reno went further down until he got to the end, where the wall broke and stretched left. He peeked out that way and saw the gate at the back was opened, and two hooded men were coming his way. He jumped on the fence and hung on the top.
He looked over the side and saw two more hooded guys carrying weapons. Who are all these people? he thought. But they started walking away. He waited a few seconds and dropped down. He crossed the small grass and vaulted behind a pillar.
"Olivia, I'm in."
"Good. Get here fast, something's about to go down."
"I'm on my way."
He heard many footfalls coming his way again. He peered through the dark hallway and saw almost ten hoodies coming. He held his breath and waited. They flooded past him, all black cloaks, hoods over their heads, crossbows clanked behind them. Wow. Reno had never used a crossbow.
He counted ten after they'd gone. As he stepped out, he saw a hooded guy coming down the hall who had maybe been left behind.
Both men stopped and stared at each other.
The hooded guy’s hand went to the gun on his hip. Reno went for the man's weapon too, and together they fought for possession of the semi-automatic. Reno pushed the guy against the wall, wondering why the guy didn't shout for help. The guy kicked him in the gut. Reno was thrown off balance, but he dragged the guy with him. They rolled on the floor, and the guy got on top of him. Reno pulled the guy’s hood over his face, blinding him. He punched his face, and the guy let out a grunt of pain. Reno used his elbow on the eye area. He pulled the knife in the guy's back and planted it in his stomach.
The guy coiled up. Reno struggled up. He pulled the crossbow off the guy’s back, strapped it around his own body, and picked up the auto weapon.
His belly hurt from where the dying guy kicked him. He sauntered off in the direction of the chamber where Olivia and the others were being held.
—
When Olivia saw them, she knew their time had come. They would either leave here alive or dead. She preferred alive. The new guys that came to join the ones guarding them before had their hoods over their heads.
One of them conferred with the one called Gunnar. He listened briefly, then he looked at Olivia. A smirk appeared on his straight African lips.
"The keys," he said to Olivia, "give them to me."
Olivia hid her surprise. She hadn't thought the woman would ask about the keys. She got up from her chair. "We don't have them."
"Then, we will have to search for you."
"What did you do with Lawrence Diggs?" she asked.
Gunnar shrugged. He approached her; Olivia stepped back from the table. The rest too. Liam pulled up a chair. He bent it and was stomping on one of the legs, trying to break it. It broke, and he brandished the splintered wood.
"I'm going down with one or two of you," he said.
"We will take the keys off your dead bodies then," Gunnar said and advanced on the team.
"Take one more step, and I'll start shooting."
The hooded guys turned around.
Reno was standing in the hall. He had a gun aimed at the general number of hoods. He was grinning from a face both scared and determined. There were ten men, all of them armed.
Gunnar said, "Go on, shoot us."
So, he did. Reno started shooting. He squeezed one after the other. He got through three men, moving back as he did because swords were drawn. The blast rang through the night.
Frank Miller and Victor Borodin reacted first.
Borodin pulled the nearest hood, seized the hand with the sword, and pulled it against the guy's neck and cut. Miller grabbed and wrestled one down by pulling the hood over that one's face—much like Reno did earlier.
Gunnar grabbed Olivia, pulled his sword, and put the sharp point to her throat. Liam jumped on his back and pulled him down. Olivia poked the guy's nose and scratched his eyes and tried to gorge them out.
Diggs appeared from the corner and started using the crossbow he found. He shot three guys through their throats.
"Wait!" Gunnar called. He had Olivia in a chokehold and a large knife under her throat.
Several hooded guys were on the floor, dead. Others were injured and writhing on the floor. Blood pooled from the bodies. Reno was among them; his throat had been slashed. Liam was bleeding from several places on his chest. The rest of them were alright.
Diggs had his crossbow still up and aimed at Gunnar, the only hooded guy standing. His left eye was ruined; blood was pouring from it. Bows were sticking out of his shoulders and back.
Olivia was struggling in Gunnar's hold, thrashing and cursing. She tried to grab his head to scratch his eyes out.
"I know how to use this. Let her go now!" Diggs warned.
"Let's see how dazed you are."
Diggs aimed. Miller placed his hand on the crossbow. There was no way he could shoot the guy fast enough before Gunnar would cut Olivia's throat. It was a foolish gamble.
"Give me passage," Gunnar said.
They stepped aside for him. He dragged Olivia w
ith himself, over the bodies; Miller knelt by Reno's body. He sighed. For the first time, the team lost a friend. Reno wasn't even officially a team member yet.
They watched as Gunnar dragged Olivia into the hallway and on. She stared back at the team helplessly.
"Come on," Miller said to the rest. "Let's see where this night ends."
—
Gunnar dragged Olivia into the hall of Solomon's tomb.
When Andrew saw her, he flinched. Miller and the others burst into the hall too.
Liam said, "They killed Reno."
"More of you will die if you don’t give me what I want," Amelia said. She looked at Olivia's face. "Where are the keys?"
"Go to hell!"
"Search her."
Olivia kicked Gunnar's knee. She pulled his hand, pulled it up, and sunk her teeth into it. Gunnar pushed her away and raised his sword. Diggs shot him from behind. He fell.
Amelia removed his gun and tried to shoot Olivia, but Andrew grabbed her from behind. One of the hooded guys grabbed Olivia again. About five hoodies joined him, creating a barricade around him. More hooded men, the ones who had been outside doing sentry posts, rushed in.
They started dragging Olivia away.
Olivia reached in her jeans pocket. When she brought out her hand, she flung the necklace with the key on it at Diggs. One of the guards tried to grab it, but Diggs beat him to it. The hooded man tried to cut him with his sword, but Miller shot him in the arm.
"Enough!" Amelia screamed, choking in Andrew's hold.
Now there was a faction. The Hand got Olivia while Andrew got Amelia, the leader of her battalion.
She said, "What now, Andrew? What's your play? Are you gonna kill me? They'll just send more people until you give up the tomb, or you are dead."
"They'll come for you. Of that, I'm sure…"
Andrew watched as the hooded men dragged Olivia away into the night.
"And when they do, I'll be waiting."
"All I want is the tomb—"
Miller said, "What is the tomb to you?"
Andrew let Amelia go. "Are you negotiating?"
"Yes."
Amelia looked at him dubiously. "Treasures. Unimaginable wealth. You could only imagine how wealthy Solomon was. More than half of it was hidden in the tomb and…" She broke off.
King Solomon's Tomb Page 18