King's Crusade (Seventeen) (10 page)

Jackson climbed to his feet and brushed fragments of the wreckage off his clothes. ‘We should get that checked out,’ he said, his gaze falling on her wounded arm.

Alexa glanced at the bullet hole. She had forgotten about it. ‘It’ll heal,’ she said and turned on her heels.

‘Hey, where’re you going?’ Jackson called out.

She climbed over the debris from the explosion, retrieved her jacket, and headed toward the back of the warehouse. The source of the light became visible when she rounded a wall of containers. It was spilling onto the concrete floor through an open doorway ahead. She stopped on the threshold and studied the room beyond.

Filing cabinets lined the confines of a narrow office. A desk stood next to the far wall. Seated in the metal chair behind it was a dark-skinned man. Dull brown eyes stared unseeingly at the ceiling. There was a single bullet hole in the middle of his forehead. Blood and brain matter had splattered across the back of the chair and the wall behind him.

Jackson came up behind her and froze in his tracks.

Alexa crossed the floor and started to examine the papers on the desk.

‘‘Shouldn’t we be calling the cops?’ asked the Harvard professor quietly, still staring at the dead man from the doorway.

‘No,’ she replied, glancing at his troubled expression. ‘I want to find out who this guy is and why Dragov killed him.’

‘And then we’ll call the cops?’ said Jackson in a hopeful voice. Silence ensued. ‘We’re not calling anyone, are we?’

‘This warehouse is in use,’ said Alexa. ‘He’ll be discovered in the morning.’

They found the identity of the man from his wallet. Jawaed Hassan was forty-six years old and the father to two children; there was a picture of his family tucked behind his Egyptian ID card. A search of the desk revealed that he was the general manager of three warehouses in Port Said and oversaw the shipping and delivery of goods for a number of companies in mainland Europe and the Middle East.

‘What kind of martial arts was that?’ asked Jackson as they started to look through the filing cabinets lining the walls. He glanced at the dead man uneasily before meeting Alexa’s blank stare. ‘You know, when you were fighting the Hulk? I thought I recognized some kickboxing moves.’

‘You’re correct.’ She turned her attention to the folder in her hand.

‘And?’ prompted Jackson.

‘And what?’

His eyebrows rose. ‘There must more to it than that. I mean, that guy was as strong as an ox and you were seriously kicking his butt! Also, I don’t know about you, but people trying to kill me with guns and rocket launchers don’t usually feature on my daily compass.’

Alexa’s eyes narrowed. She was starting to entertain thoughts of shooting him again. ‘I know all of them,’ she said brusquely. She started to examine another document.

‘All of what?’ said Jackson.

‘The martial arts.’ She saw no point in revealing that, in addition to sparring with the best fighters in every branch of unarmed and armed combat in the last three centuries, she had also beaten several of the current world champions in private fighting rings.

‘Really?’ he said skeptically.

She stared at him. ‘Would you like me to demonstrate?’

‘No, thanks. I’ll pass,’ said Jackson with a grunt.

Ten minutes later, Alexa came across several bank statements and bills tucked inside a document folder at the bottom of one of the cabinets. ‘Hassan owed a lot of money,’ she said thoughtfully, studying the numbers on the papers. ‘His account’s been in the red for more than a year.’

Jackson looked at the figures and whistled softly. ‘He had a lot of credit cards in his wallet.’

She stared blindly at the wall. ‘The artifacts were probably stored in this warehouse before being shipped elsewhere. Hassan must have been in on the job.’

‘The cave was raided more than a month ago,’ said Jackson with a puzzled frown. ‘Why kill the poor bastard now?’

‘I think Hassan got greedy.’ Alexa tapped the bills with a finger. ‘He must have contacted Dragov for more money.’

‘You mean our dead guy was blackmailing the Hulk?’ said Jackson dubiously, glancing at the body in the chair.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘We need to figure out what it was that he knew.’

It was another half hour before they discovered a possible link between the dead man and the tombs. The shipping orders for a cargo vessel that left with containers from Hassan’s warehouses four weeks previously were missing from the records. A search through the dock receipts for the month of November showed that the freight ship returned from Mersin several days later.

‘That’s a major port in southeast Turkey,’ said Jackson close to her ear. He was studying the paperwork over her shoulder. ‘It’s about four hundred and fifty miles from here.’

Alexa frowned faintly, her gaze fixed on the dock receipt; she was starting to find Jackson’s proximity strangely unsettling. She turned to hide her unease and walked to a cabinet that held the contracts for the warehouse. ‘There are three depots that Hassan normally dealt with in Mersin,’ she said, looking up from the documents. ‘I guess we won’t find out which one may have held the tombs until we get there.’

Jackson stared at her. ‘We’re going to Turkey?’

‘Yes.’

A queasy grimace washed across his face. ‘We’re not taking a boat, are we?’

‘No,’ Alexa replied and was startled to find her lips twitching. She forcibly suppressed the smile threatening to emerge.

It was midnight when they finally left the warehouse. Jackson breathed in the night air deeply and blinked at the star-lit sky. ‘I’m not sure I like where this assignment is going,’ he said quietly.

Alexa looked at him steadily. ‘I’ll tell Reznak you want out,’ she said, startled at the odd sense of disappointment that flitted through her.

Jackson’s eyes bore into her. ‘What will you do if I quit?’ There was an edge to his voice that she had not heard before.

She shrugged. ‘I’ll finish the mission.’

‘On your own?’ he said harshly. ‘I can’t let you do that. These men are killers! Hell, does Reznak even know what kind of dangers you’re exposing yourself to?’

Alexa scowled. ‘Dimitri Reznak is not my keeper. And I’m not some weakling who needs protecting.’ She was bewildered by the anger that modulated her voice. Few people in the world had the ability to rattle her. She turned to mask her confusion and took a step away from him.

‘Wait!’ said Jackson. He grabbed her shoulder.

She froze and glared at him. ‘Let go,’ she said.

The blue eyes darkened with annoyance. ‘Look, I just want to talk. This is far too—’

Alexa turned, gripped him above the elbow, hooked her arm under his shoulder, lifted him in the air, and threw him to the ground in front of her.

Jackson’s breath left his lungs in an audible whoosh. He stared up at her with a stunned expression, his face mere inches from hers.

‘You were saying?’ she said.

‘Wow,’ he whispered. All trace of anger had vanished from his voice. ‘Was that some kind of judo move?’

‘It was,’ Alexa admitted reluctantly. She felt her own irritation drain away and stood back.

Jackson winced as he rose to his feet. ‘What’s it called? “Woman kicking man’s ass”?’ he said, rubbing his lower back.

‘No.’ She hesitated. ‘It’s the Ippon Seoi Nage.’

His eyebrows rose. ‘The “one-arm shoulder throw”?’

Alexa concealed her surprise and nodded impassively. ‘You know Japanese?’

Jackson shrugged. ‘Yes.’

They headed for the place where she had hidden their bags. ‘How many languages are you proficient in?’ she asked, curious despite herself.

‘Spoken or written?’ said Jackson.

She raised her eyebrows. ‘Both.’

‘Too many,’ he replied. A smile crossed his lips at her expression. ‘Hey, two can play this game, lady.’

Alexa lifted his duffel bag from under a forklift and kept a hold of the strap as she passed it across. ‘Does this mean you don’t want me to call Reznak?’

Jackson went still and stared at her. Clouds drifted past in the sky and muted the light from the stars. She could barely make out the expression in his eyes.

‘Hell, I’d never be able to live with myself if I walked away now,’ he said in disgust.

Chapter Seven

I
t was morning by the
time they located a helicopter to take them across the Mediterranean Sea to Turkey.

Jackson watched with a faint frown while Alexa paid the representative of the private charter company they had hired. The number of zeroes he glimpsed on the bill made his eyes smart.

‘Did you just put that on an AMEX black card?’ he asked as they headed across the tarmac to a black Sikorsky helicopter. Alexa nodded briefly. ‘Man, I’ve only ever heard of those,’ he murmured. ‘Aren’t they like, the Holy Grail of credit cards?’

She shrugged.

Jackson sighed. In the sixty-nine hours since he’d met her, he had come to realize that Alexa King was a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. He still found it hard to believe that she worked as a henchman for Dimitri Reznak. Although he continued to have doubts on the subject, what he had seen of her skills in the last two days was quickly changing his opinion.

He also could not dismiss the strange pull he felt toward her. Although she dressed pragmatically and was not his usual, full-figured type, there was no denying the fact that she was stunningly beautiful. With her silver-gray eyes, pale skin, high cheekbones, and dark hair, she could have graced the cover of any fashion magazine or runway in the world. Jackson strongly suspected his life would be in mortal danger if he ever came on to her. The woman was one scary package.

The aircraft had just lifted off the tarmac at Port Said Airport and turned to make its way to the city of Adana when she mentioned the tattoo she had seen on Dragov’s neck.

‘A cross and a red rose?’ said Jackson thoughtfully.

Alexa nodded.

‘Sounds like a Rose Cross,’ he said.

She stared at him blankly. ‘Isn’t that what I just said?’

‘No,’ he replied with a rueful smile, ‘what I meant was that the symbol of a cross entwined with a rose is called the Rose Cross. It’s also known as the Rosy Cross or the
Rose
Croix
. It’s generally associated with Rosicrucianism and Rosicrucian Orders, but has existed under various guises in other esoteric societies like the Freemasons, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the Ordo Templi Orientis.’

A puzzled expression appeared on her face. ‘What’s an esoteric society?’

‘Without wanting to sound crass, I could talk about Esotericism for an entire day,’ Jackson said with a grimace.

Alexa glanced at the Timex on her wrist. ‘You have just over two hours,’ she said in the dispassionate tone of voice he had gotten accustomed to.

As the helicopter flew over the cargo ships, fishing boats, and leisure crafts dotting the dark waters of the Mediterranean, she listened attentively while he explained the concept of Esotericism. Derived from the Greek word
esōterikos
, which literally translated to “belonging to an inner circle”, the term described a set of arcane religious belief systems, wisdoms, and philosophies understood by and taught to a select group of specially initiated, enlightened individuals throughout the history of mankind.

‘The core principle of Esotericism centers around the possession of secret mystic
gnosis
,’ said Jackson.

‘
Gnosis
?’ repeated Alexa. ‘Isn’t that the Greek word for knowledge?’

‘Yes, it is,’ he replied with a nod. ‘In the current context, gnosis signifies spiritual knowledge or mystical enlightenment.’

She gazed silently out the window. ‘“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience”,’ she murmured slowly.

He pulled back slightly, startled. ‘Yes. Do you know who said those words?’

‘No,’ replied Alexa. ‘I came across it in a newspaper a while ago.’

Jackson was somewhat bemused. He had not heard of such a feature article in the last half decade. ‘It’s from
Le Phénomène Humain
, a book written in 1955 by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French priest, scientist, and philosopher,’ he said. ‘Although he was not thought to be a member of an esoteric society, his words underpin the most original idea of Esotericism—that our outer physical body is but a shell that hides our inner, higher spiritual self. It’s one of the binding concepts of the divine truths.’

Another frown appeared on her face. ‘Where exactly does the
Rose Croix
come into this?’

‘I’ll get to that,’ said Jackson. His reply did nothing to impress her. ‘Now, Esotericism has spawned a range of alternative spiritual movements and philosophies over the millennia, among them Alchemy, Astrology, Herbalism, Christian Mysticism, Magic, Mesmerism, and Rosicrucianism. Egypt itself is thought to have been one of the places where Esotericism originated, with secret centers for learning established during the reign of Thutmose the Third and his stepmother Hatshepsut. These centers were used to explore the mysteries of life. From there, the mystic knowledge eventually spread to Greece and Rome. It’s a strongly held belief that Plato and Aristotle belonged to one of these esoteric orders. In more recent times, Dante, da Vinci, Bonaparte, and even Benjamin Franklin were thought to have been Rosicrucians.’

Her eyebrows rose slightly. ‘And the Cross?’

He grinned at her obvious impatience. ‘Depending on who you talk to, Rosicrucianism either originated from the Egyptian secret schools or takes its name from Christian Rosenkreuz, a mythical German doctor, philosopher, and alchemist from the fourteenth century. The
Rose Croix
symbolizes the Rosicrucianism Order or secret society. Some surmised it represented Rosenkreuz himself, whereas others adhere to the belief that the cross epitomizes the human body, with the rose representing the unfolding human consciousness.’

Alexa digested this wealth of information with a guarded expression. ‘Does this mean that Dragov belongs to some sort of secret sect?’

Jackson shrugged. ‘Possibly. The caves that Reznak discovered were in Egypt after all, although they weren’t close enough to Thutmose’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings to be directly linked to the Egyptian secret societies.’

The helicopter flew over Cyprus and Cape Andreas, the promontory at the tip of the Karpass Peninsula. From his calculations, they were about a hundred miles from Adana Airport.

‘You mentioned the Freemasons,’ said Alexa after a while.

‘I did,’ Jackson replied. ‘Strictly speaking, the Freemasons are not a Rosicrucian Order, but they
are
an esoteric society. It’s thought that Rosicrucianism impacted on Freemasonry as it evolved in Scotland in the late eighteenth century.’

‘So if the Freemasons don’t use the
Rose Croix
as a symbol of their order, who does?’ she said with a scowl.

‘Strangely enough, the largest Rosicrucian Order in existence today who uses a golden cross with a red rose in the center is not as secret as you might think,’ said Jackson. ‘The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, or AMORC as it’s abbreviated, is an international organization dedicated to studying the elusive mysteries of life and the universe. They’re based in New York.’

‘So, Dragov could be a member of AMORC?’ asked Alexa doggedly.

Jackson smiled. ‘It’s possible, but I doubt it. There would be a lot more people walking around with
Rose Croix
tattoos on the back of their necks if that were the case.’ His expression grew sober. ‘He could be a member of another Rosicrucian order or any other esoteric society that uses the symbol of the Rose Cross as part of their systems of beliefs and rituals. There’s a wealth of conspiracy theories out there about a New World Order that refer to Rosicrucian- and Masonic-influenced societies such as the Illuminati, as well as other spiritual and religious organizations like the Round Table and the New Age movements.’