Carpathian (56 page)

The two men finally stopped at the edge of a great cliff and waited. The visiting Americans stepped up and then looked down into the most amazing sight any of them had ever seen. Stretching out before them was an entire city. Egyptian spires and columns. Smaller gods of the ancients were depicted in the most massive relief drawings they had ever seen. The human and animal hieroglyphs were at minimum a thousand feet in height and fifty in width. The pictographs ringed the giant city that was laid out before them like the city of Los Angeles. Buildings, many never before occupied, sat empty and dark. Small temples to God had been erected. Massive grain bins sat like beehives on the outskirts of the city. The dominant feature was the large pyramid at the center. The entire scene was illuminated by large fire pots on standards throughout the well-designed temple.

“My God,” Alice said as she stood on the edge of the six-hundred-foot cliff looking into the past of a people long thought to have vanished from the face of the earth.

The most amazing thing about the Egyptian-inspired architecture was that most of the city was built from the stone of the immense cave system. Pillars were hewn from solid rock with only their fronts exposed to the stone carver’s tool. The four small pyramids ringing the larger one were solidly built and stood against the far wall of the temple. There were giant stone statues of deities or ancient Hebrew tribesmen that Alice, Niles, Denise, or Charlie had not seen before. The giant statuary was arranged around the great gallery of the temple and all stared down at a central location in the center of the small stone city. The altar stone was mounted by four sets of stone steps and had been carved from an outcropping of lava that had sprung from the cave’s floor in the ancient past. Just behind the altar was the largest of the pyramids.

As the Americans gained the ground floor of the six-thousand-foot-deep excavation of a natural cave system, they examined the very special place of the Jeddah. But it was crazy Charlie Ellenshaw that noticed that something wasn’t quite right about the temple. As he examined the stone statues closer in the flickering light of a thousand torches he saw that the coloring used to paint the images was old, chipped, fading away to nothing. Most looked no better maintained than the current ruins at Luxor. Many of the statues were missing large and small pieces. Some of the temple housing had collapsed in on itself and the stalactites had oozed their way down onto the largest pyramid almost to the point of covering it whole. The great Eye of Ra that was etched into the flooring was covered in fecal matter that he imagined was deposited there by the Golia. Finally Charlie looked at Niles and Alice, who were conferring with Denise about something. Charlie tapped on Niles’s shoulder and pointed to the pyramid and the enormous stalactite that covered it. Niles nodded.

“We were just discussing that very thing. It seems the Jeddah have been negligent in the upkeep.”

“The Jeddah don’t come here often, do you?” Alice asked the old woman, who was looking up.

“No, this is the city of the Golia. This is their home.”

As the four Americans turned and looked high into the cave system they saw hundreds of Golia pups and innumerable little glowing dots of yellow that were the eyes of the young as they watched the intruders far below their perch. For the first time Alice realized that the Golia were alive and living well in the mountains of Romania.

Charlie looked up at the glowing dots of light looking at them from above. It seemed the young of the Golia had been taught that silence was to their benefit. They didn’t move, they just sat and watched. He was amazed when he saw from the great distance one of the small pups stand on its two hind legs and wobble a few steps before collapsing. Ellenshaw realized that he was looking at the ancestor of the very myth he as a cryptozoologist said could not possibly exist—he was watching what amounted to a baby werewolf taking its first steps.

“I present to you the city of Ora
ş
ul lui Moise.”

The Event Group looked down upon the City of Moses.

THE EDGE OF THE WORLD HOTEL AND RESORT CASINO, PATINAS, ROMANIA

Jack waited just outside the office as Gina and Sarah made it look like they were just having small talk while Gina unlocked the outer door to the private suite of offices which were set well away from the regular offices of hotel management.

Gina turned the key and as it clicked it made her wince as if the entire resort could hear it. She gestured for the two to go in. She stood at the door.

“The office Zallas uses is right there, the one with the double doors,” she pointed with her manicured nail. “The engineer’s office is over there, both are unlocked.”

Collins nodded.

“I’ll be right out here keeping an eye on the desk.”

Again Jack and Sarah nodded that they understood. Gina eased the door closed and left.

“Okay, I’ll take El Creepo’s office and you take the engineer’s.”

Sarah moved off as she was in a hurry to see the geology report. Jack watched her leave and then turned for the large double doors that led into the office of Dmitri Zallas.

As Collins eased the door open he peered inside at the blackness. The only light came from a softly illuminated globe in the corner. Jack stepped in and closed the door. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small penlight. He clicked it on with one hand held over the top allowing just enough light to filter through his fingers to see. He smiled. Only Zallas could be this arrogant. Around the office on his desk, credenza, and other glass shelving specially built for them sat hundreds of little artifacts that could only have come from the heritage of the Jeddah.

Collins wanted to laugh at how easy proving provenance for theft was, it was as if Zallas dared the world to come and get him. Jack was used to dealing with antiquity thieves like the slickly professional Henri Farbeaux. Henri would never have anything that could connect him with theft inside his home or office.

As he moved over to a brightly polished credenza, Jack opened the topmost door and saw the most advanced shortwave radio system he had seen outside military circles. This setup had everything from radio to satellite transmission capabilities.

Well, at least the idiot set up for emergencies, this may come in handy,
he thought as he checked to see if the equipment was operational.

As he closed the door to the credenza he heard the office door swing open and Jack turned and his world in that moment spun out of control.

*   *   *

Sarah was having a hard time in the architect’s drawers looking for the correct plans for the resort’s foundations. She had found the geology report almost immediately and also saw that the interior minister had signed off on the report. She raised her brow at discovering that it wasn’t a geological engineer that had signed off on the report, but the interior minister, that’s one powerful signature. And that signature had stated rather mundanely in geologist speak that the ground, the mountain, and the flatlands the resort was to be built upon were safe.

Sarah closed the drawer in frustration, and as she looked over the hotel’s foundation plan she saw that it was built at least fifty miles from the nearest abnormality in the strata. She picked up the thick file with the geology specs inside and then turned and looked at the architectural drawers again. Did she miss something? She again returned to the drawer and pulled it open. She rummaged through what seemed thousands of drawings and then she stopped as one heading caught her attention. Castle Dracula was one of the last sets of drawings as they were placed in the drawers. Sarah pulled the plans from the drawer and spread them out on the floor. She was looking at an amazing drawing of the castle. Every intricate detail of its construction was laid out before her. She shook her head at the cost of the structure.

It was on the third page of the bedsheet-sized drawings that Sarah raised her eyebrows. She ran her penlight up and down the engineer’s grandiose plans for the unique way the castle was to be built directly into the side the mountain. Sarah had been impressed earlier when she had examined the castle from their room. The way the structure was molded into the craggy sides of the mountain made it look as if it had been built directly from the stone. Now by studying the plans she knew how it had been achieved.

She turned the page and ran her hand along the inked representation of the sixteen giant, eight-foot-in-diameter, three-hundred-foot-long solid steel anchor pins that ran from the castle’s foundation, linking the structure with the mountain as the anchor pins had been sunk three hundred feet into the side of the Jeddah home. The anchor pins were what held the heavy castle in place, securing it to the mountainside.

“Amazing engineering,” she muttered as she noticed the small note paper-clipped to the top of the plans. As she pulled it free and opened it she saw that it was a drawing from the original engineering firm located in Moscow. She read the note and her eyes widened. She started racing through the plans until she found the one she wanted. Then she opened the geologist’s file and pulled a report that normally would have been mundane on its surface. She read the report and then looked at the placement of the anchor pins once more. Sarah grimaced and then turned the thick file folder over and spilled its contents on the carpeted floor. She rummaged through the papers until she found the one she had spied earlier that she hadn’t paid attention to. It was a report and drawing about a large fault found in the strata of the rock facing the mountain was built into. The crack, as it were, was stretched across the entire width of the facing. It ran two hundred feet into the mountain—and the anchor pins ran right through the fault. The pins were in essence holding the two halves of the mountain together, and one half included the castle that was built upon it.

“Son of a bitch,” she said as she found the original geology report and the engineer’s follow-up. Sarah slowly lowered her hands to her lap as she sat on her knees inside the Russian’s office.

The report had been doctored to show that the fault that sat behind the rear wall of the castle, and in basic engineering parlance, held it in place by the giant anchor pins, was not there. She looked at the engineering schematic once again and saw that the anchor pins did run right through the crack in the mountain. Zallas was sitting on a disaster waiting to happen. Sarah shook her head and started gathering her data. No matter what was to happen to their investigation, this report had to be brought to the attention of people that could shut that castle down before thousands of people were killed.

Sarah heard the door to the engineer’s office open. She excitedly stood with the castle’s drawings and the geology report.

“Jack, this place is in big trouble, they have—”

The words froze in her mouth as she saw Zallas standing in the office. He had two men beside him and Jack was behind them with three others. Gina was standing beside him and Sarah could see that she was scared witless. Sarah looked at the Russian, who in turn looked around and saw the engineering schematics spread on the floor.

“This place, as you put it, Ms. McIntire, is not the only thing in serious trouble.”

Sarah let the plans slip through her fingers as she felt her heart trying to keep the blood pumping through her system.

Zallas nodded for Sarah to join them in the common area of the office space.

“Yes, we seem to have quite a bit of trouble here tonight,” Zallas said as the door opened from the outer office. “And as you can see, more has just arrived.”

Standing in the doorway was the tall man Jack had recognized earlier. The newcomer smirked. It was Jack who said his name before Sarah.

“Colonel Ali Ben-Nevin.” Jack returned the arrogant smirk and then looked at Zallas as the men guarding him tensed with their guns pointed at his sides and chest as the man before them half bowed.

“I don’t know you,” Ben-Nevin finally said.

“No, but I know a man that has met you and would like to do so again.”

“Believe me, that is in the plan, my friend.”

Jack didn’t like the way Ben-Nevin smiled at all as he was unceremoniously pushed toward the rear entrance of the office area.

“There is good news, we have decided to upgrade your accommodations somewhat,” Zallas said. “You’ll be staying in the yet to be christened Vlad the Impaler Suite. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

THE CITY OF MOSES, PATINAS PASS

As Niles, Alice, Denise, and Charlie were led down a carved stone ramp to the bottom of the temple, the heat had increased by at least fifty degrees, making it somewhere around 110 as near as Niles could estimate. As the men placed Madam Korvesky before the altar the Americans got a better look at the architecture of the city. Madam Korvesky raised her head, weary from the unsteady gait of the two men in their descent into the temple, and saw her guests’ confusion.

“The men who designed this place wanted the temple to last a thousand years. Well, it has lasted three and a half.” The old Gypsy looked around her at the decay of the temple. “We have been weary of the task for many generations. Losing life in its protection and in the pursuit of cover-up has gone on for too long, my grandson is correct in that.”

“I’m not following,” Alice said as she saw the old woman was on the brink of announcing something.

“Our tribe has spread like butter on far too much toast. We are speckled throughout the globe. We have become bastardized with the modern world. A sad thing but one that was inevitable, as you Americans can attest, like the destruction of your Indian tribes, it doesn’t really matter how and why, it just happened. For us our loss of faith was inevitable as our desire to eventually be free of ancient things. Like your American Indian we are fading from history, but unlike those noble people, we want that to happen. Maybe not this soon, but we do want it eventually. And now with my grandson’s arrogant actions it is coming to pass.”

“I don’t understand,” Alice said as she saw the tiredness of the woman before her, so very different from the vibrant hellcat that once upon a time blew up a very expensive yacht in Hong Kong harbor.