Secrets Of The Serpent's Heart (The Arkana Archaeology Mystery Series Book 6) (15 page)

Joshua Metcalf stowed his gear in the back seat of Chopper Bowdeen’s rental car. The mercenary had come to pick him up personally at the Melbourne Airport. The spymaster climbed into the left front seat and Chopper darted away from the curb.

As the breeze ruffled his hair, Joshua made a vain attempt to smooth it down. “I’ve never ridden in a convertible before.”

Chopper couldn’t tell from his tone whether he was offended or simply making conversation. “Nothing like it in the world, son. We both spend too many hours cooped up indoors. You need to breathe in some fresh air.”

Joshua gave a noncommittal smile.

They rode in silence through the suburban area that surrounded the airport and then onward to the valley. Although the airport was far removed from the center of town, it still looked like an extension of the city. This urban feel eventually gave way to acres of vineyards and rolling green fields encircled by mountains.

The spymaster took note of the changing landscape. “I’m surprised that the brotherhood succeeded in finding such a remote location. We aren’t that far from Melbourne, are we?”

“No, not too far,” Bowdeen agreed. “But we’re in the Yarra Valley which is mainly agricultural. It’s far enough from the big city to give some privacy to what goes on here.”

They drove in silence until the car approached a narrow dirt lane branching off from the main highway on the right. Instead of turning into the lane, Chopper pulled onto the shoulder across the way and parked the car near a row of gum trees for shade.

The spymaster turned quizzically toward his companion.

“Let’s get out and stretch our legs here,” Chopper suggested. “There are a few things I wanted to talk over with you before we go inside.”

Joshua nodded and complied.

The two men strolled along the shoulder of the road and took up a position near the trunk of a tree.

“Well, this is it,” Chopper began conversationally. “The last compound on the last continent. My work for the Nephilim is done. You can take it from here with my blessing.”

“What will you do now?” Joshua asked casually.

The mercenary hesitated. “That all depends.”

“On what?”

He stared the spymaster directly in the eye. “On whether your father will let me go or not.”

Surprisingly, Joshua didn’t try to reassure him of the Diviner’s good intentions.

That fact alone gave Chopper a sense of foreboding. “Son, is there something you should be telling me?”

Joshua sighed and cast a furtive glance toward his colleague. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. There are things...” he trailed off and seemed on the point of walking back toward the car.

Bowdeen stepped between him and the vehicle. “What things?” he urged.

Joshua appeared unwilling to meet his gaze. He turned aside but murmured, “I’ve recently discovered some facts that are upsetting, to say the least.”

“Something that concerns me?”

“It might,” the spymaster hedged. He retraced his steps and leaned against the tree trunk. Folding his arms across his chest, he asked, “Do you remember when you asked me to look into a secret lab several miles away from the main compound?”

The hair stood up on the back of Chopper’s neck. Despite his original intention to uncover Metcalf’s master plan, he felt he was on the brink of finding out something he really didn’t want to know. “Sure do.”

“It seems the foreign doctor running that lab has been tasked with developing some kind of lethal substance. I don’t know what it is or what its intended purpose may be.”

“Way back when we talked about this last, you mentioned that the Diviner was having you round up ne’er-do-wells in the congregation. Did they end up in that lab?”

Joshua nodded. “Yes, I was able to confirm that much. The doctor who runs the lab would send a driver to the collection point to take them away.”

“And what happened to them after that?” Bowdeen feared he already knew the answer.

“They were never seen again,” Joshua murmured furtively.

“Seems the Diviner found some use for them after all.”

“That isn’t what worries me.” The spymaster started pacing around the base of the tree.

Bowdeen stood back and watched him for a few minutes, waiting for an explanation.

Finally, Joshua wheeled around and said, “My father is no longer distinguishing between the evil and the innocent.”

Chopper blinked. He didn’t know what to make of that statement. “Come again?”

“Let me go back to the beginning.” Joshua took a deep breath. “Last fall, my Brother Daniel’s principal wife suffered a mental collapse. She had just lost a baby and became emotionally unstable. Her behavior couldn’t be controlled. Ordinarily, we send disruptive wives to hospitals where they can be sedated. Some can be rehabilitated. The ones who can’t be are shut away but they aren’t physically harmed. This month, my father announced that Annabeth had died of a contagious disease while at the hospital. Her body was cremated to avoid infecting the Nephilim.”

Chopper shrugged, not seeing how these facts pertained to him. “Sounds like a tragic accident to me.”

Joshua slid down against the tree trunk and sat unceremoniously on the ground.

The mercenary crouched down beside him, wishing the spymaster would come to the point.

“I decided to do some checking on the circumstances surrounding Annabeth’s death. She never went to the usual hospital we use for such cases. The Diviner privately arranged for a hired car to deliver her to the collection point. I was taken out of the loop entirely.”

Bowdeen gave a low whistle. “Your father sure didn’t want you to know about this.”

Joshua laughed bitterly. “He didn’t want anyone to know about it. Even Daniel, her husband, has been kept in the dark as to the circumstances of her death.” He paused, weighing his next words. “Once I’d discovered that the malefactors I had collected were being sentenced to death, I still believed my father’s actions were just. Their punishment was merited. But Annabeth’s sin was nothing more than immoderate grief at the death of her son. There was no justice in sentencing her to such a fate.”

“Yeah, that’s messed up,” Bowdeen agreed warily.

In an unexpected move, Joshua grabbed Bowdeen by the shirt collar and shook him lightly, almost knocking him off balance. “You’re missing the point. Annabeth was my sister-in-law. A member of the Diviner’s own family.”

Chopper extricated himself gently. “Alright, son. Calm down now.”

Joshua barely heard him. “It’s a very short step from murdering a daughter-in-law to killing a son.”

Those words brought the mercenary to attention. “So you think he might—”

The spymaster cut him off. “Kill me or one of my brothers. Yes, I do. My father grows more irascible with each passing month. It takes very little to offend him these days. One mistake and I could be sent to the lab.” He paused and gave the mercenary a shrewd look. “Or perhaps you.”

Chopper blanched at those words, finally realizing where this conversation was tending.

“I’m sure you’ve thought about it,” Joshua challenged. “What my father would do once you’d completed all your tasks. You’re in a unique position, Mr. Bowdeen.”

“Don’t I know it,” Chopper agreed ruefully.

“A man from the Fallen World who is privy to the most confidential details of the Nephilim’s defenses. You know who the trained marksmen are. You know where the surveillance cameras are positioned. And you know those facts about every compound in every corner of the world.” Joshua gave him a sardonic smile. “It would be a tactical error on my father’s part to let you walk away from us.”

Bowdeen sprang to his feet, running distracted fingers through his cropped hair. “I been worried about this since Day One. It’s time I made myself scarce.”

Joshua stood up as well, giving a short bitter laugh. “My father can be a relentless foe. I doubt he would settle for your absence when your death could make him feel so much more secure. The brotherhood would hunt you to the ends of the earth.”

Chopper felt his heart skip a beat as Joshua voiced his own worst fears.

The spymaster placed his hands on Chopper’s shoulders and stared him directly in the face. “I can think of a better solution to your problem. In fact, it’s something that will solve both our difficulties at the same time.”

Chopper watched the spymaster’s expression. Those dark eyes didn’t blink. He was dead serious.

Joshua continued. “I’m sure you’ve contemplated this possibility from the beginning as well. You had to. As things stand now, my father hasn’t left either one of us any choice in the matter. There’s only one way to assure our own survival.” He held out his right hand. “Are we agreed?”

The morning after they arrived at Lugu Lake, the Arkana operatives took the cableway to Gemu Goddess Cave to see if the Minoans had hidden their artifact there. Tourist traffic was light, partly because it was early in the season and partly because it was early in the day. The three wanted to get a head start to avoid attracting attention while conducting their search. They hired a pig-trough boat to row them across the water from Luoshui to Nisai Village which was situated right at the foot of the mountain.

In Nisai, they boarded the cableway which would carry them to the cave. The transportation system was unpopular with some locals who had once earned a living guiding tourists up the mountain on horseback. Although a few visitors still opted for the equine experience, most people preferred the convenience of the cableway. The foot of the mountain was traversed via an alpine slide. The steeper slopes were navigated by chair-lift. Each of the green metal cars could carry two passengers. Cassie and Rou took one car with Griffin following behind. The lift carried them slowly to their destination 11,000 feet above sea level with the apex of the peak a thousand feet higher still.

When they arrived, the chairs deposited them right in front of a Buddhist temple festooned with colorful Tibetan prayer flags. The entrance had been positioned in such a way that it offered a picture-perfect view of the lake and several quaint villages dotting the shoreline. Griffin informed them that the temple was a recent addition by the Han developer who had built the cableway. It was just as unpopular with the locals as his cable scheme had been. Traditionally, the Mosuo used the cave itself as their place of worship and saw the Buddhist temple as nothing more than a tourist attraction. Bypassing the shrine interior, the three followed the steep stone stairway which led directly to the cave entrance.

Cassie nudged Griffin as they climbed. “Erik would go nuts if he could see this.”

The Scrivener treated her to a puzzled glance until he noticed a gang of monkeys hanging from nearby trees and railings to watch their approach.

“Guard your valuables, Rou,” he cautioned. “One of our associates came to grief in India during an altercation with furry bandits much like these.”

Rou smiled and nodded politely, not understanding the joke.

Their climb ended at a square doorway chiseled out of the surrounding rock and reinforced by massive wooden beams. A sign above the lintel announced this to be the entrance to Gemu Goddess Cave. Once past the threshold, they were greeted by the sight of thousands of stalactites suspended above their heads. Colored lights had been positioned to reflect upwards, highlighting the cavern icicles like so many crystal chandeliers.

“This cave is huge!” Cassie exclaimed in wonder.

“And so deep.” Rou pointed off into the darkness beyond the entrance.

“Oh, dear.” The Scrivener sounded dismayed. “Given the scale of this cavern, our search will take hours.” He glanced cautiously toward the doorway to detect any activity outside but all was quiet.

“Wait a minute.” Cassie held up her hand. “I’m picking up a vibe. The Minoans have been here for sure!” She closed her eyes briefly to get a sense of which direction held the strongest pull. “There!” She pointed off to the right. Heading without hesitation toward the side wall, she placed her palm flat against a spot about six feet off the ground. “Anybody got a flashlight?”

Rou dove into her backpack and produced one.

“Aim the beam at the wall where my hand is,” Cassie instructed.

Rou’s flashlight revealed a flower emblem chiseled into the rock.

“The Minoan lily,” Griffin whispered in awe. “In spite of all our false starts and wrong turns, we actually found it.”

“Finding the lily is only half the battle,” the Pythia cautioned. “Now we have to find the thing it’s pointing to.”

Griffin dug a torch out of his pack and joined Rou in searching the area near the chiseled symbol.

Cassie had moved out of the range of their lights, allowing her hand to trail along the wall. “Uh oh!”

“What!” Griffin sent his beam in the direction of the Pythia’s voice. He gave an involuntary gasp. His light revealed a niche hollowed into the rock wall. A thin layer of stone must once have concealed the cavity but it had been shattered. The niche was empty. “I’m beginning to wish this retrieval had been a repeat of Kailash after all. At least we’d have something to show for it! As it is...” the Scrivener trailed off despondently.

At that moment, a scuffling sound could be heard emerging from the depths of the cave. All three of them froze.

“You’re breaking up.” A woman’s voice echoed, coming closer. “Can you hear me now?”

She walked into the range of their flashlights—an attractive Asian woman in her late-30s with high cheekbones suggesting Tibetan ancestry. Her long black hair was styled with artfully chopped bangs and side fringes. She was dressed in skinny jeans, knee high boots with stiletto heels and a leather jacket. A hand-dyed gauze scarf was knotted casually around her neck and a designer messenger bag hung from her shoulder. Holding up her cell phone by way of explanation, she shook it for emphasis. In a perfect American accent she remarked, “Don’t you just hate that? I swear I can’t keep a signal in this place to save my life.” She pocketed the phone and held out her hand toward Cassie, causing a diamond tennis bracelet to flash in the dim light. “Hi, my name’s Elle.”

Concluding she was a tourist who’d wandered off the beaten path and gotten lost, the Pythia smiled nervously. “Nice to meet you. Is Elle a Chinese name?”

The woman gave a snort of derision. “No, but it’s the name I would have chosen if anybody had bothered to ask me.”

Cassie returned the handshake. “I’m—”

Elle cut her off. “I know who you are.” She gave a slight smile. “Let me rephrase that. I know what you are.”

Cassie’s eyes grew wide with alarm. “But—”

Elle continued. “And I know why you’re here.”

Tensely, the Scrivener asked,” Did the Nephilim send you? Do you have the artifact?”

To everyone’s surprise, Elle laughed. Her eyes raked Griffin from top to bottom. “Well, hello there.” She stepped forward. “What’s your name?”

Cassie blocked the move. “He’s with me. He’s my partner.”

“Is he now?” The smile never left Elle’s face. “For business or pleasure?”

The Pythia was struck speechless by the question.

Never missing a beat, Elle forged ahead. “Business it is then.” She reached around Cassie to take Griffin’s hand. “Nice to meet you, whoever you are.”

“I’m... er... ahem. That is... My name is... um... Griffin.” He returned the handshake.

“You sure about that?” Elle teased.

“Yes, quite.”

Rou had sunk into the shadows along the wall, trying to remain invisible.

Her tactic apparently failed because without even glancing in the girl’s direction, Elle asked, “Is she with you?”

“Yes, of course,” Griffin affirmed. “This is Rou. She’s our guide.”

The girl folded her arms across her chest in a refusal to shake hands.

“I get that a lot around here,” Elle observed dryly.

“You still didn’t answer Griffin’s question.” Cassie’s tone was insistent. “How do you know about the artifact?”

The woman paused a moment to consider the question. “That’s a long story, children.” She wandered over to an outcropping of rock and hopped up to take a seat on it. “The short version is that I lost a game of tag with my grandmother.”

The others gathered around though Rou chose to lag behind them a few feet.

In a rush of comprehension, Cassie understood. “You’re the sentinel.”

“Lucky me.”

“You mean you’re the individual chosen to guard the artifact?” Griffin sounded skeptical. “You don’t look like—” He broke off.

“You mean there’s an official costume?” Elle’s hand flew to her heart in mock surprise. “I never got the memo.” She settled herself more comfortably on her rocky perch. “Once upon a time, my ancestors came across a bunch of strangers asking for directions. The strangers were looking for a special place to hide a relic of their goddess. My ancestors, being goddess worshippers themselves, knew the spot they were trying to find and brought them here. This mountain has been sacred for a lot longer than anybody suspects. Your Minoan friends would have made good used car salesmen because they even convinced one of my ancestors to stick around and guard the place until the right person came to claim the artifact.” She stared pointedly at Cassie. “That would be you, sweetie. They said a seer with ‘eyes the color of rain’ would come for it someday.”

Elle paused in her narrative to give a sardonic chuckle. “‘Someday’. That’s such a vague word, isn’t it? It can mean a week or it can mean three thousand years. So from one generation to the next, my ancestors appointed a member of the family to keep watch over the cave until ‘someday’ arrived.”

“Then you’re Mosuo?” Griffin asked.

“Partly. My ancestors crossed paths with your Minoans in the Himalayas but the sentinel at that time settled down here. My family considers itself Mosuo now. Not me though. Like the song says, I was born in the USA. When my mom was young, she wanted to see the world so she bolted from here decades ago. Moved to New York. Became a cab driver. She never looked back and neither did I.”

“You looked back!” Rou countered. “You are here.”

The sentinel cocked an amused eyebrow. “So she can speak after all.” Turning her attention to the other two, she added, “And she’s not wrong. Family has a way of roping you back in. Try arguing with a Mosuo matriarch and you’ll know what I mean. Ancestral honor, sacred trust, yaddy yaddy. You get the picture. My grandmother was the sentinel until she decided about ten years ago that she’d gotten too old for the job. She needed to figure out who was destined to replace her so she consulted one of the local crackpots who put the sham in the word ‘shaman’.” Elle gritted her teeth. “If I ever catch up with that snake charmer...”

“So you moved back once you were named the sentinel,” Griffin concluded.

“Hardly! I didn’t bust my butt to create a fabulous life for myself in New York just so I could spend the rest of my days lurking in a bat cave!” She glared at the Scrivener. “There are other ways.”

“Such as?” he prompted.

“Such as psychics.”

“You mean you relied on paranormal advice to predict when we would arrive?” He sounded incredulous.

“Really? You want to go there?” Her voice dripped with sarcasm. “This whole gig has woo-woo written all over it. A seer is hardly mainstream. After the exhibition I saw when you first came in, I’d say your girlfriend doesn’t just ride the astral plane. She could pilot it solo.”

“G... girlfriend.” Griffin seemed flustered but he didn’t contradict Elle’s assessment of their relationship. “I suppose we do rely on the paranormal in our line of work as well.”

“Anyway,” Elle continued. “At first, I checked with a couple of psychics to see just how long I was going to be tied to this legacy gig. After all, I had no reason to assume the chick with the grey eyes was going to show up during my lifetime. You could have knocked me over with a powder puff when they all told me it would happen soon. Yet another vague word I dislike—‘soon’. That’s when I decided to go on the offensive and track down the seer myself. I put every big name New York psychic on retainer. Each month they’d give me their predictions about her whereabouts. Most of the time they contradicted one other so I waited until I hit the paranormal equivalent of a trifecta.” She paused for emphasis. “Every single one of them independently confirmed that this month, ‘soon’ would turn into ‘now’. The seer would show up at Lugu Lake.”

“A month is a pretty big window of time,” Cassie noted.

“Yeah, it is. Try sitting in this cave for a single hour and you’ll understand the meaning of the word ‘excruciating’. So I phoned an astrologer I know. She specializes in precision timing and she was able to narrow your ETA down to today.”

“It seems you made quite a leap of faith,” Griffin said.

“She charges big bucks because she’s dead-on accurate when it comes to timing an event. I figured she could be trusted.” She jumped off her perch. “Speaking of leaps of faith, you three took a huge jump yourselves by showing up in this cave. You had no way of knowing your precious relic was hidden here at all, much less whether it would still be around after three thousand years.”

“Obviously, it isn’t,” the Scrivener retorted.

“She knows where it is,” Rou growled from behind them.

“Ooh, your little shih tzu is getting snappish,” Elle commented archly.

“Rou’s right,” Cassie said. “You wouldn’t have bothered to hang out here to meet us if you didn’t know where the artifact is.”

Elle inclined her head. “Fair enough. I do know where it is. But first, some standard boilerplate. The original sentinel was given a mandate that’s been passed down through the ages. He was supposed to ask the seer one question before surrendering the relic. If she couldn’t answer it, then the artifact was to stay under wraps.” In an unexpected move, the sentinel reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a small handgun. She pointed it directly at Cassie’s chest. “OK, grey eyes. Time to find out if you’re the real deal.”