The Cleric's Vault (6 page)

Chapter 11

Atlanta, GA

“Password?”
Tommy wondered out loud.
 
“I have
no idea what that could be.”
 
He
leaned back again and thought for a thirty seconds.
 
Where was this all going?
 
The last several weeks had been insane.
 
People had been killed.
 
And even though the discovery of the
chamber had been an amazing one, part of him wished he’d never seen that
stone.
 
Then he had an idea.
 
He leaned forward and typed in the word
Akhanan
into the dialogue box and hit
enter.
 
The computer screen flicked
and switched to a program that Tommy had never seen.
 
It was Nichols’ culminating work, a masterpiece of
programming genius that could, unscramble almost any ciphered message
conceivable, even ancient dialects.
 
At the top of the page that appeared, it simply said
Tommy’s Project.

Will
leaned in closer to see what the rest of the computer had to reveal.

The translation was worked out in a short amount of
time, considering the obscurity and randomness of the symbols.
 
I’m not sure what the translation
means.
 
I’ll leave that to you.
 
I hope this helps.

Terrance

In desert mountains above the meadows’ sand, the
sunlight points the way.
 
The lions
watch the gate to the spider’s lair.
 
Though the distance is great, take guidance from the eagle’s wings to
the river between the great mountains in the southern land.
 
Leaves of three unlock the door.

“Apparently,
Dr. Nichols had solved the language problem before he was murdered,” Tommy said
in a reverent tone.

“What
does it mean?” Will asked, curiously.

Tommy
thought for a moment.
 
The lions watch the gate.
 
There were a lot of things he knew
and understood about history but for this one nothing came to mind.
 
“I’m gonna have to call Mac.
 
He’s the expert on this sort of thing.
 
But I’ll have to wait until the morning.
 
He’ll be asleep by now.”

Will
nodded, understanding.
 
“Just give
me a shout when you talk to him.”

“Sure
thing.”
 
Then he added, “Will?”

The
two men had stood to leave the room.
 
It was mostly quiet now.
 
The hours of work done by a slew of detectives and investigators had
come to an end, and the crime scene was now vacant through the windows beyond
the small office, save for the humming computers.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks
for letting me know…you know, about this.
 
Terrance was a friend.”

Will
sympathized.
 
“Trust me, Tommy, I’m
going to make whoever did this pay dearly.”

There
was an odd sort of determination in the cop’s voice, almost sinister.
 
Tommy passed it off and led the way out
the door of the lab.

Chapter 12

Las Vegas, Nevada

The
mystery woman led the way down the long corridor, past the pool area outside
and to a smaller hallway, ended at some stairs and elevators.
 
Normally, Sean would suggest taking the
stairs but the lifts in the Venetian were so fast he figured speed was worth
the slight risk of running into more trouble.
 
They rounded a turn that opened up into an elevator room and
Sean pressed the downward arrow button.
 
It only took a few seconds before one of the six doors signaled with a
ding that it had arrived.
   
The three rushed in and the strange woman hit the button that would take
them to the level where they could access the parking garage.

Two
older women in fanny packs and visors looked at the three of them with
wide-eyed terror.
 

“Fake
guns,” he waved the piece casually.
 
“We’re with one of those reality-experience groups,” Sean said to the
ladies with a smile as they stared at the weapons.
 
“You know, we make you feel like you’re actually having the
experience of being with a bunch of special agents.”

One
of the ladies turned to the other.
 
“Ooooh.
 
I told you we
needed to do one of those things, Beverly.”
 
She turned back to Sean, “Which company are y’all
with?”
 
The woman’s deep, southern
accent was unmistakable.

He
raised an eyebrow.
 
Before he could
answer, the elevator mercifully reached their destination.

Saved by the bell.
 

The
door opened and the three of them exited quickly into the hallway, careful to
conceal their weapons.
 

Fortunately,
the foreigner had the coat she could use to hide her larger gun.
 
Probably how she got into the hotel
without being noticed.
 
Well, that
and any security personnel were probably not checking her out for weapons.
 
“This way,” she said hurriedly.
 
They walked quickly past a few closed
newsstands and coffee shops and through a pair of glass double doors.
 
Once into the parking garage, they
stopped, each one looking around to make sure the coast was clear.
 
“My car is at the other end,” the woman
declared.

Carefully,
they started walking quickly towards the other side of the level.
 
“Who are you?” Emily asked.
 
“And why are you helping us?”

The
woman turned her head and shot Emily a searing glance.
 
“The second question will have to wait
for now.
 
My name is Adriana
Villa.”

About
eighty feet away, a door began to open up on the side of the huge area.
 
The barrel of a gun emerged followed by
a few of the men from before.
 
Adriana and the others dropped to the floor behind a row of cars just as
a muffled pop echoed off the concrete walls and floor.

*****

“We’ve
found them in the parking garage,” Angela said into her radio.
 
Her team had discovered an alternate
route to the parking level through a separate series of hallways and
elevators.
 
“Where are you?” she
asked.

James
answered in a quiet voice through the earpiece, “I’m right behind them.”

At
the other end, Sean attempted to aim his gun through the maze of tires and
bumpers but he couldn’t get a clear shot.
 
“How much further to your car?” he asked Adriana as a window shatter
nearby.

“It’s
the black Audi SUV at the end,” Adriana replied and pointed towards a vehicle
that sat another hundred feet away.
 

“Ok.
 
Just stay low and they shouldn’t be
able to get off a clear shot.”
 
He
hoped that was the case since he couldn’t get a clean angle either.

They
began creeping along, staying low to the ground.
 
Sean watched the feet behind the rows of cars as they split
up and moved around to flank their position.
 
Then he heard the door behind them creaking.
 
Someone was behind them.
 

On
the other side of the garage, James eased open the heavy service door to the
garage and was instantly furious at how loud the action had been.
 
Surely the creaking had given away his
position.
 
Still, if Weaver and her
remaining men did their job it wouldn’t matter.
 
They could squeeze their quarry into a tight space and then
execute them.
 
He shifted his
weight, crouching low as he led with the long silencer barrel through the
slight opening in the doorway before peeking around the edge.

Sean
noticed the black box of the sound suppressor easing into view.
 
They would be sitting ducks if they
stayed put.
 
Emily and Adriana saw
what he was looking at and read his mind.
 
They needed to get out of the aisle.
 
Moving as one, they darted out of the thoroughfare and into
the next row of cars just clear of the line of sight from the opening
door.
 
The three all stayed low,
watching as the newcomer moved quickly to the first set of cars in the row where
they were hiding.
 
All they could
see was feet in between the tires.
 
The villains were going to try to hem them in.

The
sound of a car engine revved from the end of the room where Adriana’s vehicle
waited.
 
It was accompanied by the
deep thumping from a sub-woofer.
 
Sean watched as a silver Cadillac Escalade rounded the turn into the
parking area headed directly for the men and woman who were trying to flank
their position.
 
The driver was
unaware of what was happening.
 
As
the odd scene of hit men dressed in black, armed with guns appeared in front of
the driver, he stopped the large SUV.
 
Sean couldn’t see inside because of the windows were tinted far darker
than most state laws permitted.
 
For a long, awkward moment, everything in the building was frozen in a
stalemate.
 
The hit squad was still
crouched down, facing the oversized Cadillac.
 
Then, one of the back windows began to roll down and Sean
could see a familiar black object in the driver’s hand.

The
silence erupted into a volley of shots as guns on both sides of the rear seat
opened fire on the crouching assailants who returned rounds of their own at the
silver SUV.
 
The sudden shooting
sent the pursuers diving for cover.
 
Sean glanced at the other two as if questioning whether they knew what
was going on.
 
Both women shook
their heads confused.
 
“Get us out
of here then,” he said to Villa.
 
He didn’t have to say it twice.
 

Adriana
bolted towards her car, using the fray behind the other row of vehicles as a
moment of distraction.
 
The parking
lights of the car beeped, signaling that she had unlocked the black Audi.
 
Emily and Sean ran after her and all
three reached her ride in mere seconds.

*****

James
watched the chaos unfold.
 
Two of
Angela’s men had already been downed.
 
She and the others were pinned back, only able to sneak a few shots from
behind a few cars. The diversion had given Wyatt enough time to escape.

But who was in the Escalade?
 
Did Wyatt have someone helping
him?
 
Surely not.
 
He was in Vegas on vacation.
 
Bullets ricocheted off the concrete and steel around him.
  
He had to help Weaver.
 
Sean Wyatt and his two accomplices
would have to wait.
 

James
jumped out of his position and darted towards the Escalade from the side,
pounding the driver’s window and door with rounds from his Glock.
 
Before the man in the back could react
another two bullets were sent into the dark interior.
 
The dark hand holding the gun lurched backwards violently as
bullets found their target.
 
James
assumed one of his shots had found their mark and emptied the rest of his
magazine into the silhouette of the driver and the remaining man in the back
seat.
 

Adriana
revved the engine, backing her Q7 out quickly then wheeling the car around the
row.
 
The tires squealed as they
peeled around the drive and down into the exit tunnel.

“Who
were those people chasing us?” Sean asked, panting for breath from the
passenger’s seat in the back.
 
He
looked at Emily who was also breathing heavily in the front.

Adriana
whipped the car out of the parking garage and past the valet area outside of
the Venetian.
 
“I’m guessing the
Order of the Golden Dawn.”

James
continued firing on the Escalade until his Glock began to click, signaling that
it was empty.
 
Angela and the few
men left from her team stopped firing as well.
 
No more shots came from the bullet riddled SUV.
 
Just to be safe, James ducked low as he
approached the vehicle and reloaded a fresh magazine into his gun.
 

He
stepped close to the rear door first, weapon trained on the open window.
 
Inside the back were two dead
African-American men.
 
In the
front, a larger black man sat in the driver’s seat.
 
Bullet holes dotted the windshield.
 
Some of the rounds that pierced the
glass had also found the driver.
 
He was alive, but barely.
 
James could hear his labored breathing turning into a gurgle.
 
The man’s lungs were filling with
blood, a particularly strenuous way to die from his experience with it.
 
He’d killed many adversaries that
suffered the same way.
 
Every time
it appeared like the person was going through hell just before they got
there.
 

At
least, that’s where James assumed they’d gone.

Weaver
moved closer to the SUV, gun trained on the lone survivor.
 
James opened driver’s door.
 
The huge beast of a man held one hand
to a chest wound as blood seeped through his fingers.
 
“Who are you?”
 
James asked raising his gun to the man’s head.

A
look of disdain crossed the dark skinned face.
 
The hand holding his chest clenched, extending only one
finger in defiance.
 
With the
other, he tried to raise his gun one last time.
 
James squeezed the trigger.
 
The suppressed barrel popped sending a new splash of blood
and various red fragments all over the passenger’s side of the front of the
SUV.
 
The body slumped over
sideways.

Angela
and the rest of her men stood close by.
 
“Who were those guys?”

“Nobody.”
 
He eyed the excessive jewelry on the
man’s fingers and neck.
 
“Too much
bling for these guys to be pros.”

She
eased her weapon into a holster concealed by her jacket.
 
“Who were the other two with Wyatt?”

He
looked in the direction the black Audi had gone.
 
“I’m fairly certain the woman in the gray dress was Emily
Starks.”

“Axis?
 
What was she doing here?”
 
Weaver looked concerned.

“Maybe
they were having a secret rendezvous.
 
They
did
work together for a
few years at the agency.”
 
Even he
didn’t agree with his assessment, though.

“What
about the other woman?” she asked.

“I
have no idea.
 
But whoever she is
just complicated things.”
 
He
touched the small gash in his shoulder.
 
“That means there’s another player involved.”

“You
don’t think she’s Axis, too?”

James
looked down at his left shoulder.
 
Blood still oozed slowly from the bullet’s damage.
 
“No.
 
I think she’s something else entirely.”