The Golden Crystal (12 page)

The Flexiguard Advanced Perimeter System was maintained from a central facility directly in front of the main pyramid’s eastern face. It was remotely accessed, requiring no human guards inside the facility — just a large computer server, communications equipment, and a huge cooling system. Advanced Perimeter Systems, Ltd. monitored the facility remotely, ensuring its protection and alerting the guards to intrusion, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. 

But it wasn’t the same Flexiguard perimeter that protected corporations and multinational concerns around the world. The Egyptian government, learning from the centuries of stealing, looting, and desecrating of the pyramids, had installed a few of their own protective measures. The Flexiguard perimeter fence was outfitted with a heat-sensing technology that could “feel” heat-based anomalies within 300 feet. When the system detected an intruder, it would send an encrypted signal to Advanced Perimeter Systems as well as the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior. Anyone getting closer than the length of a football field from the perimeter would have a paramilitary force descending upon them in less time than it took to run away. Intruders would be immediately surrounded, trapped between the sixteen guards inside the facility and a team of angry soldiers outside.

It was a good thing that Tanning Vilocek had connections with some high-ranking Egyptian officials. 

He radioed in and ordered Karn’s team to wait on the rise until right before sundown while he called in a few favors.
If we don’t get permission now,
he didn’t want to take any chances. Getting out of the area would be a hellish affair if they had to fight off the guards, the Ministry of the Interior troops, and Whittenfield’s men at the same time. In this case, asking permission was worth the trouble.

Vilocek dialed the number from his hotel room in downtown Giza. Madu Jabari answered almost immediately, speaking in an even, collected tone of voice. Many years of service in the political sector had allowed Madu time to perfect his balanced, non-biased voice. “Jabari speaking.”

“Madu, you old fiend — what are you doing awake at this hour?” Vilocek knew Jabari worked irregular hours and didn’t get much sleep, and his sarcastic tone was not lost upon the Egyptian. 

“Dr. Vilocek, my friend! You know we Egyptians work harder than you lazy Americans, so perhaps I should be asking you that question! I also know you do not call me unless there is a favor to ask — just like a good friend,” he chuckled. 

“Listen, Madu,” Vilocek said, cutting off the pleasantries. “I’ve gotten to a turning point in my research, and I believe there’s another piece to the mystery hidden in your country. I’d like to snoop around a bit, and I already have a team assembled.”

“I assume you are looking for access to one of the ancient sites, yes?”

Vilocek hesitated for a moment. “Giza, the Great Pyramid, actually.”

“My friend, you know that place is as good as empty — there are no more artifacts inside.”

“I understand — still, I’m compelled to see for myself. It would just be for a short while, and my men won’t create a scene. We can be finished in a few hours, but listen — we’re going to need to hurry. One of my agents found a tracking device, which leads us to believe we’re being followed by another force, only a few hours behind. If we can gain access before nightfall, I give you my word that we’ll be gone before midnight.”

“I trust you will share your findings with me, as always?” Jabari asked. 

“Absolutely.”

Jabari paused briefly, letting Vilocek squirm just a bit. “Then I suppose I can open it to you until dawn tomorrow.”

“Madu, I cannot thank you enough. You’ll be hearing from me soon. Take care, my friend,” Vilocek hung up the phone. If everything went according to schedule, he wouldn’t even need all the time Jabari had given him. Going over the plan once more in his head, he left the hotel. Rather than calling Karn, he thought he might tag along for this trip. No sense watching the fun from a distance. 

After a short drive, he pulled his rented black Suburban to the curb and stepped out. The hill where his team was waiting was directly ahead, and from where he stood, could barely make out the upper section of the Great Pyramid.

As he climbed the hill, Agent Karn spotted him and raised a hand in greeting. “Will you, uh, be joining us, then, boss?” he asked when Vilocek was near enough to hear his whisper. 

“I wouldn’t miss it,” Vilocek replied. Karn didn’t have a weapon for Vilocek to use, so he handed over his own sidearm. 

“Everything’s in order, then?”

“Everything’s in order, yes. We’ve been granted access until dawn, but we shouldn’t need that much time. Beka, help Karn secure the entrance. I’ll keep an eye on them,” he said, glancing toward Jensen and Corinne. The two agents nodded, then silently moved off down the opposite side of the hill, toward the main gates. Vilocek took over Karn’s post and scanned the area with the military binoculars. 

Beka and Karn were an ominous pair, both large, hulking men wearing all black clothing and body armor. Beka’s rifle was slung over his shoulder, while Karn held his loosely at his side. As they neared the gates, two guards ran over and barked a halt order in Arabic, the chain-link fence the only barrier between them. 

Beka spoke in English. One of the men inside the fence, clearly understanding, came closer. Vilocek and his two captives couldn’t hear the exchange, but eventually the two guards relaxed and the gates swung inward. Agent Beka entered and followed the two guards toward the main facility, but Karn held back, just inside the gate. He withdrew a small object from his shirt pocket and fastened it on the gate’s locking mechanism. Satisfied, he stepped away and turned to follow Beka. 

Vilocek watched the entire scene unfold, zooming out a bit with the binoculars to capture the whole panorama. No more than five seconds passed before Beka sprang into action. Drawing his pistol, he dropped to one knee and fired two shots in rapid succession. Both guards crumpled and fell, gaping holes smoking in the backs of their heads. 

Vilocek smiled.
So far, so good
. 

Beka’s shots were more to draw attention than to eliminate the guards. Vilocek knew Beka and Karn couldn’t fight it out with the entire security force, and he had planned accordingly. When they had discovered the cell phone in Beka’s equipment belt, Vilocek knew that Whittenfield’s team would play right into his hand.

Two other roaming guards and a few from the surrounding buildings were running in the direction of the gunshots. Too far to get an accurate shot, Beka retreated about twenty paces back toward the gate while Karn covered him.

Two more men burst from behind a building to the left. Beka quickly put a bullet in each man’s skull, moving from one to the next with machine-like efficiency. Another guard ran toward Beka from behind, but Karn whipped his combat knife from his boot sheath and threw it perfectly. It landed with a sickening thud in the man’s throat, severing his windpipe and dropping him in his tracks. He pawed helplessly at the knife, but lost consciousness before he could pull it out. 

Finally the rest of the guards in the complex were running toward the chaos near the main gate. There was a great deal of shouting in Arabic as the remaining eleven men closed in on Beka on three sides, their guns raised but all of them waiting for someone else to take charge. Karn had moved unnoticed to one side, partially concealed near the corner of a small building.

One of the guards finally stepped toward Beka and yelled in Arabic. Assuming the man had wanted him to drop his weapon, Beka complied and threw his pistol to the ground. The man wasn’t satisfied, and motioned for Beka to lose his rifle as well. 

Beka shrugged nonchalantly and set his rifle on the ground at his feet. Then he turned toward the gate and raised his hands behind his head. 

Now facing Karn, Beka paused for a moment and then fell forward. At the same instant, Karn fired his rifle toward the group of guards. 

An electronic whirring sound emanated from Karn’s weapon, and a line of pulsating energy sprang toward the group. Narrowly missing Beka, it hit the first few guards and spread outward, jumping from one man to the next like a crazed wildfire in a forest of dried-out trees. Within a second and a half, all of the men were frozen in place, their eyes unblinking, their guns still drawn and pointing in Beka’s direction. Some of the guards had their mouths open in shock.

From Vilocek’s vantage point he could see a pulsating cloud of semi-opaque air that seemed to have consumed the guards. Beka was wriggling out from beneath the cloud, hurrying to avoid coming in contact with the slowly descending particles. Content that the security force was completely contained, Vilocek stood, packed up the tripod and binoculars and headed down toward the facility. “Come,” he ordered, not even bothering to look over his shoulder at Jensen and Corinne. 

He entered the complex confidently, an air of ownership surrounding him. Everything was perfectly under control: Karn had set up his assault rifle on a separate mount and rigged the trigger to stay pulled, freeing him up from having to constantly keep the gun firing in the direction of the incapacitated guards. Beka joined Karn at the gate as Vilocek entered. Professor Andrews and Corinne followed behind, still in shock from what they had just witnessed.

Once inside the gate, Vilocek nodded at Beka and Karn. They hustled into action, Karn turning toward the small box he’d mounted on the gate and Beka rushing toward the group of paralyzed men. Corinne thought she saw a smug grin on his disgusting face. Whatever he was planning, he was excited about it.

He approached the first two men, still held in the powerful force from Karn’s rifle. He stood face to face with the first guard, a young man no older than twenty. Suddenly, Beka brandished a huge combat knife in his right hand. Corinne wasn’t even sure where it had come from, and she gulped in dread of what she was about to see. 

Slowly, meticulously, Beka took a pair of gloves out of his breast pocket and slipped them onto his hands. Still wearing his smirk, he stared the young man down, knowing that although the boy couldn’t move, he was still completely aware of Beka’s every move, taking in every terrifying second that passed.

Suddenly, Beka lifted his hand and plunged the blade into the man’s throat. 

Corinne and Professor Jensen gasped in horror. 

Beka calmly pulled the blade completely through the man’s neck, from the left side and out the right. Where the knife had passed through his neck, there was now a thin red line of blood, but it was not dripping — it was as if it had been drawn on his skin with a red pen. The young man seemed completely unaware that he’d just been fatally wounded. 

Vilocek knew better. 

The testing on this new weaponized form of the crystal had been nothing short of astonishing. It had taken them awhile to develop a sort of “antidote” for the paralysis — something that could be effectively woven into a protective cloth — but Vilocek’s scientists had found that a simple pair of gloves made of the infused cloth offered the best freedom and maneuverability when handling the paralysis victims. The live subjects in the lab hadn’t even flinched when pricked, prodded, and even hit with different objects, but complained of feeling sick and weak once the effects wore off. One test subject, a young girl of fourteen, had even had her arm broken while paralyzed. When they released her, she had shrieked in terror and pain, crumpling to the ground and clutching her arm. She began convulsing uncontrollably on the floor while Vilocek and a few of his scientists jotted down notes from the other side of the glass. 

So Vilocek knew these guards would also feel pain.

That’s why he’d hired Vladimir Beka. He’d never met any man who killed with such swiftness, such ease. Beka was without remorse — he would do anything for the right price. He eliminated Vilocek’s enemies, and followed orders well. He scrutinized each target carefully; then he eliminated them with brutal efficiency.

But sometimes, like now, he was more cavalier and creative.
All the better,
Vilocek thought. The plan was to sabotage the base, kill the guards, and leave the mess for Whittenfield’s team to explain to the Egyptian government. Although Madu Jabari had arranged for the gate to be opened, Karn had thought it better to destroy the gate and make it look like an assault by Whittenfield’s force. The charge Karn had set on the gate would go off any minute now, lending another layer of authenticity to the ruse.

Meanwhile, Karn and Beka had reached the middle of the group of eleven remaining men, stopping at the last. The man stood frozen in place, a deep scowl on his face. An insignia on his shoulder patch indicated that he was some sort of officer. Karn motioned for Beka to wait, and turned toward their boss. 

“Care to finish things off?” he asked, offering the knife to Vilocek. 

Vilocek smiled. “You know I don’t like to get my hands dirty, gentlemen.” Ignoring the bloody knife in Karn’s outstretched hand, he drew the pistol Karn had given him.

He shot the guard twice. The shots were aimed carefully — one through the neck, just left of the jugular, and one through the right kidney. Neither wound by itself would necessarily be fatal, but taken together, they were too much — he would bleed out slowly in agony. 

Vilocek sighed, almost pained that it had to be this way. He knew the men were innocent, but he also knew that there was a larger game to be played here —
much
larger. Their mission hadn’t changed; he
needed
to get that crystal. He also needed to recover Cole Reed. After all the tests they’d done, Reed was their only fully successful case. 

He gave the pistol back to Karn and motioned for the others to follow, careful not to get too close to the cloud surrounding the guards.

They walked the rest of the way to the entrance of the Great Pyramid in silence, and as they climbed the stones below the entrance, Karn’s charge destroyed the gate behind them with a loud crack.

Vilocek paused in front of opening leading to the Descending Passage of the Great Pyramid of Giza. He took out his phone and dialed Madu’s number.