Truthseekers (29 page)

Professor Miltosis had reached the other end of the drain and carefully had raised his slim frame from it. Again Rocko had to move away some stones. This time lying on his back and pushing up with his legs he was able to leverage a heavy stone that was covering the drain. His side was bursting but in many ways he was actually enjoying the pain now. This was Rocko’s way: to embrace the pain of life and relish it, so the pleasures of life became so much more extreme for him.

In under a minute the team of four were standing above ground again in a room. This room was immaculate and the walls were adorned with stunning red frescoes. The frescos depicted a wave like an ocean and the room featured an almost intact painting of a griffin, a mythical creature with an eagle’s head and lion’s body. Carved in alabaster against the wall was a magnificent seat.

“We are in the throne room of King Minos,” said Professor Miltosis.

“It’s beautiful,” said Stacey.

“It’s one of the best representations of any ancient ruins in the ancient world,” said Miltosis.

“We need to keep going. Professor, I need to get help and find Abbey.” David looked like he was starting to become a little frantic.

“Shusssh,” Rocko held a finger to his lips. “Someone else is in the tunnel.”

As a group they froze, and Rocko looked around for something to use as a weapon. There was nothing. He even tried to rip the throne off the wall to Professor Miltosis’ horror. He decided the only course of action was to lift the cover rock up as high as he could and drop it on the intruder.

“You drop that boulder on me Rizotto and I will shoot you in the pecker,” Abbey’s voice came from below the opening.

David’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest and a smile as wide as the Grand Canyon appeared on his face. “My darling,” he gushed.

Rocko laid the cover stone to one side and David reached into the dark and pulled out a dusty and slightly bruised Abbey Bec.

“I thought you had…”

“David… my love. When I tell you I will be there in a minute or two, please believe me. There were only a few of them left,” she said, winking at Rocko in approval of his marksmanship. “You are not getting rid of me
so easily Mr Clark, but I am unfortunately out of ammunition.” Abbey smiled and he grabbed her and drew her to him.

“What about Phillip?” Stacey spoke.

Abbey turned to her and the smile left her face. “I could not get to them. I can only think the worst. You saw that explosion, Stacey. Let’s focus on better things for the moment. We must get out of here. John is here. The one from my boat. He is still alive and he is armed. The others are gone. It is just him. He doesn’t know where we are, but we do need to move. This is a blind room. Where is the simplest way out Professor Miltosis?”

Miltosis considered their situation for a minute and then said:

“We must go south, we are close to the southern exit. If we go north we will be more exposed. There is the Tripartite Shrine room and then the central courtyard.”

“I’m sorry…” David cut in. “Did you say the Tripartite Shrine room?”

“Yes why?”

“We have to go there. I must see it!” David grabbed Professor Miltosis by the arm.

“But it’s dangerous. It’s exposed, low walls leading to the courtyard and a roof over the top. They have been excavating there,” Miltosis replied.

“Did you say it led onto the courtyard?” Abbey asked.

“Yes,” Miltosis replied.

“Then that’s where we go,” Abbey said.

“But that’s almost suicide. He can just shoot us as he pleases. There is almost no way out, Miss.” Miltosis was looking back and forward between Abbey and David and confused as one ever could be, he saw the smile broaden on Abbey’s face.

“Suicide… perfect. A man with his ego will never shoot from the shadows. He wants to look us in the eye as he kills us and we are going to let him.” Abbey smiled and took Miltosis by the arm.

“Lead us, Professor. I want to see this Tripartite Shrine.”

“I’d rather a beer, a shower and a Bangkok babe,” smirked Rizotto. “But hey, when in Greece why not go a little crazy?”

Against his better judgment Professor Miltosis headed out the door and turned north.

38

The team moved swiftly north. David clearly remembered Ghost Wolf’s words to him at their meeting at Lake Superior before the old man was gunned down by Brian Altin’s team: “Find the blue tripartite.” At the time it hadn’t made much sense and he thought the Triskelion in the museum may have been it, but here he was in Crete and in the Palace of Knossos and there was a Tripartite Shrine.

The Tripartite Shrine was about forty metres north of the throne room. It was somewhat open to the central court, the huge open space where the ancient people used to gather to celebrate and honour their king and queen. Abbey was on the watch but unusually she wasn’t being particularly quiet, not noisy but not quiet.

John had moved back to Chant’s position. His plan was clear. They had escaped via an ancient drainage
system. They could be anywhere in the complex. Outside the complex he could hear the sirens of ambulances and police cars, albeit faint, and there was definitely commotion at the site of the fallen hotel. People would have heard the shots and explosions of the battle in the palace grounds, but no one would have known what to do with it. Most of the town were at the festival, including many of the police who would have been tucked up in bed by now, the ouzo flowing freely in their veins. He wasn’t expecting much resistance if any, but his team was gone and he had a mission to finish.

He heard noises and grabbed Chant and dragged him back into the shadows.

Across the courtyard, some thirty metres away, he could see the group moving from column to column, crouching and stooping behind walls. “What are they doing?” he thought. “Maybe they think we are all gone? That bitch has an ego that would think that.” John’s contempt for Abbey was so great that it was all he could do to stop from spitting on the ground. He wanted to kill her so badly now, but to take a shot at her from this hiding place was not how he saw it. He would want to see the life disappear from her eyes. That is all that would satisfy him.

After they had passed, he saw them go over a wall into an area that was being excavated. The area was smallish – only some ten by ten metres, yet it had a roof constructed over it some six to eight metres off the ground. The roof was functional but unstable. He thought about bringing it down on them, but in his heart he wanted to face the bitch and kill her himself. He turned to Chant and thrust a gun into the old man’s hand.

“Sir, it’s time for us to finish this. You must cover me. I am unsure how armed they are. Follow me.”

It was as if John was in charge now and Chant acquiesced. There was no point in grumbling. He had to finish this or Black would finish him. His life and everything he had achieved in it would be pointless. This was Chant’s redemption so he took the gun firmly in his ancient hand,
forgot the pain in his back, aching legs and poor eyesight and stood to his full height and followed John. They scouted round the outside of the courtyard and headed after the group.

Professor Miltosis had stopped in the Tripartite Shrine room. It was no longer a room as such, yet its majesty still stood after all these years.

“I guess you want to see the fresco David?” said Miltosis.

“Yes I do.”

“I just wish we all weren’t out of ammunition,” Abbey spoke up.

David looked at her quizzically. That was a weird thing to come out with. The four of them just stood there and looked at Abbey. Then from behind a low wall at the entrance to the area two men stood up holding firearms. One was a tall, athletic, blond-haired, blue-eyed individual with a scar on each cheek. He was wearing black jeans, a black t-shirt and black boots, and his right hand was bandaged. He was holding the firearm surely in his left. Next to him and slightly behind him was an old man, who looked like he should not have been there. David noticed that even though he was brandishing a gun, he was not calm or it did not seem natural for him. The old man was well dressed in designer trousers, a well-fitting black knitted top and expensive black shoes, and his face had the twist of a wizened yet hardened individual.

Each of the team backed away, almost by instinct. Stacey was frozen. Miltosis had raised a hand to his mouth almost to cover his own exclamation; Rocko sized up the situation but given his position he could never attack the blond man before he was able to peel off a shot. David stood resolute and put his arms out to cover Abbey and guard her. Abbey simply went limp and diffused her vision. It seemed ages, but it was seconds before one of them spoke. It was John.

“It seems our fates cross once more Miss Beckingsale,” John croaked, managing almost to smile. Abbey was silent, so he continued.

“You certainly are a formidable foe, the most formidable of my existence. Yet even you are brought down by your heart. This meddlesome fool…” looking toward David. “He brought you here. He is
the one you can all blame for your demise. It will all be over quickly and the world will return to how it has always been.”

David looked John right in the eyes and spoke.

“You are nothing more than a hired gun. You will never be one of them. That has always been your concern. I can see it in your heart. You are a misfit. Left out by the families and by society. You are only useful while there is use for you. Times are changing and whatever happens to us, your time has come. You will be discarded. Isn’t that correct, Mr Chant?”

John stared at David with hatred searing in his veins. He began to twitch. Chant stepped forward a step…. inquisitive.

“How do you know my name?”

“I know all your names. I do and so will the world media. You cannot stop it. We are exposing your little charade. You think your power controls the world – you, Black and the others. It doesn’t. You can even control the Internet, but it doesn’t matter. The greatest of stories and truths have always passed mouth to ear. There are people who will continue to do so. The chiefs you so defiantly disposed of. They made plans. They are connected to all the indigenous tribes the world over, and by their nature they will not trust you, the press, what they read on the Internet or anything you have manufactured. They will, like they always have, listen to the voice of surety of their elders and they will fight you.”

David saw the old man twitch, so he continued.

“You can’t stop this, Chant. It has started. This hired gun you have here. He may shoot us, but in his heart he knows we are right. He knows and he hates you too. Deep down you have ostracised everyone who could ever assist you in your mercenary ways. Oh what it must be like to live a loveless lie of a life. I almost feel sorry for you.”

David finished by taking a step forward to Chant and mocking him: “Boo,” yelped David. “Your ghosts are coming to haunt you.”

“Quit your talk, Clark,” spat John.

Rocko then stepped forward as well.

“You already had my blood on your shirt, old man. I know you. As David says, you know the truth. You’re scared. All of you are scared. Why
else would you be here? The truth is about to come out and when it does I am sure the blood of thousands will be on your shirt. No amount of washing will get that out.”

“Kill them, John,” Chant squinted his eyes at Rocko and his lip curled in a devil like expression of pure loathing.

“How many shots do you think you can get off before one of us takes you, Blondie?” Rocko spoke directly at John.

“It no longer matters,” said John turning to face Rocko, while keeping an eye on Abbey.

“You don’t think I came here expecting to go home do you? Why would I put myself in this situation, in this room with you people? This bitch cost me my best friend, the only one I have ever loved and she fed him to the sharks. I saw him destroyed before my eyes. You are right, Mr Clark. This old man doesn’t care about me. I am simply muscle and firepower to him. That’s all I have ever been. I despise him. He will never let me into control, where the power is. For years he has mocked me, used me, put me in situations to kill for him. All the while he sat in his plush Manhattan office and sold more lies to the world,” John spoke almost robotically.

Chant started to shake. Things were out of control. What was his man saying? He had been led into the web of the woman somehow. She could kill him instantly and he knew it. He turned to John and barked: “Kill John, now—I order you.”

John smiled and said: “As you wish.”

With the fastest of moves and the coolest of heads he turned his left hand outwards and fired his gun.

39

Rocko felt the wetness and gunge spread down his face. In shock at both the noise of the barrel and the result he could only see out of one eye.

“Bloody hell!” he heard David shout. He vaguely saw his friend’s look of horror and Stacey scream, then he started to come back into focus. He quickly wiped his face and head instinctively trying to remove himself from the experience.

He was covered in William Chant’s brains. The old man was lying at his feet, his head opened up like a watermelon that had been dropped from a building. Chant didn’t know what had hit him. John had turned and shot him at point blank range in the temple, the bullet of the Mauser entering just to the front of his ear and exploding out the back of his head, just missing
Rocko and covering the big man in blood, frontal lobe and cerebral tissue.

John had repositioned immediately and had the gun pointing directly at David.

“What the hell?” David said glancing down at Chant’s remains at Rocko’s feet.

“You see, Mr Clark, I told you that you were correct. Let’s say I just resigned. The next time I pull this trigger it will be for pure pleasure.” He smirked and looked at Abbey, who had not moved or even flinched during the cold-blooded killing of John’s boss. John looked at her all silent and proud for a minute and continued to speak.

“I could shoot you first, Miss Beckingsale, yet that would be no fun. I want to see your eyes as the only man who has ever melted your heart is taken to oblivion by my bullet. I want to savour your tears and feel your heart implode in hopelessness. That will make this day worthwhile. Step toward me, Mr Clark, and prepare for your judgment day.”