The Cleric's Vault (40 page)

The
men looked at her for an answer but she had none.
 
She banged on the top of the pedestal with the leaf but
again nothing happened.
 
The water
had covered it now and was nearly up to her chest.
 
The younger of the two men had a terrified look on his
face.
 
He glanced at the older man
and then back at Angela.
 
His head
shook violently as the water reached their shoulders.
 
Suddenly, his hand emerged from the water with his weapon
and he put it to his head.
 
He
pulled the trigger sending a splash of crimson into the water.
 
The body went limp and floated face
down on the surface while the bullet wound turned the water an eerie reddish
color in the pale illumination of their flashlights.

Angela
and her team’s leader were treading water.
 
As the level rose, they grew closer and closer to the
ceiling. They looked at each other but said nothing.
 
They were both killers, murderers.
 
There was no comfort to be had.
 
And none was sought.

Their
heads bumped against the angled ceiling as the deluge carried them higher.
 
She tried to keep her mouth near the
top where there was still air.
 
She
watched out of the corner of her eye as the middle-aged man ceased his struggle
and let himself sink into the water.
 
A few moments later his body, too, was floating.
 
His flashlight had sunk to the bottom
of the room, illuminating the floor far below.
 
She was angry.
 
She had never failed at anything.
 
And she was furious that someone had gotten the better of her.
 
As the water covered her head her
thoughts drifted to the events of the last few days: killing her partner, the
shootout at the church, the dry desert air.
 

She
needed air.
 
Angela ceased fighting
the reflex urge.
 
She opened her
mouth and inhaled.
 

Chapter 67

Southeaster Ecuador

Sean
and Adriana flew through the underground flume.
 
Thousands of years of water flow had smoothed out the stone
underneath them so it felt like being in a dark waterslide.
 
The light from their flashlights
bounced around on the roof of the tunnel as they tumbled and slid along.
 
After their initial clumsy ride, they
both righted themselves and were gliding along in the gushing water.
 
A quick drop sent them airborne
momentarily with a sudden thud but the fall had only been a few feet.
 
The tube continued to twist and turn
its way through the old rock until finally, they could see a light up ahead.

“Looks
like the end of the road,” Sean yelled at Adriana who was sliding along behind
him.
 
“Brace yourself!”

The
light grew brighter and brighter until suddenly, there was nothing beneath
them.
 

Tommy
swam hard through the huge pool that had collected at the base of the
waterfall.
 
From the looks of it,
he’d come out near where they had entered the cave.
 
The chute he’d gone through had dumped him out into an area
where the water was surrounded by a half-circle of rocks.
 
As he pulled himself up onto a large
rock, he looked back up at the hole that had just spit him out.
 
He hadn’t expected the floor to drop
out from under him when he lifted the stone medallion off of the pedestal.
 
The sudden fall had jarred him slightly
but nothing he couldn’t shake off.
 
Then he heard a yell from above just before he saw Sean and Adriana fly
out of the chute and into the pool below.
 
Both of them disappeared for a second before re-emerging at the surface,
spitting out water.

“Wooo!”
Sean gave a yell.
 
“Now that was
awesome!
 
Did you see that?”

“I
did it,” Tommy answered from the stone embankment with a huge smile.
  
“What happened to your fear of heights?”

Sean
shrugged and looked back up at the hole in the cave.
 
“It was only twenty feet or so.”

Adriana
seemed less thrilled about the water sports and swam quickly to the edge then
pulled herself onto dry land.

The
three of them sat for a moment and stared up at the water that was pouring out
of the hole in the side of the rock face.
 
Each one of them contemplated something in silence.
 
After a few minutes of rest, they
clumsily made their way over the rocks and across a narrow stone walkway that
led back over to the shore.
 
As if
on cue, the beating sound of a helicopter could be heard in the distance.
  

“Mauricio?”
Tommy looked hopeful.

“If
it isn’t then we might be in some trouble,” Sean answered.

As
the helicopter drew closer they could see through one of the windows that their
friend was indeed inside.
 
He waved
to them from one of the seats in the rear cabin.
 
A few minutes later, the aircraft had landed in a nearby
meadow.
 
Delgado beamed at them as
they approached from the riverbank.
 
“Tommy!
 
I’m glad you’re
okay!
 
We were worried sick about
you.”

Tommy
smiled.
 
“I’m fine,” he said and
held out a small stone disc.
 
On
the top of it were three pyramids of varying sizes.
 

Delgado
flipped it over and saw another set of symbols.
 
There was a small figure bowing down to a bird carved into
the stone.
 
His eyebrows
lowered.
 
“You found the treasure
of Carlos Crespi?”

Schultz
nodded.
 
“It will be quite a task
to get back to it, but I think we have the resources.”

“What
does it mean?” Delgado asked with intense curiosity.
 
His eyes still stared at the disc.

Sean
patted him on the back.
 
“I think
it means we’re going to Egypt.”

Chapter 68

Washington D.C.

Eric
Jennings made his way down the opulent hallway of The Fairfax, one of the more
prestigious hotels in The District.
 
He’d decided to indulge a little, seeing how he felt like he’d been
under considerable stress over the last week.
 
He still hadn’t received any news about Starks’ death.
 
Perhaps she wasn’t going to be missed
by anyone after all.
 
It wasn’t his
concern anymore, though. There had been a slight hesitation when he was
considering the booking.
 
The
Fairfax was extremely close to Embassy Row, but he figured he didn’t really
associate with many of the people in that part of town so the likelihood of
being noticed would be negligible.

The
halls of The Fairfax were decorated elegantly with gold painted molding and
classic architecture.
 
It was
certainly far nicer than what he was used to getting with one of his women.

He
arrived at his room and slid the electronic key into the slot.
 
A moment later the green light beeped
and the door unlocked.

When
he opened it, he was greeted with an intoxicating scent of a woman’s
perfume.
 
The room was dark, save
for a small lamp that was lit from behind a curtain giving the chamber a soft,
eerie illumination.

He
removed his trench coat and loosened the tie around his neck then stepped
towards the corner of the suite where a bed and sitting area were located.
 

In
the pale light, he could make out the silhouette of a woman sitting in one of
the chairs near the window.
 
The
outline of her body was lithe and firm.
 
The creamy white skin of her legs was accented by tight, black
lingerie.
 
Her breasts were pushed
up slightly by a matching black bra.
 
Her face, though, was hidden by a dark shadow that began at the base of
her neck.
 
Jennings smiled as he
stared at the woman.
 
His old
friend had outdone himself again.

“Hello,”
he said casually.
 
“What’s your
name?”

“My
name doesn’t matter,” the voice emanated from the shadows.
 

He
shrugged.
 
“I suppose not.”
 
He took off his belt and set his gun
down on the counter next to the flat screen television.
 
The television was on but the screen
was blank.
 
He pointed at it with
his thumb.
 
“Anything good on?”

“Actually,”
she replied in a slow, sexy tone, “there is.
 
Someone has been a very bad boy.”

She
uncrossed her legs then re-crossed them while she spoke.
 

“Oh,
have I?”
 
He played along.
 
“I guess I’m going to have to be
punished.”

“Indeed.”

“Was
that sarcasm in her voice?” he thought to himself.
 
He liked this one.
 
She had a little attitude.
 
Maybe not as young as he would have liked but that could be made up for
in other ways.
 
He undid his pants
and dropped them to the floor revealing gray, pinstripe boxers.
 
As he was unbuttoning his tie, she
lifted a hand with a remote in it and pressed a button.

At
first, the vision on the screen was a little dark and blurry but when it came
into focus, Jennings’ eyes grew wide with realization.

It
was surveillance footage of him entering Emily Starks’ bedroom the night
before.
 
He watched in horror as
the man on the screen walked over and fired bullets into the head of the
sleeping woman then left quickly.
 
His face was unmistakable in the footage.

He
turned his head back to the woman in the corner.
 
“Where did you get this?” he demanded.

Then
she leaned forward, revealing her face.
 
It was Emily Starks.

Jennings
staggered backwards a few steps, placing his hand on the corner of the wall to
regain his balance.
 
He shook his
head.
 
“No.
 
That’s impossible!”

“What’s
the matter, Eric?
 
You look like
you’ve seen a ghost.”
 
She smiled
as she stood up with her hands behind her back.
 
Her long, brown hair dropped teasingly over one
shoulder.
 

“I
killed you!” he yelled.

“No.”
 
She stopped, keeping her distance from
him.
 
“You killed a dummy.
 
I watched from the closet as you snuck
into my room and pulled the trigger.”

He
kept shaking his head.
 
He’d been
so certain, so careful.

She
continued, “I knew you couldn’t be trusted, Eric.
 
So I played it safe.
 
Now, there are twenty agents waiting outside to take you away as soon as
we walk out that door.”

He
stood silent for a moment.
 
All his
years of hard work, his pension, retirement, everything passed before his
eyes.
 
It was all gone now.
 
The only luxury resort he would see
would be Leavenworth, Kansas.
 

His
eyes darted quickly over to the weapon on the counter.
 

She
saw what he was thinking.
 
“Don’t
do that, Eric.
 
There’s no way out
of here.”
 
Jennings had information
she needed.
 
Emily needed him
alive.
 
“Who are you working for,
Eric?”

His
face was full of despair like a child who had been caught breaking a
window.
 
He said nothing at first,
just staring at her.

“Eric,”
she urged, “who are you working for?
 
Make it easy on yourself.
 
I
need a name.”

Jennings’s
lips quivered.
 
“I worked my way
up,” he finally said.
 
“I did
everything by the book.”
 
He
laughed at the last sentence.
 
If
he was expecting some kind of pity from Starks, he was going to be
disappointed.
 
Her face remained
stoic, hardened by the fact that he’d tried to kill her in her sleep.
 
“They offered me a way out, promised me
more money than I’d see in twenty years working for the government.”
 
He paused and looked down as he thought
about the money he’d received from Golden Dawn.
 
Then he his eyes moved back to her for a second as if
considering her words.
 
“
Make it easy on yourself
,” she’d
said.
 
Then he lunged for the
gun.
 
Grasping it in his left hand,
he was about to raise it when he saw that Emily already had her own weapon
trained on him.

“Put
the gun down, Eric.
 
It doesn’t
have to end like this, but if you don’t put the weapon down I will shoot you.”

Her
voice carried more than a threat.
 
It was a fact.
 
Starks may
have been a desk worker in the Justice Department, but she hadn’t gotten there
by being soft.
 
He knew her record,
knew how many confirmed kills she’d had in the field.
 
She meant every word.

“Eric.
 
Who is running Golden Dawn, and what
are they up to?”

He
raised the gun slowly over his head as he turned to face her.
 

Visions
of the beach and luxurious golf courses, women, gourmet food, and a life of
luxury entered his mind.
 
He would
have none of that now.
 
Then
slowly, he began to lower the gun towards the temple of his head, just above
the ear.
 

“Eric.
 
Stop.
 
Don’t move, Eric!
 
Don’t do it!”

As
soon as the barrel was pressed against his skin, he squeezed the trigger.

The
loud pop was accompanied by burst of blood that splattered across the bed and
wall.
 
Starks turned her head at
the sight.

Jennings’s
eyes stared ahead for a moment, his body wavering.
  
Then he toppled over backwards.

Immediately,
the door burst open and special agents wearing bulletproof vests entered the
room with guns drawn.
 
When they
saw the body on the floor, they lowered their weapons.
 

Emily
just stared down at the corpse for what seemed like an hour before being
interrupted by one of the men from her team.
 
“Orders, ma’am?”
 
The young agent had stepped over the body and handed her a robe from the
closet.
 
She’d forgotten that she was
still basically naked.
 
She snapped
out of her daze and returned to being the director she was.
 
“Thank you,” she smiled at him briefly.
 
“We will take care of this
quietly.
 
The news report will be
that we discovered the body.
 
He
had financial problems, and they had become too overwhelming for him to bear.”

The
young agent nodded.
 
His loose,
blonde hair shook when he did.
 
“Yes ma’am.”
 
He immediately
pressed a button on his earpiece and started sending out the orders as he
turned and left the room.

Emily
tucked the robe around her waist and sat down on the edge of the chair she’d
previously occupied.
 
A sickening
stench of gun smoke and blood remained in the air.

She’d
hoped to take Jennings alive.
 
Now
whatever information he had about his employer was gone.