The Tomb of the Gods (Matt Drake 4) (12 page)

Dahl waited.

“Anyway. Once I discounted the logograms as a somewhat secondary script and realized the rest of the language was, in fact, a complete syllabary, I began to make some headway.”

Drake glanced at Karin. The blond-haired Blake girl said, “A syllabary
is a set of symbols that represent all the syllables of a language. A complete writing system.”

“Admittedly, there’s a bit of ancient Greek, some
Nu Shu
of ancient China and even some Mayan, but it seems to blend in quite well.”

“That makes sense,” Dahl said. “The tombs are full of gods from every land.”

“After trawling through some dross, I started to piece it together. To make it easier for you, Torsten, I’ll stick to the simple stuff.”

“Kind of you, Akerman.”

“I know. It was pre-ordained that the unearthing of Odin’s shield would start in motion a series of events that would lead to the discovery of all three tombs. That includes the portal devices found in Blackbeard’s ship and the gate you found in Hawaii. You see? They were not discovered at this time by accident.”

“It had occurred to us,” Drake murmured.

“But—” Akerman shouted the word. “It goes on to say that the sequence of events will reveal all of the god’s secrets and ‘mankind’s decision to save or destroy itself’”

Belmonte whistled. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Mankind’s
decision?” Dahl said wonderingly.

Karin gave a weary sigh. “To use or not to use the doomsday device,” she said. “It’s all in our hands.”

“Of course. Odin’s poem—
forever shall thou fear this, hear me sons of men, for to defile the Tomb of Gods is to start the Day of Reckoning.
Akerman, go on.”

“As for the gods themselves? Odin was the one who saw the future—then literally traveled through time. It so happened one day that he traveled to a time when no gods existed. They were dead. When he took his findings back to his Council and his sons, they laughed at him. They would not believe him. It was then that he crafted the teleportation devices and allowed several of the more trusted ones to see the future. What had come to pass
would
come to pass. You see? Before that moment, the gods saw themselves as perpetual, an undying breed. But a hard truth can reveal one’s true mortality, and so it was with the gods.”

Karin smiled at her brother. She had been right.

“It is said that no god is truly evil,” Akerman went on. “But some are definitely nastier than others. It was these few, of course, who wished to use the teleportation devices for their own ends—imagine the chaos they could cause—and so progressed Odin’s plans apace. The great gods and he built tomb three first to negate the threat. Then the one in Iceland. And then the one in Hawaii. Apparently, there is some kind of throne there?”

Drake nodded to Dahl’s questioning look. “Yes. A huge, dark throne overlooking the biggest cavern you ever saw.”

“It’s where Odin sat,” Akerman told them. “Before he died. The last of the gods contemplating his momentous decisions. And then he returned to his own country to die.”

It’s where Odin sat.
Drake’s heart pounded in disbelief.
I climbed over the throne where Odin sat.
For a moment, his vision blurred.

“Odin created fate,” Akerman continued. “He created the fate of the gods and of mankind, and I have no doubt, planted many turning points in the course of our history. Not just this one.”

“Do the texts explain anything about the device itself or how it may relate to Norse mythology?” Karin asked impatiently.

“Who said that?” Akerman blustered. “Never mind. The female is aggressive, but I suppose I may have been getting a bit carried away. And yes—it does. My main focus was, of course, on this part of the text.” Akerman coughed uncomfortably.

“Go on, old friend,” Dahl said gently.

“The doomsday device is a weapon designed to cause an overload of the elements. The earth will quake. The air will be split apart by megastorms of unbelievable ferocity. Chains of volcanoes will erupt. And the oceans shall rise.”

“The worst scenario we can imagine.” Ben nodded. “Naturally.”

“Thor was the god of thunder and lightning. Poseidon—of the seas. Loki—of fire. And both Loki and Poseidon are also known as the gods of earthquakes. You have found them all, have you not?”

“Among thousands of others.” Dahl’s eyes were bleak.

Drake wanted to reassure him, but the words dried to ash in his throat. Assurance was beyond him now.

“That’s the point. The device will use the natural elements to rip the planet apart. But it’s based around the Norse version of the apocalypse—Ragnarok. Ever heard of it?”

*****

Hayden had no wish to hurt the man, but her obligations ran far deeper than his pitiful wish to cling to life. A right he’d given up the moment he chose to become a mercenary.

If
he chose it, Hayden thought, remembering the plight of many of the Blood King’s men.

She searched his eyes. “What do you know of the eight pieces, huh? Where are they?”

His expression didn’t change. Hayden tapped his skull with the barrel of her handgun. “Tell me. Now.”

“Cayman sent for them.” The man spit out at last. “He. . . They were at Stuttgart. Not far.”

“Sure thing, I know all that. But how is he transporting them to Singen?”

As she said it, the answer popped into her brain. There was only one way to do it quickly, safely and quietly. But she needed confirmation.

The man shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Hayden scowled. She looked around. Kinimaka labored over another man a few feet away. He came up with a similar expression.

Then Sam, the SAS Commander, appeared a nearby decrepit doorway. “We found their communications array and worked one of the operators until he came up with the answer. Cayman went for secrecy and stealth, probably at the insistence of his masters. The pieces are being transported overland, by civilian train.”

Hayden jumped to her feet. “Get ready for another battle, guys. We need to stop that train—at all costs.”

*****

At Dahl’s urging, Akerman explained as quickly as he could. “Ragnarok is the great battle of battles. The one that ends it all. It is, basically, the last stand of the gods. The last stand of all the heroes. Heimdall blows his great horn. The midguard serpent thrashes, causing immense tidal waves. Cliff faces are sundered. People walk the road to hell and the heavens split apart. The great World Tree,
Yggdrasil,
shudders. The gods do battle with the invaders. Odin dies at the jaws of
Fenrir.
Freyr fights
Surtr
and loses. Odin’s other son, Vioarr, avenges his father and spears the enormous wolf. Thor, the Protector of the Earth, desperately fights the great serpent and defeats it, but is only able to take nine steps afterward before falling to his death, poisoned. People flee their homes. The sun turns black, great storms batter the earth and it sinks into the sea. Stars vanish. Fire and steam rises and flames touch the heavens.”

“But it never happened,” Dahl said.

“Maybe not. Maybe not
yet.
Odin was always considered the wisest of all beings. He may have found a way—this way—to postpone the inevitable. In any case, your battle, our battle, is real. As real as can be. This is
our
Ragnarok, my friend.”

“Interpreted how?”

“Heroes must rise to save the day or villains will end it. Whatever you believe in doesn’t matter. A last stand is coming. A battle of battles. You must make this stand together and you must win.”

Drake suddenly felt the presence of Mai and Alicia. They had heard and were looking suitably shocked. “The Shadow Elite are behind all this,” he said aloud. “They want the eight pieces to hold the world to ransom. We’ll stop them.”

“So why bring the pieces here?” Dahl momentarily turned away from his call.

“To prove the worth of what they have,” Karin said in a sickened voice. “They mean to give the world a little taster.”

Drake thought it a little ironic—that the eight pieces they had thought at one time irrelevant were now turning about to be crucial. He watched, lost in thought, as Karin broke away from the conversation to talk to the approaching Komodo.

Hayden joined them. “It’s time to move.”

Dahl thanked Akerman, told the Swedish language expert to leave Iceland immediately, and ended the call. “So,” he said. “Who wants to catch a train?”

*****

Karin intercepted Komodo as he walked to join the group and took the big soldier to one side. They passed through a narrow, crumbling doorway and into a quiet alcove with more windows and collapsed masonry than walls.

“I missed you, Trevor.”

The big man blanched a little at the use of his real name. It was Karin’s way of teasing him. They hadn’t known each other for long, but they had known each other long enough.

“And I you, Kazmat
.”
His nickname for her was based around the abbreviation for Hazardous Materials—the family, he said, to which she belonged.

Karin kissed him hard on the lips. The soldier had to bend down to reach her. By the time they broke away, they were both breathless.

“You’re the first thing I’ve believed in since Rebecca died.” Karin said the words again as she’d said them to him many times. “Don’t make me regret it.”

“Not a chance.”

“I threw my life away all those years.” She buried her head into his shoulders, not caring about the dust and grime.

“When this is over,” Komodo said quietly, “we’ll work something out.”

“I
tried
to help. I tried. But I was so young. . .” Karin blocked out the memories, brought to the surface now, she thought, in reaction to the danger they had just escaped and her feelings for Komodo.

“It wasn’t your fault. It was the others. The grown-ups who ignored you.”

“I do know that.” Karin breathed. “But—”

“It was their fault.” Komodo reiterated, trying to make her believe.

“We need time to make this work.”

The soldier pulled away a little. “We will have time. I promise you.”

“Your work—”

“All that bullshit will not get in the way. There are other jobs.”

Karin looked dubious. “For a six foot six, tattooed, beefy Delta commando who looks like a biker and has the name Trevor? Unlikely.”

“I’ll guard your body.” He moved closer.

Karin choked back a laugh. “And sometimes talks like a nine-year-old. Ugh.”

“You wanna fight me?” Komodo pulled away with a laugh. “You really wanna tussle with this shit?” He puffed out his chest

Karin glanced toward the foliage outside the window. “Just grab my ass and drag me over to those trees. Then, we’ll see who wants to fight.”

But at that moment they heard the unmistakable sounds of their team breaking up and moving out. Ben’s voice shouted over the hubbub. “Sis?”

Komodo shrugged. “So? First, we’ll go save the world.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The team negotiated their way out of the castle and headed back down the hill toward the waiting cars. Hayden believed that Cayman, since he had remained below with his men and showed no signs of pursuit, had called in reinforcements. But that wasn’t the main reason they were moving out double-time.

As they ran, she dry swallowed painkillers. Every movement sent a bolt of fire through her wounded side. So far today, she’d taken enough painkillers to poleaxe a horse, but the adrenalin spurred her on. Twisted brush underfoot and thorny shrubbery to the side attempted to send her into a headlong tumble. As she emerged from cover, the entire city of Singen opened up before her, sprawling to the horizons.

Kinimaka steadied her with a huge arm. “If you’d let me carry you, boss, I’d do it.”

“I know, Mano, but not today.”

Jonathan Gates thoughtfully tapped his phone against the side of his leg. “So I stand here, a US Secretary of Defense, trying to decide who to call upon for help.” He gave them all a cheerless smile. “But I can’t think of a single person – with the right connections – who I trust.”

Hayden took a moment to steady herself. Over the last few weeks and months, she felt like she’d lived an entire lifetime. Her hopes, her dreams, her future – everything had changed. She kept imagining that one day she’d wake up to find it had all been a crazy dream. That Matt Drake and Ben Blake and Alicia Myles didn’t really exist – they were nothing more than the warped and fevered ghosts of her imagination.

But here she stood on the tree-dotted hillside of an ancient castle, above what had once been a volcano, long ago. Her boss and her colleagues were with her. The world was at stake.

A train ran between Stuttgart and Singen, bringing with it a cargo of civilians, mercenaries and death. One way or another, she had to get aboard that train.

She turned to Ben and Karin. “Get me the train’s details. I need exact times. I need all changes. The works.”

“On it,” Karin said immediately. Ben gave her a dull look before fishing out his iPhone. She didn’t smile at him. It was as if he knew her thoughts. Knew that they were as good as over.

Time to grow up, Ben.

Drake had been conversing quietly with his SAS buddies. Now he caught her eye and drifted over. “You grab those pieces,” he said in his Yorkshire accent. “Or destroy ’em. Or hide them somewhere. Just fuck those bastards up. Whatever it takes.”

“You’re not coming?”

“Alicia, Mai and I will be hitting Luxembourg. Wells was spying on Cayman and this Shadow Elite crowd for a decade. He worked for them. Knew their moves. I see a point coming in the very near future where that knowledge might be helpful.”

“And you’ll find your wife’s killer too?”

“I hope to get his identity. I won’t go after him until this thing with the tomb of the gods is over.”

“Make sure you keep in touch.”

“Every hour.”

Drake gave her a look, something full of respect and admiration and more than a little love. She knew right then, in a post-Ben world, that Matt Drake would remain her friend. She watched him walk away.