Jayden was in motion toward the Treasure, Inc. crime boss even before the tip of the pole rammed into Daedalus’ stomach, doubling him over while Jayden ran to him. Carter saw what was happening and set himself into motion toward their foe a second later.
Still doubled over, Daedalus brought his gun hand up toward Jayden, but Jayden dove, extending his hand in midair to knock the arm down. He was successful, with Daedalus able to squeeze off only a single shot that missed Jayden, and the ark, lodging harmlessly against the wall behind the relic. But missing the shot didn’t mean the antiquities thief had given up. On the contrary, he kicked the pole toward Jayden on the floor and then charged at him, keeping his head down like a battering ram.
Jayden’s right foot came down on the pole and it rolled, causing him to nearly twist his ankle. In fact, he probably would have if it weren’t for the fact that Daedalus’ head bashed into his chest, sending him flying backwards into the ark.
Carter intended to come to Jayden’s aid but when he saw the gun fly out of Daedalus’ hand, clatter onto the floor and slide toward the corner, he went after it instead, seeking the endgame that having control of the weapon would bring.
When Jayden slammed into the ark, he screamed out in pain as his shoulder collided with the metal-plated wood. It was stout and stable enough to wobble slightly, but not tip over. But the lid, which had come back down askance after they dropped it, now slid off of the ark. Jayden was on his back and saw it coming in barely enough time to roll out of the way, avoiding having his skull crushed when the corner of the lid impacted the floor where his head had been a half-second earlier.
Daedalus scrambled up from the floor and launched himself onto Jayden, who began throwing short jabs into his assailant’s chest and ribcage. Carter reached the dropped pistol and picked it up. He checked the magazine and made sure a round was loaded into the chamber, then cocked the hammer.
“Jayden, just back away from him. I’ve got the gun, back away!”
Yet Daedalus was proving to be a tenacious fighter. He took the blows Jayden threw up at him and rained down a couple of his own, his longer reach compounding his on-feet advantage while Jayden struggled to get off the floor. The fact that he still wore his backpack back made smooth rolling on the floor impossible, but he was able to get halfway over onto his side, then roll away from his back and fling his top leg into a devastating kick that landed on the side of Daedalus’ face.
The treasure magnate grunted as a gob of blood emptied from his mouth and soiled the floor. Jayden crab-walked backwards a couple of feet, onto the ark lid which had landed upside-down.
“Freeze, Daedalus. That’s enough!”
Daedalus looked up at Carter with hatred in his eyes, but stopped moving. Jayden backed up a couple of more feet and then rose.
That’s when they heard the sirens.
“Someone see you come in?” Carter asked Daedalus.
But the treasure man only laughed softly while blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth.
“Could be that we tripped a silent alarm,” Jayden surmised.
“Either way,” Carter said, leaning down to scoop up his backpack off the floor, “it’s time for us to go.”
“Watch him!” Jayden eyed Daedalus, who was in the process of regaining his feet.
“Not yet!” Carter barked at him. “You wait right there on the floor until we’re up the ladder. You get up again and I’ll shoot.”
Daedalus eased back down to the floor while Jayden backed away from him, still not willing to turn his back to the dangerous and power-hungry fighter. Carter kept the gun trained on Daedalus until Jayden had reached the ladder. The sirens were louder now.
“Come on, Carter,” Jayden said, a hint of desperation in his voice. “Although from my brief stay here, I think I’d prefer Ethiopian prison to Iranian prison, we do not want to try to explain our way out of this if at all possible. Carter? Are you listening, because those aren’t exotic birds making that noise out there, they’re police sirens.”
“I’ll never go to jail,” Daedalus spat. “My connections are too strong. But you two will rot in hell for this.”
Yet Carter ignored him, too. He was transfixed by something he saw on the floor, over by the ark. He handed the pistol to Jayden. “Keep this on him one second.” Then he strode over to the ark in a few long steps and knelt. The corner of the ark’s lid had broken when it hit the floor, and Carter picked up the broken piece, about the size of his palm. In its fractured state, he could see the thin layer of gold and then the dense, dark wood beneath it.
“Carter, now! I’m heading up the ladder.” Jayden bellowed.
Carter pocketed the ark fragment and ran to the ladder, never taking the gun off Daedalus. Jayden was already at the top, pausing to assess the situation in the main chapel. The sirens were very loud now.
“Until we meet again, Daedalus. In the meantime, if the Ten Commandments are in there,” Carter said, realizing that he hadn’t even looked inside the now completely open ark, “I suggest that you learn a thing or two from them. There are definitely a couple that apply to you.”
With that, Carter spidered up the ladder with the gun in one hand. Jayden had already topped over and was standing in the chapel, so he didn’t pause at the top but did the same. Once on his feet, he turned around and pointed the gun down at Daedalus. “Come up now. I don’t want you messing with the ark or whatever happens to be in it. Get out of there now.”
Even with the oncoming police, Carter tried to get a glimpse of the uncovered ark from the top of the trapdoor, but the ark was too far back in the room to be seen from here. Daedalus moved to the ladder. He stared up at Carter, stone-faced, and began to climb.
Outside, the police cars sounded like they were pulling up in front of the main church.
“Got to do one thing,” Jayden said, running to the guardian he had tied up. Reaching the pew, he bent down to remove the bonds, when he saw the gunshot wound between his eyes.
“Oh Geez!” He felt the pulse but knew what the outcome would be. “He’s dead, Carter!”
Carter now considered the pistol’s sound suppressor in a new light. No wonder they hadn’t heard the shot that killed the Guardian. He yelled down into the covenant room.
“Daedalus, you scum! You cold-blooded murderer! You killed a bound man! You’re a monster. You don’t even deserve to be in the presence of that ark down there, genuine or not. None of the beauty or riches that humankind has to offer mean anything to you. Maybe that’s why you seek to hoard them, hoping that someday some of it will sink in and erase your ugliness? But it won’t. You’re too far gone.”
“I see flashing lights, Carter!” Jayden called from the partition at the front of the chapel.
Carter ran halfway to the front, then took a left to the wall beneath a window. “Let’s not go out the front. This way.” He pulled the wooden lattice off the window, then ripped through the screen. He could hear Daedalus climbing up out of the ladder.
“Stay back for sixty seconds after we’re gone, Daedalus, or I’ll shoot.”
Eyeing the outside, he saw it was free of police, so he jumped through. He heard Jayden’s feet pounding through the chapel and then landing on the dirt behind him as he ran for the section of fence where they’d cut the razor wire.
The Omega Team pair bolted around the chapel corner and then made a beeline to the cut fence section. They could hear the blare of police radios now, car doors slamming, officers talking. Looking back int hat direction, could see the pulsing hues of red lights. Jayden scaled over first, then Carter. Jayden pointed toward a grassy hill with some tree cover, in the opposite direction as the chapel and main church.