Karsten’s eyes grew wild, his nostrils flared and he emitted a smothered cry of utter exasperation. Regrettably, he could not shoot Purdue, because it had to look like an accident in order for Karsten to be absolved, to be believed by Yimenu and the locals. Only then could Karsten play the victim of circumstance, to keep the attention off him.
Purdue quite enjoyed Karsten’s stunned look of horror, but he could hear Patrick breathing hard next to him. He felt sorry for Sam’s best friend, again at the bad end of a death wish because of his involvement with Purdue.
“If anything happens to my family, I will send Clive to give your girlfriend, that bitch Gould, the time of her life… before he takes it!” Karsten warned, spitting through his fat lips as his eyes blazed with hate and defeat. “Come, Adjo.”
31
Flight from Wereta
Karsten started toward the exit of the mountain, leaving Purdue and Patrick completely dumbfounded. Adjo followed Karsten, but he stopped at the mouth of the tunnel to engage Purdue’s fate.
“What the fuck!” Patrick growled, at the end of his tether with all the traitors. “You? Why you, Adjo? How? We saved you from the goddamn Black Sun and now you’re their pet?”
“Don’t take it personally, Smith Effendi,” Adjo cautioned, his slender dark hand resting just short of a stone key the size of his palm. “You, Purdue Effendi, you may take this very personally. Because of you, my brother Donkor was killed. I was almost killed to help you steal this relic and then?” he wailed angrily, his chest heaving in rage. “Then you left me for dead, before your associates kidnapped me and tortured me to find out where you were! All this is what I suffered for you, Effendi, while you were happily chasing whatever you found in this Holy Box! You have every reason to take my betrayal personally and I hope you perish slowly under a heavy rock tonight.” He looked around inside the chamber. “This is where I was cursed to meet you, and this is where I will curse you to be entombed.”
“Christ, you certainly know how to make friends, David,” Patrick muttered next to him.
“You built this trap for him, didn’t you?” Purdue guessed, and Adjo nodded, confirming his fears.
From outside they could hear Karsten shouting to Col. Yimenu’s men to get away. It was Adjo’s cue, and he pressed the dial under his hand, birthing an awful rumble above them in the crusts of the mountain. The supporting rocks Adjo had carefully constructed in the days leading up to the meeting in Edinburgh, gave way. He disappeared into the tunnel, racing out past the cracking walls of the corridor. Into the night air he stumbled, already covered with some debris and dust from the collapse.
“They’re still inside!” he screamed. “The other men will be crushed! You have to help them!” Adjo grabbed the colonel by his shirt, pretending to desperately urge him. But Col. Yimenu pushed him off, shoving him to the ground. “My country is under water, threatening the lives of my children and growing more destructive as we speak, and you keep me here over a cave-in?” Yimenu reprimanded Adjo and Karsten, suddenly not feeling diplomatic anymore.
“I understand, sir,” Karsten said dryly. “Let us consider this accident the end of the relic debacle for now. After all, as you say, you have children to see to. I completely understand the urgency to save one’s family.”
With that, Karsten and Adjo watched Col. Yimenu and his driver take off into the pinkish hint of dawn on the horizon. It was almost the time when the Holy Box was originally meant to be returned. Soon, the local site laborers would rise to what they thought would be Purdue’s arrival, planning a good beating for the white haired intruder who had pillaged their country’s treasure.
“Go and see if they are properly caved in, Adjo,” Karsten ordered. “Hurry, we have to go.”
Adjo Kira made haste to what had been the entrance to Mount Yeha to make sure its collapse was dense and final. He did not see Karsten follow in his tracks, and unfortunately bending over to examine the success of his work cost him his life. Karsten lifted one of the heavy rocks above his head and brought it down on the back of Adjo’s skull, crushing it instantly.
“No witnesses,” Karsten whispered as he dusted off his hands and walked towards Purdue’s truck. Behind him, the corpse of Adjo Kira covered the loose rock and stone debris in front of the disintegrated entrance. With his shattered skull painting a grotesque mark upon the desert grit, there was no doubt that he would look like just another casualty of the rock fall. Karsten spun away with Purdue’s ‘Deuce and a half’ military truck to race back to his home in Austria before the rising waters of Ethiopia could trap him.
Further south, Nina and Sam were not as fortunate. The entire region around Lake Tana was under water. People were frantic, panicking not only for the flood, but for the inexplicable manner in which the waters came. Rivers and wells ran over without any current from a feeding source. No rain had fallen, yet the dry riverbeds had sprung fountains from nowhere.
All around the world, power outages, earthquakes, and floods tormented cities, destroying important buildings. The UN headquarters, the Pentagon, the World Court in The Hague, and a myriad of other institutions responsible for order and progress were being decimated. By now they feared that the airstrip at Dansha could be compromised, but Sam was hopeful, since that community was far enough for Lake Tana not to be directly influenced by it. It was also resting far enough inland, so that it would still be some time before the ocean could reach it.
In the ghostly haze of early dawn, Sam saw the night’s destruction in its full horrible reality. He was filming the remnants of the entire tragedy as often as he could manage, taking care to preserve battery power on his compact video camera while he waited anxiously for Nina to make it back to him. Somewhere off in the distance, he kept hearing a strange buzzing noise he could not place, but he chalked it up to some sort of aural hallucination. He hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours and he could feel the effects of fatigue, but he had to stay awake for Nina to find him. Besides, she’d been doing the hard work and he owed it to her to be there when, not if, she returned. He refused to entertain the negative thoughts tormenting him concerning her safety on a lake full of treacherous creatures.
Through his lens, he sympathized with the citizens of Ethiopia who now had to leave their homes and their lives behind to survive. Some were weeping bitterly from the roofs of their houses, others were dressing injuries. Every now and then Sam was confronted with floating bodies.
“Jesus Christ,” he murmured, “it really is the end of the world.”
He filmed the immense body of water that seemed to go on forever in front of his eyes. With the eastern sky painting the horizon in pink and yellow, he could not help but notice the beauty of the background to which this gruesome play was set. The smooth water had ceased to rush and fill out the lake, for now, and it decorated the landscape, bird life populating the liquid mirror. Many were still on their tankwa, fishing for food or just floating. But among them, only one little boat was moving — really moving. It appeared to be the only vessel headed somewhere, to the entertainment of onlookers from other boats.
“Nina,” Sam smiled. “I just know it is you, wee lassie!”
To the annoying whine of the unknown sound, he zoomed in on the rapidly gliding boat, but as the lens adjusted to better his vision, Sam’s smile vanished. “Oh my God, Nina, what did you do?”
Behind her came five equally hasty boats, only moving slower because of Nina’s head start. Her face said it all. Panic and painful effort twisted her pretty face as she rowed away from the pursuing monks at her heel. Sam jumped down from his perch at the Town Hall and spotted the source of the peculiar sound that had been baffling him.