Jade looked at him. “What do you think?”
He was about to remind her that the Mexican Army had evidently been working with Hodges and the Norfolk Group at Teotihuacan, but before she could say it, the sound of a bullet striking the SUV’s fender made the point far more eloquently. Barely visible in the darkness beyond the cone of illumination, the killers were moving down the hill toward them.
Professor pulled Ophelia down the slope, seeking cover behind the tree trunk that had stopped the Mercedes. Jade reached back into the vehicle’s interior, hauled Dorion out and dragged him along after her.
Professor spotted Hodges’ face amid the crowd of attackers. There had never really been any doubt in his mind that the attack was the work of the Norfolk Group, but here was the proof. “Time to go,” he said, even though he knew they had nowhere left to run.
“Wait!”
Professor was almost as stunned by the calm, confident way Ophelia said it, as he was by her actual words.
“We can’t stay here.”
She shook her head insistently. “It will be all right.”
As if on cue, the loud crack of a high-powered rifle echoed off the hillside. Professor knew that sound well; it was a burst from a Kalashnikov rifle, and it had come from the hovering helicopter. He couldn’t tell where the rounds struck, but the advance of the shooters on the hillside stalled.
Professor felt Jade’s eyes on him, and the implicit question: What do we do?
He didn’t have an answer for her. His instincts told him to run, but Hodges and the killers were so close, there didn’t seem to be any point.
The circling helicopter spiraled closer to the slope, close enough that Professor could see that the men inside were wearing dark tactical gear, similar to what he had worn as a SEAL. The pilot brought the aircraft down until the rotor-disk was almost kissing the slope, at which point the uniformed men began pouring forth, rushing toward the wrecked SUV with weapons at the ready.
Time to see if I made the right choice. Professor raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.
The helicopter lifted off again as soon as the last man was out, and rose high enough to allow the swirling dust cloud to subside. Five men — Professor figured they had to be EKAM operators, the special anti-terrorism unit of the Hellenic Police — surrounded the Mercedes, but their weapons were aimed up the hill at the Norfolk Group gunmen. The air bristled with tension and harsh shouts, but one by one, the killers, despite having superior numbers, began lowering their guns. Hodges was one of the last to surrender his. The man beside him, however, remained defiant. “This doesn’t concern you,” he yelled. Despite his fair complexion and dishwater blond hair, there was a hint of a Mexican accent to his speech. “You aren’t supposed to be here.”
One of the policemen took a step forward, thrusting his weapon forward meaningfully. “Drop your weapon or I will kill you.”
The man took a step forward. “Do you know who I am?” His tone implied that it was a rhetorical question and that the policeman most certainly did know.
“He knows, Andres.” Shouted back a different voice — clear, unaccented American English. “And if you don’t put your gun down he will shoot.”
The gunman — Andres — gaped in disbelief. “You! You betrayed us.” He took another defiant step.
A shot rang out, and then several more, the reports blurring together in a tumultuous peal of thunder. Andres upper body seemed to dissolve in a red cloud as scores of 7.62-millimeter rounds ripped through him.
He remained upright for a moment, but the light had gone out of his eyes. As the last echoes of gunfire died away, Andres dropped to his knees and then pitched forward, sliding down the slope, leaving a long crimson stain in the dirt.
Hodges showed not the slightest inclination to follow the other man’s example. He raised his hands in the air and dropped to his knees. The other men with him quickly followed suit.
As the police operators moved cautiously forward to begin securing their prisoners, Ophelia abruptly rose to her feet and stepped out into the open.
Professor hissed a warning, but was too late to stop her. She advanced and began speaking to the man who had moments before answered Andres. “I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so happy to see you.”
“Well somebody has to keep you out of trouble.” The man’s voice seemed to fluctuate between irritation and amusement.
Ophelia turned and waved invitingly. “It’s all right. You can come out. We’re safe now.”
Professor felt Jade’s eyes on him. He could only offer an uncertain shrug, then he too stood up. His first good look at the man Ophelia was speaking to revealed two things immediately. First, the man was not an EKAM operator and did not appear to belong to any law enforcement agency; although he wore a helmet and body armor, he carried no gun and displayed no official credentials. The second thing Professor noted was his appearance. The man was tall and slender, with pale blonde hair and a handsome yet familiar face that looked almost too perfect,
Professor was not the least bit surprised when Ophelia said, “I’d like you all to meet my brother.”
TWENTY-ONE
“You are not under arrest,” the policeman told Jade as he escorted her into a small windowless cell and then started to close the door.
“Wait,” she protested “Are you just going to leave me here?”
“Someone will be with you shortly,” he said, and then the door clicked shut.
The guy’s English was pretty broken; maybe she had misunderstood. Maybe he had actually said that she was under arrest.
“Don’t I get a phone call,” she shouted. Maybe the phone call rule was only true in the States. Or maybe it was just something that only happened in movies.
Jade sagged resignedly onto the cot that occupied the far wall of the cell. No matter how you sliced it, arrested was better than dead. And she was fairly certain that, once the facts came out, they would all be released. Surely, even in Greece, self-defense was a valid legal defense. Yes, she had stolen — and wrecked — a car, but aside from that, what crime had she actually committed?
Oh, there was the small matter of the Shew Stone, which was probably, technically speaking, the property of the London Science Museum, but it wasn’t like she had stolen it from the museum herself.
It rankled that she had only been in Greece a few hours, barely in Delphi for ten minutes, and someone had already tried to kill her. The worst part though was that it felt like it had all been for nothing. The Delphi oracle remained quiescent and the Shew Stone had failed to unlock the mysteries of the universe… or the multiverse.
Whatever.
She sat and brooded for what seemed like a long time, but probably was only about half an hour, until the door finally swung open. She jumped up, ready to demand her phone call.
Ophelia stood at the threshold. She looked completely refreshed — new clothes, immaculate make-up, not a scrape or bruise from the wreck anywhere to be seen. She clearly had not been sequestered in a jail cell. “Jade. I’m so sorry they’ve kept you cooped up in here. You how know bureaucracy works, but the good news is, we’re all free to go.”
It was good news, but Jade was immediately suspicious. “Just like that?”
Ophelia laughed. “Well, I’m probably oversimplifying it, but yes. My brother and I have…ah, influence with the Greek government.”
“Speaking of your brother…”