Lea looked from Scarface to Ryan. “What the hell?”
Ryan visibly slumped in his seat. “Oh crap.”
A thick orange gas started to seep from the air-conditioning ventilation system above their seats. Lea leaped from her seat and darted over to Scarface, but he’d known the moves to this game before it had even started.
Drawing a Vektor Z88 semi-automatic pistol from a leather holster he lifted it in the air and pointed it at her face. “Get back to your seat, ECHO, and enjoy the ride.”
Lea knew the game was over. If she charged him he would fire the gun and at this range there was no chance of missing. She would get plugged with a nine-mil lead slug and bleed out on the floor of this plane, and they would still take Ryan wherever they were going.
Defeated, she blew the man a kiss and walked back to Ryan, who was already knocked out colder than a snow cone and slumped down double in his seat. Her head started to feel woozy now, and she thought she might be sick. She grabbed hold of the top of the seat and looked over at Scarface. Her double vision meant there were now two of them. They were still holding their guns and pointing them at her.
The plane started to spin all around her, and then she fell down into her seat.
CHAPTER NINE
Ryan awoke to the sound of elephants trumpeting. He was lying on a soft leather couch with his face squashed into an expensive silk cushion, and when he lifted his head he felt drowsy and sick.
He felt his back. The wound had been dressed by someone when he was unconscious. That was something, he reassured himself, and pressed the heels of his hands gently into his aching eye sockets. He rubbed his face and tried to get his bearings. Shot in the raid on Kruger’s place. Morphine. Kidnapped. Gassed.
Why the fuck am I not just hacking for living?
He blew out a breath and opened his eyes. During the gassing on the plane he had presumed he would awaken in Kruger’s basement but instead he was on a plush leather sofa surrounded by scatter cushions. He crawled up to his elbows and saw Lea sleeping on another sofa, then he swung his legs around onto a thick red rug and took in his new surroundings.
They were inside a luxury safari lodge. Leather chairs, heavy oak tables decorated with hardback books and bowls of nuts and fruits. A set of gazelle horns was mounted on one of the support pillars. He blinked and tried to shake off his headache. Looked around some more. There were no walls, just open-air punctuated by thick wooden pillars here and there, and above his head was a thatched grass roof. Several ceiling fans circulated air around the lodge and lowered the temperature by a few degrees, but the heat was still stifling.
He walked out to the balcony which overlooked a large waterhole and saw the elephants that had woken him a moment ago. Three of them were standing on the shore drinking and washing. Another loud trumpet sounded in the hot air and sent a blue crane bursting into the sky.
He heard running water from some kind of feature and followed the sound to a small fountain at the end of the balcony where a set of steps led both up and down. He walked up to the higher level. The elevation of the top storey offered a generous view across the plains of what he presumed was the Transvaal and he realized how isolated they were. There were no people anywhere either, so he made another assumption that this place was private and not a commercial site inside one of the national parks.
He went back down and found Lea sitting up in her chair. She looked like she’d been slapped to sleep and dragged backwards through the night. “Hey.”
“Howdy,” he said. “Glad you could join me.”
“What is this place?” She looked through bleary eyes at the bowl of walnuts and peaches on the table in front of her. “Jesus, I’m thirsty. I’d kill you for a drink.”
“Thanks. I think it’s some kind of safari park. There’s a pitcher of water behind you.”
She turned and poured herself some, drinking deeply from a tall glass. “Iced, too. Seems our host is very thoughtful.”
“Apart from the fact he gassed us into unconsciousness, yes.”
“Yes. You said this was a safari park?”
Before he could reply, an elephant called out again.
“Well, we’re not in Dublin, that’s for sure,” she said.
“No, not Dublin. Looks like the Transvaal to me, but I’m no expert.”
“Impressive.”
They turned to see the owner of the cool, well-educated voice. He was a tall, lean man in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up neatly to his elbows. He wore stone-colored chinos and polished brown leather boots. Crocodile belt. As he approached them he removed a wide-rimmed bush hat and placed it on one of the tables. “My name is Blankov. Welcome back to reality.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Lea said, dragging herself to feet. She swayed and fell back down on the sofa.
“Please, the effects of the gas can last for several hours. Just take it easy.”
“Thanks for caring,” Ryan said. “Remind me to beat the living daylights out of you when I’m back on my feet.”
“Is that any way for one scholar to talk to another?”
“A scholar?” Ryan said. “Forgive me, but scholars don’t usually kidnap people and force them to breathe oneirogenic anaesthetic against their will.”
Blankov looked confused.
“Sleeping gas,” Lea said. “That’s how Ryan says sleeping gas.”
“Of course he does — he is a man of learning. I know how to recognize a genius when I see one, Mr Bale. I have been around a very long time indeed.”
Ryan felt his skin crawl when he heard the words fall from Blankov’s mouth, but it was Lea who spoke first.
“Oh my God. You’re one of them.”
Blankov nodded his head. “If you mean Athanatoi, then yes, I am. In fact, I am a devout believer in the mission of the Athanatoi. That is why I had to have the Sword of Fire. Only this can lead the Oracle to the tomb of Alexander the Great and the final idols.”
Lea almost gasped, but managed to swallow it down. She regained her composure and acted as cool as she could. “The final idols?”
“The legend is quite clear. One must have all the idols to open the gateway to the Citadel.”
“What do you mean by Citadel?”
He grinned. “I see I have the advantage.”
“Uruk?” Ryan said.
Blankov glanced down at him. “The capital of ancient Sumer? You impress me once again, but no, not Uruk. The Citadel is far older than Uruk. In fact, it’s the oldest center of civilization on the planet, as you might expect considering it was once the capital of the world.”
Lea and Ryan exchanged a look, and when she spoke her voice was almost trembling. “What the hell are you saying?”
“Yeah, what do you mean the capital of the world?” Ryan added.
Another grin, but much wider. “I see I have the advantage once again, but we will have time to discuss this and many other things later on.”
They heard footsteps behind them and turned to see Scarface opening an internal door. A tall man in another broad-rimmed bush hat and black shirt sauntered into the room and gave Blankov a nervous look.
Blankov seemed to enjoy the fear he caused the man. “Ah, here is Mr Kruger.”
CHAPTER TEN
“So you can see what we’re up against,” Hawke said, turning his face from the laptop screen back to the rest of his team. “If the information is good and I think it is, we’re looking at one of the toughest jobs we’ve ever had. Rat’s description of the interrogation rooms inside the Torture House’s basement level does not make for a good bedtime story.”
In the safety of their Beijing hotel room, Scarlet, Reaper and the Irish Ranger stared back at him with the cool, unfazed expressions he would expect from three people with their experience.