Carpathian (51 page)

“You must remember this must be done with the utmost secrecy and stealth. If Tel Aviv gets intelligence that we’re moving on the temple, they—”

“They will what? Drop in commandos from a stormy night sky into some of the most rugged terrain in all of Europe in pitch blackness? This is not 1976 Uganda, Colonel Jew, this is the twenty-first century and we have ways of dealing with arrogance brought on by military success.” Zallas turned and faced Ben-Nevin. “I and my men will have every ruble of treasure out of there and have the temple stripped long before your magical commandos hit the earth.”

“You seem to take the threat of military intervention lightly, Mr. Zallas,” Ben-Nevin said as he puffed on the horrible cigar, and with distaste forming on his features he tossed the offensive smoke into the grass. “If I were you I would not wait until tomorrow night. I would take this Gypsy this very evening and make him disclose the location of the temple. Move tonight, take everything before Tel Aviv has time to react.” He faced Zallas with a smile etching his mustache into a mocking thing that made the Russian want to backhand the intelligence officer. “Because, make no doubt, they
will
react, and react with swift—and deadly—force.”

Zallas smiled and looked the tall man over and then turned and faced the large Olympic-sized pool, which now sat empty with the arrival of night.

“The man will be busy tonight and hard to draw away from his village. Tomorrow is the only time we can act without alerting every Gypsy inside the valley as to our plan. If you wish you can gather your men and make the attempt yourself, this very night if you wish.”

Ben-Nevin held the Russian’s arrogant glare but at the same time realized there would be no way he would ever venture up that mountain in the dark, or even the daylight hours with those wolves up there. He thought about mentioning the animals to Zallas but had decided earlier why complicate the moron’s thinking process.

“Very well, I hope you have enough men because these Gypsies—”

“—Cannot stand up against my men. And I have more than two hundred men available to me.” He smiled and then started to walk past Ben-Nevin. “And they will die on my command, as I suspect many of them will.” He kept walking. “Shall we get a drink, Colonel?”

Colonel Avi Ben-Nevin had decided just two minutes after meeting the Russian mobster that he would not leave Patinas Pass without placing a bullet into the anti-Semitic head of the Russian mobster. The colonel smiled from his inner thoughts
. Maybe two in the kneecaps before the bullet to the head.

The two men vanished around the corner and Ryan turned back to think about what he had just heard.

“Wow,” Pete said as he and Ryan finally stepped away from their hiding place. “Were they talking about us, the colonel, Alice, and them, or were they speaking about one of the Gypsies?” Pete asked.

“Well, our team’s not sure where any temple is, so we have to assume he was speaking about one of the locals, maybe this Marko guy the colonel briefed us on.”

“What do we do?” Pete asked as he turned and tried to catch up with Jason.

“We’re going to report to Colonel Collins and then we’re going to get that cheeseburger.”

“Maybe we can get the cheeseburger and calamine lotion first? I mean that damn temple has been here for over three thousand years.”

VILLAGE OF PATINAS

Carl and Charlie eased their way through the crowd as they followed Marko away from the barn. Everett would reach up to his neck every few minutes and rub the area that Stanus had assaulted. His throat was throbbing as he remembered the unnatural strength of the animal and that it had every opportunity to kill him if it had really wanted to.

Niles and Alice were watching the house just as were the thousand men, women, and children with them as they waited in anticipation for something Niles couldn’t wait to see. Alice tapped her toes nervously as they waited as Niles turned to see a smallish man in a black vest, bright red shirt, and black head scarf standing before them. He was flanked by two much larger Gypsies that had a menacing look about them.

“You are the Americans that have a man and woman staying at the resort, a Colonel Collins?” Marko asked with his dark eyes boring into Compton’s, who stood stunned that this man knew Jack’s real identity. “And you are Alice Hamilton? The colonel asked my permission last evening for you to join us here in the pass, and as a courtesy to our newest NATO ally, of which my people care very little for, I grudgingly gave permission for you to bear witness to my home of Patinas.”

“Thank you, we are grate—” Alice started to say but was cut short.

“I must insist however that you remain in the village and keep your other charges under control. And keep these two men away from my family,” Marko said as he stepped aside and allowed Carl and Charlie to squeeze through the crowd of humanity.

“Carl! Charlie!” Alice said as she placed her arms around Everett and then patted Charlie Ellenshaw on the chest. “We were so worried.” Alice let Everett go and then turned to face Marko but he and his two men had already left.

“That guy’s a piece of work,” Everett said as he smiled down at Alice and Niles. Charlie was gesturing wildly as he tried to explain all they had seen since they had been separated. His arms were going high into the air and then would form into the shape of claws as Will’s eyes grew larger as he listened to the professor’s latest exploits in the field.

Carl took Alice by the arms and looked her in the eyes as men and women bumped past them to get closer to the house they had surrounded. The music was almost deafening.

“We saw them, Alice,” he said as easily as he could. It was hard keeping the smile off of his face.

“Them?” Niles asked for her when she didn’t respond.

“The Golia, we’ve seen two of them, and one viewing was rather close and personal,” Carl said as he gingerly touched his reddened and extremely sore neck muscles.

Alice felt her legs go weaker as she reached out and took Everett’s arm. The question was in her eyes but the words could not be formed.

“Yes, everything you thought about them is true. The hands, the thumbs, the upright walking, the climbing, but most importantly, Alice, they’re smart. One saved our asses not long ago. But I can tell you this also, they are dangerous. I think it could have killed all of us and not really have given a damn one way or the other.”

“Oh, my,” was all she could say.

Carl was about to go on when the men and women around them started cheering for something they couldn’t see far ahead of them.

Then they saw Marko and his men standing close to the old front door of the cottage everyone was watching. He was looking at the gathered villages of the Patinas region. Niles watched as fathers placed children on their shoulders so their young could get a good look at the happenings. Suddenly the door opened up and two large men wearing head scarfs and large boots stepped out carrying a large chair between them. In that chair was an old woman. Her head scarf was a soft blue and her smile glowed as she was carried from the house. She waved and raised an old cane up in the air as the admiring crowd erupted at seeing Madam Korvesky.

Compton and Everett, along with Will and Charlie looked over at Alice Hamilton as the Gypsy queen was brought out to greet her people. They could see the smile that stretched from ear to ear. Alice was in what she considered heaven. All the years of research, of disappointment, all washed away in these final few moments of discovery.

The two men set the chair down on the small cobblestone walkway that led to the small house. Marko stepped up to the chair and then knelt before it. The old woman smiled and raised her hand into the air and then brought it down on Marko’s covered head. He dipped his head lower and then stood as the crowd erupted again. Marko looked taken aback as he momentarily thought the sudden crowd noise was for him. Then he slowly stood and saw why the people were cheering. His sister was standing inside the doorway and then the closest men and women saw her and started cheering.

The noise grew like a wave as Anya stood rooted in the doorway. Her grandmother gestured for her to come out into the open and she slowly and hesitantly responded. Finally Anya, cleaned and refreshed, walked out onto the walkway and then smiled at the people. The small village erupted in rapt admiration for the little sister that had been gone from home for so long. Anya turned her head away feeling embarrassed for doing nothing more than coming home.

Her eyes searched the crowd until they fell on the man she was looking for. Carl Everett stood far back and away from the small house but she could see his eyes boring into her own. She halfheartedly raised a hand into the air but before she could wave at Everett several of the larger men took Anya up and into their arms and held her high as the Jeddah people launched into a euphoric dance and applause as their Gypsy princess was finally home.

Everett watched Anya as she was paraded through the milling and cheering mass of modern-day Jeddah. He fought to keep his eyes on the beautiful woman, who was fighting to do the same. As Anya was twirled from strong hand to strong hand she fought to lay her eyes on the only man she had taken notice of in the past nine years. She finally spied Everett as he tentatively raised his hand as she was lifted high into the air by several of the farmers and sheep men.

Alice nudged Niles’s arm and nodded at Everett as he watched the girl being celebrated. Niles had never seen the captain this way. He was actually straining to see. As they watched a smile slowly crawled across Everett’s face as he finally locked eyes with Anya. This time he did raise his thick arm into the air as she was twirled and tossed by the people. Her smile grew as they looked at each other in the dying light of day.

Many hundreds of torches were soon lit and the food from many hearths started to be set upon long tables of wood. People broke off into smaller groups, mostly according to village. As preparations were made the Event Group personnel watched the old woman carried back inside and Anya was soon to follow after having to pull herself away from the adoring people.

Carl felt his heart hitch as his eyes watched the closed door to the small house whose windows were now glowing with the soft glow of electric light. He finally turned and looked at Alice and the others who were all looking at him. All he could do was mouth the word:
What?

All around the Event Group, Patinas came alive with the smell of food and the sound of music and celebration, even as far below at the resort the extinction of the Jeddah had already been planned.

*   *   *

The old woman was placed on the floor by the table where Mikla was still resting. She placed a hand on the beast as the men left the room and Anya stepped inside. She watched her grandmother run her hand up and down Mikla’s large frame and then she turned and faced her granddaughter.

“Do you see the adoration of your people?” she said as she reached out and took Anya’s soft young hand into her own aged and aching ones.

“I was ordered home, Grandmamma, by you. It wasn’t my choice to rejoin the people. I believe I was being far more helpful in the position I was in than being here where we constantly play the king and queen game for a people that place far too much emphasis on that particular position.”

“You have learned the gift of talking without saying anything, child.” Her grandmother allowed Anya’s hand to fall free as she looked into her eyes. “Is my status but an empty position, young one?” The smile was still in place and that made Anya feel bad for the way she had just trivialized her grandmother’s entire life.

“You know I didn’t mean anything by that. I’m just tired and worried about Mikla. And Stanus, I have never seen him like this. He scares me and he’s never done that to me before. Even as a child Stanus could play rough but he could always be trusted not to be Golia when he was with us. Now he seems lost as to what’s happening around him.”

“When I was in the temple, every one of the adult male and female Golia were missing. I have never known them to leave their young completely alone before. Where they are I do not know. They vanish for hours at a time and Stanus is leading them. When they return from the caves and springs they are covered in mud and wet from their exertions.”

“If they are leaving the young undefended this means trouble, Grandmamma. What are they doing? Have you ever known them to be so secretive before?”

“No.” The old woman closed her eyes in thought as she tried to remember the Golia ever having behaved in such a manner. “Marko has done something to make them distrustful of us. I was only able to link with Mikla because of his closeness to you.” She looked at a far younger version of herself many years before. “Otherwise, Marko is the only Jeddah that has been able to cast the spell with them. And now I even suspect Marko has lost their trust. The Golia will not allow us to see what they are doing, and this is not natural to them. If we have lost the trust of the Golia, we are truly lost.”

“And this is why my cover in Rome was no longer viable.” She said it as a statement and not a question. “Why forewarn of trouble for our people if there is nothing to come home to? Is treasure being sold off as the Americans have said?”

The old woman took her granddaughter by the arm and squeezed. “Now is the time for us to move on. I need you here.”

“What is happening?” she persisted.

The old woman took a deep breath as she watched Mikla breathe.

“Why I brought you home is not really at the forefront of your thoughts, girl-child.” She again reached out and took her hand and this time she squeezed. Madam Korvesky tilted her head and then faced Anya and for the briefest of moments she felt her granddaughter. “Your thoughts are on the American.”

Anya pulled her hand free of the older woman’s grasp. “Don’t do that to me, you always promised you wouldn’t try to read me, ever. Now tell me what is wrong here.” Anya knew her grandmother was dodging the question, at least for the time being.

“Calm down, girl-child, I want to meet this man—this man from the sea.”