Destiny of Coins (7 page)

“How in the hell did you know about that?” asked Alistair, using the rearview mirror to peer into the backseat. “Have you met these Essenes before, Cedric?”

“Oh, no—especially since that would mean having to spend a helluva lot more time in Bolivia than I’ve ever wanted to,” he replied. “Did y’all know these guys have brotherhoods set up throughout the planet? Hmmmm? …That’s right. Hell, we’ve even got us a local chapter in the States just south of Atlanta, Georgia.”

He chuckled again, reaching over to pat Roderick on the back, all the while grinning at me. Was this supposed to be Cedric’s personal rendition of a ‘betrayal kiss’?

“I’ll bet Roderick doesn’t even remember our brief conversation about these sectarian mothers when we worried you had gone AWOL two springs ago,” he continued. “You remember, don’t you, Willie Boy? It was right after Kaslow tried to take you out with a RPG-7v2 in Caracas. Instead of reporting to me, as you were instructed to do, you went on the lam for about a week.”

“I needed time to sort things out, since you guys royally screwed me!” I sneered, mean enough to draw alarmed glances from the lovebirds up front. Meanwhile, my druid buddy continued to gaze out his window. Gazing at virtually nothing interesting enough to hold his attention. Or more accurately, other than a few modern buildings of interest, it was the same mountainous landscape he had seen dozens of times during the past millennium. “I had warned you about Kaslow’s obsession with killing me, and yet
no one
in the agency believed me until it was almost too late! An apartment building that housed several families was blown to bits, I might add. Sometimes late at night I still hear the horrific cries from women and children being burned to death!”

Cedric’s wry grin disappeared. Despite being an ass, there is compassion in his heart—the main reason we’ve been able to maintain a tenuous friendship for so many years.

“We’ve all seen terrible things in this line of work—you know that,” he said, quietly.  “My point wasn’t to make you relive painful experiences, William. Rather, I wanted you to understand the context of how I learned about the guys we’re likely to meet up with this evening…. Roderick and I both wondered back then if you had cut bait with us and gone after this particular coin instead. I was told this was the most significant coin of the bunch, and if you claimed it, you’d immediately be on your way to gather up the others….”

He didn’t finish, and there was no need. Yes, it would’ve been my one-way ticket out of this interminably long life, and not all of the reasons for considering it were selfish. I would be done with the journey that brings such weariness to my soul. But my kid and wife would
in all probability be safe from harm, since Kaslow would no longer have me around to torture mentally with their deaths.

Roderick would lose an immortal companion—even though we had recently gone for more than a century with maybe a dozen telegrams and phone calls, along with a handful of emails as our only contact with each other. Unfortunately for us immortals, we all feel terrible loss when those of us connected by centuries of coexistence suddenly leave the earth. It’s also how Roderick, I, and our other long-time friends know the monsters we’ve deeply loathed for hundreds of years are still roaming the earth. Surely, it is the same for them in regard to us.

But did I seriously contemplate such a move? Absolutely.

I traveled to the southern border of Colombia, sticking to the most remote jungles while avoiding detection by cartels and militia that have retreated to the isolated mountains. As I neared Brazil and the southern line that would take me down into Bolivia, I realized I wasn’t ready for this blood coin. There was too much to be determined with Alistair and Beatrice, concerning our shared journey. The coin would have to wait, and in my mind’s eye, I pictured another forty to fifty years would pass before I’d be forced to claim it.

I never dreamed less than two years later it would be time to pick it up.

As for Roderick…I couldn’t blame him for thinking I had panicked at the notion my family was in grave danger. By himself, he would’ve had little chance of intercepting my misguided quest. I might’ve recruited Cedric’s and Michael’s assistance, as he did, if the shoe was on the other foot.

“So, was it you, old friend, who told them?”

“Yes, Judas,” said Roderick, turning his attention to me as he looked beyond Cedric. “I had no choice, as you have correctly determined.”

“What in the hell?” asked Alistair, shooting Roderick a brief glance before gazing at me with his brow furrowed in the rearview mirror. “Do any of you three ever communicate clearly with any consistency?”

“More than you know, Ali,” I said. “But, sometimes protecting secrets is beneficial. Altering truths you’re not yet ready to hear can be necessary.”

“So telling a frigging lie beats out the truth, in your estimation?” My boy sounded much angrier than I believed was warranted. Then again, I did possess the advantage of a much bigger worldview than his, by virtue of my extended lifetime. “I bet this happens all the time with me…probably you tell big fat fibs to Amy, too!”

“No…just to you, son,” I said, making sure I sounded calm, although visions of what this would mean to his rear end if he was still eight years old briefly crossed my mind. “I have, and will continue to protect you and Beatrice at all costs. And, if you and Amy decide to get married as the two of you have hinted at, then she will get the ‘William Barrow protective deceit treatment’ as well.”

“Humph! I suppose it’s even worse with your buddies sitting with you back there. How can an honest person stand a decent chance when pitted against you three?”

“I have never lied to you, Alistair,” said Roderick, drawing a disbelieving look from Cedric. However, I could vouch for the validity of his claim, and offered an affirmative nod. “Everything I’ve told you and will ever tell you is completely the uncensored truth.”

“The hell you say!” said Cedric. “You two are the biggest bullshitters I personally know. In fact, Roderick, I’ll bet my next paycheck I’ll catch you saying some outrageous shit that can either be easily disproved, or you’ll leave out some key detail to make it ambiguous—which is just as dishonest in my book.”

Alistair nodded approvingly, as did Amy. This should be fun.

“All right…. I accept your challenge, Cedric,” said Roderick, straightening up in his seat to where he loomed nearly a foot above him. “I will wager full access to what I know about President Lincoln’s assassination in return.”

“You’ve got a deal, my friend!”

Cedric extended his right hand to Roderick, who slid his right hand up Cedric’s wrist to secure his favored druid grip. Apparently the two had done this before, as Cedric responded in kind. Once they shook twice, Roderick shot me an ornery look and turned his attention to Alistair.

“We are within twenty miles of an old landmark I’d like to visit,” he said. “What I tell you now will likely sound like bullshit, and I will only say it once. So, please listen carefully, and my advice to everyone in this car is for you all to have your bullshit meters up and ready. Am I clear so far?”

While I had only a slight idea what he was up to, certainly Amy, Alistair, and even Cedric were clueless as to the extent of his warlock skills. Alistair had caught a glimpse of Roderick’s repertoire in Hong Kong, when Roderick transformed himself into a Chinese orderly. Difficult to maintain for long, my son later caught a glimpse of the pale druid hiding behind the disguise.

So, yes, at least he should’ve known a little better. Ditto for Cedric’s twenty-year association with Roderick. Wearing similar smirks, however, all three nodded for him to continue.

“Do we really have time for this?” I asked, making no effort to conceal my irritation. Our discussions were fine, since they didn’t negatively impact our race to catch Viktor Kaslow before he stormed the Essene castle. “We are already seriously behind in catching up to a certain hostile Russian!”

“By stopping at the landmark, I’ll have the means to cut out more than half our trip—at least two hours less travel time to reach the castle. Maybe even more,” said Roderick, sounding a tad smug. If nothing else, his confidence on this was one hundred percent. “Trust me, Judas.”

Seeing that Cedric, Amy, and Alistair were full game for the wager, I decided to go along with Roderick’s request. All the while, I feared my coin would be long gone by the time we reached the castle. Soon, we moved into the Andes foothills, and all of us were on the lookout for this mysterious landmark.

“There…over there!” said Roderick, excitedly, as we rounded a winding curve on our ascent into the glorious mountain range. “Do you see the boulders leaning against each other?”

At first, I didn’t. Amy pointed out the twenty-foot oblong slabs near a gully just off the road. Clearly visible once one knew what to look for, we might’ve missed them entirely while following the highway’s increasingly precarious course.

“It looks like something you’d see in Europe, erected by the ancient Pixies…or your people, Roderick,” said Alistair, shooting him a playful glance.

“The mysteries of the Ancients are many,” he retorted. “You should park the car far enough off the road, so no one will bother it.”

Huh?!

“We’ve only got a few minutes for this and then we need to be on our way!” I could hide my annoyance with this little game no longer, and moved to prevent my son from driving off the road. Roderick quickly reached across Cedric to grab my left arm, forcing me to face him.

“Trust me,
Judas!”

It was the eyes. I hadn’t seen the gold specks swirl like that in many, many years. Like a Christmas snow globe…almost. Meanwhile, Alistair stopped the car, perched above a steep embankment.

“Okay,” I said, finally, as all eyes in the cramped coupe were fixed upon me. “This had better be worth it.”

“I assure you
it will be.” The swirl of gold that had drawn everyone’s attention began to slow down in Roderick’s eyes. “Alistair…can you navigate the hillside, or do you need for me or your father to do it?”

“I can do it,” said Alistair, with a hint of nervousness. Enough to draw a slight worried gasp from Amy. As mentioned before, my son’s return to youth has also enhanced his bravado. Whether or not he truly was capable of navigating the steep grade, he did it anyway. Thankfully, other than a momentary pull on the sedan’s right side, he managed to get us down the hill in one piece, parking alongside the unusual landmark.

“Good job, Ali,” I told him, wondering how in the hell we’d get the car back up to the highway.

“Thanks, Pops.” His worried gaze followed mine.

I prayed Roderick’s decision to do this was a good one. He was the first to step out of the car, and without waiting for us, jogged over to the towering granite oblong blocks that formed a near-perfectly proportioned upside-down ‘V’. Once he stood beneath the granite archway, he threw his head back and opened his mouth as wide as he possibly could. A shrill tone, fairly painful to our ears, poured forth from his throat.

“What the fuck?!”

The rest of us echoed Cedric’s astonishment. It took a moment to realize Roderick was calling to something, or
someone
, repeating strange noises in alternating pulses. Like some sort of excruciating Morse code, the shorter pulses were a welcome relief to all of us holding our hands over our ears in a futile attempt to fend off the deafening noises reverberating off the hillsides.

The landscape beyond the archway began to change. Tropical palms soon replaced the bountiful evergreens, and these palms were a variety I had never seen before. Yet, that was not all. The sky beyond appeared to be on fire. It seemed as if another place had been superimposed upon the Andean world we stood within. A dichotomy of realms, if you will; the one we understood well enough, and another far different. A realm we would soon learn existed in an altogether separate dimension.

Chapter 7

“Come quickly!” urged Roderick, motioning for everyone to follow him through the archway. “The dimensional rift will only last for about a minute!”

While I doubt seriously it mattered if we stepped into this other ‘place’ beyond him via that route or not, it felt safest to follow his lead and run to the other side by moving beneath the ancient slabs. Only Cedric hesitated, while the rest of us sprinted toward the archway.

As I glanced over my shoulder, I saw him looking anxiously around himself while the tropical world eagerly gobbled up the foothills of the Cordillera Real. I admit to a little smugness for the many years he had underestimated the reality of the supernatural. But the bigger, more compassionate part of me readily forgave his arrogance, and I empathized with the incredible mind-fuck he struggled to comprehend.

“Come on, man!” I called to him.

“No…I don’t think so!”

He sounded terrified, like I had just asked him to take a running leap into the heart of an active volcano. I stopped and went back for him

“Pops! It’s starting to close up!” Alistair warned.

Indeed. I glanced back to where he, Amy, and Roderick had stepped into this other world. Tall grass obscured the Merrells my kid prefers for light hiking. What looked similar to a clump of tall date palms loomed directly behind him. I had worried he and Amy would regret their decisions to forego bringing jackets for this trip. But, from the immediate look of things, the temperature where they stood easily rivaled the balmy weather we had enjoyed earlier in La Paz.