Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy (33 page)

He slapped his hand flat against his forehead to accentuate his remark, "I mean, how narrow-minded and stubborn can one be, anyway?" Gregory shrugged, "I have no idea and I don’t have the power to change people. If my opinion would even interest anyone, I think that the Milan are not moved by nobler motives than the Vultures. They are shit-scared of losing their wealth status too.” Keanu nodded, "you're probably right, but they owe their prosperity at least not to rip-offs and extortion or other criminal activities.” Gregory wiped his objection aside, "You are one of them, and I understand that you defend them, but they don’t think of the great benefit for all concerned, only the lesser evil. But, enough talk, the only thing that I can do is to throw these things here," he tapped his backpack, “into the lava and then - if nobody prevents me and shoots me down first. I will escape to someplace where no one knows about my background." He shouldered his backpack and went to the door.

"Let's hope I can do it and that all my abilities and everything else, to control the elements, repeal the curse and vanish into thin air. Because maybe that is the true curse, that we can control the elements, think about it,” he stepped outside, and Keanu didn’t know how he could hold him back or whether he should even try. He nevertheless made one last vague attempt, "You don’t have to do this on your own. We will set sail tomorrow - all of us - with Mikiel's boat – The Petala-.” Gregory turned around looking at him with pity, "Well, then if you will do that, you know where to find me. So, why should I want to wait for you. By the way Keanu, when you have friends like Mikiel, what do you need enemies for?” His words echoed unpleasantly in Keanu's ears. Gregory went down the stone steps that run up from the coast to the house without turning back again, and he soon disappeared from Keanu's view. He watched him leave thoughtfully, but didn’t attempt to restrain him. The situation had gone totally out of control. The Milan were upset, and Mikiel wanted to go on the trip to Sicily. This fact alone had already caused him slight nausea and goose bumps. Besides, the supposed Savior had just left and was now alone on his journey to Sicily. He sat down on the spiral staircase that led to the upper floor and buried his head in his hands. Murphy's Law, he thought - if something could go wrong, it would! What, damn it, was he supposed to say to the Milan, Tiziana and Giacomo. There was no way he could tell them the truth; that Gregory compared them to the Vultures and preferred to go off alone into certain death than to wait for them. He sighed looking up, and Veronica was standing in front of him.

"What happened?" she looked at him quizzically, "Where is the boy?" Keanu shrugged and must have looked quite desperate, as she patted his arm whispering conspiratorially, "Don’t you worry, I'm going to save your ass, watch and learn!" Ponderously, she walked up the spiral staircase and disappeared through the porch door to the outside. Keanu didn’t understand what she meant. What did she have in mind? He got up and followed her. He had not yet arrived at the top of the stairs when a scream followed by loud lamentations from the porch was heard. Keanu dashed outside after hearing Veronicas hysterical voice that skipped into Maltese. Fascinated and stunned at the same time, he stopped abruptly and listened to her litany. Accordingly, she announced to the surprised Milan, that several men had abducted the Savior and Keanu had been powerless against them, they were armed with masks, and they had been lucky being able to save their lives. Keanu almost burst out laughing. He had to control himself, not to laugh aloud.

This woman was a fantastic actress and could not have been any more dramatic. He put on a serious, suffering face and limped to the terrace. The Milan looked like a startled horde of locusts, muttering and looking at each other uncertainly. He played along with her game, "Veronica's right, there were three guys with black masks. I had no chance. They took Gregory," thoughtfully he added, "he's probably already dead. They were not exactly nice to deal with him.” A murmur went through the gathered Milan. Mikiel seemed unconvinced by his remarks, "how can it be that we didn’t notice the fight out here? I mean you were gone less than five minutes." Keanu was just wondering frantically what to dish out as a fairy tale, but Veronica came to his aid again. Apparently, she was a big fan of conspiracies and crime of any kind or had definitely watched too many of such series on television. "They knocked him down, I heard a rumble, when I came out of the kitchen, there was Keanu on the ground and I saw three figures in black jumpsuits as they kidnapped the boy and his backpack. I immediately ran out to you. They can’t be far. Maybe you could yet catch them," she pointed to the forest. It began at the side of the house and led to the church, exactly in the opposite direction to where Gregory had actually gone. Admirable, Keanu thought, simply admirable. The many thrillers had been good for something. Anyway, Veronica’s deception had overtaken them, it seemed. Mikiel looked at her in dismay, "You mean; they took his backpack? Does that mean that whoever kidnapped him is in possession of the two amulets?”

Keanu frowned, as if he had to think hard, even though he knew that Gregory had of course taken the two amulets. After all, he had decided to pull this thing off as a lone wolf, and consequently, to bite the dust as such, as befits a real martyr. He looked at Veronica and then they both nodded. Now it was time to lure the Milan on the wrong track. Keanu said, «I think so, he had the two amulets in his backpack and was ready to go to Sicily, as I had told him." Mikiel's suspicions seemed to have subsided he turned to the Milan, "Let’s set sail already tonight, looks like we'll have to go as soon as possible to this volcano. We need to be there before the Vultures. If we close off the way to the field, no one can come past us and we are in control. God knows what the Vultures will do to him and the amulets. We can’t risk anything. We will meet," he looked at his Rolex, "in three hours in Sliema on the harbor on Manoel Island."

Then his gaze wandered to Giacomo and Donna Tiziana. "How did you two actually get on the island, couldn’t it be that you two are in cahoots with the kidnappers?” Donna Tiziana gazed at him with an icy stare, "That would certainly be a brilliant plan, if you have the IQ of a fire hydrant! We came by speedboat, alone," she looked at him reproachfully, "and at four o'clock we will return, if you don’t mind." Stoically, she held his gaze. Mikiel realized that arguing would not keep up to this, Grande Dame, she was literally a hard nut to crack. So, Mikiel gave up and turned away, "Ok folks, be on time, we must not lose the amulets, none of us knows what the consequences for that could be, and I'm not particularly keen to find out." There was a murmur of agreement and the Milan went to the parked cars.

Chayton Moonworthy was in his element, organizing. He checked that his flock had everything they needed distributing the tickets to them. Some of the parents were to drive to the airport to say goodbye. In fact, the whole thing really looked like a normal school trip, and there was no indication that they were on a rescue mission. Leyla's parents had failed, fortunately, to accompany her to the airport. Mom was very reassured after speaking with Moonworthy. Yes, strangely enough, a math teacher always appeared to all parents as something soothing, even if he looked like Moonworthy. She sat on her black crumpled IKEA sports bag with wheels and watched as he ticked, one by one, off the list. He had trouble, holding them together and muttered something to himself that if she had understood correctly, had to do with a bag of fleas. After a while, he had managed to bring them, through the check-in, like a flock of sheep, which facilitated him quite a bit. Exhausted, he fell into one of the overstuffed chairs. This could become a difficult task to keep these kids together. They all were a pain in the neck. These kids were like a sack full of fleas, and some of them got lost constantly. Hopefully, they would stay together at least until they were on the plane. Holding eight teenagers together was not necessarily easy.

He would tell Aiden and Shane to take over, and they seemed the most reliable of them all. He had been hoping Natalie would undertake this task, but it had unfortunately turned out on the way to the gate, that she was probably not the right person for this, since she kept disappearing, again and again, sticking her head together with James, Matt, and Gaia. After a long and tiring flight, they arrived in Rome, where they had two-hour stopover before they got on a plane to Catania. After a good hour flight, they finally arrived at their destination, but it became quite clear immediately that the mills in Sicily were grinding significantly slower than in Canada. Since they were nine people, they couldn’t take a taxi to Nicolosi, so they had to take the bus to the hotel with the flowery name 'La Casa del Poeta dell Etna Buonaventura' which meant so much as, "The house of the poet of the Etna -Beautiful adventure."

As it turned out that the bus got there only once a day and interestingly enough in the morning at 8:00 a.m. Chayton Moonworthy had no other choice than to reserve a hotel in Catania for one night as close to the bus stop to Nicolosi as possible. So, that they would get on this damn bus the next morning for sure. Fortunately, he found a reasonably priced Hotel Dolce Vita. A so-called suite for the whole gang was available. They weren’t so glad that they probably had to sleep in their sleeping bags on the floor, but it was the only place to stay, which would take up so many people at this short term. Moonworthy shooed the scattered teenagers on the bus, which was already bursting full. At least the journey didn’t take too long, but they were all totally pooped as they arrived in front of the hotel. The Dolce Vita did unfortunately not stand up to its name. The mismanaged building constructed by sandstone crumbled away and had seen better days for sure.

The reception was dingy, and the receptionist was watching the kind of movie in the back room that sure as hell wasn’t meant to be G-rated. He was apparently not very happy about the distraction and glimpsed through the half open door to the reception looking truly pissed. After about the tenth ringing he shuffled unwillingly behind the reception. He wore a greasy white undershirt and pants too tight, over which a huge belly bulged. Where had they gotten themselves? He stroke the few hair he still had, sideways over his forehead which looked simply grotesque, and looked at them through his horn-rimmed glasses with thick lenses. "Siamo chiusi," he said in an unfriendly manner. Moonworthy, who didn’t understand a word, waved Leyla to come over, "What did he say?" The greasy guy repeated the phrase again. "He says they are closed," Leyla shrugged looking at Moonworthy with big eyes.

The filthy guy was probably as bad as it could get, being a receptionist. Hardly to be topped, from the next room there were groaning voices from the TV, whispering dirty stuff in Italian. Leyla tried unobtrusively to get away from the reception, but unfortunately, she didn’t get far. “Tell him that we have a reservation." "Man, why me, Mr. Moonworthy, have you had a look at the guy? He scares me."
"Yes, I know, but you happen to be the only one around here, speaking some decent Italian, as I know."
"And then, they always say Foreign Languages will bring us further in life," Leyla muttered annoyed. "Mi scusi, abbiamo riservato. Questo e l'albergo dolce vita o no?" The greasy guy checked her out from top to bottom. She instinctively crossed her arms over her chest, and she felt somewhat sick. What a disgusting guy! "No, questo e la pensione Dolce Vita, l'albergo e dall’altra parte della stazione." Leyla thanked him and turned around, "Fortunately, this is not the right hotel, our hotel is on the other side of the station." Moonworthy sighed aloud, "Everybody move out. This is not our hotel!" and they all left the hotel. Wandering around questioning several passers-by, who all of them showed them to go in a different direction until they finally found their hotel hidden in a passage. It was not as bad as the first, and the owner seemed to be normal. It even had enough bunk beds. Unfortunately, they had to realize that the mattresses hade bedbugs. It was indeed a long and itchy night. Leyla spent the night on a white plastic chair. Somehow, she had imagined Sicily to be different. Her relationship with this island had suffered a severe shock so far.

The morning after she explored the area with Mila and Gaia, they were exhausted after passing the night on plastic chairs instead of a bed. Interestingly enough bedbugs apparently didn’t like to bite guys as much as girls, what other explanation could there be to the fact, that the boys were still asleep, even Chayton Moonworthy. Well, Natalie was also sleeping. Early in the morning, they drank some espresso near the railway station. It was so strong that Leyla thought her spoon would stay straight as an arrow stuck in it. Anyway, their hunger had woken them up, and they ate a few brioches. They had not seen much of Catania yet, but the area around the station was filthy and seemed threatening.

It was still very early in the morning, but the bus was supposed to leave at 8:15 a.m. and it was the only bus to Nicolosi. So, they went back to the hotel to get ready. They had to make sure not to miss this bus in no way. Another sleepless night was out of the question. An hour later, they all sat on the bus with a horde chattering American tourists and the second group of Japanese tourists, who were quiet as mice. The bus rattled away, and Leyla was asleep in no time. She slept during the whole journey and was barely awake to get off the bus when they arrived. Fortunately, the hostel in Nicolosi made a much better impression than the hotel in Catania. Everyone could only think of one thing to do: - Sleep -. They immediately moved into their rooms to lie down again. It didn’t matter that it was not even ten in the morning. It was too tempting to get a couple of hours’ rest. Leyla was lying on a clearing in the middle of a forest. The Sun was shining warmly on her face, and when she opened her eyes, she looked straight into Gregory's blue eyes, he looked at her full of affection. He leaned down and kissed her. Leyla wrapped her arms around his neck and returned the kiss. When she pulled away, she reached for the amulet that hung around his neck and looked at him questioningly. Then a bee whirred around her head, and Gregory’s face disappeared. Leyla recoiled from her dream, and sat up too suddenly, which made her bump her head at the top of the bunk bed. "Ouch, damn," she looked, and nobody was around. In fact, there wasn’t a soul in sight, except for Gaia, Natalie, and Mila sleeping in their beds. Then she realized that the buzz had something to do with her phone.

She took it in her hand and held her breath when she saw who had written her. It was a video message. She fumbled for her headphones in her backpack and stuffed them into her ears. She watched the message several times and lay back in her bed. Pensively, she stared at the chipboard of the bed over her and pressed the phone against her chest, as if it was something incredibly precious. After a few minutes, she wrote back a message to the sender, and then she lay down again, closed her eyes, and fell asleep with a smile on her face.