The Thirteenth Legion (A James Acton Thriller, #15) (James Acton Thrillers) (10 page)

“Are the
three you have secure?”

“Yes.
Very.” The Proconsul scratched his chin, lowering his voice slightly. “Listen,
this has been an ongoing feud among us for almost eight hundred years, beginning
in 1212 after the disaster in London. Now blood has been spilled on an
unforgiveable scale, something that has never happened before. We know they
want them, and they will kill to get them.”

“How
will you stop them?”

“We’ve
moved the three remaining skulls to a location known only to a handful of
people, and they are under heavy guard. Unfortunately, I fear it may not be
enough.”

Reading
asked the question that had been gnawing at him since yesterday. “Why were you
following me?”

The Proconsul
smiled slightly. “Because we know you two are friends, and we were hoping he
might reach out to you at some point. We’ve been following you and the
professors for over a year, ever since Martin failed to report back with the
Venice skull.”

“Do you
think Jim and Laura are in danger?”

The Proconsul
frowned, then nodded. “Most definitely.”

Reading
pointed at Rodney. “Give me my phone. Now!”

Rodney
looked at the Proconsul who nodded. The phone was produced.

Reading
called Acton’s number, it going directly to voicemail.

His gut
flipped, his cop intuition telling him something the facts hadn’t yet.

Something’s
wrong.

Outside Annapolis, Maryland

Acton stared at Chaney, his eyes wide. “Excuse me?”

Chaney
chuckled. “It’s really quite simple, Professor. I will give you the skull,
you’ll call a number I give you, tell them you have it, and want to meet.
They’ll arrange it, and as you American’s might say, Bob’s your uncle.”

Acton
looked at Laura. “Do we say that?”

She
shrugged. “You’re asking the wrong person.”

Acton turned
to Chaney. “Won’t they ask how we got it?”

“Of
course. You tell them that I showed it to you when I tried to recruit you. You
then realized that I must be working for the wrong side, and stole it. With
your history of getting involved in things that don’t concern you, they’ll
absolutely believe it.”

Laura
leaned a little harder against Acton. “I’m not so sure about that.”

Chaney
smiled at her. “Listen, your reputation is one of always doing the right thing.
Keeping this skull in the hands of the Triarii is the right thing, even if you
don’t believe in their power. And once they see you actually have it, they’ll
believe any story you tell them.”

Laura’s
eyes narrowed. “But I thought giving them the thirteenth skull was exactly what
you didn’t want?”

Chaney
nodded. “It is, but eventually they’re going to catch us, and when they do,
they’ll have all of them anyway. This way, we have a shot of getting our hands
on all of them.”

Acton
leaned back, his head tilting to the side, his eyes narrow. “How?”

“Easy.
We’ll place a tracker with it.”

Acton
gave him a look. “It’s a
transparent
crystal skull. Won’t they notice
something sticking to it?”

Chaney
chuckled. “We’ll bug the case you’ll be carrying it in, that way we’ll know
exactly where it is at all times. Once we know their location, we can hit them
and take the skulls back.”

Laura
inhaled sharply. “Hit them? You mean attack them?”

“Yes.”

“That
didn’t work out so well when the Delta Force tried it. What makes you think
you
can?”

Chaney
smiled, holding up a finger, counting off his reasons. “First, we were
expecting them, and it wasn’t us that stopped Delta, it was the armed police
unit that just happened to be outside our doors that ultimately stopped them,
and, as you know, they only surrendered because they knew their mates were
going to spring them. Also, their mission parameters were different. They were
ordered to kill everyone in the building because we were all terrorists,
remember? If they had been after a specific target like we are, I’m pretty sure
they would have succeeded. In our case, we’ll have the element of surprise, and
some private help that is well-trained.”

Acton
didn’t like the sound of that. “Private help?”

Chaney
spread his hands, palms up. “As you know, Professor, we’re not killers. We will
kill if we have to, but we’ve contracted a private firm for the takedown. We
have men training with them now, and they’re ready to hit anywhere in the world
whenever we give the word.”

Acton
frowned. “Mercenaries.”

Chaney’s
head bobbed. “I’m not happy about it either, but what choice do we have? These
renegades have killed dozens already, and are about to unleash a destructive
power unlike anything the world has ever seen.”

Acton
sighed.

Chaney
as well. “Look, I know you don’t believe, Professor, but I do, and so does
every single member of the Triarii. If there was something you believed that
others didn’t, would it stop you from believing, or simply make you realize
you’re on your own, with a duty that remained.”

Acton
said nothing, the answer obvious.

“And
I’ll ask you one final thing before you dismiss the skulls so quickly.”

“What?”

“What
was your reaction when you looked at it the first time?”

“Huh?”

“Did you
shiver?”

Acton’s
eyebrows slowly rose at the question, he leaning back slightly as he thought
back to Peru. His eyes opened wide. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I think I did.”

Chaney
smiled. “So did I.”

Acton
shrugged. “So what? It’s an instinctual response at seeing something creepy.”

Chaney’s
smile spread. “Or is it?”

Unknown Location, London, United
Kingdom

“Hey Greg, it’s Hugh.”

“Oh, hi
Hugh. God, this is a strange coincidence. I was just about to call you.”

A pit
formed in Reading’s stomach. Gregory Milton was Acton’s best friend. They had
known each other since college, and Milton was dean of the university Acton
worked at, a sometimes strenuous relationship when boss and employee clashed, yet
outside of the halls of learning, they were tight.

Very
tight.

Reading’s
relationship with Milton however was casual, purely through Acton.

And
Milton had never found a need to call him in the past.

“What’s
wrong? Has something happened to Jim and Laura?”

Milton
sighed. “I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news.”

The pit
deepened. “What?”

“It
looks like they’ve been kidnapped. There was a shooting outside the Home Depot
here, and I’m not sure what happened yet, but it looks like they were both
abducted. I just got the call and was about to call you before heading for the
police station.”

Reading took
a deep breath, glaring at the Proconsul and Rodney who stood on the opposite
side of the room, talking in hushed tones. “Okay, I’ll be on a plane as soon as
I can.”

“Good.
Use the emergency fund, I’m sure she’d want you to.”

Reading
frowned, turning his back to the others and lowering his voice. “You’re
probably right, but I hate doing that.”

“Which
is exactly why she gave you access.”

Reading
chewed his cheek. Laura was rich. Beyond rich. Hundreds of millions of dollars
rich. He hated taking advantage of that, always feeling guilty when they would
fly him places, though he eventually had been able to rationalize it by doing
the math. A plane ticket to her was like buying a coffee to him.

And he
wouldn’t think twice if she or her new husband bought him a coffee.

“Okay,
fine. I’ll make the call. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Talk to you soon.”

“I’ll
keep you posted with what I find out. Goodbye.”

Reading
ended the call and spun on the others in the room. “Jim and Laura have been
kidnapped,” he said, striding quickly toward them, rage in his eyes, Rodney
stepping in front of the Proconsul, sensing Reading’s desire to tear out someone’s
throat. “Did you have anything to do with it?”

The
Proconsul shook his head. “Absolutely not.” He turned to another guard standing
near the door. “Get me the Maryland detail, now!” The guard nodded and left,
returning only seconds later with another person who rushed into the room with
an outstretched cellphone.

“Sir,
it’s for you, urgent!”

The
Proconsul took the phone, his side of the conversation mostly grunts before he
hung up. He handed the phone back then turned to Reading. “I’m afraid you’re
right. Our agents that were tailing them report an attack.”

Reading
felt himself turn purple as anger and concern consumed him. He glared at
Rodney.

“Get me
to my flat, now!”

Motel 6, Annapolis, Maryland

“This is the case.”

Chaney
handed Acton the rather heavy case, everyone now crammed into a too small motel
room on the outskirts of Annapolis. Acton rested it on his knees and slid the
locks aside, the case opening with a hiss. Gently lifting the lid, his eyes
widened and he felt Laura shiver beside him as they gazed upon the skull they
hadn’t seen since discovering it in Venice over a year ago.

It still
gave him the heebie-jeebies.

“As you
can see, it’s form-fitted for the skull, so we’re hoping they’ll just use
it
rather than transfer it to their own case.”

Acton
snapped it shut. “Unlikely.”

“Perhaps
not. Each skull is a little different, and since they’ve never seen this one,
they won’t have a case that fits as well. They’ll want to keep it as safe as
possible, so they could very well use it.”

“They’d
be fools if they did. They’ll know you’ll try to plant a tracking device
inside.”

“Oh,
absolutely, they’ll scan for tracking devices, but it will be turned off. When
you arrive, they’ll open the case to confirm its authenticity. When that
happens, a timer will be activated. Ten minutes later the tracking device will
be activated unless the case is closed, at which point the timer will reset to another
ten minutes.”

“Why?”

“Just in
case they leave it open, we want the tracker to activate so we at least know
where you are. Our hope is that they will use the case, so we want to delay the
activation to give them time to scan it for signals.”

Acton
nodded. “I see. If they find one, they’ll know we’re working for you.”

“They
won’t find it. The tracker will be turned off, but if something goes wrong and
they do find it, just plead ignorance. If you stole the case from us, then it’s
a very plausible story that you wouldn’t know it was bugged.”

Acton glanced
at Laura. They hadn’t yet had time to talk about it, to come to some sort of
agreement on whether they should actually go through with this, or to simply
wash their hands of the entire affair and hunker down until the Triarii and the
Deniers figured things out among themselves.