Carpathian (57 page)

“I’m afraid Marko may have dealt with the devil and we are about to pay for that sin. I’m afraid he has allowed outsiders to learn of the temple, and that cannot stand.”

“The Russian?” Niles asked getting his hackles up.

“Yes,” the old woman said.

Alice could only nod her head.

*   *   *

Niles nudged Alice and turned as the two men, accompanied by six others, carried the old and cracked door inside the temple. On it was Mikla covered by the quilt. They placed the beast on the stone altar and then nodded and bowed toward the queen and moved away into the darkness of the city.

Mikla was breathing deeply. They all saw the quilt rise and fall. Each breath seemed a labor for the great animal.

“We have to act now and cast the spell before Mikla’s injury becomes gangrenous,” said Madam Korvesky.

Charlie elbowed Denise as he gestured with a nod of his head toward the high gallery of stone and a strange fluorescing mineral embedded in the rock. Denise could not help but gasp.

High above them the Golia young had started to howl. It was a pathetic attempt as far as the power of their parent’s call went, but they were trying nonetheless. Each pup was attempting to stand. Each fell in turn, and the ones that could stand pawed at the air as they sensed the sleeping Mikla far beneath them.

Madam Korvesky looked up and then closed her eyes.

“The power of the Golia will help us with Mikla. They feel his pain and will quiet and settle to assist me in what needs doing. We will become one and we will set right what has been done to Mikla.”

As they watched, the giant wolf clenched its muscles in a spasm of pain. The quilt slowly slid off the beast and they saw that the black fur was matted and crusted with sweat and dirt from its passage to Patinas.

Suddenly the gallery high above erupted with more howling from the pups and other young. This time they all managed to attain their mature voices and it sounded unlike anything the Americans from the Event Group had ever heard before. It sounded as if hundreds of children started crying and screaming at once.

“My God,” Denise Gilliam said as she thrust her hands over her ears as the cacophony assaulted them.

“They are receiving signals that Mikla is in serious trouble,” Madam Korvesky said as she slowly stroked the black fur of the injured wolf.

“Signals?” Niles asked as he grimaced at the wailing and mewling coming from the Golia young.

“They are all connected. Some can pick up emotions from other Golia as much as several hundred miles away.” She smiled and looked up, her small hand slowly wrapping into the black fur of the beast. “And soon you will see a far more substantial connection the Golia possess.” She looked away and gestured for the one remaining villager. She nodded that he could do as previously instructed. “Your Man from the Sea, your … I believe you call him Mr. Everett?”

“Carl?” Alice said, wondering where the old Gypsy was going with this.

“Yes. My granddaughter seems quite taken with him, and just two days ago they were in Rome with thoughts of killing each other. Life is strange, is it not, Keeper of Secrets?”

Alice looked from Niles to the hundreds of milling Golia offspring restlessly scurrying around above them and then he looked at the old woman.

“Your plan for Mr. Everett?” Niles asked.

“He is a very healthy man, he reminds me of your tall man in China,” she said, looking over at Alice. “The first Keeper of Secrets.”

“You’ll find that both men have a lot of the same qualities,” Alice said and then a knowing look came to her face as she looked at the Gypsy queen. “And a lot of the same flaws I’m afraid.”

“That is what makes them who they are, does it not, Mrs. Hamilton?”

Alice did not reply.

“In answer to your question, Mr. Compton, your friend is needed. Needed by your companions down at that stone monstrosity they call a resort.”

“What’s wrong with our companions?” Niles asked.

“It seems they have encountered the men that my grandson has been doing business with and I am sensing that they need assistance. I need your Mr. Everett to find out for me,” again the crooked smile, “and then you will see the very special power of the Golia, and why God placed them here. The one true link.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying—one true link?” Alice said.

“The true link Mr. Everett will have with him,” Madam Korvesky said as she glanced up into the high stone gallery that sat just beneath one of the three stone pyramids.

As they turned and looked up they saw the beast. It stood at least eight and a half feet tall. Its left arm was outstretched as the animal was leaning on a stone outcropping. The Golia stood on its two hind legs and the yellow eyes stood out in the darkness as the giant wolf stared down upon them.

“Oh,” was all Alice could say.

“Wow,” Charlie Ellenshaw said as he stepped forward to see the sight that stood high above them. Denise for her part decided that she was close enough and took three tentative steps back. Niles held his ground but like Charlie, Alice took steps to get closer to the far wall so they could look up at the legendary alpha male of the Golia.

Before anyone could move, Stanus leaped from his high perch and flew through the air until its large feet struck the stone flooring of the temple. Stanus went down to its knees, as the leap from the gallery was at least a hundred feet. The beast slowly started to straighten and as it did the massively long claws came free of the hands and the Americans could see that Stanus was anything but happy about them being inside the temple.

The four Americans stepped back as Stanus took first one, and then another step toward the dais and the spot where Mikla was lying. The eyes never left the Americans. Madam Korvesky was impressed because most would have seen Stanus and run just as their ancestors had done at the awesome sight.

Suddenly the Golia growled deep in its throat as it approached the old woman and Mikla. The beast looked from Niles, Alice, Charlie, and Denise as it raised its right hand and with outstretched fingers placed its claws into the fur at Mikla’s neck. Stanus’s ears slowly came up and they could hear the whining of the giant as its claws ran through Mikla’s dirty, wet fur.

Alice saw the humanity in the Golia’s touch. The eyes, made to cast fear into any beast that saw them, were slowly moving over Mikla as Stanus examined it. Finally the large hand made it down to the broken right ankle of Mikla. The ears lay down and then they heard the deep castings of the wolf’s growl. It was as if Stanus could sense, or even smell the infection that was starting to grow from Mikla’s injury. Madam Korvesky slowly and gently reached out and placed her much smaller hand on that of Stanus. She closed her eyes and the wolf quieted and became still. The yellow eyes seemed to roll up into the Golia’s head and the ears came up like a set of antennae. Then the eyes opened and with one last look at Mikla and then over at the visiting Americans, the alpha male turned, ran, and scrambled up the rocks to the gallery and then vanished.

“That was amazing,” Alice said as she stepped closer to the dais and then with a questioning look in her eyes at Madam Korvesky, silent permission was given and then she too laid her hand on Mikla’s heaving chest. She felt the heat of the animal and the infection was starting to smell bad.

“Can you do anything for him?” Niles asked as his mind shifted from the trouble that Jack and then others were facing and the immediate problem before them—the wounded Golia.

“Yes, we may very well have Mikla up and running by tomorrow. If not and he dies we may have a serious problem on our hands as Stanus would not take the death of his only remaining brother very well at all. The people that did this would never make it home. So I need your Mr. Everett. I need Stanus, his strength, his power, and his cunning. I need your friend because he can evaluate the situation where Stanus cannot.”

“I am not following you at all. I need to make sure my people are safe.” Niles looked at Alice. “We have to leave, we can’t take a chance that Jack and the others aren’t in some kind of trouble.”

“You will stay, Stanus will go and your Mr. Everett will go.”

“I will not place the captain close to that animal, that doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do,” Niles said, finally getting a little put off by the mysticism talk and the unscientific way this was unfolding.

“What are you planning?” Alice asked as Mikla whined in its sleep.

“While we help Mikla, your friend and Stanus will perform the miracle and discover what is really happening with your friends and our common enemy.”

Charlie Ellenshaw felt the flutter of his stomach as he realized what it was that Madam Korvesky was getting at.

“The miracle? The miracle is—”

“Tonight you will learn that there truly are monsters in the world of men.”

“Riddles are a hard way to discover the truth, madam,” Niles said as his anger was turning inward to the old Event Group failing—curiosity.

She smiled and then cocked her head as the offspring of the Golia started howling again in their small, screechy voices.

“Tonight you will see the transformation.”

“Transformation?” Denise asked, not liking the sound of that at all, especially being an MD.

“Yes, my dear, there is only one thing that can tell us what we want to know and has the stealth to get that information.”

“And that is?” Niles asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

“The werewolf.” The smile was large as she took in the astonished faces around her.

“A were—”

“Yes, a lycanthrope,” she answered, cutting off Niles and his astonished reply, “and tonight the beast will run, and your Mr. Everett will run with it.”

“You don’t mean—?” Charlie started to ask, amazement lacing his words.

“The change will come upon your Man from the Sea and he will run with Stanus, becoming one with the beast, and the magic of the Golia will be shared.”

“You can’t mean that he will—” Alice said but stopped when the old woman laughed.

“Tonight, the most ancient of beings comes alive and the werewolf will walk the mountain once again.”

THE EDGE OF THE WORLD HOTEL AND RESORT CASINO, PATINAS, ROMANIA

As they were escorted down the hallway Jack saw that the men watching them had no weapon of any kind, at least none that he could discern. With one man on the outside of Sarah, another on his left, and one behind and the follow-up element of Zallas and his new friend Ben-Nevin, he knew he could take the two men next to him and Sarah, but Ben-Nevin was no fool, he would have ample time to draw a weapon.

As they were led down the sixth-floor hallway, Sarah was relieved to see Pete Golding and Jason Ryan coming around the corner from the opposite direction. Sarah held up a hand to warn them that they weren’t alone when she saw the four men behind them. They were in as much trouble as themselves and they were being led to the same suite of rooms.

“Good job, Ryan, I see you got Pete out of trouble,” Jack said as they were made to stop before two double doors with the number 66-6.

“Yeah, these four armed men with very ugly automatic weapons dissuaded me from any inappropriate reactions where the rescue of the doc was concerned.” With that one of the small Uzis appeared and jabbed Ryan in the back.

“I see your point,” Jack said as Ryan was pushed forward.

“Jab me with that thing again and what I gave you last night inside the casino will seem like a kiss, dickhead,” Ryan hissed at the thug from the night before. The man smiled and was about to raise the small Uzi and pop Ryan again.

“Stop that,” Zallas said from behind them as he produced a keycard and then swiped it in the lock. Then as a second security procedure he entered a code on a keypad. “This is my private suite of rooms.” He smiled as he threw the door open. “I think you will be most comfortable here until the Romanian authorities arrive to take you into custody.”

“Into custody, you have got to be—”

Collins held out a hand and that stopped Sarah’s outrage.

“Yes, what did you think, I’d be foolish enough to kill three American soldiers and one,” he looked at Pete Golding, “whatever this is? Maybe you are with the NATO contingent, maybe you are not, but if you were it would be very stupid of me to kill four representatives of the organization that made the construction of all this possible. No, I don’t pick fights with NATO. You’ll be arrested for breaking and entering and then expelled from Romania. That may or may not sit well with your employers, whoever they are, but it should be enough to keep you quite busy explaining yourselves.”

A knock sounded as Jack stared at Zallas. He knew that the man, while brutish and a gangster, was smart enough to realize his limitations as far as attracting attention to himself. For a man that dodged the old KGB and the newer version of that organization, the NKVD, to escape Russia and then organize here, well, he knew Zallas was a man that wasn’t as dumb as many would believe.

One of the Romanian thugs opened the door and allowed the hotel’s other owner into the suite.

“What is this?” Janos Vajic asked as he saw the Americans in the center of the suite.

“These people have been caught breaking and entering into my and the engineer’s office. They will be arrested and then expelled from Romania after the weekend’s festivities are complete.”

“These guests do not seem the burglar type,” Janos said as he worried that Zallas was going too far.

“Mr. Janos,” Sarah said, “your partner has placed a death sentence on this resort. The whole thing can come crashing down at any time thanks to his bribery and faulty engineering.”

Janos looked from Sarah to Zallas, who was shaking his head.

“What is she talking about?” he asked.

“What I’m talking about is the fact that the castle up there is secured to the mountain facing by giant anchor bolts that pass right through a major fault that was uncovered and is in the original geology report from your Ministry of the Interior.”

“And that means?” Janos asked as his eyes stayed on Zallas.

“The construction of the castle has caused irreparable damage to the rock that makes up the face of the mountain. The face your new castle is anchored to.”