Carpathian (79 page)

Jack wanted to take the young officer and shake him until he understood that every mission is never dependent on just one’s orders. You must evaluate as you go to make the right choice. Collins had done that a number of times and paid for it in the end, but it was better using common sense than being a nonthinking automaton.

The mountain shook as the echoes of Stanus’s pain-riddled yelp slowly echoed to nothing. The ground shook and this time the left-side wooden door broke free from its bronze hinges and then dangled a moment before it fell to the ground.

“What in God’s name was that?” Major Mendohlson asked wide-eyed.

“That’s a long story that your friend Mr. Vajic can answer at a later time.”

“Colonel, I don’t want to be considered the cowardly one here, but I would rather not wear this mountain as a hat,” Ryan said as he and Will were ready to go.

“Major, you and your team can stay and convince the wolf to give you back your weapon, or you can run like hell and help us save these people down at the castle.”

Ryan and Mendenhall started for the double doors.

“Hey, what castle?” Major Mendohlson called out as Jack turned and started after his two men.

“Dracula’s Castle,” Janos Vajic answered as he too turned and followed the Americans.

The major and sergeant major looked at each other and it was the older man that finally said it as he turned and started after the others.

“This I have got to see,” the sergeant major said excitedly after seeing the largest land animal he had ever laid eyes on.

Mendohlson watched the enthusiastic sergeant start following the Americans and Vajic.

“I think I’ve seen quite enough already.”

20

PATINAS PASS

It had taken over an hour to get the villagers to safety through the animal paths inside the mountain. Stanus had made sure Everett knew the way back before the large wolf had vanished. The last of the women and children had been handed out through one of the ancient steam vents that dotted the mountainside by the menfolk of the village. Niles had been impressed by the movement of the entire village as not one child made a cry or complaint. The men had been silent also as they moved their families without complaint. These were hardy people that needed little help from Niles or his people. These men and women had courage in abundance. They and the Golia were the ultimate survivors.

One of the last to be moved from the inside of the mountain was Madam Korvesky, who had to leave the makeshift cot inside as it wouldn’t fit through the vent. Alice, Denise, and Sarah held a blanket up over the vent hole to protect the old woman from the slashing rain. Once the men were out Carl took notice on where they had come out. Niles called his team over to the side.

“Where are we?” he asked. “Best guess.”

“I would say we’re only a mile from the castle and a mile south of Patinas, and we better get moving before Zallas and his people return.”

Niles nodded as he turned to look for Alice. She was gone along with Sarah and Anya. He spun in a circle as he realized every one of the Gypsy villagers had vanished into the storm.

“Where did they go?” Pete asked as he and Charlie ran across the road to see if they had gone that way.

“They know this mountain better than anyone. I think they know where to go to be safe,” Everett said as his thoughts turned to Anya, Sarah, and Alice.

“But they’ll kill Madam Korvesky even faster, we must find them,” Denise said.

“For right now we have to get some help. Charlie, you and Pete get to the castle and do what you can to warn everyone. Smash dishes or faces, I don’t care, get them out. Captain, get back to Patinas, I don’t know why but I think that’s where they went. Madam Korvesky has something to do with it, I know it. Dr. Gilliam, you’ll come with me and set up a triage station at the resort in case we don’t get those people out in time. We’ll need a lot of medical help if the worst happens.”

“You?” Carl asked as he flinched when a flash of lightning streaked overhead.

“Jack says there’s a shortwave radio inside Zallas’s office. I think it’s time we call a friend for some help.”

As everyone broke up and went their different ways into the storm, Everett wondered just who in the hell can come and help them at a time like this.

But Niles Compton knew just whom to call.

*   *   *

Alice was barely able to climb the road back to Patinas. Her legs had given out three times and Sarah had to assist her back to her feet. Anya helped by taking Alice’s other arm and together they battled the raging wind and rain and barreled headfirst through the storm to Patinas. Finally the village came into view and Anya asked the obvious, as Alice had refused to tell them why she had to return to Patinas with the mountain getting ready to fall down around them.

“Why are you doing this? My grandmother was delirious, we cannot go back there, Zallas and his people are still there.”

Alice continued to struggle against the wind and then when she stopped it caught Sarah and Anya off guard—standing before them were twenty armed men in black clothing.

Anya feared this almost as much as running into the Russian and his men. They had run straight into the waiting arms of the killer elite of Israel.

“I am Major Mica Sorotzkin, you men are ordered to stand down.”

The men just looked on and said nothing. Anya could see that most of them were bloodied. The leader of the remaining commandos was about to step up and address the major but instead he ducked as automatic fire opened up behind them. Bullets hit everywhere as Alice, Sarah, and Anya dove into the rushing water and mud for cover. Sarah chanced a look up and above the village saw streaming out of the temple the Russian’s men making a mad rush for their waiting vehicles. The Israelis turned, hit the mud, and started to return fire, but not before three more of them had been hit. Bullets struck to the left and to the right as Alice suddenly stood up and started running. Sarah screamed for her to stop but she kept running through the blaze of gunfire. Sarah had no choice but to go after her and that spurred Anya into action to follow.

The first SUV tore out of the village and that was followed by others as the volume of fire became less and less and more of the men from the temple made it to their vehicles.

The man left in charge of the outside assault element was mentally kicking himself for not disabling the vehicles.

Alice tripped, stumbled, and then fell into the rushing water as she reached the front gate to the village. A large black SUV nearly missed her as she dove through the front gate of Patinas. Sarah was soon there as the last of the black SUVs tore down the mountain.

“Are you insane?” Sarah yelled as she helped Alice to her feet.

“Please, we have to get to Madam Korvesky’s cottage, now,” Alice said as Anya reached down and helped them both. In the falling rain she faced Alice and then shook her.

“My grandmother is wrong, what you’re going after isn’t worth it, believe me. It’s something she won’t share even with me,” she yelled as rain poured from her face and hair.

“She says it’s important,” Alice said as she struggled to get away from the hands holding her.

“Nothing here is that important, you saw what it was the Jeddah were protecting all these years, it’s nothing to die for. That is why we were going to destroy it. Please, let it go, Mrs. Hamilton.”

Alice twisted away and then ran for the cottage. Anya screamed in anger and then she and Sarah followed.

The front door was open and several men raised weapons and aimed them at Alice as she stumbled through the doorway. The men were all injured by either bullets or from the HALO jump.

“No!” Anya shouted at the men in English so they would understand without really thinking.

Alice ran past the men with Sarah’s help and stumbled into the bedroom and then practically fell onto the old hope chest. Anya came in after them with an oil lamp and waited for Alice to catch her breath. The ground was now in constant motion this high up.

“There is nothing in there but a bunch of shattered dreams my grandmother had for me at one time. There is nothing in there of value, Mrs. Hamilton, please, let us get these injured men off the mountain now.”

Alice threw open the top of the chest and then started tossing blankets, sheets, and other items that Anya once thought were important. Then Alice hit upon something metal and hard. She took a moment and studied what she had discovered. Anya got a strange look on her face, as she hadn’t known there was anything in the bottom of the chest. She held the lamp closer as Alice reached in and opened the steel box. Inside was an old burlap bag that was tied at one end with a length of rope. She slowly reached in and brought out the bag. It was heavy and felt as if it held nothing but rocks. Alice lifted it free of the chest and was about to open the rope end when several men came into the house. As Sarah looked up she was relieved to see Jack, Jason, and Will. They were soaked and Ryan was bleeding. Will looked scared half to death.

“Ladies, I believe I told you to get the hell off this mountain, what are you doing here,” Jack asked angrily.

“Collecting something Madam Korvesky wanted us to have. Now may I suggest we do as Jack here says, I think the mountain is falling down.”

With that they were all amazed when Alice bolted from the room and out the front door.

“I’ll tell you something, she cannot come on field operations anymore!”

*   *   *

As Pete and Doc Ellenshaw climbed the stairs to the cable car platform they turned left into the lobby area of the castle and Niles and Denise boarded the southbound car just as the doors started to slide closed. Compton looked at his watch and worried it had taken them too long to reach the castle.

Pete and Charlie heard and felt the music long before they breached the club. Drake Andrews could be heard belting out his most famous cover song, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Green River.” The crowd was raucous and the backup band blazing. Pete opened the door to step in and a rather large and brutish man placed a bear-sized palm on his chest and then gave the filthy computer genius a dirty look. He just shook his head when he saw the condition of his clothes and his person.

“Listen, you have to get all of these people out of here!” Pete said, trying to push past the doorman. The man wouldn’t budge.

As the music played even louder, Charlie looked over and saw the raging storm outside as the cables for the massive cars were swinging back and forth. He then felt the thick stone blocks beneath his feet shift. His eyes widened and then he started running and pushed past the large man at the door, knocking him and Pete to the floor.

“Everyone get out, get out now!” the crazy white-haired Charlie Ellenshaw screamed at the top of his lungs, but it was to no avail, as everyone was locked in on the famous American crooner gyrating on the stage. The backup band was having the experience of their lives playing with the once top star. “Stop, stop playing and get out of here,” but it was like Charlie was speaking into a vacuum.

The doorman was finally on his feet and had Charlie by the back of his filthy shirt and was in the process of pulling him back toward the cable car platform when he backed into something unmoving. The man turned and raised a hand to hit the other filthy man when his eyes looked straight into nothing but black hair. He saw the chest rise and fall and he heard the heavy breathing. His eyes slowly moved upward as his grip on Ellenshaw loosened and Charlie fell to the floor.

Mikla was standing on the platform and was looking down on the large doorman. The man was frozen in fear as the freshly healed Mikla leaned down and looked the man directly in the eyes and then the mouth opened to show the man the business end of Mikla’s touch.

The man felt his knees buckle as Mikla roared. The ears lay back and the hand came up but the doorman had already fallen to the floor.

“Good, Mikla, good!” Charlie said, not knowing how or why the Golia had saved them but wasn’t about to thumb his nose at the chance to get the people out as the castle really started to move under their feet.

The Golia seemed like it was a beast on a mission as it shook its massive head and with ears laid to the sides of that head started walking through the open doorway to Castle Dracula’s.

*   *   *

Drake Andrews was having the time of his professional life as he felt the subtle nuances of an audience that was lost in his music. He hadn’t felt the power of his music for almost a quarter of a century. It had become stale and predictable, even to the point where the MGM Grand and then the Mirage in that order canceled his upcoming gigs.

He was just finishing up when he heard a commotion in the upper reaches of the club. He glanced up at the balcony and heard several shouts, but the American figured they were just yelping for more. He turned to the band and said something and then the strains of the old rock ’n’ roll standard by Tommy James and the Shondells, “Mony, Mony,” began. As the heavy music started its heavy beat they heard another scream and then another and Drake smiled as he knew the song was getting their attention.

Andrews stepped up to the microphone and was just starting to open his mouth when he saw one of the club’s guests get onto the railing that ringed the upper balcony where the rich would sit and listen, drink, and do the kind of things you can’t do on the main floor. Drake saw the man and wondered just what he was up to when he suddenly jumped over the railing and fell the eighty feet to the tables below where he hit hard and then rolled to the floor amid screams of terror. Drake Andrews looked up still stunned when he saw the wolf from the night before jump up and then roar out over the crowd. Drake, instead of singing the first few refrains from “Mony, Mony,” watched as the crowd started cheering at what they thought was part of the show. Drake knew that if it was part of the club’s show that something pretty bad had just gone wrong.

The beast roared again as two more people jumped. The Golia roared for a third time until the band stopped playing and just stared up at the surreal scene above their heads. A man with crazy white hair stepped up next to the black, upright wolf that had everyone in the house amazed.