Overlord (74 page)

“I once heard this in War College. I always knew what it meant, but never once did I think the words could ring so true.”

The men and women around the table stood with the exception of Niles Compton, who replaced his glasses and watched the recently demoted U.S. Army colonel raise his glass. The others followed suit.

“It was a quote from Robert E. Lee after the Battle of Gettysburg.”

Virginia couldn’t hold it in as the images of Gus, Pete, Denise, Carl, and Matchstick filled her memory. She placed a hand over her eyes and openly wept.

“We gather around our nightly dinner table and we see an occasional empty chair, but we are never, ever, prepared to see them all empty.” Jack looked from face to face, pausing at Virginia Pollock as she finally looked up with her glass in hand. “I want to say to each and every one of you, these chairs will never be empty, not as long as we remember those men and women who occupied them.” He raised his glass higher. “To absent friends.”

The others echoed the sentiment as the conference room door opened and an Air Force messenger in his blue jump suit entered carrying a message. He placed it before Compton and then quickly left.

Niles placed his glass on the table and retrieved the message. He read it and then handed it over to Alice Hamilton. She also perused it and then sat down as the others did also.

“It seems our contact inside the Vatican archives, code-named Goliath, has uncovered a rare find indeed. Our lieutenant has discovered an ancient map of an area inside the borders of the modern state of Georgia, the former Soviet Republic, depicting the possible resting place of an ancient artifact of legend.”

Niles smiled for the first time in weeks.

“Georgia—the old Soviet State that was once known to the Greeks as Colchis.”

Sarah looked at Alice with a question written on her face. Alice, instead of answering, turned to Charles Hindershot Ellenshaw III to respond for her. Charlie cleared his throat as he placed his empty glass on the table.

“Colchis is the supposed resting place of a relic you may be familiar with. In the
Argonautica
, Appollonius Rhodius’s third-century
BC
epic poem about Jason and his Argonauts, Colchis was the home of the legendary Golden Fleece.”

“The Vatican hiding this map is at the very least intriguing,” Niles said. “Jack, would you get in touch with Goliath and request more information?”

Jack Collins looked from face to face of his remaining friends, took Sarah’s hand in his own, and nodded his head.

The group started talking about the impossibilities, the possibilities, and the way in which to discover the truth.

*   *   *

The closed doors of the conference room were no different than they were last year, or the year before that, and the year before that.

The thick oaken doors hid the secret Department 5656, also known as the Event Group, and it was now back to doing its job.

ALSO BY DAVID L. GOLEMON

Event

Legend

Ancients

Leviathan

Primeval

Legacy

Ripper

Carpathian

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David L. Golemon grew up in Chino, California. He raised three great Children and now makes his home in New York.
Overlord
is the ninth novel in the Event Group Series. Visit David online at
www.EventGroupFiles.com
.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.

An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

OVERLORD
. Copyright © 2014 by David L. Golemon. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.thomasdunnebooks.com

www.stmartins.com

Cover design by James Iacobelli

Cover illustration © Larry Rostant

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Golemon, David Lynn.

     Overlord / David L. Golemon.

          p. cm.

     ISBN 978-1-250-01304-0 (hardcover)

     ISBN 978-1-250-01303-3 (e-book)

   1.  Event Group (Imaginary organization)—Fiction.   2.  Imaginary wars and battles—Fiction.   I.  Title.

     PS3607.O4555O84 2014

     813'.6–dc23

2014008686

e-ISBN 9781250013033

First Edition: July 2014