The Cleric's Vault (42 page)

Their
hands and feet had been shackled with chains and their clothes had been
stripped down to their underwear.
 
Hoods covered the men’s heads, shielding their faces from view but all
those in attendance knew who they were.
 
Carroll and Mornay were the two highest ranking officials in the Order
right beneath the Imperator himself.
 
As adepts, they were charged with carrying out any directives the leader
imposed.
 
What they had done was
treason and everyone present knew the consequences.
 
As Imperator, only Lindsey had the power to execute another
member of the Order.
 
In a savvy
maneuver, he’d actually allowed the subject to be put to a vote to the other
members of the council.
 
The
evidence had been compelling.
 
The
vote had been unanimous.

Both
subjects were positioned directly in front of the brass bull and their hoods
removed.
 

Carroll’s
desperate eyes searched the small audience for some hint of mercy.
 
“Please!” he begged.
 
“You can’t do this!
 
This is murder!
 
Murder!”
  
The faces in the observation area were unmoved.
 
One of the guards jammed an elbow into
the sobbing man’s kidneys, dropping him to his knees and ending the pleading.

Lindsey
stared at them.
 
“You knew the
consequences of your actions,” he said.
 

For
the first time, Mornay’s face was filled with terror.
 
He dropped to his knees in front of Lindsey.
 
“We made a mistake.
 
But you don’t have to do this.
 
I’ll do anything you say, Alex.
 
Anything.”
 

Desperation
was in the man’s voice.
 
As was his
act of falling to his knees.
 
Unmoved, Alexander turned and raised a hand, waving it dramatically to
the council.
 
“The council has
spoken unanimously.”
  
He
paused for a moment.
 
“So let it be
done.”

“No.
 
No!” Carroll screamed as one of the
executioners opened the door on the side of the bull and pulled out a mask
attached to a metal tube.
 
His
screams became muffled momentarily as the mask was slipped over the squirming
man’s face and the harness tightened around the back of his head.
 
Carroll was then shoved through the
door of the beast onto a metal rack.
 
His screams now transformed into an eerie, haunting sound coming from
the mouth of the bull.

Mornay
shook his head violently as the other executioner pushed him towards the
device.
 
The hooded man grabbed him
by the neck and forced his head to stop moving as he slipped the mask over
Albert’s nose and mouth.
 
Satisfied
that the harness was tight enough, he began to shove Mornay into the belly of
the bull.

Lindsey
held up his hand, stopping the executioner momentarily.
 
He stepped close to his former adept
and stared into the man’s wide, horror-filled eyes.
 
“I told you not to call me Alex,” he whispered and then
stepped back.
 
A slow nod told the
executioner what to do.

Mornay’s
screams soon joined Carroll’s as they filtered through the pipes and out of the
bull’s mouth.
 

The
guards closed the side door and locked it tight, concealing the victims inside
the device.

Within,
the men could be heard wiggling around as their chains clanked against the
inner walls.
 
The guards then
stepped to opposite sides of the fire pit and got down on one knee.
 
Simultaneously, they reached down and
picked up a long lighter from the ground and pressed the button, igniting the
flame.
 
A few seconds later, the
kindling at the bottom of the pit had begun to flicker.
 
As the logs began to catch fire, the
screams became louder from the mouth of the bull until the eerie sounds echoed
around the chamber.
 

The
inside of the brazen bull had not really even begun to heat up yet.
 
The victims were placed on a sort of
shelf on the inside so that the hot sides and bottom wouldn’t burn them
immediately.
 
It was more devious
to prevent such searing.
 
The dying
men’s screams would become louder as the hours progressed.
 
Only near the end, would their voices
cease.
 
It was an excruciating way
to die.

Lindsey
watched for a few minutes with a disturbing grin on his face.
 
Satisfied that the job was done, he
turned to the council and nodded.
 
Then he exited through the dark door where he had entered.
 
The others proceeded to file out of the
above exits as well, leaving the executioners alone with the screams to tend
the fire.
 

Chapter 70

Atlanta, Georgia

Sean
sat at a table with Emily Starks in a secluded corner of the Buckhead Coffee
House.
 
She’d come to Atlanta to
help Sean tie up some of the loose ends from the events of the previous
week.
 
The shop was a nice change
from some of the busier coffee places in the area.
 
They did good business, but it never seemed like it was a
corporate gathering hole for wannabe freelancers and consultants.
 
Outside, people walked by, looking in
the windows occasionally but usually continuing on to one of the boutiques that
surrounded the café.
 
The décor of
the place was clever.
 
It felt more
like a log cabin than anything else.
 
There were wood appointments and tables that went perfectly with the
wood paneled walls.
 
Sean likened
it to a Cracker Barrel that specialized in coffee and tea.
 
Typical noises of a coffee shop filled
the air and mingled with the scents of espresso, house blends, and foamy
lattes.
 
His eyes scanned the scene
as he sipped his mocha.
 
Returning
his focus to Emily, he set the cup down.

“So
Jennings was working for the Order?” Sean asked as he lowered his cup coffee.

She
nodded.
 
“So it seems.
 
And all this time I thought Townsend
was the dirty one.
 
Turns out
Jennings murdered him and tried to frame some other guy, though we aren’t sure
why just yet.
 
We are assuming it
is because Townsend was getting too close to discovering Jennings’s dealings.”

“Any
leads?”

“No,”
she shook her head.
 
“Nothing that we
can use.
 
This man that is running
Golden Dawn remains a mystery, at least for now.”

“He’ll
turn up, eventually,” Sean stated as he took another sip of his coffee.

She
changed the subject.
 
“I know you
had a question for me before, about a woman who called herself Allyson
Webster.”

“Yeah,”
Sean’s facial expression remained stoic as he lowered the cup.

“She
isn’t one of mine,” Emily said flatly.

His
demeanor still didn’t change.
 
“Then who is she?”

“We
think some rogue working out of London.
 
She hasn’t done anything to threaten us, so, right now, we are leaving
her alone.”

Sean
smiled at the information but stared down at his coffee.
 
“She’s a treasure hunter,” he said
finally, more to himself than to Emily.
 
“A thief, to be more precise.”

Emily
seemed puzzled.
 
“What do you
mean?”

Sean’s
mind reflected back to the week that Allyson had left for her next
“assignment.”
 
A few pieces they’d
found at the chamber in Georgia had gone missing.
 

The
majority of the collection was in tact and the historical loss of the items was
negligible; however, they would fetch a high price on the underground
antiquities market.
 
“A few things
disappeared about the time she left.
 
She must have stolen them.
 
That was her plan from the beginning,” he lifted his eyes to meet hers.

“You
want me to contact Interpol, put out a net?” Emily showed genuine concern.

“No,”
he said quickly.
 
“The things she
took won’t be missed.
 
In an odd
way, I think she knew that.”
 
He
sat quietly for a minute.

“There’s
something else you need to know,” she interrupted his thoughts.
 

At
this, his expression changed.
 
“A
surprise?”

“Sort
of,” she said and passed a cream-colored folder across the table to him.
 

“What’s
this?” he lifted the document and opened it.

“Will
Hastings wasn’t who he said he was either.”

The
words hit him hard.

“He
was an asset, Sean.
 
We are fairly
certain he was working for Golden Dawn.”

Sean
looked through the dossier for a minute or two.
 
When he finished reading the file, he flipped it back across
the table to Starks.

“Impressive.
 
He had me fooled.
 
Guess that’s getting easier to do these
days,” Sean said with resignation. “Don’t be hard on yourself, Sean.
 
I just thought you’d like to know.”

“They
never found his body,” he said, looking out a window at the other end of the
coffee shop.
 
“And I’m not being
hard on myself.
 
It’s good that I
got out of Axis when I did.
 
I’m
obviously getting rusty.”

Beneath
the window, a young woman with dark hair sat, reading a book.
 

“You
know that isn’t true, Sean.
 
In
fact, I’d love to have you back…”

He
stood up and grabbed his cup.
 
“Thanks, Em.
 
I appreciate
the offer.
 
Still not interested,”
he started to walk away then turned back to his old friend.
 

Emily
stared at him with a smile.

“I’ll
be in touch soon.
 
You take care of
yourself,” he said and then strolled over to the woman at the window
table.
 
“Whatcha reading?” he asked
playfully.

Adriana
looked up from her book.
 
She had
on dark rimmed glasses that accentuated her strong facial features.
 
“Just catching up on my Egyptian history,”
she answered him as he slid into the seat across from her. “From the details on
the inscription we found, I believe we are looking for a specific temple,
probably a Hathor temple.”

Emily
walked by and gave him one more quick wave of the hand as she exited through
the glass door behind Adriana.

“Planning
on going there soon?” he asked with a grin.

She
set the book down.

“I
think you need my help, Mr. Wyatt.”

“Oh
really?

She
nodded.

“Maybe
I do,” he resigned.
 
He sat silent
for a few seconds before he spoke again.
 
“When will you see your father again?”

The
question caught her off guard and seemed to make her instantly
uncomfortable.
 
“What do you mean?”

He
gave her a comforting smile.
 
“I
know you went to see your father when we were in Ecuador.”
 
Before she could refute his claim he
spoke up again.

The
confession surprised her she narrowed her eyes.
 
“How did you know?” she asked.

“Men
who work in the field your father works in can be good men to know.
 
Emily has used his expertise on several
occasions.”

She
absorbed what Sean was saying.
 
Then finally, she smiled.
 
“Somehow, I thought you knew.”
 

“What
other secrets do you have, Sean Wyatt?” she said in a seductive tone.

“I
guess you’ll just have to see.”

He
looked down at the book she was studying and picked it up.
 
“First, though, tell me about Egypt.”

Author’s Notes

There
are lots of interesting facts and places in this story that are worth
noting.
 
The two stone lions in New
Mexico are real as are the ruins of a nearby ancient settlement.
 
The details about the Grand Canyon are
correct, though the cave was my creation.

Part
of the story about Coronado was my concoction while much of it was fact.
 

The
Rosicrucians were a real group and some speculate they still exist today.
 
In fact, there is a group operating
under the same name in California, though their connections to the original
lineage may be questioned.
 
The
Order of the Golden Dawn was also real.
 
They too seemed to disappear in the early 20
^th
century.
 
It is unknown if there are any active
members at present.

The
most interesting part of the story, to me, revolves around Father Carlos
Crespi.
 
Not only was he an
intriguing personality, the mysteries he concealed in his vault are still
unsolved to this day.
 

The
cave in Ecuador is from my imagination, but there are many rivers in the region
that intersect the way I described.
 

I
highly recommend visiting all of the places in the story.
 
Each one has a unique flavor and appeal
that nearly any traveler will enjoy.