Truthseekers (27 page)

“What is that tunnel for?” David whispered to the owner.

“The hotel is built over part of the temple. My dad had already owned the land. It had been in our family for centuries. It was covered up but as he started on the hotel he found it. He used to run private tours into the palace temple after hours for some extra cash, but then he got too old. I played in there as a child.”

“Why did you agree to renting rooms to us if you are closed?” David asked somewhat suspiciously.

“A man called from the USA. He spoke to me in Greek. I told him the hotel was not open but he authorised me a payment of many thousands of Euros for several rooms for tonight. I could not say no. I always knew there would be some problem. No one pays that amount for hotel rooms here on Crete. My normal rate is just 55 Euro. My dad told me to take the money,” said the hotelier.

“I see… hmmn that would be my friend Lone Bear, I am sure,” said David. “Ok, we need to wait here until he and the others have joined us. It is unsafe to go back in, and we need to get out of sight.”

“Over here. There is a wall we can hide behind. Mamma, Pappa, we must be quiet.”

“So powerful, so in control.” Abbey sidled up next to David and kissed his cheek. “If all these people weren’t here I can’t tell you what I would do to you right now.” And with that she winked and jumped the wall into her position.

Minutes passed and the team could hear the remains of the festival that now finally seemed to be slowing down. The sky was that opaque crystalline azure colour, so commonly seen in the Greek islands at certain times of the year. The light would be with them in around ten minutes. David thought. He looked around their position.

They were located in a place called the Corridor of the Procession. Knossos Palace was a place that had many winding corridors and blind rooms. If you didn’t know where you were going you could easy get disorientated.

Outside the hotel a van had pulled up. Out got Lone Bear and a group of five men. He surveyed the area. He knew any adversary would be well hidden yet it did not stop him looking. The van drew away and Lone Bear’s team entered the hotel.

“Give them twenty seconds inside to get adjusted and head upstairs, then blow the place, Green One.”

John was strategically located on a small hill to the right of the hotel and festival. He had night vision glasses, yet these weren’t much use as dawn was fast approaching and the sheer number of people now leaving the festival made it hard to pick up other movement or oddities. He looked at the second hand on his watch tick away.

“Green One Go,” John clearly announced into the comms he had strapped to his head.

In one instant there was a loud explosion. People screamed and dived for cover. The front of the hotel listed forward. Then came a
second explosion and the whole thing fell. Three stories of it, forty years of goodwill and people’s memories, smashed to the ground in literally a few seconds. The dryness of the immediate area meant a huge dust cloud appeared. Bits of debris crashed back down including roofing tiles and parts of the verandah. The hotel sign was last to fall. John’s plan had been to get them all in the hotel. He knew it had been booked out by Lone Bear and he was sure the others would be there too. By simply bringing it down in one hit, all his problems would be taken away in one blast and his team were good at setting charges so it would be months or never before the authorities knew there was foul play and simply not a faulty Greek gas line. John couldn’t help but smile as he looked into the dust.

36

In the Palace of Knossos the explosion reverberated off the walls. It was deafening and disorientating. The Greek family screamed and Abbey clamped a hand over the old man’s mouth and put her finger to her lips. The woman understood and silenced the tears pouring down her cheeks. The owner looked in disbelief. He too started to cry. The family hugged each other and cried. Their life, their dreams and their legacy had been destroyed in an instant of mundane violence.

David strained his eyes forward through the dust cloud that bit into his pupils. At first he thought he was dreaming, but he wasn’t. Six large ghost-like figures emerged quickly from the tunnel to their north in front of them. One of them was looking around earnestly.

“David, are you here?”

“Yes, Lone Bear, we are here.” David looked at Abbey for approval and she indicated for him to show himself. He stood up. Lone Bear worked his way over to David and the group with his men. He saw the Greek family and said “Owners.” David nodded and Lone Bear said: “I am truly sorry my friends for your misfortune. I did not know that this would occur, I promise you. I will fund a new hotel for you. That I assure you once this is over, but for now we must go. Take your family and disappear into the crowd. Do not speak to anyone. Try and stay hidden. Go to someone you trust and say you got out of the wreckage. That is all or you may be at further risk.”

The hotelier nodded in tears and in a couple of seconds he had helped his mother and father over the wall and headed off south away from the palace complex. Lone Bear then looked at David’s group.

“We can’t stay here,” Abbey spoke up. “We must move to the other end of the complex at least. They will be searching for us now.” Lone Bear nodded.

Swiftly they moved on, putting distance between themselves and the destroyed hotel. David’s group had not stopped to say any niceties to Lone Bear’s group. One of Lone Bear’s group had taken the lead. He did not look like any security person David had seen. He was slight and almost a little nervous. The rest of the team looked like mountains on the move. This man also seemed to know his way around the complex, stopping a couple of times to check himself and then move on. The palace complex was huge and in its time was reputed to be five stories high. It must have been a sight, David thought. Behind them the dust was settling and villagers were beginning to sift frantically through the rubble for survivors.

“Green Two, move in now. Clean and report.” John spoke coldly into his microphone. Behind him Chant sat on the hill against a tree. He was used to disposing of people, but not being part of it. It was always arm’s length. He never got his hands dirty. To be deafened himself by the explosion and to hear the screams – he couldn’t wait for this to be over and he prayed for their deaths to be swift.

Abbey and the group including Lone Bear’s team had made several hundred metres into the complex. They were winding through tunnels with scouts going over walls and into rooms checking them. Phillip had an assault rifle with him, Abbey a few grenades and a host of pistols, Rocko had two pistols and David and Stacey each had a pistol. Both hoped they would not have to use them. They had crossed the grand courtyard by skirting its perimeter. When they came to a wall at the far end of the complex they were up against a fence and part of the wall. It was climbable yet they would need to cut the barbed wire at the top. This was the place known as the east wing and Minoan workshops. It was an old forge and courtyard system also called the magazine. The team stopped to catch its breath.

“Ok, Lone Bear. We are in Crete, and we are being attacked. You knew the hotel. It’s time to come clean. We are either in this together or not.” David stared at the wise Indian Chief. He was sure Lone Bear knew things about everything that was happening to them.

“You are right. Death is following me… consuming me. It’s a long story, but we don’t have much time so I will make it brief.”

Chief Lone Wolf drew a breath and started to speak.

“Way back in history the Templar Knights befriended our forefathers. They had with them a man, a direct descendant of the Christian Jesus Christ. They told us the Church fought over keeping it secret, that he had a child and that the child endured and it was their job to protect the bloodline from those who had power and control. We trusted our friends the Hopis and one day when they shared their prophecy rock with us, we knew their message was about the return of Christ and the fall of the Church.” David and the team listened intently. It seemed Lone Bear’s team were on watch for anything unusual.

Just then one of Lone Bear’s team came to the group. He had been the one who had led them to this place and then left them scouting other parts of the complex. It was now almost light enough for David to make out his features. When the man saw David looking at him a wry smile appeared on his face. David did a double take.

“Professor Miltosis! What the hell are you doing here?”

“You owe me, Mr Clark. I have never had such a hangover as I did after talking with you on Kos a few weeks back. You sure know how to drink. Greek coffee eh!” Miltosis had a loose smile on his face. He clearly recalled his afternoon with David on Kos at the Asclepius. That day seemed a lifetime ago.

“Miltosis is a good friend of mine,” said Lone Bear. “We grew up as friends. He was the one who told me about you and your inquisitiveness about our Minoan past.”

Miltosis and David shook hands and Lone Bear continued.

“In the 1920s my grandfather and Chief Ghost Wolf ’s father made a pact. An agreement. The current incumbent was in threat of being discovered by the Church and those in absolute power in America. They would destroy him. It was not yet time. They were wise men. My grandfather said we must send him to our roots, to Crete, where he would not be known, where we could integrate him safe from the prying eyes of those families who had come to use America to control most of the world.”

Lone Bear scoured the horizon to make sure they were alone and continued.

“Like many of our Greek brothers, he was captured by the Germans in the Second World War, but between the tribes and our friends we kept him safe. Ghost Wolf was determined to find the son of that man, when I was young, and bring him home to America. My father did not agree, the war had parted us and the incumbent and my father felt it was best left that way. Ghost Wolf argued with my father and a fight occurred. My father was killed. It was an accident. That was twenty years ago and I broke all ties. I let my people down for my own selfish troubles. I let the world down. You see the Hopis always had one man who knew the name of the current incumbent, but in this incidence it was lost so they would need to retrace it. My tribe knew the location. We left it in our sacred papers so it passed to the next chief on our deaths. You could recognise us by the tattoo, an ancient symbol that came from the Templar Knights.
Ghost Wolf was a great man, I misjudged him for all those years. My father was as stubborn as I am. He fell in his own wrath trying to attack Ghost Wolf and cracked his skull. He died because of fate.”

David and Abbey looked at the big man. David felt him tremble and reached out a hand to steady him.

“Report back, Green Two,” John barked into his comms.

“Green Two here, commander. No bodies found… repeat…no bodies found.”

“Shit!” exclaimed John a bead of sweat just starting to form on his brow in the morning air. “Can you be sure?”

The voice crackled back. “Our men are in there with over twenty villagers. No one is in the rubble. Clear.”

John looked at Chant whose demeanour was bubbling. “Find them and finish it,” he barked, “any way you can.”

John opened the mike channel again. “Green One, Two and Three, secondary positions. They didn’t come this way so they must have got out the back some how. They are in the complex. Repeat, they are in the complex. Use all force. No survivors.”

John addressed his boss. “Mr Chant, we must move closer. I can’t leave you here. You are too exposed. You will need to come with me.” Chant nodded.

John stole a scooter from the festival and put Chant on the back. He rode to the south of the site, cut the fence and they both crawled through. The dawn sun was nearly ready to peep its smile over the horizon. In the wreckage of the hotel Greeks yelled and cursed. Many were putting aside personal safety and throwing timber aside. Seven men withdrew stealthily from the wreckage and made their way to the fence where they cut through. Not fifty yards away a further group also cut through. The men wore long jackets and the crowd was not looking in their direction. They openly displayed all sorts of weapons of death as they disappeared into the site.

Lone Bear drew another deep breath. “When I met with Ghost Wolf he told me it was time to reveal the true bloodline of Christ, and having
it done by us, the collective tribes of America would not be ignored. Even if mainstream media shut it down or said it was a hoax, soon word would spread, DNA tests could be done. Even we didn’t know how powerful these people truly are nowadays. I fear it has all been for nothing.”

“We will make it work, Chief Lone Bear,” said David. “But we must find the incumbent and bring him or her to safety. Do you know who it is?”

“I lost my way years ago, David. All I knew was that the incumbent is on Crete, in a small village next to this great temple. But Ghost Wolf, he never faltered. He knew the surname of the father. It is Minos – in history the father of the Minotaur.”

“Wow, that’s poetic if I must say. They could be in that festival, for God’s sake. How the hell do we get out of here?” David started looking around at the fence that surrounded them.

Professor Miltosis said: “We can go back through the North Entrance. This fence was not here last time.”

Abbey spoke up. “No. We must cut our way out, David, but no one has produced any cutters so I will just blow a hole clean through that part over there. It seems weak enough.” Abbey indicated left toward a small hill with part of an olive grove forest on the other side of the fence. As she turned back to the group she spied something.

“Get down now.”

Rocko ducked just in time. A rocket flew clear through where his head had been and into the hill behind him, which exploded with an impact that shook the group and covered Rocko with rock and dirt.

“Bastards,” he groaned.

Two of Lone Bear’s men dived over the mound they were hiding behind and a barrage of small arms fire wracked the earth on the other side. Abbey tried to get a look out, but she was currently pinned down. Bullets flew over her head. She did see, however, another two of Lone Bear’s men dive right and start to return fire with small barrel automatic weapons.