The Wolves of Freydis Read online

  He would phone the police, but it would probably be late afternoon before they arrived.

  He could call Carter, but there was not much he would be able to do, and there was no need to upset him about this yet. Loki and Keeva had frustrated any attempt by the trespassers to break into the house – if that’s what they had in mind. He was also very sure that none of them would be thinking of coming back, at least not without guns and not as long as they knew the place was guarded by wolves.

  There was nothing in the backpacks to give Ahote any clue to the identity of the intruders.

  Neither Ahote nor the snoopers knew that when they arrived at the homestead, they had set off the motion sensors activating the night vision cameras. On the computers inside the house were a few very clear images of their faces.

  Chapter 37 -

  The cleanup was complete

  The five men were told by the pilot of the Gulfstream jet to take their seats and fasten their seatbelts for the takeoff. The four former Special Forces operators, Kevin, John, Roy, and Andre, were impressed with the luxurious surroundings inside of the aircraft. They were used to jumping out of military planes with a parachute or fast-roping out of helicopters; those aircraft were practical and sturdy but not built for comfort.

  Dylan, their CO for this mission and 2IC of Executive Advantage, had personally collected them from their homes and apartments and drove them out to the high-security area of the Joint Base Andrews in Prince George's County, Maryland. It was an area reserved for aircraft used in top-secret operations by the CIA and Special Forces.

  None of them expected that the departure to the City of Lights was going to happen so quickly. When Dylan picked them up, they only had time to say goodbye to wives and girlfriends, collect their pre-packed bags and get in the van. Once inside, Dylan required everyone to remove the sim cards and batteries from their cellphones and pack them away in their bags.

  They were not allowed to take any weapons with them; they would be supplied with those by a CIA contact in Cairo before they boarded a helicopter to the City of Lights. These they would keep concealed at all times unless needed.

  Carter and Rick Winslow arrived just as Dylan and his team gathered in the hangar where the Gulfstream was waiting for all of them. Their equipment was checked, and Rick gave them an hour-long demonstration of the communications, surveillance and counter surveillance equipment they would be taking with them.

  It was a ten-hour flight, and after the initial excitement was over, they all settled down, some to sleep, others opted to watch movies.

  Carter reclined his seat and closed his eyes. As calming classical music filled his ears through the headphones, his mind wandered to Mackenzie and Liam. “Where are they? How are they doing? Are they ok? When will this end? When will I see them again? Who are the people that have been following me? So many questions and not even a hint of an answer to any of them. He sighed. A few minutes later, he fell into a dreamless sleep.

  ***

  Carter and his team were in a helicopter, about an hour away from the City of Lights when, back home, Dwayne Miller got a report from Montreal. He felt the anger rising within him; the men failed to get into Devereux’s house. Wolves had attacked the two idiots, and one of them was badly bitten on his ass and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment.

  What a bunch of incompetent hoodlums! They will not get another assignment from CRS.

  If Miller thought that was the tally of the day’s bad news, he was in for another nasty surprise. Carter Devereux and Irene O’Connell did not go for their coffee break this morning. That was not out of the ordinary – they could have been caught up in something else, but he became more and more irritated as he continued reading.

  The surveillance team had finally checked Devereux’s hotel; he’d apparently not left, but neither was he in his room. They saw him entering the place the night before but hadn’t seen him leave. They’d checked with their contacts at Border Control to find out if he had returned to his ranch in Canada but was informed that according to their records Devereux had not left the USA.

  What the hell? Where did he go? He couldn’t have disappeared without a trace; the surveillance team had lost him. Another bunch of nincompoops.

  Miller was getting worried. Today was not a good day; things were not going as he would have expected.

  Late that afternoon he felt the roil of apprehension in his stomach, and a prickle began between his shoulder blades when he got an encoded message from CRS’ Egyptian contacts wanting to know why he hadn’t informed them about Professor Devereux’s change in travel plans. Apparently, Devereux and four companions had arrived earlier in the day, went through customs, and were transported to the City of Lights by helicopter.

  “How the hell did that happen?” Miller screamed.

  “Mr. Miller, what’s wrong?” His secretary stood in the door of his office with big eyes.

  “Shit, shit, shit…” Miller had his face in his hands. “Don’t even ask.”

  “Anything I can do to help sir?”

  He shook his head. “No, Tracey thanks. It’s okay. I’ll sort it out.”

  She left.

  Miller knew that Carter and his friends had somehow found out about the surveillance. Everything all of a sudden made sense. The daily coffee sessions, all the talk about going to Egypt, it was just too easy. He should have known that. Disappearing out of the hotel under the noses of the three observers; it suddenly fell into place as a feeling of nausea threatened to overpower him.

  That meant the surveillance team would have been tracked; the hunters had become the hunted. It would just be a matter of time before the thumbscrews were put onto AMZ Security and they spilled the beans.

  Fuck this is messy.

  “Three things to do now,” he mumbled to himself. “Get ahold of Nate Gordon, stop the surveillance team immediately, and wipe out all tracks leading back to CRS.”

  He called Gordon’s number and made another mental note while the phone was ringing. Tell the Egyptians to lie low; no surveillance of Devereux and his team as they were probably outfitted with the best-of-the-best counter surveillance equipment the CIA have.

  Gordon was in Miller’s office in less than an hour. For the next three hours, they put out fires. The accountant assured them that there was no financial traceability they had to worry about. CRS’ books would stand up to the closest scrutiny; there was nothing illegal or untoward in the company’s records. One weight dropped off their shoulders.

  There remained one more significant problem, and that was the Director of AMZ Security. He was the only one who knew who their client was, making him a single point of failure.

  After a bit of back and forth, considering various options, Gordon shrugged. “He is an old man, almost seventy. He has had many good innings.”

  “Nate, you know this means we can kiss that extra $25 million goodbye?” Miller noted.

  Gordon had his eyebrows raised. “And our alternative is?”

  Miller nodded. He knew what had to be done.

  By 10:00 am the next day Miller let out what felt like the first breath in 24 hours.

  The team of observers had been called off and reassigned. If any of them was picked up for questioning all they could say was that they had instructions to follow Professor Carter Devereux and report to Mr. Schwall, one of AMZ Security’s directors, but unfortunately, Mr. Schwall had tragically and very suddenly died of a massive heart attack early this morning.

  The tracks ended there. They’d acted just in time.

  The cleanup was complete.

  Chapter 38 -

  Shut up until you have proof

  When Carter and his men landed in Cairo, he contacted Daan Hannah the expedition leader of the dig at the City of Lights. Daan was a professor of archeology at the prestigious Alexandria International University and father of Sameha Hannah, the cartographer, and photographer who was part of Carter’s team when they did the initial survey of the City of Li
ghts on behalf of the Egyptian government.

  Professor Hannah was pleasantly surprised to hear from Carter again and more than happy to accommodate him and his men even on such short notice. “The desert is big Carter; there is always place for more here.” He laughed.

  He knew that a visit from Carter meant more funds and more underground surveys. Ever since Carter had discovered that underground burial chamber, during his last visit, Hannah had the burning desire to open it up and get the full picture of what was going on in there.

  By the time the helicopter arrived with Carter and his four assistants, their sleeping quarters were ready. Hannah and his daughter Sameha welcomed them at the helipad and escorted them to their tents.

  Daan and Sameha could only speak broken English; Carter was fluent in Arabic, so the conversation was conducted in Arabic with Carter acting as an interpreter when necessary. Daan and Sameha had heard about Carter’s loss and sympathized with him. After they’d unpacked and had their first cup of strong Arabica coffee, Carter’s men, none of whom could speak Arabic took a walk around the camp to familiarize themselves with their surroundings.

  Carter told Daan and Sameha he intended to stay for two weeks, during which time he wanted to open up the underground burial chamber and complete the underground survey with the sophisticated GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) equipment he had brought with him. That was music to Daan’s ears – he immediately offered the help of his crew.

  A few hours and a few more cups of Arabica later, Carter was able to take his men on a tour of the ancient city where giants lived until 50,000 years ago. Although none of the four men with Carter were history or archeology scholars they were blown away by what they saw. They were literally slack-jawed as they walked around the place with Carter as their tour guide.

  They took pictures nonstop. Andre summarized their thoughts when he said, “Carter this is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life, I’ve got no idea how to describe the feelings I have right now to my family and friends. They’ll probably think I’ve lost my mind.”

  Carter laughed. “Well, you’ve got the pictures to prove that you’re not telling them a fairy tale.” Carter looked at the position of the sun. He smiled. The boys were in for another surprise in about two hours or so when the sun set and the lights came on.

  When darkness fell, right on cue, the four men were like children walking in the streets around their neighborhoods at Christmas time fascinated by the lights. Even Carter, who had seen it many times before, still felt the excitement as he looked around him at the mysterious marvel.

  Roy, Andre, Kevin, and John had completed their security assessment of the environment, deployed Rick’s surveillance detection, and countermeasure gadgets before they went on the guided tour with Carter. They gave him a brief overview of their assessment and told him that there were currently, no active surveillance efforts deployed against them. However, that status could change very quickly, and they should all remain vigilant.

  They would continue with some of Carter’s training while they were there, including a ten-mile run, without backpacks, every morning, and evening. Hand-to-hand combat training and target shooting with the laser guns would take place out of sight of the archeological team in one of the big tents that Daan’s crew had set up for them. Those activities would be kept to early mornings before the desert sun became too hot.

  The first two days after their arrival Carter showed his team how to use the GPR equipment and put them to work to survey the area he had mapped out for them. He and Daan and a few of his crew returned to the burial chamber to determine the best way to enter the place without causing unnecessary damage to the door.

  They opened the hole in the wall that they’d previously made for the robot and deployed the robot again, this time, for the sole purpose of studying the door mechanism.

  Carter had thought a lot about the door since the last visit and had considered the idea that the door operated with some sort of electromagnetic mechanism. His efforts were rewarded with the discovery of an electromagnetic field by the EMF meter attached to the robot arm. He made a scaled drawing of the door, mapped the source of the electromagnetic field on it, and then used one of the GRP devices to scan the door from the outside trying to find the locking mechanism. A few hours later, he had it all figured out.

  The only challenge now was to find out how to activate the locking mechanism, which would have been located on the outside of the chamber. However, there was nothing on the outside, which looked like a switch. Did some type of remote control device open the door? Alternatively, were they missing the switch, not recognizing it?

  Carter walked away from the chamber door to a large rock about ten yards away and sat down on it facing the door. If he were a smoker, this would have been the time when he would have lit a cigarette or pipe. Instead, he took a few long sips from his water bottle while he stared at the door. The answer was somewhere on the outside. What am I missing? Electromagnetic fields, a lock mechanism clearly visible on the GPR images…

  When he swallowed the third sip of water from the bottle, he had an idea. He got up and told Daan that he would be back in a few minutes. He walked over to where his four men were busy working with the more powerful GRP scanners and asked them to bring the two scanners over to the chamber door.

  When they arrived, he told them what he had in mind. They had to try to lift the scanners up and run them across the rock face of the door and to the sides. He knew the scanners were sending out intense electromagnetic pulses and hoped that those would find and trigger the locking mechanism. It was a very long shot but worth a try.

  Roy and Kevin were working on the right side of the door when Carter heard something and swung around to where the noise was coming. It had sounded as if there was some movement but then it stopped.

  “Okay, guys we got it!” He shouted. “Move your machine back and forth slowly in the area where you are now.”

  A few minutes later, they found the spot again, and Carter’s eye caught the slight movement. He took three steps back held his arms out, open palms towards the door and in a loud deep voice said, “Open Sesame.”

  Daan smiled but the four Special Forces men looked at him with a mix of suspicion and disbelief. Suddenly the door lifted about a quarter of an inch; then the whole slab started moving backward then slowly slid to the left, revealing a ten by fifteen feet entry.

  The six men gawked at the opening with incredulity and back at Carter with open mouths.

  “Open fuckin’ Sesame. And it opens a 50,000-year-old electromagnetic door. Nobody is going to believe me,” Roy muttered. “They will be wondering what I’ve been smoking lately.”

  Carter managed to keep his look serious. “You have to know how to say it.”

  “Shit, this is sensational,” One of them whispered.

  Despite Daan’s lack of command of the English language, he knew what was going on and started laughing. They all realized Carter had just pulled another fast one on them and started laughing, although a bit nervously.

  These four guys were hardened combat soldiers and had experienced the scariest of situations imaginable, but they were still human. What set them apart from most other people was their ability to manage and overcome fear, not to ignore it. However, what they had been witnessing now was weird, not frightening, but certainly eerie. Nothing like they’d ever experienced before.

  Carter was still chuckling when he retrieved a flashlight from his backpack and slowly walked through the entrance stopping after about two yards to let the light play on the walls. He had seen this on the video feed from the robot before, but that was not comparable to the thrill he experienced when looking at the real thing.

  He stood there, for what felt like a long time, trying to comprehend what he was looking at, the necropolis of the giants. He was the first human in 50,000 years to set foot in this place.

  For a fleeting moment, he was startled when lights suddenly went on, illuminating the entire p
lace as far as he could see with light as bright as the daylight outside. It was like entering a room with motion detectors in a modern day building where the lights went on when someone entered, only these lights were much brighter than anything he’d ever experienced.

  He took a few steps towards the wall in front of him; his eyes fixed on the engravings, which he had seen on the robot’s video feed months ago. Then he remembered his colleagues on the outside and turned back to the entry.

  “What are you guys going to do? Are you going to stand out there all day wondering what it looks like in here? Bring those GPR devices inside and come and have a look for yourself.”

  They grabbed their backpacks and equipment and followed Daan.

  “The first rule of archeology,” Carter said when they were all inside. “Don’t touch anything.”

  They nodded.

  “What’s the second?” John grinned.

  “Shut up until you have proof,” Carter replied tersely, to the amusement of all.

  They all went quiet and started looking around.

  Carter went back to the engravings and studied them carefully. He was happy to confirm what had been concluded before; those engravings were not pictures, they were words, letters from an unknown alphabet. The first written words found in the City of Lights. What language was this?

  Carter stood back again and turned his head at various angles. Daan stood next to him the same questions must have been going through his mind. Carter started walking along the wall, remembering what it felt like when he saw what he was looking at now, a few months ago on a video feed. That same feeling returned – it was beyond anything he could ever have imagined in his wildest dreams.

  The paved walkway spiraled down deep into the earth; high stone walls faced with white marble rising twenty feet up on both sides. In the walls on each side, the cavities marked the catacombs of the distant past, the tombs of the people who had lived here long ago and walked the roads of this glorious ancient, city.