Chapter 61
"Borthman, read it, now!" Javier butted in and began pointing the gun towards them.
"I don't know how, it's quite odd. Well, one wrong move, and well, it’s our end."
Javier watched silently off to the side, keeping his gun on the hostages.
"We have to assume that this one here is another clue or a warning."
"Dave," Tyler said, pointing to the lion's head on his left. “We have to choose carefully. However, look at this." He added and pointed to the right one, "This one here looks...almost similar. Look at the map. It's almost the same."
Dave nodded. "Oh, yes, almost, and the word on that one matches the left. But that is only half a guess. But a careless guess is risky."
"So which one?" Javier asked.
"I’m not sure." Tyler stepped across the small space to the other lion and turned his head when Mary began coughing. "Almost there, wife..." Then he turned his attention back to the lion. "Both of the lions look the same."
Then he leaned down to look at something that appeared to be clutched in the lion’s ears. "Looks like some kind of hole. This one has a sort of earring-shaped hole, so small it's almost unrecognisable."
"That’s it!" Dave exclaimed.
"What’s it?"
"See, the two are identical, but this one here on the left is quite smaller than the one on the right; it is different. Give and take, I choose this one."
Dave knelt at the foot of the lion's ears and examined them carefully. He reached around the lion's head with both hands and pulled the ear. The sculpture bowed forward due to the force of Dave's hands. As the massive stone wall began to rise slowly, a loud grinding sound reverberated through the ancient hallway, and the dusty floor underneath them trembled violently. The sight of the hefty door being lifted attracted the attention of all five visitors. Even Javier seemed taken aback by the strength that must have been required to move such a massive weight.
As the big stone's journey ended at the top of the doorway, a shitload of dust floated in the air. Javier motioned for them to move to the other side. “Move now!”
Beyond the debris cloud in front of them, more blackness awaited. Tyler crossed the threshold with caution, hoping there weren't any strange booby traps like he'd seen in so many movies. He'd only come across a handful of things like it in his expertise. However, most of the precautions put in place thousands of years ago to keep invaders out have long since decayed or lost their usefulness. Even so, it's better to be cautious than sorry.
"Move," Javier insisted, nodding.
"We must exercise extreme caution here. You don't want to end up with a shot in your eye or whatever," Tyler joked.
The comment didn't bother Javier; however, one of his men was peering about, his eyes filling with paranoia.
When Mary spoke out, they were all securely on the other side of the wall. "Can you guys smell it?"
“What?” Javier frowned. Gun pointed at her.
"Yeah," Dave said. "It has the odour of some kind of gas."
One of the men raced from left to right, up and down, panic on his face. It was clear that the man did not feel at ease in such a remote location. It didn't help that they didn't know what was waiting for them down there.
"Does anyone have a match?" Tyler made the request.
"Are you going to light a match down here? You simply stated that you smelled gas. Are we just going to blow ourselves up?"
Tyler gave her a friendly smile. "There will be no death here!" His light illuminated a torch hanging on the wall in a holder made of the same rock as the wall. "Who would put a light there if something was about to blow up?"
Mary nodded in agreement and assumed he had a point.
Javier swung a tiny book of matches at him, striking him in the chest. Tyler caught it in the air before it hit the ground.
The wrapped clothes on the bit of timber were blazing fiercely a few moments later. Tyler pocketed the matches and handed the flashlight to Dave, assuming Javier wouldn't mind. He deliberately took a few more steps ahead before coming to a halt. The hallway they'd been in for the previous 10 minutes opened up into a massive, square chamber. The single piece of furniture in the space was a pedestal in the centre, rising up from an indented lower floor.
The most striking aspect of the chamber, though, was not what stood in the midst of it. It was because the chamber was barren.
"Looking for the Buddha, dear?" A familiar female voice appeared from behind them, and then they all fell to their knees.
Dart... Tyler thought before his eyes closed into the darkness.
An hour later, the skin on Tyler’s wrists stung from the plastic zip ties digging in, rubbing the flesh raw in seconds.
Elizabeth Grant and her men shoved him down the last two steps, and he stumbled forward into a cool, dry chamber. He tripped in the darkness, lost his footing, and crashed hard onto the floor, his shoulder hitting with a painful thud. He was lucky that he didn’t hit his head or face. Still, he grimaced from the impact. Dirt—definitely dirt and dust, or worse, ancient bones.
Tyler’s first instinct was to make a snappy comment that would have, in all likelihood, pissed off the bitch and his men and resulted in some kind of threat or punishment, but due to the overwhelming confusion of the situation and the pain in his shoulder, he kept his mouth shut, thinking better of it until he could get a handle on things.
"Mary?" He grumbled under his breath.
"Looking for your wife, sir?"
"Eddie?" he wriggled around. "How?" he gaped and tried to sit up, but another man in black stepped over to him and dangled a pistol over his head, letting the barrel waver back and forth, not that Tyler could see it.
Suddenly, the hood over his head was ripped away. He blinked furiously for several seconds, trying to acclimatise to the bright lights in this new place. His eyes darted around, taking in the setting. "Why, why did you betray me, Eddie?" he asked. The betrayal stank like acid rain on his stomach.
"It is a matter of choice, Mr. Johnson. And I don't have to explain it to you," his trusted butler said with a smirk and kissed Elizabeth’s lips, which made Tyler grimace. "Seriously, Eddie?"
He did not see it coming. Elizabeth and Eddie? all along? Disgusting.
Several lights were dangling from various places in a cracked ceiling. The air was dusty with a smell of the past, such as he’d detected in abandoned or condemned buildings, dilapidated structures, and sheds that hadn’t been used in a long time. As the blurriness in his vision began to subside, Tyler took in his surroundings, becoming quickly aware of where they were and who was there.
They were still in the chamber, but there was no sign of Mary and Dave, nor Javier, nor the Russian.
"Where are they?" Tyler demanded.
"Javier and his men are dead."
"I'm not asking about them, bitch!" Tyler shouted, which earned him a slap on his left cheek.
"Stupid of you to say that, Tyler! Stupid!" Another slap. Elizabeth grinned and motioned to his two companions.
Dave and Mary were on their knees, lined up next to the wall to Tyler’s left. Two of Elizabeth's men were standing guard over them with weapons, ready to cut them down at a moment’s notice if the prisoners tried anything foolish. Tyler wondered about the wisdom of firing the weapons in this place. The guns were equipped with silencers, but even with those attached, they could get loud in a room surrounded by ancient stone block walls. Not only that, a stray shot could ricochet dangerously around the room and hit an unintended target. Unlikely, but still a thought.
Tyler knew that Elizabeth’s men were highly trained, just as Eddie was. He recognised their killer's face just like his butler did when he first met him.
Then a figure in the corner caught Tyler’s eye. It was a man dressed in black, like the others, but in this case, in a business suit. Tyler knew him from somewhere; he had seen the man before. Mary, with her weak demeanour, gasped. "Hugh?" she gaped. "How? Why?"
“You knew him?” Tyler asked, looking at his wife, wincing from the pain in her shoulder.
“He is my yoga instructor.”
Hugh smiled. "Hello, Mary, fancy meeting you here?" He smirked, and Tyler knew he was clearly the one in charge of this operation, if not the director itself. He doubted the latter could be true. Someone of that demeanour wouldn’t be out here in the field dealing with a few hunters looking for an ancient artefact. Or would they?
Mary shook her head. "How?"
"Come on, Mary, it's so easy to guess; can't you see the resemblance?" He motioned to Elizabeth. "Or are you that stupid?"
Again, Mary gasped.
"Oh, there you get it. Well, she is my sister." He smirked. "Can you see it now? You are just a pawn, sweetheart." Hugh smiled and said, "By the way, I’m surely not gay."
"But!"
"Enough, brother! You are wasting precious time here!" Elizabeth's shouts echoed through the chamber.