The Illuminati Sanctum (The Relic Hunters 6) by David Leadbeater (best mobile ebook reader .txt) 📕

*

Twenty five hours in, the Suburban felt like a torture chamber. Stopping didn’t help. Walking around a dusty parking lot didn’t help. Cassidy theorized that running naked in the nearby hills might help, but they couldn’t take the risk.

“Another time.” Jemma grinned.

“We never did get that proper night out,” Cassidy said sadly, and their brief, uplifted mood returned to dungeon level once more.

*

Thirty one hours into their never-ending drive and even Bodie had more than enough. He was a patient man but more than a full day’s travel in a Chevy Suburban was more suffering than he could handle.

On the bright side, they were now mere hours from their destination.

*

“I’m dying.” Cassidy was as sprawled out in the back seat as Jemma and Yasmine would allow. “I’m literally dying.” The three slumped women resembled a single terrifying feminine creature in the rearview mirror.

Bodie had left the main road and was jouncing up a dirt track. “Then you’ll be happy to know we’re here.”

He slowed, turned the wheels, then hit the brakes. A plume of dust surrounded the car as it skidded to a halt. He killed the engine and the interior of the car filled with a deep silence. Bodie’s ears still thrummed with the sound of the engine; his body ached after so many hours in the same position.

“Can’t see a bloody thing.” Jemma sniffed.

It was typical. Thirty-odd hours to get here and now they couldn’t crack a window until the dust settled, and they couldn’t see their new home. Bodie turned and placed an elbow across the top of his seat.

“Everyone,” he said. “Welcome to Chateau Zeus. Named in tribute to our first adventure as the relic hunters.”

“No way,” Cassidy groaned. “Please don’t tell me you named it for real.”

“Ah, no. Of course not.”

“Is that it?” Lucie asked pointedly. “I prefer the dust.”

Bodie had to admit that it wasn’t much to look at. “Buying a ranch anonymously and across the Internet isn’t easy,” he said. “Come on. You’ll love it once you get a look inside.”

Lucie didn’t appear convinced, but gamely cracked the door open. Cassidy flashed Bodie a grimace, already in the know. The ranch came with a huge eight-bedroomed home that appeared dilapidated on the outside.

The inside was little more than a broken shell.

“I suggest we start on the bedrooms first,” Cassidy said.

“The kitchen,” Bodie said.

“But where will we sleep?”

“There’s always the Chevy.” Bodie patted its hood as Cassidy slapped at him.

Before them, three stories high, a typical Mexican ranch house appeared to lean to the east. It was structurally sound—Bodie had it checked—but the window frames needed replacing and the roof was askew. No glass remained. No door was unbroken. The porch contained three holes big enough for a tiger to hide in, and the trio of porticos were missing a quarter of their bricks.

The inside was worse. Every wall except the structural ones were either damaged or missing. The electrics, water and gas didn’t work. The drainage stank.

“A missile would make a good starting point,” Jemma admitted.

Bodie stood with them, staring. “All I can say is—it’s gonna be a long summer,” he said. “And there you were all thinking you had nothing to do.”

He skipped back as Cassidy took another swipe at him. The ground was hard-baked, dusty and unforgiving, and he tripped over a rock, landing hard on his tailbone. “Shit, that hurt.”

“The boss.” Cassidy glared down at him. “Right on his ass where he should be.”

Bodie leaned forward on his knees, stretching his back. “If I’d told you it was a fixer-upper you wouldn’t have agreed to a thirty-hour car journey,” he said.

“A fixer-upper?” Yasmine shook her head. “The only way this place has potential is for burying bodies on the land.”

Bodie shaded his eyes and glanced left and right. “It does come with a lot of land. And the driveway is a quarter-mile long. The main road is over a mile away and the nearest motorway is three. You gotta see this as more than the sum of its appearance, guys. It’s our haven.”

Cassidy snorted and Lucie sent him daggers, but Jemma and Yasmine appeared more open-minded. Bodie was looking forward to the challenge posed by the clapped-out mansion, but maybe that was the handyman in him. Maybe Jemma and Yas shared those feelings too. Somehow, he couldn’t see Lucie at the business end of a Black and Decker, and the thought of Cassidy with her head down a drainage ditch didn’t seem realistic.

Perhaps they would surprise him. He’d certainly surprised them.

“Shall we?” He waved at the house. The front door fell off its hinges as Cassidy opened it, earning him another glare. Once inside, with the oppressive heat, scuttling animals, insects and even birds, as well as the heaps of rubble with their dust clouds shining in beams of sunlight that slanted through holes in the walls, Bodie made sure he was out of attack range.

“I can’t... I can’t even imagine where to start,” Lucie said with tears in her eyes.

Bodie placed a hand on her shoulder. “We pick a room,” he said. “We order supplies. We make that room a base from which to expand. We divide it with internal walling so that we can sleep there. Yeah, it’ll be tough for a few months, but I guarantee you, as you start to see the home take shape, you’ll get motivated.”

“I’m motivated for a fucking Desperado,” Cassidy muttered. “And I don’t mean the drink.”

Bodie left them to it for a while. They’d come around. Of course they had no choice, but he believed they’d lighten up after... well, a few months or so. They had supplies coming tomorrow, from lumber and drywall to groceries and beer, which would cheer them all up no end. Bodie stepped