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

They were forced to take his word for it. The ground was a carpet of small rocks and bigger boulders. Obstructing their view in all directions were dark-colored, jagged natural pillars of stone, weathered by the Sahara; random, incredible monuments to time, nature and the impressive world around them. The sky was bright blue, marred only by two white brush strokes that might have been clouds.

Cassidy led the way, followed by Jemma, Yasmine, Lucie and then Bodie. They all wore dark colored jeans and jackets, and had donned baseball caps to ward off the direct power of the sun. This time, Bodie had remembered his sunglasses, and sported a mirrored wraparound pair that put him in mind of a ski instructor. To be honest, they stuck out in this landscape like a vicar in Bangkok, Bodie knew, but they’d had very little time to prepare.

At least the shattered landscape was full of hills and outcroppings, affording perfect cover.

Already sweating, the group picked their way through stones in an easterly direction. Jemma and Yasmine kept an eye on the hills, looking for movement, but saw nothing. They crossed an area of brown shrubland, threading between skeletal bushes, before coming up against a range of low, stony hills. Cassidy started up the easiest first, picking her way to the top in just a few minutes.

Bodie, watching, saw her stiffen and drop to the ground. Jemma crept to her side. Bodie arrived about a minute later.

“Ah, crap,” he said. “They beat us to it.”

The shallow valley below, surrounded by rough, rock-strewn hills, was a vast, oblong-shaped dust bowl. The first things to attract Bodie’s attention were the incredible ancient megaliths scattered between the hills: haphazard and bulbous outcroppings of stone leading to nowhere, with steps carved into them; odd half-moon shapes carved into the rock itself, framing center circles and creating mysterious patterns; rock slabs laid one atop the other, long-forgotten monuments to some nameless, unspecified purpose. If it had just been the megaliths down there, Bodie would have drawn a long, awestruck breath.

Instead, he swore. “Illuminati arseholes.”

Where the ground sloped to the east, a series of carvings bordered a cave entrance. Thirty feet to the right of this entrance stood a black helicopter; and in front of it, two guards and a Hood, standing separately. The guards carried automatic weapons. The Hood was talking into a cellphone.

“Can’t be that many of them,” Yasmine said. “That’s a six-man chopper at best.”

“Which leaves three underground, extracting the ore,” Lucie said. “And I’ll check that’s the right place by the way, using our ley-line chart, but I doubt they’ll have erred. We could wait until they’ve left.”

Bodie was already considering that. “I guess that’s the beauty of taking the lifeblood of all these places,” he said. “But what if we could stop them in the act?”

Cassidy shuffled around so that she was facing him. “What do you have in mind?”

“We can affect their entire quest here. Or at any of the sites. By making them inaccessible.”

“Short of an earthquake, that’s unlikely,” Cassidy said. “And I totally forgot my earthquake machine.”

“As usual,” Bodie said. “We make it up on the fly. You see those hills behind the chopper?”

Jemma nodded. “Good cover,” she said. “Brings us out right on top of the caves. We’d just need a distraction.”

“Not a problem,” Bodie said. “We’ll think of one, I’m sure.”

Knowing the longest part of the plan would be circling around the hills to the far side, the team started off, scrabbling to the ground before breaking into a steady jog.

Bodie soon found his face covered in sweat, his brow dripping, and glad for the first time that he’d kept in shape in Mexico.

The ground was uneven and cratered with potholes of every size. They stayed close to the hills, their boots slipping in shale. At first, a steady breeze blew east off the Sahara, but then even that warm but welcome breath died away and they were exposed to the punishing glare of the sun.

Bodie counted the minutes, guessing how long it would take to make the circuit. They paused briefly at the halfway point and then made the rest of the run, dropping to the ground at the end and opening bottles of water.

Three minutes later, Bodie was at the top of the hill opposite their last position, gazing once more down into the valley.

“No change,” he said.

Cassidy wiped sweat from her eyes. “Ideas?”

“Well, there’s no point being subtle. After today, they’re gonna know were looking for the shrines too. This is our one chance to surprise them, so I say we go big.”

Cassidy licked her lips. “Works for me.”

Jemma and Yasmine were listening too. “Who’s going inside that cave?” the former asked.

“You,” Bodie said. “And me. We’re the quintessential thieves. Together, we can make it work, so long as we’re quick.”

“Which leaves Yas and I needing to come up with the distraction,” Cassidy said. “Don’t worry, I have an idea.”

Bodie looked back at Jemma. “You ready for this?”

*

Seconds later, conscious of the passage of time, Yasmine, dressed in a semblance of the attire a local inhabitant might wear, strode out of the hills at a point that would direct the gazes of the guards and the random Hood away from the cave entrance.

As soon as Yasmine took their attention, Bodie and Jemma slipped down the side of the hill toward the cave entrance. It was a short journey, and took them less than ten seconds. Bodie slid past the upper arch of the entrance, down to its lower ledge, and gripped the edges, staring inside.

Blackness swallowed his line of sight.

Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It told him that those searching for the ore weren’t on their way back to the surface yet and that nobody was waiting.

“Get in,” Jemma breathed.