The Eye of Moses - Vatican Knights Series 22 (2020) by Rick Jones (best novels to read for students .txt) 📕

Caspari. But in the hands of those who held good intentions and even better hearts, perhaps a new Enlightenment.

Grabbing the vessel with both hands, he lifted it from the pedestal and brought it to his rucksack. Tucking it inside and securing it to minimalize its movement, he donned the pack, grabbed the staff, and was about to sling it over his shoulder when he saw Salt aiming his gun directly at his face.

The man’s eyes were so pale blue they were almost colorless. And they weren’t the kind of blue that was as warm as Jamaican waters, either. They were the blue of Arctic ice. “Well,” Salt stated while stepping forward with precise aiming, “it looks like you’re on the wrong end of a retreat.”

 

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

Elias Caspari was watching everything unfold inside Deep Mountain from the comfort of his office. Against the far wall was the large TV monitor. The screen had been broken up into several grids to get numerous viewpoints throughout the facility. So far, Salt had mismanaged security efforts to contain the threat, which walked right through the front door. Though people like Salt had his advantages, he simply did not live up to his billing on this particular undertaking. The Consortium had circumvented the obvious by scaling the wall of the south face, the route of extreme danger. Still, it was something Salt should have prepared for, Caspari fumed. Something he should have seen coming.

The monitor had shown different angles from different locations as Deep Mountain techs responded to the danger with no apparent direction to go, the people simply scattering from the sound of gunfire.

This is turning into a cluster, Caspari told himself.

But then the territorial gains on the part of Salt’s unit were beginning to be made, which pleased Caspari as he sat before the TV monitor in his front-row seat. A member of the Consortium was manning the console when he took a bullet to the head, a kill shot that diminished the Consortium’s number by one, and something that brought a smile to Caspari’s face.

Perhaps Salt had his strategy after all, he considered. Maybe to corral them into an inescapable corner, press them tight, and execute them.

But that wasn’t the case when members of the Consortium had spread themselves across the room. One even exited the chamber on the dash towards the Vault that contained the high-valued treasures.

In the subsequent sequence of events, Salt gave chase while Max Ueli stood over a hostile opponent with his weapon poised to kill. With the others scattered, Elias Caspari felt more at ease about the situation. His group had the numbers and the knowledge of the terrain, as well as the advantage of Salt’s wisdom as a fighter.

Everything was going to be all right, Caspari thought.

And then it wasn’t.

 

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

Max Ueli stood over Mr. Spartan with a twisted grin of malicious amusement, while pointing the mouth of the gun’s barrel at Spartan’s face. “Ever see a man with his face blown off?” Ueli stated spitefully. And then: “You want to be the man with his face blown off?” His ugly smile blossomed.

However, when Mr. Spartan proffered his own smile after raising the control in his hand, Ueli’s smile disappeared after recognizing the switch. Just as he was about to pull the trigger of his AK47, Mr. Spartan depressed the button.

Semtex is a highly explosive plastique. So, when the detonators ignited, the explosion was catastrophic. The concussive waves from the blast lifted Ueli off his feet and slammed him hard against a concrete pillar. The sound of his body impacting against the column sounded like a melon hitting the pavement when dropped from the height of a rooftop, the man instantly dead upon contact. But the effects didn’t begin and end with Max Ueli. Those who had been converging on Mr. Spartan’s unit had also been lifted and carried through space, with their bodies pinwheeling in blinding revolutions before hitting distant walls or against laboratory equipment. Most were killed in the explosion whereas others had been crippled or maimed, though they were barely alive. Some managed to crawl a few feet with their battered bodies leaving behind bloodied trails in the wake of their insignificant little journey, only to find Death waiting for them in the end with cloak and scythe.

Five members of the Klansman had been taken out with this one charge, including Ueli. That left seven including Salt, who went on the run after Kimball Hayden.

Mr. Spartan, who was clinging to the floor at the time of depressing the button, was nevertheless lifted, and tossed by the force of the blast. But he was carried only a few feet before he landed and slid across the floor. When he attempted to get to his feet, he discovered that his knee was bloody, the fabric of his uniform ripped. Parting the tear to view the damage, he noticed the lips of his wound, a deep gash. However, the pain had been blunted by his adrenaline flow.

Scanning the area of hostiles, he saw the twisted shapes along the floor and a crater where the console once stood. Smoke and dust continued to drift with visibility less than twenty feet.

Turning on his feet despite the cloud cover, Mr. Spartan knew exactly where he had to go.

 

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

The console that had been destroyed in the blast was also a major part of Deep Mountain’s nerve center. The moment the Sem-charge destroyed the unit, all communications to the cable-car platform across the valley ceased to exist.

Security personnel made numerous attempts to get back online but failed, only to realize that the system had been downed by intrusion. After trying to reconnect with the Deep Mountain Team and Elias Caspari, but receiving no response from neither, certain protocols had to be implemented by the security staff.

A team of six security officers entered the cable-car. From the base-level platform, a console pilot was able to maneuver the officers along the cable to the facility’s platform, which was close to a