The Illuminati Sanctum (The Relic Hunters 6) David Leadbeater (new reading .txt) 📖

for at least twenty feet down a steady slope. Bodie kept glancing back, assuming the first sign of the approaching Hoods would be the beams of flashlights, but so far there were no signs of pursuit. Jemma led them, inch by inch, away from the moat and the castle.

Bodie lost track of time. The journey felt interminable but was probably less than ten minutes. The chasing Hoods must have missed the culvert entrance in the dark—and in their haste—and he was hopeful of a quick and easy escape.

Until voices echoed down the tunnel.

“Shift it, Jem,” Cassidy said.

Just then, Jemma stopped. Bodie was able to see a round grating set into the stone ahead, similar to the one they’d already negotiated, with vertical metal bars. Cassidy grabbed hold of one side with both hands, Yasmine the other.

Together they wrenched at the grating.

Nothing happened. Both women lodged their boots against the bottom edge of the grate and pulled harder. Bodie heard a grinding sound, the protestation of old hinges. So far, they’d betrayed no sound, giving their pursuers no obvious sign that they were down here.

The grating screeched and scraped as it came free, the noise echoing all along the tunnel. Bodie heard raised voices.

“They’re coming,” he said. “Hurry.”

Cassidy wrenched with all her strength, Yasmine shaking the grating in its frame. With a horrendous metal shriek, it came free and was thrown to the ground, where it rattled at Bodie’s feet.

Jemma stepped forward. “Could be worse,” she said. “We’re about fifteen feet up the cliff face, above the dock, facing the sea.”

“Can we climb down?” Lucie asked.

“Do we have a choice?” Cassidy returned, pulling the historian out. “Bodie, slow them down.”

He nodded grimly, having no clear idea of how to accomplish that. The women stepped out onto the outer ledge and began to make their way down the cliff.

Bodie listened to advancing bootsteps and pressed his body into the rock wall, making sure he gave the oncoming Hoods no easy silhouette to charge at.

Looking back down into the passage he saw only blackness.

A low scream came from outside, prompting him to check on his friends’ welfare, but then shadows appeared in the deeper darkness, shadows that rapidly advanced. Bodie couldn’t tell if they were armed, but they were coming fast.

What are you gonna do? You can’t just stand here and stick your leg out.

It was an option, even if a bad one. Instead, Bodie jumped out into the center of the tunnel, reached down, grabbed the broken metal grating and flung it at them. The piece was heavy, but Bodie’s muscles were fueled with adrenalin.

The grate flew at chest height, smashing into the first runners, more devastating because they had no idea it was coming. There was a stunning impact. The first two men went down, arms and legs beating at the air, hitting the walls before breaking underneath the grate as it hit the ground.

The running Hoods behind them fell into their tangle, sprawling headlong or careering into the walls. Bodie was hoping for a gun to slide free from the struggling pack, but no such luck came his way.

He turned and jumped through the hole, to be struck by a harsh sea wind laced with saltwater. The rock face was black and slick, the ledge jagged and treacherous. Below, all four women were descending, about ten feet from the ground. Bodie moved as quickly as he could, gaining fast.

Jemma was lowest, the nimblest of them all, and taking a more difficult and different path so that she ended up closer to the docks. Bodie followed her, already scanning ahead. Four boats were tied up at the dock, their outlines lit by one single, low light that wouldn’t be seen beyond the compact bay. One guard was in evidence, although Bodie had to assume there would be more.

Jemma hit the ground at a run.

Bodie climbed down after her, hesitated for a moment and looked back up to the hole in the cliff. Hopefully, the Hoods would still be disentangling themselves from the grate. With that in mind, he raced after Jemma. “You got a plan?”

“Where’d you come from?” She glanced back.

“Eyes and ears, Jem. Keep them open. We don’t have long.”

“Yeah, I guessed so. They have four boats. One is a speedboat, a fast-looking thing. I vote we appropriate it in return for the time and attention we gave Grand Master Bell End and his cronies.”

Bodie smiled in approval. “Agreed.”

They slowed as they neared the docks. The sea to their left roared and rolled, masking all other sounds. It was a dark heaving mass lit only along the fast-traveling tops of its waves by a cloud-speckled moon. Bodie sank behind a mass of jagged rocks a few feet short of the long wooden dock that jutted out from the cliffs into the sea.

Cassidy caught up, dragging Yasmine and Lucie behind her. Bodie nodded at them. “Good of you to join us.”

“Took your time up there,” Cassidy grumbled.

Bodie didn’t answer, just picked up a good sized rock for a weapon. The others did the same. Then, before their pursuers could give warning to the dock guards, they moved out.

Bodie was as sure as he could be that neither the guards nor the Hoods carried any form of two-way radio, having seen no sign of any so far. The wooden planking of the dock stretched for roughly a hundred yards. Bodie saw one guard about halfway up, and then two more seated close by, sheltering behind a natural rock formation, hunched over a small fire and rubbing their hands. They wore heavy jackets and woolen hats, which would dull their perceptions even more than the overwhelming roar of the restless sea.

Bodie signaled the situation, then slipped around the dock with Cassidy and Yasmine. Staying low, they approached the rocks,