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

“Urgh.” Heidi sighed. “Let’s get it over with then.”

Pang didn’t answer, just flagged down a cab and the nearest seat. Heidi walked around to the far side and climbed in. The cab had just set off toward East Finchley when Pang’s phone rang. The ex-SEAL grunted several times before leaning forward to tap on the screen that separated him from the cabbie.

“Scratch that,” he said. “Take us to Heathrow.”

Heidi grabbed his shoulder. “You sharing?”

“Bodie and pals turned up in Mexico,” Pang said shortly. “Attracted some heavy attention. It’s bad out there.”

Heidi bit her lip and clenched her fists to keep the emotion from her face. “Are they okay?”

“Dunno,” Pang said and turned away.

Heidi closed her eyes for a moment before touching his arm. “Please...” she said.

“No sign of them. We’ll talk later.”

Which made Heidi hate him some more. His nasty omissions as to Bodie’s and the others’ welfare. His lack of compassion. His blind loyalty to the mission of his superiors. Pang would commit any act to please his bosses.

Heidi had to be there to stop him.

*

Mexico was hot and impersonal; a dry, detached bowl of dust that Heidi disliked. The cops were belligerent and unhelpful. And since she and Pang were in the country as mere observers, they found it difficult to extract useful information.

“Bodie and his team were abducted,” Pang said, hours after they’d landed and then driven to the ranch house in the middle of nowhere. “I decided to circumvent the cops and go to the eyewitnesses. They escaped the ranch in helicopters apparently, and then landed in the road. After a short car chase, they were captured and...” He gazed up at the wide, blue sky. “Choppered away,” he said. “Lost.”

“Any leads?” Heidi asked. “Markings? Accents? Faces? CCTV?”

“Nothing on the bridge,” Pang said. “A few either side. The cops are ‘working on it.’” The last three words were exaggerated for effect.

This time, Heidi shared his frustrations. If Bodie and the others had been kidnapped, their lives were either going to be very short, or very painful, or both.

“It’s concerning,” she said, thinking of her friends.

“Highly,” Pang agreed. “Corpses would have been more helpful.”

“What?”

“You think I enjoy chasing these idiots around the world? My career is damaged, my chances diminished. I didn’t ask to be assigned to this case and wish it would end so I can get on with my real profession.”

“Wetwork? You miss the thrill of an easy kill, Pang?”

“It’s not easy.” Pang regarded her through mirror sunglasses. “It’s the job. Something you probably won’t have at the end of all this. All that sacrifice... for nothing.”

Heidi fought the urge to hit out, knowing he was baiting her. The remarks had hit a little close to home. Heidi hadn’t seen her daughter in months, and the last communication they had was when Heidi had been forced to cancel a reconciliation.

“We have to find out who attacked the team and why,” Heidi said. “And we have to find out as quickly as possible.”

“For once, I agree,” Pang said. “So let’s go make nice with the local police commissioner. The sooner we track them down the better for me.”

“Dead or alive?” Heidi couldn’t resist calling him out.

“Who cares?” Pang turned away and walked toward the assembled police vehicles.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Bodie was impressed.

The moment Lucie walked into the shabby hotel room they’d paid for with an untraceable credit card she’d had in her back pocket, she’d powered up her new laptop and got to work.

Bodie should have known that the only one of them to keep an emergency credit card close, despite sitting in an offbeat ranch in the middle of rural Mexico, would be Lucie Boom. It described the historian to a tee.

For his own part, Bodie tucked into a soggy sandwich and drank a liter of water while lounging in a corner of the room. Lucie sat on the edge of the bed, with the others perched to all sides, mostly eating and drinking.

Bodie paused and took a deep breath for the first time since Mexico. They’d managed to clean the blood off their faces after beaching and then hiding the speedboat, but had then been forced to walk many miles, bypassing two towns they considered compromised if the boat was soon found, before settling on the third, which was bigger. Even here, they couldn’t wait long. The Illuminati had a long arm, deep resources and a fierce will. They would never stop searching.

Bodie caught his reflection in the grungy mirror opposite. It was wonder they’d been allowed in here, but on a second scan of the room, maybe it wasn’t. This wasn’t exactly the Four Seasons.

One by one, they showered. Bodie found a few minutes peace and quiet in the mold-ridden cubicle. When he came out, he offered the final place to Lucie, but was waved away, the woman deep in research.

“Well...” Cassidy said with a long, deep sigh. “I guess Mexico didn’t pan out.”

Bodie laughed, letting loose some of the pent-up stress from the last few days. His whole body ached, his skin was almost uniformly bruised. His teeth throbbed in their sockets. “You know,” he said. “That floor’s looking like a pretty good place to lay my head about now.”

Even Cassidy turned her nose up. “Are you kidding? You’d probably catch the plague.”

They’d rented only one room so as not to draw attention to themselves; Lucie paid for it and the rest followed along afterward.

“We’ll take an hour each on the bed.” Jemma was already lying down.

Some time later, Bodie got his turn. When he woke, the sun was setting across the open window. “You know,” he said. “The sun always seems to be going down these days.”

It was a wintry comment, but