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

She shook her head. “Do you have to kill everyone you see?”

“It’s how I was trained,” Pang answered with a catch to his voice. Almost as if he were thinking the same thing.

Heidi saw a shadow at the outside door at the bottom of the stairs. She ran to it, shot out the glass, and pulled Butcher inside.

“This way.” He cut left, running ahead, but Pang overtook him. If Butcher confronted an armed guard first, things would not end well for him.

The first thing Butcher saw was the dead guard at the foot of the stairs. Heidi distracted him by asking him where the server room was.

“Three down on the right.”

They made it in less than a minute. Heidi let Pang guide him inside while she watched the door. The level of security guarding this organization, this incredibly powerful, faceless and merciless entity was immense. Everything they’d done so far hadn’t even yielded them a title, an address, not one single name.

Illuminati.

She thrust the name aside, wiping it from her mind. She couldn’t presume. This had to be done the right way. In any case, finding an address, a permanent HQ, was most imperative. She could fight her inner demons later.

Before she could purge the vile thoughts from her mind, Pang and then Butcher were easing their way back out into the corridor. Butcher patted his pocket to tell her he had all that he needed. Pang looked left and right.

“Any issues?”

“None at all.”

Pang nodded and ran for the exit. At that moment two men stuck their heads through the door. Even at first sight Heidi could see they weren’t trained, weren’t fit and were very scared. One fumbled at his waist on seeing Pang.

Two bullets exploded from the running man’s gun. The two guards fell dead.

Heidi ignored the sickening wave rising in her gut and pulled Butcher past the carnage. Pang was an animal that couldn’t change its stripes, a trained weapon that never missed and always acted on instinct.

Seconds later, they were in the car. Heidi powered it up and drove as Pang laid his gun on the floor and studied his hands. “I wish...” he said quietly. “That, just once, I didn’t kill. But, it’s ingrained. It’s normal.”

“It’s not normal,” Heidi said. “And not natural. Killers trained you to kill, killers who were trained by those that came before, all working to orders, all working for a man with his own best interests at heart. You can change, Pang, if you want to.”

Leaving it at that, she turned to Butcher. “Where to?”

“Give me a—”

Pang’s phone rang. He answered it robotically, as he’d been taught. But, listening to the voice on the other end, Heidi saw a range of transformations happen—from shock to disbelief to total confusion.

When he ended the call, Heidi swallowed hard in expectation. “Well? What is it?”

“Bodie,” Pang whispered. “He’s alive. So are the others.”

Heidi’s heart leapt. “That’s great news. Where are they?”

Pang shook his head. “That’s the questionable part. According to our local satellite station in Morocco, Bodie and his gang just revisited Atlantis.”

Heidi shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“They returned to the Atlantis dig site, below the ocean. Stole a sub and a speedboat and then escaped. Right now, they’re on the run. Again.”

Heidi couldn’t grasp it, couldn’t understand it. “What the hell are they up to?”

“It’s Bodie,” Pang said miserably. “Who the hell knows?”

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

Karachi.

Bodie knew it only as the capital of Pakistan and a key connection in the global economic network. It was the largest city in Pakistan, a sprawling cosmopolitan city, diverse and socially open-minded. The site of human habitation for millennia, it was known to the Ancient Greeks and Alexander the Great.

Bodie arrived with nothing except a backpack of worn clothes, the boots on his feet, and his friends—Cass, Jemma, Lucie and Yasmine. Still weary and bruised from their getaway from Morocco, the first thing they did was find a quiet hotel and pay for five rooms using cash.

Bodie spent some time in the shower, before resting with his eyes closed on the bed. A mid-morning sun shone outside, blazing a trail from east to west across Karachi’s twisting streets. Bodie took some time to clear his mind and attempt a reset; but by the time Cassidy called him, his muscles, bruises and tiredness remained at the same level. Still, his body had at least taken a break.

Fifteen minutes later, they took a gentle stroll through a loud market, buying new clothes and shoes, hats and underwear for the difficult days and weeks still to come. Karachi was only the fourth out of ten shrines, and then there was the crucible and, potentially, Hades to find. This was only the beginning.

By the time they’d finished and eaten, the sun was setting. Today had been all about taking a break, allowing their bodies a chance to heal. The early evening was spent in the bar, sipping alcohol and sitting back, ordering snacks on a whim. Though they couldn’t fully switch off—Cassidy and Yasmine were always on alert for adversaries—they managed several hours without stress.

Bodie slept well that night. But the next morning he was down to breakfast early, waiting for the others to join him. By 8:00 a.m., as the city warmed up, they were seated at a corner table, waiting for Lucie to bring them up to speed.

“Karachi,” she said, buttering her toast with a white plastic knife, “is very much a vile shrine. One of the most obvious. It may even still have a physical ancient causeway. Excavations are ceaseless around here.”

Yasmine sat back. “And why is Karachi a vile shrine?”

“Mohenjo-Daro,” Lucie said. “It’s a great archaeological site and one of the ancient origins of