The Crimson Dagger - Vatican Knights Series 23 (2020) Rick Jones (ebook reader play store txt) 📖

Kimball saw the remote as a rudimentary device. Using the point of the Holy Lance to pluck off the remote’s back, he saw its power source; two batteries connected to the motherboard and three wires. The setup was so fundamental, Kimball was able to neutralize the device by first plucking the red wire from the power source, and then the blue one. Once done, the green light on the device winked off, signaling that the unit and the frequency were both dead.

Kimball handed the device back to the judge. “You’re good.”

The judge smiled. “Bravo. Now, is there anything you can do to remove these vests? They’re rather uncomfortable.”

Using the sharp edges of the spearhead, Kimball sawed through the straps of the judge’s vest, and then through the cardinal’s vest, who repeatedly commended Kimball for his actions, though the Vatican Knight turned a deaf ear on the Cardinal Secretary.

Just as Kimball cut through the final strap, a magnificent beast broke through the wall of smoke with this monster emerging and making itself known, this fantastical dragon. But it was not something of wild imagination. It was a Chinook whose rotors were spinning at full force.

Salvation had come from above.

And its savior, an angel, who stood within the open bay, was Müller.

* * *

The sound of a beating helicopter.

The wonderful noise of spinning rotors.

The sound of rescue.

Job, Jeremiah and Isaiah were maneuvering through the smoke laden corridors to reach topside. The heat, the fire, everything was moving with accelerated speed. Few people wept, whereas others barked anxious cries the moment they heard the supports beginning to strain.

The Kristallpalast was about to fall.

With Isaiah and Jeremiah each carrying a child, and with Job leading the masses, the smoke was becoming a nuisance. They were making people sluggish, and the gaiter masks they wore were starting to prove ineffective. But as they neared the top of the stairwell that led to the helipad, Job kicked open the door.

Air, though mixed with toxic but diluted fumes, spilled into the stairwell. It was enough to keep everyone going, with most being driven by self-preservation.

On the helipad was an awaiting Chinook.

Job egged the people on with waves, telling them to ‘board as quickly as possible.’

No one had to be told twice.

In queue high above, two more Chinooks waited for their turn to land and load. The operation should take no more than ten minutes. But down below where the metal supports were becoming molten soft, these supports began to buckle and bend with the hotel starting to lean, though not at a high degree.

The judge, the CEO, and the cardinal were the first to board the Chinook. Children and their mothers, all who appeared as bedraggled orphans and refugees, were second, with the remaining women then boarding until the chopper had reached its capacity. After Kimball slammed the bay door shut, he slapped the hull and made a wheeling motion with his hand, the chopper then lifting and peeling away. Then the Vatican Knight directed the second chopper to the helipad.

The operation was moving along smoothly.

Then the building began to lean, a slight but noticeable pitch that caused people to scream.

Kimball hurried the people inside the second chopper, one right after the other with urgency.

Another metallic protest from the supports that started to bend on one side of the building, causing its lean to become a major cause for concern.

“Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” Kimball waved on. “The building’s about to collapse!”

Since a Chinook can carry thirty-six people including its crew, the two choppers were able to load and carry the entirety of the remaining guests. The third chopper was for the airlifting of the Vatican Knights.

As soon as the second aircraft lifted and banked, the third chopper started its landing procedure. That was when the tilt of the building became too great of a risk for the vehicle to land as it slanted to a much greater degree, about fifteen percent. The chopper would not be able to stabilize itself on the landing.

Kimball waved it in, though it remained short of landing as the Chinook hovered above the helipad. Isaiah jumped on the chopper’s skid and climbed inside the bay; Jeremiah quickly followed with Job right behind him. And just as Kimball was about to make the leap, the building shifted once again, the angle now steep enough to cause Kimball to fall and slide. The Vatican Knight clawed at the flat surface as the edge of the building rushed at him with the drop-off an eight-hundred-foot dive. Mustafa, whose lifeless body was at the mercy of gravity, slipped over the rim and into space in freefall. Kimball, however, used his boots to break his speed and was able to stop his slide six feet from the building’s edge. As he clung to the helipad’s surface like an insect, the smoke started to darken and thicken around him. He could also feel the heat of nearing flames, which were directly beneath the surface of the helipad and trying to punch through.

Another shift, the building leaning to the point where the gravity of its weight would cause it to tumble.

The Vatican Knight tried to claw his way from the edge but couldn’t, the climb too steep.

And then the Chinook emerged through the concentration of black smoke. It hovered with its skid close to Kimball, though it remained beyond arm’s reach.

The building, with its support beams trembling and straining to hang on, though with seconds before they finally gave, Kimball launched himself and hooked an arm around the chopper’s skid and hung on for dear life, with the hold a tenuous one. Arms and hands reached for Kimball and lifted him safely into the bay as the chopper continued to hover over the building. Once Kimball was settled in and took a deep breath, he said to the pilot, “Hold on.”

Kimball removed the Holy Lance from his waistband and looked at it. Mustafa’s blood still crusted on the blade and on