Edinburgh, Scotland
Detective Timon Rodrigues woke from some of the deepest sleep he’d ever had. It was like he had been drugged, or maybe he was, and he was just thankful that he was used to such hangovers since his college days, though today, he awoke with a huge headache he had never had before. Added to his misery was the sunshine pouring through the bedroom window of his apartment as his eyes struggled against the bright light as he uttered a series of profanities.
On the nightstand, his mobile phone was ringing and vibrating in the dreadful circular dance that phones do when they’re on hard surfaces. He reached over and grabbed it, "Fuck! Bloody headache," glancing at
Upon arriving at the train station, it would take them another fifteen minutes to arrive at their destination. With a rental of two SUVs, Shawn, Ben, and Catherine on the first one, and Eddie and his men on the second one.Shawn appreciated the enthusiasm she had for him. He decided not to continue the conversation. Detective Rodrigues had more than likely thought of how to rescue Dave before anyone else.Looking up in the front seat, Shawn saw that Ben was noticeably uncomfortable. He leaned forward and put his hand on the driver’s shoulder. "Uncle Ben, are you OK? What’s the matter with you?"Ben was busy checking both m
Naturally, Dave didn’t sleep well in cars. In truth, travelling on airplanes, automobiles, and even the few train made it impossible for him to get any sort of natural rest, unlike his sister, Catherine who loves to travel. Nonetheless, for the last hour, he’d slept like a fucking log in the back seat of the dark Range Rover. Covered with dark bruises and a broken nose and shoulder, unfortunately, the nap was over. Yesterday, when he thought he could outsmart Alfonso and Javier and he told them that it was in Thailand, whatever it was that they were looking for, but the old man debated himself if Dave was telling the truth, but after receiving an email from Catherine that said 'Thailand,' the lie that he had brewed had been altered drastically, and he told Alfonso that it was in fact in Leba, Poland, which made the old man so mad that he ordered his goons to torture h
Dave had pretended to spend dreadful minutes scouring over the details of the runes in the chambers, analyzing them and taking photographs, doing something Javier had expected him to do, even something so mundane as watching a set of runic symbols that didn't even make sense. He feigned to spend time analyzing it and trying to compare the picture of the tablet from Catherine’s email, which he privately printed, to other ancient runes and symbols scattered all over the chamber. However, nothing could be found that was even remotely similar to keys or some kind of clue or a map. It was like looking at a lost kid at a Peppa Pig concert show. Of course, Dave had intended to return to London to study the runes further, maybe do some research and paint the chamber of spookiness. He’d even hoped that there was a link between the images and his
The Toyota Hilux looked like it had been on a mission on a safari in the Dubai desert. Coin-sized bullet holes littered the back window, with a few more dotting the windshield. Shawn looked at Catherine with a quizzical face from the back seat. "So when were you planning on telling us about this little gem of information that you can use a gun and shoot like a fucking assassin, wifey?" She returned the glare with a smile and an exaggerated roll of her eyes. "Didn't I mention that I was trained by Javier’s men before my lucky escape? I already told you, the ugly bastard trained me well enough for his bidding. Actually, he ordered me to assassinate you, and I didn't follow his orders. Now I'm their target and that sort of information was on a need-to-know basis." "Oh, hell yeah... I guess it's
Ten minutes later, Ben guided the pickup back up the street toward where the Range Rover was parked. As they slowly rounded the curve, they saw Javier escorting Dave out from the tunnel where the chamber had been located, while the two gigantic Russians who had been over by the caged boulders before were nearly back to their vehicle with their gun and laptop bag.Ben just hoped that his massive brown cowboy hat and the stupid sunglasses would hide his face from Javier, not that the man could recognize him. After all, it had been a decade since they had seen each other.Walking casually toward the group, Javier’s men were completely unaware of any possible threat.From a distance, Catherine held down her sentiments as she saw Dave accompanied by Javi
"Looks like a camera and a laptop bag," he mumbled, lunging down and picking up the small raven case, which corroborated his feelings. "Hmm. It had likely been dropped during all the violence." Hurling the camera case over, Shawn assessed it more closely, then opened the zipper and removed the digital device. "Fuck… it! Dave must have taken pictures of the chambers." "Why would he do that?" Catherine asked from his side. Meanwhile, Ben had finished up with the tire and was loading up the meager equipment in the huge metal crate in the front of the vehicle bed. "Did you guys find something?" He cried out across the lot. "Yeah," Shawn retorted his question first.
Shawn felt terrible for Ben's condition; he was getting weaker and had been in a shootout that nearly killed him, but the man was overjoyed to be back in his so-called adventurous life. Their rental vehicle, on the other hand, had been severely damaged beyond recognition. The car had been essentially destroyed in the two firefights it had been involved in thus far. Shawn couldn't figure out how the engine had kept running. "Aw, Shawn, I really appreciate it. But don't worry, you can easily afford hundreds of them, and the owner won't mind. I knew him back in the day; he was a darling." Ben had responded to Shawn's apology with a wide grin and a hand pass. The gang exited the truck and climbed the short set of stairs inside the old-looking brick building. The computer business center appeared to be in line with the
"Oh yes, it's a fucking ring," Shawn grumbled with a smile. "So what the hell does it mean?" Ben responded, "Well, this is, I believe, the key. And yeah, but that’s only half of the puzzle. None of it makes sense unless we know where all of these Asians lived and where they were in Thailand. We identified it as Thailand. We have the ring. We have the tablet. And now... where to go?" The mood that had, for a moment, been upbeat turned sour again. Again, silence took over the group as they stared at the screen, understanding part of what they were looking at, but not enough to know where to go next. Catherine broke the hush after a few minutes of thought. Her arm extended out as she pointed at something on the screen. "What does that symbol mean?"