King's Crusade (Seventeen) (33 page)

A crash ahead brought her head back around. She saw Dragov disappear through a broken window.

Alexa ran to the sill and saw him rise from the ground fifteen feet below. Dragov looked up at her, a smug grin dawning on his lips. Tires squealed in the distance; a van was headed swiftly across the tarmac toward him. He leapt through the open side door as it slowed down. The vehicle performed a screeching U-turn and vanished into the night.

Something twisted painfully inside her chest. She turned and strode across the floor.

Less than ten minutes had passed since the fighter jet lifted off the airfield.

Alexa reached the monitors in time to see the explosion bloom brightly across the center screen. Acid burned the back of her throat. A shout of horror left Carrington’s lips.

She raised a leaden hand to the microphone in her ear. ‘Eva?’ she said numbly. ‘Eva!’

There was nothing but static in return.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

T
hey watched the assault on
Reznak’s research facility on the ride back to the airport. Carrington drove with one hand on the steering wheel of the SUV, the other alternating between the horn and the gearstick. The four-by-four lurched precariously around the vehicles on the motorway, its speed never dropping below a hundred and ten kilometers per hour. The Crovir immortal’s eyes kept straying back to the computer on Alexa’s lap.

In the backseat, Yonten finished strapping his broken ribs and leaned across her shoulder. She could see his frown out of the corner of her eye. Her gaze remained fixed on the carnage on the screen.

Designed to penetrate hardened targets, specifically bunkers buried deep beneath the ground, the HOPE bomb had blasted through the reinforced concrete and the compact earth protecting the lab like a flamethrower through marshmallow. In the disastrous aftermath of the explosion, which had uprooted trees in a half-mile radius around its epicenter, Kronos had swarmed in for the attack. Multiple points of gunfire still flared through the gray clouds of smoke and the blizzard that shrouded the site. The rain and sleet had put out most of the forest fires before they raged out of control.

Alexa’s nails dug into her palms so hard she drew blood.

The Crovir team leader finished updating the central Crovir network from the backseat of the SUV. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said quietly. ‘I hope you find the bastards who did this. Reznak is held in high regard in the Order.’

The Gulfstream jet’s engines were already running when they drove onto the tarmac at Budapest Airport moments later. Fawkes stood in the doorway of the cabin, his expression flinty.

‘Have you been able to reach Marie?’ asked Alexa tensely as she climbed the steps toward him.

‘No,’ he replied, his tone frigid.

They were airborne within ten minutes.

Halfway to Ceske Budejovice, her satellite phone rang. Alexa grabbed it from the seat next to her. It was Reznak. She put it on speakerphone as she joined Fawkes and Carrington in the cockpit. Yonten followed behind her.

‘Are you okay?’ snapped Alexa into the mouthpiece.

The sound of coughing came over the line. ‘Yes, I’m fine,’ Reznak finally rasped. Other voices sounded in the noisy background. ‘Tom? Marie’s here with me. She’s all right.’

Relief flashed across the pilot’s face and his shoulders visibly sagged. ‘Thank you,’ Fawkes murmured in the direction of the phone.

‘Did you suffer many casualties?’ said Alexa. She stared blindly through the cockpit windscreen before asking the question she had been dreading to put forward. ‘How’s Jackson?’

‘Apart from spitting nails and vowing eternal, bloody vengeance on Cavaleti and Kronos, he’s fine,’ said Reznak wryly. ‘He’s helping Marie look after the wounded. We lost four humans.’ His tone sobered with those words. ‘About the only silver lining to this attack is that it took place so late at night. Most of the lab staff had already left for the day. There were eight deaths among the immortals, none of them final. Your warning gave us the time we needed to get to the emergency tunnel.’

Alexa digested this information slowly and felt a weight drop off her shoulders.

‘The bomb reached the second level,’ Reznak continued. ‘Most of the labs on that floor were destroyed.’

She went still at the bitter note in her godfather’s voice. She sensed he was holding back on news she was not going to like.

‘Kronos got their hands on the Emerald Tablet and Anna’s pendant,’ said Reznak. ‘We tried to recover the items, but we were heavily outnumbered. They threw tear gas and flash bombs into the crater after the explosion. Eva calculated the trajectory of the missile before she moved her data banks to her backup servers in the Crovir central facility in Dresden. She believes it was tracking something inside the lab. She suspects Kronos may have tagged one of you with a GPS device in your last encounter at the Freemasons’ Hall.’

Alexa’s hand stilled on the phone as a memory flashed through her mind. ‘The bag I gave Jackson to put the tablet in,’ she said grimly. ‘One of the sect members tried to get it off his back.’

‘That would explain their movements,’ said her godfather after a short silence. ‘They seemed to know exactly where it was inside the facility. The pendant will come as an added bonus for Cavaleti.’

She could almost hear him grit his teeth across the line. ‘Did Jackson get somewhere with his translations?’ she asked.

A stilted pause followed. ‘Yes,’ Reznak finally replied. ‘Jackson believes that Anna’s pendant, and by default the one that was stolen from Yonten’s monastery three centuries ago, are seals for the tombs. Without them, Cavaleti cannot access the immortals’ remains.’ He sighed. ‘Which means he is now in possession of everything he needs to make the Philosopher’s Stone. ’

Coldness flooded Alexa’s veins.

‘How far out are you?’ said Reznak, interrupting her thoughts.

She glanced at Fawkes, her mind still resonating from the ramifications of Kronos’s latest move.

‘We’ll be landing in fifteen minutes,’ said Fawkes.

‘Good,’ said Reznak. ‘There’s a lot we need to do. Eva is tracking the vehicles that left the estate after the attack. They’re heading north across the country. I’ll start assembling a team to intercept them.’

One of Reznak’s bodyguards was waiting for them when they reached the airport in the Czech Republic. Alexa strode up to the immortal and put a hand out. He stared at her moodily before dropping the keys of the SUV in her hand. She took the wheel as he climbed in the backseat with Fawkes and the monk.

Despite the blizzard, they made the return trip to Sumava in record time.

A faint red glow appeared above the tree line as they approached the boundaries of the estate. Carrington cursed beside her. Alexa’s breath unconsciously caught in her throat when the iron gates swung open. She drove onto the icy driveway, her eyes straining as she peered into the darkness. The castle appeared through the trees, lights blazing through the tall glass windows. It stood untouched behind a thick veil of snow. She started to breathe again.

She braked in the courtyard and gazed darkly at the two ambulances parked with their lights off. A figure stood framed in the bright, open doorway under the portico. Marie met Fawkes halfway down the steps and was engulfed in his embrace. A smile of relief dawned on her lined face when she spotted Alexa.

Reznak was pacing the foyer when they entered the castle, his cellphone in hand. Icy anger prickled Alexa’s skin as her eyes moved over the cuts on his face and hands, and the blood on one of his trouser legs. He was walking with a noticeable limp. ‘I’ll call you back, Victor,’ he said abruptly into the mouthpiece when he saw them. He disconnected and headed toward her.

A figure overtook him.

Alexa caught a glimpse of Jackson’s bloodied features before his arms closed around her in a vise-like grip. Surprise made her stiffen in his hold. He did not appear to notice.

‘God,’ he whispered in her hair. ‘I thought I’d never see you again.’ He leaned back and scrutinized her face, his expression fierce.

She scowled at the fresh bruises and cuts beneath the thin layer of grime covering his skin. The anger thrumming through her veins focused into icy determination.

She would make Alberto Cavaleti pay for this transgression.

Her fresh resolve came to a grinding halt when Jackson’s mouth landed on hers. She tasted plaster dust and blood on his lips. He deepened the kiss, his tongue invading her mouth. Heat flooded her body and she raised her fingers to the back of his head.

‘Would you mind very much if I say hello to my own goddaughter now?’ said Reznak behind him.

Jackson’s eyes snapped open and he stared at her blankly. ‘Oh.’ He let go of her and stepped back, an awkward grimace flashing across his face.

Reznak closed the gap between them and held her tightly to his chest for a long moment. Senses still reeling from Jackson’s kiss, Alexa could only raise her eyebrows. This was another first in her relationship with Reznak.

Her godfather looked past her shoulder at Yonten. ‘Abbot Kelsang is sending reinforcements,’ he said quietly.

The monk nodded and winced. Marie took his hand and led him toward the kitchen.

‘We were lucky. Several of the immortal scientists who work at the lab are qualified surgeons,’ said Reznak in a low voice as he watched them leave. ‘They were able to obtain medical supplies from the closest hospital.’

‘The ambulances?’ said Alexa.

Reznak nodded. ‘They kind of...borrowed them.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘I’ve managed to stop the local authorities from swarming over the estate for the time being. I’m not sure how much longer they’ll buy the lie that this was a gas leak. It should hopefully give us enough time to mask the fact that we were bombed. The weather being what it is, hopefully none of the locals noticed the fighter jet or the missile before it struck.’

Banks stepped out of the corridor on the right. His left eye was purple and almost swollen shut. Blood oozed from a split in his lower lip. ‘Hey, Alexa,’ he said weakly.

‘You look like hell,’ said Carrington bluntly.

‘Yeah, well, I’m not used to being an action man,’ muttered the young immortal. ‘The last time I punched someone was in 1960.’

‘Are you all set?’ asked Reznak briskly.

‘Yes,’ Banks replied with a careful nod that made him grimace in pain nonetheless.

They gathered at the temporary command center he had installed in the study.

‘They’re on Route 4, just outside Pribram,’ said Banks. An infrared satellite image flashed up on a monitor on the desk before him. It tracked a convoy of army vehicles traveling up a northbound carriageway. ‘Although I’m unsure as to their final destination, I asked Eva to check the closest airports and train terminals for any unusual activity, just in case. Eva?’

‘There has been an unscheduled flight plan logged with the control tower at Prague’s Ruzyne Airport
in the last ten minutes,’ came the AI’s steady, computerized voice over the speakers. ‘It’s an Ilyushin
Il-476 military plane bound for Perm, Russia. There is no information available on the owners of the aircraft.’

Banks stared at the display. ‘If they’re heading to Prague, they’ll be there in under an hour.’

Carrington glanced at Reznak. ‘There are Crovir Hunters based near the city. They could try to hold them off until our team gets—’

‘No,’ interrupted Reznak. His expression was strangely thoughtful as he studied the vehicles on the screen. ‘I want to see where they’re going.’

‘Isn’t that risky?’ said Carrington with a frown. ‘They’ve already got the tablet and the pendants.’

Reznak glanced at Alexa. ‘What do you think?’

Now that her anger had started to abate, a hunter’s thrill buzzed through her veins once more. ‘I agree with Dimitri,’ Alexa said curtly. ‘They’ll lead us to the tombs.’

‘Making the Elixir of Life is a process that could take days,’ Reznak explained at Carrington’s expression. ‘We’ve only managed to decipher one fifth of the Emerald Tablet.’ His gaze switched briefly to Jackson. ‘I doubt they’ll have anyone in their ranks who can match Zachary’s skills.’

‘Eva, did you manage to get anything else out of their systems before you moved to the Crovir data servers?’ said Alexa.

‘No,’ replied the AI. ‘If they’re holding information somewhere, it must be in a physical format. They shut their network down after the attack.’

Reznak spoke to Abbot Kelsang again before spending the next forty minutes coordinating the Crovir response team that would join them in Russia. It took him nearly half an hour to convince the First Council of the urgency of the matter; by the end of the conversation, his voice had dropped to icy depths Alexa had rarely heard before. With the details of their mission confirmed and the Council finally agreeing to spare a group of fifty Hunters, she turned to leave the study.

Her godfather was calling Victor Dvorsky as she exited the room. Alexa pursed her lips as she made her way to the armory in the basement of the west wing of the castle.

Although she had been born well after the great war that had threatened to consume the two immortal races, she felt strangely ambivalent about working together with the people who had once been their sworn enemies.

She finally reached a narrow corridor and headed down the winding staircase at the end. A thick, iron-plated oak door appeared at the bottom of the steps. She opened it and walked across the threshold.

As well as holding one of the larger arsenals on Reznak’s estate, the basement had also served as one of her training grounds during the years she had lived in the castle. She headed past the ring where she had won her first boxing match at the age of eleven, the faded punching bags that had had to be replaced on many an occasion, and the polished fencing floor where she had learned to use the sais. A large storeroom occupied the northern aspect of the cellar. Its walls were lined with dozens of ammunition crates and weapon cabinets. She opened one of the chests and started to load magazines in a compact tactical waist and thigh belt.