Whirlpool (Cutter Cay Book 6) Read online

  If Jose Luis hadn’t been specifically mentioned in the ancient document, he would have executed him years earlier. The man was a continuous pain, with his timorous approach to everything. He was tired of having the apprehensive man scuffling about.

  Ah well, time enough to find a suitable replacement once he was el Lídder Supremo del munfo. He only had to suffer Jose Luis long enough to sacrifice him.

  He waited with barely contained excitement for the man to approach and stand before his enormous, heavily carved antique mahogany desk. Jose Luis shuffled forward, but stopped near the center of the room.

  The fear in the old man’s eyes was palpable. And Jose Luis had reason to be afraid. As Supreme Leader, it fell to him to dole out punishment when necessary and with Jose Luis, it was frequently necessary.

  Penance was an important part of life in the sect. Violence was the Supreme Leader's punishment method of choice.

  "Two sacred tablets have been discovered on the salvage." His voice, sharp with excitement, rose. “They match La tavoletta d'oro Merrezo. A call twenty minutes ago gave me even more profound news. The Merrezo tablet will be on its way to Argentina within days."

  He’d always known the date and time of the End. Ten days from today. That information had not varied over five hundred years. What was not known, but merely speculated was the method that the World, as everyone knew it, would dramatically change.

  The Chosen would rule the world.

  He would rule the Chosen.

  "This is. . .astonishing news,” his second in command whispered with awe as he stood before him, head bowed in deference. “Is it possible they contain the translation for the Merrezo tablet, su excelencia?” Jose Luis, a short, wiry man in his mid-seventies, looked up at him with anxious black eyes and a worried frown.

  He didn’t need fucking confirmation, and he resented a subordinate questioning him. “You doubt my conviction?’ he asked in a cold, monotone that warned the other man that he was growing impatient with his negativity. “Our person on board Case’s ship, Tesoro Mio, confirmed the first finding. As did our spy on board Blackstar. The main players have sent for La tavoletta d'oro Merrezo. It is expected to be delivered to Gallagher in a few days. Without a doubt, the joining of three tablets will have great significance. We retrieve the tablets from Gallagher, and we’ll need to eliminate anyone and everyone who gets in our way. I don’t want any loose ends.”

  Should I recall our army?"

  Jesus, what a fucking moron. "You need ask?" His men were scattered to the fucking four corners of the Earth, continually honing their skills for what was to come. Not letting their training go to waste while they waited to be called, they were for hire to anyone who could afford a soldier with zero scruples and the best training Russia could provide. "Tell them to return home immediately. I expect them to be here by the end of the week. No exceptions."

  "Sí, Excellency. It shall be done."

  “We will, of course, intercept the tablet from Italy. And take possession of the other two before it even arrives. If anyone gets in our way, they’ll be exterminated. A few weeks early won’t make any difference in their lives, now will, it?” He chuckled, pleased with his gallows humor.

  Unamused, Jose Luis shifted from foot to foot. “I suppose not, su excelencia. Even I have come to believe that the story of such, to be. . . honest-” He wrung thin, veined hands. “To be completely honest, Excellency, I oft wondered if additional tablets might be a myth.”

  "Even you, Jose Luis?" he challenged, his anger rising. "Five hundred years, thousands of believers, and you suddenly have doubt? You are vaulted in our Order, yet you question the message the seer foretold five hundred years ago?”

  “No, Excellency. Of course not.” He squinted his small black eyes, his face pinched with distress. “I believe in the Prophecy. It has ruled my life, just as it has yours, from birth. That has never been in question. My skepticism is about the written word of our directive - that is all. Now, knowing the writings have been found-"

  “This manifestation of our teachings is the equivalent of the Rosetta Stone, that is all. The additional stones will merely be a clarification of our directive.”

  “One of the tablets will surely inform us of the locations of the High Altar and the Holy Lake, su excelencia,” the acolyte's voice rose, and his eyes shone with wonder. “Sí, that would be most- “

  “Naturally the maps will be on the tablets, imbécil!” Or so he fervently hoped.

  This massive house had been built on the land where the prophet's village had once stood. For hundreds of years, every inch of the land for miles around had been searched for the two holy locations. Nothing had been found.

  For years, he’d sent acolytes to every far-flung corner of Argentina in search of anything that could, even loosely, be construed as a High Altar or a Holy Lake. Each had been rejected for various valid reasons.

  Although he’d had great hope, all searches had been to no avail.

  It didn’t concern him that the Merrezo tablet had been indecipherable. There were only a few recognizable words there that were important. His name and el Elegidos.

  “The directives we have followed for hundreds of years have not changed,” he told the other man. “We are, have always been, el Elegidos. It is time the world discovered who the Chosen are, and the nature of our Divine purpose.”

  "Once we have the tablets in our possession,” Jose Luis, spoke annoyingly softly. “Once we have them, and can see the writings with our own eyes- The exact words of the Prophet -"

  “Jesus Christ!” Eyeballs throbbing from the pressure of his intense annoyance, he maintained his temper by a mere thread, only because he was in a good mood and didn't want to ruin what was a momentous day. He pictured shooting Jose Luis in the head. A close-up and personal shot between his beady little eyes. Or a hard blow to the back of the old man's head so it cracked like an egg. “We have no need of writings to instruct us what we must do," he said tightly. Killing Jose Luis was a daily fantasy, and one he'd fulfill once the man’s usefulness was over. Hopefully, the tablets would tell him exactly how and when that would come to pass.

  "We’ve always known. Do not falter, Jose Luis. A lifetime of worship, a lifetime of planning, is about to come to fruition.”

  Perhaps the writings of the Prophet indicated how all but eleven thousand people would die? Because he knew that to be true. It was preordained in the teachings. Did the how of it really matter? It was the result that was important.

  He’d feared he would not live long enough to claim his destiny. He had no sons. No nephews. No blood relatives who bore his name. Yet. There was no assurance that his chosen mate would be fertile. God. Did he dare have personal doubts now? Of course, the seer wouldn't have foretold his lifemate if the woman couldn't bare him many strong sons.

  He knew his future, but as the date of the apocalypse drew closer he’d become less sure. The prophecy was five hundred years old. Some of the Chosen worried that the verbal message could possibly have become diluted with the decades, like a game of telephone. One generation misinterpreting the words for the next.

  No. As far as he was concerned, there was no room for interpretation. The details may have faded or become obscured over time, but the date had never changed. This specific date, this specific year. The world’s population would perish. All but eleven thousand souls. The Chosen. They would rebuild the population. The world would once again become Paradise.

  “I do not need proof of our purpose,” he told his subordinate, who had been mentioned in the prophecy as a ‘messenger’. Jose Luis’ only purpose was to alert their followers when the time was right and bring together the eleven thousand people of el Elegidos.

  “We will retrieve all three tablets and study them at length. Time may have diluted the message, but not our purpose or resolution. We will learn exactly what must be done now- in our time- to fulfill the rest of the prophecy for eternity.” Pausing, he savored the next words as if they were manna
from Heaven and he could taste their sweetness on his tongue. “And, as prophesied, my even more exalted role in the future of the world.”

  When Jose Luis didn’t immediately respond, he said sharply, “What is it? Why do you scowl so?”

  “Do you not fear the intervention of el Ehnos should they also discover that the tablets have been found?”

  “The Protectors?” A vein throbbed in his neck. “Who are they?” He was at the end of his patience with the old man. “Where are they? Have you seen or heard anything about such a sect for the last hundred years? Two hundred years?” Anger made his voice deadly soft. Enough so that the other man tensed his narrow shoulders, and looked at him as a mongoose watched a snake.

  “Has there been any indication anywhere that such a group even exists?” He answered his own question. “No.”

  With nothing to say, his subordinate just stood there, small and meek, sweating, like a frightened rat.

  As usual, all answers were up to the Supreme Leader. Which was why he’d been so since birth. “Because they. Do. Not. Exist. Do not be naïve, Jose Luis. They were at one time fabricated by the first Chosen as a cautionary tale for those who strayed from the path of el Elegidos. Now we know our task. Retrieve all three tablets. Kill anyone who stands in the way. The clock is ticking. We have ten days to fulfill our destiny.”

  His heart thundered with anticipation. The time, so long ago foretold by the seer, was at hand. All would be explained, all would be clarified.

  His position was preordained, written in the stars.

  He would not waver in his task.

  TEN

  The house is incredible, Magma, but this view is worth every dime you paid for the land. Rydell paused just inside the front door. "The pictures you texted didn’t do this justice.”

  Peri loved her 280-degree views from her glass house. The only solid wall was the one at the back of the house, a nondescript gray expanse with few windows. It was all show once inside. Ceiling, walls and floors were crystal-clear reinforced glass, cantilevered over the edge of the rocky cliff.

  Enormous, plushy upholstered furniture, in shades of palest blue-gray, blended with the sky, while cushions of various shades of muted blues, aquas and greens mimicked the changing colors of the ocean. The art was the ever-changing, expansive, view. Several large artifacts from her own salvages seemed to float in midair on the glass floor, while clear shelves held colorful books and objets d’art from her travels. Usually from a land base close to whichever Cutter she was tormenting.

  Ry and Addy were her first visitors since Theo, who hadn’t lingered for long. Terrified of heights, he hadn't enjoyed her house. Once had been more than enough for him. It was a little depressing to realize that she’d built the house five years ago, and had only had three visitors in all that time.

  "Where do you want this?" Rydell asked, holding the duffel containing the tablet aloft while Addy walked to the edge of the large area rug to look at the view.

  "Over on the counter, I'll get a stand for it." Peri got an easel from a cabinet and propped it up on the white counter between the kitchen and the living room. "Addy. The floor's perfectly safe. It's meant to be walked on." Personally, she found walking on the glass floor with a view of the eighty-foot drop to the rocks below, accelerating. But it wasn't for everyone.

  Her sis-in-law shuddered. "I'm fine where I am, thanks."

  "I'm not sure this is a good idea, Magma." Ry propped the newly cleaned gold tablet on the stand. "My security wouldn't have let any of them come on board, let alone take it."

  Peri stroked a gentle hand over the horizontal lines. The gold felt smooth and warm to the touch. "I know, I just. . . I don't know. It just feels safer here, than there."

  "Easy enough to find out where you live."

  She shook her head. "Unless Theo tells someone who asks, no they can't. The property was purchased through a shell company of Koúkos Corporation."

  "Still think it's a bad idea."

  "Duly noted." Peri couldn't explain her compulsion to bring the tablet to her home, so she got that her brother was concerned. "Look around, this place is like Fort Knox. I have top of the line electronic security, and an eighty foot climb up a vertical rock face to sheer glass walls. Even if the Cutters found out where I live, no one is getting in here."

  "Get good pictures of the other two tablets. I want my people to study them, too. I already have them researching the Italian tablet."

  "I will. That's one of the reasons I want this one far away. Let them be excited about the two they have until we've had time with ours to do more research."

  "You'll tell them you have it, though, won't you? This kind of momentous historical find shouldn't be kept secret. Not even from the Cutters. Not for long anyway."

  "I just want a little more time alone with it." At his narrowed-eyed suspicious look, she smiled. "Yes. Eventually."

  "Keep me in the loop. This some of the stuff from your China dive?" Ry asked, indicating a platter of exquisite blue and white porcelain on a stand beside several other smaller pieces on a glass shelf.

  "Yeah. She was the 1405, giant, nine-masted junk I told you about. Part of the treasure fleet heading out of Taiwan. Four-hundred feet long, and a hundred and fifty wide."

  Ry whistled. "So you said, but it's hard to believe a junk was bigger than Columbus's largest ship."

  "She was, and quite a beauty." Her smile widened. "An extremely lucrative beauty. I sold most of it back to Chinese museums and private collectors. Just kept those pieces as souvenirs. That salvage alone paid for this house and pretty much everything in it." It had also funded her exploits as she followed one Cutter or another around for weeks on end for more than seven years.

  "I'm proud of you, Magma. You've done well for yourself. The Napolitano will buy twenty houses like this."

  "I already have a house. I can only live in one."

  While she made a pot of coffee, she and Ry discussed the hiring of local divers for her salvage, something he wasn't too keen on. "Those Chinese divers were some of the best I've ever used," Peri told him. "I don't like having my divers underfoot like you do, not to mention Sea Witch isn't large enough to house a full dive team."

  "You could buy a bigger dive boat." He said, as she showed him some of the other pieces she'd salvaged from her own, or their combined, dives.

  "I don't need a bigger dive boat. My brother has one, I'll use his divers for Napolitano." She blew him a kiss, and he chuckled as he rubbed his knuckles on her head.

  "Come on sweetheart," he said, crossing the room to his wife. "We'll brave my sister's terrifying floor together." He stepped cautiously, as if expecting the glass floor to give. Directly underfoot, an almost ten story drop showcased the rocks and crashing waves below. “How substantial is all this glass?”

  “Heavy-duty enough to withstand two hundred mile an hour winds, and we're small potatoes, with just seventy-five mile an hour winds during the summer months, and plenty strong enough to hold a semi truck. I had them test it when the floor was put in. You’re perfectly safe.”

  The couple left carpet for glass floor to get closer to the living room’s expansive windows and the endless sky/ocean view. “Take a look, darling," Addy said, looking through the high-powered binoculars Peri had set up on a parallelogram mount nearby. “You can see the curvature of the earth through these. Wow. I can see forever,” Addy said with awe. “Where. . .” Ry adjusted the direction for her. “Aw. Hi, baby.” She waved.

  Over her head, Peri shared a grin with her brother as Addy talked baby talk to Adam, who was on board Tesoro Mio with his nanny, over fifty miles away.

  “This is the first time I’ve had ships to look at. I bought it to look at the sky,” Peri told her brother. “You’ll have to come back at night, it’ll boggle your mind how close the stars are. I’ve seen four of Jupiter's moons and some surface color. The Orion nebula is visible too. These binocs are amazing, but if you want to look through top-of-the-line-money-is-no-object an
d touch the stars, you’d have to check out Finn’s binoculars or telescopes. He has them everywhere.”

  “Pass,” Ry told her. He frowned as he glanced behind her. “I thought no one knew where you lived. Someone’s coming up the drive.”

  Through the narrow sidelight beside the front door, Peri observed a huge white truck slowly lumber across the bridge of land separating her from the mainland. The house, constructed on the edge of a small, rocky peninsula, with a narrow road from the mainland joining the two, was a veritable fortress. Not that that was what she'd planned. She’d bought the land, cheap, for the spectacular view, and direct access to the water from the caves below.

  “Great, that’s the equipment I was waiting for. Grab a cup of coffee, I’ll have them unload into the garage. Be right back.” Not equipment. The artifacts returned to her from Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires. The museum where she'd met Finn barely two weeks ago.

  “Need help?” Ry followed as she headed to the front door. Far below, the surf foamed and sprayed the slick rocks, surrounding a well-hidden cave where she docked Sea Witch and several small runabouts. “No, I’m good, thanks. Enjoy the view.”

  Peri went through the kitchen into the garage to open the door. She’d wanted her brother and Addy to see her house for years. And since she had to return home to accept the shipment today, this was as good an opportunity as any. In a few weeks, they’d all be too busy with the salvage to return.

  Why was she always freaking playing with fire? If her brother took one look inside any of the crates, he’d demand answers. Answers she wasn’t ready to give.

  After directing the four men into the garage, and showing them where she wanted the crates, Peri stood back to make sure everything was handled with care. The area where they were instructed to place the enormous crates, was a freight elevator. When the men left, she closed the garage door, then went back to shut the elevator door, concealing it from view. She’d just wait for the other two shipments to arrive before she had them delivered to the Cutters.