Live and Let Shop (12 page)

“How did you know that?” I asked.

“Well, I didn’t, at first. Jonathon heard me calling and rappelled down into the cave, and we explored. There was a lot of stuff in there: statues, gold coins, and on a beautiful altar made of gold, there was the
Book of Seraphim
. I’m the one that found it, you see.”

“You found it? That’s amazing!” It was amazing.

“Yep. Johnny and I learned that there are believed to be seven other sacred temples of Mithras. A couple of them have already been found. Each one holds an artifact that the Emperor Flavius hid when the Roman Empire fell. Flavius sent his troops around the world, each with a different item. He told them to build a hidden temple at each location, and that one day Mithras will rise to reclaim the seven artifacts and rule the world.

“We told the Kuzbekistanis where the temple was,
and they took the book and put it in their museum. It’s been there ever since, until this tour. From what I hear, they haven’t completely translated it yet. There’s stuff in that book even the sharpest minds don’t understand completely.

“It’s funny: I had a sense about that book from the very beginning. I knew we’d discovered something priceless and powerful. I tried to warn Johnny not to give it to the Kuzbekistanis, but he insisted. Now it’s all gone wrong, and I hope it hasn’t gotten him hurt or worse. I couldn’t stand that.” His voice quavered as he spoke, and I felt sorry for him. He was really worried about Mr. Kim.

“So the very first time the book leaves Kuzbekistan it gets stolen?” Alex asked.

“Yep. Johnny tried to warn their government that it would be hard to protect such a priceless thing as it traveled. But they were offered a huge amount of money by all these galleries and museums, and being a poor country, they couldn’t turn it down. So now Johnny and I have got to get it back.”

“But how? I mean, who took it?” I asked.

“Mithras,” he said.

“What?”

“Oh, no, lassie, not an ancient Roman god come to life, unless you believe that sort of thing. This Mithras is flesh and blood. See, there is a man out there who thinks he’s Mithras reborn. He’s been stealing Mithrian artifacts for years now, ever since that book was found. A gold medallion from a museum in Greece. Some other things. But the book will be his prize possession. That will get him started on his final ascension,” he said.

“Final ascension?” I said.

“Yes. Once it’s been completely translated, the book will reveal the locations of the other temples. And then he’ll have all the artifacts, and according to the book, Mithras will rise and rule the world.”

“That’s crazy. Who would believe that stuff?” Alex said. Obviously Alex had large amounts of attitude where dreams, psychic ability, and mysticism were concerned.

“Well, people believe all sorts of things, son. Ghosts and goblins and UFOs and all manner of things. Mithras is just another example.”

I suppose he was right about that. I mean, people do believe some pretty weird stuff. So if a guy wanted to run
around thinking he was a bull, who was I to argue?

We had reached the port. It was a small harbor as harbors go, in an industrial section of D.C. The ships weren’t small, but they weren’t the giant freighters that you’d see in a deeper port, either.

There was a large parking lot next to the harbor. At this time of night it was mostly deserted, with only a few cars parked here and there. Blankenship parked the van and we all got out.

“I think we need to search these ships,” he said, and pointed down to the dock where the ships were berthed. “Time is of the essence, so I suggest we split up. Miss Buchanan and I will start on that ship, the
R.A. Smith,
and the three of you start on the other end at the
B.T. Franklin
. There are four ships altogether, so we’ll search each one and work our way back to the middle. Sound good?”

We all agreed that it was the best plan—he sounded so authoritative. Our ship was closest. I headed up the gangway with Blankenship right behind me. As we reached the deck, I looked back at Pilar, Alex, and Brent and waved. They waved back and headed off down the dock to their ship.

Blankenship directed me toward the rear of the ship.

“Let’s start at the stern and work our way forward,” he said. I never got that stern, port, starboard stuff, but I assumed he meant back to front. Why did ship people have to have a different name for everything?

We walked down a couple of levels and then out onto a long hallway that seemed to run the length of the entire ship. All of a sudden I had an eerie feeling that I had seen this hallway somewhere before, like in a dream.

I stopped when I realized that Blankenship wasn’t following me. He was standing by the stairs we had descended, watching me. I noticed I was now opposite a doorway that led into a large room full of crates and boxes. On the far wall was a painting of the silhouette of a bull’s head.

Something was wrong. I looked back at Blankenship again and saw that he had unbuttoned his trench coat to reveal a black shirt and a large gold medallion around his neck. The medallion had a carving of a bull’s head on it—the same design that was painted on the wall in the room before me. I nearly fainted. I had seen that same image in my dream.

“Well, that was easy,” he said. The way he said it
made my stomach lurch. His voice was dripping with sarcasm, and it had turned cold and evil.

“What are you doing? Who are you? Where is Mr. Kim?” I tried, and failed, to keep the fear out of my voice.

“I’ve already told you. My name is Simon Blankenship. But you may call me Mithras.”

“I don’t understand. What are you doing? What is going on here?” I stormed down the hallway and tried to elbow my way past him. He grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me so I staggered a few steps back down the hall.

“You’re not going anywhere, Miss Buchanan.”

“Who are you?” I asked again. I was scared, but I was also starting to get angry. Two strange men came down the steps behind Blankenship. He ordered them to go out and gather up “the others.” They turned and left. Blankenship started walking toward me down the hall.

I backed up because he had a look in his eyes that was completely evil. He was staring at me with total concentration. I had had about enough of everybody staring at me like I was some kind of freak: Judge Kerrigan, Pilar, Mr. Kim peering around corners at me all the time, and now this whack job.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to stare?” I said. I know, it was lame, but I was under a little pressure and it was the best I could come up with. If I got out of this, I swore, I would write down a list of good comebacks and memorize it.

He didn’t say anything. Now we had reached the doorway that led into the bull room. I didn’t want to go in there, but he shoved me through the door and stepped in after me. The room was pretty large; it looked like the ship had been rebuilt somehow so that the cargo hold could be converted into this big room.

Blankenship still didn’t say anything. He just kind of strolled around like he was thinking something through.

“Where is Mr. Kim?” I said.

“I have no idea where your precious Mr. Kim is. Off on a fool’s errand somewhere, I’d expect. He always was thick.” Blankenship snorted when he said it,
as if Mr. Kim was barely worth thinking about.

“I thought you were his friend.” This guy had to be a total psychopath. When he’d talked about Mr. Kim before, I’d have sworn he was ready to cry at the thought of Mr. Kim in danger. Now he only sounded hateful.

“Maybe. Once. But Johnny and I haven’t seen eye to eye in quite some time. Ever since I fell into that temple, in fact.”

“So that was all true?”

“Oh yes. All of what I told you is true—except the parts that were not. I really did discover the temple and it really did hold the
Book of Seraphim
. A fantastic discovery, and one that I was destined to make. But Johnny has so little vision. He didn’t understand or appreciate what we’d found. He took the book from me and gave it to the Kuzbekistan government, not realizing that it was
my
destiny to have that book. It is the only way to bring Mithras to light,” he said.

Okay. Definitely crazy.

“What do you mean bring Mithras to light?” I asked. I figured I should keep asking questions. If I could stall long enough, maybe Alex and Pilar and Brent could come up with something.

“Emperor Flavius believed himself to be Mithras reborn. But he was wrong. So he hid the book and the Seven Sacred Artifacts. Flavius believed that one day Mithras’ true heir would find the book and bring Mithras forth to shine his darkness on the world.”

What a lunatic. Not only was he a madman, now he was using bad metaphors. How in the world can you “shine” darkness? Creep. But he was starting to get really worked up with this story, and it was making me a little nervous. More nervous than I was already. Which was very.

“So you think you’re the heir to Mithras?” I asked.
Got to keep him talking.
If he was talking he’d be too busy to kill me. I hoped.

“I don’t
think
it, lassie. I know it. And Johnny does too. He saw it. But he doesn’t understand what he saw. And he’s been in my way for the last twenty years. That will all end soon.” He walked over to a little pedestal that stood beneath the painted bull’s head on the wall. It was some type of altar or something, and there on the pedestal I could see the
Book of Seraphim
lying open, just like it had been displayed in the gallery. Blankenship put out his hands and laid them gently on the book, like he was trying to bring it to life or something. What a
weirdo. I had to think of another way to stall him.

But at that moment, Pilar and Brent came stumbling into the room, followed by the two men Blankenship had sent after them. There went that plan.

“Where is the third?” Blankenship yelled at them.

“There were only these two. They were on their way up the gangway when we grabbed them. We couldn’t find the other one,” said one of the men.

“Idiots. Search the ship. Make sure he hasn’t gotten on board. We don’t want any loose ends,” Blankenship said. He stopped at the doorway, turned to me, and said, “I’ll deal with you later.” Then he slammed the door and we heard the latch fall into place. We were alone in the room.

“Are you guys all right?” I asked.

“Yeah. What’s going on?” Pilar said. “Why is Mr. Blankenship locking us in here?”

“He tricked us. I think he’s the one who sent the e-mail. He’s definitely wacko—apparently he thinks he is the living reincarnation of Mithras, or will be as soon as he has the
Book of Seraphim
and seven sacred objects or something like that.” I made a twirling motion with my finger by my head. “He’s nuts. Where’s Alex?” I asked.

“We’re not sure,” Brent said. “We’d started down
toward the other ship, but before we got there, Pilar had one of her feelings.”

“Then I figured out that the name of this ship, the
R.A. Smith,
is another anagram for Mithras,” Pilar said. “That made us suspicious, and we started to think that something might be wrong. We decided we’d come back and check on you. I don’t know what happened to Alex.”

We tried the door to the hallway, but it was locked tight. We looked around the room. The ceiling was very high, about forty feet above us. There were a couple of hatches in it that must have been used to access the cargo hold. Maybe if we could get up there and get one open, we could crawl out onto the deck and escape.

I was nervous and so I started talking. “What we really need to do is figure a way up to those hatches. Of course, that would involve climbing, and I have to tell you I’m a little sick of all the exercise that I’m getting at this stupid school,” I said. It was true. Ever since I’d been at Blackthorn it was like all exercise all the time. Plus, all the climbing—climbing out the school window, climbing the rock wall in Physical Training. Back in Beverly Hills the only climbing I ever did was over Jamie to get to a clearance rack at the Gap.

But while I was in midrant, Pilar and Brent were already taking action. They maneuvered some of the crates and boxes around so that we had a mini-mountain in the middle of the room. And then I realized how well Blackthorn Academy had trained them. They didn’t even realize it, but they were in full problem-solving mode. They weren’t joking around or complaining like me. They were focused on what they had to do and how to do it with no idle chitchat. How well Mr. Kim had prepared them. Whether it was the academics or the Tae Kwon Do training or whatever, here they were being confronted with a problem and figuring out a way to solve it. I didn’t know if that was really cool or totally bizarre. But that school was definitely teaching its students to be thinkers and doers. That was becoming more and more clear.

Almost before I realized it, they had stacked all the crates and boxes in the room into a pyramid right below one of the ceiling hatches. Brent climbed to the top, but couldn’t quite reach the latch.

“Pilar, you’re going to have to get on my shoulders and see if you can open the latch,” he said. Pilar scampered up the pile of crates and was on Brent’s shoulders in a matter of seconds. She grabbed hold of the rusty
latch and started to twist it. “I don’t think I can get it,” she said. “It’s pretty rusty. See if you can find anything I could use as a lever.”

While she kept trying, I scouted around the room. Over in the corner, on top of a crate we hadn’t used, I found a small crowbar. I stuck it in my pants pocket and started to crawl up the stack. I was about halfway up when the latch door flew open with a screech of rusted metal and Alex appeared, staring down at us.

“Did you guys order a pizza?” he joked.

Alex reached down and grabbed Pilar by her arms, pulling her up and out.

“Rachel, come on up and I’ll boost you out,” Brent said.

I was almost to the top when an explosion rocked the ship. The stack of crates that Pilar and Brent had carefully balanced started to tip. It seemed like it happened in slow motion, but I saw Alex reach down through the hatch and grab Brent by the arms. The crate that Brent stood on fell away, and he was dangling in midair. Then I lost sight of him, because another explosion sent shock waves through the room and I was falling through the air to the floor below.