Crusader's Gold

TEN

Crouch finally found his tongue.

“Me? You have to be joking! There has never been a killer like you, Riley. At least not one I’ve ever come across.”

Riley’s stern face twitched with what might have been satisfaction. Alicia studied him, already shocked at Crouch’s words and wondering why she’d never heard of the new dude. His hair was short-cropped, military style, and he held himself with a confident ease, portraying power, poise and intense training. Probably around fifty, he appeared fitter than most of the men at his back, young mercenaries all. But it was his gaze that held Alicia’s attention — not just the frozen apocalyptic glare of his eyes but the wintry madness that shone forth, the controlled craziness that promised mercy would never enter the equation and bystanders were always accepted collateral.

“You thought I was dead?” Riley growled.

“I hoped you were dead.”

Nobody moved. Tourists meandered around them, unconsciously giving the group a wide berth, perhaps sensing the intense, barely coiled violence that might erupt at any moment. Alicia noticed the arrival of Kenzie and her crew, and saw the woman’s sudden realization that something huge was occurring here and to interrupt might cost a whole bunch of people their lives.

“When I found out you had turned treasure hunter I stared tracking you down. Yeah, it took a while, but good things always come to… you know the rest. Found you briefly in Vegas, lost you during that Niagara Falls thing—”

“And now you’re making your move?”

Riley gave Crouch an incredulous look. “My move? Do you really think this is my move? That you or any of your cretinous crew would still be alive? Believe this, Crouch, when I make my move you will be the first to know.”

“So go fuck off then,” Alicia couldn’t help but say, bristling over being referred to as “cretinous”. “Come back when you’ve grown a pair.”

Kenzie drifted to within hearing distance, but well behind Russo, mostly hidden by the giant.

Riley sent that insane look toward Alicia. “This is the beginning,” he said. “Your warning. Make no mistake, you’re all already dead whether you leave this bastard’s side or not, but I’ll take it easier on you if you do. You’re not under protection of the British Army anymore, Crouch. You’re in the bigger world now. You’re in my world.”

“Always have been,” Crouch said, but without true conviction. “I’ve always been around.”

Riley blinked. “We’ll see how different it is now. You of all people should know — I make the rules.”

“Look,” Alicia saw the already deadly anger between the pair starting to escalate to a point where it might become unstable, “let’s save the testosterone. Looks like you boys’re gonna need it later, not exactly being spring chickens and all. Riley — you ain’t gonna try anything here among all these people so just back the fuck off.”

Riley again transfixed her. “Believe me, Myles. These people, their lives, their children, mean nothing to me. I’d just as soon see them all blown into dust. This is all about Crouch, and watching him shit himself in the street. This is all about what’s to come. This is to heighten the anticipation. Because when it happens — it’ll go big.”

Alicia searched Riley’s face as he spoke, seeing only truth and disaster there, not a scrap of bravado. Suddenly the quest for Dandolo and Lysippos, Venice and the Hercules Tarentum seemed very far away. Devastation had just arrived on their doorstep.

“How come I’ve never heard of you?”

Riley blinked for the second time. “I am this man’s nemesis. His dirty great secret. You think a big shot like Crouch ever lets the most terrifying skeletons escape from his closet? Well, this one just did. Ask him all about me. How we trained together. Marched together. Drank together. Ask him how he killed others just to try to get close and kill me. But the gloves are off now, as they say, and I will wage a vendetta, a bloody war, to destroy him and all that he loves.”

Crouch didn’t move, although all around him shifted to give themselves space. Alicia took in her surroundings without moving her head. “Bit over the top, dude.”

For the first time Riley showed a trace of emotion in his face. A dreadful expression of hate distorted every feature.

“I will destroy entire cities to kill him if I have to, Myles. The game, the chase, is on. Take this as your warning before Armageddon.”

And then, without the slightest hint of an order being passed, Riley and his entire team backed carefully away, expertly assessing their perimeter and withdrawal as they went. Alicia watched them a while and then turned to Crouch, a look of incredulity on her face.

“What in the name of the Downstairs DJ was all that about?”