King Solomon's Diamonds

34 The Best Hundred Quid

When the Chinook touched down on the abandoned landing strip outside Dansha, three military Jeeps stood in front of the Hercules airplane Purdue had rented for the Ethiopian excursion.

“We’re fucked,” Nina mumbled, still pressing down on the wounded pilot’s leg with her bloodied hands. He was in no medical danger, as Sam had aimed for the outside of his thigh leaving him with nothing worse than a slight flesh wound. The side door slid open and the citizens were let out before the soldiers came to remove Nina. Sam was already disarmed and thrown in the back of one of the Jeeps.

They confiscated the two satchels Sam and Nina had with them, and they cuffed both.

“You think you can come into my country and steal?” the Captain shouted at them. “You think you can use our air patrol as your personal taxi? Hey?”

“Listen, there is going to be a tragedy if we don’t get to Egypt soon!” Sam tried to explain, but he got a punch in the gut for it.

“Please, listen!” Nina implored. “We have to get to Cairo to stop the floods and the power failures before the whole world collapses!”

“Why not stop the earthquakes too, hey?” the Captain sneered at her, grasping Nina’s delicate jaw in his rough hand.

“Captain Ifili, take your hands off the woman!” a male voice ordered, prompting the captain to obey immediately. “Let her go. The man too.”

“With respect, sir,” the captain said without moving away from Nina, “she robbed the monastery and then this ingrate,” he snarled, kicking at Sam, “had the audacity to hijack our rescue helicopter.”

“I know very well what he did, Captain, but if you do not let them go right now, I will have you court martialed for insubordination. I might be retired, but I am still the main financial contributor to the Ethiopian Army,” the man roared.

“Yes, sir,” the captain replied, and motioned for the men to release Sam and Nina. When he stepped aside, Nina could not believe who her rescuer was. “Col. Yimenu?”

Next to him his personal entourage waited, four men in number. “Your pilot informed me of your purpose for visiting Tana Qirkos, Dr. Gould,” Yimenu told Nina. “And since I owe you a favor, I have no choice but to clear your way to Cairo. I shall leave two of my men at your disposal and security clearance from Ethiopia, via Eritrea and Sudan into Egypt.”

Nina and Sam exchanged looks of perplexity and distrust. “Um, thank you, Colonel,” she said carefully. “But may I ask why you are helping us? It’s no secret that you and I did not get off on the right foot.”

“Despite your terrible predisposed judgment of my culture, Dr. Gould, and your vehement attacks on my personal life, you saved my son’s life. For that, I cannot but absolve you of any vendetta I may have had against you,” Col. Yimenu conceded.

“My God, I feel like shit now,” she muttered.

“Excuse me?” he asked.

Nina smiled and reached out a hand to him. “I said, I would like to extend my apologies to you for my assumptions and my harsh assertion.”

“You saved someone?” Sam asked, still reeling from the jab to the gut.

Col. Yimenu looked at the journalist, allowing him to film his statement. “She saved my son from certain drowning while the monastery was flooding. Many perished last night, and my Kantu would have been among them, had Dr. Gould not pulled him up from the water. He called me just as I was about to join Mr. Purdue and the others inside the mountain to oversee the return of the Holy Box, calling her an angel of Solomon. He told me her name and that she stole a skull. That is hardly a crime worthy of death, I’d say.”

Sam peeked at Nina over the viewfinder of his compact video camera, winking. It would be better that nobody knew what the skull contained. Soon after, Sam went with one of Yimenu’s men to collect Purdue and Patrick where their stolen Land Rover had run out of diesel. They managed to travel more than half the way before stopping, so it did not take Sam’s vehicle long to find them.

With Yimenu’s clearance, the group soon made it into Cairo, where the Hercules finally touched down near the University. “Angel of Solomon, huh?” Sam teased. “Why, pray tell?”

“I have no idea,” Nina smiled, as they entered the ancient walls of the Dragon Watchers sanctuary.

“Did you see the news?” Purdue asked. “They found Karsten’s mansion completely abandoned, apart from evidence of a fire leaving soot on the walls. He is officially missing, along with his family.”

“And those diamonds we… he… put in the safe?” Sam asked.

“Gone,” Purdue answered. “Either the Magician took them not immediately realizing they were fake, or the Black Sun took them when they came to pick up their traitor to answer for Mother’s abandonment.”

“In whatever shape the Magician left him,” Nina cringed. “You heard what he did to Madame Chantal and her assistant and housekeeper that night. God knows what he thought up for Karsten.”

“Whatever happened to that Nazi swine, I am elated for it and I don’t feel bad at all,” Purdue said. They ascended the last flight, still feeling the effects of their painful expedition.

After the tedious journey back to Cairo, Patrick had been admitted to the local clinic to get his ankle fixed and had stayed at the hotel while Purdue, Sam, and Nina climbed the stairs up to the observatory where Masters Penekal and Ofar waited.

“Welcome!” Ofar chimed with his hands clasped. “I hear you might have good news for us?”

“I hope so, or by tomorrow we will be under the desert with an ocean over us,” the cynical grunt of Penekal reverberated from the elevated section where he was looking through the telescope.

“Looks like you bunch have been through another World War,” Ofar remarked. “I hope you did not sustain any serious injuries.”

“They will leave scars, Master Ofar,” Nina said, “but we’re still alive and kicking.”

The entire observatory was adorned in antique maps, loom tapestries, and old astronomical instruments. Nina sat down on the sofa next to Ofar, opening her satchel and the natural light of the yellow afternoon sky gilded the whole room in a magical atmosphere. When she revealed the stones, the two astronomers immediately approved.

“Those are the real ones. King Solomon’s diamonds,” Penekal smiled. “Thank you all so much for your help.”

Ofar looked at Purdue. “But weren’t these promised to Prof. Imru?”

“Would you take the chance of leaving them in his possession with the alchemical rites he knows?” Purdue asked Ofar.

“Absolutely not, but I thought that was your deal,” Ofar said.

“Prof. Imru will learn that Joseph Karsten stole those from us when he tried to kill us at Mount Yeha, so we would be unable to hand them over, understand?” Purdue explained with great amusement.

“So we can keep them here in our vaults to thwart any more sinister alchemy?” Ofar asked.

“Yes, sir,” Purdue affirmed. “I’ve procured two of the three primes through private sales in Europe, and according to the deal, as you know, what I bought remains mine.”

“Fair enough,” Penekal said. “I would rather you keep them. That way the primes will be kept apart from King Solomon’s…” he gave the diamonds a quick estimate, “…other sixty-two diamonds.”

“So the Magician used ten, all in all, so far to release the plagues?” Sam asked.

“Yes,” Ofar confirmed. “By using one prime, the Celeste. But those have already been released, so he can do no more harm as long as he cannot obtain these and Mr. Purdue’s two primes.”

“Good show,” Sam said. “And now your alchemist will undo the plagues?”

“Not undo, but stop the current damage, unless the Magician gets his hands on these before our alchemist had transmuted their composition to render them powerless,” Penekal replied.

Ofar wished to change the morbid subject. “I hear you did an entire exposé on the MI6 corruption debacle, Mr. Cleave.”

“Aye, it will air on Monday,” Sam said proudly. “I had to edit and narrate the whole thing in two days while my knife wound tortured me.”

“Well done,” Penekal smiled. “Especially when it comes to military matters, a country should not be left in the dark… so to speak.” He looked out over Cairo, still out of power. “But now that the missing head of MI6 will be exposed on international television, who will take his place?”

Sam grinned, “It looks like Special Agent Patrick Smith is up for a promotion for his outstanding valor in bringing Joe Carter to justice. And Col. Yimenu has backed his unfailing feats on camera too.”

“That is splendid,” Ofar cheered. “I hope our alchemist makes haste,” he sighed, pondering. “I have a bad feeling when he is tardy.”

“You always have a bad feeling when people are tardy, my old friend,” Penekal said. “You worry too much. Remember, life is unpredictable.”

“It certainly is, for the unprepared,” a malicious voice spoke from the top landing of the stairs. They all turned, feeling the air grow cold with malevolence.

“Oh my God!” Purdue exclaimed.

“Who is that?” Sam asked.

“That… is… the Sage!” Ofar answered, shivering and clutching his chest. Penekal stepped in front of his friend as Sam stepped in front of Nina. Purdue was standing in front of everyone.

“Are you to be my opponent, tall man?” the Magician asked suavely.

“I am,” Purdue answered.

“Purdue, what do you think you’re doing?” Nina hissed, terrified.

“Don’t do this,” Sam told Purdue with a firm hand on the shoulder. “You cannot be a martyr for guilt. People choose to do daft shite with you, remember. We choose to!”

“I have run out of patience and my course has been delayed enough by that two-timing pig in Austria,” Raya snarled. “Now, hand over Solomon’s stones or I will flay all of you alive.”

Nina held the diamonds behind her back, unaware that the unnatural creature had a sense for them. With callous strength, he tossed Purdue and Sam aside and reached for Nina.

“I’m going to break every bone in your little body, Jezebel,” he growled, revealing those awful teeth to Nina’s face. She could not defend, as her hands held the diamonds fast.

With terrifying force, he seized Nina and swung her around against him. Her back against his belly, he held her against him to pry open her hands.

“Nina! Don’t let him have them!” Sam barked, getting to his feet. Purdue was stalking them from the other side. Nina wept in terror, her body shaking in the Magician’s horrid grasp as his claw gripped her left breast painfully.

A strange wail escaped him, escalating into a cry of terrible agony. Ofar and Penekal stepped back and Purdue stopped his creeping to ascertain what was happening. Nina could not flee from him, but his grip on her lightened rapidly, along with his screech growing louder.

Sam frowned in confusion, having no idea what was going on. “Nina! Nina, what’s happening?”

She only shook her head and mouthed, I don’t know.

It was then that Penekal got the gall to step around to determine what was happening to the screeching Magician. His eyes stretched as he watched the tall, gaunt sage’s lips disintegrate along with his eyelids. His hand was on Nina’s chest, shedding skin as if he was suffering electrocution. The smell of burning flesh filled the room.

Ofar exclaimed and pointed to Nina’s chest, “It is the mark in her skin!”

“What?” Penekal asked, taking a closer look. He noticed what his friend referred to and his face lit up. “Dr. Gould’s marking is undoing the Sage! Look! Look,” he smiled, “it is the Seal of Solomon!”

“The what?” Purdue inquired, holding out his hands to Nina.

“The Seal of Solomon!” Penekal repeated. “A demon’s trap, a weapon against demons said to be granted to Solomon by God.”

Finally, the wretched alchemist fell to his knees, dead and dry. His corpse folded onto the floor, leaving Nina unharmed. The men all stood in amazed silence for a moment.

“Best hundred quid I ever spent,” Nina said unremarkably while caressing her tattoo, moments from fainting.

“Best moment I never got on film,” Sam lamented.

Just as they all started recovering from the unbelievable madness they’d just witnessed, Penekal’s appointed alchemist came trudging lazily up the stairs. Sounding quite indifferent, he announced, “Sorry I’m late. The repairs to Talinki’s Fish & Chips held me up for dinner. But now my belly is full and I’m ready to save the world.”