Land of the Gods

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The sun was well below the horizon when they checked into the Desert Sky Motel in Paradise and tossed their bags onto the carpet. Their room was up on the first floor in the corner of a horseshoe-shaped complex and from their room they had a good view of the city skyline to the north. A modest swimming pool below their balcony reflected the stars but no other lights were lit and there was no sign of life in any of the other rooms.

Hawke peered through the drapes to make sure the coast was clear, and then Ryan opened his bag to reveal Kozlov’s ring. Holding it up to the low light of the flickering TV, his face turned into a wide grin. “That’s five down and three to go.”

“We can do it,” Lexi said.

“Nothing on the news,” Zeke said.

“Not surprising,” Scarlet said. “A man like Kozlov settles his own score.”

Lea’s phone rang. “Rich,” she told the room, and switched to speaker. “Hey.”

“Anything to report?”

“We got the ring from Kozlov,” she said. “But we’re tired. This is just relentless, Rich. I don’t think we’ve ever had to work this hard before.”

“This is great news,” he said, “but there’s no time to relax because I have more news. Since Magnus’s murder, people in high places have been moving heaven and earth to help us, including a member of NESA, the UAE’s internal state security agency.”

“Oh?” Lea said. “I never knew you had any contacts there.”

He shrugged calmly. “I love you like a daughter, Lea, but there’s an awful lot you don’t know about me.”

“What’s the info?” Hawke said, cracking a cold bottle of sparkling water they’d picked up in a gas station on their way out of the city.

“I take it you’ve never heard of a man named Mokrani?”

Blank looks filled the room.

“Exactly as I thought. Known simply as Mr Mokrani, he’s a shadowy figure in the Gulf region, but one of the richest men in the world. A serious player and a bigtime collector of jewellery. According to my source at NESA, a ring matching the description I gave him was sold at an auction not long ago, and it was bought by Mokrani.”

“Does he know anything about it?”

“Hard to know. All my contact can tell me is that after I told him what we were looking for he got in touch with a number of auction houses in the region and one of them came up with the goods. He had no problem getting the name of the successful bidder, but the rest is up to us.”

“Where does this dude hang out?” Zeke asked.

“On a yacht named the Seahorse, usually parked up off the coast of Dubai. There are a number of legal advantages for staying offshore, including tax, or so I’m lead to believe. So that’s why he lives out on it.”

“An easy strike,” Scarlet said, lighting a cigarette as she flicked through endless muted TV channels.

“And there’s more,” Eden continued. “A very old friend of mine has come forward in response to my request for information.” He twisted his lips and everyone could see something was amusing him.

“I’m intrigued,” Scarlet said. “Do go on.”

“His name is Salim al-Hakim, a hustler and small-time smuggler based in Baghdad.”

Lexi smirked. “You do hang around with the nicest people, Rich.”

“Naturally,” he fired back. “I know you, after all.”

A whoop of laughter went up, the loudest being Reaper’s deep belly growl, but things soon got back to business. “As a matter of fact, it turns out Hawke and Cairo share a mutual friend with Salim.”

“And who might that be?”

“Ali al-Majid, from Baghdad, but these days he lives in Mosul.”

Hawke and Scarlet shared an astonished glance. “You are joking, darling?”

“No joke, and Salim tells me this Ali is ready and willing to help.”

“Great!” Hawke said. “That old bastard, Ali… I can’t believe it.”

“But who is he?” Lea asked.

“Someone we met in Iraq during the war, a thief and a smuggler just like Salim.”

Scarlet laughed “No wonder they know each other. It’ll be good to see him again.”

“There’ll be time for that later,” Eden said. “Getting back to business, Salim put word out among his associates in the criminal fraternity in the city — which is how he collided with Ali — and it didn’t take long for him to get the information he was looking for.”

“So this Ali knows where one of the rings is?” Ryan asked.

“He knows where they both are,” Eden said. “And he knows about Mokrani’s ring too.”

The team erupted in celebration, but Eden quickly poured cold water over the joy. “I said he knows where they are, but we still do not know. If we want to know, he’s prepared to tell us, but for a massive price.”

“That sounds like Ali.” Hawke looked skeptical. “What sort of price?”

“Yeah,” Scarlet said. “What’s he asking for?”

“Turns out your friend Ali drives a hard bargain,” Eden continued. “He wants a million dollars in unmarked US currency.”

“To be fair,” Eden continued. “He said he’d throw in some transport as well as the name.”

“That’s very generous of him,” Lea said.

“Sounds a bit steep to me,” Scarlet said.

“I’ll say,” Ryan threw in. “That’s your make-up budget gone for the next six months…ow, ow, sorry.”

Scarlet’s grip of Ryan’s ear was tight and hard, and when she twisted it around, the young man had no choice but to allow his head to be dragged in the same direction. “What was that, boy?”

“I said your natural beauty is astonishing and you’re so lucky that you don’t require any make-up.”

“Which is exactly what I thought you said.” She released his ear.

“I mean for your significant age,” he said, raising his middle finger and darting out of her reach. “Seriously though, you look all right. A bit of foxing around the edges but you’re good to go in the right lighting conditions.”

“Come here you little sod.”

She jumped over the couch and grabbed at him but Eden cleared his throat and called the meeting back to order. “Can we get back to business, please? We are talking about the end of the world, after all.”

“This time,” Scarlet said with a scowl, “you live, but next time, your arse is mine, Bale.”

“Please,” Lexi said with a devilish grin. “What you two do in your spare time is your own business but don’t pollute our minds with it.”

“A million dollars, though?” Reaper said, breaking up the laughter.

“And that’s not all,” said Eden. “He also wants in on the operation to find the Citadel.”

A murmur of serious discontent moved around the room.

“Absolutely not,” Hawke said. “I know Ali and he’s not trained for this sort of thing.”

Scarlet nodded. “I agree. He’s a thief and a smuggler.”

“So are you,” Zeke said. The rest of the team turned to see him at the back, kicked back on the bed with a beer in his hand. They had almost forgotten the Texan was in the same room with them. Under their accusatory glare, he shrugged and sipped his beer. “Well, you kinda are.”

“We are not thieves,” Eden said.

“You took the idols.”

Nikolai now opened one eye and watched the conversation with interest.

“And?” Lexi said.

“Why aren’t they in a museum some place?”

Eden took a deep, patient breath. “Because if we had given them to a museum, the Oracle would now have them all.”

“This is true,” the Russian monk said. “And to be honest, I am surprised he has not broken into the Bank of England yet to take them for himself. He simply cannot know they are there, or they would be gone already.”

“Quite,” Eden said flatly. “And you now have your marching orders.”

“So it’s Dubai and then Baghdad,” Lea said.

Hawke caught her eye, and they shared a smile. “Time to get back on the road.”