Siberian Treasure

27

Helen Darrow’s heels clicked like a countdown as she approached Colin’s office. He could hear her drumming down the hallway, in time for the urgent meeting she’d called only thirty minutes earlier. She’d been en route in a helo, insisting that he clear his calendar for an update on the earthquake investigation. He’d had no qualms about obliging.

“Come on in,” he said unnecessarily, rising as she opened the door ahead of his assistant. Carol Mueller, his iron-haired and iron-fisted admin, probably wouldn’t like being left in the dust.

But Helen Darrow, it appeared, cared little for niceties. A fact which was neatly confirmed by her first words.

“I need to know what your team’s got, Colin,” Darrow announced as she hurried in past him in a gust of some kind of perfume, towing a box on a luggage cart. She slid the strap from her briefcase from her shoulder and let it gently thud to the floor. Her heels clicked purposefully, annoying at this close range, as she walked back to the door and closed it. “We’ve got evidence that the Skaladeskas caused those earthquakes, and I need to figure out how to nail them. You’re the only person who knows anything about these people, so I hope you have some updates for me.”

Colin could have been offended or irked by her presumptive attitude; but sharp women didn’t threaten him. He knew his job and did it well.

Even when he went out on a limb like he had with this one. Thank God that limb had begun to sprout some leaves.

“So far our best connection is between the Skalas and a murder suspect in Riyadh. And as soon as I reach Marina Alexander, who is with my officer investigating the Skaladeskas, I’ll see if she can identify the composite of the murder suspect. That might be a connection, as we know her home was broken into by a man who left a card identifying himself as a Skaladeska.”

“When did you learn this? What kind of murder?”

“Only hours ago. In Riyadh, a Saudi oil baron was found murdered. He’d been injected with a kind of oil.” Colin explained about Hamid al-Jubeir’s phone call and the murder of Israt Medivir.

“Injected? Barbara Melton was injected with her own chemicals — she was the CEO of AvaChem. Same M.O. There’s a connection with the symbol?”

“They were both injected with a poison of sorts.” This was it. The connection they needed. Things were starting to look up.

“The Skaladeskas … based on what your initial report said, thank you by the way, they’re earth worshippers,” Helen said slowly, putting into words the same thoughts that had gelled in his mind. Her heels clacked again as she stalked over to the box on the table. “Oil and chemicals … injected. AvaChem was known for its environmental violations … Chemicals … there’s a connection … the Skaladeskas would see those chemicals as a poison to their beloved earth. They killed their victims in the same manner in which they believe we’re killing Gaia. And they’re creating natural events for large-scale destruction. Earthquakes.”

They stared at each other, each mind nipping along to assimilate this possibility.

And who could say, Bergstrom considered, that the Skaladeskas were completely out of line in their beliefs? That the earth wasn’t being destroyed, little by little, day after day, policy after policy?

Global warming. Waste and usage of natural resources. The pollution of the ground, water, and air. Deforestation.

Who could argue that those practices didn’t damage the environment? That something had to change? And that governments and policy-makers hadn’t listened?

This wasn’t about a difference in religious opinions, or societal or economic practices.

This was about something that affected every living being on the earth.

Yet to the Skaladeskas, it was their religion. The essence of their beliefs: to protect their goddess.

“A new kind of holy war,” he breathed. For the health of the earth.

Darrow nodded. Then she moved over to the cart she’d pulled in.

“That’s the why. And now we’ve figured out how they did it. How they caused the earthquakes.” She summarized the situation as she unhooked the straps on the luggage cart and hefted the box onto Colin’s conference table.

“What is this?” He had risen from his desk and came around to help her, but by then, she was already standing back, gesturing to the box.

“It’s got the symbol on it — see.” She flipped the box; it was heavy, and clunked onto the table with a sharp thud. On the bottom, she showed him the faint etching that was indeed the symbol of the Skaladeskas. “But why would they put their symbol on it? They would know it would implicate them immediately.”

“Holy Christ.” The tension that had settled between his shoulders, that had been there since he secretly sent Gabe off to find Alexander, began to lessen. At last. “What is it?”

“This, best as we can determine, is a controller that served two functions that ultimately caused the earthquake in Allentown. I have teams searching the other sites for similar equipment, but as of now, this is the only one we’ve found. The ballistics team believes it was used to control and direct a small drill that dug diagonally through the earth’s crust several miles away to under the site of the earthquake’s epicenter.

“Once under the epicenter, the drill deposited a very powerful explosive of a very small size — only a foot or so in diameter. And then the controller detonated the explosive.”

“And that caused the earthquakes.”

“That caused them, without a doubt.”

Colin rubbed his thumb over the symbol etched on the box. “You asked why they would put their sign on it? The sign of Gaia, their goddess — that’s what Dr. Alexander told me. It represents the deity of the earth. Perhaps as a form of blessing? As if to confirm that their actions were being made in her name? For her?” He looked up and Helen was nodding in agreement.

“Yes, that could be. And … if it weren’t for you, we would have no way of assigning this symbol to the Skaladeskas anyway. They would not expect us to make the correlation. There’s nothing in our database with this symbol on it. You’re the only connection. How fortunate for us.”

Colin chose not to meet her eyes. “I would never have guessed ….They’ll do it again. Of course.”

“Yes. They haven’t claimed responsibility for the events yet … but they will. They’ll want to. If they are acting in the name of their deity, they’ll be happy to tell us.” She paced again, somehow having acquired a pen that she slapped rhythmically against her palm. “Given the right kind of leader, any religion can turn evil — we’ve seen it happen since the beginning of organized worship. When a holy war is declared, the end justifies any means to those crusaders. We need to be ten steps ahead of them, Colin.

“If we can’t penetrate their shell, then we’ll have to wait for their warnings, their claims of responsibility, and their implicit hints and threats. I’m not willing to wait. You came to me with your background knowledge about these people — your team needs to get in there and find out what’s going on, who the leader is, and how we can stop their next threat. You know as well as I do that there will be one.”

And another.