The Minoan Cipher

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

Kalliste was close to the exit portal under the Tripartite Shrine at the foot of a broad marble stairway. She sprinted up the stairs in her eagerness to escape from the foul place with its four-legged demons and red-eyed monster. Her exuberance almost proved her undoing.

As she reached the top of the stairway and entered the dimly-lit interior of the Tripartite Shrine, she heard shouting. She ducked into the shadow of an alcove. Within seconds, a group of men in uniform burst through the doorway, dashed across the floor and disappeared down the stairs into the Maze. Kalliste crouched in a corner.

Her escape must have been discovered. She forced herself to count to sixty, then she rose from her hiding place, folded the tablecloth that had been her comfort blanket and tucked it into the alcove. She cautiously approached the entrance.

The wooden doors were wide open. She peered around the jamb and saw a pair of uniformed guards a dozen or so feet from the doorway. She yanked her head back inside. Time was short. When it was discovered she was not in the Labyrinth the search would be expanded to the castle grounds.

She didn’t know what to do. If she made a run for it, she’d be cut down in an instant, but it would be better than the torture of waiting to be caught and killed. She was psyching herself up to make a quick dash when she heard the unmistakable sound of an approaching helicopter.

She ventured a peek around the corner. The two guards had turned away from the door to watch the helicopter drop onto the landing pad. One guard started walking toward the helipad. Now or never.

Kalliste stepped through the doorway of the Tripartite Shrine and began to run.