The Orpheus Legacy

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Hawke pulled up in the parking lot opposite the Prophet Elias Monastery and killed the engine. The monastery was one of the oldest buildings on the island and situated high on the dry, sun-kissed summit of Mount Profitis Ilias. Two monks had built the towering outer walls at the start of the eighteenth century and the place looked more like a fort than a place of worship.

Now, in the fresh silence, the warm Aegean breeze blew in through the open windows and gently brushed their faces. Tourists parked up on the other side of the lot looked out across the sea to the east. It was an impressive vista, but Hawke had his mind on another kind of treasure. He studied the white painted stone walls surrounding the monastery, almost too bright to look at in the dazzling sun.

At least there was no sign of Sergei Dimitrov, King Kashala or the rest of the Blood Crew.

They emerged from the hire car and stepped into the bright day. Lea slipped on her sunglasses and viewed the monastery from below, hand on hips as the warm air blew through her hair. “Seems quiet enough,” she said. “Maybe this time it’s a quick in and out job.”

“Ryan,” Scarlet called out. “Lea needs you.”

He stepped over, hands in pockets. “What for?”

“She says she needs a quick in and out job and I hear on the grapevine that’s your speciality.”

“I’d like to point out that this is an outrageous slur on my good character,” Ryan said. “I’m just not that sort of man.”

“Boy.”

“Man.”

“All right,” Hawke said. “Let’s call time on the tit for tat and get inside.”

They made their way up to the famous monastery and pushed through the main door into the cool shade of the ancient building. An elderly couple gave vague smiles as they passed them in the nave and headed outside back to their car.

“Not many tourists around,” Ryan said.

Scarlet closed the door and stepped up to join the rest of the team. “Thank fuck for that.”

“Look over there,” Lexi said. “There’s a vicar.”

Ryan sighed. “Presbyter, not vicar. This is a Greek Orthodox monastery.”

Lexi narrowed her eyes and leaned into his face. “You want to continue this conversation in Mandarin?”

Ryan accepted the point. “As you were.”

“I thought that might be your answer.”

Zeke lowered his voice. “Whatever happens, no one is to tell him that we think his monastery might be built on top of the entrance to hell, yeah?”

Lea rolled her eyes. “Yeah, let’s not do that.”

After a short round of introductions, Lea started with her opening gambit. “We were wondering if the crypts were open to the public.” Her words echoed neatly in the old building.

“Not usually,” the presbyter replied. “Why do you ask?”

She paused and looked over to Hawke. The Englishman sensed her reluctance to tell the old man more, but there was no other way. Before he could speak, Ryan stepped forward.

“We think the entrance to hell might be under this monastery.”

“Goddam damn it,” Zeke said. “That’s exactly what you said not to say!”

As the old man gasped and took a step back, Lea rolled her eyes. “What my colleague means,” she said patiently, “is that we believe there may be some ancient catacombs underground here, catacombs that the ancients referred to as the entrance to Hades.”

Scarlet watched the old man’s face as it collapsed in horror. “Bet you weren’t expecting to hear that when you were having your cornflakes this morning.”

“I don’t know what to say,” he managed.

“And it gets even more serious,” Hawke said, noting something strange about the way the old man was looking at them. “The truth is we’re part of a Special Missions team hired by a famous treasure hunter named Guy Francken. He located an ancient relic that led us to this place but we’re not the only ones searching for it. There is another team looking for this place, and they’re very dangerous men.”

The presbyter’s face began to pale. “This is all too much to comprehend. Who are these men?”

Lea said, “They’re a team of Congolese and Belgian mercenaries led by a general and failed politician called Joseph Kashala. He was heavily involved with the M23 rebellion in the DRC a few years ago. We believe he was hired by a Bulgarian mafia boss to locate these catacombs, but we don’t know why.”

He collapsed down on one of the pews in the front row, his paper-thin skin reaching out for the back crest of the smooth wooden seat for support. “What you tell me is almost impossible to accept. How do I know you are not simply thieves, here to steal from the monastery?”

As he spoke, he lifted his tired eyes to the famous old icon. Partially obscured from their view by a carved chancel screen, Lea already knew from Ryan’s briefing in the car that another precious icon just down the road in the famous blue-domed church of Agios Theodoros had already been stolen twice before, once in 1797 and again in 1811. She couldn’t blame this man for being suspicious.

“We’re not here to steal from the monastery, sir,” she said. “If we were, we wouldn’t be talking to you. We would have come in the night.”

“Listen,” Scarlet sighed. “You’re in danger, and so is this monastery. The men we’ve just told you about won’t sit around chatting to you like this.” She pointed to the main door and raised her voice. “They will burst through that door with more guns than the Greek Army, kill you and blow this place to pieces. Help us, or that will happen.”

Shocked to his core, the presbyter looked up at them and nodded. “But we must call the police, first.”

Hawke and Lea exchanged a glance. She said, “No, that’s not a good idea.”

“Why not?”

They all knew why not, but communicating their fugitive status to the old man would be difficult and time-consuming to explain and would only make him more suspicious of them.

“Because they’ll get hurt,” she said. “Even if they’re armed, they’re not going to be any match at all for a group of heavily-armed mercenaries.”

After some debate with himself, he accepted her argument and gave a reluctant nod. “Very well, then what do we do next?”

“We need you to let us into the crypt and then you need to get out of here,” Hawke said. “Your life is at risk every second you spend in this building, and so are the lives of everyone else here. You need to get everyone who works or lives here away and close the whole place to tourists. Once we have located the catacombs we’re looking for, we’ll investigate what we find down there. If we can secure whatever it is Kashala and his men are looking for, then we’ll take it with us and he’ll leave you alone.”

“I see…”

Sensing his support for them was starting to waver, Lea said, “It’s the only way, sir. They could be here any minute.”

“All right, I will show you the entrance to the crypt and then I will drive to the local police station. I will tell them to get a stronger force from the mainland.”

There was little point, Hawke thought. Kashala would be in and out by the time the Greek authorities could arrange a transport of more heavily armed police officers to the island, but at least it meant the presbyter would be away from the monastery. “That’s a very good idea,” he said. “Now, where is the entrance to the crypt?”