The Relic Hunters

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Kept together by fate, Bodie’s team and Heidi Moneymaker, their CIA handler, swept the clouds and the skies apart in their headlong helicopter dash to Istanbul. Nobody checked to see if their way had been cleared; nobody checked to see if their arrival was going to be valid. The life at stake and the map that might lead to taking down the Illuminati was the sole focus of everyone’s attention.

A call came in from the Istanbul ground team. “We’re outside the apartment,” a gravelly voice drawled. “I see a figure at the window right now. Guy looks fine; drinking coffee, bare chested. I’d say he’s relaxed.”

“Alone?”

“Impossible to say at this time. I’ll keep you informed.”

Cassidy watched as Heidi pocketed the cellphone. “Coffee and a bare chest at this time of day? I’d say he has a lady in there.” She glanced at Gunn. “Or a guy. No judgment.”

Gunn spluttered. “Why the hell did you look at me?”

“Like I said: no judgment. I mean it.”

Gunn looked ready to explode. Bodie wished Cassidy would stick to the mission. “Relax, people. Time is short.” He included Heidi in his gaze. “I’m assuming we have no time to prep?”

Jemma sat up. Excited. “Get me a blueprint of the building and I’ll work you out the perfect extraction plan. No hassle.”

Heidi inclined her head. “Don’t think me ungrateful, but we really don’t have the time. In, out. Sixty seconds max.”

Cassidy couldn’t help herself, but stared directly into Gunn’s eyes.

The geek looked like he wanted to throw something at her.

“Istanbul.” Cross was seated near the window. “Wow.”

Wide blue waters led to a great bridge and a sprawling city. The white buildings and orange roofs seemed to stand out, but then he saw the Hagia Sophia, the fifteen-hundred-year-old building considered to have changed the history of architecture, the incredible dome standing out like nothing Bodie had ever seen before. Staring hard, he knew he’d never be able to take it all in even if he had a week, but then the chopper was swooping down, heading fast toward a discreet helipad.

“Public area.” Heidi shrugged. “Only problem will be customs. You ready?”

They were. Their own passports were civilian and had initially brought them to Mexico and then the European continent. Heidi’s had been supplied by the CIA.

Thankfully, the customs check was exhaustive but professional. The team were soon beyond and trying to flag down a taxi. Cassidy solved it by rustling up two via her Uber account and they were soon following Heidi’s directions.

“Eight minutes,” she told them quietly.

Get ready.

Bodie knew Heidi would do the talking. His team would be support and reconnoiter, whilst the team already on the ground would be perimeter and weapons. The taxis pulled up and departed. Quickly, they made their way to the man they had spoken to an hour ago.

“Any change?” Heidi asked.

“Not a darn thing.” The CIA operative was dressed as a local, looked like a local, and sat smoking at an outdoor café, a half-drunk specialty tea before him. “Nobody in nor out. I guess we’re a go.”

Heidi waited until he’d checked with his colleague — currently lying prone with binoculars upon the roofs above — and received the same answer.

“Good,” she said. “Follow me.”

Bodie did as he was told, resisting the stares from Cassidy and Cross who clearly wondered when the CIA agent had started leading their team. They crossed a road, waiting for traffic, walked through a dust cloud, and entered the building. Inside, it was small and dingy. Bodie smelled spices, urine and bleach. The stairs were empty and Heidi led them up to the second floor.

Raised her hand and knocked at the wooden door. Eight seconds passed before it was pulled open and a bare-chested man confronted them.

“Kalimera?” he asked with half a smile.

Heidi stepped back non-threateningly. “Hi, do you speak English?”

“That depends,” the man said, smile widening. “Are you the cops?”

Cassidy laughed, stepping alongside Heidi. “Pretty much the opposite, dude. You sound English to me. Any chance we can—”

Then Bodie practically jumped out of his skin as the relaxed moment turned volatile. Heidi received a text message, which was the danger signal. She read it aloud.

“Hood in apartment right now.”

“Fuck!” she shouted. “He’s stealing the laptop.”

The man looked shocked and then scared. Heidi placed a hand on his chest and pushed him to the side, before rushing in first. Cassidy was at her heels and then Bodie, trying not to be impressed by Heidi’s fearlessness. The apartment was small, with a window, a balcony and one door that led to a bedroom. A desk sat in one corner, over which now hovered a man clothed as a civilian but was clearly anything but.

He looked up, face pitted and hard as an ancient redwood. Not even the ghost of an expression crossed those pitiless features but the promise of death and savagery was evident.

“Put that down.” Heidi motioned at the laptop he held in one hand.

Cassidy ranged to the right, Bodie to the left. Nobody expected this to go down without one hell of a fight. Nobody was disappointed. The Hood could not release the laptop, which hampered everything he did, but came at them with speed and fury. Nothing prevented him using it as a weapon, so he swung the flat plastic item straight at Heidi’s head as she closed the gap. She blocked. The Hood spun and used her own momentum to send her tumbling past. Cassidy waded in hard as Heidi’s blond curls connected with the far wall.

The Hood cracked the laptop into her, to no avail, then kicked, spun and kicked again. Cassidy took the blows for what they were — mere distraction as he eased his way toward the balcony. Bodie stepped forward then too, trying to block the way but the Hood reacted instantly and leapt.

“Ground team,” Heidi was muttering into her phone. “Move in.”

The Hood reached the window, jack-knifed through and landed cat-like on the balcony. Bodie was a few seconds behind. The Hood jammed the laptop into his waistband, jumped onto the narrow railing and then leapt upward, in full-flight. Bodie climbed out of the window, looked up, and saw the figure already six feet ahead, scaling the building.

“Sheeyit.”

But Bodie had skills of his own. A man didn’t become the world’s most infamous VIP thief by being inferior on his feet. Using the handrail, he caught hold of a pattern of stones that decorated the building’s frontage, using them to get a handhold and pull himself up. Cassidy was at his back, undaunted, and then Heidi who shaded her eyes to look up.

“I’ll meet you on the roof.”

She vanished. Bodie propelled his body up fast, bouncing nimbly from handhold to foothold. The rocks were rough and regular, ideal for the quick ascent. The Hood showed him how to do it though, now eight feet ahead and converging on the roofline.

“Taking risks like that,” Bodie said to himself. “My lad, you’ll come a cropper.”

He tended to speak the slang only to himself these days. Nobody else understood.

Bodie progressed, sensing Cassidy hot on his heels. The redhead would be shouting soon, you could guarantee it. Back in the room she hadn’t actually joined in the fray and she’d be as frustrated as a shark in Sea World, stuck behind the glass window as the meat buffet strolls by. A lowering sun burned down in them, still hot, especially when you were inches from death. Sweat poured from Bodie’s brow and made his grip precarious. Once, Cassidy brushed the soles of his feet, grumbling.

Then, the roof and he had to slow once more, worried that the Hood might be waiting. But a glance over the top showed the Hood already sprinting across the level rectangle, laptop once again clutched in his left hand. Bodie heaved himself over the edge, rolled and rose. Cassidy was quicker, gaining the lead. The redhead tore after the Hood, and Bodie saw Heidi smash through a door to their right.

“Where?” she cried.

“There!” He pointed.

The Hood was airborne now, leaping across the gap between roofs. Cassidy followed him, closing the gap, Bodie and Heidi trying to keep up. Another roof and then another gap, this one wider than the last. Bodie made it with room to spare, checked on Heidi and saw her clear the gap even better than he. Again, he was impressed, then not sure if his feeling was complimentary to her or quite the opposite. Complex.

And why the hell does it matter?

The next roof was blazing white and cluttered with all manner of rubbish. The Hood slowed, forced to pick his way through more than one sharp hazard. Cassidy gained it first, then got her foot caught in a wooden crate and had to stop to shake it off.

Bodie passed on the inside, chuckling.

“Fuck off, asshole.” He heard the muttered words.

Ahead, the Hood leapt across another roof, landed and rolled twice, signifying its gap.

Behind, Cross was keeping up with them. Bodie heard the shout: “Why is she dancing?” and then Cassidy’s profane reaction.

The gap was huge. Bodie ran hard, took off and reveled in the empty air for just a moment before coming down and scraping his knees and elbows. He rolled, rose, didn’t give chase until he saw Heidi land at his side. The Hood was still on this roof — a large rectangle — and perhaps now seeing the futility of the chase, investigating a smoking chimney that jutted through the ground at his feet. Bodie saw what was to come, but had no chance of stopping it. The Hood was still a good ten feet away.

The laptop went down into the chimney, falling two floors to the fire below, probably belonging to one of Istanbul’s many restaurants. Bodie attacked the man as he spun; smashed a fist against the temple and another to the jaw. The Hood reeled, stepped back. Bodie fought harder. The Hood blocked and danced aside, making space. The face was bloodied and strained, but still lacking any sign of real emotion.

“Who do you work for?” Bodie panted as he fought. “Where are they? Why the map?”

The Hood dropped to one knee, delivering a punch to Bodie’s lower groin that dropped him right on the spot. The pain resonated throughout his body, making him retch, even making him lose the power of speech.

Heidi stepped up, closely backed by Cross. The latter was panting hard, the former the first to strike. The Hood blocked and counter-attacked, making Heidi cry out in pain and fall back. Cross leapt in without thought.

The Hood brushed him off, sending him lurching toward the edge of the roof. Cross managed to catch himself and looked back at the Hood, surprised.

“What the hell are you, boy?”

Cassidy reached the fight, letting Bodie have his chuckle of earlier right back. “So you do have a pair?”

Bodie could only groan and watch through narrowed eyes. Cassidy engaged the Hood from the front, taking all his attention; then Cross came in from behind — a mistake to let the older man remain there, and Heidi was back in from the Hood’s right. Jemma came up as Bodie struggled to his feet, hands clasped between his legs, still heaving. Gunn was four steps behind her.

“Nowhere to go.” Jemma took out her weapon, aiming it at the Hood. Bodie was confident she wouldn’t use it — too much risk all around — but the vicious Hood didn’t know that. Cassidy landed a blow at that moment; Cross kicked him in the spine from behind and lost his own footing, ending up prone. Then Heidi struck too and the ground team finally joined them, Glocks at the ready.

The Hood cast around for a way out; started to run at Cross but received a flying kick from Cassidy that sent him tumbling right at the edge of the roof. Heidi caught him, pushed him back with a withering glance at the redhead.

“Now we talk,” she said. “Or I let the old actress have you.”

Cassidy flexed her knuckles. “Thirty, dear. It ain’t old. It’s pretty damn perfect.”

“Aren’t we all.” Bodie stepped in to help pull Cross to his feet. “Lose your footing, pal?”

“I won’t be trying that again.”

“Me neither.” Bodie grimaced at a sharp pain below the waist.

“Well, look at it this way. Better the nutsack than the teeth, eh?”

Bodie wasn’t sure he agreed, and poor old Cross was struggling and trying not to show it. He left the forty-three-year-old to recover and advanced on the Hood.

“What are your orders, ya fucking weirdo?”

“Maybe leave this to me.” Heidi held out a hand to stop him. “You remember the big picture? What they can do?”

Bodie backed off. Heidi then turned and delivered four crushing blows to the Hood. The man staggered as everyone winced. The face ran with blood; one arm was broken. Bodie stared at Cassidy in disbelief and Gunn cleared his throat.

“Hey? Is that… I mean, bloody hell. Is that really necessary?”

Heidi caught her breath, holding the Hood upright so that he could not sag to the floor. She delivered another intense blow, this time to his solar plexus, then held him in place. “Are you stupid?” she asked. “Do you not remember Athens? The bus station? You saw that and then you ask me if this is ‘necessary?’”

Bodie saw the young archaeologist loitering at the rear of the group and motioned for Gunn to join him. “Look after that guy for us, Sam. He could be invaluable.”

Gunn looked only too pleased to go.

Heidi shook the Hood hard. “I want to know everything,” she said. “About the map. Your masters. Your life. Upbringing. Training. If you won’t tell us it will only go downhill from here.”

“He won’t talk,” Cross said. “He’s an elite assassin. You’ll never get him to say a word.”

Cassidy bit her lip. “I have to agree with ole Zimmer Boy here. I’m just a failed actress, MMA Queen and underground street fighter though. This guy’s harder than hardcore.” Then her expression changed. “Unless they offered me coconut ice cream. Hey, Hood, you like coconut ice cream?”

The Hood only gasped, now hanging weakly. Bodie knew it was a ruse. “Don’t trust—” he began and then their enemy exploded into action.

He kicked out, driving Heidi away. He danced back, forcing some room. He cast wild glances to left and right.

“Nowhere to go,” Bodie said. “You can’t outrun us—”

But the Hood did run, and proved him wrong. He ran to the edge of the roof and dived off, headlong, and plummeted two stories to the street below.

Heidi shook her head. “Shit. No Hood. No laptop. Shit, shit, shit.”

Bodie expressed it somewhat differently. “Bollocks.”

The entire team then turned to the young archaeologist. Heidi managed a strained smile.

“Hey,” she said. “Hey, what’s your name?”