The Relic Hunters

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

Xavier Von Gothe stood tall before the brethren, exalted, worshipped. He wore a goat’s head and brandished a dagger that dripped blood. The ritual was complete, the victim dead. He started off the chant, an invocation to their dark master. The brethren took it up, masters and novices among them, so many gathered for the fight.

If it came to that.

Xavier ended the black mass with a prayer and a silent offering to the Great Dragon. He walked around the altar and shrugged out of his robes. He moved over to a podium and left the victim lying there in full sight, something to ponder over for those that might even now be questioning their allegiance.

“If they come,” he shouted. “Are we ready?”

A shout went up, a roar. Xavier didn’t agree with stirring up the crowd this way; didn’t agree that they should be allowed to see him so closely. But needs must. Only one man stood above him — the High Minerval — and he had ordered Xavier to perform this task.

“If we are set upon,” he said. “We will use everything we have to protect this, our home. Our museum. Our sanctuary.” As he spoke he was picturing the secret escape route and other lodges they had dotted around the world. “The Order of the Illuminati,” he said. “Is a great, evergreen tree. You can smite it, you can hack at it, you can even sometimes chop it down, but a branch will always grow back. It is eternal.”

The cheers flooded the chamber that lay two floors below the impressive headquarters his ancestors had built in the hills to the east of Olympia train station. It had been a well-chosen site — the hills rugged and inhospitable and already hollowed out by underground streams. Once chosen, they had made sure no planning permissions were ever granted, no invitations extended. The placement was both fortunate and perfect.

The statue simply had to be brought here, back home, where it belonged. His ancestors knew that too.

Xavier raised both hands once more, riding the crescendo. “We will battle to the last man. Blood for blood. And the Great Dragon will fight with us! We cannot lose! Now protect your home, rise up, rise up and fight!”

His gaze swept the assemblage, satisfied. Close by were Typhon and Calypso, his closest commanders, one thick-set and hard, the other tall, willowy and deadly. Even closer at hand was Baltasar, the man he had sent out to collect the map, the best of the best, leader of the Hoods.

We are the Illuminati. We cannot lose.