The Cross of Sins (17 page)

Elsa revved the bike.

The one-armed man fired.

The bullet missed Jake by a fraction and ricocheted off a nearby tree.

"Get on!" Elsa screamed.

Without hesitation, Jake jumped on the back of the bike behind the Professor, and Elsa twisted the throttle and let go of the brakes.

The front wheel left the ground, and all three of them nearly slid straight off, but Jake clung to the Professor, and the Professor clung to Elsa, and Elsa clung to the handlebars as tight as she could. As the front wheel bounced back onto the ground, Elsa veered and swerved recklessly down the road, haphazardly trying to avoid the spray of bullets that clipped the back license plate and fractured both side mirrors.

Jake stole a glance behind them to see the one-armed man climb behind the wheel of the car. Fire up the engine. Turn the headlights to high beam.

"Jesus," Jake muttered to himself, "This guy just won't give up!"

He turned back and shouted to Elsa, "We got company!"

Elsa glanced in one of the broken side mirrors and saw the bright headlights of a car behind them, approaching fast.

"What do I do?" Elsa asked, panicked.

Jake called back over the roar of the engine. "Open out the throttle, all the way!"

"I'll kill us all!"

She was right, and Jake knew it. The Ducati was a powerful beast. It wasn't the kind of bike for a novice, let alone a novice with two other passengers on the back and a crazed gunman on their heels.

Jake glanced back again.

The car was gaining on them—fast.

They had only one option.

"Go into the forest!" he shouted,

"The forest?" Elsa shrieked.

"Trust me!"

Elsa did.

With a deep breath, she turned the handlebars and steered the bike straight into the woods. The Ducati plunged into the darkness, its headlight bouncing wildly off the oncoming trees.

Elsa turned left, right, left again.

The bike bounced and rocked. It charged up a small embankment, became airborne for several seconds, and then hit the ground again.

"Elsa! Keep it steady!"

"Steady!?!" Elsa screamed back to Jake. "This thing has a mind of its own! It's steering itself!"

If that were indeed true, it was entirely the fault of the Ducati that it steered itself straight into a giant mossy log.

The headlight smashed, the front wheel buckled, and the whole bike instantly crumpled, throwing Elsa, the Professor and Jake clear over the log and crashing into a thicket of ferns and shrubs.

Jake was up on his feet almost the second he landed.

"Professor! Elsa! You okay?"

He scrambled through the darkness, found the Professor and helped him sit up.

"Are you hurt?"

"No, I think I'm okay. Where's Elsa?"

"Elsa!" Jake called.

Somewhere deep in the thicket, Jake and the Professor heard a long, pained groan.

"Elsa!" Jake hurried in the direction of the sound and found Elsa staggering out of a prickly nest of twisted branches.

"I think I've broken my
hinterteile
!"

"I don't even know what that is."

"You don't want to know."

"Can you walk?" Jake asked, concerned.

"Yes," she said. "I think so."

Jake looked through the trees, and in the distance, he half-glimpsed the headlights of the one-armed man's car pulling up on the side of the mountain road. "Good," he said, "because we gotta keep movin'. Now."

He gathered up Elsa and the Professor, and together, the three of them limped and scurried into the pitch-black forest.

The sun rose over the mountain and broke through the trees. At some point during the night, Jake felt confident that the one-armed man had given up his search through the dark woods. With daylight, came the reassurance that their assailant was nowhere to be seen.

At the foot of the mountain the trees gave way to a clearing and beyond that a beautiful field.

The Professor picked up a scent. "I smell eggs. And coffee."

"There's a farmhouse," Jake said.

They walked through the long grass, and Elsa looked back up the mountain. She saw a tendril of smoke rising from the top of the distant trees and realized the chalet was gone.

"We've lost it all," she whispered.

The Professor heard her, and held out his hand. "We can rebuild it."

"It won't be the same," she shook her head.

The Professor smiled. "Of course not. Every day is different. Every day is a new adventure."

When they arrived at the farmhouse, Elsa knocked on the door. A little old man with a gray beard beamed at her with surprise and gave her a hug. They spoke to each other in German. The little man looked stunned and saddened when Elsa pointed to the smoke at the top of the mountain.

"Do you know him?" Jake asked the Professor.

"He's a neighbor," the Professor said with a nod. "Some years ago, his donkey fell very ill. I called Eden and he saved the donkey's life. You do these things because you want to, not because you expect a favor in return."

"You think he'll do us a favor now?"

"No," the Professor smiled. "He'll do what he wants to do."

Elsa mentioned Vienna and then the word
auto
.

The little man grinned and nodded emphatically and quickly led her, the Professor and Jake to a dilapidated barn. He pulled open the doors and disappeared inside.

Elsa, Jake and the Professor jumped when they heard a sound like a gunshot from inside the barn. It was followed by the rattle and splutter of an old engine. The three of them stood back as a tiny, ancient Fiat chugged out of the barn with the little old man grinning behind the steering wheel.

He got out and said something to Elsa, who turned to Jake and the Professor. "He wants us to have it with his blessing."

"We're gonna need more than a blessing to get us to Vienna in that," Jake muttered.

The Professor smiled graciously to the little old man. "
Vielen dank fur die Freundlichkeit
."

The little old man smiled and said in a thick German accent, "Anything for my neighbors."

The Professor turned to Jake. "So does this mean you're coming to Vienna with us, Mr. Stone? Or would you still rather walk to the nearest town?"

Jake sighed reluctantly. "I'll come to Vienna, but that's as far as I go. After that, you're on your own."

"We'll never be on our own," the Professor smiled. "But if that's what you wish for yourself, then I'll just have to respect that."

XI

Vienna, Austria

The journey from London to Vienna was a long and trying one for Will Hunter, not just because Elliott Ebus had a fear of flying and refused to board a plane, but because Elliott Ebus was afraid of just about everything.

When the two of them had been thrown off the tour bus—for no particular reason other than the fact that Will was wearing nothing but a bath towel—Elliott worriedly muttered, "My goodness, what ever will those people think of us!"

When Will dragged him quickly through Liberty's department store in search of clothes, through the scarf hall where dozens of female shoppers blushed and gawked and gasped, Elliott stammered, "Good Lord, d-d-do you think they'll have us a-a-a-arrested?"

When they reached Victoria Station and booked two Eurostar train tickets to Vienna via Paris and Munich, Elliott said rather urgently, "I'm afraid I need to find a lavatory. All this stress makes me rather —"

"I don't need to hear it," Will said, scanning the station for potential assailants. He saw a sign pointing to the restrooms. "Come on, let's go."

He pulled Elliott towards the toilets, but Elliott resisted. "You're not coming with me, are you?"

"You bet."

"But you're... I mean, back in the hotel room... With the other gentleman... You both looked like..."

Will could not deny a hint of amusement buried somewhere beneath his frustration. "Luca and I looked like what? Like we just had our way with each other? That's pretty perceptive, Lord Fuddy-Duddy. Now do you need to take a piss or not?"

"Yes, but I'd rather go alone, thank you very much."

"If you think because I'm gay I'm gonna make a pass at you in the toilet, tempting as it sounds, you're really not my type."

"All the same, I'd feel more comfortable if—"

"Listen," Will said, grabbing Elliott's jacket collar with one fist and pulling him near. "I don't know anything about you. I don't know why you had that book. I don't know what's in it. And I sure as hell don't know where your friends in the black robes are right now. But what I do know is, between here and Vienna, you're not leaving my sight for one second. Do you get that?"

A stunned Elliott Ebus stared up into Will's face, unable to talk. Suddenly, a woman walking by noticed the frightened look on Elliott's face and asked him with concern, "Is this man hurting you?"

Will glanced at her, and then back at Elliott's intimidated face and quickly planted a big passionate kiss on him.

Whether he was still stunned, or whether he harbored deeper secrets, Elliott didn't struggle.

Will pulled out of the kiss and with a smile turned to the woman and said, "Lover's tiff. We're fine."

Embarrassed, the woman apologized and scurried away.

Will turned back to an even more stunned Elliott and couldn't help but grin. "Admit it, you loved it."

Elliott Ebus didn't say another word until they pulled into Westbahnhof Station in Vienna.

The Royal Hotel was located between the Danube and Stephensdom, Vienna's thirteenth century Gothic cathedral. At the front desk of the hotel, Will asked for Dr. Ivan Jastrow. No matter where in the world he stayed, the Professor always used the name Ivan Jastrow.

Within minutes, the elevator doors in the hotel lobby opened and Luca poured out. He saw Will and Elliott and gave Will a hug so hard it almost knocked the air out of him.

"It's good to see you," Luca said, kissing him hard on both cheeks.

"You, too," Will said. He stepped back and sized up Luca's clothes with a smirk on his face. The young Italian was wearing an oversized Hawaiian shirt and bright purple pants. "Nice threads."

"I stole a suitcase off a baggage cart at Heathrow. I didn't get very far in the towel."

Will raised his eyebrows, amused and intrigued.

Luca shook his head. "It's a long story. I'll tell you about it some other time." Luca's face took on a serious expression. "Will, the chalet's been destroyed. Burned to the ground."

"The Professor? Elsa?"

"They're fine. Luckily Jake was there to help out. Come on." Luca gestured to the elevator. "Everyone's here waiting for you."

The large suite was dark, and Elliott Ebus was almost too scared to enter. Will and Luca guided him inside, using more than a gentle shove.

"It's all right, Mr. Ebus." The Professor's calm and collected voice came out of the darkness before he did. When he appeared, he smiled and held his hand out. "Forgive the drawn curtains, but I'm sure you understand."

Elliott shook the Professor's hand in a rather limp fashion. "Who are you people?" he asked both suspiciously and fearfully. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw they were in a large drawing room, and there were several people here: Will and Luca were behind him; Eden was standing behind the Professor; Shane was standing behind Eden; Elsa was sitting on a sofa; and Jake was standing beside a closed curtain, occasionally opening it a quarter of an inch to check for any sign of trouble or concern outside. "I could call the police, you know," Elliott said, his feeble threat sounding more like a complaint. "I could tell them I've been kidnapped."

"You can if you like, but I don't think you'll be doing yourself any favors. My name is Professor Fathom. This is Eden Santiago, Shane Houston, Jake Stone, and my housekeeper Elsa. I believe you've already met Luca and Will."

"I want to know what I'm doing here! I already gave you the book. What else do you want with me?"

"Nothing," the Professor said. "But the same can't be said for the people who followed you to Will and Luca's hotel room. Do you have any idea who they might have been?"

Elliott shook his head unconvincingly.

"Have you read the book, Mr. Ebus?"

"No. Yes. But I didn't understand any of it."

"Do you know its history?"

Elliott shook his head. "I was offered a lot of money to keep it a secret, by a man I didn't know. I've never seen him since. I don't want to. That's all I know."

"Then, I suggest we keep it that way," the Professor said. "You're safest not knowing anything else, and you're safest here with us. It's my recommendation, Mr. Ebus, that you remain with us until all of this is over. Would you agree?"

Elliott didn't look happy about it, nor did he protest.

The Professor took his silence as consent.

"Very good. Perhaps you'd like a rest, you seem tired. Elsa, would you please show Mr. Ebus to one of the rooms, while the boys and I adjourn to the sitting room?"

Elsa nodded and began to guide Elliott down the short hallway of the suite. The Professor touched her arm as she passed. "Please let me know if he has trouble sleeping."