“Have you got any painkillers?”
“I have,” said Ezra cheerfully. “Come on, move yourself. It’s almost dawn, and we have much to do and little time to do it in. We have unwelcome visitors coming.”
The sun was just rising, a weak grey pre-dawn light gently caressing the horizon. Tatiana followed Dillon, whinging about the lack of sleep they’d had and touching the healing wound to her shoulder. “Ezra’s painkillers are working, but not quick enough.”
“They’ve cleared my head. That shoulder of yours still throbbing?”
Tatiana gave a wan smile. “I’ll survive, I’m sure.”
She moved across the veranda, linked arms with her uncle. “Do you remember when we used to go sailing on days like these?”
“I do, and I wish those days were with us again.” Ezra’s voice was filled with fond memories, tainted with sadness of a world gone terribly wrong…
“Me too,” smiled Tatiana. “You make me feel like I’m back there again.”
“If only.” said Ezra softly, glancing over at Dillon who was leaning over against the balustrade and smoking a cigarette. “Hey, Dillon, come on. I have something to show you.”
“Does that something involve a bed?”
“No. But it does have something to do with the Assassins.”
Ezra led them down the steps of the white-walled villa: a clever disguise, an effective cover for what it concealed. He led themthrough the olive grove, and then out the other side over arid scrubland and a random stand of olive trees until they came to a rusting iron hatchway concealed by small rocks and dirt, and fallen leaves and branches.
“This facility has always had a ‘Top Secret — Highly Classified’ status. And as you both know, the villa and olive groves are merely a cover for what lurks below.” Ezra said standing directly over the rusting iron cover. “While I am impressed with your skills in running me to ground, you really, really have no idea what you are dealing with… You really do not understand what it is you are fuckingwith here…”
He spun the rusted iron wheel, which moved with surprising ease. There was a hiss as the iron hatch was released. Ezra heaved up the hatch to reveal a shallow flight of steps made of stainless steel. Ezra removed a key from a chain around his neck; he went down the steps to a control panel; inserted the key into a slot and turned it. Returning to the others, saying, “Step back.”
Dillon and Tatiana did as they were instructed.
There came a distant sound of a mechanical mechanism grinding into life, followed by a hiss as the ground opened up and the steps turned into a riveted stainless steel ramp, flanked by metallic walls and leading down to another part of the facility.
From the darkness below the lights running down the middle of the ramp-way shone like diamonds. There came the sound of diesel generators and the gentle humming of the air-conditioning units.
“Come.” Ezra stepped forward and onto the ramp. Dillon and Tatiana followed him down the ramp into the darkness of Ezra’s secret world — below the hot ground of Santorini.
Dillon stood eyes gazing at the array of hi-tech weaponry stored in rows of metal racks down both sides of the spacious armoury.
“Hell, Ezra.” he said.” I didn’t realise you had such… resources.”
Ezra smiled wanly.
“If only it were enough.”
“Enough? Ezra, you’ve got enough weaponry here to start a small war.”
“That may be. But they are sending many Assassins this time.”
“How many, exactly?”
Ezra’s dark-eyed stare met Dillon’s. “The blue-prints… They want them bad, Dillon.”
“How many?”
“At least twenty,” said Ezra softly. And these will have been selected from their elite forces…
Chapter 15
Dillon stood in awe at the entrance of the huge chamber hewn from the rock. Metal racks full with an impressive array of weapons; positioned in neat rows down the length of the chamber, were a contrast to the rough harshness of the environment.
Computer monitors flickered across the wall at the far end of the cavernous room. Ezra walked straight towards them, saying as he walked. “These monitors control a number of concealed antipersonnel weapons that are concealed throughout and around the entire perimeter of the olive groves and villa complex.” Ezra gestured at the wall.
“Mines, missiles and machine guns?” Said Dillon softly. “Bloody hell, Ezra. You must have some mighty powerful government masters to have such remarkably unlimited resources?”
“Let me take you through to the kit-room. As you will soon see, we also have all of the latest lightweight body-armour, so fit yourselves out with anything you want and then we’ll talk battle tactics.”
“Ezra, fighting a battle is one thing. But with the weaponry you’ve got down here, you could start a full-scale fucking war, old son.” Dillon said, as he inspected a bullet-proof body vest.
Once Dillon and Tatiana had chosen their combat kit, Ezra explained quickly as they walked through a network of tunnels, gesticulating passionately with his hands, his eyes wide and focused; they came to many turns in the underground passageways — sometimes they branched off in two or three directions. Ezra would take a tunnel
— seemingly at random — his boots treading the dust as he led the couple through the correct sequence of the…
“Maze?” asked Dillon.
“It didn’t start out like that, but over the years it has become so. We have been busy boys down here under the rock.” He grinned a broad toothy grin.
“So I see,” said Dillon, brushing his way through giant cobwebs.
“Of course you want answers? You sounded surprised when I mentioned anti-personnel weapons. Courtesy of MI6 and the SAS, who smoothed the way with the weapons? You see, we act as guardians for this large cache of killing power. Why? I hear you ask. Well, when a special operations team need a little extra hardware, they call in and we respond by ensuring they get what they want. The reason for this is — personal protection of VIPs. The British Government owns a number of exploration drilling rigs at a variety of locations around this part of the world. Together with this, and they would deny it if asked, they also own the rights to many ocean sites with oil, mineral and precious metals beneath the waves throughout the Mediterranean and Aegean. But it doesn’t stop there, the British Government also owns millions of acres of forestland in Poland, Russia, and Finland, and thousands more miles of desert throughout Africa and in a variety of locations scattered across the Middle-East… secretly, and under the guise of corporate business concerns. The British Government also has major holdings in many major corporations around the globe, including; drilling and mining, computer hardware and software development, military computer research and development, banking, you name it… It’s beyond my comprehension, and it is financed entirely from billions of pounds siphoned out of the Treasury and away from the public domain.” He said with acidity. “They have a finger in every pie; if you can make money out of it, the British Government does. Gold, precious stones, oil, gas, construction, computers. Behind closed doors, they are one of the wealthiest organisations in the world, even though they tell a gullible general public that the country has an enormous monetary deficit. And this is probably best for everyone, but…”
“And there is always a but,” said Dillon easily.
“We talked about Professor Kirill last night: He is, was, the bright star of British computer supremacy. But now he has joined forces with a rather unsavoury character by the name of Ramus — together they plan to use Chimera to destroy economies and even whole continents.”