“You’re a strange woman,” Mortimer murmured, still unnerved by Li’s willingness to throw herself into the flames of danger.
“She’s brave and smart — and beautiful,” Cedric retorted, glaring at Mortimer.
“I’m not arguing any of those points,” Mortimer said. “But it doesn’t change my point at all.”
Gravedigger stood up and all conversation ceased. She was the team’s leader and the only person who might have possibly challenged that role had recently been put into his place. As such, there was a definite feeling that whatever Gravedigger decided would be the path they would take, regardless of individual concerns.
“Whoever sent this to me wanted me to take it to the museum. They wanted me to find out the truth about The Skull. That’s why they stole the information I was carrying.” Gravedigger picked up the Skull and stared into its gleaming eye sockets. “I’m pretty sure they think I’m dead now, which means they’ll want The Skull back.”
Mitchell tensed in his seat. “You’re saying they’re going to make a raid on Hendry Hall, aren’t you?”
“I’d bet my last dollar on it.”
“Then we’ll be ready for them! Once we’ve captured them, we’ll make them talk.”
“I don’t want the rest of you here.”
The looks of surprise on the faces of the men were only dwarfed by the extreme disappointment evident on Li’s.
Mitchell sprang to his feet, fists clenched. “That man left you for dead, Charity. You’re in no shape to take on him and whatever army he might have with him!”
Gravedigger placed a hand on her lover’s chest. “They think I’m dead, remember? If we have you guys out of the house, they won’t be expecting any trouble at all. I’ll take them completely by surprise.”
“Doesn’t mean that it’s not crazy.” Mitchell covered her small hand with his own, which covered it completely. “Besides, you don’t know when they’re coming. What do you want us to do? Stay away for however long it takes?”
“They won’t waste any time, I’m certain of that. They also won’t come during the day.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because the guy who shot me told me his name.”
“Why didn’t you tell us that?” Mitchell asked, his mouth falling open. He didn’t bother asking why she hadn’t mentioned that fact to the police. He knew that she’d want to deal with the would-be murderer herself.
Ignoring the question, Gravedigger said, “His name is Hiroshi Tamaki. He’s a Japanese immigrant who moved to this country several years ago. His family was once close to the Imperial throne but factors never conspired to allow them the chance to seize power for themselves. Now they’ve fallen on hard times and Tamaki fled to the United States along with what was left of their fortune. He literally abandoned his own parents to a life of squalor.”
“Sounds like a real peach,” Cedric said.
Gravedigger nodded and continued. “Since coming to Sovereign, he’s gotten his fingers into a lot of organized crime, mostly bankrolling other operators and then skimming the profits. It keeps him out of the eyes of the police but on top of the action.”
“Let me offer up a guess here,” Mitchell said. “He’s not just your average criminal. He has an interest in the occult and wants to become immortal or something, right?”
“I don’t know about that last part but he does have an interest in the occult. He was a frequent customer of Bingwen and bought up his property after the old man died.”
“I’ve seen him!” Li exclaimed. “There’s a Japanese man who comes and goes from there. A few others visit him pretty regularly but I’m not sure who they are. I’m not in Chinatown as often as I used to be.”
Gravedigger shrugged her shoulders. “There’s no telling. Tamaki has a lot of contacts. I think he came across The Silver Skull at some point and maybe even had some theories regarding Pandora but he wasn’t sure. He needed someone to verify it all for him. All of you heard about the breakout at the prison earlier today. Well, the man who escaped was Dr. Jonah Craig. He was serving a prison sentence for attempted theft of some items from the museum and he’s written a number of papers about the historical accuracy of the Pandora myth.”
“So why not just break out this Craig guy and avoid bringing us into it at all?” Mortimer moved closer to the group now and Gravedigger was suddenly glad that he was present. He thought of things in a similar manner to how she did and, even though the conclusions they drew were often different, she could perfectly understand how and why he got to them.
Cedric interrupted, asking, “Wait, do we know for sure that the breakout is related to Tamaki?”
“Too big of a coincidence for it not to be,” Mitchell answered, eliciting a nod of agreement from Gravedigger.
“Mitchell’s right. So we have to ask ourselves the very same question that Mortimer just raised: if he knew that I was going to get the answers to The Skull’s history, why break out Craig? Obviously, he has another purpose in mind for him. Given the manhunt that’s out there for both Craig and his accomplices, Tamaki isn’t going to waste any time. That’s why I think he’s going to send someone to get The Silver Skull tonight.”
“And because some of his key henchmen were involved in the prison breakout, he won’t want to send them out in broad daylight to do something like this,” Mortimer said. “Which leads you to assume that they’ll make their move tonight.”
“Exactly.”
Mitchell sighed, still looking unhappy. “If you want us out of here, that’s what we’ll do. You know that. But at least let us stay within earshot so you can call us if it comes to that.”
Cedric snapped his fingers. “I know just the place. We can make a big show of driving out at sundown, just in case anyone is watching the house. Then we double back around and park at the old groundskeeper’s place at the edge of the property. We’d be able to hear any gunshots that were fired.”
Gravedigger smiled at Mitchell. “See? We both get what we want.”
Mitchell wasn’t budging, however. “Let me get this straight, though. You’re going to be lying in wait for them, not knowing if they’re coming with two people or twenty. We’re going to be at the far edge of the property which means by the time we get here you could have been shot or stabbed a good dozen times and you’re doing to be fighting them with a gunshot wound in your belly that’s less than twelve hours old?”
“That’s the plan.”
The two lovers stared at one another for a long moment. It was finally Mitchell who relented, exhaling slowly and saying, “If you do end up dead, I’m going to say I told you so.”
Chapter V: Pandora Rising
“They’ve been gone for over an hour. I say we make our move.”
Locke stood a few feet away from Quick Dan, who was nervously puffing on a cigarette and staring through a pair of binoculars. She had initially offered to spell him occasionally but after staring at the gloomy structure of Hendry Hall for more than a minute, she’d shivered and shoved the binoculars back into his hands. The place sent a spike of fear straight into her chest. It looked like something out of a Bela Lugosi movie.
A group of eight men were with them, huddled together next to the cars they’d brought. The thugs were the sort for whom rape and murder were almost second nature. They didn’t ask any questions about what the job entailed. All they cared about was getting paid. If it required them to break into somebody’s home and possibly kill once they had done so, they were more than willing to do it.
“You’re the boss of this one,” Locke said to Dan. “Whenever you say jump, we’re ready.”