House of Acerbi

“That river winds through some pretty rugged country … and then there are those gangs of armed thugs out there roaming the countryside right now.”

“I know. I had planned on scouting the area from the air this morning, but that plan just went up in flames. Damn, we really needed that helicopter.”

Lev’s radio crackled to life. “Professor, are you there?”

“Yes.”

“The sensors along our northeast border are going crazy. So are the ones on our eastern perimeter. We can see armed men just across the river, and … “

“And what?”

“And there are three large helicopters inbound from the north.”

“How long until they’re here?”

“About five minutes, sir … if we’re lucky.”

CHAPTER 37

From his chateau, Rene Acerbi was talking on the radio to the commander of a flight of three Blackhawk helicopters as they swooped in low over the river. Breaking formation, two of the Blackhawks suddenly peeled off and circled around so that they could attack the castle from the opposite direction.

On the ground, gunfire aimed at the commander’s helicopter erupted from the trees bordering the vineyards. The door gunner in the Blackhawk immediately returned fire with an M-134 mini-gun, a fearsome weapon with a cyclic rate of fire of 50 rounds per second. In a scorching hail of bullets, the guns on the ground were quickly silenced as the chopper flew by overhead.

Swinging around from the south, the other two choppers took aim at the castle and let loose with a fusillade of rockets from their side pods. In rapid succession, the rockets impacted at regular intervals along the ancient walls of the castle, and when the smoke had cleared, a medieval piece of history was nothing more than a scorched pile of unrecognizable rubble at the top of the hill.

Inside the commander’s chopper, the pilot frowned as they came to a hover above the smoking remains of the little blue chopper at the base of the hill.

“Looks like something happened down in the compound before we got here, sir.”

The commander frowned. “What did you say?”

“The compound seems to have taken a hit before we arrived.”

“A hit? Are our men encountering much resistance on the perimeter?”

“None … they’ve already made it across the river and are advancing through the vineyard.”

“What about the gunfire we received from the tree line?”

“It came from one of their radar-guided ground-to-air weapons. Apparently, it was unmanned and was set to fire automatically.”

Back at the chateau, Acerbi keyed the microphone and called the leader of his forces on the ground. “What’s the body count down there, captain?”

“There are no bodies, sir.”

Acerbi practically screamed into the microphone. “What do you mean no bodies?”

Everyone listening over the radio could hear the tremble in the man’s voice when he answered. “I mean there’s no one here, sir. The site is completely deserted!”

Everyone from the compound was running. Ahead of them, the floor of the tunnel angled down and then up again as it wound through the earth beneath the countryside. There were almost sixty people making their way through the underground labyrinth, including half a dozen children. Behind them, they could feel the ground shake from time to time with explosions, making them run even faster as they looked back over their shoulders.

“How far do we have to go, Ephraim?” Leo huffed.

“These tunnels go on for miles, Cardinal. They were dug back in the 13^th century by villagers trying to escape from all the marauding armies that were sweeping across this part of France. It was the time of all the religious massacres.”

Now, as they ran, it was beginning to look like history was repeating itself. Twenty minutes earlier, when they had learned that armed men were approaching the compound from across the river to the north, Lev had given the order for everyone to flee. With three inbound helicopter gunships supporting a large, well-coordinated ground assault force, it didn’t take a military genius to figure out that the attackers would overwhelm the castle’s defenses within minutes.

When Lev had originally purchased the property, Ephraim had showed him the medieval tunnel system. Right away, they both saw that the tunnels would provide a perfect escape route if the compound was ever attacked. The Israelis always had a backup plan.

In keeping with their pre-planned exit strategy, everyone, including those stationed around the perimeter, had escaped down into the tunnel system before making their way to a rendezvous point under the castle. Once they had all gathered together, Moshe performed a quick head-count as Ephraim began leading the entire assemblage into the depths of the labyrinth. After walking for forty-five minutes, they entered a large, cavern-like space that contained a shallow pool of clear, aquamarine water.

“We need to stop for a minute,” Ariella said. “The children need to rest.”

Lev clinched an unlit cigar in his teeth and surveyed the space. “Ok, but only for a couple of minutes. If the same men who just attacked the castle have discovered the tunnels, they could already be down here searching for us.”

“It won’t be easy for them,” Ephraim said. “The tunnels under the castle fan out in all directions. They’ll have to know which way we went if they want to come after us.”

“What about the Carmela?” Leo asked.

“I radioed Alex about our situation before we left the castle. He agrees that we should follow the Aude River to the coast. They’ll be waiting for us offshore in the speedboats.”

“How are we going to travel down the river with all of these people, especially the children?”

“There’s a river barge tied up downriver that belongs to a friend of ours,” Ephraim said. “We just have to make it to that barge and get everyone onboard without being seen. From there, we should be able to make it all the way to the Mediterranean.”

Carrying a heavy duffle bag full of weapons, John walked over and dropped the bag on the ground next to Leo. Breathing in the musty smell of the tunnels, he looked over his head at the roof of the cavern. “Have you two noticed that, whenever we’re all together, we end up underground somewhere?”

They both stared back at him for a second before the two of them burst out laughing.

Leo slapped him on the back. “I don’t know how you do it, John. You always make me laugh at the most inappropriate times.”

Chuckling to himself, Lev reached to light his cigar before he caught himself. The smell of cigar smoke would be a dead giveaway. No sense in giving their pursuers a cigar-scented trail to follow. “Let’s keep moving. There’s a side tunnel up ahead that exits under the ruins of an old abandoned castle.”

Moving on through the twisting tunnels, they reached a steep stairway carved into soft white stone. Looking up, they saw a faint light and began to climb until they reached several massive stone blocks that had tumbled down into the tunnel, leaving only a tiny crawl space between them and the daylight beyond. One by one, they all squeezed through, ending up outside among the crumbling ruins of a long-forgotten castle.

A sudden gust temporarily blinded Leo, and as he turned to shield his eyes, he spotted Lev standing behind a large block of stone, trying to light his cigar.

“Where are we?” Leo shouted against the wind.

“You’re standing in the ruins of a 12^th century Cathar fortification.” Lev pointed across the valley to a column of smoke rising into the sky. “That’s what’s left of our castle.”

Against a clear blue sky, Leo could see the dense black smoke rising from a hilltop in the distance.