Daniel was quiet on the trip over. Hunt watched him staring at those photos of the key until they were like to burn a hole in his eyeballs. No sense asking the kid what he thought he could see there.
Once they docked in Crete, Leroy was introduced to another one of the boy’s faithful flunkies—some weedy little islander named Nikos. He gave Hunt the once over and then pulled Daniel off to the side to whisper to him. He kept looking back over his shoulder at the cowboy. After a couple of minutes of gesturing and pointing, they walked back toward him.
“Brother Nikos says you must come with us,” Daniel told him hesitantly.
“I just gotta ask. Is he your actual brother? Cuz the way your daddy keeps collectin’ wives, I figure maybe he’s got a couple stashed here in Greece too.”
“No, Mr. Hunt,” Daniel said stiffly. “Brother Nikos is my spiritual brother, not my biological brother.”
“Well, considering how many acorns is hangin’ off your family tree, you can’t blame a body for askin’.”
Daniel doggedly repeated his earlier statement. “Brother Nikos says you must come with us.”
Lerory rubbed his neck irritably. It was late. He was tired from doing nothing all day, and the last thing he needed was to get prayed over. “Now I already told you, son, I ain’t sleepin’ in one of your confounded compounds.”
Daniel looked around the dock area nervously. “Brother Nikos says he has something important to tell us. Something he can’t say here.”
Hunt’s annoyance faded as curiosity took its place. “Well now, that sounds like it might be worth the trouble. But you tell him from me that once he speaks his piece, he’s gonna hustle me back to a hotel in town. You got that?”
“I understand English, sir,” the local said. “I will do as you ask. But now you must come. My car is parked over this way.”
Hunt shrugged and hoisted his duffle bag. “Whatever you say, Brother Nick.”
“Nikos,” Daniel corrected anxiously. “His name is Brother Nikos.”
“Ain’t that what I said?”
***
Twenty minutes later they were driving through a landscape that was darker than dirt. No lights anywhere. Daniel was up front with his new best friend giving Leroy the back seat all to himself.
Hunt tried to make conversation. “So, you got a compound out in the sticks here too? Jeez, you Nephilim got more hidey holes than a gopher.”
“No sir,” Nikos answered gravely. “There is no compound. We are going to my brother Dimitrios. He has a farm house some distance from the town.”
“Guess one of you Nephilim boys made good, huh? He got a house of his own and don’t have to share except maybe with his twenty-odd wives and such.”
Nikos corrected him. “My brother Dimitrios is not of the Blessed Nephilim, sir.”
“How’s that?” Hunt asked blankly.
Daniel tried to explain. “Nikos is a convert to our brotherhood, Mr. Hunt. The rest of his family was not born into our faith.”
“Well, don’t that beat all,” Leroy chuckled. “Quite a pickle, Brother Nick. You got a brother who ain’t a brother. I tell you what. You gotta come up with another word for them that joins your blessed whatsit and stop callin’ everybody brother. It’s downright confusin’.”
They drove in silence for ten minutes until another thought occurred to Hunt. “So, how come we’re goin’ for a confidential chit chat at your brother’s house? Who ain’t even a brother, by the way.”
“Brother Nikos lives at our Athens compound,” Daniel explained. “Because he is Cretan by birth, I asked him to come here ahead of us and begin to search the ruins at Knossos. We have no compound on the island where he could stay, so he asked his brother for refuge.”
“Uh huh,” Leroy said. “If you gotta stay with Brother Dimitrios too that means you’re gonna have to break your taboo about not eatin’ outside of a sanctuary, ain’t that right?”
“Where two Nephilim are gathered, that is a sanctuary,” Daniel intoned piously.
“I knew he’d weasel around it someway,” Hunt thought to himself. “This better not take long,” he said aloud.
“An hour and no more,” Nikos assured him.
Leroy leaned his back up against the car door and tilted his hat brim over his eyes. “Well good. You wake me when we get to your fake brother’s place.”
***
It took twenty more minutes for them to exchange pleasantries with Dimitrios and his family after their arrival. It might have gone quicker if any of them spoke English.
The three men were shown out into the garden where a table was set for a late-night snack of bread, olives, and feta cheese. Nikos and Daniel refused spirits and primly asked for tea while Hunt cheerfully accepted a glass of ouzo. Dimitrios was obliging enough to leave the bottle near at hand.
Once they were sure the family had retired, Nikos began to explain himself in a whisper. “I believe someone else is looking for these markings you sent me to find, Brother Daniel.”
“What?” Leroy sat bolt upright, alert for the first time since leaving Chicago.
Daniel nervously picked apart a piece of bread. “But that’s not possible. Who else could know about the granite key?”
“At Knossos, I saw three of the Fallen. Two women and a man. They were walking through the ruin looking for the same strange markings you wanted me to search for.”
“That so!” Leroy’s interest was piqued. “What’d they look like?”
“The Fallen man was young, with light brown hair. He spoke with a British accent. One of the Fallen women was Greek and middle-aged. The other was an American teenager with dark hair. They called her Cassie.”
“Well, don’t that beat all!” Hunt exclaimed, slapping the table with his palm.
“Mr. Hunt, please!” Daniel shushed him like a spinster librarian. “The family will hear you.”
Leroy ignored the admonition. “So little sis was in the game after all.
