Lucie shrugged. “Do you remember when Bacchus was telling us of the prophecy? He mentioned the word ore twice in the same sentence as the crucible. And isn’t the purest lifeblood of the earth, of the ley lines, of these ancient megaliths—isn’t it the ore of the earth?”
Bodie thought on that. “Place the ore inside the crucible?” he mused. “I guess it’s possible. The rest of the prophecy is all concentrated about reward and power, so once the crucible does its thing...”
“The world is toast?” Cassidy asked.
“Yeah, I guess,” Bodie said. “That’s a theory anyway. But, more to the point, what and where are these ten shrines?”
Lucie looked up with a smile. “Are you ready for this?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Bodie grabbed a beer and a discarded pizza crust before settling with his back to the wall. “I’m ready.”
Lucie glanced around the room, making sure her class was attentive and eager before continuing. “Well... first the five worthy shrines from which—we think—ore must be collected. In no particular order, they are: the Himalayas, the pyramids of Egypt, Easter Island, Atlantis and Stonehenge.”
Bodie froze with his mouth around the pizza crust. “Whoa, that’s quite a list.”
“Wait until you hear the vile shrines.” Lucie winced. “They are: Buffalo Lake in Alberta, Karachi, Loch Ness, the Algerian megalithic ruins and a Hawaiian volcano called Hamakulia.”
Bodie remembered to chew. “And we’re thinking Bacchus and his pals are obtaining ore from every single one of these sites and taking it to this crucible?”
“The prophecy tends to lead us in that direction,” Lucie said.
“I’ve never heard of some of the vile ones,” Yasmine said. “What makes them so important?”
“You will know when I explain,” Lucie said. “But, for now, that’ll take too long. We have to grab the ten ore samples, take them to the crucible and then find Hades, where this so-called reward will be reaped. At least, that’s what Bacchus said. Are we on the same page?”
Bodie whistled at the size of the task that lay in front of them. “We can’t just stop the Illuminati, because it’s ten random samples from ten random places,” he said. “But we can try to beat them. We can’t get help because we’re fugitives. It’s just us.”
“Back to the old days,” Cassidy said.
“Feels that way.” Bodie nodded. “We were often trying to stay off the radar back then.”
“But for hugely different reasons,” Jemma put in.
“Not exactly,” Bodie said. “We’re still being hunted by some bloody authority or another. CIA. The Illuminati. Pang and Heidi. Shit.” He gripped the bridge of his nose between two fingers. “It never ends.”
“But despite that,” Jemma said. “We’re still in the best position to save the world.”
Bodie looked over at her. “You really think it’s gonna get that bad?”
“No idea, but Bacchus and his cronies certainly do. There’s no telling what destruction they might bring. The last thing they care about is collateral damage.”
It was true. And, because of Bacchus and the Illuminati and their desire for revenge, the relic hunters had a clear chance to stop them.
Bodie leaned back against the wall and pushed himself to his feet, realizing only afterward that that was probably the best clean it’d had in years. “Right,” he said. “Which one’s first?”
*
They decided on the pyramids of Egypt for their first stop and, after putting in a call to a secondary fixer because they didn’t know what had happened to Giselle Van Santen, were couriered new passports, credit cards and other IDs, and boarded a plane to Cairo. Time was against them, and so were at least two powerful organizations. They didn’t have the luxury to worry about facial recognition and chance sightings. They just took the earliest flight and resolved to deal with any issues if and when they arose.
Lucie never stopped researching, delving into the Ishtari, the crucible and Hades. Her study of the world’s ley lines and how they intersected with the ancient megaliths of the earth continued. And most importantly, she attempted to dissect the meaning of the word “lifeblood” in relation to the Illuminati’s prophecy, wondering if the antediluvian text might hold more clues.
When they disembarked at Cairo International Airport, it became clear that they would need a few wads of cash, since every single person that might help them appeared to require some form of bribe. Their taxi driver took El Nasr Road and then the 516 before turning onto El Ahram Street and dropping them off within an easy walk of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Bodie climbed out of the car and into the dry heat, squinting. This was the first time he’d set eyes on the Great Pyramid. Standing at 138.8 meters high and enduring since before 2540 BC, it was as impressive a sight as he’d ever seen.
Unfortunately then, and for several minutes, they faced continuous hassle from men and women, boys and girls, all situated around the pyramid and taking their attention from it. An inevitability of visiting Egypt, it was nonetheless distracting. Cassidy had been tasked with the tough job of keeping an eye out for their enemies, a chore made much harder in the raucous environs of the ancient pyramids.
Bodie kept his hands in his pockets, wary of thieves, and listened as a fascinated and excited Lucie regaled them with facts. “The oldest of the ancient wonders and the only one still in existence—”
“Ahem,” Jemma said.
“Oh, of course.” Lucie looked a little sheepish. “Apart from the Statue of Zeus. The Great Sphinx sits on the east side of the complex of three main pyramids. Thought to have been constructed to house the remains of dead pharaohs, it remains very clear that all three of the Giza pyramids were astronomically oriented to the north, south, east and west within the smallest
