THE GOLIATH CHAMBER
By
Rick Jones
© 2021 Rick Jones. All rights reserved.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Also by Rick Jones:
Vatican Knights Series
The Vatican Knights
Shepherd One
The Iscariot Agenda
Pandora's Ark
The Bridge of Bones
Crosses to Bear
The Lost Cathedral
Dark Advent
Cabal
The Golgotha Pursuit
Targeted Killing
Sinners and Saints
The Barbed Crown
The Devil’s Magician
The Nocturnal Saints
The Brimstone Diaries
Juggernaut
Original Sins (a prequel)
In Between God and Devil
The Sinai Directive
The Barabbas Connection
The Eye of Moses
The Crimson Dagger
The Goliath Chamber
The Vladorian Keep (coming)
The Baal Manifesto (coming)
The Eden Series
The Crypts of Eden (A John Savage/Alyssa Moore Adventure)
The Thrones of Eden (A John Savage/Alyssa Moore Adventure)
City Beneath the Sea (A John Savage/Alyssa Moore Adventure)
The Sacred Vault (A John Savage/Alyssa Moore Adventure)
City Within the Clouds (A John Savage/Alyssa Moore Adventure)
City Beneath the Ice (A John Savage/Alyssa Moore Adventure)
Stand Alone Novels
The Man Who Cast Two Shadows
Jurassic Run
Mausoleum 2069
with RICK CHESLER
First Strike
Standalone ADVENTURE
The Menagerie (A John Savage/Alyssa Moore Adventure)
The Hunter Series
Night of the Hunter
The Black Key
Theater of Operation
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Epilogue
PROLOGUE
Zurich, Switzerland
Seven Months After the Sinai Directive
Early Morning Hours
Though his name was Amal Purakayastha, those within his orbit knew him as the Bangladeshi and as the man who neither had a first nor last name. All they knew was that he was a qualified assassin who had trained with the Bangladesh Special Operations Forces. He was tall and thin and had a skinny range of emotions as someone who neither smiled nor grimaced. Though when a humorous moment or a flash of anger had been presented to him, he would only reveal his emotional state with a facial tic.
While sitting in the back of a moving truck with his four-man team, the Bangladeshi brought to mind memories of an arms dealer by the name of Abesh Faruk, his one-time handler. He recalled the moments when he served Faruk as an operator who performed with the cold fortitude of a machine. If Faruk Abesh needed an assassin, Purakayastha was there. If Faruk Abesh needed someone to transport weapons on the black market, Purakayastha was there. If Faruk Abesh needed someone he could trust under any circumstance . . . Purakayastha was there.
But seven months ago, while trying to hunt down the Golden Calf, the Bangladeshi had failed to achieve the treasure, which was something that left him with a bad aftertaste. Faruk had negotiated the terms of trading black-market weaponry to a terrorist faction in exchange for the Golden Calf, a barter agreement, so long as the Bangladeshi served as the middleman between the trade once the relic had been unearthed.
Now that the hunt was on and the terms agreed upon between the principals, it was Purakayastha who lead the guerilla unit to the top of Mount Sinai. But everything came to a crashing halt when the Vatican Knights interceded and brought down the terrorists with the exception of the Bangladeshi, who had escaped.
Though the Bangladeshi had failed Faruk, it mattered little since the arms dealer was found dead in what was believed to be a professional hit before he had been informed of the Bangladeshi’s failure. The arms dealer had been discovered sitting inside the glass chamber that was supposed to display the ancient relic with a bullet to his head and two to center mass.
As the truck hit a bump that jarred him from these memories, the Bangladeshi took inventory of his team. They were mercenaries who had been informed by the Bangladeshi that they were picking up a special load from a hidden chamber beneath Abesh Faruk’s stately mansion, in what the Bangladeshi had told them was a ‘deal maker.’
As the truck turned onto the estate, the vehicle quickly made its way along the long stretch of a driveway. At the top of the incline where the FOR-SALE sign was posted, the Bangladeshi started to see the manor that was hidden behind thick tree lines. After Faruk’s death, the estate had been placed on the market for twenty-six million dollars in American currency, an amount few could afford, but it featured a one-of-a-kind museum that displayed hard-to-find artifacts. There was a movie theater; an indoor swimming pool; a pair of chefs’ kitchens, one at both ends of the house; a ballroom for entertaining; a racquetball court; twelve bedrooms; eight bathrooms; the list went on. But there was only one room that the Bangladeshi was interested in.
When the vehicle stopped before the mansion’s main entryway, the Bangladeshi jumped down from the truck’s bay along with his teammates, then ordered the driver to take the vehicle around back where he was to park it within the brambles
As the truck took the winding road to the rear, the Bangladeshi led his team to the front door, which was locked, but he had the key. Removing a suppressed firearm from his holster, he placed three muted shots that destroyed the lock’s mechanism, then pushed the door wide. Knowing that the alarm system had a twenty-second window before the distress signal would sound, he knew exactly where to go. Finding the unit’s keypad within the foyer, he typed
