Page 88 of Gryphon

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Mike’s itches had saved all their lives more than once.

She made a point of looking casual as she scanned their team.

They’d planned to have Mike and Elene in civilian clothes to act as lookouts. Elene remained stock still by the passenger door as if the December morning had frozen her into a statue.

Max had rounded up three Georgian Defence Forces uniforms for the rest of them. Tad had walked to the edge of the empty parking lot and appeared to be admiring the view.

According to Max, the place was a good bet to be deserted on a chill winter weekday morning. But he’d taught Tad how to say, Training exercise. Come back after one hour, in passable Georgian. He had a good ear and looked dangerous enough to not argue with. Though he was probably the only black man in uniform anywhere in the country.

Holly eased back to Max’s side as he reached for a submachine gun for Tad. She flashed him a quick Freeze hand sign and hoped that the signals were universal. He stopped.

Holly pushed the submachine gun under a blanket that had been drawn over the cases.

“Hey, Tad.” As he turned from the view and ambled over, she picked up a handgun, dumped the magazine, and slammed in an empty mag. Then she turned to him and made a show of cycling the slide, catching and hiding the ejected live round from the chamber into her cupped fingers.

“We ready?” he asked. “Stunner of a place you folks have here. Even in winter, it’s got this good feel to it.”

“Here you go.” Holly jammed the sidearm into his holster in case he could feel it was underweight for having no rounds. “Don’t go shooting anybody with that.” Because it was empty and wouldn’t work.

“Deal!”

She trusted him, so what the hell did Mike know about Tad that she didn’t?

“A hundred steps,” Max nodded upslope.

No way to ask Mike or answer Max’s questioning look. Time to switch to action mode. She dropped the question, then nodded.

“Uphill all the way.”

A pair of giant columns guarded the steps. One looking properly Greek, its mate looking as if it had survived a battle between Picasso and a chain saw artist. At the head of the long flight rose sixteen pillars of stone ten stories tall. They were like some neat freak had rearranged Stonehenge into symmetrical rows and squared up all the rocks until perfectly smooth.

She scanned the tactical situation. Low trees blocked their view in most directions except where Tad had been. But the trees were sparse up the hillside.

“Okay, let’s hustle.” She resisted the temptation to race. They both needed slow and steady heartbeats at the top. Max’s half smile acknowledged the choice and a bit of regret that they wouldn’t be doing that.

Still, they took them faster than most would, traveling smoothly side-by-side, leaving the other three in their wake.

70

“You seem…nervous.” Mike stepped up beside Elene after the others had moved off.

“I suppose.”

Actually, by his assessment, she teetered near the edge of a nervous breakdown.

He offered his arm. She looked steadier after she looped a gloved hand around his parka’s elbow. They began climbing the stairs at a much slower pace.

Tad had set off on a circular patrol around the lower level path.

“So, did you meet your fiancé here?”

That actually earned him a laugh. “I never, ever come here. This is where my father’s hope and heart died. I sometimes think my mother got herself killed to get away from his dark cloud. She traveled to South Ossetia during the Russian War as a volunteer nurse. No training, simply to help. The Russians trapped them and killed everyone in the town as a part of their ethnic cleansing campaign.”

“No good memories here.”

“No. Pavle is my first truly good memories since Mother died.”

Mike had to stop and catch his breath though they were barely half up the stairs and hadn’t been hurrying.

---