CHAPTER III
The security station outside the Columbarium was in ruins. The desk had been almost destroyed, and both security guards were dead. Tom could tell that the damage to both the men and the desk had been delivered with automatic rifle fire.
"Jesus," Wilmore muttered beside him.
Tom stepped forward to the entrance of the Columbarium. The heavy metal door was ajar, and as before, it was too dark to see anything in there. However, they could hear loud voices sounding from within. Angry voices, like an argument was happening inside.
The two men slowly stepped across the threshold, and into the shadows.
**********
Johannes shot James first. Execution style, just like in the movies. He had forced the NASA official to kneel down while facing away from him, then had fired one shot from his pistol directly into the back of his head. It was classic. The fact that Johannes had decided to do the killing within the great Columbarium itself, not the office off of it, was an ironic twist in itself. It was probably the one place that James had felt the safest in.
Now it was time for Mugthulhu. Flanked by two armed men, the musician's wounded arm had been roughly torn out of its sling. He was beaten and bruised, yet the great man was remarkably stoic. Not one word of pleading or begging had come from him, and he refused to look at his attackers with anything other than contempt.
"You won't kill me like that," Mugthulhu said quietly, staring down at James's body. "If you want to murder me, then you can look me in the eyes when you do it."
Johannes smirked. "Yeah, I hear that one a lot. I'll just tell you what I tell everyone else - no problem."
The gun was shoved in Mugthulhu's face. He closed his eyes and waited for the bullet.
"Hold it, Johannes!"
Mugthulhu opened his eyes and stared directly at Johannes, who had frozen.
"This is Commander Wilmore. I've got a gun of my own aimed at you right now, so you drop yours. This second. Don't just lower it,
drop it!"
Johannes let the gun fall from his fingers. He turned to face Wilmore, who stood at the other end of the "aisle" between the rows of computers that they now stood. The flickering lights illuminated his face in an eerie manner, as well as the service revolver he aimed at the three mercenaries.
"Back off, Wilmore!" Johannes shouted. "You can't stop this. Too much time and money has gone into everything we're doing for this punk to fuck everything up! So you back off now, and maybe you can walk away."
At that moment, the two soldiers with Johannes whipped out submachine guns that had been slung over their backs. It was a deadly sight, seeing them aimed at Wilmore.
"These are Tommy guns, Wilmore," sneered Johannes. "What you've got is a ceremonial piece of shit, one popularized in the nineteenth century. You're not going to win a firefight, so back the fuck off!"
Wilmore didn't move an inch. He continued to stare at Johannes, his gun held high. That was the plan, after all.
Tom struck from behind, and his three enemies had no idea what hit them until it was too late. He first toppled Johannes with a hammer strike to the back of his head, then stepped forward to situate himself between the two riflemen. He immediately struck at the guard to his left with a sharp elbow to the face. The man howled in agony and dropped his Thompson, clutching at his face.
Almost at the same moment, he swung his right fist at the man on his other side, connecting with his face. As the guard winced in pain, Tom seized the Thompson from his weakened grip, then slammed the butt of it into his stomach. The soldier bent over from the blow, as Tom knew he would. He delivered another thrust with the butt of the Thompson, this time into the man's chin. The loud
snap of his neck told Tom that he was dead.
The first soldier drew a pistol from his holster and aimed it at Tom. Before he could fire, though, the scientist seized his wrist and twisted it around to point the gun at the guard himself. Tom fired three rounds into the man, killing him.
In the meantime, Johannes had slowly risen from the ground. Tom whirled and tensed as he faced his opponent, ready for combat. He was spared from fighting, however, when Mugthulhu's mighty fist crashed into the side of Johannes's head, sending him sprawling once again.
Tom waved Mugthulhu off, then marched to where Johannes lay. He dragged the mercenary to his feet and slammed him into one of the computer walls, causing the lights to flicker briefly.
"Talk, you son of a bitch," growled Tom.
Johannes glowered at Tom. "About what?"
Furiously, Tom slammed Johannes into the computer wall again. "You know what!"
When he was met with silence, Tom angrily drove his knee into Johannes's midsection, then forced him onto his hands and knees. Then he picked up the pistol he had used earlier to kill the soldier and pointed it at Johannes's head.
"You gonna shoot me, Bishop?" Johannes muttered. "Seems kind of counter-intuitive, if you want to ask me questions..."
"Well, you don't seem to know anything, anyway," Tom replied. "You're useless to me, so, yeah, I might as well just get rid of you. Kind of the same logic you were using with King Mugsy just a moment ago, don't you think?"
"I didn't say I didn't know anything!"
"Do you know something? Tell me now so I can either shoot you or let you live."
"Okay, okay." Johannes seemed to resign himself to the situation. "It was just a job. I was approached by a guy who works in finance here, Ron Markjo. He said he was being blackmailed by this Soviet fuck, Karl Movarch. He wanted my help."
Tom listened intently. "Blackmailed?"
"Yeah. He said Movarch had proof that he and another guy here were stealing money from NASA."
"Who else, Johannes?" asked Wilmore, having jogged up to join the interrogation.
"I don't know, he never said. It was some big shot, that's all I know."
Tom thought of John Davis.
"What were you planning on doing after this?" he asked. "Try and find another way to grab Blanko?"
"Maybe. That's what Markjo wanted us to do, but I was thinking it might be better to just cut our losses and get out of here. Hell, I got no truck in this. Markjo was the one threatened by the blackmail, not me. I only got involved in this because he offered me a cut of the stolen money." Johannes looked up at Tom. "You already talked to Markjo, didn't you?"
Tom nodded. "Not exactly, but we tried to. He's dead now."
Johannes let out a humorless laugh. "Then I guess you're fucked if you want to find Movarch. He was the only one who had contact with him. I don't know how to find him."
"We'll find a way around that, don't worry," Tom said dismissively. "Thank you for your cooperation, Johannes, I won't shoot you after all."
Loud footsteps could be heard coming closer. Tom looked up in alarm, but Wilmore raised a hand to calm him. A few seconds later, at least a dozen security guards surrounded them, weapons pointed at them.
Wilmore raised his hands again for calm. "The situation is now under control, gentlemen. Take this man" - he gestured to Johannes - "into holding right away, he's responsible for the murder of one of our top scientists. And I want you to place into protective custody -"
"Wait," Tom called. Wilmore looked curiously at him. "We need to keep Mugthulhu with us. He and Blanko are involved a lot more than we thought. Besides, it's just common human decency to level with them, considering all they've been through."
Wilmore seemed to think it over, then nodded his agreement, and amended his orders to the security personnel.
As Johannes was being taken away, Tom offered his final thoughts. "Johannes, you're terrible."
"Just terrible," Wilmore added.
When only the two of them, along with Mugthulhu, were left, Wilmore turned to Tom.
"Okay, Tom, explain what you said upstairs about being able to get to Movarch without Johannes. That better not have been a bluff."
"It wasn't." Tom removed the cell phone he had been given from his pocket. "Movarch contacted me. He's the one who sent me that box, along with the files about the embezzlement."
Wilmore gasped in shock. "Tom, what the...what the hell is going on?"
"I don't know yet," Tom answered. "All I have are some theories. Right now, though, we need to get back to your office. I want to take another look at that box."