Vulcan Eye Read online

  Demetrius shoved open the screeching door. The entryway told a sad story. Flowered wallpaper was peeling away from warped walls.

  “Follow me,” Demetrius said.

  Chuck gestured for Angela to go next. Her broken arm was in a temporary sling.

  They walked through a room with fourteen-foot high paneled windows and an arched gothic ceiling. It was a reading nook with antique cushioned chairs that hadn’t been touched in decades and looked even dirtier than that. The floor was covered with debris that had fallen from the ornate ceiling. All the windows were intact, and though they were filthy, Chuck could see a brown garden outside. He thought it would be a great place to sit down and read a book if it was cleaned up.

  They drifted through a long living room that was decked out with neglected antiques. Most looked like they were salvageable and could be sanded down and refinished.

  An old television with rabbit ears looked like something out of a museum.

  “Did you have a sister?” Angela asked.

  “Yes,” Demetrius said. “How did you know?”

  “Her doll is on the floor over there.”

  “What?” Demetrius walked over and picked it up. He held the doll up and looked into its face. Tears ran down his cheeks.

  “What’s wrong?” Angela said.

  Demetrius put the doll to his chest and hugged it as if he was a child. He said, “When the Turks attacked, we had to leave in a hurry. My sister kept telling my mother that she wanted to go back for her doll. She was talking about it when the Turks bombed the field we were in. My sister was killed in the bombing. My father was crippled and barely survived.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m alright. Just memories. Why can’t we go back?” He shook his head. “My parents were never the same after that.”

  Angela looked over at Chuck. She had tears in her eyes. “Why is life so cruel?”

  “We can never go back to the way it was before,” Chuck said to her. “We can only be thankful for what we’ve got. We’re all broken. But we go on, believing the promises. We can find strength we never knew we had when we were whole.”

  “You mean like Sebastian?”

  “Yes. He told me that he’s broken, but he also has incredible strength. He’s a good man.”

  She sniffed and looked away.

  Holding the doll to his chest, Demetrius said, “The music room is in there.”

  The music room had twenty-five-foot domed ceilings and fourteen-foot-high paneled stained-glass windows with gothic arches at the top and crosses at the apexes of the arches.

  “Look at the piano,” Chuck said. It was like nothing that he had ever seen. The ornate wooden undercarriage and feet would have been carved by masters. As an occasional wood-boat carpenter, he could appreciate the intricate craftsmanship of the woodwork. It looked like the kind of piano you would only find in a museum.

  “It’s a Mason & Hamlin reproducing grand piano,” Demetrius said. “My mother was a pianist in the church where I met you. Only 250 pianos like this were ever made.”

  “I thought you said it was a wall piano.”

  “It is.” He pointed at a big mysterious piece of furniture against the wall, a twelve-foot high wooden facia with lamps mounted in nooks and little mounted statue in the middle. It was fourteen-feet wide and seemed to have no use other than for looks.

  “What is it?” Chuck said. “That’s no piano. It looks like a giant walnut cupboard except there’s no doors.”

  “It’s a Popper ‘Gladiator’ Orchestration.”

  “A what?”

  “It’s an automatic musical instrument. It was my mother’s greatest treasure next to the piano. Inside it has another piano, mandolin, xylophone, bells, pipes and percussion effects. Believe it or not, there are more instruments inside as well.”

  “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Chuck said.

  “Only twelve of them were made. There’s only one other one known to exist.”

  “It must be worth a lot.”

  Demetrius shrugged. “If it even works anymore. Anyway, this is still a forbidden zone. After the SEALs clear out, the government troops will arrive and seal off Varosha once again.”

  Chuck nodded. “Well, let’s get moving then.”

  Demetrius stepped to one end of the Popper ‘Gladiator’ Orchestration and pushed. Nothing happened.

  “Let me help you,” Chuck said.

  He stepped over and they pushed together. The fourteen foot wide Popper ‘Gladiator’ Orchestration machine slid on tracks that were hidden in the old shag carpet. It slid only four feet, but that was far enough to reveal a safe in the wall.

  “I trust you know the combination,” Chuck said.

  “Of course.” He turned the dial several times, then pulled the lever.

  The safe opened. He pulled the door back.

  Angela gasped. “A suitcase.”

  Chuck heard a noise outside, probably stray cats, but ignored the swishing sound because he was fixated on clear plastic boxes of what appeared to be silver coins.

  Demetrius reached in and dragged out the bulging old suitcase. He struggled with the zippers, but it was caught and wouldn’t open so he just ripped the flap open. The suitcase was full of silver coins.

  He scooped up a handful of silver crusader coins and let dozens of them spill through his fingers back into the box.

  He held one up and said, “Peter II enthroned with PIERE PAR LA GRACE D' DIE ROI around.”

  Chuck narrowed his eyes and noticed the lettering that ran around the circular edge of the coin.

  Demetrius flipped it over. “Cross of Jerusalem with D IERVSALEM E DE ChIRP' around.”

  “They look so old,” Angela said.

  “How about six hundred years old?” Demetrius said. “They’re from AD 1369 to 1382.”

  “How much is it all worth?” Angela said.

  “Over three million.”

  Chuck heard another sound. He drew his gun and eased over to the corner by the hallway. He kneeled down. At the same moment he brought his gun around the corner, he stole a glance.

  The Hood!

  The veiled hunter was skulking down the hallway with an assault rifle. He jerked in surprise and opened fire, blasting silenced shots.

  Chuck pulled his head back out of sight, but left his gun hand in position. As he dropped to the floor, he squeezed off five shots around the corner. He heard a scream and a body hit the floor. He waited a minute, listening.

  He looked back. Demetrius and Angela were no longer in sight. They’d bailed into the secret compartment where the coins had been hidden.

  Chuck didn’t even hear a sound, so he slowly stood up and stole a glance around the corner.

  The hood was sprawled out on the floor. His grasping fingers still clung to his assault rifle, but he lay on his back, his veil thrown back over his forehead in the fall, revealing his face.

  “Now I see why you wore a veil,” Chuck said. He walked down the hall and pulled the assault rifle from the clinging fingers.

  He reached down with the assault rifle and pushed the veil back over the killer’s face.

  Chuck walked back around the corner. “It’s safe to come out now,” he said.

  Demetrius crawled out of the secret compartment first, then Angela.

  Chuck kneeled down and took a silver coin from the suitcase. “May I?”

  “Of course,” Demetrius said.

  “Thank you,” Chuck said. He walked over and put the coin on the Hood’s chest.

  Returning he said, “Let’s get out of here.”

  THE END

  Thank you for reading Vulcan Eye. I hope you enjoyed it!

  Continue reading the Brandt series here:

  Shadow Lawyer: A Chuck Brandt Thriller (The Brandt Series Book 8)

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  More books by Roger Weston

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