Hunt at World's End by Gabriel Hunt Page A

to slip a hand free, but the knot was too tight.
    Grissom frowned. “I’m disappointed in you, Mr. Hunt. You’ve backed me into a corner. I dislike hurting women, but I’m afraid I have no choice now. When you look back at this moment in the future—should I allow you a future—I want you to remember whose fault this really was.” He grabbed Joyce’s hair in one hand and pulled her head back. She gritted her teeth and clamped her eyes shut. Grissom swung the dagger back, preparing to slash it across her throat.
    “It’s a code!” Noboru shouted suddenly. “It’s a code.”
    Grissom stayed his hand. Joyce opened her eyes. Gabriel turned to Noboru and saw the pained, desperate look on the older man’s face.
    “Of course it’s a code,” Grissom said. “But how does it work ? What is the key ?”
    “The elements,” Noboru said. “Earth, water. The symbols for the elements.”
    “Don’t!” Joyce yelled at him.
    Grissom let go of her hair and walked over to stand in front of Noboru. “The elements, you say. You mean the three elements from the Teshub legend, of course.”
    “Noboru,” Joyce pleaded.
    He looked at her and shook his head. “I couldn’t let him do it.”
    “Go on,” Grissom said, raising his voice impatiently.
    “The first gemstone, the one you have…it’s the one for earth,” Noboru said. “The second is water.”
    “Noboru, don’t,” Joyce warned again.
    Grissom shot a silencing a glance her way.
    “Yes, but the third one, that’s the mystery,” Grissomsaid. “Any fool with half a brain knows the original translation is wrong. ‘Loose soil’ makes no sense. But you’ve figured out what it means, haven’t you? Tell me.”
    Noboru swallowed hard and looked away from Grissom’s eyes. “No. We haven’t. None of us has.”
    Grissom grabbed a fistful of Noboru’s hair and held the three-bladed dagger to his throat. “I don’t have time for games. What is the third element?”
    “We don’t know,” Noboru insisted. “I swear.”
    “You’re trying my patience,” Grissom hissed. “Hunt, speak to me or he dies.” He pulled back the dagger, ready to strike.
    “Sorry, Joyce,” Gabriel said. “You and I are one thing, but Noboru didn’t make you any promises. I’ll tell you what you want to know, Grissom. Just let them—”
    A shout of alarm came from outside the tent. The report of a gunshot rang out. Grissom straightened, letting go of Noboru’s hair. Another shot exploded, followed by more shouting, a confused clamor, the sound of boots running through mud. Grissom touched the eye of the dragon on the dagger’s hilt again and the two outer blades slid back into the handle. He tossed the dagger back in the wooden box. “Watch them,” he barked at the guard stationed at the tent flap. Then he exited.
    “How could you?” Joyce said. “Both of you! If he finds the other gemstones and activates the Spearhead, he’ll use it to slaughter thousands—maybe millions.”
    “I’m sorry,” Noboru said. “But I couldn’t let him kill you.”
    More angry shouts erupted outside, more gunfire, and another sound, like the twanging of a guitar string.
    “What the hell is going on out there?” Joyce asked.
    Gabriel shook his head. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
    The guard stiffened suddenly and a strange gurgling came from his throat. He fell backward, clutching at his neck. The shaft of an arrow protruded from his Adam’s apple.
    The dying man’s fingers grabbed at the tent flap, pulling the canvas to one side.
    Just long enough for Gabriel to see someone run past holding a wooden longbow, a quiver of arrows strapped to the back of his white robe.
    A skull mask covered his face.

Chapter 10
    The cult, here? Now? Gabriel had never thought he’d be grateful to see them. But it was only a temporary reprieve. Both groups wanted them dead and whichever came out on top would see to it that they wound up that way.
    “This can’t end well,” Gabriel said.