CHAPTER THIRTY
“Mr. Andriopoulos,” whispered Marguerite. “So, you’ve decided to show your face to the world?”
“I deserve that and much more,” said Petros.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry to all of you. Marie Nicole isn’t her real name.
Her real name is Amber Bodley. Her brother’s name is Charles.
Sir Charles Bodley to be specific. A small-time land owner in Great Britain who was running out of money and credit.
That’s why you were fooled. We were all fooled, for a while.
“I owe a lot of money to some very nasty people and Charles said he’d give me the money if I found a way to get on that island. You are so loved. So appreciated by your people.”
“They’re not my people,” said Nicolai. “They’re the people of Greece. We are the people of Greece.” Petros nodded.
“How do we make this right? We can kick them off the island but they deserve to be punished,” said Luke.
“I know a way,” said Petros. “If the Prime Minister will speak to me.”
“Let’s go,” said Cam. “We’ll make sure that he speaks with you.”
Petros, Luke, Cam, Hex, and Nicolai made their way back to Athens and the Prime Minister while the others relaxed, watching from the windows as their island was destroyed.
“I can’t just sit here,” said Bodhi.
“What do you propose?” asked Frank.
“I think we should cause a little havoc. You know. The kind that Poseidon, Zeus and the boys would approve of.”
“Let’s do it,” grinned Frank. Leaving the rest of the team with the residents, Ben, Adam, Bodhi, Frank, Kiel and Joseph took the submersible out to the island where they discovered work was still at a standstill.
With little effort, they raised the anchors for the barges and allowed them to drift away from the cliffs. Then they climbed the cliffs once more and released the levers holding the equipment over the edge.
With the sounds of iron bending and crashing, dozens of faces appeared at the openings of the caves. The workers were effectively stranded on the island with no way off.
“What next?” grinned Joseph.
“Let’s see if we can create some issues on that cargo ship,” said Bodhi.
“Like sink it?” smirked Frank.
“That might be a little drastic but we can definitely have some fun. Let’s go.”
“Where is that idiot?” asked Amber. “He was supposed to be back on the island with new crews. It’s clear they’re not back. The work isn’t happening.”
Her brother stood with exasperation and stared out the porthole. Lifting the binoculars, he gasped.
“The equipment! It’s gone! It’s fallen into the sea,” he yelled. His sister pushed him aside, staring at the wreckage at the bottom of the cliff. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Not now. Not when they were so close.
Suddenly the alarms were going off on the ship. Alarms telling them of water seeping into the holds and a possible fire somewhere on the ship.
“What is happening?”
They raced toward the bridge, the captain smiling at them with a calm expression.
“Don’t worry. It’s just an error. Everything is fine,” he said casually pushing them aside as he hit buttons and barked orders.
“Everything is fine?” asked Amber glaring at the old man. “Fine? Our equipment is at the bottom of that cliff over there and your ship is sending warnings that it’s about to sink. Things are not fine!”
“Settle down,” he laughed. “You English were never good sailors. These things happen. We’ll be fine.”
“Charles do something about this!” she snapped. “I’m sick of living on this disgusting ship with these disgusting men!”
“Hey! I’m a woman,” said a girl seated at the controls.
“A woman? You look like a man!” she snapped.
“Wow, that’s hurtful but fine. I can’t dress in my Prada slip-ons and my Chanel suits while working on a ship. Some of us have to have real jobs instead of robbing innocent people blind.”
“Mitza,” warned the captain. “Take your break now.”
“Fine,” she said walking out of the bridge. “I’ll go powder my nose.”
“Ughhh!” screeched Amber. “I want her gone!”
“Sorry lady, but she’s my daughter,” smirked the captain. “She stays. Besides, we’ve got it all under control now. The sirens have stopped and we’re all good.”
“This is why we’ve not had success,” said Amber pointing to the old man. “You hired idiots to do the job. You should have hired professionals.”
“We needed to watch the overhead, Amber. Look, we can still get this done. I’ll get more crews out there, more equipment and we’ll have something to show the investors in six weeks.”
“What? What are you going to show them? Two eyes and a mouth? There’s nothing to show them. Even if we could get close enough to unload the heads of the gods, it’s not enough to show them what we we’re trying to do.
“That island is ideal because of the location and because of the natural terrain. It makes it perfect and it’s the only island that we could get our hands on. This has to work Charles or we’re broke again.”
“Have you always been this dramatic, Amber? I don’t remember you being this dramatic as a young girl.” Her face was so red from anger her brother nearly laughed aloud. But he knew that her anger would lead to arguments he didn’t wish to have.
Only thirteen months apart, they were close as children and became even closer as adults.
Determined to marry well, Charles married an aristocratic lady whom he believed was completely ignorant of her own wealth.
It proved problematic in the end when she divorced him, citing his irresponsible spending.
Amber decided she would not follow in his footsteps. Instead, she found the one student she could tolerate with a title. Nicolai Christodoulou, apparent prince and possible relation to Alexander the Great. He would do.
Except it took Amber much longer than expected to get to what she needed. With no apparent wealth, riches, inheritances, or real estate other than that damn island, she waited for her brother to build the perfect plan.
More than thirty years she waited until she finally got the call. Then another year of planning their deaths and the perfect scenario. It would have been easy if those damn islanders would have only left willingly. But they refused.
Now, she was standing with her brother wondering if they would ever get the accolades and wealth they deserved.
“Just get this done, Charles. If I don’t see progress by the end of the week, I’m leaving and going back to England,” she said in a threatening tone.
“Oh, darling. We both know you can’t do that,” he grinned. “You are officially forbidden to return to England. Remember.” With a red face and fire in her eyes, she pushed past him and made her toward her own luxurious stateroom.
“Just get it done, Charles.”