Shadow Tyrants (Oregon Files 13)

“Makes sense. If it was powerful enough to detect us infiltrating its ships, I wonder if it thought that any other records about it were a threat as well.”

“That would have required Colossus to search and delete records across the world in a matter of minutes.”

“Scary thought, isn’t it? Maybe it was afraid it would be shut down if someone could find those records.”

“Afraid? It’s a machine.”

Juan shrugged. “Self-preservation. It’s the most primal instinct.”

“This is making my brain hurt,” Max said. “I’m just glad Colossus is gone.”

They turned a corner, and Juan stopped when he saw the room ahead. It was a dome with a huge circular table in the middle, and it was filled with more bodies. The stench was horrific.

None of them had bullet wounds. Their faces were contorted in agony.

“Don’t take another step,” he said to Max.

“I guess I was wrong. It did get worse.”

“I’m pretty sure Novichok killed them, and there could be lingering traces of it. I recognize that look from when Rasul died in front of me.”

“And I recognize that guy,” Max said, pointing at a man lying outside the room. “That’s Jason Wakefield, one of the CEOs who’s been reported missing in the last week.”

Juan pointed to another. “That’s Daniel Saidon. He owns one of the biggest shipbuilding companies in the world. I met him at a party a few years ago.”

“Do you think Mallik killed them?” Max asked.

“Makes sense. His brother-in-law was the one with the Novichok on the Triton Star.”

“But Carlton and Gupta somehow escaped to finish the Colossus Project.”

“That explains the blood feud between Carlton and Mallik,” Juan said.

“So now we know where the Nine Unknown Men met in secret, and it seems some of them are still here. That’s a pretty big find.”

“We’ll have to give the Indian government an anonymous call after we leave. I think they’ll want to know about this.”

Juan kept walking past the domed meeting room and soon saw another one. This one looked similar to the first, but there was neither a table nor bodies.

Instead, there were nine sarcophagi surrounding a tenth in the center.

“This place wasn’t designed as a meeting place,” Max said.

Juan nodded. “You’re right. It’s a mausoleum.”

They walked in and saw that each of the stone caskets was marked with writing that looked like stick figures.

“I’ve seen this type of writing before,” Juan said.

“Where?”

“On the pillars of Ashoka. When Eric and I were researching the Nine Unknown Men, we found out that Ashoka placed pillars all over India to proclaim his edicts. These characters are the same ones used in the edicts. About twenty of the pillars still exist today, more than two thousand years later, and they’re the first tangible evidence of Buddhism.”

Max stared in wonder at the tomb. “Do you think these are the original Nine Unknown Men?”

“Archaeologists will have to determine that,” Juan said, “but it could be why the Nine continued to meet here.”

“And the sarcophagus in the midd