Callsign: King II- Underworld by Jeremy Robinson Read Free Book Online

act of war, even though the terrorists would probably have carried out attacks on Russian civilian targets. And then there was the elephant in the room; King had just recently learned that his own parents were deep cover Soviet-era sleeper agents, willing to sacrifice their only son to accomplish their long range mission.
    That was assuming, of course, that he, and not Pierce, had been the target, which actually seemed like an even more likely scenario, given that the attempt had occurred at the facility where Micah Pierce was currently residing. George Pierce was not without his own enemies; his archaeological investigations had more than once put him in the crosshairs.
    King didn’t tell Aleman any of this. Unsubstantiated musings would only serve to obscure the truth; the facts, sparse though they were, were all that mattered.
    Aleman let out a low whistle. “I’ll do what I can. Do you want to come in?”
    King glanced at Pierce and considered the offer. It seemed extremely unlikely that the attempt was tied to the incident in Arizona, but he couldn’t rule it out. As far as he was concerned, George Pierce was his brother—his only remaining link to a life that had been all but deconstructed by tragedy and betrayal—and the last thing he wanted was to put his brother in harm’s way.
    But George wasn’t fragile or helpless. More importantly, his unique knowledge base might be just the thing to solve the riddle of what had happened in Arizona, and if Manifold was involved in that event, then the clock was already ticking. “No. We’re going to Phoenix. Get us on a flight—George and me—soonest possible. We’re heading to La Guardia now.”
    “Consider it done.”
    When King ended the call, Pierce asked: “Phoenix?”
    “Yeah. Sorry, it looks like we’re going on a different kind of fishing trip.”
    “If you’re talking about Arizona, and not the mythological bird which is reborn from the ashes of its own immolation, I’m not sure how I can help. The American Southwest is a little outside my area of expertise.”
    King opened the file of the still photo Aleman had earlier sent and handed over the phone. Pierce studied the picture for a moment, then stared gravely at his friend. “So it’s true. The Wookies are massing for an invasion.”
    King didn’t laugh. “The medallion, George.”
    Pierce looked again, and this time his reaction was sincere. “Oh, that is interesting.”
     

 
     
     
    9.
     
    “It’s a silver tetradrachm coin,” Pierce told King as they finally settled into their seats on an American Airlines 737 bound for Denver, where they would catch their connecting flight, “It’s hard to make out with the screen resolution, but that’s the likeness of Athena stamped onto it. As the namesake goddess of Athens, she was arguably the most important deity of the era—the embodiment of wisdom and intelligence, but also military strategy. The reverse side probably has the image of an owl, another symbol of Athena.”
    “Is it rare?”
    “Today? Well, you aren’t likely to find it in under your sofa cushion, but there are quite a few surviving examples. It was the most commonly used coin in the world going back to the sixth century BCE, and right up to the time of the Romans. With the spread of Hellenistic culture under Alexander the Great, the coins were used as currency as far away as India. They show up pretty frequently at digs, particularly at burial sites.”
    “Burials? I didn’t think the Greeks followed the Egyptian custom of burying their wealth along with the body.”
    “They didn’t. But it was a common practice to place a coin in the mouth of a dead person as an obol . A payment to Charon, to bear the soul of the departed to the afterlife.”
    “Pennies for the ferryman,” King murmured. “So how did this coin end up in Arizona?”
    “As a fashion accessory for a Wookie, no less,” Pierce added.
    “It’s not a Wookie, George.”
    “Then what the hell is