Read Plague of Coins (The Judas Chronicles #1) for Free Online

between the Black Sea and the Aral Sea. Both seas are referred to by different names. Along with a reference to a ‘great body of water’ that marks the eastern boundary of the sacred garden, Stanislav narrowed down an area of one hundred square kilometers.”
    “That still puts him no closer to his quest than where we’re sitting right now from the Jersey Turnpike,” I said. Probably should’ve held off on that one...especially since mean Teddy and irritable Mikey glared in unison this time. “Okay, so there’s still more than what meets the eye, right?”
    “Yes,” said Mike, tersely. He again motioned for his driver to turn around and mind his own business. “As luck would have it, another ancient document—this one Persian—asserts a location somewhere in the Alborz, just south of the Mazandaran Sea, which is one of the oldest names for—”
    “The Caspian Sea or Gilan ,” I interrupted him, unable to resist a good old fashioned pissing contest by stating another ancient name for the Caspian. It might seem childish and rude, but I had to chill him out before he went on a tangent and turned this into one of his patented lectures. By my estimation I just saved myself a five-minute speech about some needless bullshit. “It still doesn’t explain how the damned place ended up inside a mountain.”
    “No, it doesn’t.”
    The frown Mike wore confirmed his deepening displeasure with me and my cavalier mouth. Yet, his expression also held the promise I’d soon be set free. Free to commiserate with my son about how our treasure hunting vacation had just been hijacked and transformed into an Iranian wild goose chase.
    “Suffice it to say, since you’ve been such good company tonight, the rest of your briefing will take place at a later time...one determined by my choosing,” he said, and then stiffly nodded to his surly chauffeur that it was time to release the door locks so I could exit the sedan.
    “I’m leaving first thing Friday and will be retiring early tomorrow evening, to get my beauty rest.” I said this in case he was planning a similar round to this one at some ungodly late hour—he’s done that before.
    “Why of course.... I have your itinerary right here.”
    I hated his knowing smirk.
    Was some surprise still in the works? Or, did my mention of beauty sleep touch his deeply ingrained fear of aging? I should advise here that Mike generally views me as a freak of nature and as somebody with a closely guarded secret health routine to beat the aging process and look perpetually thirty-ish. If only he knew the truth. Getting lots of sleep isn’t part of it, since I rarely require more than a few hours of rest at any one time.
    “We are expecting your full cooperation on this, William.” He closed his laptop. “If you play your cards right, I’ll make sure you have enough time to snorkel in the Caspian—or for what other mischief you and Alistair can concoct.”
    “I guess we’ll see how it goes,” I said, and then stepped out of the sedan.
    I waited to get inside my Acura until the sedan had exited the garage and moved on to whatever next appointment Mike had. Listening closely for anything else, I felt strangely comforted by the deserted parking garage’s silence. I tried to visualize what might lie ahead, and found myself drawn most to what Petr Stanislav and his crazy quest for the Garden of Eden might entail. I decided the man must be crazy, alright...but no worse than some guy searching the world for his lost thirty pieces of silver.
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 5
     
     
    I didn’t sleep well that night. Especially after I relayed the latest news to my son regarding the assignment we’d been given for our trip to Iran. Not that I ever sleep long as it is...but it was much less than usual.
    “You should see if we can cancel our reservations and forego this nonsense!” Alistair told me on the phone. The only good thing was I didn’t interrupt his dinner, decreasing the chance of