A Bloody Storm

CHAPTER ELEVEN

They drove South from Jizzakh toward the Molguzar mountain range, with everyone except Showers taking turns behind the wheel, so the others could sleep. Daybreak found them still traveling, following directions on the handheld GPS navigation device that had been programmed with the coordinates that would take them to the gold. Their course eventually brought them to a gravel road that snaked up the mountain. Eventually, they were forced to leave it and make their own trail. The ride was slow and jarring as the four-wheel delivery truck climbed over the rough terrain, often being forced to detour because of boulders that had fallen and downed trees that blocked their route.

As they came nearer and nearer to their destination, they began to feel a sense of anticipation. It was hard to imagine so much gold bullion in such a desolated spot, hidden for more than twenty years.

Dilya stopped the vehicle at what looked like a landslide about a tenth of a mile from where the cavern of gold was reportedly stashed. They would have to walk across the rocks. They exited the old truck.

It was now Oscar’s turn to be in charge, and he grabbed his backpack of geological gadgets and demanded the GPS from Casper, who had been navigating as Dilya drove. Casper relinquished it begrudgingly and fell in step behind him, with his shotgun slung on his shoulder. Dilya went third, while Storm held back with Showers.

“You feel okay to walk?” he asked.

“Just point me to the start line.”

They began crossing the rocky terrain together. “I haven’t thanked you for rescuing me,” Showers said.

“Nothing I won’t be bringing up in front of you every day of your life,” he said.

“So what do I have to do to pay my debt?” she asked.

Storm thought for a moment about how she’d tricked him in London after they’d been drinking in a pub. He’d believed they were going to spend the night his hotel room bed, but she’d innocently asked him to fetch her a cup of coffee, and when he stepped into the hallway, she locked the door.

“The next time we check into a hotel together, I get to keep all the room keys,” he said.

“What makes you think that will happen again — us checking into a hotel room?”

“I’m an optimist.”

“An optimist would have come up with something better than having control of the room keys.”

“Okay, how do you feel about whipped cream and pickles?”

“Pickles?” she repeated.

“Kiwis.”

She shook her head in disgust. He was impressed at how well she was taking this.

“Ouch!” she cried, suddenly lifting her heel.

He hurried to her, taking her left arm to steady her.

“What did you step on?”

She kissed his cheek. “Not a thing,” she said, breaking free.

Showers started walking and said, as if nothing between them had just happened, “What’s the story about the gold? I know we are looking for bullion, but that’s about it.”

“If the coordinates from Lebedev’s cell phone are correct, we’re about to find sixty billion in gold that once belonged to the old Communist Party in the equally old Soviet Union. It was hidden here by soldiers after the KGB snuck it out of Moscow before a failed 1991 coup.”

Showers said, “How are five people — one with a bad arm — supposed to haul sixty billion in gold out of here in a Chevrolet?”

“We’re not. We’re just supposed to confirm it is here. Jedidiah Jones has a plan to haul it out with helicopters from Kazakhstan. We look, but don’t touch, and definitely don’t sample.”

“Jones is going to do this under the nose of Uzbekistan authorities?” she asked skeptically.

“Jedidiah wasn’t real forthcoming about that, but he did mention several times that we had to keep our hands in our pockets.”

“That should be a familiar location for your hands,” she replied.

Storm had been so focused on rescuing Showers that he had not dwelt much on what might happen when they actually found the gold. Each kilobar was worth at least fifty-seven thousand dollars, and his job on this trek — according to Jones — was to make certain no one got greedy.

He drew his Glock and handed it to her.

“I already know you can shoot left-handed,” he said.

“You think I might need to add some notches on it,” she asked.

“Jones warned me that I might. I don’t trust Oscar, and I’m not even sure how Dilya is going to react to that much gold.”

“And Casper?”

“I told you once that I got wounded in Tangiers. I’ve always suspected that someone sold us out. Someone betrayed us. Casper was on the kill team that Jones sent in. He went off the grid right after that mission went bad. If I had to guess, Casper sold us out.”

“But he’s blaming you for Tangiers.”

“The best defense is a good offense.”

“Do you have a plan if someone gets sticky fingers?” she asked, quickly adding, “I’m talking about the gold bars, not your pockets.”

“It depends on who it is. Oscar isn’t much of a threat, but Casper and Dilya know how to use weapons and have killed before. They’re the ones we have to watch.”

“And what about you?” she asked. “Should I be worried about you and the gold?”

“I’m not a big fan of gold,” he said. “Or diamonds.”

“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”

“Lucky we’re searching for gold then. I’d hate to have to shoot you, especially since we just rescued you.”

“I knew you’d find a way to bring that up again.”

“After that kiss, I’m rethinking the whole whipped cream and pickles fantasy. Maybe adding some ice cream and pie, too. Or a female midget.”

“You are sick.”

They walked in silence for a few minutes because the altitude was stealing their breath. Storm said, “Jones said he had a reason for sending everyone on this mission. Everyone but you had a purpose. He told me that he didn’t trust the others.”

“You already said that,” she replied.

“What if he wasn’t talking about the gold?” Storm replied. “Why would he put me in charge of stopping someone from stealing a few bars of bullion? He can always track them down.”

“Your job is what — finding out who isn’t trustworthy?”

“Maybe even more specific than that. Casper thinks I screwed up Tangiers. I think he double-crossed the agency. Dilya told me yesterday that she infiltrated the Jihad Group, and I was sent to Tangiers to track down its leader. Is it a coincidence that Casper, Dilya, and I all have ties to Tangiers?”

“What about Oscar?”

“He’s not mentioned Tangiers, but Jones always suspected that it was Russian Vympel soldiers who attacked my team there. Oscar had Russian KGB connections.”

“What soldiers?”

“The KGB’s elite forces, like our SEALs. Jones was convinced that the Russians were responsible for Tangiers.”

“Why would Jones put four people together knowing that one of them is a traitor?”

“If my hunch is correct, this may be about more than the gold,” Storm said.

The others were fifty yards ahead of them. By the time they caught up, Oscar, Casper, and Dilya were standing in front of a steep ledge that jutted straight up for at least a hundred feet. Oscar doubled-checked the GPS coordinates and then looked at the sheer rock wall. “If this GPS location is accurate, the gold is a few hundred feet behind this rock wall. There must be a cave in there.”

Casper grabbed the GPS, snatching it from Oscar’s hand. “Let me look.”

“This little Russian bastard is telling the truth,” he said. “There’s got to be a cavern behind this wall of rock.”

“This area is composed of large granite slabs,” Oscar said, “but there are deep cracks in the rocks that often can lead to inner chambers, some quite large. I’m not sure how the soldiers got truck cargo containers filled with tons of gold up here, but if there is a cavern, the only way to enter it will be through a crack somewhere in the granite.”

“We just crossed over rocks that looked like rubble,” Dilya said. “Is it possible the KGB dynamited the entrance? Sealing in the gold.”

Oscar said, “That would be logical.”

“What exactly do you mean by ‘a crack somewhere in the granite’?” Showers asked.

“A hole, an entrance, perhaps small, perhaps big,” Oscar replied. “If the soldiers destroyed the main entrance, there should be smaller cracks. Maybe not big enough for a truck to drive through, but big enough for us to walk through.”

“Should be a crack? That’s real scientific. Thanks for giving us your expert opinion,” Casper said. Rather than returning the GPS to Oscar, he clipped it onto his belt.

“How do we find the entrance?” Showers asked.

“Look for water or a stream that suddenly disappears into the ground. Look for steam rising from a hole. Caves are warmer than the air outside them. Look for red dirt — iron-rich soil that has been removed from a cave.”

Dilya checked the time. “We’ve got about an hour left before sundown, so let’s spread out. Oscar and I will go to the left. The rest of you can go to the right. If we find something, we’ll get each other. But we don’t go into any holes alone.”

“That’s the only way that—” Casper started to say, but Showers cut him off, not wishing to hear another crude comment.

“If you want to go ahead without us, go,” she told him.

Casper didn’t wait around for a discussion. Instead, he began walking to their right.

“If we’re lucky, he’ll wander into a cave and never come out,” Storm said.

Oscar opened his backpack and removed four flashlights. “You’ll need these if you see an opening. But again, wait for everyone. It will be safer. Caving is dangerous.”

Showers and Storm began walking in the same direction as Casper. Dilya and Oscar went in the other direction.

For thirty minutes Storm and Showers moved slowly through the terrain, partly because it was rough climbing and she had only one arm. They didn’t see any obvious openings and it was beginning to get dark. They were just about to turn back when suddenly Casper’s head poked out from behind rocks about ten feet in front of them.

“I found an opening!” he yelled.

They hurried over to him. The crack would have been impossible to see if Casper hadn’t climbed between several large boulders. It was an opening about seven feet tall and two feet wide.

“I don’t have a flashlight, so I only got about fifteen feet inside, but the opening gets bigger as you go deeper,” he said. “Give me one of your flashlights and I’ll explore it while you go get the others.”

“We’re supposed to wait,” Showers said.

“What are you afraid of? You think I’m going to cart out sixty billion in gold in my pockets between the time you go get the others and come back here? I’m simply going to save us time in case this opening proves a dead end.”

Storm handed Casper his flashlight and he vanished through the crack. “I’ll go get the others so you can rest,” Storm volunteered. “You still have my Glock, right?”

Showers lifted her sling. His handgun was hidden behind it, tucked in the waistband of her jeans so she could draw it with her left hand.

Storm was able to backtrack quickly without Showers. He found Dilya and Oscar returning to the sheer wall.

“Casper’s gone into an opening,” he said, catching his breath.

The three of them began running and soon reached Showers, who was sitting outside the cave’s mouth. The sun was nearly completely down.

“Has he come back?” Storm asked.

“Nope. Gone like a rabbit.”

“Or a snake,” said Oscar, taking command. “I’ll go into the hole first, Dilya next, then Agent Showers, and finally you. He pointed at Storm. “There could be water, making it slippery, and be careful of drop-offs. You need to watch your heads so you don’t knock yourself out, but also keep the light on the ground so you don’t step off a ledge.”

“How about vampire bats?” Storm asked facetiously. “Just to keep things interesting.”

“If you’ve never been in complete darkness,” Oscar continued, “then you are in for a surprise. In a cave there is no light, no sunshine, not even starlight.”

“Like a coffin,” Dilya said.

Oscar reached into his bag and gave Storm a new flashlight since he had given his to Casper. The Russian then vanished into the opening with Dilya at his heels.

“Vampire bats, coffins, total darkness, steep ledges, and Casper the ghost lurking around,” Showers whispered to Storm as they entered the cave. “I might have had better odds being tortured.”

Their flashlights cut through the darkness, illuminating a narrow passageway. Storm guessed they had gone about fifteen feet inside the mountain when the crack started to expand and break in different directions. Oscar continued down the main one with everyone on his footsteps. Storm checked his watch as they made their way forward. He wanted to time how long they’d walked. When they’d traveled another twenty minutes, Oscar came to a stop and declared, “We’ve reached a chamber!”

They crowded up next to him and all shined their flashlights into the blackness. The chamber was at least thirty feet wide, hundreds of feet long, and forty feet high. It certainly was a big enough opening to hide sixty billion dollars of gold packed into cargo containers.

“Nearly all caves are made of calcite, the crystal of calcium carbonate,” Oscar explained. He shined his flashlight down and the light reflected back. About ten feet below them was a large pool of water. The roof of the cave was covered with stalactites; water drizzling along the walls had created cave draperies.

“The white that you are seeing is pure calcite,” Oscar said. “Other minerals, mostly iron, are responsible for the orange and red stains.”

“It’s beautiful,” Showers said.

“Yes,” added Dilya, “but there are no gold bars, no tanker containers.”

“If Casper had not taken the GPS, I would be able to tell if this cavern is behind the wall of granite,” Oscar complained.

“You mean this GPS?” Casper’s husky voice called from behind them. He held the GPS up in front of his flashlight for them to see. None of them had heard him approaching them. They shined their lights on him. His face was dirty, and in their flashlight beams, he looked even more menacing.

“You’re standing right where this GPS says there should be truckloads of gold,” Casper said. “And there ain’t no Commie gold bars anywhere around here. There’s nothing but water and rocks.”

“Could the gold be under the water?” Dilya asked, shining her light down at the pool beneath them. “Maybe when they destroyed the entrance, they created a dam.”

All of them pointed their lights at the water, but saw nothing except their own reflections staring back.