Ark Found

Chapter 14

“Have a few too many in there, did ya?” the cabbie asked over his shoulder as he drove along.

“Yeah well, that’s what bars are for, right?” Jayden deliberately over-slurred from the back seat next to Carter, who was scanning their surroundings out the windows.

The cabbie took his hands off the wheel for a moment in order to momentarily throw his hands up. “Hey, I don’t judge. A big part of my business is making sure drunk people get to where they’re going safely, and without hurting anyone else. Your decision to call a cab is commendable. Waterstone Hotel is only fifteen minutes away, but if you’re three sheets to the wind…”

Carter and Jayden exchanged glances and then Carter spoke. “Actually, can you just take us to the airport instead?”

The cabbie glanced at him via his rearview mirror. “St. John’s International?”

“Yes. I know it’s further, but here…” Carter dug some cash out of his pocket and handed it over the seat to the driver. Apparently it was more than enough, because he saw the man’s eyes widen just slightly for a moment and then he picked up his radio and told his dispatcher, “Change of plans, cancel Waterstone, heading to SJI, fare pre-paid.” Carter heard the dispatcher acknowledge the call and then the cabbie hung up the radio transmitter.

That was it, Carter thought. Their escape plan was in action. Daedalus ’ hired local goons, if in fact that’s who they were, would be going to the Waterstone Hotel, while he and Jayden would be heading in the completely opposite direction to the airport. But something nagged at his mind, something not quite right. Daedalus and his outfit ran a tight ship, Carter knew. He didn’t leave a lot of things to chance. And what was the safest thing to do here, if they really wanted to stay with their quarry? To head to the Waterstone in a few minutes after the cab left? Or to simply follow the cab, just in case plans changed or were never honest in the first place? Carter had heard rumors that Daedalus employed a couple of ex-Mossad agents in his organization, to keep all of his field agents on their toes, and this was exactly the kind of scenario where that kind of preparation might play out in Treasure, Inc.’s favor.

Carter did his best to turn around and glance out the back window without it appearing unusual. Only a half dozen cars plied the lanes behind them, and one of them was a silver sedan with local plates that he thought he’d seen parked at the curb in front of them when they’d gotten into the cab. But he couldn’t be positive. He mentally kicked himself for not paying more attention. He turned back around and faced forward. Traffic was becoming slightly more congested up ahead, but still not serious like anyone from a big city would be used to.

“Just relax, we’ll be there in under twenty minutes,” the driver said as he changed into the left lane. Carter found he was able to get a glimpse of the vehicles behind them by looking at the mirror on the driver’s side. He was dismayed to see the silver sedan ease into the left lane also.

“Any chance we could hear a local radio station?” he said to the driver. “I like to hear radio in different countries.”

“Sure thing.” The driver put on some classic rock that could be heard basically anywhere in the western world, but Carter only wanted it for the noise cover. He leaned a little closer to Jayden and told him he thought they were being followed by the silver sedan. “Don’t look back. I’ve already looked once, and you can see them in the left mirror now.”

Jayden eyed the mirror and then said, “Yeah, they were at the bar. That grill is kind of distinctive.”

Carter shook his head. “Not good at all. If they see us even take the airport exit, they’ll know we’re leaving the country even if they don’t manage to tail us on foot all the way to our gate.”

“You have any more cash on you?” Jayden pulled a rumpled bill from his pocket. This is all I have on me. Might not be enough to convince this guy to lose ‘em.”

Carter considered the implications of Jayden’s question. If they did convince the cabbie to pull evasive maneuvers in order to leave their tail behind, it would also tip them off that they were right about who they were following and what they were doing. If they were unsure as it was.

“It might be better to have him drop us off early, in a crowded place, and try and lose them on foot. Then make our way to the airport after that.”

Jayden called over to the driver. “Excuse me, but are there any more areas with shops, maybe liquor stores, that we could stop at on the way to the airport?”

The driver turned down the music and asked him to repeat the question, which Jayden did.

“No sir, I’d have to loop all the way back. I’ll do it, if you want, but you’d really be going out of your way. If I were you I’d just hit the airport bars and duty-free shops once you get into St. Johns International.”

Carter eyed Jayden and shook his head. Casually changing their destination was not going to be an option. Time for Plan B. He figured they didn’t have much to lose by trying, so he took Jayden’s cash, added what he had to it, and held it out to the cabbie.

“You see that silver car back there?”

The driver appeared confused, then concerned, as he consulted his rear view mirror. “Yes? Something wrong?”

“Not really, but those are friends of ours who have been getting on our nerves. They came here on vacation with us, but we’re leaving early. I think they’re trying to talk us out of it, and I’d rather just avoid them, so if you can do us a favor and lose them, this cash is all yours.”

He glanced at the bills and then into his rearview mirror. “That silver sedan four cars back, same lane as us?” he clarified.

“That’s the one,” Carter answered.

The driver looked back at them with a wide grin. “Put on your lap belts, please.” Carter and Jayden did so and then the driver accelerated smoothly, passing three cars in the next lane before changing into that lane. He continued the same process, changing into the next lane over after passing a few more cars. He was speeding in order to do it, but not recklessly so. One car even passed him. But their tail was out of sight, at least for now. The driver pointed out the sign for the airport.

“Sure you don’t want me to take it? I don’t see your friends.”

Carter saw a public bus pulled over at a stop on the right. “Does one of those go to the airport?”

“Yes, that one does, in fact. Takes the long way around.”

“Sounds perfect,” Carter said. “Can you gain a little more distance from our friends and then drop us off at the next bus stop?”

“Yes, sir.” The cabbie sped up again, passing the bus and several cars in the right-most lane. Looking back, Carter still couldn’t see their tail. He knew that didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t back there, but it did make him feel better that they hadn’t gained on them. He watched the scenery of a country he’d never visited prior to this day whiz by, and he couldn’t help but feel how he wished they could slow down and enjoy their stay. But this was a business trip of sorts, and he knew that he had to stay focused. One day, he would return here on vacation, he told himself. After Noah’s Ark had been found.

For now, he stared nervously behind them and felt his guts clench up when the silver car came into view two lanes over. It was still far back, but accelerating. Clearly, they knew they had been evaded. Up ahead two big rig trucks blocked the two righthand lanes, and Carter could see the next bus stop not far ahead of them. “If you can pass these trucks, you could drop us off at the next stop,” he told the driver, who immediately stepped on the gas and switched into the leftmost lane in order to pass the eighteen wheelers.

But this lane change did no go smoothly, for just as he switched into the new lane, the driver of the car in that lane ahead of them braked suddenly, and the car rammed into the back of it. Carter and Jayden braced for the impact, now thankful to be wearing seatbelts, as the small SUV ahead of them was pushed left until it spun out and tipped on two wheels. For one horrifying second, Carter thought it was going to tip over, but it plopped back onto all four wheels amidst a screech of rubber that left deep black skid marks. But the incident started a chain reaction. The cab was rear-ended by the car behind them, not terribly hard, but just hard enough for Carter to wonder if they were going to have whiplash. Another car careened into their front right quarter panel, sending a column of steam up from the hood.

The cabbie uttered a curse as he lifted his hands from the wheel in a gesture of futility. He turned around to address his passengers as all traffic slowed to a stop behind them, in all lanes. “If you want to catch that bus, go now. This is not your fault, it was mine. But my company will pay for it. You do not need to stay, you have done your part,” he said, patting his shirt breast pocket which was full of their cash.

“Thank you,” both of them said. “We’re sorry for the damage,” Carter added. He pushed open the right-side door and he and Jayden exited the cab, closing the door after them. He looked around, mostly behind them, but also ahead and laterally, but couldn’t see the silver car. He thought it might be about ten cars back, but couldn’t be certain. He pointed to the bus stop. “Let’s get to it before the bus does or we’ll be sitting ducks on the side of the road.”

For right now, the bus had pulled over to the shoulder of the right lane, but most of the pileup was in the left-most lane, and already other vehicles in the right lane were starting to ease back into traffic. This opportunity to reach the stop before the bus wouldn’t last long. He and Jayden ran toward the stop, which featured a simple open bench with a sign on a pole next to it. No other people waited there.

Jayden threaded his way through traffic with the grace of an NFL running back, while Carter, a tad slower, took an alternate route that was more in his comfort zone. After enduring a few choice gestures and horn honks from frazzled drivers, along with one person who asked them if they were all right and were they in the accident, the pair of treasure-seekers reached the other side of the road in front of the bus stop.

“Nothing like a real life game of Frogger to wake you up!” Jayden exclaimed, resting with his hands on his knees.

“I like being able to put another quarter in if I die,” Carter huffed. He eyed the traffic to their left and saw that the bus was almost to them. He raised a hand to indicate to the driver they wanted to board.

“Any sign of our tail?” he asked Jayden, who also stared in that direction. He replied in the negative.

“Then let’s get on.”

“Only one problem with that,” Jayden said. “I’m out of cash. You got any?”

Carter shook his head. “Gave it all to the cabbie.”

Jayden shrugged. “When I was a kid going to school on the public bus in Seattle, sometimes I’d spend my bus fare on candy bars at the 7-11 and then have to talk my way onto the bus.”

“How’d you do that?” Carter asked as the bus air brakes belched and the doors opened. “Just kind of pretend like I’m digging around in my pockets for the fare and then, if the bus was crowded enough, sort of shuffle off down the aisle and hope the driver didn’t notice.”

Carter laughed. “And if he did notice?”

“Usually some adult would take pity on me and give me the fare.”

“Somehow I’m not so sure that’ll work for you these days. But let’s hope it does, because don’t look now, but I see the silver sedan coming up back there. Let’s get on before they see us!”

He and Jayden waited for an elderly couple to disembark at a painfully slow rate, the man helping the woman down step by step, steadying her when she was on the ground before hobbling off together. Jayden boarded the bus first, while Carter was close behind, glancing back behind the bus at the silver sedan as it switched from the same lane the bus was in to the middle lane.

“You go to the airport, right?” Jayden asked the driver, an older woman with curly silver hair.

“Just like the sign says,” she said, pointing to the electronic sign inside the bus that read, AIRPORT.

“Perfect, thanks!” Turning to Carter, he said, “Yep, it goes to the airport!”

“Great.” He and Jayden took a couple of steps away from the driver toward the back of the bus, hoping she would start to drive away, but she only sat there, looking at them expectantly. The bus was not crowded, with plenty of empty seats stretching all the way to the back. “So much for your childhood ways,” Carter muttered to Jayden under his breath.

“I need your fares, gentlemen,” the driver said loudly in an exasperated tone.

“Uh, right, hold on,” Jayden said before beginning a show of looking through his pockets, then his small backpack he had purchased at the hotel gift shop. Carter did the same. “I’m flat broke,” he grumbled to Jayden. “Turn around!” He could see the silver sedan approaching the bus in the next lane. He and Jayden faced the sidewalk, hunching over a little.

“Listen, you two, if you don’t have the fare ready, you’ll have to get it ready while you wait for the next bus. There’ll be another one coming along in twenty minutes.”

“We could ask if anyone has it, just straight up beg,” Jayden said in a low voice.

But Carter shook his head. “Probably it would work, and it’s not that I’m beneath it, but I don’t like the idea of calling that much attention to ourselves. Bus isn’t that crowded, but there’s still like twenty people back there. I’d rather just make a deal with the driver directly, that way only one person will remember us.”

“Okay, you got anything to trade for fares?” Jayden looked his body up and down, lingering on his Omega dive watch, a gift from Carter’s grandfather upon graduating naval officer school worth thousands of dollars.

“Not that,” Carter said shaking his head.

Jayden nodded and instead glanced at his own wristwatch, a relatively cheap Casio digital with high-tech bells and whistles such as a barometer, compass, and elevation readout. He unstrapped the gadget from his wrist. “I don’t know how I’ll know what time the moonrise and low tide is anymore without this thing, but I suppose it’s the price I’ll have to pay.”

He held out the watch and stepped up to the driver. “Look, this thing’s all I got. It’s worth a couple hundred American. We can’t wait for another bus or we’ll miss our flight. It’s not refundable and we’d be out thousands of dollars.”

The driver examined the watch with a begrudging look before snatching it from Jayden’s hand and closing the bus door. “Welcome aboard!”

Carter and Jayden took seats in the middle of the bus and hunkered down, Carter at the window seat where he scoped out the passing vehicles, looking for signs of the silver sedan. “I think it worked.”

“Let’s hope so, because my wrist feels awfully naked.”

“Sorry. I’ll make it up to you. Let’s focus right now on getting out of here.” Before long they saw signs for St. John’s International and entered a curving roadway with a sign warning, AIRPORT ONLY — DEPARTURES / ARRIVALS. They were glad to see the bus take the fork leading to departures, with each stop representing a different collection of airlines.

“Let’s just get off at the first one,” Carter suggested, “since we don’t know which one we need yet.”

With no arguments from Jayden, the pair of treasure hunters walked to the back door of the bus in anticipation of the stop. Jayden pressed the button to request a stop while Carter eyed the scene outside the door windows. He saw no signs of any pursuers or tails, so when the door opened the two stepped out onto the sidewalk bordering the air terminal.

“Let’s get inside,” Carter said, still worried their adversaries might know to troll the airport looking for them. With each only carrying a small backpack, they were able to thread their way quickly through the crowds without attracting much attention. “Turkey, Turkey, Turkey…” Carter said under his breath as they scanned the departure boards.

“Is that Europe or what?” Jayden wondered.

“A small part of it is in Europe, but most of it is in Asia. This way, come on.” They fast-walked until they reached an Air Canada terminal with service to the Turkish capital of Ankara.

Staring at the departure times, they saw that the next flight left in just under two hours. “Let’s see if we can get on.” Carter stepped up to the ticket counter, eyeing the flag with red and white sickle and star with both trepidation and hope.