Aztec Gold

FIFTEEN

Kanab, a city of Kane County, Utah, is located a tad north of the Arizona state line. Founded in the 1800s there are now over three thousand people living there. Arguably best known as a location for many old westerns, including Stagecoach, The Lone Ranger and The Outlaw Josey Wales, its attractions also include much of the Grand Circle — the Vermillion Cliffs and Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park and Lake Powell.

After several hours of research, Crouch called the others to full alert in the cramped confines of the small private plane.

“It seems in 1914 a man arrived in Kanab saying that in his research he found that the great treasure of Montezuma was hidden in the mountains around the town. After much searching and digging, a plan was formed to drain the lake in the hope that the treasure lay in an underwater cave. This plan was later blocked by the government because it was one of the few refuges of the ambersnail.”

“Underwater cave?” Alicia raised her voice. “I’m about as happy in water as I am in the desert. Which means — not.”

Russo grunted. “I have a little training, not so much experience.”

“I think we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Crouch said. “The map we have doesn’t even show a lake.”

The plane landed with a bump and a squeal, taxiing speedily to the hangar. When Crouch and the team had cleared customs they headed into downtown Kanab. Alicia stared at the single-story hotels, the wide streets, pawn shops, western-themed restaurants and photo shops; the tall, lush green trees and the mountainous, red-hued backdrop, the Utah monuments towering over all, and came to a single conclusion.

“In this town,” she said. “A secret’s gonna be hard to keep.”

“Wow,” Healey said. “The closer you get to that mountain the more impressive it becomes.”

“You sound like my last girlfriend,” Russo said with a rare outburst of humor.

Alicia soon quashed it. “They found a female Sasquatch then?”

Caitlyn laid a hand on Healey’s arm. “Fantastic country. I know exactly what you mean.”

Healey beamed at her. Alicia thought back to the long plane journey from Mexico. Healey had taken it upon himself to begin Caitlyn’s induction into the art of self-defense. Nothing major at first, he’d told her.

“I’m a fast learner,” she’d said.

Healey had nodded. “Yes, but I don’t want to overwhelm you.”

Caitlyn had pointed to the raw cuts and bruises around her wrist. “Overwhelm me.”

Alicia knew there was a vast difference between being taught by a civilian instructor and a special-forces soldier, just as there was a vast difference between the actual knowledge they gave you to start with. Preservation of life and helpfulness to the team was of major import. With the Army there were no colored belts.

Alicia had watched Healey train Caitlyn and had offered her own advice. Lex had watched proceedings closely and even Russo came up with a trick or two. Lex had leaned over the back of his chair, saying, “When he’s shown you the soldier’s way I’ll show you the biker’s. It’s quicker.”

Alicia saw Healey as the kind of guy that could achieve big time, but needed the security of more experienced people around him. The skills were there, the willingness was unquestionable, but the true man would never break out unless it was nurtured properly. In the brief time she’d had to glean his file she’d put this down to a warring family. Back home, Healey had been the youngest in a three-sibling family, mother, father and siblings always at each other’s throats with Zack usually the scapegoat. This affected his behavior at school, which led to worse grades and more reprimands; more humiliating abuse from his older brothers. The Army had offered a way out, a chance to learn from greater, responsible figures. It had given him his life back.

Alicia compared Healey’s story to that of her own. It wasn’t the same, but it had many parallels and offered up those same two fundamental questions: Why were some parents so blind to their own children’s difficulties and why weren’t they more aware of and responsive to the situations they themselves created?

Alicia didn’t dwell. Zack had won, in her mind. And so had she. The pain she lived with every day could be shrugged off, the old anxieties buried beneath unending action. It was at uneasy moments like this that she piped up and offered her own sarcastic slant to almost any conversation.

Kanab lay sun-blasted beneath an azure sky. Huge old American cars prowled the wide streets, Buicks and Chryslers and Cadillacs; the relatively short trees and towering backdrops gave the place a wide-open, insecure kind of feel, offering little shelter. Straight roads bisected the place, leading from the main street to the many houses.

Crouch aimed their car toward the largest restaurant. “Let’s get some food,” he said. “And start asking questions.”

“Think that’s a good idea? Won’t Coker and his South African widowmaker be on the chase?” Russo asked.

“We cut out of there kinda sharpish.” Crouch shrugged. “Flight plan was bogus. It’ll take them a few days. I hate to leave Coker in that situation,” he added as he parked. “But we don’t have the resources to take on a criminal kingpin just yet.”

Alicia slipped out of the car. “Coker will show his head again. If I don’t have to blow it off I’ll find out why someone’s controlling it.”

Cruz followed the conversation in silence, his thoughts seemingly lost in the surrounding wonders.

The restaurant was almost empty, the waitresses standing around bored. As the team took their seats a smiling woman sporting schoolteacher glasses and pigtails ambled over to them.

“Help ya?”

Crouch reeled off a set of drinks, then waited expectantly for her to write it all down. The waitress grinned and tapped at the side of her head. “Memory like Microsoft. Drinks will be right up. Name’s Rosie by the way.”

She ambled off, taking her time. Crouch looked from face to face. “Maybe we should have ordered food at the same time.”

“Cheer up,” Caitlyn said. “It’s not like we have anywhere to go.”

“Not yet. Do you have everything you need to install those cameras into our new gear?”

They had lost some of their gear in the hurry to leave Mexico.

“Sure. I can make do. Plus, they’re bound to have some kind of electrical supply store around here.”

Rosie returned with their drinks. Crouch immediately slid Healey’s map before her. “Do you live in Kanab, Rosie? Do you recognize any of these landmarks?”

The waitress looked a little bewildered. “You guys don’t look the treasure hunter types.”

Crouch grimaced. “You get asked that a lot?”

“Three hundred sixty days a year, honey. Though I can’t recall seeing something quite like this.” She squinted at the drawings. “That one looks like the Tower of Babel, a long way from here but quite distinctive, whilst that one looks like the Fiery Furnace, quite close to the Tower. Can’t be sure though. Oh, and that one could be a view of Grandview Peak and Little Black Mountain together. You live around here long enough you see all the famous views time after time. Pretty close, I’d say, but don’t quote me on it.” She reeled off several more landmark sites. “Some can look pretty much like another. You get these from a children’s book?” Her eyes twinkled.

Alicia snorted at Healey. “Kind of.”

Crouch spoke again before Rosie could turn and leave. “I guess we won’t stand out in Kanab as being any different?”

Rosie grinned. “Tourists. If I had a dime for every would-be gold digger that drifted through here I’d be a millionaire.” She nodded toward the shiny counter. “And several more o’ them gold diggers are back there, honey. Watch yourself.”

She spun and walked off, hips swaying, leaving Crouch staring after her in surprise. Alicia leaned across the table and held his hands.

“Calm down, Michael. You look like you’ve never been hit on before.”

Crouch blinked. “It’s been a while.”

“Maybe we could ask her to be our guide?”

Crouch collected himself and threw her a look that clearly said, ‘behave’. “Let’s move on. Caitlyn — the laptop.”

The tech was already on it, tapping at the keys to bring up Google Maps. Once she’d enlarged a map of Utah she located the geographical map and started to scrutinize the topography. Rosie returned, took their menu order, and made a point of offering the group slices of free apple pie.

Crouch jumped at the suggestion, hooked by Rosie’s twinkling eyes. Healey and Caitlyn were snagged too, but Alicia and Lex managed to decline.

Russo only grumped. “Huh, I’m allergic to cake.”

Alicia squinted through one eye. “To cake?”

“It gives me a sore throat,” Russo declared.

Rosie winked and wandered away to start tapping their order into a terminal. Caitlyn looked up from the computer screen.

“I have the three landmarks that Rosie mentioned and others. They’re all pretty accurate if I’m being honest. Of course, this is a land of crags and hoodoos, odd shaped formations and weather-beaten rocks. My guess is there could be even more similarities.”

Crouch took a swallow of coffee. “Find them.”

Alicia watched the girl work, thinking that one of the obvious things they now needed was more laptops. But she was enjoying it, this learn-as-you-go adventuring with the new team. This new venture was nothing short of building an entire unit from the ground up, discovering mistakes and correcting them for the next go round, determining what worked and what didn’t, and adapting in mid-stride. It was a busy, engaging creation, peppered with danger and troublemakers and if this was their first run out — she couldn’t wait for the second.

Rosie placed their meals on the table and noticed what Caitlyn was doing. She placed her hands on her hips. “Y’know, I have to say. A lot of them prospectors come through here lookin’ for gold, they don’t come back. End up finding their bodies weeks or even months later, picked at by coyotes and crows. This can be a harsh part o’ the world for the unprepared.”

Crouch looked up at her. “Thanks for the advice. We’ve been in worse places.”

“Just sayin’. Some folks put it down to the land. Some put it down to the militia. Only thing I know is most that come lookin’ for a heap of gold get a heap of dead. Stories been around these parts for hundreds of years.” She fixed Crouch with a hard gaze. “There ain’t no damn gold.”

“Wait.” Crouch had stopped eating a while back. “Wait. Back up. What militia?”

“Some of the land out there ain’t all national park y’know. Some’s considered to be privately owned, at least by those that dwell on it. They call themselves the High Desert Militia; peculiar lot. Come into town sometimes spouting their beliefs and waving their guns. Plain jealous and plain bitter they are. All as straight as a three dollar note.”

Healey’s face creased in thought. Alicia twirled her finger around her ear. “She means they aren’t. Tell me, Rosie, where do these boys hang out?”

Rosie waved a hand in a northerly direction. “Across that way. You can’t miss ‘em. Got a fence around their property, but if you ask around we got plenty of guides in town. Most of ‘em will be happy to show you around for a fee.”

“Maybe we’ll do that. Thanks for your help, Rosie.”

“Anytime.”

“Wait.” Russo spoke up. “This militia. What’s the worst thing they’ve done?”

An odd question, but Alicia knew why the big man was asking it. Simply to determine the threat level. For the first time since they entered the restaurant Rosie’s face grew guarded, her movements cautious.

“I dunno. Folks don’t talk overmuch ‘bout the militia.”

“You said earlier—”

“You heard that? So what you asking for when you have an answer? I wouldn’t want to wander into their compound, put it that way.”

Crouch thanked Rosie again and then addressed Caitlyn. “What have you found?”

“The many formations unique to Utah are in fact mostly one of a kind. The weather has molded them, shaped them. It does so differently with each part of the landscape and even each rock. The Tower of Babel is highly distinctive and incomparable. The Fiery Furnace is special too. Now, if either Grandview Peak or Little Black Mountain were formations on their own you couldn’t tell them apart from a hundred other landmarks, but put them together, and again they’re exceptional.”

“And the Aztecs relied on this.” Crouch nodded.

“Sure. They believed they would be following the map back within months, I would think. And though there are many escarpments and stepped monuments and odd towers, each one is an individual. I see only five matching objects to the ones on the map — and only three follow its actual lines.”

Alicia smiled. “Like having your cake and eating it too.” She clapped Caitlyn on the back, then shot a look over toward Russo. “Except in your case, Rob. Don’t wanna get those allergies going now, do we?”

Healey tapped on the table. “I feel like saying — saddle up!”

Caitlyn gave a gleeful little laugh. “Me too!”

Now Cruz grinned.

Alicia groaned. “Shit, why do I keep feeling like a Friday night babysitter?”

Crouch did nothing to dissuade the sudden upsurge of excitement. “The gold’s out there, guys. I’m sure of it. Imagine — my first venture into treasure hunting yields Montezuma’s famous gold. Damn, I’ve dreamed of this my whole life.”

“Is that why you collect old things?” Alicia wondered, remembering Crouch’s affectation for past-history souvenirs and relics. He had a reputation as a sentimentalist and, when not working, often pulled out a photo album packed with snaps as wide-ranging as his Corgi Ferrari Daytona 365 GTB/4, his Lee and Ditko Amazing Spiderman #4 special edition, his working Betamax and Honda CBX motorcycle. Other favorites included desk ornaments, paintings and restaurant keepsakes — the older within his own lifetime the better.

“Maybe,” Crouch acknowledged. “There was a time, quite recently actually, when I never thought I’d get to live my dream. Now, everything has changed. We can blame life for that, or fate, but it is what it is. And it will never change. In the military it’s like — here’s the new threat, same as the old threat. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda we helped snuff out of Afghanistan and Iraq have returned as IS. The Wall Street thieves the world saw disgraced returned as high-frequency traders without spending a single day behind bars.” He shrugged. “There will always be another war.”

“So we’re better off doing this?” Alicia finished clearing her plate and sat back. “At least until the next apocalypse.”

Crouch grinned warmly at her. “Yeah. Until then.”