Aztec Gold

TWENTY EIGHT

A crazy melee broke out on the waters of the Colorado River. A man leaped from his dinghy to Alicia’s and found her hands at his throat. Struggling to bring any skill to bear in the constantly shifting craft she bore down on the man, tripping him and holding his head under the water that swilled at the bottom of the boat. Sputtering, he punched out, catching her with a blow to the ribs. Lex smashed at his head with a paddle. The dinghy nosedived down another furious cascade and a second man scrambled up the side of their dinghy, scrabbling for purchase. Lex crabbed over to him just as the dinghy veered to the right through the fast-moving water, sending him onto his back. Their enemy’s dinghy was keeping up through the rapids, bumper to bumper, a third man inside now somehow standing upright and aiming his pistol.

He vanished in a spray of blood, taken down by Russo in the next dinghy. Alicia held her assailant until he stopped moving, then looked up…

Straight into the eyes of the second man, now climbing up over the side of the dinghy with a knife clasped between his teeth.

Alicia glared. Then Lex barreled across her vision, striking the man and taking him over the side. At the last moment Alicia managed to grasp Lex’s trailing leg, then held on as his body was pummeled by the mini-waterfalls. The dinghy fell directionless, spinning around. Alicia felt its momentum finally arrested and looked up.

Russo had a good hold and was pulling it after his own, toward the bank. Crouch and Caitlyn were already there, the former resting on one knee and using the solid ground to improve his aim.

Alicia heard the screams as Crouch put an end to their pursuit.

“Now,” he said. “Let’s go grab our treasure.”

The journey back was swift, a straight run across the already darkening flatlands. Crouch figured that the Paria Canyon lookout would have relocated by now, and if he hadn’t then the game was well and truly up. But it was all they had left — seven brothers in arms racing through the twilight to save one of the grandest treasures ever found.

From shrub to shrub and boulder to boulder, from rocky terrace to rocky terrace; straight up treacherous slopes and across ridges that bordered on sheer drops, they gained the top of the mountain, tooled up and prepared for battle.

It wasn’t difficult to find Coker’s operation. It wasn’t tough to spot his guards. The man had clearly gone ‘all in’, seeing the treasure as a way to some kind of freedom. Both choppers were on the ground, gently whirring, surrounded by a rough ring of armed men. These men smoked and talked and looked bored, as if they’d been there all day. Beyond them lay the hole in the ground, and out of this emerged more men, carrying a selection of gold and jewels. They were not laden down, nobody struggled; it was as if Coker had instructed them to take a cross-section of the loot.

Crouch indicated they lie low. “In a way it’s good that Coker didn’t come well prepared. He can’t take all the treasure.”

Cruz looked aghast in the shadows. “Whatever he takes it’s a shameless theft. The only people it belongs to are the Nahua.”

Alicia placed a hand on his shoulder. “The world is full of arrogant, privileged men that believe they may take whatever they want. That’s why there’s people like Crouch and Russo and I to help permanently modify their thinking.”

The team waited and watched as a slow trickle of mercenaries emerged from the hole in the ground, carrying various items toward one of the choppers. Alicia saw bags of gold coins, garnets and rubies; a small statue; carvings and tablets; a wealth of riches seeing freedom for the first and possibly last time in five hundred years. Darkness fell across the desert in all its heavy shrouds. Crouch checked his satphone for messages, saw none and made sure it was switched to silent. Plans swirled around his head, most of them pretty damn desperate.

At last, Coker appeared, panting a little. Behind him, three men carried a heavy object between them, taking great care as if their lives depended on it, shuffling forward only half a step at a time. Even then Coker continually winced at them.

“Careful. Bloody careful there.”

Cruz drew an agonized breath. Alicia had to clamp a hand across his mouth to stem the outburst. Caitlyn spoke for them all.

“Oh no. No. He has the Wheel of Gold.”

The greatest treasure of treasures was being stolen beneath their very noses.

Alicia made an instant decision. She turned toward Caitlyn. “Go. Now. All of you. Caitlyn, turn on your tracking system. If I can join you later, I will.”

Healey’s eyes were wide. “What are you going to do?”

“Whatever it takes.” Alicia said, checking her weapons by touch alone. “But I won’t let this thievery stand.”

Crouch knew better than to question Alicia in her very element. He quickly turned and started to head down the mountain, every member of the team turning to stare at her one last time. Russo was the last to go.

“Fight and stay free,” he said, touching her with his eyes alone.

“Fight and stay free,” Alicia returned with a genuine smile. “Keep ‘em safe for me, Rob.”

In the next moment she was running, eyes peeled ahead, scanning for targets. In her right hand she cradled her semi-automatic; in her left a small pistol. When the first man saw her she took him out then drifted wide of his position. The sudden tumult in the camp helped her cause. She fired at and felled another three. Coker was shouting, his men starting to panic. Those carrying the Wheel of Gold went absolutely still, acting like rabbits caught in the headlights. Alicia hit the ring of men hard, shouldering past one and elbow-striking another. Like a dark desert puma she raced, shooting to left and right, darting through one shadow-struck space to the next, until the guards almost shot each other in their confusion.

It was shock and terror, it was a burst of awe-inspiring violence that she couldn’t hope to maintain but trusted she could keep up just long enough. Bullets flew everywhere, but not at the treasure helicopter and not near Coker and his carriers. Alicia sprinted in that direction, terrifying the men that couldn’t reach for weapons, making Coker’s face blanch under the stark lights offered by the chopper.

“You’re weak, Coker. So fucking weak!”

Surprisingly his face twisted into a snarl. “You have no idea. You don’t have a wife and child!”

Alicia knocked him off his feet, confident now that she wouldn’t be shot in the back, and then broke toward the treasure chopper. A man had caught up to her and sought to clamp her throat, but Alicia broke his arm and left him groaning. Another crossed in front of her. Alicia merely helped him on his way, adding enough momentum to send him sprawling. Without slowing for an instant she dropped and slid underneath the chopper, passing below its rounded black belly and clamping the tracker on as she glided past. Up and out the other side she again sprayed a hail of bullets at the guards, scattering their ranks.

Rolling, scrambling, she vanished into the dark.

Coker was screaming. “Load the gold! Load it, you arseholes. I have to get the fuck outta here! And find that bitch.”

Alicia crouched down low, a restless spirit at nightfall, enfolded in shadow. Guns lay before her, a knife at her side. To chase her was to die and these men’s deaths would be anything but pretty. Breathing shallowly, she waited, listening to their very thoughts reflected in the lights of the chopper through their wary eyes. All emotion, all distraction, was beyond her now, a distant part of the galaxy. Only the battle existed and the opportunity to support her team.

The men backed off, not able to see her in the dark but somehow sensing that their lives hung in the balance. They may be dumb, these men, but they were soldier enough to know a superior predator when they were up against one.

“On! On!” Coker was supervising the Wheel’s loading, not paying an ounce of attention to anything else. When the gold was packed he clambered aboard. All the remaining men immediately jumped into the second chopper and loaded the wounded, some hanging off the skids, ready to chance a mid-air fall rather than Alicia Myles.

Within moments the choppers lifted off, the monster from the dark now at their backs, her reputation enhanced to the nth degree.

Alicia moved out, determined to catch up to her team. The chase wasn’t over yet.