Caribbean Gold

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

The higher slopes were the hardest. The space became narrower and the separate groups grew closer. Mercs came across from Jensen’s group, no doubt ordered since Alicia doubted it was the right choice to make, and brought down running pirates in any way possible. Alicia saw some crazy, desperate actions in the next few moments. A pirate turned his gun on a merc only to see the old iron explode in his face as he pulled the trigger. Both men went down. A merc flattened three pirates by barging through their pack with open arms, then slipped off a rocky outcropping and broke his neck on the rocks below. A pirate turned to flee back to camp and was cut down by one of his brethren. Four, then six, then eight pirates reached the top of the hill, started to dance around and fired their guns in the air. Russo took one of them out, and a man that looked distinctly like Jensen killed a second. The pirate leader turned, surveyed the slope and then roared.

Alicia took a potshot, missed, but saw another pirate fall. Good enough. Three pirates now neared them and hopped over a shallow stream to engage. A weapon was leveled. Alicia ducked under and used the barrel to smash the man’s nose. A shot was fired. Healey ducked for cover, bobbed up and then shot the man center mass.

Caitlyn tripped and fell before the third.

Looking like all his Christmas presents had come early, he discarded his weapon and pulled out a knife. Alicia shook her head at his stupidity even as she shot him, then helped Caitlyn up.

“Watch your balance.”

“I know.”

A little sass was good. Alicia engaged a fourth pirate and sent him tumbling back down the hill. Pirates were now climbing to the apex of the hill in numbers — twelve and then twenty and then their leader crested the final rise. Russo was only twenty feet further back but was forced to pull up and take stock.

Pirates ranged around the top of the hill, pointing their weapons down. Their leader barged through them, causing at least two to drop their weapons and have to scramble around on the ground.

“Find me this treasure!” he bellowed.

Alicia picked her way around the obstacles, moving from tree to tree and using boulders to stay safe. The group came together in the lee of a rough rock ledge.

“What next?” Healey said with enthusiasm.

“They have the high ground,” Russo said, straight-laced and soldier-like.

“Grenades would be useful,” Alicia pointed out.

“Maybe Jensen has some,” Crouch said. “Otherwise it’s going to be tricky.”

Alicia laughed, eyeballing her weapons for damage and changing out the mags. “Conservative as ever, boss.”

“King of the Hill was never my forte,” he said. “But I say — when Jensen attacks, we attack.”

“Would a trained soldier attack that?” Russo motioned toward the rim of the hill guarded by a ring of men.

“It’s his ultimate goal in life.” Crouch shrugged. “And probably his last chance. He’ll attack.”

Caitlyn had been resting on her knees. Now she looked up. “How long before the cavalry arrive?”

“To save us?” Crouch pursed his lips. “There are several agencies working in the Caribbean at the moment, some mopping up after the recent Barbados fiasco. The authorities are on their way and, I hope, at least some of those teams.”

Alicia took the speech to mean I don’t know. Sometimes you just had to read between the lines. “Well, they sure as hell won’t talk the pirate boss down from there. You can’t reason with a man whose major problems have bigger problems of their own.”

Crouch eyed her. “True enough. Any ideas?”

“Yeah, let’s wait for Jensen to attack first.”

A hot sun burned down. Alicia sat with her back to the rocky lee, now able to see the trail of devastation and death that led up the hill. Some men still lived down there, crawling aimlessly. Others were too injured to move. Trees were broken and listing, and scrub was torn apart. Dust still swirled in the air above the paths they had all taken. A fitting aftermath for a crazed, deadly dash into the heart of danger. The Gold Team had engaged with it and executed it well — never in terrible danger and always thinking, always ahead. But the reckless, uncontrolled and ultimately uncaring bunch had made it to the top first and now held all the power. Go figure that life lesson. Her lips curled. Noises filtered through her consciousness. The aggressive protests and instructions from above. The disorganized shooting. The drug-fuelled laughter. Healey and Caitlyn having a whispered conversation. Russo clearing his throat.

She peered up toward the top of the hill, shielded by brush that hung over the ledge. The tree that stood up there by itself was a striking spectacle. Barren, twisted, and gray-white it warped upwards toward the skies, rising magnificent and distorted with misshapen branches and an array of twigs hanging down like broken fingers. It drew her eyes right to the top where the highest boughs appeared to have decided to stop growing, instead curling over and over to form a creepy, lifeless, hanging barrier that reminded her of hundreds of rolls of barbed wire tied together.

“That is one sick tree,” she commented.

“Morgan’s Fancy,” Crouch stated. “That’s what it should be called.”

“Don’t get your hopes up as well,” Alicia warned. “This island could be as much a washout as all the rest.”

“Has to be here.” Crouch thought he’d turned away before she saw the desperation in his eyes. “It has to be.”

Alicia turned her gaze over to where they thought Jensen had gone to ground. No signs of life existed over there, around the curve of the hill, but then none should. The self-made pirate would be making plans to attack the real modern pirates. She shook her head. Shit, it was becoming confusing.

The Crouch’s cell rang. Thinking it was their reinforcements he answered quickly. “Where are you?”

“Just around the corner actually,” Jensen’s voice came over the lowered loudspeaker.

Crouch started. “How do you have my number?”

“Is that really the issue here? C’mon, Michael. Now, my thinking is that we hit them both at the same time. We were trained by the same people so I know you feel the same.”

Alicia fought against accepting the reasonable tones and likening them to Drake. She couldn’t think that way now — the men were poles apart.

“You want to join forces?” Crouch was too shocked to think straight.

“No, no, don’t be a fool.” Jensen laughed. “I want to kill you all for trying so hard to wreck my chances of getting super-rich. But first, neither of us can get to that treasure with the band of idiots in the way. Am I right?”

“I hardly class you as any better.”

“Ooh, that hurt. So unnecessary. But I am right, Michael. You know it.”

Crouch took a look up the hill and then at his team. Alicia knew his decision long before it reached his face. The treasure’s influence was all over him.

“I’ll meet you at the tree,” Jensen said. “I’ll kill you there.”

Crouch checked his watch. “You ready in five?”

“Let’s make it seven. Oh, and as for your number… don’t forget I have contacts too.”

Alicia shook her head at the macho bullshit. She plucked the phone from Crouch’s hands. “Just be ready, asshole. We’ll go when we’re ready.”

She threw the object back to Crouch. Then she made sure the rest of the team were watching her.

“Nobody has to do this,” she said. “So don’t think you do. We can back out right now. After all, it’s only buried treasure and the cops are on their way. How far could any of them get?”

“He might rebury it. Sink it. He might have a hidden chopper. A sub—”

“Listen to yourself.” Alicia still hadn’t forgiven him and embraced the insubordination. “We will decide what is worth risking our lives for. Not you.”

Crouch held up both hands.

Russo looked uncomfortable. “We’ve come this far. Pirates are a ragtag bunch of clowns and jokers. And… we finally take down Jensen. I’m in.”

Healey looked to Caitlyn and then to Crouch, the two most important people in his life. “I guess Russo’s right. Jensen is the big factor here. If we lose him for any reason he could haunt our lives forever. Pop up anytime. I say take him out.”

Caitlyn understood the potential for a lifelong threat too. “They’re right, Alicia. Never leave an enemy at your back.”

She smiled at the words coming from the mouth of the researcher. “I love you all like family,” she said. “And respect your decisions, no matter how batshit crazy they are.” She gauged the top of the hill. “We ready?”

Russo steadied his rifle. “Ready.”

“Spread out,” Crouch said. “Don’t give them a target.”

Alicia felt like reminding him who they were, but bit it back. This wasn’t the time. She prepared herself mentally and then moved to the side, following the curve of the ledge around the hill. Then, without a word, she stepped out between it and the next tree and started firing. By the time her bullets reached the top of the hill she was sheltering again behind a thick trunk. Two pirates went down, writhing. Russo followed her lead, taking out two more. Healey went the other way with Caitlyn and felled another. Five seconds later gunfire erupted from the other side of the hill and the pirates started yelling.

Panicked. They didn’t even understand they held the better ground.

“Hey!” Guttural shouting rang out. “I foun’ dis!”

Alicia moved again, tree to tree, gaining ground. The slope was steep and still hazardous. She stepped over roots and ankle-breaking delves in the earth. A bullet smashed into the tree trunk at her back, the impact passing through her body with a judder. Russo followed, firing constantly. More screams. She peeked around the rough bole and spied the next haven — a body-length delve in the rock. She ran, fired and dived headlong, twisting her body to the shape of the delve and rolling inside. Bullets pounded the area around her. The pirates were slow, but they caught up eventually. Russo took a slightly different route, moving ahead now and making sure she knew it.

“Wanker,” she mouthed and rolled to view her next piece of cover. She saw Healey and Caitlyn moving up the hill too, heard Jensen’s attack, saw Crouch carefully aiming and picking off the more reckless pirates. Already, they were clearing a gap.

Alicia rose and ran. Two trees this time, and the last before the top of the hill, which now lay about fifteen feet above her. A pirate charged recklessly, cleaver and rifle held above his head. Alicia could hardly believe his stupidity until spotting the fevered light in his eyes; then took a second to put him out of his misery forever. There was no place in the world for men that shunned compassion, that reoffended their sins without remorse or regret, that cared nothing for humanity.

She spied more cover, probably the last before the summit, but it was good. A cave, a yawning mouth large enough to admit a crouched woman. She had no intentions of exploring, but could use it to make ready for the last assault. Firing now she ran, heard a bullet whizz past her head and another strike a tree three feet to her right. Not great shooting but these guys were more likely to hit her by accident as they aimed for Russo or even Crouch back down the hill. She saw three more fall and roll toward her. Russo knocked down another, now only three steps ahead. The man looked pissed.

Alicia gave him the finger and rolled to her cave; striking a rock with her knee and feeling the fire. She grunted. Dirt rolled off her body. Her tendons ached from the strain and her head hurt with the constant focus required to pull this off. Heat caused sweat to drip into her eyes which she wiped away with earth-caked fingers.

She took a last look at the summit. Glanced over at Russo. “We ready?”

Down the hill Healey and Caitlyn were advancing more slowly, but thinning the herd just as proficiently. Crouch hadn’t moved but looked ready, still dispatching the pirates. To their credit the men above had finally realized they were sitting ducks, ranged in a circle as they were, and had found several areas of shelter. But the team — and Jensen’s — had taken a fair portion of them down.

Alicia fired above and ran, taking a snaking route and laying down her own cover fire. Crouch helped. And then Russo, doing the same. Bullets shredded the earth at the top of the hill and any foreheads that were crazy enough to pop up. Alicia pressed on, confident she could reach the top before her mag ran dry and already thinking about drawing the handgun. She saw several dangers; pirates to the far left of her trying to crawl into better positions. She diverted her spray momentarily. A head popped up, dispatched by Crouch. She approached the very summit now, ready to engage.

A root caught at her ankles, sending her headlong. She held on to her gun and turned the sprawl into a roll, managing to spin her body right over the curve at the top of the hill, coming around on flat ground and with a full view of the wide, level summit.

She’d left two pirates at her back, but Russo came bounding over the top and soon dispatched them. Alicia took the moment to take it all in. The outlandish tree stood at dead center, a gray, deformed phenomenon. Several figures dug all around it and the pirate leader stood up to his waist in a wide hole, head bent and only his bare back showing. Two pirates sat with their backs to a tree, talking and smoking, guns at their sides, adding to the confusion and sheer peculiarity of the scene. Twelve pirates ranged around the lip of the hill, most now turning their weapons toward her and all at the same time.

Jensen and his three lieutenants burst over the other side of the straggly rim, snagging attention.

Alicia and Russo ran hard for the center of the hilltop, the only logical way to go since it would stop the pirates from shooting as they neared their own men. Healey then crested the brow, Crouch a few steps back. All four of the Gold Team opened fire and felled pirates. The leader popped his head up from the hole and the rest of his body followed.

In his filthy hands he held a strongbox.

Alicia felt her heart drop and her stomach lurch as she leapt into the fray. Jensen ran in from the right with just three men now, the stress showing clear across his face. The assault on the hull had decimated his force, or perhaps some of the mercs had deserted, preferring not to risk suicide.

Whatever it was, Alicia grabbed the shoulders of the pirate in front of her, knowing he would use his machete to attack. She shimmied her body aside, saw the blade pass by, then headbutted the man, spun him to the side and kicked him to the ground. Another came at her, gun up. Alicia ducked low, then came up hard, head under his chin so forcefully she lifted his feet a foot off the ground. He fell hard, unconscious.

Pirates still ran at them from all sides. She dropped her expended rifle and slipped out the all-black Walther. Two men fell, the third barged into her, knocking her off her feet. Alicia rolled and struggled, finding it hard to get a grip of his bare, sweaty skin. Then she saw his hair flapping around in a thick bob and grabbed a handful, jerking it as far back as she was able. He cried out, striking ineffectually with a knife. Alicia shot him and rolled away, rising to her feet.

Only a few strides from the pirate leader now.

Russo came past her. Healey covered Jensen and his three cohorts, who fought the last of the pirates on that side, not as efficiently as the Gold crew it seemed.

The pirate leader held the strongbox above his head. “Wait!”

Clods of earth dropped from his arms and shoulders and the box itself. His face was filthy, his hair hanging rank. Two men lay dead at his side, blood seeping into the grass that surrounded the lifeless tree.

Russo came close to the edge of the recently dug hole. Others lay around with pirates half-crouched inside, hands black with dirt. They had assailed the area fast and hard, mindlessly it seemed. But their frenzied efforts had paid off.

“Wait,” Crouch echoed as he came over the brow of the hill, weapon aimed steadily at the leader’s heart. He brought Caitlyn with him, who moved over to Healey’s side and pointed her small Glock at Jensen.”

“We have to know what’s in that box.”

“Then wait,” the leader of the pirates repeated.

Alicia raised her gun.