Pirate

Fifty-two

Rain splattered down on the windshield, blurring their vision, but Sam wasn’t about to turn the wipers on and risk being seen. Not after seeing the BMW pull up to the park. Ivan and Alexandra were in the front, Jak and Nigel in the back. Ivan got out of the driver’s seat, opened the back door, pulling Nigel out by his arm. Jak and Alexandra followed close behind, the four walking into the park.

A moment later, Fisk’s black Mercedes pulled up behind the BMW. He and two stocky, dark-haired men got out. Sam saw the bulk of handguns beneath their matching brown leather coats. “Fisk’s brought reinforcements.”

Sam and Remi watched as they entered the park, walking toward the wall of ivy. Apparently Alexandra was left to guard Nigel while Jak and Ivan picked up a couple of sticks, poking them into the thick ivy vines, searching for the entrance. Ivan turned toward Nigel, saying something, and Nigel nodded at the ivy as though he had some knowledge of the location. Jak moved to the opposite end, poking his stick in and out of the vines.

“We have to do something, Sam. We can’t let them take Nigel down there.”

“I wasn’t expecting so many men. We rush in now, we might as well be stepping into a viper’s nest.”

“At least they’re not golden lancehead vipers.”

Fisk said something to Alexandra, who moved closer to Nigel as he and his new henchmen started exploring the greenbelt. Right now, the odds of a rescue didn’t look good. They’d be seen the moment they left the car and started walking down the drive to the park.

“So what’s the plan?” Remi asked.

“You mean, miracle?” Trying to rescue Nigel while avoiding five armed men and possibly one armed woman — with very little cover other than a few hedges — was going to be a lot harder than they’d anticipated.

“There’s always Bree,” Remi said.

Sam glanced over at her. “What about her?”

“She’s passed on information to her cousin before. Why not now? Why not make them think they’re in the wrong location? They leave, we follow, and find a better place to get to Nigel.”

Sam weighed the risks. Lazlo and Selma had gone to great pains to make sure that the only information Bree passed on to her cousin was that she hadn’t been in touch with Sam and Remi. They had the perfect setup, Bree passing info on to Larayne, Larayne passing it on to Jak or Ivan. If it worked, Avery’s henchmen would soon be racing off to explore some other tunnels.

If it didn’t and those men found the tunnel entrance and took Nigel down there, he doubted he’d get the man out alive. “Looks like Bree’s our only option.”

Remi made the call, giving Selma a quick rundown on what they needed. She held out the phone for Sam. “Selma said that Lazlo finished the translation.”

Whatever Lazlo had found could wait. They needed to get Nigel out of there, and he got right to the point. “Remi told you what we need. Will it work?”

“It should,” Selma told him. “We’ve monitored every call between Bree and her cousin since Snake Island. As far as Larayne knows, we don’t know where you are.”

“Which plays into this perfectly.” The wind gusted and rain poured down, but none of them moved from the park. “Try to get it so Larayne asks Bree if she’s heard from us first. If Bree offers up the information, her cousin might become suspicious.”

“Understood. And if Larayne does ask? What disinformation are we passing on to her?”

“Anything that will move them away from the cave entrance. They know it’s in the vicinity, but they haven’t found it yet. We need them out of the area or we’ll never get Nigel out.”

“We could use the priory where Robin Hood was buried.”

“I think we need a better connection to King John — and something closer.”

“There’s Nottingham Castle,” Selma said. “Documented caves and tunnels, some of which even fit the names on the map.”

“Let’s go with the castle. If we can get them out of this area, we might have a better opportunity to get Nigel.”

“You’re not going to search it?”

“There’s no reason to. Even if we did get in, we don’t know what we’re looking for.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you. Lazlo finished the translation. It’s a riddle. Above death, below death, with my last meal.”

“Which means what?”

“Lazlo thinks the Celtic knot engraved on the center of the cipher might have something to do with the riddle. That type of pattern is called interlacing. Sort of like basket weaving. Above and below, like in the riddle. The Celts were known to hide things in the pattern. Pull off layers of the interlacing to see the pattern below. Maybe it’s a pattern of the tunnels that leads to the treasure. We haven’t quite figured out the answer to the riddle, but we’re working on it.”

The riddle could wait. “Have Bree make the call to her cousin,” he said.