Treasure of the Dead

Chapter 12

Down in the chamber, Maddock heard Willis’ voice next, protesting loudly. A little too loudly, Maddock thought. “Man, I told ya'll my friend done fell through! I'd say it's your job to help him out but I don't believe you two are real cops.”

Maddock heard another voice answer Willis. “We saw you with a girl. We'd like to meet her.” Laughter followed. Something about the way the man said the word “girl” told Maddock these men were up to no good. Bones moved next to Maddock and they exchanged looks.

“What do we do?” Bones whispered to avoid being heard, since so far it seemed that the unknown men were aware only of Willis’ and Fabi’s presence. Before Maddock could answer, a voice called down.

“You, girl! Come out where we can see you. Don’t try anything funny or we’ll have to shoot up that pretty body.”

Fabi sidled up next to Maddock and Bones, still beyond the newcomers’ line of sight down the hole. Maddock whispered, “I’ve got an idea.” He proceeded to relay it. Then Fabi nodded and moved beneath the hole into the beam of the man's flashlight.

A rope dropped down through the hole to the chamber floor. Fabi picked it up and made a show of tentatively grasping it and attempting to climb. She called up through the hole. “I don’t think I’m strong enough to climb this.”

They heard Willis’ voice from somewhere out of sight. “Untie me and I'll pull her up myself. Y’all look like you can’t pull nothing but your own…”

“Shut up!” two different unseen male voices said in turn. A new face appeared at the top of the hole, eyes squinting as the man’s eyes adjusted to the dim light. Maddock and Bones slid into the shadows behind a torture rack while Fabi remained with the rope. One of the unknown voices yelled down from above.

“Tie a loop in the rope and step into it.”

Fabi hesitated. “Sorry, but it's going to take more than one of you to pull me up. I’m not a skinny gal.”

Maddock watched from his place of concealment as a second set of hands appeared at the top of the hole. He put a hand on Bones’ shoulder, a signal that meant get ready. The two men above reached down and began to lift Fabi on the rope. Maddock watched until her feet cleared the floor, and then he and Bones sprung.

Maddock reached the rope and heaved on it, while Bones leapt off a pile of fallen rock like he was making a basketball layup. The tall Indian reached up and grabbed each of the two men pulling on the rope by a wrist and yanked, hard. The two men fell twelve feet from the top of the hole to hit the ground. They lay there a moment, stunned.

Maddock and Bones used the opportunity to knock them fully unconscious, and then they tied them up with their boot laces. When they were finished they looked up to see Willis peering down through the hole, waving.

Bones waved back. “I thought your hands were tied?”

“I got loose. Who do y'all think gave those fellows a push from behind? Nice assist, though, Bones. Now go ahead and step into the loop, for real, and I’ll pull you up. Ladies first.”

Fabi allowed Willis to haul her up out of the torture chamber. They repeated the process with Bones and then Maddock, who asked Willis if there could be other intruders where those had come from.

“Just those two bozos.”

Maddock reiterated the need to get back to their boat. While the rain had let up some, the wind was now more forceful than before. They left the fort grounds and made their way back through the jungle, Willis in particular very wary of monkeys. But they emerged from the narrow path onto the beach without incident, only to be greeted by an unexpected sight.

A simple wooden boat with a large outboard motor lay beached up on the sand, not far from their dinghy. Maddock headed for the unknown craft.

“I’m guessing this is the boat your fan club took out here, Fabi.” He reached the open vessel and began searching it, rummaging through the console to see if he could find an ID. The others joined him and they overturned life jackets, a cooler, coils of rope. It didn’t take long for Bones to come up with something. He held it up: a solid brick of white powder.

Willis raised his eyebrows. “Bones, you gonna share some of that? Because that’s a little too much for one person.”

“Well, there’s Fabi…”

She shook her head and was about to say something when Maddock cut them off by taking a rope from the drug boat and tossing it to Willis. “Tie this off to the dinghy. Bones, help me push this thing out.”

Bones threw the block of powder into the water and the men shoved the boat out into the water until it floated while Willis connected the tow rope. Maddock pulled the dinghy out into the water and then got in it. “C’mon, let’s drag this thing out to sea, buy ourselves a little more time.”

With all four in the dinghy, they motored out into the bay, towing the drug boat behind them. When they neared the Sea Foam, they undid the rope, casting the interlopers’ boat adrift. Then they boarded the Sea Foam and pulled the dinghy aboard.

Maddock got behind the wheel and fired up the engine. “We need more information. Let’s get back into town and see what else we can learn about this sailor held prisoner.”