Now…
Caitlyn laid a hand across his shoulder. “Well done, sir. This is… incredible. The Gold Team earn their stripes.”
“What happens next?” Cruz wondered. “The Nahua will want to know that we have found their birthright.”
“Next?” Crouch repeated, still dazed. “Well, next we find the second trove.”
“All this,” Cruz said. “Needs to be safeguarded.”
“Of course. We’ll slip out of here and I’ll make the calls. What do you take me for? An idiot? We always knew we’d find a treasure sooner or later. We have protocols in place to secure and preserve the find.”
Cruz smiled. “I knew you were the right choice.”
“Oh God,” Healey groaned. “Does that mean we have to tackle those bloody rocks again?”
“Afraid so.” Caitlyn swatted his behind. “C’mon bucko, giddy up.”
Healey sprang forward as if he’d been stabbed. Caitlyn watched him go, then made a face at Russo when the young man didn’t look back.
“Whoops, hope I didn’t offend him.”
“Nah. After that slap he’s probably hiding an erection.”
Russo strode off, leaving Caitlyn blushing. After a minute Crouch retreated out of the gold room, camera in hand. He proceeded to document the find, covering both caves with infinite care. Cruz wandered over to the drawings again as their boss worked.
“My heart breaks for these warriors,” he said. “Sent on a perilous journey away from their home they were gone many months, but finished their task, lost men along the way and still some returned. To find what? A city destroyed. Homes razed. Families murdered. The burden that fell to them was insurmountable.”
“And this is how they would want to be remembered,” Crouch said. “Knowing that they safely preserved their city’s wealth and cultural treasures to be returned to its descendants another day.”
Caitlyn saw that Crouch was finished and headed out of the cave. Darkness enfolded her once again, but Healey and Russo waited just ahead, ready with their flashlights. The way back was much easier and quicker. Soon they were scrabbling up the slick slope where the watercourse branched off and then back among the standing stones.
“Shit,” Russo said. “Look at that.”
Caitlyn stared in the direction he was pointing. A faint red glow buffed up the far horizon, making the skies appear lighter.
“Dawn?” Caitlyn was amazed. “We’ve been down there all night?”
“Well, technically we’ve been beyond the fence all night,” Healey said. “Took a while to find the cave.”
“Sure, but—”
“Time flies when you’re treasure seeking.”
Russo squeezed out from the final stone, turning around to help steady the others. At last they were free, standing on hard ground and searching for the most direct route back.
“All we have to do,” Crouch said. “Is head back down to the stream, then go northwest, stay away from the camp, and retrieve our vehicle. After that I’ll start making the calls and we can plan our next move.”
“I wouldn’t make too many plans,” a rough voice said from behind them. “They’re hard to fulfil when you’re dead.”
The sound of dozens of rifles being cocked sent Caitlyn’s heart into overdrive.
TWENTY
Alicia placed herself in prime position to incapacitate as many militia men as she could with one devastating move. The time was fast approaching; it was all a matter of experience and anticipation. Guys like this, they had to work themselves up to a kill; make it feel justified and reasonable in their own minds. If it felt wrong they’d just shout and threaten until it felt right.
Pitts had led thirty of his men and the bikers to the small stream, then tracked Crouch’s team to the standing stones. After that, it had been a simple matter to lie in wait until voices were heard then lie in concealment. Weapons had been trained on the bikers the whole time. Now though, Alicia watched as Lex positioned himself between three men, and even Wrench and Red Head realized it was in their own interests to take as many enemies down at once when the time came.
Pitts walked closer to Crouch and the boss helped close the gap. Healey and Russo ranged out to the side, drifting in. They appeared to be unarmed. Alicia was betting her life that they weren’t.
“You’re trespassing,” Pitts spat angrily. “What you doing in there?”
“Sightseeing,” Crouch replied. “I don’t believe it’s against the law.”
Pitts brandished his weapon. “You crossed our fence!”
“We’ve been here all night. I didn’t see any fence in the dark. Did you guys?” Crouch turned to his men, face set hard and eyes blinking twice to give them the two-minute warning, still drifting closer.
Pitts spat into the dirt. “Don’t matter what you saw. All I need to know before I pepper your asses is: Do you know these four pieces of work? You all planned this in cahoots or not?”
Crouch stared at Alicia. Not a flicker of recognition crossed his face. “I don’t believe I do.”
Pitts frowned. “What kinda accent is that? Australian?”
“English. Like I said we’re touring.” Crouch would never force a battle. He’d talked himself out of more than one tight space and saved countless lives. Admittedly some of those lives popped back up later toting Uzis but he would still never cause pointless bloodshed.
“Don’t look like tourists to me.”
Crouch shrugged. “Are you really going to kill us in cold blood?”
Pitts’ smile gave Crouch all the answer he needed. “Been done before. Ain’t nobody around here to see. Them boys back there they need their target practice.”
“Are you telling us to run?”
“I likes me a good hunt.”
Crouch swept a glance across the thirty faces. Not a man among them appeared regretful, not a single evil grin was false. They had done this before. They’d never do it again.
“Time,” he said.
Pitts blinked. “Wha—”
The whole area burst into frantic action. Healey and Russo whipped .45s from beneath their jackets and fired into the group of men standing furthest away from Alicia and the bikers. Alicia whipped around, disarming her closest opponent with a twist and jerk of his arm whilst side-kicking a second in the throat and a blocking a third with his pinwheeling body. Less than a second later she shot the first man and the two behind him, then ducked to the floor. Crouch jumped into Pitts, wrestled his rifle down to the ground, flipped his body over a raised shoulder, and let it fall hard onto the rocks. Cruz and Caitlyn leaped behind an upstanding boulder.
Militia men screamed and fell, momentarily overwhelmed by the planned onslaught and the sheer terrible force of it. Healey and Russo continued to pick men off. Alicia saw Lex disarm a man and wound another. She saw Wrench and Red Head wrestling enemies, the first biker with more than a modicum of military skill, the second with brute force. She smashed the butt of her rifle into a nose, spun the weapon around and fired twice. Bodies fell, twitching. Healey and Russo dropped to their knees and kept up a withering salvo.
The militia shrank back but they didn’t waste away. For all the bad that they were, they remained hard, determined men. Crouch had already anticipated this, so when the private army started getting it together he shouted a quick retreat.
Instantly, his team spilled away, a deadly torrent parting. Alicia called to the bikers, indicating a nearby rock cluster, and covered their dash. Healey and Russo fell to their stomachs, the jagged rise of the slope affording them just enough cover. Crouch fell back to where Caitlyn and Cruz were concealed.