“Yes, they were.”
Everyone turned and saw Jack, Carl, and the two Russian Navy men. They were standing there silently, listening and watching.
“I see, so all pretense of trust is now gone?” Salkukoff asked with a large smile.
“No, not at all, Colonel. There never was a pretense. We never trusted you.”
The smile grew even larger.
“Colonel Salkukoff, after you vanished from the meal our hosts were generous enough to lay out for us, you came up missing. Now we have a small child murdered. Coincidence?” Jack asked as he stared at the dark-haired man.
“I will not stand here and be interrogated by you, Colonel Collins. I won’t answer to your ridiculous and dangerous insinuations. I don’t kill children.”
“But yet you do. I saw your gentle nature in the Ukraine, Colonel. So, I know that you do, most assuredly, kill small children,” Henri said as his blue eyes never left those of the Russian.
“We’ll discuss this later. Right now, we have to get Master Chief Jenks back to the Simbirsk.”
Salkukoff started forward and then stopped in front of Farbeaux.
“Very soon, Colonel Farbeaux, we are going to have a serious disagreement.”
“I look forward to it,” Henri answered as Salkukoff stepped by him.
“But for now, Colonel Collins has suggested that we return to the ships. Captain Kreshenko, Second Captain Dishlakov, join me, please.”
With a bow of his head toward Jack and the others, the Russian captain and his XO reluctantly fell in beside Salkukoff.
“What do you think, Jack?” Carl asked.
“Again, I think our Russian colonel knows far more about this place than he’s telling.”
“Does anyone want to know what I think?” Jenks asked as he slowly and deliberately lit a fresh cigar.
No one asked, and Jenks accepted that.
“Well, if you are interested, I think our French thief here should have placed a bullet in the head of that murderous son of a bitch while you were out here in the dark.”
Most heads turned and looked at the master chief. He smiled back at them.
“But no one asked me, so let’s get the hell back to that ghost ship and try to get out of here before this Salkukoff asshole turns the tables on us. Because in case you didn’t notice, gentlemen, that bastard has had a plan and an agenda long before we arrived here.” Jenks snorted, puffed on his cigar, and then moved by the others toward the beach and the boat ride back.
Collins lay back as the others joined Jenks. He stepped up to Henri, who had been rather silent the past few minutes.
“I was afraid you had killed him already,” Jack said when he was sure no one was in earshot.
The Frenchman shook his head and placed the small .30-caliber handgun away. He had been hiding it behind his back the entire time he was facing off with Salkukoff.
“I would have, but when I came upon him and his secret radio, I found this. He must have stepped right over it. It was on the beaten track made by the attacker or attackers. I assume more than one by the way the brush was trampled.” He reached into his pants pocket and then held out a small object. “Remember, Colonel, the power source enhancers we used for the Wellsian Doorway?”
Jack knew the power enhancers well from their adventure through time with the help of the Traveler’s Wellsian Doorway, the very power enhancers stolen by the Frenchman after those events. He nodded to inform Henri he remembered. Henri then dropped what looked like a small rock into his hand. Jack examined it in the shattered moonlight. He looked from it to Farbeaux.
“That’s right, Colonel. Uncut, directly from the ground. I suspect this one fell from one of those mysterious baskets the miners brought in — you know, the ones conveniently lined up in the village?”
“Blue diamonds.” Jack turned the unprocessed mineral over in his hand. It was still crusted with dirt as if it had just been taken from the ground.
“I noticed elements of the diamonds earlier when you were engaged in making nice with the natives.”
“Inside the village?” Jack asked, amazed he hadn’t seen them.
“Yes, their spear tips and their arrowheads are made of blue and red diamonds.”
“Industrial blues,” Jack said.
“Yes, the blood diamonds are good for nothing but money, but those, we have seen what they can do as energy enhancers.”
Henri was right. If someone were here to mine this stuff, they could easily corner the energy markets on a massive scale back home.
“Colonel, I think you just discovered Salkukoff’s hidden agenda that the master chief just mentioned.”
What the two men and former enemies had discovered was not even feasible in their minds. How could the Russian manipulate blue diamonds from another plane of existence? They were thinking that he couldn’t do it. Then again they were both experienced enough in facing the impossible and adjusted their thinking. After the Antarctica Event, they were on a course to believe almost every outrageous theory possible.
Farbeaux stood his ground, not moving as he pulled another item out of his pants pocket. He unfurled it, and Jack again turned on his flashlight to see it clearly. Henri stretched it out.
“I found this also while you were being fed. It was inside the villagers’ armament hut.”
“Is that what I think it is?” Jack asked just as Jason returned to both men, curious as to what they were talking about.
The flag was black material of a sort that was woven and thicker than most, but they could see that it closely resembled a flag. On that flag was a symbol every one of them recognized from their childhood. It was a pirate flag. The old skull and crossbones.
“This is getting strange,” Jason added. “Remember the page from Treasure Island Garrison Lee found on the Eldridge?”
“There seems to be a connection here, and I’ll be damned if I can figure it out,” Jack said as he gave the flag back to the Frenchman. “Henri?” Jack said as he stopped on the game trail heading back to the landing boat.
“Yes, Colonel?”
“Neither Salkukoff or the Simbirsk can survive this.”
Farbeaux nodded.
“As a matter of fact, as far as that goes, if it comes to that, we stay here with both the Simbirsk and Salkukoff. All other concerns at this point are secondary. That man cannot return to our world with that ship.”
Around them, the jungle came alive with night sounds once more.
13
As the American-built Zodiac disembarked the Russian contingent accordingly between the Simbirsk and Peter the Great, Master Chief Jenks immediately removed the Europa system laptop from Charlie’s bag and opened it. As the rubber boat rode smoothly over the soft movement of the strangely colored seas, Jack moved in next to him.
“Europa, was your task completed?” Jenks asked.
“Assigned task completed at 1735 hours, Master Chief.”
“I can’t get used to Marilyn Monroe talking to me.”
Jack smiled as he heard the same argument he had been making since his arrival at the Group eleven years before. “I know how you feel.”
“Europa, run program Chameleon.”
On the small screen, Jack and Jenks watched the system start to scroll. The master chief smiled at Jack, and then he whistled.
“Ooh, good little spy we have here. Be sure to keep her out of my private server.”
Jack watched the specs pop up on the entirety of the phase shift experiment as conducted by the Russians in the mid-’40s, complete diagrams and reports on the completion of the stolen American design.