The wood he was kneeling on chose that moment to decide it had had enough and gave way with a loud crack.
One moment Michaels was kneeling before her, the next he was plunging into the seething waters below.
If he screamed as he fell, Annja didn’t hear it, for the gorge was suddenly filled with the rhythmic sound of a helicopter’s rotors. As she and Garin looked on, the black fuselage of a Dragontech Security helicopter came swooping down from above, armed gunmen leaning out the open doors on either side. The hail of bullets the gunmen sent slamming into the ground on either side of the bridge forced Michaels’s thugs to run for their lives.
A glance upstream showed a dark-suited figure standing on the new bridge with what looked like a long-barreled rifle in his hands. He lifted a hand in greeting and a relieved Annja waved back.
For now at least, the threat was over.
40
“No, not that camera, you idiot! The other one!”
Annja watched Doug Morrell as he stalked over to the intern he’d been addressing and made short work of swapping out the video camera the young man had been holding with another one from the pile of equipment in the back of the van Chasing History’s Monstershad rented to transport their gear. Normally it was Annja who got exasperated from Doug’s undying eagerness and it was nice to see the tables turned for a change.
It had been two months since her rescue from the bridge over Tallulah Gorge by the operatives of Dragontech Security. Of course, they would probably still be searching aimlessly for their boss, Garin Braden, if they hadn’t put two and two together after their systems alerted them to Annja’s phone call with Doug and realizing she was trying to save Garin by finding the location of the treasure. Since Annja had given Doug the coordinates she’d discovered marking the location of the missing Confederate treasury, Dragontech’s senior commander, Matthew Griggs, had quickly put a plan in motion and help had been on the way.
Of course, Annja hadn’t known that at the time, so she’d been convinced that it was all going to end on that lonely windswept bridge.
Several times during the past two weeks she’d almost wished it had. The police investigation into the death of Blaine Michaels had been nothing short of grueling. Annja had spent hours being interviewed by law enforcement personnel from both sides of the Atlantic. Fortunately, her story was backed up not only by Garin himself, but also by several of Michaels’s former henchmen, all eager to avoid harsher sentences by giving up their comrades in plea bargain after plea bargain. The deaths of Jimmy Mitchell, Bernard Reinhardt and Catherine Daley were laid at the feet of Blaine Michaels. In France, his former empire was reeling from revelation after revelation of the activities Michaels and his associates had been involved in. It wasn’t a pretty picture.
In the United States, Annja’s own illegal activities, including the desecration of a federal cemetery, not to mention failure to report a crime and fleeing across state lines, were all determined to be either self-defense or carried out under duress and with the intent of saving lives. Despite some pressure from various police agencies, and with the help of Garin’s considerable influence, Annja was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.
At last, they had returned to Tallulah Gorge in an effort to locate the final resting place of the missing Confederate treasury. And they were going to film it, as part of a special segment of the Chasing History’s Monstersepisode that Annja had started all those weeks before. She had tried to talk Doug out of it but he reminded her that she owed him so she went along with it.
Doug finally got the intern straightened out and wandered back to where Annja was waiting. With her was Steve Southwood, the park guide they had hired to help them with the day’s shoot. It would be Southwood’s job to lead them into the depths of the Genoa Mine to the coordinates that Captain Parker had indicated in his final message to his partner-in-crime, Jonathan Sykes.
It was a beautiful spring day. Annja was curious to see what it would bring. Southwood had informed them that the Genoa Mine had been sealed up by the parks commission more than fifty years earlier and he thought the chances were good that Parker’s hiding place remained untouched, all these years later.
“Are we ready, Annja?” Doug asked.
She glanced at Southwood, got a nod of agreement and said, “Ready as we’ll ever be.”
“All right, then, let’s get the show on the road.”
Annja winked at Southwood, then stepped over to where the cameraman was waiting. She took the microphone from his hand, and set herself up in the spot they had chosen, with the mountains rising in the distance behind her. The cameraman counted down and gave her the signal to begin. Annja looked directly at the camera, smiled and began talking.
“Welcome once again to Chasing History’s Monsters. Today we’re in search of a monster of a different kind, a treasure of legendary proportions and, if all goes well, we hope to share the rediscovery of this important historical find with you as it happens.”
Annja let the familiar rhythms of the show wash over her and gradually the smile she’d put on her face for theatrical purposes shifted into something more genuine. She’d worked hard to follow the clues Captain Parker had left behind and even though she knew they wouldn’t find anything, with the fruition of her quest close at hand, she couldn’t help but be excited to see it through to the end.
Annja thought about the note she’d received from Garin Braden after he’d flown back to Europe.
Thanks for the adventure! I’ll consider the gold as payment for the expense I went to in order to rescue you. Until next time.
G.
She’d been angry at first but then she realized she’d never cared about the treasure for its monetary value, only for its historical value. And she had been able to find it, even if she didn’t get to keep it or share her discovery with the rest of the world. She’d just have to add it to the list of secrets she tried to keep about herself, Roux and Garin.
But even as she struck out on the trail following Southwood toward the hidden location of the Genoa Mine, Annja couldn’t help but wonder where her next adventure might take her and what dangerous activities might be lying in wait for her there, as well.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-1600-6
CRADLE OF SOLITUDE
Special thanks and acknowledgment to
Joe Nassise for his contribution to this work.
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