Archer saw the plane above, it had over-flown Enzi and was cruising towards them, flying in low, banking and turning back. Teddy shouted out from the cockpit, ‘that’s a Warrior Centaur, single engine, six passengers, quick. If he can get near it, we will not catch him.’
Teddy gave the hovercraft full throttle, pushing the lever forward into the console; the machine roared as it hit almost forty knots with no resistance. The plane banked and turned, slowing down. Archer trained his binoculars on it, one of the rear doors opened, and then a puff of smoke from behind the mono wing.
‘INCOMING!’
Teddy hit a red button on his left side, a clatter of pong noises came from the roof, and swung the craft hard to the right, while reducing the throttle. Debra and Archer were knocked off their feet by the violent manoeuvre, and Teddy hit the red button again, and accelerated away from the plane. The explosion followed a few seconds later, from where they had been, Archer looked back out the flaps towards the source. Teddy shouted back to him, ‘That missed us, heat seeker missile, we have some flare dispensers on the roof, and the cool air from the fan made us appear cooler than them, missile hit the flares.’
‘Nice work Teddy!’
‘Don’t celebrate yet, I fooled them once, but I don’t think we will get a second chance.’
‘We are still going after Enzi?’
‘Not today mate, he hits us with one of those missiles and we’re all dead!’
Enzi saw the missile explode; he always ensured his transports carried a shoulder fired missile, a last resort. He was disappointed when the smoke cleared, he could only see the rear of the hovercraft retreating, the plane had fired its only missile. He radioed the plane to land ahead of them, and prepare for loading.
Archer was frustrated at not getting Enzi, or the artefacts, but he knew Teddy was right, too risky. The hovercraft turned, returning to base at a more sedate pace to conserve fuel, a gentle twenty-five knots. Archer monitored the sky, all too aware of Enzi’s vengeful tendencies.
The small Centaur seaplane landed with little trouble, the swell barely half a metre, well within its limits. It had blue and white bodywork, the small stubby wings on the hull providing stability. Enzi had chosen this craft for good lifting capacity and a small radar image. There were six seats in the plane, but he did not require all of them, ‘You in the boat, you can keep the boat, I am not taking you with us.’
The man waved in appreciation, and did not argue, he had seen what happened to people who disagreed with Mr Enzi. Laurent clambered out of the forward hatch, ‘Well Mr Laurent it appears that when you decided to get onto my ship before the attack, it was a good decision.’
‘Yes Chui, it was, where is Mr Jones and the other documents?’
‘He has radioed me, he is fine, and so are our precious documents, we will collect them shortly.’
‘I don’t see how much more help they can be? I have read most of them.’
‘You forget my dear Christophe; I have information that may connect with them, from a different source.’
As Enzi spoke the young man on the boat passed containers to Laurent and the pilot, Enzi watched them work. ‘I obtained a parchment in Russia, hidden in an old Soviet archive for decades, but mine for the price of a new games console. It tells of an old Chinese legend, and its link to an actual event in history.’
Laurent did not respond, concerned that he may not have the advantage he thought. The information from Luis Alfredo could be inconsequential. Enzi climbed into the aircraft, speaking to the pilot, ‘How long to Isla Joya Verde?’
‘With this load, about two and a half hours.’
‘Will we have any problems with border security?’
‘No your friend The General has seen to that.’
Laurent climbed into one of the vacant passenger seats, leaving just one free for Jones to join them. They took off, making a short low-level hop to see Jones steadily rowing. They collected him, sank the dinghy and turned around into the wind to return to Isla Joya Verde.
TWENTY FIVE
Jacob and his team returned to camp, dropping Osvaldo Rodrigo off in Borbon to attend to Luis Alfredo’s body, and contact his team in La Tola. The scene greeting Jacob upon his arrival in camp was bullet ridden semi-sunken boats. He left the canoes and ran up to the main walkway, blood stains and drag marks on the decks, seeing no one he called out, and was met by Michael. He was clearing up the dining hall, lifting someone into a makeshift body bag. Jacob stopped, not recognising the person, ‘What happened? Is this Laurent’s doing?’
Evelyn approached carrying food in an overfilled box. She appeared solemn and withdrawn, ‘a man called Chui Enzi and some men came here after you left, Nick here shot one of his men, he was killed and Miguel, whose blood you passed on the walkway, was shot for no reason other than to warn us against resistance.’
‘And where is this Enzi now?’
‘He left with all our research. Archer, Teddy and Debra went after him.’
‘Archer is here? When? How?’
‘I don’t know, he checked we were okay, told us to pack up and get out fast, then he joined Teddy in The Wasp and went after those men.’
‘How long ago?’
‘Maybe an hour?’
‘How many dead in camp?’
‘Two of us, and four of them, we put their bodies over by the bank. Nick here is the last person we have to take care of, and all our boats are shot up.’
‘Yes, I saw them, we have the canoes we took upriver, use them to go back to the Arcadia.’
‘We called her already; she is sending two Zodiacs for the heavier gear.’
Jacob left Michael and Evelyn to finish packing, and checked the rest of the camp, sending Katherine and Kevin to assist in any way they could, just taking the equipment and samples leaving all the structures.
The familiar drone of the hovercraft approaching alerted Jacob, and he moved down to the landing pad near the generators, he noticed the bullet holes and scorch marks on the hull, concerned until Archer and Debra disembarked fully armed, as Teddy powered down the engines. Debra waved to Jacob and moved into camp, leaving Archer to greet his father.
‘Hey Dad. Someone put a jammer in your camp, Michael has stopped it now. Military issue.’
‘And how are you Archer? Been a while since I have seen you.’
‘You know why Dad, but I had to warn you about Enzi.’
‘Did you get him?’
‘I went after him to get your precious artefacts, if I had killed him it would have been a bonus!’
‘So he got away?’
‘Yeah, Dad, sorry to disappoint you again!’
Archer marched off, not allowing Jacob to respond, heading towards the dining room, Teddy observed the reunion, ‘Be less hard on the boy, you know that.’
‘I am not hard on him, am I Teddy?’
‘Your tone and face conveys what your voice hide Jacob.
‘I know, but it seems everything I do makes him angry, like when he was a teenager.’
‘Maybe you need to tell him the truth about his mother?
‘I know, I was waiting for the right moment.’
‘If you wait for that, it will never come my friend.’
‘But Archer will be distraught when he finds out.’
‘And that is different to now how Jacob?’
‘You’re right Teddy, I’ll tell him today.’
‘Listen Jacob, I have no kids, but I know that four words will mean a lot.’