Hawkins got in the driver’s seat, started the engine, threw the transmission into neutral, beeped the horn once to give Calvin a head’s up, and activated the winch.
The front wheels rose a few inches off the ground. When the tires were about a foot in the air, he gave the winch more power. The wheels touched the side of slope and began to climb. Soon, the rear wheels were on the rock as well.
Hawkins kept a tight grip on the steering wheel, shifted into low and applied enough pressure to the accelerator to take the strain off the cable. The vehicle proceeded to inch its way up the slope, getting delayed only once when it got hung up on a half-buried rock, and twenty minutes later it was resting on top of the ridge. Hawkins got out and Calvin slapped him on the back.
“Well done, Hawk. Didn’t know if she was going to make it.”
Hawkins grunted his thanks and walked across to the other side of the ridge past the tall boulder used to anchor the cable. The rocky ground sloped down at a gradual angle for several hundred feet to a dry stream bed about half the size of the one they had been on. But clear of rock slides.
Calvin tossed the nylon line down to Abby. She handed the free end to Rashid, told him to tie it round his chest and to start climbing.
“I can’t do it,” he said.
“You have to do it or I’ll leave you here alone,” she said.
“But I’m your guide. You can’t leave me.”
“Try me,” she said, reaching for the line.
He saw that she was serious and wrapped the rope around his chest. He began to climb, only to lose his balance. The men at the other end of the rope had no choice but to drag him up the hill on his belly.
The rope came down again. Abby held onto it and expertly walked her way up. She took a perverse pleasure seeing the front of Rashid’s clothes were torn and soiled with dirt.
She grinned at the scowling guide. “I told you that you could do it.”
She went over to where Hawkins stood, peering through a pair of binoculars.
“Pardon me for doubting you,” Abby said. “You were great.”
Hawkins handed over his glasses. “That may have been the easy part. The area we saw on the map looks a little different up close and personal.”
Abby raised the binoculars and her eyes swept the parched maze of deep fissures and gullies spread out before them.
“Dear God,” she whispered. “This must rank with the worst places in the world.”
He put his arm around her and said, “Look on the bright side.”
“What bright side?”
“At least there won’t be any traffic jams.”
Hawkins was forced to eat his words as their journey progressed. There was no traffic, but they had to navigate a bewildering labyrinth of intersecting gullies and washes that ate up precious time.
“Damn!” Abby said. “I’m starting to feel like a lab rat in a maze!”
“You just read my mind.” Hawkins had taken over the driving while Abby navigated. He steered around a pothole big enough to swallow the city of Chicago.
The corners of Abby’s lush mouth tweaked up in a bemused smile. “My psychic talents must be a hold-over from our married days.”
“You could actually read my mind back then?”
“It’s a talent wives develop. They can read their husbands like a book.”
“My mind must have been like a Stephen King novel. Hope I didn’t give you any nightmares.”
“God, no, Matt! That was the problem. Toward the end, I never knew what you were thinking.”
“Neither did I.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
It was dusk when they popped out of the maze two hours later.
They exited the river system and were at the edge of the coastal plain. Hawkins called a halt among a cluster of car-size boulders that would shield the light from their campfire and offer a good defensive position if necessary. He inspected the vehicle’s side and rear racks. Some of the containers had shifted position from the constant jostling.
“We’ll stay here for the night and move out at dawn,” Hawkins said. “What’s the quartermaster serving for dinner?”
“We are in for a treat, monsieur,” Calvin said.
He opened a box labeled Meal, Ready-To Eat, the operational food ration for the U.S. military, and passed out the packages inside. The MREs were warmed up in water-activated flameless heaters. Soon the fragrance of beef stew and spaghetti floated on the night air. There was little conversation as the famished travelers devoured their dinner.
Rashid sat apart from the others. As he ate his dinner he thought about how he would carry out his assignment. He had deliberately led the group into the river bed, thinking that it would be a good place to kill his companions and dispose of their bodies. He had their trust initially, but their mocking tone showed that they were more wary of him now.
He burned with a simmering anger that could only be extinguished by killing the two men. The hell with Murphy’s order to make Abby’s death a quick one. He would take his time with the woman, before putting an end to her life, too. His anger was stoked as he listened to their murmurings and laughter, adding fuel to the fire burning in his gut and loins.
Hawkins broke away from the others, who split up and disappeared between boulders on opposite sides of the campfire. He came over and said, “We’re organizing the watch, and could use your help, Rashid. Calvin and Abby will take the first two-hour shift while we get some rest. Then it’ll be our turn.”
Rashid could have shouted with joy. They thought he was simply an incompetent guide. Soon they would learn he was a competent assassin.
“Yes, of course,” Rashid said. “I would be glad to help. Perhaps I can make amends for my errors.”
“No hard feelings, Rashid. An op wouldn’t be an op if something didn’t go wrong.”
Hawkins had to move some of the supplies off the cargo racks to get at the sleeping bags. He stacked them neatly in a pile, planning to reload the buggy in daylight. He came back and tossed a sleeping bag to Rashid. Then he stretched another bag on the ground near the fire, zipped himself into it and was soon fast asleep.
When Abby’s shift was over, she tapped Hawkins on the shoulder to wake him up. He crawled out into the cold night air. She slid into the sleeping bag.
“Thanks for warming it up for me, Matt.” She zipped it shut and closed her eyes.
Calvin roused Rashid and took his place in the bag. “See you in two hours,” he said.
Hawkins walked around a boulder and told Rashid to keep his eyes open and his ears cocked. He gave him a light stick and told him to wave it if he needed help. Then he walked back to where Abby had been standing watch. He found a rock roughly the size and shape of a sofa to lean against. It was better than standing, but not so comfortable that he would fall asleep on it.
His thick mane of hair was no match for the cold. He pulled a woolen cap down on his head. The stars were popping out of the heavens like rhinestones on velvet. He used to call the sight Broadway Sky back in his navy days. He always had a hard time reconciling the celestial beauty above his head with the death and destruction on earth.
He began to work out the plans for the next day. They would get underway at first light and should make it to the shores of the lake by mid-day. They would send the submersible down to sniff around, and follow up with a dive the next morning.
The following day they would come home, treasure or not.
A half hour passed and he saw a luminescent blue blur. Rashid had cracked the light stick and was waving it.