The Lost Metal Library (An Ancient Quest Mystery Book 2)

by Rai Aren

  Five armed men sprang out from the same cave entrance they’d all entered through. They were dressed in black from head-to-toe and wore night-vision goggles. Dripping wet, they quickly spread out, surrounding them. They aimed their laser-sighted pistols at the group.

  “Hands up where we can see them,” one of the men shouted. “Now!”

  CHAPTER 15

  They were all startled.

  Luis gasped and dropped his water bottle out of sheer fright.

  Sofia put her arms around her brother and father.

  “Those are the men who captured us,” Diego whispered to Sofia in Spanish.

  Sofia nodded.

  Rick stepped in front of the others, holding his arms out protectively.

  “I said hands up!” the man shouted.

  They all complied.

  “Good,” he said. “Now one by one, toss your flashlights in our direction.”

  The laser sights of the guns were pointed at their chests to emphasize the order.

  “Do as they ask,” Rick said, realizing the considerable risk. He didn’t want to see anyone get killed without first trying to find a way out of this situation.

  They did as Rick told them.

  “Excellent,” the man said, his voice growing calmer. “This will go much smoother if you all keep cooperating.”

  Rick clenched his jaw.

  “Light this place up,” the man ordered.

  Two of the men fished a number of items out of their heavy black backpacks and fanned out. They spread orange glow sticks around the room, interspersed with several portable, battery-operated LED work lights, strategically placed. It bathed the cavernous space in an eerie warm glow, casting shadows against the cavern walls.

  The intruders all removed their night-vision goggles. One of the men kicked the flashlights away.

  “Well, well, well,” the man said as he spotted Diego, Juan and Carlos. “If it isn’t our former guests. And you’ve brought us to your other friends.” He gave them a cold smile. “How very fortunate for us.”

  Rick whispered to Javier, “How the hell did they find this place? I thought you said...”

  “Shut it!” one of the men said.

  The man who appeared to be their leader stepped forward. He smirked. “We placed tracking devices on our former guests. Just simple small patches that attached to their clothes.” He looked at Diego, then Juan, then at Carlos. “You were most accommodating in leading us exactly where we wanted to go. We’d never have found this place so quickly otherwise.” He looked around the cavern. “It’s very well concealed. Impressive too, I must say.”

  The man knew in his bones that this was the place they’d been looking for. It all added up with the research they’d done and all of the rumors they’d heard. It was truly spectacular and highly unusual.

  Javier clenched his fists. Everything he and his group had gone through in trying to protect this place, was now for nothing.

  “In fact, we were counting on your assistance.” He laughed when he saw the frowns on their confused faces. “We took the prisoners in the hopes that you would help us expedite locating this hidden cave system. We knew it was going to be exceptionally difficult to find, so we positioned ourselves as close as we could to where we thought this part of the cave system might be.” He fanned out his arms. “Then, we waited for you to do the rest.”

  Rick chided himself. He was furious at his own stupidity. Now that he thought about it, freeing the prisoners from this mercenary group had been too easy. “I should have thought of that,” he whispered to Javier.

  “Yes,” the man said, overhearing him, “you should have.”

  Rick glared at him.

  “But you didn’t. And here we are,” he said, clapping his hands together. He gave them a broad smile. “Thank you. You have all been most accommodating.”

  Rick couldn’t stand the man’s air of casual arrogance. He wanted to punch him in the face.

  The man was of average height, with a solid build. He was clean shaven with features that made him look like he could be a Wall Street banker, rather than a jungle-bound mercenary. He had a perfectly white, movie-star smile, dark, slicked back hair and pale skin. He had a clear, direct speaking voice, and exuded a cocky confidence.

  “What do you want?” Rick asked.

  The man looked at him for a long moment, sizing him up. “Why, the same thing that I think you want, being that you’re not from around here.”

  “Humor us,” Rick said.

  “I don’t think we need to play games with one another at this point, do you?” His voice was laced with derision. He pointed to Javier’s blackened eye. “I see you got a little souvenir from your first meeting with us. You were a slippery little fish, I’ll grant you that. But you do know we mean business.” He waved his hands towards his men, who still had their guns trained on them. “Consider this our permit to explore these caves, Shuar.”

  Javier glared at him, saying nothing.

  “Yes, I know who you all are, including your three friends there,” he said, pointing to Mari, Carlos, and Juan. “And I know you don’t like visitors.”

  “Not your kind,” Javier snapped back at him.

  “I think some of your men got similar souvenirs, if I’m not mistaken?” Rick shot back, letting his ego get the better of him.

  “Ahh, the gringo. Rick, is it? Poking around town, hoping to mount an expedition to the fabled Tayos Caves,” the man said in a mocking tone. “Sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong.”

  “Look who’s talking,” Rick quipped.

  The man just smiled. He knew he had the upper hand. Rick’s taunts meant nothing to him. “Your friend there,” he said, pointing to Luis, “also managed to give us the slip with your assistance, I understand.”

  “Happy to help.”

  “Indeed. My men back in town were rather embarrassed about that.”

  “Glad to hear it,” Rick said.

  “But I think your luck has just run out.”

  “We’ll see whose luck runs out by the end of the night,” Rick threw back at him.

  Rick was acting way braver than he was actually feeling. He just wanted to make his friends feel a little safer, like he might be able to protect them. He had no idea if it was working or not, or if he had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting any of them out alive.

  The man gave Rick a sidelong glance. “Yes, we will.” He clapped his hands. “But all’s well that ends well. Now you are all here. You saved us some trouble.”

  “Who the hell are you?” Rick asked.

  The man laughed. “You are a brave one, I’ll give you that.” He sized Rick up. He wasn’t the least bit threatened by him.

  Rick knew he had no advantages in this situation, but that didn’t mean he had to act that way. He was hoping some kind of opportunity to level the playing field would present itself.

  “You can call me Oz.”

  “Oz?” Rick asked, giving a mocking laugh.

  “Yes, Oz,” he answered, a quick flash of anger crossing his face. He clenched his jaw, then turned to Sofia. “You must be the reporter.” He saw how protective she was over the younger man and his former captive, Diego. “A happy little family reunion?”

  “Let us go,” she said defiantly. “You’ve hurt my family enough. My father was no threat to you. He’d never even been here before.”

  “On the contrary,” Oz said, “he was poking his nose in where it didn’t belong. That was most inconvenient and had to be stopped. Same problem with you and your brother. Your recent article was starting to make life more difficult for us. But no matter, you’re here now. This couldn’t have worked out better for us.” He gave them a sly grin.

  Diego hung his head. “I am sorry I brought you and Luis into this.” He would never forgive himself if anything happened to them.

  “Shhh,” she said, gently rubbing his arm. “You were only doing what you thought was right.”

  “We love you, Papa,” Luis
whispered.

  “I love you both,” he answered. “Please forgive me.”

  Sofia turned back to Oz, anger flaring in her eyes. “Are you also responsible for the other people who’ve gone missing in this area over the last few weeks? Are they dead?”

  Oz glared at her. “No interviews tonight, reporter.”

  Rick whispered to her, “I think we can assume the answer to those questions is yes.”

  Oz ignored him. He looked over at his men. “Alpha-1 and Alpha-2, search them for weapons and anything else that might interest us. Search their rucksacks, too.”

  They started with Rick. He gave no resistance. He didn’t want to push his luck.

  The man searching him found his stun gun and gave him a fierce look. “Asshole.”

  “Glad you enjoyed it,” Rick replied with as much snark as he could muster.

  Rick glared at the man as he moved on to search Sofia next. “Don’t put your hands anywhere you shouldn’t.”

  The man showed no reaction. He swiftly gave her a pat down, then moved on to Luis.

  “Him neither,” Rick added in a mocking tone, still glaring at him.

  The man returned Rick’s glare and patted Luis down.

  “Gentle with him,” Rick said sternly, as the man moved on to Diego next. “Beating up on old men is a real cowardly thing to do, you know.”

  “He gave us trouble,” the man answered. “We gave it back.”

  Sofia’s eyes teared up at the thought of how roughly they’d treated her father, a sweet, decent, hardworking, and caring man.

  Luis wanted to throttle them for hurting his dad, a man who’d never hurt anyone in his life.

  Rick noticed the man did use a light touch on Diego, however.

  They moved on to Juan, Carlos, Mari, and finally Javier.

  One of the other operatives spotted Javier’s rifle. He emptied the chamber of ammunition, pocketing it, then slung the rifle over his back.

  Alpha-1 then found the compass in Javier’s zippered pocket. He brought it over to Oz.

  “Well, well, we have this back,” Oz said. “My men told me about it.” He weighed it in his hand. “Heavy.” He turned it over, looking at the inscribed symbols arranged in the Fibonacci spiral on the back of it. “I must say, this is most interesting. Quite ornate.” He held it up and moved it around, frowning. He watched, puzzled, as the hands spun wildly. “A compass that doesn’t give directions, but reacts very strangely... to what I wonder.” He shook his head as he looked at Javier. “It’s not broken is it?”

  Javier looked at the compass. “It’s a family heirloom, that’s all.”

  Oz smirked at him. “Sure it is.”

  There was the sound of static.

  Oz turned around, pocketing the compass. “What is it?”

  “I just tried the radio,” Alpha-3 said, “but I’m getting no signal.” He nodded to his comrade. “Hey, try yours.”

  Alpha-4 tried his. He shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “What’s going on?” he asked. “Try the satellite phone.”

  Alpha-1 tried it. “No joy.”

  Alpha-2 tested his radio. He shook his head.

  Oz turned to Javier. “Explain this, Shuar.”

  “His name is Javier,” Sofia said hotly.

  Oz ignored her.

  “It won’t work in here,” Javier said, maintaining his calm. “You cannot get signals inside this cavern.”

  Oz looked around at the massive space and at the huge grouping of bizarre-looking, dark mineral stalagmites at its center. He saw similar dark veins of rock running through the white walls as well. He suspected there was also some kind of metallic compound in them that was interfering with their signals. He would have to investigate that more as well.

  “Should I leave this cavern to try the satellite phone?” Alpha-1 asked.

  Oz considered that for a moment, but shook his head. “No, not yet. I think we can maintain control over this ragtag group. We’ll radio out once we have what we came for.”

  “Understood,” he said, hiding his misgivings about having their communications cut off. He also knew that these people had knowledge of this place that they lacked. A home field advantage. It made him even more wary.

  “Let’s get things moving, shall we?” Oz said. “I want the metal library. By the looks of this place and the fact that it’s never shown up in any of our research and is extremely hard to find, not to mention the fact that you’re here, I know it has to be located nearby, hidden somewhere. Show me.”

  Rick looked over at Javier, who was just staring Oz down.

  “Ok,” Oz said, “I’m going to make this real easy for you.” He stepped forward and grabbed Luis by the shirt collar, yanking him towards him. He turned him around, pointing his gun to the back of Luis’ head. “Either you give us what we came here for, or I kill him.”

  Sofia gasped.

  No answer.

  Oz forcefully shoved Luis to his knees.

  Luis yelped as he hit the ground.

  “Hey, listen, Ozymandias,” Rick said, holding his hands out, “how about we all just calm down?”

  Oz glared at him.

  “Seriously,” Rick said, “we don’t want anyone hurt or killed, ok? You’re at a ten right now, so let’s just take it down to a four or five, alright?”

  Oz regarded him. He gave a cool laugh. “You really are a bold one, aren’t you?” He still hung onto Luis. He turned his attention back to Javier. “Well, Shuar?”

  Diego pleaded with Oz, placing his hands in a prayer position. “Please no, don’t hurt my son.”

  “Then you'd better make sure we get what we want.”

  Diego looked to Javier. “I beg you—do as he asks.”

  Javier looked at the others.

  Mari, Juan and Carlos stood still as statues; their faces stony. They were not going to comply.

  Oz shouted. “Now!”

  Luis trembled and squeezed his eyes closed.

  “Javier, do something!” Sofia shouted. “He’s my little brother!”

  Javier was wrestling with his conscience. He looked at Rick.

  Rick saw the internal conflict. He knew now that he’d been right about Javier holding a lot back from them. He realized the young man had his reasons, whatever they might be, but he couldn’t let this happen.

  “Javier, show them,” Rick said firmly. “I think he’s serious. We can’t stand here and do nothing while he executes Luis.”

  Javier looked from Rick to Luis.

  “Whatever you have here, it can’t be worth watching an innocent man be killed right in front of you,” Rick pressed. “You want to live with that on your conscience?”

  “Listen to the man,” Oz said. “He’s talking sense. You’ve got about ten seconds to comply. And if this one dies, he won’t be the last, we promise you that. We’ll kill all of you and search for the metal library ourselves if we have to.”

  Javier sighed and hung his head.

  “Javier, no,” Carlos said.

  Mari and Juan looked at each other, each wondering what they could do to prevent this.

  Javier looked at Carlos and shook his head. “I can’t let this happen. You three,” he said, speaking in Spanish, pointing to Mari, Juan, and Carlos, “show them the tablets.”

  Javier had a grim expression on his face. He wondered how many of their secrets they would lose tonight. How many lives. Too many, he feared.

  CHAPTER 16

  They all watched as Mari, Juan, and Carlos fanned out. Each headed to one of the three largest boulders near the far edges of the cavern. They overturned the boulders, which had been partially hollowed out to conceal large metal boxes underneath them.

  “Ah,” Oz said, “clever. Hiding things in plain sight.”

  Javier glared at him.

  Oz released Luis, who scrambled back to Sofia’s side. Oz then instructed two of his men to retrieve the metal boxes and bring them to him. He ordered Mari, Juan and Carlos to rejoin the others.
>
  The men brought the heavy boxes over and set them down in front of Oz.

  “Open them,” he ordered.

  They did. Inside each were dark golden metal tablets, dozens of them in all, each about six inches wide, by twenty inches long. Each hammered metallic plate was embossed with rows of ancient symbols.

  Oz leaned forward and pulled one out. “I was right.” He gazed at the mysterious symbols. He recognized them from old photographs that had been taken of them, before they’d gone missing. “Incredible. Here they are at last.”

  Oz then looked around the enormous cavern, taking in the commanding group of stalagmites. He studied the unusual geological features in the towering mineral formations and in the rock walls. Something occurred to him.

  “I have a question,” Oz stated. “Why did you bring these tablets here specifically? There must’ve been easier places to hide them.”

  No one answered him.

  He walked around looking at the cavern, still holding the tablet. “There’s something special about this place, isn’t there?”

  He stopped, then glanced over at Javier. “Is it the geology? I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere in the world.”

  Javier said nothing.

  “That’s it, isn’t it?” Oz smiled, as the revelation was dawning on him. He gazed around the cavern walls. “We’ve seen such things before. Strange technological marvels activated by even stranger geological sites. Hidden places. Places of power.”

  He turned to face them.

  “This is one of those places. I can feel it in the air. You didn’t just bring those tablets here to hide them. They’re here because you planned on doing something with them. But what exactly?”

  He grinned at the silent faces staring back at him.

  “Tell me. Now. Why this particular cavern?”

  Still no answer.

  He let out a heavy sigh. “I can see you’re going to need even more motivation.” He nodded to two of his men.

  The men immediately grabbed Mari and Juan and shoved them to their knees. They pointed their guns at the back of their heads.