CATRINA’S AFRICAN ADVENTURE ( Catrina Series Part II )

by J. Willbanks, Susan

  “Thank you, Lorelei. It’s right this way. Follow me.”

  As

  Lorelei and Patrick leave her suite and return to his, Patrick feels a bit uneasy having the daughter of the largest Italian mafia cartel with him. However, he feels there is something soft and good-natured about her, and she seems to be truly interested in finding his brother. He even feels as though he can trust her, and his instincts are usually good and that has always aided him in his line of work.

  Once back at the suite, Cat directs them to the back bedroom’s walk-in closet. On the floor in the far corner is a box with the lid now ajar, exposing what appears to Cat as a very large rock with a green luminescent center to it. Beside it is a note attached from Robert to Patrick.

  Patrick cautiously lifts the note from inside the box and unseals the outer envelope. Just then, Reed enters the suite.

  “Hello? Hey, where is everyone? I just finished looking through Robert’s room and there is something missing.”

  “Reed, we’re in the back bedroom,” Patrick calls back. “Maybe you can shed some light on this situation. Come back here.”

  “What ya got, Patrick?” As Reed enters the room, he realizes they are all in the closet and goes to look over Cat’s shoulder. “Oh, I guess it’s not missing after all.”

  “What are you babbling about, Reed? What’s missing from Robert’s room?”

  “That box. I thought it had gone missing with Robert, but I see he didn’t keep it in his room after all.”

  “Just what is this in this box? I still need to read Robert’s note. Just a second, everyone.”

  “Patrick, that’s a large and very rare emerald. I believe it’s the one that I was supposed to come and see at auction.” Lorelei shares her knowledge with the rest of the group regarding gems.

  “She’s right, Patrick. Lorelei, I’m the one who invited you here. I found this last week on the basin floor near an old waterfall site. I asked Robert to keep it for me, thinking that with his resources that he and that rock would be safe from UPI until the auction day after tomorrow. Then Lorelei showed up a few days early to try to make a deal before the auction, no doubt, and ended up making friends with Robert.”

  “Reed, are you telling me that Robert may have been kidnapped by UPI, over this rock here? Well, his note is pretty interesting. I’ll read it to all of you.” He read aloud,

  “PATRICK, THIS IS A LARGE AND RARE EMERALD. REED FOUND IT AND IS SELLING IT FOR HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE UPI CARTEL HERE IN KISANGANI. I HAVE LEFT IT IN YOUR SUITE IN CASE MY ROOM WAS BUGGED AND THEY ARE AWARE I HAVE IT. IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, I AM SURE THAT UPI IS BEHIND IT. YOU CAN TRUST LORELEI DOMANI, I DO. SHE IS A FRIEND OF MINE. CALL ON HER RESOURCES IF YOU FEEL THAT INTERPOL AND THE FBI WILL CONFISCATE THIS ROCK AS EVIDENCE RATHER THAN LET IT BE SOLD.

  IF YOU ARE READING THIS AND I AM NOT WITH YOU, THEN WHAT I FEARED IS INDEED THE CASE. UPI MUST HAVE ME SOMEWHERE LOCALLY. I’LL DO ALL I CAN TO GET BACK TO ALL OF YOU ON MY END. TAKE CARE AND BE SAFE.

  I FOUND THAT THERE ARE LISTENING DEVICES ALL OVER THE HOTEL SO I ASSUMED THEY WERE IN THE ROOMS THEY KNEW REED AND I OCCUPIED. CHECK YOURS CAREFULLY AND DON’T LEAD THEM TO THE ROCK OR TO LORELEI AND REED.

  I AM SURE I WILL SEE YOU ALL VERY SOON.

  ROBERT.”

  “That is interesting,” Patrick went on. “An FBI agent that wants to use the bad guys instead of his own resources to end this situation. That is very unlike Robert for sure, Reed. What do you know about where they might be keeping him if, in fact, they have him?”

  “Patrick, the only place I know of is in the jungle area of the Congo about an hour’s ride from here. It’s an old abandoned mine, and they use the tunnels to confuse people and keep them from being able to leave. If they have Robert, that would be my guess as to where he might be.”

  “Can you take us there, Reed? If I know Robert, he will find a way to get out of there, but he may not have the resources or transportation to get far from the area.”

  “Gentlemen, allow me to call my father and offer his resources here in the DCR to find and aid Robert. This is partly my fault for involving him. I invited him to the auction and we have been spending time together. My father has great authority here, and the UPI group will not want to cross him. They may even cooperate in offering Robert up to my father, as a gesture of good faith.”

  “No, Lorelei, this is not your fault at all,” Reed says. “Had I not asked Robert to get involved for my own sake, this wouldn’t have happened to him. Although he did tell me he was here to check into the disappearances of a few agents and see what was happening with the emerald trade.”

  “All right, all of you. We don’t have time to sit here and figure out who is to blame for his disappearance,” Cat says. “Can we all stop this and get on with trying to find Robert? And let’s not get killed in the process please, I am still on my honeymoon.”

  “She’s right, we need to act, not sit and place blame on anyone,” Patrick agrees. “Reed, you take me to where this mine is, and Barnaby, you, Cat, and Lorelei stay here at the hotel in case Robert makes it back here on his own. Watch your backs and call Antonio to update him on what we know. I’ll be back as soon as I’m able. Let’s get going, Reed.”

  Chapter Seven

  Although Robert has been able to get away from his captors, he is still drugged and groggy. As a result, he did not think things through before trying to leave the area. He has no flashlight or means of light of any kind. Down in the tunnels, there is no source of sunlight so it is very dark, and Robert has no choice but to go back to where his captors are and try to find a light source to find his way out. Robert hears voices coming toward him and sees the dim yellow of a flashlight just up ahead. Quickly feeling along the cave like walls for an opening, a crevice, or just a small outcropping for him to hide behind, he finds a door, turns the knob, and opens it. He slips inside, waiting for the voices to draw closer to see who it is that has brought him here and maybe learn why.

  Sam and Marty are approaching on their way out to the car, hoping Robert didn’t know the keys he took with him were also the keys to the truck outside the tunnels. They are already in enough difficulty for losing Robert and now they have to find him fast and learn where the emerald is so UPI won’t unleash their wrath on them.

  Luckily for Robert, they figured he was already out to the tunnels, and in the darkness he follows them without their knowledge. Now he has no need to return; all he needs to do is quietly follow behind them to the entrance of the mines and make his escape from there under the cover of darkness. While he listens to their conversations, he is finally gaining the information he came here to uncover.

  “Marty, we’re in a shit load of trouble here,” Sam says. “We lost Robert and he has the keys to the truck so even if he didn’t know it, he may have just ditched the keys and we’ll have a nine-mile walk to the main road and another twelve miles to the hotel. And then we have to find out if he went back or got lost in the jungle or even was killed by the local predatory animals out here. I still have my gun, at least, and I hope you have yours too, so we don’t become dinner for anything out here.”

  “Yep, Sam, I have my gun. We’ll make it to the main road with little difficulty. Maybe I can hotwire the truck and get us out of here in one piece. But even if we do get to the hotel, Robert will not be all that easy to get to the second time around. Now he’ll be watching for us to make a move—that is, if he survives his night in the Congo with no protection on him. As for the boys at UPI . . . well, they have no idea he’s lost and that we’re not working on finding the emerald for them. We’ll have a few days to figure out a good story and buy more time, so quit the worrying for now and concentrate on how to fix this problem and get the information we need. It really was too bad Lorelei showed up and that Reed left the suite when he did or we would have had them both down here.”

  “True, Marty, but we can’t worry about what could have happened. We have to fix what did happen, so let’s just get
going out of these tunnels before it gets too dark to see outside of them.”

  Quietly standing in the shadows, Robert now knows all he needs to know. From that conversation alone, he knows that they were after the emerald and Reed. He also knew that UPI was responsible for the deaths and jewel smuggling in the immediate area and that neither he nor any of those at the hotel would be safe unless he could get to them before the boys at UPI started looking into things or before Marty and Sam got back.

  As the he reaches the entrance to the mine tunnels, Robert has to make some sort of plan to overtake Sam and Marty or find a way to get to the truck before they do. He has to get back to the hotel well ahead of them to warn the others and start gathering the evidence he would need to give to Interpol to prosecute UPI for criminal activity in the Congo.

  Marty and Sam are about five yards ahead of him, and he has to think fast if he’s going to emerge from here and get to the truck before they do. Crouching near the floor of the tunnel, Robert feels around for any good-size rocks he can find. Once he locates a few, he picks up a handful of smaller stones. As he gets ready to throw them back down the tunnel, in the hopes that one of them would go and investigate the sounds, he hears Marty talking to Sam again.

  “Hang on a sec, Sam, I gotta take a leak. I’ll be right back.”

  “Yeah, well, make it quick, Marty. We only have an hour of daylight left to get out of here. And we still haven’t found Robert, but he’s probably lost in the tunnels somewhere, so keep your ears open just in case.”

  “Fine, fine. Can I go now?”

  “Just hurry up.”

  It works surprisingly well. Marty takes off down the tunnel cautiously with his flashlight raised and his gun in hand, but he is not counting on Robert being as close to him as he is. Robert has managed to find an outcropping of rock in the side of the tunnel to fit in behind, and as Marty passes him, he has a perfect chance to knock him out with one of the larger rocks he found. The only sound that can be heard is the thud of Marty’s lifeless body hitting the floor of the tunnel as Robert hits him over the head. Robert picks up his gun and flashlight, turning it off and shoving it into his belt for later use.

  After a few moments, Sam calls out to Marty, wondering why he hasn’t returned. Sam takes off to see what is keeping him.

  “Hey, you letting loose Niagara Falls or what? Let’s get going, Marty. Zip your fly and let’s get out of here. Marty? Where are you?”

  Just as Sam utters the last few words, he hears a noise behind him. He spins around and Robert hits him in the head, knocking him out cold. Robert takes both guns and flashlights with him, then hurries to the waiting truck a few yards outside the mouth of the mine entrance.

  Chapter Eight

  “The mine entrance is just up ahead, Patrick,” Reed says. “See it there on the left?”

  “It’s a bit hard to make out, but there is a vehicle sitting off to the side there so I presume that’s where you are talking about.”

  “Yes, that’s it, right where the green SUV is parked. This must be where they’ve brought Robert. You’d hardly notice that truck in all this vegetation. Let’s park here and walk up to the entrance just in case we have unexpected company.”

  Patrick pulls over and parks their four-wheel drive about ten yards from the other SUV. He then notices that someone is coming out of the entrance, but the sun is low and he can’t make out who it is. Moving slowly to the side of his truck, Patrick is able to move in behind the person who has just come from the mine. Leaping on him from behind, the two men struggle for a few moments until Robert is sitting astride Patrick, looking down to see who it was that knocked him off his feet.

  “Patrick?”

  “Robert?”

  Both men laugh at the irony of it all.

  “You always were the only one that could knock me off my feet.” Standing, Robert offers Patrick his hand and helps him up.

  The two of them brush themselves off, and both begin talking at once. Finally, Patrick holds up his hands, signaling Robert to stop talking.

  “Okay, just a second. We need to get back to the hotel, and we can talk on the way. I have a car over here, and Reed is with me too.”

  “We need to take this one too. I have Marty and Sam unconscious inside the entrance of this mine, but not for long. Here are the keys to the SUV. We need to at least get it far enough away from them that they can’t easily follow us or get back to the city once they wake up.”

  “Okay, you take that one and follow us out of here. We’ll ditch it somewhere along the way and go back to the hotel and talk there.”

  “Great. Sounds good to me, Patrick, let’s get going. Where’s Reed?”

  “He’s just over there a few yards.” Patrick points in the direction of the four-wheel drive.

  They both get into a vehicle and they quickly head back to the hotel, stopping only once to leave the green SUV in a ditch on the side of a deserted road without its key.

  Once everyone is all in the same vehicle, Patrick calls the hotel to alert Barnaby and Cat that Robert is safely with him and they are all on their way back.

  Cat answers the line and tells Patrick that Antonio and Sarah are on their way to the DRC. She goes on to say that Barnaby has just left the hotel room after he received a phone call, but he didn’t tell her who he talked to or where he was going and he has taken the emerald with him. She also tells him that Lorelei has returned to her suite after calling her father and asking his aid in the situation.

  “Cat, so you are alone in the room?”

  “Yes, Patrick, I am. Is that okay?”

  “Something doesn’t sound right with this. Leave the room at once and go to Lorelei’s suite and stay there. I’ll be there very soon, but don’t stay in that room.”

  “Okay, Patrick. I’ll leave right now. See you soon, be safe, and remember I love you.”

  Cat takes her purse off the chair and the key to the suite as well. She heads for the door as she dials Lorelei to tell he she is on her way. There is a strange clicking sound coming from the kitchen area, but she decides not to investigate and goes down the hall to meet Lorelei.

  After Cat knocks

  on the door, Lorelei opens it and just then there is a huge explosion from Cat’s suite. Lorelei quickly ushers her inside and tells her to call Patrick and alert him to what has happened, but to tell him to act as though he has no idea and when he gets to the hotel, to act as though the explosion killed Cat. Then she will fill him in about all that she has told him when she sees him.

  Cat tells Lorelei that Robert is alive as well and that he is on his way to the hotel with Patrick. Lorelei then calls Patrick herself from the secure line.

  “Patrick, you can’t let anyone know that Robert is still alive,” she says. “I have some information from my father that you need. I’ll fill you in as soon as you arrive here with Reed. You need to make sure that no one—I mean no one—knows that Robert is here in the hotel. I’ve had my room swept of bugs and surveillance, so it’s a safe zone at the moment. Get Robert here inside. He and Cat will have to lay low for a few days and allow the others to think they’ve succeeded in getting rid of them. Please do as I ask, and I’ll tell you all I know when you arrive here, but don’t use the main entrance. Find another way.”

  “Lorelei, what are you saying? Is Barnaby the double agent? Are we not to trust him?”

  “Patrick, all I’m telling you is not to trust anyone at this point, unless you know for certain one hundred percent that you can. And no, don’t tell Barnaby anything. He left Cat alone in that room for a reason, and he has the emerald with him. He is likely in the lobby or in Robert’s room at the moment, but I can’t be sure. My father wouldn’t lead me wrongly. He wouldn’t want to see anything happen to me. Please trust me, and we can work together to get this solved.”

  “Fine, Lorelei. I’ll trust you and do as you ask. For now, keep my Cat safe. I’ll be arriving in about thirty minutes. Please put Cat on the phone now, thank you.”
>
  “Hello, Patrick,” Cat says. “Oh my God, our room is blown up and Barnaby is gone with the emerald and I am more than a little upset. Please tell me you’re going to get this under control and soon. I don’t want to become a widow after only a month of marriage, Patrick.”

  “Yes, Cat. I’ll have a handle on all of this as soon as we can all talk to Lorelei about the information her father gave her. I’ll be arriving there soon, and you need to stay out of sight completely. We need to make it look as though I’ve lost you in the explosion and that Robert is dead as well. Get a call in to Antonio and make sure he doesn’t tell anyone you are alive and tell him that I’ll call him as soon as I reach the suite. See you soon, Cat. I love you, be safe.”

  “You do the same, Patrick. I love you too.”

  Cat calls Antonio and alerts him to the current situation, explaining to him that she is now supposed dead and so is Robert. Cat also tells him that he can’t trust Barnaby because of his mysterious disappearance with the emerald and his leaving her all alone in that hotel room just moments before it exploded. Antonio is only a few hours away from landing in the DRC with his fiancée and Cat’s best friend, Sarah. He assures her they will not give away any knowledge that she is alive and will be contacting Patrick on his secure phone shortly.