Shrouded in Secrets

by Kim McMahill

  “Just because I have a conscience doesn’t mean I won’t pull the trigger,” he said as he stepped to the side, hoping to sway Zara’s weapon away from the other three.

  “Yes, it does. You want to grow old in a nice little suburban neighborhood with dear Olivia. I can read the desire all over your pathetic face. You’ve lost your edge, Cash. You’re more like Washburn than you think. You’re tired of the killing, and you’re fed up with regrets.”

  “But I’m not.”

  Zara swung around to face the voice as a bullet tore through the shoulder of her shooting arm.

  Cash recognized the error in Diane’s placement an instant too late, knowing her intention was to just disable the threat. The speed in which Zara switched her gun from one hand to the other didn’t surprise him. He had seen her ignore pain that would bring the strongest man to his knees and she was just as deadly a shot from either side. As the barrel of her pistol raised and took aim at Olivia, the percussion of his and Diane’s shots exploding simultaneously in the interior of the building shook the walls. One bullet lodged in a wooden statue next to Zara and the other tore a hole through her heart.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

  October 4, 9:30 A.M.

  Cusco, Peru

  OLIVIA RAN TO her sister and flung herself into Diane’s arms. “I thought Cash was just trying to protect me from awful news when he told me you were covering our backs,” she said between sobs.

  Diane met Cash’s gaze over her shoulder. She held on, hoping Olivia wouldn’t think less of her after seeing the grim realities of her job. At the moment, all that mattered was they were alive and Zara would never be able to harm anyone again.

  By the time Olivia and Diane released each other, Cash had already relieved Zara of the small Argentinean relic and made a call requesting a clean-up team. The authorities in Cusco had been notified and La Catedral wouldn’t be opening to the public in thirty minutes as usual. The local police would ensure no one came inside until everything was sanitized.

  “You saved my hide again,’ Cash said as he hugged Diane tight.

  “Barely. I didn’t know she was ambidextrous. Besides, you would’ve pulled the trigger in time. I just didn’t want you to have to. And, the second shot could have come from either gun. This crisis is over, and you’ve got to stop beating yourself up for something in the past that can’t be changed. The Zara chapter of your life is finally over for good, and now you need to let it go and move on.”

  “She may be gone, but this case isn’t quite finished. Hopefully Mustafa isn’t dead and we can make him direct us to the missing relics,” Cash replied, ignoring the last part of Diane’s comment and regretting beating Mustafa to the point where he might not be able to communicate for a while.

  “We don’t need him. I know where the crystals are.”

  Cash eased Diane back and gave her a doubting expression. By the way her eyes twinkled with excitement, he knew she wasn’t kidding.

  “I followed Heinrich until he led me to Olivia. I realized I couldn’t take them all on by myself and save Olivia without getting us both killed, so I trailed them here, planning to help you with the rescue. But once you had her in your grasp, I was confident enough in her safety that I hurried back to the warehouse where they had been keeping her. I searched the place and found a padlocked box that I didn’t have time to break into, but I’d bet my pension the chest contains the relics,” she said as she walked over to Zara’s body and fished around in her pockets, retrieving a ring containing a key the same brand as the lock.

  When the clean-up team arrived, Cash showed them where to find Marabout and Mustafa and instructed them to seal the passageway and secure the door behind the silver altar once the bodies were removed so no one would ever be able to access the tunnel again. He left Pete behind to ensure his orders were followed, and no one attempted to see where the underground corridors led, and more importantly, to be there if Mustafa regained consciousness. He didn’t want anyone to talk to the man until he got a chance to question him.

  With Pete keeping an eye on the clean-up crew, the rest of the group followed Diane to the warehouse. Within minutes of arrival, the chest was unlocked and the relics revealed.

  “Oh my God,” Marjorie gasped.

  The trunk held thirteen lead-lined boxes and all but two contained crystal heads of differing shapes and sizes, each magnificent in its own way. Cash, Diane, Olivia, and Marjorie stared in disbelief. Several minutes elapsed before anyone could find their voice, breaking the trance-like silence.

  “What will you do now? This whole experience has proven that humans are not morally advanced enough to handle the power of the artifacts,” Olivia stated. “We can’t let these magnificent relics fall into any one entity’s hands.”

  As the group continued to gaze at the hypnotic crystals, Marjorie gently lifted the large head Pete had described seeing in Bimini.

  “Zero,” she whispered with reverence, “the void in which the cosmos was created.”

  The green tint surrounding its eyes was mesmerizing. She cradled the crystal in her palms and held the object out in front of her. The team huddled around her. A gentle draft entered the warehouse via a small vent near the ceiling. Marjorie wouldn’t have noticed the slight movement if the air hadn’t made the head sing as breath escaped through its missing jaw. To her, the melody of the song seemed to be issuing a warning, yet pleading for help. She quickly put the relic back in its box and closed the lid.

  “Even though we didn’t start this, we need to finish it,” Diane said. “I feel as if we have a responsibility to our ancestors and future generations. Whether we like it or not, right here, right now, we’re the new guardians of these sacred relics.”

  Cash stared at the closed box. He would have doubted his hearing if he hadn’t seen the stunned, fearful looks in everyone’s eyes. He thought about Zara and wondered how many more like her roamed the planet in search of power and wealth, or who had let the desire for revenge and the pain of loneliness fester until delusions consumed their lives. Cash considered Owen Washburn’s betrayal and knew he trusted few people in the world except for the small group standing around him.

  “I have an idea, but we’ll have to make a pact to take this secret to our graves, including Diego and Pete. I’m confident with everything Pete’s seen over this mission, he’ll agree,” Cash stated.

  “I must admit, Stretch Armstrong is definitely one of us now, and I’m certain we can count on him,” Diane added.

  “I’ll vouch for Diego’s concurrence for whatever you have in mind, if it can ensure this never happens again,” Marjorie asserted.

  “Okay then. Marjorie, pick out all the museum relics plus the Egypt crystal. Since you saw the Egypt head and reported the theft, the authorities are aware of its existence. We’ll return the Trocadéro, Smithsonian, and British Museum artifacts. The British Museum will also get the Egyptian crystal, and you’ll receive credit for the find. The rest were never recovered. Agreed?”

  Everyone nodded and began quickly securing the relics for transport. Cash went to the main room of the warehouse and boxed up Mustafa’s computer. He would take it to Pete and hopefully the scientist would be able to retrieve the data and answer all the nagging questions before they destroyed the machine and any incriminating evidence. Taking out his cell phone, Cash tapped Pete’s programmed number.

  “Diane was right.”

  Silence on the other end indicated Pete was trying to process the information. The more they got involved in the assignment, the more they all feared the collective potency of the mysterious relics. Not only did the crystals seem to have special physical characteristics and power, their mere existence had enticed people to do evil things for generations.

  “Pete,” Cash hesitated. He wasn’t sure if he could ask the young scientist to do something far outside his comfort zone and hoped he wouldn’t have to. “How’s it going over there?”

  “The tunnel’s been sealed so no one will get back in
without major excavation. Everything else is already done, and the clean-up team is gone.”

  This time it was Pete who hesitated, but Cash pressed on, ignoring the indication that Pete had an issue of his own to discuss.

  “There’s a lot about what’s happened that can never come to light. We’ve made a pact, and I know we can count on you to be with us, but Mustafa must never talk, and we know he can’t be trusted.”

  Cash heard the audible sigh of relief. “Okay, Pete. What haven’t you told me? You got a problem there?”

  “Uh, not any more. I was afraid you’d be mad that I didn’t see it coming and stop it, but as the crew was rigging up ropes to hoist him out of the tunnel, he got hold of a knife one of the guys was using to cut the rope into the lengths they needed to make a harness. I guess he didn’t want to stand trial or go to prison. Maybe he didn’t realize Zara was dead. I knew you wanted to interrogate him.”

  “You did fine,” Cash replied, relieved he hadn’t had to ask Pete to do something that would have scarred him more than this assignment already had. “We’ll catch up with you at the safe house.”

  Cash hung up and returned to the group. As with Marjorie, he had underestimated Pete. Sometimes they had to do things few had the stomach for, but both had pulled through and surprised him. Thankfully he had been wrong about the delicate-looking archeologist and the inexperienced scientist. Their grit had kept them alive and ensured the world would never find out if any truth existed to the legend of the sacred relics.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  October 6, 10:00 A.M.

  Pucallpa, Peru

  THEIR TRIP TO Pucallpa was brief and emotional. They visited Kayanakú. The Asháninka woman appeared well and the sister who found her in the park assured them Kayanakú and her baby would be taken care of for as long as the young woman wished to remain under the protection of the church.

  Cash, Diane, Pete, Marjorie, and Olivia trekked into the jungle. The sight of the charred remains of Kayanakú’s village left them stunned and shaken. The photographs had been horrific, but paled in comparison to the reality of the scene.

  They located the fresh mound where the authorities had dug a mass grave for the villagers. The practice seemed so impersonal, but the magnitude of the slaughter made individual graves unrealistic. They held hands, forming a semi-circle around the disturbed earth, and mourned the loss of the brave fighters and innocent victims of Zara’s insane quest for power.

  Marjorie took out her world map, crossed with red lines and longitude and latitude coordinates. She cut the thick paper map into pieces and handed one section to Pete. The group followed the scientist, focusing on his GPS unit, into the jungle. The spot they chose appeared random, though it fell along one axis drawn on the map. Under the branches of a horóva tree, Cash dug a deep hole and stepped back as Diane set the locked box into the ground and sprinkled the small chest with dirt.

  October 7, 2:00 p.m

  Buenos Aires, Argentina

  MARJORIE ENTERED DIEGO’S hospital room. Her hair was still damp from being bleached back to its natural blonde by a young girl at a local salon. Dressed and sitting on the edge of his bed, Diego smiled up at her the moment she crossed the threshold. The sight of him, healthy and as handsome as she remembered, nearly took her breath away.

  “Ready to go?” she asked.

  “I’ve just been waiting for you to come for me.”

  He stood and wrapped his arms around her. At first she feared that if she gripped him too tight, she might hurt his healing wounds, but as Marjorie listened to the steady beat of his heart, she held on, never wanting to ever let go.

  Diego eased her back and his eyes came to rest on the brightly colored hand-woven Peruvian bag slung over her shoulder. “Did you bring me a souvenir from Peru?”

  “No. I didn’t have a lot of time to shop, though you were always on my mind.”

  He placed his hands on her cheeks and touched his lips gently to hers. “So, where do we go from here?”

  “I hoped you would be feeling well enough for a road trip? I took something from Argentina that must be returned. Besides, I’d love to revisit Salta, but this time for pleasure. The city has an amazing mixture of colonial and modern architecture and is one of the more interesting places I’ve ever seen.”

  Diego put his arm around her waist and headed out of the room. “Lead the way, my angel. I would follow you anywhere.”

  October 7, 4:30 P.M.

  Mexico City, Mexico

  DIANE COULDN’T HELP but laugh as she drove her beat up 1980s coup out of Mexico City. She would never confess to Cash that she had gotten stuck again with a hunk of junk. She certainly had no intention of ever admitting she was okay with him dating her sister. He had changed. She wondered whether the catalyst was the mission or Olivia, but whatever the reason, he finally seemed at peace.

  As she left the pollution and noise of the city behind, she enjoyed an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and optimism for her future. On her first big assignment, she had done well. Cash had ensured her promotion to the field was made permanent, and she could tell he was proud of the way she had kept her cool, covered their backs, and found the stolen relics, rather than reacting with her emotions and foolishly trying to rescue Olivia on her own.

  The sun set as Diane pulled off the road and checked her small piece of the map again. She located the route closest to the axis which she needed to find. Diane didn’t have an exact location in mind, but felt certain she would know it when she came across an ideal resting place. She just had to identify some spot along an imaginary line to bury a box whose location would remain secret to the world until she selected a worthy and reliable successor to hand down the vital information.

  Diane hoped they were doing the right thing, but after seeing all the devastation which had occurred over the relics, she had to believe they were. The museum artifacts, along with the one Marjorie found in Egypt, had been returned. They denied finding any of the other crystals. They planned to scatter those still in their possession as their ancient ancestors had done. By splitting up to accomplish the task, no one person would ever know the exact location of all the artifacts.

  Diane rolled down the window and turned up the volume on the car radio. Her Spanish was a little rusty, but returning quickly enough to enable her to sing along and enjoy the cool evening air and upbeat music. The sun would rise before she found the perfect place. She didn’t care how long it took, only that she succeeded in protecting the relics from the next insane fanatic bent on destruction, riches, or power.

  She thought about Cash. Diane had always loved him like a brother and worried their relationship might change if he ever became her brother-in-law. But, she could think of no one she trusted more with her sister than him, despite his past record with women.

  She wondered how Pete was managing in the Caribbean. Stilts had surprised her. He had done well and pride swelled in her chest as she considered herself one of his mentors.

  Except for Ian, who she would never forget, they had all survived and were hopefully turning back the clock enough to right a terrible wrong. Maybe someday society could handle the power, but for now, some things were best left shrouded in secrets.

  October 8, 5:00 P.M.

  Bimini, Bahamas

  PETE KNEW HE had to be creative. The Bimini Road had been, and would continue to be, extensively explored. The tunnel from the new Healing Hole he had discovered was now common knowledge, and the markings on the wall were currently being studied by archeologists from all over the world. He wanted the crystal to reside in Bimini, but ensuring the object remained lost until the human race evolved enough morally to handle the collective power continued to be his main priority. The relic needed a permanent hiding place, since he doubted humans would ever possess the restraint to use the crystals for the good of mankind rather than its destruction, assuming the relics actually possessed the incalculable force of legend.

  Bimini had been the artifact’s home
for hundreds, possibly thousands of years, and he was starting to believe the island might be a remnant of the lost continent of Atlantis. If the theory gained support, he doubted a safe place could exist on the small landmass or on any of the islands of the Bahamas.

  He studied the piece of the map cut from the larger one Marjorie had marked up. As his mind wandered over the events of the past few weeks, the dangers he survived amazed him. He overcame his fears and the experience had changed him. He probably should crawl back to his lab at Langley, pick up where he left off with the nice girl he had just started dating before he went out in the field, think about settling down in a safe little suburban neighborhood, and pretend this whole thing never happened. But he wasn’t sure he could. Working with Cash, Diane, and Ian had altered the way he looked at his life and his place in the world.

  He studied the map harder. Other islands existed that might work, even Cuba was a possibility.

  Cuba. Now that’s a thought. The mission would have to be executed covertly to avoid generating any suspicions. If I rented a boat under an alias, tapped into the Coast Guard’s patrol schedule, calculated the best time and date, watched the weather, then with a little luck…

  October 8, 9:00 A.M.

  Navajo Nation, Arizona

  JUST LOOKING AT the mule made Cash’s butt hurt. Once they got rid of the relic nestled in his saddlebag, he’d stick to horses. After his last trek into the Navajo Nation on the back of the animal, he had vowed to never subject himself to such agony ever again, but here he was, trying to sweet talk Gertrude into taking it easy on him.

  “I’m jealous. You’ve never whispered in my ear so passionately,” Olivia said as she rode up next to him.

  “Unfortunately, I haven’t had to beg you to be gentle with me, though I have fantasized about it.”

  Olivia’s head fell back as she laughed, captivating Cash with her shimmering dark hair cascading gracefully down to her waist, how the light in her eyes danced with excitement, and the way her smile made him feel invincible, yet vulnerable.