Caribbean Gold

by David Leadbeater

  Nevertheless, as Crouch passed the area where the prison tents sat, the pirate camp was starting to mobilize; the men were pointed toward the hill and galvanized to run. Several shots into the air helped. Alicia was forced to concentrate hard on the terrain for a minute as the path twisted and turned and crossed several pitfalls.

  Russo, ahead, warned, “Pirates are coming.”

  Alicia thought of several comebacks but held her breath. The hill might not be a mountain after all, but it was steep and high, and packed with danger. And that was without seventy pirates and forty or so mercs assaulting it. How crazy that their long, hazardous and meandering quest had finished in a race.

  How the hell are we ever going to stand our ground at the top if we make it first?

  Crouch dropped back through the pack as he fished out his cell and started to make a call. Alicia hoped it would be for reinforcements. Authorities. They couldn’t hope to hold out on their own. She stayed behind Caitlyn, keeping an eye on Crouch and now also eyeing Russo in front.

  The ground leveled out and then started to rise up, the lower parts of the hill already beginning. Alicia got her first really good daylight look at the slope. It was worse than she had expected. The dangers lay everywhere and promised no easy climb. She called out to those in front.

  “Stay together. Watch for dangers. The pirates will hit this hill hard and will pay the price.”

  “They have the numbers to do that,” Russo returned.

  “Arrive alive,” Alicia intoned. “Always a good motto.”

  “As good as ‘One life, live it’?”

  “Nah, that’s the best.”

  “Don’t forget Jensen.” Crouch panted a little. “He’s running up the other side.”

  “Don’t worry.” Alicia had no intentions of overlooking the man that had dogged them all the way. “That dude has a long life but a short future.”

  Healey looked over his shoulder blankly, almost running slap-bang into a tree. “Eh?”

  “Means prison,” Caitlyn told him. “She means he’s going to prison.”

  “Ahh.”

  “Zacky boy,” Alicia hurdled a double rut that looked like it had been made by a giant tractor wheel, and shook her head. “One day you’ll look back on all this and laugh.”

  Healey grunted. Alicia loved the interaction between Healey and Russo and herself and even Caitlyn now that she was starting to gel nicely with the main team. Healey was a good soldier and, truth be told, wanted to stay young. It was one of his strengths, a forte she hoped he would never lose. If a grown man could keep a certain innocence, an air of virtue, and never let it go? That was a man she envied.

  Upward she ran, the slope steepening with every step. The trees ended and a barren patch of land began that ran around the hill. Suddenly, everyone could see each other and even those oblivious to it all reacted with violence.

  The pirates were in the middle and spun both ways. Russo flew to the ground, closely followed by the others. Pirates sprawled headlong as they hit tangled brush, their shots firing dangerously in every direction. To the far right, Jensen’s men returned fire, bullets zinging through the pirates and narrowly missing Crouch as he was last to duck.

  The cellphone bounced out of his hand.

  “Ah, shit. Hope they can track it.”

  Alicia felt like cursing but used her handgun to bring down two enemies. The smaller pistols were better in this environment. A pirate shot one of his brethren as tripped, then himself through the head as his gun grounded and spun around with his finger still on the trigger. Men around him cringed. Alicia took another down.

  Russo crawled hard through the tangled scrub, skirting brambles as best he could and snaking alongside small hillocks. One of the small peaks erupted under the impact of a bullet as he passed, showering him with soil. He kept going.

  Healey followed close and then Caitlyn. Alicia made sure she shouted at the researcher to keep her head down, nose to the ground.

  An outcropping of rock ahead and Russo was on his knees, drifting around it for shelter. He waited for the others. The pirates ran recklessly ahead, one breaking an ankle in a stony rivulet and left there by his brothers, screaming, unable to get free. Another tried to jump over the outcropping, smashed his head against the bare rock, and fell away unconscious. Alicia saw the leader at the center of the pack still waving his cleaver and offering no direction, no support. She could only make shapes out to the far right. Jensen’s men, advancing quickly.

  Russo climbed around the outcropping and came to a series of sparse trees. Trunk to trunk he ran, keeping low and covered through open space by Healey. Once Russo had passed the third tree Healey started out, covered by Alicia. In a matter of seconds a fusillade of fire was returned by the advancing pirates, bullets thudding and screaming past. Several punched bark or split air close to Healey, more tore past Alicia, and one slammed off a chunk of boulder close to her left knee. She scrambled back and Healey flattened himself.

  Crouch’s eyes were on her.

  Is it worth it? she wanted to ask. The risk? The loss? The future pain?

  But Alicia remained a soldier, and her boss moved ahead. Russo found a space where he could lay down some covering fire and Healey was scrambling off, forcing Alicia to follow. The hot sun blazed down from a cloudless sky and warmed the earth with an unrelenting energy. Dust and pollen wafted around, saturating every deep breath. The sounds of men swearing and crying out in pain, grunting in exertion, and urging their friends on was all she could hear.

  The slope steepened. Above, she saw it narrow as it reached up toward the top of the hill. Still, she saw no sign of the tree and suddenly wondered if it even existed at all. What a fine jest for Morgan to pull. What perfect subterfuge. Sending every band of hunters to the top of a laborious slope to find they had done it all for nothing.

  But someone knew it was there. The sailors for one. The tree remained to this day a well-known landmark, recognized by locals who plied these waters.

  The pirates were spreading out. Mainly due to their numbers and over-enthusiasm, but nevertheless scattering toward the Gold Team. Alicia helped dissuade them with a few well-placed shots. Still, the rival groups pounded hard for the top of the hill, heads down and trading fire.

  Jensen’s men were closer, possibly encountering some impassable obstacle, and were forced to engage in hand-to-hand combat with half-a-dozen pirates. An Uzi rattled, taking out some of Jensen’s men. The leader of the pirates shouted something unintelligible to which nobody reacted.

  Alicia paused as a pirate ran hell-for-leather toward Healey. The young lad hadn’t even seen the attack. Alicia met the man head on, clubbed him with her pistol, and then kicked him to the ground. He twisted, feeling for a weapon. She shot him and ran on. Crouch raced at her heels.

  Up they went. Russo encountered a cave, thought about heading inside and then decided to skirt its black maw. Crouch had a look of indecision in his eyes as he passed but said nothing. Alicia watched it all. Still, she respected and trusted and followed this man. Still, he remained far from perfect.

  As was everyone deep inside, but this was a man she had thought different. The toll of his mistakes was heavy and she felt more was to come. But now was definitely not the time.

  Ahead, Russo smashed aside a pirate that had forged ahead and doubled back. Healey finished him off, but that didn’t bode well for the chase. Alicia saw that the pirates were going to be kings of the mountain, and with their force that would make them pretty much unassailable.

  Unless their force somehow went into sharp decline.

  She clicked comms and shouted out a plan to Russo.

  “Do it,” she finished. “Do it now!”

  Ramming in a fresh mag she unhooked her rifle and jumped over a ditch and then a fallen log. Russo dropped to one knee up ahead, let off a volley of shots and allowed Healey to pass him by. Then Caitlyn and the rest. Healey now ran at the head of the pack and Russo at the back. Then Healey dropped down, shooti
ng until the others all passed him. Pirates fell and twisted and crashed to the ground, some dead, some with broken bones, all tripping their comrades and getting in each other’s way.

  Caitlyn dropped alongside Healey and then Alicia was passing them at a leap. She fell to one knee, lined up the pirate pack and then squeezed her trigger. Bullets flew among them, striking flesh and bone, sending gouts of blood high enough to paint a crimson canvas, blocking the sun and falling in errant patterns. Men collapsed face first. Others jumped over their bodies, trying to match Alicia’s skills on the run and failing. Always failing. Suddenly she felt Russo galloping by and then the rest of her team and she was up again, forming the rearguard.

  The hill below them was littered with the dead, soaked by their life force. Jensen’s men added to the dead and took hits of their own. Mercenary met mercenary and forgot their objectives.

  Alicia took a moment to look up.

  Right to the top of the mountain.

  Their goal, the crooked tree and the believed burial site for the most infamous and greatest plundered treasure hoard in history was in sight, and the pirates were in reach of it.

  And although they were weary, bruised and bloody, the Gold Team ran harder. And they ran faster. Never had they fought harder for the prize.

  CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

  The higher slopes were the hardest. The space became narrower and the separate groups grew closer. Mercs came across from Jensen’s group, no doubt ordered since Alicia doubted it was the right choice to make, and brought down running pirates in any way possible. Alicia saw some crazy, desperate actions in the next few moments. A pirate turned his gun on a merc only to see the old iron explode in his face as he pulled the trigger. Both men went down. A merc flattened three pirates by barging through their pack with open arms, then slipped off a rocky outcropping and broke his neck on the rocks below. A pirate turned to flee back to camp and was cut down by one of his brethren. Four, then six, then eight pirates reached the top of the hill, started to dance around and fired their guns in the air. Russo took one of them out, and a man that looked distinctly like Jensen killed a second. The pirate leader turned, surveyed the slope and then roared.

  Alicia took a potshot, missed, but saw another pirate fall. Good enough. Three pirates now neared them and hopped over a shallow stream to engage. A weapon was leveled. Alicia ducked under and used the barrel to smash the man’s nose. A shot was fired. Healey ducked for cover, bobbed up and then shot the man center mass.

  Caitlyn tripped and fell before the third.

  Looking like all his Christmas presents had come early, he discarded his weapon and pulled out a knife. Alicia shook her head at his stupidity even as she shot him, then helped Caitlyn up.

  “Watch your balance.”

  “I know.”

  A little sass was good. Alicia engaged a fourth pirate and sent him tumbling back down the hill. Pirates were now climbing to the apex of the hill in numbers—twelve and then twenty and then their leader crested the final rise. Russo was only twenty feet further back but was forced to pull up and take stock.

  Pirates ranged around the top of the hill, pointing their weapons down. Their leader barged through them, causing at least two to drop their weapons and have to scramble around on the ground.

  “Find me this treasure!” he bellowed.

  Alicia picked her way around the obstacles, moving from tree to tree and using boulders to stay safe. The group came together in the lee of a rough rock ledge.

  “What next?” Healey said with enthusiasm.

  “They have the high ground,” Russo said, straight-laced and soldier-like.

  “Grenades would be useful,” Alicia pointed out.

  “Maybe Jensen has some,” Crouch said. “Otherwise it’s going to be tricky.”

  Alicia laughed, eyeballing her weapons for damage and changing out the mags. “Conservative as ever, boss.”

  “King of the Hill was never my forte,” he said. “But I say—when Jensen attacks, we attack.”

  “Would a trained soldier attack that?” Russo motioned toward the rim of the hill guarded by a ring of men.

  “It’s his ultimate goal in life.” Crouch shrugged. “And probably his last chance. He’ll attack.”

  Caitlyn had been resting on her knees. Now she looked up. “How long before the cavalry arrive?”

  “To save us?” Crouch pursed his lips. “There are several agencies working in the Caribbean at the moment, some mopping up after the recent Barbados fiasco. The authorities are on their way and, I hope, at least some of those teams.”

  Alicia took the speech to mean I don’t know. Sometimes you just had to read between the lines. “Well, they sure as hell won’t talk the pirate boss down from there. You can’t reason with a man whose major problems have bigger problems of their own.”

  Crouch eyed her. “True enough. Any ideas?”

  “Yeah, let’s wait for Jensen to attack first.”

  A hot sun burned down. Alicia sat with her back to the rocky lee, now able to see the trail of devastation and death that led up the hill. Some men still lived down there, crawling aimlessly. Others were too injured to move. Trees were broken and listing, and scrub was torn apart. Dust still swirled in the air above the paths they had all taken. A fitting aftermath for a crazed, deadly dash into the heart of danger. The Gold Team had engaged with it and executed it well—never in terrible danger and always thinking, always ahead. But the reckless, uncontrolled and ultimately uncaring bunch had made it to the top first and now held all the power. Go figure that life lesson. Her lips curled. Noises filtered through her consciousness. The aggressive protests and instructions from above. The disorganized shooting. The drug-fuelled laughter. Healey and Caitlyn having a whispered conversation. Russo clearing his throat.

  She peered up toward the top of the hill, shielded by brush that hung over the ledge. The tree that stood up there by itself was a striking spectacle. Barren, twisted, and gray-white it warped upwards toward the skies, rising magnificent and distorted with misshapen branches and an array of twigs hanging down like broken fingers. It drew her eyes right to the top where the highest boughs appeared to have decided to stop growing, instead curling over and over to form a creepy, lifeless, hanging barrier that reminded her of hundreds of rolls of barbed wire tied together.

  “That is one sick tree,” she commented.

  “Morgan’s Fancy,” Crouch stated. “That’s what it should be called.”

  “Don’t get your hopes up as well,” Alicia warned. “This island could be as much a washout as all the rest.”

  “Has to be here.” Crouch thought he’d turned away before she saw the desperation in his eyes. “It has to be.”

  Alicia turned her gaze over to where they thought Jensen had gone to ground. No signs of life existed over there, around the curve of the hill, but then none should. The self-made pirate would be making plans to attack the real modern pirates. She shook her head. Shit, it was becoming confusing.

  The Crouch’s cell rang. Thinking it was their reinforcements he answered quickly. “Where are you?”

  “Just around the corner actually,” Jensen’s voice came over the lowered loudspeaker.

  Crouch started. “How do you have my number?”

  “Is that really the issue here? C’mon, Michael. Now, my thinking is that we hit them both at the same time. We were trained by the same people so I know you feel the same.”

  Alicia fought against accepting the reasonable tones and likening them to Drake. She couldn’t think that way now—the men were poles apart.

  “You want to join forces?” Crouch was too shocked to think straight.

  “No, no, don’t be a fool.” Jensen laughed. “I want to kill you all for trying so hard to wreck my chances of getting super-rich. But first, neither of us can get to that treasure with the band of idiots in the way. Am I right?”

  “I hardly class you as any better.”

  “Ooh, that hurt. So unnecessary. But I am
right, Michael. You know it.”

  Crouch took a look up the hill and then at his team. Alicia knew his decision long before it reached his face. The treasure’s influence was all over him.

  “I’ll meet you at the tree,” Jensen said. “I’ll kill you there.”

  Crouch checked his watch. “You ready in five?”

  “Let’s make it seven. Oh, and as for your number . . . don’t forget I have contacts too.”

  Alicia shook her head at the macho bullshit. She plucked the phone from Crouch’s hands. “Just be ready, asshole. We’ll go when we’re ready.”

  She threw the object back to Crouch. Then she made sure the rest of the team were watching her.

  “Nobody has to do this,” she said. “So don’t think you do. We can back out right now. After all, it’s only buried treasure and the cops are on their way. How far could any of them get?”

  “He might rebury it. Sink it. He might have a hidden chopper. A sub—”

  “Listen to yourself.” Alicia still hadn’t forgiven him and embraced the insubordination. “We will decide what is worth risking our lives for. Not you.”

  Crouch held up both hands.

  Russo looked uncomfortable. “We’ve come this far. Pirates are a ragtag bunch of clowns and jokers. And . . . we finally take down Jensen. I’m in.”

  Healey looked to Caitlyn and then to Crouch, the two most important people in his life. “I guess Russo’s right. Jensen is the big factor here. If we lose him for any reason he could haunt our lives forever. Pop up anytime. I say take him out.”

  Caitlyn understood the potential for a lifelong threat too. “They’re right, Alicia. Never leave an enemy at your back.”

  She smiled at the words coming from the mouth of the researcher. “I love you all like family,” she said. “And respect your decisions, no matter how batshit crazy they are.” She gauged the top of the hill. “We ready?”

  Russo steadied his rifle. “Ready.”

  “Spread out,” Crouch said. “Don’t give them a target.”