A Dubious Race: The Phoenician Stones (A Colton Banyon Mystery Book 14)

by Gerald J Kubicki

  Darlene’s phone rang. She looked at the caller ID, but didn’t recognize the number. She hit the end button figuring that it was a nuisance call. A few seconds later Joan’s phone rang.

  The driver had just turned the corner and realized that the new dirt road was well traveled and much better maintained than the roads they had covered. The Mercedes sports car was way down the road and accelerating. The suburban had no chance of catching them.

  “Stop the car,” Joan suddenly shrieked. “Stop the damn car,” she repeated with authority.

  “Why?” Darlene asked in confusion. The driver quickly applied the brakes. A cloud of dust soon surrounded the suburban as it slid to a stop. He had recognized the power in her voice. He wasn’t going to challenge Joan.

  “We’ve been pulled off the case,” Joan wailed. “We need to stop right now.”

  “By whom?” Darlene screeched. “Who would try to stop us when we were so close to nabbing those guys?” She looked out the front window and watched helplessly as the taillights on the Mercedes disappeared into the darkness.

  Joan reached across the seat and handed Darlene her phone. “The Secretary of Defense would like to speak to you.”

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Colton Banyon was still talking with the President. He glanced at his watch and saw that it was 6:55 p.m. The Goblin attack force would be wheels up at 7:00 p.m. It would take fifteen minutes to travel to the ranch and then the shooting would start. Banyon was rapidly running out of time.

  The President told him that the SEAL teams were already in the air and flying up from San Diego. They would perform the takedown of the Goblin forces, but would not get to the warehouse until about twenty minutes after the hour — not soon enough to prevent the attack. Sending jets after the helicopters was not an option as the Cobra gunships had many defensive mechanisms and were stealthy. They could actually shoot down a jetfighter. The President said he could send in troops, but they would not get to the ranch for at least an hour.

  “Send them anyway,” Banyon requested. “Somebody will have to clean up the carnage.”

  “At least the SEAL team will be in position to pounce when the choppers return,” the President said carelessly. “Will you be able to help?”

  “If I’m still alive,” Banyon replied with a hint of sarcasm.

  The politician ignored Banyon’s remark. “Call me as soon as they leave so we can be prepared.”

  “I’ll be sure to do that, sir,” Banyon said with all the courage he could muster as he gritted his teeth.

  “Meanwhile, I have a very unpleasant task to perform,” the President acknowledged. “I’ll do it before the attack. Everybody is here and I can’t....”

  “Sir, can I call you back,” Banyon said to cut him off. “We need to prepare for the attack right now.”

  “Oh, that’s right,” the President admitted he forgot that Banyon and his group were in imminent danger. “Make me proud,” he said as encouragement and ended the call.

  “I need to make one more call before we head inside,” Banyon pleaded before Loni could start questioning him.

  “Joey Brownwater has real premonitions and can change the future,” Loni said in a rush. She couldn’t help herself. “There is also something suspicious about him, “she added.

  “Great,” Banyon uttered sarcastically as he dialed the phone.

  Chapter Sixty

  Previne answered the cell phone call on the first ring. Banyon could tell that her mood had changed because she was her cheery old self again.

  “Colt, you saved us,” she purred into the phone. “I owe you and I insist on giving you a big reward when I see you.” Banyon knew how Previne wanted to reward him. Loni would not approve.

  “Have the NSA agents stopped chasing you yet?” He quickly asked to get her off track. He knew she could be relentless when flirting with him.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Previne replied confidently. “Putting us on that smooth road was genius, Colt. It gave Eric a chance to use our speed. We’ve lost them. They’re not behind us anymore.”

  Banyon decided to let her think what she wanted. He didn’t have time to get into a lengthy discussion. “Do you still have the Vril? What does it look like?”

  “The Vril is light-green in color and it glows. It looks like we have about a gallon of the stuff. But there is more,” she added.

  “You’ve got something else?”

  “Yes,” she said precisely. “We also have another jar that was found in the hole. It looks like some sort of scroll,” she told him.

  “That’s interesting,” Banyon admitted. “Nothing was mentioned about that in the writings on the Cherokee stones and we already know the man who buried the jars couldn’t write,” Banyon said in confusion. “I wonder what’s written on it?”

  “And there is something else,” Previne announced dramatically.

  “What?” Banyon asked.

  “We heard the NSA agents talking,” Previne started. “They are heading to Las Vegas tonight. They have been instructed to pick up Joey Brownwater tomorrow morning and take him to the secret Denver facility.”

  “They’re coming here?” Banyon exclaimed. Loni gave a look of confusion.

  “They have orders from the director of the Denver facility,” Previne said.

  “Well, that is definitely disturbing news,” Banyon admitted as he scratched his head. “I’d better ask Wolf about that later.”

  “Their leader, Darlene Krenitz, also mentioned you, Colt,” Previne continued. “I think she intends to work you over. The fact that you are at Joey’s ranch is too much of a coincidence for her. She wants answers.”

  “How does she know where I am?” Banyon wondered out loud.

  Suddenly, Loni pushed off from Banyon’s chest. “I think that Joey told the NSA,” Loni quickly tossed out. Her statement stunned Banyon. Now he didn’t know if he could trust Joey. What was his game?

  “I guess that it’s something else that I’ll have to figure out,” Banyon said wearily. “Do you think that Darlene remembers our last meeting?”

  “As far as we know, the Freud-a-sizing process is permanent,” Previne replied clinically. “Why do you ask?”

  “Lisa Lange remembers,” Banyon explained. “But I think she has reverse engineered the formula from the book of Vril.”

  “Oh, that is interesting,” Previne admitted. “I’d like to know how she did that.”

  “We need to do something about her when you get here tonight,” Banyon explained. “We can’t let her wander around knowing some of our deepest secrets. She needs to be Freud-a-sized again.”

  “Well, there is a problem in doing that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “A person can be Freud-a-sized only once. It won’t work a second time.”

  “Oh no!” Banyon uttered, but recovered quickly. “Can you work on another solution while you are heading here? I’m going to be kind of busy for the next few hours.”

  “We’ll put our heads together on the plane,” Previne agreed. “Don’t worry. We’ll come up with something.”

  “Good, thank you. I have to go now,” Banyon said as he realized that Loni was frantically pulling on his arm.

  “See you in a few hours,” Previne cheerfully voiced and ended the call.

  As Banyon and Loni headed for the inside of the ranch, Banyon said. “I want you to keep an eye on Joey Brownwater until this is over. Make sure that he never leaves your sight.”

  “Yes, kemosabe,” she said. “By the way, have you noticed my new outfit? I bought it just for you.”

  “Hmm,” Banyon spoke with an Indian accent. “Whiteman like squaw dress. If you were horse, he’d already be in your saddle,” he joked.

  “Ah, you always say the right thing, Colt.”

  Chapter Sixty-One

  As he and Loni entered the front door of the ranch, Banyon was surprised and confused again. There were only eleven people in the room. There should have been seventeen. He
did notice that one prisoner was strapped to a chair in the corner. He was blind-folded and had duct tape on his mouth. Everybody in the room was armed to the teeth with machine guns and pistols. Chase was holding a meeting.

  “Where are the other people?” Banyon asked. Chase was standing with his back towards the door and turned around. He had a smile on his face.

  “Nice that you could make our little party,” He said cheerfully. “To answer your question, they’ve already been deployed.”

  “Deployed where?” Banyon asked with concern.

  “If we have time later, I’ll show you, but right now I need to finish my instructions with my defenders,” Chase responded. He turned back to the group and continued. “You three are my reserves,” he said to Heather, Steve, and Mandy. “If anyone breaches the room, you need to take care of them.”

  “We’ll be ready,” Steve said quickly.

  “The rest of you cover the windows and doorway,” he said. “You’ll notice that the windows all have two by fours crisscrossing the openings. That’s to stop anyone from jumping through them. Also, if you get wounded, I want you back in the tunnels.

  “What should I be doing?” Joey asked.

  “Joey you are not part of the defense. We are here to protect you — stay out of sight,” Chase explained.

  “What about the prisoner?” Heather asked.

  “Steve, you and Tom will carry the prisoner to the tunnels when we are finished with the meeting.”

  “Got it,” Steve said.

  “One more thing,” Chase added with his hands in the air. “As a last resort, if we get overrun, retreat to the back into the tunnels. There is a back way out. We’ve rigged both the entrance here and the exit with explosives to cut off any attackers. I’ve got the remote.”

  “We’re ready,” Tom, the interrogator shouted.

  “Alright,” Chase said. “Make sure to drink plenty of water. It will give you an edge. Our targets will be here shortly and don’t forget to communicate through your ear pieces.” Chase then turned to Banyon as everyone scattered to their positions. He handed Loni and Banyon communications devices.

  “Where’d you get your training?” Banyon quickly asked.

  “I’m a graduate of West Point,” Chase said proudly. “Class of ’95. I studied troop deployment.”

  “I’m impressed,” Banyon admitted. “Maybe I can help with this battle — that is — if I had any clue as to how you expect to stop these guys.” Banyon suddenly felt Loni nudge him. She was watching Joey as he quietly slipped out of the room and headed for the tunnels. He nodded at her and she left to follow him.

  “It’s just a combination of proper deployment of troops and some high-tech gadgetry,” Chase told him. “You see, my IT guy is a real geek. We captured several of Goblin’s high-tech weapons and are going to put them into good use in exactly the way they were intended. Come on, I’ll show you.” Banyon followed Chase out on to the porch.

  “Do you know that they will be shooting missiles at the mountain above the ranch?” Banyon asked, not sure what Mandy had told him.

  “Of course,” Chase said. “We also know they have twenty men with them and my guess is they will deploy them right before they reach that point out there.” Banyon struggled to see in the early darkness. “The men will try to creep up on the ranch and wait for the missiles to bring down the mountain. Then they’ll rush anyone left alive.”

  “And you can stop all that?” Banyon asked.

  “Absolutely,” Chase said with a nod of his head. “The only thing that would help me would be to know how many missiles they have to fire at us.”

  “I might be able to help you there,” Banyon said cautiously. “I’ll make a call when we are done.”

  “I’ve got all three of the machines we captured out there,” he pointed again. “The three people manning the machines are also expert snipers and because of the three-quarter moon, we’ll have enough light to see our attackers.”

  “Okay,” Banyon uttered.

  “Out there, past the point,” Chase continued. “We also have three people armed with RPGs. From that range, they can’t miss the Cobras if we have to take them down. That’s everything.”

  “Makes sense,” Banyon said. “Let me make a phone call then.” He wandered off around the side of the ranch to address Wolf.

  “Don’t be long my friend, they will be here in only a one a minute or two,” Chase informed him and headed back into the ranch.

  “I’ll only be a few seconds,” Banyon promised.

  “Good, you’ll want to be around for the charge,” Chase offered as he went through the door.

  Charge, what charge? Banyon wondered.

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Kayah Lightfoot entered the cave at exactly seven o’clock. She brought a child’s red wagon with her to transport the heavy stones to her car. She had parked her car on the hard pack desert about a half a mile away. She knew it would be tough to pull a loaded wagon all that way there, but it sure beat carrying the stones. She left the wagon by the entrance to the cave. She would only have to carry each stone about a hundred feet.

  She slipped into the hidden entrance and turned on her penlight so she could see where she was going. It was pitch black in the tunnels and a little spooky. The only sound she heard was her own rapid breathing. It took her five minutes to reach the alcove where the two remaining stones were hidden under some old boards. She bent to the task of removing them. Soon sweat was dripping from her brow. The boards were almost as heavy as the stones. As she lifted the first stone, she grunted from the weight. She had placed the penlight in her mouth and could not stop the sound. It echoed off the tunnel walls. She turned and staggered back to the entrance. She didn’t know that Joey could see the erratic beam of her flashlight as it bounced off the walls.

  She finally wrestled the stone out into the night and gently placed it in the little wagon. All the exertion had caused her to drop her guard.

  “Hello, Kayah,” she heard from behind her. She spun around towards the voice.

  “It’s you,” she exclaimed in surprise. She was suddenly happy. He had come to her.

  “Aren’t you surprised to see me? Why don’t you come over here and give me a big kiss?”

  She raced over to him and threw her arms around his neck. She planted a huge kiss on his lips, but suddenly tried to pull away. She was shocked and confused. He had whiskey on his breath. She struggled to free herself, but he had her arms pinned to her sides.

  “I’m real happy to run into you, Kayah,” Bobby Brownwater said and pressed her hard against his body. “Remember how we used to play doctor when we were kids?”

  Part Five

  Attacks

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Bobby Brownwater had spent most of the afternoon drinking and building up enough courage to face his twin brother. He decided he didn’t want to convince him to sell the land. He wanted to kill him instead. He would then inherit the land and strike a deal with Goblin. It would be much larger than the one which Tony Ryder offered. The more he drank, the more the plan made sense to him. He stayed in the bar until it started to get dark because he figured he could sneak up on his brother through the dark tunnels. He had no idea that the ranch, around the corner of the mountain from the tunnel entrance, was crawling with people. He thought that Joey was completely alone.

  To his surprise he found the exotic Kayah Lightfoot carrying some rocks from the tunnels. In addition to blood lust, a desire to attack her now overwhelmed all other thoughts. She had rejected him in favor of his brother years ago. He wanted to show her what a real man was like — then he would kill her too. He already had her pinned against him.

  Kayah struggled against Bobby’s prison-honed hard body. She was trying to escape his vice like grip. This only made Bobby’s lust grow. It grew stronger as she rubbed her toned body against his in an effort to break free.

  “Let me go. Get away from me, you bastard,” she hissed at his face. But Bobb
y sensed panic in her voice.

  “I like my women to be feisty,” Bobby said softly into her ear. “And scared too. It’s more fun when I take what I want from them.”

  Kayah tried desperately to knee Booby in the groin, but she was pressed too tightly against him and couldn’t get any leverage. He was just too big and too strong. He easily lifted her off her feet and body slammed her on the ground like a wrestler would do to an opponent. This stunned Kayah and gave Bobby time to kneel over her smaller body. He pulled up her top and ripped at her bra. When she started to scream, Bobby slapped her hard, first with his right hand and then with his left hand. The sweet sensation of violence against a defenseless foe now took over. He slapped her again and again, he didn’t want to stop. When he realized she was unconscious, he went back to ripping open her bra. There was no turning back for the drunken Bobby Brownwater.

  Suddenly, something hit him like a freight train. He flew off of Kayah and sprawled on the desert floor. He scrambled to his feet and saw his twin brother kneeling down and attempting to wake up the stupid woman.

  “Good,” he yelled and pulled out his knife. “I was going to kill you inside, but now, maybe I’ll just cut you up enough so you can watch me play with Kayah while you bleed out,” he uttered in a sinister voice.

  “What the hell are you doing here, Bobby,” Joey screamed and stood up. “Why have you hurt Kayah?”

  “I want the land and I’m going to take it from you,” Bobby shrieked like a fanatic. “Kayah is just a little entertainment for later,” he sneered.

  Joey had never seen his brother act so irrationally. True he hadn’t seen him in years, but he was stranger and more determined than usual. “Can’t we talk about this a little? Violence won’t solve what’s between us.”

  “Oh, I’m going to take what I want,” Bobby said vehemently. “But first I’ve decided to rough you up a bit. Then I’ll kill both of you.” Bobby put his knife back in its sheath. The two men began to move in a circle like fighters in a ring.