The Victoria Stone

by Bob Finley

  "Can you keep your mouth shut if I take my hand away?"

  Widened eyes rolling fearfully up in the direction of the yet-unseen terror, she nodded vigorously, desperate for breath.

  The hand loosened and she gulped in air, clawing to pull the hand away even more so she could draw more breath. He held her face roughly is his grip, strong fingers cupping her jaw, and pulling her head up, stretching her neck until it hurt.

  After ten seconds, when she could, she rasped, "What are you doing to me?!"

  "Shut up and listen!" The mouth came closer to her ear, a rough beard rasping the side of her neck like a wood file. His voice was still restrained.

  "Excited, but still in control," she thought. Maybe he wasn't going to...

  "I need you..." he began.

  Maybe he was going to...

  "You know where the diamonds are!"

  "Banner!" It made sense now.

  "He showed you the diamonds, didn't he?" When she didn't instantly answer, he shook her roughly. "Didn't he?!"

  She nodded, difficult though it was in that vice-like grip.

  For several seconds he said nothing, but she could hear his breath and feel it, hot on her neck. The smell of alcohol rank other alarms. Then his grip on her face tightened and she felt his body stiffen.

  "I'm gonna let go of you...but if you try to scream or try to get away, I'll break your neck and leave you right here in a pile. You understand?"

  She slowly nodded. She believed him.

  After a moment the pressure on her face eased. He transferred his grip to the back of her neck and shoved her farther into the gloomy tunnel, effectively cutting off her escape. Then he released her. She stumbled and caught herself. They stood there for a time uneasily eyeing each other.

  "What do you want with me?" she finally asked in a low voice, with as much composure as she could muster.

  "I want you to show me where the diamonds are. Up in the penthouse."

  "What about Jambou?" She thought she could see a satisfied smirk on his face.

  "He's got his own problems right now. And with the ‘super cops’ swingin' around up in the rafters, nobody's mindin' the candy store."

  "You could get us both killed," she said, stalling.

  "You could get killed right here and now, sweet thing. You're either with me or against me. An' I ain't got time to argue."

  She stared at him, not knowing what to do. At least if she went along, there was always the possibility that someone would see her and come to the rescue. Otherwise...

  "Well? What's it gonna be?"

  She couldn't bring herself to agree, but neither could she think of any other alternative.

  He dropped his voice to a low, menacing growl. "You know I cain't leave you here now, not alive, at least. Not with you knowin' what I'm goin' after."

  He glowered at her, huge and intimidating. She was struck by his reversion to a Gulf coast drawl.

  "Make up ya mind, missy!"

  She drew a deep breath. "Alright, but I don't like it."

  "Cain't say I blame ya. Ain't crazy ‘bout the way things have turned out m’self. But the better part of survivin’ is knowin' when to quit. And, it's quittin’ time!"

  He took her arm in his ham of a fist and jump-started her to the mouth of the tunnel access. Pulling her bodily back against the rough wall, he took a quick peek outside.

  "Stay close t’ me and do what I tell ya, when I tell ya. We might even stay alive."

  "You're going to keep me alive?" she quizzed with a caustic edge to her voice.

  "Honey, I'm the best bet you got right now. Besides, you're my ticket outta here. I need you." He finally looked directly at her. "And if you're as smart as I think you are, you'll make sure I keep needin’ you. Understand?"

  He didn't wait for a reply. Her feet almost left the floor as his grip on her wrist catapulted her in his wake. Running. Dodging. From one source of cover to the next, working steadily toward the penthouse elevator. Finally, breathing heavily and pulses racing, they were there.

  Banner peered cautiously around the corner. Seeing no one, he stepped carefully out and craned his neck upwards in the direction of the penthouse landing. Then he dodged back in beside her.

  "Looks clear. Let's go!" He pushed her onto the elevator and closely followed. He checked the weapon he had slung around his neck, took a firm grip on it, and threw the switch that operated the cage.

  With a clatter and a whine, they began the ascent. In seconds, they were in the clear, without benefit of any cover to hide them. Janese Cramerton felt naked and exposed. When she glanced at Banner, she knew that he did, too. He was staring hard at the ceiling. She knew he must be looking for those men Marc had told them about, the ones he’d said might come for the terrorists. It looked like he’d been right. She did her best to look un-terrorist-like.

  Amazingly, they actually made it to the landing. The elevator clunked to a stop and swayed enough to make her stomach lurch. But not for long. Banner shoved her ahead of himself the few feet to the heavy entrance door. He did something she couldn't see and gave a heaving shove. The door had begun to swing inward when the rock wall next to them shattered and sprayed them both with sharp, cutting fragments. The back of Janese's neck and right ear stung instantly as if she'd been spattered with boiling water and she yelped and ducked. A second later another volley of bullets sprayed around them. Banner body-slammed the heavy door, gave her a bruising shove, and they were suddenly inside. He tossed her against the wall behind the door and put his shoulder into getting it closed.

  They both stood there, breathing heavily. She finally looked at him and was shocked to see that his face was bloody. She was even more shocked and, this time, scared, when she hesitantly put her hand to her own face and discovered blood running down the side of her neck. She pulled her hand away and, looking at the redness covering her hand, gasped.

  "Don't worry about it. We just caught a little frag shower. Nothin’ serious." He took her by the elbow and pushed her along in front of him until they rounded the corner and entered the room itself.

  Janese remembered the last time she was in this room and she felt a wave of disgust suddenly rise up in her throat. She looked around, doe-eyed, wishing for a quick way out.

  "Alright. Where're the diamonds?" Banner was wasting no time.

  "In the floor."

  "What?!" He looked around and walked a few feet farther into the room. "Where?!" he demanded, disbelieving.

  "You're standing on them."

  Banner looked comically down at his feet. Then he looked at her.

  "If you're raggin' me..."

  She shook her head. "They're in some kind of vault, underneath the floor."

  "Show me!"

  "I can't show you...I can only tell you what I saw." She walked closer and pointed down at the carpet. "Something, some kind of...display cabinet, or whatever...came up out of the floor, right here. I think."

  "You think?!"

  She jumped at the loudness of his voice. "Well, I've only been here one time!" The details came flooding back. "One time too many," she added in a more subdued voice.

  He was watching her closely. He must have believed her because he turned and walked in aimless patterns around the room, frowning, eyes narrowed. He stopped and turned back to her.

  "Where was he when he opened up the...whatever...the vault? What was he doin'?"

  She thought back, searching the unpleasant scene. "He was...he was..."

  "Was what?" he interjected impatiently.

  She glared at him, but then it came back. He knew it had. He saw the look on her face, and his own excitement grew.

  "He was sitting in that chair," she nodded her head toward the command chair across the room.

  Banner whirled and looked, crossed the room in a couple of long strides. He stared at the chair as if it were a live animal to be dealt with.

  "This chair."

  She didn't answer. It seemed redundant. And it didn't seem to
matter, anyway, because after a few seconds, Banner stepped up on the platform, turned, and slowly eased himself into the chair. He looked closely at the chair arms, where the panels of controls lay.

  "Whadda these things do?" he asked.

  "I don't know," she replied.

  "Well, get over here and see if you can figure it out!" His voice was strained. She realized this wasn't going to be as easy as he'd thought it would be.

  Janese reluctantly approached the agitated man in the chair. When he suddenly and unexpectedly jumped out of the chair, her breath caught in her throat and she stumbled backwards.

  "Here!" He gripped her arm and spun her around. "I ain't gonna hurtcha. Sit down there and look at this stuff." He pushed her resisting body backwards until she more or less fell into the chair. His proximity was all that kept her from forcing her way back out of it.

  "Look. We ain't got a lotta time. If that loony comes back in here and catches us, he's gonna kill us both. Or try to. An’ I ain't leavin’ ‘til I’ve got me a poke o’ them diamonds! So, if you want to get outta here, maybe even alive, the best thing you can do is figure out how to make them diamonds come up outta that floor!"

  They appraised each other for several long seconds. Finally, she looked down at the key pads on the arms of the chair.

  "You know somethin’ about computers, don’tcha?" he asked, almost pleadingly.

  She almost smiled to herself at his tone of voice.

  "Yeah," she finally answered. "I know a little something about computers." The slight smile faded quickly. "But I don't know enough about this one to make any promises."

  Banner knew enough about managing people to back off and let her concentrate. He was relieved when she finally lifted her hands from her lap and put them on the arm pads. At least there was a chance.

  Writing acoustic modeling programs had immersed her in the finer points of computer intricacies and idiosyncrasies...‘idiot-syncrasies’, she’d more aptly renamed them...but her experience with code encryption and passwords was limited at best. Still, once into it, she began to rise to the challenge of possibly causing hurt to the egomaniac who had demeaned her and tried to intimidate her with sexual extortion here in this very room.

  She forgot Banner was present until his nearness at her left shoulder made her jump and brought her back with a jolt to the reality of what she was doing and where she was doing it.

  "Have you got it yet?" he breathed.

  "Obviously not!" she snapped, irritated at his intrusion. "But..."

  "But what?" His question was hopeful.

  "Well...I think I've got it to the point of whatever password he uses. But I don't know what that is. What I don't understand, though..."

  Banner waited, watching her face, seeing the intelligence that flowed there.

  "...I don't understand why, when I got to the security firewall he had built in, why it was deactivated."

  "Deactivated?!" he blurted in a knee-jerk reaction.

  "Turned off," she explained.

  "I know what ‘deactivated’ means!" he retorted, exasperated. "But why would he have turned it off? That's what he uses to control Leo!"

  Her mouth fell open and she turned her head to look at him. "Then, why...?"

  Neither said anything further for a moment, both lost in their thoughts.

  "Hey. It don’t matter," he finally said. "That's just our good luck. So whadda we do now? It's already been almost fifteen minutes. He might be back in here any minute. If he's still alive."

  His words shocked her. Not because she'd feel any remorse over Jambou's death, but because she had no idea how long she'd been lost in trying to break the code of the diamond vault.

  "Fifteen minutes?!" she gaped.

  "Yeah. So, if we're gonna do this thing, we gotta do it now!"

  "Alright, listen. What password would Jambou use to protect his diamond stash?" she asked the sweating man beside her.

  "How would I know? He didn't exactly confide in me, y’ know. Not that I blame him, tell th’ truth."

  "Alright, alright! We have to have the password, or we might as well leave now. Now, think! What was near and dear to him? What kind of cutesy little word or phrase might he have used?"

  The next several minutes saw a flurry of brainstorming and a growing list of words that didn’t fit. New Victoria. Bereel Jambou, in several variations. Johannesburg. Nuclear. None worked. Finally, they were both silent.

  The silence grew. So did their fear of being caught. The thought of what Jambou would probably do as revenge for finding them...

  She sat up so quickly Banner jumped in spite of himself.

  "What?!" he demanded, a little embarrassed.

  She stared hard at him, certainty growing by the moment. In a quiet, excited voice she asked, "What's the one thing, more than anything else in the world, that occupies Jambou's mind? That possesses his every waking hour, that will burn in his tortured soul until he has it?"

  Banner thought furiously, trying to follow her lead. "Money. No...power...no, recognition, fame?"

  She shook her head, her eyes gleaming.

  "What?!" he couldn't make the connection.

  "Revenge," she breathed.

  "Type it in! Type it in!" he urged.

  "No," she tossed her head. "Not the word revenge, the act! Where did the diamonds come from?"

  "He stole them. You already know that!"

  "Why did he steal them?" she pressed.

  "Well, he said it was to get the money to finance this...place...but I don't think that was it at all. I think, like you said, it was for revenge."

  "And who did he steal them from ? And, revenge against who? Or is it ‘whom’?"

  She saw the light come on and smiled encouragingly .

  "Of course! From...De Vries!"

  She nodded, triumphantly.

  "Then you think the password is...?"

  "Don't know," she admitted. "Let's find out."

  Janese screened through to the window that required a password be entered. She typed in DEVRIES and waited.

  ‘Password incorrect. Retry? Abort?’ appeared in the window. The breath Banner had been holding exploded in a curse. Janese was staring off into space.

  "What if it’s case-sensitive?" she thought aloud.

  "What?"

  "Case-sensitive. Maybe it's just a matter of..."

  She recaptured the window and typed in the formal presentation of ‘DeVries’.

  There was no response from the computer. Her heart jumped. Then the screen flashed briefly and the words scrolled onto the screen. ACCESS CONFIRMED.

  "Come on...come oooooon," she crooned to the keypad.

  There was a muted hiss of air somewhere and, as if conjured by a magician, a bright light appeared across the room and the illuminated kiosk rose smoothly out of the carpeted floor until it was more than head-high, finally jouncing lightly to a stop. The brightness of the white light filled the room.

  Janese tore her eyes away from the sight of the dazzling treasure trove and looked at Banner. He was simply standing there, rooted to the spot, a look of wonder and astonishment on his face in the glow from the jewels. She heard him take a deep, shuddering breath and then watched him reverently approach the kiosk, to stand again and gawk.

  "Well?" she said coyly. "Did I do good?"

  The spell broken, the big man burst out laughing and slapped both his hands against the clear acrylic that protected the diamonds. He laughed again, louder and longer, shaking his head at the wonder before him. Finally, he turned to her, glowing, and said, "You did good, missy. You did real good."

  He whirled around and began rummaging all around the room.

  "What are you looking for?" Janese asked, puzzled.

  Banner laughed yet again. "I’m lookin’ for somethin’ that ’ll hold those diamonds, that’s what I'm doin’! Hah!"

  He turned triumphantly with a bright orange daypack, the kind with shoulder straps favored by day hikers, and hurried over to the kio
sk. Pulling out the first drawer and dipping his big hands into the glittering stones, he turned momentarily to her.

  "I reckon this shoots down one old wives’ tale, darlin’."

  "Oh? Which one is that?" she asked.

  "The one that says ‘You can't take it with you’. He laughed and turned back to the drawer. Scooping with both hands, his voice oddly tight and a hard smile on his face, he muttered something so low she barely understood him.

  "Watch me! Just watch me!"

  Chapter 89

  Jake Cochran looked up from the 3-dimensional holo display on which he'd been concentrating. Twenty years ago it had been called a chart table, and would actually have been covered with navigational charts and grease-marked laminate overlays. Now it was a holographic representation in three dimensions, with real-time updates every ten seconds, that looked to Jake like a set out of a science fiction vid. The commtech had diplomatically edged into what he knew was the admiral's personal discomfort zone and waited the few seconds until he was noticed.

  "Sir, message from CINCATLFLT just in for you." He offered two sheets of flimsy covered in dense text.

  The Admiral looked down at it, frowned, and didn't offer to take it.

  "What is it?" he growled.

  Knowing from past experience how the Admiral hated paperwork, the CT1 would have normally smiled and summarized it for him. The fact that he didn't immediately alerted Cochran.

  "What is it, son?"

  "Sir, the seismographic eggheads in Madrid have detected major volcanic..." He glanced down at the sheets in his hand and searched for the line he was looking for. "...volcanic ano-mallies..."

  "Anomalies," Cochran gently corrected.

  "...yes, Sir. Anomalies. Anyway, they all got their heads together and decided they ought to warn us. So CINCATLFLT is passing it on." He wiggled the pages in his hand.

  "What ‘it’ are they passing on, exactly?" Cochran pressed for the short answer.

  "Bottom line, Sir?"

  "The sooner the better," Jake encouraged.

  "Looks like that old volcano the terrorists are holed up in is about to blow up and the C-IN-C thinks we ought to get our...thinks we ought to leave. Sir."