Lucifer's Fire

by Richard Turner

  He took hold of a bag full of C4 and dove headfirst straight back into the tunnel. Mitchell had a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in.

  33

  Dig site

  Lofa River, Liberia

  The annoying buzz from the ever-present mosquitoes was getting on Jackson’s nerves. He had never had malaria in his life and did not relish the thought of catching it on this assignment.

  “Are you with the Special Forces?” asked Cristoval Martinez.

  Jackson grinned and shook his head. “Would you believe me if I told you there are only four of us here to get all of you out?” replied Jackson, looking into the dirty and tired faces of his fellow prisoners.

  “Four,” moaned a slender young African-American man.

  “Hey, we got Mrs. Martinez and Terry Trang out safely. Don’t you worry, you’ll be home soon enough,” said Jackson.

  “Terry’s all right?” asked a young, teary-eyed Asian woman. “I thought he was dead when I didn’t see him with us.”

  Jackson smiled. “He’s fine. You have my word on it.”

  “Thank you,” said the woman, wiping the tears from her eyes.

  Jackson’s stomach growled. “Say, when do they feed the animals at the zoo?” he asked aloud.

  “We haven’t been fed much since we were taken hostage,” said Cristoval.

  “Well, that’s only going to make me irritable and grumpy,” said Jackson. “If this doesn’t end shortly, I may have to bust us all out so I can have some food.”

  “I’m okay with that,” said the Asian girl.

  Jackson was about to introduce himself when he heard the rhythmic sound of a helicopter’s rotor blades cutting through the air. He turned his head skyward and saw an all-black Augusta 109 come into view. Jackson knew that aside from the pilot, the Augusta could hold eight passengers and was one of the fastest civilian helicopters on the market.

  “What’s going on?” asked Cristoval.

  “Looks like company’s coming,” replied Jackson as he watched the helicopter fly over the dig site before coming in to land in a grassy field.

  “For the love of God,” muttered Gray as the helicopter touched down. He hadn’t received a call that Seras was inbound. His gut told him to be wary. Caroline Seras was up to something, and whatever it was, he was beginning to believe that he was no longer a part of it.

  Quickly straightening out his clothes, Gray strolled over to the helicopter as six heavily-armed men in military-style uniforms rushed out from the helicopter and set up a perimeter around it. A blond-haired man took a quick look around and then spoke into a radio fixed to his tac-vest. A couple of seconds later, Caroline Seras exited the helicopter and walked straight to Gray, surrounded by her men. She was wearing a tan-colored uniform that hugged her lithe physique. Her flaming-red hair hung in a ponytail down her back.

  With a phony smile on his face, Gray held out his hand in greeting. “Mademoiselle Seras, I had not expected you here so early. Had I known you would be arriving, I could have arranged for the landing zone to be secured with some of the men we have working here.”

  Seras did not bother to shake Gray’s hand. “Mister Gray, I hired you because you said you could find me my diamonds. However, I have been informed by a reliable source that you have only found a pittance.”

  Taylor, it has to be Taylor, who has been in contact with Seras all along, thought Gray, fuming inside.

  “We are in the right spot,” assured Gray. “It is only a matter of time before we unearth the treasure.”

  “Why don’t I share your optimism, Mister Gray?”

  “I suspect that you have regrettably been fed half-baked information by one of the men I thought was working for me.”

  “You all work for me,” said Seras bluntly. “Whom I choose to speak with is none of your business.”

  Gray gritted his teeth. “That may be true, but I could have saved you the trouble of coming here if you had dealt with me and not Taylor. The man is not to be trusted.”

  “Mister Gray, I don’t trust any of you,” said Seras as she walked away from Gray to the dig site.

  Gray was truly beginning to regret making a deal with Seras. By the hard looks on the men guarding her, he realized that if he didn’t find the diamonds, and soon, he might find himself with a shovel in his hands.

  Unseen, like an eagle soaring high above the camp, the mercenaries’ UAV followed Seras and her men. Launched by Roberts and his men, who followed Gray to the latest dig site, the UAV was sending its live feedback to Grace, who was parked in a clearing with Chang, ten kilometers to the south.

  “Do you recognize any of those men?” said Chang to Grace.

  She studied the image on her laptop for a moment before shaking her head. “They’re a real mix. Looks like a bunch of ex-U.S. SOF to me.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” said Chang. “Well, that changes everything. While they are on site, we will have to continue to lie low. I don’t want to get into a firefight with them and the Liberians. Even with the fifteen new men flown out to us from Freetown, I don’t like the odds.”

  The new additions to Chang’s team had only just arrived and were a sad-looking crew. They had mismatched pieces of ragged clothing for uniforms, and no two seemed to have the same weapon or ammunition. It was a logistical nightmare that Chang could have done without. Still, he needed men willing to fight if he was ever going to get his hands on the diamonds.

  “I don’t think we can count on our new recruits to help out much in a fight,” said Grace derisively about the Sierra Leonean rebel fighters.

  “We have no choice but to use them. It would take days for any of my men to arrive from Europe and Asia. Besides, I intend to use them in the first wave of any attack that we may stage. They can soak up a few bullets for us before we have to get into the fight.”

  Grace grinned; they were to be used as cannon fodder. She looked at the signal being emitted by the transmitter still attached to Mitchell’s rifle. “Sir, why do you think Mitchell went to a location fifty klicks south of this dig?”

  “I don’t know,” said Chang. “But I am beginning to get this sneaking suspicion that he may know more about the location of the diamonds than we do.”

  “What do you want to do about him?”

  “I don’t know. Nothing, for now,” replied Chang.

  Grace nodded and went to check on the new fighters to the team. She didn’t want any more surprises.

  Chang’s satphone buzzed. He saw that it was from Bashilov, their employer. He answered the call and explained the situation on the ground to him. He made it clear that it was going to take longer than he expected to find the diamonds, which also meant more money. Chang could tell by Bashilov’s voice that he was beginning to get cold feet. Asking for a decision either way in the next thirty minutes, Chang hung up.

  He looked over at Grace and said, “Open up your map and plot us a route out of here.”

  “Why? Are we leaving before taking possession of the diamonds?” asked Grace.

  “Let’s just call it prudent planning. I’ve been left out to dry once before; I have no intention of that happening to me or my people ever again.”

  Grace nodded and started to study the satellite photos of the region, trying to determine the fastest way out of Liberia should Chang give the order to leave.

  Seras picked up a small, dirt-encrusted leather sack from the table, opened it, and then dumped out the contents into her hand. Delicately moving the stones around in her palm, she saw that there were two white and three champagne-colored diamonds along with a couple of rubies. With pink diamonds going for up to one million dollars per carat, she guessed that she held about four million dollars in her hand. Not an insubstantial amount, but a far cry from the billions she expected to find. She pocketed the diamonds before looking at the other artifacts on the table. It was as Taylor described: there were only a few golden trinkets that would have been worn by the pirates, along with a couple o
f small bags of precious stones. Marius’ death was a major blow to the operation. If he had obtained the journal, she would have known by now where to find the diamonds; instead, they were still fumbling around in the dark.

  Seras glanced down at her watch and saw it was approaching noon. She would give Gray one more hour, and then she was shutting the whole operation down until the exact resting place of Lucifer’s treasure could be determined. She took a seat and then glared over at Gray while he cajoled the Liberians to work faster.

  Seras was going to miss Marius. He was a loyal and trusted employee, unlike her personal assistant, Gao Yuan, who Marius had guessed correctly was in the employ of her business rival, Aleksi Platov. She had been selling him information for months about her search for the diamonds. In retrospect, it was Gao who had seemed the most eager of her people to commence the operation now, before they had all of the information available to them. With a self-assured grin on her face, Seras knew that Gao would never turn on her or anyone else in the future. She had confessed to everything before she was dumped over the side of a boat into shark-infested waters.

  For her treachery, her body would never be found.

  34

  Lucifer’s Treasure

  Lofa River, Liberia

  With a grunt, Mitchell pulled himself out of the rocky tunnel and out into the heat and stifling humidity of the jungle. Almost immediately, he began to sweat profusely.

  “Why can’t people do things in the autumn in New England?” muttered Mitchell to himself. He wiped the dirt and dust from his face and walked over to Yuri, who was finishing with the fuses.

  “Give me another five minutes, and they’ll be ready,” said Yuri, without looking up at Mitchell.

  The sound of a satphone buzzing caught Mitchell’s ear. He dug it out of his tac-vest and saw that it was Donaldson.

  “What’s up, Mike?” said Mitchell, trying to sound cheery.

  “Ryan, Cardinal just called and it sounds like your mercenary friends are still around; he spotted their UAV hovering over the new dig site,” said Donaldson.

  “You’ve got to give them an A for tenacity. I’m almost done here anyway, so I doubt anything they do now will change my plans.”

  “That’s good news. I’ll pass it on to the general right away.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Yes, there is. The man who tried to kidnap Fahimah and Jen in New Haven has been identified as Marius Dragovic, an ex-Serbian Special Forces sergeant who worked as a bodyguard for Caroline Seras.”

  “Who is Caroline Seras? I’ve never heard of her.”

  “You really need to read something other than men’s health magazines,” said Donaldson. “Caroline Seras is a U.S. citizen who also happens to be a billionaire and owns one of the most profitable laser manufacturing corporations in the world. I should also add that lasers are being powered more and more these days by diamonds.”

  “Why can’t the rich just be happy being rich?”

  “Beats me,” replied Donaldson. “Ryan, I was curious where she might be with everything that is going on inside Liberia; guess where her personal Learjet is parked right now?”

  “I don’t know, Vegas?”

  “No, it landed in Conakry, the capital of Guinea, six hours ago. My money’s on her being somewhere near the dig site. I bet she can smell the diamonds.”

  “Have you told the general any of this?”

  “Yes. He’s on the phone right now with some of his old friends in the State Department. If she’s up to no good, the government shouldn’t be the last to hear about it.”

  “Any chance he can convince the government to send a company of Marines our way?”

  “He’s also trying his best to get the suits in the Pentagon to listen to him as well. If anyone can get you help, it’s Jack O’Reilly.”

  Mitchell said, “I’d love to give this Seras a call and give her a piece of my mind.”

  “Do you really want to?”

  “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “Let’s just say that I’ve been in contact with a buddy of mine at the NSA since I pegged her as part of this mess, and my old colleague, while chatting with me, may have accidentally supplied me with some of her private information,” said Donaldson coyly.

  “Damn, this is going to be fun,” said Mitchell, grinning from ear to ear.

  “Ma’am, your phone,” said a member of Seras’ close-protection team.

  Looking down, she saw her satphone vibrating. Her mind had been so focused that she hadn’t heard it buzzing away. She didn’t recognize the number. Only a very small group of trusted employees knew her number. She thought about ignoring it, but her curiosity quickly got the better of her.

  “Hello? Who is this?” said Seras.

  “My name is Ryan Mitchell, and before you hang up, I want to warn you that I have rigged James Lucifer’s treasure to blow sky-high and won’t hesitate to send it all straight to Hell.”

  Seras clenched the phone tight in her hand. “You have my attention, Mister Mitchell.”

  “Am I speaking with Caroline Seras?”

  “You are.”

  “Are you at a dig site in Liberia?”

  “I am. How do you know all these things?” replied Seras, looking about the camp, wondering if someone was playing a practical joke on her.

  “A little birdie told me,” said Mitchell mockingly. “Now, if you have no further questions, let’s get straight down to business. You’re digging in the wrong spot. In fact, you’re not even close. I did a little poking around and guess what: I found Lucifer’s fabled treasure. Now listen closely: You have several Americans still being held hostage at the dig. I want them released immediately, and I also want all of the Liberians working there to be released unharmed as well.”

  “Why should I believe you?” said Seras. Getting up from her chair, she began to nervously pace.

  “You need to trust me because Thomas Gordon told me where to look, that’s why.”

  “So it was you who found the journal and killed Marius.”

  “I didn’t, but some friends of mine did.”

  “And if I agree to your demands regarding the hostages?”

  “I’ll give you the treasure.”

  Seras chuckled. “Mister Mitchell, are you telling me that you would walk away from an incalculable fortune in diamonds for the lives of a handful of people you have never met?”

  “That’s the plan,” replied Mitchell cheerfully.

  “Well then, Mister Mitchell, it would appear that you are holding all the cards. You have a deal. Where can we meet so I can take possession of my diamonds?”

  “Put your lackey on,” said Mitchell bluntly.

  With a surprised look on her face, Seras called Gray over and handed him the phone. Seras could feel the anticipation building within her. The feeling was almost sexual. The sooner she had her diamonds, the sooner she could abandon everyone to their fates. What happened to her people after she left was of no consequence to her.

  A minute later, Gray put the phone down on the table and looked over at Seras; his demeanor was sullen and defeated.

  “Well, what did he say?” asked Seras.

  “He told me that we are to release everyone right away and then begin to drive south. Once all the hostages are free, and we are on the move, then and only then will he give us the location of the diamonds,” explained Gray.

  “Well, what are you waiting for? Do as he says,” said Seras curtly.

  “Ma’am, how do we know that this isn’t some kind of trick? I have an American Special Forces soldier among the hostages. How do we know that we can trust this person to tell us the truth?”

  Seras’ eyes narrowed. “You never told me that an American soldier had been captured.”

  “It only happened a few hours ago. His accomplices are undoubtedly in the jungle, watching us as we speak. I think you are being played for a fool.”

  Seras thought about what Gray said for a moment. Her heart beg
an to race. The last thing she needed was to be tied to the coup. She gritted her teeth at Gray’s incompetence in dealing with the soldiers. “Bring the soldier to me. I want to speak to him.”

  A minute later, Jackson was escorted over to Seras and Gray by a squad of Liberian soldiers.

  Seras smiled when she saw Jackson. “I thought all of you looked like Rambo. You look more like a businessman who went on one of those survival retreats and got lost.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not in the military anymore. Besides, Rambo is a short, white dude and I am neither. If you wish to see what I can do, lose the security, and I’ll happily snap your neck,” said Jackson with a smile.

  “Now, why can’t you be more like him?” said Seras to Gray. She felt a wave of relief wash over her. He wasn’t a commando. The man was nothing more than a hired Boy Scout undoubtedly come to free the hostages.

  Looking back over at Jackson, Seras said, “Now, Mister—?”

  “Jackson, Nathaniel Jackson. My friends call me Nate, but you and your sidekick can call me Mister Jackson.”

  “Very well then, Mister Jackson, I was just called by one of your associates, and he is proposing that I trade you and all of the other hostages for a fortune in diamonds that he claims to have found.”

  Jackson grinned. “I take it you were talking with Ryan Mitchell.”