by David Wood
The island loomed before them, a forbidding hunk of rock overgrown with vegetation in the middle of a deep bay. Maddock eyed the boat’s depth finder cautiously. They didn’t need to run aground while hunting for treasure clues, but plenty of water lay beneath the hull even though they were close to shore. He gave the order as captain for Willis to drop anchor and Bones and Fabi to ready the dinghy. He expressed concern about leaving the boat unattended but Fabi said they should be okay for a while this far out in the bay.
Satisfied the Sea Foam was securely anchored, Maddock took in the weather. It was still warm out with some sun, but the sky had darkened in the southern quarter and a stiff breeze had cropped up, conjuring ocean swells. Still, Maddock didn’t see a problem with the situation and so the four of them took off in the dinghy for the beach.
They got an even better look at the island as they drew near. Like a massive hunk of rock, its greenery-shrouded form jutted straight up from the sea. A narrow ring of flat beach and land surrounded it like a skirt. Maddock followed the island’s perimeter until they reached a wide expanse of flat land with a few simple buildings visible, and in the distance, a stone facade.
Maddock pointed to a suitable spot on the beach to land the boat. He gunned the throttle and then Willis tilted up the outboard as the dinghy coasted up onto the sand with a grating hiss. They all got out and the men hauled the boat up high and dry onto the beach while Fabi scoped out their surroundings. She located a crushed coral path leading through some trees into the island’s interior, and the group made their way along it, Maddock in front. They hadn’t been walking for long when they heard a rustling of foliage to their right and above.
Maddock’s hand moved instinctively to a machete he wore on his belt. Less than a second later, no fewer than six monkeys dropped out of the trees onto Willis and Bones. They were small, but strong for their size and moved with blinding speed. Willis was a blur of flailing arms as he flung the pint-sized primates from his body. Bones had a tenacious animal wrapped around his neck, which he tried to pry loose with one hand while batting two more off his head with his other.
The monkeys screeched and chattered while Maddock pulled one of them off Bones and flung it into the foliage. He repeated the process for Willis, and meanwhile Bones had stripped himself of his other two diminutive attackers. They ran the last monkey off and took stock of the damage.
“What the heck was that?” Bones wondered aloud. “Monkeys hating on us?”
“Wasn’t too bad,” Willis said, feeling along a scratch on his arm.
“Oh yeah? You got a bloody nose,” Maddock pointed out.
Surprised, Willis touched his fingers to his nose and his eyes widened when they came away red. He pulled a bandana from a pocket and used it to wipe off the blood.
Fabi, meanwhile, had said nothing, but still stared after the monkeys retreating into the brush.
Bones followed her gaze. “You didn’t tell me Haiti was full of killer monkeys.”
She returned a puzzled look. “That’s just the thing. There are no monkeys in Haiti.”
Willis snorted. “Man, tell that to those chumps who jumped us. What’d they want, anyway? I ain’t got no bananas on me.”
“There used to be monkeys here,” Fabi went on. “And those...” She trailed off, evidently in deep thought.
“What about them?” Maddock prompted.
“They’re a species known as the Hispaniola monkey.”
“Oh, so there are monkeys on this island,” Maddock said. “Or at least on the Dominican side. Is that where they’re usually found?”
Fabi shook her head. “Not anymore. The Hispaniola monkey is thought to have gone extinct sometime in the 1500s.”
Maddock shook his head as a thunderclap sounded somewhere in the distance. “Strange. Listen, is everybody okay?” They all nodded. “We should get moving, then.”
They set out once again on the trail, hiking through the forest, now much more cautious about every sound they heard. The trees thinned on either side of them as they walked, until stone ruins were visible through the greenery on their right. They followed the path until it opened up onto a flat area where a stone fort crumbled from centuries of exposure to the elements. The four of them stood and took it in, marveling at the palpable history sitting out in the open. Fabi was the first to give voice to their thoughts.
“It doesn’t look much different than Fort Des Oliviers, but this one is visited much more rarely.”
Bones nodded. “I don’t see or hear anybody.”
“Just monkeys.” Willis gave an uneasy grin while he picked at a deep scratch on his arm.
The first drops of rain from the storm Maddock had cautioned them about began to wet the ground. He waved them deeper into the old fort. “Let’s do our recon and get back to the main island.”
He received no arguments, and this time the four of them fanned out to cover more ground more quickly. This fort also featured a perimeter wall, crumbling in spots, but it had more structures than the previous fort. It took some time to search through these, but working separately they managed to get it done before long. The four of them reconvened in the center of the fort’s open space area, each reporting that they had not discovered any spaces that likely would have been used to hold prisoners.
Dejected, and with the rain now starting to pour in earnest, Maddock signaled they should head back to the boat. They began walking through the fort’s interior space. They had almost reached the point where they had entered when Fabi detoured a short distance to examine a spire-like construction. A stone column of sorts, it didn’t appear to be a structure that could be entered, but she approached it nonetheless.
Maddock watched her near the spire. “See something interesting?”
“Not sure. It looks like…”
Suddenly the ground buckled beneath Fabi’s feet and only her head and arms were left above ground, her hands gripping and clawing the earth.
“Fabi!” Maddock raced toward her, Bones and Willis close behind.
The rain intensified, now splattering Fabi’s face with mud as she struggled to stay above ground. Maddock reached her, going into a forward, face-first slide as he watched her start to slip into some kind of crevice that had opened up. He extended both hands as he sought her grip. Their fingers touched for a second but not closely enough to establish a good grip.
Fabi disappeared into a subterranean space. Maddock, and now Bones, peered into the hole. They could just see her oval face down there, looking up at them. “I’m okay!”
“You sure?” Bones called back.
“Yes, nothing broken. You guys should come down. Drop’s not too far, especially for you SEALs. This isn’t a sinkhole, it’s some kind of chamber. There’s a lot of stone work down here, and it looks like I’m in a passage that could lead somewhere.”
Maddock eyed Bones and Willis. “Got a rope? We’ll need one to get back up.” They shook their heads but then Willis spoke up.
“You two go ahead. I’ll go back to the beach to grab the line off the dinghy, then I’ll rig it up here and meet you down there.”
Maddock nodded and he lowered himself into the hole until only his head and arms were above ground, as with Fabi. “Am I clear?” he called down to her.
“You’re good. Maybe an eight foot drop onto flat stone. Go for it.”
Maddock let go and landed with a grunt on flexed knees.
“Clear the landing zone.” Bones let gravity take him down to Fabi and Maddock.
Willis’ face appeared in the hole. “You guys good?”
“We’re okay down here, Willis.” Maddock gave him a thumbs up.
“Be back with the rope.” He disappeared from sight and they heard his footsteps trammeling the ground as he left the fort.
Chapter 11
Fabi walked away from Maddock and Bones and they followed her down a stony corridor until it widened into a chamber. “This way looks like it opens up into a room.” Here, the darkness was com
plete, and Maddock produced his flashlight to cast its halogen glow on the hewn walls.
Immediately they could see a multitude of unnatural shapes. Fabi pointed at a series of strange contraptions, made of iron and blackened wood.
“These look like fun.” Bones winked at Fabi and held up a set of manacles attached to chains that were embedded in the stone wall.
“This looks more your speed, Bones.” She went to a wooden wheel set up on a support stand.
“Not sure I want to know what that’s for,” Bones said, “but judging by the rest of this stuff, it doesn’t look fun. Check this out.” He ran his fingers lightly over a set of rusty spikes contained inside a coffin-like container shaped roughly like an adult human.
“That’s the iron maiden.” Maddock aimed his light beam on the medieval torture device.
“Classic stockade here.” Fabi pointed to a hinged wooden board with cutouts for head and hands.
There were a plethora of other intimidating instruments but Maddock called a halt to the show and tell. “I think we can safely say this is a place where prisoners were kept.”
Fabi concurred. “This stuff is old enough to be from the 1700s, and it certainly fits with a prison or holding cell of some kind from that period.”
“Let’s look around some more, see what else is down here. It’d be good to know if this passage leads somewhere else in the fort, or if Fabi literally fell into some luck by having the ground drop out from under her.”
Maddock took a few flash photos of the torture devices and the trio moved through the room into the passage, which continued on the other side. As he played his light about the walls here, he began to call the structural integrity of the underground space into question. They reached one section where the ceiling was lower than the rest of the corridor, and Bones in particular had to stoop to make it past.
He squeaked by and then the tunnel-like passage veered off to the right, narrowing as it did so. Maddock led the way with his light. As soon as they had all rounded the turn, Bones said, “Look out!” He dove into Fabi, pushing her out of the way of a chunk of rock that broke loose from the right-side wall near where it joined the ceiling. Both of them ended up lying on the floor, having just cleared the falling hazard.
Fabi turned around to see the pile of stone on the floor and Bones’ black hair streaked with dust. “Honestly, Bones, I never took you for the type of man to push a lady around!”
“No, but I am known to get horizontal with a babe from time to time.” Bones winked.
Maddock was all business, pushing ahead as soon as it was clear no one was hurt. Bones and Fabi moved along behind them, and before long they emerged into another room, this one more square, although still imperfectly shaped. Set into the four corners of this room were four jail cells, iron bars extending from floor to ceiling around each corner. A door was set into each, but they were all swung open as if abandoned in a hurry sometime long ago.
“Holding cells!” Maddock approached one and gripped the iron bars. “Still pretty solid.”
Each of them went to a cell and began to inspect them. After a couple of minutes, Fabi said she might have found something. “Need some light over here.”
Bones had also produced a flashlight and was first to join her in the small cell. Fabi traced her fingertips over a series of engravings in the cell wall.
“Random scribblings of a bored prisoner or something exciting?” Bones squinted as he tried to make sense of the carvings.
“It’s writing.” Fabi sounded less than certain. Maddock joined them in the now crowded cell, and he took snapshots of the inscriptions while Fabi continued her assessment.
“I’m pretty sure this is Spanish, but it seems a little like gibberish.”
Bones looked around and shook his head. “I’d go crazy too if I were stuck in here for any length of time.”
“You already are crazy, Bones,” Fabi quipped.
“Well I must be, to…”
“Guys, c’mon, let’s get on with it.” Maddock waved his light on the engravings.
“Fine.” Fabi turned back to the writing and took down some notes. It was Bones who spoke next, while pointing to the wall.
“I see this word more than once. Does it mean what I think it means?”
Fabi considered the series of characters. “Demonio. It does mean ‘demon’.”
Maddock took a close-up shot of the etched word, then checked his watch. “We should get out of here. Boat, storm...”
The four of them got the point and filed out of the holding cell into the main chamber. After a final look around to be certain they hadn’t overlooked anything that could be a potential clue, they exited to the low chamber by which they had come, the only way out leading from the room. Retracing their steps, the treasure hunters made their way back through the corridor until they reached the torture chamber again.
Shining his light around the space, Maddock looked for signs of either Willis or at least of the rope that he had promised to return with. But he saw neither. He walked toward the opening and called up through it, in case Willis was hanging around just out of sight. “Willis, you there?”
But the voice that came back did not belong to Willis.
“I can hear you down there. Come here where I can see you and keep your hands visible. You're under arrest.”
Chapter 12
Down in the chamber, Maddock heard Willis’ voice next, protesting loudly. A little too loudly, Maddock thought. “Man, I told ya'll my friend done fell through! I'd say it's your job to help him out but I don't believe you two are real cops.”
Maddock heard another voice answer Willis. “We saw you with a girl. We'd like to meet her.” Laughter followed. Something about the way the man said the word “girl” told Maddock these men were up to no good. Bones moved next to Maddock and they exchanged looks.
“What do we do?” Bones whispered to avoid being heard, since so far it seemed that the unknown men were aware only of Willis’ and Fabi’s presence. Before Maddock could answer, a voice called down.
“You, girl! Come out where we can see you. Don’t try anything funny or we’ll have to shoot up that pretty body.”
Fabi sidled up next to Maddock and Bones, still beyond the newcomers’ line of sight down the hole. Maddock whispered, “I’ve got an idea.” He proceeded to relay it. Then Fabi nodded and moved beneath the hole into the beam of the man's flashlight.
A rope dropped down through the hole to the chamber floor. Fabi picked it up and made a show of tentatively grasping it and attempting to climb. She called up through the hole. “I don’t think I’m strong enough to climb this.”
They heard Willis’ voice from somewhere out of sight. “Untie me and I'll pull her up myself. Y’all look like you can’t pull nothing but your own…”
“Shut up!” two different unseen male voices said in turn. A new face appeared at the top of the hole, eyes squinting as the man’s eyes adjusted to the dim light. Maddock and Bones slid into the shadows behind a torture rack while Fabi remained with the rope. One of the unknown voices yelled down from above.
“Tie a loop in the rope and step into it.”
Fabi hesitated. “Sorry, but it's going to take more than one of you to pull me up. I’m not a skinny gal.”
Maddock watched from his place of concealment as a second set of hands appeared at the top of the hole. He put a hand on Bones’ shoulder, a signal that meant get ready. The two men above reached down and began to lift Fabi on the rope. Maddock watched until her feet cleared the floor, and then he and Bones sprung.
Maddock reached the rope and heaved on it, while Bones leapt off a pile of fallen rock like he was making a basketball layup. The tall Indian reached up and grabbed each of the two men pulling on the rope by a wrist and yanked, hard. The two men fell twelve feet from the top of the hole to hit the ground. They lay there a moment, stunned.
Maddock and Bones used the opportunity to knock them fully unconscious, and then they tied th
em up with their boot laces. When they were finished they looked up to see Willis peering down through the hole, waving.
Bones waved back. “I thought your hands were tied?”
“I got loose. Who do y'all think gave those fellows a push from behind? Nice assist, though, Bones. Now go ahead and step into the loop, for real, and I’ll pull you up. Ladies first.”
Fabi allowed Willis to haul her up out of the torture chamber. They repeated the process with Bones and then Maddock, who asked Willis if there could be other intruders where those had come from.
“Just those two bozos.”
Maddock reiterated the need to get back to their boat. While the rain had let up some, the wind was now more forceful than before. They left the fort grounds and made their way back through the jungle, Willis in particular very wary of monkeys. But they emerged from the narrow path onto the beach without incident, only to be greeted by an unexpected sight.
A simple wooden boat with a large outboard motor lay beached up on the sand, not far from their dinghy. Maddock headed for the unknown craft.
“I’m guessing this is the boat your fan club took out here, Fabi.” He reached the open vessel and began searching it, rummaging through the console to see if he could find an ID. The others joined him and they overturned life jackets, a cooler, coils of rope. It didn’t take long for Bones to come up with something. He held it up: a solid brick of white powder.
Willis raised his eyebrows. “Bones, you gonna share some of that? Because that’s a little too much for one person.”
“Well, there’s Fabi...”
She shook her head and was about to say something when Maddock cut them off by taking a rope from the drug boat and tossing it to Willis. “Tie this off to the dinghy. Bones, help me push this thing out.”
Bones threw the block of powder into the water and the men shoved the boat out into the water until it floated while Willis connected the tow rope. Maddock pulled the dinghy out into the water and then got in it. “C’mon, let’s drag this thing out to sea, buy ourselves a little more time.”
