by David Wood
They waited there for a couple of minutes, listening while Willis faced out to sea, Bones watched to the left and Maddock to the right. After detecting nothing threatening, they ditched the scooters and the scuba gear out of sight on the bottom and walked around the rocks.
Willis grinned widely as they made their way. “Just like old times.”
Bones said, “This isn't what I expected when you told me we'd be treasure hunting, Maddock.” But his smile said that he relished the excitement, even the danger.
Maddock held a hand up and they crouched there a moment, knowing from Jimmy’s intel that Avila’s stronghold would not be unguarded. Sure enough, they eyed a guard armed with some type of long gun, probably an automatic rifle, walking the edge of the beach where it met the forest.
“A single guard?” Willis shook his head slowly as though he could not believe it.
Maddock pointed to the middle of the island, where the elevation was highest. “Don’t think this will be the only one. This is just the perimeter detail. The main house will be heavily patrolled.”
They waited patiently for the guard to pass by their position and make his way further down the edge of the beach. Then the trio of amphibious warriors dashed across the beach to the outer perimeter of Avila’s compound, where a rusty barbed wire fence blocked the way through the forest. While Bones made short work of a section of fence with a folding multi-tool, Maddock’s gaze went higher, scanning the trees.
“See something?” Willis whispered while he watched the guard walk far down the beach. “Guard’s gonna turn back this way soon.”
Maddock pointed about fifty feet to their left, where a break in the foliage—either a very wide path or a narrow clearing—offered obvious transit through the bush. But then he raised his finger, moving it up from the same spot, where a boxy object was just visible high on the trunk of a coconut palm tree.
“Camera. We’ll have to cut through the dense foliage.” Maddock pointed into the jungle, where the closely spaced trees would shield them from the camera’s lens.
“Keep our eyes open for more, too.” Willis’ gaze travelled through the rain forest canopy, seeking additional optics, but finding none. “Clear as far as I can see, which isn’t far.”
Maddock signaled they should move out and the three of them crept into the greenery. The trio moved with a high degree of stealth, avoiding loud footfalls. They were sneaky to the point that small animals were occasionally startled by their seemingly sudden appearance, birds and rodents retreating hastily.
After covering nearly half a mile, Bones, who had taken Maddock’s right flank, held up a hand. Willis and Maddock eyed him expectantly. “Hold on,” came his whispered reply. Suddenly Maddock understood why Bones was feeling on edge.
“It’s awfully quiet, isn’t it?”
Bones nodded. “Too quiet.”
Suddenly a face peeked out from the foliage above their heads and Bones pointed it out. Two intelligent eyes stared at them, but they weren’t human. A monkey. It dangled by its hands and swung to another branch, giving them a good look at the whole body. A large primate, nearly as tall as Bones, its fur was black and white, with bright blue eyes, making for a striking appearance against the green canopy.
“Weird.” Bones watched the animal hang from its new branch. “Weren’t we just talking about how monkeys went extinct in Haiti hundreds of years ago? And now here are some more—different kind—on a different island.”
Willis shrugged. “I guess they came back.”
Maddock advised they should just keep moving. They started out again through the underbrush, but then the creature dropped onto Bones. “What the heck is it with me and these things?” He panted as he contorted and gyrated in an attempt to throw the beast from his body. Willis helped pry its arms loose from the bear hug it had around Bones’ midsection, and then Bones was able to spin away from it, leaving it to stand on the forest floor in the middle of the three men, eyes level with them.
“Three to one, baboon boy, get outta here!” But it seemed Willis’ taunt served only to threaten the monkey, for it charged at Maddock, who threw a right cross at it only to have the monkey block it with its left forearm. Bones stepped up and kicked it aside with a well-placed right boot. The monkey, similar to a Capuchin, but much larger, staggered backward yet held its ground. It sprang toward the three humans again. This time, Bones, knowing that suffering a solid blow to the head could be fatal, took decisive action.
He removed his dive knife from the sheath worn on his calf and held it by the blade. The monkey stepped forward, shockingly human-like in its movements, and swung at him with its left hand curled in a semi-fist. Bones ducked the punch and answered with an uppercut right hand holding the knife butt first. He slammed the steel butt into the monkey’s chin, sending the new world primate into the air briefly before it landed on its back. Bones was prepared to attack again, Willis and Maddock backing him up, but the dazed animal lay there, eyeing them but not making a move.
“Stay down if you know what’s good for you!” Bones wagged a finger at the defeated beast. Maddock was already eyeballing their forward track, searching for cameras, movement, anything, while Willis pondered the monkey.
“It ain’t normal for monkeys to be so aggressive. I’ve been around a bunch, in Africa, southeast Asia...sure they can fight, like any animal if you mess with it, but we’ve been jumped by two different kinds of monkeys since we’ve been in Haiti, and everybody keeps saying there used to be monkeys here but not anymore. What gives?”
Maddock looked away from the trees and ground up ahead, satisfied they were not being observed. He considered the primate, which now rolled to one side and scampered off into the underbrush while Bones flipped it a silent bird. “What worries me is that monkey betrayed no emotion while it attacked.”
Bones nodded, making eye contact with Maddock. “Like those freaking zombie people” Bones said. “You don't think...”
Rustling noise ensued from the plants behind them, the way they had come. Maddock spun around and took in the source of the ruckus.
“More monkeys! Run!”
Chapter 35
Avila’s Island
Fabi had no intentions of waiting around to see what Avila had in store for her. Although she had no access to tools of any kind, her pockets having been searched and everything taken by Avila’s guards, she worked at her bonds by wriggling her slender wrists back and forth. A stifled cry of pain escaped her lips as she wrenched her joints in ways they were never designed. But at last her hands came sliding free of the restraints.
She heard footsteps approaching from outside the room, hard-soled shoes on stone and stuck her freed hands behind her back as if she was still bound. She tried to sit still and calm her breathing so as not to show signs of her recent exertion.
A lab worker she did not recognize entered holding a leather case of some kind. He made brief eye contact with her from behind clear plastic safety goggles, then walked behind Fabi toward a counter. She heard him unzip the case, followed by the clatter of unknown instruments on the counter. He spoke soon after that.
“I’m going to administer you something that should make you feel more comfortable, more relaxed and open to discussion. It won’t hurt a bit.”
Fabi heard the man step back toward her chair. She prayed he wouldn’t notice her unbound hand but a second later he was leaning over in front of her, eyeing a bare spot on her right arm.
“What do you think you’re doing? What is that? I don’t want it!”
He held up an alcohol swab in one hand, lowering the syringe a bit in the other. “Now, now. Just relax. Here you go.” The lab tech bent down to administer the shot and sprang into motion. The tech reared up as the arm he was about to shoot moved, but he was far too late.
She grabbed him by his curly mop of hair, yanked his head down, and drove her knee up to meet him. He slumped to the ground, stunned by the blow. He began to groan, and she kicked him in the temple, hard,
but not hard enough to be lethal, and he fell silent.
“I guess they forgot to tell you some girls know how to fight.”
Fabi stripped him of his lab coat and donned it. She figured it might distract some people for a few seconds, at least, and sometimes that was all she needed. She looked around the room briefly to see if there was anything she could use as a weapon, but saw nothing and hurried on. She had to find Cassandra. Where was she now?
Fabi slipped into the next room, where half a dozen people lay strapped to beds, each receiving intravenous treatment of some sort. A couple of them looked at her with glassy eyes but the rest were sleeping or heavily medicated. Another thought she didn’t have time for flashed through her mind—what was Dr. Avila doing here with these people? They didn’t appear to be regular patients. Many of the more common machines were missing altogether, although there was no shortage of equipment in general; it was just that most of it was unidentifiable to Fabi.
She hurried through this eerie space to a closed door at the end of the room. She reached out to open it and then felt someone grab her from behind. Instinctively, she snapped her head back, cracking her unseen assailant across the bridge of the nose. She heard a cry of pain and shook the man off. Whirling around to finish the job, Fabi was instantly deflated to find herself facing, in addition to her attacker, an armed guard with a pistol aimed at her chest...and Avila himself.
The physician’s expression was stern as he stared down Fabi while her bloody-faced attacker backed away from her with a hateful glare. Avila wagged his head side to side while making clucking noises.
“Fabiola...I am growing impatient by the minute. If you continue to refuse cooperation, you leave me no choice but to take more rigorous measures, measures that you will not find palatable in the least, I can assure you.” Having slunk back to the corner, the guard who had attacked Fabi licked his lips.
Fabi ignored him and focused on Avila. “I’ve been extensively trained to resist torture, Dr. Avila.” She put on a brave front but her insides threatened to turn to water at the thought.
Avila smiled and turned to his armed guard. “Enough nonsense. Take that lab coat off her and then bring her back to her bed. I think it's time we used the formula.”
Chapter 36
Maddock, Bones and Willis dashed through the jungle, chased by the shrieks and howls of the troop of primates in hot pursuit. Willis looked over at Maddock and patted the pistol he wore in a shoulder holster. “Why don’t we just pop a cap in a couple of these things? The rest of them will get the message and leave.”
Maddock jumped over a tree root and kept going. “We don’t want to let Avila’s men know we’re here.” He slowed to duck beneath a low-hanging branch. “And armed.”
Looking back, Maddock could see the monkeys were easily gaining on them. A confrontation was inevitable. The SEAL-turned-treasure hunter drew his dive knife. “We’ll have to do this old-school. Stand your ground.”
Maddock stopped with his back to the trunk of a large tree and faced the oncoming assemblage of primates. Willis and Bones also unsheathed their blades and prepared to fight. The prospect of facing down about a dozen animals roughly the same size as they were, but with body mass consisting mostly of pure muscle, was a daunting one.
Maddock hoped the humans’ intelligence and use of tools—the knives—would be sufficient advantage. He knew they could go to their pistols as a last resort, but giving their position away would compromise the extraction mission. He reminded himself as he always had on these types of missions that a person waited somewhere close by, probably in dire circumstances, counting on him to get them out.
Then the monkeys reached them, and a full-scale melee erupted in the jungle. Sharp nails scored Maddock’s flesh. Strong hands sought to gouge his eyes. Dark fur and white teeth flashed before him as he fought. Mad, bestial shrieks drowned out all other sound, save for a few choice curses from Bones. This is crazy, Maddock thought as he slashed with his blade and another attacker fell.
It was grisly work, but the blades made all the difference. The crazed monkeys kept coming, drone-like in their single-mindedness, until the last lay on the ground.
Maddock and the others had suffered a few cuts and large bruises, but thankfully no bites. He didn't know if whatever had turned the primates into automatons could be transferred, and he didn't want to find out. Willis removed his boot from beneath the carcass of a dead monkey and shook his head slowly. “I hate that we were forced to do this.”
Maddock nodded in agreement. “Avila did this. I’m sure of it.”
“Me too.” Bones holstered his knife. “In that email Fabi sent, she mentioned something about Avila’s weird experiments in that clinic.”
Willis looked up from the pile of monkeys. “All that only makes me want to get at this Dr. Avila guy even more.”
“So let’s do it.” Bones walked toward the edge of the small clearing in which they had battled the monkeys. With a last glance at the fallen primates, Maddock and Willis followed him deeper into the island forest.
The foliage grew thicker as they penetrated further into the island’s interior, and it grew increasingly difficult to move steadily and silently. All the while they were looking over their shoulders for new threats. Finally, light appeared up ahead and they saw a clearing. Maddock and Willis crouched behind a stand of banana palms and they discovered they now faced a different threat; an even deadlier one.
A head-high rock wall surrounded Dr. Avila’s compound, which Maddock knew from Letson’s satellite photos to consist of a main mansion and several out-buildings. What occupied his attention now, though, was the open gate set into the rock wall, with a guard standing in front of it.
He was armed with an automatic rifle and smoked a cigarette. Maddock was glad to recognize his demeanor for the detachment and boredom it represented; this guy was probably near the end of his shift, a long day on his feet where nothing happened for hours at a time. Such was the situation for guards the world over—the difficulty was in maintaining a state of readiness for what could require split-second reactions in the face of ongoing tedium.
Willis shot Maddock a look that said, now? Maddock mouthed the word, wait, and Willis nodded, returning his gaze to the smoking guard.
As they watched, a long-haired figure materialized out of the trees and pistol-whipped the guard on the back of the head, dropping him instantly. Bones dragged his body out of sight behind an SUV parked nearby and then joined his comrades at their hiding spot.
“Told you I could do it.”
Maddock and Willis looked at one another and shook their heads.
Bones threw his hands up. “What?”
Maddock waved a hand dismissively. “Don't worry about it. Let's just hope you haven't rattled that guy’s brain too badly. We need him to tell us how to get inside.”
Chapter 37
Fabi lay strapped to a cot in the same room she had found so eerie, the one with a group of people she had initially thought of as patients. Now, as she struggled to move her hands and feet against the shackles that chained her to the bed, she understood they were in fact more like subjects. Humans being experimented on by Dr. Avila...for what purpose she didn’t know.
The squeak of cot wheels drew near and then the door pushed open as a lab tech and a security guard wheeled in a new cot. Fabi lifted her head as high as she could, straining her neck muscles.
“Cassandra!” She couldn’t stop herself from blurting out her friend’s name. But apparently Cassandra had been sedated already, because she was slow to respond. Her eyelids appeared heavy as she turned to look in Fabi’s general direction, as if searching for the source of the voice.
Another man strode into the room, gaze shifting from Fabi to the tech and the guard, from there to Cassandra and back to Fabi. Dr. Avila spoke to Fabi while observing his employees wheel the cot to a station with a cluster of waiting IVs and machines. “She’s already been prepped for the main event, shall we say. She’s a
bit unresponsive at the moment, so you’ll likely find her to be a less than exciting conversationalist right about now.”
“Don’t give her any more drugs, Dr. Avila. Please. She did not consent to this. You’re a physician, for crying out loud. What about the Hippocratic oath you took, the one that said you would always strive to keep your patients’ best interests at heart?”
Avila glanced over at Cassandra, who was now having her arm wiped with an alcohol pad by the lab tech, then quickly back to Fabi. “She’s not a patient. She’s a subject. Unless perhaps...”
“Perhaps what?” Fabi watched as the lab tech now uncapped a needle and held it poised over Cassandra’s chained arm.
“Perhaps you could tell me what I want to know about the treasure, and then I will withdraw this...” He nodded in Cassandra’s direction. “...subject from the experiment.”
Fabi slammed her head back against the thin cot, rattling its flimsy frame. “I told you already, Dr. Avila, I don’t know anything about any treasure. Okay, maybe my cousin David was looking for one; he had mentioned that to me a few times, but I wasn’t privy to the details.”
Avila gave a long exhalation before nodding to his lab tech, who promptly jabbed the needle into Cassandra’s flesh and depressed the plunger. He raised his voice over Fabi’s protests. “Listen to me: it takes one hour for the effects to take hold. Until they do, the treatment is reversible. Beyond that time...”
He looked over at Cassandra, her head lolling back and forth on the sweat-stained cot. He made an exaggerated and wholly insincere expression of sadness.
