Wyatt had ruined everything for Dufort.
At one point, the Frenchman’s wealth numbered in the hundreds of millions, nearly reaching the billion mark. With businesses in the sex slave trade and narcotics, he’d easily have reached that number in no time.
Sean Wyatt and his gang of miscreants changed all that. Dufort lost 90 percent of his wealth within just a few months. His associates, some with whom he’d done business for several years, disappeared. Dufort’s criminal empire crumbled like wet cardboard. He couldn’t even find a decent place to hide out during his exile from society.
Luckily, he still had more money than most ordinary people. While money wasn’t as good as power, it still enabled him to buy his way into a few places where he could reinvent himself and come up with a plan to rebuild—and a plan for revenge.
His return to the top wouldn’t be possible if he was just an ordinary man. Authorities in nearly every First World country had him on a watch list. He couldn’t get on a commercial airplane without setting off a dozen red flags. With cameras everywhere in public places of travel, he’d be spotted and apprehended in no time.
If Gerard Dufort was going to make a return, he’d have to do it as someone else…and something else.
The first thing he focused his energy on was learning as much as possible about Sean Wyatt and his close friend, Tommy Schultz. Getting information about Wyatt was tricky, but money had a powerful sway on people who kept secrets. Schultz was easier and, as it turned out, held the key to Dufort’s plan for revenge.
Perhaps it was providence or maybe just dumb luck, but Schultz had taken up pursuing something his parents worked on decades before. They’d been trying to find an ancient lost city called Zerzura that had disappeared thousands of years ago.
Dufort set about trying to learn as much as he could about this legendary city. Information was difficult to come by. Most of what he initially discovered was conjecture or hearsay. There were rumors about nomads who’d been lost in the desert and returned to civilization with stories of vast treasures within the ruins of the lost oasis. When they were pressed to give the location of the city, however, these men were unable to provide the exact spot on a map.
Treasure hunters from around the world spent fortunes on the search for Zerzura, every one ending up empty handed. Many of them went broke in their pursuit. The saga reminded Dufort of some of his own treasure hunts from the past.
One thing he’d learned along the way was how to leverage the hard work of others. Doing so allowed him to shortcut all the time and effort involved. Well, almost all of it.
The Schultz family, Dufort learned, had a significant weakness. They were sentimental. Tommy, in particular, was inclined to nostalgia. While on his self-imposed exile, Dufort hired a few mercenaries to keep an eye on Schultz, waiting for the right lead to come along that would give the Frenchman everything he wanted.
Nearly two years went by before Zerzura fell in his lap.
Tommy picked up something in the ancient town of Julfar, and the artifact led the younger Schultz to believe it was somehow connected to Zerzura.
While the lost oasis city was rumored to contain unimaginable wealth, it wasn’t the financial gain that most attracted Dufort to the United Arab Emirates. Something else was rumored to be hidden in one of the temples at Zerzura, something that could grant mere mortals eternal life.
Dufort snapped back to the present. He’d planned and prepared for this moment where he would take the next step. Every move he’d made was precisely calculated. Everything was planned to perfection.
With this tablet, he would find the lost city of Zerzura, and from there he would become like a god.
Some people doubted the stories. He knew some of his own men didn’t believe there was some magical artifact that could grant humans eternal life. But Dufort had seen too many unexplainable things to write it off. Besides, it didn’t matter if his men believed or not. All they cared about was getting paid.
He shuffled one foot closer to the locker, keeping his gaze on the keyhole. His mind wandered back to a few hours before.
The incident in the desert had been a little too close, but after making their escape Dufort never turned back. Losing two of his men was disconcerting, but that was the price that had to be paid.
He leaned down and carefully slid the key into the keyhole. It clicked as each tooth rode over the mechanisms inside until the base hit the outer edge. Dufort held his breath for a second before he twisted it.
The key turned easily. Dufort half expected it not to work, a trick played on him by Wyatt and his friend.
He let out another long breath through his nostrils and pulled back on the locker door. His relief from the moment before quickly vanished as he stared into the little box.
It was empty.
Dufort sniffled and twitched his nose in irritation. He leaned down farther to see if perhaps the locker was deeper than he anticipated or if perhaps the tablet had been pushed to the back. Further inspection confirmed there was nothing to be found inside.
He swallowed hard and stood up straight. His spine stiffened, and he cracked his neck to the right and then left.
His right-hand man, a tall brute named Cody Dent, noticed his employer’s reaction to opening the locker.
He stepped close and looked inside. His eyebrows lowered, confused at the empty box. “Where is it?” he asked.
“That is a good question, Cody. It would seem that we’ve been tricked.”
“You don’t think—”
“I would certainly hope not. Then again, anything is possible. I’ll get to the bottom of this soon enough.”
Dufort felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He fished it out and pressed the home button below the screen. With another tap, he opened the text messaging app and stared at the screen. His anger slowly dwindled like a wave dying to a ripple.
He took in a deep breath and stuffed the phone back in his pocket then turned to Cody. “Round up the men. We’re going to the other side of town.”
Cody’s face scrunched in a frown, clearly not understanding why the sudden change of plans. “What’s on the other side of town?”
“It would appear our friends Mr. Wyatt and Mr. Schultz tricked us. But we know where they are going. They only had one half of the tablet. The man they’re meeting has the other half. While their trickery has caused us a slight delay, it’s actually going to work out in our favor. We’ll be able to—as you Americans say—kill two birds with one stone.”
Chapter 6
Dubai
Sean peered through his sunglasses from the shadows of an old warehouse. The sun was setting over the desert to the west. Soon, dusk would arrive and then darkness. He preferred not to conduct their meeting with Hank’s connection in the dark. It opened up too many variables. Well-equipped assault teams would have night vision goggles and other tools that would tip the odds heavily in their favor. He could only assume Dufort’s men would be outfitted for such an occasion.
It was a big leap to guess they’d show up. He hoped he was wrong. Most of the time when he found himself hoping for something like that, he was disappointed. Men like Dufort were like a pimple that kept popping up on the day of the homecoming dance. He’d been gone for a couple of years, but just when Sean thought he would no longer be an issue, boom! There he was again.
Their little ruse to send the Frenchman to the other side of the city certainly gave Sean and his friends a good head start, but that time was lost due to the delay in meeting Hank’s connection. If Dufort was somehow able to pinpoint what happened and where Sean went, there’d be trouble.
Not only were he and his companions outgunned, they were severely outgunned considering they had no guns.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Hank had a revolver. It was a .357 and could do serious damage up close, but it hardly leveled the playing field, and according to Hank he only had six additional rounds in his SUV.
Tommy stepped into view around the corne
r and walked up. His head was on a swivel, too, checking the grounds as he approached.
“It’s all clear in the back. When is this guy getting here? I thought he was going to arrive ten minutes ago,” Tommy said.
“I know,” Sean said. “Tardiness is one of my biggest pet peeves.”
“Mine, too. And it certainly doesn’t make me want to trust this guy any more than I do.”
“Yeah, I don’t like it.”
Sean leaned forward, placing his elbows on top of a big wooden crate. Hank appeared around the corner of another building fifty feet away and sauntered over, almost as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
“See anything?” Tommy asked when Hank drew near.
“No, we’re good. I walked the perimeter and didn’t see a thing. If someone was going to ambush us, they’d be here. I told you, you were being paranoid,” he said, directing his last comment at Sean.
“Paranoia has served me well.”
“Yeah, yeah. Speaking of, good job in the restaurant earlier.” Hank’s eyebrows pinched together. “How in the world did you react so fast to those two would-be robbers?”
Sean shrugged. “Old habits, I guess.”
“You seem to have a lot of those.”
“When they walked in, they didn’t take off their sunglasses,” Sean explained. “Either they were trying to make some kind of fashion statement, or they didn’t want people to see their faces.”
Hank snickered. “We could see their faces, just not their eyes.”
“I didn’t say they were brilliant criminals, but you’d be surprised how much a single item like a pair of sunglasses could throw off eyewitnesses. You don’t have to think too hard to recall a certain superhero whose only disguise was a pair of reading glasses.”
“Fair enough. Still, not a very good disguise by those two, especially in the real world.”
“Next, I saw the way they were walking. They looked antsy, like they were in a hurry. More than that, the second one had a nervous pace to his stride. I could tell they weren’t there to eat. Then, of course, the breeze from the cool air inside the restaurant knocked back their jackets, and I saw the guns. Not to mention wearing a jacket in Dubai in the middle of the summer? Dead giveaway.”
Hank turned to Tommy. “He always like this?”
“I don’t know how to turn it off,” Tommy said.
“Probably best you don’t. Better stay alert. I trust my guy.” He paused for a moment. “I mean…the number one rule in dealing with things like this is not to trust anyone. I know that much, but this guy is okay. I swear.”
Sean and Tommy weren’t so sure. They exchanged a dubious glance.
“Seriously, guys. It’s fine. Me and Slater go way back.”
Hank had given Sean and Tommy the rundown on how he knew Slater Ellis. Despite Hank suggesting they’d known each other for a prolonged period of time, the truth was he’d only known Slater for a few years. He’d bumped into him while trying to forge his new life in the Middle East. According to Hank, the two hit it off almost immediately. Slater had connections. Hank had drive. Together, they’d collected a tidy sum of money in a short amount of time from their underworld dealings.
Of course, Hank claimed that no one was ever hurt by what they did. They were high-end fencers, nothing more. Hank was fine with that. The way he saw it, he wasn’t the one stealing things. As far as he knew, Slater wasn’t either. Often, Slater would buy items of interest for a low price and then find the people he thought would pay a premium. It was easy for the two men to justify what they did without worrying over moral obligations.
Sean and Tommy weren’t about to ask too many questions. If Slater did have the other half of the Zerzura tablet, how he came about it didn’t matter—even though they both wanted to know the answer.
“You do realize,” Sean said, “that if he tries to screw us over, I’m going to kill him, right?”
Hank was taken back by the comment. At first he thought Sean was joking. The stern look in Sean’s eyes told him otherwise.
Hank swallowed and nodded. “Yeah…well, you don’t have to worry about that. Okay? You have my word. Slater is a good guy.”
“A good guy who sells stolen artifacts?” Tommy asked.
“Hey, I don’t judge you two over what you do on your own time. I know Sean is no saint. If you’re running with him, it’s a good bet you aren’t either.”
Sean smirked. “Okay, take it easy. I’m not going to kill Slater.”
“Good.” Hank gave a curt nod.
“Unless he screws us.”
Tommy snorted a laugh.
Hank rolled his eyes. Before he could speak again, they heard a truck’s engine groaning from the other end of the harbor. Yellowish lights flashed and bounced on the walls of the warehouses and outbuildings nearby.
The three men ducked behind the crates and waited until the cargo truck came into view around the building. It rumbled to a stop in the middle of the thoroughfare and sat for a moment. The engine churned and rattled, making the truck tremble like a teenage boy on his first date.
“Is that your guy?” Tommy asked without turning to look at Hank.
Hank continued staring out from his hiding spot in the shadows. His shoulders only offered the slightest shrug. “I have no idea. I can’t see inside the cab.”
“You don’t know what your buddy is driving?”
“He didn’t say. Okay?” Hank tried to keep his irritation to a minimum. “What does it matter what he’s driving so long as he shows up?”
“It matters if that’s not him,” Tommy hissed.
“Settle down, you two,” Sean said. “That’s him.”
The other two turned and faced Sean. “How do you know?” they asked simultaneously.
“Because if he was an enemy, he wouldn’t show up so carelessly. He’d have stalked us like a hawk hunting a rabbit, watching us until the opportune moment to strike. He wouldn’t drive up in the loudest cargo truck ever made and park it there in plain sight with the lights on.” Sean turned his attention to Hank. “I guess he doesn’t know we’re trying to keep things subtle?”
Hank was embarrassed. “I probably should have warned him about what happened with that French guy.”
Sean stepped out from the shadows and slowly raised his right hand, letting his palm face the truck. He noticed the silhouette inside suddenly twist his head. Then the truck’s engine shut off, and the driver’s door opened.
A guy with wavy brown hair and a red T-shirt hopped down to the ground. He took a casual look down both directions of the harbor, removed a black case from the cab.
“That’s him,” Hank said. “That’s Slater.”
“Let’s just hope this friend of yours doesn’t get us killed,” Sean said.
Hank turned to Tommy. “Seriously, is he always like this?”
Tommy rose slowly from his position and tossed his head to both sides. “You have no idea.”
Slater slowed to a stop and put his hands on his hips. He looked like he was in his early thirties. The crow’s feet spreading out from the corners of his eyes were the only sign of aging. In broad daylight there may have been a loose strand of gray in his dark chocolate locks, but in the waning light of dusk none were noticeable.
“You’re late,” Hank said, stepping out to greet his associate. He put on his best disgruntled expression.
Slater sighed like they’d already been through it a hundred times. “I know,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“No,” Hank said, crossing his arms. “You’re like twenty-four hours late. What happened to you last night?”
Sean and Tommy listened anxiously for the explanation.
“I ran into some trouble,” Slater said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“You ran into trouble?” Hank thundered. “We were ambushed. I barely escaped. These two were taken out to the desert and staked to the ground, left for dead. And all you have to say is you ran into trouble.”
“I can leave if
you like,” Slater said. His accent was definitely American, West Coast, probably Southern California.
Hank grunted.
“Look, I had the tablet stored in a safe place. When I got there, the building was closed. I didn’t have a way to get in.”
Tommy stepped forward. “You stored the tablet in a public place?”
Slater’s head turned slightly, and his gaze fell on Tommy, sizing him up in seconds. “Yeah, sort of. I keep a lot of my inventory there.”
“Where is this place, exactly?”
Slater let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s a storage unit in the business district. I assure you, the place is extremely secure.”
If Tommy were the fainting type, he would have toppled over right then and there. “You…you kept the tablet in a storage unit?” His voice started to rise as the anger swelled in his chest.
Sean put out his hand to calm his friend. “Hey, we kept our half in a locker at the train station. Not exactly Fort Knox, buddy.”
Slater let out a short laugh.
“I thought you said these guys were pros,” he said to Hank. “Train station locker? Those get broken into all the time.”
“Look, we’re all here,” Sean said, “so let’s just get on with it. I know you’re not going to tell us where you got this, but do you have any idea where your half of the tablet came from originally?”
Slater considered the question and sighed. He looked in one direction and then the other before answering. “Okay, I’ve never told anyone this, but several years back, when they were excavating some of the ruins in the Valley of the Kings, they found my piece in one of the chambers. According to the rumors, it was discovered in one of the high priest’s tombs near the pharaoh’s. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but that’s what I heard.”
He set the briefcase down on the nearest crate, spun the combination numbers until they lined up the way he wanted, and then flipped open the case.
The Sahara Legacy Page 5
