Sean Wyatt Compilation Box Set

by Ernest Dempsey

  Adriana put a gentle hand on his shoulder and stood next to him, not saying a word. Her thoughts were understood. She didn’t need to ask how he was feeling. And he appreciated that. “What are you looking at?” She looked at the computer screen as she spoke.

  He turned the laptop slightly so she could see a little better. “It’s a text from the Bible,” he answered, “2 Kings 5:10.”

  She leaned over and read what was on the monitor silently. “‘Go and wash seven times in the Jordan River, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.’ What does it mean?”

  He turned the computer back to where it had been then quickly typed in a few more commands.

  She was impressed with how fast he could type. Obviously, he had some kind of computer training. The realization caused her to think back to her father, and for a second she glanced out the window and down at the city. Somewhere down there, he was up to his old tricks. Worry started to creep into her mind again, but she had to push that away for now. Her father could handle himself, at least a little while longer.

  Sean turned the screen back toward her again. It displayed a map of Ecuador and all its main rivers. He was particularly interested in the region around Cuenca. “We found the Bible text engraved on a wooden cylinder last night at Crespi’s church. It was hidden under the baptismal font.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “What was inside it?”

  He shrugged. “The map, we think. We don’t know for sure. Before we could open it, all hell broke loose. There was a bunch of shooting. We barely got out the back of the church alive. When we did get out, Maury came with me. Tommy and Will got in the second truck.”

  His face washed over with regret. “That was the last I saw them.”

  “What happened to the other truck?”

  He tipped his head toward Mauricio, who was still on the phone. “We don’t know. But Mauricio is trying to find out. He’s talking to the local cops. My gut tells me the car was hijacked during the shootout. So whoever was following us has Tommy and Will now.”

  She looked at him sadly. “I should have been there. Perhaps I could have helped. I am so sorry.”

  He shook his head. “It’s OK. I’m glad you weren’t. You might have been in trouble now, too. “Did you get to do what you needed?” He changed the subject for the moment.

  She just nodded and offered a forced smile, which he returned.

  Delgado hung up the phone and joined in the conversation next to the desk. “The local police haven’t found the vehicle yet, and no one has seen or heard anything. Whoever took them left town immediately and didn’t say a word to anyone. They found my driver’s body outside the church, along with a few other unknowns.”

  The news was what Sean had expected. That still didn’t make it easy to hear. “We have to assume that whoever has them wanted whatever was in that cylinder,” he said. “Without knowing what is on the map, it makes it a little harder to figure out exactly where they might be going. “I tried calling Tommy’s phone, but he didn’t answer. Whoever jacked the car probably took whatever they had, including their phones.”

  Her mind was racing as she took in all the new information. “So, you think that the Bible text from the inscription is meant to refer to one of these rivers?” She pointed at the screen again while she spoke.

  Sean nodded. “Problem is, there are several rivers within a hundred miles of here. And even if we can figure out which one is the right one, you’re potentially talking about hundreds of miles of shoreline on both sides we would need to cover.” It was a big problem, and Sean knew it. “We have to assume that the map pinpoints the location on a specific river,” he added.

  “Do you have any idea what we are looking for?” Mauricio asked.

  “Not really. It could be a cave or maybe a big rock that marks the location. We really have no idea what we’re looking for.” Sean sighed in frustration and closed his laptop. His fingers rubbed tired eyes.

  “You need to get some rest,” she spoke firmly.

  He shook his head. “I won’t be able to sleep.”

  “There is nothing you can do right now. It’s late. In the morning maybe we can go into town and see if there is anyone who can help us.”

  He knew she was right. They could stay up all night trying to figure out where Tommy and Will were or the location the clue eluded to, but they would most likely be unsuccessful with both. He doubted he would sleep much, but even a few minutes of rest would be welcome.

  “OK,” he nodded finally. “We’ll get up early and see what we can find out.”

  Mauricio agreed. “I’ll check around first thing in the morning. Perhaps I can find a clue as to what happened or where they headed.”

  She patted Wyatt on the shoulder as if confirming his decision was a good one. “We will find them.”

  He wished he had her confidence.

  Chapter 60

  Utah

  Alexander Lindsey stood silently overlooking the mountain range from the third-floor office in his mansion. It was early in the morning. The sun was just beginning to slip above the horizon to the east. He wore his usual morning robe featuring a burgundy silk with a dark green collar and belt. It looked more like a smoking jacket. The coffee in his hand was still steaming, a stark contrast to the cold outside. Snow covered the mountains as far as he could see, a possible look into the season to come. Cold winters were something he’d grown accustomed to over the years. There was something about the cold that afforded him a great deal of privacy. The harsher the winter, the fewer people bothered him. However, the comfort of privacy had been unable to soothe his nerves for the last few days. He’d tossed and turned each night for nearly a week, and his eyes had big bags under them as a result. The deprivation of sleep was something he loathed. He usually needed a full eight hours to be completely functional.

  Agent Weaver had called him late in the night to report that her team was staked out at a hotel in Ecuador, observing Wyatt’s group.

  In her report, she had informed him that Agent Collack had been killed in a gunfight at the church, as had three more of her men. Weaver had tried to assure him that things were under control, but shootouts in the streets of Cuenca were hardly easy to cover up. A quick search on the web confirmed her story. Local news outlets all over Ecuador were covering the odd killings outside the Iglesia de Maria Auxiliadora.

  He’d spent a tremendous amount of time and money making sure that the policing agencies of the world had no way to track his operatives. When a mercenary signed up to take a mission for him, they were completely removed from the grid, untraceable except by him. Still, it was unsettling that Collack had been killed—and identified. James Collack was one of the best assets to have ever worked for the Order. How many missions he’d completed was for Lindsey to remember.

  Another problem was the lack of communication between him and his other agent in play. Will had not reported in for nearly two days, which was atypical for him. Lindsey understood Will’s plan. He was no doubt in the midst of the enemy at this point and most likely couldn’t get time for a phone call. It was still unnerving, though.

  Alexander liked to be in total control. He liked to have all the strings attached to his fingers so that everything went according to plan. Clearly, the people they were dealing with were dangerous. But he had to press on. Finding the last chamber of Akhanan was all that mattered. Once he found that, nothing could stop him.

  Perhaps it was time to cultivate a new relationship within the Justice Department. Then there was the little clandestine problem. Emily Starks had been an irritation, as had Sam Townsend. So when Eric Jennings came up with the plan to eliminate both, Lindsey had been more than willing to provide him with a sacrificial lamb, an operative that had gone rogue a few times and had a problem with drinking. The problem being that when he drank, he talked too much.

  Jennings’s call about twenty minutes after Weaver’s had been somewhat of a consolation. Starks and Townsend were both dead, effectivel
y eliminating government interference from Axis or internal investigations. He smiled at the thought and sipped the hot coffee, trying to remind himself that everything was going according to plan. It was God’s plan, after all.

  Chapter 61

  Southeastern Ecuador

  It had been a long night for Tommy and Will. They had been unable to sleep save for a few minutes of dozing off here and there. Each time their heads lowered in sleep, they woke to the tightening of the rope around their chests as their body weight pressed against it. The man who’d taken them had also slept lightly, if any. It seemed every time Tommy looked over at him, his cold, alert eyes were staring at him and Will. Tommy wondered if their captor slept with his eyes open.

  The early morning dew had been an annoyance, virtually soaking their clothes as they sat on the ground, tied to a small tree. It was doubtful the stranger had that problem since he slept in the back of the SUV with the rear door open so he could watch his two prisoners throughout the night.

  Schultz saw the man rouse from his vague slumber and walk over to where he sat upright on the ground. He carried his gun in hand for both men to see.

  “Time to go.”

  “Where are we going?” Tommy asked, unable to move against the tight ropes.

  “There’s a village not far from here. We’ll drive there and ask the locals about the place on this map.”

  “I’ve been thinking about those lines,” he offered. “My guess is that either they are trails or rivers. I doubt they’re roads. If they are rivers, one of the locals might be able to point us in the exact direction we need to go.”

  Their captor seemed happy with the notion for a moment. Then his face took on a sinister look. “You, I need,” he said to Tommy. “But him,” he paused, “I don’t.” Carlson raised his weapon and pointed it at Will.

  Hastings just stared up at him, not an ounce of fear anywhere on his face. Anger was there though. A rage filled his eyes like a hurricane.

  “Wait!” Tommy pleaded. “If you need me, then you have to take both of us. You kill him, and I won’t tell you anything else.”

  “Maybe I don’t need either of you,” the stranger said coldly.

  Schultz stared through him. “You know that isn’t true. Even if you find the location on this map, you won’t be able to find the treasure without the information I have.”

  “What information?” Carlson asked, skeptical.

  “You’ll just have to wait and see,” Tommy narrowed his eyes.

  The stranger lowered his gun. “I’m pretty sure you’re bluffing. But I’d rather be safe than sorry.” He waved the gun toward the car. “I’m going to untie you both, but once you’re free tie him up again in the back of the car.”

  Tommy nodded while Will just continued to stare.

  Ten minutes later, they were back on the road heading southeast. Tommy had tied Will in the back as he was told. He had his cell phone in his pocket but wasn’t sure if the battery still had any power left in it or not.

  Schultz hadn’t been bluffing when he told the stranger that there was something he knew. The problem was Tommy didn’t have access to what he needed either. The golden leaves they’d found before were certainly a necessary part of the puzzle. Even if they found the location of the next chamber, he doubted they would be able to get to it. At the moment, he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It was anybody’s guess how this wild card would react to a situation like that.

  Adriana was already awake when the sun peeked over the mountains to the east. She’d been up for a while, wrestling with a problem in her mind. After some consideration, she’d picked up the phone and made a call. The conversation had been brief, but maybe it helped their situation.

  She made her way over to Wyatt’s room and found the door propped open with the little locking bar near the top. After politely knocking, she heard Sean tell her to come in. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one up early. She figured that everyone probably had the same anxiety she had, if not more. She noticed that he looked as if he hadn’t slept all night; his weary eyes scanned the computer screen, looking for something. Mauricio was on the phone again, busily talking to someone in Spanish about a stolen vehicle.

  “How did you sleep?” Sean asked her while he typed on the computer. He didn’t even look up.

  She forced a smile. “I slept OK. Maybe a few hours.”

  He didn’t respond. His exhausted eyes just continued scanning the screen.

  “Did you find anything?” she continued.

  Finally, he looked up. A serious look covered his face. “Unfortunately, no. But we are still checking some resources.”

  “What are you looking at?” she asked as she stepped around the corner of the desk and tilted her head to see what he was doing.

  He pointed at the screen. “Just this Bible text again. I’m trying to figure out what it means.”

  She read the text on the monitor silently. When she was finished, she thought for a moment. “What is so special about the Jordan River?” she wondered out loud.

  “In ancient Israel, it was a very important river to the Hebrews. Almost sacred. In this particular story, a general for a foreign army is stricken with leprosy and is desperate so he goes to see one of Israel’s prophets, Elisha. The prophet doesn’t even come out to greet him but instead sends his assistant, who tells the general to go wash in the Jordan River seven times and he will be healed.

  Adriana looked skeptical. “So why that river?”

  Sean grinned out of the corner of his mouth. “That’s exactly what the general said. He was furious that Elisha wouldn’t meet with him personally and also at the fact that he’d told him to go wash in a dirty river. The general wondered why he couldn’t just go back to his homeland and wash in one of their own rivers.”

  Realization washed over Adriana’s face. “Wait a minute,” she thought for a second before continuing. “Dirty river! That must be it!”

  Sean looked confused. “What do you mean?”

  “I think I know which way they were headed,” she blurted out.

  Mauricio stopped his conversation on the phone, excusing himself and telling whomever he was talking to that he’d call back.

  She continued. “I spoke with a friend a little earlier today. Let’s just say they are in the surveillance business. They told me that he had video of your truck heading east last night at the same time that we were coming here.”

  A flicker of hope came into Sean’s eyes along with skepticism. “Can you trust them?”

  She ignored his query and went on. “At first, that didn’t mean much to me. Really, that car could have been headed anywhere.” Adriana had a renewed energy. She pulled the laptop around and stroked a few keys. Google appeared, and then she typed a bit more. A second later, a listing of Ecuadorian maps appeared, all featuring prominent rivers.

  She scanned the screen with her finger and then found what she was looking for and tapped the screen with her nail. “The Zamora River,” she said. “Mauricio, is that a dirty river? I’ve never been in that area before.”

  He nodded. “Hmm. Yes, it is. Lots of dirt and silt from the mountains wash into it. It’s over toward the border with Peru. The original settlers in that area called it Father River.”

  Sean raised an eyebrow. “OK, but that river has got to be pretty long, right? The odds of us finding the location or Tommy are both slim to none. Plus, we don’t know for sure they went that way.”

  Her face grew stern. “It’s the only lead we have, Sean. Right now, we don’t have any other choice.”

  She was leaning close to him. He could smell a sweet, simple perfume that she must have put on earlier in the morning after her shower. The scent lingered for a second, distracting him from the job at hand. Quickly, he regained his senses.

  “What about the washing seven times?” Mauricio interrupted his thoughts. “That must have something to do with the solution to the riddle.”

  Sean and Adriana looked at hi
m.

  “You’re right,” Sean said. He typed in a few more words and pulled up several different images of the river from tourist blogs and a number of other resources. Then something caught his eye. “Does the Zamora have any waterfalls?” he asked.

  Mauricio nodded. “Not too many dramatic ones, but yes, it has several waterfalls. Why?”

  “Because if you go over water falls you will go under the river, right? Just like in the Bible story where he was told to go under seven times. Maybe the clue in the text is that the location of the entrance to the chamber is at the seventh waterfall.”

  The stout Latino man nodded slowly. Then he pointed at the map on the monitor. “Up here is where the river begins.”

  His finger moved slightly to the line of another river. “Notice this other river begins here. The two will join at this point.” He traced the line to where it and the Zamora became one. “There is a waterfall right here.” He tapped the screen to emphasize his point.

  “I’m guessing there are six others, three in each river, before you get to that spot,” Sean said.

  “Probably,” Delgado agreed. “It’s worth a shot.”

  Sean became silent. His mind raced. Then he said, “Maury, remember the priest’s garden? The pathways became one under the tree. These two rivers,” he looked at the screen again, “they become one here too.”

  “It would appear we are headed east,” Adriana said with a smile.

  Wyatt’s face filled with determination. “Yes, it would.”

  Angela watched as the three exited the hotel. She sat perfectly still as they got in their car and drove down the road leading back toward the city. She spoke to a middle-aged man standing next to her, telling him to get everyone rolling. He had a different appearance than the rest of her group, sporting a thick, brown beard with a few strands of gray. The beard matched the man’s hair in thickness and in color. Most of the team were young, probably in their mid- to late twenties. This man, though, looked to be in his upper forties. Mercenary work was not something that usually had a long career span. So either this guy was good at what he did or he was some kind of action junkie. Either way, she was glad he was on her side. He’d joined up with her team in the middle of the night, a special guest she’d heard of and called upon after the fiasco at the church.