“Do you want to know more?” Crouch asked.
“No.” Alicia turned away and drank in the uplifting sight of the shimmering waves. “You’re best leaving it right where it is.”
And then she caught sight of Healey waving them back.
Quickly she rose and, without a word or a glance in Crouch’s direction, re-joined the team. At the new hole in the rock wall she peered carefully through and picked out Jensen.
“What’s happening, boys?”
“Reality just broke this pirate party up big time. Jensen’s now spitting bloody fire instead of rum. Come watch.”
Alicia took it all in.
“He’s a bastard! He’s led us a merry dance! If he were alive right now I’d string him up myself!”
“They found nothing?” Alicia asked wonderingly.
“Another strongbox full of trinkets.” Caitlyn smiled. “Morgan’s ‘that which sorely plagues’ I believe.”
“Local loot.”
Jensen raved himself out and then drank more rum. His men stood around looking despondent, their torches still flickering but now drooping. Alicia shook her head at Caitlyn. “Why sink an entire bloody ship?”
“A symbolic gesture would be my guess. Learned pirate captains were full of them back in the day. Granted, most were bloody and violent, but perhaps this helped ease Morgan’s guilt.”
“A proper search of that ship under restricted conditions would have revealed the truth.” Crouch came up at that point. “Something we’ll never now get.”
Jensen wavered, now ranting about the drawbacks and consequences of following the last of the maps to its final destination. The end of the search for Captain Morgan’s treasure hoard. The strongbox he held in his hand went up in the air and was then dashed against the nearest array of rocks. It contents scattered everywhere as the sides burst.
Crouch almost cried out. The loss to history, the mindless ransacking, was an abomination to his lifelong way of thinking.
Alicia drew her gun. “We’re gonna end this right now. Fuck letting ’em do all the work for us. Are you with me?”
Crouch was the first to follow. “All the way.”
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Alicia crept carefully through the gap, knowing the gung-ho offensive would really do them no good here. Without a sound she dropped into the new sea cave and waited for the rest of the team to join her. Only Caitlyn stayed on the other side, armed with a rifle and a laser sight. Healey eyed it dubiously but Crouch gave him a pat on the shoulder.
“Gotta let her get involved sometime.”
Alicia watched Caitlyn move. There was a quiet confidence now in the girl that she liked, a growing ease of movement and competency that she recognized.
“Hey Healey,” she whispered as they waited among rocks. “Maybe your training of Caitlyn is paying off after all.”
Healey frowned, unused to compliments from the blond warrior. “Umm, thanks.”
“And how’s the other part of the training going?” Alicia wiggled her brows.
“Oh, piss off.”
Crouch and Russo soon joined them and made ready. Alicia crept among the rocks until she could retain cover no more and then ran soundlessly toward her enemy. She counted twenty in number, plus Jensen, and then the first of them caught sight of her.
“Wha—” He raised a gun.
Alicia stopped him in his tracks, putting him down in a groaning heap. Others were turning, some reacting quicker than others. Alicia sprang among them, knowing it was of the highest importance to get close and stop them using their guns for fear of hitting a comrade. She chopped a pistol away, then sent the man into his neighbor, who slipped headlong on the slippery, rocky surface. She heard Russo fire twice and Crouch just once, dropping mercs. Healey grabbed a wrist a moment before its owner pulled a trigger, deflecting the bullet a few inches past his own skull. Alicia spun a man around and used another’s bobbing ponytail to slam them together.
Dropping low, she cast around.
A boot slammed her side. She ignored the pain and caught its occupant behind the knees, pulling hard. The body came down beside her and she struck at the neck and groin and other vital areas. She wrenched a knife out of the man’s belt before he could draw it, gave it back blade first and heard him grunt in agony.
On to the next. She saw Jensen still aboard the creaking shipwreck, now surrounded by three men. She remembered him mentioning three lieutenants — or rather shipmates—but couldn’t remember their names. She saw another man spinning and then helped Healey prize one away from his neck. Russo fought hard to their right, bringing his size and strength to bear as he pushed and pulled and threw man enemy against enemy. Twice, the pop of a rifle rang out and unseen enemies fell. Caitlyn was watching their backs and picking off the worse threats.
But Jensen was no fool. Ex-SAS, he took time to evaluate the situation, the possible outcomes, and then his next move. Alicia, also ex-SAS, thought she knew how his mind would work. This location, Morgan’s penultimate treasure site, again had yielded little of importance for the self-proclaimed pirate. With only one site remaining he would see only one real option.
The treasure had to be at the end of the trail, and Jensen could always hire more men.
The man was already moving his whip-thin, brawny frame in the direction of the underwater sea exit.
Alicia would try anything once, and often had. “You work for that guy? Look! He’s already leaving you.”
Several heads swiveled. Alicia already knew she’d never turn them to her side so she took advantage of the distraction and put them to sleep with measured blows. Russo helped and so did Healey, Crouch consistently moving to watch their backs. A couple of mercenaries took steps toward Jensen, their mouths moving.
Alicia chanced another look at the Englishman.
His lieutenants had already drawn guns.
“Shit!”
Shots rang out and men collapsed. Alicia dived for cover as Jensen’s lieutenants took out those that openly questioned their boss. It was a criminal law, a mercenary law, an old pirate law. Men scattered and then regrouped. The fight fell into disarray.
Jensen’s voice boomed over all.
“To the boats!” he cried.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Alicia sprang after the fleeing mercenaries, unwilling to allow them to leave.
One fell face-first in the shallows beyond the rocky ground. Another whirled to strike at her but she pushed him hard, sending him tumbling against the side of Morgan’s old ship. Russo lifted another and introduced him more permanently to the rotting timbers, leaving him struggling above the water.
“New figurehead?” Alicia muttered.
“Well planted,” Healey said.
Russo kept quiet, concentrating on the running mercs and, no doubt, trying to keep ultimate control of his rage.
Alicia pushed on. She jumped up onto the side of the ship and picked her way across the perished wood. A timber in front of her collapsed under a man’s weight, trapping his ankle and making him fall. Alicia took that as a sign of righteousness and clubbed him into unconsciousness.
She looked up. A man approached.
“I’m Labadee,” he said.
One of Jensen’s lieutenant’s, he came at her with a knife to slow her down. The first thrust was measured, designed to force a mistake. She didn’t fall for it, but did have to stop her advance.
Labadee came again, a series of three quick slashes, and Alicia swerved around each of them, the last drawing a thin line of blood across the top of her right arm. The man’s eyes shone with bloodlust. Alicia shook her arm, spattering him with red.