“Do you think it could really be that easy? Just find the right slot, put the triangle in and…Presto! Dig here for treasure.”
“If I had that access to that map and knew that there was a treasure in one of those places, I wouldn’t waste time waiting to see if this thing turned up. I’d go to every single location on the map and tear them apart until I found it.”
She grinned at him. “Something tells me you’d be able to narrow it down and find the right place on the first try.”
“Why, thank you.”
She held the medallion close to her eyes, searching for some hidden inscription. “Maybe there’s more to it than just knowing where to go. Maybe once you get to the right place, you have to use the key again.”
Dane held his hand out, palm up. “Doesn’t matter. This triangle is what everyone wants. It’s our leverage.”
“Leverage?” She handed him the medallion. “What kind of treasure hunter are you?”
“I’ll let you know when I figure that out.” He looked out to where Jacinta was anchored, and then saw Bones and Gabby aboard the Zodiac surfing the breakers on their return trip. “Come on. Let’s go tell Bones he wasted a trip.”
As the wave started to pick them up, Bones gripped the side of the Zodiac and shouted: “Now!”
Gabby, seated at the stern, twisted the throttle and the inflatable craft started forward. For a moment, it seemed that they would lose the race; the wave was relentless, inexorable, while the puny outboard was struggling to overcome the Zodiac’s inertia. The nose tilted down, the boat sliding up the face of the wave…but then, just when it seemed they would lose the wave altogether, gravity gave them an assist. The Zodiac dropped down the face of the breaker like it was a roller coaster.
“Cut it!”
Gabby let go of the throttle, allowing the engine to idle, but even though the screw was no longer turning, they were picking up speed. She angled the tiller so that the boat veered to the right, shooting along the base of the wave as it curled and broke right behind them.
“You’re surfing!” cheered Bones.
Gabby shrieked with delight. “Let’s do it again!”
“Business before pleasure. Besides, first we’d have to get past the incoming breakers to get back out, and as you’ve seen, that’s the hard part.”
“I want to try. Show me how.”
“Let’s drop off our package first.”
She stuck out her lip in a pout. “I thought Maddock was the stick-in-the-mud.”
“Hey, I let you drive, didn’t I? Some gratitude would be nice.” He turned his attention to the beach where Maddock and Alex stood waiting. Even from fifty yards out, Bones could see the look of triumph on his team leader’s face. “Uh, oh. Either Maddock got lucky, or he found what he was looking for.”
As the wave collapsed to white froth beneath them, Gabby engaged the screw once more and turned the Zodiac toward the place where the others waited. Bones sat near the prow, poised to leap out as soon as the fiberglass hull scraped against the sand.
The engine noise cut out as Gabby abruptly let off the throttle again. Bones turned to admonish her, but before he could say anything, she had twisted the throttle in the opposite direction, reversing the screw.
“Not yet—” Bones started to say, but then he was thrown off balance by the sudden deceleration. He saw Gabby reach out to him, but instead of trying to catch hold of him, she gave him a hard shove, toppling him forward over the prow.
The water was hip deep, but he went in face first and it took him a few seconds to right himself. He came up, sputtering, not really angry but ready to meet her unprovoked horseplay with equal and appropriate mischief. The Zodiac however was already thirty yards away, skimming the incoming whitewater and headed for the breakers. He shouted her name, but she didn’t look back.
Maddock splashed out to meet him. “What did you say to her?”
Bones shook his head. “Women. Who can figure ‘em?” Then he realized Alex was there and added. “I mean, she’s just a kid.”
“Well, tell her to quite goofing off,” said Maddock. “We found it.”
Bones wheeled around. “Seriously. I mean, I knew you could do it, but…seriously? You found it?”
Maddock held up a piece of shiny yellow metal.
Bones shook his head in amazement. “A needle in a haystack, and you found it. You’re buying me a lotto ticket when we get back, because you must be the luckiest bastard on earth.”
Maddock nodded to the Zodiac which was fighting its way through the incoming surf. “One of us has to be. What’s she doing?”
“Trying to hot dog, I guess. If she’s not careful…” He didn’t finish the thought aloud. He had been about to say that if Gabby wasn’t careful, she’d be going for a swim, but the awful truth was if she failed, there was a good chance the Zodiac would be wrecked, and then they’d all have a rough swim to get back to the Jacinta.
He held his breath as she made her charge, a couple seconds too soon for his liking, but the wave was smaller than the one he’d charged and she actually made it look easy. The inflatable slid down the shallow back of the wave, momentarily disappearing from view, but when the wave flattened out, he was surprised to see the Zodiac heading for the anchored vessel. Gabby pulled the inflatable up to the diving platform, tied it off, and ascended the stairs.
“Ah, Bones?” There was an anxious incredulity in Maddock’s voice, a sentiment that Bones felt as well, and with each passing second, his dread increased. Something was very wrong.
Any doubts to that effect were swept away when they heard the distant but unmistakable sound of helicopters in the sky.
CHAPTER 14
Dane followed the roar of the approaching turbines and scanned the horizon until he spied the three aircraft. They were moving in low, almost skimming the water, probably to avoid radar detection. As they got closer, Dane could see that they were a motley assortment, different makes and vintages with no uniformity in terms of paint scheme and no visible identifying markings. One bird looked like a Bell 204 or more probably, its military variant, the UH-1 better known by its nickname the “Huey” and Dane wondered if it was a working leftover from the Vietnam War era. It was a passing thought, quickly swept away in the fight or flight cascade triggered by the realization that their enemies had found them.
Bones had assumed a similar posture, every muscle in his six and a half-foot tensing in anticipation of a deadly confrontation. “Damn. She sold us out, didn’t she?”
“Don’t sweat it.” Dane tried — and failed — to affect a care-free tone. Part of him wanted to rage at Bones for being so quick to trust Gabby, for being too easily seduced by her flirtatious manner. But was he any different? His instincts hadn’t picked up on the slightest whiff of treachery, and he’d extended his trust to Alex almost as freely as Bones had to Gabby.
Alex.
He faced her, wondering only now about her loyalties and motives. What did he really know about her? She stared back, anxiety writ in her expression, but when she spoke her voice was steady and calm, as if she didn’t entirely grasp the seriousness of the situation. “Do you think it’s the Templars?”
“I think we’re about to find out.”
It took only a few seconds for the aircraft to arrive and as they swooped over the island, they settled into a loose triangle, hovering in place as if to cover potential avenues of escape. The rear doors of each helicopter had been removed and crowded around each doorway were men in black battle-dress, faces hidden behind balaclavas. The men were all armed with rifles and carbines, and had their weapons trained on the trio stranded on the beach.