Satisfied the Sea Foam was securely anchored, Maddock took in the weather. It was still warm out with some sun, but the sky had darkened in the southern quarter and a stiff breeze had cropped up, conjuring ocean swells. Still, Maddock didn’t see a problem with the situation and so the four of them took off in the dinghy for the beach.
They got an even better look at the island as they drew near. Like a massive hunk of rock, its greenery-shrouded form jutted straight up from the sea. A narrow ring of flat beach and land surrounded it like a skirt. Maddock followed the island’s perimeter until they reached a wide expanse of flat land with a few simple buildings visible, and in the distance, a stone facade.
Maddock pointed to a suitable spot on the beach to land the boat. He gunned the throttle and then Willis tilted up the outboard as the dinghy coasted up onto the sand with a grating hiss. They all got out and the men hauled the boat up high and dry onto the beach while Fabi scoped out their surroundings. She located a crushed coral path leading through some trees into the island’s interior, and the group made their way along it, Maddock in front. They hadn’t been walking for long when they heard a rustling of foliage to their right and above.
Maddock’s hand moved instinctively to a machete he wore on his belt. Less than a second later, no fewer than six monkeys dropped out of the trees onto Willis and Bones. They were small, but strong for their size and moved with blinding speed. Willis was a blur of flailing arms as he flung the pint-sized primates from his body. Bones had a tenacious animal wrapped around his neck, which he tried to pry loose with one hand while batting two more off his head with his other.
The monkeys screeched and chattered while Maddock pulled one of them off Bones and flung it into the foliage. He repeated the process for Willis, and meanwhile Bones had stripped himself of his other two diminutive attackers. They ran the last monkey off and took stock of the damage.
“What the heck was that?” Bones wondered aloud. “Monkeys hating on us?”
“Wasn’t too bad,” Willis said, feeling along a scratch on his arm.
“Oh yeah? You got a bloody nose,” Maddock pointed out.
Surprised, Willis touched his fingers to his nose and his eyes widened when they came away red. He pulled a bandana from a pocket and used it to wipe off the blood.
Fabi, meanwhile, had said nothing, but still stared after the monkeys retreating into the brush.
Bones followed her gaze. “You didn’t tell me Haiti was full of killer monkeys.”
She returned a puzzled look. “That’s just the thing. There are no monkeys in Haiti.”
Willis snorted. “Man, tell that to those chumps who jumped us. What’d they want, anyway? I ain’t got no bananas on me.”
“There used to be monkeys here,” Fabi went on. “And those…” She trailed off, evidently in deep thought.
“What about them?” Maddock prompted.
“They’re a species known as the Hispaniola monkey.”
“Oh, so there are monkeys on this island,” Maddock said. “Or at least on the Dominican side. Is that where they’re usually found?”
Fabi shook her head. “Not anymore. The Hispaniola monkey is thought to have gone extinct sometime in the 1500s.”
Maddock shook his head as a thunderclap sounded somewhere in the distance. “Strange. Listen, is everybody okay?” They all nodded. “We should get moving, then.”
They set out once again on the trail, hiking through the forest, now much more cautious about every sound they heard. The trees thinned on either side of them as they walked, until stone ruins were visible through the greenery on their right. They followed the path until it opened up onto a flat area where a stone fort crumbled from centuries of exposure to the elements. The four of them stood and took it in, marveling at the palpable history sitting out in the open. Fabi was the first to give voice to their thoughts.
“It doesn’t look much different than Fort Des Oliviers, but this one is visited much more rarely.”
Bones nodded. “I don’t see or hear anybody.”
“Just monkeys.” Willis gave an uneasy grin while he picked at a deep scratch on his arm.
The first drops of rain from the storm Maddock had cautioned them about began to wet the ground. He waved them deeper into the old fort. “Let’s do our recon and get back to the main island.”
He received no arguments, and this time the four of them fanned out to cover more ground more quickly. This fort also featured a perimeter wall, crumbling in spots, but it had more structures than the previous fort. It took some time to search through these, but working separately they managed to get it done before long. The four of them reconvened in the center of the fort’s open space area, each reporting that they had not discovered any spaces that likely would have been used to hold prisoners.
Dejected, and with the rain now starting to pour in earnest, Maddock signaled they should head back to the boat. They began walking through the fort’s interior space. They had almost reached the point where they had entered when Fabi detoured a short distance to examine a spire-like construction. A stone column of sorts, it didn’t appear to be a structure that could be entered, but she approached it nonetheless.
Maddock watched her near the spire. “See something interesting?”
“Not sure. It looks like…”
Suddenly the ground buckled beneath Fabi’s feet and only her head and arms were left above ground, her hands gripping and clawing the earth.
“Fabi!” Maddock raced toward her, Bones and Willis close behind.
The rain intensified, now splattering Fabi’s face with mud as she struggled to stay above ground. Maddock reached her, going into a forward, face-first slide as he watched her start to slip into some kind of crevice that had opened up. He extended both hands as he sought her grip. Their fingers touched for a second but not closely enough to establish a good grip.
Fabi disappeared into a subterranean space. Maddock, and now Bones, peered into the hole. They could just see her oval face down there, looking up at them. “I’m okay!”
“You sure?” Bones called back.
“Yes, nothing broken. You guys should come down. Drop’s not too far, especially for you SEALs. This isn’t a sinkhole, it’s some kind of chamber. There’s a lot of stone work down here, and it looks like I’m in a passage that could lead somewhere.”
Maddock eyed Bones and Willis. “Got a rope? We’ll need one to get back up.” They shook their heads but then Willis spoke up.
“You two go ahead. I’ll go back to the beach to grab the line off the dinghy, then I’ll rig it up here and meet you down there.”
Maddock nodded and he lowered himself into the hole until only his head and arms were above ground, as with Fabi. “Am I clear?” he called down to her.
“You’re good. Maybe an eight foot drop onto flat stone. Go for it.”
Maddock let go and landed with a grunt on flexed knees.
“Clear the landing zone.” Bones let gravity take him down to Fabi and Maddock.
Willis’ face appeared in the hole. “You guys good?”
“We’re okay down here, Willis.” Maddock gave him a thumbs up.
“Be back with the rope.” He disappeared from sight and they heard his footsteps trammeling the ground as he left the fort.
Chapter 11
Fabi walked away from Maddock and Bones and they followed her down a stony corridor until it widened into a chamber. “This way looks like it opens up into a room.” Here, the darkness was complete, and Maddock produced his flashlight to cast its halogen glow on the hewn walls.