Betrayed in the Keys

by Matthew Rief

  She then jimmied off the cover plate and wedged one of its edges into the deadbolt mechanism. Leaning her weight against the plate, she forced the deadbolt loose, then slid it out of the door frame. Setting the plate aside, she listened quietly, then slowly opened the door.

  She peeked through at a dimly lit hallway and then pulled the door open just enough to fit through. She stepped out, and a second later, she paused as she spotted a guy standing and leaning against the port hallway paneling. He had a revolver strapped to his waist. His arms were crossed in front of him, and his eyes were closed, with his head bent sideways.

  Angelina didn’t hesitate. With light steps, she strode towards him. She’d fought with her hands bound behind her back before. It wasn’t easy, but as with all fights, she knew that the key was to strike first and disable your opponent as quickly as possible.

  Twisting her body, she threw her bound hands over the unsuspecting thug’s head, then bent her elbows with all her strength, squeezing his neck tightly. Just as the thug woke up and realized he was in a fight, Angelina bent her knees, jerked her body sideways, and slammed his head into the deck. He grunted in pain, dazed from the hard hit to his head, then gagged and struggled to free himself as Angelina flexed her arms wrapped around his neck.

  Within a few seconds, his struggling stopped and he lay motionless beside her. Knowing their scuffle would have undoubtedly drawn the attention of other nearby thugs, Angelina quickly rose to her feet and pulled his body through the open doorway, into the room she’d come from. Moments later, as if her intuition had summoned them, she heard heavy footsteps moving quickly down the passageway just forward of her cabin.

  She dragged the big thug around the bed, where he could be relatively out of sight, then snatched his revolver and crawled on top of the messy bed. When the two guys reached her cabin, they examined the open door momentarily, then stepped inside. Both of them were surprised when all they saw was Angelina lying on her back with her eyes closed, appearing to be sound asleep.

  “Where the fuck is Jose?” one of the guys said to the other.

  The other guy didn’t reply. He could sense that something strange was going on, and he reached for the Beretta holstered to his waist and held it out in front of him. He moved in towards the bed, hovering over Angelina as her chest moved slowly up and down. When he was just a few feet above her, she made her move.

  In a flash of movement, she shot her legs into the air and wrapped them forcefully around the guy’s neck. Before the thug could do anything but gasp, she jerked her legs hard in opposite directions, causing his neck to crack, then flung him as hard as she could sideways into the window beside her.

  Thug number two reached for his piece. Angelina, still gripping the revolver in her right hand, turned her body around and fired two rounds into his chest before his fingers had even reached the handgrip of his weapon. Blood splattered out from his shirt, and his body lurched backward, collapsing and slamming into the far wall.

  With both thugs down for the count, Angelina slid off the bed and jumped to her feet. The two loud explosions of gunpowder had shaken the cabin and adjoining passageway to life, and she knew that she only had a short window to act before another handful of thugs descended upon her.

  As quickly as she could, Angelina searched the corpses and found a jingling set of keys in the front pants pocket of the guy she’d filled with lead. She recognized instantly the type of key she wanted, grabbed hold of it, and freed herself from the handcuffs. Then she snatched the Beretta from the thug whose neck she’d snapped with both hands and moved towards the cabin door.

  Hearing footsteps grow louder as they moved in her direction down the hallway, she waited in the dark shadows behind the door frame. An Uzi appeared first through the door, and she kicked the arm holding it. The thug held down the trigger, sending a stream of bullets into the ceiling as Angelina moved into view, held the thug’s hand up with hers, and sent a bullet exploding into his face. His life vanished in a mess of blood and bone, and Angelina used him as a human shield as she stepped into the passageway.

  The two other thugs running towards her opened fire, shooting rounds into their dead buddy as Angelina snuck her Beretta around his body and pulled the trigger. She hit the first guy in the hip, causing him to tumble over awkwardly and slam into the ground near her feet. She hit the second guy in the shoulder, causing his body to spin, then shot him again in the back.

  Letting go of the dead guy in her arms and allowing his body to collapse beside her, she finished off the other two, then bent down, grabbed a full magazine, and quickly exchanged it with the one in her Beretta that was almost spent. Once locked and loaded, she ran for a set of stairs at the end of the passageway. Her heart was pounding, her adrenaline surging. She had no way of knowing how many more cartel were on board or where they were keeping Logan. She just knew that she had to find him, Frank, and Jack at all costs.

  She approached the stairs slowly and with the Beretta gripped with two hands in front of her. She made quick work of the steps, and when she reached the top, she gasped as she took aim at a shadowy figure that stood just a few feet in front of her. She didn’t know how one of the thugs had managed to sneak up on her, but she didn’t have time to ponder the situation.

  As she raised her Beretta towards the cartel, he suddenly sprang towards her. Before she could pull the trigger, he slid to the side and knocked the weapon from her hands with a strong left hook. As it rattled to the floor, Angelina retaliated by planting her left foot and swinging her right leg into the air towards her opponent. He tried to move, but her leg jammed hard into his side and caused him to grunt quietly.

  The man kept his balance, grabbed her by the leg, and hurled her to the floor. Her blood boiling and her anger rising, she brought her right arm back, preparing to slam her fist into the face of the guy, who’d clearly had much more hand-to-hand combat training than she’d initially expected. But before throwing her fist, she saw the guy’s face for the first time through the light bleeding through a nearby window curtain.

  “Ange?” he said, gasping for air as his arm muscles still held her down.

  For a moment, she thought her mind was playing tricks on her.

  “Scott?” she said, shaking her head. He loosened his grip, kneeling on the deck beside her as she sat up. “What are you doing here?”

  He rose to his feet, then held out a hand to help her up as well. He looked back and forth, making sure there weren’t any other cartel nearby. He was wearing a pair of black tactical pants, a dark gray long-sleeved shirt, and a bulletproof vest. His short dark hair was wet, and he had a thin layer of black paint over his face.

  “I’m here for you guys,” he said in his serious and authoritative voice. “When Pete called and told me you, Jack, and Frank had been taken too, I knew I had to come down and help out.”

  She stared at him, still in disbelief.

  “But how did you find us?”

  He smiled slightly and pointed at the watch strapped to her left wrist.

  “I told you,” he said. “I put a tracker in it a year ago.”

  She glanced down at her black-and-silver Suunto Core digital dive watch, then smiled. She’d completely forgotten about her conversation with him back when Logan had first disappeared.

  “Where are the others?” Scott asked, glancing at the stairs behind Angelina. “I only saw Black Venom up here.”

  Angelina shrugged. “I don’t know. I just woke up a few minutes ago.” She looked beyond the former Naval officer and saw a cluster of bodies sprawled out on the deck behind him. “Jeez, how many guys did you take out?”

  He blew off her question and said, “We need to find them. Let’s search all of the rooms and then head to shore.”

  She looked back at him, confused. “Shore? Wait, is this still moored alongside Lignumvitae Key?”

  “Yep. And a helicopter took off just a few minutes ago when I arrived, heading for the island. The yacht’s skiff is missing as well. A
ny idea what they’re doing here?”

  Angelina shook her head and said, “No.” Then she thought it over a moment and added, “Unless…”

  “Unless what?”

  She paused a moment, staring down the hallway, lost in thought.

  “You remember that pirate treasure we told you about?” she said a few seconds later.

  “Yeah, why?”

  She looked back at him, waiting for it to click. When it did, his eyes grew wide and he motioned down the stairs.

  “We need to move!” he said, striding alongside her with his Glock raised chest height.

  THIRTY-THREE

  My excitement upon seeing Shadow’s lost treasure for the first time was trumped by the voice in the back of my mind, reminding me that we were captives. Now that we’d found the treasure, I knew that there would no longer be any reason for Jefe to keep us alive. I watched him closely as he peered through the opening in the stone and shined his light upon the stacks of wooden chests, ready to make my move at a moment’s notice if necessary.

  He turned back to us, tongued a wad of dip from the corner of his cheek, and spat it into the corner beside him. He had a stern and all-business air to him as he stepped towards us.

  “Shove that wall aside,” he said to no one in particular.

  A few of his big thugs stepped forward, but before they’d reached the wall, Frank sprang towards them and said, “Wait!” The two thugs froze in their tracks as Frank moved beside them. “There’s markings on the wall here.” He pointed to parts of the wall that were covered in strange dark symbols, and part of the wall that was carved out.

  “What the fuck do I care about symbols?” Jefe barked. “Look, Professor, we found the treasure. You can just can it with all the history crap now, ’cause we don’t need it.”

  Frank ignored him as he looked over the wall, scanning his flashlight as he moved his way down to the other side of it. Jefe, growing frustrated, ordered his men to move the wall.

  “It’s load-bearing,” Frank said. “If you move that wall, then the ceiling will cave in on us. It’s another trap.”

  Reluctantly, Jefe called off his men and moved over beside Frank.

  “See?” Frank said. “There are handholds carved in here. It was a final attempt to keep outsiders from reaching the treasure.”

  Reluctantly, Jefe conceded and ordered his men to push the wall in the other direction. His thugs stepped over and, grabbing hold of the wall, slowly slid it over to the right. It took a while to get it going, but once the space was large enough, we all moved in and helped push it out of the way. Frank had been right. Despite a few disconcerting shakes and crumbles of dirt and rock, the ceiling hadn’t budged. With the wall pushed aside, we now had a four-foot-wide opening leading into the treasure room.

  Jefe stepped in first, shining his light around the room. Even he wasn’t able to keep his excitement from showing. It was a large space, roughly thirty feet wide, fifty feet deep, and ten feet tall. Most of it was covered with stacks of old chests, ranging in style and size.

  I was amazed at how, after all these years, the room had managed to remain so intact. There were a few areas where the stones had crumbled loose or water had seeped in and mildewed, but for the most part, I imagined that the room looked much like it had back when it was constructed.

  Jefe and his thugs gravitated towards the chests as if possessed. The leader of Black Venom slid his hands over one of the larger ones, then lifted its old squeaky lid, revealing a massive pile of gold and silver coins mixed with uncut rubies and emeralds. His face contorted into a smile as he grabbed a handful of the treasure, then slowly let the pieces fall from his hand and jingle against each other. I reasoned that in that one chest alone, there was probably over ten million dollars’ worth of treasure. Looking around the room, I couldn’t tell how many chests there were but estimated close to fifty.

  It was a bittersweet moment. Finding Shadow’s long-lost treasure should have been one of the most exciting moments of my life, but our present circumstance cast a dark cloud over it all, and all I could think about was how and when to make our move. Timing is key in any skirmish, especially one where your enemy has you severely outnumbered and outgunned.

  Felix and Cesar had both been uncharacteristically quiet ever since we’d entered the structure. Felix was still banged up from his confrontation with Jefe. He had cuts across his face and moved with painful, labored steps. Cesar too had been beaten up pretty bad when Jefe had first arrived. Backstabbing in the notorious drug cartel is an unforgivable crime, almost always punished with a painful death. They looked defeated, and I knew that if Frank and I were going to have any chance of getting out of this, we’d need their help.

  We stood in silence as Jefe and his thugs went through the chests, then gazed in awe at the rest of the room. After spending less than a minute admiring what we’d found, Jefe turned back to us and ordered that the treasure be loaded up into the helicopter. He was a hard man who didn’t mess around and didn’t like wasting time. He put us into groups, with Frank and me carrying chests back and forth together, and Felix and Cesar doing the same. We were escorted by two thugs each, and the rest of the thugs joined in the work.

  It was difficult, tiresome, and slow going. The chests had to weigh over a hundred pounds each, and navigating along the corridors and up the old stairs wasn’t easy. Jefe had called more of his thugs to help with the load. They tied a handful of metal rung ladders across the main long corridor, allowing us to traverse its dangerous surface without falling through and becoming human kabobs.

  My calloused hands and my weary muscles screamed in pain, but I pushed through it as Frank and I carried the first chest up into the light of the hole we’d dug. The sun had risen fully off to the east, its light glowing through the overcast sky and allowing us to see a group of Jefe’s thugs and the dark blue Mil Mi-38 transport helicopter parked above with its large side door wide open.

  They used ropes to bring up the chest the rest of the way, then ordered us to go back down for another. Slowly and carefully, Frank and I made our way back towards the treasure room, avoiding the other groups as they labored by along the way. As we stepped across the ladders, Frank moved close behind me.

  “Please tell me you have a plan here?” he whispered as we creaked from rung to rung like mountaineers traversing an icefall.

  “Making it up as I go along,” I said. “But I’m open to ideas.”

  Frank went quiet for a moment, then, when we reached the end of the final ladder he said, “I may have something. But it’s reckless, and the odds of its success rival a game of roulette.”

  I laughed softly, though only for a moment. The two thugs Jefe had ordered to follow us were watching us like hawks. They were some of the best fighters in Black Venom, Jefe’s personal guards, and I knew that they meant business. A confrontation with any of them would take more than just a few strong blows, and I knew that they were the type of hardened men who would capitalize on any mistake we made.

  “I love it,” I said when we reached the fork and turned right.

  Frank and I continued our quiet and concise conversation while hauling the rest of the chests back and forth. We all knew that the helicopter wouldn’t be able to carry all of it along with his men, but no one questioned Jefe. He had evil in his eyes, cruelty in his heart, and a short temper. A particularly dangerous combination of traits.

  Frank and I moved our fatigued bodies into the treasure chamber and stepped towards one of the last remaining chests. Over the past half hour, we’d been able to pass along a few words to both Felix and Cesar about our plan, but neither of them had given more than a simple nod in return. I didn’t know what they were going through or if they were with us, but regardless if they were or not, one thing was certain: I sure as hell wasn’t about to be murdered by a bunch of thugs without putting up a fight. And I didn’t care how high the odds were stacked against us.

  Jefe was still standing stoically in the chamber, bar
king out orders and yelling at us to go faster. We kept our eyes forward as we moved to opposite sides of a chest that was slightly larger and had a drastically different color than the rest. Instead of dark wood with aged iron hasps, the chest had a lighter color and was adorned with diamonds. It was also resting on top of a large flagstone that only Frank had initially noticed. It was difficult to distinguish it from the floor surrounding it, but once Frank had pointed it out, it became obvious what it was.

  “Stop!” Jefe yelled, causing Frank and me to freeze in place.

  He then ordered us to move along the far wall, away from the chests. I shot a glance at Frank, knowing that whether intentionally or not, Jefe was throwing a wrench into our plans. We’d just placed our hands on the chest, but as Jefe eyed us, we let go and did as he said. My mind went to work, strategizing and trying to figure out what we should do. Striking fast and hard would be key. Trying to take them by surprise would be vital to our success.

  “My men will take it from here,” Jefe continued in a hard, arrogant tone. “You guys have been a lot of help.”

  He laughed as Felix and Cesar labored into the chamber. Aiming his revolver at them, he forced them to stand beside us. Jefe and eight of his thugs stood across from us, and for a second I thought that he was going to try and kill us all by firing squad.

  “As much as I would like to take you down one by one right now,” Jefe said, “I have a different fate in mind.” He panned his revolver slowly back and forth, then added, “Like Shadow’s traitors who he left behind, you too shall remain here forever.” He stepped towards us, then trained his revolver on Felix. “Felix Callejo. One of my oldest and most trusted companions. A man I first met as a boy in Tlapehuala.” He moved right into Felix’s face. “I saved your life back then, and this is how you repay me?”

  I saw emotion on Felix’s face for the first time since we’d arrived on the island. A sudden and powerful rage took over. His eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched, and a vein pulsed visibly on his forehead.