Golden Legacy

by Robert James Glider

  “We’ve got her!” Jac yelled so Abi would hear. Tears and sweat had mixed and were falling down Chauncey’s face.

  “Where’s my son?”

  Jac and Townsend momentarily froze. At the same moment, Abi and Townsend’s man burst from the foliage. Abi ran to Chauncey and threw her arms around her while Jac cut the ropes that bound her to the tree.

  “Abigail, please answer me.”

  “Chauncey,” Jac interjected. The expression on his face said it all. And before he could say anything more, Chauncey started to bawl.

  Jac continued to speak and told Chauncey that, when they arrived in the cave, James had died from the loss of blood.

  “Before he died, he managed to give Roni a message for you,” Jac continued. “He said he was truly sorry and that he loved you. Roni will tell you the exact words when we get back to the Adventurer.

  “There’s more,” Abi said. “James said that Remy had told him that he killed my mother.” Tears fell from her eyes.

  “Aieee!” Chauncey screamed out as if someone had cut off her right arm.

  A steady breeze pushed dark clouds over the island, and a light rain began to fall.

  No more than two minutes had passed before Chauncey raised her head and looked up toward the top of the mountain. A calm had come over her. Her face showed a chilling resolve to take revenge on the man who had killed her son.

  “Give me a gun, and let’s get that bastard,” Chauncey growled.

  Townsend didn’t say a word. He handed her his 9 mm service weapon and told her it was loaded.

  Jac led the way up the path that Remy had cut in his quest to get to the treasure.

  CHAPTER 56

  Remy heard Chauncey’s scream and knew James was dead.

  “Damn it! I should have killed her,” Remy muttered.

  Samuel quickly tied a section of the rope around a large outcropping of rock and repelled down to the ledge. Remy told him to be ready to catch him if the trap he was about to set went awry. His increased weight worried him. Remy shimmied down the rope and stopped about ten feet above the ledge. He took out his knife and cut into the rope just above him. It would give away with a heavier body weight. When Remy stood safely on the ledge, he looked up and smiled. He hoped his ruse would send at least one of his pursuers to their death.

  The sky had darkened, and the wind picked up in strength. A clap of thunder and the instant flash of lightening made both men hug the inner wall of the mountain. A cold shiver went up Remy’s spine when he looked down and saw giant waves slamming into the rocks below.

  The intensity of the rain increased as the two men carefully inched their way around the corner of the mountain.

  By the time Remy and Samuel were out of sight of where they had climbed down, the ledge had narrowed by almost a foot. With the wind blowing and the rain pelting them, Remy feared he’d made the wrong decision and was about to meet his end. He couldn’t take it much longer. Then he saw something ahead.

  As the helicopter lifted off from the entry point to the lagoon, the man onboard the Adventurer fired. The bullets fell short. The pilot had turned the helicopter out to sea before turning to make a sweep around the island.

  “The pilot says the beach is too narrow for us to land,” Mandrago said. “We could land in the water close to the beach, but he doesn’t want to take the chance that a bullet will hit the engine or gas tanks.”

  “I hope everyone is okay,” Auntie Mick said.

  “We are making a run around the island to see if we can help,” Peri said. He put his arm around Auntie Mick.

  “Get in closer to the island,” Michael yelled.

  Mandrago and Peri put on goggles and strapped themselves at the open doorway with weapons at the ready.

  “Duck!” Samuel yelled out when he saw the muzzle of a gun sticking out the door of the hovering helicopter.

  A sudden wind gust sent the helicopter lurching. It dipped below them and the burst of bullets missed.

  “Damn it! Where did they come from?” Remy yelled. “What’s that up ahead?

  “It’s a crack in the mountain,” Samuel said.

  Another barrage of bullets harmlessly hit the rocks outside the fissure as both men slid through the crack into darkness.

  Samuel turned on his flashlight and moved the beam around the walls until it fell into the obscurity of a hole in the rock.

  “It looks like it goes down a long way,” Remy said. He followed Samuel down several hundred feet until they came to a junction of tunnels.

  “Let’s keep going to the right,” Remy said. “The other passageway goes up while the one on the right looks to be going downward.”

  When they had gone a hundred feet into the tunnel, the ceiling sloped downward and they had to crawl.

  Fear entered Remy’s mind. He fought the paranoia that a trapped animal feels when it knows it has met its end.

  “We are going to have to lie on our stomachs to get through that hole up ahead,” Samuel said. “Wait here. I’ll take a look.” He went ahead and looked through the hole.

  “Looks like a large cavern on the other side.”

  Remy was impatient. “Damn it! Can you see if there’s a way out?”

  “Yes, there is.”

  CHAPTER 57

  Jac and Townsend led the way, cautiously moving along the path Remy had cut through the heavy foliage. Jac put up his right hand signaling to stop.

  The sound of the wind and raindrops splattering on the large leaves of the banana palms had covered their arrival to the clearing at the top of the mountain.

  Jac and Townsend scanned the area in front of them.

  “There’s no place to hide,” Townsend said. “Where are they?”

  “Remy must have found the treasure,” Abi said. She picked two gold coins she saw lying on the ground and handed them to Townsend.

  “They went this way,” Jac yelled. He’d found a rope tied around the rock and followed it to the edge of the mountain. He looked over the side and saw that the rope was dangling in the wind above a ledge.

  A clap of thunder rumbled across the darkening sky. The intensity of the rain increased.

  “There’s a ridge below. I’m going after them,” Jac said.

  “I’m going with you,” Townsend said.

  “Okay,” Jac said. Then he turned toward Abi. “Abi, this is going to be dangerous. If Remy gets back to the boats before us, he might get away. We need you and Chauncey to head back to the beach and wait. We can’t let him get to the boats on the beach. Remy has no other way off this island.”

  “Okay, Jac,” Abi said. She reached up and hugged him, kissed him on the cheek, and whispered in his ear, “Be careful, and remember, I love you.”

  Jac was taken aback for a second. “I love you too. Don’t take any unnecessary risks!” He looked at Chauncey. The two women tried to hide what they were thinking by quickly turning away. Jac noticed their glancing eye contact and sardonic smiles on their faces. He knew if Remy got there before he and Townsend were able to apprehend him, Abi and Chauncey might take their revenge and kill him.

  Townsend also caught the exchange of looks between the women.

  “Sergeant. Go with them and take prisoners, if possible.”

  “Look, there are two men making their way along that outcropping. It’s Remy!” Mandrago yelled.

  Peri fired a burst of rounds that missed when the helicopter was pushed down by a sudden gust of wind from above.

  Mandrago fired as well, but Remy and the man had disappeared. “Shit! They ducked into a split in the mountain.

  Peri pointed. “Look it’s Jac and Townsend!”

  The helicopter suddenly fell several feet. The rain and wind intensity had increased to near gale force.

  “Jac is repelling to the ledge,” Peri said. “God!”

&nb
sp; “Hang on, son!” Mandrago yelled. He watched as the rope split apart as Jac was repelling. Luckily it broke when Jac’s repel was into the mountain. He dropped three feet below the ledge and caught on to a hanging vine that was jutting out from the rock face and was dangling in the wind.

  They watched Townsend climb down the rope to where it had given way. He jumped to the ledge and lay down on his stomach. They saw Jac grab Townsend’s extended arm. They locked their hands around each other’s wrists. Everyone in the helicopter cheered when Townsend easily pulled Jac up onto the ledge.

  Michael had moved up into the copilot’s seat.

  The helicopter engine sputtered and coughed as the craft bumped up and down on the wind.

  Everyone in the back of the helicopter was taking a beating as they were jostled up and down and sideways.

  “The engine is overheating, and I’m losing control,” the pilot said. “I have to set her down soon.” A look of distress crossed his face.

  “Can you get us back to the mouth of the lagoon where the water is calmer?” Michael said.

  “I’ll try.” The pilot turned the helicopter into the wind and pushed forward on the accelerator. He brought the helicopter down to twenty feet over the water and turned it around the mountain. The lagoon was in sight.

  Suddenly the engine stopped.

  CHAPTER 58

  Jac and Townsend sat on the ledge. They watched the helicopter fighting the wind gusts as it disappeared around the side of the mountain.

  “Thanks,” Jac said. “That was close.”

  Townsend stood up and pulled Jac to his feet. “Look at this.” He handed Jac the piece of rope that had given way.

  “Remy cut it halfway through so one of us would fall,” Jac said.

  “Right.” Townsend looked to where Jac’s eyes had moved. “I pray the copter gets back to the lagoon safely.”

  “Yeah, me too.” Jac was worried. He stood for a minute silently staring at the spot where he and Townsend had last seen the helicopter.

  “I have to check my guns,” Jac said. The Heckler & Koch clipped to his belt had hit hard against the rock when he fell. After a quick inspection he found it was okay. Jac then pulled out his 9 mm Glock from his shoulder holster and cocked a round into the chamber. “Okay, let’s go get that son of a bitch!”

  They hugged the wall and carefully made their way around the corner.

  When Townsend slipped through the opening and joined Jac in the dark, he turned on the military penlight he always carried. He moved the narrow laser-like beam around the walls of the cavern.

  “There must have been a series of upheavals when the mountain was formed,” Jac said.

  “Yes. The movement of rock has created a puzzle of sorts. But what if, with all its trembling and development, it never created a way out?”

  “Well, I guess we eat bugs and rats, and we eventually die. At least we’ll know that Remy also died.”

  “Morbid thought.”

  “Let’s be optimistic. It looks like they went this way. They tied a rope to that rock, and it’s still here,” Jac said. His voice resounded off the walls of the cavity.

  “Be careful, Jac. Remy almost got you once.”

  “He’s full of tricks, but I only fall for it once. Pun intended.”

  Townsend smiled. “Here, Jac, take the light.”

  Jac grabbed onto the rope with one hand and wrapped his legs around the rope under him. He flashed the light on the rope below him as he shimmied down. The light beam had limited range to penetrate the void. Townsend followed with his 9 mm Glock in his free hand ready to fire.

  “I see something. It’s shiny,” Jac said. A moment later his feet touched the ground. Townsend jumped down behind him. Jac estimated they had climbed down about thirty feet. He knew the lengths of rope he kept in the backpacks on the Adventurer were fifty feet each. Remy would have only about two twenty-foot pieces left. It was still a long way down to the beach.

  Jac picked up a silver coin from the ground and handed it to Townsend. “They must be loaded down if they’re dropping coins.”

  “Or left it as a marker in case there was no way out of here. Where did they go?”

  Jac shone the light around and saw two large holes in the rock that looked to be tunnels. “This one on the right goes down. I’m sure they went this way.”

  Samuel cut a short length of rope. He tied one end through the loops on the two backpacks and secured the other around his waist. Remy lay on his stomach and pushed his way through the opening. Samuel followed and pulled the backpacks through. Remy flashed the light around the cave. “Help me push a rock over the opening,” Remy said.

  Both men grimaced and groaned as they pushed a large rock in place over the hole.

  “That should slow Kidd down,” said Remy

  When Samuel sat down on a large rock and groaned. Remy knew he was nearly spent. The added weight of the backpack was taking its toll. They had been on the go for several hours, and Samuel had done most of the work. He’d cut their way up the mountain through the heavy foliage, and then dug for the treasure before their harrowing climb down here. It sounded easier than it was. Remy had to keep pushing Samuel in order to survive. He didn’t care about anyone else. Samuel was expendable, but not until he helped carry all the treasure out of this rock hell. There has to be a way out, Remy thought. If there wasn’t, he found it amusing that he would still die rich. If they were caught or there was no way out, it would be all for nothing. If they got out, Remy was resolved not to go to jail, and he needed to keep Samuel alive to get the treasure to Kidd’s boat.

  “The way out can’t be much farther,” Remy said. He didn’t pray because he didn’t believe in God. If there was a God, he thought, he would have saved Kincaid’s sorry ass before Mulee and I killed him. He moved the flashlight over the hole. It looked like it went downward on a steep incline.

  “Come on, Samuel,” Remy muttered. “We’re getting close to the bottom.”

  The darkness swallowed them as they half slid and half climbed downward.

  CHAPTER 59

  The eight-ton wingless bird dropped like an elevator in freefall. The helicopter’s pontoons hit the water, sending the craft bouncing up seven feet. The second jolt was like a mild earthquake aftershock. The passengers in the rear compartment smashed into one another and lay heaped in the center of the downed bird. The helicopter settled just outside the mouth of the lagoon where the water was a bit calmer. Somehow, it had been saved from becoming a wreck on the bottom of the ocean.

  The pilot pressed the start button. The rotors turned, and the engine whined but didn’t turn over. He tried two more times with the same result, and stopped to let the batteries recharge.

  “Is everyone all right?” Michael yelled. He quickly released his seat belt and climbed back to the rear compartment.

  “A cut and a few bruises, but okay,” Mandrago said. He was already on his feet checking on Roni, Auntie Mick, and Peri.

  “I’m good. No broken bones,” Auntie Mick said. She looked up at Roni and smiled.

  “People pay for this kind of ride at Disney World?” Peri muttered. He pulled himself up off the floor and sat down next to Mandrago.

  Townsend’s man got out the first aid kit and told Mandrago to sit so he could tend to the cut on his head.

  They heard the whine of the starter as it tried to turn over the engine.

  “We have another problem—a serious one,” the pilot yelled.

  Michael scurried back to the copilot’s seat.

  “We’re being pushed by the storm waves. We’re about two hundred yards from the Adventurer. I haven’t been able to restart the engines. We’re being swept toward the boat.”

  Peri and Mandrago heard the pilot as they came forward.

  “What’s wrong with the engine?” Peri said.

  “I
hope it’s only flooded. If it’s more than that …”

  “We’ll have to get to the Adventurer and get it out of the way,” Mandrago interjected.

  “I’ll let the engine sit idle for about ten minutes. If the engine is only flooded, it should release and start.”

  “Let’s not wait the ten minutes,” Peri said. “We need an alternate plan … and quick.” He looked at Mandrago.

  “Michael. You up for a swim?” Mandrago said.

  “Yeah. How do you want to get to the guy on board?”

  “First we’ll have to figure out how to draw his fire away from the helicopter,” Peri said.

  “We swim underwater. One of us goes to the bow and the other to the stern. One of us will be able to occupy him so the other one can get on board. He won’t be able to be in two places at once. When the other one climbs aboard …”

  “… he takes care of our problem,” Peri finished. “I’ll try and occupy him by taking a few single shots.”

  “We’ve moved about one hundred feet closer,” Mandrago said. “Peri, take a few aimed shots at the guy to get him to duck. Michael and I will dive in and swim about half the distance underwater. When you see us come up for air take another shot. It should get us there.”

  “God willing,” Aunti Mick said.

  Roni rushed to Michael and threw her arms around him. “Promise me you’ll be careful. I don’t want to lose you now that I found you.”

  Michael grinned. “I will. I promise.”

  Peri smiled. He was proud of his sister’s boy.

  “Let’s go, Mike,” Mandrago said.

  A minute later, Peri fired two single shots, and both men were out the door and into the water.

  Jac was grunting as he backed himself out of the narrow tunnel.

  “They blocked the hole with a big rock. We won’t be able to get enough leverage to push it out of the way.”

  “Over here, Jac,” Townsend said. “Let’s try this tunnel.”