Aliana looked at Rodriguez – he was talking to himself more than her – and wondered if she could kill him before either of his two goons with AK 47s noticed.
But how?
“Have you said your good byes to your dear Sam Reilly?”
“No, his father taught me that Sam’s not an easy man to get rid of. I think you’ll find that they’re both far more resilient than you give them credit for.”
“Confidence. I like to see that in a woman!” Rodriguez said. “Good for you. I wonder how long it will last, after I keep you to see firsthand the power revealed by the Ark of Light. After all, I’m soon to bring a new global order. Like it or not, you may as well start obeying me now.”
It was Aliana’s turn to laugh. “New global order. I thought you were a common thief and murderer, but I see that you’re just crazy.”
“Laugh now, but you may as well accept your boyfriend’s dead, and I’m about to change the course of history.” Rodriguez, seeing that his story wasn’t entertaining anyone but himself, turned to his men, and said, “Stay here, cover it properly, make sure no one’s ever going to mistake it for the entrance to something. I want it buried properly. And then I’ll be waiting for you with the plane in Sydney.”
“Understood, boss.”
Rodriguez then took out a large handgun and pointed it at Aliana. If she’d known anything about weapons, she’d have known that it was a Smith and Wesson .500 Magnum, the most powerful production handgun in existence. Recently advertised as the weapon of choice as, “A Hunting Handgun for any Game Animal,” due to its ability to take down an elephant at a reasonable distance.
Aliana didn’t need to know that, though. She saw Rodriguez’s cheery face and knew that he meant business. “Now, we can do this my way, or the hard way. Frankly, I don’t mind my women difficult. They all come around, soon enough, even the rich ones, with enough incentive.”
Aliana didn’t want to give him any chance to physically display his power over her. She stepped up into the large Mercedes 6x6. Rodriguez followed after her and, taking out a pair of cable ties, locked her wrists together.
“Nothing personal, dear, but I can’t have you causing me trouble while I’m driving. You understand, it’s just not safe.”
She said nothing, and Rodriguez started back the way he came.
Aliana took one last look at the buried land behind her, where the man she loved had disappeared.
Chapter Twenty One
Tom drove down the dry, corrugated, dirt road into Barmah National Park. It had taken him slightly longer than he’d expected, but at least he wouldn’t be an obvious target since leaving the Super Huey in Echuca. Driving along the edge of the Murray-Darling River, Tom pulled off the beaten road, and into the rough scrub, towards where he’d left his friends. On the horizon, two large dust clouds reached for the sky. They were most likely four wheel drives, heading off to go hunting in the kangaroo filled dusk.
He followed his GPS until it assured him he was at the right spot.
There was nothing around. Admittedly, there was very little around when he’d left, but now he couldn’t see any remnants of the hole that James had created when he blew an entrance to the river below.
He parked the old Holden Utility about twenty feet from where he was certain the hole had been when he left, and then got out of the car. It was approaching dusk, and the sullen color of the sky played tricks on people.
Tom checked his hand-held GPS again, and confirmed he was in the right spot. He then stepped over the ground and noticed that the sand was soft, as though recently disturbed.
Up ahead, he noticed the deep four-wheel drive tracks in the sand.
He then recalled the dust clouds on the horizon as he drove in – Rodriguez’s men!
There wasn’t much time.
Tom grabbed a shovel and started digging.
He’d dug no more than a foot before hitting something solid, with a loud clank. Steel – someone had laid a steel frame over the remains of the hole and then backfilled it with sand to make it look like nothing had ever happened.
If they’d gone to the lengths to do so, Tom had a fair idea why.
He ran back to the Utility, and ran a twenty-foot chain from his tow bar to the steel covering, running a hook through an attachment point.
Then ran back to his vehicle and floored its old, and powerful, V8 engine.
His tires slipped in the soft soil, and then caught, and the entire steel plate, along with sand on top, pulled away.
Tom pulled over and ran back.
Where Sam and James were clawing their way back up the hole in the ground.
James grinned through the dirt on his grubby face, and said, “What took you so long, Tom? We’ve got work to do.”
*
Sam jumped into the driver’s side of the car. Not waiting to fill Tom in with what had happened, he said, “They’ve got a twenty-minute head start on us, and they’ve got Aliana.”
“Shuffle over son, I’ll drive,” James said, pushing his way in front of the steering wheel, forcing Sam to slide further down the old bench seat.
“Whatever… let’s just go,” Sam replied, urgently.
James had his foot down, testing just how fast the old muscle car could go. In the wide-open, desolate land, the poor handling and poor cornering didn’t matter. The powerful V8 was in its prime, and the car quickly sped up to 65 miles per hour and on to 80.
They were following the only other tracks in the otherwise barren land.
By the time it was dark outside, they could see the tail lights of a car up ahead. The car seemed to be travelling at a normal speed, probably comforted in the knowledge that they had already won the battle.
“Say, Sam, do you have a plan what we’re going to do when we catch up to these guys, or do you just want to wing it?”
“I’m all for winging it. Dad, if you can get closer, then start to overtake the car, and then swerve into its rear left axle, we might just send that top-heavy truck onto its roof. Then, the three of us jump out and kill whoever’s driving, while he’s still confused about what happened – and save the girl.” Sam looked at his father who said nothing, but looked like he’d raised an idiot. “What, you have a better idea? We didn’t bring any weapons, and it’s not like we’ve time to go back and get them.”
“As a matter of fact, son. I do.” James then looked at Tom and asked, “Did you leave that wooden box in the back of the cargo tray?”
“Yeah, why?”
“See if the two of you can climb back there and open it.”
“What’s in it?” Sam asked.
“Open it up, I’m sure you’ll know what to do with them.”
Sam began following Tom, who had climbed out through the passenger window, over the roof and into the cargo tray behind. When he was half way out, the left front tire struck something, hard – sending the car violently swerving towards the left, where it fishtailed for a hundred or so feet and then kept going.
His hand clutching onto the roof like a vice, he held on long enough for the centrifugal force to stop, and then he was flung back inside as James regained control.
“Next time, a little warning would be nice.”
“See what I can do, but no promises, son.”
Sam quickly climbed into the back of the utility, where he found Tom grinning like a kid who’d just discovered his father’s firecrackers.
“What is it, Tom?”
“Well, in a country with severe restrictions on firearms, your father managed to bring these with him – just in case,” Tom said, opening the wooden box.
“Holy shit!
Inside were two M9 bazookas, an M60 machine gun, and a large sawn-off shotgun.
“What does Dad want us to do, blow Aliana up?” Sam then tapped on the back window and said, “Hey, did you bring anything here that we can actually use?”
“Hey, I thought you two were a couple of old boy scouts – I brought the hardware, you decide what you
want to do with it.”
“All right, all right… just get us a little closer, and then hold us steady.”
Sam then picked up the M9.
“Are you kidding me? That thing has an armor piercing head, designed to take out a tank. I thought you liked this girl?”
“Don’t worry, I have no intention of hitting their vehicle. Now load me.”
Behind him, Tom fed the 2.36 inch rocket into its back and armed the weapon. “You’re good.”
Sam looked through the cross hairs of the bazooka’s telescope, aimed, and squeezed the firing trigger.
A large plume of orange flame gushed from the back of the rocket, as it hurled towards the Mercedes up ahead.
Missing the vehicle by half a foot, the rocket found its target – a large rock up in front and to the left of the truck.
The missile head penetrated the rock, and then exploded a moment later.
The driver of the Mercedes swerved, but he was too late, and the blast shockwave threw the car on its side, where it rolled several times and then came to a stop on its roof.
Sam’s father slammed on the brakes, coming to a stop just beside the destroyed Mercedes.
Tom looked down at the wreckage. “I don’t know Sam; I think Aliana’s still going to be pretty pissed at you.”
Sam grabbed the heavy M60 like it was a toy, and said, “Come on, before they realize what’s happened,” and jumped off the back of the Utility’s cargo tray.
He opened the front door, and had the weapon pointed at the driver’s head an instant later. Sam recognized the man as being the engineer named Byron. He looked confused, and there was more than a trickle of blood coming out the man’s ears as he looked up. A quick scan of the inside of the vehicle showed that the man was alone.
Sam dragged him out, and away from the burning car, “Where is she? Where does he have Aliana?” The man didn’t say a word.
Sam punched him in the gut, careful to avoid accidentally killing him in anger before he got what he wanted. Byron then vomited blood, but said nothing. He was either too injured to speak or was refusing. Either way, the man was useless to him.
Sam didn’t have time to deal with him – he needed answers.
“The Merc’s empty and there’s nothing that suggests where the other one went,” Tom said.
“All right, they must have taken multiple cars. Let’s keep following the tracks and…” Sam stopped talking, as he spotted a Mercedes coming at him at full speed.
He and Tom both pulled out their M9 machine guns and started firing at the driver. The bullets appeared to disappear into the truck’s outer shell harmlessly.
Rodriguez had obviously paid top dollar for military grade armor.
Sam recognized the driver as Frank, the dwarf-like miner who’d helped him locate the fake Mahogany Ship. The man looked crazy as he drove towards them, a sense of invincibility radiating as the rapid fire bullets raked his windscreen.
Frank’s intention was clear – he was going to run them both down.
Sam looked about, only to realize that they had left it too late, and had nowhere to take cover.
The truck came hurtling towards them.
They dropped their weapons as they began running towards the Holden. Behind them, they heard the crunch as the truck drove straight through Byron, who had been too confused to know what was going to happen to him.
Sam expected his own bones to crunch in a split second.
Then he saw the flash and turned.
The tank piercing M9 rocket had burned its way inside the Mercedes’s engine block. A split second later the entire thing erupted in a ball of fire and shrapnel.
Behind him, James, put the bazooka down and said, “Boom – look at that thing explode!”
*
Sam wasted no time trying to plan his next move. With the remains of both six-wheelers still burning, the three men got back into the Holden and continued to follow the trail.
Picking up his cell, Sam called Elise.
“Hello, Sam.” The voice sounded younger than he’d imagined. More like a girl in her early twenties than a woman. He’d never actually spoken to her. In fact, he’d often wondered whether Elise was simply an alias. In the years that he’d used her services, he’d always done so through a secure internet connection at her direction. “You must be in trouble.” she said.
She had intentionally kept their relationship untraceable, but given him the number to call, if he ever became desperate.
Now was one of those times.
“You were right. Rodriguez is an asshole, and he’s taken Aliana. I need you to find him before he leaves the country.”
“Okay. Where was he last seen?” she asked. Sam could hear her feverishly tapping away at her keyboard, most likely accessing a number of overhead satellites.
“He was driving a grey six-wheel Mercedes, somewhere near our current location, about half an hour ago. I’ll just read you my GPS coordinates.”
“Don’t bother, I’ve already acquired them from your cell phone.”
Sam gripped the edge of the car for stability, as his father swung around another corner.
“Oh, Sam, what have you been doing?” Elise said, as if she were admonishing a child. “You’ve left two burning trucks, and at least one dead person… there’ll be an investigation, you know.”
“We can deal with that later. Right now, I need to know where Rodriguez has gone – can’t you track Aliana’s cell phone or something?”
“No, it’s signal disappeared about twenty miles to the north, presumably where she was captured, perhaps? Hang on, I’m trying something else… okay, got it.”
“Where?”
“Someone’s started warming up the engines on his jet at Bendigo airport…”
“But is Aliana there?”
“No, but if its engines are turning over, they must be expecting him. I’ll run a search within fifty miles of the airport.”
James turned on to the blacktop and headed towards Bendigo. The speedometer, Sam noticed, was creeping upwards, and was reaching for a hundred miles per hour.
“Okay, found him. He’s thirty miles out of Bendigo.”
Sam pulled out the GPS on his phone. “We’re 80 miles away. There’s no way we’re going to make it in time. Can you stall the plane’s takeoff?”
Elise laughed, “I appreciate the vote of confidence, Sam, but there’s nothing I can do to convince a privately own A380 that it doesn’t want to take off.”
“What about the police? Can you send them a false terrorist threat or something?”
“That could be arranged, not that it would do much good. The airport is empty and the nearest police are 80 miles away.”
The Holden started to shudder with vibrations as it reached the 100 mile-per-hour mark.
“All right, we’ll try our best. Can you find if they’ve lodged a flight plan, maybe we can cut him off at his destination?”
“Sorry, nothing logged yet.”
“Okay, thanks Elise, call me back as soon as you know anything.”
“Will do.”
Forty-five minutes later, they arrived at the back runway of the Bendigo airport.
At the far end of the airport, the gigantic, specialized, A380 looked unnatural in its surroundings. In fact, had it been the standard, commercial model, the plane would have had nowhere near enough runway to take off, but Rodriguez had obviously had it built specifically to decrease its takeoff distance.
“There!” Sam pointed it out before they’d even driven into the grounds of the airport.
James turned the car and drove straight through the wired fence designed to keep wildlife off the runway, “I see them.”
Giant dust spirals, fifty feet high, were forming, behind the airbus.
“They’re getting ready to take off!” James said.
And then it started moving towards them.
Sam reached for his machine gun, and pointed it towards the front of the plane.
The plane began picking up speed.
His finger began squeezing the trigger.
Tom pulled it downward, and a number of bullets sprayed the ground ahead. “It’s started the takeoff. Anything you do now will just get her killed!”
James, pulled the car off to the side of the runway, as the nose of the plane left the runway.
Sam swore and punched the dashboard. “We lost her!”
He felt Tom’s hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right, we’ll find out where they’re headed, and then someone will be waiting for them when they land.”
*
Two hours later, Sam received a call from Elise.
“Have you got their destination?” he asked, immediately.
“No, and there’s something else you’re not going to like.”
“What?”
“I tracked Rodriguez’s plane as it made a direct route eastward until it was a hundred and fifty miles off the coast…” she then stopped.
“Then what?”
“And then it disappeared.”
“What do you mean it disappeared?”
“I mean, I could hack into the Australian radar towers and track its progress over land, and tracked her transponder, and maintained a visual of her movement via satellite. But once it was out of radar range, it headed towards dense cloud cover. The pilot switched off its transponder, and changed directions. I’m trying to pick its signal up again, but it appears to have disappeared completely.”
“You lost it? The world’s largest commercial jet, and you can find it with all of the data at your fingertips?” Sam said.
“It’s a big ocean. I’ll keep trying, but whoever’s flying this thing’s a professional.”
“Okay, keep trying. You can’t move an A380 without someone noticing it.”
James looked at him, and for the first time in Sam’s life, his father looked uncertain about their next move.
“It’s your show, son. Where do you want to go?”
“Oh my god!” Sam said, “I just worked out where he’s headed.”
The Mahogany Ship (Sam Reilly Book 2) Page 20