by J. R. Rain
“It’s not for sale,” she firmly declared.
“I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse,” he said in return.
“I don’t want your stolen money,” she said bitterly.
“The money isn’t stolen,” Trey said. “At least I don’t think it is. It’s all legit. The people I’m working for will pay enough for you to retire comfortably. For ten of you to retire comfortably.”
“I don’t want to retire,” she countered. “I love my shop.” She paused a moment, warming her hands around the coffee mug. “Who do you work for?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
Trey ignored his coffee. His intent, and his instructions, were to convince her. But it was more than that. Trey looked into Eve’s tired, haggard, alcohol-wrinkled eyes and realized that he still cared for her. Could still help her.
So, he began his story.
* * *
She listened to it all with wonder on her face, wonder that alternated with disbelief, hope, and fear.
* * *
On the rainy walk back to her shop and apartment, Eve was pensive. Trey understood it was a lot to take in; he gave her time to process all he’d told her.
“But why does the Vatican want the Coin?” she asked miserably. There was a hint of panic, even paranoia in her voice. She seemed unreasonably upset by the fact that Trey had come for the Coin, and that others were interested in it as well. It was clear to Trey that she didn’t want to give it up, and that worried him.
“It’s not just your Coin,” he explained as gently as possible. “They want all thirty Judas Coins. There’s some nut job out there who’s looking for them, as I already told you. The Vatican wants me to beat him to the punch.” He paused, choosing his words carefully. “You haven’t by any chance touched the Coin, have you?”
Eve only looked away, bit her lower lip. Something flashed in her eyes; something Trey understood was unnatural and possessive. It disappeared just as quickly. Still, he watched her curiously.
“Tell me you didn’t touch it, Eve.”
“The Coin isn’t for sale,” she said, changing the subject. “Not to you, or the Vatican, or anyone else. I keep it for sentimental reasons. You know that.”
“Your father’s plane crash...”
“It was found in his hand. It was the last thing he ever touched. And before you say it, the Coin did not cause his plane to crash, Trey. I refuse to believe that.”
They walked in silence. Then Trey spoke, almost choking on his words. “Speaking of fathers...my father is alive, Eve.”
“But...” she was at a loss for words for a moment, stunned. “But you told me he’d died in prison.”
“That’s the official story,” he said. “Unofficially, he’s still alive and dying in prison.” He stopped her, faced her. “If I help them, they will let me see him one last time.” “How long does he have?” she asked quietly.
“A few weeks, they said.” He looked down at the wet street. Tried to keep his eyes dry. “I need your help, Eve. Please. Like I said, I’m asking.”
Eve stood facing the man she had cared about for years. It was clear he was sincere as well as dead serious. But she envisioned the Coin, its soft glow, the ecstasy she felt holding it. “I’m sorry, Trey,” she answered bitterly. “I can’t. I just...I just can’t. I’m sorry.”
Chapter Ten
There wasn’t much left to say. Trey planned to walk her home and then find a hotel somewhere.
As they approached her shop, though, Eve suddenly pointed up to the second story. Through the darkened window, they saw the streaking beam of a flashlight.
“Someone’s in my apartment above the shop!” she cried.
“Wait here,” Trey ordered, and took off around to the back of the building.
Moments later, Trey looked down from the roof of Eve’s building. A man dressed in black and wearing a ski mask stood at the coin shop’s back entrance. He held an assault rifle and watched the alleyway in both directions.
The man heard a sudden scraping sound and swung his rifle around, but too late.
Trey dropped down from the fire escape, swinging athletically, and kicked the man full in the face. Trey landed lightly and punched the man hard in the jaw, knocking him out cold. He quickly dragged the unconscious body back into the shadow.
Just as he picked up the assault rifle, a lithe shadow approached him rapidly. He instinctively swung the rifle around—but the shadow materialized into the beautiful Eve Friday.
“I told you to wait for me,” he hissed.
“This is my shop,” she whispered back.
Trey held up the assault rifle. “These guys play for keeps, kiddo.”
“I’m coming with you,” Eve declared. “And don’t call me kiddo.”
“Fine,” Trey whispered. “Be quiet, stay low and keep behind me.”
Inside the shop, Trey moved silently, stealthy like a cat. Two thieves dressed in black, also wearing ski masks, were ruthlessly tearing apart the place, desperately searching. They overturned furniture, pulled down shelves. One of them headed up the stairs, and almost immediately called to his partner, “Bingo.”
Trey stepped into the back room, Eve right behind him. Moonlight filtered through the big storefront windows.
As Trey crept toward the main showroom, another man appeared from around a corner, swinging a metal rod. The rod caught Trey in the shoulder and sent him spinning into a glass display case. As he crashed through, the semi-automatic weapon accidentally went off. Bullets rattled out and shattered the track lighting above him.
The light fixture spat sparks and broke loose from the ceiling, crashing onto Eve’s cluttered desk. One of the sparks caught some paperwork on fire, and in seconds, her whole desk went up in flames.
Eve, who had been hanging back, suddenly dashed through the shop. “No!” she cried. She grabbed a fire extinguisher from behind the counter. She blasted the fire, but, with paper fuel everywhere, it spread throughout the old shop too quickly. Still, she did her best to put out the fire.
Meanwhile, the man with the iron rod swung it again, but this time, Trey ducked. Reaching blindly, he grabbed a burlap bag marked U.S. Pennies. He hurled it hard into his attacker’s face. The bag exploded in a hail of pennies, and his assailant went down like a rock.
In Eve’s upstairs apartment, two burglars placed plastic explosives around the dial of her office safe, and expertly attached a detonator.
From below, Trey and Eve heard the loud, sudden explosion that rocked the entire shop.
“The safe!” Eve shouted. Trey raced up the stairs, Eve close on his tail. Below them, the fire was everywhere, and snaking up along the banister.
As they burst into the room, one of the thieves reached into the now blown-open safe and removed the leather satchel. He opened it and dumped out the single Judas Coin. The man stared at it, turning it over and over in his gloved hand.
The two thieves barreled past them to the head of the stairs. Trey raised his rifle, took aim. “Stop!” he shouted.
But they both jumped over the balustrade, landing hard on the floor. They quickly rose to their feet and dashed off. As they did so, one of them picked up a burning stool and hurled it through the storefront window.
The other looked back at Trey and removed his ski mask. It was Mack O’Brien. Trey’s mouth dropped open. O’Brien grinned and winked, then dashed off through the broken window.
Anger filled Trey, but he had no time to dwell on it. With Eve in tow, he led the way back through the fiery obstacle course, ducking and dodging. They finally leaped through the same shattered window, just as the entire ceiling crashed down in a hail of debris and smoke.
Trey and Eve tumbled head over ass onto the sidewalk. Amazingly, Eve was the first to scramble to her feet. She jumped up and desperately ran down the sidewalk after the thieves.
But they were long gone. Gasping, hysterical, she finally came to a stop, bent over do
uble at the waist. Her eyes smoldered, filled with hate and loathing.
She turned those eyes back onto Trey, who stood not far behind her. Eve stormed furiously up to him. She pounded his chest with misplaced rage. “God damn you, Trey Jordan! Look what you’ve brought upon me! You’re going to return that Coin to me if it’s the last thing you do!”
Trey could only watch her in shock as he absorbed her punishing blows. Behind them, the fire smoldered under the collapsed ceiling. Trey grabbed her elbow and led her a safe distance away.
“Calm down,” he told her gently.
“No, Trey Jordan, I will not calm down.” Eve was still sobbing. “Everything is ruined, and those thieves have my Coin.”
Trey studied her, frowning. She was irrationally upset over losing the Coin, that much was certain. Eve’s Judas Coin, Trey suspected, had possessed her on some level.
Trey peered down the dark street. “I’ll admit, those thieves were good.”
Eve raised her hand to slap him in the face, but he caught her arm in midair.
“They were good,” he repeated, now grinning a little. “But not good enough.” He reached inside his leather jacket, rooted around an interior pocket, and finally removed a leather pouch. He opened it, pulling on the drawstring, wide enough for Eve to see inside. There, safely in Trey’s hands, was, of course, the gleaming Judas Coin.
Trey was careful not to touch it. But his grin widened. “Theirs is a fake,” he told her. “This is the real Judas Coin.”
The look of relief that overcame Eve startled Trey. She broke down and wept openly in the street. She swiped the leather pouch from his hand and shoved it deep into a pocket of her own.
Then she looked up at him. “You broke into my shop?”
“I was going to tell you about it, but...”
The two stood in the middle of the street as Eve’s shop continued to go up in flames. Her big, round eyes reflected the fire, her face aglow. She was silent, numb.
“I came back to buy it from you, Eve. There is such a thing as an honest thief, you know.”
“Now there’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one,” she said.
“How much do you want for it?” Trey asked her.
Eve didn’t answer immediately. Seeing her previous reactions and emotions, Trey got the impression that she would never sell the coin, ever, under any circumstances. Next to them, the lapping flames leaped out high into the night.
Finally, she faced him again, eyes still smoldering. “You’ll get your Coin, Trey Jordan, on one condition.”
“And what would that be?”
“When we find the others.”
“What do you mean, we?”
“I’m coming with you,” Eve told him.
Trey heard sirens approaching. He whipped his head around. Sirens and thieves did not go hand in hand. He looked into Eve’s defiant eyes, took in her arms now folded confidently across her chest.
“Fine,” he said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.” He took her arm, and the two dashed off as the shop went entirely up in flames and the fire trucks arrived.
“I hope you like boats,” he added cryptically.
Chapter Eleven
Off the southern coast of Ireland, a lone research vessel rose and fell mightily on the deep and choppy gray ocean swells. Wind and rain pelted the stormy sea. Rain drenched the deck, which was crowded with state of the art oceanographic and technical equipment.
Mallory Diggs was a powerfully built man, and one of the best in the treasure-hunting business. He didn’t mind the storm in the least. He sat before a computer monitor in the control room, the room itself cramped with sonar reading screens and other electronic detectors. Trey and Eve stood behind him, swaying with the boat’s movements.
Mallory turned and patted Eve’s arm. “Your father and I worked on this program together. To say that he was obsessed with the Lithuania would be an understatement.”
Trey gave his lopsided grin. “Or, more accurately, what’s in the Lithuania.”
“And what would that be?” Eve asked.
“Lord William Frost’s diary,” Trey answered.
“And,” Mallory said, winking at Eve, “at least one silver Judas Coin.”
Eve nodded, pleased. “But what’s in the diary?”
Trey couldn’t contain his eagerness. “The location to eight more Coins hidden beneath his Scottish castle.”
“Well, do we have to wait for the sea to settle down?” Eve asked with anticipation.
“No, lass,” Mallory answered. “We’ll be fine, won’t we, Jordan?”
Trey hid his hesitation. He had that gut feeling, but he didn’t know if it was due to the stormy weather, or perhaps...something else. But he was working an important job, and time was of the essence. And the clock was ticking on his father’s life… “Sure,” he said confidently enough. “No time like the present.”
Back on deck, Trey and Mallory prepared for their dive, going through final checks. Both men carefully folded a laminated map of the underwater ship’s interior and tucked them carefully into knapsacks around their waists. They had also both donned thick neoprene wetsuits.
Trey gave Eve a final crooked grin, and then he and Mallory dropped over the side and into the frigid water. Eve ran closer to the railing and peered down into the water. Her eyes were wide and beautiful...and troubled.
She hurried down below to the control room and took a seat before the computer monitor. She viewed the men’s two glowing lights beneath the black, churning ocean surface. The lights slowly faded away as the divers swam deeper, but she could still track them. The monitors allowed Eve to see exactly where they were in relation to the Lithuania. She watched their every move.
The two swimmers kicked their way 95 feet below the ocean’s surface, which was well within their diving ranges. They each carried enough compressed air to give them enough time to explore the sunken vessel. Soon, they came upon the ocean floor. Their penetrating flashlights picked out all manner of sea life: swaying seaweed, crabs, various darting silvery creatures, even a lone blue shark.
Eve, who had access to audio communication as well, could hear their amplified breathing. As she listened to their high-tech communication devices, she watched Mallory motion slowly in the water for Trey. “This way,” he directed the thief.
Trey nodded and followed, kicking his fins hard.
Watching on the sophisticated sonar screen, Eve saw them swimming rapidly toward a massive structure resting on the ocean floor. The Lithuania.
“Keep southeast, boys,” she instructed them.
Her somewhat garbled voice reached the divers through the earpieces built into their full face masks.
“You should be seeing it by now,” she continued.
Trey and Mallory swam on through the surrounding black void, their lights cutting through the forgotten depths like laser beams.
Suddenly, a colossal, ghostly presence appeared from the silty, murky waters. Eve gasped. The sight was awe-inspiring. And frightening, she thought.
The massive ship rose before the two divers, looking almost alien. Their powerful floodlights soon illuminated the heavily damaged vessel: a ship sunk in World War I by a German U-Boat.
Trey cast his spotlight along the ocean floor. Eve saw that the sandy bottom was strewn with personal debris; vases, shoes, suitcases, wine bottles. All preserved in a watery tomb.
Trey and Mallory swam right up to the destroyed hull, shone their lights down into a massive hole. The decayed metal was surprisingly barnacle-free, due to the extreme cold temperatures of the Irish Sea. Within the gaping maw, all three viewed the heavily damaged engines.
“This way,” Mallory said again. Again, Trey nodded and both men made their way through an open side-hatch.
Eve watched, fascinated, as they swam through a dark, water-filled hallway. Luckily, the high-powered flashlights cut through the murkiness with ease. Fish and other creatures dashed in and out of doorways. The ship was heavily damaged in som
e places, and perfectly intact in others. She considered it strange and surreal. Both beautiful and horrific.
Trey turned a corner, swimming cautiously. She could hear him breathing a bit heavier now; adrenaline must have been getting the best of the antiquities thief.
Then Trey pulled up short, gliding in place. Water bubbles surged around him. He held out a hand to Mallory. Before him, Eve made out, was a hallway blocked by a massive pile-up of metal debris.
“Is there a way around?” Mallory’s voice came through.
Eve’s concern deepened. “What’s wrong, Trey?”
“We’re blocked,” Trey responded.
Eve kicked into high gear. She used the computer mouse to click through the different corridors, searching...
“There’s a corridor to your right,” she instructed.
She watched Trey look to his right, moving toward the corridor. He took out his laminated copy of the ship interior and shined his flashlight down on it.
Trey used his gloved finger to trace a path along the corridor...a path that ended abruptly. “It’s a dead end, Eve,” he told her.
Frustrated, Eve directed the computer’s 3-D program down the corridor. It did stop at a computerized image of a doorway. But on her screen, the doorway dissolved and beyond were a flight of stairs leading both up and down.
“True,” she spoke into her mic. “But there’s a stairway.”
Trey kicked off down the ship’s corridor. “Bingo. Thanks, kiddo. Come on, Mallory, let’s go.”
Moments later, the divers swam up through the ship’s stairway, floating above the stairs as easily as ghosts.
Eve’s screen showed the GPS-guided blips of light rise up through the ship. Eve could barely contain her excitement. “You’re almost there, gentlemen.”
Chapter Twelve
Trey and Mallory swam past a faded Level 5 sign, and stopped one floor up at a door marked Level 6. Trey tried the handle. Of course, it was sealed tightly. He threw his shoulder into it, grunting into his mouthpiece.