A Dubious Race: The Phoenician Stones (A Colton Banyon Mystery Book 14)

by Gerald J Kubicki

  But, Banyon wasn’t listening any longer. He was running through the plane and down the steps. “Steve,” he yelled. “We need to get to the ranch as soon as possible. You drive — break every speed record.” Banyon jumped into the front passenger seat.

  Steve threw the rest of the luggage into the back of the car and slammed the trunk. He scrambled around and into the driver’s seat. “Let’s go,” he yelled and took off just as Heather closed the back door.

  “Mandy,” Banyon yelled over his shoulder. “Call Chase and tell him an attack is coming at seven tonight. Tell him to get the people out of there. Goblin intends to shoot rockets into the mountain above the ranch and crush the ranch house. They then will send in twenty men to finish off anyone still alive.”

  “Will we get there before that?” Mandy asked as she dialed.

  “We should be there about fifteen minutes before the attack to help get people out of harm’s way,” Banyon yelled back.

  “His phone is ringing,” Mandy updated with a nervous voice. Banyon hoped that the phones were working and not jammed.

  “I got him,” Mandy yelled out and started talking rapidly into the cell.

  “We’re not going to fight these guys?” Steve asked in an irritated tone. “We have a pretty awesome crew at the ranch.”

  “Goblin is bringing two Cobras and twenty armed ex-military men,” Banyon explained sadly. “Do you want to fight against that kind of firepower?”

  “I get your point,” Steve now agreed. “At least we’ll get there in time to evacuate everyone.”

  Banyon said nothing and stared at the road willing the vehicle to go faster. He tried to not think about something that he couldn’t control. It was up to Steve now. He needed to get them to the ranch quickly. Banyon realized and was encouraged by the willingness of his people, especially the new members of his team. He liked that he could give direction and they would handle things quickly and efficiently — using their own initiative. He really liked that Mandy could make many of the phone calls that, in the past, he would have had to make. It gave him more time to think and work on details.

  His mind was racing now as he blocked out the conversation going on behind him. In the rush and the confusion he had missed a detail. He had a nagging feeling that he forgot to do something. He knew that Wolf had more to tell him and wondered if that was what caused his concern. Or is it something else? Before he could dig deeper into his mind, Mandy tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

  “Colt,” she yelled over the buffeting of the wind on the speeding car. He turned in his seat.

  “What?” he asked a little irritated that she had ruined his concentration.

  “Chase says they are not leaving the ranch. He said they have a plan to stop the attack and a way to execute it.”

  “What?” Everybody in the car spoke at one time.

  “He says to park by the barn and head into the house as soon as we get there,” Mandy explained breathlessly “He’ll explain his plan then. He doesn’t have time to talk to you right now. He said not to call him back.”

  “That’s it,” Banyon thought. He had forgotten to turn on his phone when they landed. He quickly reached into his pocket and brought it out. He hit the activate button and waited impatiently for it to locate a cell tower. As soon as it came on, he checked for missed calls and found three from Previne. He hoped she wasn’t in trouble. He quickly placed a call to her, but got voicemail. He tried the cell phones for the rest of the group with the same results. He was getting very confused. Why would she call and then turn her phone off?

  As he waited for a call back, he called Timmy the geek at Dewey & Beatem and told him what he wanted him to do.

  Chapter Fifty

  The Patel clan moved quietly through the tall grass of the meadow. The three women had covered their heads with the hoodies and crouched low to the ground as they carefully stalked ahead. Maya moved to the point while Previne and Pramilla stayed ten feet behind covering their flanks. They were very alert and swiveled their heads back and forth looking for any signs of an enemy. Their faces were filled with grim determination. They moved in unison and seemed to know what each other were thinking. Maya never looked behind her. She knew that her sisters were there.

  To Eric, they looked like a pack of lean, hungry, black panthers in search of prey. He trailed them by about thirty feet, but remained upright and casually sauntered along carrying the shovel. His head was a good two feet above the grass allowing him to see much further ahead. While it was pretty dark, a bright three-quarter moon provided enough ambient light to see movement. Eric rarely took things too seriously — unless, of course, there was an actual threat. He didn’t see any threats ahead tonight. He couldn’t see any flashlights or grass moving. The only sounds were various insects announcing their presence. What he did see was the next rock. He hustled close to the women and leaned in to speak.

  “Head to your two o’clock,” he whispered into Pramilla’s ear. “I can see the next rock marker.”

  “Oh!” Pramilla remarked and stood up to look. “I guess I was a little off on my directions.”

  “Stay here,” Maya whispered. “I’ll check it out.” She then faded into the darkness. After a few minutes, Eric saw the shadow of an arm waving them forward. They remained in stealth mode, but now walked straight up to the rock.

  “Here, look at this. I count five people,” Maya quickly reported as she knelt down and studied the ground. “Two are women.”

  “How long have you been an Indian scout?” Eric chuckled. “Maybe white man has firewater for us.”

  “I’m an archeologist remember,” Maya retorted with sudden irritation. “Footprints are easy to read. The two women are wearing flats. See.” She pointed. “The three men are wearing work boots.”

  “Their tracks head off that way,” Previne pointed. “Is that the way to the next marker, Pramilla?”

  “Yeah,” her sister replied. “I’ve a bad feeling that someone else is out here looking for the Vril,” Pramilla said with alarm.

  “Well, we’d better catch up to them before they get away with our prize,” Maya said grimly.

  “I suggest that we just follow their trail,” Eric said. “They are not trying to disguise their tracks. We still have the element of surprise on our side.”

  “Lead on,” Previne said in agreement. “But make sure that your cell phones are off and the safetie’s on your guns are off too,” she warned them. As a result they missed Banyon’s return call.

  ***

  The four people in the Patel clan now walked upright but moved as silently as possible through the heavy grass. They had already passed the other two markers and were headed to the “X” Pramilla had placed on her map. It was where the Vril was supposedly buried. Maya suddenly threw out her arm to stop their progress.

  “Do you hear that?” She whispered. They all quickly crouched down so that they couldn’t be seen.

  “Sounds like someone is digging,” Previne admitted as she pointed in the direction of the sound. “I also hear people talking.”

  Eric immediately dropped the shovel. “Guess I won’t need that now,” he remarked cheerfully.

  “Don’t leave it here,” Previne scolded him. “We don’t want to leave any possible evidence that we were here.” Eric reluctantly retrieved the shovel.

  “We need to get a closer look,” Previne said. “But for heaven’s sake be quiet.” They all moved forward in a crouch.

  Soon they could see five people through the grass. There were two women in suits holding flashlights and shining them into a big hole. Two men were digging in the hole. A third man sat nearby breathing heavily and sweating.

  The Patel clan dropped to their bellies and crawled in for a better look. They also moved closer together so they could whisper to each other. They were so close that their heads almost touched.

  “They are tunneling under the big rock,” Pramilla said quietly. “It’s exactly where the directions said the V
ril would be located.”

  “What should we do?” Maya asked Previne.

  “I don’t know, I don’t have a plan yet,” she replied in a confused voice. “There are five of them and only four of us. Not good odds.” They stayed sprawled in the weeds and watched, wondering what to do.

  Suddenly, one of the women spoke. “Hurry up, we haven’t got all night. Dig faster,” the woman urged loudly. It was now clear to the Patel clan that the people were not expecting to run across anyone else at the dig site. They were making too much noise.

  “This flashlight is getting heavy,” the other woman complained.

  “Maybe you should do some of the digging,” a man shot back as he stopped digging and leaned on his shovel.

  “When you become the leader, you can give the orders,” the first woman replied in a frosty voice.

  Previne turned her head so fast that she almost collided with Maya’s head. “I have heard that voice before,” she whispered urgently.

  “Me too,” Eric agreed. “It sounds like the government agents that tried to arrest Colt during the Lake Mead caper.”

  “Yeah,” Pramilla said. “They were from the NSA. Wait, didn’t you Freud-a-size them, Previne?”

  “It’s them alright,” Previne acknowledged. “That actually makes things worse for us because a person can only be Freud-a-sized once. We can’t do it to them again. It won’t work a second time.”

  “Yeah, I remember them,” Maya chimed in. “The leader is named Darlene Krenitz and the other woman is Joan Kane. I don’t recall the names of the men.”

  “Wasn’t another woman with them named Cindy Creighton?” Pramilla asked. “She was from a secret government facility in Denver which had something to do with the paranormal as I recall.”

  “Maybe she is the one who sent the NSA agents here?” Eric surmised.

  ***

  After a few minutes a cell phone rang. Everybody reached for their device, but it was Darlene’s phone that actually rang. She grabbed it from her pocket and answered.

  “Darlene Krenitz,” she said into the phone. A few seconds later she replied to the person who called her. “No Andy, I don’t mind if you and Michael Kane have ribs tonight at the house. I won’t be there until late. I can’t talk now either. I’m kind of busy, don’t wait up.” She abruptly hit the end button.

  “Andy sure loves his ribs,” Joan remarked with a smile.

  “Well, your husband is going to be with him tonight, Joan. Andy was wondering if I’d be home in time for dinner. You’d better turn off your phone before Michael calls you.”

  “It’s okay. He thinks I’m at a HR conference in San Diego. He won’t call,” Joan replied.

  “Hmm, I’ll have to come up with an excuse,” Darlene said.

  “So he doesn’t know that we are heading to Las Vegas later tonight on a private jet?” Joan inquired.

  “If he asks, I’ll just tell him I came home very late and he was asleep. I also got up early and left before he woke up,” Darlene said with a shrug. “We should be back in town by tomorrow afternoon anyway.”

  “You’re right,” Joan agreed. “We just have to pick up a guy named Joey Brownwater and deliver him to the Denver facility. That shouldn’t take too long.”

  “As long as we can find his ranch quickly,” Darlene pointed out. “It’s someplace outside of Pahrump in the desert.”

  “It should not be a problem,” Joan remarked.

  “And guess what the controller told me?” Darlene spoke like it was a conspiracy.

  “What?”

  “He said that when he read the email the director passed to him from Dr. Hage with the address for Joey Brownwater, he noticed that Joey said he was under the protection by an old friend of ours.”

  “Who?”

  “Colton Banyon.”

  Chapter Fifty-One

  As soon as Darlene said “Colton Banyon”, Previne turned her head and saw that Pramilla’s mouth was wide open in disbelief. Did they remember? Previne had Freud-a-sized the NSA squad and told them to forget everything they knew about Colton Banyon at the end of the Lake Mead caper. The gift squad was originally ordered to capture him, but when the confused agents checked in — after they were Freud-a-sized — they found out that they were under new orders from the director of the entire NSA. They were told to protect Banyon at all costs until Banyon released them. The orders had originated from the President of the United States. It took them a day to find him and when they did, he immediately released them from their charge. In the end the NSA squad felt like they were inside a pinball machine and they were not happy.

  Previne quickly motioned to the others and they slid back from the dig site.

  “Do you think they remember?” Pramilla quickly asked when they were far enough away to talk.

  “I don’t know,” Previne replied slowly. “But this has suddenly gotten more confusing and complicated.”

  “I think our choices are limited,” Eric said. “We need to get the Vril, let Colt know that the NSA is on the way, and hightail it out to Las Vegas.”

  “Okay, but we need a plan to get the Vril first,” Maya stated the obvious. “Come on Previne you can do it.”

  Previne thought for a few minutes then her eyes lit up. “I got it. Here’s what we are going to do.”

  She had just finished explaining her plan went she heard someone shout.

  “I’ve hit something. It looks like the bones of a skeleton,” one of the men yelled.

  “Perfect,” Previne uttered happily. “Let’s go see what they have uncovered.”

  The four Patel clan members slithered back towards the dig site.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  “What do you want us to do?” one of the men asked. “This could be an ancient burial ground. We shouldn’t disturb it. There may be ghosts.”

  This immediately gave Previne a new idea. She turned to her two sisters. “Maya you go right and Pramilla, you go left, I’ll stay here. Eric, circle around behind them. When they pull out the fourth shovel full of bones, shake the weeds and give them a scare. Make some noises too. Be back here in one minute.” The two sisters and Eric left immediately.

  ***

  “Just pull the bones out,” Darlene ordered. “We can always put them back when we are done here. No harm done.”

  “You know,” Joan the smart one in the group started. “When pirates buried their treasures in the old days, they usually killed the man doing the digging so he could never tell anyone where it was located. I think we are getting close.”

  “But why am I getting this creepy feeling,” Darlene quietly admitted to her friend. She felt a chill move down her spine.

  The men began pulling the bones out of the hole. They were about halfway done when the tall grass around them began shaking and they heard ghostly sounds. Darlene quickly drew her gun.

  “What the hell is that?” she yelled out.

  “I think it was just a gust of wind,” Joan said uncertainly. But she removed her gun from its holster too.

  “Hurry up and get those damn bones out of the way,” a spooked Darlene ordered. Both she and Joan now had their guns out and stood back to back while circling to cover the whole perimeter. But the meadow was quiet again.

  “Got something,” one of the men yelled excitedly. “I’ve found two jugs.”

  The Patel clan had reassembled by that time and looked at each other in confusion. They expected only one jug.

  The men pulled out the two jugs, cleaned the dirt off of them, and ceremoniously laid them on the ground. Everybody stared at the objects.

  Both were made of thick clear glass that had become frosty over the millenniums spent in the ground. However, the contents were still visible. The first jug was shaped like a vase and had a glass top affixed on it. A copper strip kept it in place. It stood about a foot high. Inside was some sort of paper. It looked like a scroll.

  The second vesicle was completely round with no apparent opening. It was the size of a sma
ll globe and had features on the outside that appeared to be etchings of landmasses. There was a liquid substance inside which was filled nearly to the top. It was colored sea green and glowed like an LED light.

  “Dump the bones back into the hole and cover them up,” Darlene said quickly. “I want to get out of here as soon as possible. This place is giving me the heebie-jeebies.”

  Back in the tall grass, Previne nodded to the other clan members and they faded back to set up the ambush.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Previne knew where the NSA vehicle was parked and set up the trap where the gift squad would have to pass to get back to it. She was sure they would retrace their path through the grasses. But she was afraid they would notice the footprints the clan had made by the second marker. So the ambush was set to take place just before the marker. It would also give the Patel clan time to reach their car and get away. The place she picked had thick tall grass and a small pond.

  Three of the clan huddled near the path while Maya went to look for the NSA agents. “Okay, does everyone know what to do?” Previne said as she looked at each person.

  “We’ll be ready,” Pramilla said encouragingly. She reached into her fanny pack and pulled out her pepper spray.

  “Good thing I kept the shovel,” Eric remarked.

  Soon Maya came loping up the pathway. “They’re coming,” she said breathlessly. “And just as you expected, the women are carrying the jugs.”

  “Good, now everyone, you need to go get into position,” Previne directed. “Remember to count to five between each part of the plan.” The clan broke up and took off. Only Previne stayed where she was crouching. She would start the ambush. She stood up, lowered her hoodie, and fluffed out her long hair. She let it hang over her face. She left a small slit so she could see. She then moved just off the trampled path.