“No,” said Cassidy. “I don't feel a thing. Just the glowing water. What time is it?”
“Almost one,” replied Jebediah.
“God damn,” said Cassidy. “Are we at the ocean yet, Colonel?!” she yelled back to Homer.
“Not even close,” he replied.
“Damn. The moon's coming back out,” said Gideon as the bright moon emerged from behind a cloud, making the blue water almost impossible to see. Cassidy looked up, brought her hand up into the emerging moonlight and watched the water twinkle as it dripped from her skin. Jebediah gripped Cassidy's shoulder and gave it a hearty squeeze and then a comforting pat as he too looked up at the moon. He then went and again sat, further down on the boat.
“I can't help but think about Miss Day,” said Gideon.
“How so?” asked Cassidy.
“I don't know. It's a memorable story.”
“It is,” said Cassidy. “It's like something out of a bad romance book.”
“Yeah... I don't know... I think that there is romance everywhere,” said Gideon. “Little bits of it. Most of us are blind to it because it doesn't fulfill all of the wrappings of a romance novel. The man isn't always unbelievably wealthy and handsome. The woman isn't always cultured and beautiful. But it's there. It's like life. It thrives and persists even where you wouldn't expect to find it. I suspect that New Orleans alone has a hundred stories like hers. You just have to look.”
“You and Jebediah both,” said Cassidy. “Such romantics. I'm realistic in comparison to you. All I want is a prince, who owns a horse, and is hung like one.”
“Be still my beating heart,” said Gideon.
Cassidy smiled and gave his thigh a hearty pat.
---
Cassidy was dozing on her arms, laid out on the front of the boat. Gideon was sitting by her, his arms crossed, his head down, asleep. Jebediah walked up to them. “Cassidy,” he said quietly. She breathed in and lifted her head, looking at him sleepily. “The moon is going back behind a cloud. Time to restart the search.” Cassidy replied by letting her hand dangle into the water, triggering the glow, expanding out from her fingers and down the river. She then put her head back down and went back to sleep.
Homer, still fully awake and peacefully enjoying the sights and sounds of his home, steered the boat onward as he began to sing quietly in an utterly flawless tenor voice. Jebediah looked up at him with shock at the dulcet sounds coming out of Homer's grubby, bearded face.
J'avais promis dans ma jeunesse
Que j'm'aurais jamais marié
J'avais promis dans ma jeunesse
Que j'm'aurais jamais marié
Adieu, la fleur de la jeunesse
La noble qualité de vie
Adieu, la fleur de la jeunesse
La noble qualité de vie
C'est aujourd'hui que je veux la quitter
C'est aujourd'hui que ma tête est couronnée
Et mon coeur est orné d'un bouquet
C'est aujourd'hui que ma tête est couronnée
Et mon coeur, orné d'un bouquet
Cassidy's head rocked side-to-side ever so slightly as it rested on her arm. Her hand bobbed back and forth as it pushed through the river, a bright glow visible around her fingers in the water as the boat washed through the flowing light, its underside illuminated by rippling blue. The fireflies flickered and flew around them like a moving, swirling starscape. The clouds in the sky covered the moon, while other whisps glowed in unseen moonbeams. Jebediah looked up and breathed deeply, his face in sorrow.
Adieu, la fleur de la jeunesse
La noble qualité de vie
Adieu, la fleur de la jeunesse
La noble qualité de vie
C'est aujourd'hui que je veux la quitter
C'est aujourd'hui que je veux faire le serment
C'est de finir mes jours avec toi
C'est aujourd'hui que je veux faire le serment
C'est de finir mes jours avec toi
Cassidy's eyes popped open. She was fully awake. She rose quickly, alert and aware. Jebediah looked over at her, concerned.
“Cassidy?” he asked. “You alright.”
“Shh!” she replied. “Colonel, stop singing! Kill the engine!”
Gideon awoke and lifted his head. “What's wrong?”
“Shh!” Cassidy again ordered. The four of them stood there, silent, their senses at full alert. “Did any of you hear that?”
All of them strained their ears, listening. “No,” said Gideon. “... Wait!” he whispered loudly. “Voices?”
“Yes,” replied Cassidy.
“Don't necessarily mean anything,” said Homer. “Lots of people live down in here.”
“It wasn't just the voices,” replied Cassidy. “I heard the clank of metal. Big metal.”
Jebediah stood up and looked over the trees. “Look. To the east,” he said. The others all turned and looked. Faintly over the trees and glowing up into the sky was an unmistakeable light. They all stared at it for a time, with the occasional faint clank of metal in the distance.
“What do we do?” asked Gideon.
“Nothing,” Cassidy replied after a pause. “Nothing. We keep following the blue water. They're probably just a bunch of fishermen.”
“Besides,” said Homer. “The river curves up ahead to the left, straight toward 'em.” Cassidy, Gideon, and Jebediah looked ahead. The glowing water was coming out brightly from a small outlet, cluttered with Bald Cyprus trees.
“Can you get your boat through all that?” asked Cassidy.
“I'm the goddamn Colonel. Of course I can,” he replied.
“Of course you can,” Cassidy said to herself.
Homer brought the boat up into the thicket of trees and slowly brought it in among them. He killed the engine and retrieved two large oars from a floorboard compartment, wordlessly handing one to Jebediah. Darkness enveloped them. The forest was alight with fireflies as they drifted slowly through the tree cover. The luminance from the water started to fade, so Cassidy walked up to the front of the boat and placed her hand in the water, causing a bright wave of light to expand out from her fingers and into the water, illuminating the entire forest. The trees themselves started to glow.
As they floated silently through the trees, Gideon reached out and rubbed his hand along one of the trunks, the glowing, twinkling moisture sticking to his fingers for a moment before evaporating away. The bright water brought out in stark contrast the silhouettes of alligators beneath the surface of the water as they moved out from the boat's path. The three of them all watched the beasts nervously as they undulated menacingly around the small ship.
“You said they're timid, right?” asked Gideon.
“Timid enough,” replied Homer. “Can still rip your leg off if you spook 'em.” Gideon gulped uneasily.
Ahead, the blue water seeped out from the shoreline of a land mass.
“Is it... coming from the land?” asked Gideon.
“I don't know,” said Cassidy. But it appears that our dilemma has been solved for us. The blue water is leading us toward the sounds.”
“Whatever we seek has apparently already been found,” said Jebediah.
“I find the fountain, I find my friends,” Cassidy said quietly.
The boat pushed up onto the muddy shore. The sounds of people were clearly audible in the distance as a few bright lights could be seen through the trees. Gideon put on his coat and tested his card-sharp guns. Cassidy and Jebediah tested their guns.
“I suddenly wish I had brought along David and Walter,” said Jebediah.
“Don't. They'd only get in the way,” replied Cassidy. “I want to be quiet. Three is more than enough.”
Jebediah looked at Cassidy for a moment then nodded. “Point well made,” he said.
Homer walked up to Cassidy and spoke quietly. “If things get dangerous, I will leave. I'm not going to risk my skin on anything.”
Cassidy nodded. “You beat me to it. I was going
to tell you to leave. Before you leave, just toss our stuff on shore.”
Homer nodded. “Are you sure?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” she replied. She then turned and stepped down from the boat, her boot making a squish sounds as it came down onto the muddy ground. Jebediah and Gideon followed her.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” asked Gideon. “We're lost without him.”
“Yes. I'm sure. I don't want anyone's death on my hands. And besides, what are we going to do with him? Make a getaway? We'd have to paddle awful fast.”
“Yeah,” replied Gideon. “We probably should have thought of that before we came out here.”
“Too late now,” said Cassidy. “Now, let's see what this is all about.”
6
Cassidy, Jebediah, and Gideon crept through the darkness. The lights ahead piercing beams of lights between trees and branches. The sounds of men yelling and heavy equipment echoed under the dense tree cover.
“I changed my mind,” Cassidy whispered.
“What?” asked Jebediah.
“I changed my mind. I want Walter and David here,” Cassidy said. Jebediah chuckled. “Two broad, strapping men like that? They'd make wonderful human shields.”
“Always on the lookout for others,” replied Jebediah.
The tree cover started to thin as the forest turned into a small field of stumps and broken twigs. “Careful,” said Cassidy. “Looks like they cut down some trees. Don't trip on the stumps.” Ahead, brightly lit and glowing, was a large encampment of trailers, machines, horses, boats, and carriages. Closest to the trio as they made their way out of the trees and into the cleared area were three trailers. They huddled against the wall of one, its windows dark.
“Atwater, in the bag,” Jebediah said. “Some small binoculars should be in there.” Gideon brought the bag under his arm and opened the flap, producing a small pair of brass binoculars. Jebediah brought them up to his eyes and examined the camp, brightly illuminated by large lamps attached to twenty-foot poles.
“What is this place?” asked Cassidy.
“Unsure,” replied Jebediah. “The trailers over to the left appear to be barracks of some sort. It's hard to see with all the damned horses and crap lying in the way.” Jebediah turned to the right and looked due east. “Over there looks like some large engines... Those must be the generators for the lights right there... and... drills?... I think those may be very large drills.”
“What the hell are they doing with drills?” asked Gideon.
“Shh!” hissed Jebediah. “Stay down. Someone is coming out of the next trailer.” The three sat there in the darkness and listened as another, dirt-covered man came running out of the clutter.
“Sir,” said the dirt-covered man in a cockney British accent. “The glow has completely gone. Not even a sparkle.”
“Dammit,” replied the supervisor in a light German accent. He stood there, thinking, then sighed. “Same thing from the others?” he finally asked.
“I don't know, sir. We haven't heard.”
The supervisor rubbed his forehead, frustrated. “Three goddamned months... Three goddamned months. Not a thing. What the hell do they want from us?... One moment,” said the supervisor, opening the door, reaching in, and grabbing a large clip board. He then shut the door. “I'm coming down.” The dirt-covered man nodded and the two walked off through the field of carriages and horses and to the far end of the camp.
“Where are they going?” asked Cassidy.
“That's what I'm trying to figure out,” replied Jebediah. “I'll try to get a better look.” He then scurried out into the field of supplies.
“Jeb!” Cassidy hissed. “What the fu—” Cassidy watched, both annoyed and concerned, as Jebediah hustled out among the horses and carriages, staying in the shadows they cast. Cassidy and Gideon then were surprised by the sounds of men talking behind them, walking out of the trees. The two bumbled about in panic for a moment before rushing around the corner and into the front door of the trailer they had been pressed against. The two stood in the completely dark trailer, unable to see much of anything. “Well this is just wonderful,” Cassidy said.
---
Jebediah crept along in the shadows. The sounds of work going on all around him. He scurried from behind an empty carriage to beside a generator about as tall as Jebediah. Peering out, he was able to better make out the lay of the camp. Along with the generator beside him, there were two more within view. More barracks had been hidden behind a row of trees, and a large, impromptu warehouse made of corrugated metal loomed in a clearing, filled with boats and supplies. The bright lights of arc welding beamed out from inside the warehouse.
Jebediah focused his binoculars on the centerpiece of this end of the camp: a giant, half-rotted sailing ship, its broken masts sticking twenty feet up, covered in moss and plants, tilted to the side, sitting half on the dry ground and half in the swampy muck. Swarming all over it were men with lights and tools.
He again shifted his attention beside the ship to the sound of a large, mechanical whirring. He tried to see around some men and large pumps, eventually making out what appeared to be an elevator going down into a mine shaft.
BAMF!
A massive plume of bright flame erupted from the ground, knocking men to the ground and sending others into a flurry of emergency activity. They dragged injured men away when another plume of flame shot up, knocking over one of the pumps. Two men ran up next to each other near Jebediah. He crouched down and moved closer to hear their conversation.
“...will be fine, sir,” said one of the two men. “Just minor burns.”
The other man sighed. “Even if it is out here, we're going to lose the entire team to injury before we find it,” he said in an upper-class British accent. “And not once, not once did they mention the gas. Highly irresponsible!” He stood there thinking, biting his lower lip. “Start getting the lighter things ready to move. Two weeks and we're done here. Idiots. Fountain of youth. May as well have us searching for the holy grail or the ark of the covenant. This organization was once so reliable, so reasonable, and here we are, chasing a fairy tale.” He grumbled some more. “No use continuing to complain. You undoubtedly do not care. I'm sure the museum will be happy to have what we've found, at the very least. So, carry on.”
“Yes sir,” replied the first man. They parted ways while Jebediah pondered in the darkness.
---
“God dammit,” Cassidy said in the pitch darkness. “Where are they?”
“Where are who?” asked Gideon.
“My matches. I had some in my pocket. Maybe see something in here.” Cassidy continued to rummage around when suddenly sssssk! and a light as Gideon lit a match on a wall. Cassidy looked over at Gideon who had a goofy grin in the faint, yellow light. “Are those mine?” she asked.
“No. Yours were soaked when you went in after Jebediah. The Colonel gave me some.”
“I'm going to need to pay to keep you around,” Cassidy said as she started to look around the room.
“What are you looking for?” asked Gideon.
“I'm... looking... for... aha!” Cassidy said as she walked over to a filing cabinet and took down a small oil lantern. “I'm looking for this. Gimme' one of those matches.” Gideon handed her a match which she lit on the wall and then lit the oil lantern. With the added glow, the room came into view. Ten feet wide and forty feet long, the trailer was a large office. Filing cabinets ran down one wall while small desks ran along the other. In the back was a table with large sheets of paper.
“What kind of operation are they running that requires all of this office work?” asked Gideon.
Cassidy opened up a cabinet and flipped through some folders. “Item number... type... date... they're cataloging things. It looks like the kind of paperwork you might find in a museum.”
“Cataloging what, though?” asked Gideon.
The sound of men just outside the door sent Cassidy and Gideon into a panic as th
ey looked about, trying to find a place to hide. “Uh, uh uh! Quick! Kiss me!” said Cassidy as she dimmed the lantern.
“What?!”
“Just kiss me, dammit!” Cassidy threw her arms around Gideon and started to passionately kiss him. One of the men from outside walked in.
“Hello? What's going on here?” he asked.
“I said that I would get to everyone who paid,” replied Cassidy.
After a moment of silence, the man finally replied. “A whore? When did they send for you?” the man asked, walking farther into the trailer.
“Something about a reward for two months work,” said Cassidy.
“I... This... This is a highly irregular reward, I must say” the man said, searching for words. “Perhaps it is a good idea, though.”
“Of course it's a good idea,” said Cassidy, seductively walking toward the man in the darkness. Then putting her arms around him she said, “Now scoot. I have work to do.” She then took the man by the shoulders, turned him around, and blackjacked him in the back of the head, sending him unconscious to the floor.
“Jeesus,” said Gideon quietly.
“Don't just stand there,” said Cassidy. “Help me move him. He'll be out for hours. Let's just move him into the back of the room.” The two took the tall man by the shoulders and feet and moved him across the room.
“It's impressive how quickly and easily you can jump into a role,” said Gideon. “You didn't even think. You just did it.”
“I'm surprised that you would be so impressed. You wear a mask all day, every day,” replied Cassidy as they dropped the man on the floor.
“Yeah, well... that... after a while, the mask becomes so integrated with your person, you forget that it's there. And while not all of us can do that, it's not terribly rare. I think you would have made a good stage actress in another life.”
“Welp, while I would—” Cassidy began.
Just then, another man walked into the office. “What's going on here?” he asked.
“Oh thank the lord!” Cassidy yelled in her best Southern Belle accent. “This man was trying to force himself on me!” She ran over to the man.
Cassidy St. Claire and The Fountain of Youth Parts I, II, & III Page 60