The Sahara Legacy

by Ernest Dempsey

  “South?” Sean asked.

  “Yep.”

  Chapter 22

  Sahara Desert, Libya

  “Where did you get a helicopter?” Tommy asked into the headset. He leaned back against the headrest and stared at his friend.

  “At the military base.”

  “So, what, you and Sid just snuck onto a high-security military installation and stole a chopper?”

  “Wasn’t as easy as it sounds,” Sid chimed in.

  Sean chuckled. “It’s true.”

  “Come on,” Hank said. “How in the world did you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “All of it.”

  “I mean…do you want the whole story or just the abbreviated version?”

  The others said nothing and continued to stare at him.

  “Okay, fine. I was out by the water when I got Tommy’s text. Apparently, I lost the signal while searching for the monument. By the time I found you guys, it was too late. Those soldiers had arrested you and were taking you to their trucks. I stole a ranger’s truck, followed you to the prison, and then came up with a plan to bust you out.”

  He took a deep breath before continuing. “When I saw the helicopter, I knew that would be our best mode of escape, but I’d need Sid to help.”

  “I still can’t believe you came all the way back out to the fishing boat,” Sid said. “You could have just called.”

  “I didn’t have your number. Besides, you needed the lifeboat to get to shore.”

  “Good point.”

  “Anyway,” Sean went on, “I brought Sid back and told him my plan.”

  “Which was what?” Tommy asked. “Break in, take out all the guards, force one of them to tell you where we were being interrogated, and then come get us out?”

  “Pretty much. I mean, there was a little more to it than that, but hey, it worked out.”

  The cabin fell silent as everyone processed Sean’s tale. The only noise was the constant humming in their headsets.

  “We were in there for nearly six hours,” Adriana said. “That’s a long time, but all things considered, I’d say you worked pretty fast.”

  Sean put his arm around her and pulled her close. “They didn’t hurt you guys, did they?”

  Tommy shrugged. “Slapped us around a bit, trying to get information. Nothing we haven’t seen before.”

  “They didn’t hurt her,” Hank said, “if that’s what you were wondering.”

  Sean was relieved to hear that. He didn’t know what he’d do if something happened to Adriana. When he was fighting through the guards and soldiers at the prison, the thought of someone hurting her had fueled his rage, filling his veins with enough adrenaline to kill a mule.

  The fighting had been a blur to him. He barely remembered much of it. Tommy called it a high-security installation. It was hardly Area 51. Difficult? Certainly. But Sean had faced difficult before.

  While the men guarding the base and prison were well armed and probably well trained, they weren’t exactly special ops. Once he was inside the walls, systematically taking out the threat one man at a time wasn’t too much for him. He took out the first guy with his bare hands, sneaking up on him from behind and snapping his neck. The spine had snapped easily since the guy had no idea what was happening until it was too late. By the time he felt Sean’s hands around his head, there was no time to tense his muscles or defend himself.

  Sean had taken the guy’s knife and proceeded to use it to silently take out most of the guards, eventually making his way to where the Libyans were interrogating his companions.

  His muscles ached, finally catching up to the strain he’d put them through during the escape. Sean found as he got older that his body took a little longer to recover. It wasn’t like when he first joined Axis. He could fall out of a second-story window and go run a marathon the next day. Now if he fell out of bed he’d be feeling it for almost a week.

  “Where are we going?” Sid asked, cutting into the relative silence. “You said to go south. “We’re getting close to the border with Chad.”

  “The Republic of Chad?” Hank asked.

  “That’s the one. I can turn west if you’d like, head toward Niger.”

  Sean knew there’d been some civil unrest in Niger recently. A warlord was wreaking havoc on small villages and towns. It was the last thing they needed to encounter.

  “Stick with Chad,” Sean said. “We can land there and rest for the night. You have enough fuel to get us there?”

  “We should,” Sid answered. “Won’t be more than a few hours.”

  Sean didn’t like the lack of absolute certainty from his pilot, but he didn’t have a choice. They were flying over the Sahara Desert. It wasn’t like there were a bunch of gas stations with aircraft fuel along the way. He also knew there was no point in worrying about it. They’d get as far as they could before having to set down. Preferably, that would be out of Libya.

  He looked out the window, though there wasn’t much to see. The vast desert stretched out all the way to the dark horizon where the rolling sand dunes became starry night sky.

  “Why are we going south?” Sean asked as he continued to gaze out the window.

  “Before those men took us,” Tommy said, “I got a good look at the medallion and tablets.”

  Sean twisted his head around and faced his friend with a pleasantly surprised look on his face. “Really? What did it say?”

  “It said the third stone is guarded forever by a great beast with a tail on its face.”

  “A tail on its face?”

  Tommy gave a nod. “Yeah, we figure it’s an elephant.”

  “Oh right. That would make sense.”

  “Only problem is we don’t know where to find the elephant or even where to start looking. Best thing we could come up with is that the beast the riddle mentions must be made out of stone or something.”

  “Like a sculpture?”

  “Yes. Nothing else would be permanent.”

  Sean thought for a moment. He didn’t recall anything remotely close to that from his travels except for a fairly recent visit to Italy.

  “It’s not that elephant sculpture in Rome, is it? You know, the one at the base of that obelisk?”

  Tommy laughed with a snort through his nose. “No, I don’t think so. The clue said south.”

  “Right. My mistake. So, we’re looking for a giant statue of an elephant somewhere in Africa. How far south?”

  Tommy looked at Hank and then back at Sean. “No idea.”

  “So, this thing could be anywhere on this gigantic continent.”

  “Could be.”

  “Well, that sucks. Any ideas?”

  “I have one,” Adriana said. Up until then, she’d stayed relatively quiet. She stood up, grabbed a bar running along the center of the roof, and made her way to the cockpit. “There a map up here?” she asked.

  Sid looked around for a second and then pointed to a folded map sitting in a side panel. “There,” he said. “That should be one.”

  Adriana reached down and grabbed the map. She unfolded it to make sure it was what they needed before returning to the main cabin.

  “You’re welcome,” Sid said in a sarcastic tone.

  She ignored him and spread out the map on the floor, taking a seat next to it.

  “If we’re heading toward the border between Libya and Chad,” she said, “and the clue told us to go south, what if the thing we’re looking for is the same distance between Leptis Magna and Giza?”

  The three men in the back leaned forward and peered at the map as they listened to her theory.

  “What do you mean?” Hank said. “Same distance?”

  Adriana nodded. She traced a line with her finger from the west bank of the Nile all the way to the region where they’d visited the ancient Roman ruins. “See that line?”

  The others acknowledged with a nod.

  “It could be that we have to find this elephant the same distance from Lept
is Magna, or at least a similar distance.”

  “Why would that be?” Sean asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Adriana confessed. “Just a hunch.”

  “Okay,” Tommy jumped in, “but even if the distance is correct, we still don’t know which direction to go other than south.”

  “See if you can get in touch with the kids. If we can get them some general coordinates, narrow things down to a specific region, they might be able to find what we’re looking for and cut our search time significantly.”

  The men glanced at each other and then turned their attention back to Adriana.

  “That’s a good idea,” Sean said.

  “Beats anything I came up with,” Tommy added. “As soon as we land, I’ll see if I can get a signal and call Atlanta.”

  The conversation died, and the cabin returned to silence. During the rest of the flight, no one said much of anything. A couple of times Sean noticed the others dozing off in short bursts. Adriana’s head fell onto his shoulder more than once as she fell asleep for a few minutes and then woke suddenly, only to start the process all over again.

  Sean couldn’t sleep. He was exhausted, but his mind was racing. The others hadn’t said anything about it since they got in the chopper, but Sean couldn’t get it out of his head.

  How was Dufort able to track them?

  Sean eyed Hank from across the cabin. The former CIA man was leaning his head against the corner with his eyes closed. His lips flapped every few seconds, signaling he was fast asleep.

  Could Hank be the one telling Dufort where they were going? Sean shrugged off the idea. Hank had been left for dead when Dufort made his getaway from the prison. If he was working for Dufort, the Frenchman would have helped his assistant escape—unless there was no more use for him. Again, that didn’t add up in Sean’s mind. Hank would have come clean or at least been irate at Dufort for leaving him.

  No way Hank was the one.

  That left Sid.

  Sid was a wild card, an unknown. He’d been of great help so far, but that didn’t mean the guy wasn’t up to no good. Of course, if Sid had been working with Dufort, he would have left the second Sean and his friends got off the fishing boat. He may have even ditched the group sooner, all the way back in Cairo.

  He hadn’t, though, which caused Sean to think maybe Sid was okay. Heck, he was flying them to freedom. He didn’t have to do that.

  Sean knew that a smuggler like Sid had some kind of motive for helping out. It couldn’t have been from the goodness of his heart. If there was treasure to be found in the desert, Sid wanted to get his share. Sid had hitched his wagon to Sean and the others, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t hedging his bets. Maybe he was helping Dufort and the Americans to ensure he’d come out on top.

  Whatever the reason, Sean reaffirmed that he’d keep a watchful eye on their pilot, just in case.

  A flash of light off in the distance to the west caught his attention. A moment later, a faint pop reached his ears. The sound didn’t rouse his friends. Sean knew what it was. A tank had fired on something. Thankfully, the machine wasn’t firing at the helicopter, at least that’s what Sean believed. From the direction of the flash, it appeared the tank was aiming to the north. There was no way of knowing if it was a rebel tank or one belonging to the loyalists.

  Not that it mattered. Both groups would be enemies to a random chopper flying through the area.

  Sid must have seen the shot because he tilted the aircraft a little to the left to make sure they steered clear of the danger.

  Sean closed his eyes, and he let his mind drift. The constant throbbing in the headset was like a hypnotic metronome, persistently begging him to dreamland.

  He fought the urge to sleep and shook his head, but before long Sean had passed out like the rest while his subconscious took him to a lost oasis city somewhere in the middle of the Sahara.

  Chapter 23

  Bardaï, Chad

  Everyone in the helicopter’s main cabin woke with a start.

  “Setting her down,” Sid said into the headsets.

  Sean found Adriana asleep on his shoulder. His neck was stiff from leaning against the corner. He checked his phone for the time. He’d been asleep over an hour, closer to two.

  The darkness outside was brightened by the light from a crescent moon high in the sky to the east.

  “Where are we?” Tommy asked, rubbing his eyes.

  “Far as I can tell,” Sid answered, “we’re just outside the town of Bardaï.”

  “Bardaï?” Hank asked as he stretched his arms and yawned.

  “It’s in Chad. Small oasis town, but it’s the closest thing to civilization you’ll find around here.”

  Sean and the others checked their phones, but they still had no signal.

  “I got nothing on my phone,” Tommy said, disappointed.

  “Me either,” Sean said. “This could be a problem.”

  “Sorry I couldn’t get us farther,” Sid’s voice came through the headsets again. “Out of fuel. We should be far enough out of town that no one will bother us. We can get some rest here, and then I’ll head into the village in the morning to see if I can find us some fuel.”

  The rotors above began to slowly wind down as Sid flipped a number of switches and began shutting off the controls.

  “Sounds good,” Sean said. He turned to the others. “Feel free to get some rest, guys. I’ll keep watch for the next few hours.”

  “I’ll take second shift,” Adriana said with a yawn.

  Sean slid the door open, hung his headset on a hook, and climbed out. The desert air was cooler than expected and sent a chill across his skin. He’d always known that nights in the desert brought about an extreme swing in temperature. It happened when he was in Vegas, though not as much as he’d expected.

  Here—on the edge of the Sahara—it was much more extreme.

  Sean wandered away from the chopper and looked out over the land. Sid had parked the helicopter on a plateau that overlooked a valley. They were only a few hundred feet above the town of Bardaï, but the view was still impressive. He tilted his head back and gazed up at the stars. The moment was short lived, however, as Sean’s equilibrium revolted and sent the sky spinning in his field of vision. He lowered his head and squeezed his eyes shut for a second, trying to fight off the nausea that came with the sudden dizziness.

  He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before opening his eyes again. Off to his left was a cluster of boulders jutting up out of the ground. He wandered over to it and found a rock with a flat top where he could sit down and let his body adjust.

  “How long is this going to last?” he asked himself as he eased down onto the hard surface.

  He’d heard people talk about their experience with vertigo, but Sean never expected to go through it. He wondered how so many people could live with a permanent version of the condition.

  He rubbed the back of his neck with his thumb and forefinger, hoping that would take away some of the dizziness. Then he looked out over the scene again. He’d visited places where there were more stars than a person could count in a lifetime. This spot would be added to that short list.

  The Milky Way stretched across the sky overhead, running by the waxing moon from horizon to horizon. Down in the valley, a sparse smattering of lights flickered in humble houses or along the dirt streets. Sean was surprised anyone was still awake this late.

  He rested his elbows on his knees. His vision stopped spinning almost as suddenly as it began, bringing him much-needed relief.

  As he gazed out at the serene view, he thought he heard something jingle. Sean shook his head like he would if he’d been swimming and gotten water in his ear.

  I must be hearing things.

  No sooner had the thought popped into his head than he heard the noise again, this time more clearly than the first.

  “What is that?” he muttered to himself.

  Sean stood up and tiptoed over to the edge of the plateau where the s
lope rolled gently down to the plains below. Halfway down the mountain, he saw something moving amid an outcropping of boulders.

  His eyes narrowed as he tried to focus on what had made the noise. His heart rate quickened. He stepped over the edge and crept downhill, keeping his pistol waist high in case whatever was down there was a threat.

  Something moved again. It was white but still too difficult to discern. The metal clanking sound was more pronounced than before. If whoever was hiding in the boulders was an enemy, they were a pretty loud one.

  Sean bent his knees and crouched behind the first big rock he came to on his descent. He peeked around the end, keeping his weapon extended and ready to fire. Some rocks shifted on the dirt on the other side of the boulder, and he pulled back his gun lest the enemy see him.

  He pressed his shoulder blades against the smooth stone and waited for a second. He listened closely but didn’t hear the movement again. Sean slowed his breathing, calmed his heartbeat, and tensed his finger on the trigger.

  Slowing down the world around him was something he’d learned to do a long time ago. It was especially useful when shooting long-range weapons, but the technique also helped in close-quarters combat—hand-to-hand or otherwise.

  The enemy was being incredibly silent all of a sudden. For someone who’d been carelessly lumbering about on the hillside, now it seemed they were intent on keeping quiet.

  Had they seen Sean approaching? Did they notice him when he peeked around the rock?

  Whatever the case, Sean had no intention of letting them make the first move. He spun around and flashed his weapon in front of his body, ready to squeeze the trigger at first sight of the target.

  Every muscle in his body tensed for a brief moment. A second later, all those fibers relaxed. Standing in front of him in the center of the rock formation was a white-and-brown goat.

  The surprised animal looked up at him and then made a bah sound before shoving its nose back to the ground to root around for more foliage.

  Sean exhaled and lowered his weapon. He shook his head as he watched the goat rummaging in the rocks.