Devil's Gold

by Julie Korzenko

  Ethan Connor jumped out, followed by several other rangers.

  “Ethan,” Cassidy raised her voice to be heard over the helicopters. “We need hazmat gear.” She moved her hands in front of her face to signal what she was saying. He nodded and ran back to the chopper. Glancing to the side, she grabbed Jake’s hand and shuffled him toward the side of the helicopter. “We need to shower down.”

  Jake grimaced and nodded, then pointed at one of the rangers unloading medical equipment. Cassidy smiled, and together they walked over. With a wave of her arm and a knife slashing motion across her throat, she indicated to the ranger that he needed to move away. Jake dove into the chopper and retrieved a portable decontamination unit. “Handy little things, aren’t they?”

  Cassidy eyed the metal cylinder and plastic attachments. “I don’t think you’ll be saying that in a few minutes.”

  Jake pulled open a large square bag and retrieved a black metal platform. With quick adept movements he snapped a white pipe in place, hooked up a plastic shower head, and screwed the container of water to the edge of the hose. “Just about done.”

  Cassidy moved past him and peered into the helicopter. “There should be three washes.” She jumped into the interior and found three one-gallon bottles labeled with bright fluorescent stickers.

  “Three?” Jake rolled his eyes and shook his shoulders in a fake shiver. “You first.”

  She glanced at the makeshift shower, down at her clothes, up at Jake, around the bustling vicinity now swarming with spacesuit-clad personnel, and back at Jake. No matter how you faced the situation, bashfulness didn’t belong in this arena. “Turn around.”

  Jake quirked one brow and slid her an evil grin. “Don’t you think shooting me in the leg deserves some type of retribution?”

  Cassidy returned his penetrating gaze with one of her own, slipping out of her jeans and tugging her t-shirt over her head. Jake inhaled, and it was her turn to lift a brow and grin maliciously. “I suppose.” She wasn’t brave enough to play the seductress and turned around before shedding the rest of her clothes.

  “Sunshine, this ain’t fair.”

  Cassidy twisted the water nozzle and shrieked as a blast of cold water streamed from the shower head and spurted from several other areas of the pipe. She struggled with the cap of the first wash and swore violently as her hands kept sliding off its surface. She jumped when a warm hand clutched her shoulder, pinning her in place. “Let go,” she gasped, her breathing made difficult by frigid fingers of water.

  “Hold still,” Jake grunted, ducking as she flailed a halfhearted punch in his direction. He poured the first wash over her and spun her around beneath the water.

  Cassidy closed her eyes, numb to embarrassment and praying for the shower to end. She felt his hands everywhere and reached out to grip his arm. The feel of bare skin shocked her into opening her eyes and gazing up at Jake’s face, ignoring the rest of his naked flesh. His jaw was set and he narrowed his eyes, daring her to fight him. Cassidy inhaled and reached for the wash to aid Jake in his own decontamination. “Wow, some first date, Aquaman.”

  Jake bit back a strangled laugh and shook his head. When he finally, thankfully, and mercifully cut the water, Cassidy exhaled the breath she’d been holding.

  “Clothes,” he snapped, his voice deep and commanding.

  Cassidy tossed him a decontamination suit and slipped into one of her own. “Jaccuzzi,” she responded, mimicking his tone of voice.

  “Quit dreaming. The faster we work, the quicker we can properly shower and put on our own clothes.”

  The choppers finally shut off, leaving the clearing in dead silence. Jake bent forward and wiped a strand of wet hair off her cheek. Cassidy smiled, holding his gaze for a beat too long. He cleared his throat and backed away from her. “I’m going over to organize our troops.”

  “Okay.” Cassidy turned to find Ethan standing a few paces behind her. She signaled with one hand for him to keep his distance. Pulling a mask over her face, Cassidy carefully placed their contaminated clothing in plastic bags and sealed them with hazmat tape. Next she strung the skull and crossbones tape across the opening of the helicopter, signaling that possible contamination existed. CDC could deal with the wash down of the metal bird. Finished, Cassidy moved toward Ethan.

  He stared at her from behind the protective shield of his decontamination suit. “What’s going on?”

  She didn’t know what he’d witnessed and frankly, at this point in time, didn’t care. “I don’t know. But I’ve called in the CDC. We have six dead wolves all with profuse internal bleeding. Blood has seeped from every egress available. And the composition of it isn’t natural.”

  “Like the body at the base of Post 29?”

  He always did follow her line of thinking. “Exactly. Any lab results yet?”

  Ethan kicked at the ground. “I didn’t even think to check before responding to Jake’s call. This doesn’t make any sense. What disease affects humans and wolves but nothing else?”

  “Not anything natural.”

  The whites of Ethan’s eyes glittered behind the plastic eye shield. “What are you saying?”

  She placed her hands on her hips and shook her head in frustration, hating that she had no answer. “I don’t know. But I’m going to find out. In the meantime, we need to activate hazmat protocol.”

  Ethan swore and turned toward his men, barking orders through the intercom of his suit. “As you can see, we’ve got a possible biological situation, boys. Let’s proceed with extreme caution.”

  Cassidy glanced around and noted that the rest of her team were in protective gear, including headlamps that illuminated their path up to the observation site as they moved slowly up the trail carrying a generator and lights with them.

  “There was a man up here. He shot one of the wolves, then used us as target practice.”

  Ethan spun on his heels. “Shot at you? Your buddy there didn’t mention that the perpetrator actually opened fire on you. He indicated it was a poacher.”

  Cassidy rubbed her mask; a burning headache increased in intensity. “He was probably leaving all the nasty details for later. We ran,” Cassidy twisted around and pointed to a small rocky ledge. “That way.”

  “All right. I’ll see if I can’t find something.”

  She began to head past him, but Ethan stopped her with his hand. “Cass, I’m sorry about the other morning. I was out of line.”

  Don’t do this now, Cassidy. “Yes, you were. But I suppose I wasn’t much better.” She’d done it. Why can’t I learn to listen to my own advice?

  “I’d like to start fresh.” Ethan glanced anywhere but at her.

  She’d opened the door for communication; she supposed she’d better either shut it or leave it cracked for another time. Cassidy decided to shut it for good. “Ethan, there’s a whole bunch of good between us and a truckload of bad.” He opened his mouth to argue, but she shook her head. “Bad always sticks its head where it’s not wanted before Good even has a second to speak. I’ve been listening to Bad for ages; I don’t know what Good sounds like anymore.”

  Ethan’s eyes softened. “I know what you mean.”

  She tilted her head, the corner of her lip curving upward. “I want to come home without guilt, without regret. Until this trip, I hadn’t realized how much I miss being here.” Cassidy turned and gazed beyond the ridgeline. “I’d like to be able to come home and visit.” She turned and stared into his face. “But I want to be here without your shadow. I don’t want the ghost of us.” Cassidy swallowed.

  “Wow,” Ethan said, then let out a shaky laugh. “I guess honesty is still one of your things. This is your home, Cassidy. I hope you always return and enjoy the beauty of the place. Your parents certainly did.” He stepped back, a sadness shining in his eyes she wished wasn’t there. “You should be able to cherish those memories, not ignore them. As for us,” he scratched his head and studied her. “There hasn’t been an us for years.”

 
Even though his eyes denied his words, they were the words Cassidy wanted to hear. She couldn’t heal his wounds. He’d have to do that himself. Flipping the light switch on her headlamp, Cassidy finally laid her past to rest and jogged after her pod.

  Stopping at the edge of the clearing around the observation post, she watched her team work. Steve assisted Michelle in obtaining soil and other natural resource samples. Jake had already bagged three of the carcasses. She stepped forward to help him. They worked in silence, the protective masks making verbal communication an alien voice.

  Jake signaled to Cassidy that he needed to make a phone call. She nodded and grabbed a bag from their equipment, moving toward the next wolf. On his way out of the clearing, he tapped Michelle on the shoulder and indicated that she should follow. She walked behind him, carefully placing her collection of soil samples on the ground when they stopped.

  “I want you to head down that path.” He pointed to the footpath he and Cassidy had run down early in the evening. “You’ll reach a large tree with two mammoth boulders resting on its far side.” Michelle nodded. “If you follow the southerly angle, you should be able to make out a disturbance in the leaves that looks like someone fell. The full moon and your light will help, but you’ll still have to search closely for the right spot.”

  “Is that how you hurt yourself, sir?”

  Jake frowned. “What?”

  “Your leg…” Michelle pointed to where Cassidy had shot him. “I noticed you were limping.”

  He’d forgotten all about his injury. It throbbed and burned, but the decontamination wash had dried the wound out and he doubted it had the nerve to bleed after being exposed to the harsh soap. “Before the spot where I decided to use my ass as a toboggan, there’s a low rise.”

  Michelle nodded and smothered her smile.

  “Search it. I want to know who the hell shot at us tonight.” Jake watched the park rangers combing the area. “Be careful. I don’t want to alert them to the proper location. Pretend you’re taking soil samples or something.”

  “Why, sir, that’s exactly what I am doing.” She grinned and sauntered off in the direction of the area where he’d spotted the shooter.

  He watched Cassidy. Each second that passed, he hated himself more for this deception. If she knew that every member of her pod was Black Stripe, she’d not only skin him alive but probably retreat behind an impenetrable shell and lose what little faith she had left in ZEBRA.

  He unclipped his cell phone and dialed Colonel Price.

  “Anderson.”

  “Sir, I need further clarification on this mission.” Jake waited. This was his second request. The call he’d placed yesterday had been met with a curt need-to-know and it was stated that he didn’t need to know.

  “What status change has prompted this request?”

  Jake stared at Cassidy as she moved from one wolf to the next. She kept rubbing her arms through the material of her suit, and her hands shook slightly. Exhaustion. Post-adrenaline fade. It could be any number of things creating those symptoms. However, the fear of earlier contamination by some foreign substance concerned him.

  “Dr. Lowell and I played hide and seek with some bullets this evening. And we’ve discovered a slew of dead wolves that appear to be infected with some form of blood-thickening toxin. Other than that, it’s business as usual.”

  Colonel Price sighed. “You’re looking for any connection between ZEBRA and New World Petroleum.”

  Jake frowned. “Tell me what I don’t know.”

  “It’s been confirmed New World Petroleum is funding ZEBRA. We want to know why. I believe Dr. Lowell is the key. You’re there to determine exactly what lock she fits.”

  “And Cole’s affiliation with Yellowstone? Coincidence or brilliance?”

  “I haven’t unearthed anything that might lead us to believe his motivations lie in a different direction than simply spearheading one of the greatest discoveries on American soil in the past decade.”

  Jake sighed, feeling a strong surge of exasperation. “What are you saying?”

  “Follow Dr. Lowell very carefully.”

  His heart caught, but he needed clarification. “Is she considered a hostile?”

  “I don’t know, son. The bodies of two of her team members have washed up in Port Harcourt.” The colonel disconnected, leaving Jake feeling alone and confused. He’d combed through her background file, and there was nothing to signify that she was anything more than what she said. A zoologist. And a damn good one at that.

  CHAPTER 21

  CASSIDY STRETCHED, REACHING TOWARD THE SKY AND WIGGLING her fingers. The evening was blocked by layers of plastic which had been erected to prevent any further spread of whatever possible disease might shadow these woods. Every muscle in her neck and back felt like they’d been ripped to shreds. The mad dash through the forest earlier, combined with the past three hours of bending and crouching, worked areas of her body she didn’t know existed.

  Leaving the cordoned-off and sealed area around Post 26, she approached Jake. He leaned against a tree, relieving the weight off his injured leg. Her breath caught again. She couldn’t believe she’d shot him. Touching his shoulder, she stood on her toes and whispered in his ear. “Want me to put a proper bandage on your leg?”

  He turned his head and grinned at her. “Only if it means a full body massage.”

  The light banter eased her frayed nerves. “Well, I have this handy-dandy little medical kit over there that comes equipped with antibiotic and gauze pads, but I’m afraid no exotic oils or sponges.” Cassidy verified they were well outside the tented contamination site and stripped off her gloves and mask, inhaling and twisting her neck to stretch out tight muscles.

  He reached for her hand and held it between his. Jake ran his thumb across the ridge of her knuckles. “You’re trembling.”

  Cassidy sucked in sharply. “Well, it’s not because you’re touching me.”

  Soft laughter rumbled in his chest. “Don’t I wish? No, I noticed it earlier when you were bagging the wolves. Your head hurts too, right?”

  “Don’t worry yourself, big guy. It’s a plain and simple case of exhaustion.”

  He stared at her, then glanced over her shoulder. She turned and watched Steve drag the last stretcher loaded with bagged wolves out of the observation area.

  “Come on, Sunshine. I think the party’s over.”

  She followed him from the clearing. “Thank goodness for small favors.”

  Jake tugged on her hand, and she allowed him to pull her along. “Did you speak with Ethan? He didn’t know that the poacher aimed and shot at us.”

  “I guess I left that out.”

  Cassidy frowned. Jake didn’t strike her as being the forgetful type. “I filled him in on our suspicions regarding the blood and connection with the dead body.”

  “I know,” he said and helped her around a difficult bend, invading her personal space again when he moved behind her.

  “I requested that he isolate the area and post guards.”

  Jake stopped fifteen feet from the helicopters. “I know.”

  Cassidy lifted a shoulder to indicate she’d only been trying to make conversation and walked past him, irritated and tired. “Aren’t you just a know-it-all then?” She headed toward the helicopter containing the wolves and her pod. Ethan’s men were still working the site, searching for evidence of the poacher. The lights bouncing off the trees gave a preternatural feel to the night.

  Together, they entered a small tent split into several sections. A CDC chopper sat off to the left, obviously the benefactor of this mobile decontamination unit. Cassidy went through the three wash cycle once with her suit on and then once more stripped bare. The difference, this time, was privacy, hot water, and clean sweats.

  She was the last one to exit the tent and moved to join the rest of her team. Steve lifted an arm down and helped her into the body of the rescue chopper they’d commandeered for this mission. She bit her bottom lip an
d refused to think about the last time she’d been aboard one of these things. This one wasn’t as big, though, and contained none of the dull metallic paint she remembered from her previous ride.

  Seating herself against the back wall, she reached beneath the bench and retrieved a medical kit. She patted the empty spot beside her. “Come on, Anderson; let’s see to that cut.” Action helped her remain focused on facts and not the horror of the evening.

  Jake bent his head, and his shoulders shook. He was laughing at her. “Yeah, Sunshine. Let’s see to my cut.”

  “Am I missing something?” Steve asked.

  Jake glanced at her and winked. “Nope.” He sat down and stretched his injured leg across her lap. She pushed up the bottom of his navy blue CDC issued sweatpants leg and went to work, cleaning and disinfecting. The helicopter blades began their rotation and Cassidy focused on Jake’s leg, blocking out the memory of Africa: the fear in Georgie’s face, the brutality of the scene below.

  “That looks bad,” Michelle said. “What happened?”

  “I’m a klutz.”

  Cassidy smiled. His protectiveness over her mistake made her feel all warm and fuzzy. Nibbling the bottom of her lip, she concentrated on the task at hand. Deliberately adding too much antibiotic, she smacked Jake’s thigh when he squirmed.

  She hated warm and fuzzy.

  Finished, Cassidy pushed Jake’s leg off her lap.

  “Hey, I was comfortable.”

  She smiled sweetly. “I wasn’t.” Poking him in the arm, she decided to ask a few questions. It would help wash away some of the mental pictures of the past few hours. “Did you know that the Black Stripe crew is real?”

  Jake was in the process of chugging water, and her question caused him to spew it out his nose. She raised a brow. That answered that.

  Wiping excess water from his face with the back of his hand, he gazed at her. The brilliant blue of his eyes was a faint beacon within the dark confines of the helicopter. “Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do.”

  Cassidy chewed on her lower lip. “Ever met any of them?”