by K. T. Tomb
Once all of the weapons were in our possession, Cat ordered the two of them to the center of the room.
“You’re making a huge mistake,” the man protested. “We’re agents of the United States government and things aren’t going to go well for you if anything happens to us.”
“No,” Cat replied. “You’re making a huge mistake in thinking that any of us give a damn about either of you or your lame excuses.”
“Actually, we’re all making a huge mistake,” I laughed, enjoying an opportunity to make a joke out of the situation.
Cat frowned at me, trying to figure out what I was talking about. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t put them there,” I said, shooing them back from the center of the room. I scooped up my headlamp, reattached it to my head and then went to the center of the room.
“What the hell?” Ishi asked as I lay down on my back and pointed the light straight toward the ceiling.
“I found our key,” I said.
All eyes turned upward toward the pentagon that was carved into the ceiling.
“Why didn’t we think of that?” Ishi sighed.
“Our good friend here actually aided me in the discovery,” I said, rubbing the back of my head where he’d hit me with the pistol.
I noticed that there was a mark at the midpoint on one of the edges of the pentagon and I got an idea. The five points of the body from the anatomy charts that I’d seen always consisted of the head, the two hands and the feet inside of a pentagram. I turned myself so that I was lined up in a position where my head was aligned with the mark on the pentagon and spread my hands and feet.
“And here is your pentagram,” I said.
Ishi looked at me and then over at one of the caved in chambers. “If you draw a line from the tip of your nose in that direction, it would be pointing toward that chamber.”
“So, the map is in that chamber?” Cat asked, being careful not to ignore our captives, but still interested in what was taking place.
I sat up and shrugged as Ishi scrambled over to the caved-in pile of rocks and started moving them aside. “You want to give me a hand here?” he called out over his shoulder.
“You keep an eye on them,” I told Cat. “I’ll help him.”
Chapter Sixteen
We’d been removing rocks from the cave in and I was getting pretty tired of it when a thought hit me suddenly. We don’t have to do this. We have two people just sitting over there that could be doing this instead. “Hold on a second,” I said, standing up. “Why in the world are we doing this?”
“Because we’re trying to find the map,” Ishi replied.
“No, you misunderstand. Why are we doing this? We’ve got them.” I turned Ishi so that he was looking directly at the two U.S. government agents who were sitting on the floor watching us work while Cat kept the pistol pointed at them.
“But they don’t know what we’re looking for,” Ishi pointed out.
“Does it matter? We sit here and watch them, maybe enjoy something to eat and drink some water. We watch for the map and check whatever rocks they toss aside.”
“You really don’t expect us to do your work for you?” Agent Cagney asked. I remembered that he referred to the other agent as Lacy, so I just went ahead and labeled him as Cagney.
“Why not?” I replied. “You were expecting us to do all the work and then you were just going to shoot us and run off with the map.”
“Maybe it will be good punishment for trying to kill us,” Ishi added.
“Of course, if you prefer,” I chuckled, “we can just turn our pet ninja loose on you again.”
“Pet ninja?” Cat asked, grinning broadly.
“I thought it was sort of cute, didn’t you?”
“I’d rather just shoot them,” Cat hissed.
“Yeah, but then we’d have to move all of those rocks. There are still a lot of them left.”
“Alright, you heard him,” Cat called out with authority. “Start moving rocks. It’ll be good practice for prison. They still do that, don’t they?”
“I’m warning you,” Agent Cagney said. “We know everything about you. We will hunt you down and the consequences won’t be pleasant. You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
“Just go ahead and shoot them, Cat,” I said. “I’m tired of listening to them.”
“Okay, fine, we’ll help out.”
“See, now that’s the international spirit that I was hoping for. It’s nice for neighbors to help each other out. Don’t you think so, Cat?” It was really kind of fun to be the one on the controlling end of a stick up for a change. I could get used to it.
Cagney and Lacy started moving rocks. It was really a pretty dull thing to watch, except the part where I wasn’t the one doing it. Ishi and I took turns eating and drinking while the other one kept an eye out for the rock we were looking for, and then I took the pistol and spelled Cat for a few minutes so that she could relax.
Our two helpers had been working for quite some time before they stopped, sat back and asked if they could have some water.
“Sorry,” I said. “I finished off the last of mine. Ishi? Cat?”
“Saving it for later,” Cat replied.
“Me too,” Ishi added.
“Hey wait a second!” It was amazing that I hadn’t noticed that they were dressed in regular clothing and dry as bones; well, except for the sweat from working. “How come you two are dry? You didn’t swim in?”
“No, we walked in,” Agent Lacy said.
“I told you there was another way in,” Cat shrugged when I turned to look at her. “I just don’t know it.”
“I wonder how they knew it.” I narrowed my eyes and stared at the agents.
“I already told you that there are a lot of things that we know and that you don’t understand half of the trouble you’re in,” Agent Cagney said through clenched teeth.
He didn’t seem to be enjoying the position that he was in. No doubt, he was used to throwing his weight around and being in charge. Maybe, sometimes, his threats worked, but we were holding all the cards, or in that particular case, all the guns.
“I don’t feel like I’m in trouble,” I laughed and looked at Ishi and Cat in turn. “You guys?”
They both said, “no.”
“Sorry, Jack, we just aren’t feeling like we’re in trouble. So, until we do, get back to work.”
“I’m warning you, you don’t want to harm us.”
“Cat?” I called out and then turned to Ishi. “Cover your ears, that cannon is going to make a lot of noise in here.”
“Okay, okay, we’ll keep digging.”
The way that he alternated between making threats and staying alive was intriguing, but at the same time, I couldn’t help wondering if they, whoever they were, really did know everything about me. I knew that we were getting ourselves into something big; something that could get us killed from the very start. For all I knew, we might walk out of the cave with the map and be met by the same paramilitary group that worked for the Illuminati and were completely deniable. Maybe I should be a little bit more careful with these guys.
The thought had barely entered my mind when I heard Ishi call out. “Stop!”
Cagney and Lacy froze where they were.
“There it is,” Ishi said.
Even after following his pointing finger, I was having trouble seeing what he was talking about. All of the rocks looked the same. “I don’t see it, Ishi.”
“See the straight edge on that one right there. That’s not natural. Back up out of the way,” he said, directing the agents out of the way.
I noticed that Cagney considered making a break for it, but quickly changed his mind when Cat clicked her tongue and shook her head at him.
After Ishi pointed it out, I saw the straight edge and part of the corner of a rock that looked like a flat stone. “Good eye, Ishi. I guess that’s why I keep you around.”
We stepped into the work of uncov
ering the flat stone. As we did, we noted that it was about two inches thick and in the perfectly symmetrical shape of a pentagon, which measured 16” from base to apex. We removed it from the pile of stones, took it to the center of the room, laid it on the floor and brushed it off.
When my headlamp first lit it up, I was amazed at the composition of it. It had sort of a blue-green hue to it and was speckled and streaked with white and rose quartz. The disappointing part, however, was that there was really nothing, but a perfectly symmetrical pentagon carved into its surface and a single character of what looked like Arabic or Hebrew script carved into the base of each leg of the pentagram.
“This is a map?” I asked. “I’m not seeing how you get to Tucson on there, anywhere.”
“I don’t think it’s that kind of map,” Ishi responded.
“Really, Ish?” I started laughing.
“There must be some very significant meaning in the characters that are carved in the pentagram bases,” Cat pointed out.
It was in that moment, when Cat was distracted for just a second that Agent Cagney made a move for his gun, which was tucked into the belt of the waterproof fanny pack that I was wearing with my wetsuit. He might have gotten it, except for Cat’s reflexes and the solid kick to the chin that laid him out and gave him a short nap. In the same instant, I reached for the pistol and pointed it at Agent Lacy.
Chapter Seventeen
“Look.” Agent Lacy started talking while her partner slept. “We really don’t want to hurt anyone. We work for a very powerful agency and we’re really trying to help you guys. What he said is true; you really are messing with people that you don’t want to mess with.”
“You don’t want to hurt anybody?” I asked, still holding the pistol on her. “I’ve got a bruise on the back of my head and a throbbing headache from your pal here not wanting to hurt me. I’m also going to assume that he wasn’t just joking around when he said that he would shoot me if I moved or called out.”
“We had to keep you quiet so that your friends…”
“So that my friends would walk into your trap. Sorry, pumpkin, I’m not buying it.”
“Nicholas,” she pleaded, “you’ve got to believe me. We’re really here to help.”
I started laughing. “Wait a second, I remember a joke that went something like that. Either of you two remember it?”
“No,” Ishi and Cat answered.
“Oh, wait, it’s coming to me. It was a Reagan joke. The nine most terrifying words in the English language, ‘we’re from the government and we’re here to help.’ Still not buying it.”
“Nick, there are powerful organizations that would kill to get their hands on this map,” she started in again. “Agent Stone and I can take it off of this island and get it into the proper hands. If it should fall into the wrong hands… Well, the result could be catastrophic.”
“How catastrophic, like, the end of the world or something?” I mocked.
“Yes. That catastrophic.” Her expression was not just a grave one, but I could see fear in her eyes as well.
“You’re still not giving me much,” I said.
“What about her?” Agent Lacy asked, nodding toward Cat.
“What do you mean, what about her?”
“What do you know about her?”
“I know enough. She checked out with my boss. She runs a scuba diving school here and gives underwater tours.”
“You bought that?”
“Yes, I bought that; why shouldn’t I?”
“It didn’t make you wonder who and what she really was when you saw the way she sprang into action last night?”
“It did, but she told me how she and her sister had been sent to Thailand by the Colombian government in order to infiltrate FARC as assassins.”
“The Colombian government didn’t train her and her sister for anything,” Agent Lacy laughed. “She was trained in the Vatican and she didn’t train with her sister, unless you consider the fraternity of Vatican assassins a sisterhood.”
“Are you going to listen to this crap, Nick?” Cat snapped. “She’s obviously trying to break us apart so that we’ll turn on each other.”
“It’s the truth, Nicholas. She’s not who she says she is,” Agent Lacy begged.
“How do I know that you are who you say you are?” I asked.
“Look, do you really want to take that risk?”
“I’m… we’re,” I suddenly decided to bring Ishi into the mix along with me. “We’re taking a risk either way we go, but I can tell you one thing. I don’t have any bruises from her.”
“Well, none on your head, anyway,” Cat purred. For a split second, I wondered exactly what she meant by that. What had she done to me while I was drunk off my ass? I pushed the thought aside and tried to stay focused. I was in a unique position. In truth, I knew little about Cat and nothing about agent Lacy. But, then, Ishi and I had been kept in the dark from the very beginning. Literally, like with hoods over our heads. The whole damned thing was a complete mess and I had no idea how I could even attempt to sort it out.
“You’re Nicholas Caine and your partner there is Ishima Cuyamel. Your last adventure, or should I say, your last free adventure was to Loch Morar in the Scottish Highlands where one Miss Marie da Vinci disappeared while in your company. You were brought into the custody of Agent Brandon Jacobs, who informed you of the bounties that four governments hold on your heads. You were given an opportunity to avoid prosecution in any and all of those countries if you would sign a contract with Project Golden Eye for a term of five years. How have I done so far?” Agent Lacy asked, pausing.
“You’re pretty much on track,” I responded. How did she know so much? I looked at Ishi, whose expression told me that he was wondering the exact same thing.
“Do I need to talk about your boss, William Spence, your unauthorized mission to Ecuador and the one that you just completed in Hawaii?”
“You can talk all you want, but that doesn’t prove anything to me, other than you’ve got some damned good intelligence sources.”
“How about the fact that we know your every move and the only way that you’ll ever be safe is to cooperate with us?”
The fact of the matter was that I didn’t really know who anybody was. Ishi and I were up to our necks in all kinds of shit. We were working for a secret agency that moved around all of the time. We knew very little about William Spence or Brandon Jacobs, except that they stood between us and whatever government got a chance to tear us apart first. We were also supposed to be protected when we were carrying out our missions. So far, however, we hadn’t seen that develop, until Cat kicked the shit out of two government agents the night before and had, only an hour or so before, taken the gun of Agent Lacy and given us the upper hand.
On the other hand, Ishi and I knew very little about Cat. She seemed legit and she’d stuck with us, prepared us for our mission, guided us into the cave and protected us, which was what she was hired to do. I was still weighing all sides of the issue that was in front of us when Agent Cagney—Agent Stone, actually—started to stir.
“Just take it easy, hotshot,” I said, looking down at him and taking an opportunity to take a verbal jab at him. “You know, dude, it’s got to suck for you. You’ve been knocked the fuck out twice by a girl.”
“We really should be getting out of here, Nick,” Ishi pointed out. “We’re supposed to be getting a call this evening, unless you forgot.”
“Oh well, see, my partner is right; duty calls.”
“Nick, you’ve got to believe what I just told you.”
Agent Lacy was certainly persistent and she might or might not be able to help us; however, for Ishi and me to enjoy an early cancellation of our contract with PGE, we had to deliver the map into the hands of William Spence. That single fact, alone, was enough to convince me that we needed to stick with Cat.
“I don’t have to believe anything,” I replied. “Not to mention that the bump on the back of my head is
arguing very strongly against you and your partner.”
“You’re making a huge mistake,” Agent Stone groaned as he struggled to his feet, still not fully in control of himself.
“Yeah, I know, but I’ve made mistakes before and I’m still here.”
Chapter Eighteen
“There is no way that I can swim out of here with this much weight on my back,” Ishi pointed out.
“What about Nick?” Cat asked.
I took the pack from Ishi and slipped it over my shoulders. Instantly, I could feel the weight pulling me down and I wasn’t in the water. “No, Cat, it’s too heavy. We’re going to have to walk out.”
“You know what that means, don’t you?” she asked.
“It means that Cagney and Lacy here are going to have to lead us out of here.”
“Is that really our best plan?” Cat asked.
“What were you planning on doing with them?” I asked.
I’d watched the cheerful girly-girl that had met us at the airport go through some very intense changes in the past twenty-four hours. In fact, those few seeds of doubt that Agent Lacy had sown in my mind were taking root and growing rapidly as I watched how she eyed the two agents. It was easy for me to believe that she had been an assassin for the Colombian government. She really seemed to have little compunction about putting a bullet in their heads and leaving them there to rot.
“I’d planned to leave them a flashlight and a bottle of water and just leave them here,” she replied.
“Yeah, well, now we need them to get out of here. We can’t swim out with the map.”
“Fine,” she sighed. “But the two of you just remember that we really only need one of you to help lead us out of here. You might consider that before trying anything stupid.”
“And that ought to keep the two of you in line,” I grinned.
“You can change your mind at any point and get out of the mess that you’ve gotten yourself into.” It was Agent Stone’s turn to give it another try.
“Take a number, pal. Ishi and I have got people all over the world that want to kill us. Shut your trap and quit moving or I’ll let my little kitty knock your ass out a third time.”