Eventually, Hunt was crouched just outside the range of their lanterns. He hazarded a glimpse around the corner and gawked in amazement at what he saw. It wasn’t the four towel-heads, two of them sporting AK-47s. It wasn’t Daniel cowering on his knees in front of the guns. It was the other two—the ghosts. Leroy wasn’t good with names, but their faces seemed awfully familiar. He was staring right at two men he’d killed in a cave on Crete. They were buried in a landslide along with Miz Sybil’s little sister Cassie. Of course, the blond one escaped, but he died later in Turkey. Leroy saw him go over a cliff with his own eyes. So, what was he seeing now?
The ghosts were tied up, slumped on the ground. Blondie had a cut lip. Probably from mouthing off when he should have stayed quiet. Leroy squinted hard, trying to clear his vision. Nope, they were still there even after he blinked a few more times. So, what did it mean? He remembered the preacher’s boy freaking out while they were in Spain. Daniel had kept insisting that at least one of the ghosts was still alive. So, the little runt had been right after all.
Leroy decided to backburner the mystery of the ghosts while he figured out what to do about the problem at hand. It wouldn’t sit well with the old man if Hunt came back with a corpse and no artifact. The cowboy would be fired for sure, and that would queer his chances of snatching the doodads later on. As distasteful as the idea was, he had to figure out a way to rescue Daniel.
He backed out of the cave slowly and quietly, the way he’d come in. He slipped through the entrance and stood there in the cool night air gazing vacantly over the desert below. He didn’t really register the moonlight or his surroundings because he was lost in thought. He was racking his brain for a way to get Daniel out of there, and it made his head ache. Strategy had never been his strong point. He preferred to let other people shout the orders. His talent lay in execution. He grinned fleetingly at the word play. How was he going to pull this off?
He drew out the pistol in his shoulder holster but immediately slid it back into place. It wouldn’t do any good to go in guns a-blazing. Much as the cowboy would have liked to eliminate the relic thieves and the rag-heads with a few well-placed bullets, it was too risky. In the cross-fire, there was a chance Daniel could get shot. Seeing as how he was the boy’s bodyguard, that scenario might be hard to explain to his old man.
Leroy took off his hat and wiped his forehead. He was sweating in spite of the evening chill because the effort to think under pressure was costing him. Part of his brain registered a noise behind him. The other part of his brain was stuck on hold trying to figure out a rescue plan. Both parts of his brain went into shock as eight million volts of electricity surged through the back of his neck and dropped him to the ground like a pole-axed steer.
Chapter 44—The Odd Couple
Hunt lay flat on his back. His neck felt like it had been stung by ten thousand bees. He couldn’t stand. Hell, he couldn’t move—at least not voluntarily. His muscles were doing the cha-cha all on their own just the same. A bright light was shining into his eyes. He guessed that one of the gunmen had got the drop on him. He couldn’t see how though. He’d been standing right at the mouth of the cave. He’d have noticed anybody coming through that opening. A voice spoke in a whisper right next to his ear.
“I know you can hear me.”
The sound of that voice gave him an even bigger shock than the voltage that was still making his muscles twitch. It was a girl. And she was speaking American English. Then she did something that almost made his heart stop altogether. She shone the flashlight on her own face.
“Remember me? We always meet by flashlight, don’t we?”
He couldn’t form words, but his brain was screaming her name. “Cassie!” Ghost number three had just showed up to join the party, and it wasn’t even Halloween.
She rifled through his jacket and drew out his pistol. She pointed it directly at his face. For a second, he was sure she was going to pull the trigger.
“You know, I have fantasies sometimes.” Her voice sounded chummy and conversational. “It’s strange, but this is almost like one of them. Me holding a gun on you. My voice saying, ‘This is for Sybil’ just before I spatter your brains all over the place.”
If he could have shut his eyes, he would have, but they continued to stare at her.
The girl sighed. “It’s lucky for you that I only fantasize about things like that. It’s lucky for you that I actually have a conscience. Not like you. I know if the tables were turned, you wouldn’t think twice about shooting me in the face. You’ve already tried to kill me once.” She slipped the gun into her waistband. “Enough small talk, don’t you think?” She laid the flashlight down on the ground beside him where it could illuminate his face. “Here’s what makes this your luckiest day ever. Right now, I need your help.”
He was
