Taking a couple of deep breaths, and ignoring all the aches and pains I had accrued in the last couple of days, I moved from the shadows, flung the tent flap open and leapt inside. Instantly my hands were up in self defense, and my head snapped from corner to corner for the guard that had to be there. Only there was no soldier waiting inside. Instead, located directly in the middle of the tent under a bright gas light was Dr. Miles Blatt, seated at a table, looking up at me over the top of his glasses with an expression of mild surprise and amusement.
"Well now, this is unexpected," the waifish man said.
"Is it just you, Dr. Blatt?" I whispered, moving cautiously farther into the tent, my eyes searching for hidden threats.
"Yes, we are alone, for now," he replied. "The guards check in on me every half hour or so. They pretty much leave me to my work."
"Your work? I thought you were being held prisoner?"
Blatt sighed and put down the pen he was holding. "Oh, indeed, I am being held prisoner. But General Bardales is not a completely unreasonable man. When he found out that I had been arrested by his subordinates, he had them retrieve my files and moved me up here to continue my research. In return, I promised not to make any more trouble for him or try to escape. A deal that I'm afraid he did not extend to your friend Ms. Mercury."
"So, Jaye is here?"
Blatt nodded, but looked away from me, casting his eyes down at the table. "The general was livid when he arrived in camp, ranting and raving about your escape. A marvellous piece of work, I'm told. Did you really jump off a cliff to escape?"
"Yeah, I did," I replied, annoyed by his distraction. "What about Jaye?"
"Oh," he started again. "Well, I don't know the entire story, but they assumed you had died. Some soldiers looked over the edge but did not see you. After several minutes they gave up and returned here to the base. Bardales, as I said earlier, was quite angry about losing you. He and Mr. Pruitt have a very long-standing rivalry and he was going to use you and Ms. Mercury for gloating purposes I believe. It's quite childish, really. You should have seen them ten years ago."
I held up a hand to stop him. "No offense, Dr. Blatt, but we probably don't have a lot of time. Where is Jaye?"
"She's in the general's tent next door. When your body did not show up, he decided to keep her under his own personal supervision. I only saw her for a moment as she was being hauled out of the truck and towards his tent. She struggled against the guards and nearly broke free. Bardales struck her. She made the mistake of spitting on him. He has a ferocious temper, Mr. Hawkins. It wasn't pretty."
"Damnit, Jaye, you should have just played it cool," I muttered, feeling guilty. Then, addressing Dr. Blatt again, I asked the question that was gnawing at me, "Is she still alive?"
"I think so. After he beat her for spitting on him, he dragged her into his tent. Dragged her by the hair, actually. Since then," he paused for a second and looked me right in the eye, "I haven't seen her, I've only heard her. I think he has been beating on her, or worse. Poor woman. Periodically I hear him yelling and then I hear her crying out. It's," he paused again, "hard to listen to. If only she had cooperated with him."
Jaye and I had our differences. She had been a ruthless competitor in the chase for the idol. She had even tried to kill me. But she had also helped me escape, and if Pruitt picked her in the same way that he picked me for this job, she was probably being blackmailed by him as well. I couldn't leave her in the clutches of a maniac like Bardales. I had to get all three of us out of here.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
"Alright Dr. Blatt, are you ready to get out of here? Because I'm going to need your help," I said.
"What do you need me to do?" he said, gathering up his materials from the table.
"If it was just you and me, we could probably sneak out of the camp. But I'm not leaving without Jaye."
"What's the plan then?" Blatt asked.
Bardales' camp might not have been very secure, but with thirty soldiers at his command and vehicles, he had the advantage. What we needed was a bit of sabotage and a massive distraction.
"I saw some crates marked as mining equipment. What is our friend The General up to here?"
Blatt blinked a few times before answering, obviously not expecting the question. "He's looking for gold up in these mountains. At least I think that is what he's up to. I'm no geologist, but most of the gold mines are much farther inland. So, either he is prospecting, or he knows something."
"Gold? I thought he was the minister of antiquities?"
"Oh, he is. I get the feeling that this may not be a state sanctioned expedition."
"So what? He's paying for this out of his own pocket?"
"That's possible, but he's a shrewd man, Chase. It is more likely that he's using his position to his own advantage, which may explain why he wanted the idol so badly. I'm pretty sure he's disguising this operation as an archaeological dig and having the idol is just the sort of proof he needs to keep suspecting eyes off of him."
"So, all that crap he was saying about us being grave robbers was for show?" I asked.
Dr. Blatt laughed. "He's more likely to sell the idol to some collector himself if he thinks he can get away with it."
"Damn, he gets worse and worse doesn't he?"
"If you only
