Gaul thumbed the cap open. He sat up and had already jabbed the button down when he realized that Tyler had hurled the belt at him.
For just a fraction of a second, Tyler saw Gaul’s reaction morph from triumph to horror before the belt exploded in his face.
Gaul’s head was torn apart by the blast. Blood and gore splattered the immaculate golden floor behind him. It took his body a second to realize that it was no longer alive. Gaul toppled over, twitched a couple of times, and then lay unmoving.
Tyler had saved himself, but Stacy was still in danger.
With the adrenaline masking his pain, Tyler jumped to his feet and ran up the stairs. He got to the top in time to see Stacy clinging to Orr’s back as he slumped to the floor underneath her. Her arms were choking the life from him.
He ran over and forced her arms open. She resisted letting go.
“Stacy!” Tyler yelled. “We need him alive!”
She looked up at him with a wild flash of her eyes, ready to fight. When she saw who it was, she sagged. Tyler’s chest protested, but he caught her.
He set her down and turned Orr over. He had four diagonal scratches across his face, and his right eye was a ruined mess. Tyler removed the detonator from his wrist and checked his pulse.
“Is he dead?” Stacy asked. “Did I… kill him?” Her voice quavered with hope that she’d succeeded and fear of the same.
“No,” Tyler said. “He’s out cold, but he’s breathing.”
He unlocked Stacy’s belt. The adrenaline was wearing off, and Tyler winced as he threw it aside.
“Are you all right?”
“I’ll be fine. Just a bruise.”
“Gaul?”
She had to have heard the explosion, but she obviously hadn’t seen it.
“Dead,” Tyler said.
Stacy started to tremble as she recovered from her battle with Orr. Tyler held her hand, and they both caught their breath.
After a minute, Stacy said, “What do we do now?”
Tyler glanced at the bubbling cauldron of boiling water below. “As soon as he’s awake, Orr either tells us where my father and your sister are or he’s going for a swim.”
SIXTY
T yler dragged Orr’s unconscious form down the stairs, one slow, painful step at a time. His chest injury barked at him, but he ignored the ache as best he could. Every fiber of his being wanted to stomp the life out of Orr for what the man had done to his father, but he had to keep Orr alive if he wanted to find Sherman, Carol, and the nuclear material.
“Get his bag,” Tyler said to Stacy. “We may not have much time.”
Orr’s feet slapped against the steps until Tyler laid him out at the bottom. Stacy dropped his bag next to Gaul’s. She turned and saw the motionless body.
“Oh, my God!” she cried when she saw the remains of Gaul’s shattered skull.
“Just try to ignore it.” Tyler had seen much worse in the Army. That didn’t make the sight any more pleasant, but he didn’t have time to worry about it. If Cavano had survived the explosion, she might arrive at the Midas chamber any minute, or Tyler and Stacy might run into her and her men on their way out. Neither option would end well if they didn’t have anything to negotiate with. They’d be just as dead as if Orr had done it himself.
Tyler might also find himself bargaining for Grant’s life if Cavano was holding him captive. The first step was to take stock of the chamber’s contents so that he could develop a plan.
He bound Orr’s wrists with the shoelaces from Gaul’s boots, then rifled through Orr’s pockets and took his Leatherman back. He tried checking Orr’s cell phone to see what numbers he had called, but the phone was password-protected. Tyler would have to get Aiden to crack it. He took the canteen from Orr’s belt and passed it to Stacy, who took a swig before giving it back.
As Tyler took a drink, Stacy asked, “How did you know that Orr was lying about my betraying you?”
Tyler wiped his mouth. “Two reasons. First, Orr knew how to find us at Piazza del Plebiscito. We went directly there from the well, and I was with you the whole time, so you had no chance to tell him where we were.”
How Orr had known the correct well could be found at San Lorenzo Maggiore was easier. It was the last well they had visited. Orr knew they would stop searching after they’d located it.
“And the second reason?” Stacy asked.
“He had us photograph your phone with the geolabe. I thought it was odd at the time, but later I realized that he made us do it because the geolabe tracker and your phone were in two separate locations.”
“My phone?” Stacy said with surprise.
“Mine was ruined when I got dunked in the river during the chase at Cavano’s estate. Did you misplace your phone anytime in the last few weeks?”
Stacy looked away for a moment as she thought, then whipped her head back around. “Last week I was eating at a restaurant and I couldn’t find my phone for about five minutes. A man sitting near me said he found it on the floor. At the time, I just thought it had slipped out of my purse.”
Tyler nodded. “That’s it. It only takes a few seconds to clone a SIM card. Orr had us duped from the very beginning, intentionally faking me out with the geolabe tracker. Then he used it to try to sow mistrust between us. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before now, but I wanted to keep him off guard.”
“I understand,” Stacy said with a smile. “I’m just glad you had faith in me.”
She unzipped Gaul’s duffel and nearly dropped it when she spied what was inside.
“Look at that,” she said. Tyler saw three canisters of the binary explosive already connected to timing devices. It wasn’t enough to destroy the whole cavern, but with the proper placement it could bring down a large section of the ceiling.
“Orr must have been planning to blow the entrance once he’d secured the Midas Touch so that no one else could get in.”
“What a tragedy that would be.” She handed Tyler a SIG Sauer pistol she found inside. “You’ll probably want this.”
“Thanks.” He searched the rest of the bag, but with the Taser now in the water it was the only weapon available. Orr wasn’t carrying a gun, having put all his trust in the explosive belts.
Tyler opened Orr’s bag and saw the box with the golden hand inside. Next to it was a leather pouch. Tyler opened it to find an ancient book. The cover had no writing on it. He began to open it when Stacy stopped him.
“Don’t,” she said. “That’s the Archimedes Codex. It’s too fragile to handle. You might damage it more than Orr already has.”
Tyler put it back in the pouch. He inventoried the rest of the bag’s contents. Two full clear water bottles, one marked “Seawater” and the other marked “Fresh Water.” Two sets of heavy rubber gloves. An empty plastic Tupperware container. And an older model digital video camera already loaded with a tape.
“What’s that for?” Stacy said.
“If he was going to sell the Midas Touch, he’d want some clear evidence that he wasn’t simply giving his buyer a dud. So he was probably going to film the chamber and the Midas Touch in operation.”
Stacy nodded. “And when he got his sample, he’d show himself blowing up the only entrance to the chamber.”
“He definitely covers all the bases.”
Stacy looked at Orr’s bleeding face. “Not all of them.”
