remains so today. Who would have thought he found some lost Tainos gold mine? But maybe he did.”
The highway led them into a small hamlet with colonial-style buildings, a place where things seemed reused, mended, and recycled time and again. Three feed-and-supply stores catered to farmers, but there was also a tinsmith, tobacco shop, and what appeared to be a church. He parked the Range Rover near a cobbled square surrounded by more colonial-era buildings. The hot air reeked of ripe fruit and toiling humanity. Little breeze, just a trapped and boiling stew of conflicting smells. They’d passed their destination just down the street, a sign indicating MUSEO DE AMBIENTE HISTORICO CUBANO and that it was open until 4:00 P.M. He’d not come unprepared. A semiautomatic was tucked snugly beneath a thin jacket. Cuba, for all its supposed innocence, remained a hostile place, one where he’d learned to be cautious. Only a few people were in sight. A mangy-haired dog ambled over to investigate them. Some Cuban jazz leaked from one of the cafes.
He faced Tre. “You said this place was privately owned. By whom?”
“The Jews of Cuba.”
That information piqued his interest.
“Surprised me, too,” Tre said. “Once there were tens of thousands of Jews here. They came after Columbus. Then they fled here for Brazil in the 17th century because of the Inquisition. They came back after 1898, when the island gained its independence from Spain. Now only about 1,500 are left. Amazingly, Castro left them alone. Over the past decade they’ve made a name for themselves by preserving the island’s history. Some of them are distant descendants from the
He stepped away from the vehicle and wished for a cold drink. “I didn’t know there were rich people in Cuba. The ones I deal with all claim poverty.”
“This one’s from overseas. A foundation. It’s funded by a wealthy Austrian named Zachariah Simon.”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
TOM LAY ON THE FLOOR AND WATCHED THE SHADOW APPROACH. He decided to wait until whoever it was came close before firing. He angled the gun toward a set of bars in a niche twenty feet away. His right elbow brushed the bones stacked to his right and he instantly drew it away. Then he saw something on the wall to his left, four feet off the ground, inside the niche, hidden from view of the passageway.
A switch.
Steel conduit ran up the stonework, then paralleled where wall met ceiling. Offshoots from that conduit led to light fixtures that illuminated the niches. A quick scan and he saw this switch shut off every light in the niches from one end to the other.
He sprang to his feet and raked his right hand across the switch, plunging his side of the cavern into darkness. Light still spilled from niches across the center passageway, beyond the bars, but there was enough darkness for him to make an escape.
He stayed low and moved toward the end where he hoped another iron gate within an archway would be open and he could escape.
Two pops startled him.
But the rounds smacked into bones behind him.
His assailant was searching, but he’d managed to skip ahead.
He came to the end.
The iron gate within the arch opened. He carefully peered to his right, back down the semi-darkened main passage. No one was there. He wondered if his pursuer had entered the niches, just as he’d done. Not wanting to stay around and find out, he ran down the corridor, toward the exit Inna had told him was there.
He came to the base of a stairway and glanced back.
No one was following.
He climbed the risers two at a time and, at the top, turned left, racing down a short hall toward daylight.
Two darkened forms waited.
Inna and Alle.
“What happened?” Inna asked him.
“No time. We have to go.”
Alle looked shaken, but he was, too.
They stepped out into an alleyway between two rows of buildings. He estimated they were somewhere east of the cathedral, its tall spire blocked by the rooflines.
“Who was there?” Inna asked.
“Uninvited guests.”
Inna seemed to understand, nodding and saying, “Follow me.”
———
ZACHARIAH CROUCHED DOWN AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, KEEPING watch on the doorway ten meters away, listening to Tom Sagan talk to another woman.
Rocha had joined him.
The exit door slammed shut.
Darkness and quiet returned.
