The Dane Maddock Adventures Boxed Set Volume 1 Page 33

  “I’ve got to go,” the woman said. “We’ve got this problem patient up on the fourth floor. A grumpy old rancher who keeps telling us he’s been kidnaped. Totally paranoid. He’s due for another sedative in about five minutes.”

  “Fourth floor,” Bones whispered too low to be heard. “At least I caught one break.”

  Bones had no trouble finding Orley’s room. He just followed the sound of profanity.

  “…putting no needle in me!” The rancher’s familiar voice lifted Bones’ spirits. He liked the tough old fellow and was glad he had not been hurt. The fact that Orley believed he was being held against his will only served to confirm his and Amanda’s suspicions.

  “Mr. Orley, you need something to help you calm down,” the woman from downstairs was saying. “Your niece…”

  “I done told you I don’t know this girl!” Obviously Amanda was in the room with them. Bones took a peek around the corner just as Orley turned toward him. The rancher scowled, but then his eyes widened as he realized who Bones was.

  “It’s okay,” Bones mouthed, hoping Orley would understand that he and Amanda were there to help. Thankfully, Orley relaxed and quieted down.

  “This will only take a moment, and then you’ll feel much better,” the nurse said. In short order, she had given him the injection.

  Orley looked at Bones as if to say, You’d better know what you’re doing. Bones gave him the “thumbs-up” and ducked into the bathroom just inside Orley’s doorway. He hid in the shower until Amanda came to tell him the nurse was gone.

  “Let’s get you out of here,” Bones said to Orley as he hurried into the room. He helped the wobbly man to his feet.

  “Damn stuff’s already gettin’ to me,” Orley mumbled. Amanda found his clothes and helped him get dressed.

  “What’s going on here?” A muscular man with a square chin and a shaved head stepped through the door. He wore a white hospital coat and held a clipboard, but Bones could tell this was no doctor. “I haven’t discharged this patient.”

  “My uncle wants to walk a little,” Amanda said. “He doesn’t feel comfortable wearing the gown, you know.”

  “He can barely stand,” the man said. Orley’s knees were weak from the sedative. “Put him back in the bed now.” He took two steps before Bones’ presence finally registered. He glanced at the coveralls and toolbox, turned away, and then jerked back. Their eyes met and recognition shone in his face.

  Bones swung his toolbox up at a tight angle, catching the fellow on the side of the head. The man had good reflexes and was able to turn away from the blow, catching most of the force on the back of his head. He spun away but recovered his balance quickly.

  The man drew a pistol from the pocket of his coat, but Bones was ready. He swept a vicious crescent kick at the man, sending the gun flying across the room, and hurled his toolbox at the surprised man, who managed to dodge it. Bones sprang forward, landing a quick jab, and following with a right cross that just missed. Lab Coat Man bounced a punch off Bones’ solid abs, and struck with a knife-hand that whistled past Bones’ throat.

  A meaty fist appeared seemingly out of nowhere, catching the man clean on the chin, and he crumpled noiselessly to the floor. Bones turned to see Orley slumped against Amanda.

  “That’s all I got left,” the rancher said. “Get me the hell out of here. There’s always at least two of ‘em around.”

  They helped the stumbling rancher into the hall and back toward the elevator. Orley was heavy—years of ranching had turned him into a veritable chunk of muscle. Those muscles were not of much help, though, as the sedated rancher struggled to keep his feet beneath him.

  “Hold him,” Amanda whispered, shifting the weight to Bones’ side and ducking out from under Orley’s arm. She disappeared around the corner and returned with a wheelchair.

  “Nice,” Bones whispered. “I think I’m going to keep you around.”

  “Like it’s up to you,” Amanda replied with a wink. “Give him to me and let’s get him out of here. Head for the elevator.”

  Bones took a moment to get everything situated, took the wheelchair and headed down the corridor. Reaching the cross-hall he made the left that would take him to the bank of elevators. He heard footfalls behind him.

  “Hey! Where are you going with that patient?”

  He glanced over his shoulder to see a man in a security uniform round the corner at the far end of the hall. This was not the rent-a-cop from down the hall. This guy had every bit of the military bearing that Lab Coat Man had.

  “What did you say?” Bones shouted. He quickened his pace and was careful to keep his body between the wheelchair and his pursuer. “I didn’t hear you!”

  “Stop!” the man yelled and began trotting toward Bones. Good. The fellow wasn’t overly concerned yet. “What the hell are you doing taking a patient out of here anyway?”

  “He’s being checked out. The nurse asked me to help her with him.” He looked back over his shoulder. The man was closing the distance quickly. Bones kept the dialog going as he passed an empty nurse’s station. “She was blowing chunks. You should have seen it. I think she had pizza for dinner.”

  “I’ll take care of the patient,” the man yelled. “Just leave him there for me.”

  Bones stole one last glance at the elevators, only ten feet away, and saw that all of them were on the first floor. The man was no more than fifty feet away.

  “Suit yourself,” Bones said. He turned and shoved the wheelchair through the nearest open door, a patient’s room, and ducked into a nearby stairwell. As the door swung shut behind him, he heard a crash as the wheelchair spilled its contents: the toolbox he had hidden under a blanket. By now, Amanda and Orley were hopefully making their way out through the basement service exit they had discovered in the hospital floor plan they’d reviewed before attempting to retrieve the rancher. Angry voices told him he’d at least created a small diversion. He hoped he hadn’t hurt any patients in the process, but what could he do? If anyone was injured, at least they were already in a hospital.

  He jumped ten or so stairs and landed with a resounding thud on the landing. Ignoring the pain that surged up his legs and spine, he turned and hurtled down the next flight. A sign read Second Floor. They would expect him to go all the way down to the ground floor. He slipped through the door and hurried down another glistening white hallway, similar to the one above.

  A middle-aged nurse with graying brown hair and a smudge of chocolate frosting on her cheek stood up and peered with alarm over the nurse’s station desk as he ran by.

  “Big mess upstairs,” he huffed. “No nurse on duty, either. You might want to get up there.”

  “But I’m not…”

  He was gone before she could finish her sentence.

  Bones tightened his grip on the .22 he held hidden under his sleeve. He really didn’t want to shoot anybody. Under any circumstance, it would be difficult to explain why he was kidnapping a patient. Considering the political clout the Domain apparently wielded, it would be doubly hard to justify putting a bullet in anyone.

  He made a right turn and dashed down the empty hallway to the back of the building where he came to a break room with a huge plate glass window overlooking the back parking lot. Amanda sat parked directly under the window in the old van she had borrowed from her uncle. The magnetic “Patton Plumbing” sign Bones had stolen off a parked vehicle they passed along the way completed the ruse nicely. They’d mail the sign back to the rightful owners, and have the rental company pick up the car in which they had arrived. They’d rented it under a false name so it wouldn’t trace back to either of them.

  He was about to head to the back exit when he heard footsteps in the hallway. He had not bought himself as much time as he’d hoped. He took a long look at the window.

  “Oh, what the heck?” he whispered. “Let’s just hope it’s not heavy-duty safety glass.”

  He picked up one of the break tables, a heavy, round job with a Formica t
op and black metal trestle, and heaved it into the window. The table rebounded with a crack and a thud, crashing to the tile floor, but the damage was done. A hole gaped in the middle of the window and a web of cracks spreading three feet all around. Hoping he’d judged the distance correctly, he got a running start and jumped, shielding his face as he smashed through the glass.

  There was a moment of groin-tingling free-fall, and then he crashed with a metallic thud onto the roof of the van. Amanda yelped and stuck her head out the driver’s window.

  “Where did you…”

  “Just drive!” he yelled. He grabbed the front edge of the van roof as Amanda hit the gas. The van surged forward, then sputtered and lurched to a halt. Bones tried to dig the toes of his boots into the pitted, dented surface, but to no avail. He slid forward and tumbled down the windshield and over the hood. He slowed enough to get his feet under him as he dropped to the asphalt.

  “Sorry!” Amanda said. “I forgot the transmission on this thing sometimes…” The staccato crackling of gunfire rang out, and bullets whizzed past the front end of the van.

  Bones returned fire, sending two well-aimed shots through the remains of the second-floor window. The van had rolled forward far enough to make for a difficult angle, and he had no idea if he’d hit his target, but it bought sufficient time for him to take the wheel from Amanda and hit the road.

  “You have to baby the gas a little or else it stalls,” Amanda said.

  “Yeah, I sort of figured that out.” He checked the rear-view and side mirrors and saw no pursuit. He doubted it would last.

  He was right.

  Headlights appeared behind them, growing fast as the vehicle sped toward them. Bones had no doubt it was their pursuers. He cut off the van’s headlights and hung a right down the nearest street, careful not to tap on the brakes, lest the brake lights give them away. He stood on the gas, praying no one would pull or walk out in front of him. The odds were slim this time of night. He took another right, this time the van felt like it was going up on two wheels. Orley, lying on the back floorboard, groaned as he rolled over.

  As they zoomed down another deserted street, Bones spotted an old white van nearly the twin of the one they drove. He slammed on the brakes, bringing the van to a halt.

  “Why are we stopping? Are you nuts?” Amanda shouted.

  “Here,” Bones said, reaching out the window and yanking the magnetic sign off the door. “Slap this baby on that van. With any luck, it’ll slow them down.” When she was finished, he whipped the van around the next corner just in time to see headlights from the direction they had come. He sped up, hoping they had not been spotted. They flew down the darkened street with no sign of pursuit. The false trail had apparently bought them some time.

  Bones made three more turns before he was satisfied they had left their pursuers behind. He slowed the van and turned the headlights back on.

  “Can I breathe now?” Amanda asked, releasing her vise grip on the armrest. “I’ve never been shot at before.”

  “I think we’re good,” Bones said, still keeping a wary eye out for pursuit. “How’s Orley?”

  “Still doped. It isn’t safe to take him home. Where should we go?”

  “Considering we’re both probably on hospital security video,” Bones said, “I vote we get out of town.”

  Chapter 14

  So your friend Bones is on his way here and he’s bringing what?” Jade’s attention was fixed on the e-mail they had received from Maddock’s friend, computer geek Jimmy Letson, and she was only halfway paying attention to what he’d told her.

  “He says he’s found a gold disc with some kind of weird writing. He also has a bunch of pictures he took of cave paintings. He thinks you might be able to help him out.”

  “Did you tell him we’re kind of busy here?” she asked, turning over another page. “Jimmy says the writing is something like Hebrew, but not quite. As if it’s an older form that grew out of something else. He’s identified a few phrases and thinks given enough time he’ll be able to make some sense of it.”

  “What do you make of the two artifacts we’ve found so far?” Maddock turned the new piece over. It was almost the twin of the first one they’d found. Put together they made a quarter of a sphere. He wasn’t certain, but the writing seemed to flow across from one to the other – they seemed to be a match. “Do you think maybe there are eight of them, so it makes a sphere?”

  “I don’t know,” Jade said, still focusing her attention on the papers. “There are only six symbols on the shield, which makes me think there are six pieces.”

  “Six pieces, but seven cities,” Maddock mused. He stroked his chin, feeling the stubble of a day’s growth. “Yucca House was quite ordinary, and not even a city. Chaco Canyon qualifies as a city, but not golden.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “Just wondering what’s at the end of the rainbow.”

  “Meaning?”

  “I mean that obviously all seven ‘cities’ are not cities of gold or treasure. If your theory is correct, and all six locations point to a seventh, then is that where we find whatever it is Fray Marcos was hiding? And if so, what is it?”

  “I wonder that myself,” Jade said. “The only legend I’ve uncovered is that of the Moorish treasure and the religious artifacts, although the idea of an eighth-century crossing of the Atlantic, followed by going halfway across America to hide something seems a bit far-fetched.”

  “I’ve seen crazier. Trust me,” Maddock said. “What do you…”

  “Hey! It’s another e-mail from Jimmy,” Jade said. She took a moment to read the contents, printed it off, and handed it to Maddock. “He’s managed to get what he thinks is a translation of the writing on the first piece.” She handed him the paper from his computer guru friend and stood back with her arms folded across her chest and watched him read.

  Maddock,

  This is weird stuff- an unusual variation of Hebrew. Here’s my best stab at the translation with the help of a professor friend.

  ‘In the sepulchre, in the third course of stones. Under the tomb. In the chain platform. This is all of the votive offerings of the seventh treasure, the tenth is impure.’

  Doesn’t look like too much. Sorry I couldn’t help more.

  Jimmy

  “He’s right,” Maddock said. “It doesn’t look like much. What do you make of it?”

  “Nothing yet.”

  A knock at the door interrupted her. Maddock answered it and was surprised to see Saul standing in the doorway. He was covered in dirt, but otherwise looked no worse for the wear.

  “What the hell, Saul?” Jade’s soft voice was razor sharp, and her eyes were ablaze. “You take off with my equipment, you don’t let me know where you are…” She stopped there, her hands in the air, looking as if she couldn’t decide whether to scream at him or strangle him. Finally, with an exasperated sigh, she waved him into the room and stalked out past him.

  Saul watched her go before turning to Maddock with a sheepish expression on his face.

  “Guess I’m not on the invite list for her next soiree,” he said.

  “Not likely,” Maddock replied. He had no idea how to take Saul, but the guy at least seemed contrite. “She’s pretty stressed out, though. We have a translation from the artifacts we’ve found, but it doesn’t seem to mean anything.”

  “You found another one?” Saul sat heavily on the corner of Jade’s bed. “And you have a translation?”

  “Yeah,” Maddock said. He felt a little strange telling Saul this, but he supposed there would be no harm. The translation was close to nonsense; at least, it was of no use to them being incomplete and out of context.

  He handed the sheet to Saul, who read it over silently, shook his head, and read it aloud.

  “In the sepulchre, in the third course of stones. Under the tomb. In the chain platform. This is all of the votive offerings of the seventh treasure, the tenth is impure.” He looked at Maddock, his ex
pression unreadable. “It sounds like a treasure hunt. What could it be?”

  “No idea,” Maddock said though his mind conjured possibilities, each more far-fetched than the other, that set his heart pounding. He supposed he was just a kid at heart. He loved the thought of unraveling a mystery.

  “Who did the translation?” Saul was staring at the paper again as if some secret were buried between the lines.

  “A friend of mine,” Maddock said. “Computer guy. He had some help.”

  “And he’s certain of the translation?”

  “As certain as he can be,” Maddock said, feeling a touch of defensiveness rising. “He’s reliable and very thorough.”

  “No doubt,” Saul said. He gave Maddock a long, measured look, and opened his mouth to speak when a loud knock drew their attention. Maddock knew who it was immediately.

  “Bones!” he said, swinging the door open. His friend grabbed him in a rough embrace and slapped him on the back.

  “Maddock! Good to see you. How’s the latest adventure?” Before Maddock could answer, a short, attractive brunette with the high cheekbones that spoke of native blood stepped up behind Bones. “This is Amanda,” he said. “I think I mentioned her to you.”

  “Absolutely,” he said, shaking hands with Amanda. “Dane Maddock. Good to meet you.”

  “Bones told me plenty about you on the drive here,” she said, smiling.

  “Half of it’s not true and the other half’s a lie,” he replied. Remembering Saul, he turned and introduced him to Bones and Amanda. Maddock had told Bones of his discomfort with Jade’s assistant, but Bones greeted Saul politely as they shook hands. Maddock was about to ask about the find Bones had made in Utah when Jade re-entered the room.

  “Oh, hi,” she said. Obviously her anger at Saul had distracted her. “Sorry. I’m Jade Ihara.” She offered her hand to Bones, who surprised Maddock by neither hitting on her nor saying anything remotely inappropriate. He simply shook her hand and introduced himself and Amanda.