Spartan Gold

Remi looked at her husband, her eyes narrowed. “You’re really worried, aren’t you?”

He nodded, jaw clenched. “Just a feeling. Hope I’m wrong.”

“Me, too. You’re scaring me a little, Sam.”

He reached over and gave her thigh a squeeze. “Now, have I ever gotten us into trouble—”

“Well, there was the time—”

“—without getting us back out again?”

“No.”

“Do we have a signal?” he asked.

Remi pulled out her cell phone and checked the reception. “Nothing.”

“Damn. We still have that map?”

Remi rummaged through the glove compartment, found the map, and opened it. After thirty seconds she said, “Sam, there’s nothing out here. No houses, no farms—nothing for miles.”

“Curiouser and curiouser.”

Ahead, the Lucerne’s brake lights flashed once, then again, then turned right and disappeared behind some trees. Sam pulled up to the turn and slowed just in time to see the Lucerne’s taillights turn again, this time left into a driveway about a hundred yards down the road. He turned off the engine and rolled down the passenger window. Through the trees they could see the Lucerne’s headlights go out, followed by the sound of a car door opening then closing, followed ten seconds later by another.

Then a voice: “Hey . . . don’t!”

Frobisher’s voice. Clearly agitated.

“Well, that settles it,” Sam said.

“Yep,” Remi said. “What do you want to do?”

“You drive to the nearest house or wherever you can get reception and call the police. I’m going to—”

“Oh, no, you’re not, Sam.”

“Remi, please—”

“I said no, Sam.”

Sam groaned. “Remi—”

“We’re wasting time.”

Sam knew his wife well enough to recognize the tone in her voice and the set of her mouth. She’d planted her feet and that was that.

“Okay,” he said, “but no stupid chances, okay?”

“That goes for you, too.”

He gri

“In for a pe

“In for trouble,” Sam finished.

CHAPTER 5

Headlights still off, Sam slowly steered the BMW up the road, trying to avoid potholes, until they were within fifty yards of the driveway, then shut off the engine.

Sam said, “Will you please wait in the car?”

Remi frowned at him. “Hi, it seems we haven’t met.” She stuck out her hand for him to shake. “I’m Remi Fargo.”

Sam sighed. “Point taken.”

They had a brief strategy/what-if/worse-case-scenario talk, then Sam gave her his sport coat and they climbed out.

They stepped off the road into the drainage ditch, which was shielded by high grass on either side. It ran up to the driveway, where it was fu

Hunched over, pausing every few steps to listen, they followed the ditch to the driveway, then climbed up the bank and began picking their way through the trees. After twenty feet the trees began to thin out and they found themselves at the edge of a clearing.

The space was immense, perhaps two square acres filled with hulking tubular shapes, some the size of garages, some the size of compact cars, lying at angles like a child’s set of pick-up sticks. As Sam’s eyes adjusted to the darkness he realized what he was seeing: a boiler junkyard. How and why it was here, in the middle of the Maryland countryside, he didn’t know, but here it was. Judging from their size he guessed the boilers had come from a variety of sources—locomotives, ships, and factories. The falling rain pattered the leaves around them and pinged softly on the steel of the boilers, sending echoes through the trees.

“Well, this is the last thing I was expecting to find here,” Remi whispered.

“Me, too.” And this told them something about Ted’s assailant. Either he knew this area well or he’d done some homework before coming here. Neither thought gave Sam much comfort.

The Buick Lucerne was parked in the middle of the clearing, but there was no sign of either Frobisher or the car’s driver. Clearly they’d gone deeper into this maze of boilers. But why come here? Sam wondered. The first answer that came to mind chilled him. What Ted’s abductor had pla

“We can cover more ground if we split up,” Remi suggested.

“Forget it. We don’t know who this guy is or what he’s capable of.”

He was about to step out from the trees, when an idea formed in his head. A Buick Lucerne. Buick . . . GMC. He pulled Remi back into cover and said, “Wait here, be right back.”

“What—”

“Just stay put. I’m not going far.”

He took one last look around, watching for the slightest movement, then, seeing nothing, dashed out and headed for the Lucerne. He reached the driver’s-side door, crouched down, then said a quick prayer and tried the door handle. It clicked open. The dome light popped on. He clicked the door shut again.

Damn! At least there was no “keys in the ignition” chime.

Nothing to do but risk it.

Sam opened the door, slid inside, shut the door behind him, then waited for thirty seconds, occasionally peeking over the dashboard. Nothing was moving. He began looking around the car’s interior and found what he was looking for almost immediately. Set into a panel on the dashboard was a button labeled ONSTAR. Sam pushed it. Twenty seconds passed, then a voice came over the radio speakers.

“This is De

“Uh, yeah.” Sam grunted. “I’ve been in a crash. I’m hurt. I need help.”

“Sir, do you know your location?”

“Uh . . . no.”

“Stand by, sir.” Five seconds passed. “All right, sir, I have your location near Black Road, west of Princess A

“Yeah, that sounds right.”

“I’ve alerted the 911 dispatcher in your area. Help is on the way.”

“How long?” Sam croaked, doing his best injured-driver impression.

“Six to seven minutes, sir. I’ll stay with you. . . .”

But Sam was already moving, slipping back out of the car and shutting the door behind him. Using his pocketknife he punched a hole in the left rear tire’s valve stem. He then crawled around to the opposite side, repeated the process on the other tire, then sprinted back to the trees and rejoined Remi.

“OnStar?” Remi asked with a smile.

Sam kissed her on the cheek. “Great minds.”

“How long until the cavalry arrives?”

“Six, seven minutes. It’d be great if we were gone before then. I’m not in a question-and-answer mood.”

“Me neither. I’m in a warm brandy mood.”

“Ready for a little hide-and-seek?”

“Lead on.”

They had little hope of following any footprints in the mud so he and Remi dashed across the clearing and began picking their way through the paths and tu

“I don’t know what you’re talking about . . . what piece?”

It was Ted.

A male voice said something in return, but neither Sam nor Remi could make out the words.

“That thing? It was a piece of a bottle. Nothing important.”

Sam turned his head, trying to catch the sound and narrow in on where it was coming from. Using hand gestures, Sam pointed ahead and to the left, under an arch formed by a boiler that had half collapsed against its neighbor. She nodded. Once they were through the arch the voices became more distinct.

“I want you to tell me exactly where you found it,” the unidentified man was saying. The voice was accented, either eastern European or Russian.