Treasure of the Golden Cheetah (41 page)

“Ah, hell,” he muttered, and grabbed her in a tight embrace, kissing her hard.

Jade felt the pressure of his lips and arms and pushed herself away. “Harry! What in blazes?”

He gritted his teeth and turned aside towards the director. “Julian. I need you to stand now. We have to get you to safety.”

“No!” Julian’s eyes widened. “The tomb. The treasure.”

“Yes,” said Jade, helping him to his feet. “That’s where we’re going. Harry knows where it is now. He’ll lead you straight to it.”

Julian blinked at Harry. “You know? Where?” He looked at the summit.

“It’s not there,” said Harry, following Jade’s lead. “That’s the secret. The story of the cone is just a lie to mislead everyone.” He took hold of the director’s arm to steady him. “Come along. One foot at a time.” Together, they helped support Julian until he was capable of walking. “And, Jade,” Harry added when she turned to leave, “be careful. I’m only letting you go because I trust you. I’m coming back up for you after I send Julian down with the others. And if I find you got yourself in trouble, I’ll . . .” He let the threat hang.

“Right. But you may have to wait in line. I think Sam has first call there,” she replied.

 

 

SAM SAT ON a board bench outside Serengeti station, staring east towards Voi, feeling like some old hound dog waiting for his master’s return. Only he watched for the Nairobi train, which would carry replacement rails and solid-steel cross ties. It was nearing noon on Wednesday, and his patience had reached its end. With no car or horse to hire, and no runner willing to run the distance to Moshi, he had no choice but to wait.

Finally he heard a whistle blast. As he stood and peered into the shimmering heat waves rippling off the track, he saw the class G, forty-two-ton locomotive. Black smoke belched from its stack, sweeping over the two cars behind its tender. One held rails, fish bolts, cross ties, and tools. The other held the African men employed as manual laborers. Sam’s own train had pulled off onto the crescent siding to wait its turn, the engineer snoozing in one of the passenger berths.

Sam waited until the car with the men pulled alongside him and grabbed hold. Several strong black arms pulled him aboard. Sam waved to them and greeted them in what little Swahili he knew.
“Hamjambo, wanaume,”
he said.

“
Jambo
, bwana,” they replied, watching him.

He didn’t know how to tell them he intended to work,
needed
to work to dispel the feeling of helplessness that plagued him. So he pointed to the tools, then to himself, and mimed swinging a hammer down. The workmen grinned and nodded and one clapped him on the back. Sam settled in and watched the station diminish as the repair train slowly made its way along the track. He closed his eyes and listened to the pistons’ rhythmic pulse, heard the
clack-clack
as the steel wheels tumbled over the rails. He loved those sounds almost as much as he loved the sound of the wind and the silence high in the air.

You’ll be there soon
, he told himself.
Not long now. Some good honest labor to speed the job and you’ll be on your way.
He coughed once when the train turned and the black smoke wafted over him.
And what are you going to do when you get there?

That was the question of the hour, it seemed, and one for which he had no answer. If Jade wasn’t in Moshi, he’d ask everyone he met until he learned where the safari had gone, and then he’d find some way to get to her even if it meant walking. He needed to see her safe, hear her husky voice, touch her hair.

And then?
He didn’t want to think about it. He’d been afraid for her in the past, but this time the anxiety had been too intense, overwhelming him. And as much as he loved her, she didn’t seem to return it. He didn’t think he could stand worrying about her another time, especially if he didn’t have the right to. Maybe not even if he did. Before the hunt, she’d said she wanted to make sure that Biscuit was free to leave if he wanted to. Perhaps it was time for him to let go and give her that same freedom.

 

 

JADE TRUDGED BACK to the spot where they’d found Julian, studying the ground for another set of tracks along the way. Between Harry’s feet and her own, everything else was obscured. It was possible that the director had made it that far alone, but it was more likely he’d been left there when he couldn’t proceed.
Why didn’t they stay with him?

She found what she wanted to see a few yards from where Julian had collapsed. At least one person had continued up towards the rim. But which one? Or both? Suddenly Jade wondered if the two women hadn’t been in cahoots the entire time. Maybe Abeba’s tale of hiding the tomb
was
all a lie. Jade paused and listened. At first she heard only the howling wind, which struck her with tiny icy fragments no matter which way she faced. She waited, trying to listen beyond it.

Then she heard it, rocks scraping and a soft, “Oof.” It came from the other side of the Ratzel glacier, from inside the cone. She followed the narrow fracture in the rising ice tower towards the sounds. When she emerged, she stood at the rim. To her left loomed Kaiser Wilhelm’s Peak and its sheer drop into the hardened lava wall. Below her, however, was a terraced ridge of ice, a shelf of glassy white that arced around the inner cone. At its widest, it measured nearly ten feet. And that was where two people were grappling with each other, Bebe and Abeba, their bodies locked together.

Jade was about to fire once into the air, but one look at the surrounding blue-and-white ice sheets made her stop. Too much chance of an avalanche, especially if the recent earth tremors had created fresh fractures. Instead, she broke off an ice chunk, took aim, and hurled it.

It struck the sides of their faces and they immediately flew apart. Abeba slipped and fell backwards with a piercing cry of pain, striking her head on the ice. Jade clambered over the side as Bebe struggled to clear her right eye of icy debris.

“Jade,” Bebe said, still blinking and sputtering. “Is it really you? Thank my lucky stars! She was going to kill me.”

Jade motioned for Bebe to move aside and sit down where she could see her. “Is that so?” She knelt beside the other woman and tried to rouse her.

“Yes,” answered Bebe. “Be careful. She’s a killer.” Her voice caught, whether from emotion, exertion, or the cold, Jade wasn’t sure. “When I think what she did to poor Graham, what she intended to do to us . . .”

Abeba, though breathing, was unconscious. After a quick examination for blood and finding none, Jade looked up at Bebe. “How did she get both of you away from camp? How was she going to kill you?”

“It was horrid,” said Bebe. She closed her eyes. “Rex was determined to find that grave. He thought that woman would help him. I heard them last night. He sneaked into your tent and freed her. She told him that the cheetah would show us the way. Just like the emperor’s cheetah long ago. She tied a cloth around his mouth to muzzle him.” When Bebe opened her eyes, they were moist with tears. She tilted her head back and spoke towards the sky. “I tried to make Rex change his mind, but he wouldn’t listen, so I went with them. You know, to help protect him.”

“Why didn’t you wake Harry?” asked Jade.

“Oh, I just couldn’t think,” Bebe replied, shaking her head. “It’s the altitude. It fogged my mind. And maybe . . . maybe I actually wanted to believe in the treasure, too.” She turned her face to Jade, pleading with a look for her to believe her. “Didn’t Harry come?”

“He came. He found Mr. Julian.”

“Is he . . . is he alive?” she asked, her voice very small.

“He’s alive. Harry took him back to camp.”

“Oh?” Bebe squeaked, then closed her eyes and let one tear fall. “He left without me.”

Suddenly you need him again.
“I’m here. What happened next?” asked Jade.

“The cheetah broke loose farther down and ran off. That woman told Rex not to worry. She didn’t need him anymore. Then she led us to the ice patch. She made us walk so fast just to keep up with her.” Bebe tilted her head and looked at Jade. “Poor Rex. He was getting worse. Having difficulty breathing. It sounded all wet. When he collapsed, I begged her to help him, but she just laughed and said she would make sure that he
never
came back looking for the treasure, and neither would I. Then she pulled a gun out of her coat to make me keep moving.”

“A gun?”

“She must have gotten it from the supply boxes. She’s been in them before, you know.” She looked straight at Jade. “You know how Morris is.”

“Then how did you manage to get here and come to grips with her?”

Jade watched Bebe’s face. Her expressive eyes were capable of meeting the camera lens or an actor’s eyes and boring straight into them to deliver any line effectively. Eyes that made it nearly impossible to tell when she was lying or when she was telling the truth. But Jade didn’t watch her eyes. She watched for her tell. Only this tell showed when Bebe told the truth, an event so rare as to be remarkable. So far in this tale, Jade hadn’t seen it.

“We couldn’t move Rex. He was too big for me and she wouldn’t help. She planned to let him die there. But she made me come down here. I think she wanted to shoot me and hoped no one could hear the shot from inside the crater. Or maybe she meant to hit me and leave me to freeze. I don’t know. But once we got down here, there was one of those tremors again. It caught her by surprise, and I was able to knock the gun out of her hand. If you don’t believe me, you can see for yourself.” Bebe pointed farther down into the crater. “The gun’s down there. You can see it.” She rubbed her right eye with her fingertip before brushing the finger across her nose.

Bebe was right. There
was
a gun in the ash cone. The sun’s rays glinted off a bit of silvery metal from a revolver. But so far, that was the only bit of truth out of Bebe’s mouth. The fact that her left knee began to throb told Jade that the danger was greater than she presently imagined. Death stalked her again. And as she didn’t have any backup, it might easily catch her this time.

Blast Harry and his trusting me. Sam would have insisted on coming along.
Jade’s head pounded and her breath came as gasps.
As long as they need you to get to safety, you’re okay.

“Are you all right, Jade?” asked Bebe. Her voice held more than an interested concern. She sounded worried. “Is it your head?” She broke off an icicle and sucked on it.

“Yes. But I’ll be fine,” said Jade.

“It must be from where she hit you,” Bebe said.

Jade didn’t speak the words, but in an unguarded moment, she expressed them with a frown. And in that second, Jade knew she’d made a mistake.
She knows that I know.

Jade reached around for her rifle, prepared to defend herself and Abeba, but her movements were slower than usual. In the time it took to slip the weapon off her shoulder, Bebe gripped her icicle like a knife and charged at Jade, screaming with rage. It was echoed by another, more shrill cry at the rim.

CHAPTER 26

—The Traveler

THE REPEATED SCREAM WAS CLEARLY NOT ANY ORDINARY ECHO. This held a raspier note.

Leopard?
The idea was ludicrous. Leopards had no business up on the peak. Jade’s fogged brain couldn’t reconcile the facts, but her reflexes kicked in, and she darted to the side, pivoting just as Bebe attacked. The ice dagger sliced through empty air where Jade’s throat had been. Bebe crashed onto the glacial shelf, her icy knife shattering. That was when they both saw the leopard. It stared at them from atop the rim. Bebe screamed again, this time in terror.

“Get behind me,” Jade ordered, wondering why she was trying to save someone who had just tried to kill her.

Bebe scooted backwards on her rear, crablike. When she was abreast of Jade, she kicked out and knocked the rifle out of Jade’s hands. The Winchester landed a few feet away and slid to the edge of the terrace. Jade tried diving for it, but Bebe kicked again, this time hitting Jade just below the ribs. Jade fell to the side and, instead of grabbing the rifle, her arm knocked it over the edge. She heard it clatter a few feet farther down and come to rest. The blow knocked the wind out of her, and her stomach lurched from the impact. She tasted the acids rising in her throat, felt her lungs strain to suck in air. For a moment Jade knew absolute helplessness.

“I’ll just leave you and Lwiza with the kitty cat,” shouted Bebe. “You should have left well enough alone. I’ll tell them that you died fighting to save me and that Abeba killed Graham to stop us. No one will question my part then, not even Julian unless he wants me to accuse him of helping me.” Bebe scrambled to her feet. She hauled herself up off the terrace and onto the rim trail, which disappeared into a break in the thick glacial ice.