Outcast (SEAL Team: Disavowed Book 2) (15 page)

“I don’t know, but it does. We have to follow the map. Help me backtrack so we can figure this out.”

It took a while, but they finally learned the pattern to the trails.

Jasper marked each turn, and the closer they were on the map to the stone on the locket, the brighter it glowed.

Their journey had grown so fantastical that no one spoke.

They’d earlier joked about her father being as much of a character as the famed Indiana Jones, but all of this really did feel straight out of a movie—not the sort of thing she’d ever expected to stumble across. As optimistic as she was of whatever fantastic finds were yet to come, she fought a growing anger at her father. How long had he known of this place? Had he taken her mother here before she’d died? If so, why hadn’t he told Eden? Had it been a lack of trust? If so, that hurt. Deeper than she ever could have known.

They came to another door. This one, with a locking mechanism that looked far too modern for the rusty Nazi motif.

The key? Judging by the heart-shaped indentation in a panel fixed to the wall, it was obvious.

Hands trembling, palms sweating, pulse out of control, she pressed her locket into the open channel. For five beats of her heart, nothing happened. And then . . .

A mechanism clicked.

An airlock exhaled.

The door creaked open, welcoming them into another world.

13

JASPER HAD SEEN a lot of things in his life. He’d dined in a sultan’s palace. Shaken the hand of the Commander in Chief. He’d made out with a certain starlet who’d been touring with the USO. But never had he encountered anything quite like this.

The door opened onto a sterile, endless corridor finished in white subway tile that gleamed beneath a row of hanging lights. Classical music floated through the air. Tinny sounding. As if it were far off, yet not quite of this world.

“Stay close.” Jasper withdrew the 9mm he’d stashed in the waistband of his jeans. He halfway expected the gnarled form of Hitler himself to step out from one of the closed gray steel doors.

At the end of the hall was another door—this one a more traditional, dark-stained six-paneled oak. He opened it slowly, pulse pounding, with his gun at the ready, fully prepared to open fire.

If the brightly lit corridor was an odd find this far beneath the earth’s surface, what next awaited him was like something out of a dream.

They stepped into a two-story library, complete with a ladder on rails to access thousands of leather-bound books held on intricately carved shelves. The space was as cozy as it was grand—softly glowing Tiffany lamps and a flickering gas-log fireplace with a marble mantel. Thick, exotic-looking rugs absorbed their footfalls and a massive grandfather clock ticked far slower than his heart. The fire meant someone was down here—although not necessarily Eden’s father.

How was this real?

How could
any
of this be real?

While Eden turned in a slow circle, drinking it all in, Yeti leapt onto a blue velvet settee.

Dane stood by the nearest bookshelf, carefully turning the pages of a book he’d taken from a stand, staring in awe as if he held a glowing orb. “This is a Gutenberg Bible. Until today, there were forty-eight in the world. Now . . .” He paused for a moment as if to regain his composure before fainting. “There are apparently forty-nine.”

Eden strolled through an open door leading to a dining room.

Jasper followed.

The mahogany table would easily seat twenty. The ceiling had been painted sky blue. Cherubs and angels frolicked above. Expensive-looking oil paintings hung in a row. Portraits mixed with old-school food porn.

“These are Rembrandts, Renoirs, Monet’s and Manet’s . . .” Eden’s voice held a reverent tone. “I can’t even begin to calculate what these must be worth.”

“So the treasure’s real?” Jasper asked. “But is this worth killing for?”

He pushed open a swinging door to reveal a kitchen and pantry. Shelves held stacks of china. Tarnished silver goblets and urns and trays. It made him more than a little nauseous to believe full-on Nazi dinner parties must have been held down here.

A wine cellar had been built into the cavern wall—hundreds of dusty bottles visible through a glass door.

“I’m kind of in a stupor.” Eden ran her fingers atop a cherry sideboard. “Everywhere I look is something more fabulous. But I should be searching for my dad. He has to be down here, don’t you think?”

“Someone sure as hell is.” He spied a modern-day mini fridge, plugged with a converter into an ancient wall socket. Inside? Bologna, mayo, dried fruit and a bunch of American cheese and Coke. Drumming his fingers atop the white marble counter, he grew madder and madder. Like what the hell? How could Eden’s dad have known about this and not shared the knowledge with the world? Now, if they weren’t careful, that slimeball Leo was going to get his greedy hands on all of it.

“Aren’t you a little pissed at your father? Assuming he’s the gatekeeper, he has to have been coming down here for years. It’s like he’s been living a double life. There are probably another couple of entrances, too.”

When she remained silent, he figured he’d hit a nerve. Not wishing to rub salt in very fresh wounds, he eased her fingers between his. “Let’s finish this, okay? We’ll find him, then get the hell out of here.”

She swallowed hard. Tears shone in her eyes, but she nodded.

The kitchen was a dead-end, so they walked back through the dining room to the library where Dane was still engrossed in books and Yeti had fallen asleep on a pillow in front of the fire. He purred loud enough for it to be heard across the room.

Jasper held tight to Eden while exploring room after room. Formal living areas and bedrooms fit for royalty. A double-lane bowling alley and a theater. Bathrooms with deep tubs and showers and toilets. Marble sinks with plenty of hot and cold water.

“How is all of this so perfectly preserved?” Eden asked. “How is there no dust?”

“Remember the airlock when we came in? It’s sealed. Probably has a special ventilation system with filters in the event of chemical warfare.”

They came to a room with a rumpled bed and an open bag of potato chips on the nightstand. Also on the nightstand was a framed photo of Eden when she’d been a little girl. Her mother held her hand.

She gasped, then broke down, collapsing on the side of the bed. “H-How could he? Our friends were murdered in cold blood and f-for what? A dozen paintings and a bunch of musty old books?”

“I’m afraid there’s far more to it than that, my beauty.”

Jasper whipped around to find Eden’s father, Carl, standing in the open doorway. It took every ounce of his restraint not to punch him.

“Dad, h-how could you keep all of this from me?” Despite her anger, she ran to him for a hug. “Did Mom know?”

“Yes.” He held tight. “We debated whether or not to tell you, but decided in the end that the burden of carrying this secret was too great. The potential for good is boundless. How else do you think I funded my cancer research? And the station? I’m so close to finding a cure. In the wrong hands, this kind of wealth . . .” He stepped back, ramming his hands in the pockets of wool slacks that looked as if they’d been made in the forties. “The amount of wealth Hitler and his party accumulated down here isn’t just what you must have seen in the formal rooms. That isn’t the tip of the iceberg.” He held out his hand to her. “Come. I’ll show you your legacy.”

“There’s more?”

“You have no idea . . .”

She took his hand, but then turned to look toward the library. “Wait. We should find Dane. I know he’ll want to see.”

Her father’s gaze narrowed. “You brought Dane?”

She nodded. “He helped save us. Dad, it was horrible. After you left, Leo’s men took me hostage. They insisted I knew where to find you and your treasure, but—”

“Well, well, well . . .” Dane entered the room, brandishing the second of the two 9mms Jasper had stowed in his pack. “If it isn’t my oldest, dearest friend who’s been lying to me for the past two decades. All of those times you were supposedly off studying penguins, you were here, lounging in luxury amongst millions in stolen art, books and antiquities.”

“Wait—” Jasper’s head was spinning. Dane had been lying to them all along? His initial suspicion not to trust him had been right? Meaning, all this time, in having him near Eden, he’d been putting her directly in harm’s way. Meaning, after all these years, his instincts were no better than they’d ever been. “You’re working with Leo?”

Dane smiled. “He and his men should be here any time.”

“They can’t get in without Eden’s locket,” Carl said.

Dane waved off Carl’s concern. “Of course, they can. I placed a rock on the threshold to keep the door from locking. I was the one who convinced Leo that in this case, a soft sell would be infinitely more successful than manhandling the answer from Eden. And look, I’m happy to say I was right.” He stepped behind her, pressing the gun to her head. “Sorry, pet. I really do have a deep affection for you—Jasper, too. But I love money more.”

Jasper’s stomach roiled. He was close enough to shoot Dane where he stood. But what if in the process, he clipped Eden? No way could he take that chance.

“Jasper,” Dane said, “I could have dropped you down that crevasse, but turns out you have brains as well as brawn, which means I’m going to need you to put down your gun and come with me.”

“No problem.” He set the gun on the bed.
As soon as I get the chance, I’ll kill you with my bare hands, you lying sack of shit
.

“Good. I would go ahead and dispose of you now, but that brawn of yours may yet come in handy. Leo and his men are at least an hour behind. They’ve been tracking me ever since we first met up.”

Eden’s face turned sickly pale. Her lower lip quivered.

“Dane,” Carl said. “It’s me you have a problem with. I’m the one who lied. Let Eden and Jasper go.”

“Oh right,” Dane waved the gun like the madman he’d turned out to be. “And the second they hit McMurdo, they’ll send out the cavalry. Not going to happen. Now, where are my manners? Before I so rudely interrupted, you were about to show your daughter her legacy. Since I’m part of the family, I would like to see it, too.”

“Very well.” Resigned to the fact that Dane wouldn’t easily go away, Carl gestured for them to follow him out of his bedroom and down another corridor. They exited the formal area through a second airlock. This time, they didn’t emerge into another part of the cavern, but at the top of an enormous flight of stairs. A metal rail had been attached to the sweating cave wall.

“Well?” They’d all bunched on the landing, but using his gun, Dane waved them along. “What are we waiting for? I’m ready to see my treasure.”

Jasper counted fifteen flights before they reached the lower landing. A vault door—the type he’d only seen in old bank robber movies—was closed. It had a combination lock and wheeled handle.

“What’s the combo?” Dane asked.

“You’ll have to shoot me before I tell you.”

“Fine.” Without hesitation, Dane shot Carl’s foot.

Eden screamed.

Blood splattered everywhere. On the floor and vault door. Most alarmingly, all over Eden’s clothes and face.

She went to her father, dropping to her knees to inspect his badly bleeding foot. “You’re horrible!” she screamed at Dane. “I loved you. How could you be so cruel?”

Jasper dragged his sweatshirt over his head to use as a bandage that would hopefully, at least slow Carl’s bleeding.

“You think me cruel? Your father not only hoarded whatever’s behind this door for himself, just as he took your mother. Did he ever tell you that she wanted me first? He stole her from me—just as he did all of my professional glory. I’m done being his second. Now, it’s my turn to be on top.”

“You forgot one thing!” At the top of the stairs, Leo, flanked by his men, stood on the upper landing. “You’re paid by me! Kill him. He’s outlasted his usefulness.”

The man nearest him raised his M16 and shot a single bullet into Dane’s chest. Blood gurgled from his mouth.

Eden cried out, sharply looking away.

Dane collapsed, falling into a pool of his own blood.