The Cathari Treasure (Cameron Kincaid) (16 page)

“What is it?” asked Cameron as
he walked around the side of the car.

Nicole stepped back and pointed
at the seat.  Cameron could see a dark spot across Marie’s leg that
continued down the side of the seat to the floorboard.  “Take this,” said
Cameron, handing the grocery bag to Nicole.  With one arm around the front
of Marie’s shoulder and his other hand on her back, Cameron gently eased her
forward so that he could see her back in the light.  Nicole gasped. 
Above Marie’s right kidney was a dark red hole, a bullet hole surrounded by
blood, dried from bleeding out over the last few hours.  Cameron slid his
arm behind her, tilted her back, and threw his other arm under her legs.

Cameron lifted Marie out of the
Chevy and turned toward the cabin.

Nicole began to speak “Has she…”

“No,” said Cameron abruptly,
“she has not gone on to the next life.”

Cameron carried Marie into the
cabin and took her directly over to the dining table.

“What do we do Mister Kincaid?”
asked Nicole.

“In the drawer, next to the
sink, you’ll find some rags.  Grab them and then fill that pot on the
stove with warm water.”  Cameron ripped open Marie’s blouse and pulled the
fabric away from her.  In the cabin light, he could now see that she had
become pale with the loss of blood.  Cameron could also see the exit wound
was small and almost directly across from the entry wound.  A small exit
wound was a good sign that may mean that the bullet had not fragmented and
might have just passed through.  Still Marie had obviously lost a lot of
blood and not mentioning the wound had put her at great risk.

Nicole brought handfuls of rags
over to the table.  Cameron quickly grabbed them en masse to wipe away the
dried blood from Marie’s side.

“Why did she not say anything?”
asked Nicole.

“From the looks of this wound,
she may not have realized it.  The wound is clean through and our adrenaline
was pretty high.  Knowing your mistress though, she probably kept it to
herself as not to risk me stopping before we were safely away.  I wouldn’t
put it past her.”  Cameron looked up at Nicole, his hands still
busy.  “I have never met anyone like Marie.  I have known hardened
men that were no where near as stoic.”  Cameron looked back down at Marie,
“The water, I need the water.”

* * *
* *

Lake Ontario

 After cleaning and
dressing Marie’s wound Cameron moved her to the sofa.  He watched her
breathe perchance she would awake.  She did not.  Cameron sipped his
coffee.  When he bought the beans at grocery store he had thought the
coffee would be a nice treat after a good night’s sleep.  He had poured
several cups over the course of the evening.  There was no way for him to
imagine that as Marie slept in the Chevy her life was slipping away.  How
could he?  Marie had remained silent and not said a word.

Cameron could not decide if
Marie’s skin color looked better, more flush.  She was still breathing
though, and that was something.

Hues of fuchsia edged over the
horizon.  Cameron propped a throw pillow next to Marie’s face to block the
morning light soon to come.

At the end of the sofa, Nicole
kneeled in meditation.  Nicole had spent the better part of the evening
praying softly and had gone into a near trance an hour ago.  In the wee
hours of the morning, Cameron had suggested that she eat something. 
Nicole told Cameron that she had begun to fast, so he did not prepare any food
for either of them.  Now Cameron wished he had.  Not because he was
hungry, rather because cooking was one of the few things that distracted him.

With the sun coming up Cameron
headed out into the yard.  With him, he brought the cordless phone from
the cabin.

Cameron dialed Pepe’s number and
Pepe answered up on the first ring.

“Cameron,” said Pepe. 
“What are you doing up so early?”

Pepe’s quick response threw
Cameron for a second, and then he realized that of course Pepe would recognize
the number to his own cabin.

“It’s a bit much to explain,”
said Cameron.  “I’m sorry if I woke you, I guess I’m preoccupied.”

“Wake me?  I am just
getting in.”

“Same ole Pepe.”

“Heh, heh.  So, what is on
your mind that has you so preoccupied?  Was your rendezvous not a
success?  I did not hear of any jazz bar’s exploding in Toronto last
night.”

“The rendezvous was not a
success, at least not the second part,” said Cameron.

“Are the women still with you?”

“Yes, we barely made it out of
Toronto with our lives.  Marie still might not make it.”

“What condition is she in?”
asked Pepe, his tone flat.

“A gut shot.  It looks
clean through and apart from the loss of blood her color is normal.”

“Then she is lucky.  It may
not be septic.  Did you find everything you need to dress the wound?”

“Yeah I found what I
needed.  It’s a waiting game now.  That’s not why I’m calling
though.”

“Of course not,” Pepe’s voice
elevated again, “you want to finish this, eh?”

“That’s right.  I’m tired
of playing defense and want the next strike.  I have a feeling I can get
to them in Quebec.  Are you in?”

“I am, Viva Legionne, count me
in,” said Pepe.

“Do you want to know the
details?”

“Has that mattered before? 
You can tell me when you see me.”

“I knew I could count on you my
brother,” said Cameron, and Cameron meant what he said not only because of the
shared camaraderie of the French Foreign Legion, he meant those words because
he knew Pepe was a stand up man that really would not need the details until
necessary.  Pepe was certainly right that the details had never mattered
before, not when a brother reached out for assistance.

Cameron added, “We may need a
few things --”

Pepe cut him off, “You will find
everything we need behind the shed.  The key is in the kitchen.”

“Perfect.”

“Call me when you’re ready, I’ll
be waiting.  Viva Legionne old friend.”

“The Legion is our Strength,”
said Cameron and then switched off the phone.

Cameron was glad he called
Pepe.  Marie’s fate was out of his hands.  To take her to a hospital would
only have put her in further danger, he was sure of that, he had already done
everything a trauma team would do.  Cameron’s elite training for treating
bullet wounds was certainly better than any the staff would have received in a
country hospital.  As he had told Pepe, all he could do now was
wait.  That did not mean Cameron had to wait silently.  Behind the
shed, Cameron was confident he would find an arsenal sufficient for what he
planned next, going after Rex Mundi.

* * *
* *

Lake Ontario

At the edge of the trees, behind
the cabin, stood a double door tool shed.  The shed’s red paint was dulled
and worn from the lakeside winters.  Cameron thought that the shed might
be older than the cabin, as there would not have been any reason to build a new
shed when the larger structure was replaced.  That was as much interest as
Cameron cared to take with the shed.  He was far more interested in what
lie on the other side.

Short pines hugged the sides of
the shed too close and tight to walk through.  Not far to the side, a
clear path led into the woods.  The path took him around and behind the
red shed where he found an opening in the trees, hidden from the tree
line.  The floor of the still glade was covered with loose dried pine
boughs, some withered brown and others still green.  In the center of the
glade, barely perceptible from beneath the boughs, was a large circular metal
door.

Cameron inspected the clearing
edge.  Around the circumference of the open area, a thin wire hovered
barely above the ground.  Cameron stepped over the wire so as not to trip
whatever trap Pepe had set.  Either tripping the wire would engage some
type of secondary lock or set off an explosion.  Knowing how Pepe liked to
blow things up the wire would probably trigger both.

Cameron cleared the nested dried
boughs from the circular door with the same care he entered the clearing. 
He found no additional triggers.  The key that Cameron brought from the
kitchen fit the padlock on the door as Pepe had described.  The door
pulled up with ease, the hinges counterbalanced to relieve the weight of the
heavy steel.  Below, triggered by the open door, a light flickered on
illuminating a narrow metal stairwell.

Cameron cautiously descended the
stairs into the cement walled bunker.

There was no odor in the dim lit
cavity beneath the stairs, no smell of the damp underground, or mold of decay,
still the air was off.

The lamp the door had triggered
was on a metal box mounted on the wall at the bottom of the stairwell.  On
the side of the box was a lever.  Cameron pulled the lever, turning off
the lamp and turning on ceiling lights in the room he was standing and in the
two rooms adjoining the first.  Floor to ceiling shelves stacked with
dried foods, water bottles, batteries, and rice filled the room.  Through
the door to the far room, Cameron could see green blanketed bunk beds, part of
a bookshelf, and an elaborate radio built into a desk.  The near room held
what Cameron was seeking, Pepe’s arsenal.  Everything a commando could want
and more.  Against the wall was a gun cabinet.  Pressed in foam under
glass were the blue metal mini assault weapons he knew as well as his own
hands.  Cameron chuckled at the thought of Pepe securing the nearly
impossible to get array of weapons.  He slid open the glass to take one of
the guns from the foam they were seated in.  The little SG carbine felt
light and natural.  The silenced MP5’s, the model Cameron was
requisitioned as a commando, and SIG 552’s were contraband.  Across the
side of the 552 in large white letters were the words ‘RESTRICTED FOR LAW
ENFORCEMENT/GOVERNMENT USE AND/OR EXPORT ONLY’.  Wherever Pepe found these
weapons, they looked authentic.  Stored next to the assault rifles were a
GL 5140 grenade launcher and two trillium illuminated night sights, both
illegal to possess outside of a government organization.  In the drawers,
below the glass case, Cameron found cartridges, grenades and in the bottom
drawer, C4 packed in neat little cakes.  He even found a case of leather
sheathed Opinel penknives, the type issued by the Legion.

Cameron sorted through Pepe’s
armory to put together enough weapons and explosives to take on a small
army.  He gathered what he had separated out into duffel bags, brought the
bags out to the Chevy, and stowed them in the trunk.

* * *
* *

Lake Ontario

When Cameron finished packing
the trunk of the Chevy with the fruits of Pepe’s arsenal he sealed up the
bunker and went back into the cabin by way of the lakeside deck.  The
glare from the sun, now above the lake, made the inside of the windowed walled
cabin hard to see.

When Cameron opened the cabin
door, he perked up.  Marie was reclining on pillows and talking to
Nicole.  He stepped inside the door then paused.  He started to speak
and stopped himself, aware all too quickly that Marie and Nicole were not
having a discussion.  Nicole was performing the consolamentum.  Marie
had explained to Cameron that there were only two ways believers could receive
the consolamentum.  To be deemed worthy after a long period of preparation
and instruction as Nicole had or as a request on the deathbed.  Cameron
knew that Marie had requested the consolamentum because she believed she was
dying.

Words and actions passed in and
out of Cameron’s mind without escaping his silent pose.

When Cameron heard the words, “I
have this will, pray to God for me that he will give me his power,” come from
Marie’s lips, he recited his part from memory to ensure the sacrament was
complete.  “Good Christian,” said Cameron, “I pray you, by the love of
God, that you grant this blessing, which God had given you, to our friend here
present.”

Then as Nicole had the day
before, Marie took her vow, “Parcite Nobis.  For all the sins, I have ever
done in thought, word, and deed.  I ask pardon of God, of the Church, and
of you all.”

Nicole and Cameron responded,
“By God and by us and by the Church, may your sins be forgiven and we pray God
to forgive you them.  Adoremus, Patrem,
et
Filium
et Spiritum Sanctam.”

The humble beliefs that these
two women shared were not Cameron’s own, still he was compelled to speak at the
completion of the ceremony perchance they were right.  He listened closer
today than yesterday to the passages of the book of John as Nicole recited
them.  Cameron wanted to believe, for their sakes, Marie and Nicole’s,
that they were right.