A Dubious Curse (A Colton Banyon Mystery Book 8) Read online

  “Well, no, actually I have a better way to get up there. You’ll see once Heather reaches the top.” Loni noticed Mandy and Guido were piling thicker rope on the stern of the boat. They had also dragged out two large black canvas bags. They had been some of the items the men had carried on board back at the dock.

  As they stood watching Heather navigate the steep cliffs, Kim and Skye slid into the group.

  “Where’s Colt?” Loni asked.

  “He said he had to do some thinking and make a call on the satellite phone,” Kim softly replied. “But he said to tell you guys he wants to have a meeting at the table in the salon in ten minutes. Believe me, it’s urgent.” The rest of the team overheard Kim, and they nodded their heads in agreement, turning back to watch the show.

  Soon, Heather stood on the top of the cliff hunched over in an attempt to catch her breath. Once she stabilized her breathing, she untied the rope from around her waist and began to pull on it. A small canvas bag that was tied to the middle of the rope plopped into the water and proceeded up the cliff. Once she had the bag, she disappeared from sight, but soon, everyone could hear a hammer pounding on metal.

  “She is anchoring the rope,” Steve told everyone proudly.

  The rope stretched taut, and Heather could be heard grunting as she continued to pull on the thin line. An intricate pulley system comprised of two pulleys and thicker rope splashed into the water and slowly headed up the cliff. It soon disappeared over the top edge. There were more sounds of metal scraping metal.

  “Okay, we’re ready!” Heather called out in an exhausted voice a minute later. She came to the edge and looked down on everyone.

  Another pulley was attached to a cleat, which was screwed into the upper deck of the houseboat by Guido—the result was a rope conveyer system. The end of the second rope pulley system was curled on the deck. Steve now held a device in his hand that could be attached to the bottom-rope conveyer.

  “All I have to do is hold the grip and you guys can pull me up to the top,” he said, grinning at Loni.

  “Sounds like fun,” Loni replied.

  “Once I am up top, Heather and I can haul up the surveillance system and set it up. It’s pretty clever, huh?”

  “We’re ready to help you get to the top,” Loni replied and winked at him.

  Steve stepped onto the edge of the boat under the conveyor system and attached the grip. Then he waited. He wasn’t a tall man, nor was he heavy. He was only five-foot-eight, but he had to go almost straight up to reach the top of the cliff. It was going to require a lot of muscle to get him there.

  “Okay, I’m ready. Pull me up,” he said over his shoulder.

  Everyone scrambled to grab the rope. It looked like a game of tug-of-war as they lined up on the back deck.

  “We’re ready,” Mandy acknowledged.

  “Go!” Steve said.

  The team on the boat began pulling on the rope and Steve quickly slid up in the air. When he neared the edge of the cliff, Heather reached out and helped him over the top. He released the grip and tossed it back down. Eric stepped forward and caught it.

  “Now, attach the first bag and send it up,” Steve instructed.

  Once they had both bags on the top of the ridge, Steve and Heather unpacked the bags and quickly set up the equipment on a strong tripod. They placed a camouflage net over the grey colored equipment. The canvas bags were stored underneath the netting. It only took them ten minutes to complete the task.

  “We’re coming down now,” Steve yelled over the edge of the cliff. “You’ll want to watch this,” he said, mostly for Loni’s benefit.

  Heather was the first to go. She grabbed the grip, slipped over the side, and released the break. Gravity pulled her down at an alarming pace. The crowd gasped, but halfway down, she let go of the grip and plunged feet-first into the dark water. When she surfaced near the boat, Eric rushed over and helped her out of the water. Everyone was clapping and cheering. She entered the boat with a broad smile on her lovely face.

  “My turn,” Steve pointed to himself. “Bring the grip back up to me.” Guido quickly grabbed the rope and sent the grip back up to Steve.

  He climbed over the edge and hung in place for a few seconds to create drama. When he released the break, he seemed to fall even faster than Heather. When he let go of the grip, he somersaulted in the air and performed a perfect dive into the water. He surfaced at the edge of the boat and pulled himself up on to the deck. He expected applause and congratulations, but found the deck empty, except for Mandy and Guido. Everybody else had left for their meeting with Colton Banyon.

  “Forget-about-it,” Guido jokingly remarked.

  arry Bass sat behind a large, wooden desk in the Henderson warehouse that belonged to the Effort. In front of him were stacks of money. There was over two million dollars in cash in neat piles spread on the desktop. He no longer cared that his life, as he knew it, was over. He had enough money to start another life. A big smile covered his large face. If only I could convince Lisa, he thought.

  “Can you stop now?” he yelled out to his father. “I think we have enough money for our needs.”

  “You can never have enough money,” the old man replied, with an evil laugh.

  “But I don’t want to get caught. We have hit almost every bank in Las Vegas, and my men are getting edgy. Can’t this be enough?”

  “I have only one more person to go. We are going to steal all of his money,” the spirit replied.

  “Who’s that?” Barry asked.

  “Colton Banyon,” his father replied. “Once we steal some of his money, he is going to have to come out of hiding to stop his losses.”

  “Can’t he stop us by phone?”

  “Not if you have changed the passwords on some of his accounts,” Harold informed his son. “He will have to go to the bank involved in person to reset everything. In the meantime, we will clean him out, and you will be ready to ambush him at the bank. Once you kill him, we will have free reign to get the book. Nothing can stop us. I will be the ruler of the Third Reich, and you will be rich.” Harold then laughed some more.

  “That might just work,” Barry admitted.

  his is my fault entirely,” Banyon told the group. His team was all seated around the kitchen table. Skye and Kim were also there, standing in the background. Kim translated for her in a hushed tone as Banyon talked. He had filled them in on the situation and the imminent peril they all faced.

  “If I hadn’t been so focused on the transmitter and passed the pictures on to Timmy, none of this would be taking place,” Banyon confessed.

  “Wait,” Lisa cried out. “Are you telling me the messages I have been receiving for all these years aren’t from the others? That it has been a government plot all along?” Lisa was in denial. “That my entire life has been for nothing?” She began shaking, which gave way to tears.

  “We don’t know that for sure,” Banyon said sympathetically. “We just know the message which led us to the transmitter was sent by the government.”

  “We haven’t even researched the book of the Vril yet Lisa,” Maya told her. “There may be other answers there.”

  “How bad is our situation?” Previne asked to shift the focus.

  “Well, Bart is trying to get the President to call the NSA off, but it could take days before they stop looking for us,” Banyon told them.

  “So we will just lay low until then,” Pramilla said encouragingly.

  “It’s not that simple,” Banyon replied. “There is a planeload of agents arriving at the Las Vegas airport any minute now. They will start looking for us immediately.”

  “But aren’t we safe here?” Loni asked.

  “No,” he replied. “We’re safe from the Effort, but not safe from a high-powered government agency.”

  “Oh,” Loni said with alarm.

  “They know I was on the mountain this morning. It’s a straight run to Lake Mead. They will surely hear about the shootout on the Echo Marina dock and
will discover that a jeep rented to me is in the parking lot. Someone there will eventually realize we are on a houseboat on Lake Mead. Then the hunt will be on to find us. They can requisition helicopters and sophisticated tracking devices. We are not invisible here.”

  “And if they find you, Colt, they find all of us. Skye, Lisa, Previne, Eric, and Pramilla will all be in jeopardy of disappearing,” Loni moaned. “We have to do something.”

  Before Banyon could say another word, Bart burst into the room. “The President says he will stop the NSA,” he announced. “He said you are too valuable to be kept in a secure facility.”

  “I like the personal touch,” Banyon said sarcastically.

  “But it could take as long as two days,” Bart added sheepishly.

  “That’s not acceptable,” Loni screamed at him.

  “The President has procedures he has to follow,” Bart explained.

  “If this was a national emergency, he would have stopped them already to draw resources to the emergency. He’s just another self-interested politician,” Loni screamed.

  Banyon thought for a second, and then he held up his hands with a smile on his face. “But it is a national emergency,” he stated. Everyone looked at him as though he were crazy.

  hen Barry decided to ask his father about how much money they could expect from Colton Banyon’s bank accounts, all he got was screaming, curses, and ranting. The old man was beside himself with rage. Barry couldn’t get a straight answer, so he waited a couple of minutes before addressing him again.

  “So, what’s happened now?” Barry inquired.

  “That son-of-a-bitch,” Harold immediately responded. “He called his banker an hour ago and put a freeze on all his accounts. Money can go in, but nothing can come out. We can’t get any of his money and we can’t flush him out into the open now. I can’t wait until you kill him. This asshole has screwed up my plans once too often.”

  Barry was beginning to think maybe his father wasn’t the genius he claimed to be. Colton Banyon seemed to be able to outflank him every time they went to implement a plan. As a result, Barry was now a person who could be in a lot of trouble, not to mention that the only woman he had ever cared about wouldn’t even talk to him. Things were not going well for the Third Reich recovery team.

  “How could he know we were after his money?” Barry asked. “We only started stealing money this afternoon.”

  “I told you before, you idiot.” He father ranted in his head. “Someone up here is watching us. I need to find a plan to trick him,” Harold reasoned.

  “But aren’t we after the book? Why bother with anybody who can’t get us the book?” Barry was afraid Harold was becoming obsessed with revenge and was losing focus on the target.

  “I must eliminate all competitors from the battle.” Harold’s evil intentions were evident in his eerie reply.

  “Where are Lisa and the book right now?” Barry quickly asked to get his father back on-track.

  “She’s still on the damn houseboat. They are parked in a secluded cove on northern Lake Mead.”

  “So, can’t we attack them again?”

  “They have set up a defense system that will tell them if you get too close to the boat. Even from land,” the spirit replied. “You wouldn’t get near them before they cut you to shreds, I’m afraid.”

  “And we’ve already tried a water attack. It didn’t go very well,” Barry commented, without asking a question. “I think the best thing to do is for us to wait until they leave the cove. What do you think?”

  “I may have a better idea. I’m making some new friends up here. Maybe they can help us. I’ll let you know later after I work out the bugs,” Harold replied with optimism.

  “Well, I’m going to tell you this just once,” Barry said. “This will be the last plan. If it doesn’t work, I’m out.”

  here was complete silence in the room. Eyes darted left and right as everyone tried to comprehend what Banyon had said. The only person who seemed to get it was the lawyer, Kim. He nodded his head.

  “Do we now have the Internet available to us? Can we use it?” Banyon asked the startled Bart. He was still shocked by Banyon’s statement that there was a national emergency and didn’t immediately reply.

  After some hesitation, Bart finally answered. “Yes, of course we can use it.”

  “Good,” Banyon remarked, rubbing his hands together in satisfaction. “I think I have a way out of this mess.”

  “How?” Bart quickly asked.

  Banyon turned to the people at the table. He pointed at both Loni and Previne. “Go get your laptops; we’re going to need them.” Both women ran from the room in search of their computers.

  “What’s going on?” Bart asked. He was usually in complete control, but he felt uncomfortable right now.

  “I also need you to call the President back. I need to talk to him,” Banyon ordered.

  “But I just talked to him. He won’t change his mind, Colt.”

  “Bart, this is about something more important than everyday politics,” Banyon argued back.

  “You don’t understand,” Bart spat back. “He is playing his weekly game of golf. He will be furious if anyone interrupts him while playing. I’m not going to make the call, at least not until I know what this is about.”

  Seeing Loni had returned to the table with her laptop, Banyon gave Bart another order. “I also want you to get Timmy to hack into Loni’s laptop. He needs to be able to patch the laptop through to the Situation Room.”

  “That’s against protocol,” Bart screamed, showing his agitation by flapping his arms. “We can’t allow anyone access to our computer systems.”

  “Don’t worry, Timmy can erase everything when we’re finished working on this project. I’m going to need to help the President while he is in the Situation Room. I need a computer screen to work.”

  “Why do you need access to the Situation Room?” a stunned Bart asked.

  “To take down a terrorist plot on American soil designed to cause chaos in the financial markets tomorrow morning. That is, if we don’t stop them first,” Banyon forcefully replied.

  “Wait,” Bart said. “Are you telling me there is a case for you to work on, a way for Dewey & Beatem to book income?” Bart was a quick study.

  “You’ll need to negotiate our fee with the President too,” Banyon pressed on, knowing the dollar signs were now filling Bart’s mind.

  “You’ll need to hire one of us as a contract employee for the case; otherwise, you will not be able to use our system.” Bart quickly reminded Banyon.

  Bart was all about making money. The law firm required a contract employee be hired whenever Banyon worked a case. It was a way to pad the bill to the government and to Banyon.

  “I figured that,” Banyon replied evenly.

  “Let me check with Mandy. She’ll know who is next on the list,” Bart started for the door.

  “No,” Banyon barked. “Kim will be my contract employee for this case. This is non- negotiable. He needs to help translate information, if needed, and he brought me the project.”

  “Okay, you can have it your way,” Bart surrendered, raising his arms in defeat. “Let me get my secure laptop. It’s already on the company system. You don’t need to use Loni’s. It’s in my bag.” Bart attempted to leave, once again.

  “First, call the President,” Banyon said with frustration.

  “Maybe we should give him some time to finish his golf game,” Bart nervously thought aloud. He didn’t want to overstep his boundaries with his college friend.

  “Call him now, Bart,” Banyon ordered.

  “Maybe he won’t want to talk to you,” Bart replied.

  “He will when I tell him someone is going to corner the silver market tomorrow morning and that we can stop them.”

  “That’s impossible,” Bart protested.

  es, Mr. President. I’m sure about this plot.” Banyon had touched base with Wolf after his conversation with Kim earlier. Wo
lf had given him the information that he needed to convince the President.

  Banyon moved outside onto the back deck of the houseboat to converse with the President. He didn’t want the rest of the team to hear his conversation. When he looked up, he noticed that Mandy and Heather were the two guards stationed on that part of the boat. They appeared to be acting very professionally, despite wearing cute bathing suits and brandishing lethal rifles. Both turned to look at him.

  “Hi, Colt,” Mandy purred.

  He smiled and waved at both of them as he continued to talk.

  Mandy stuck her tongue out. She then turned and wiggled her little bottom at him. He turned away from her.

  “But I only have your word on this,” the President continued. “I need to have my financial advisors look into this before I do anything. A plot this big can’t go unnoticed. There has to be some evidence of a plot.”

  Banyon was ready with an answer. “If you check yesterday’s market stats, you will find a huge selloff of silver futures. The market dropped by fifteen percent. Silver futures pricing is very depressed right now.”

  “Well, that is something to look into,” the big man replied.

  Banyon pressed him further. “Tomorrow morning, when the market opens, the bad guys will buy up every future at depressed prices, and by midmorning, they will have cornered the market. Everything is planned and programed into their computers. We need to destroy their computer systems so they can’t achieve their goal. Cornering the silver market has been done before, but this time, it could cripple the world supply of silver. There would be huge financial consequences.”

  “You say this plot originates from Mongolia, of all places?” the President asked skeptically.

  “That’s correct,” Banyon replied.

  “Where would they possibly get enough money? As I recall, Mongolia is a poor country, in which most people live as nomads.”

  “Remember, they can buy on a ten percent margin, Mr. President. About three billion dollars is all they need to corner the market.”