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

  “I will listen,” he replied, being as docile as a pet.

  Previne began saying the words that Lisa repeated to Barry. At first, he stiffened and tried to resist, but the heat of her warm, stimulated body and the exotic feel of her hands on his face caused him to relax. It was all Lisa needed.

  few minutes later, Colton Banyon yelled out, “Okay, Plan Great Legs is a go.” Everyone scrambled for earpieces and their guns. Eric had already pulled alongside the houseboat and five people began dropping into the little speedboat.

  Banyon had instructed Bart to stop the big boat just before it could be seen from Echo Bay. It was in sight of the beach where Lisa and Barry where having their clandestine rendezvous, but not within the sight of the Effort men. This part of the plan required stealth and speed.

  Mandy and Heather—still in their bathing suits—and the three male NSA agents—in their black suits—crammed into the four-passenger speedboat. Eric immediately opened up the throttle and sped towards the spit of land on the left side of the cove. Their goal was to come in behind the five Effort men on the slip of land and force them to surrender.

  As soon as Eric dropped the first team off, he returned to the houseboat and collected a second team. That team consisted of Darlene, Joan, Cindy, Steve, and Guido. Eric then made a wide loop out into the lake and came in behind the right hand spit of land. Team two took up positions and waited for the capture order.

  Eric returned to the houseboat to pick up Banyon. Bart, Pramilla, and Maya were now the only ones left on the houseboat. Pramilla and Maya were busy below decks, packing the team’s luggage and hauling it onto the deck.

  After saying good luck to Banyon, Bart began piloting the boat into Echo Bay Cove. He stood in the small upper-deck pilothouse. He didn’t appear the least bit nervous, even knowing he would be running a gauntlet.

  After Banyon got into the speedboat, they pushed off and were on their way to the beach. Eric drove the speedy skiff directly onto the sand, near where Lisa and Barry were now sitting and talking. They didn’t seem to notice, and Banyon ignored them, as well. He headed straight to the ridge, where Loni was hiding. She had positioned herself on a high dune and had a clear view of the entrance to Echo Bay. He wanted to be there to direct the troops. A pair of binoculars hung from his neck.

  Previne now popped up from her hiding place and walked towards Barry and Lisa. Barry suddenly noticed all the activity around them.

  “Who are all these people?” Barry nervously asked. He sat up, lifting Lisa like a feather, and went for his gun, but he found that it was gone. Lisa had tossed it deeper into the sand when he wasn’t looking.

  “Relax, Barry,” Lisa soothed him by placing her hand on his now-bare chest. “They are our friends now, and they are here to fix everything. You do want things fixed, don’t you?” She searched his eyes for any sign of recognition.

  “But… we are just sitting on a beach,” a confused Barry noted. Lisa now knew the Freud-a-size had worked.

  “This is exactly where we need to be. Why don’t you just talk to me and not worry about anything else,” she said. Once again, she grabbed his face in both hands and turned his head towards her smiling face. “There. That’s better,” she cooed.

  Previne didn’t go to the blanket. Instead, she and Eric began to search the beach for pieces of drift wood. They began to make a pile about twenty feet in front of Lisa and Barry. It looked like they were going to build a bonfire.

  Meanwhile, Banyon was searching the distance with the binoculars from the ridge. Loni stood next to him and wrapped her arm around his body. He suddenly spied what he was looking for. Two park ranger cruisers speeding up the coast. Kim had come through with Banyon’s request. They would be at their stations in five minutes. Then, the showdown would commence.

  hy don’t you try to do what I have shown you on your screen now,” Wolf calmly suggested to Harold Bass. Wolf had invited Harold to watch his screen. He moved his bubble, so Harold could see, and showed him how to divide up the screen into many sections. Of course, he didn’t have his usual subjects on the screens, he had targeted several young women who were undressing or in otherwise compromising positions. Harold was very pleased to learn the secret and stayed a little too long watching the women. The distraction had given Banyon enough time to implement his plan. Wolf had planned it that way.

  “You mean I can do that on my screen, too?” Harold enthusiastically asked. “I can divide it up and watch several people at one time?”

  “Yup, all you need is a person, a time, and a location, and you can do as many searches or visits in real time as you wish,” Wolf replied cheerfully.

  “I can really help myself now. I’m about to attack a houseboat and get the book of the Vril. Then, everything will change.” Harold exclaimed fanatically, turning his attention to his screen, which had remained frozen where he had left it. It showed Barry standing next to his men and giving them orders on their deployment.

  “First, divide your screen up into the sections you want to view, by location,” Wolf urged him. As he spoke, he moved slightly behind Harold’s line of sight and renewed his own screen. He watched Harold divide the screen so he could watch the houseboat, the two spits of land, his two speedboats, and finally, Barry. “Good, you are catching on fast, my friend,” Wolf said like a friend showing someone how to operate a TV.

  “You have really changed the prospects of my future with this ability,” Harold said sincerely.

  “More than you know,” Wolf replied in a sinister voice.

  Harold was so consumed in setting up his screens that he didn’t hear Wolf’s remark. “And, now, I just move forward in time, right?” Harold asked like a kid learning how to repair a car.

  “That is correct,” Wolf agreed. “Now, move your timeline forward to the present for each window and you will see everything in real time.”

  “I wish someone would have shown me this earlier,” Harold remarked. “It sure would have helped.

  “We didn’t want to,” Wolf replied evenly.

  “What did you say?” Harold absently asked, not really paying attention.

  “You heard me,” Wolf replied.

  Suddenly, Harold started to scream and curse as the screens reached real time. “What the hell is going on? What’s Barry doing with that bimbo? What is he doing on the beach and not with his men? Kill her, Barry!”

  “I don’t think he can hear you,” Wolf told the ranting madman. “Try to control your emotions, please.”

  “Kill her, Barry! Do you hear me?! Kill her!” Harold ordered his son. “Oh, why won’t he listen to me?”

  “Maybe he doesn’t want to hear from you, Harold,” Wolf reasoned.

  “That’s not possible,” Harold spat back. “He is running a takedown right now. He’ll not fail me.”

  “Maybe you’d better check your other screens too.” Wolf said, almost gleeful.

  “No!!!” Harold cried out as he looked at the other five screens. “My men are all going to be massacred in an ambush. I must get word to Barry, help me Wolf.”

  “Oh, I think that will prove impossible. I can’t help you.”

  “How did everything turn to crap so fast?” Harold lamented. “Without Barry’s leadership, my men won’t know what to do.”

  “I planned it that way,” Wolf simply replied.

  “You… you planned it?” Harold roared in disbelief. “You sabotaged my attack on the houseboat?” There was vengeance in his voice. He wanted to strike out at Wolf, but he had no way to do it.

  “Yes I did, Harold, or should I call you by your real name. It is Klaus Brenner, isn’t it?” Wolf asked.

  “You know my real name from back in Germany?” Harold questioned Wolf without attempting to deny it.

  “I knew who you were as soon as you got here. That is why you have been surrounded by several of us since you appeared here. We weren’t here to show you the ropes, Harold. We were here to stop you from succeeding.”

  “How dare you
judge me,” Harold screamed back.

  “It is time you paid for your sins.”

  “Is this all a conspiracy against me?” He was looking to blame someone else for his situation. Just like always.

  “Oh, and by the way, Maria Orsic wasn’t the one from up here who was talking to Colton Banyon,” Wolf offered.

  “Then… who was?”

  “I was,” Wolf replied proudly.

  “No… it can’t be,” Harold groaned.

  “Maria was here because of the book of the Vril. Once Lisa Lange touched it, Maria’s time here was over. Her curse ended. You will have a different outcome.”

  “You used her to distract me,” Harold growled.

  “My friends and I have distracted you several times since you have been here,” Wolf calmly replied.

  “I’ll kill you for what you have done,” Harold raged.

  “How, exactly, are you going to do that?” Wolf cynically asked.

  Harold paused for several seconds before he replied, “I’ll have Barry kill Colton.”

  “That’s not going to happen, either,” Wolf smugly replied. “Barry has been released from your curse. He no longer will ask you questions. It happened a few minutes ago. Why don’t you research it on your screen?”

  Harold quickly moved the timeline on Barry’s screen. “No!!!” he screamed. “This can’t be true.”

  “Barry is destined for a better life, and Lisa will be part of it, Harold. You can’t stop him,” Wolf said.

  “But… what about my plans? I was supposed to change history. I was going to be the leader of the Third Reich,” Harold roared.

  “Oh, you will always have your dreams,” Wolf acknowledged. “You just will have no way to implement them Harold. You do understand that you don’t have anyone to talk to anymore, don’t you? There will be no more messages to anyone on Earth. You have been forgotten.”

  “So what happens to me now?” a defeated and panicked Harold asked.

  “Well,” Wolf started. “You have no one to talk to on Earth and my friends and I are going to leave you now, so I guess you will sit here in limbo in isolation for a while,” Wolf surmised. “You do have your screens to watch, though,” he added with a touch of humor.

  “How long before I can leave?” Harold sadly asked.

  “I honestly don’t know… Maybe one or two thousand years.”

  olf, any updates?” Banyon asked, monitoring the battlefield from the beach area, through his binoculars. He could see the Effort men spread across the two spits of land. He could also see the two takedown teams making their way silently towards positions to stop them.

  “Harold has been cast adrift,” the spirit replied happily. “He will not bother anyone for some time. Otherwise, all is ready. You may proceed with your plan.”

  “Bart,” Banyon said into his earpiece so all could hear. “Vector in the two park ranger cruisers and you follow them into the cove. The rest of you get ready. We want to do this quickly and with little or no bloodshed.”

  Loni turned her head and looked at the beach below them. She saw Barry and Lisa still sitting on the blanket, engrossed in an intimate conversation. They didn’t appear to be adversaries anymore. She also saw Previne and Eric piling wood near them. “Everything is ready on the beach,” she whispered to him.

  After a few minutes, the two park ranger cruiser reached the entryway to the cove and started to pass by the Effort people concealed on the two peninsulas. The men crouched down so they wouldn’t be seen. Banyon could see looks of confusion on some of their faces. They hadn’t expected two armed escorts for the houseboat.

  Banyon could see Kim standing next to the captain of one of the cruisers. Bart was right behind them in the houseboat. The loudspeaker on the houseboat now came to life.

  “You people on the peninsulas,” Bart said. “You are completely surrounded. Drop your weapons and stand up with your hands in the air. You people in the speedboats, drop your guns over the sides and put your hands in the air, immediately. We have two cruisers, loaded with park rangers that will be coming around the bend in a few seconds. They are armed and are prepared to use deadly force, if necessary.”

  The Effort men on the peninsulas became very nervous and began searching the area for intruders. They were without a leader and without any means of communicating and coordinating. They were on their own.

  “That’s right, we have all you scumbags covered!” Darlene yelled from her position to the five startled Effort men slightly below her. “If you want to live, I suggest you drop your weapons, now. Put your hands on your heads!”

  “Unless you want to go for a swim or die, drop your weapons, and put your hands up!” Heather ordered from her position. The five Effort men on her peninsula had even less cover, and they were bunched together.

  In a burst of speed, the two cruisers quickly pulled up alongside the speedboats, bristling with rifles, aimed at the speedboats. One by one, the Effort men dropped their guns over the sides and raised their hands.

  Kim now spoke through a loudspeaker to the speedboats. “You will start your engines and follow the lead cruiser. The second cruiser will follow you. When I tell you, you will turn towards the beach in front of you and drive your boats ashore. There will be armed people there to take you into custody.”

  The Effort men on Darlene’s spit of land never hesitated. The five men were not experienced fighters. They stood up and dropped their guns. Darlene’s team quickly surrounded them and began to frisk them. She ordered them to start walking. Darlene told them they had a ten-minute march ahead of them.

  On the other side of the cove, one Effort man in Heather’s group became angry and started yelling back at her. He aimed his gun towards the rocks above him. Heather fired one shot that ricocheted just centimeters away from him.

  “Want to find out if I missed you on purpose?” she yelled to the man. “And I’m not even the best shot here.”

  The five men dropped their guns and stood up with their hands on their heads. “We surrender,” he said.

  “Team B is ready for the ferry,” Heather said into her earpiece. Eric immediately aimed the speedboat for the far spit of land. He would carry half the team and half the captured Effort people to the beach and then, make a second trip.

  “We’d better get down to the beach and get our guests situated,” Banyon smiled, giving Loni a big hug. “The showdown went well— only one shot fired.”

  “And this plan was named after my legs,” Loni reminded him.

  They reached the edge of the water, just as the two speedboats full of Effort people hit land. Previne, Loni, and Banyon all held guns and waved the men out of the boats. Almost immediately, a black, inflatable raft, piloted by a ranger, hit the beach, and a smiling Kim jumped out. He also carried a gun. The inflatable raft immediately backed off of the beach and sped off back to the park ranger cruiser. The two cruisers blasted their horns twice each and sped off back to the park ranger’s dock.

  “Where do you want them?” Kim asked as he waved to the cruisers.

  “I want them in a line behind Barry and Lisa. Have them kneel in the sand and keep their hands on their heads,” Banyon replied. The men glared at the startled Barry as they passed around behind him and Lisa.

  “Pay no attention to them, Barry,” Lisa spoke softly to him. “This will all be fixed shortly.”

  Eric pulled in with the first load from the far sandspit. Two NSA agents and Mandy got out and ushered the three Effort men into a second line, behind Lisa and Barry. Eric quickly sped off to gather the remaining people.

  Just then, Darlene and her entourage came marching over the ridge. She lined up her captives and huddled with her team, guarding the captured men.

  “Got any idea what is going to happen now?” Darlene asked one of her agents.

  “Just be patient,” Loni responded.

  “Start the bonfire,” Banyon told Previne. “Eric will be here in a minute.”

  Meanwhile, Bart had maneuvered
the big houseboat into its assigned slip at the dock. Pramilla and Maya, both accomplished sailors, helped him tie off the lines. They lugged the Banyon team’s luggage to the two jeeps. Bart said his goodbyes, and the two women started the vehicles and followed the dirt pathway to the ridge overlooking the beach. They left the jeeps running and made their way down to the beach. Pramilla carried an ornate-looking flower vase she had commandeered from the houseboat. She handed it to Lisa.

  hey were all on the beach now. Lisa and Barry still sat on the beach blanket and now, he held an empty vase in his lap. The twenty Effort men knelt in the sand in two rows behind them. They still had their hands on their heads. The six NSA agents stood in a huddle to the left of the prisoners and the five Dewey & Beatem bodyguards stood together on the right. Banyon’s team stood behind him as he addressed everybody. The bonfire was burning just to the right of Colton Banyon.

  “The reason we are all here on this beach today is because of a book that none of you can read or have ever seen,” Banyon told them. “The book of the Vril Society has had many mysteries surrounding it over the years. Some believe it contains the formula for a magical energy source called Vril. They believe Vril can power anything, including anti-gravity machines and can be made into a superweapon. Some believe it contains a record of transmissions from people who once lived on Earth. Some even believe it contains spells and curses that are more powerful than any known to man. They believe the spells and curses were collected by Maria Orsic and recorded in the book.”

  “Many people have died protecting it, and many people have died attempting to capture the book. This has gone on since before World War II. This madness has to stop here,” he pointed to the sandy beach below his feet.

  “But the book is very important. It is our bible,” Lisa cried out on cue.

  Banyon stopped talking and looked from person to person. He continued in an angry voice. “It’s all a hoax people!” he screamed, throwing his arms in the air in disgust. “It’s not real. The Vril Society was a bunch of hippie groupies who followed a science-fiction book written in 1871. They were no different than people who follow Star Trek today. It’s all fake, folks. None of it was ever real.”