The Keepers of the Rose Page 31

  Sayla wore a tight, long sleeved pink shirt and white shorts that showed some of her ass. She was bending over a duffel bag stuffing in a new tarp that didn’t look like it was going to fit.

  “That’s not its spot,” Rock said, sneaking up on her. He meandered to a pile of empty bags, fished out a long blue tote and threw it at her. “This one will work. Roll it up.”

  She didn’t say anything but smiled goofily then ran over to him and threw her arms around his neck. “You’re ok,” she said.

  “Why wouldn’t I be? It hasn’t been that long. Has everything been good?” She nodded. “What I mean is that have you noticed anything suspicious, anybody following you, watching, that kind of thing.”

  “I don’t think so, but I’ve been very careful. This place is clean and I think, safe. And everything is here and almost ready to go. Where are we going?”

  “Truthfully I don’t know, he does.” Rock pointed at Benji. “my new friend Benji. He claims to have translated the map and the island on the map is located here in the Caribbean, but he’s holding more of the other details out for now.”

  “That’s stupid,” she said.

  “Benji, this is my apprentice, Sayla.”

  “Hello Sayla,” Benji said and held out his hand. Sayla reached out and shook it.

  “Hi. But why would you keep anything from Rock about this. I don’t see the point. He found it.”

  “That’s complicated.”

  “How?” Sayla was becoming slightly confrontational.

  Rock cut her off. “He has his reasons, I’m sure. But for now, let’s just leave it at that.”

  Sayla frowned. “Fine.” She turned away from Benji to face him. “Is Brett coming?”

  “He’s not going to make it,” he responded. “Show me what you’ve done here,” he quickly changed focus.

  She took him around to all the equipment that she had organized and packed. Laid out in neat piles were tents, tarps, lights, tools, clothes, bags, food, cameras and she even remembered to pack a wad of cash in case they needed to bribe someone. He was impressed.

  “There’s only one thing I haven’t found a place for,” she said pointing to a stack of new solar lanterns Rock had used for the first time on the trip to Costa Rica. They had worked amazingly well. Solar technology was growing considerably with the newly appointed government funding. “What did we put them in, I can’t remember.”

  “A hard shell,” he said. “Black pelican, they aren’t as sturdy as some of the other gear.” She nodded. “But for now, you can leave them. I have a feeling we won’t have to do too much actual work in searching and setting camp. I think this should be fairly straightforward. Probably just the basic kit and we should be good to go.”

  Benji nodded. “Yeah. I don’t think we’ll need all of this.”

  “It would be easier to know what we would need if we had all the information,” Sayla said.

  “Sayla,” Rock stared at her.

  “Ok,” She walked away.

  Benji came up next to Rock as Sayla left the room. “She is certainly outspoken.“

  “She says what’s on her mind.”

  “Yeah.” He fell silent.

  “What is it, just say it, I won’t be offended and it won’t get back to her.”

  “I don’t know. She seems a little possessive.”

  “Of what?”

  “I don’t know. You maybe. Whatever you found, perhaps. I don’t know. It’s like she was trying to prove she was higher up than me.”

  “I think that’s just Sayla being herself.”

  “I’ll take your word for it, you know her better than I. So when do you think we’ll get going?”

  “Tomorrow. I’ll give you access to all my maps and get you on-line to double-check your findings. We need to get the exact match on those directions and then we’ll take my boat to the location. Hopefully it isn’t one of the larger inhabited islands that could be construed as someone’s personal property. That could get a little messy. But I’m guessing from the picture, it’s one of the smaller plots of land that’s not large enough to build on, economically speaking.”

  Sayla came back in carrying a soda. “Did I hear you saying we’re leaving tomorrow?”

  “Morning,” Rock said. “We shouldn’t waste anymore time on this.”

  “I can’t believe I’m going to go searching for buried treasure,” Benji shook his head.

  “Stick with us and you’ll be doing it all the time,” Sayla smiled. “It sure beats a day job.”

  Rock nodded. “Some days.” Sayla frowned at him but didn’t respond verbally. Sayla’s new phone started to ring. She answered and then held it out to Rock.

  “It’s Wallace,” she said.

  “He shouldn’t be calling, and why is he calling you.” Rock said and grabbed the phone out of her hand.

  “Probably to see if I’ve heard from you since it doesn’t appear as though you have a phone anymore.”

  Rock ignored her. “Make it quick Wallace and don’t say anything about where you are.”

  “You have to get here. We have some things to show you.”

  “Now? Is it that important?”

  “Yes. How soon can you get here?”

  “You’re in Tennessee, right, at the house?

  “Right.”

  “How bad do I need to see this? Can it wait?”

  “If what we found is correct,” he paused. “Well I’m still researching but it all can’t be coincidence. I don’t see how this wasn’t ever put together before, or at least considered. It was right in front of us the whole time.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “I have to talk to you, face to face.”

  “Then we’ll be there.” Rock said. “Shortly, but we can’t stay long.” He hung up.

  Rock turned to Sayla and Benji. “Change of plans. We’re going to Tennessee first.

  “Tennessee?” Benji questioned immediately. “What the hell is there?”

  “The first part of the puzzle, and hopefully by now, a lot more.”

  “We can’t fly,” Sayla said. “They’ll be watching for that.”

  “No, we’re driving, so wear some comfortable clothes.” Rock held out his hand and she gave him the keys. “It’s about a fifteen hour drive so we better get going.”

  “Shouldn’t we finish this up first while we’re here,” Benji said.

  “No,” Rock slapped him on the shoulder. That has been waiting for us for hundreds of years. It will be fine for another few days. The other part is out in the open and being looked for by God knows who. I need to know everything about it as soon as possible and I don’t want those two pieces together yet. Never put all your eggs in one basket. That’s how you lose everything you have. Even when we retrieve what’s on your map, I don’t think it would be wise to bring all the original pieces together.”

  “Oh,” Benij said. “I didn’t think of that.”

  “Experience,” Rock said. “I’ve been burned a few times in the past.”

  Chapter 27

  Texas, August 2012