Chapter 11

From One Treasure to Another

The three women took a collective step back as Roscoe grinned and approached them.

"Now would be a good time for a plan, girls," Emily said, her voice faltering for lack of breath. Seeing Roscoe again had not brought back very nice memories.

"Emily, what's wrong?" Abigail said when she noticed that Emily had gone white pale. She looked at Roscoe and then back at Emily and her mouth fell open. "Is this…?"

"Yes!" Emily cried. Before Emily could blink, Jacqui dashed forward, ignoring Abigail and Emily's pleas for her to be careful. Aiming not for Roscoe's head but two inches *into* his head, Jacqui used all of her tae kwon do skills to lash out at their attacker. Stunned, Emily watched as Abigail joined the fray and helped Jacqui leave Roscoe on the dirt floor of the cavern, his nose and lip bleeding and utterly unconscious.

"Are you certain you didn't break his neck?" Emily whispered, coming up to Jacqui's shoulder as they watched her stare down at her vanquished enemy.

"If we're lucky, I did," Jacqui growled. "This is the man who hurt you, isn't it?"

"How did you know?" Abigail said.

"When I asked Riley about Dr. Appleton he said she was going to be just fine. Implying that something awful *had* happened and he wasn't telling me. You nearly fainted when you saw him, so I put two and two together. I got you into this mess and damnit, I'm getting you out of it," Jacqui said. "Major's gone…let's get out of here!"

"What about the guys?" Abigail said. "Should we go back and see if they found a way across?"

***

"Son, are you sure you're going the right way?" Patrick said after they had been walking for a while.

"Honestly, dad, I don't have a clue. We just need somewhere we can throw a rope line across and secure it so we can get over there and hopefully get to the girls before Major does," Ben said in frustration.

"Between the three of them, I don't think we need to worry as much as we're worrying. I mean, that's not going to keep me from worrying but we love them and as long as they're going to be stubborn, smart, *beautiful* and foolish enough to fall in love with us, we're going to worry, right?..."

"Riley!" chorused the other men, Patrick shook his head and chuckled as Ben gave Riley a playful push.

"Yikes! Sorry! We're all thinking it, I'm just saying it out loud, okay?" Riley laughed.

"Let me tell you from experience, boys, they never outgrow it," Patrick said.

"I think we can make it over this part," said Jacob, inspecting a narrower part of the chasm before them. Minutes later, Ben had secured the line and they crossed, breathing deeply on the other side before proceeding and finding the library…and Roscoe.

"Roscoe!" Jacob said. He knelt and checked the man's pulse. It was there, but he was out cold.

"What the hell happened?" Riley asked.

"Did Abigail do this?" Ben said in disbelief.

"If this is the Roscoe I think it is, it wasn't your mother…she'd have been too afraid of him," Patrick said.

"Then it was Jacqui," said Jacob with a wide smile. "She told me a long time ago she'd gotten into martial arts. Wow…she really kicked his ass!" His tone was a mixture of wonder and amusement, as if he was imagining his petite twin sister doing that much damage. "But nothing in tae kwon do would have led her to break his nose…"

"Abigail…" Ben muttered with a grin. "I've been teaching her self defense."

"All right, so Jacqui and Abigail did it. Where are they? Are they hiding somewhere in these God forsaken catacombs or did they escape somewhere?" Patrick said. Distant squeals of surprise made them all look toward a dark passage leading out of the library.

"Abigail! Mom! "

"Em!"

"Jacqui!"

The men made their way down the tunnel and soon were able to see a bit of light in the distance. The girls' voices were getting clearer and Ben was tempted to drop his backpack to lose the extra weight and run faster, but he kept on, hoping to everything good that they weren't too late.

When they got closer to the exit, they could see the girls crouched down behind some rocks jutting out from the mouth of the cavern, ducking for cover. Abigail heard their footsteps first and smiled as they approached, urging the others to move back into the cave.

"Major escaped! He and that goon of his tried to shoot at us!" Abigail cried, throwing herself into Ben's open arms. He held her for a few moments, just long enough to thank God she was safe and then set her on her feet so he could kiss her.

"Forget him," Emily said, nearly buried in Patrick's arms and unwilling to turn around to face them. "We have the key to the rest of the treasure."

"The rest?" Riley said.

"What would you say to a little day trip?" Abigail teased.

"Where are we going?" Jacob asked.

"Dr. Major thinks he knows where to go; he overheard us talking about this history scroll we found that talked about the gold mines in this mountain and how the Spanish took the gold and then hid the mines," Jacqui said.

"I have a sneaking suspicion the three of you left something out," Riley said.

"Of course!" Abigail said with a grin.

"According to historical record, in the early part of the nineteenth century, the Spanish missions in California were secularized and the Spanish priests were expected to leave. It was presumed that the assets of the missions would be returned to the natives, but the colonial powers being what they were, Spain was too upset about losing Mexico to worry about native gold," Emily explained, finally looking up from Patrick's embrace but not leaving the reach of his arms.

"So what happened to the gold?" Riley asked.

"It was never found. Some say that the gold was taken back to Spain," said Jacqui. "But when explorers went looking for the missing mission gold they were unable to find it."

"So what part did you leave out?" Ben asked, beginning to lose focus in all the details that the girls seemed to think was necessary.

"That King Fernando, the ruling monarch at the time," Emily said, "had a brilliant queen."

"Queen Maria Cristina de Napoles had the gold hidden in the one place she was sure that no one would look twice at, at the time," Jacqui said. "The Royal Conservatory of Music and Declamation—the school of music and drama that she started!"

"Why couldn't you have just said, 'we're going to Spain!'?" Riley whined. There was an echoing peal of laughter as the entourage fled the cavern and made for their very aptly named vehicle—an 'expedition'. They were barely out of the cavern when Emily doubled over.

"Mom?" Ben said.

"Em, what's wrong?" Patrick said, immediately taking hold of her shoulders. Emily had one arm wrapped around her middle and the other hand on her thigh, trying valiantly to hold herself up as tears fought their way to the surface.

"I…" Emily paused, not sure how to phrase what she was feeling. She had made it through the cavern on sheer adrenaline, and now that they were out of the line of fire again, repercussions of her injuries were coming back with a vengeance. "I'm tired…I…*hurt*…it's worse than before."

"We shouldn't have brought you out here," Ben chided himself. "We should have sent you and dad back to Maryland."

"If she's not fit enough to walk, do you really think she's fit enough to fly?" Riley asked gently.

"You're *not* leaving me out of this," Emily growled, still staring down at the grass.

"You need rest, mom, and you're not going to get that if you're out here with us," Ben insisted. Emily awkwardly crumpled down onto the grass, crying like Ben had only ever seen her do once before: the previous night when he had taken her from Jacob's arms. The extra rest she had gotten in the car on the way to California and the adrenaline rush that had carried her through the caverns was gone and now she was paying for the choice she made to push herself.

Patrick sat down slowly beside her, hoping to hold her a little and comfort her, but Emily waved him off.

"Em…talk to us," Patrick said softly. "Don't push us away."

"I hate this!" she shouted, gray eyes storming in anger and tears pouring from them. "I hate the nightmares! I hate being slowed down by the bruises all over me! I hate feeling weak! I hate that bloody coward that ordered him to do it instead of beating me himself!" Jacqui was the first to react, covering her face with her hands and turning away as she started to cry. Jacob and Riley quietly tried to console her while Emily's tirade continued.

"I don't want to remember what it felt like when that slob tore my clothes and…" Emily couldn't finish, her hands covering her eyes as if by doing so she could keep the images from playing in her head and the sensations off her skin. One by one, the others joined her in the grass, easing the backpacks from their shoulders and sitting down.

"Go on!" Emily shouted, flinging her arm out and gesturing in the direction of the car. "Leave the old people behind and go find the treasure!" Patrick looked up at his son with a look that said he was lost for words. He didn't want Emily to hurt herself, but at the same time, he wanted to be able to go with Ben and the others for the same reason that Emily did: it made them feel alive, needed, and just a little bit younger.

Abigail rested her head against Ben's shoulder and Riley, Jacqui and Jacob looked at him, waiting for their fearless leader to make a decision. Lead-weighted seconds passed before Ben looked up, nodded, and then spoke.

"We're not leaving them behind," he said. Abigail looked shocked.

"Ben!" she said.

"They need this, Abigail," Ben said.

"They need to rest!" she insisted. "You take care of them because you love them and you want the best for them!"

"Exactly!" Ben yelled back. "What kind of son would I be if I didn't let them come with us? We can benefit from dad's experience and mom's expertise and you know it! You said that I take care of them because I love them. You're right. But because I love them, they're coming along!" There was a tense second of silence before Patrick piped up.

"So…did you just decide we're allowed to come along or not?" he said, waiting for the fallout. Instead, Emily stood up, dusted the grass and dirt from her clothes and said, "You bloody going deaf now? Didn't you hear the boy? We're going…albeit a little more slowly, but we're going." The others stood and took up their backpacks again. Ben and Abigail led the way far enough ahead of the others that no one saw the conspiratorial wink they shared.

***