Caribbean Gold (Alicia Myles Book 3) by David Leadbeater

Author:David Leadbeater [Leadbeater, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-10-03T03:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

Alicia found herself entering a pleasant, peaceful area bordered by trees. Well-tended lawns were broken only by a few narrow gravel paths. Low, ruined walls ran everywhere and could have been the remnants of almost anything, but one tall brick tower still stood at the far end of the site.

Alicia stopped. “That’s a cathedral?”

Crouch nodded. “Apparently. Destroyed by an earthquake in 1644. Rebuilt only to be set upon by Morgan—and others—since. Maybe they knew it wasn’t destined for a happy life.”

Alicia studied the single tower with its empty windows and crumbling frames. The top tier was blackened, as if still bearing the stains of the seventeenth-century ravishing, but Alicia knew it couldn’t be so.

Could it?

“Is this site still in use?”

“Only for tourists. I did think there would be more of them around right now, considering the time.”

Alicia guessed mid-afternoon was a good visiting time, but the area was empty. Tranquil, but eerily so as if a four-hundred-year-old ghost had chased everyone away. Crouch stared hard at the cathedral itself.

“I guess we should start there.”

Russo fell in line. “Is this a good time to ask what the script actually said?”

Crouch fished out the map. “Well, as we know this was a bad venture for Morgan and his band of pirates. Missed out on the gold. Arrived starved and desperate after days of being ambushed through the woods. Allegations of torture and still no gold. Then the great fire, which some say was set by Morgan and others that the town’s captain general ordered the gunpowder magazines exploded. Either way, thousands died. And so we come to the ruins of Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion. And so to Morgan: ‘Our woes and our fate and our comeuppance came all at once in the City. Our reward gone, our hearts and heads all ablaze with rage, we blamed the town. And its people. Shame on us. And what recompense we could make, we made at Nuestra. ’ ”

“Ahh,” Healey said. “Now it makes sense. I couldn’t understand the connection between the cutthroat Morgan and a house of God.” He paused. “Except maybe the charring.”

Alicia kept her eyes on their perimeter. “Let’s hope there’s an X this time. Burned into the ground.”

“Amazing it’s stood so long,” Caitlyn said. “And became part of a World Heritage Site.”

Alicia saw a shape flit between the trees. Not the slow meanderings of a tourist, but the quick gait of a man coming closer. The sighting was too quick to make out if he carried a gun, but she reached down for hers.

“Nine o’clock,” she said. “Potential enemy.”

Russo nodded. “And at eight. We’re being watched.”

Crouch folded the map. “We’re twenty feet from the cathedral. Can we make it?”

“If that’s around eight meters,” Healey again showed his youth, this time on purpose, “then I think we can.”

Alicia dropped to one knee and drew her weapon. “Then go,” she muttered. And then, loudly, she called, “Show yourselves, boys. Best to stay on my good side.”

As the team headed rapidly for the dark, open doorway, Alicia saw three men leap out into the open.

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