The Adventurer Page 11

  "At a price," Sarah muttered.

  "Well, naturally," Jake said, still smiling. "A fine investment opportunity. And just picture the publicity we could get: romance writer and one of her heroes go hunting for a fortune in the South Pacific. We could have drawn money and media like crazy. We'd have had people lined up for blocks wanting in on the deal."

  "I take it you declined the offer, Sarah?" Gideon glanced at her.

  "Yes." She clutched the picnic basket more tightly to her chest.

  "I was pretty sure I could talk her into it, given a little time," Jake said with irrepressible self-confidence. "I mean, it's easy money, right? Hey, we take the investment cash but we don't actually have to find anything. How many treasure-hunting expeditions get lucky? Almost none. None of the investors squawk too loudly because they all know the odds going in."

  "Easy money," Gideon agreed dryly.

  "But in the meantime, she's led me to you, Gid. And that changes everything. I've got a deal for both of you."

  "Forget it. I changed my name for a reason, Jake. I'm out of the business."

  "I don't believe it for a minute. If you're out of the business, what are you doing here looking for the Fleetwood Flowers?"

  "This is personal," Gideon said softly.

  Sarah risked a quick glance at Gideon. He was grim-faced, his eyes very cold.

  "Hey," said Jake, "so it's personal." He winked at Sarah. "I can understand that. But that doesn't mean the three of us can't do a little business. I've been thinking this through and I've got it all planned out."

  "I'll bet," Gideon said.

  "Now just listen, pal. Here's how it shapes up. Slaughter Enterprises gets a nice splash of publicity by turning up the Fleetwood Flowers for a pretty little romance writer, see? Lots of press on that. Then, when we're riding the wave of that announcement, we let it be known that Sarah is going to join us on an expedition to the South Pacific to find a plane full of gold. Like I said, money and media will pour in. It's dynamite, Gid. Dynamite. Better than the old days, huh? No risking our necks in some godforsaken South American jungle this time. First class, all the way. And get this—with you along, we'll probably find the damned gold."

  "No thanks," Gideon said.

  "Think it through," Jake urged. "Give it a chance to sink in, that's all I ask. We made a hell of a team in the old days. You know it and I know it."

  "What makes you think we're going to find the Fleetwood Flowers?" Gideon asked.

  Jake Savage looked at him in astonishment and then to Sarah's surprise, he burst out laughing. "Hey, Gid, this is me, your old buddy, Jake, remember? I know you, pal. You never go after anything but a sure thing. If you've agreed to help Ms. Fleetwood here, it's because you've cut yourself in for a slice of the action and you're damned sure there's going to be some action. Neither of us ever worked for free, even when it was personal."

  7

  « ^ »

  I DESERVE A FEW ANSWERS, Gideon." Sarah took the tops off several stalks of fresh broccoli with a few ferocious strokes of her knife. She dropped the broccoli into a colander and picked up a carrot and a peeler.

  There had been a taut silence in the small cabin after Jake Savage had driven off to find a motel in the nearby town. He'd seemed unoffended by Gideon's failure to offer him a bed for the night. Sarah had the feeling that it took a lot to offend Jake. He was so accustomed to wowing people that it would never occur to him that he was being insulted.

  "What do you want to know first?" Gideon was sitting at the kitchen table, a cold beer in front of him. He looked remote and austere, the way he had the day she'd arrived on his doorstep.

  "Well, we could start with your real name, I suppose," Sarah said tartly as she whacked strips off the carrot.

  "My real name is Gideon."

  "Gideon what?"

  "Does it matter?"

  "It matters, damn it. What's your legal name?"

  "My legal name is Trace. I've got a bunch of credit cards, a social security number and a driver's license under that name. How much more legal does it get?"

  "What was it before it was Trace?" she asked through set teeth. "Back when you were the partner of the famous Jake Savage?"

  He ran a hand through his hair. "Carson."

  "Carson." She tasted that for a minute. "Not bad. But I like Trace better. Maybe it's because I met you under that name." Maybe because you made love to me under that name. "All right, let's go on to the next question. What really happened back in that jungle where the two of you were supposed to have disappeared? What jungle was it, anyway?"

  Gideon was quiet for a moment. "It doesn't really matter now. I told you Savage & Company occasionally did odd jobs all over South America."

  "And?"

  "And this was one of the odder ones. The kind where you don't ask a lot of unnecessary questions and you take your pay in cash. On delivery. Savage and Company never got involved in anything illegal on general principle, but there were times when it walked a fine line."

  "You would never do anything illegal," Sarah declared.

  Gideon's mouth twisted faintly. "The problem is that the definition of legal varies a lot once you get south of Tijuana."

  "I can imagine. Okay, go on."

  "As I said, it was a job. For which Savage and Company was supposed to be paid a great deal of money. We were to take a shipment of supplies to a group of archaeologists excavating an old Indian ruin deep in the jungle. But it turned out the folks waiting for the supplies weren't legitimate researchers. They were in the business of smuggling antiquities. We saw more than we should have seen and they didn't want any witnesses."

  "Dear heaven," Sarah breathed. "What happened?"

  "We were ambushed on the way back out of the jungle"

  "By the so-called archaeologists?"

  Gideon nodded. "It had to be them, although I didn't stick around to take a close look."

  Sarah stared at him in shock. "How did you escape?"

  "With a little luck and the usual advance research on the terrain that I had done before we went in. That was my speciality, Sarah. My contribution to Savage and Company. I did all the research on a job, made all the preparations, checked out all the people involved. I went over every detail ahead of time, envisioned all the worst case scenarios and planned for them. Getting stiffed by the client is one of the worst case possibilities. I always allowed for it."

  "What did Jake Savage contribute to the company?" Sarah asked dryly.

  Gideon gave her a derisive look. "Flash. What else? You've seen him. He brought image and style to the team. A natural salesman. He was everything people wanted to see when they hired a professional adventurer of any kind. He made people think we could handle anything. And we did. We had a hell of a reputation down south. We always got the job done."

  "And you always took a cut of the action," Sarah concluded quietly.

  Gideon shrugged. "It was business. At least for me. Jake liked the money, too, of course. He needed a lot of it because he tended to go through it like water. But the truth was, he got most of his kicks from being a living legend. He was addicted to his own image. He could walk into any bar from Mexico City to Buenos Aires and the women would fall all over him. And the men all wanted to be able to say they'd met him and bought him a beer."

  "But you were the one who really made Savage and Company work, weren't you?" Sarah said, knowing she was right. "You were the strategist, the planner, the one who knew the terrain."

  "Jake had his uses as an image. He drew business and investors like flies. But the truth is, he couldn't find candy on Halloween night without help."

  Sarah started to giggle before she could stop herself. When she realized Gideon was watching her curiously, she took a swallow of wine to give herself time to regain her firm demeanor. She was not going to stop grilling Gideon until she got all the answers.

  "So Savage and Company wouldn't have lasted a week without you behind the scenes."

  "It was a partnership.
And for the most part it worked well for both of us. We made a lot of money. Did a lot of fast living. You can get addicted to adrenaline just like you can to anything else."

  Sarah eyed him sharply. "Do you still crave the excitement?"

  Gideon smiled slightly. "Nothing more than what I can get once a year when I go on vacation and do a little treasure hunting."

  "All right," Sarah continued forcefully, determined not to be sidetracked, "what happened at the scene of the ambush? Why did you and Jake get separated and each think the other might be dead? What went wrong?"

  Gideon took a mouthful of beer and thought about the question. "I don't know."

  "What do you mean, you don't know? You were there."

  "I was there, all right. But that doesn't mean I know what went wrong. All I know is that one minute we were alone in a Jeep on the trail. We were carrying the cash the so-called archaeologists had paid for their supplies. The next minute I just sort of knew we weren't alone."

  "You knew it?" Sarah's attention was caught by the odd phrasing. "What does that mean?"

  Gideon moved his hand impatiently. "Just what it sounds like. There was no one in sight ahead or behind us, but I had a feeling we were in deep trouble. I told Jake I thought we'd better get out of the Jeep and get into some cover. I knew a place we could disappear to until the coast was clear. Usually he trusted my instincts. In fact he always did. This time he insisted I was crazy. But I was driving. I stopped, picked up the suitcase full of cash and headed into the jungle. Jake didn't have any choice but to follow."

  "But he didn't want to go with you?"

  "No." Gideon was quiet for a moment, reflecting on some private vision. "About two minutes after we had left the Jeep we heard gunfire back on the trail. Then a lot of noise in the undergrowth. Whoever had attacked the Jeep had realized it was empty and was looking for the principal stockholders of Savage and company. I took off in the direction of a cave I had found on one of the maps. Jake kept stalling. I couldn't figure out why he was having such a hard time keeping up with me, why he kept arguing."

  "He was probably disoriented and scared."

  "Hell, I was scared, too, but at least I wasn't disoriented. I never get disoriented."

  "Instinct again?"

  "Whatever. At any rate, I got Jake and the money into the cave and we found the cavern tunnel that an old guide had told me about. It led through the heart of a small mountain and out the other side. The perfect escape route. I'd earmarked it for just that kind of emergency."

  Sarah momentarily forgot about her need to stay firm. She was enthralled with Gideon's story. "That was brilliant of you."

  His mouth quirked. "Well, it was the best I could come up with under the circumstances. Unfortunately there was a narrow ledge over a gorge on the other side of the cave. Only room for one man at a time to cross it. I went first with the money and Jake started to follow. Then he seemed to lose his nerve. He told me he'd take his chances hiding in the cave. I yelled back that he was a fool and I tried to throw him a vine to use to steady himself. But he panicked and raced back into the cave."

  "And you never saw him again," Sarah concluded.

  "Not until today. When I walked out of the jungle a few days later, I discovered we were both supposed to be dead. The local gossip, though, was that there was a price on our heads if we did happen to show up. The smugglers wanted us to stay dead. I obliged. I got off the island on a fishing boat and that was the end of it."

  "Why did you change your name and create a whole new identity for yourself?"

  Gideon turned the beer can in his hands. "It's hard to explain. The truth is, I saw it as an opportunity to start over. I wanted out of the kind of business Savage and Company did. Twelve years is long enough in that line. Thirteen years in it could get a man killed. But it's not always easy to walk away. I wasn't famous like Jake, but a lot of people knew me, knew the kind of work I'd done in the past. Some held a few grudges, like those smugglers who had tried to get rid of us after the last trip. All in all, it was simpler to just start fresh."

  Just like one of my heroes, Sarah thought with a surge of empathy. Gideon had turned his back on the past in search of another life. "What about Jake?"

  "I wasn't sure Jake was dead. In fact, I figured there was a good chance he wasn't. It took several months and a lot of research but I eventually found out he was very much alive and doing business under the name of Slaughter."

  "You've known who he was and where he was all this time?"

  "I told you, I like to cover all possible contingencies," Gideon explained quietly.

  Sarah picked up her wine and sat down across from him, thinking quickly. "You didn't want him to find you again, did you?"

  "No."

  "Because you were afraid he'd pressure you into going back into business with him and you wanted out of that kind of work?"

  Gideon hesitated. "That was part of it, I guess, but not all of it. I could have resisted the pressure easily enough. But the truth is, I just didn't want to deal with him ever again. Or any of the people from that old life." He searched her face. "Does that make sense?""

  "Of course. You had a right to try a new path. What better way to do it than under a new name? But why did Jake change his name when he came out of the jungle? Oh!" Sarah clapped her hand over her mouth as the realization hit.

  "What is it, Sarah?"

  "Yes, I see now. He had to change his name, didn't he? He thought you were either dead or determined to stay missing and he knew that with you gone Savage and Company was effectively out of business. He knew he couldn't run it without you. Better to go out a legend than to go on as a has-been who can't hack it on his own. He had his image to think of and from what you've said, his image was everything to him. He couldn't bear to destroy it by proving how incompetent he was to run Savage and Company without you."

  Gideon studied her. "You really think that was the reason he changed his name?"

  "It makes perfect sense when you think about it."

  "I always figured he used a new name because he was afraid of running into those smugglers again," Gideon said slowly. "Or someone like them. Who knows what other deals he had cooking behind my back?"

  "That may have had something to do with his decision to change his name, but I doubt that's the reason he made it permanent." Sarah leaned forward. "Tell me something. You say you've been keeping tabs on him. What's he been doing in the past five years?"

  "Small-time stuff for the most part. Nickle and dime guide jobs for tourists who want to picnic in the jungle near an old ruin. That kind of thing," Gideon said vaguely. "I haven't paid close attention. All I cared about was having him stay out of my way."

  Sarah bit her lip. "But now he's very much in your way, isn't he? And it's all my fault. I led him straight to you."

  Gideon gave her a wry look. "Just how many so-called treasure hunters, salvage operators, amateur adventurers and assorted riffraff did you contact when you first started doing research on Glitter Quest?"

  "A couple of dozen, at least," she admitted. "I wasn't sure what I was looking for at first, you see."

  "A couple of dozen. Hell."

  "Don't worry," Sarah assured him hastily, "I only mentioned the Flowers to you and Slaughter, or Savage, or whatever his name is."

  "That's something to be grateful for, I guess." Gideon gave her a direct look. "Two dozen. What made you pick me out of the pack?"

  "Two reasons. First of all, I knew as soon as your letter arrived that I wanted you and no one else to help me in my research."

  "The famous Fleetwood intuition strikes again."

  "Don't laugh. It was true. But there was a second reason I picked you. You didn't ask for money. In fact, after I mentioned the Fleetwood Flowers, you actually tried to talk me out of wasting my time, remember?"

  "I remember. For all the good it did me."

  "All of the others turned out to be screwballs or outright frauds who wanted me to invest in their various scheme
s. I was invited to pour money into every lost gold mine from here to Australia. Jim Slaughter, I mean, Jake, turned out to be more persistent than the rest, though. He liked the idea of teaming up with a writer. I got the feeling that, in addition to wanting me to finance him, he had visions of me doing a book on him or something."

  "Or something," Gideon agreed coldly.

  She ignored that, frowning intently. "What did your family think about you changing your name?"

  "That wasn't a problem."

  "No family?"

  Gideon shook his head. "No."

  "And no wife," Sarah said as she put the rest of it together for herself. "Because Leanna had already divorced you by that time, hadn't she?"

  "Yeah."

  "And she was waiting for Jake Savage, wasn't she?"

  Gideon was silent for a long moment. "That's about the size of it."

  "Savage and Leanna. Those were the two people who betrayed you."

  "Don't make it sound so melodramatic. Leanna fell in love with Jake and I was in the way. That was all there was to it."

  "Hah." Sarah was incensed all over again. "It was an outright betrayal. The worst kind. How dare they do that to you? Your wife and your best friend. Impossible to forgive or forget."

  "I wouldn't put it that way."

  Sarah glared at him. "Have you forgotten?"

  "No, but that doesn't mean I'm still holding a grudge."

  "You've got every right to hold one. No wonder you never wanted to see Jake Savage again."

  "If you say so. Look, could we change the subject?"

  "To what?" Sarah asked.

  "How about we discuss the little matter of Emelina Fleetwood's earrings? We've got some decisions to make now that we've located that white rock."

  Sarah scowled and got up to go back to peeling carrots. "Good point. What are we going to do about Jake? I don't want him hanging around the Flowers."

  "I agree. He's got his eye on those earrings, all right. And on you."

  "You mean because he thinks he can use me for publicity purposes? You may be right. In any event, he's definitely the type who will step in at the last minute to claim all the credit. I can see him having a photographer and a couple of reporters waiting in the bushes to cover his big discovery of the Fleetwood Flowers."