Fool's Gold (13 page)

“I'll have that done,” the Lieutenant-Colonel said. He summoned two men over and passed on the piece of paper. The two started off.

“Please, come with me … you and Bill and the boys.”

We followed Little Bill back to the office and closed the door as the last of us entered.

“Do you trust Wilson and Padlowski?” Little Bill asked.

“I trust all my men,” the Lieutenant-Colonel said.

“In light of what we've just heard, that sense of trust is faulty. That's why I ordered the guard to keep them isolated while they work. Obviously, there is one man who cannot be trusted. As of this moment, I trust only the people in this room. Everyone else is suspect and will not be cleared until we can find the mole.”

“The ‘mole'?” I asked.

“The informant, the traitor.”

“The traitor …” I shook my head slowly. “I don't know why you still trust
us
.”

“Boys, there are few men I trust more than the two of you,” Little Bill said.

“But after what we did?” I asked, not believing my ears.

“I do not believe,” he said, “that you boys would have come here if you had not believed it was the only way to protect your mother. And if you had managed to escape with the gold—and your lives— what then?”

“We were going to turn ourselves in, explain what happened and accept the consequences,” Jack said.

“Whatever those consequences were … or are going to be,” I said.

“That is what I suspected you'd say. It's what makes you trustworthy, in my eyes. No matter what these men might have said to you, I believe that you would have done the right thing once your mother was safe, and I can't ask more of you than that.”

“We just need to save our mother, that's what matters,” Jack said. This time it sounded as though
he
might be thinking about crying.

“As soon as we have the telephone number, and the address that will provide for us, we'll take action. Now, I need you to do one more thing,” Little Bill said to the Lieutenant-Colonel. “I want you to wake everyone at the camp and have them gather in the mess hall. I want you to then tell everybody that there has been a successful breach of security. Some unknown enemy agents broke into the camp. It is believed that there were four of them. One was badly wounded and is not expected to live. A second was wounded but made his
escape with the two other agents who were not injured. Finally, it is believed that they made off with a large quantity of gold.”

“I can do that, but I don't understand the reasons behind it,” he said.

“I want the informant to hear that the mission has been successful so that this Dom will be expecting the boys to return with the gold.”

“I see. I just wish there were some way for us to figure out who that informant is,” Bill said.

“Ah, that is the second part of my plan,” Little Bill said. “I need you to select the five men you and the Lieutenant-Colonel suspect could be the informant.”

“I don't know if there would be that many.”

“It's better to cast the net wider than to miss our quarry completely. This may be our only chance. I'll explain the rest of my plan as I walk you back to headquarters.” He turned to face us. “Boys, you are to remain here. I'll return with the address and we will leave immediately. In the meantime you should try to get some rest. You must be exhausted.”

The four of us trudged through the woods, following the creek, back toward the highway. It struck me as incredibly strange that we were with Bill and Little Bill but we still had to try to
escape
from the camp without letting any of the guards see us. Bill had explained that as long as the identity of the informant
was still unknown, anyone who saw us might be capable of passing that information to Dom.

We went up the embankment and onto the highway.

“The truck is just over this way,” Jack said.

We walked down the centre of the road. It was almost three in the morning and there was no traffic. If we saw anything coming we'd have to scramble into the trees. Jack led us down the little path and we pulled off the branches covering the truck. Bill pulled the keys out of his pocket—he'd taken them from Moose's pocket. He opened the truck and we all climbed in, Bill at the wheel.

Little Bill stood at the door, holding up a hat and coat that belonged to one of the two men. “These might prove very useful,” he said. He passed them to me. “Place them in the back.”

Bill started the truck. Slowly he backed it up the incline and onto the shoulder of the highway.

“How far do we have to drive?” I asked.

“It will be close to an hour,” Little Bill said. “But I don't want to fill you boys with false hope. This is the address listed with the number that you called. It doesn't mean that he's still at that location. And even if he is there, that doesn't mean your mother is.”

Or that she's even still alive,
I thought but didn't say. There was no need to say what everybody was already thinking. Maybe if I didn't say the words they wouldn't be true.

“How many agents were you able to contact?” Little Bill asked Bill.

“Three.”

“I was hoping for more men.”

“We may not have quantity, but we have quality. These are three of the very best.”

“They may have to be. We have no idea how many men will be at this location. All we can be certain of is that they will be armed and they won't be afraid to shed our blood.”

“We'll be ready for whatever they throw at us. Our agents will rendezvous with us in fifty minutes, at a spot approximately two miles from the site.”

“Excellent.”

“Ideally I would have had three or four more operatives, but some of the men are on assignment, and I had to be sure that everyone I chose was above suspicion,” Bill explained.

“That's part of the territory in espionage. It's a dirty game, and the first casualty is trust.”

“I was thinking about it, trying to narrow down the list of possible suspects,” Little Bill said. “There are a number of factors. Obviously the mole has been at the camp since midsummer. If not, it's unlikely he would have any knowledge of the activities of the boys.”

“That makes sense.”

“And he had to be there in September, when we
originally planted the idea about the gold,” Little Bill added.

“That narrows down the numbers considerably,” Bill said.

“And there is one more factor, one important factor. This is somebody who has knowledge of the story of the gold reserves being at the camp but doesn't know that it is simply a story. Somebody who doesn't know it was a trap.”

“That all makes perfect sense.”

“And of the men who were selected afterwards, the men you and the Lieutenant-Colonel pulled aside and spoke to individually, how many of them would fit the profile?” Little Bill asked.

“Two … no, possibly three … I'd have to look at their personnel files more closely to be certain,” Bill said. “But even if it was only one man, that still doesn't mean he's the one who turned traitor.”

“You're right. Suspicion is far from proof. Although we may get all the proof we need tonight, if my trap works.”

I wanted to ask him more about what he meant but I knew it wasn't my business. Besides, all I really wanted to know was what he had planned to save our mother. I didn't care about any informant, I just cared about getting her out safely.

“When you find the guy, the one that snitched on us, let me have a few minutes alone with him,” Jack
said bitterly. “He's the guy responsible for all of this happening to us.”

That was right. If he hadn't told Dom about us, Dom wouldn't have known to come looking for us, and he wouldn't have kidnapped our mother. Now I wanted him too.

The van slowed down and pulled to the side of the road. Bill turned off the lights. He then flicked them on and off twice. Down the road a pair of headlights answered back. Bill turned the lights on again and pulled back onto the road. He slowed down again and then pulled the van over right beside the car that had answered his signal. The doors opened and three men—all dressed in black—climbed out and approached the passenger side of the van.

“Good evening, gentlemen,” Little Bill said.

“Good evening, sir,” one of the men replied.

“Climb in and we'll discuss the operation.”

The side door opened and the three men climbed in. They looked surprised to see us in the back—I guess that made sense. Nobody would expect a couple of kids to be along on a mission.

“Before we go, I want to make sure everybody understands their role. Especially you, George.”

“Me? I have a role?” I asked. I'd thought I was just going to sit in the back of the van.

“You have the most important role. The success of the whole mission rests on your shoulders.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

THE TRUCK SAT OFF THE ROAD
, partially hidden behind a stand of trees. Little Bill was at the wheel, wearing the hat and coat that belonged to Red. Bill and Jack were in the back, and the three agents were surrounding the vehicle, hidden among the trees.

“Do you remember what you're going to say?” Little Bill asked.

“I remember.” We'd gone over it three times.

“Good. Now I'm not going to tell you not to be scared, because you should be scared, and they need to see you looking scared if they're to believe you.”

“Boy, are
they
going to believe me, because I'm
really
scared.”

Little Bill laughed, which caught me by surprise, and I couldn't stop myself—despite everything—from smiling.

“It's ten minutes to four. Everyone should be asleep. Don't be afraid of knocking as loudly as you need to in order to wake them up.”

“You're sure that's the house, right?”

“I'm sure that's the house you placed the call to. Whether Dom is there or not we can't guarantee. If he is not there, they'll probably know where he is. You'll have to convince them to either tell you or take you there. Understand?”

“I understand. I'll convince them.”

“Good. I'm counting on you.”

“Mom's counting on you,” Jack said from the back.

“I know.” I was all too aware of that fact.

“Maybe it would be better if I went,” Jack said.

“No, it's better that they think you're here with the truck, watching Red, maybe ready to make a getaway,” Little Bill explained. “It has to be George.”

“I can do it,” I said. “I know I can.” I wasn't sure if I was trying to convince Jack, Little Bill or myself.

“George,” Little Bill said, “you know I would never want to place you in danger unnecessarily, but this is the best chance we have of rescuing your mother. I have complete faith in you, George,” he said. “I know you can do this.”

“Me too,” Jack said.

“You do?” I asked in surprise.

“Yeah. I just would rather it was me so you wouldn't have to go up there by yourself, that's all.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Better get going. And don't forget to tell him how many bars of gold were stolen. You remember the number, right?”

“Twenty-one.”

“Exactly. And I need you to remember exactly what he says, if anything, when you tell him that number.”

“I'll remember,” I said, although I didn't understand why that was so important.

I climbed out of the truck and closed the door as silently as I could. I moved up onto the road and then started down the deserted street. I stopped at the bottom of the driveway and looked up at the house. The lights were all off. The house was dark, just like every other house on the street. Everybody was asleep. Silently I walked up the driveway. There were three cars parked by the garage. One of them looked like the car the men had taken our mother away in just the night before. Could that be possible? It seemed like a week ago … a lifetime ago.

I stopped at the front door. I took a couple of deep breaths and thought things through one more time, thought about what I was going to say. Then I reached up and pounded my fist against the door. I was startled by the power of my blows—they sounded more like cannon fire than knocking. I pounded again.

I saw a light come on through the window. Somebody was up, but with all the sound I'd made I could have woken the dead …
The dead
. No, I couldn't let my mind go there.

The door opened and a large man was standing there. He wore a fierce expression and I felt a rush of fear.

I took a deep breath. “I need to see Dom.”

“Do you? And what makes you think we know anybody named Dom?” he growled.

“I know you do, and unless you want him to lose a fortune in gold you'd better get him or—”

Dom appeared beside the man. He opened the door wider, grabbed me by the arm and yanked me inside!

“Where's my gold?” he demanded.

“It's in the truck, with Red!”

He started out the door, then stopped and turned around. “I don't see a truck! Where's my gold?”

“Before I tell you where you can get the gold, we have to make a deal.”

He reached out, grabbed me by my shirt collar and lifted me off my feet, pulling me up into his face, staring at me, eye to eye, his breath foul.

“You want a deal? I'll give you a deal. You tell me where my gold is and I won't kill you right now!”

“You kill me and you'll never get your gold. Is my life worth that much to you?” I asked, saying the lines that I'd been told to say and that I'd rehearsed.

His lip curled into a smile—really more a smirk. He let me down.

“I have something for you,” I said, and I started to reach into the cloth bag I was carrying, the bag Little Bill had given me.

Instantly there were three guns pointed at me.