Quest (Dane Maddock Adventures) (7 page)

“It sure seems that way, doesn’t it?” Dane laughed. “I guess I can’t really call her my girlfriend. We don’t have any sort of commitment, what with her working about six thousand miles away.”

“You never change, Maddock. You know that? There’s always a reason not to get too close.” Seeming to realize she’d revealed something a bit too personal, Kaylin blushed and took a long drink, while an uneasy silence fell over the group.

“That’s me,” Dane added lamely, trying to ease the sudden tension. “So, are you going to tell us about this thing you need help with?”

Kaylin’s face fell. “My boyfriend, Thomas, is missing in the Amazon.” She dug into the small backpack she had brought with her, took out a picture, and handed it to Dane. “He left this picture with a friend of ours. It’s supposed to be a clue, the only thing we need in order find him.”

Dane held the picture up in order to best catch what remained of the fading daylight. Bones pulled his chair closer in order to get a better look.

“This isn’t the original,” Kaylin said. “I left that with the police. I took my own picture of it before handing it over to the authorities, and I had a print made on the way down here.”

It was a painting of a lean, angular man with a beard and a handlebar mustache seated in a Victorian-style armchair. His close-set eyes seemed to burn into Dane. It was a busy image by the standards of the time. The man held a book in his left hand, and a painting of a steamship hung prominently in the background over his right shoulder. A seascape, a dark island looming in the midst of a stormy sea, hung on the wall over his left. Exotic plants in amphorae framed the image.

“That dude looks familiar.” Bones took the picture and gave it a closer look before handing it back to Dane. “Not sure where I’ve seen him before, but I know he’s somebody famous.”

“It’s Percy Fawcett,” Dane said, passing the picture around so everyone could have a look. “He was probably the most famous explorer of the early twentieth century. He disappeared in the Amazon looking for the lost city of Z.” His stomach was doing somersaults. As a young man, he had been fascinated by stories of the famed explorer, and the man had always been something of a hero to him. He had a bad feeling about the direction this conversation was about to take.

“I’m sorry, Kay. If the only clue your boyfriend left you is a picture of Percy Fawcett, that isn’t going to be enough to go on. Not even close. People have been trying to find him ever since he disappeared. That trail has been cold for almost a century.”

“There’s a message in this picture,” Kaylin insisted. “And there was a code written on the back. Here!” She handed him another picture.

“Numbers and letters. It’s not longitude and latitude. We can’t punch it into a GPS.” Dane truly did want to help her, but he didn’t see how they had anything at all to help them even know where to start.

“But, the friend I mentioned, the one to whom Thomas entrusted this, was kidnapped, maybe even killed.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, but how do you know that picture is the reason…” Dane began.

“He warned me and then they took him! They wanted me too, but I got away. They searched my apartment. Maddock, you know I’m not a drama queen, and I wouldn’t come to you unless I really needed your help.”

The need in her eyes took him back to another time and place, and he shook his head to return himself to the present.

“Okay, I understand. So you want us to go to the Amazon to find your boyfriend? I don’t know that we’re the best men for that job. It’s not our specialty.”

“I want you to help me solve this mystery, wherever it might lead. That
is
your specialty. Don’t deny it.” Her eyes bored into him. “I also need someone who can keep me safe.” Her voice fell with the admission. “Whoever these people are, they probably don’t know I’ve given the picture to the police. Even if they do, they might want to make sure I can’t tell anyone else what I’ve seen.”

Dane rubbed his chin, feeling the stubble that had cropped up over the course of the day. He felt for her, truly he did, but was he really the right man for the job? And frankly, if it was Kaylin lost in the Amazon, he’d go after her in a heartbeat, but to risk life and limb for her boyfriend? It was… weird.

“You could stay with us,” Corey suggested, “and have the authorities search for your boyfriend. You’d be safe here, and there must be people who are better trained for an Amazon rescue.”

“It’s not that simple. When Thomas first turned up missing, everyone’s attitude, the police, the university, was he’d probably just been delayed, because that’s fairly normal down there. Now that it’s been a while and still no word from him, I’m getting subtle hints that he’s probably not coming back. No one really wants to help. If he’s going to come out alive, I’ve got to make it happen.”

Bones took the picture from Kaylin, took a long look at it, and dropped it into Dane’s lap. “You know we’re going to do it, Maddock. You might as well save us all some time and go ahead and say yes.”

“Please, Dane,” Kaylin’s eyes glistened on the verge of tears. “There’s no one else in the world I can trust. I need you.”

“All right.” His voice was hoarse. “I’ll do it, and it sounds like Bones wants in.”

“Hell yes, I do.” Bones pumped his fist. “Gonna’ lasso me a kangaroo and ride it clear across the jungle.”

“They don’t have kangaroos in South America.” Willis looked at Bones as if he wasn’t quite certain if Bones was kidding or not.

“Seriously?” Bones face fell. “Well, I’m not going. I was only in it for the kangaroo rides.” He gave Kaylin an evil grin and she laughed.

“That’s another reason I need you guys to help me. You can always make me smile no matter how bad the situation gets.”

“Maddock’s the best at making a woman laugh.” Bones spoke behind his hand in a mock stage whisper. “Just not on purpose.”

“Hey, I’m not the one whose nickname was ‘Mister Shrinkage,’” Dane retorted. The others guffawed as Bones sputtered an explanation about gossiping women and the temperature of a particular hotel pool.

 When the laughter subsided, Corey spoke up. “I take it that, once again, the three of us will be left to finish up the job here, while you guys do your thing.”

“That’s pretty much the size of it,” Dane said. “Look on the bright side. You have a boss who trusts you with every aspect of the business.”

“Riiight.” Matt downed the rest of his beer in two gulps, belched, and tossed the bottle back into the cooler before fishing around in the ice for another. “You know, such trusted employees just might deserve a raise.”

“Seriously,” Dane said, his voice sober, “if Kaylin needs help, it’s probably going to take all of us. We’ll have to do some research on the front end, but if I’m going into the Amazon, I’d like to have all you with me. There’s no better crew in the world.”

“I’m there.” Willis raised his bottle and nodded.

“Me too,” Matt said.

All eyes turned to Corey, who sat staring down at the deck. Unlike the other members of the crew, he was not a combat veteran, and didn’t get the adrenaline rush from dangerous situations that his friends often did. He sighed and shook his head. “I guess it would get lonely around here if the rest of you jerks were off saving the world, and left me to swab the deck. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”

“That’s settled then.” Dane stood and knuckled the small of his back. “Bones, Kaylin, and I will follow up on this… clue.” The simple picture scarcely merited the title, but it was all they had. “You guys shouldn’t need more than a few days to finish up here. If we aren’t back by then, we’ll meet you at home.”

Home was the Florida Keys, where Dane had been planning to spend a couple of weeks after this job fishing and being generally useless. That would have to wait. If he was honest with himself, though, the prospect of trying to solve another mystery from the past had his heart racing.

“Well,” he said to Bones, trying to keep the excitement from his voice. “I guess we need to pack.”

“That’s the last one.” Bones tossed another book onto the table. “There’s not much relating to Fawcett in this library. I did find a freakin’ awesome book about cryptids of the Amazon, though. I wonder if they’d let me have a library card.”

“Bones, what kind of luddite are you that you’re actually looking at books?” Kaylin grinned and returned to the library computer. “I wish I had my laptop, but I didn’t want to go back home. Not after, well, you know.” Lapsing into silence, she looked around as if danger might lurk behind any shelf.

“I’m going to pretend I know what that word means,” Bones replied, “and we’ll skip to the part where I tell you to kiss my…”

“A little quieter, you two,” Dane said, making an apologetic wave to the two scandalized-looking old ladies who sat at the next table. He was reading an article online about The Lost City of Z, the subject of Fawcett’s alleged obsession. It made for interesting reading, but mostly consisted of speculation founded on rumor, with very little substance to it. “And Kaylin, you don’t need to look so nervous. The real danger begins when we head to the Amazon. I think we’re safe in the library.”

“So, what did Jimmy say when you asked him to help us out on this?” Bones asked. Jimmy Letson was an old friend and a high-level computer hacker. His system, NAILS, could access secure databases all around the world, and he had assisted them with key research on their previous adventures.

“Well, he used a few phrases that curled the hair on my toes, and then he told me he didn’t do fairy tales or dime store novels, and to call him when we had something real for him to investigate.” Dane chuckled. “When he finally took a breath, he explained that, while he could probably turn up plenty of information on Fawcett, it wouldn’t be anything we can’t find ourselves, and a lot of it would be junk. He’s a subject of historical interest, and an important explorer, but it’s not like there are secret government documents about the guy.”

Kaylin sighed as she clicked on another link. A website opened, filling the screen with old photographs of Fawcett. “I can’t find anything relating to this Fawcett painting. What few portraits he posed for are pretty ordinary—nothing as busy as the image Thomas left for us.” Her shoulders sagged and she took her hand off the mouse. “I’m already getting discouraged here, guys. Tell me something that will lift my spirits.”

“You know,” Dane said, “I think what you’ve found is actually helpful, in a way. If all the other portraits for which Fawcett sat are plain and ordinary, that actually reinforces the idea that our painting is special. I’ll bet you that every detail in that picture is critical to understanding Thomas’s message, whatever it might be.” Dane turned away from his computer and looked at Kaylin and Bones. “What do you say we take each element of the picture separately, and see where each leads us?”

“What do you mean?” Bones had abandoned his book on cryptids, and was now hunched over an old book, trying to erase Fawcett’s huge mustache from a black-and-white print. Kaylin snatched it away from him, shooting him a reproving glance.

“We take each item in the picture one at a time, and try and figure out how it relates to Fawcett. Take the ship, for example. Did Fawcett make a voyage on that particular ship, or one like it?”

“We’d have to know her name,” Kaylin said. “But I think you might be on to something.” She took the picture out of its envelope and slid it onto the table where they all could see it.

“Amphorae,” Bones mumbled. “Could be Greek, or, really, any of several Mediterranean cultures.”

“I always forget you’re not as dumb as you act.” Kaylin shook her head.

“Thanks, I guess. Anyway, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Fawcett doing any explorations connected to the Mediterranean, but it won’t hurt to check.”

“Let’s see what we can find.” Kaylin typed a few words into a search engine. “We have a couple of hits.” She frowned as she read. “There’s speculation that Fawcett’s lost city of Z might have actually been an ancient Greek city.”