Gunslinger

“Okay, cams are up and running….let’s see. Ana, eyes off Gates ass and pan it around a little. Dani, give us a shot up left….yeah….”
Charlotte watched intently over Matt’s shoulder as he tested out the head cams the two teams were wearing. Johnny had split his forces over a thirty mile radius to look for the entrance to the cave system that ran under the rolling hills of the countryside that overlooked the fortress and city. The place had been a flashpoint between the two countries for centuries and had been virtually destroyed in the latter years of the war. Even now thanks to Stalin’s ethnic cleansing most of the residents spoke Russian or were of Russian descent. It hadn’t escaped Johnny that an international incident here could spark a new cold war and he now understood why the US military had preferred to send his team in. Also added to the feeling that if it went wrong they were well and truly screwed.
Johnny appeared on the camera and waved, Charlotte had to smile as everyone crowded around Syn and waved at them before Johnny shoved them all back and laid a map over the hood of one of the Jeeps. Only Charlotte, Danielle and Matt had stayed behind, a mini command centre now set up so that Charlotte could access all her sources and Matt could use the tech to map old photos over the modern landscape. It was complex and no easy task but she was confident that they were at least in the right place to start. Danielle was organising more equipment and cover stories. Last thing they needed was police interference if they needed to dynamite their way into somewhere.
“Dani, Jimmy and myself will go east, Syn, Ana and Zacky the west. Syn and Dani will act as the eyes and get high so we can see any company before it hits us. We look for any metal gates, anything in the landscapes that speaks of mining or man-made interference. You see anything, call it in, we clear ?”
Johnny looked around at his crews nodding and then into Zacky’s cam so he could address base. He knew it was minor paranoia but he wanted Matt to check the perimeter there too every hour. Sooner or later the other parties would figure out that they were looking in the wrong place.
“Danielle, do we have any incoming flights or movements ?”
“Nothing so far boss, keeping the airwaves clear just in case. If anyone stops you out there you are doing a geological survey, let Ana do the talking.”
Charlotte watched the teams split up and used her screen to pull up all the classified documents from behind several firewalls she hadn’t even knew existed. All her own copies had been blurred but these were pristine, Matt merely smiling when she had asked where he was getting them. Now there were new leads too and she concentrated on piecing together some of the parts that eluded her as Matt checked over the cams outside. Danielle came and sat next to her, steaming mugs of hot chocolate in her hand. Charlotte grinned and asked a question that had been in her head for a while.
“Is Ana actually Russian ?”
“Her mother is, her father was Chechen. When things went bad over there, her mother took her to the US which is how she wound up meeting the guys and Gates. Her dad was some fucking general, taught her to fly anything, drive anything and steal anything.”
Charlotte looked a little concerned as Danielle laughed and pointed to the monitor at a picture of loaded trucks and men in uniform. It was grainy and unfocused but whatever was in the trucks was in heavy wooden crates and the men around them were armed and serious looking.
“Is that what we’re looking for ?”
Charlotte pushed her glasses up and nodded, this was indeed the holy grail. In those crates were art treasures, lost masterpieces and enough gold bar and jewellery to run a small country for a decade. The Warsaw Convoy in all its disgusting glory, the plunder of one man’s insane war.
“That’s it. We know it left Russia with the retreating army and SS but it never made it to the port of Riga for shipment back to Germany. For many years it was assumed to be in Soviet hands but they never found it either.”
Matt reappeared blowing in his hands and grateful for the hot chocolate. Danielle brushed snowflakes from his hair, she considered him her big brother and now even more so. She and Jimmy had talked into the night, both scared to ruin a friendship but unable to deny that it had always been something more. The consummation had been gentle and loving, her heart somehow lighter now that they had admitted to each other that it had always been love.
“Snow is coming down pretty hard. How’s it looking ?”
They all squinted at the screens. Both showed that vehicles had been abandoned and that they were tramping through snow. Dani was already up high, they could see her boots wedged into the crook of a tree, the sniper rifle slung across her lap as she looked down to where Johnny and Jimmy were working their way along the rocky outcrops. Matt rubbed the back of his neck, reminding himself that she was as agile as a cat before tuning in with a smirk.
“Hey babe, how they doing ?”
“Cold and worried about falling but apart from that okay. Just gonna have to watch the weather closing in.”
Danielle leant in and flipped up the local weather report. Snow was indeed forecast and quite a lot of it. Finding anything before they lost daylight would be challenge enough without a whiteout. Dani panned the camera as instructed so that Matt could superimpose another image, Charlotte trying to figure out where they were in relation to the site shown on the pictures.
“Nothing so far. Johnny ?”
“Yeah ?”
“You guys okay ?”
Matt flicked to Jimmy’s cam, seeing Johnny with his hat pulled down low and balancing on one rocky outcrop. The scenery was beautiful but brutal and Charlotte shivered, wondering how Zacky was faring. Johnny pulled down his scarf from cold lips and smiled.
“It’s not exactly Bermuda but yeah. Nothing man made here though. Anything from the others ?”
Matt again panned to another camera and Charlotte realised that she was looking at the back of Zacky’s head as they moved forward through dense trees and undergrowth. She held her breath as Ana’s voice rang through the speakers and the view dropped to his backside.
“Ass shot just for you Charlotte. You got a great ass Vengeance.”
“Thanks baby, can you not point your gun at it ?”
“My ass was always your favourite, you married my ass.”
“Awww Bri…ass envy is a terrible thing.”
Charlotte giggled as Matt rolled his eyes and Johnny politely enquired with his own charm whether they had found anything and it proved to be a negative. Another hour passed, one near sighting proved to be an old maintenance grate with a sewer beneath and Johnny was aware that the bad weather was moving in. Still they moved on, another hour following until Danielle suggested they should call if off.
“You’re risking getting marooned out there. We have hard weather gear here and still no sign of company. I reckon start again tomorrow.”
Dani stuffed her hands into her pockets, her legs were too cold and numb to go up another tree and she could see Jimmy nodding in agreement as he passed a hip flask to her and Johnny checked the map again. He looked up into his friend’s head cam and nodded, defeat never sat well with him and they could all see it.
“Fuck, yeah there’s no way we want that. Gates, you there ?”
There was a hiss of static and Matt tried all the cameras, Johnny starting to worry until a face appeared in the monitor and Matt recognised Zacky. He was looking curious and a little confused, stepping back so that Syn’s camera could fix on a rusted metal gate that was hidden behind snow covered bushes. The white specks were coming down thick and fast and Zacky sounded very distant.
“We found this. Can you see it Charlotte ?”
“Yes, hold on.”
Charlotte drew up a picture and watched as Matt plastered it over the image coming from the camera. It was a blurred fit and her heart jumped. This was indeed in the first of the images that she had been sorting through. The earliest, probably meaning there was nothing much left inside but maybe a pointer to where they went next.
“That’s it, it’s in the picture.”
Zacky smiled and her heart jumped a little. Danielle smiled too, whatever had sparked between these two appeared to be genuine and she liked that. Zacky was sometimes a little insular and all that time locked up couldn’t have done him any good. Now he deserved someone and this girl somehow just fitted. They all huddled forward as Zacky gave Johnny the map reference and Syn waited a little up the hill as they took a good look at the lock.
“Pull back, leave it as it is until we have the proper equipment.”
Johnny walked back to the jeep with Dani and Jimmy, appeased but nearly frozen. So far their luck seemed to be holding fairly well. They would go in during better daylight, the torch that Syn had shone into the doorway had shown nothing but black. Already he was planning for climbing equipment and some decent rope. The wind was howling as they packed up, Jimmy on the radio until they were sure that Syn and his team were moving to as they all headed back to base through the growing dark.

Notes