Sands of Time

"Are you looking for something in particular?"

"Yes. There was an airplane crash here."

"How long ago, senor?"

"Twenty-eight years ago. Nineteen forty-eight."

It took Alan Tucker fifteen minutes to find the item he was looking for. The headline leaped out at him.

PLANE CRASH KILLS EXECUTIVE

FAMILY

October 1, 1948. Byron Scott, President of Scott Industries, his wife, Susan, and their one-year old daughter, Patricia, were burned to death in an airplane crash…

I’ve hit the jackpot! He could feel his pulse begin to race. If this is what I think it is, I’m going to be a rich man…a very rich man.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

She was naked in her bed, and she could feel the male hardness of Benito Patas pressing into her groin. His body felt wonderful, and she moved closer to him, grinding her hips against him, feeling the heat growing in her loins. She started to stroke him, to excite him. But something was wrong. I killed Patas, she thought. He’s dead.

Lucia opened her eyes and sat up, trembling, looking around wildly. Benito was not there. She was in the forest, in a sleeping bag. Something was pressing against her thigh. Lucia reached down inside the sleeping bag and pulled out the canvas-wrapped cross. She stared at it unbelievingly. God just performed a miracle for me, she thought.

Lucia had no idea how the cross had gotten there, nor did she care. She finally had it in her hands. All she had to do now was to slip away from the others.

She crept out of the sleeping bag and looked over to where Sister Teresa had slept. She was gone. Lucia looked around in the darkness, and she could barely make out the figure of Tomas Sanjuro at the edge of the clearing, facing away from her. She was not sure where Rubio was. It doesn’t matter. It’s time to get out of here, Lucia thought.

She started to move to the edge of the clearing, away from Sanjuro, bending low so she would not be seen.

At that instant all hell broke loose.

Colonel Fal Sostelo had a command decision to make. He had been given orders by the prime minister himself to work closely with Colonel Ramon Acoca to help capture Jaime Miro and the nuns. But fate had blessed him by delivering one of the nuns into his hands. Why share the credit with Colonel Acoca when he could catch the terrorists and keep all the glory? Fuck Colonel Acoca, Fal Sostelo thought. This one is mine. Maybe the OPUS MUNDO will use me instead of Acoca, with all his bullshit about chess games and getting into the minds of people. No, it’s time to teach the scarred giant a lesson.

Colonel Sostelo gave specific orders to his men.

"Don’t take any prisoners. You’re dealing with terrorists. Shoot to kill."

Major Ponte hesitated. "Colonel, there are nuns up there with Miro’s men. Shouldn’t we – ?"

"Let the terrorists hide behind the nuns? No, we’ll take no chances."

Sostelo selected a dozen men to accompany him on the raid and saw to it that they were heavily armed. They moved noiselessly in the dark, up the slope of the mountain. The moon had disappeared behind clouds. There was almost no visibility. Good. They won’t be able to see us coming.

When his men were in position, Colonel Sostelo shouted, for the sake of the record, "Put down your arms. You’re surrounded." And in the same breath he called out the command, "Fire! Keep firing!"

A dozen automatic weapons began to spray the clearing.

Tomas Sanjuro never had a chance. A hail of machine-gun bullets caught him in the chest and he was dead before he hit the ground. Rubio Arzano was at the far edge of the clearing when the firing started. He saw Sanjuro fall, and he whirled and started to raise his gun to return the fire but stopped. It was pitch black in the clearing and the soldiers were firing blindly. If he returned their fire, he would give his position away.

To his amazement, he saw Lucia crouched two feet away from him.

"Where’s Sister Teresa?" he whispered.

"She – she’s gone."

"Stay low," Rubio told her.

He grabbed Lucia’s hand and they zigzagged toward the forest, away from the enemy fire. Shots whizzed dangerously close as they ran, but moments later Lucia and Rubio were among the trees. They continued running.

"Hold on to me, Sister," he said.

They heard the sound of their attackers behind them, but gradually it died away. It was impossible to pursue anyone through the inky blackness of the woods.

Rubio stopped to let Lucia catch her breath.

"We’ve lost them for now," he told her. "But we have to keep moving."

Lucia was breathing hard.

"If you want to rest for a minute – ?"

"No," she said. She was exhausted, but she had no intention of letting them catch her. Not now when she had the cross. "I’m fine," she said. "Let’s get out of here."

Colonel Fal Sostelo was facing disaster. One terrorist was dead, but God alone knew how many had escaped. He did not have Jaime Miro and he had only one of the nuns. He knew he would have to inform Colonel Acoca of what had happened, and he was not looking forward to it.

The second call from Alan Tucker to Ellen Scott was even more disturbing than the first.

"I’ve come across some rather interesting information, Mrs. Scott," he said cautiously.

"Yes?"

"I went through some old newspaper files here, hoping to get more information on the girl."

"And?" She braced herself for what she knew was coming.

Tucker kept his voice casual. "It seems that the girl was abandoned about the time of your plane crash."

Silence.

He went on. "The one that killed your brother-in-law and his wife and their daughter, Patricia."

Blackmail. There was no other explanation. So he had found out.