„Lowell Kincaid, I am not talking about the aloha shirts and you know it. I want to know about the gold.“
„Ah, the gold,“ he echoed softly. „I figure that you may not be able to get at it until sometime around your twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, or you may have let your children inherit the treasure map, but either way it makes an interesting wedding present, don’t you think? Even if you never actually see the gold itself, you’ll have it to talk about and laugh about and tell stories about. I can just hear the tales you’ll be telling your kids.“
„I think,“ Sara interrupted firmly, „that we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. I’m not interested in what I may be telling my kids, especially since I don’t have any.“
„Yet,“ Lowell interjected wisely.
Sara raised her eyebrows but Adrian noticed she didn’t look at him. She kept her attention on Kincaid. „I’m more concerned with the past at the moment. Did you or did you not steal CIA gold and stash it near the Cambodian border?“
Kincaid grinned at Adrian. „She’s rather aggressively direct when she wants an answer.“
„Umm.“ Adrian sipped the last of his wine and wondered why Sara hadn’t been aggressively direct in pinning him down about Wolf. Maybe she didn’t want to know the full truth. He set down the wineglass with grim care.
„Okay, Sara, here’s the story,“ Kincaid began. „For starters, it wasn’t CIA gold. It wasn’t U.S. gold in any sense of the word, really. It belonged to some very astute gentlemen who were doing an active drug business under the guise of working in a civilian capacity for the LIS. government. I accidentally stumbled across them while working with some friends of mine.“
„Friends?“
Lowell nodded. „I had spent a lot of time with the people of a particular village. They had been very useful during the war, supplying information and some very brave young men and women. At any rate, I was in the village when rumors came of the two drug runners being killed. The business career of a drug runner is precarious, to say the least. I was near the scene of the killing and, through a series of, uh, arranged coincidences, managed to get my hands on the gold.“
„Uh-huh.“ Sara sounded distinctly skeptical. „‘Arranged’ being the operative word, I imagine.“
„I then had myself a problem. I knew things were deteriorating rapidly. Saigon was about to go under, and everyone who had any sense was aware of it. I was several miles away and there was no way I could make it back to the embassy with the gold. I would have been lucky to make it back with my life. So I decided on another route out of the situation.“
„A route that would allow you to take some of the gold with you?“
Kincaid chuckled. „You know me and gold, Sara. I couldn’t bring myself to just toss it away.“
„Vaughn said he uncovered a file that indicated you left some of it behind with your friends in that village.“
Kincaid’s shaggy brows lifted. „A file, hmm? I wondered how he got curious enough about the gold after all these years to make a try for it. Well, Sara, let me tell you a fact of life. There’s nothing quite as useful as gold when you’re trying to survive in a country that’s recently been overrun by a conquering army. And I owed those villagers. As for myself, I’d been making some friends near the Cambodian border and decided to call in a few favors. I loaded my share of the gold on a jeep and drove to the border. There was no way I could get it out of the country, so I buried it, made a map and then rendezvoused with my contacts. They got me out of the country.“
„Where does Brady Vaughn fit into all this?“ Sara demanded.
„Vaughn has been a thorn in the agency’s side for some time. We all knew he was working both sides of the street.“
„He said something about working two jobs,“ Sara said dryly. „Was that what he meant? He was selling information to the other side?“
„Information we wanted him to sell, although he didn’t know it. We used him after we’d learned he’d been turned.“ Lowell smiled. „But his usefulness was becoming limited from what my former associates have told me. Apparently the other side felt the same. Vaughn was smart enough to sense that something was going wrong and wisely decided to disappear. Apparently he wanted a little nest egg to cushion his sudden retirement.“
„And he chose your cache of gold.“
„He’d been assigned to Saigon during that last six months. We’d worked together on a couple of jobs. But I never did fully trust the man. I tried to plant my own rumors about the gold whenever I heard it mentioned after the war. I knew it would be almost impossible to keep the whole thing absolutely secret. There were all those villagers who knew about it, for one thing. And Lord knows who the drug dealers knew. But I made sure most of the gossip about the missing gold implied the stuff was government material kept at the embassy and used for clandestine operations. I sort of left the impression that the two drug dealers were really agents. And of course I kept my own name out of it. You never know. I didn’t want to implicate myself. If someone knew the drug story or got too friendly with the villagers, he might be able to track down more of the tale.“
„Apparently some journalist did get friendly with the villagers,“ Sara said. „And his notes somehow ended up in an old file that Vaughn came across.“
Lowell sighed. „I thought after all these years the story of the gold really had become nothing more than a legend.“
„Vaughn said he deliberately planted a rumor about him being in Hawaii recruiting mercenaries to help him get your treasure,“ Sara said.
Kincaid shook his head. „I’m embarrassed to admit it worked. I got wind of the plan and did exactly as he anticipated. I took off for Hawaii.“ He glanced at Adrian. „I honestly thought I’d have everything taken care of within forty-eight hours or so. Didn’t think you’d be bothered with cleaning up my mess.“
Adrian couldn’t think of anything to say. He just nodded austerely and continued to watch Sara’s face through narrowed eyes. Why didn’t she say something about what. had happened that afternoon. The suspense was going to shred him. A part of him wanted to get the confrontation over and done with. Another part wanted to pretend nothing devastating had occurred. Abruptly he pushed his chair away from the table and went over to where he kept the brandy.
„Can I pour you some, Lowell?“ His voice felt thick and scratchy in his throat.
„Sounds great.“ The older man beamed.
Sara focused on her uncle again. „Vaughn is definitely out of the way? He won’t be bothering us again?“
Lowell Kincaid smiled. „You don’t have to worry about him. I’ll talk to Gilkirk in the morning. But from what I hear the agency’s tired of using him, anyway. Even if he got turned loose tomorrow, he realizes everyone knows who he is and what he’s been doing. He’d disappear in a hurry.“
„He had plans, you know,“ Sara mused.
Adrian could feel her watching him as he poured the brandy. „What plans?“ he managed to ask, although he couldn’t have cared less. Vaughn, as Kincaid had just said, was no longer an issue. He’d made sure of that when he’d left the sullen man bound and gagged in the rain beside the freeway. Vaughn was smart enough to know that everything had fallen apart. Vaughn, too, knew what it meant to have his cover completely blown.
„He thought that, given the map and a few carefully selected mercenaries, he could get into Cambodia and get at the gold. He told me all about his scheme,“ she finished blithely. „Aren’t you going to pour me some brandy, too?“
Adrian turned back to the counter and poured another glass. „Sorry,“ he muttered shortly. When he handed it to her, she raised it cheerfully.
„Here’s to finally getting some answers.“ She downed a healthy swallow.
Lowell grinned. „Haven’t I always told you that answers are always crystal-clear once you know where to look?“
With a snap, Sara set down the brandy snifter. „Speaking of crystal-clear answers,“ she began. And then she was on her feet, h
urrying down the hall toward the study.
Kincaid traded glances with Adrian. It was the first time they’d been alone together without Sara in the room. „Everything’s under control?“
Adrian nodded. „Yeah. The agency will handle it. I really did lead them to believe you were the one who’d wrapped Vaughn up for Christmas. I guess if Vaughn says too much, though, Gilkirk may figure out I’m still around.“
Kincaid chuckled. „Even if he does, you’ll be all right. You’re old news now, I’m afraid. The last time I talked to Gilkirk I casually brought up your name just to see what he’d say. He wasn’t terribly interested, frankly. You’d be a minor curiosity and that’s it. Gilkirk won’t push it. He owes you and he knows it. He’s a good man. Pays his debts.“
„I like being old news.“ Adrian thought about that. „But Sara…“
„Don’t worry about Sara,“ Kincaid said softly. „She’s my niece. I know her.“
„She’s a woman,“ Adrian countered. „And she had a wild image of Wolf built up in her mind. What did you tell her about me, Kincaid?“
„Only bits and pieces. I was very concerned about you a year ago, my friend. I wasn’t sure if this book was going to be the therapy you needed. I guess I had a few drinks with Sara one evening and talked. More than I should have, probably. She took the information and embroidered it a bit with her rather active imagination.“
„Did you really give her some idiotic story about the temperature, uh, dropping in a room when I walked in?“ Adrian demanded.
Kincaid blinked. „I suppose I did. There are times when it’s perfectly true.“
Adrian winced. „No wonder I don’t get many invitations to cocktail parties.“
Lowell Kincaid howled with laughter. „Don’t worry. The description only applies when you’re working. If you’re not getting party invitations, it’s because people suspect you’re not the party type. Not because they don’t need an extra ice bucket.“
„What about telling her I was a… a renegade?“
Kincaid looked surprised. „I never said that. I’m afraid she came to that conclusion on her own. I told her that I had trained a man who wound up with the code name of Wolf and that I was now worried about him. I guess she assumed – “ He was about to say something else and stopped as Sara trotted back down the hall, tossing the crystal apple in her hands. „Ah, the apple.“
„Yes, the apple.“ She pinned him with a mock-ferocious glance. „This is where the answer is, right Uncle Lowell? Clear as crystal?“
He nodded genially. „It’s a microdot masquerading as one of the bubbles captured in the crystal. Pretty little apple, isn’t it? I had one made especially for both you and Adrian. You each have half of the map. That’s the wedding present, you see. Not the gold itself but the adventure of having a treasure map of your very own. And someday, someone in your family will be able to go after the gold. Maybe twenty years from now, when the politics and violence in that part of the world have changed. Maybe the next generation will get it. Who knows? In the meantime you’ll have the fantasy.“
„It was a brilliant gift idea,“ Sara said with a warm smile.
„I thought so. Just the thing for a woman with an overactive imagination. When did you figure out that the apple was the key?“
„While I was talking to Vaughn. I knew the answer wasn’t in the manuscript.“ She slid a quick glance at Adrian. „Phantom answers some other questions, but it doesn’t tell where the gold is hidden. I just used that as an excuse to get Vaughn back here to the house. I figured out the role of the apple, though, when I put everything I knew together. The gold, you implied, was a wedding gift.
Something to be shared. And you had given both Adrian and me an apple. It was a link between us. The key. Then there was your penchant for hiding things out in the open, the way you always say answers are crystal-clear. The apple itself has a gold stem and leaf and that was another clue. The gold on the apple was meant to be a connection to the gold in Southeast Asia, right? And you’d given us the basic clue when you told Adrian the legend. Last but not least, I knew you always like to cover your bases. You would have wanted the information available to both Adrian and me just in case something ever happened to you. It made sense that you had given us the answers. And you would have given them to us jointly. All we had to do was look around.“
„And you realized that the only thing I had given both of you was the apple.“ Kincaid nodded. „Not bad, Sara. Not bad at all.“
„Games,“ Adrian heard himself mutter.
„Better get used to them if you’re going to marry into the family,“ Lowell advised lightly.
„I’ve played enough for one day. If you both will excuse me, I’m going to go to bed. Lowell, you can have the couch. Your niece has the spare bedroom.“ Adrian got to his feet.
Sara’s head came up quickly. „Adrian…“
He stood still, looking down at her. „What is it, Sara?“
„I…1 just wondered about your trip this morning.“ She chewed on her lower lip, obviously searching for the right words. „I mean, Vaughn seemed to think you’d gone to Mexico.“
„That’s what I wanted him to think.“
„But…“
„I bought the ticket. But the plane made a few stops between here and Mexico City. I got off in L.A.“
„I see,“ she said quietly. „You planned it that way to make Vaughn think you’d left the country to go after the gold yourself.“
„I thought my leaving would draw him out into the open,“ Adrian explained very patiently. „I figured he’d make his try at night, thinking you’d be alone. I’d planned to circle back and be waiting for him. I had it all worked out. But you rewrote the rules.“
„He tricked me,“ she protested. „I had a phone call from Uncle Lowell. Or at least I thought it was from him. Vaughn made a tape from the answering-machine recordings in Lowell’s cottage and mixed up the words into whole new sentences.“
„I know,“ Adrian said. „Vaughn told me.“
Sara eyed him curiously. „Did he?“
„He told me a great many things,“ Adrian said. „Good night, Lowell. Sara.“ He left the room.
Sara watched him go, the smile fading from her eyes and being replaced by a wistful yearning. Slowly she lowered the apple into her lap as she sat down beside her uncle.
„He has a nerve accusing us of playing games,“ she whispered. „What does he think he was doing today when he fed me that song and dance about going off to find a mysterious contact who might know where you were?“
Kincaid swirled the brandy in his glass. „He wasn’t playing games. Adrian never plays games. He simply didn’t want you to know the truth.“
„What truth?“
„That he didn’t have any magic man to contact. The only one around he could depend on to protect you was himself. He had to make Vaughn believe he had really left town and the only way to do that was to actually get on the plane. Mexico City was the logical choice because it has a reputation in the industry. Vaughn made all the assumptions he was supposed to make when he discovered that was Adrian’s destination.“
„But why didn’t Adrian tell me?“ She sighed.
„He wanted to keep you from finding out the truth about him. In the end there was no way he could accomplish that. Not and save your life, too.“
„What did you mean about Adrian never playing games?“
„Just that.“ Lowell took a long swallow of brandy and gazed up at the beamed ceiling for a moment. „You and I, Sara, we have a capacity for stepping back emotionally from a situation we don’t like. You did it all the time in the corporate world. You treated it as a game when it threatened to get too serious or intense. I saw you do it in the academic world and when you played at being an artist. It was a survival mechanism for you. It works very well. I should know. I’ve used it myself. I could frequently put my work into that kind of perspective when things got too grim. I would detach myself and instinctively try to
see all the moves and countermoves as just part of a great big chess game.“
„And Adrian couldn’t do that?“
„No. For him it was very real. He gave everything he had to his work and it finally took its toll.“
„Phantom.“ Sara stared down at the crystal-and-gold apple. „The real truth in the manuscript isn’t the hint about the gold that you put in, is it? It’s the part Adrian put into the story. The reality of what he faced.“
„When he finally realized the job would eventually break him, he turned in his resignation. It wasn’t accepted. They told him there was one last mission.“
„And he went on it.“ Sara shuddered. „I think he just barely survived, Uncle Lowell.“
„He did what be had to do. Adrian always does what has to be done. He was quite lethally serious about his work and that attitude made him the best there was in the industry.“
„Better than you, Uncle Lowell?“
„Better than me. But the violence and the frustration of that last job were the end for him. When it was over he simply disappeared. He showed up on my doorstep three months later, calling himself Adrian Saville.“
„That’s not his real name?“ Sara asked in astonishment.
Lowell Kincaid smiled. „It is now. I told you, Adrian doesn’t play games. Everything is for real. He took another name and started a new life. He would have done anything to keep it real.“
„Well, it is real,“ Sara protested. „Nothing’s changed.“
„Now you know the truth about him,“ her uncle pointed out quietly.
„But I don’t feel any differently about him,“ she breathed. „How could he think – “
„Apparently you gave him quite a horror story about Wolf.“
„That was all your fault. You’re the one who told me the tale!“
„I was a little drunk that night as I recall. And I was genuinely worried about Adrian. I wasn’t certain writing the book was going to work for him.“