Chapter 14

The island of Bermuda lies well within the south western edge of the Sargasso Sea. Bermuda is also the northern tip of the infamous Bermuda Triangle, what some call the Devil’s Triangle. The other two tips of the triangle are the end of Florida and the island of Puerto Rico. The Sargasso Sea is noted for the floating brown sea weed.

The actual base, well where the Temple of the Air had originally been entombed for those thousands of years was 100 miles north east of Bermuda and had nothing to do with the Bermuda Triangle that we knew of. We had no ideal why the evil High Priest chose Dunmore Town as his base of operations or where the Temple of the Air was now.

The first order of business was to find out where the Temple of the Air was and the second thing was to find what they were up to. In no time we were tied into all the Bahaman’s communications net and monitoring it. These monitoring programs we were running don’t so much listen in to every phone call as they listen for key words in the conversations of every phone, ha, ha. In our case some of the key words we plugged in were; drugs, investigation, INTERPOL, Priest, unusual deaths, missing persons, that sort of thing.

Almost immediately we got a connection between somebody high up at the American Embassy talking to Priests, and the Bahaman’s Government and Police Department, about an INTERPOL investigation of some strange dead bodies and what to do about the investigation now that the investigators had mysteriously disappeared without checking out of their hotel or taking their things with them.

Backtracking the investigators we were able, by tying into the island’s network of security cameras, a surprisingly good net of cameras we found, that the two women had left their hotel at 9am two days ago and not returned. They had left a note for the male member at the front desk saying they were going to see the Police Commissioner. Cameras showed them entering the major government building but never leaving the building. We couldn’t get past the firewall to find out what happened to them in the building.

To be closer to the investigation we were all on Nassau now. We were all in a local hotel and the pilots out at the private airport and airstrip next to the international airport.

“What do we do Eddie.” Elsa wanted to know. It was dark and I was eating with the rest of my harem when her and Billy came in.

“We’re doing all we can Elsa. We have a watch on the building and nobodies going anywhere...” Billy interrupted me.

“Damn it they could be torturing them in there Eddie. We need to go in and rescue them now Eddie.” Billy demanded instant action.

“Has Liz got back yet Billy?” I asked. She sullenly answered that she hadn’t.

“Until Liz gets back we’re unarmed Billy. Just wait.” I admonished her and continued to eat my surprisingly good spare ribs for a hotel that specialized in sea food.

Before anybody goes all Rambo on me, we were all armed, but not enough to take on a police station. Well not without a lot of killing anyway. I don’t like unnecessary bloodshed, especially my own, if I can help it. Of course there were some people I’ll make an exception for.

Billy and Elsa found a corner to sulk in. Everything was good until one of the new girls busted in to tell us they were bring them out of the basement.

“Ok, Billy you get your wish. On me ladies, check your phone net now, I don’t want anyone getting lost. Load up and check your spares you might need them. Somebody get the cars we will need them and tell Mayling to warm up the plane. This could get messy girls, and we need to be out of here when this is done. Now lets move ladies” I directed the team. I really expected to get pushed back every time I called them girls, but they never do. We all had our phones tied into a short range encrypted blue tooth network with wireless ear buds and wrist mikes. The mikes could also serve as remote listing devices, better known as bugs in a pinch.

They were just coming out of the door of the Government Building when a convoy of British flagged Embassy cars rolled up and the two women were hustled directly into the middle limousine as they pulled away at speed.

“Where are those cars?” I hissed into my postage stamp sized and shaped mike, which was magic glued to the back of my hand at this time. Wonderful stuff “Magic Glue”, hell what did we ever do without it. Technically it’s Cyanoacrylate ester, but to everybody else it’s good old Magic Glue, and I never leave home without one of those little one use tubes in my kit. It’s actually better than stitches to close wounds on the spot and causes less damage than stitches we’ve all found out with experience.

“On it Boss.” Came back from Brandy as she pulled up to my position and applied her brakes to slide to a stop directly in front of us.

“Follow them.” I said, when me and Billy dived in. Me in the front, Billy in the back, and we were off before the doors fully closed.

“Where do you think they’re going Boss?” Brandy asked.

“Boss?” I asked as I arched an eyebrow in imitation of Mr. Spock I hoped.

“Blame it on watching too many TV Private Eye episodes as a child Boss.” Brandy beamed at me. Was I ever that young I asked myself?

“My guess is the airport since they’re going in that direction.” Billy agreed with my guess with a loud grunt of agreement from the back seat.

“Mayling are you and Xuan in the plane and is it warmed up and waiting?” I questioned.

“Of course Sir.” Mayling answered promptly.

“There’s just the one runway on the small plane private air strip right?” I asked.

“Yes, Sir.” Came back over the link.

“I want you to block it. Do you understand? No other plane is to take off until I tell you.” I directed her.

“It shall be as you order Sir.” Came back from my girl Friday.

“What do you think is happening Eddie?” Elsa asked on the party line.

“They’re hands were handcuffed behind their backs and they were hooded when they came out the door. My guess is they are going to take them off the island by plane. There’s too many of them to just storm the place, but with Mayling stalling to block the takeoff maybe we can storm the airplane while it’s waiting at the end of the runway to take off. Did you hear that Mayling and Xuan. Xuan I may need you or Mayling to fly what they’ve got waiting.” I explained my improvised plan.

“If that’s your plan then you need to get down to the end of the air strip with us. They’ll have to wait on the L approach lane until we take off. While they’re waiting with the engine going they probably won’t hear anything over the noise Sir. It’s pretty overgrown there and if you lay flat in the grass they’ll never see you.” Xuan told us.

“You heard her Brandy.” I said.

“Already on it Boss.” As we shoot through the open gate and headed for the end of the runway at speed. Reaching it we once again rolled out and Brandy and the car left. In seconds Elsa joined us in the grass on the edge of the runway from the other car too.

We were waiting for almost 30 minutes when a PA32-260 Cherokee Six 260 horsepower single engine plane pulled out of one of the hangars in the private hangar area and rolled up in front of us impatiently waiting for Mayling to take off. You could tell the pilot was annoyed by how he was revving his engine.

“Ok, Mayling who can fly it?” I asked.

“Oh that old thing? Either of us is qualified sir.” Mayling replied.

“Then Xuan get out and walk to the plane like you have trouble and get the pilots attention. We’ll sneak up on the other side and take him.” I told everybody on our link what we were going to do.

As Xuan exited our plane she waved her arms at the other plane and approached it. She was approaching the pilot’s cabin door when it opened and the pilot stepped out. We were all on the opposite side and out of position to help her. Xuan is well under 5 foot and doesn’t look like she weights a 100 pounds sopping wet so we were a little worried for her. We more or less froze in place as we watched the scene unfold before us. The pilot, a well over 6 foot tall heavyset guy, approached her shouting angrily to be heard over the engine noise. As he walked up to Xuan he began to gesture with his arms wildly too.

I don’t know what we expected of the “wee slip of a lass”, but it was certainly not what happened next. Xuan simply straight punched him with the butt of her palm into his Adam’s Apple when he got in range. Her punch didn’t bruise the trachea it literally crushed it. You could tell he couldn’t breath because his face was turning purple and he had his hands on his neck. As he frailed about she simply grabbed an arm and lead him now meekly stumbling around to the side of the plane.

By this time we had the plane’s other door open and discovered there was just the two women and a obviously dead guy in the plane. I hurried to the other side and helped the choking pilot into the back. If he didn’t get help soon he was going to die from lack of oxygen and I for one didn’t feel very sorry for him at the moment. We told Mayling to take off and circle awhile before coming back and picking up the rest of the girls.

Since we already had four people in the plane, even if two of them were dead, it was still only rated for six persons. I told Billy and Elsa to catch a ride with Mayling or wait to be picked up latter. Needless to say Elsa pulled rank and insisted on riding with me. Billy caught a ride with Mayling. I don’t think anyone else really noticed anything unusual.

After we were in the air Elsa asked me if we should free the two women now. I said sure before I really thought it through. Both of the women were drugged and pretty much out of it, but I didn’t see where a bag, a gag, and those zip ties were absolutely necessary. But on second thought, in their condition, they didn’t know we were their friends? Plus I didn’t need two hysterical women in this overcrowded cockpit right now. So in the end we left them tied up, but without the hood and gag. What were we going to do with them once they saw our faces I pondered. By this time the pilot was positively dead and I shed no tears for his untimely demise.

The only thing our island, where we were heading now, did have was a serviceable landing strip for some strange reason. Even Jack, the real estate agent, didn’t even know why or who put it there. We had paid the local hauler to run all our gear out to the island and leave it on the beach. Sure enough when we checked it was all there. Since we were the first to arrive we guessed it was up to us to start putting things up. After sorting out some body bags, we didn’t have them because we thought we would have bodies, but because they are handy to store odd things in if your interested.

Taking care of the two stiffs first we returned and removed the two women from the plane and made them as comfortable as we could on the ground. Once again I would have freed them, but I didn’t want to have to chase them down if they woke up and decided to escape. I was looking to get static from Elsa for my decision but she agreed with my decision. So while Xuan hunted through the MRE’s, Meals Ready to Eat, stuff for something decent to eat, me and Elsa set up one of the large tents we had bought.

These tents come with a battery and large solar panel powered air blower/compressor that blows them up or sucks all the air out when you want to take them down. You simply unbox them unfold the tent connect the air blower/compressor and wait for them to fill up, then follow the printed instruction on the tent itself.

“What are we going to do with the island Elsa.” I questioned, after they both got settled down with something to eat and drink.

“We’re going to have helicopters fly in prefabricated buildings and equipment and build our base. Then we’re going to find that bastard Tolen and I’m going to kill the son-of-a-bitch and make a damn drinking tankard out of his fucking skull. Then I get my coven back damn his eyes.” Elsa pronounced sentence on the High Priest.