|
|
Cassidy listlessly raised the short clear glass of water to her thin lips and sipped. Many times over she'd studied the unadorned walls of the small cafe in which she sat.
She sighed as she leaned her head on her fist, Butch was already more than thirty minutes late for their tryst, and a slight worry had begun to creep into her; he was never late. She knew that this should be one of their easier objectives, but the possibility of complication was never out of the question..
Cassidy knew that death was always just a half step behind them.
The carved stone walls held images of terrified souls, lightning raining down on them.. He knew what it meant. It was a warning to those that might invade the sanctity of the tomb. Butch didn't believe in such ghost stories.. He knew there would be no angry god raining lightning on him.. He kept a sharp eye out for any traps, however; even after one thousand years, he knew that some might remain.. There wasn't even any guarantee that he had found the correct vault, but he had a feeling about it, and he knew his feelings were usually right..
After about fifteen yards, the passage dilated into a chamber. Butch noticed a few dusty skeletons strewn about, "probably the slaves that were sealed in," he thought as he cautiously proceeded to the small alter on the far side of the crypt.
Carved into the stone wall was the final resting place of Veighnyar II, his rule was short, and only over a relatively small amount of country, but he was greatly feared by his people, they believed he had magical powers.. That he could animate the dead to do his bidding..
Butch's assignment had been specific, he was simply to steal a small gold ring that the despot would be wearing on his left hand.
Butch sighed as he came within view of the remains.. there were three rings on the left hand.. 'I'll just take all of them and sort it out later..' he thought to himself as he reached over the corpse and claimed his prize.
He froze, and his heart seemed to hit his throat as he thought he heard the sound someone moving within the chamber.
Butch stood like a statue, and slowly probed the small room with his eyes.. He heard nothing else, and was met with no movement in the low light of his flashlight.. He sighed and relaxed slightly, quickly examining his plunder...
All three of the rings appeared to be gold.. However, one was different than the other two.. it was a plain gold band, with what appeared to be some scratches on it's inside.. The other two were both smooth gold with a stone inset.. one dark brown, onyx most likely, and one a rich green.. Butch nodded appreciatively, he could definitely make a good amount of money selling the two excess rings..
He pocketed the three artifacts and proceeded back the way he'd come.. just as slowly and cautiously as before.
The air was cool, and the sound of his boots clopping on the floor resonated back at him.. He hadn't totally left the feeling of uneasiness he'd experienced back in the vault as he slowly made his way back to the cramped entrance..
The tomb had remained hidden for so long because it was built inside a small cave, the entrance was barely 3 feet high, but once inside even Butch could easily stand. They'd carved the passage out of the very rock so long ago. And it'd remained to this day.
When he finally saw the daylight peaking in through the narrow entrance of the tunnel he let go a sigh of relief.. He got down on his hands and knees and turned his flashlight off to crawl the last few feet back into the warm jungle.
As Butch stuck his head out of the short outcropping, he heard a very familiar noise: the sound of a revolver being cocked..
"Don't move, love."
Butch felt the cool steel of the barrel being held against his temple, and he stopped instantly in his tracks at the sound of the heavily accented feminine voice.
"You know what I want, so hand it over, nice 'n slow."
Butch picked his hand up and very deliberately reached into his pocket.
"Here.." he said as he held up a ring.
It was quickly wrested from his grasp, and after a moment he felt the gun leave his temple.
He slowly turned his head to the left to get a look at his antagonists. His eyes slightly betrayed his surprise as he looked up.. A very beautiful young woman with light pink hair and blue eyes stood over him..
She studied the ring for a moment then bent down towards him.
"Thanks, love, I do so hate caves, and it'd be quite a shame to kill such a handsome man over such trifles."
She brought her face to his and gave him a fast kiss, then stood back up.
The last thing Butch could remember when he woke up was her motioning in a circle with her finger to someone behind him that he hadn't got a look at..
She was unaccustomed to the hot and humid climate of New Delhi in the summer. She'd been rather lucky: it was unseasonably dry this year, and it'd only rained for most of the day.. Their room had no air conditioner, and she'd already bathed.. She found the temperature to be unbearably high, so she had twirled her hair up on top of her head in a makeshift bun, and stayed stripped down to her barest essentials..
The look of worry on her face was more than evident as she awaited Butch's return. Giovanni had called much earlier on her portable phone, a rather unusual practice, wanting a status update on their mission objective. Cassidy had uneasily informed him of her partner's tardiness, and he seemed less than pleased.. Butch was to contact Giovanni immediately upon his arrival, though she was sure that he'd never know the difference if she just had a few minutes with Butch first..
She turned the magazine over to look at it again. The television was only for the times of extreme desperation.. not only could she barely understand a word of it, but it was just plain lame.. People dancing around in clothes of horrible design and tastelessly clashing colors.. She shuddered at the thought..
"Ten ways to find out if you've found Mr Right." she read to herself looking at the magazine's table of contents. "Hmm... sounds interesting" she said flipping to the page it was listed for.
After sifting through the tons of perfume and lipstick ads Cassidy smiled as she read through the list.. Almost everything on the page described Butch... loyal, loving, funny, adventuresome.. "hmm.. doesn't have a check box for good looks.. that's ok, I'll add one," she said to herself with a giggle.
She laughed with herself as she wrote in "devastatingly handsome" under the last item in the magazine's list and put a check-mark in front of it.
Cassidy dropped the magazine to the floor, though, as her attention was drawn to the scuffing noise that came from the door to the small room. She got up to investigate and looked out the small peep-hole. Butch was standing outside fumbling with his key in the lock.
She eagerly pulled the door open, and Butch looked at her with some surprise, as if he hadn't expected her to be there.
"What's wrong?"
"Huh?"
She could see some surprise in his look.
"Come inside, why do you look so surprised?"
Butch looked her over and smiled as he shuffled inside. Cassidy blushed slightly as she realized how little she was wearing.
"Nothing's wrong, just I didn't expect such a... warm greeting," Butch said smiling at her as she took a seat on the bed.
Butch sighed as he sat in the lone chair the motel provided and rubbed the back of his head.
Cassidy inhaled sharply as she noticed the red mixed in with his light green hair. "What happened, Butch?" she said as she got up for a closer look.
"Oh.. this? This would be my excuse for being so late... I'm sorry.."
"How'd you get this?"
Butch reached into his pocket and pulled out the two rings he'd managed to hold onto.. The plain one, and the one with the dark stone inset... he'd given the emerald one to the mysterious woman that had ambushed him.
"Well.." Butch said as he set the two rings down on the small table next to him, "let me just say that it looks like we're not the only ones that were after this ring.."
Cassidy cocked an eyebrow, "Tell me everything.."
"Well.. when I made it out of the tomb, there was someone waiting for me... luckily I got to keep these, and I'm pretty sure this plain ring is what Giovanni wanted."
"That's where you got this?" Cassidy said gently touching the back of his head.
"Yeah.." Butch replied with a slight grimace..
Cassidy sighed and dropped her forehead to rest on her hand, "why do we have to keep doing this?? it's just a stinking ring.. Why would someone try to kill you over it.."
Butch could tell she was upset, and he moved quickly to avert her anxiety. Sweeping her onto his lap and picking up the ring to explain what he could.
"Well.. Veighnyar II owned this ring.. he was a very powerful man in his own part of the world.. I don't really believe the story about him being able to resurrect the dead, but this ring must have some great value.."
Cassidy's eyes were transfixed on it as he dropped it onto her outstretched palm. She raised it to her eye to examine it more closely.
"What are those scratches on the inside from?"
"Actually I believe that's an engraving... We can go have it checked out tomorrow."
Butch yawned and stretched his left arm up over his head. "I'll be back in a minute." he said as he picked up her light body and sat her back on the bed as she had been before.
"Oh, Butch, before you do that, Giovanni wanted you to call. He seemed pretty impatient.."
Butch cocked an eyebrow, but picked up Cassidy's small portable phone and dialed the seldom used number to Giovanni's estate.
She watched him stand there, only hearing half the conversation but getting a pretty good idea of what was said.
"Hello, boss? ... Yes, I got it ... I did run into some trouble however .. Yes sir, it was a woman ... The one thing that stuck out to me was her ring, it had a design on it.. like a circumscribed cross ... Yes sir ... I don't really think we'll need the help, but thank you... Of course, I'll be right back on the trail tomorrow ... Goodnight."
Butch clicked the standby button and tossed the phone next to Cassidy on the bed.
"Well what did he say?"
"He said that he's going to send another team out to assist us should there be anymore difficulties.."
"Hmm... anything about that funny symbol you described?"
"No, but I got the feeling he was holding something back about that.."
"Well what will we do then?"
"I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to take a shower and get some sleep," Butch declared with a smile as he grabbed his pajamas and headed into the bathroom to bathe. The water pressure in New Delhi was extremely low, and there was no hot water either.. that would be alright for the season of course, but he wondered what they did in the winter.. Butch finally managed to get himself clean and stepped into his pajamas.
Cassidy was still awake and looking at her magazine as she lay on the bed. Butch smiled as he lay down next to her on his side, the back of his head still aching slightly. She smiled over at him and rubbed his shoulder lightly.
Butch fell asleep quickly. "He always rests so easily.." Cassidy thought to herself as she turned the lamp next to her off and kissed him on the cheek before settling in for an uneasy sleep herself.