River of the Damned Read online

  River of the Damned

  A Nick Caine Adventure

  Book 6

  AIDEN JAMES

  Acclaim for Aiden James:

  “Aiden James has written a deeply psychological, gripping tale that keeps the readers hooked from page one.” Bookfinds review for “The Forgotten Eden”

  “A variety of twists, surprises, and subplots keep the story moving forward at a good pace. My interest was piqued almost immediately and my attention never wavered as I forced my eyes to stay open well into the night. (Sleep is overrated.) Aiden James is a Master Storyteller, whose career is on the rise! Out-freaking-standing-excellent!” Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews, for “Plague of Coins”

  “Aiden James’ writing style flows very easily and I found that Cades Cove snowballed into a very gripping tale. Clearly the strengths in the piece were as the spirit's interaction became prevalent with the family…. The Indian lore and ceremonies and the flashbacks to Allie Mae's (earthly) demise were very powerful. I think those aspects separated the work from what we've seen before in horror and ghost tales.” Evelyn Klebert, Author of “A Ghost of a Chance”, “Dragonflies”, and “An Uneasy Traveler” for “Cades Cove”

  “The intense writing style of Aiden James kept my eyes glued to the story and the pages seemed to fly by at warp speed…. Twists, turns, and surprises pop up at random times to keep the reader off balance. It all blends together to create one of the best stories I have read all year.” Detra Fitch, Huntress Reviews, for “The Devil’s Paradise”

  “Aiden James is insanely talented! We are watching a master at work….Ghost stories don’t get any better than this.” J.R. Rain, Author of “Moon Dance’ and “Vampire Moon” for “The Raven Mocker”

  BOOKS BY AIDEN JAMES

  CADES COVE SERIES

  Cades Cove

  The Raven Mocker

  THE TALISMAN CHRONICLES

  The Forgotten Eden

  The Devil’s Paradise

  Hurakan’s Chalice (with Mike Robinson)

  THE DYING OF THE DARK SERIES

  With Patrick Burdine

  The Vampires’ Last Lover

  The Vampires’ Birthright

  (Coming 2015)

  Blood Princesses of the Vampires

  (Coming 2016)

  Scarlet Legacy of the Vampires

  (Coming 2017)

  THE JUDAS CHRONICLES

  Immortal Plague

  Immortal Reign

  Immortal Destiny

  Immortal Dragon

  Immortal Tyranny

  Immortal Pyramid

  Immortal Victory

  NICK CAINE ADVENTURES

  With J.R. Rain

  Temple of the Jaguar

  Treasure of the Deep

  Pyramid of the Gods

  Aiden James only

  Curse of the Druids

  Secret of the Loch

  River of the Damned

  WITCHES OF DENMARK

  The Witches of Denmark

  Witch Out Of Water

  (Coming 2016)

  WITH MICHELLE WRIGHT

  The Judas Reflections

  Murder in Whitechapel

  Curse of Stigmata

  Maid of Heaven

  (Coming 2015)

  WITH LISA COLLICUTT

  The Serendipitous Curse

  Reborn

  Reviled

  Redeemed

  (Coming 2015)

  WITH JAMES WYMORE

  The Actuator: Fractured Earth

  The Actuator Book 2: Revenge of the Saboteur

  (Coming 2015)

  Published by Aiden James

  Manor House Books

  Copyright © 2015 by Aiden James

  Cover Art by Michelle Johnson

  All rights reserved.

  Ebook Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Table of Contents:

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  River of the Damned

  Chapter One

  I had never visited Washington D.C. for longer than an airport layover. Twice in my lifetime, the first time was during my ill-fated trip to Egypt with my former college roommate, Mario Thomas. The second time was after I headed south from Toronto, Canada, on my way to Honduras.

  But now I would be a resident, or indentured servant, depending on how one looked at Ishi’s and my current circumstances. No longer free to follow our ‘creative archaeologist’ whims, our spirits were now shackled and bound to serve a clandestine US government agency known simply as “Project Golden Eye”—or as Agent Brandon Jacobs prefers to call it, “PGE”.

  Sounds like a tranquilizer for unruly kids, if you ask me.

  For the benefit of those unfamiliar with my first five journals, my name is Nick Caine. My Towankan pal, Ishi Cuyamel, and I have been partners in the antiquities black market for damn near fifteen years, after I took him under my wing as an impoverished kid in Honduras. No, he wasn’t an orphan… but he might as well have been.

  There was a third person in our troupe, too, but Marie Da Vinci has been detained indefinitely in another world. At least that’s how I prefer to think of it…. In all likelihood, though, I doubt we’ll ever see her again after she took a swan dive into a deep chasm inside a Scottish cave near Loch Morar. I’m not ready to embrace the likelihood she is dead. Not yet… although at some point I will have to come to terms with her willing desertion of me, and of Ishi, too. Just not in the present moment. After all, her suicidal leap was less than seventy-six hours ago. In the meantime, Ishi and I are set to begin a new chapter in our lives.

  “Look, Boss, there’s the skyline.” Ishi pointed ahead to our new home, framed by the advent of sunset behind the capital of America. His warm brown eyes sparkled with excitement at the city’s sprawl, lightly aglow. Surely, the streets were alive in a festive mood as Christmas was just ten days away. Not that I shared the festive outlook or his excitement, since the broken heart Marie left me throbbed as a fresh wound. “Agent Jacobs said our apartment wouldn’t be far from downtown. We’ll be close to everything!”

  True. Our new digs were supposedly in an upscale condominium building near Capitol Hill, complete with a doorman and security guard on twenty-four hour duty.

  “We should land at Dulles in the next twenty minutes,” Brandon Jacobs advised from behind us. “We’ve arranged for dinner and then you two will have the rest of the night to yourselves. Just remember you have a meeting with my boss at eight o’clock sharp tomorrow morning.”

  Agent Jacobs was the only other passenger on our private flight from Scotland. The meeting he referred to was our upcoming introduction to Agent William Spence, who apparently was the guy who recruited Jacobs fresh out of Georgetown nearly eight years ago. Most interesting to me was the fact Agent Spence was also the one who had insisted on recruiting Ishi and me specifically to leave our nefarious lives as ancient artifact ‘looters’ and come over to the light.

  Why us, over so many other candidates in the ‘soft-pillaging biz’? Surely there were more accomplished criminals in the antiquities black market than lil’ ole Ishi and me.

  I hoped to learn that answer early on during tomorrow’s face-to-face intro
duction to the employer we’d soon be contracted to for an initial five year term. Yeah, five frigging years! It felt interminably long…. But the harshness was softened by the fact Ishi and I were spared possibly spending the next twenty years in foreign prisons and then being released into poverty. Instead, part of our sweetened deal was getting to keep the loot we had collected over the years. We just couldn’t add to our stash with more artifacts, after initialing a clause that served as our signed oath to uphold the law.

  Being allowed to walk away with enough wealth to never have to work for an honest living heightened my curiosity about Spence’s true motivation in sending Jacobs to travel to Scotland to recruit us. Recruit us with a full court press, I might add.

  After landing and taking care of all the obligatory US Customs inspections, we were soon on our way to McCormick and Schmicks. Ishi was surprised by the dinner reservations at one of D.C.’s posh steakhouses, and I was already keeping track of every opulent move, since I had no doubt that everything given would end up added to our tab.

  “Order anything you want,” said Agent Jacobs, his warm smile much brighter than before, and his light blue eyes aglow.

  I had thought his unruly dark curly hair made him look older than his twenty-nine years, but he seemed more like a kid fresh out of college in the table’s candlelight glow. Surely, he was relieved that he managed to get us safely to Washington without a hitch. Yassir Ali was gone, but it was entirely possible that his assassins continued to hunt for my Towankan pal and me.

  “Does that offer include the most expensive bottle of booze they carry here?” I smiled playfully to let him know I was kidding, drawing a chuckle from Ishi, who looked up briefly from his menu. “Is this how we’re always going to eat?”

  “No,” said the agent. “But we wanted to give you a nice welcome to your new home.”

  “Ahh,” I raised my water glass in salute.

  “Because in two days, you guys are headed to Fiji.”

  “What?” Ishi’s head popped up suddenly, as if he were a wack-a-mole. “An assignment so soon?”

  “Yep,” Jacobs replied smugly. “Gotta whittle away the debt you’ve spent the last fifteen years accumulating.”

  “I thought that was all forgiven as long as we didn’t go back to our lives in… in the ancient artifact recovery business,” I said, lowering my voice and leaning forward when a middle-aged couple at a nearby table cast a curious glance in our direction. “Is this some sort of bait and switch bullshit? It isn’t what we discussed in Glasgow… maybe we should talk to your man, Spence, tonight.”

  Agent Jacobs shook his head, his smile softening to an elfin grin.

  “There’s no need to involve him. I was just messing with you about the penance part,” he said, to which Ishi groaned at the joke poorly played. “But you are flying to Lautoka Monday afternoon. So, enjoy your Saturday night. You will meet with William tomorrow morning, and then go home and review the files on the guys we want you to track and apprehend in the act of stealing artifacts. You’ll get your final briefing Monday morning.”

  “Shit, you make me feel like a rock star,” I deadpanned.

  “Or, James Bond,” added Ishi. “A couple of spies, no?”

  “I think they intend for us to arrest these guys, Ishi,” I said. “That makes it a little more complicated, I believe.”

  “Don’t we need training for that—”

  “Gentlemen, all you have to do is track these criminals,” Jacobs interrupted. “We’ll have a boat offshore that each of you will be wired to. Once we detect you closing in on these guys caught in the act, we will dispatch a team of professionals to come take over. If you’re in danger at any point, we’ll get you out of there immediately and safely.”

  “Whoa, whoa…. You didn’t say anything about risking our lives, man!” I hissed, though quietly, feeling increasingly alarmed about this arrangement. Perhaps I was headed for a reunion with Marie sooner than anticipated. Ishi’s presence could make it a nice little threesome party in the afterlife. “I thought these crooks were like us?”

  “They are… just a little more ruthless and packing more heat than a bowie knife and pistol.”

  He studied us with a pained but compassionate look, as if Ishi and I were children learning for the first time that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny were make believe.

  I wanted to pursue the details about the miscreants we would be dealing with, but our waiter returned. By the time we finished ordering our meals, Jacobs had distracted Ishi into telling him more about Honduras, with the promise of an early spring trip home for a month long visit with a beloved aunt he had only recently found out was still alive—provided we successfully fulfilled the agency’s upcoming assignments between now and then.

  “Sometimes it’s best to digest a little at a time when it comes to a challenging task,” Jacobs advised, as I tried to revisit the Fiji details again. “In time, Nick, you and Ishi will learn to trust me and William, as well as the network we have painstakingly set up for your backup and protection. Just do your job and we’ll do ours.”

  He eyed me knowingly, and it brought to mind Marie’s pointed admonitions. I missed her terribly at that moment, and hated what the healing period would be like—especially if dealing with Agent Jacobs’ smugness proved to be the standard treatment we received from the other agents associated with this so-called Project Golden Eye.

  He raised his wine glass in salute and Ishi raised his Jack and Coke. I reluctantly raised my glass of Scotch and cranberry on the rocks, wishing all restaurants in America still permitted smoking. Jacobs informed me as I reached for my pack and lighter earlier, when we were seated at our table, that cigarettes were banned in Washington’s restaurants, as was also the case in most U.S. cities. I hadn’t been back to the States since moving to Honduras, and had missed the crusade against my cherished addiction. Only cigars were permitted, and exclusively limited to select lounges. I resolved to get familiar with such establishments, since a panatela or stogie was better than nothing. In the meantime, I intended to wash down as much Scotch as possible that night, to inspire a lasting smile to hide behind.

  “Okay, then…. We’ll do our jobs and try to trust you guys to do yours,” I said, adding a wry smile. The alcohol was working, and the spreading warmth told me it would soon be talking for me, too. Ah, yes, much better!

  “What?” asked Jacobs, when a smirk slid through my façade.

  “It’s nothing,” I assured him. “You mentioned in Scotland that we would be getting paid and would enjoy company benefits…. Right?”

  “Yes. William will go over all of that information with you both tomorrow.”

  “I’ll have to tell him to hold off on the life insurance, since all Ishi and I have is each other. If either of us ever falls down into a rabbit hole, the other is bound to follow.”

  My joke was poorly received by him, but at least Ishi smiled and nodded approvingly.

  We still have each other’s backs… at least there is that!

  Perhaps Agent Jacobs could tell that I intended to soon become the life of the party. Or, maybe he needed his beauty sleep to keep the spring in his loose curls, along with pampering his flawless skin. Regardless, he kept the subsequent chitchat to a minimum and within the hour he had hailed a cab for us to be taken to our new residence.

  “Here’s your security entrance cards and the keys to your condo and mailbox,” he advised, from outside the taxi. “Everything should be set for you guys, but you can call me at the number I gave you if we missed anything. A driver will be waiting for you outside at seven-forty tomorrow morning. Don’t be late.”

  He stood by the curb until we were more than a block away, and then I assumed he hailed his own ride home. Folks in his business have to keep a low profile, but I was surprised that during the past thirty-plus hours since Scotland’s police had escorted us to a private room to meet Agent Jacobs, we had learned very little about the man. He knew a helluva lot more about Ishi and me, both fro
m our previous profiles and the casual conversations we had shared during the long transatlantic flight to the United States.

  “He seems okay,” said Ishi, after our driver confirmed our address, which was less than ten miles away from the restaurant. I shrugged. “You don’t think so, Nick?”

  “It’s too early to tell,” I said. “At least it’s too early to trust anyone…. And that may be the way it remains for me, my friend. Other than me trusting you, of course.”

  He nodded and smiled before turning his attention to the Smithsonian and other attractions we passed on the way to our accommodations. When the driver stopped in front of the address plate, I could only shake my head at the Lincoln Palace’s ostentatious façade.

  “It’s not so bad, no?” Ishi enthused, once we arrived to our suite on the fourth floor, a spacious apartment with an incredible view of Capitol Hill.

  “Not bad,” I agreed, nodding approvingly.

  The place even came with an outdoor balcony, set up with an umbrella table and two chairs. All of the furnishings inside appeared to be high end. If only that sort of thing mattered, which it never had for me. Sleeping in a tent in the rugged wilderness—regardless of natural hazards or the weather—was preferable to the loss of freedom this place represented. I’d trade it all to explore uncharted lands in hopes of uncovering legendary artifacts from the past… but too late for that.

  The condo appealed to Ishi, and that would be enough for me for a while. To make sure he remained happy here, I offered him the bigger bedroom, which also included the better skyline view.

  After one last smoke to break in the balcony as my own small refuge, I retired an hour after Ishi had called it a night. I washed up in the spacious main bath, where a glance at my reflection in a Hollywood mirror gave me pause…. My eyes seemed darker than normal, and almost not even hazel. Maybe it was the winter affect on my dark blonde beard that was almost brown.