“What plan?” asked Demi, standing like a vulture over DuFour.

  DuFour’s heart skipped a beat. “My God, woman, please don’t sneak up on me like that. It’s disconcerting.”

  Demi shook her head. “I don’t care. The plan, Rene, what is it?”

  DuFour stood and put away his phone. “Care for a trip to Greenland, my dear?”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Connor strolled into the hotel restaurant, looking forward to some coffee and a bagel, when he spotted his compatriots silently sitting around a table. He pulled out a chair and sat down.

  “Come on; it’s not that bad,” said Connor, attempting to cheer everyone up. “It’s only day three. We still have two more days to come up with something before we have to return Yuri’s plane. If we haven’t found the gold by then, we’ll hire a boat if we have to.”

  “What if we’re wrong?” proposed Kim. “I only saw the map for a few seconds. What if we’re supposed to be looking in Baffin Island, not Greenland?”

  Connor shook his head. “No, it’s here. And I don’t give a damn if you only saw the map briefly. I’d trust your memory over a modern-day map with the exact GPS coordinates to the missing settlement on it.”

  Kim raised her head. “Really?”

  “Really.”

  Gunnar yawned loudly and stretched his arms over his head.

  “Burning the midnight oil?” asked Connor.

  Gunnar nodded. “I haven’t gone to bed yet.”

  “How come?”

  “I spent the night at the university digging through old Norse records. I read that a small number of families were banished from the settlements around Nuuk for crimes relating to things like murder, theft, and adultery. Maybe one of them made it to a nearby island and lived there until disease, starvation, or predation wiped them all out.”

  A waiter approached with a fresh carafe of coffee and took everyone’s order.

  “That may be true, but it still doesn’t narrow down the search,” pointed out Yuri.

  “I knew you’d say that, and I have come up with an idea,” said Gunnar, placing a map of the coast on the table. “I say we flip our search on its head and start just north of the last known settlement and go from there. Using common sense, I’ve eliminated all of the islands that are too small to host a family or two on them and circled the rest as possible targets. I also called my uncle this morning, and he’s willing to put off the Twin Otter’s scheduled maintenance for one more day, giving us three full days to find the gold.”

  “It can’t hurt,” offered Connor. “All we’ve got to show so far are a handful of long-lost boats and a ring of rocks that looked like the outside of an old Norse home but turned out to be nothing.”

  “I’m okay with the new plan,” said Kim. “What do you say, Yuri?”

  “Me, I’m just the pilot,” responded Yuri. “I’ll fly wherever you want me to.”

  “Then it’s decided,” said Gunnar. “Let’s toast to a better day.”

  The four companions lifted their glasses of orange juice and did just that.

  “Yes, we’ve got contact!” announced Gunnar, pumping his fist in the air as they flew over a dark, circular island.

  “What do you see?” asked Kim. They had been airborne for hours. Each island they had surveyed had turned out to be a dead end until, it seemed, now.

  Gunnar waited for the information from the LiDAR pod to appear clearly on his laptop. Then, he picked up a pen and pointed at three circular rock shapes in the ground. “These rings are undoubtedly the outer rings of three old Norse homes.”

  “Have we found it?” asked Yuri excitedly.

  Gunnar nervously tapped his pen on the laptop screen. “No, I don’t think so. In my mind, I see three or more abandoned homes and a unique structure made by the people who were shipwrecked on the island where they lived and most likely buried the gold. I’m going to record this location for future considerations.”

  “Okay, you’re the specialist,” said Connor. “Where to next?”

  Gunnar keyed his mic. “There’s a triangular-shaped island thirty kilometers to the northwest of here that might fit the bill. It’s marked A-9 on the map.”

  “Got it,” replied Connor.

  Kim felt the mood in the plane change; optimism replaced pessimism. Maybe today was their day. She crossed her fingers and glanced out a window at the dark gray sea beneath them. Then, out of nowhere, a wave of melancholy swept over her, and she wondered how her sister and niece were doing. Kim resolved to go and visit them when the mission was behind them, and she’d been paid.

  “Here we go,” said Yuri as he flew their Twin Otter straight over a triangular-shaped, rocky island.

  Kim could feel the excitement building inside her as she watched Gunnar’s laptop screen. She looked at Gunnar’s face, looking for any sign of emotion. The young grad student could have been at a poker table, with his eyes fixed on the screen as the information poured in.

  Red and blue images appeared on the screen.

  “Yes!” hollered Gunnar, starling Kim. “This has to be it. I’ve got the outline of three homes, a larger communal house, and something substantial buried a couple of meters underground that looks like a massive turtle’s shell.”

  “Are you sure this is the place?” asked Connor.

  “I am,” responded Gunnar. “Let’s take her down and take a look.”

  “You heard the man,” said Connor to Yuri.

  “Yes, siree, taking her down.”

  Kim glanced out the window at the island. The land was flat near the water but gradually grew toward a large rocky hill that dominated the rest of the landscape.

  “Make sure you’re buckled up back there,” warned Yuri, bringing their airplane in for a smooth landing on the water. He decreased power and steered toward a black sandy beach. The aircraft suddenly stopped as the floats ran aground, and Yuri switched off the engine.

  “All ashore; who’s going ashore,” joked Connor, removing his headset and opening his door.

  Kim and Gunnar put on their Gortex jackets and joined the rest of the party on the wet sand.

  Gunnar cleared his throat and waved a handheld GPS in the air. “Okay, remember what I said in the restaurant the first day we met? You cannot remove a single object we may find on this site. I’m going to treat this place with the respect it’s due and record everything on my camera and GPS.”

  “You won’t get any pushback from us,” said Connor.

  The grad student waved an arm over his head. “Okay then, let’s go.”

  They fell into line and walked off the sloping beach onto a muddy, rock-strewn surface. Right away, they spotted a row of rocks laid out in an oblong shape.

  “Wow,” said Kim. “Just think, that was a house nine hundred years ago.”

  They walked over to the structure and saw the ground was about a meter below the surface inside the long-abandoned home.

  “Gunnar, what gives?” asked Yuri, pointing at the sunken floor.

  Gunnar lowered his camera. “It was common practice back then for the settlers to dig one meter down for insulation in the winter and to keep the home cool in the summer.”

  “I’m amazed that someone else hadn’t already stumbled across this island,” said Kim.

  “Up until a month ago, I’m willing to bet all of these buildings were still buried under the mud,” explained Gunnar. “With the warm temperatures and the tons of rain we’ve had this year, this place was most likely exposed in a matter of weeks.”

  “What about these tunnels?” asked Connor, standing in a passageway up to his waist that led from the first structure they found to one about twenty meters off to the right.

  “Uh, that’s not normal,” said Gunnar, shaking his head. “The people who were shipwrecked here, where did they come from?”

  “France,” said Kim.

  “And why did they leave France?”

  “They were led by a man called Phillip Grenier, a member of the Knights Templar, who was fleeing a king’s edict for the destruction of his order.”

  “My best guess is that they built these tunnels for protection from the elements or hostile outsiders. Either way, this is ground-breaking archaeology.”

  “They don’t seem very deep,” observed Yuri.

  “That’s because there’s still mud and muck inside them,” responded Gunnar. “They were probably five to six feet deep at one time and maybe even covered.”

  Yuri nodded. “Da, that makes good tactical sense to me.”

  Gunnar continued meticulously recording the ruins of the first dwelling before leading the team to the adjacent two homes. They were near copies of the first home, and the only thing they found, quite prophetically, was a rusty belt buckle.

  Kim checked the time and nudged Connor on the ribs. “Gunnar’s taking an hour or more per home. At this pace, it’ll be dark before we finish cataloging the island.”

  Connor nodded. “I know, but what can we do?”

  “Ask him to speed up. There’s always tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” Connor touched Gunnar’s on the back. “I know this is important to you, but could you please pick up the pace? We don’t want to be out here in the dark, do we?”

  “Sorry,” he replied. “I must have lost track of time.” He waved for them to follow him to the remains of a long house and hurriedly recorded its location.

  “Time for dessert,” said Kim, jogging alongside a passageway that seemed to lead nowhere. She stood there with her arms wide open and closed her eyes, imagining what lay beneath her feet.

  Gunnar jumped into the tunnel and got down on his haunches. He ran a hand over the mud to reveal a pile of rocks. “Whatever you’re looking for is gonna take time and hard work to reveal. According to the LiDAR, behind these rocks is a passageway leading underground into an open chamber. What’s down there is anyone’s guess.”

  “We’ve still got two hours of sunlight remaining,” said Connor, “I say we start digging.”

  Gunnar waved a finger. “Not without permission, you’re not. And before you ask, I don’t have that kind of authority.”

  “Well, who does?” asked Kim, annoyed that Gunnar seemed to be throwing up roadblock after roadblock.

  “Professor Lang might, but he’s sick.”

  Kim handed Gunnar a satphone. “You knew we’d need permission before flying out here today. Now get us that permission! Call your boss and tell him we’ll double whatever you’re being paid if he grants us permission to dig.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do it,” said Connor firmly.

  The call lasted less than a minute. Gunnar gave them a thumbs up; they had their permission and got to work.

  Connor moved Gunnar aside, grasped the first rock, and handed it to Yuri, who placed it on the ground next to the tunnel. Then, taking turns, they slowly cleared the stones from the tunnel entrance until they were all sweating and covered in mud. Finally, Gunnar dug out a trowel and cleared the centuries of dirt away from a one-meter square stone.

  “It’s probably no more than an inch thick,” he announced, gasping for air.

  Connor poured some water over the stone and gently rubbed the mud away. Slowly, words came into view. “Gunnar, there’s an inscription on the rock. Can you read it?”

  Gunnar huffed as he dropped to his aching knees to examine the rock. “It’s not old Norse, that’s for sure. French, maybe?”

  “Let me take a look,” said Kim, replacing Gunnar in the passage. She read the words over and shook her head. “If it’s French, it’s unlike any I’ve ever read.”

  Gunnar snapped his fingers. “I’m such an idiot. It’s French, all right, but it’s Old French. Like all modern languages, it took hundreds of years before a common language was established. I’ll take a picture of it and then send it to be translated.” Gunnar dug out his phone and snapped a picture.

  “Hey, I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but it’s getting late, and it looks like it might actually rain soon,” said Yuri, holding out his hand as if he were ready to catch raindrops. “I say we stop for the day and pick up where we left off first thing tomorrow.”

  Connor lifted his head and looked up at the dark gray clouds. “I agree; let’s get out of here before this tunnel turns into a river of mud.”

  “Shouldn’t one of us stay here in case someone comes during the night and claims the treasure for themselves?” asked Kim.

  “No one knows we’re here,” said Gunnar. “It would take a miracle for someone else in the dark and the rain to stumble across the island, let alone the treasure.”

  “Besides, we don’t have any camping gear,” said Connor. “In this environment, you’d catch hypothermia and die before the sun came up in the morning.”

  “All right, all right, you’ve convinced me,” replied Kim, wiping a clump of mud from her jacket. “But I don’t like leaving whatever is out here unguarded.”

  “None of us do, but what choice do we have?”

  Reluctantly, they climbed out of the tunnel and returned to the plane in silence. Kim snapped her seatbelt in place and looked back at the long-abandoned village, praying she was wrong.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Kim rolled over and smashed her fist into her pillow, trying to make it more comfortable. She hadn’t slept a wink since crawling into bed after a long, hot shower. No matter how hard she tried, Kim couldn’t relax. They’d abandoned a site that may be worth two trillion dollars to get some sleep. None of it sat well with her. Finally, she sat up and reached for her phone.

  “No,” she uttered in despair at the time. It was nearly five in the morning. She’d tossed and turned the night away.

  Unexpectedly, her phone buzzed. Kim thought about ignoring the incoming call, as she hadn’t shared her number with anyone other than her teammates. Curious, she brought the phone close to her tired eyes to see who was calling. Kim switched on a light and sat up. Her instincts told her something was wrong. She hesitantly answered the call. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Aunt Kimy; I’m sorry to be calling so early, but I’ve been told to read a note to you, okay?” said Tiva. She sounded herself, and only Tiva called her Kimy. But who was telling her to read a note and why? It took all of Kim’s energy not to lose her self-control. She took a deep breath.

  “Sure, hon, let’s hear it.”

  Tiva cleared her throat. “Good day, Kim Swiftwater. I want you to know that Tiva is being well looked after, and I would like to offer you a trade: Tiva for the treasure. We know you have found it, and we will arrive at the island twenty-four hours from now to collect it. Do not alert the police, or there will be conseekwenses. No, that’s not right,” said Tiva. “Consequences. Did I say that right, Kimy?”

  “You sure did, hon. Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “Oh, yes. At first, I was really scared, but my new friends told me that Mom and Dad know where I am and that I’ll be going home soon.”

  “That sounds nice.”

  “My new friend, Jenny, looks after me and dresses me up like a pirate because of my left eye.”

  “Could I please speak with the people looking after you?”

  “Mrs. Wilson,” said Tiva, handing over the phone.

  “Yes,” said a stern-sounding woman.

  “Can Tiva hear our conversation?” asked Kim.

  “No, she’s in the other room.”

  Kim got to her feet. She grasped the phone so tight her knuckles blanched. “I don’t know who you are, but if you harm a single hair on Tiva’s head, I will kill you.”

  “Ms. Swiftwater, there is no need for threats.”

  “I’m not threatening anyone; I’m stating a fact. You people have crossed a line that there’s no going back from. You don’t ever threaten another person’s family. Ever!”

  “I’m just doing my job, Ms. Swiftwater. But I can assure you that Tiva is being looked after by one of my best people. This is not a complicated deal. Give my employers the gold, and we’ll hand over Tiva to you unharmed.”

  “I wish I could trust you, but my heart tells me you’re lying.”

  “Dead hostages are bad for my business,” retorted Mrs. Wilson bluntly. “You do your part in this business, and I’ll guarantee your niece’s safety.”

  Kim glanced at the time. “I guess we’ll see if you’re telling the truth twenty-four hours from now.”

  “Until tomorrow,” said Wilson, ending the call.

  Kim looked down at the phone in her hand and started to shake. Then, unable to contain her rage anymore, Kim dropped to her knees and let out a tormented cry from deep inside her chest.

  Bang, bang, bang.

  “Kim, are you all right?” called out Connor, beating on her bedroom door. A split-second later, the door flew open, and Connor ran inside wearing boxers and a T-shirt. “Kim, what’s wrong?”

  Kim couldn’t speak. Tears streamed down her face. Finally, she got to her feet and held out her phone.

  “Did somebody call you?” asked Connor.

  “Is something wrong?” Yuri asked, standing in the shattered doorway.

  “I don’t know,” said Connor.

  “Tiva,” stammered Kim. “They’ve got my niece, Tiva.”

  “Yuri, please get Kim some water,” said Connor, guiding Kim by the hand to a chair. He pulled a blanket from the bed and draped it over her shoulders.

  Kim sat and placed her phone beside her.

  Connor got on his knees and looked into her tear-filled eyes. Then, gently, he asked, “Kim, who told you they had Tiva?”

  “I don’t know,” she replied, sipping some water. “I only heard one name, Mrs. Wilson, which I’m sure is an alias.”

  “What else were you told?”

  “They said they know we’ve found the treasure and want to exchange Tiva for the gold.”

  “Did they say when?” asked Yuri.

  Kim ran a hand over her cheek and wiped a tear aside. “They said they’ll free Tiva twenty-four hours from now at the island.”

  “God, I’m going to make DuFour pay when this is all over,” said Connor, banging his fist on the table.