Spy in a Little Black Dress - By Maxine Kenneth Page 0,82

where Walker’s treasure must be buried.”

“Let me take a look.” Emiliano drew closer to the screen and peered at the X on the map. “It’s on the southern coast of Oriente Province, somewhere between Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo Bay.”

“The X has some writing under it. Can you see what it says?”

Emiliano squinted and read aloud:

LEPROSARIA

CAMPO SANTO

57

AD

“Campo Santo?” Jackie repeated, picking up a nearby pen and pad of paper and scribbling down the legend from the map. “That means ‘cemetery,’ right? And ‘Leprosaria,’ that sounds like—”

Suddenly, the door flew open and the lights went on in a blinding glare, catching Jackie and Emiliano red-handed. Jackie quickly ripped off the piece of paper from the pad, turned her back momentarily, and shoved it down her cleavage.

“What are you doing in here?” Mr. Mitchell demanded, his face flushed with anger. Two other men in tuxedoes were with him, looking discomfited and ready to turn on their heels.

“I… I’m so sorry, sir,” Emiliano stammered. His apology spilled out in a headlong stream of words. “I just wanted to show Miss Bouvier a film that would help her with her work. We only used the projector. We didn’t touch anything else.”

Jackie noticed that all the while he was speaking, Emiliano was carefully removing the reel and slipping it into its pouch.

Mr. Mitchell opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say a word, a band of masked men in green fatigues burst into the room like a thunderclap, brandishing guns.

Jackie gaped at them, too shocked and terrified even to scream. Emiliano dropped the pouch and put a protective arm around her, but the two men in tuxedoes fled.

“This is outrageous,” Mr. Mitchell huffed. He looked truculent but backed away from the gun pointed at him.

The men in fatigues grabbed Jackie and Emiliano roughly by the arm. Pressing guns in their hostages’ backs, the kidnappers marched them out of the mansion and into a jeep that was waiting in the driveway. Jackie looked for the guard at the gate and saw that his mouth was taped and his wrists were bound with cords.

“Where are we going? What do you want with us?” Jackie asked querulously, but she was quickly silenced by a hand over her mouth. The driver waited for blindfolds to be tied over Jackie’s and Emiliano’s eyes and then took off with a loud crunch of tires.

In a cold sweat, Jackie sat with her arms pressed against her chest to quiet the uproarious pounding of her heart. This abduction was eerily reminiscent of being taken off the street by the East German spies and made Jackie wonder if she was fated for yet another mano a mano encounter with a pit of live crocodiles. No, not that again, please, a voice inside her pleaded. But what if it was something worse? She couldn’t imagine what that might be, but not being able to imagine the unknown made it all the more horrific and terrifying. And now she was frightened not only for herself, but for Emiliano too.

Jackie could tell from the bouncing of the tires and the turning and twisting of the jeep that they were on a narrow, winding road in the rocky countryside. When her ears began to pop and it became harder to breathe, she knew that they were ascending higher and higher above sea level.

Finally, the jeep came to a stop, and everyone climbed out. When their blindfolds were removed, Emiliano looked around and said, “We’re in the Sierra Maestra.”

Jackie saw tents pitched everywhere and figured that this was some kind of camp. The sound of footsteps approaching from behind made her stiffen in fear. Rooted to the spot, she turned her head sideways and saw a man’s hand pointing a gun at Emiliano’s back.

“Oh no,” Jackie gasped, terrified that Emiliano was about to be shot to death.

But then, inexplicably, the man lowered the gun and burst into laughter.

Emiliano whirled around to face the man and was suddenly seized with laughter too.

“What’s so funny?” Jackie asked, at a loss to understand why Emiliano and this threatening gunslinger were cackling like fraternity brothers enjoying a hilarious practical joke. She turned around to look at the man… and was dumbstruck.

It couldn’t be, but it was. She would recognize him anywhere.

Fidel Castro.

PART THREE

OUR WOMAN IN HAVANA

XIX

Jackie could not fathom what kind of sick joke this was. Why on earth did Fidel Castro have his close friend and an innocent woman abducted at gunpoint to this godforsaken rebel camp in the mountains?