A Bloody Storm: A Derrick Storm Short by Richard Castle Page A

approaching them. They shined their lights on him. His face was dirty, and in their flashlight beams, he looked even more menacing.
    “You’re standing right where this GPS says there should be truckloads of gold,” Casper said. “And there ain’t no Commie gold bars anywhere around here. There’s nothing but water and rocks.”
    “Could the gold be under the water?” Dilya asked, shining her light down at the pool beneath them. “Maybe when they destroyed the entrance, they created a dam.”
    All of them pointed their lights at the water, but saw nothing except their own reflections staring back.

CHAPTER TWELVE
    “Ivan Petrov must have been lying when he gave the coordinates for the gold to Lebedev,” Storm said.
    “But I heard Lebedev say that he knew Petrov was telling him the truth about its location,” Showers said. “The two men had grown up together. They were like brothers.”
    “Brothers don’t shoot each other in the foot and then between the eyes,” Storm replied. “Brothers don’t kill each other for gold—usually.”
    “I’ve checked all of the other tunnels except for one, ladies,” Casper declared. “They’re all dead ends and there is no gold hidden in any of them.”
    “How about the one you didn’t check?” Oscar asked.
    “It goes in the opposite direction of us. It goes away from the coordinates. That means this cavern we’re looking at has got to be where the gold was put—unless Petrov lied.”
    “You’re the geologist,” Storm said, turning his flashlight so that it illuminated Oscar’s face. “Don’t you have some sort of equipment that can tell us if the gold is here?”
    “It’s got to be under the water,” Dilya said. “We have no idea how deep this cavern is. Let’s go back to the surface. We need rope. We might even need diving equipment. But one of us has to go down there in the water for a better look.”
    “I agree,” said Oscar. “Let’s go back to the surface and call it a night.”
    As they walked toward the cave exit, Casper took the lead, with Oscar following him to make certain he kept on course. But Dilya hung back to get one final glimpse of the pool of water.
    “The gold is down there. I feel it,” she said as Showers and Storm stepped by her in the tunnel.
    As Casper neared the cave’s opening, he could see faint moonlight coming from outside. He stepped from the cave with Oscar and Showers close behind him. All three of them were blinded by a brilliant light.
    “Drop your weapons!” a male voice ordered them.
    Still inside the cave passageway, Storm froze. The bright light was coming from a spotlight. Someone outside had ambushed them.
    Storm instinctively reached for his Glock, and then remembered he had given his handgun to Showers. He took a step backward away from the cave’s entrance and felt the barrel a pistol pressing against his back.
    Dilya said, “Time to leave the cave.”
    Instead, he slowly turned to face her.
    “Who’s out there?” he asked.
    “Friends,” she replied, “of mine, not yours. Now, move or you’ll die here.”
    Dilya had betrayed them.
    Rather than turning around, Storm stayed facing her with his hands raised and took several steps backward into the light. He moved deliberately, and just before he stepped from the cave, he stopped.
    “Why are you doing this?” he asked her.
    “Why does it matter?” she snapped.
    At that second, Storm turned sideways, causing the bright spotlight to flash into her eyes. Storm had been intentionally keeping his body between the blinding light and Dilya’s face, shielding her with his shadow.
    In that same instant, Storm grabbed Dilya’s wrist with his right hand and the gun with his left hand turning its barrel away from him. It was a rudimentary disarming technique taught by U.S. Special Forces, and it, and Dilya’s momentary blindness, resulted in Storm taking the upper hand.
    Freeing the pistol from her grasp, he pushed her in front of him at the cave’s