CHAPTER 45

  WILLIAMS, ARIZONA

  As the train began to pull away, I jumped from the last step to the platform. I looked around and could see Fitch still standing there at the ticketing counter. Both trains, one bound for Los Angeles and one bound for the Grand Canyon, had just left. I wondered where Fitch was heading. I was now certain he was working for Bayne.

  I noticed he was looking over a train schedule posted outside the station. He obviously assumed I was still on the train bound for California. I watched him as he began to walk away. He walked toward the ticketing counter, asked the woman behind the counter a question, then walked around the building. I followed him. He went through a side door. The door had a glass window, and I watched as he stepped inside. I watched as he entered the men’s room.

  I turned back to talk to the ticket counter again, but I wasn’t watching what I was doing, and I ran into a baggage clerk with a pushcart. I knocked over a stack of postal parcels from the cart. I apologized and helped the clerk pick up the packages. I didn’t want to miss out on Fitch coming out of the men’s room.

  Just as I finished picking up the last package, I stood up from what I was doing, and the side door came open and hit me. It was Bayne. I could not believe it.

  “Oh, Jack, what are you doing out here? Shouldn’t you be with Mimi and the baby? Go home, Jack. Go home.”

  I was caught off guard. I returned his comment, “Don’t you mean to ask me what I am doing here because you left me for dead in the desert of White Sands. You know, that’s twice you’ve left me to die.”

  Bayne laughed, “Jack, Greece is ancient history. Isn’t it?”

  He angered me. “Why Bayne? Why are you doing this?”

  He smartly remarked, “Jack, don’t you know you are misguided. Haven’t you made enough of a fool of yourself? Go home, Jack.” He turned and walked away.

  “What about you, Bayne?” I asked. “Why are you here? To do in Arizona what you did in New Mexico?”

  He turned back toward me. “Jack, you have no idea what you’re talking about. You shouldn’t even be mixed up in any of this.”

  My mind began to race. I wondered why he was here. I wondered if he was meeting Fitch. I wondered if Fitch was taking him to the site where the crew was searching for the hidden burial temple in the Grand Canyon. I didn’t know their exact plan, but I knew I needed to stop them. I had no way to reach Dr. Peterson or James. I just knew I needed to stop them.

  Just then, a military truck pulled up. Bayne turned around to see it. He then turned back toward me and smiled. “Jack, I really must be going. Please, friend, go home to your wife and baby. Don’t get yourself anymore involved in this. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  As he turned to walk away, I reached out and grabbed his arm.

  “Bayne, I can’t let you do this.”

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  He smirked. “What are you going to do to stop me?”

  I didn’t really know. I just held onto his arm tightly. He did not try to get free from my grip. I noticed a man getting out of the military truck walking our way. I grabbed Bayne even tighter. He continued to smile and did not resist.

  “You think you are going to stop me by grabbing onto my arm even tighter. You are na?ve, Jack. My god, I once respected you. Did you know that? Now look at you – desperate, pitiful, and worthless.”

  The man approached us. He was wearing a military police uniform. “Dr. Bayne?”

  Bayne turned toward him to acknowledge him.

  “Is there a problem here?” the man asked.

  Bayne jerked his arm free from mine. “No, there is no problem. We'd best be on our way,” With that, Bayne turned and walked away.

  “You’ll never find them,” I said. “They’ll be long gone by the time you get there. No matter how hard you try. You won’t find them.” I was bluffing.

  Bayne stopped and turned toward me and said quite coldly, “Neither will you. You’ll never find them. Will it be worth it, Jack, if you lose everything? Just to keep looking for something that doesn’t exist.”

  He walked away and got into the truck. I didn’t move. I just stood there and watched as Bayne drove off. I did nothing to stop him.

  As I watched the truck drive out of sight, the door behind me opened.

  “Jack?” It was Fitch. I was disgusted.

  “You missed him,” I said. “He left without you. I could have told you he’d leave you. He can’t be trusted, but then again, neither can you.”

  I was angry and, without a thought, I lunged at Fitch with my fist out. He side-stepped me, and my hand hit the glass door with all my force. The glass cracked, and I went down on my knees in pain. The knuckles on my hand had been split open by the force. I held my hand as I sat there.

  Fitch bent down to see if I was all right and asked, “Who is it you think I am?”

  “One of Bayne’s goons, of course,” I answered plain as day.

  He laughed. “Jack, you’ll have to trust me. I don’t work for Bayne.”

  I didn’t care. I wasn’t hearing it.

  He said, “You can sit here and wallow in your self-pity, or you can do something.”

  Angrily, I said, “Do what?”

  “What do you want to do, Jack? Why are you here?”

  “I’m here because of you. I watched you get off the train, and I waited to see what you were up to. And as I suspected, here you are, and so is Bayne. You’re a traitor. You led Bayne to us in New Mexico, and you led him here. You put your trust in him, and he used you and left you here all alone, just as he did with me. What a coincidence.”

  “Jack, it’s no coincidence. I like to say coincidence is just God’s way of staying invisible.” He let the thought linger in my head before saying, “If you search yourself, you’ll know I don’t work for Bayne. Bayne is here for the same reason you are – the giants.”

  Fitch continued, “You know what Bayne is capable of. If Bayne is here, don’t you think we need to warn Dr. Peterson that Bayne is on his way? You need to send a telegram to James at The Trails Inn. I found out that’s where they’ll be staying. Get him a telegram that Bayne is on his way.” Fitch helped me up, “Tell him they’ll be there in another day.”

  I said, “Another day? They just left. He’ll be there tonight.”

  “Not likely, he’s bound to have a little trouble with that truck.”

  I couldn't help smiling. “How did you manage that?”

  “That is not what matters. You need to warn him to shut down the search for the temple. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt. Jack, you need to trust me. I don’t work for Bayne. I am here to help you. Now, let’s go in and clean that hand.”

  We went inside, and I paused for a minute. “Go on, there is a telegram clerk there.” He pointed to a woman standing behind the counter.

  I began to walk toward her, and I turned back to Fitch and said, “What about us? Where should we go?”

  “Jack, you know where to go. It is why you so eagerly jumped off the train when you did. You weren’t about to go to California without her.”

  Fitch was right. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I couldn’t go to work in California and take a further step away from Mimi. I needed to go home and see her.

  “Go on,” he said. “You go send the telegram, and I’ll make arrangements for you to get back to Iowa.”

  I began to second-guess everything I was feeling about Fitch. I told him, “You'd better get two tickets. I want you to meet my wife.”