Rogue Angel 46: Treasure of Lima Read Free

left the
room.
    “We swapped one of ours for one of theirs during the loading
process.”
    It was a standard sea chest made of iron-banded wood, with a
lock built into the lid itself—not like that was going to stop Thompson,
however. He drew the dirk from his belt, inserted the blade between the lid and
the chest itself just an inch or so away from the lock, then pushed down sharply
on the hilt.
    There was a moment of silence, as force fought with metal, and
then a sharp ping sounded through the room as the
interior of the lock gave way and the lid popped open.
    Both men stared at the sea of gold coins that filled the
chest.
    “That devious son of a...”
    Now the viceroy’s willingness to meet his price made sense to
Thompson. He had no doubt that the rest of the cargo was equally valuable. He’d
seen the wagons weighted down under the load and knew that the other chests
probably contained as much gold, if not more, than this one did.
    “Sweet Jesu, there’s a fortune in that one chest alone!” Jones
whispered, awed by thoughts of just how much treasure they might be
carrying.
    Thompson barely heard him, his mind whirling with the
possibilities that had suddenly presented themselves. De la Serna was trying to
move the treasury out from under the nose of General San Martín. That was clear.
What was equally clear was the fact that the viceroy would need to keep the
operation secret: the more who knew, the greater chance that word would reach
San Martín and the treasure would be intercepted by the rebels. De la Serna
hadn’t even been willing to tell him what was in the shipment and it was his
ship that was carrying it!
    If the shipment were to conveniently disappear, Thompson
thought, only a handful of people would know it had ever gone missing in the
first place.
    With the exception of de la Serna himself, most of those people
were right here on this very vessel.
    Temptation reared its head and Thompson embraced it eagerly. A
plan coalesced fully formed in his head.
    Turning to Jones, he explained to his first mate exactly what
they were going to do to ensure that they would be set with riches for the rest
of their lives.
    Jones eagerly agreed.
    After that it was a simple matter of waiting for their guests,
priests and soldiers alike, to fall asleep before sending men to slit their
throats while they slept. Once they were dead, the bodies were hauled to the
side of the ship and tossed overboard as food for the sharks.
    With the spies out of the way, Thompson, Jones and four
handpicked men returned to the hold to determine the extent of their booty.
    It was an impressive haul, by anyone’s standards. After all the
chests had been broken into and their contents cataloged, Thompson stared at the
list with something approaching wonder.

    113 gold statues, all of a religious nature
    200 chests of jewels, including rubies, cornelians, topazes and
emeralds
    1,000 cut diamonds
    273 swords and daggers, all with jeweled hilts
    150 gold chalices
    4,000 Spanish doubloons
    5,000 Mexican crowns
    4,265 uncut gemstones
    2 gold reliquaries
    2 life-size statues of the Virgin Mary and child cast in solid
gold, her clothing decorated with jewels

    All of which was currently sitting in the hold of his ship,
waiting for him to decide what to do with it.
    They couldn’t keep it aboard, that was for certain. The Mary Dear was a simple two-masted brig: it wouldn’t
stand a chance against the man-of-wars lurking in these waters if de la Serna
had him declared a pirate. No, they needed to get the treasure off the ship and
stored somewhere safe for the time being and then lay low until after the
revolution was over. At that point, they could return and cart off the treasure
in small chunks with no one the wiser.
    The question was, where? Where could a man hide millions in
gold?
    After a few moments of thought, he realized he knew just the
place.
    It was perfect!
    “Jones, tell the pilot to set course for Cocos Island.”
    “Aye,