Dante Valderez poked at the freshly cut flowers scattered on the ground in the bright spotlight from the resting helicopter nearby with tip of the sword he found in the spring-fed pond of the oasis. He started stabbing the sword deep into the furrows of the ravaged garden, pulling the blade out and moving a few feet to force it into the ground again. Beyond the glare of the helicopter spotlight, the crescent moon sank past the edge of the ring of low hills surrounding and protecting the oasis, and the tall palm trees guarding the pond silently stood motionless against the star-filled sky. Dante’s breathing behind his respirator was ragged, and occasionally he would cough between thrusts of the old sword into the sandy earth under his black boots. He stopped for a moment, calming his breathing and wiping the perspiration from his scarred forehead with a black-gloved hand. He stood straight and closed his eyes, using both hands to rest on the sword; his black-uniformed body relaxed a bit and his breathing became steady and regular.

Dante’s eyes opened again, calm and without the rage that had engulfed him, and he strode purposefully over to the flattened rose bush, yellow petals littering its remains. In one powerful move with both hands on the handle, he slammed the sword into the centre of the destroyed bush, pushing the blade hard into the dirt. The sword stopped suddenly, hitting something below, and Dante let go of it instantly, leaving it to stand in its place.

“Lucretius!” Dante shouted out to the helicopter, “Bring the tool chest here, now!”

Lucretius was in the cockpit with the pilot, finishing up from calling in his report on the radio. He hurriedly took off his headset and scrambled out of the cockpit and into the cabin of the helicopter to find the tool chest under one of the benches. He pulled it out on the sand, and dragged it across the grassy floor of the oasis and around the pond, to meet with Dante, who had impatiently come over to grab the other end of the chest and pull it over to the decimated garden.

Without another word to Lucretius, he opened the chest and pulled out a folding shovel and barked at Lucky, “Here! Use this to dig here!” Lucky followed Dante’s pointed finger to see the sword standing upright into the soil, and he quickly assembled the shovel and hurriedly started digging into the ground around sword. Dante pulled the sword out as Lucky dug deeper, and in a few minutes the shovel made a thudding noise as it hit something solid. “Be careful! Dig more around it!” Dante commanded, peering into the shallow hole, trying to see what was at the bottom of it. He went back to the tool chest and found a flashlight, bringing it over to light up the hole Lucky was digging at as fast as he could, breaking through the roots of the rose bush tangled around a plastic case.

“You know, sir,” Lucky said nervously, watching Dante lean down to the hole and feel along the edge of the case at the bottom, “I have called in the coordinates for this place to General Thompson, as per your orders. We don’t have much time if a guided missile has been launched from the QuadriStar…”

Dante interrupted the young man and grabbed the shovel from him, saying “Return to the helicopter and tell the pilot to prepare for departure!” Lucky went to the tool chest he brought out, to drag it back to the helicopter, but Dante growled at him, “Leave it! I will bring it back. Now get back to the helicopter!”

Lucky stumbled away from the chest, and ran back to the helicopter, while Dante put down the flashlight and continued digging around the scratched blue plastic case that had revealed itself buried under the roots of the rose bush. Using the tip of the sword and the edge of the shovel under the edges of the case, he was able to leverage it out of the hole. Dante dragged the heavy case out of the hole and set it to rest next to the tool case in the light of the flashlight laying on the ground.

Dante wiped away the dirt from the top of the case, revealing a painted-on golden four-point star. There was no lock on the case, so Dante was able to easily pry it open with the edge of the sword, and the lid popped open to reveal a treasure trove of gold bars, coins and jewelry. Dante tipped out the contents of the tool chest onto the trampled flowers of the once carefully-tended garden, and filled it with the gold items from the blue case. As he finished the transfer, he could hear the helicopter start up behind him. He closed the chest after laying the sword across the glittering contents, just fitting diagonally within the chest. The blades of the helicopter were speeding up and the wind from them whipped at Dante, who was now dragging the chest across the desert floor. Lucky jumped out to meet Dante and helped him lift the tool chest into the cabin, pushing it across the cabin floor to its storage place under the bench. Dante climbed into the cabin and gestured for Lucky to sit with the pilot in the cockpit, he himself sitting on the bench storing the recovered treasure.

With everyone seated and the helicopter blades powered up to speed, the pilot lifted the large black helicopter into the air above the oasis, and flew over the tops of the sentinel palm trees surrounding the rippling pond. Lucky looked out the cockpit window to see the flashlight on the ground still, lighting up the empty blue case. He looked back at Dante, who was steadying himself with his hands on the bench and staring back at him with cold, black eyes. 

“Where are we heading, sir?” Lucky called out, his voice squeaking.

“Tell the pilot we are now heading to Ojai,” Dante said back calmly, “I have some unfinished business to attend to there.”

*** This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***