987. Chapter 987

After Wrapped Up in Death

Chapter 2.19

By UCSBdad

Disclaimer: This is the Castle I do not own. Rating: K Time: See above.

"The bloody beasts are on strike. They say I haven't paid them. I've told them that it's that bloody Grapestake they work for, not me."

"You speak ape?" Kate asked.

"Doesn't everyone?" Thirsty Josh replied.

What appeared to be the ape leader stuck his face in Josh's and roared more loudly than before.

"Oh?" Cried Josh. "Well, in that case, you're all fired."

With that the apes began walking away, occasionally turning to make a rude gesture to Josh.

"How will you survive out here with no one to carry your gear?" Kate asked.

"I'll manage." Josh looked around. "Mind if I have some breakfast?" Before anyone cold reply, he grabbed a gallon bottle of whiskey and downed it. He then fell on his face.

"We'll have to take him with us." Rick said. "We can't leave him out here on the veldt."

"We can't?" Kate muttered under her breath.

Josh was loaded into the back of a truck and eventually came to when they stopped for lunch.

"Those apes really left me?" He slurred, still partly drunk.

Ryan nodded. "They said something about wanting to get away from the smell."

When Josh sat down, Ryan quickly moved the whiskey away from him. "I guess I'll have to cut you in on the elephant's graveyard then."

"Sir, that's a myth." Kate said. "There is no elephant's graveyard."

Josh shook his head. "I've seen two elephants holding up a dying bull, one on either side of him. They were headed for the elephant's graveyard."

"Elephants are very social animals. A mother elephant will stay by her dead child for days. The elephants were just keeping the old bull with the herd. Elephants will gather at places where there's food and water during droughts and famines. They die in groups because eventually the water and/or food disappears. That's how the legend began."

Josh smiled. "You can't fool me with your archeological nonsense. Why would you be out here if not for ivory?"

"For knowledge." Kate said.

Josh just laughed. "Is there anything to drink for lunch?"

When Ryan, de Esposito and Montgomery moved further away from Josh, Rick said, "We have some wine?"

Josh grumped, but downed a bottle and passed out in the back of a truck.

Josh managed to sober up some on the trip south, mostly because everyone kept their liquor away from him as best they could. He did manage to deplete the supply of Irish whiskey, much to Ryan's anger.

On the fifth day, they stopped early and Rick and Kate took out a folded up map. Everyone gathered around. "The Royal Air Force has been doing aerial mapping of the British colonies in Africa. We've identified this area as a good possibility for the location of the old port of Nikon. You can see what might be a silted up inlet here and there definitely is a ridge here where a city might have been. We're on that ridge now."

"So, you think the elephants died here?" Josh said. "They shouldn't be buried too deep. The wind and rain wouldn't have had much of a chance to cover them."

"Were archeologists." Kate said wearily.

"And I'm the King of England." Josh said sarcastically.

Kate looked around. "That looks like a tell on the far end of the ridge."

"As good a place as any." Rick said. "We'll start there."

"What the hell is a tell?" Josh demanded.

"A tell, spelled either with one L or two is a mound that has been built up from succeeding towns or cities being destroyed and then rebuilt on top of the rubble of the old one. It comes from the Arabic word for a hill or a mound."

"So, you think the elephants died there?" Josh asked.

Rick and Kate and the others ignored him.

They did move their camp to the other end of the ridge and began an exploratory trench. After two days they had only dug down a few feet.

"You're just stalling to get me to go away, aren't you?" Josh said as they began work one morning.

"I beg your pardon?" Rick did, refraining from hitting Josh with a shovel.

"I could dig a deeper trench than that in a day. You're stalling."

"We're not stalling. Archeology isn't about digging trenches. We're looking for sign of previous human habitation. We have to go slowly so we don't miss anything."

"We've found something." Cried Ryan from the end of the trench.

Josh pushed Rick out of the way. "Ivory? How much?"

"It's not ivory. It's a layer of ashes and burned wood. Someone burned a village down."

"And I can tell who burned it." Don Javier said, holding up something made of rusted medal. "This is the lock from a flintlock musket. Arab slavers did this century or more ago."

"Keep digging." Kate commanded.

Ten days later, Ryan came running to Rick and Kate's tent just as the sun was rising. "Sor, Ma'am. Oi've found something."

Rick stuck his head out of the tent. "Something Roman?"

"No! That bloody heathen Josh stole a dozen bottles of whiskey and took off last night. Oi'll kill 'im, Oi will, sor."

"Now, now, Ryan. We are not judge, jury and executioner here." Rick said in a soothing tone. "We'll report him to the police in Nairobi when we get back."

Ryan was not the least bit happy about that, wanting to organize a manhunt at once. Rick and Kate convinced him that the dig came first.

However, when Josh returned, severely hung over, three days later, Ryan could barely be restrained. "Ye Sasanach whiskey thief. Oi'll hev yer head, boyo. That I weel."

However, Kate was able to talk Ryan out of committing murder.

She felt differently about that the next morning. They were woken by a fusillade of shots. Rick grabbed his Tommy gun and ran outside, only to be hit over the head by a rifle butt. Kate tried to go to his aid, but was dragged away.

She looked around and saw a dozen men, mostly dressed in ragged portions of old German Army uniforms. Their friends and workers had been disarmed and were made to lie face down.

"I am Freiherr Ernst von Demming, the last German soldier still fighting for the Kaiser in Africa."

"You mean the last deserter still looting in Africa, don't you?" Kate said, nastily.

Von Demming laughed. "I was told by my new friend that you are quite stubborn, Frau Castle."

Kate looked past von Demming and saw Josh standing with the other rogues. He smiled at her.

"Now,", said von Demming, "you will tell me where the ivory and the Roman gold is."

Kate shook her head. "There is no ivory. Mr. Davidson has this deluded notion that there's an elephant's graveyard around here. The whole idea of such a thing is a myth, a legend, a fantasy."

Von Demming slapped Kate across the face, hard. "Herr Davidson has told me that you hide the ivory and the gold every night to cheat him out of his share. You will tell me where you hid it and you will tell me now."

"I've explained to you, there is neither gold, nor ivory here."

She was slapped again. This time, Rick reacted, punching von Demming in the groin. As von Demming bent over, three of his men beat Rick.

"I think perhaps I'll ask Herr Castle where the treasure is." Von Demming said, with more of a soprano voice.

"Darling, perhaps I should take care of the gentleman." The speaker was a tall, busty, but rather frowsy blonde. However, she was taking a long knife from a scabbard by her waist. "You know how I love to talk to handsome men." She giggled as she walked towards Rick.

"I've told you! There is no treasure." Kate screamed.

"I don't believe you. Herr Davidson would never lie to me. He knows what would happen if he ever did."

Kate saw Josh start backing away. "When you took the whiskey, you went looking for von Demming, didn't you?"

Josh nodded. "My friend Herr von Demming can always use a man who isn't known to be associated with him."

"Jacinda, dear. I grow tired of all this talk. Can you begin with Herr Castle?"

As Jacinda strode towards Rick, they heard a sound of faint drumming.

"Native drums?" Jacinda asked, looking around.

As the drumming got louder, they started to feel the earth beneath their feet shake. Then they heard the trumpeting of elephants.

"It's an elephant stampede?" Josh yelled, running for his life.

Kate pulled Rick to his feet and dragged him behind a truck just as a huge bull elephant ran past their tent. As more elephants stampeded through their camp, everything was chaos. Some men ran and some fired at the elephants. Those who fired, who were all von Demming's men, soon regretted their actions. But not for long.

Although it seemed like the stampede lasted for hours, it was over in minutes. Rick and Kate peeked out from around the truck. Their camp was in shambles. They quickly found Ryan and de Esposito and the rest of their men. They found the remains of several of von Demming's men, and eventually found von Demming himself. Or what was left of him. However, no trace of Josh Davidson or Jacinda von Slutte was found.

They set about salvaging what they could from the camp, which was surprisingly not as badly damaged as they had feared.

"Sor, will ye look over here?" Ryan called. "It looks like an elephant gouged the earth here wi' his trunk. That looks like a gold coin there, does it not?"

"It is gold coin, Ryan." Kate said, with a huge smile. "We should start another trench here."

They dug for another two weeks until they began to run short of supplies, but the coins they found and other Roman artifacts proved they had found the remains of a Roman commercial colony in Africa, and a larger one than anyone had suspected.

The expedition returned to Nairobi and wired the Royal Geographic Society of their findings. The RGS agreed to have them lead a larger expedition as soon as it could be put together.

However, deep within the heart of darkness of Africa, a man and a woman waited for Rick and Kate to return.

Author's note: I'm working on Together Again, the sequel to Infinite Kates, which will feature at least seven characters played by Stana Katic. I'm also writing a new historical story featuring Rick and Kate.