DISCLAIMER: Tony is mine (in a way) and the rest are not…I’m only borrowing them. I’ve been craving a napolitano since I wrote this! Extra thanks go to that book on Spain that I read in Borders in Provo last Friday that had the extra details I needed on the destruction of Sagunto and to my buddy Shakespeare for letting me borrow some of his lines from my favorite play. And thanks to Mrs. Dwyer (sophomore English teacher) who made us memorize excerpts of Julius Caesar – which gave me the idea And thanks to the real Antonio Contreras for "el acertijo" and to Laura in Alumbres for the "trabalenguas" She loved to amaze my comp and I w/those things.

The Taco Bell moment is one from my personal experiences in Sagunto – and the real Swing almost did what Mart almost did when I said what Dan said (there’s a trixie type sentence) It was pretty funny, my friend Daniel and I almost did what Mart almost did ‘cause we were laughing so hard. School begins in just four short days, but I do have the rest of the chapters fully outlined (on paper instead of just floating around in my head) so I should be able to finish this soon (relative to what, I won’t say, we’ll just leave it at soon) Inservices are good for something J WARNING: All people harmed in this are figments of my imagination. No real people were harmed. Even those with names of people I really know.

Chapter Twenty-one

16 marzo
1500 horas
Valencia

"So Tony knows that guy?" Mart asked for the third time.

"That’s what he said," Trixie answered, gritting her teeth to not lose her patience with her brother. If he asked that question one more time, she wasn’t sure what she would do to him.

"I can’t believe that Tony’s a spy," Honey said. "I would never have suspected it."

"That’s the idea, Honey," Brian said. "If he was running around in a trench coat with a briefcase or something people would be suspicious."

Honey glared at him. "Duh, I know that. I meant that he doesn’t look that much older than you guys."

"He’s not all that much older than any of us," Jim interjected, "and I think that they start college or careers earlier here than we do in the States. Am I right Hans?"

"Right. Mandatory schooling ends around fourteen or fifteen. Then kids get a job, go onto college prep courses or bum around at home. When they finish up with college prep then they try to get into University or some kind of training. And as I think you already know, the boys all serve a mandatory nine months to a year in the military at age 19." Hans paused a moment to look at the crowds of people milling by to see if Tony was with any of them. "Tony undoubtedly, with his family background and mili service, got extra training and moved through the ranks quickly."

"Maybe all that was a cover-up that he told you Trix, and he’s really in cahoots with Sergio and friends." Mart was pretty sure that Tony was honest, but he couldn’t pass up this opportunity to challenge Trixie’s ideas a little. As much as she hated it, it did help her sort through her facts better.

"I don’t think so, Mart," Trixie answered with more force than she had planned. "Of course, I can’t prove it, but I have a feeling…"

"Say no more. If we haven’t learned to trust your feelings by now, Trixie, we wouldn’t be here." Dan smiled at her. Trixie’s feelings about people were about 98% correct. She had misjudged him, he hadn’t forgotten that, but he also hadn’t been giving any of them a chance.

Juliana shifted Betje to her other hip and spoke for the first time in several minutes. "I know Tony said to wait here, but we’ve been waiting almost a half hour. How about Hans and I go buy the tickets for the bullfight? The plaza de toros and ticket booths are just over there," she said, indicating the large circular shaped structure to the right of the train station. "That way we won’t have to do it later and we can go straight to the fallas museum when Tony catches up with us."

The Bob-Whites agreed that that was the best plan and Jim and Brian decided to accompany the couple. After collecting everyone’s money for purchasing the tickets and admonishing them to stay put, the group split. The girls, Mart and Dan sat down on a large bench in front of the station that faced out toward the plaza so that they could keep an eye out for Tony.

*     *     *

‘So, this is whom Trixie and her friends had gotten themselves involved with. It figured one of the most elusive of ETA’s young talent.’ Tony had had just two run-ins with Pedro Prat, but that was enough to realize the danger that the Americans were in. The two young Spaniards had started their mili training together on the island of Mallorca, one of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. From the moment they had met, Tony had felt uneasy around Pedro. At first, he had thought it was just the typical Valenciano reaction to a Catalan. But soon he realized that it was much more than that. Even then, Tony had been involved in intelligence a little bit. He had found out that ETA had a man with a lot of potential among those doing the mandatory nine months. He never had enough proof to come out and say that it was Pedro, but he’d had a gut feeling about the whole thing.

Then, shortly after returning from Bosnia, he had been in France on an undercover mission to infiltrate one of the terrorist training camps used by both ETA and the PLO. While there, he had encountered Pedro as one of the instructors on a class of basic sabotage. They had recognized each other. It had almost blown Tony’s cover, but Pedro hadn’t been sure to whom he was loyal. Just as Tony had gathered enough information to put Pedro away, someone had revealed that Tony was an agent. Tony had just barely managed to escape the blast that had destroyed the barracks at the training camp. Pedro was supposedly one of the twenty-seven ETA trainers and trainees that had been killed in the explosion. But here he was, running through the crowded streets of Valencia after stealing the backpack from an American tourist. Tony had one of those gut feelings again that Pedro was going to ruin his vacation.

*     *     *

"We can trust Tony, I know it Mart," Trixie said, seeing that her brother still wore that "convince me" look on his face.

"Maybe. I still don’t like how he lied about going to study at Scotland Yard." Mart could be just as stubborn as Trixie when he wanted to.

"Would you two just knock it off!" Dan’s patience was quickly running out. "He lied. Big deal. He’s a spy. Surprise. I just wish he’d get back here so that we could get back to the apartment. Something strange is going on."

The other four Bob-Whites looked in surprise at Dan. He usually kept a lid on his frustrations, on any feelings for that matter.

"Sorry man," Mart said, ashamed at himself for playing his mind games with Trixie and inadvertently riling up his best friend. "I’ll shut up now."

For several minutes the five friends sat in an uncomfortable silence, watching the people rushing about, running to catch the train or a bus. All of them had spent time in big cities before, but still there was something different about this. Trixie thought that even if she didn’t know that she was in a foreign country, she would still know that she was no longer in the United States. Everything just had a different feel. It wasn’t just all the old buildings and the signs in Spanish and valenciano. And it wasn’t the absence of large cars and the prevalence of the buses and taxis. It was all of that and something else. The very air just seemed to carry with it a different feeling that was unexplainable. It caused that deep ache somewhere inside that she had never felt before. Like something was missing and she had found it, but was on the verge of losing it again.

"Trix, why did Tony say that he was studying English with those two guys again?" Di asked, breaking the silence.

Trixie jerked back into the reality of where her body was at and answered Di’s question. "He said something about needing to improve his English so that he spoke without an accent."

Mart snorted, "Well, he probably shouldn’t be talking to that Waxter character then. That guy’s got a Southern accent so thick that if Tony mixed that with his natural accent no one would be able to understand him."

Everyone nodded in agreement and Di sighed, "I hope he doesn’t lose it completely."

"Who lose what, Di?" Honey asked.

"Tony lose his Spanish accent when he speaks English. It’s kinda’ sexy. Even sexier than Enrique Iglesias’ or Antonio Banderas’ accent."

Dan, Trixie and Honey all burst out laughing while Mart glared at his girlfriend. Accents sexy? She’d never told him that and he adopted various accents when goofing around.

Noticing Mart’s frown, Di hugged him. "I said the accent was sexy, Mart, not Tony. I haven’t even looked that closely."

Mart visibly seemed to cheer up. "Really?"

"Of course. Why would I check out a Spanish spy when I have you?"

Mart’s answer was a kiss that was all too brief thanks to Trixie’s interruption.

"Uh, guys. Just ‘cause we’re here doesn’t mean you have to adopt all the customs."

With a wicked sparkle to his blue eyes, Mart looked at his almost twin sister and retorted in a sweet tone, "Oh really, sister dear? So it’s okay on the balcony, just not on a bench?"

"Um, hello. Remember us?" Honey asked, indicating her and Dan. "You’ve lost me somewhere with adopting customs and balconies and benches." Looking at Trixie, she saw that her best friend’s face had turned as red as the flannel shirt Dan was wearing. Honey hurriedly put 1 and 1 together and came up with an answer. Before she could question further, Di exclaimed, "Tony! There he is waiting to cross the street. He doesn’t have the backpack and he’s limping!"

 

Chapter Twenty-two

16 marzo
1530 horas
Valencia

Not only was Tony limping, he was dripping wet and he was very angry.

Just as he crossed the street, the four that had gone to buy tickets returned. No one said a word; they just waited silently for Tony to reach them. All of them felt that instead of having gotten rid of the problems that had besieged them since arriving in Spain, they had just been thrust even deeper into some major international intrigue.

"Tony what happened?" Juliana was the first to speak as the young Spaniard stood facing them.

"Este Pedro…he get away." Tony wrung water from the hem of his black T-shirt. "I chase him through la Plaza de Ayuntamiento down la calle San Vicente Martir and into la Plaza de la Reina." Tony paused for a breath. He knew that to the Americans none of these names meant anything to them, even though that morning they had been through all of them as they had looked at the fallas, but Hans and Juliana would know where he had gone.

"That’s quite a long way to go, Tony," Hans said. "But how did you get wet? You didn’t fall into a fountain did you?"

Tony colored slightly. "Bueno, as you know there are many people in las plazas. And with la ofrenda beginning it is even worse. I managed to follow Pedro down la calle Micalet. He almost went into la Micalet, but thought better of it. If he had entered there, I would have been able to get him too easily." With a sigh, he continued. "Once in la Plaza de la Virgen, everything is loco, caótico with all of the falleras and las ramas." Seeing the confused looks on the Bob-White’s faces, Tony quickly explained. "The falleras take ramas, bunches of flowers, to the Plaza of the Virgin and place them as una ofrenda, an offering, to Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados, Our Lady of the Abandoned, patroness of Valencia. It is very, crowded in the plaza now with the large imagen of the Virgin in the plaza."

"That still doesn’t explain how you got so wet…oh, Tony, you didn’t…" Juliana realized where he had gotten wet. She wasn’t sure if she should sympathize with him or laugh.

Shrugging his shoulders, Tony finished his story, "We were both weaving back and forth through the crowd. To get around la virgen Pedro jumped up on the edge of la fuente and started to walk along that. Por supuesto, I followed him. Well, the edge, it is slippery with the water splashing up and my foot, it twisted and I fell in. When I finally pulled myself out Pedro was gone. There are probably ten different calles and ramblas that he could have gone down. So I came back here to get you all and go home."

"No museum?" Di asked a little regretfully.

"No museum." Tony agreed. "I think that it is time that you talk with the authorities. Pedro is a very dangerous man. He has risen from the dead, you see."

Suddenly, Tony began to sneeze. Jim pulled off his sweatshirt and handed it the older man as Juliana said, "Okay, no museum. Let’s go catch the bus and get home. I’ll fix Cola Cao for everyone and Tony can explain that last remark."

Stunned, The Bob-Whites nodded in agreement. They didn’t know what Cola Cao was, but that didn’t matter. Getting back to the piso was suddenly more important than anything else.

*     *     *

1600 horas
Plaza Santa Catalina, 6
Chocolatería
Valencia

"Arabe, where is Sergio?" Pedro was shaking. He wasn’t sure if it was from fear, anger or excitement. It was unbelievable that Contreras was involved with los americanos.

"He’s down at the bar, where else. Something in him has given up. He no longer seems to care. Why? Did you get the disc?"

"I got another backpack, but it had nothing like a disc in it. Sweatshirt, water bottles, candy bars and a map." There hadn’t even been a camera or anything that he could sell. If he had really been a pickpocket, this would have been very depressing. "There is a new development."

"Good or bad?" Arabe asked warily.

"Mostly bad," Pedro conceded. "Have you heard of Contreras, a young agent of Interlope?"

"I know of a Contreras that used to be with Interpol. He must be fifty by now. And there was one even before that. What does that have to do with the Americans and the disc?"

"This is the son and grandson of the other Contreras. We’ve had some, um, encounters before, he and I. The last was at the camp in France." Arabe grunted in acknowledgement of the significance of that event so Pedro continued. "He was with the Americans this afternoon."

"What?!" Arabe sat down hard on the rock wall of the ruins. "They have called in the authorities? They must know about the disc!"

"I don’t know all. But Contreras pursued me for a long way through the city after I took the pack."

"He didn’t catch you?"

"He had an accident."

"What did you do to him?" True, Pedro had potential to become a leader, but if he got too cocky…

"I did nothing. The fool did it to himself. He fell into a fountain."

"Fell into a fountain?" That wasn’t an easy thing to do.

"Yes, and I got away without a problem."

Arabe sighed. This assignment was getting more and more tangled. This was the last time he accepted an offer to go work in Spain. Give him something easy – like Israel or Ireland. "What are your plans now?"

"I have to make some more calls. I’ll be back to Sagunto by nightfall. Find Sergio and sober him up. I don’t care what he feels about the mission now, he’s in it until the end – either of the mission or of his life, to me it doesn’t matter." Pedro ended the call and put his phone back into the pocket of his leather jacket.

What an afternoon! He had been shocked to see his nemesis, Contreras, begin chasing him after the mascletà. He knew that Contreras had never really believed that he had been killed in that blast in France. That’s why his name had never been taken off of the wanted posters that hung in all of the bus and train stations in the country. Now he just had a few arrangements to make for his new "friends" and then he’d return to Sagunto to make yet another plan.

Chapter Twenty-three

16 marzo
2000 horas
Piso de Hans y Juliana
Valencia

"What a day!" Honey exclaimed as she collapsed into the chair next to her best friend on the balcony. They sat in a comfortable silence staring at the night sky above them, both mulling over the events of the day.

Since they had arrived back at the apartment that afternoon things had been in an uproar. Tony had borrowed some dry clothes from Jim so that he wouldn’t waste any time by going home. Once they were all settled on the couches, chairs and floor with warm mugs of Cola Cao, which had turned out to be the Spanish version of Nesquick hot chocolate, they got down to business. Tony had asked the Bob-Whites to repeat everything that had happened to them since their arrival at the airport in Barcelona.

With a glance around the group, Trixie saw that all eyes were on her. It had been awhile since she had been in this position. With a sigh, she had begun with her first sighting of Sergio at the airport. As she continued the other Bob-Whites had added comments. When Honey and Mart added the part about the Arab that had been watching them in the train station, Tony had groaned and shook his head. He had glanced quickly over the printouts from the Embassy and continued to shake his head. That was when Brian had asked Tony how he knew the name of the latest person to pursue them. Briefly, he recounted his experience in France and how he had never believed that Pedro had been killed in the explosion.

After getting a bit more information from them, Tony had made a phone call. When he had finished talking with his superior officer, he knew that his vacation had quickly come to an end, whether he liked it or not. He was quickly assigned to stick with the Americans as much as possible until they knew what the terrorists were after.

Tony had left, warning them to stay alert if they went out of the apartment building and to be careful of anyone coming by or any packages that might arrive. He hadn’t wanted to scare them, but scaring them was better than leaving them unaware.

After a hurried dinner, Juliana had taken possession of the bathroom to give Betje a bath and get her ready for bed and Hans had left to finish some work at his office. Di had volunteered to do the dishes and Mart was helping her, chattering away in a variety of accents, trying to discover which one was the "sexiest". The other three boys had collapsed in front of the TV where they were trying to follow the Real Madrid and Barcelona soccer game. After emailing her parents, Honey had decided it was time to catch up with Trixie on some things.

That had brought her to the balcony.

"Hard to believe that in just a couple hours this peaceful night will be destroyed by umpteen million fireworks going off," Trixie murmured as she leaned her chair back against the wall and closed her eyes.

"Yeah, but I guess it must be quite a sight! I’m still mad that you didn’t wake me up to see them last night," Honey teased.

Trixie was glad that it was dark so Honey couldn’t see her blush. So far, it seemed like Mart had kept quiet about what he had observed on the balcony. She didn’t know why she was suddenly so reticent about her relationship with Jim, she usually told Honey everything. "Um, I didn’t wake you ‘cause I remembered how grumpy Brian had said you were yesterday morning when you hadn’t gotten enough sleep."

"Yeah, well, maybe tonight I’ll get up and watch them. Anyway, if I’d been out there you probably wouldn’t have had your conversation with Jim." Honey once again said a little silent thank you for that.

"True." Trying desperately to turn the conversation away from her and Jim, Trixie asked, "So, you and Brian seem to be friendlier than usual. Are you guys going to get back together?" Trixie didn’t think there was much chance of that, but she thought it would send Honey thinking in another direction.

"We’ve always remained friends, Trix. We’re just having fun. I think he was seeing someone at school." Honey knew what Trixie was trying to do; they hadn’t been best friends for four years for nothing. "Hey, Trix, I was going to ask you something earlier, but with all this terrorist stuff, it kind of slipped my mind…."

"I know what you mean. What was it?" Trixie hoped against hope that it wasn’t what she thought it was going to be. No such luck.

"Um, what was Mart getting at when he was talking about balconies this afternoon?"

"Uh, gee, uh, I’m not sure. You never can tell what is going on in his loony head." A couple of years ago she’d have been dying to tell Honey about her first kiss, but for some reason she didn’t feel like that now.

"It was something that was comparable to his kissing Di on the bench today." Honey hadn’t seen Trixie this uncomfortable in a long time, this was fun.

"Oh…" Trixie was trying to stall, hoping that something would happen to change the subject like it had that afternoon.

"Heck, Trixie, it’s never been this hard to get something out of you!" Honey decided to just throw caution to the wind and flat out ask, "Did Jim kiss you last night when you were talking on the balcony?"

"Yes."

"It’s about time! I’ll have to collect on my bet."

There was a thud as the front legs of Trixie’s chair came down. "Bet? What are you talking about?"

"Last year when you guys started dating – officially that is – Brian, Dan and I made bets."

"Bets? On Jim and I?" Trixie wasn’t sure if she should be angry or flattered.

"Yup. I had written Brian about it, and about how nervous the two of you were the night of your birthday, your first official date. He wrote back and said that he bet that Jim wouldn’t kiss you until you guys got married."

"Married! Who said anything about marriage – I’m not even seventeen yet! He only kissed me once!" Feelings of being flattered were quickly changing to anger.

"Relax. You know that someday the two of you will get married. You balance each other out, neither of you will ever find anyone else that does it as well or that would put up with your idiosyncrasies. Anyway, I wrote back and said that Jim would kiss you before you turned seventeen. Then we decided to make a betting pool out of it…you know, with all the Bob-Whites. But then we figured that Mart would ruin it and end up teasing you about the bet so we didn’t let him in on it. And Di would’ve told him. So, we just clued Dan in. Now I get to go collect from them." Honey was pleased. She had known that Jim wouldn’t wait forever to kiss his girlfriend. Now she would finally get to collect on those two dinners that were up for grabs. Trixie got some action and she got two dates – a nice trade-off.

"And what, pray tell, did you wager with," Trixie asked dryly, "and what did Dan bet on?"

"Dan bet that Jim would kiss you on your first anniversary – namely your birthday. And we all bet a dinner."

"Of your own cooking? You didn’t get too much for it – neither Brian or Dan are the greatest of cooks."

"Heavens no! I wouldn’t have bet that! No – a nice dinner at a nice restaurant. Winner’s choice. I’ve got some wonderful ideas." Honey smiled. She hadn’t been on a date in awhile, so this was going to be a lot of fun.

"Good! Make ‘em pay. You don’t have to have witnessed it do you? Or share details or any of that?"

"No."

"Good. Alrighty…not to change the subject or anything, but what do you think these terrorists are after?"

Honey chuckled. She knew she couldn’t pry any more tonight. And this was the old Schoolgirl Shamus Trixie talking; it would be nice to discuss a mystery together again.

"Well either they have a fetish for backpacks or for some reason they think we have something that belongs to them," Honey stated a tad sarcastically.

"They keep asking for a disc. We don’t have any discs. None of the boys brought their laptops."

"I know. Wild isn’t it, that we meet up with a Spanish secret agent."

"Yeah. We go to have dinner with a Spanish-speaking African family. They invite their American Mormon missionary friends who bring along a spy who says that he needs to improve his English ‘cause he wants to go study in Scotland Yard."

Well, Trix, it’s typical for us, isn’t it. I don’t think we’ve ever had a non-adventurous vacation since we met!" Honey was quiet for a minute thinking back over the many escapades that they had been involved in.

"What about the month we spent in Cobbett’s Island last summer? And the ski trip we took up to Mead’s Mountain at Thanksgiving?"

"I’ll give you Mead’s Mountain. Trixie, you were so sick with the flu that the most adventurous thing you did all week was get yourself in an upright position and walk to the bathroom. But on the island…who almost drowned when Pete’s boat capsized? Who sprained their ankle climbing the dunes during the clambake? And who found that little girl’s lost cat?"

"We all almost drowned when the boat capsized. I didn’t sprain my ankle, just twisted it slightly and the cat…she had climbed in the back of the station wagon to have her kittens. When I got in to drive to the store and she started meowing at me I almost ran off the road. What I mean is mystery adventures, Honey."

"You win. We haven’t had any for awhile. That’s why I think it is about time that we do – I’ve missed the thrill of the chase."

Trixie squinted in the darkness, trying to see if her best friend was teasing her or being serious. She sounded serious. Before she could ask, Honey stood up.

"Let’s head inside and see what the others are up to. We should probably get to bed kind of early. We have to leave around seven to get to the train station on time to catch the train to Sagunto."

Trixie followed Honey into the warm, brightly-lit living room to join her friends. She still had mixed feelings about solving this mystery, but Honey’s enthusiasm was beginning to affect her. She had never realized that Honey had actually enjoyed the mysteries that much.

Trixie let herself be drawn into the laughter of her brothers and her friends on the living room where Di was drawing caricatures of them all that were incredibly realistic. Jim pulled her down onto the couch next to him and hugged her. Brian and exchanged glances and Honey quickly announced that the bet was over and they both owed her dinner. Over their groans, Honey explained to Jim, Mart, Di and Juliana what the bet had been. Trixie kept her eyes focused on the floor, trying to imagine herself out of the room. Jim’s face soon matched his hair and he kept saying, "And I thought you guys were my friends!?"

The chiming of the old clock that was one of the few things Juliana still had that had belonged to her parents cut off the laughter. Seeing that it was already ten o’clock, the Bob-Whites hurried to bed. After the last few days, who knew what they could expect tomorrow.

*     *     *

2300 horas
16 marzo
c/ Pesset Aleixandre 12,5
Benimamet, Valencia

Tony lay on his back staring at the ceiling above him. He kept thinking over what the Americans had told him. There was something that he was missing, so little clue that was the key to everything. ETA terrorists usually don’t single out American tourists, they stick with government and military officials for kidnapping and murder and teenage kids for recruitment. This just didn’t make sense.

When he has arrived home he had discussed this new case with his father. Rafael Contreras had worked in Spanish Intelligence for thirty-five years before retiring to run a panadería. As the elder Contreras listened carefully to the facts that his son presented him, he had realized two things. First, that the men involved were desperate to regain something and secondly, that the man who was heading the operation was not the most skilled of ETA’s men. He remembered Arabe from his days with Interpol. The man was a genius at terrorism. There was no way that he was organizing these haphazard hits. Rafa also remembered Sergio. He had been sentenced a couple of times for minor drug possession charges but they had never had enough evidence to connect him with ETA or to put him away for a long time.

By the time the two men had gone to bed, Tony’s father had remembered a contact he had in the United Kingdom. He was a weasly fellow, but if you turned the screws just right, he would usually spill whatever he knew.

‘That’s the first thing I must do in the morning,’ Tony decided as he stared into the blackness of the room, ‘I must call Scotland Yard and have them bring in this Bernardo guy and question him. And I have to meet the Bob-Whites at the station by 8:15. They should be safe in Sagunto, there’s no reason Pedro and his cohorts should be there, but I still need to stick with them.’

Tony rolled over and fell asleep, listening to the rhythmic breathing of his younger brother and remembering how nice it had been to look into Trixie Belden’s clear blue eyes.

 

Chapter Twenty-four

17 marzo
0730 horas
Train to Sagunto

"We’re glad that you could come with us Tony," Honey said, smiling at the young Interpol agent sitting in the seat facing her.

"Especially since you brought breakfast," Mart added, brushing the flaky crust of a napolitano from his chin.

Tony grinned. He had known the Bob-Whites less than 48 hours, but he was already well-acquainted with Mart’s insatiable appetite. "No problem. I always enjoy wandering the ruins in Sagunto. And Mart, el viejo will be pleased to know you enjoyed the food."

Tony had met them at the train station with a bulky package tied up with string and a bag of bricks, as he had called them. After purchasing the ida y vuelta tickets for the day’s excursion Tony had shared the contents of his parcels. There was a package of paper cups along with the bricks that were actually boxes of juice or zumo as he called it. Honey had been glad to see the melocotón y uva that she had enjoyed earlier, along with the uva y piña and manzana. The bundle, once unwrapped, offered delicious pastries filled with chocolate. Those were the napolitanos. Also there were croissants – and both were still warm from the oven of the panadería run by Tony’s father.

"Did you only come for the ruins? Or was there another reason?" Honey asked, keeping her voice light.

Unconsciously Tony’s eyes shifted toward Trixie, sitting in the group of seats on the other side of the train as he said, "Pues, I think that you would be fine there without me. Pedro and the others are probably not expecting you to leave the city. But just in case I would feel better if I went with you." With a wry smile he added, "After all, you are the assignment that has ended my vacation."

Honey nodded her head slowly. She hadn’t missed Tony’s glance at Trixie, so she didn’t think that he was coming just because it was his assignment.

Di had been quietly watching the scenery zip by when suddenly she spoke, "Mart – why don’t you try your riddle on Tony."

"Riddle?" Tony looked quizzically at Mart. "What’s that?"

Mart swallowed the last bite of the last croissant and said, "Well, it’s kind of like a joke…it’s sorta’ dumb."

"What is it?" Honey asked, now curious.

"O.K. this is something my Spanish teacher tried to stump us with." Mart paused until he had everyone’s attention, including the four Bob-Whites across the aisle. "Madrid empieza con ‘m’ y termina con…"

Everyone stared blankly at him and Mart began to squirm in his seat, "I told you it was dumb."

"¡Un acertijo! Yo lo sé," Tony’s face broke into a wide grin. "I get it…this is an old one. It’s very simple when you think about it."

"I guessed all kinds of answers," Di said, "But Mart said that they were all wrong."

"If I spoke Spanish it might make sense," Brian sighed.

Mart translated, "Madrid begins with ‘m’ and ends with…"

"E," Honey answered quickly.

"T," Dan said at the same time, thinking of termina.

Tony grinned, "D for both languages, ¿no?"

"Yes," Mart replied. "It’s simple if you think about it and listen carefully."

"D," Brian mused, "Nothing starts with D."

"That’s what makes it un acertijo, a riddle," Tony said laughing. "Madrid ends with D. The joke is ‘Madrid begins with ‘m’ and ends with ‘d’."
Everyone groaned. Jim added, "It’s like the kids joke that ends with ‘spell it’ and they’re trying to get you to just spell I-T and not some other word."

"Do you know any other riddles, Tony, that we could use to confuse Spanish teachers?" Dan asked.

"Hmm, let me think. I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but how about a trabalenguas?"

"Traba-what?" Trixie asked, entering the conversation for the first time.

"Trabalenguas…when your tongue is tied."

"A tongue twister?" Jim queried.

"I think that is it…all the words start with the same letter."

"Yeah, that’s it. Let’s hear one," Mart said excitedly. Words were to him what mysteries were to Trixie. Something to be sought after and explored – it didn’t matter what language, even though Spanish hadn’t exactly been his favorite class.

"Bueno, here it is…Tres triste tigres comían trigo en un trigal con un tenedor."

Seven blank stares were focused on Tony’s perfect smile.

"Come again," Dan murmured.

Tony repeated it at a slower rate.

"Tres is three, right?" Di asked, hoping that she had remembered that word right from the hours of Sesame Street she had watched with her twin sisters.

"Yes," Tony said, drawing the ‘s’ sound out into a hiss. "It is not a tongue twister when translated…Three sad tigers ate wheat in a wheat field with a fork."

"Alright Tony, say it again, slowly," Mart stressed the slowly. He wanted to get this down well. It could come in handy, especially if he was ever trapped in a bathroom by a Spanish terrorist again. That should confuse them just as much as una cerveza por favor had done.

The rest of the short trip found the Bob-Whites practicing and laughing as they tried to make the pronunciations that were so foreign to their tongues. Before they knew it the conductor was announcing that they were in Sagunt.

*     *    *

"Now this is how I imagined Spain would be," Trixie sighed as the Bob-Whites followed Tony uphill through the narrow windy streets of Sagunto.

"Like what?" Honey asked as she stepped around a dog sleeping in a doorway that opened directly into the cobblestone-street.

"All these old buildings lining the narrow streets that just wind their way through the town. And all the white buildings with old men in black sitting in front. It’s just like in the old Time-Life book that I found in the library."

"Yeah, it’s neat," Di agreed, "but I think we need to take a breather…the streets are pretty steep here."

"Well the castle ruins are on the top of the hill," Honey said a bit impatiently. "And I doubt that a taxi could fit up these streets."

The three girls had slowed down as they talked and were several meters back from the boys. Before Di could respond to Honey’s last comment, they heard a whistle from up ahead. The heads of the three girls snapped to attention and they saw the boys standing in front of an archway in the middle of the street. Picking up the pace, they hurried to catch up.

It was still pretty quiet in the streets of Sagunto, even though it was almost eight thirty in the morning. Tony had explained to them while they waited for the missionaries to meet them that Sagunto was a pueblo of la comunidad valenciana and celebrated fallas also. So the people of Sagunto had been up late the night before and were all sleeping off the effects of the night before.

"You girls are always so slow," Mart groaned as the girls caught up to him and the other boys.

"We’re here to enjoy the sights, not practice for a walk-a-thon," Trixie retorted.

"Yeah, well the sight we’re here to see is still a-ways up the hill and we’ll never get there if you women keep –"

"Whoa guys…you’ve done so well this far," Brian smiled at his younger siblings, but they could tell by the edge to his voice that he was not in the mood to listen to their squabbling.

"Hey Tony," Di broke in, taking the attention off her friends, "Why is there an arch here in the middle of the street?"

"Good question, Di," the Spaniard responded. "This is la Portalet de la Judería or la Portalet de la Sang. It is an old barrio here in Sagunto."

"What exactly does it mean? I’m guessing the portalet mean portal or entry or something."

"Right Dan. This is the entry to the area of the city where the Jews lived many centuries ago. The Jews were ‘removed’ in the same year that Columbus sailed for the New World."

"Removed?" Di asked, "Like ‘removed’ in the terms of Hitler and what he did during World War II?"

"Yes, like that. Los Reyes catolicos oversaw their expulsion during the Inquisition. They forced them to work as servants when before they had been leaders in their communities. Then they confiscated their belongings. In the end if they didn’t renounce their beliefs they were killed or driven out of the country."

The group stood quietly looking at the arch and thinking about what Tony had just told them. Jim broke the silence saying, "That’s awful. And it happened to them again in this century. Hopefully now we have learned to respect one another and not be prejudice…"

"But have we, Jim?" Brian asked. "All we have to do is watch the news and we see that people are still hurting others because they don’t like the way they think."

"You are right, Brian. If you ever see Waxter again, ask him about what has happened to him in his time here. He is here with a different way of thinking and he has not always been welcomed, nor have his fellow misionarios." Tony looked around him at the serious faces and frowned. "Sorry guys, I shouldn’t have brought that up. We are here for fun, not deep thoughts on world affairs. Let’s go."

The Americans continued to follow Tony through the narrow quiet streets. The only people out were old wrinkled men gossiping and old women mopping their doorsteps and the sidewalk. After a few moments they left the stone-paved streets and started up a well-worn dirt path.

Abruptly Tony halted. In the path was a series of wide stone steps. They led up the hillside at an angle toward the walls of the fortress above. After several yards they crumbled into the path.

"Tony, do these lead to the castle?" Mart asked looking further up the hillside trying to spot other steps.

"At one time, probably yes. Now, they make a good place to sit and rest, no?" Tony responded as he sank down on the lowest step.

One by one, the Bob-Whites followed suit. Mart and Dan, the backpack carriers of the day, pulled several small bottles of water out of their backs and passed them around. Juliana had picked them up at Mercadona the night before so that they wouldn’t need to make any stops that morning.

When everyone seemed to have caught his or her breath, Brian asked, setting down his water bottle and looking at Tony expectantly, "So, can you tell us the history of this place?"

"Bueno, Sagunto was originally a colony of los griegos, the Greeks. Then it was an ally to the Romans during the Punic Wars. They should have been left alone, but that wasn’t to be. Pues, Sagunto has been invaded many many times – by the Romans, the Moors, the Goths, the Vandals and most importantly Hannibal and his Carthagineses. The battle with Hannibal is the most famous of all."

Tony paused, checking to see if he had the attention of all his new friends. Seeing seven pairs of eyes looking back at him, he began his tale.

"In the fifth century BC the settlers in this area built the stone walls for their protection from invaders and surrounded several ancient villages to form a fortress town. They progressed for many years, trading with the Greeks and others. However, also during this time there was much strife in the south. And much of this was caused by a man called Hannibal. In 218 BC Hannibal arrived at Sagunto. The battle would last for eight months before reaching a finale that he never dreamed of."

Tony stood up to face the Americans and began with the details of the story. "The people of Spain – ancient and modern – do not give up easily. The people of Sagunto were no different. They barricaded themselves inside the city walls after gathering all the food possible and filling the cisterns with water. They planned to remain in their self-imposed prison as long as they had to."

"Wow," Mart said, looking closely at Tony, "So if they ran out of food and water, they’d either have to surrender or starve."

"Wouldn’t either way be suicide?" Dan interjected.

"Exactly. Hannibal and his men were so sure of themselves that they never thought that the people of Sagunto would do anything but surrender. But they underestimated the determination and pride of the townspeople."

Tony paused and took a long drink of water before continuing with the story that had his American audience riveted. Even though he’d grown up knowing the history of this small pueblo, it still amazed him when he thought of what the people of Sagunto had done.

"The city walls had been attacked over and over and yet the townspeople would not give up! The held the invaders off and then built large bonfires. In those they burned everything of value – they refused to leave anything of worth for the heathens from the south."

Unconsciously, Honey, Trixie and Di had grabbed for each other’s hands a s Tony’s voice deepened in recounting the details of this war. He had a way of telling a story that mesmerized them. It wasn’t just the "sexy" accent; it was that quality of voice that some actors had, the ability to convey a mood with just the tone of their voice.

Tony continued, "The brave people of Sagunto knew that the end was near. They were running out of water and food. Yet they still refused to surrender to the armies that were literally beating down their door. A serious decision was made. They all knew what happened to Hannibal’s prisoners - the men of the city did not want their women and children to suffer at the hands of the conqueror. A town meeting was held where everyone - down to the youngest child – was present. The last plan of defense was presented to the people of Sagunto and was unanimously accepted."

Once more Tony stopped, quickly reading the expressions on the faces of the Americans. He wondered if any of them had concluded what the final plan had been. He could tell from their eyes that they were hoping against hope that their thoughts would not be the reality of what happened so many centuries before.

In a voice just barely above a whisper and filled with emotion he finished his tale, "The meeting concluded at once. Men picked up their small children and gathered their wives close. The young warriors of the city rebuilt the smoldering bonfires until they were blazing high and the sky was lit by the glow. Families approached the fires somberly and determinedly. The old and the sick who couldn’t walk on their own were brought to the flames by their families. Last hugs and last words were exchanged. Words of courage and love were whispered into the ears of the children. Then, by ones and twos, all those who were not able to bear arms and protect the city flung themselves into the flames."

A collective gasp burst forth from the Bob-Whites as Tony’s voice rose slightly as he reached the fate of the people of ancient Sagunto.

"After the voluntary sacrifices of their loved ones, the men let the fires spread to the whole city. Then they prepared to do battle with the armies of Hannibal and fought to the very last man."

The silence that followed seemed to echo with the sounds of screaming and crying and the clash of swords. No one moved or even spoke for several minutes, each reflecting on the horror of the history of the ruins just above them.

Mart sighed, "A pyrrhic victory if I’ve ever heard one."

Jim and Dan nodded in agreement while the rest looked at Mart in confusion.

"A what?" Brian asked, with a side-long glance at his younger brother.

"Pyrrhic victory – a victory achieved at too great a cost." Dan grinned, "Learned that in a history of civ. class last semester – never thought it’d come in handy."

"So you mean that Hannibal had the victory, but being as it cost the lives of an entire city it was really an empty victory?" Honey brushed the tears from her eyes as she related Mart’s phrase to the historical account Tony had shared.

"Exactly," Dan said, patting Honey on the shoulder.

Tony looked at the serious faces of the Bob-Whites and felt a bit guilty. They were on vacation and in less than half an hour he had told them two stories that took the fun out of the day.

"Vaya guys, I didn’t mean to depress you. It all happened centuries ago – it is history."

"We know," Trixie said with a sigh, "It’s just that you told the story so well, I almost felt as if I were there."

The other Bob-Whites nodded in agreement. "I almost expected to see Hannibal marching up the hill and see bonfires lighting the sky," Jim added.

"Well, any fires lighting the sky you see will be due to las fallas. And if we don’t get moving, we will still be here tonight to see them," Tony said grinning as the Bob-Whites began to stand up and dust themselves off.

*     *     *

"This is the Roman teatro," Tony explained as he led the Bob-Whites through a stone passageway. They arrived at an entry way and looked down into the open-air theatre. The stage area looked a lot like those that Mart, Honey, Jim and Trixie had seen in the Shakespearean theatres in England a few years before.

Directly below where they were standing were the seats for the audience. The center seating areas had been restored, but to both sides the crumbling stone bleachers were evidence that the theatre was older than anything the Bob-Whites had run across in New York.

"Do they still perform here?" Diana asked, rotating slowly to take in all the details of the ancient structure.

"Actually, yes. In the summer, they have a festival here – it is very nice. The Romans built it about 1,900 years ago, and after much restoration once again it is able to be enjoyed."

Mart pulled out his camera and began taking pictures – eventually having everyone pose in front of the portal while he stood on the seats below.

Tony, in answer to another question from Di, began to tell about some of the productions he had attended in the past. Mart quickly joined her, wanting to keep her from falling under the "influence" of the accent.

Jim and Brian sat down in the entryway and started to discuss the events of the last couple of days while Trixie wandered around lost in her own thoughts.

No one noticed when Honey and Dan, after a brief whispered conversation, slipped down to the theatre floor and onto the stage. After another whispered conversation, Honey knelt down, facing the corner. As he began to speak, Dan knelt down beside her,

"Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while?"

"Yea, and I will weep a while longer."

"I will not desire that."

"You have no reason; I do it freely."

"Surely, I do believe your fair cousin is wrong’d."

"Ah, how much might the man deserve of me that would right her!"

"Is there any way to show such friendship?"

"A very even way, but no such friend."

"May a man do it?"

"It is a man’s office, but not yours."

"I do love nothing in the world so well as you." Honey turned to Dan in surprise as he continued with,"Is not that strange."

In amazement Honey responded, "As strange as the thing I know not. It were as possible for me to say, I loved nothing so well as you; but believe me not, and yet I lie not: I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. – I am sorry for my cousin."

"By my sword, Beatrice, thou lov’st me."

"Do not swear by it, and eat it."

"I will swear by it that you love me; and I will make him eat it, that says I love not you."

"Will you not eat your word?"

"With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest I love thee."

"Why then, God forgive me!"

"What offence, sweet Beatrice?"

"You have stayed me in a happy hour: I was about to protest I loved you."

"And do it with all thy heart."

"I love you with so much of my heart, that none is left to protest." Honey smiled radiantly at him.

Then Dan leaned over and he and Honey embraced. Emotionally he said, "Come, bid me do any thing for thee."

"Kill Claudio," Honey said in a deadly serious voice.

As Honey’s final line rang out, applause from the stands greeted her. She began to blush furiously. This was not like her, taking – literally – center stage. Dan grabbed her hand and pulled her forward to bow to their "crowd" and the laughter of their friends echoed against the stone walls.

"I told you I remembered those lines," Dan said as he helped Honey down to the main floor so they could climb back up to their friends.

"I’m surprised that I did. That English class we shared was a while ago."

"Yeah, and whoever thought that we’d perform that little extra credit memorization in an actual open-air theatre?"

A shrill call of a bob-white cut through the applause and laughter that followed their impromptu scene just as they reached the top of the stands. All heads swiveled in the direction of the whistle and saw Trixie motioning for them to come and join her. She was at the far side of the amphitheater where the rows of seats had crumbled away to gravel.

In single file, her friends and Tony hurried toward her. Pointing to something she asked, "Jim, isn’t this one of the CDs that was in your backpack?" At her feet was the cracked case of a compact disc.

Before Jim could respond, Mart laughed, "Trix give it up! In case you haven’t noticed – Spain has a worse litter problem than the U.S. And they have CDs here too. Anyone could have dropped this."

Eyes flashing, Trixie retorted, "Is that so, almost twin? "They Might Be Giants" CDs are that popular in Spain?"

Crouching down to get a better look, Jim interrupted, "Yeah, this is mine Trix. There are my initials in the corner – I always put them on my CDs so that I don’t get them mixed up with Honey’s or anyone else." In the upper left hand corner of the cover JWF2 was written in green marker.

Tony quickly joined Jim on the ground. Pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket, he carefully wrapped the plastic case in it as he picked it up. Glancing at Trixie and Jim he said, "Neither of you touched it – good. There may be prints."

"Like we told you, we’ve had a little experience with stuff like this. We know what not to do." Trixie didn’t mean to sound ticked off, but her tone of voice invited argument.

"Quizas, put you haven’t been involved with terrorists," Tony was hardly paying attention to Trixie as he decided where to put the case to preserve any prints.

"Maybe not terrorists but we have…" Trixie’s voice dwindled off as Jim placed a restraining hand on her arm. She glared at him and was about to continue when Honey spoke up.

"Tony does this mean that the Sergio and his pals are here?" Her eyes swept upward to the ruins and she thought of all the places that there must be to hide in.

Shaking his head and muttering under his breath Tony stood up. He grabbed Jim’s empty backpack that had been returned that morning and placed the case inside. He’d done a thorough check on the pack when the elders had returned it to Jim at the train station and found no clues. Now it could hold one.

"Do you think they are here?" Brian asked staring at Tony levelly.

"Here? In the ruins? No – there is nothing here for them. No water, no food, nothing. Some beggar probably found this in the street and then dropped it when he was wandering up here."

Seeing that none of the Americans were convinced, he continued. "If I thought that Sergio and the others were here I’d take you back to Valencia immediately. This is just a coincidence – don’t worry about it. Now let’s continue to the top. We are almost there."

*     *     *

From a small hole in the stone wall on the opposite side of the theatre, a dark face had been watching the Bob-Whites and Tony as they took pictures and played. Arabe had been astounded to see them there. According to what Sergio had told them, the Americans and their hosts were supposed to go to a bullfight today. That fool must have gotten something confused. Well, now he’d just have to take matters into his own hands. Pedro was down in the town trying to get a hold of Bernard – he hadn’t called them at his usual 7 am check in. And Sergio was in Valencia waiting for the kids to go to the bullring. It was all up to him, Arabe. Now he could finish the whole thing and then get out of this backward country. An evil twisted smile played across his face as he slid noiselessly back into the small tunnel that led upwards through the hill to the ruins above.

Some translations:

El viejo - the old man, father

Uva y piña - grape and pineapple

Manzana - apple

Yo lo sé - I know it

Sang - valenciano for blood

Los reyes catolicos – The Catholic kings – referring to Isabella and Ferdinand

Mercadona - the name of a supermarket chain

Quizas - perhaps, maybe

 

Chapter Twenty-five

17 marzo
1200 horas
Sagunto

"That was cool!" Mart exclaimed as he and his brother and their friends made their way down the hillside into the city of Sagunto. "Can’t you just imagine all the people living within the boundaries of those stone walls and then dying there because they refused to bow down to the invaders?"

Di shuddered. "Please Mart, can’t we talk about something else besides attacking and conquering and dying…we still don’t know what is going on with Sergio and his psycho friends."

With a half bow Mart apologized, "Of course, guapa, your wish is my command." He put his arm around Di’s shoulders and continued walking down the hill.

"Guapa?" Honey asked, looking at Brian and Dan for a definition.

Dan shrugged, "I don’t remember that one, though I feel like I should. Brian reach into my backpack and get out that dictionary, please."

Brian smiled, "For once, I remember a word from my Spanish classes. Guapa means beautiful."

"And why, Mr. Belden, is that the word that you remember?" Dan asked, laughing.

"You remember what the Spanish teacher looked like – the one that was an exchange teacher from Colombia." Dan nodded in remembrance. "That’s why I remember the word."

"Men!" Honey groaned. "Sometimes I don’t know about you guys…" Her voice trailed off as she looked back at her brother who was trailing behind them. "Jim, what’s wrong?"

Jim quickened his steps until he was walking besides his sister and friends. "Um, well, I keep thinking that I shouldn’t have left Trixie up there by herself."

Smothering a grin, Honey said, "She’s not by herself. Tony is up there still. And she wanted some time to sort through things."

"I still have a feeling that I should’ve stayed up there." Jim kicked at a pebble that was in the path.

"Not jealous or something are you?" Brian asked nonchalantly.

Not deigning to reply, Jim strode off down the path to the city. He could not get the thought that Trixie could be in danger out of his mind. He didn’t know why he had those feelings – the whole group had been up at the ruins for almost three hours and had walked through the whole thing. Tony had carefully checked for any more signs of their "friends" after Trixie found the CD case in the Roman amphitheater and had found nothing. The only other people they saw in the ruins were a group of students from a local high school.

After walking for awhile across the windswept hillside, the Bob-Whites had decided to check out some of the other sights of Sagunto. Mart especially wanted to go to "Taco Bell." From one point on top of the castle walls one had a nice view of the city with all the buildings crammed together like something that Bobby used to build with his Lego’s. Dan had casually mentioned seeing something that looked like the belfry on a Taco Bell building. Mart had become so excited that he had almost tumbled off the wall. Tony had solemnly explained to them that there were no Taco Bell restaurants in Spain and what they were seeing was actually the belfry of la Iglesia de Santa Maria – a church that had been constructed several hundred years before. Mart still wanted to go check things out, so the gang decided to go see it before the train came.

There had been a moment of dissention when Trixie said that she wasn’t ready to leave, but she was sure that she could find her way back to the train station. She had controlled her temper when, as she had expected, Mart began to tease her. He mocked her saying that if she couldn’t find her way in the game preserve 80% of the time, there was no way that she’d be able to trace her path back to a train station in a foreign city. Before she had gotten too angry, Tony had intervened saying that he wanted to find the caretaker and ask if there had been any men fitting the descriptions of Pedro, Sergio or Arabe wandering around the ruins in the last few days. When he was finished questioning the old man that counted the tourists that passed by the one intact building that was his office, he’d gladly accompany Trixie down to the station.

That had not set well with Jim. He could tell that Tony was attracted to Trixie, who could help it, but he didn’t want to "over react" – he had made her a promise. So, he had offered to stay up with her also. With a smile she had turned him down and said that she really just wanted some peace and quiet to get things settled in her mind. He wasn’t sure what "things" she wanted to settle in her mind, but he knew from the set of her jaw that she wasn’t going to change her mind and let him stay with her.

Tony had pulled a small map out of his back pocket of the city and showed them the quickest and simplest route to the church and then the best way to the station from there. He and Trixie would meet them in time for the one o’clock train back to Valencia. The Bob-Whites figured that with Jim’s sense of direction and map skills, Dan’s street smarts and Mart’s memory they’d have no problems making it to "Taco Bell" and then back to the station.

Kicking another rock out of his way, Jim smiled with satisfaction. At least when he had left Trixie up there he had made it clear that she was already taken. Maybe he didn’t really need to worry about the exciting foreign spy after all.

*     *     *

Trixie sighed and picked her way through the cacti growing amid the castle walls. She had not expected to see these plants here they reminded her of Arizona. Di had told her about some special she had seen on the Home and Garden channel a few months earlier about the gardens of Barcelona. The narrator had explained how cacti were not indigenous to Spain, but had been brought from the Americas. Trixie couldn’t see why someone would want to transport prickly plants across the ocean, but she had heard stranger things.

She shivered slightly as she climbed over a pile of rubble. The wind had picked up gradually as they had climbed and explored and took pictures of each other. When she had dressed that morning in her favorite pair of faded blue jeans and red, long sleeved Henley top, she had thought that she would be warm enough. She hadn’t counted on this wind that whipped her curls into a tangle. Jim, always prepared, had not only worn a flannel shirt over his T-shirt but had also brought a sweatshirt. When she had turned down his offer to stay with her, he had insisted that he take his sweatshirt. She had thought he would be angry and lose his temper, but he had surprised her.

He had also surprised her in another way. As the rest of the group headed down the hill, Jim had turned back. Thinking that he was going to insist on staying, she had opened her mouth to begin defending herself. Jim hadn’t said a word. He had grabbed her arms and quickly kissed her. She had been stunned and left speechless. This wasn’t the gentle kiss on the balcony; this had been a kiss to prove something. She had stared deep into his eyes and saw a battle of emotions there and had dropped her gaze. Jim had turned to Tony, who had been watching with a slightly amused expression, and growled, "Take care of her and be careful," and stomped off down the path.

Tony had looked at her and said, "Your novio doesn’t think that you will be safe."

Trixie had shrugged, trying not to blush, "He should know by now that I can take care of myself. And what trouble could I have with a trained spy?"

A strange expression crossed Tony’s face and he had replied enigmatically, "Maybe that is why he warned me."

Before Trixie had been able to press for clarification Tony had left to find the caretaker, telling her that if for some reason she needed him she should just whistle their club whistle and he would find her.

She began to wander and drink in the peaceful environment of the ruins. Their sad history was just that, history. She began to feel almost as relaxed as she often felt in the Wheelers’ preserve. There wasn’t really anything that she wanted to think about – she just wanted to be alone with Spain for a little while. She hadn’t known how to phrase that to her brothers and friends. They’d think she’d lost her mind.

A blast of cold wind caught her off guard and she fell heavily against a wall. Shivering even harder Trixie pulled the gray University of Utah sweatshirt over her head. As she drew it over her face, a silly grin came to her lips as she inhaled deeply. The scent that was uniquely Jim clung to the fabric. No matter how strangely he had acted such a short time before, she knew that no matter what she couldn’t handle life without him.

With the sweatshirt finally adjusted comfortably, Trixie looked down at the object she had just kicked. Swallowing a scream, she took several steps back. Automatically she whistled and hoped that Tony was in earshot.

*     *     *

Tony’s thoughts were not exactly on questioning the caretaker. True, he did want to ask him if he’d seen the suspects, but his main motivation for staying was to spend some time with the intriguing young American girl. He knew that she was "taken" – if he hadn’t known it before, Jim Frayne had made it quite clear before he had left the ruins. But that didn’t stop him from dreaming.

Without realizing it, Tony reached the caretaker’s office. The window was closed, as it had been earlier that morning when they had arrived, so Tony knocked on the door. There was no answer. He pounded harder on the door. Still no answer. Strange. There was always supposed to be someone up here when the ruins were open so that kids couldn’t come in and party. With a sense of foreboding he tried the knob; locked. Muttering under his breath he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a couple of small tools. In thirty seconds, he had the door open. As he shoved the door open and his eyes adjusted to the dim light inside, he swore in Spanish, English, Italian and a couple other languages. The place was trashed!

Quickly he surveyed the room looking for clues. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but he had that feeling in the pit of his stomach that this was the work of the suspects that he was trailing. This case was getting more and more involved as it went along. Forget vacation. Forget those lessons with Waxer and Swing. Maybe he‘d be able to finish them up on his next vacation home in six months – but he’d have to go through the whole getting acquainted thing, what was it that they called it, BRT, that’s it, with some others because both young men would be gone by then. Too bad. He really enjoyed their lessons.

Catching sight of a dark stain on the broken leg of a chair, Tony crouched down to get a better look. Before he could get down to the floor he heard the piercing whistle that was the Americans SOS call. Jumping to his feet, he ran out the door and in the direction that the whistle was coming from. Just as he thought it would stop, Trixie whistled again. What had happened?

*     *     *

As Tony rushed by, Arabe flattened himself to the side of the building. Cursing he entered the small building. Shaking his head, he surveyed the damage Pedro and Sergio had done when they had overcome the old caretaker. He would have left things much neater. That had not told him where they had disposed of the body. He could only hope that they had been smart enough to uncover one of the deep unused wells and drop the battered body down.

What was that noise? It wasn’t stopping. Arabe froze. What if someone else, besides the agent, had remained up top? And what if they had found something. The Americans had stayed too close together as they had explored the ruins earlier. He had managed to keep out of sight and trail along behind them, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew that even with his gun he would be no match for eight people, five of which were athletic men. And he was willing to bet a night of drinking that Contreras had a gun on him somewhere.

The horrible bird sound had ended abruptly, but Arabe was pretty sure he knew what direction they had come from. Pulling his gun from his waistband, he hurried in the direction that Tony had run in.

*     *     *

When Tony reached her Trixie grabbed his arm roughly. Unconsciously he began to question her in Spanish. She didn’t even notice. With a shaking hand, she pointed to a dark heap in the shadows of the wall. Before he reached it, Tony knew what he would find. Coolly, he knelt down and checked for a pulse. He wasn’t surprised to not find one. From the look of the body, the man had been dead for a couple of days.

Swiftly he turned to Trixie. Remembering to use English this time he asked her, "Trix, how did you find him?"

Numbly she recounted how she had stumbled onto the body. By looking at Tony’s face, she didn’t need to ask if the man was alive. She hardly noticed as Tony pulled her away from the wall and led her to a sunny spot across the large square. He pushed her gently down on a large boulder.

"We’ll leave in a moment. I need to notify the poli first."

For the first time, Trixie noticed the cell phone that was clipped to his belt. As he reached over to unhook it, his sweatshirt pulled up slightly on the side facing her. Her face went pale as she saw what he wore under the sweatshirt – a gun. She sucked in her breath in surprise and Tony turned quickly to see what was wrong. He followed her eyes and said evenly, "I am on duty so I must wear it."

Nodding her head, Trixie closed her eyes for a moment. They snapped open as she heard a grunt and a yell. Tony’s cell phone went flying as he tried to reach for his gun and fight off the man who had just jumped him.

Leaping to her own feet, Trixie looked around wildly for some kind of weapon. Unfortunately, none of the nearby rocks were small enough for even a large man to lift, much less a petite teen-age girl.

"Run! Trixie, run!" Tony yelled as he finally grasped his gun and began to pull it from his holster.

‘Run? I can’t leave him like this! He’ll be killed,’ Trixie had just reached the conclusion that she was going to jump on the attacker’s back and try to pull him off Tony when she caught a glimpse of the man’s face. It was Arabe - the man that they had seen at the train station when they had arrived in Valencia.

Tony turned his attention from Arabe for a split second to see where Trixie was and it was just long enough for Arabe to catch him off guard. With a sudden movement, Arabe had Tony pinned to the ground and roughly removed his weapon.

Tony tried to push Arabe off to no avail.

Arabe turned to Trixie and demanded, "The disk, girl, where is it?"

Trixie looked him straight in the eye and replied in a steady yet weak voice, "I do not know what you are talking about."

Without hesitation, Arabe aimed Tony’s gun and shot. Trixie winced at the sound. Then tears fell from her eyes as she saw that Arabe hadn’t aimed at the ground like she had thought. Instead he had aimed at Tony and shot him in the left shoulder. Tony had gone pale and automatically clutched his shoulder with his right hand, biting his lip to not cry out in pain.

Arabe grinned maliciously at him and then turned his attention back to Trixie. "You see how I treat your agent friend here. If I don’t get some answers he won’t be the only one bleeding to death in the dirt."

 

Chapter Twenty-six

17 marzo
1400 horas
Sagunto

Trixie kept her eyes on Tony’s face. He was so pale. Carefully she shifted her position on the rocky ground so that she could also see what Arabe was doing. He hadn’t said a word to either of them since he had brought them to this distant corner of the ruins. She tried to think happy thoughts to keep from imagining what the crazed man might do to them next.

She couldn’t figure out what had kept him from shooting her earlier. After he had shot Tony and threatened her, she had repeated dumbly, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Twice he had slapped her so hard that she had bitten her tongue. The last time that she had said she didn’t know what he was talking about, he had pointed the pistol at her face. As his finger pulled the trigger back she had closed her eyes and sent up a desperate prayer. When no sound of a shot came and she felt no pain she had opened her eyes. Arabe had lowered the gun and was muttering, ‘No, she’s American…better wait.’

Roughly he had pushed her to the ground and trained the gun on her head. He picked Tony’s cell phone up and made a brief call. She wasn’t sure who he was calling but she had a feeling it wasn’t going to be someone to help them. Once his call was complete he had pulled a piece of twine from his jacket pocket and tied her wrists together. Then he had taken a filthy rag from another pocket and bound Tony’s arm. Trixie had looked quickly at the ground where Tony had been lying and turned her eyes away when she saw the pool of blood. How could he walk through the ruins when he had lost so much blood? As Arabe had pulled them both to their feet, Tony had winked slowly at her and tried to grin. Neither of spoke, they both knew what Arabe would do if they did.

The wind had picked up considerably in the past hour. Trixie tried not to shiver or make any sudden movements that would alert Arabe. She wished that he would leave or go to sleep or something. Fat chance of that at two o’clock in the afternoon. With an inaudible sigh, she closed her eyes. Maybe she could convince herself that this was all some bizarre dream she was having and in a few minutes she would wake up and hear Bobby running through the house looking for his homework or his soccer shoes.

*     *     *

1400 horas
Estación de tren – Sagunto

"Sois americanos, ¿verdad?"

The Bob-Whites looked at the woman at the ticket counter strangely. Then, as one, they all turned and looked at Dan.

"Sheesh guys, just ‘cause I carry the dictionary," he grumbled as he looked at the woman and asked, "¿Qué?"

"¿Sois americanos? – ¿sois de los estados unidos?"

"Americans? Yeah, uh, si, americanos," Dan replied, raising his eyebrows as he turned back to his friends.

"Tengo un mensaje para vosotros. Vuestros amigos ya han regresado en otro tren. No teneis que esperarles. Ellos estarán en Valencia cuando llegáis." The woman smiled at the Bob-Whites.

"What the heck was that?" Mart exclaimed and hurried to get the dictionary out of Dan’s backpack.

"Dan, ask her to say that again, please," Honey said, suddenly feeling worried.

"Yeah, sure…uh, por favor señora, habla otra vez," he hoped that she understood what he meant by saying ‘lady talk again.’

She did and repeated her message.

"Thank goodness Spanish is spelled how it sounds," Mart muttered as he flipped rapidly through the battered dictionary. "Okay, mensaje is message, that makes sense. Regresado - the closest I can find is regresar, which means go back. Esperar is wait."

"Okay and I remember that vosotros is just a person corresponding to verb tense or something like that. It means ‘you all’ – I just never learned any of the conjugations because it is only used in Spain." Dan ran his hand through his thick dark hair. He stopped suddenly, as he often did when he would realize once again how much shorter his hair was. On a whim, he had cut his hair in the crew cut that Mart favored. He still wasn’t used to it. "So basically I think the lady told us that our friends, Trixie and Tony, already went back to Valencia in a different train so we don’t need to wait for them. They’re probably waiting for us there."

Dan thanked the woman in what he hoped was intelligible Spanish. Quickly he hurried out to the bench where his friends were waiting. He hid a grin as he observed Honey and Brian trying to placate Jim. Dan knew he must be seething knowing that Trixie had headed back with Tony.

*     *     *

Las ruinas

"Trixie, Trixie…"

Who was trying to wake her up? If that was Bobby, she was going to kill him. She’d been having such a nice dream about Jim and fireworks and a romantic sunrise at a castle overlooking the sea – she didn’t want it to end.

"Trixie!"

With a groan she forced her eyes open and saw not the white walls and flowered curtains of her bedroom, but crumbling stone walls and the drawn face of a semi-familiar looking man. The happenings of the past few hours came flooding back and she sat up straight in terror.

"Tony!" Quickly she lowered her voice and she turned her head stiffly to see where their captor had gone.

"He is gone – he left about five minutes ago." Tony paused and took a deep breath. Trixie could see beads of perspiration along his brow, even as he shivered in the cold breeze. "He thought we were both asleep. Can you get loose?"

Trixie suddenly realized that her wrists and feet were bound together. She had forgotten that. She struggled for a few seconds, but couldn’t get loose. "They’re too tight."

Trying to be cheerful Tony said, "That’s okay. I’ll figure out something."

"Are you okay? Your arm…" Trixie’s voice trailed off as her eyes fixed on the red stain on his shoulder that seemed to grow larger every time he took a breath.

"I’m a little, uh, worn down. But it’s really just a scratch…I’ve had worse." That wasn’t entirely a lie – he had had worse injuries, but he usually had a partner or back up close by.

"You mean worn out? You should probably rest." Trixie couldn’t think of anything else to say – what could you say to a guy with a gunshot wound who was slowly bleeding to death in the windswept ruins of an ancient city?

""Yeah, you’re right."

Both fell silent, ears strained to catch any sounds of Arabe as he returned from wherever he had gone.

*     *     *

"Pedro! Where are you? You were supposed to watch the train station and stay in Sagunto!" Arabe’s voice rose to an angry pitch as he listened to the static response.

"Why in the world did you go to Valencia? Sergio could’ve handled that by himself. They’re here!" Arabe’s eyes glowed as he thought about how close they were to the end of the assignment. Finally, he would be able to leave these bumbling Spaniards and return to his home country where terrorism was much better organized.

"Yes, all of them – and the agent. In fact, I have the agent and the blond girl here. They’re tucked away in a forgotten corner of the ruins." The smile that cut across his face made Arabe look anything but kind as he continued. "Contreras had a small run-in with my gun, but other than that they are fine."

With a few long strides, Arabe crossed the stage of the Roman amphitheater as he listened to Pedro on his cell phone.

"So you have been following some wild goose chase of Sergio’s? What else is new. Did you talk to Bernard?" He was starting to get concerned about their contact in the British Isles. They had not heard from him for a couple of days and he hadn’t returned their calls.

"The other Americans should be reaching Valencia shortly. You and Sergio should be at the station to "welcome" them home. Don’t let them out of your sight until you have that disc! The girl here will tell me nothing – I am about to lose all patience with her."

After a final comment from Pedro, Arabe ended the connection and returned the phone to his pocket. With a satisfied grin he sank down and sat on the edge of the stage with his legs hanging over the side. Suddenly a line from a play he had seen when he was last in London came to mind. Quickly he leapt to his feet and in a resounding voice recited, "All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances and one man in his time plays many parts." This was his stage and the two bruised and battered young people up on the hilltop were his players. The time of their exit was quickly approaching and then he would be off to play yet another part. Ah, there was nothing quite like Shakespeare to inspire a person.

*     *     *

"Dan, what do you make of this?" Mart thrust a folded paper in his friend’s face.

Dan grabbed it and started to tell Mart what he thought of people who shoved things in other people’s faces when they were reading, but bit the words back as he saw the expression on Mart’s face. Mart was worried about something. Dan quickly scanned the paper in his hand and said, "What do you want me to make of this? It’s just a train schedule."

"That’s it! It’s a train schedule."

Dan sighed, when Mart was concerned about something he not only dropped the words of complex syllables, he also started to sound like Trixie.

"What’s so important about it? We caught the train we needed and we don’t plan on going anywhere on a train until we go back to Barcelona."

Instead of answering him, Mart just pointed with a shaking finger.

Dan followed the finger, giving Mart the benefit of the doubt that it was shaking because of the motion of the train, and read the schedule of trains to Valencia. Slowly things started to come together. He looked up sharply and saw confirmation in Mart’s blue eyes.

"Do you want to tell them or do you want me to?" Dan asked.

Mart straightened up and said, "I’ll tell them. I was hoping that I had misunderstood the silly thing." He stood up and stepped out into the aisle so that he was facing the seats of his friends. Honey and Di were discussing the architecture of the cathedral that they had seen. Brian was dozing and Jim was staring blankly out the window, hardly noticing the brilliant blueness of the Mediterranean.

Mart cleared his throat to get their attention. When four pairs of eyes were looking at him, he held up the train schedule. "Um, I, uh, found this schedule on my seat and was looking at the trains that pass through both Sagunto and Valencia and there was something strange about it."

"Strange about it? What do you mean? It’s in Spanish, that would make it strange." Brian looked at his younger brother tolerantly.

"Besides that…" Mart hardly noticed the sarcasm in his brother’s voice. "Guys, no trains passed through Sagunto on their way to Valencia between the time we left Trixie and Tony at the ruins until the time we got on this train."

 

Chapter Twenty-seven

1500 horas
Estación de Valencia
17 marzo

Stepping off the train Brian said, "Okay, if we don’t see Trixie or Tony within five minutes we call Hans – agreed?"

Five heads nodded in agreement.

Brian and Jim led the way down the platform to the waiting area of the station. The others were close behind. Noticing that her shoe was untied, Di bent down to retie it. Feeling uneasy at being separated from her friends, she hurried to catch up. She neared the large board that listed the arriving and departing trains and quickly scanned the crowd for Mart and the others. Her heart leapt to her throat as she caught sight of a hauntingly familiar face.

"Not him," she whispered, as the face didn’t fade out as a hallucination. Hardly hesitating, she whistled. For a few brief seconds the hordes of holiday travelers froze. Then they returned to their own business, ignoring the pale American with the billowing masses of black hair.

Sergio smiled uneasily as he realized that Diana had sighted him. It hadn’t been difficult to find the Americans when they arrived. And as luck would have it the first one that saw him was the girl from the train, maybe she would be of use once again.

Di felt as if her feet had taken root in the cold cement floor of the train station. Her brain was telling her legs to move, but they didn’t seem to be listening and the Spaniard was getting closer.

She pursed her lips to whistle once more; hoping that she had enough breath left to get some sound out. Why hadn’t she stayed with Mart and the others?

*     *     *

Las ruinas

"Girl, I know you have it!"

Trixie tried not to flinch as Arabe’s hand connected with her face again. It didn’t matter how many times she told him that she didn’t have his disk, he didn’t believe her. She could handle the hitting, just as long as he didn’t do anything else.

Ever since he had returned, he had been asking her non-stop about the disk. The only time he had stopped was when Tony had moved. Arabe had put an end to his moving with a couple of well-directed kicks. She wasn’t sure if Tony was motionless because he was unconscious or if he was planning something. She hoped it was the second option and soon he’d outsmart Arabe and they’d be able to get back to Valencia. That’s how it always worked with agents like Lee Stetson and Fox Mulder…but then they had nicely written scripts that were designed to reach some sort of conclusion in an hour.

Seeming to run out of steam, their captor sat down heavily on a tumbled column. Trixie slowly moved her jaw, pleased to note that everything moved how it was supposed to. She knew that he could’ve hit her much harder. As it was she would probably just have some colorful bruises. She glanced at Tony and saw that he hadn’t changed positions in quite some time. She hoped that it was her imagination that made the bloodstained patch on his sleeve look larger. Arabe was muttering to himself in some strange language. It had a rhythm that was very different from the cadence of the Spanish tongue that she had grown used to in the past days.

Trying to shut out all thoughts, Trixie closed her eyes and drew her chin down to her chest, trying to absorb all the warmth possible from her body. How glad she was that Jim had left his sweatshirt with her. Jim – where was he? Why didn’t he realize that she was in trouble? He always came to her rescue – well, almost always. He just seemed to know when she was in danger – whether it was minor or something rather life threatening like this. True he was often a broken record when it came to safety and not getting into tight spots, but his heart was in the right place.

She remembered a conversation between herself and her Aunt Cat over Christmas vacation when she and Uncle Andrew had been visiting. Her aunt had been curious to know the depth of the relationship between her and Jim. After a long talk with Trixie pouring out her heart – both her hopes and her frustrations – Cat had sat quietly. After a several minutes she had looked at Trixie and told her that maybe Jim was so concerned about her well being because he had always lost those that he was closest too. Trixie had thought about that for a time and wasn’t sure if that was the case. She explained that Dan too had lost his parents when he was younger, but he didn’t seem to have this incessant need to protect the world and keep everyone wrapped up in plastic so that they wouldn’t get scratched.

Cat, having had the opportunity to get to know the Bob-Whites in recent months, understood what Trixie was trying to express. The two young men were similar in many ways, but they were also different in their personalities. That caused them to react differently to certain situations. She had tried to explain that all to her niece but wasn’t sure if it had made sense. She was much better with animals than she was with people.

In the end Trixie had a different perspective on Jim’s protectiveness, and tried to look at in the way her aunt had presented it. Since she wasn’t getting involved in mysteries every few weeks, there hadn’t been too many problems. Until now. And what she wouldn’t give to see Jim’s green eyes right about now – or even hear him tell her to be careful.

"Maybe I should try that telepathy stuff – maybe he’ll ‘hear’ me and come rescue me." A smiled darted briefly to her lips as she played with the idea. It had worked in one of her favorite books. The main character of the novel had twice called out to her friend, and he wasn’t even really her boyfriend, mentally in a time of distress and he had come to her. Trixie’s favorite lines were at the end where Vicky said simply, "I called you --" And Adam had answered, "And I came." Why couldn’t that work with her and Jim?

*     *     *

Shifting slightly on the rocky ground that had been his bed for too many hours, Tony ran his plan through his mind once more. He’d only have one chance and if he screwed it up, both he and Trixie would be dead. If only his fellow captive in the ruins was another trained agent and not a high school girl from America, then he wouldn’t be as worried.

¡Vaya! The pain in his shoulder would just seem to be abating when he would move slightly or take too deep a breath. Then he would feel it. At least the wind kept him cold enough that his skin was slightly numb and he couldn’t feel the blood trickling down his arm like it had been earlier. He didn’t even want to glance in the direction of his sleeve and see what he knew was not a pretty sight.

He half opened his eyes and looked toward Trixie. She looked like she was sleeping. A smile played across her face as he watched her. He hoped she was having a nice dream. He felt awful that she was in this predicament. He closed his eyes to block out the bruises that stood out on her cheek. He wondered what she was dreaming about to bring a smile to her face in a situation like this. She was probably dreaming about her novio, the red-head. Tony hoped that she would dream a little something about him.

Quickly he tried to shake that thought out of his head. Big mistake. Shaking his head just made the pain worse. He felt once again the kicks that Arabe had bestowed upon him when he had moved earlier. Anyway, he was sure that Trixie didn’t even think about him except most likely as the inept Interpol agent that had gotten her bound and left lying in some ruins on a hillside in eastern Spain. What a great story she’ll have when she gets back to her own country.

"¡Basta! Contreras! Fíjate en lo que tienes que hacer." Tony pushed all thoughts away except those of his plan of retaliation on Arabe and getting himself and Trixie down and through the city.

*     *     *

Estación de tren

"Mi amiga," Sergio began as he approached Diana.

‘Come on feet, move it!’ she pleaded as the man came closer. The memories of the train ride from Barcelona flooded her mind ‘Okay, I think I’ll just faint now.’

Sergio glanced sideways and saw the four American males heading straight for him. He whipped his head back to look at Di. For a millisecond, he didn’t know what he was going to do. He saw the other American girl grab a soldier of the guardia that was walking by and begin to plead with him for something, undoubtedly for help. The young man in fatigues looked straight at Sergio. Suddenly something snapped in his mind. He didn’t remember what he was doing there or why these people were looking at him in such an angry manner. All he knew was that he had to get out there and he had to do it now.

Mumbling to himself about ruins and disks and Americans he began to shove through the throngs of people heading toward the Madrid train and ran toward the exits. Mart and Honey went to Di and caught her as she started to sag to the floor. The young man from the mili shouted something in Spanish and three other men in fatigues jumped up from nearby benches and joined Brian and Jim as they pursued Sergio. Dan, after checking that the others were taking care of Di, quickly followed.

*     *     *

In the chaos of the chase, no one, not even Sergio, noticed a man that ducked down behind a stack of suitcases belonging to a large group of Italian tourists. Pedro had entered the station just as Sergio had made his move toward Diana. He had hung back to see how things would go. They hadn’t gone well – as he had expected, but he hadn’t thought that Sergio would run like a scared child.

*     *     *

Sergio ran blindly past the ticket windows and out into the entryway of the station. A quick glance over his shoulder showed that there was a small army led by two angry foreigners after him. A horn honked and he dodged out of the way of a taxi that was pulling up. With unerring ease he threaded his way through the cars and taxis that were dropping off or picking up people in the drive in front of the station. If he could only make it to the street, he’d be able to mix in with the crowds of falla admirers and mimes and living statues and all the others that were out in the afternoon in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento. With that goal in mind he looked back once more and saw that the American with red hair was closing the gab between them. Why would an American be after him? What had he done?

As he remembered something about a disk, he vaguely heard screams and a screeching sound. What was that? He looked where he was headed and found himself face to face with the front of a large red city bus. He didn’t even have time to register what was happening as the collision took place.

*     *     *

The bus driver stomped with all of his weight on the brake, but he didn’t have enough time or space to stop before hitting the man that had run in front of him. He closed his eyes as the bodies – one flesh and bone, the other metal – met with such force. Gasps and screams echoed inside the bus as the passengers in the front realized what happened and quickly told those in the back who were unable to see.

*     *     *

Brian grabbed Jim’s arm and slowed his momentum. There was no way that they would be able to stop the other man’s run before it was too late. They averted their eyes, but were unable to keep the sound of crunching bones from their ears as Sergio finally came to a halt.

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Trixie Belden Fan Fiction