Free Heart's Desire by Amy Griswold Page B

head that they tell the location of a fabulous treasure,” Keret said. “Probably a bunch of old pots and more useless carved rocks, but… there’s a story told to children about a cave up in the mountains somewhere that hides a treasure greater than any man could possibly desire. Supposedly it can only be found if you know the way to the mountain’s true heart.”
    â€œOpen, Sesame,” Jack said. Keret looked blank.
    â€œYou think it’s just a story?” Sam said.
    Keret shrugged. “I think there’s no such thing as more treasure than any man could desire. I expect Reba’s on her way to go wander around old ruins right now, and I say let her go.” Jack glanced at the men holding Sam, as if reading something in their expressions that Sam couldn’t see, and Sam realized that this little speech might be as much for the benefit of Keret’s crew as anything else. “We’ll turn a profit off the two of you in the mean time, and be waiting to have a word with her when she heads back this way.”
    â€œThen I suppose you’d better find some way of letting General Hammond know where we are so you can ransom us,” Jack said.
    â€œI’ll handle that part,” Keret said. “I’m just wondering whether it would be more effective to return you both unharmed, or to use one of you as an example to make it clear that the ransom for the other had better be generous and prompt.”
    â€œYou really don’t want to do that,” Jack said. There was a dangerous note in his voice, although he still stood easy, not making any move that would inspire them to wrestle him into submission. She wondered about that, wondering whether he’d been hurt in the fight or in his fall from the cliff and hadn’t bothered to mention it, but there wasn’t any way of finding out, so she filed that.
    â€œWe’ll see, won’t we?” Keret said. “Better hope your Great General makes a good first offer. In the mean time…” He gestured to his men, and they started to manhandle Sam back toward the hatch in the deck they’d been dragged out of.
    â€œHey,” Jack said. “How about some water, and a chance to stretch our legs a little, if you know what I mean?”
    â€œLater,” Keret said. “Right now we’re a little busy flying, unless you like smashing into mountainsides.”
    One of the men kicked the hatch open, and at the same time she felt the ship pitch, correcting course; she could see a sliver of blue sky come into view through one of the windows. There was something about that momentary stomach-dropping pitch that felt familiar to her, all wrong for an airship, more like something she couldn’t quite put a name to.
    â€œMove,” one of the men holding her said, shoving her back, and she scrambled back into the small compartment, since there didn’t seem to be any better options. Jack was shoved in beside her, trying to catch himself as he landed but still wincing visibly in the light from above.
    â€œI’ll be back,” Keret said, and the hatch slammed shut.
    â€œOkay, now what?” Sam said after the footsteps from above had all retreated. She could hear the hum of the motors, loud enough that they could probably talk without being overheard.
    â€œWe have some problems,” Jack said. “Even if these clowns manage to get in touch with Hammond, I’m betting that whatever he has to say isn’t going to make them very happy.”
    â€œAt which point they start ‘making an example’ of one of us,” Sam said.  She knew as well as Jack did that Hammond wasn’t going to give into a ransom demand without looking for other options first, especially not if Keret asked for weapons. It wouldn’t be a particularly good idea if he did, given that they didn’t want it to get around that kidnapping SG teams was profitable, but it put them in a