Bette, Jules, and Tom heaved a sigh of relief. This meant they’d have some time to transfer a ton of something Bette had told them was important to keep safe.

To their surprise she told them that they would be moving a ton of gold out of a room in the tunnels tonight.

Jules and Tom set aside their surprise, and agreed with Bette they needed to work quickly. The trio decided to form a relay system, with Tom offering to be the one to go all the way to the room where the gold had been stored, and then carrying two knapsacks of bullion a third of the way through.  Jules would then get the knapsacks from Tom and take these to Bette at the foot of the staircase, who would carry these to the trailer.  After the first round, Bette had found several extra knapsacks in the trailer, and an extra torch light, which allowed them to keep the system going with barely a pause.

Forty minutes later, they had managed to empty the room of the gold. Tom reported that he knocked the man out again when he thought he heard the man beginning to stir, awakened maybe by all the noise he and Jules were making as they moved the gold.

The trio quickly discussed what to do about the man.

“I could drive him into town, after locking him in the trunk of the car, to the police station. Before I hand him over I’ll cut out the nylon ties, and put his belt back on,” Tom suggested.

Bette checked her watch. She had a feeling the man’s partner would soon realize that she had actually left the polo match area, as they’d suspected, and may drive to near where they were.

Tom caught her anxiety. “Maybe I should drive to the next town over, confuse him even more, and get him away from this area, and from Skydance, even.  I’ll tell the police in that town that I came across this man by the side of the road.  Since he’s never seen me before, that could sound entirely plausible to him.  I’m sure the police will, at minimum, want to keep him for a day or two.  Since he’s not from the area, he’ll need to establish a good cover for why he’s wandered into this general area in the first place.”