Agent with a History

He held up four fingers.

"You're joking right?" I asked him, not believing this was really going to happen.

"You get what you pay for with Robbie."

My gaze drifted back to the tablet in horrified fascination, thirty seven seconds. I watched the seconds tick by. I could see the waves moving. Either this was a video or it really was actual satellite imagery.

How did James have access to this? 5..4..3.. I saw the streaks and then the white mansion exploded as it was struck on all four corners by missiles. I shrieked and almost dropped the tablet. I swear I felt the concussion of the blasts through the device.

The mansion was a shattered raging inferno and numbly I looked up into James boyishly grinning face, "Fun isn't it?" He asked.

"Who are you?" I exclaimed.

He winked conspiratorially and said, "You have your secrets and I have mine."

"That's not true! I told you where the treasure was. I even led you right to it!" I retorted hotly.

"All of that is techniquely true; however there is a lie of omission."

I grew still and put the burning tablet down, "Explain."

He put his hands behind his head and leaned back against the pillows with a smirk, "It is true that you led me to the treasure, but the full truth is that you only showed me a part of it, the lesser part of it I'm willing to wager. Old Heinrich was more right than he knew, it would seem."

My shoulders slumped in defeat and I fell back against the pillows holding onto the sheet. I sighed loudly, "Okay how did you figure it out?"

"The water." He replied cheekily.

"The water?"

"Yes, you see gold, along with other metals such as silver, copper and zinc have a unique effect on water quality. They all kill bacteria and in general purify whatever liquid they are in contact with. That's why the goblets of kings were fashioned out of those metals, as the ancients knew the positive effects of the metals on the contents of the cup. You don't find that quality of water in the African bush just occurring naturally. This is what I think happened. Gold was so plentiful that it really wasn't needed; it however might be in the future. So like the salt they stock piled it. Where do you hide something that you're constantly adding to out of view? The answer in our case is under water. For who knows how many years, I bet they pulled those gold caravans up to those outlying water ponds and just dumped the gold in. Those ponds are all collapsed now, but under about thirty feet of debris is an accumulation of wealth in raw gold, I doubt is equaled anywhere else in the world. Am I right?"