Golden Legacy

by Robert James Glider

  Mulee laughed out loud.

  He struggled to contain himself before he picked up the house phone.

  Michael paced the deck of the Adventurer. He held a new Heckler & Koch MG4 machine gun that Jac had acquired while doing tests for the German government. The submachine gun would equal anything James could throw at him. And he was ready to use it.

  Roni came up the stairs from below. “You want some company? I brought you a cup of coffee.”

  “Sure.” Michael smiled when he saw her. He had fallen completely under her spell and knew she felt the same.

  She handed him the cup and turned to look toward the sand mountain that shielded the dock from view from the road.

  “Look over there! Is that them coming down the sand?” Roni said.

  Michael pulled a pair of binoculars up to his eyes.

  “Thank God. It’s them. Roni, go below and let Abigail know,” Michael said as he clicked the safety to the off position.

  CHAPTER 40

  “Why didn’t you call us, Jac?” Abigail said as she hugged him. “We were worried.”

  “I’m sorry. My phone died. It hadn’t been charged when I left it on the nightstand, and I used what little power it had to power the flashlight app so I could get around in the dark.” He summarized what had happened and how James and his men had been waiting when he came out of the tunnel. “We were chased up the mountain and lost James and his men when we decided to take a path down the mountain to the other side of the island. That’s why it took us so long to get here.” Then he told them he was convinced that James wouldn’t believe the map and phony documents that they took after his confrontation with Mulee in the house. He told them about the difficulty Townsend was having in securing the warrants. “We are not going to wait to leave the island.”

  “My son and his men will follow us,” Chauncey said as she joined them, handing Peri a cup of tea and Mandrago a mug of coffee.

  “We’re sure they’ll try to find us using the radar on their boat,” Mandrago said. “But we have a plan. We’ll follow the coastline and break from the island at the eastern tip. That way we’ll sail into the rising sun. Hopefully, it will give us some cover.”

  “Let’s get underway,” Jac said as he and Peri went below.

  “I’m famished,” Peri said. “Did anyone cook breakfast?”

  Roni came down the ladder and offered to cook breakfast. She said that Michael was staying topside to keep watch.

  “Bless you!” Peri said.

  “Where’s Auntie Mick?” Jac said. “I’m worried about her.”

  “She went home after she knew we were safe,” Chauncey said. “Auntie Mick is tough. James wouldn’t dare hurt her. She told me that, if she got her hands on my son, she was going to give him a good thrashing. She’s the only person in the world he’s afraid of.”

  “I hope she gets her wish,” Mandrago muttered. “Come on, Jac. Let’s go up to relieve Michael and plot the course.”

  As they climbed up the stairway to the deck, Jac said, “Remember what Auntie Mick said about ships being wrecked on reefs. Get the engine started, and I’ll check out the reefs near shore.”

  CHAPTER 41

  In the growing light just before dawn, Jac turned the Adventurer into a steady offshore wind on a starboard tack. The sloop slashed through the cobalt blue alleys between the mountainous islets.

  Jac guided the boat through nature’s maze of natural beauty. He felt like a racecar driver with less than a lap to go as he wove his way through traffic toward the finish line. When Peri joined him, bringing coffee, Jac said, “Pirates sailed here, terrorizing and killing sailors and plundering unguarded merchant ships. They hid in the many coves where they would be ready to spring on unsuspecting ships in minutes.”

  “It’s hard to believe that God would allow such behavior in a place of such beauty,” Peri said. He turned his nose up in the air and sniffed the briny sweet odors of earth’s scented mixture of vegetation. It was as if he was checking spices while preparing one of his special recipes.

  Mandrago and Michael joined them, each sipping a beverage while watching bursts of sunlight stream through a mass of purple clouds lying across the horizon. What had been dark, deep-blue water now changed to aquamarine. As the sun broke through the mist, the crystallized sand of lagoons in the islets shimmered and reflected through the clear water. Jac imagined a sailor’s lazy day spent in this private paradise in the blue lagoon.

  “Peri,” Jack said, “see if the ladies are awake. They should see this.”

  “I think we’re close to finding the location from these maps.” Peri shook his head as he put the two joined halves of Abigail and Chauncey’s maps next to Jac’s research and a satellite image of the search area Michael had downloaded from the Internet that morning.

  Mandrago tapped his finger on a group of islands on the satellite image. “These are the ones that Jac found to be a close match. What do you think, Mike?” Michael leaned into the table and examined the overlay of the two pieced-together halves of the map. He ran his finger from their current location to the islands his finger rested on. “I think we’re about four nautical miles from our goal.”

  Mandrago drew a circle around the suspected targets. “I think you’re right. We know the basic topography could have changed in three hundred years, and we know that the two halves of the map were roughly drawn, but this area is more than a close match.”

  Jac nodded. The information he had garnered and entered into his hierarchy program, from the session with Amanda and Roni, and the new information acquired on Tortola was compelling. Jac had printed the two halves of Anne and Mary’s map onto a sheet of transparency film. He had then laid the image over charts of the area he found in the Atlas Maior of 1665. This book of maps was the first and finest cartographic workmanship of the known world compiled from knowledge gained by ship navigators and captains who had sailed all the oceans of the world.

  Jac had traced Anne and Mary’s probable course from the island and found close matches to two of the islets. Based on the distance, he ascertained the time it would take to get there and back from the island Anne and Mary had been left on while Calico and his men went off to Tortuga. He’d then matched this information up with the several references he found in both diaries. Mary had written, “It took us both rowing all night.” And, “We climbed in the dark until the sun broke on the horizon.” Anne had written, “Mary and I took turns rowing for five or six hours before we landed.” And, “We pushed our booty up to the top before the sun broke and bore down on us. We dug our hole … It were so hot when the sun was high in the sky, we had to cover up and drink from our skins.”

  From these statements and several others, the time frame and location matched. Jac figured it gave them a ninety percent probability of success. But more importantly, it gave him the second point of the triangulation. Anything over fifty percent in the treasure hunting business is akin to a roadmap. But Jac knew from experience that anything less than a hundred percent was still, in reality, no more than a crapshoot.

  “I truly believe we are close now, very close,” Jac said. “Take the wheel, Dad. It’s time we put the power chutes to the test. I’m hoping that the view from above will enable us to identify the island. Let’s pull into that cove over there.” Jac pointed. “I’ll catch an offshore wind and take off from the beach.”

  “I’m going with you,” Peri and Michael chimed as one.

  Amanda, Roni, and Chauncey came up from below deck. “What’s going on? You all seem so excited. Are we close to the island?” Abigail said.

  “Look!” Roni nudged Abigail “Look around!”

  “Oh my God … it’s breathtaking!”

  “Kidd was smart to skirt the coastline of Tortola to avoid detection before breaking out into open water,” Mulee said. “I found them, and we’re following them on the radar. They can’t see us,
but we can see them.”

  “Let’s keep allowing Kidd to believe he’s safe,” James said.

  Mulee kept the boat at the greatest distance he could without letting Kidd’s boat out of sight over the horizon. As the group of islets came into view, Mulee steered to the opposite side and hid from the Adventurer.

  A day and a half later, James figured they were in the area his mother and Kidd were looking for. The radar screen showed the Adventurer had slowed.

  James knew they were checking out the islets to see if they matched descriptions on the map they possessed. Keeping Kidd in sight on radar paid off. Mulee was able to find a hiding place about three miles ahead of the Golden Adventurer in the cover of an inlet.

  “Mulee, they must have dropped their sails. It looks like they’re moving toward a beach. Let’s wait. Put a man up on the hill to watch them.”

  Mulee ordered one of his men to take a rocket launcher and a radio up the hill.

  “It’s time to end the chase, take the map, and deal with your mother and the Kidds,” Remy said.

  Three armed men with their dreadlocks hanging below their green-and-gold rasta hats looked up to the man Mulee had placed on the hill. The man on the hill could see any boat within a ten-mile radius. He kept his hand-held rocket at the ready just in case the Golden Adventurer needed to be persuaded to surrender.

  “Remember!” James ordered while glaring at Remy. “No one kills Kidd or harms my mother. Both Kidds are mine.” James knew the time was getting close for Remy to make his move. He caught Remy’s smile and wink toward Mulee.

  “Do you hear something? Mulee said. A distant buzzing sound in the distance was getting closer. Everyone on the boat looked up to the man on the hill.

  “What is that noise?” Mulee said into the walkie-talkie. “It sounds like a swarm of bees coming toward us.”

  The man on the hill anxiously pointed at the sky. “It’s two … no three motors … attached to parachutes coming toward us,” the man yelled.

  Mulee didn’t wait for an order. He put the walkie-talkie to his mouth and yelled, “Fire!”

  It was a cloudless day with only a slight offshore breeze. The turquoise sky and ocean appeared seamless.

  Flying side by side, Jac, Peri, and Michael glided seventy feet above the clear blue water. It would be easy to spot any anomalies worth investigating. Reefs teeming with colorful sea life were in motion under the glass surface.

  Jac heard Peri say over the radio that he was actually enjoying the flight. Jac remembered the difficulty he’d had in getting the big man up into the air. He looked over toward Peri and gave him a thumbs-up. Peri reciprocated, and so did Michael.

  Jac scanned a copy of the two halves of the map he’d joined together and attached to a metal clipboard mounted on the engine frame. He could easily look for a match to the location depicted on the joined map. He was high enough to see islands and islets giving up their defining shapes. He examined the map, looking for some unique quality that would help in the identification. But he knew it would be difficult, since the map had obviously been gouged with a rough object.

  All of a sudden Jac saw a puff of smoke from a hilltop in the distance. It instantly awakened a hidden memory. He’d seen a similar puff of smoke when Reg was hit with the missile that killed him.

  Jac yelled into his mic, “Veer right!” And he pushed his own control stick forward and left.

  Too late. Luckily, the rocket missed Jac and the engine. It pierced through the chute and passed by, heading out into the distance.

  “Peri! Michael!” Jac called over the radio. “Land on the island in front of you. I’ll find you.”

  “Good God!” Peri yelled. “They found us. They’re shooting at us!”

  “Jac?” Michael said. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay, but if that was a heat seeker, it’ll be coming back.” Jac heard a noise that sounded like a zipper opening. He looked up. “There’s a growing patch of blue at the top of my chute, Mike.”

  The sudden surge when he quickly turned to the left had caused Jac’s engine to gasp. The engine had flooded when too much gas invaded the piston. The engine coughed, spit twice, whined, and stopped. “I’m going down. I’ll find you.” He pressed his start button and held it down. “Come on … come on!” The starter buzzed, the engine sputtered once, and went silent. Jac held the button down again and heard only several clicks. Forward momentum slowed and stopped. He was falling. The chute held him from plunging. He looked back to see the rocket’s white vapor trail behind him. It looked like a skywriter had drawn a big C in reverse against the sky. The bottom of the C was in motion. And closing.

  “Oh shit!” Jac yanked the safety harness strap. The buckle holding him flew open. He fell away as a fiery explosion disintegrated the motor, sending shrapnel raining like a sudden cloud burst. The chute was on fire.

  Falling. Jac managed to flip over so his feet were pointed at the water. Stinging pain peppered his body. He felt like lunch for a swarm of hornets. He hit the water and was propelled down. He felt the burn of salt soaking into his wounds. He waited until his downward momentum stopped; otherwise, he would be using up his air fighting to get to the surface. He saw the bottom just as he stopped. Jac pushed hard against the bottom with his legs. With both hands cupped, he pulled at the water as he propel himself upward. He broke through the surface and blew out his held breath. He hungrily filled his lungs with a deep inhale.

  Black ash fell like rain. Arcing above, the remainder of his chute burned and dissipated. It looked like a comet had hit the atmosphere.

  A sudden swirl in the water and a push. It felt as if he was being swept forward by something unnatural. Then a brush of something against his legs told him he wasn’t alone. He tasted blood on his lip.

  CHAPTER 42

  “I got one of them!” a voice boomed from the walkie-talkie.

  “What about the other ones?” Mulee looked up toward the man on the knoll waving a rocket launcher.

  “I see two chutes headin’ toward the lagoon of a big island … must be bout’ four mile away.”

  “Ask him if he can see their boat.” James said.

  As if he was recognizing that Remy was running the show, James watched Remy nod his approval and sign a thumbs-up to Mulee.

  “I can’t see a boat,” the voice growled through the static.

  “It can’t be far. Let’s finish the job,” Remy said.

  “Okay!” James yelled. Everyone on the boat froze and looked toward James. “But first we go after the two who landed on the island. Then we find the boat. I’ll deal with my mother when we have two hostages, not before.” He decided to assert command and not allow Remy to think he had power. It’s getting closer to the time, he thought. Very soon I will have to deal with Remy.

  “Jac, Peri, Michael! Are you all right?” Mandrago’s voice rang in Peri’s ears over the intermittent reception of the com system.

  “I’m okay, Dad!” said Peri, using his familial term for Mandrago. “ut … don’t know … Jac. We saw the rocket hit … and the explosion.”

  “I heard … saw the flame … Did Jac get out? Did you see?” Mandrago’s voice quivered.

  “I didn’t see him, but … you know Jac. He said he’d find us. And he will.”

  “You’re right!” Mandrago said.

  “Jac has at least five … of his nine lives left.”

  Peri surveyed his surroundings, “Dad, we’re on the beach of a small lagoon. There’s a steep mountain in back of me. It looks to be a large island. I reckon it’s about four or five islands south of where we took off.” Peri was worried. He knew it wouldn’t be long before whoever fired the missile would be coming to finish the job.

  “Get out of there!” Mandrago ordered. “Work your way to the other side of the island. Identify some landmarks and call me. We’re on our way.”

&
nbsp; “And so are we, Dad,” Peri said. “Be careful … these guys have heavy weapons.”

  “Don’t worry, son. I’ll take an inside passage to the back side of the island. I’ll keep you posted.”

  Peri stood for a moment looking at the radio. He always felt he and Jac had a symbiotic relationship, like twins. He smiled and muttered, “Jac’s alive … I know it … I feel it.”

  Michael yelled out for Peri to drag the chute behind him over the sand. “It’ll wipe out your footprints.”

  Peri picked up the motor and pulled his chute toward Michael.

  “Here, put it here.” Michael pointed at a deep gouge in the foliage.

  Peri disconnected the battery-operated radio from the frame of the motor and slung the strap holding it over his shoulder. He then deposited his chute and motor in the opening and covered them with palm fronds.

  “Over there,” Michael said. “It looks like a path up the side of the mountain

  Peri activated the radio once more. “Mandrago?”

  “Yeah, Peri?”

  “Please … you and the girls … be careful.”

  “Don’t worry, son.” Mandrago paused to look at Chauncey, Abigail, and Roni. “We have guns. We’re going to find all of you!”

  CHAPTER 43

  Jac brought his legs up and coiled his body into a ball. He figured, if a shark was about to take a bite, he’d make it difficult. He wasn’t about to give the predator dangling parts of his body to munch on. He reached down and pulled the survival knife from the sheath attached to his leg. He was ready. Seeing the large fin breaking through the water as it moved toward him, Jac thrust his knife out in front of his body at the ready. Two feet in front of him the animal surfaced, turned, and raised its head. It began chattering like a parrot.

  Jac breathed a sigh of relief and laughed.

  The bottlenose dolphin looked at Jac quizzically. It seemed to be inquiring if Jac was all right. When several other dolphins surfaced, Jac thought, now I need to convince one of these inquisitive fellows to pull me to the island. Jac issued a plea, but the dolphin in front of him nodded its head up and down, turned, and slid smoothly under the water. The others followed.