by Lauren Child
They saw it before long: a carcass of sorts, a ship’s skeleton, covered in barnacles and seaweed, its wooden frame rotting into and blending with the very seabed. Amazing marine plants and coral had grown through it, around it, and within it, and this long-lost thing was now alive and crawling with sea creatures.
Ruby stayed close to Kekoa, who signaled them toward the less accessible part of the wreck, and they made their way inside a tangled mess of wood and seaweed. Ruby felt her way, her underwater flashlight illuminating small areas at a time, catching drifts of silt in its beam, flashes of silver as quick fish dodged and darted. Shy crabs scuttled sideways and bashful anemones drew in their tentacles as she passed. All manner of life had taken up residence here, undisturbed by the world above. It was unlikely that any of these creatures had ever seen a scuba-diving schoolgirl before.
She and Kekoa moved slowly around the old ship, where half-recognizable objects sat partially buried in the silt: something that could perhaps be a candlestick, a cup, something that might once have been a piece of furniture, but now was no more than a curiously shaped piece of wood, loomed out of the semidark.
They moved methodically and silently, swimming farther into the wreck, Ruby pointing the flashlight into the dark recesses of what was left of the ship. They looked for anything that might provide a clue that would in turn lead them to the pirates or whoever else might be after the sunken treasure.
They had been under for about forty-seven minutes when things went bad.
A loud noise, like the rumble of thunder, and Ruby turned to see Kekoa pinned under a huge wooden beam, part of the old ship finally succumbing to the sea. Kekoa was trapped, and blood was beginning to drift from her head into the water, creating a scarlet halo. But far worse was the leg wound. Ruby thought she could see bone. It didn’t look good. She attempted to pull Kekoa free, but it was futile.
Kekoa was calm. Not the panicking kind, she signaled toward the surface — to Hitch — and Ruby nodded. She swam back the way they had come, through the maze of rotting wood and coral.
Then, as she turned a corner in the old corridor of the ship, she felt something glide past her legs, and she pulled back in surprise, dropping the flashlight. It hit something hard beneath her, flickered, and went out.
She was plunged into darkness, underwater, trapped inside a fragile wooden skeleton that might cave in at any moment, and with a limited air supply. Well, that was enough to bring on anyone’s claustrophobia. Ruby was suddenly disorientated, unsure which way was out, and barely managing to contain her panic.
Nice going, Agent Redfort.
This was not meant to happen; the flashlight was Spectrum issue and should be robust enough to survive a knock. Ruby remembered her training and consciously slowed her heart rate and remained completely still until she felt calm, or at least calmer. RULE 19: PANIC WILL FREEZE YOUR BRAIN. Then she began to move forward. Now completely blind, she remembered what Kekoa had taught her, and methodically felt around her, feeling for a way through, a way out.
As she slid her hands over the inside walls of the ship, she felt something — a latch, a trapdoor, a porthole perhaps. She pushed and pushed, and finally it gave. Ruby was a petite girl, small enough to make it through a fairly tiny aperture, and she twisted and wriggled her way out of the watery prison.
She half swam, half clawed through a forest of seaweed and then out of the gloom ahead of her rose a horse’s head (the old wooden figurehead of the ship) — a tiny fish darting in and out of its rotten eye. It stood there like a memorial or grave marker, which of course it was.
This was the wreck of the Seahorse, and where it rested many had died. Beyond the graveyard Ruby could see glimmers of light flickering — that meant a way out and up. She paused only when she saw something twinkle, something caught in the fronds of seaweed. She reached down and plucked it from where it lay. A stone, a cut stone, beautiful and of transparent yellow.
Ruby gripped the jewel in her palm and pushed on through the seaweed, drawn by a sound, a whispering, a calling, very distant but getting nearer. Hitch? No, not Hitch. She turned full circle in the water, but could see nothing but blue. Was this the mermaid sound that Red had heard? Or was it just the white noise of her panicking mind?
She started to make for the ocean surface. And then she caught her breath. Menacing gray shapes, like circling planes above her.
Sharks.
They were between her and the boat; they were between her and the boat and her and the rest of the ocean; they were everywhere, surrounding her, circling like some bullying mob.
But one of them wasn’t circling; one of them was moving toward her.
So although it was true that Ruby Redfort had never been scared of sharks, not her whole entire life, that position was rapidly changing. Being surrounded by a whole batch of them (as Tilly Matthews would say) can do that to a person. Ruby opened her hand to grab for something, and as she did so, the yellow jewel slipped from her hand and fell through turquoise.
The retractable aluminum pole Ruby pulled from her belt did not do its job. She valiantly prodded it toward the gray menace, but it didn’t make the impact she had hoped it would, and none of the sharks seemed even the slightest bit troubled. Despite what her dive master had told her, these guys were definitely interested. It was almost as if they’d been trained to show an interest, like they were guarding the location, making sure no one dallied too long.
Were they being controlled by someone? Guarding something? Like treasure? They must have smelled Kekoa’s blood, she reasoned. But they didn’t seem to head toward Kekoa. Rather, they just stayed in one area. That would be a smart way to guard treasure.
Treasure that was evidently no longer there. Just one small stone that could prove it ever existed, though even that had vanished. All these thoughts washed through Ruby’s mind in split seconds as the predators closed in. The whispering was getting louder, much nearer, and the sharks were surrounding her. Bumping her. Knocking the breath from her.
She flailed one way, then the other, jabbing the stick, twisting, turning until she lost her grip on it and her only defense twirled away from her. She swiveled around and saw one of the creatures open its jaws to reveal those gums, those teeth.
SOMETHING CRASHED INTO THE WATER, and white bubbles fizzed up to the surface. And just like that, the menacing gray shapes were gone.
Ruby was suspended in the deep blue ocean. She turned to check her back, and there behind her was Hitch. He was not in dive gear — there had not been time for that. He was treading water, a knife in his hand. He looked around for Kekoa and then made a gesture, pointing up, and Ruby followed him to the surface.
They clambered onto the small boat, both spluttering seawater, Ruby dizzy to be alive.
“Wh-what did you do?” she stammered from where she had collapsed on the deck.
“All I did was jump in the water,” said Hitch. “Ruby, what happened to Kekoa?”
“I came to get you,” wheezed Ruby. “She’s trapped!”
“What do you mean, trapped?”
“Inside the wreck — something fell on her. She looks in bad shape.”
Hitch turned the radar dial on his Spectrum watch, tuning in to Kekoa’s signal. It wasn’t there.
“Darn it,” he said. “You’re going to have to give me a pretty accurate description of Kekoa’s location, kid.”
Kekoa had taught Ruby well, and she described the place where they had entered the wreck and the direction they had swum through it. Finding Kekoa would be easy — getting her out would be the tricky part.
Hitch grabbed a rope and tool kit. He was already reaching a mask and air tank as Ruby described the cut to Kekoa’s head and the leg wound and the fallen beam. Three minutes later and Ruby was alone. She looked out to sea, staring across to the Sibling Islands. She thought about the lost sisters, and as she thought of them, she saw that tiny glint of light flash once more on the smaller of the two rocks. Just for a second, and then it was gone
. She stood stock-still and unblinking, waiting for it to reappear, but it didn’t.
An agonizing nineteen minutes and five seconds passed before Hitch reappeared and deposited an injured Kekoa on the warm wood of the deck. She looked pale, and the blood continued to seep from her calf.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Hitch reassured her. But Ruby could see that it was. She grabbed the first-aid kit and handed it over. Hitch bound the leg wound as well as he could and then examined the cut to the head.
“Gotta stitch this,” he said.
Kekoa nodded and didn’t flinch once throughout the whole painful procedure.
“Kid, get the boat started. We need to make it to shore quick, and there’s no chance of radioing for assistance out here — all signals are blocked.”
Ruby got the engine started and began very slowly to steer the boat in the direction of Little Bay Beach. She had to move at a snail’s pace because Hitch needed the boat steady.
As he worked, Hitch talked to Kekoa. “Those were some sharks down there. You shoulda seen them. They were more than curious.”
“What was so special about them?” she replied weakly.
“There were a lot of them, and they were interested, not afraid.”
“Perhaps someone’s been feeding them,” muttered Kekoa.
“I thought the exact same thing,” said Ruby. “They were expecting something.”
“If they were being fed, it would mean they’re attracted to divers rather than suspicious of them,” said Kekoa, her voice barely audible now.
“Making them act like a security team . . .” said Hitch.
Kekoa almost nodded. “It would have that effect.”
“So why did the sharks react badly to you?” said Ruby. “Why swim away when you appeared?”
“I don’t think it had a whole lot to do with me,” said Hitch. “Something spooked them. I glimpsed a movement in the water, but I couldn’t make out what it was.”
“You did? ’Cause you see, I heard something,” said Ruby. “At least I think I did.”
“What kind of something?” asked Hitch.
“Something that sounded familiar,” said Ruby. “Something I think I once heard before.”
“Like what?” said Hitch.
“Like a whispering,” she replied.
“The same thing those other people heard?”
“I guess — maybe.”
“But you didn’t see anything?”
“No,” said Ruby. “Just sharks.”
When Hitch was done with his first aid, he took over steering from Ruby.
“Well, we better get out of here,” he said. “While we still can.” He gunned the throttle, and the boat sliced through the water at great speed. Once they made it to shore, Hitch radioed for Zuko.
“Agent down,” he said. “We need her ’coptered out as soon as possible.” He gave Zuko their location, and seventeen minutes later Kekoa was carried on board and they watched the chopper buzz away, disappearing into a tiny fly-size dot.
“So you found nothing down there?” asked Hitch. “No treasure, no sign of treasure?”
“I did find something,” said Ruby.
“What?” said Hitch.
“I — I dropped it.”
“Dropped what?” he asked.
“A yellow gem,” she said.
“A gem? You’re sure about that?”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “I’m sure.”
“But you’re sure it was a gem, not just a piece of glass, a shiny stone, something that caught the light?”
“You don’t believe me?” she asked.
“Yes, kid, I believe you.”
But it sounded like he wasn’t sure, though maybe it didn’t matter one way or the other since it didn’t change a thing. Apart from that one tiny stone, the gems weren’t there, and there was nothing to prove they ever had been. Maybe the pirates never were looking for treasure. Maybe Ruby had just gotten caught up in Martha Lily Fairbank’s imaginative world, a world that time had long since forgotten.
“So what are you going to tell LB?” said Ruby. “She’s not gonna be too thrilled about Kekoa winding up in the hospital.”
“I guess I’ll just have to tell it to her straight.” Hitch sighed. “When it comes to LB, there’s no other way.”
WHEN RUBY GOT DRESSED THAT MORNING, it hadn’t occurred to her that she would wind up sitting in LB’s office justifying her actions. If it had, she would have chosen a different T-shirt — this one read excuse me while I barf.
By the time they reached Spectrum, Ruby was unusually nervous, though Hitch was as cool as ever. He just headed straight to LB’s office as if nothing was about to hit the fan. LB was talking on the telephone, and she waved for them to sit down. Whoever was on the other end of the line was getting quite a grilling.
“I don’t want any more excuses — just make it happen,” said LB, abruptly hanging up.
She looked at Ruby. “So, do you want to explain what occurred out there?”
Ruby opened her mouth, but she couldn’t think of a thing to say.
Hitch came to her rescue. “As you know, the kid has been listening to the Chime Melody tapes, and there’s evidence that the interference is not interference but is actually coded communication, musical notes that can be translated into instructions.”
“All right,” said LB. “Show me.”
Ruby took the file of papers from her satchel and laid the various communications on the desk. LB leaned forward, studying them.
“You see, Chime Melody is the only radio station you can clearly receive in the Sibling waters, so it makes sense that they would hijack this particular station,” Ruby explained.
“I would agree,” said LB. “The part I’m a little hazy about is what led you to believe that the ‘she’ they refer to in the messages was the wreck of the Seahorse?”
Ruby took a breath. “Well, that was kind of a hunch based on what I’ve been reading about in the city library. It just seemed to fit together that these pirates might be after the same treasure that the pirates were after two hundred years ago. I mean, it’s super valuable.”
“Super valuable?” LB evidently did not appreciate this description of treasure. “Well, super valuable it may be, but when all’s said and done, you acted on a hunch, a hunch that left one of Sea Division’s most super valuable agents out of action and me with a lot of explaining to do.”
“But you see, I think someone got there first. I think they already found the treasure,” said Ruby. “I found evidence of it, a gemstone that got left behind, dropped.”
LB looked up. “You did? Where is it?”
Ruby bit her lip. “Well, that’s the thing.”
“The kid dropped it,” said Hitch. “Not her fault.”
“She dropped it?” said LB. She turned to Hitch. “So, Hitch, did you see this precious stone?”
Hitch shook his head. “No,” he said, “I didn’t.”
“There were sharks,” said Ruby. “A lot of sharks. And I sorta let go of it.”
“You let go of the one piece of evidence that might make me believe this whole fairy tale?”
“It happened, OK? I’m sorry, but you might do the same if you were surrounded by a whole mob of sharks.” Ruby was feeling the anger rise up in her. Sooner or later she was going to say something everyone would regret.
“The collective noun is a school or shoal, or if you must be dramatic, a shiver,” said LB.
“Well, a mob is what it felt like to me,” said Ruby, her voice loud and firm. She was on the very verge of telling LB where she might want to stick it. But fortunately, Hitch stepped in.
“Look, LB.” His voice was calm and steady. “I wouldn’t have taken a risk like this if I hadn’t thought there was something sound in the kid’s thinking. Ruby’s a smart kid; we all appreciate that. More importantly, I trust her instincts. Maybe these guys already plundered the wreck; maybe we were just too darned late.”
“Acti
ng on instincts is all very well. Acting on instincts without getting permission from your senior agent is reckless. Let me remind you both that you are not the ones who have to call up Agent Trent-Kobie at Sea Division and explain the actions of their renegade staff.”
“I’ll give you that,” said Hitch. “But what if the kid had been right? What if the kid is right? Shouldn’t we be trying to track these guys down?”
“Have you ever paused to consider why anyone would go to all this effort for something as corny as treasure? Is it really worth it?”
“No,” said Ruby. “It isn’t worth it.”
LB turned to look at her, speechless. She waved for Ruby to continue.
“Either the mastermind behind this is a madman or the treasure is only a part of it. To my mind, there has to be something more.”
“Now I’m interested,” said LB. “Continue.”
“I don’t know,” said Ruby. She didn’t want to mention her theory to LB yet — that someone was after the rubies in a cave that a four-year-old girl had insisted was real exactly two hundred years ago. It would sound too crazy. Too “fairy tale,” as LB had put it.
LB stared at her for the longest fifteen seconds ever recorded and then said, “Well, come back when you do.” She picked up the phone, dialed a number, and launched right into a whole ’nother conversation.
Meeting over.
Hitch closed the door behind them. “Well, I think that went well, kid.”
“She doesn’t give a person a whole lot of slack, huh?” said Ruby.
“Never has, never will.” He patted her on the back. “Come on, let’s get out of here. You need to take some time off; you’re growing dark circles around your eyes.”
Ruby sighed. They had found nothing, but that didn’t mean there had been nothing to find. Maybe, like Hitch said, they were just too darned late. Perhaps it was also too late to catch these particular sea bandits; perhaps they had found exactly what they wanted and were now miles and miles away. . . .
Or perhaps not.
Wherever they were though, they had managed to find a pretty secret hiding place. There had been absolutely no sign of them today, neither below the sea nor above.
