by Hep Aldridge
“Oh, that you are, my friend, that you are. Are there any outstanding expenses that I need to take care of?”
“None whatsoever; in fact, Rita says she had so much fun we should be paying you. Plus, she got some serious payback with Mendez. That was payment enough.”
“Well, that’s good enough for me. We’re headed back home. Reggie’s still down there working on stuff for us. Give her a call; I think you’ll like what’s cooking.”
“Will do; you all be safe now and don’t forget your friends down south, okay? And give Fitz a big smack on the back for me and tell him he owes me a visit soon.”
“Roger that; kiss Rita for me. We’ll be in touch.”
I put the SAT phone down and leaned back in the luxurious leather seat of the G500, sipping on a twelve-year-old single-malt Scotch. As I gazed out the window at the puffy clouds, I thought, now this is the life.
We were picked up at the airport and made our way back to Fitz’s
office. He immediately wanted a full report, which none of us felt like giving at the time. Luckily, O’Reilly volunteered to stay back and do a de-brief while the rest of us headed for Cocoa. I called Tony on the way and told him we were coming in and asked him to alert the others.
Getting home was nice; even though the jet could not have been more luxurious, it still felt great flopping down on my old leather sofa. I gave myself fifteen minutes to soak it in before I jumped into the shower and washed all those international travel miles off. My sweatpants, a glass with four ice cubes, and another three fingers of twelve-year-old single malt, and I hit the couch again and started to unwind. That’s when my phone started ringing.
The first call was from Nils, welcoming us home and asking when we would be able to meet. They had made some interesting discoveries on the galleon.
It was already 6:00 p.m., so we agreed to meet around 10:00 in the morning at the Lair.
A sip of scotch and the phone rang again; this time, it was Lawrence. He said they had reached an impasse in the legal proceedings, and he needed to meet with me to discuss options. I said, great, how about 10:00 a.m. tomorrow at the Lair? One at a time, guys, sheesh. He said he could do that and welcomed me home. I thanked him and then asked, “You’re still into wine, right?”
“Oh, yeah, why?”
“We’ll talk tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.,” I said and hung up.
Another sip of scotch and I laid my head back on the leather cushion and closed my eyes… you guessed it; the phone rang.
Now, I was getting irritated and let it show when I answered and said, “What!”
Tony said, “Sorry to bother you, Colt. I was just wondering when we were going to be able to meet?”
“Tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. at the Lair,” I said, wondering if it was better to break up these conversations or just talk to the entire group at once. Although each unique, I decided that the issues were interrelated, so I guessed it’d better to include everyone and then break out later with individuals as necessary.
“Okay, great, sorry for the interruption, man.”
I took a deep breath, “Naw, it’s okay, just been a long day; sorry for snapping at you like that. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Cool, see you then,” he said and hung up.
Geez, get a grip, Colt. It’s been a crazy… what has it been, a month and a half? Relax, you’re home, and life needs to get back to normal; that’s all. Normal, I thought, Ha. Hardly going to happen in my world, I thought as I took another sip… and the phone didn’t ring.
I put a call into Dimitri, Joe, and Doc first thing the next morning and let them know about the meetings. I got to the Lair about 10:10, and most of the others were there. Joe and Doc rolled in a few minutes later. Gus was there also.
After the greetings and welcome homes, the first question was, did we find the library? When I answered yes, the room went nuts. I calmed everyone down and said, “I know you’re excited, and it was amazing, but the details can wait until we get things under control here, so what’s going on? Lawrence?”
He quickly brought us up to speed on where they were. Florida didn’t want to budge on their claim of the wreck. They claim that we violated a bunch of archaeological protocols in our recovery and should be stripped of any monetary gains from the site and face criminal charges.
“Are you kidding me?” I said. “Those greedy bastards. They’re just pissed about the welcome we gave them when they first came out to the site.”
Lawrence laughed and said, “I’m sure that’s part of it. They’re trying to flex their muscles here. Dave and I have confirmed they really don’t have a legal leg to stand on. Most of this is for the media publicity this find is getting. It has really blown up since you left.”
“Great,” I said, “but we’re on solid legal footing with our claim, right?”
“Yes, we are; it just may be a protracted court battle if something doesn’t give. Also, Spain has jumped in with both feet now and claimed the entire wreck as their property. They’ve been in court at every meeting and have filed a companion suit.”
“Well, that’s just peachy,” Dimitri said. “This makes fighting those mercs in the jungle seem like a cakewalk.”
“Mercs in the jungle?” Gus said. “What mercs?”
I held up my hand to stop him. “In a minute,” I said, “anybody got any good news?”
Nils and Gus were both grinning now, and Nils said, “Oh, yeah, we’ve got some good news.”
“You know we got what we think is part of the queen’s dowry already, and it’s significant.”
“It’s supposed to be huge,” Doc replied.
“Well, when we got down deep into the captain’s cabin, we found another chest or the remains of one, and it was loaded with gold, silver, and gems of all sorts, pearls, and small gold bars. But it struck us as being different. They also had what our staff archaeologist, Tim Robinson, said were multiple Aztec gold pieces, plates, idols, and more.”
“So, you found the contents of another chest, you say?” I asked.
“The one with the Aztec stuff had been smashed up pretty good. And that’s not all. We uncovered what must have been the cardinal’s cabin. It had a chest in it too, and I can tell you he hadn’t taken a vow of poverty,” Nils laughed. “It had as much in it as any we have found.”
“Interesting,” I said as I slowly began processing the information.
Tony said, “Let me jump in here because this is somewhat related but different. You remember the Quipus you gave me that were in the last journal?”
“Yes, the priest said he thought they represented an Inca language. Not just a counting device like has been thought for years,” Doc said.
“He was right. I haven’t got the whole thing deciphered yet, but what I have seems to be a recounting of taking treasure to pay a ransom and then not delivering it—hiding it instead.”
“Really?” Doc said. “That jives with stories of the Inca chief, Atahuallpa, being held for ransom by Pizzaro. Gold was being brought in from all over the Inca empire to fill a room. But Pizarro executed him anyway. When the Inca found out, the gold that was on its way but had not arrived yet was spirited away by Inca warriors and hidden.”
“Well, these Quipus seem to tell part of that same story. I’ve still got a ways to go, but there seems to be a lot of information here,” Tony finished up, smiling broadly.
Now, I sat back in my chair, mind swirling with this new information.
As I was digesting what I had just heard, Lawrence’s cell phone rang, and he stepped away from the table to take the call.
After a couple of minutes, he came back to the table and said, “Well, that was interesting.”
“What?” I asked.
“That was Dave calling from the courthouse. The hearing is on recess, and he wanted to let me know about a new development. It seems the representative for Spain and the Florida rep have gone to war. Spain now wants everything and doesn’t want to share anything. He says Florida has no
claim on the ship or its cargo.”
“Where does that leave us?” I asked.
“Right now, we’re just watching those two duke it out. That’s why the judge called for a recess. Things were getting pretty heated, and a shouting match erupted.”
“That’s very interesting,” I said, “the two supposed allies are at each other’s throats,” I said.
“Seems that way,” Lawrence replied.
“I wonder if we can use that to our advantage,” I said.
“How so?” Lawrence asked.
“I don’t know; I’ll have to think about it some, and so should you, Counselor,” I mulled.
“Well, here’s another bit of good news. While you’ve been gone, the price of gold has gone from thirteen hundred dollars an ounce to two thousand dollars an ounce,” Nils added.
“The market got that volatile in the last month?” Doc asked.
“Yep, a lot of crazy stuff going on,” Nils replied.
“Holy crap, Tony, what does that do to our ‘reported’ four hundred million in treasure?” I asked.
Tony pulled out his tablet, punched at it for a bit, and looked up, smiling.
“Well, according to my rough calculations, and, mind you, these are rough, based only on what we’ve reported we have found, not the real number, our four hundred million has just turned into six hundred fifteen million-plus.”
We all sat there, eyes wide and mouths agape.
Doc finally pushed away from the table and said, “I need a drink. It must be noon somewhere.”
At that, we all broke out laughing.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The court was in recess for three weeks. Dave was making a quick trip back to Atlanta to take care of some business at his law firm. I had been racking my brain as to how we could leverage this conflict between Florida and Spain in our favor, to no avail. The home team, Gus, captain of our recovery vessel the Falcon, Nils, our retired rocket scientist partner, Lawrence our legal eagle partner, and Tony, our computer genius, were all trying to wrap their collective heads around our revelation that we had met up with, and become friends with, an alien being and discovered the library!
No problem… right.
A week later…
I had fallen asleep on my couch when I jerked upright as a thought like a bolt of lightning flashed through my head. I sat there, desperately working hard to remember the details as I scribbled notes of what I guess was a dream on the pad of paper on the coffee table. Then, I spent fifteen minutes frozen in place. When I felt I had solidified the idea in my head, I jumped to my feet and grabbed the phone, not looking at the digital clock, which read 3:00 a.m.
“Lawrence, did I wake you?” I asked, not thinking.
“Hell, yeah, you woke me. It’s 3:00 a.m., Colt. What’s going on?”
“I think I’ve got the answer to our legal problem,” I said breathlessly.
“At three in the morning?” Lawrence bemoaned.
“Yeah, sorry about that, but it just came to me. Meet me at the Lair at 8:00 a.m.”
“Right, okay, I’ll see you at 8:00; now, go back to sleep,” and the line went dead.
There was no sleeping for the next hour as I committed more details to paper, finally getting back to sleep only to be rattled awake by my alarm.
I was at the Lair when Lawrence rolled in at 8:05. I had the coffee on and was pacing in the conference room.
“Sit down,” I said as I slid a cup of coffee his way. “I think you’re going to dig it.”
Two weeks later, our “new” discovery of the queen’s jewels, with photos, was on the front page of most of the newspapers in the country. Well, at least one chest was. I had wanted a big splash, so we made like Mac, our chief diver, had just made the find the week before in the captain’s cabin—one chest of beautiful jewelry, diamonds, gold, and emeralds, silver, and pearls fit for a queen. The way we displayed it, golden necklaces draped everywhere, strings of pearls, rings, broaches, and small gold bars, would have been a great addition to any pirate movie.
It sat in the lobby of Lair 2, the building I had acquired for our offices when we started our “legit” salvage operation of the galleon. The acrylic tank that we had made for it filled with saltwater displayed the chest beautifully. The saltwater helped preserve the integrity of the box or literal treasure chest housing the dowry. Custom LED lighting enhanced the beauty of its contents and made it easy to photograph. When you walked in the front doors of Lair 2, it was the first thing you saw, sitting there, flanked by the armed security guards.
The phone started ringing off the hook; media outlets everywhere wanted part of the story. “Was this really part of the queen’s dowry that was being sent to King Philip V?” We fed the media enough facts, and they ran with it. “The historical significance of this find is huge,” “This is the only portion of the dowry that has ever been found.” And so it went for two days, and then the international media picked it up, and TV crews from all over the world descended on us, interviewing Gus as salvage vessel captain and Mac as the diver who found the chest. All of which was true. Of course, I had prepped them well.
Now, did we indeed have proof that this was, in fact, part of the dowry? Well, not really, but there was no proof it wasn’t either. PT Barnum would have been proud of me.
The court was called back into session, and it was a media zoo. TV cameras were everywhere; interviews with anybody who looked like they were associated with the case were grabbed on sidewalks and in hallways. Hell, they even tried to corner poor Lawrence in the men’s room.
The state legal eagles filed into the room; they had added a couple more people to their team, and then the Spanish entourage entered, some fifteen strong.
Lawrence leaned over to me and said, “Geez, you sure know how to throw a party.”
Dave heard him and laughed. “This should be good,” he said. They knew what was going to happen.
I was sitting at the table with them as part of my plan; it was just the three of us.
David vs. Goliath.
The state immediately began presenting all sorts of justifications for their claims on the wreck and its treasure. I won’t bore you with the details. Then, it was Spain’s turn. They did a much better job, and I could see they had the judge’s interest. And then the circus started as the state jumped on Spain and Spain fought back, vociferously. The cameras were going off, and videographers were trying to get in position to get good shots of the interchange, and the judge was trying to gain control of the mayhem. I sat there grinning as the scene played out.
Finally, the judge got things back under control, turned to Dave, and said, “Mr. Kensington, does the defense have anything they would like to add?”
Dave stood up, his huge linebacker frame filling his custom Dolce & Gabbana suit. He stood like an ebony warrior ready for battle, which is exactly what he was.
“Your Honor, we do,” his deep basso voice commanded a hush throughout the courtroom. “I have been in discussions with my client, Dr. Burnett, and, at this time, he requests that he be allowed to address the court, as president and CEO of Risky Business, Ltd.”
When people hear the name of my company, I don't know why there is invariably a chuckle from the crowd. The gallery did not disappoint.
The judge’s gavel hammered once, and he said, “I will allow it, Dr. Burnett.”
I stood and thought showtime and stepped from behind the table, facing him directly. “Your Honor, I apologize for the uproar these proceedings have brought to your courtroom. I never dreamed that treasure hunting would be this contentious and cause this much disruption.” Of course, that wasn’t true, but what the heck. Now, I had his attention. “So, to hopefully facilitate a swift conclusion, I would like to propose a compromise. Even though I do not believe the state has any legal jurisdiction over our discovery, and their claims would only result in a long, drawn-out court battle, which we are prepared to fight, and recognizing Spain’s historical interest in our discovery
on its national patrimony, I would like to propose the following.” You could have heard a pin drop in the courtroom.
“My company proposes to give ten percent of what we have found to the state, which would amount to an estimated 40 million dollars; also, we agree to give them twenty percent of any future finds at the site. Once we conclude our excavation at the site, we agree to turn it over to the state, so they may have it for historical research.” The state people were listening intently, and, as I turned to look at them, I could see the frowns on the faces of the Spanish delegation.
“Additionally, we would agree to turn over the entire queen’s dowry to the Spanish government, no strings or additional monetary considerations included for either party. Historically, and in the best interest of international relations, I think that it’s the right thing to do.”
The courtroom went nuts. The state boys looked at each other, not knowing exactly how to react; the Spanish were smiling ear to ear, and I turned and winked at Dave and Lawrence, both with huge smiles on their faces.
The reporters were trying to get to the state officials for comment; others grabbed any member of the Spanish delegation they could, and the judge was banging his gavel loudly.
I stood there, waiting as the judge regained control again.
“Is that all, Dr. Burnett?” the judge asked.
“One more thing, your Honor, if the two parties agree to this settlement, they would release my company and all employees and associates from any current or future legal liability of any sort related to this discovery. That’s it,” I said and sat down.
The primary representative for the Spanish delegation, who had been huddled in discussion with his team, stood and said, “Your Honor, that is agreeable to Spain,” and sat down.
The judge looked at the state boys, who still seemed confused as to what just happened. “Well, what does the state say?”
“Well, your Honor, we need time to discuss and review all the…” the judge’s gavel stopped him in mid-sentence.
“Sir,” the judge said rather gruffly, “Dr. Burnett and his company have just made you a generous offer, both monetarily and historically. The other aggrieved party has accepted his generous offer, and to preclude what would be a long court battle, which, in my opinion, you would lose, I suggest you carefully consider this compromise. I will grant you a fifteen-minute recess, and then I expect a response.”
