“Not for a minute. I think someone has tried to smuggle something aboard. Or that the Captain was taking on illegal equipment. Even some type of weapon – something capable of working its way through metal. New technologies. Something that broke out or leaked and destroyed the ship.”
“You’re starting to believe in this whole genetically modified plankton theory?”
“No way, whatever it is, I can promise you it has nothing to do with plankton and its stupid eerie phosphorescent light!”
Sam parked the pickup and began eagerly climbing the several flights of steel stairs towards the bridge. Veyron whistled happily to himself as he ran his hand along the steel railings which had similar damage as the hull but nowhere near as extensive. It reminded Sam of those odd medical examiners on TV who hum while performing an autopsy.
Veyron continued up the stairs. Despite his solid frame, the man never appeared out of breath. “It’s the security footage I’m interested in.”
“You think the whole thing was caused by sabotage?”
“No. Although I haven’t ruled that out, either.” Veyron climbed another set of ten steps and then ran his hand along another melted bulkhead. “Whatever caused this type of damage to the steel, I can promise you it wasn’t saltwater – or phosphorescent plankton for that matter!”
“No, of course not.”
“So I asked Donald to meet me up there to go over the security footage from the hold. I’m betting you someone took on some additional cargo that your father’s not aware of. Whatever that cargo was, it made a hell of a mess out of his steel in the ship.”
“One thing’s for certain. The phosphorescent plankton has never hurt anyone.”
Sam reached for the handle to the door that led to the five-stories high command bridge at the aft section of the Global Star. His hand never reached it. Instead, the door flung open and Donald hurried out to greet them.
He looked excited and out of breath. “Great, you’re here. You’ll never believe what I’ve just seen on the CCTV footage!”
“What?” Sam and Veyron asked in unison.
“That creepy fucking plankton tried to murder Juan Gonzales!”
Chapter Forty Eight
“I thought you weren’t a believer, Donald?” Sam was quick to remind him that he thought all the Mexican workers were paranoid and superstitious.
Donald tucked his thumbs into his belt. Smiled at him like he was an idiot. Then in his slow southern drawl, replied, “I began checking on the CCTV footage of the cargo hold. They were a massive shipment of European cars coming from Germany – like Captain Miller’s logbooks show. Then I looked through some of the other areas of the ship. The engine room, bilge compartments, etc. Anywhere that someone might hide tons of hard acids.”
“And what did you see?” Veyron asked.
“Nothing. They all looked empty, as they were supposed to. But then it got me thinking…”
“Go on,” Veyron said.
“So then I thought to myself – if the constant CCTV has been running since the ship left Port Hamburg, Germany - then…”
“Go on. What did you find!” Sam said.
“Then I thought it might have captured what happened to Juan – you know the welder who I said fell into the bilge?”
Donald pressed play so they could watch the CCTV and make up their own mind about whether or not the worker was attacked.
The CCTV recording showed the scrapyard’s worker preparing to start a diesel motor. He was about to pump the remaining seawater out of the hull. He finished drilling a hole in the side of the hull, then fed a pipe into the bilge water and attached it to the diesel pump. He then ran the other end of a second hose from the pump out the hole.
It wasn’t until the worker went to switch the pump on that anything unusual happened. The bilge water started to swell until it flooded the steel grate that he was standing on. A small ripple of green iridescent liquid oozed from the bilge and slid onto the grate where the Mexican worker was now trying to start the pump.
It reached his feet where he stood.
A moment later he slipped and fell into the bilge water. Terrified the man scrambled out of the bilge. Climbed the ladder and ran out of the room.
Donald stopped the video. “Nothing else happens after that. Juan never returned to his work.” He then turned to them both. “Well. What do you make of that? Thought you’d seen it all, hadn’t you?”
Sam shook his head. “Beats the hell out of me, but if I didn’t know better I’d say that plankton just stopped your man from pumping them out.”
“It certainly looks like he was attacked.”
“I don’t know what the connection is, but I’d say it’s pretty obvious that this plankton is behind it somehow.”
“There’s no doubt about it, Sam – those fuckers just tried to kill the man.”
“The question is why?”
“No, we know that he was going to pump them out into the dry dock which would have killed them. The real question is how?”
“Yeah, well until we find a live sample, we’re going to have no way to prove it either way. One thing’s for certain. This was no random accident, and that means neither were the rogue waves. We don’t know whose causing them. Or why. Or when the next one is going to take place. But we do know there’s only one place they can form, so we’d better do something to stop it.”
“Or prepare to hear about the next disaster.”
Chapter Forty Nine
Tom had waited a frustrating eight hours for his residual nitrogen levels to settle. He eagerly prepared his dive equipment so that he could return to the ancient trimaran. The gold was still down there. He was certain of it. And hoped that he’d find it before he had to explain to Sam that he just lost a small fortune worth of gold at the bottom of the sea. Also, he wanted to find out more about the ancient trimaran. He still had a swathe of unanswered questions.
Who were the Antiqui Nautae?
Where did they come from?
Matthew entered the dive room. “It will be getting dark soon. I’d prefer you to wait until the morning. It’s safer.”
“We’re diving a wreck at a hundred and sixty feet. It’s always dark,” Tom replied.
Matthew smiled condescendingly. “And there are little green men who live there to contend with.”
“I never said there were men, just one – and I have no idea where it lives. Besides, I already admitted that the pleasant green apparition must have been a figment of my imagination.” He looked at Genevieve. “I want to go find that gold before another green man takes it; are you still happy to join me?”
Genevieve strapped the twin Heliox tanks onto her back, firmly pressing the Velcro BCD straps together at her waist. “Matthew, you’re certain there wasn’t another vessel for twenty miles and the sonar showed that we were alone throughout our dive?”
“Certain.”
“Good. Then the gold’s still there.” Genevieve reached for the Shark Stick – a high pressured gas gun used to take down sharks that become a little too inquisitive. “I want that gold and I don’t believe in scary things in the night. But just in case, we’ll be ready.”
“Suit yourselves.” Matthew picked up a spare set of Heliox dive tanks. “With Veyron and Sam both away, you’re going to be in a world of strife if you fuck up down there. Given this is your second dive in eight hours, I want you take a second tank each and set up a safety camp on the trimaran.”
Tom looked at Matthew. The man was by far the most conservative on board. Doesn’t he realize Sam and I dived below 500 feet last year? Compared to that, this is a relatively safe environment. “We’ll be fine. But just in case, I’ll bring the spare tanks. You ready Genevieve?”
“I’m always ready.” This kind of sassy comment got a slight smile and raised eyebrows from both men. Typical Genevieve.
They made a quick descent. Landing just behind the center cockpit and middle hull of the ancient trimaran. Tom had a quick look at Genevieve
. No extra bubbles. Good, no leaks. “Welcome back. The Trimaran’s just where we left her.”
“Shame the gold isn’t.”
Tom set the spare twin Heliox tanks down on the deck. “We’ll find it. Don’t worry. Haven’t you ever lost anything before?”
“Yeah, my car keys. But never have I lost around a hundred grand worth of gold.”
“No, that’s true. That’ll be a first for me too,” Tom conceded. “All it takes is a little bit of backtracking and you generally get your car keys back, right?”
Genevieve flashed her long lashes and her blue eyes glistened with a deep blue. “Not me. Last time it cost me $200 and three months waiting time to have the manufacturer send me replacements.”
Tom laughed. “Well you’ll be happy to know that I generally have better luck than that.”
He moved above the large opening in the hull which made up the center cockpit. It was approximately ten feet wide, forty in length and five deep. Tom shined his flashlight casually around the edges and across the flooring. His eyes scanned the slightest chip in the wood where he first laid the golden sword. There was no sign of it moving. There wasn’t even anywhere for it to fall. He’d placed it on a perfectly level piece of wood.
“Who do you call to replace something a little more valuable than keys?” Tom asked.
“I thought you said you’d find it?”
“I did.”
“So, where is it then?” she teased.
Tom shined his flashlight around the cockpit again. There was very little marine life attached to the wooden structures. Nowhere that the gold could have fallen. Definitely nowhere for it to disappear to. The gold should capture the reflection of the flashlight like a beacon. He moved further down into the cockpit and ran his hand along the edge. “I have no idea.”
Genevieve followed him. Starting at the opposite end, she ran her hand along the wooden structure. Tom slowly reached the end of his side without finding anything. He looked back at Genevieve. She’d stopped.
“Why did you stop?” he asked.
She pushed her hand harder and the side of the wooden wall broke. Her hand slipped inside the hollowed out area behind the wall. All the way up to her shoulder. “Because I think I just found an opening to another level.”
Chapter Fifty
Tom’s heart leapt into a gallop. He knew the sensation. He’d felt it when he and Sam found the lost treasure of Atlantis. He had answers. The deck was hollow. There was another passage below them. The gold must have fallen through. He moved toward Genevieve. “Can I have a look? There must be a way inside.”
She swam back a little. “Be my guest.”
He started tapping on the edge of the wood and then felt for the opening. He pulled at it and an entire section of the wall approximately five feet high by four foot wide began to move. It didn’t break. The growth of marine life seemed to be holding it intact. But it was clearly the shape of a door. “What does that look like to you?”
“It’s a door.”
“That’s what I think. Which confirms there’s another level to this shipwreck. My guess is the Antiqui Nautae kept their most precious cargo inside their deepest hold.”
Tom used the back of a small crowbar to break off several barnacles at the edge of the potential door. He always carried one when wreck diving – it served to help him gain access and more importantly break free if he becomes stuck. He ran the steel edge of it into the gap until he was able to dig the tip of the crowbar inside. Then he drove it hard into the gap, and pried.
The entire door broke open.
He shined his flashlight inside. A large tunnel ran horizontally towards the outer hull. “We’re in!”
Tom looked at Genevieve’s face. Her blue eyes glistened with desire. He’d seen that desire plenty of times before, too. In his experience the lust for gold is only just beaten by one thing on the planet – the allure of a shipwreck’s treasure.
“How far do you think this thing goes?” she asked.
“No idea, but let’s go find out.”
Tom tied off his green primary dive guideline to the ancient tiller inside the cockpit. And then began swimming through the tunnel. Like the hull tunnels there were very little changes and nothing to obstruct them. When he reached the end of the tunnel at the point where the outer hull most likely stood, the entire tunnel turned to a right angle and dropped approximately ten feet. Carvings into the side of the wood showed the remains of a ladder that the Antiqui Nautae once used.
He took his primary guideline and made a couple of loops over the edge of the ladder. “Okay, you can come through now Genevieve. There’s another level below us. I’m going to descend and I’ll let you know if it’s safe for you to follow.”
“Copy that.”
He watched for a moment until he could see the glare of her LED approaching. Then he descended into the lower level of the outer hull. He swallowed – equalizing the pressure in his ears to the new depth. The tunnel turned left and appeared to follow the length of the hull. It was an easy dive. By having the access door closed all those years, no marine life had ever developed on the walls of the inside of the hull. It was still in the same condition as it would have been hundreds of years ago.
Tom swam towards the end of it. Approximately 60 feet away it turned left at another ninety-degree angle. “Genevieve, how are you going?”
“Good. I can just make out your light at the end.”
Tom checked the tension of his green guideline. “Okay, it seems to snake back towards the middle hull again. I’ll wait for you when I reach the middle hull.”
“Okay, got it.”
Tom swam along the horizontal tunnel until it opened into a large rectangular room. A dining table, which appeared to have been carved from the original sequoia tree trunk used in the hull, filled the length of the room. It was at least forty feet long. Solid bench seats ran the length of the table. For some reason the image made him think about a room full of Vikings sitting there, eating recently slaughtered animals with their bare hands. At the far end of the room another tunnel led most likely towards the outer hull on the other side.
A bright light flashed behind him.
He turned his head to look at her. “Welcome to the dining room of the Antiqui Nautae.”
Genevieve flashed her light around the room. “It looks empty.”
“It appears they lived simply while at sea.” Tom smiled. “Come on. Let’s see where this ends. It seems strange to build a tunnel that snakes around unless they were protecting something.”
“I’ll follow you,” she said.
Tom swam through the tunnel which brought them out on the lower level of the first outer hull. It snaked around to the right. He followed it all the way to the end. Again, it turned back towards the middle hull. Tom continued until it opened up into the largest of the rooms.
And most unique.
At first he thought it just looked like the Viking dining room, without the table. Then he noticed the exits. There were at least fifty inside the room – each one only just large enough for an adult to crawl through. Below, as his own light filled the room, he noticed the deep buildup of sediment on the floor. Unlike the rest of the ship, which had been mostly clear, the flooring here had deep sediment.
Tom swam to the middle of the room and secured his green dive guideline to the roof using a hand driven screw to hold it into the wood. “Genevieve, careful with your fins in this room. The sediment is huge and you’ll have a white out pretty quick if you kick it up.”
“Okay, got it.”
He then waited for her familiar LED light to enter.
“What do you think?” He asked.
She flashed her light aimlessly around the room. There was no treasure and nothing to warrant their long trip to the secret chamber. And then she noticed the exits. “My god, there must be forty tunnel exits!”
“I’ve just counted fifty-three.”
Chapter Fifty One
She looked at
his face. Searching for answers. “But why would they make so many entrances?”
“My best guess is that this room was used by the Antiqui Nautae to defend against boarding parties as a means of last resort. They would likely retreat into here. The attackers would follow them, not expecting too much of a challenge as they were allowed to continue through the empty tunnels. Then, when they enter this room, the warriors would be hiding inside each of these additional passageways and would emerge to slaughter them.” Tom flashed his light towards the sediment below. “Perhaps those are the remains of their last victims?”
“So then what happened to the warriors?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they got it wrong. Maybe there was a second rogue wave and they were taken by surprise. Who knows?”
She looked around the strange room again. “Now what?”
“Let’s check out these passages. Maybe one of them leads somewhere.” He screwed a blue secondary guideline into the wooden roof. “I want you come off the primary line and run a secondary line so we don’t end up with multiple overlapping lines while we’re here.”
Genevieve nodded her head in understanding. “Sure.”
Tom divided the room in half. One side for him and the other for her. He then began methodically working his way through the series of openings. Most simply turned back around on themselves and returned to the same room. Others were no more than an alcove large enough for hiding a couple of men.
Frustrated, Tom returned to the starting point disappointed. “There’s nothing here, Genevieve. The entire thing was used as a killing room. There’s no secret treasure. Interesting history, but nothing more. It’s just an empty room.”
Silence.
“Can you hear me?” Tom asked.
More silence.
Tom switched off his flashlight.
A faint glow could be seen. It seemed far away. It was light green, instead of the bright LED glow. Tom closed his eyes for a second and then opened them again – unsure that the light wasn’t caused by his eyes still adapting to the complete darkness.
Rogue Wave Page 12
