Test Pilot's Daughter: Revenge

by Ward, Steve

  The weather was perfect for diving, a bright sunny day with little or no wind. The temperature settled in at eighty degrees. Henderson climbed up in the elevated cabin and hit the throttle of his seventy foot trawler. After a short ride across beautiful green water, he carefully navigated the shallows, dodging coral heads on the west side of the islands. He used a GPS to position the Spanish Fly on the exact coordinates on Jessica’s map.

  “Doesn’t look like much, does it?” Heather stated.

  Christina scanned the area and tried to send her imagination back some two-hundred plus years. The three islets were easy enough to recognize. It was hard to imagine a huge Spanish galleon would cruise into such a shallow bay. But who could guess what a hurricane would do to a ship like that? One would expect the area would have changed over such a long time.

  “Okay, let’s go see what’s down there.” Christina took charge, putting on her gear. Turning to Henderson she said, “We’ll spend about forty-five minutes looking around. If you’d please do a quick metal sweep, we’ll meet you back here on our marker at exactly 2:00 o’clock.”

  “Sounds like plan,” Henderson checked his watch with a friendly smile. “You ladies have fun.”

  The two Amigos rolled off the platform into the warm waters of the Bahamas. Due to the abundance of coral heads and the shallow water, most of the boat traffic navigated the other side of the chain. This area was quite isolated. As a result, the water was crystal clear and loaded with fish. It was like diving in an aquarium.

  Exactly as they had done many times in the Keys, Heather and Christina swam down to the bottom and started a systematic search, side by side, looking for any shapes or forms that might be man-made. They found a few beer cans, lots of coral and tropical fish, but nothing of significance. At the designated time, they ascended to their dive marker and saw the Spanish Fly coming their way. Back on deck, Henderson looked pretty bored.

  “Well, did you girls find anything?”

  “We sure did, found some precious metal,” Christina claimed. “What do you think these babies are worth?” She handed him her tote bag.

  “Let’s see, those should bring about three cents on the aluminum market,” he snorted. “If you find a couple million more, you could pay for your trip. How about some lunch? The boys got some lobster.”

  “Well, to tell you the truth we’re a little sick of seafood, but I reckon we could eat it,” Heather replied.

  Sitting down to a delicious lobster boil, they talked the situation over with Henderson. It was a nice place to dive, but he said he couldn’t see spending a whole week there.

  “Listen, the area between the three islands is only about a square mile. I can scan the entire segment by noon tomorrow. If we don’t see anything by then, I’d suggest we move south of Staniel Cay. Some tourists found some coins there just a couple a weeks ago.”

  “Sounds good,” Christina agreed. “What do you think, Heather?”

  “Sure, why not?”

  They spent the rest of the day searching the central area between the islands without success and cruised back to Staniel Cay to meet Lazer at the bar.

  “Only a couple of beer cans, huh? Guess I done better than you two. Bone fishing is spectacular in these parts.”

  “We’ll probably finish scanning the area tomorrow,” Christina said. “Then Henderson promised to take us down the island.”

  “There’s a party on the beach tonight,” he said. “Why don’t the three of us go down thar and get skunked?”

  “Sure you don’t mind if I tag along?” Heather asked.

  “Hell no, little lady,” answered Lazer. He threw an arm around her. “We need to swing down thar and find you a new beau. How ‘bout one of those stinkin’ rich plantation owners?”

  “After last night,” she replied, “I’ve decided to swear off men altogether. Think I’ll just find me a nice convent in the Himalayas and become a nun.”

  He choked on his beer and said, “Shiiiyaaat girl. Now, wouldn’t that be a waste?”

  They all laughed.

  The meal for the evening was a Bahamian delight, fried conch and French fries. After dinner they joined the party and had a great time dancing on the beach. Something magic about the sound of steel drums after dark, Christina thought. Heather didn’t seem to be hurting for company as there were plenty of guys on the prowl. Drinking their fair share of rum punch, they partied to the wee hours.

  * * *

  Christina awoke early with a pounding headache. She had to drag Heather out of bed. Lazer decided to sleep in. Both girls were feeling the aftereffects of too much booze as the trawler plowed the shallow waters. They searched over a much larger area that morning looking for anything out of the ordinary. After only two hours, they were already discouraged.

  Christina couldn’t stomach any more seafood. While the deckhands were eating lunch, the girls napped in the shade trying to conserve energy. After a second dive early in the afternoon, they surfaced and saw the boys waving frantically. Swimming over to the boat, they climbed aboard as she wondered what was going on.

  “Come look at this here,” Eric beckoned, pointing aloft.

  They stripped off diving gear and followed him to the upper deck. Henderson was eyeballing a strip-chart that showed the output of his magnetometer. Christina thought he looked like a doctor inspecting an EKG. He motioned with a body language that said, Something’s up.

  “Now don’t get your hopes up, but you need to look at this. See the big swings on the chart? We got a marker on the far north corner of the triangle. Don’t have any idea what it is, but there’s a hell of a lot of metal down there. You girls take a little rest, then I’m going to send my boys down with you to check it out.”

  “Do you think it’s treasure?” Heather asked.

  “Could be anything,” he replied. “Somebody might a dumped some old cars in there for all I know. But it is unusual to see so much metal in one spot. Damn sure worth a look see.”

  Twenty minutes later the two girls and the deckhands rolled into the warm water with fresh tanks. The girls ventured side by side with Christina leading the way. As she scanned the coral heads, all she could think about was her departed friend. Could Jessica have solved the riddle when so many others failed? God, girl, if you could just be here right now, you’d know where to look, she thought. Stunned by a sudden humming in her ears, she actually heard a response. It was a mysterious mantra. A weird feeling came over her as ghostly tones formed strange words.

  Found in a mound . . . found in a mound . . . found in a mound.

  Christina had an overpowering feeling that Jessica was there. She instinctively looked to her left where Jessica normally swam, but there was no one. Reaching for a logical explanation, she concluded it must be oxygen deprivation. She could swear Jessica had whispered in her ear, Found in a mound. What could it mean?

  She stopped swimming and signaled to Heather with her palm extended in a blocking motion. She came up vertical with her flippers resting on the sand. Carefully scanning the area, she inspected each one of the many coral heads within their range of view. One formation looked slightly different. Instead of the mushroom shape typical of coral heads in the Bahamas, it was strangely smooth like an old Indian burial mound she had seen as a child.

  Found in a mound, the words flashed again. Some inexplicable force drew her to the knoll, and she swam hard with Heather in tow. They eased up on the formation and gave it a good look. On closer inspection, it had a unique profile. She saw a sharp angle at one end and started fanning the sand away. In no more than a few seconds, she had uncovered the butt end of what appeared to be a large cannon. They exchanged looks of absolute astonishment.

  Christina blinked her eyes and heard more ghostly moans.

  Run under the gun. . .Run under the gun.

  She tried to move the massive cylinder, but it wouldn’t budge. She used her hands to dig a hole beneath it, pulling out sand and mud. To her amazement, two perfectly round disks tumbl
ed out from under the gun, right into Heather’s waiting hands.

  Heather held the largest up for Christina to see as she gurgled only one chilling word through her mouthpiece, “Gold!”

  With boundless excitement, they tied a marker on the butt of the cannon, filled the balloon with air and sent it to the surface. Then they turned and swam hard, back in the direction of the boat. Captain Henderson, himself, pulled each girl out of the water and asked, “What’s the deal with the marker?”

  “By God! You’re not gonna believe this shit, but we actually found something,” Christina said struggling to keep her composure.

  “What? Come on, spit it out. What?”

  “We found a cannon,” Christina said in a soft tone.

  “Naah, in these waters? A cannon?”

  “It’s a cannon for sure,” Heather agreed.

  “No shit! We gotta get it on deck and see if it can be identified.”

  “And, we found these,” Heather said sheepishly, holding out the encrusted disks. In the bright sunlight, clearly visible below the broken layer of sediment was the glint of gold. As she rocked her open palm back and forth, reflections flashed in a bright sparkle.

  “Holy Jesus! Sweet Mary, Mother of God!” Henderson looked skyward and crossed himself. “This is big!”

  The deck hands pulled themselves up on the diving platform. Before they could take off their tanks, Eddy yelled, “Huge pile of debris. Looks like a wreck.”

  Henderson’s demeanor completely changed. No longer was he the laid back beach bum who captained a moldy old trawler. He looked more like a man possessed. It was like he was commanding a battleship going against Japanese subs. Orders were shouted in every direction. The excitement was explosive.

  “I’m moving the boat. Ladies stand back over there please. Eddy, I want ya to swing the crane out over their marker. Eric, get back down there and attach a line to that cannon. Gonna bring her up and have a look.”

  The crew of the Spanish Fly went into action. About twenty minutes later, the huge cannon, fully encrusted with coral, was slowly hoisted over the side and eased down on the deck. Henderson seemed to know exactly where to look. He carefully scraped encrustation off one spot and letters began to appear.

  “Sweet mother of Jesus!” he screamed, “El Capitan!”

  They all started yelling and jumping around like a bunch of idiots standing on hot coals. They were high-fiving and dancing to the lively music of the imagination. Henderson’s eyes lit up like sparklers just as he noticed something else and tried to calm them down.

  “Quiet! Quiet. Look at this. It’s gotta wooden plug.” He directed their attention to the anomaly. “The Spanish would only plug a cannon for one reason. They were hiding something. We gotta open this now and sneak a peek.”

  “But, how can we?” Heather asked.

  Eddy came up from the hold with a cordless drill. They drilled a hole through the plug and inserted something that looked like a large coat hanger. Henderson used it for leverage to pull out the wooden plug. It looked as though the big gun was stuffed with mud. Heather, with the smallest hands, started pulling out sand and goop. As far as she could reach, her eyes lit up when she said, “Feel something hard, metallic.”

  “Get it out,” Christina cheered her on.

  With a great deal of effort, she wiggled out a small cylinder. Henderson’s eyes bugged as he shook it with anticipation. He rinsed off the container and used a screwdriver to pop off the lid. When he poured the contents onto the wooden table, all five treasure-hunters gasped. A pile of uncut emeralds and rubies sparkled in the afternoon sun. A small fortune in Spanish bounty offered a kaleidoscope of colors. The circle of five heads looked back and forth with wide eyes.

  Henderson’s face went dead serious. He turned to look behind him and scanned the horizon as if he thought they were being watched.

  “Listen up boys and girls, we’re into some big shit now. We gotta handle this very carefully, so the Bahamian Government don’t try to claim this whole find. This may be all there is, or there could be an enormous fortune down there. Until I get the proper paperwork filed, we have to maintain absolute secrecy.”

  “So what do we have to do?” Heather pleaded.

  “We already have the necessary permits, so we should be in good shape. You boys are staying by my side until we get this cleared. I can’t take any chances. Ladies, I know it’s going to be hard to keep your beautiful mouths shut, but I don’t want you to tell no one or make no calls for a couple of days. One wrong move and the news’ll spread like wildfire. Just ask Mel Fisher. He’s spent more time over the last twenty years fighting the Government than pulling up treasure. By Friday we should be in the clear.”

  “I want to keep these two coins,” Christina said. “They have a very special meaning to me.” She didn’t want to admit the jumbled voice of a dead friend led her right to the spot.

  “Not a problem. A lot of folks in these parts have gold coins. Just make damn sure you don’t tell nobody where you got ‘em.”

  The girls went back to the village and tracked Lazer down in the bar. He was deeply involved in conversation with an older man, something about baseball. Christina walked up behind and grabbed his arm.

  “Lazer, uh, we need you. Would you please come over to Heather’s room for a minute. It’s number 117 right next door.”

  “Cain’t we gab right here?” Lazer said too loudly like he’d been drinking all afternoon. He slurred, “I’m in the middle of a serious painkiller.”

  “Shut up and bring your drink,” Christina pulled him off the barstool. She leaned into him to straighten out his gait as they made their way into Heather’s room. Christina shut the curtains and bolted the door.

  He looked around slowly and said, “What’s all this here hocus pocus?”

  Heather opened her hands and showed him the two gold coins.

  “Nice. So, where’d ya buy ‘em?”

  “Lazer, we’ve found something,” Christina whispered, “something big. We found the El Capitan.”

  His face twisted in a big smile like they were putting him on. “Ya shore?”

  “Yep, positive identification on the butt of a canon. And we’ve already picked up enough precious stones to finance a first class salvaging operation. There could well be millions of dollars worth of artifacts down there, right where Jessica said it would be.”

  “Well, hooty damn! Fantastesimo! Time to celebrate. Let’s go party.”

  “Lazer, we have to maintain absolute secrecy until Henderson gets the claims filed.”

  “C’mon, we can still party. Just have to stay sober enough to keep from blabbin’. But, come ta think, ah expect they gonna wonder why we’re all so gol-danged happy.”

  “Just the reason we’re going to get room service tonight and stay in.”

  “Whatever you say, sweetheart. I know a more ‘n one way to put on the dog,” he chuckled with a big grin.

  * * *

  The next day Christina cleaned the coins and gave the larger one to Heather. She had the small “one escudo” piece mounted on her gold chain, the one Jessica had given her. That coin, twice the size of her old one, would always serve as a memorial to her fallen friend and Jessica’s passion for treasure. That afternoon found both girls reclining by the pool in quiet conversation.

  “So what are you going to do with Jessica’s necklace?” Heather asked.

  Grasping the dainty chain, one of two around her neck, Christina squeezed the little gold coin and began to cry. She had worn it every day since Jessica was buried. With some reluctance, she unlatched the clasp and took it off.

  “I swore I’d wear it until Weston burned in hell. I expect he’s pretty well cooked by now. Think I’ll send it to Jessica’s mom. She must be devastated the body was never found.”

  “Good idea.”

  “Seems the very least I can do,” Christina said sadly. “Maybe it’ll give her some closure. If this wreck turns out as big as Henderson says, I suggest we
give her Jessica’s share. She not only saved our butts, she also put us right on the wreck. ”

  Heather looked puzzled and said, “Well, at least she pointed us in the right direction.”

  “No, Heather,” Christina looked around and started to whisper, “she did more than that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean literally, she put us right on the spot,” Christina decided it was time to fess up. “Listen, I know this sounds loony, but I could hear her. Jessica was talking to me down there. I’m serious, first there was buzzing in my ears, then she gave me specific directions.”

  Heather stared into her eyes as if inspecting her sanity. She frowned with a worried look and said, “Too much sun, girl.”