Under Water Secret

by Waggoner, Robert C.

  Of course property damage was in the millions and the death count still hadn't been confirmed. The price of oil was coming back down albeit slowly. Another round of alternative fuels was a hot topic, but like before, it would die off. Oil was just too easy to use and to supply. Brad hated the thought of it as business was mostly back to normal.

  At the office Nancy was looking wonderful. All traces of her slight depression were gone. Brad knew she had a dear friend that she lived with. He wished her well.

  They sat around the conference table going over the last mission to finalize a report for the record. Some things would be left out, but buried in a secret place the facts were recorded for posterity.

  They decided that tomorrow would be soon enough to fly up to Vermont. Steve suggested they go to his favorite Italian restaurant. Steve's wife would meet them at the restaurant.

  Dinner was wonderful. Quito Richoli was the owner who showed his hospitality to the friends of Steve Lewis and his wife who were regular customers. Sandy was no problem as Quito was a dog lover. That wasn't hard to tell as he had a small toy poodle in his arms. The little dog barked at Sandy, but Sandy paid no attention to it.

  Brad had met Steve's wife before and now he introduced Lilly Lewis to his team. She was a slight woman who carried herself well. Worry lines were obvious, but her eyes were sparkling happiness.

  A back room was prepared for the special guests. Brad sat next to Lilly Lewis. She said, "Brad, Steve told me you're going up to the Carver Tudor Mansion. I'm being a little presumptuous, but may I go with you if it's not dangerous. I'd love a look see at the site."

  Brad said, "Of course you can go. We are flying up tomorrow and Steve of course knows our departure time. I presumed he was going." Brad looked at Steve who was talking to Quito. Then there was a commotion outside the door. Two black suited men came in looked around and left. There was only one door in and out. Brad just smiled as the President walked into the room. Lucky no one was sitting at the head of the long wooden table stacked from end to end with garlic bread and bowls of minestrone soup.

  The President took his rightful place at the head of the table after shaking hands and nodding to the women. Once a politician always a politician Brad thought. The President looked a little more relaxed than the last time he saw him. The atmosphere was joyful as red wine flowed and toasts were made. By the end of the dinner, an hour or more later, the President said, "Brad and team, once again you guys out did yourselves. After all the reports came in, apparently we stopped many a death and a lot of property was saved from destruction.

  We sent our representatives to the three respective countries that were involved. We had an unexpected ally in Russia. We decided to send what used to go to Pakistan for aid to Russia to develop more oil exploration. North Korea has agreed to a pipeline through their country to South Korea. Japan too will benefit.

  Enough of that for now. I hear you're going back up to Vermont gold hunting again?"

  Brad told the President the story of the missing train. Then he told him why he was going to look for the gold. That is, there was a Chinese man who needed gold for his sect of people. A stock pile would be set aside for his services in the future. The President readily agreed. He thanked everyone and left Steve to pay the bill.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Carver Mansion was simply beautiful on a late May day. June was just around the corner. Green foliage was everywhere with reds and yellow dotting the surroundings. A large sign denoted that the Carver Mansion was on the Historical Record.

  Of course the team was expected and a warm greeting by the host waited for the rental van to unload. Sandy had to check the place out and the host was a bit scared of the big shepherd dog. Brad told her not to worry and had Sandy come over and sniff out the nice lady host. Her name was Violet Augusta. She bid them welcome and ask all to follow her. They signed the register then past the guard at the stairway that led to the basement. All of the team members had powerful lights to enter the dark caves. Also as it might be chilly down there, all of the members wore jackets.

  After going down one flight of stairs they passed a room that noted the old wine cellar. Then a narrower set of rock stairs continued down at least two floors beneath the cellar. They all had hand held lights on as the walls seeped water. Also there were signs of old torch marks on the walls with holders now empty.

  After coming to the end of the stairs, Brad, who was leading, shinned his light around a large open cavern area. Against the far wall, from where they stood, a stream of water noiselessly flowed by. Off to the left another cave led to god knows where. Brad swung his light to the right and saw a much larger cave that also led to the unknown. He said, "Well team, I guess we should split up and check out the caves. I've no idea what to tell you to look for, but let's meet back here say in an hour."

  Mike took one group to the left while Brad led the other to the right side. Billy was with Brad and Sandy. Agent Jones and Wendy went with Mike. Steve and his wife remained upstairs looking around.

  Brad went slowly closely examining the walls of the cave. He was looking for any sign of loose rocks or debris on the floor that indicated some human involvement. Billy was into it big time. He wanted to be the one who discovered the secret place. Brad wished Billy would find the clue or whatever to the gold; if there was any gold. Brad had sniffed the air hoping that he could smell the metal, but alas he had not a clue what he did smell. All he could identify was moldy wet rocks and the sounds of water dripping. He was glad he had on a hat. Billy too wore a hat. Billy had gone a step further with a miner light on his head.

  Brad guessed they gone about fifty yards when the cave started to narrow with a markedly lower ceiling. Billy said, I think we are at an end here boss."

  "You might be right Billy. I don't have a good feeling about this cave. It's just too obvious. We need to look for a crack, or something."

  "Let's switch side's boss."

  "Good idea Billy," said Brad.

  Even Sandy had her nose to the floor and walls. Was it possible that a human scent would remain here and be recognized by a dog's nose? What if a worker carrying the gold had to pee? His scent would remain for years. Brad decided to keep an eye on Sandy.

  They came up empty handed as they walked back into the cavern area. Mike and team were still in their cave. Brad walked over to the stream of water and pointed his light where the water bubbled up and then he followed the stream where it disappeared into the wall. While he was inspecting the wall behind the stream, Mike came back out shrugging his shoulders.

  Brad said, "Let's change caves."

  An hour later they met back at the bottom of the stairs. Mike said, "It's like looking for the needle in the haystack kind of thing. We need a clue. Sandy gave off a quiet woof. Brad turned around and shinned his light to the side of the stairs. The stairs had been hand hewed from a promontory with a space on each side of the stairs. Sandy was off to the left had side. Brad hurried over to see what she had discovered.

  Everyone had their light shining on the side of the rock and floor. Brad said, "Let's give this area on both sides a closer look see."

  Billy was on his hands and knees with Sandy pawing the side of the rock. Billy said, "Has somebody got a strong knife or something I can stick in this crack?"

  Mike handed him a Rambo type knife. Billy stuck it in the crack and slowly pried the rock outward. Brad said to Agent Jones, "There must be a tool box upstairs. We need a crow bar." Jones ran up the stairs while all waited. Billy didn't want to break the knife.

  About ten minutes later Agent Jones came back with a carpenter's box with all sorts of tools in it. He was sweating from running. He handed Billy the crow bar or pry bar.

  Billy stuck it in the crack and the rock moved an inch. Simply put, Billy didn't have the muscle for the job. Agent Jones said, "Let me try Billy."

  "Okay superman. But remember me and Sandy get the glory here."

  Wendy broke up laughing. Mike slapped Billy on the b
ack playfully. All were enjoying this mystery.

  Agent Jones gave a grunt and the big rock opened up revealing a hiding place. Inside was a metal box rusted shut. It was about the size of a shoe box and Jones handed the box to Billy.

  Brad said, "Let's take this box up stairs where the light is better."

  The host Violet gave them her office to use. She spread newspaper on the desk top. Brad sat the box down. Wendy had found Steve and told him of their discovery. He was in the office when Brad, with gloves on, lifted the lid off. It came off in pieces. Inside was glass tube with a cork in the top. Inside was a rolled up yellowish paper.

  Violet opened a drawer up and handed Brad a pair of tweezers. He gently took out the paper and sat it on the newspaper away from the old metal box. Violet then gave him two pencils which he used the eraser part to unwrap the document. Surprisingly, the paper remained dry for all the years it sat there. It was clear a map stared back at them. Everyone was crowding around trying to see the map. Brad said, "Give me some room folks."

  Looking hard at the map Brad could see that the cavern was shown along with the small stream. Then he saw the two caves or tunnels were marked. On the left side an X marked the spot. Nothing else was seen. "Well, we missed something down there," Brad said.

  Back down they went. They went directly to the left side cave. Billy once again got down on his hands and knees examining the floor and Mike did the same with one wall and Jones the other wall entrance. Billy said, "Here is a crack, but it's so thin I'm not sure we can even get a knife blade in it."

  Brad was thinking hard. If the crack was very thin then maybe the thickness of the rock is thin too. He said, "Billy look for a place where a knife could enter and there should be more than one place. Mike, give Billy your knife again. Billy stick the point in and apply pressure all away along the crack."

  As Brad suspected, the knife suddenly sunk into the crack. Someone had placed a rock mixture to hide the larger crack. Mike stuck the pry bar into the crack while Billy searched for another place. About two feet away his knife sunk down into the crack. Agent Jones dug out a claw hammer and used the nail puller end to pry with. Both he and Mike pried at the same time lifting a thin slab of rock, about a three foot square, next to the entrance of the cave.

  Brad stuck his light down the black hole. Nothing as his light hit a curve in the hole. "Well team, it looks like we need a rope to see where this hole leads to."

  Once again Agent Jones ran up the stairs. And once again in about ten minutes he was back with a rock climber's rope. Brad tied the rope around his waist. Mike and Jones were the anchor men. Brad sat down with his feet dangling, and then he turned around letting himself down until he ran out of arm length.

  Brad could see until he went around the corner. After that he pulled out his light and shined it downwards. He could see about ten feet from the corner a rock floor. Slowly they let him down until his feet touched the floor. The line went slack. He untied the rope and looked around. He was in another cavern. Nestled against the wall were stacks of gold bars that were once shiny and new, but now looking dull and worthless. Brad guessed the cavern about twenty feet in diameter. Chests from the 19th century were next to the gold. Brad walked over and lifted a lid.

  His eyes got very big as he saw gold coins mixed with silver coins. Even Brad was in awe with the fortune in gold and silver. He picked a gold coin at random. It had a date of 1896. The next one he saw was 1897. He put two in his pocket for his son.

  There were six chests and all were full of coins. He smiled and thought, if these were all dumped onto the market, the price would fall. Coin collectors would be very angry. He turned and looked again at the stacks of gold bars. Someone else could count it and he retied the rope around his waist. Before he tugged on the rope, he found two silver dollars that matched the date of the gold pieces. He'd have them framed and hung in the living room until his son was old enough to have his own bedroom.

  Back on top he told Mike to put four bars in a box for transporting back to the Round House. Brad was always thinking about the future.

  He Met Steve upstairs and told him about the finding of the gold bars and coins. Steve just smiled and said his wife thoroughly enjoyed seeing this house even though she wondered why the house was full of these big metal things.

  The End

  Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of the Batt Team. In the next story China has some delicate issues and asks for help from the USA. A plot has been discovered that a western consortium has let a contract out on the Chinese President. The Batt team is called in to prevent the assassination.