by David Wood
“That’s it?” Fabi asked, playing her beam along the walls.
“Told you this place isn’t much, Fabi. Still not exactly sure what we’re hoping to find, but…”
“Wait, hold on.”
“Somebody coming?” Cassandra looked around.
“No, no. I mean, something’s not right with this building—the building itself.”
“Well yeah, it’s old, dirty, falling apart in places, you can pick the windows open with a nail file...”
“No, that’s not it, I mean look at this.” She shone the flashlight on the far wall of the patient room in which they stood. “See how this wall ends here...”
“Uh, yeah?”
“Well, there’s no way this wall corresponds to the outer wall of the building. When we were standing outside, we weren’t just on the other side of this wall right here, we had to be at least another ten feet away.”
Cassandra shook her head. “Fabi, building codes here are not what they are in the states. It’s anything goes. No permits, no licensing, nothing.”
“No way this wall here matches up with the outer dimensions. So what’s in the space in between?”
Cassandra threw her arms up. “Wild animals, probably. Spiders. Who cares?”
Fabi paused the flashlight beam on a bookshelf containing procedural manuals against the wall, and now she walked to it. She shone the beam behind the case, up to the ceiling and back down. Then, while Cassandra continued to question her sanity, she pulled on one end of the bookcase. The bookcase swung toward her, eliciting a gasp from Cassandra.
“Told ya.” Behind the bookcase was a door.
“That door is locked, though, and this one doesn’t look like your nail file is going to do it.”
They examined the door lock. An electronic, alphanumeric keypad was embedded in the metal door. A green LED in one corner of the keypad indicated it had power. Fabi traced the outline of the door with her light and saw that her coworker was right. This was a serious piece of construction; the only way in was through that keypad. She put the light beam on it while considering the possibilities.
Cassandra shook her head. “Oh no. I see your wheels turning, girl. Don’t even think about it. If you get the code wrong too many times, an alarm could go off.”
“One try. Just give me one try...” She was staring intently at the keypad, the keys labeled 1, with ABC, 2, DEF...
“What, you’re just going to put in some random numbers?”
“Definitely not. This thing is letters and numbers. Let’s go with some kind of code word that would be easy to remember. That’s how most people set up passwords.”
“Okay, so what’s the password?”
“Well, unless you have a better idea, I can only think of one that makes any sense: the project name.”
Cassandra’s eyes widened. “HAITI?”
Fabi moved her finger carefully across the keypad, depressing the key corresponding to each letter of the name. An LED flashed red each time she pressed a button. “...T...I...Enter.”
The keypad LED flashed yellow and then went to a steady green. They heard no sound of any kind, but Fabi pushed on the door and sucked in her breath as it swung inward, into a new room.
Deciding that since it was contained within the outer and inner walls of the building, it was safe to turn overhead lights on, Fabi flipped up the light switch she found next to the door. Racks of fluorescent tube lighting flickered to life on the ceiling.
Cassandra could not stifle a gasp. “Oh my God.”
Clearly, they were now in a laboratory of some sophistication. Lab benches supporting modern instruments such as computers, stereomicroscopes, centrifuges and spectrophotometers ran wall-to-wall. Fabi turned to look at her friend.
“Looks like this little clinic isn’t so small after all. Now you tell me...why would Dr. Avila want to hide all this?”
Cassandra looked around the room. “I have no idea just by looking at this stuff what he’s up to in here.”
But Fabi was already in motion, heading toward one end of the lab. “I have a feeling this lab isn’t the only hidden room. I’m betting this concealed space follows the entire perimeter of the building, between the outer building wall and the inner room wall. Let’s check it out.”
“Sure, why not? That attitude hasn’t gotten us into any trouble so far...” Cassandra followed Fabi to the end of the lab. Sure enough, Fabi turned the corner and walked into another space hidden between walls.
Although the overhead lights weren’t on in this section yet, there was light emanating from a series of plant grow lights suspended from the ceiling but hanging low over a bed of fern-like plants.
“Now this is just plain weird.” Fabi made eye contact with Cassandra. “Tell me, what does growing plants have to do with running a health clinic?”
Cassandra shrugged and shook her head. “Certain kinds of plants might have some purpose, if you get my drift, but ferns? I have no idea. Fabi, listen, maybe we should go. We’ve seen more than enough to know something is going on. We can think about how to bring it up with Dr. Avila on Monday.”
“Let me just see what’s around this corner here and then we’ll go, all right?”
Reluctantly, Cassandra followed Fabi into the new area. This one was dimly lit with nightlight-style bulbs, but it was enough to see that they had entered a patient care area. Two rows of cots were lined up in the center of the room, with people dozing on each of them.
“What is this? This is not an area suitable for housing patients.” Cassandra sounded livid. She moved about the cots. “And look: these people are restrained!”
“These over here, too. They all are,” Fabi confirmed.
“Oh my God! I recognize this one. This is a former patient of mine.” She went to the cot and stooped to get a better look at the woman, a local Haitian of middle age. Fabi joined her friend at the cot as she attempted to wake the patient.
“Mrs. Rameau? It’s me, Cassandra Damas. Wake up, please.”
The woman stirred against her restraints—both wrists and ankles secured with thick leather cuffs to the frame of the bed.
“Why do you think they have her restrained?” Fabi wondered.
“Sometimes it’s done to protect the patient from themselves, but I’ve never known Mrs. Rameau to be that way. Plus, all of the patients here are restrained.”
Suddenly Mrs. Rameau bent at the waist and sat bolt upright. Her eyes opened wide and she leaned in to Cassandra.
“It’s okay, Mrs. Rameau, I’m here to help you.”
The patient thrust her head at Cassandra’s arm. She pulled away just as Rameau’s teeth snapped hard shut.
“Calm down please, Mrs. Rameau. I’m only trying to help. How long have you been here? What is this place?”
But the woman only snarled and growled in return. “Something is definitely not right with her, Cassandra. She looks really out of it. And her skin, it looks really weird.”
“Really weird? Is that your professional medical opinion?” Clearly, Cassandra took offense at something negative being said about her patient.
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean anything personal by it.”
Suddenly they heard the sound of a car engine approaching outside. Cassandra pointed back the way they had come. “We should get out of here.” She tried to ease the patient back onto the cot, speaking soothing words to her, but the woman was in a frenzy, non-responsive and thrashing around.
They moved as fast as they could without bumping into things through the patient area and back into the plant lab. Fabi eyed the strange ferns, fluorescing odd colors as she passed through into the lab stocked with equipment. There was a computer in here, and Fabi lit it up to check for an Internet connection. Dial-up, a very slow connection, but a connection nonetheless. She began to type.
Cassandra was impatient. “What are you doing? Let’s go.”
“Sending Maddock and Bones an email with what we’ve seen. We’ll have to go to the police,
I’m afraid, but I want him to know. Just in case...”
“You mention him a lot. Did you know that?”
Fabi ignored her. She typed out a few cursory lines. “Okay, good enough.” She clicked the Send button. “Let’s skedaddle!”
She snapped the email window closed and flipped off the machine.
The pair of coworkers moved through the lab until they reached the hidden bookcase entrance. They exited into the clinic proper and then Fabi shut the keycoded door and swung the bookcase back into place. Moving through the clinic as quickly as they could with all lights off, even the flashlight, they came to the front door. Cassandra peeked through a window.
“Car’s parked out front now!”
“See anyone?”
“No, no one’s in it.”
Fabi put her hand on the door. “Let’s go.”
Cassandra nodded and the two women stepped outside. No sooner did Fabi turn around to close the front door than Cassandra shouted, “Look…” But that was all she got out before a strong hand covered her mouth. A black man wearing a white lab coat threw Cassandra hard onto the ground.
Fabi, meanwhile, had taken stock of the situation and backed up enough to assume a fighting stance. She feigned a kick and the man smiled, thinking she was faking it. He moved in. Fabi spun around and closed with a foot to the man’s throat that dropped him instantly.
“You recognize him?” Fabi panted as the man lay gasping.
Cassandra shook her head. “I recognize we should go.”
With that, the two ran off into the night. When they had made it a safe distance away and it was clear no one else was pursuing them, Cassandra turned to Fabi while they walked toward their car.
“Remind me never to piss you off, by the way. I’ll never make you wait to use the printer again, I promise. I had no idea you could fight like that.”
Fabi smiled. “I was in the Navy for a bunch of years. It’s where I met Bones.”
“Ah, so I take it Bones is a fighter, then, too.”
“He’s a terrific guy. But let’s just say you don’t want to get on his bad side. Cassandra, look out!”
A van, headlights out, came around a curve in the road. The side door slid open and four men, their faces concealed, leapt out. Cassandra never had time to complete her sentence before the two women were desperately fighting off the new arrivals. A single man quickly subdued Cassandra, leaving Fabi to take on the other three. The ex-Navy girl held her own at first, landing some crisp punches, but she soon found herself overwhelmed by the sheer weight of superior size and numbers.
“What do you want?” Maybe she could reason with them, talk her way out of this. At first she had been concerned this was a random violent crime, perhaps even attempted sexual assault, but combined with the events inside the clinic and the strange happenings surrounding her cousin’s death, she wasn’t so sure.
While the three men held her, the fourth approached her slowly. “Maybe we can solve this right now. Answer one question for me, and we will let you and your friend go.” He jerked a thumb back at the van, where Cassandra’s muffled cries now emanated.
Fabi didn’t hesitate. “Okay. What is it?”
“Where is the treasure?”
A chill coursed through Fabi’s veins as the full extent of what she had gotten herself into with this treasure hunt slugged her like a fist to the gut. Immediately she feared not only for herself and Cassandra, who was especially innocent, but also for Bones, Maddock and Willis. She should have made it more clear that the locals would be more interested in the treasure, and more vicious when it came to going after it.
“What treasure?”
“Please do not waste my time. The treasure your cousin sought.”
Fabi saw there was no use in prevaricating.
“I have no idea!” She hoped the truth in the statement would add to the conviction in her voice. But with the ringleader’s next words that hope was destroyed. He addressed his men while walking away.
“Throw her in the van.”
Chapter 29
Off the coast of Alto Velo Island
Bones stretched and yawned as he stared at the electronic display for the device they towed behind the Sea Foam that would signal them when they had found metal on the seafloor.
“Tired of ‘mowing the lawn’.” The phrase was a reference to the fact that the boat was running back and forth in a grid pattern in long, predictable swaths as it dragged the instrumentation behind it, searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Hundreds, thousands of square miles of ocean to search for a near pinpoint deposit of gold and silver coins, although the ship’s cannons and cannonballs could be a telltale giveaway, too.
Maddock turned the wheel as he brought the vessel into yet another U-turn to begin searching down a new lane. Willis exhaled heavily as he eyeballed the magnetometer monitor while Bones watched the sidescan sonar. “Can’t we just hire some nerd to watch the screens?”
Maddock eased the boat into its new lane and looked over at his friend. “Tell you what. If we find this treasure, we’ll hire one, okay?”
This seemed to satisfy Willis and Bones as well, both of whom went back to monitoring the instrument displays without further complaint. Time marched on, however, and as Maddock watched the needle on the fuel gauge slowly lean to the left, he began to wonder himself if they should call it a day. He was about to suggest one more leg to drag the instrument package when Bones let out a holler.
“Hold up! Got something here.”
Maddock slowed the boat. Bones’ eyes were still riveted to the display. “Right here! Take a look.”
Maddock saw Willis’ eyes bug out as he checked Bones’ screen before quickly moving back to his own. Maddock eyed the dense array of shadow lines on the screen, and then concentrated on the region Bones’ finger pointed to. Sure enough, an easily discernible anomaly interrupted the repeating pattern.
“What’s it look like for you, Willis?” Maddock took a look at the magnetometer readout, and it, too, signaled the presence of something unusual—and metallic—in the seabed below their hull.
“What’s our depth?” Maddock asked.
Bones eyed his screen again. “Ninety feet.”
“That’s divable!” Maddock jumped back to the helm, cut the engines and hit the switch to drop anchor.
The three of them donned their scuba gear and took a careful look at the waters around the boat to make certain they were still alone. Satisfied they were working unobserved, the trio moved onto a dive platform that hung off the boat’s stern.
Splashing into the sea, Maddock, Bones and Willis descended through the clear blue water. The bottom was already visible even though they still had seventy feet to go to reach it. A dense school of silver fish parted beneath them as they made their way down feet first. Beams of sunlight sparkled and shifted around them. Looking up, the Sea Foam’s hull was clearly visible as a dark oblong shape outlined against the light background of sunlit surface water. Below, the dark topography of the seafloor beckoned with the promise of hidden treasure.
The sophisticated equipment on board their boat was of no practical use to them down here. All it could do was point them in the right direction, and then it was up to them to do the legwork for the rest of the way. That didn’t mean they had no technological help, though. Both Bones and Willis carried underwater metal detectors. By passing the unit’s disc directly over the seafloor, if metal was not too far beneath, an audible signal would sound in the gadget’s headphones.
Upon reaching the bottom, which was mostly flat and sandy, the trio of divers checked their gauges to confirm depth and remaining tank air. Satisfied the numbers were in their favor, they went to work. Maddock operated unencumbered, relying on his vision to scan the area for bigger picture clues, while Bones and Willis swam slowly, scouring the bottom by sweeping their metal detectors back and forth, listening for telltale signals of buried metal.
What had appeared on the screens aboard the Sea
Foam as a significant metallic feature looked like nothing of the sort now that the ex-SEALs were down here. Maddock laid his eyes on only sand and seaweed. It was not lost on him that it was possible, after centuries’ worth of storms and shifting sands, that a shipwreck could be buried many feet below the bottom, making it unsalvageable for all practical intents and purposes. Knowing there was nothing he could do about that, he continued to survey the area, looking for anything that might signal the remains of a wreck.
He was finning his way across the search area when he heard a sharp pinging sound—a noise he had paid attention to many times before. Either Bones or Willis was signaling by banging a dive knife against their aluminum air tank. Maddock spun around to see Willis look up from swinging his detector, also searching for the source of the noise. Maddock continued his slow spin until he caught sight of Bones, looking his way and waving an arm.
He and Willis swam fast over to Bones. The tall Indian had already set his detector aside and was now digging into the bottom with a metal scoop. Willis, who also carried one, joined Bones in the digging effort while Maddock kept overwatch, on the lookout for marine predators, or worse. He’d heard plenty of stories of treasure divers being accosted underwater by less than welcoming locals who would rather have the treasure for themselves once the hard work of locating it had been done.
Clouds of silt made it hard to see as the hole in the seabed deepened. Bones raised a hand for Willis to stop digging, and then both men started fanning the water with their gloved hands, attempting to clear the area of the suspended particles that made it hard to see what was in the hole. After a couple of minutes of this effort, Bones stuck a hand down into the excavation. He pushed his facemask into it, closely examining what lay on the bottom. Suddenly he retracted his arm from the depression and held it high.
Sunbeams seemed to reflect from his fingers, radiating in all directions as Maddock realized what Bones held. He swam to the Cherokee and peered at the object clutched between his fingers.
