The Keepers of the Rose

by DJ Dalasta

  Benji pointed them to the East as they skipped across the open ocean in Rock’s boat. He told him to head towards the Berry islands located just North of the Bahamas. Rock recalled the area from previous dives and knew it for only a small landmass with a simple airport and a population of around seven hundred. It was mostly known for its hundreds of minor islands as well as a being a great spot for big game fishing. This time of year, it wouldn’t be as crowded, which was a good thing. If whatever was hidden was located on one of the many cays, Rock wouldn’t want to run into the land’s owner while he searched the place.

  The trip would take them six and half hours and it was this long stretch when he first missed Sayla’s meaningless banter. He had decided to part ways despite all of her new found assurances of being on his side. After they had escaped from the cabin, he drove to within an hour of Miami, opened the door and made her get out. He didn’t tell her anything other than to leave and then silently drove away. That was hopefully the last he’d ever deal with her.

  When land came in sight, Benji stood up next to Rock and pointed. “What island is that?”

  “You’re the one with the map,” he said sarcastically.

  “But you’re the one who knew what direction and route we’re taking.”

  “That’s whale cay,” Rock said.

  Benji sat back down as Rock aimed for the little shoreline. When he was relatively close, he shut the motor down and looked backwards. Benji immediately took out his notebooks and started glancing between his notes and the maps he laid out on the deck.

  “Anything,” Rock said. “Where we off to next.”

  “Give me a moment,” Benji said.

  Rock took out some crackers and a soda and closed his eyes, trying to rest for a little bit.Twenty minutes later Benji finally spoke. “Ok. I think I know which island its on. Hoffman’s Cay. Yeah. That’s it.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “I’ve only been there a few dozen times. The blue hole in the middle is a tourist spot. Who would have thought all those times I was so close to a great treasure and never knew it. Ok boss, here we go.” Rock fired up the engine and once again headed to the North.

  They passed by a few of the other larger cays on the way and when they arrived Rock anchored them near one of the beaches close to the famous blue hole. He figured it might be the place Benji needed as a landmark in order to start their search.

  “Any ideas if we’ll be slashing through vegetation or digging in dirt,” he asked.

  “Nope.”

  “Do they have the inland lake marked there?”

  “Actually yes,” Benji replied. “In fact the map is based on it.

  Rock smiled. It seemed like a good fit. Even though Benji held all the cards, he still had the instincts. He might be able to find something just by looking around.

  Rock anchored his boat, inflated a small raft and together they rowed inland. Rock donned his backpack and threw one to Benji, who dutifully put it on. “I’ll take you to the blue hole and you can lead from there.”

  They trudged inland on a worn trail made by thousands of steps from adventurous tourists. It saved them from cutting through what might have been annoying brush. The place hadn’t changed much in the years since he’d been there but he didn’t believe it had changed much in the past few hundred years. Lucky for them this global warming thing hadn’t put the whole place underwater by now.

  Half a mile into their hike they came to the famous blue hole. Rock looked around the rim and then down at a twenty-five foot drop directly into the water. There was no known bottom to the inland lake, which was fed through underwater caves by the ocean. This was the place many tourists took the plunge and if he wasn’t so caught up in finding the lost pages, he’d jump in to cool himself off.

  Benji leaned over and stared down into the water. Rock wanted to push him, but refrained for the moment. “Ok leader,” he continued with his sarcastic tone, “where to now?”

  “The South end of the lake,” Benji replied.

  They were on the West edge having anchored on that side of the island. Rock took out a short machete and sliced their way around to the southern tip. It opened up to a flat area of rock and they stopped as Benji began looking around to gather his bearings.

  Rock stared at him impatiently.

  “Ok, this is where we are supposed to be. This is the spot marked on your map.”

  “I don’t see much here,” Rock said.

  “I know. I might need your help on the next part.”

  “Oh, and here I thought I was your pack mule.” Benji frowned at him. “Sorry, what is it?”

  “I translated the first coded part and got us here. The next part I have had translated for a while but I can’t make any sense of it. It’s a poem or riddle or something.”

  “You’re in luck, that’s my specialty.”

  Benji opened his notebook and started reading.

  “The place of rest is buried high, overhead to keep it dry. Unless the water rises fast where it never reached into the past. Of wind and sun the walls may feel, but not the box that’s locked with steel. Find the burst with rays adrift, to break inside and clasp the gift.” Benji looked up sheepishly as he finished.

  “You translated that from that weird code written on the map.”

  “Yes, it has to be right, it even rhymes.”

  “I have no doubt it’s right but it just doesn’t make any sense to write a poem at this stage in the game. The man must have had a flurry for the dramatic and thought he was an artist.”

  “Do you have any idea what it means?”

  “Of course I do. It’s plain English, he didn’t go to much trouble to hide it, I mean if we got this far what’s the point in hampering us any further.”

  “So you know where it is.”

  “Pretty much. Buried overhead means its not in the ground but probably in a wall of some sort that overhangs, like the small caves below us right now. That way the pages wouldn’t succumb to moisture if they hid them correctly. The next line just says that they are out of sight of wind and sun, so blocked by rock. And finally the last line says we need to look for a symbol, a starburst or sun burst with rays, and then remove something blocking an opening and find a box. It’s pretty straightforward. I told you. This Robert Ryder must have been a romantic or had a woman around him at the time he thought to do this. Now let’s get down into those caves.”

  Rock was at home in this environment. He looked over the edge and off to the sides and finally decided on the best place to quickly but safely make his way down. It only took a couple of minutes and he was in a shallow cave that came right up to the edge of the water. The top of the rock overhang arched like a high domed ceiling and Rock was surprised at the size. He misjudged it on the way in.

  Benji finally came to the bottom and immediately started looking around the cave wall, searching for the sign Rock said would be there. “I don’t see it,” he said quickly.

  “And you’ve looked a whole 5 seconds. It’ll probably be faded but it’ll be noticeable, just keep looking and look slowly, don’t whip your head around. Treat it like one of those stupid magic eye pictures, let your eyes settle and it will probably pop out.”

  Just as his words ended Benji started jumping, “I got it, right here! Look.” He was pointing up to where the wall met the ceiling. A bunch of jumbled loose rock was thrown together at the top and jutting out were seven rays that were part of the natural formation. Rock was surprised. He was looking for more of a painted on faded sun burst. This one was naturally forming and it made sense, this one would last much longer.

  He quickly found a few footholds in the rock and climbed up to where he could reach the jumbled center. Benji held a hand to Rock’s back to steady him and keep him from falling backwards. Rock pried a few of the stones out and threw them aside. One of them he had to use both hands and yank
backwards almost toppling them both. Finally it came loose and it dropped to the floor. He couldn’t see inside but reached his hand in and felt around. He didn’t feel anything at first and his mind wondered if some tourist had already happened on it. His heart skipped as that scenario played through but then his fingers felt something smooth and he grabbed. His hand formed around a box and he pulled it out of the opening and jumped back to the ground.

  In his hand Rock held an old wooden box, it was well preserved and didn’t look to have any cracks or broken seams. There was a rusted steel lock that would have to be broken but it looked old and frail so it wouldn’t pose a problem. “We have it,” Rock smiled at Benji, “I told you it would be easy.”

  “This part,” Benji said.

  “Yes, this part,” he repeated back to him. Rock wanted to get back to the boat as quickly as possible, he needed to see if everything inside the box was ok and his tools to break the lock were stored on board. “Let’s go,” he said and started back the way they had come. Without another word they made it back to the beach and were quickly paddling back to the boat.

  Rock climbed out of the inflatable raft first and then helped Benji up and into the boat. He set aside the box and started gathering everything in. When he finished, he turned to find Benji holding the box to his chest, near the edge, as far from Rock as he could get.

  “What’s up Benji,” he said knowing something was going on and it was something he wasn’t going to like.

  “I need to know if you’re worthy and I don’t know how to decide. You seem worthy, you seem trustful and a good guy but I don’t know.”

  “Where’s this coming from? We’ve been through a lot. I think you know me much better than I know you. I’m pretty sure this has something to do with your part in all this. Tell me what’s going on and we’ll figure this out.”

  Benji took a deep breath. “My charge was to keep safe the code that was able to translate your map. Should anyone figure it out and come to me then my sole job was to discover their intentions and their heart. I am supposed to judge your character and if it is good, then I was to lead you here, if not, I would send you elsewhere or destroy everything.”

  Rock leaned back and made no sudden movements. He calmly replied. “That makes sense with something of this magnitude, if they believed it is what those after us believe it to be. If it fell into the wrong hands, the information would be used in a malevolent way and it’s too important for that. You and those before you were the safeguard put into place, I thought as much a couple of days after I met you. You’re meant to keep the most important information away from selfish and evil people, just in case they were the ones to find the rose.”

  “Right,” Benji said.

  “Then the real question is, what do you think about me?”

  “I like you Rock.”

  “But this could all be an act, is that what you’re thinking? That I’m really some monster just waiting to get my hands on those pages and then kill you and use the information to gain some advantage.”

  “No, that’s not it at all. I’m afraid you’ll give it to the keepers or to Delega for something in return. Maybe Anna, or Nate and Wallace. I’m afraid by letting you have these pages, they will fall into the wrong hands, just like the rose. It’s my charge to stop that from happening. Even if it’s to destroy the page, forever.”

  Rock lost his smile. He saw Benji’s reasoning and knew the boy meant every word. And he was correct. What he was suggesting was a possibility. “I see your point. Your whole plan was to come here and destroy these pages.”

  “Not at first, not when you had control of the rose. But you don’t anymore, so yeah, I was planning on destroying them.”

  “Why haven’t you?”

  “I don’t know.” Benji’s grip started shaking on the box. One quick toss overboard and Rock knew that there was nothing he could do to restore what would be lost.

  “I need those pages Benji. They could be the only leverage I have with the keepers or even with Delega. I need those pages to put all this together, to get Anna back, to get Nate and Wallace back, to get these people off my back. I need to complete this thing. I need to see it through.”

  Benji stared at him but said nothing.

  “I can’t make the promise that they won’t get their hands on them. But I can tell you I won’t hand them over as a bargaining chip. I will study them and you and I will be the only ones to see them. I need to see what they say, what they know.”

  “But then you become a liability,” Benji said.

  “But I would have been anyways. Where does it stop? I would have seen the pages and had the rose. What if everything was taken after we found the pages and not before, then they’d have everything right now.”

  “The rose and these pages should never be together anymore, they should remain separate.”

  “Then what’s the point of all of this,” Rock waved his hands. “What have we been doing? We’ve found what could be the most significant discovery in modern times and you trust me right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then you’ve done your job. You’ve led someone you trust to find these pages. Let me do my part now and interpret them and use them to help us.”

  Benji pulled the box from his chest and held it with one hand, extending it outwards. He moved it over the edge of the boat and held it out over the water. Rock didn’t say anything. Then, in one sweeping motion Benji tossed the box over to Rock. It hit him in the chest and he caught it in both hands.

  Benji slumped into the seat, “don’t make me regret this.”

  “You made the right choice.” Rock said. He quickly set to work and smashed the lock. As he expected, it broke apart easily. He slid the box open and inside rested over two dozen well preserved pages. He carefully fingered through them while Benji peered over his shoulder.

  “I can’t make sense of any of this,” he said. The pages were filled with graphs and scribbles and much of the language Wallace had deciphered back at the cabin. He needed that information in order to know what was being said.

  “Wait,” Benji stopped Rock from flipping so quickly. “Look on the back.”

  Rock flipped them over. On the back was the outline of a land mass and there were places filled in with small lettering around the shaded regions. On the next sheet, it was the same only with a different shaped landmass. He thumbed through a few more and they all were different maps.

  “What do you think?” Benji said.

  “I think we’ve found our safe zones according to the so called Atlantians. We just have to match these maps to the according land areas.

  “That easy,” Benji said.

  “My guess is the maps are for dummies, the equations on the front in the crazy language is for the smart people. They couldn’t be sure who would find this. The maps are general, so not exact like the equations. But they’ll work. Maybe when we get back I can start translating these with what Wallace gave us in his notes and tables.”

  Rock put the pages back in the box and shut the cover. “You did good Benji. I respect the way you handled this. Even if you had dropped these pages into the ocean, I would have been pissed, but I would have respected your decision. You’re a lot like me and I’d like to think that’s a compliment. You think things through and come to your own decision.”

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “But.” Rock watched him roll his eyes. “But I think once we get back, you should cut ties with all of this. It’s too dangerous.”

  “I’ll make that decision when we get back.”

  “Fair enough.” Rock throttled up the engine and headed for home.

  Six hours later, it was dark and Rock cut the motor and they glided into the dock. Behind him, Benji rested silently, staring up at the sky. The stars were numerous, out away from the city lights. A few looked as though they were flashing softly in the deep navy blue. The two of them hadn
’t spoken in awhile. But Rock welcomed the silence.

  Once they came to a stop, Rock jumped to the side and gathered up the rope and quickly tied them to the landing. He grabbed three bags and slung them over his shoulders making sure one of them was the one that held the thumb drive copies and the newly found pages.

  “Let’s go,” he said and jumped up onto the wooden planks. Benji silently followed.

  Their pace back to the truck was brisk, and more than once Rock almost slipped, catching himself on the railing. A few people were also returning and one, even looked to be heading out at this hour. But Rock paid them little heed. He kept his eyes darting to the shadows. If they left without incident, the return should be the same, unless Sayla couldn’t keep to her word.

  Once off the dock, they jogged through the parking lot and another block inland until Rock could see the truck, parked where he had left it. He tucked himself alongside an old brick building and pulled Benji into the shadows with him.

  “What are we doing,” the young man whispered, his eyes holding a look of weariness.

  “We’re watching. That’s all. Waiting. Keep an eye behind us, in front of us, and all around. I don’t want to be ambushed at the truck. If they’re here, I want to know now so we can move in any direction.”

  Neither man spoke for ten minutes, then Rock nudged Benji to let him know they were going. Rock jogged forward and a few moments later they were at the truck. He put his bags down and fumbled for the keys while Benji waited on the other side.

  “Good evening Rock.” He spun around at the sound of a voice and a man stood just outside the reach of the streetlight. But he already knew who it was.

  “Michael,” he returned and put the keys back in his pocket. He was caught.

  “I’m just here to talk,” he said.

  “Really, I find that hard to believe. Last time I left you we exchanged gunfire. I don’t take you as the type to forget that easily.”

  Michael stepped into the light. His thin jacket ruffled in the slight breeze. But other than that, he appeared stoic, as always. And in control. “Things change.”

  “Where’s Malcolm,” Rock asked, looking around.

  “That’s why I’m here.”

  “Are you alone,” Rock continued his scan of the street.

  “I am.”

  “How did you find me? Did Sayla tell you?”

  “No, but its about time you figured her out. She fucked us too if you recall. If you must know I found you by your boat Rock, you’re really stupid enough to take your own boat. And here I thought you were smart. We’ve had this placed monitored since this afternoon. And when I saw your boat was gone, I figured you’d be back. My men, I have sent elsewhere. For the time”

  “Why?”

  Michael took a step closer. There was anger in his eyes and he was fighting to control it. “Things have changed. Malcolm and I were to be killed for my failures where Oak Island and specifically you, were concerned. But other events took place and now the man running things, Elias Blanco, has Malcolm hostage and me as his puppet. That’s the short version.”

  “And what exactly are you doing for this man?”

  “I’m to get you, or more to point, the copies of everything you are carrying, along with anything new you may have obtained. But, I need you to get my brother back, and you need me to end this thing.”

  “What exactly do you propose?”

  “That depends on what you want?”

  “I want Anna safe, I want her back and Nate and Wallace and all the others.”

  “I don’t know where she is, Delega has her, not us.”

  “How about a trade. You get me Anna and the others, safely, and I’ll give you me and everything.”

  “I have you right now.” Michael pulled his jacket to the side and pulled out his gun. He took another step forward to bring himself within arm’s reach.

  Rock half smiled. “Then why am I still standing here? I should be dead, unless you think bringing me in like this would end with Malcolm dead. Unless you need me for something else, revenge perhaps.”

  “Don’t flatter yourself. And don’t think for a moment Anna is safe with Delega. They’ll fuck you in the end.”

  “And what will you do?”

  “I’ll deliver her right to you. I will. But I need something first.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Him,” Michael pointed at Benji. Rock looked over to the boy and when his gaze came back around he felt something slam into his head and his legs gave way leaving him collapsed against the truck door. Above him, Michael was pointing his gun at Benji. “You’re coming with me, or I will shoot you,” he said.

  Rock’s ears rang and the world spun around him. He tried to get up but his muscles felt weak. He looked up as Michael was dragging Benji towards him. Michael leaned down as they passed. “I’m your only friend right now Rock. And as long as I get my brother I could care less anymore about this whole thing. It’s ironic, but I’m the only one you can trust. And I’m the only one that can get Anna back to you safely, the others you speak of are already dead. Elias killed them.”

  Michael threw something at him and then walked away into the darkness. When the ringing in his head died down, Rock leaned up against the truck and picked up the item, turning it over in his hand. He looked down upon a simple, red, cell phone.

  Chapter 39

  Florida, August 2012