by R. K.
“We have heard nothing more from your brother. I will give him several more days to make contact before I decide he is no longer a part of the equation,” he said as he let the implications of that statement settle in.
Dee continued to stare at him without a hint of change in her demeanor.
“If he does contact me, I expect he will want to talk to you. You should keep that in mind and keep yourself available. I will allow you to tell him your condition, but little more. If you do as I say you will have nothing to worry about.”
She believed the part about allowing her to talk to him, but nothing else.
“What is so important about that wooden staff anyway? Is it something so important that you are willing to kill people to possess it?”
He thought about what she said and noticed a slight change in her indicating it was a sincere question. Silas Chandler was a master of manipulation. He took no satisfaction at besting people who were not up to the challenge. In this instance, he was the educator. He was almost as satisfied in a role of teaching as he was at conquest, especially when the roles were connected.
“Do you know nothing about history?” he asked.
“You mean the stories in the Bible? Yeah, I’ve read them.”
“So why would you not understand the importance of the Rod of Aaron?”
She looked at him for a moment before replying. “That wooden staff was on our boat. I didn’t notice anything special about it other than it being well preserved after spending so much time under water. The ark sits over there in the corner. So what? I don’t see anything special about it other than its beauty. If I’m not mistaken, there was a case in the Bible that said when one nation stole the ark from the Israelites they ended up being afflicted with hemorrhoids. Well, here we sit. I feel fine, how about you?”
Silas Chandler had to once again compose himself before he spoke. Her flippant attitude tried his patience.
“The Rod of Aaron was responsible for the plagues in Egypt. There are other occasions where Moses had also used the great power of this rod. It is the only instrument that man has that is imbued with power, by God, over all of his creation; one that has no equal. In fact, it is believed that only with the rod in hand can one open the ark.” He went silent as if in contemplation after this last remark.
“How is it that we didn’t notice anything about it then?”
“You obviously didn’t try to use it.”
“What are your intentions with it?”
“Dominion; what else? It was created for such a purpose and I shall be the one to take up that purpose.”
“You think you will rule the world? Isn’t that a bit foolish at your age? And why couldn’t my brother just use that rod against you when he gets here?” She said in a mocking tone.
Silas Chandler did his best to hide his agitation. He was not one to lose his temper easily, mostly because anyone who knew him did their best to appease him, but this young woman was pushing him further than he was accustomed to.
“Only fools think of the impossible. I am one of those people who make things happen. Your brother would have no success in using the rod against me just as you would have no success: you are both limited in mind. It has nothing to do with intelligence,” he said noticing her reaction. “It has everything to do with desire. The Bible said Moses lived to one hundred and twenty years of age. He was not feeble when he died. The rod can give that type of longevity and health to the person who wields it. As for ruling the world, the rod holds the power over life and death. It can be used to control water as evidenced by turning the Nile into blood, and the abundance of food, or lack thereof, indicative of the plague of locusts. No my dear, the holder of the Rod of Aaron will have power unlike any other which exists or has ever existed. And only then will people like you realize that nothing is impossible,” he finished in a self-satisfying tone.
She stared at the man before her. She knew he was crazy, but he looked no different from any other power hungry person she had known, though none of them had world conquest in their sights. She decided she better make Tori aware of the situation and watch what she did in the future. She wasn’t sure what kind of future they may have, but it was better to keep their sense about them.
“What if I killed you before you get the rod?” she asked with raised eyebrows.
Two men silently entered the room behind her after the statement.
“You wouldn’t have the chance,” he said after taking a moment to suppress the feeling of shock he had at the announcement.
She looked up at the men now standing at her side. “Maybe not, but don’t hold it against me if I try when the opportunity comes.”
She got up from her seat and was led back to her room. Dee was so distraught by the vile ambitions of the man who held them captive that she couldn’t believe those words had come from her mouth. What frightened her even more was the fact that she meant them.
Silas Chandler stared after her in wonder. He had never come across a young woman quite like this one.
~ Thirteen ~
A thick fog hung in the night sky as they navigated their way into the harbor. A steady rain fell, further limiting visibility. Sam Carter expertly guided his boat to its mooring, while Sean and Alex helped tie it off. The three of them carried handfuls of luggage from the boat to his crew cab pickup truck, while Rosie waited inside where it was dry. For the sake of convenience—taking into consideration their additional two passengers—Sam decided they would only take what was necessary on this trip and return for the rest of their things on another day. Once the truck was started, he handed Sean an umbrella and grinned at him. It took Sean a moment to figure out what it was for before he walked back to the boat and held it above Mrs. Carter while he escorted her to the vehicle. She looked at him in appreciation as he did so. Sean had taken an immediate liking to these people, and he would do his best to keep them far away from any involvement in the mess he currently found himself in.
They were soon on their way to the Carters’ home in Sun City Hilton Head. They offered to let the boys stay for as long as they needed. Sam was not due back to work for two more days, and the only time Rosie was not at home was when she was shopping. “So,” Sam told them, “you can generally count on her being home for a few hours each day.” This of course earned him a mild slap on the shoulder from his wife and appreciative smiles from their passengers.
The rain was still coming down, and by the time they pulled into the driveway they simply did everything they had done when they left the boat, but this time in reverse. Sam escorted his wife to the front door. Sean and Alex paid little attention to the house or the neighborhood. Even though they were, by now, soaked through, they still tried to keep from standing in the wet environment more than was necessary. When they were finished, they stood in the foyer of the large home dripping water onto the hardwood floor. They remained there until Rosie brought them both towels.
“You boys are going to need some dry clothes,” she said unnecessarily.
“I think I have a few shirts and some sweats they can wear while we put what they have on into the dryer,” Sam said as he walked back into the room.
They gladly accepted the offer and stripped out of their clothing, keeping the towels wrapped around their waists until Sam returned. Since it was getting late, they ate a small meal of leftovers brought from the boat and made small talk before turning in for the night. Sam showed them to their rooms, belonging to each of their sons who only used them whenever they visited, and the bathroom they would share. They would have the second floor to themselves since the master suite was downstairs.
When morning came, Alex was the first to leave his room and found his clothing dried and folded next to his door. He saw Sean’s stacked one door away. Just as he was about to furnish a little pay-back for any number of previous offenses, Sean opened his door. He saw Alex, and then the clothes. He reached for them and said, “These are pretty nice people.”
“I like them.
Kind of like the mother and father I never had.”
They smiled at each other thinking the same thought before Sean took on a more serious look. “We need to see if we can get a ride into town or someplace big enough for us to take care of a little business.”
Alex nodded in agreement, but he wasn’t sure exactly what business Sean had meant. For the past few days they had kept their conversation about that to a minimum so as not to alarm their hosts. He knew they would talk more about it when they were alone.
They washed up, put on their dry clothes, and went downstairs. After a breakfast of eggs, sausage, and English muffins, Sam offered the use of his truck. He had Sean follow him while he went into the den to get the keys.
“Just make sure I get it back in one piece,” he said with a slight smile on his face as he tossed him the keys.
“Why is it that I don’t think this is the first time you’ve said that?”
“Because there have been times when I never got it back. Funny thing about that; whenever my sons are in town, and I offer to drive one of their vehicles, they never seem thrilled at the idea. I guess they have a short memory.”
Sean looked him in the eyes and figured he should give him a little more in the way of validating the trust they had given them since pulling them out of the water. He reached his right hand into his pocket and removed one of the few coins he had found where they buried the professor. He removed them from his clothing before Mrs. Carter took them to be laundered the night before.
“Here,” he said as he flipped one of the gold coins in the air directly at Mr. Carter. Sam reacted instinctively and raised both of his hands in an attempt to catch what was tossed his way. When he caught it, he examined it closely. While he did, Sean spoke. “I told you we were treasure hunters.”
“Is this related to the trouble you’re in?”
“Not really,” Sean said.
Sam didn’t believe him, but wondered why he would deny something that seemed so obvious to both of them. Sean didn’t strike him as a con or a liar.
Seeing the disbelief on his face, Sean said, “It’s more of a byproduct of what we were involved in, not the trouble itself.”
Sam accepted that. If he was offering that much of an explanation, there must be more to it than a simple matter of greed.
“Where is it from?” Sam asked.
Sean looked at him with a puzzled look.
Sam understood his dilemma in answering. “I meant from what country, what time period?”
“Oh. I’m not sure, but I would bet around the late fifteenth century,” he offered realizing he was not asking for the location of the find itself.
“Valuable?”
“I would think so.”
“You don’t need to give me this,” he said as he attempted to hand it back.
Sean held his hand up at him. “Please, take it as a gift. Put it in a frame or something. It will give you something to remember us by.”
He smiled at him as he closed his massive hand around the gold coin, “I don’t think we’ll forget you boys anytime soon.” When there was nothing more to say about the moment, Sam said, “Everything you guys need to take care of—clothes, money, rental car,—you can probably take care of in Savannah.”
“Thanks. That’s where we’ll go then.”
Sean pulled Alex away from the breakfast table and after obtaining directions into town, they were on their way.
The rain from the previous day left the ground wet and the air thick with humidity. Alex decided to let Sean start the conversation. If he tried to get any specific information from him, when he was not ready to provide it, it would be like pulling teeth. It was more frustrating than just being patient and waiting for it to happen. When it was clear Sean was comfortable with their route, he started the conversation without actually talking. He reached into his pocket and took out the remaining gold coins and held them out to Alex.
“Where did you get those?” Alex asked wide eyed.
“Where we buried the professor.”
“What do you mean?”
“There was a bunch of coins and some other objects buried at the bottom. I saw them when you went for the rope.”
Alex stared at the coins while they spoke. “You mean there were more?”
“Yep.”
“Why in the hell didn’t you tell me? We could have brought them all out with us!”
“First off,” Sean said as he turned his head to take a brief look at him, “we didn’t know if we were in fact going to make it out. Second, the tide was turning and we didn’t have much time.” Before the sounds of protest could fully escape Alex’s mouth he continued, “Third, we probably wouldn’t have been able to carry the weight. What would it have been like if we got the treasure only to have it lost again? Or, what would anyone we might have run into have done if they saw it?”
“We still could have brought some more with us,” Alex said in a voice showing partial resignation, still not convinced his partner had made the right decision. “And why did you wait until now to tell me?” he asked sharply.
“Because we didn’t need to have this discussion at the time; we had other things to deal with.” Knowing his friend was upset, he offered the one piece of information he had decided would appease his disgruntlement. “We will go back for the rest when all of this is over.”
Alex turned to look at him.
Sean did the same. “Okay?”
Alex smiled, but then, just as quickly as it came, it disappeared. “How are we going to find an underwater island in the middle of the Atlantic?”
Sean turned back to face traffic. “It shouldn’t be hard. I know the position our boat was in when we had to leave it. I know the location the Carters’ boat was in when we were on board. The tides were moving east by northeast. I think we can narrow down the general area within a few days of searching. We’ll just run a circular search pattern between the hours of noon and 3pm for as many days as it takes,” he said confidently. “The tides will have to uncover the island eventually.”
“You think it’s going to be that easy?” Alex asked with a heavy note of doubt in his voice.
“Certainly.” Sean said as he turned and smiled at him.
Knowing it was better to let the subject drop for the time being, Alex changed the direction of the conversation. “Where do you think these came from?”
“Don’t know. I couldn’t make out any of the inscriptions, but I’d guess some pirate or privateer found the place handy to keep his cache secure. What better than a disappearing hideout?”
“Yeah.” Alex said, accepting the likelihood of such a scenario. He turned the coins over in his hand examining each of them in turn.
Sean reached out his hand. “Give me half and you keep half. Don’t use them unless it’s absolutely necessary.” Alex handed him a few of the coins.
“I’m guessing they are worth around eight to ten grand each. One should be enough to get us everything we need for now. I’ll have to find a coin dealer who looks as if his business can deal with us. We’ll probably only get a fraction of what it’s worth from them, but we need some cash now.”
Alex agreed, being somewhat mollified by the act of having a few of the valuable coins in his possession. Sean didn’t tell him he had already given one to the Carters. He didn’t think he would protest, especially after everything they had done for them, but he knew his friend well enough not to give him too much to think about at one time.
After driving up and down practically every street in the center of town, they finally saw a sign for a coin dealer. They parked the truck, locked it, and went inside.
It was your typical coin shop full of see-through glass cases holding a wide variety of coins of different denominations from different eras. Other collectibles hung along the wall on the opposite side of the store. A middle-aged man sat behind the counter and welcomed them into the store.
“Can I help you boys?”
“I’m not sure,” Sean said
as he approached the man and placed one of the gold coins on the countertop. “What do you think I could get for this?”
The man took up the coin without expression and examined it closely. He nodded his head sharply, which caused his bifocals to drop from their previous position on top of his head. After turning the coin over several times he said, “Never seen one before. I’d have to do a simple test to see what quality of gold it is,” he said as he looked over the rim of his glasses at Sean.
“Sure, go ahead,” Sean said, playing along.
He looked over at Alex and rolled his eyes indicating he was willing to play the game with the man. Alex grinned and busied himself looking at the various displays.
When the man was finished with his examination, he didn’t feel the need to provide Sean with the details on what the carat purity level of the gold was. For the one coin, Sean wasn’t going to worry about it.
“It’s gold,” he said as if it was somehow a surprise.
“I know,” Sean said. “Is it something you’d be interested in buying?”
“I dunno. Depends on what you want for it. I don’t really know anything about its origin, so the best I could probably do is give you ninety percent of weight value.”
Sean looked at him wondering if he treated everyone like an ignorant fool who walked into his shop. “Can I see it?” he asked.
The man was still looking at it and said, “Oh, sure.”
Sean took the coin and started to walk out of the store.
“Hey wait a minute! I thought you wanted to sell that thing,” the man said desperately.
Sean stopped and turned around. “Mister, I’m not stupid. I know this coin is worth more than ten times its weight value. If you still think you might be interested, we may be able to deal. If you want to talk nonsense, I’d best look somewhere else.”
Realizing he was dealing with someone with a little knowledge of its value, the store owner changed his attitude. “I think we might be able to do some business. Let me see it again and I can take a look on my computer and see what I can find.”
