by K. T. Tomb
“Why not? She seems harmless enough.”
“Mostly because she’s too interested in you,” Ishi said. “That just doesn’t seem right.”
“So, you’re saying that because a woman is interested in me that she can’t be trusted?”
“I’m saying that something is not right with that scenario,” Ishi said. “You need to be careful.”
“Do I detect a hint of jealousy?” I laughed.
“I’m serious.”
“I am too.”
The tension between us had risen significantly since we’d left Hawaii, actually, probably even a little bit before then. Maybe I need to pay better attention to what’s going on here and I need to defuse this situation too.
“Look, Ishi, I know you’re just watching my back. I appreciate it. You’ve always been there. I promise I’ll be careful.”
“We could really get killed on this one, Nick.”
The look of fear in his eyes was worse than I’d ever seen it before.
“I know,” I said quietly. I was as scared as he was, but I had a tendency toward covering up my fear by trying to keep everything light. He was right concerning the pattern that I’d had with our previous guides and it was rather odd that the pattern had been broken. Catalina, unlike the others, seemed to be into me. Although I was flattered and certainly didn’t want to turn such an opportunity away, I was in uncharted territory where women were concerned. It would be better if I took it a little slower.
“Slow things down a little on this one, please?” Ishi pleaded. “Don’t get all wrapped up in her. That’s all I’m saying.”
Our conversation was cut off by a knock at the cabana door and Cat’s voice. “Are you guys ready yet?”
I opened the door and my best intentions went right out the window when I saw Cat’s brilliant smile and the rest of her didn’t look half bad either. She really hadn’t gotten dressed up; she just changed out of the shorts and put on a sundress, but it was enough to have gotten my full attention.
“You look stunning,” I commented.
“Thank you,” she replied, tucking her head to one side and shrugging.
“Are all Colombians as hot as you?”
“Nick, stop it.”
“Geez, guys, I’d love to stay and flirt too, but I’m hungry,” Ishi said.
“Actually, I am too. Do they have any decent ceviche here?” I asked.
“The best,” she replied.
“Lead the way.”
Instead of going to the parking area where we’d been brought in earlier, we turned and went toward the beach and then strolled along it as the sun dipped a tiny portion of its glowing sphere into the watery horizon.
“You guys are going to love this restaurant. It’s simple Caribbean home cooking. Freshly caught seafood, obviously, and ceviche to die for.”
“We’re trusting you.” I glanced over at Ishi and winked.
He shook his head and let his chin sag to his chest.
It was as I was turning away from that quick glance that I saw someone slip back into the shadows after having, no doubt, been following us. Had whoever it was just continued along casually, I probably wouldn’t have noticed, but my peripherals caught his sudden motion. We needed to be very careful. The guy in the airport, I could dismiss. He was a little out of place, but he hadn’t done anything overly suspicious, but I couldn’t say the same about the guy on the beach. Same guy, maybe?
Though I put on a decent enough show during dinner, my mind was not only on Ishi’s warning to go slow and be careful where it came to the beautiful Catalina, but I had gotten a quick dose of reality from our stalker to go with it. Having enjoyed a very good dinner of fresh fish, the best ceviche I’d ever eaten and a few more rum soaked drinks from a coconut than I should have had, I put off hanging out to drink and dance like pretty much everybody else and opted to go back to the room.
“I guess you guys are probably pretty tired,” she smiled. “Let’s get you home, then. We’ll get an early start on your scuba lessons in the morning.”
A few minutes later, back in our cabana, I could tell that Ishi wanted to talk. I really wasn’t in the mood for another of his lectures, so I avoided making eye contact. It was an adolescent thing to do, but I had plenty on my mind and, for the first time in a while, I was actually feeling scared.
“So, what changed?” Ishi asked.
“What do you mean, what changed?”
“We were strolling along the beach and you were being your usual ‘charming’ self.” He paused and enunciated the word in a sarcastic tone before continuing on. “And then, you became really serious for a couple of seconds and then went into acting like you were enjoying yourself.”
“I was enjoying myself,” I replied.
“I know the difference, Nick. What happened? Did you see something or somebody?”
I considered not telling him; he was already scared enough, but since I was nailed, there wasn’t any point in trying to cover it up.
“I saw somebody slip back into the shadows while we were walking along the beach. I only saw whoever it was for a second, so I can’t say for sure, but the movement didn’t seem natural.”
“So, we are being followed.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“What do you mean? The guy in the airport and now this guy… we’re being followed.”
“I think all of this cloak and dagger stuff just has us on edge. Once we get down to business, we’ll stop being jumpy.” I wished that I could have believed my own words.
“You think it’s worth the risk?” he asked after a long pause.
“Do I think what is worth the risk?”
“Finding the map, taking it to Spence and pissing off the Illuminati?”
“You’d rather we stuck out the next five years working for PGE?”
“If my choices are between that and getting killed, then the answer would definitely be yes.”
“This isn’t the first time we’ve been followed by somebody,” I pointed out. “A few days ago we were being followed; you weren’t so worried about it then. Hell, everywhere we’ve ever gone, somebody has followed us.”
“Yeah, but they weren’t the Illuminati.”
“How the hell do you know the Illuminati is following us? You know, a lot of that Illuminati stuff might not be true and the connection between the Masonic Order and Illuminati isn’t exactly a concrete fact.” I didn’t believe what I just said, but if it kept Ishi calm, then it was worth it.
“She could be one of them, you know,” he whispered. “She might be listening to us right now.”
“Look, Spence said she checked out, right?”
“Yeah, but what if she got by him somehow?”
“Yes, we need to be careful. We need to keep an eye on everything that’s going on around us. This conversation, however, isn’t going to get us anywhere, so let’s get some sleep so we’ll be fresh tomorrow, okay?”
“Fine,” he replied, going into his own bedroom and closing the door behind him. He didn’t sound any more convinced that we were okay than I was.
Chapter Nine
I was much quieter than my usual self the following morning when we loaded into Cat’s Amigo.
Hung-over-and-wanting-a-cigarette quiet, even though neither was the case. Cat was the same as she had been the day before, but she was acting more like a tour guide as she chattered away about all sorts of different sites that went by while we made the short trip to the cove where we were going to start our scuba lessons.
I tried to be subtle about it, but my head was on a swivel and I was keeping a watchful eye out for our stalker. I caught a glimpse of Ishi when I turned to look at something that Cat pointed out and I could tell that he was doing the same thing.
“You sure are quiet today, Nick,” Cat pointed out. “Are you nervous about diving?”
“New bed, new place, you know, didn’t sleep much.”
“I understand. But at least there’s no need to
be nervous about the diving. I’m a really good teacher,” she beamed.
“I’m sure that you are.” I returned her smile. When I did, I noticed a devilish sparkle in her eyes. Was she hinting at being a good teacher concerning something else too? With that thought in my head, I sort of relaxed about watching for our stalker and put more of that misguided attention back on our lovely companion. In fact, it wasn’t until Ishi tapped me on the shoulder and motioned with his head toward something as we were pulling into a parking place along the cove, that I even gave our stalker another thought.
I nodded to him that I had seen who he was talking about. Though he was dressed differently, I was pretty sure it was the same guy from the airport who’d just driven right past us and continued on down the road. He had a woman with him in the passenger’s seat; no doubt she was a prop to make him look like he was just enjoying a little time vacationing with his wife.
So, we had a team following us. The thought disturbed me to no end and I was fighting to keep from being nervous. Sure, Ishi and I had been followed many times; followed by people who wanted to kill us on most occasions. But under the circumstances, it was more unsettling than usual. It was probably because of the one word that kept nibbling at the raw edges of my nerves: Illuminati.
“Alright, grab your equipment out of the back and follow me,” Cat said, hopping out of the driver’s seat and going around to the back of the vehicle. She was oblivious to the silent communication that was ensuing rampantly between Ishi and me.
Our first lesson in scuba diving, though it was difficult to stay focused, was a success. Given the necessity for us to be ready to go as quickly as possible, Cat was cramming the course into two days. Since the goal wasn’t certification, but just to give us enough knowledge to be able to complete our mission, Ishi and I were taught the basics that first day with the promise of a practice session the following one.
Cat hadn’t even attempted to hide her interest in me while she was giving us instruction. I didn’t mind that extra attention and the suggestive way that she presented certain things to me. She’d made it clear that she wanted to go out the evening after the first lesson, but I declined, telling her that Ishi and I had some research and studying to do. It wasn’t a lie.
PGE had sent us clues as to the geographic location of the map, but there were still a lot of clues to be unraveled before we’d be able to get our hands on it. The map was allegedly a blueprint, if you will, for establishing the New World Order. To be fully in tune with where to look, once we were in the right place, we had to dig into the origins of the Masonic Order.
“We’re being followed by that guy we saw in the airport and a woman.” It was the first thing he said as soon as we were alone in our cabana.
“I figure that she’s either a prop or they are working as a team.”
“So, what do we do?”
“We keep on with our plan. They could just be PGE people checking up on us or they might be watching Cat. Until they do something more than just look at us, there’s really no way of knowing who they are or what they’re up to. So just stay focused, partner; we’ve got studying to do.”
With a mountain of research and symbols to pore over, Ishi and I tried to forget the dangers that we were facing and focus on trying to figure out what we should be looking for once we got inside the underwater cave. The problem that we encountered, however, was that the deeper we got into understanding the Masonic Order, its history, its connection to other orders and the cultic practices that surrounded those orders, the more our fear of what we were doing increased.
“There is one symbol that occurs over and over again,” Ishi finally stated after several hours. “The star shaped one.”
“The pentagram?” I asked, already guessing what he was about to say.
“Yes.”
“So, basically, you’re saying that for this treasure, the ‘X’ would possibly have something to do with a star?”
“I think it’s something to be peeling our eyeballs out for,” Ishi said, once again misquoting an American figure of speech. I left him to finish what he was saying, seeing no need to correct the faux pas. “But there are also the dividers that are more or less the logo of the Masonic Order.”
I nodded as his idea sank in. It was a good one too… a damn good one.
“Let’s put all of this together. Once we’re in the cave, we’ll have to find the key room, for lack of a better term. Once we find the key room, then we’ll be able to determine the location of the map.” I knew from experience that Murphy’s law would play its role at some point in all of this, but at least we had a starting point now.
“And staying alive long enough to get there,” Ishi pointed out in a grave tone.
We were in all sorts of uncharted water, both literally and figuratively. All of this secret-spy, hidden-in-the-shadows, bait-and-switch stuff was something that we had never dealt with before and directly connected to that was the fact that our lives were in danger simply because we knew things that other people would kill to know. Typically, we were, more or less, in the dark about who wanted to kill us, up until they arrived to do the deed. Knowing ahead of time just seemed to make things very uncomfortable.
“I wouldn’t mind having more than a bowie knife on this one,” I muttered.
“Yeah, me too.”
The quiet that had filled the room as we considered the numerous things that we were facing was interrupted by a knock on the door that startled both of us.
“How are my favorite treasure hunters?” Cat called through the door.
I went to the door and opened it to the ever bright smile of Cat, holding up a couple of bags.
“Since you couldn’t come to dinner, then dinner has come to you.”
“That’s perfect; actually, we were just thinking about grabbing something to eat,” I replied.
Chapter Ten
Day two of scuba lessons was much more interesting than day one, except for the fact that we weren’t followed to the cove like we had been on day one. That should have made us feel better, but it had the opposite effect. It was like the difference between a water moccasin and a rattlesnake. With the rattlesnake, you knew where it was and could avoid it, with the moccasin, you had no idea where it was or which direction it would strike from until it hit you.
Still, graduating from the shallow pool in the cove where we had learned the basics before moving out into the reef to actually get the feel of what it was like to travel under water was exhilarating. After trolling through the coral under water and seeing all of the different species of fish that moved among its millions of branches, I’d determined that if I ever gave up treasure hunting, I was going to take up diving. Perhaps, I’d combine the two and simply expand my repertoire.
“That was freakin’ awesome!” Ishi exclaimed when we came up for a break and switched out our tanks. “I think we should give up on our current occupation and start doing this instead.”
“You took the words right out of my mouth, buddy.” I was as thrilled as he was, but I was even more delighted to see that he had been able to relax and stop the constant dwelling on the possibility of us meeting an early demise on this trip.
“You guys are doing great and catching on quickly,” Cat beamed. “Once we get our tanks switched out, let’s make a practice run toward the entrance of the underwater cave. What do you say?”
“You’re the boss,” I laughed.
“I want you guys to get the feel of cave diving. It can be a little bit unsettling the first time. Do either of you suffer from claustrophobia?”
I thought back to the tiny caves and sand buried pyramids, secret rooms and shit filled sewers we’d gone into and traversed in the past and a smile spread across my face.
If you only knew, woman.
I chuckled. “If we did then we’d certainly have found out we were in the wrong business a long time ago.”
“Oh, yeah. That was sort of a stupid question. Well, you have that in your favor,
but when you lose contact with the surface, like you have out here on the reef, it can get real scary, real fast.”
I had to admit that she was right. In spite of the fact that I had been in thousands of caves, tunnels and holes in my lifetime, being in one under water did cause me to panic a little bit initially. When you were in a cave, a dry cave, you were still breathing and felt more in control than you did when underwater in a cave. For the first time ever, I felt a little bit claustrophobic; though there was no way in hell I was going to admit it to anybody.
We didn’t stay in the underwater cave for long, but we did stay long enough for me to start getting over my fears, especially the one in my mind that kept nagging me about the possibility of getting lost and running out of air. Once I pushed that out of my mind, underwater spelunking wasn’t half bad. Could we do it long enough to find the map? The answer to that, we wouldn’t know until we’d tried it.
“I’m going to go grab our empties. You guys go on up to Isabel and I’ll be right behind you,” Cat said as we came up out of the water.
“You need some help?” I called out as she trotted off.
“It’ll just take a second. You guys go ahead and relax a little.”
“This diving stuff is awesome,” Ishi told me as we were starting back toward the Amigo with our equipment. It was that time in the evening when the transition of the setting sun made it difficult to see, but we weren’t paying any attention to that. We were too excited.
“You guys enjoy your day?” a voice asked.
Though I couldn’t make out the speaker in the fading light, instinctively, I knew who it was, especially when another female voice was added to it. “You made a full day of it, huh?”
I was already trying to figure out how we were going to get out of our newest predicament and started off in my usual way.
“We had a pretty good time,” I responded. “You ought to try it sometime.”
“Where’s your friend?”
“He’s right here,” I replied. “Been my friend and partner for quite some time now.”
