by David Wood
“Say, can I have another drink of that water before you go? That stuff is awesome.” His mouth was dry as the Mohave and he remembered how it seemed to sparkle on his tongue when he drank it. How alive he had felt. He could certainly use that kind of pick-me-up right now.
“No!” Thel sprang to her feet and backed away, her hands guarding the clay flask at her hip.
“Okay, sorry. I didn’t know water was such a big freaking deal around here. I guess I shouldn’t expect anything from a chick who was going to ditch me in the middle of the night.”
Thel flinched. “I wish I could explain. I’m sorry, but I really do have to go. It’s for the best.”
She opened the door crack and Bones saw that it was still dark outside.
“At least let me walk with you. You don’t know who you might run into out there on the streets. Just give me a second to get dressed.” He stood on wobbly legs and looked around for his boxers.
“No, you can’t come. It’s very important that you don’t.”
“Oh, come on. It won’t do any harm for me to walk you back to your resort.”
Bones reached out to take Thel by the hand. Next thing he knew, he was lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling. His ears rang and the back of his skull burned. Thel had seized him by the wrist and performed a perfect judo hip toss on him. He was tired and groggy, to be sure, but what the hell? Bones could count on two hands the number of people who had managed to do that to him. Maddock, Willis, his sister once and only once, and a few others, trained men, most of whom were no longer alive. And now add a hot redhead to that list.
Their eyes met. “I wish I could make you understand. Please, just let me go.”
Bones sat up and rubbed the back of his head. “I would love it if you would start making some sense right about now.”
“If only I could. You've got to trust me. I’m doing the right thing for you. And I assure you I can take care of myself.” She took one step out the door, then paused and looked back. “And for what it’s worth, I think you should find your father. If you can't find it in your heart to forgive him, at least give him the chance to explain.”
The words were like a dagger to his heart. He gritted his teeth and rose on shaky legs.
“Get the hell out of here,” Bones growled. He glared at her, immune to the hurt he saw in her face, the tears welling in her big green eyes.
“Goodbye,” she whispered. Gently, she closed the door.
Uttering a curse, Bones hurled himself onto the bed and soon descended into fitful sleep.
11
Alexei closed the door of his cheap motel room and locked it behind him. More out of habit than any real concern he made a quick inspection of the space. Still the same faded yellow walls, the same cheap art print of a beach scene. Nothing seemed to be out of place. He didn’t know why he was worried. No one knew what he was doing here. What was the American saying? Old habits die hard.
“You are safe here. This isn’t Russia,” he told himself. It was something he had to remind himself of daily.
He climbed up onto his bed, took out his Swiss Army knife, and opened the screwdriver attachment. He used it to remove the air-conditioning vent cover, reached inside, and took out a Ziploc bag and dropped it on the bed.
Air-conditioning, he thought as he replaced the vent cover. It hadn’t worked since he had arrived. What was the point of even having it?
When everything was back in its place, he sat down and opened the bag. He spread the items out on the bed. This motel was so cheap it didn’t even offer any sort of desk or table, save the small one at the bedside.
“Maybe someday you can afford better,” he said as he picked up his legal pad, flipped to the first empty page, and wrote down a pair of names. He stared at the page for a full minute, wondering if he was doing the right thing. Of course he was. He had always trusted his instincts and he was still alive.
He picked up the phone, dialed a number he knew by heart.
She answered on the third ring. “Allo?”
“Did I wake you?”
“Zho-pa.” Despite her obvious annoyance, she delivered the curse in an affectionate tone. “What is it you want from me at this early hour?”
“Early?” He laughed. “Here in the islands, the evening has only just begun.”
“If that is the case then why are you talking to me? Shouldn’t you be out romancing the island women?”
Alexei laughed. “You know me. I have too much work to do.”
“And I assume this work is the reason for your call?”
“You know me too well. I need you to perform a background check on a couple of people for me.”
A long, slow exhale. And then silence.
“Are you there?”
“You know I am really not supposed to do this. I can’t lose this job. They would send me back.”
“I know. I promise this is the last time I will ask.” This time, her curses carried a touch of heat. Alexei made a placating gesture even though he knew she couldn’t see him through the phone. “I’ll make it up to you.”
“Of course you will. Hold on, let me get a pen.”
Alexei felt guilty even making the request, but it was important. He needed more information on these two, because he was certain they were not what they seemed.
“All right. Give me the names.”
“Dane Maddock and Bones Bonebrake.”
“Did you say Bones? Like skelet?”
“That’s it exactly. Sorry, that is his nickname.” He racked his brain, trying to remember the name Bonebrake had written on his Blue Descent entry form. It had been something from the Bible. Something unusual. “Uriah Bonebrake. That’s it.”
She laughed. “I understand why he prefers to be called Bones. What can you tell me about them?”
“They both live in the Florida Keys. They served together in the Navy but I don’t know in what capacity. Bonebrake is a Native American in case you didn’t guess from the surname.”
“Interesting. Anything else?”
“Only if they are treasure hunters.”
“All right, I see.”
They made a few minutes of small talk. Alexei made some grand promises about where they would go for dinner and how he would go about repaying her.
“By the way,” she said before they hung up, “I am still working on that other thing for you. Nothing to report yet.”
“You are the best.”
They ended the call and Alexei began his work.
He hadn’t been completely honest with Bonebrake. Alexei had, indeed, been conscripted into the Russian Army, but his career didn’t end after his mandatory two-year term. And he had been more than a simple grunt. He had a feeling the same was true of Bonebrake. It was easy to tell that the big Indian had seen and done some things the average person could scarcely imagine.
Alexei had been involved in covert operations for the Russian Armed Forces. On one particular mission, his squad had been sent to assassinate a high-level member of the Turkish Hezbollah, a man known only as Cemal, in his compound in northwest Turkey near the Greek border. Cemal had apparently been a collector of rare antiquities. Many priceless artifacts, doubtless acquired on the black market, had been taken home to Russia by Alexei and his men. They’d received commendations for their efforts. Someone above his rank had probably kept the artifacts. Probably added to the president’s private collection.
There had been one prize Alexei couldn’t take. Rather, there had been a collection of prizes—texts in Ancient Greek carved in stone, wood, and on parchment. These had been carefully curated, framed, and hung all around Cemal’s secret trophy room. Alexei could read enough ancient Greek to know that these texts had not been collected at random. They all told pieces of a single story. The fact that they were all connected led Alexei to conclude that the fragments of ancient maps that had also been framed and put on display were connected, too.
Unable to carry them away, he’d made a thorough photog
raphic record. That decision had set him on a course that had brought him here today. He was certain he was on the right path, and had come ninety-nine percent of the way. It was the last one percent that was proving a near-impossible task.”
He took out a folder which contained printouts of all of those photographs, as well as his translation of the text. He knew it nearly by heart, but he liked having it by his side as he searched for clues. Tonight’s project was an old book of local legends he had stolen from Balcony House Museum. He hoped something in here would match up with something in the text.
He began to read. Page after page went by but nothing rang a bell.
He looked at the clock. It was one o’clock in the morning. Frustrated, he decided to give up for the night. He took a minute to hide his research, before deciding to take a walk.
The night was refreshingly cool, with a pleasant breeze blowing in off the sea. He relaxed, taking it all in. With no particular destination in mind, he wandered along, enjoying the moonlight and the peace and quiet. As a professor he didn’t get much of the latter.
He soon found himself hiking at the edge of one of the many blue holes that pockmarked this section of the island. He couldn’t recall the name of this one. Captain something, he thought. A wooden gazebo sat at the edge of a twenty-foot, mangrove-covered ledge. To his left, a staircase led down to the water. He descended, took a seat, and tried to relax.
“That is nice,” he sighed. His time outside the diving competition had been consumed by his project, his nights troubled by insomnia. The rational part of him knew that he was safe, but he couldn’t seem to stop looking over his shoulder. The product of growing up in the old Soviet Union, he supposed.
As his eyes adjusted to the dark, they took in his surroundings. The light gray walls of the blue hole made a nearly perfect circle. Here and there, mangroves grew from cracks in the stone. The jungle grew right up to the edge of the precipice, making a ring of black beneath moonlit sky.
In the distance something, caught his eye. He squinted peering into the darkness. The water was calm like mirrored glass. A band of moonlight shone across its surface. And then he saw it again a ripple. No, not a ripple. It was larger than that.
And then something massive broke the surface. Only for a second, and then it was gone. Instinct told him he should stand, but for the first time in his life, he was frozen in place by sheer shock. It had been there, hadn’t it? Now he wasn’t so certain. It was late and his sleep-deprived brain was focused on his research. He had imagined it. Still, he wished he had brought his camera, just in case.
He waited. His eyes began to droop. His body felt heavy.
Perhaps I will just sleep out here. It’s cooler than my motel room.
There it was again! A disturbance on the surface of the water, as if something huge were down in the blue hole. He sprang to his feet, wide awake now.
He racked his brain. There had to be an explanation. What could make a shadow that large? A whale? No, this was an inland blue hole, if not far from the water. Many underwater passageways connected the network of blue holes to the sea, but no explorer had ever found a passageway large enough for something of any decent size to swim through. An octopus, maybe.
Octopus!
He felt as if he’d suddenly been doused with cold water. Goose flesh rose along his arms. His heart raced. Invisible hands wrapped around his throat. He couldn’t breathe. A voice inside his head told him to run, but the rational part of his mind told him to relax. Estimating the size of something beneath the water was difficult enough up close and in broad daylight. If there was something down there, it wasn’t a monster.
Gradually, he relaxed. What was he? A coward? He was a seasoned veteran, a man who had faced certain death on many occasions, and had lived to tell the tale.
“You are working too hard, Alexei, and your mind is making a fool of you.” He didn’t know why, perhaps to prove to himself he wasn’t afraid, he sat down, removed his shoes and socks, and dipped his feet into the water. He took a deep breath, trying to relax.
“Remember it is not all about the work. You have the dive contest. You have new friends.” He felt foolish talking to himself but he found that his calming thoughts were more effective when spoken aloud.
He looked up at the moon and smiled.
“Life is not so bad.”
And then something clamped down on his leg.
12
Bones awoke at sunrise. His head no longer hurt but he felt groggy, much more so than a night of restless sleep could explain. He downed two cups of cheap motel coffee but it didn’t help much. Finally, he made the long, slow trek back to the docks where Sea Foam was tied up.
Along the way he kept catching himself looking around for Thel. Every time he heard a woman’s voice, and once when he saw someone with red hair, he perked up.
“What the hell is with me?” He never got this hung up on a woman like this.
Willis and Matt were sitting on the stern deck of Sea Foam drinking coffee when Bones arrived. They greeted him with laughter and catcalls as he approached.
“Heard you met a girl,” Willis said. “Looks like she kept you out late.”
“How did you know about that?”
“Your little buddy told us all about it.” Matt pointed at what looked like a heap of dirty clothes lying against the bulkhead. It was Kyle, sound asleep. “Val brought him back last night.”
“Great,” Bones said as he climbed aboard. He was embarrassed to have forgotten all about the young man, and about promising Maddock he’d look out for him.
“Hey, you didn’t ask permission to come on board,” Willis said as Bones vaulted the stern rail.
“Screw you. You’re not captain. Where is he, anyway?”
Willis and Matt exchanged impish grins.
“What’s the joke?” Bones asked.
“You’re not the only one who stayed out all night,” Willis said. “I had a feeling about him and Rae.”
“It’s about damn time. That dude has been basically celibate since, you know. Good for him.” Bones probably meant it but he was feeling too crappy to care one way or the other. He slumped to the deck and rested against the bulkhead. “Got any more coffee?”
“Coffee?” Matt inclined his head. “You look like you need hair of the dog. What did you drink last night?”
Bones frowned. “Just water.”
Matt and Willis gaped then broke into laughter.
“If all you had to drink was water, that must’ve been one heck of a girl to leave you looking a mess,” Willis said. “What was her name?”
“Thel. It was short for something, some Greek name I’d never heard before. And yeah, she was pretty awesome. At least I thought she was.” He hated to admit that he didn’t remember. “So, what’s on the agenda for today?”
“Waiting for the boss to show up. Or to call in and give us our marching orders.”
“Corey is monitoring the radio in case he reaches out,” Matt added.
“Say, you don’t think we ought to be worried, do you?” Willis asked. “I can’t remember the last time Maddock stayed out all night for a fun reason.”
“No idea,” Bones grumbled. God, he felt horrible. “How about you guys get your asses in gear? We can dive without Maddock if we have to.”
“All right, man, chill.” Willis frowned. “You don’t seem like yourself. Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine.” That wasn’t true. He couldn’t get his mind off of Thel and it was pissing him off. “I’m his partner, so it’s not just Maddock’s money you’re pissing away, sitting around doing nothing.” He paused when he saw Willis and Matt’s bemused expressions.
“Don’t mind me. I just feel like crap.”
“It’s cool. It was worth it to see you get all cake eater on us,” Willis said, using the naval slang for an officer.
Bones managed a smile. “I’m going to have some coffee and anything round or oval I can find in the medicine cabi
net. One of you wake Kyle up. The dive competition starts today.”
Just then, a voice called out from the dock.
“Doesn’t anybody have a work ethic these days? We need to earn!” It was Maddock. Rae was with him.
“I was just telling them that,” Bones said.
“Sure you were.” Maddock gave a shake of his head as Rae boarded and went to wake Kyle, who had managed to sleep through the loud conversation.
“You two have a good time?” Bones waggled his eyebrows.
“Would you call being chased and shot at by hired thugs a good time?”
Bones was surprised but could only manage a shrug. “I wouldn’t call it boring. What happened?”
Corey emerged from the cabin bearing a fresh pot of coffee and three empty mugs, and they all sat on the deck and listened as Maddock and Rae recounted the events of the previous day.
Bones tried to concentrate, but his thoughts were slippery. What was with Thel’s odd behavior? And how had she gotten so freaking strong?
“Rae and I are going to a local museum to see if we can learn anything about the artifact. I need somebody else to do some legwork for me. Find out what you can about Stanley Echard, see where he goes, what he gets up to, and who he’s working for.”
Bones perked up. “I can do that. I’ll hang around here and see what I can dig up.”
“Seriously? You want to do that instead of going back out to the wreck?”
“He’s hoping he’ll bump into the girl he met last night,” Willis said.
“Wait,” Maddock said. “You met a girl and you still want to talk to her the next day?”
“That girl was seriously hot,” Kyle said, finally perking up. “Hair like fire, eyes like gems, skin like alabaster. Those are also lyrics from a song I’m writing, but that’s what she looked like.”
“Can I at least count on you to investigate Echard while you’re pining for your lost love?” Maddock asked.