A Deep Thing

by A. K. Smith

  “I made a mistake, I’m so sorry, Kendall, I’m so sorry.” He squeezed her hand; his eyes glistening.

  Her breath quickened. “What are you sorry for?”

  “I’m sorry for my greed, my selfishness,” He gripped her hand tighter. “It wasn’t about the money, yes, money makes things easier, it was about the opportunity…probably my last hope before I leave this earth. My last chance to be a part of something monumental, a change in the world.”

  “I don’t understand, what did you do?” she asked, whispering, terrified to hear his response.

  “I told Conrad Nathaniel about the briefcase, I told him about Tim’s video, the blueprint tunnel map, the photographs and the list of longitudes and latitudes. I told him we found the tunnel that led to Camp David. He knows everything I know, we know. Now, he wants the briefcase, the documents, the zip drive.”

  She ripped her hand free from his and covered her face, doubling over, as if someone punched her in the gut. She forced the words out of her mouth. “You…were…the only one…I could trust, you were the only one…”

  He leaned over, speaking in her ear. “Listen to me Kendall. They already knew about most of it. They had your house bugged, your office, they wanted me to plant a device, a device I have now in my front pocket. They wanted me to plant it on the back of your iPhone under the battery—this morning. I can’t do it, I’m not a spy, I’m a retired history professor.”

  He gently touched her shoulder. “Maybe you should give it to them, Kendall, just get rid of all of it. They say Tim located an area where there is a bacterium that helps people live longer and healthier lives. It must be somewhere in that list of longitude and latitude coordinates. They’re asking about a map. I told them the blueprint of the tunnel was the only map in the briefcase. They already knew Tim discovered the tunnel, and something about Tim and a man named Tobias? They told me the government knows all about it, too. Knows a resource exists to save lives. But, the government will never share it with the rest of the world. Big business, Wall Street, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, they’ll never let them…it would destroy the economic system of our society. Social Security wouldn’t exist, it couldn’t afford to keep paying if people lived longer. The government is afraid it would destroy our society.” He hesitated, then said, “Conrad Nathaniel’s company would share it with the world. Develop a drug that would cure cancer, stop life-threatening illness. It would be like the Fountain of Youth in a pill. The world would change. Lives would be saved. Prolonging life would revolutionize everything.”

  She stared at the amazement in his eyes.

  He took a deep breath. “And…they promised me,” he hesitated before speaking, “they would help me…”

  “Help you? How?”

  He squeezed her hand. “Help me live longer. I have bone cancer, Kendall.”

  ****

  The campus was alive with sounds, colors and the smiling faces of students. Graduation was in two days, which meant new beginnings and endings, transitions in life, anxiety and excitement. Kendall stumbled through the throng of students, as if they were frozen in time and she was the only one with movement. She moved fast and made no eye contact. Several students stepped up to say hi but stopped short when they noticed the faraway gaze on her determined face. She had a target in mind. She walked straight through the lobby of the Decker Center into her office and closed the door.

  Just for a minute, she put her head on the smooth cool desk, wanting to shut everything out. No time to think, keep moving. She went to work. She pulled the necklace out from under her blouse and over her head; the zip drive hung from the chain.

  She had been extremely cautious with the contents of Tim’s briefcase, changing the location every night and wearing the zip drive around her neck, hidden under her clothing. The most positive thing Andrew told her was they had not compromised her iPhone…yet. To her knowledge, no one except Scout knew about the cenote map. She was relieved; one secret was safe after all. Now without a doubt she knew what she had to do next.

  Chapter 51

  Kendall gave Harvey an extra hug, as she thought about what lay ahead. He let her hug him for an extra three minutes without struggling. She made sure he had enough food, toys, and treats, and the instructions for her neighbor, Lizzie, were all spelled out. Lizzie loved Harvey, and Harvey loved Lizzie. Harvey put on his gentle side with the soft-spoken eighty-year-old widow, following her around, lying at her feet, and keeping her company. Lizzie even had a dog door, left over from a dog she once had named Beauregard, lost and loved years ago. Asking her to watch him at a moment’s notice was not an issue.

  She whispered in Harvey’s ear, “Wish me luck, Harvey, and let me figure out what your dad was trying to tell me, so we can put this behind us.” She gave him one last hug, and told him her standard line as she was leaving the house, with her brown leather suitcase. “You be a good boy and I’ll be right back.” She packed two small bags and hid them in her trunk in the middle of the night.

  The campus was at its best today, alive with excitement, tight with anticipation. A gorgeous May day at Western Maryland College, a perfect commercial for “why you should go to college back east.”

  With the towering oaks bright green and full of new leaves, and the meticulously cut lawn in front of the old red brick buildings, it was an Admissions’ Director dream day. The air scented with fresh cut grass and flowers. Vibrant colors caught the eye and stimulating conversations filled the air. Students, friends, and parents lined the sidewalks, taking over the parking lots, walking together in packs, smiling and laughing, all here for graduation day. The beat of the marching band practicing added the perfect background noise.

  She put on her best smile praying everything was in place for the Commencement ceremony. Conrad Nathaniel would be arriving any minute; she wanted to be ready for the next step. She took out her iPhone and snapped a few photos of the crowds and the setup of the ceremony about to begin. The Professor had agreed to plant the spying device in the back of her iPhone, upon Kendall’s request.

  When she showed up at his door, his eyes were full of shame. He was not a man upon whom betrayal sat easily. Disappointed with himself, deception made him sick with remorse. She explained she needed time to think, but she was almost certain she was going to hand everything over to Conrad, not the government. She needed the weekend to come to a final decision. Meanwhile, Andrew agreed to proceed as planned and place the device on her phone.

  Writing a text, accepting invitations for the coming weekend, she smelled his cologne.

  “Kendall, do you want to do a selfie?” Conrad laughed as he grabbed her phone and held it out for a close-up of the two of them.

  She smiled for the camera. “You sound like one of the students.”

  “Well, I’ll take that as a compliment, Kendall. I want to be able to relate to them in this graduation speech.”

  “I’m sure you’ll relate, but I don’t think they use ‘selfie’ anymore, that is so last year,” she laughed. “They are really looking forward to your speech and your inspiration.”

  He lowered his head, his mouth near her ear, his scent in her nose and asked in a low voice, “Can we meet this weekend?”

  She waved to a passing student; looking in the other direction when she answered. “Yes, I think we can arrange that, in fact I wanted to discuss something with you. I have some graduation commitments on Saturday but perhaps Sunday evening?”

  He leaned down again whispering in her ear. “It’s a date, and it’s no longer the first one.” He stood up tall. “Well, I had better go get ready for the speech.” He flashed his charming smile and strutted away.

  As soon as he was out of sight, she turned around and walked to the faculty parking lot, where she opened her trunk, placed her iPhone in it, and picked up her two bags. Her breath quickened as she walked down a campus path to the street, a taxicab waited with the engine running.

  The Romanian taxi driver asked, as she
threw her luggage in the backseat, “Are you the one called for a cab to the airport? Promising big tip?”

  She put her sunglasses on. “Yes, BWI Airport please, as fast as you can.”

  ****

  She was flying from BWI to Houston and then to Belize City. She had no idea whether Ryder would show up in Houston or in Belize City, or if he would really show up at all, but she knew it was in his hands. She had shared enough information, he should want to come.

  The briefcase sat in her living room, empty of all its original content. Inside she had put a zip drive and, thanks to a tech-savvy student worker, filled it up with several compromised fake files that would take effort to open. She left two pages of the original blueprints of the tunnels, but the other two pages, as well as the real zip drive and the cenote map, sat securely in her carry-on, under her seat.

  Only Scout knew her plans. She had been extremely cautious in all conversations. She accepted invitations for graduation and made plans to meet Steve and plans to meet Conrad on Sunday night. With very little notice, the dean allowed her to take a week off after graduation, He thought she was leaving on Tuesday. The plan was in place.

  They might come looking for her. She was not sure who “they” were, but she had a great head start and covered her tracks. She would leave a message using the new app sly caller, which would dial instantly to voicemail. She executed a solid plan and told anyone who mattered she just had to get away. If they looked into it further, they would see she had spontaneously flown down to Belize to spend a week in her timeshare at Captain Morgan’s Resort.

  After take-off, she leaned against the back of her seat and closed her eyes. An old memory surfaced, she and Tim walking the gorgeous secluded beach in Ambergris Caye. Soft white beaches and curved palm trees arching over the blue water, a hammock for two swinging in the breeze along the water’s edge—a place she and Tim never wanted to leave.

  After a few too many rum punches at ten o’clock in the morning, they bought a timeshare week in a beautiful little oceanfront resort in Belize. The resort, Captain Morgan’s, was owned by the man who invented Tombstone pizza. They loved pizza and Belize and spent several vacations enjoying the cozy thatched huts and diving the beautiful reef.

  She booked the condo for a week. She would check in tonight, leave some toiletries and clothes in the room, then book a two-day excursion to Lamania, a Belizean ruin on the mainland. She would never see the ruins. When she flew to Caye Caulker, the first stop on the excursion, she would step off the little Native Air twelve-seater, walk to Dock 5 and climb aboard a forty-foot Bertram named Wanderlust, hoping to find Scout and Ryder aboard.

  Scout devised the plan. The Sherpas from the first excursion, Enrique and Roberto, his assistant Lily, and a boat captain named Jorge, apparently all trustworthy, assisted in the travel plans. To save time and be less suspicious, they planned to enter the land surrounding the cenote by sea and then hike in. Scout spent weeks getting everything together.

  ****

  Kendall dug her toes in the white sand, happy to have completed Step One. So far so good. Tomorrow she would travel to neighboring island, Caye Caulker. Kendall made three Skype calls from the iPad in the Captain Morgan’s reception area. Using her new app, the calls went directly to voicemail. Leaving short but sincere messages, she explained to Andrew, Steve, and Conrad, she needed some time away and had forgotten her iPhone in the trunk of her car. She laughed as she said she was forced to unplug for a week.

  Strolling back to her thatched hut on the beach, she stood tall, confident she was fulfilling Tim’s last request.

  Chapter 52

  The sky full of orange, pink, and purple splashes resembled a child’s finger painting, random colors thrown across a canvas, with glittery blue paint underneath. Caye Caulker was an adorable, hippie-influenced beach town full of culture. The locals, driving nothing bigger than a golf cart, held off the big hotel chains and tourism of neighboring island Ambergris Caye. Tropical trees lined the streets and palm trees hung over the shoreline.

  Houses and cottages, painted a variety of bright and pastel colors enclosed by white picket fences, competed for attention with colorful hand-painted signs dotting the sand streets. Carrying her bags, Kendall strolled down two blocks toward white sands and the spectacular turquoise sea.

  She studied a man in the distance. Scout. His stride gives him away.

  Her mouth turned up in a wide smile. Even Scout’s face couldn’t contain the excitement. His blond hair appeared a little lighter next to his sun-kissed skin. Barefoot, wearing swim trunks and a light blue T-shirt advertising SNUBA, his hair hanging loose to his shoulders. Her hand on her chest, the cadence of her heart beat pulsated on her fingers. She dropped the suitcases and Scout was upon her. For a moment, they stopped a few inches apart and gazed into each other’s eyes. He stepped forward his muscular arms wrapped around her. She hugged back and held on, closing her eyes for a minute.

  “It’s good to see you, Kendall, really good.” He hesitated as if he wanted to kiss her but instead he stepped back and picked up the two bags. He cocked his head. “I have a surprise for you, and I think it’s going to make you pretty happy.”

  Her cheeks ached from smiling, for the first time in months she felt safe as she walked beside Scout toward a long, skinny wooden pier. She exhaled a loud breath. Finally, someone she could trust. “Well, I’m feeling pretty happy right now,” she said. “I’m not sure if I can get much happier.”

  At the end of the pier, a large white boat anchored next to the dock. The name Wanderlust stenciled across the stern. She spotted Roberto, from the cenote trip, organizing items on the boat, closing a hatch on the deck and loading supplies. He looked up and waved. Calmness; the sea shiny flat, a caressing breeze ruffling her hair. I want to be here now.

  May was a perfect time to be on the Caribbean, Scout had assured her. Tim loved the sea and so did Scout. Their love for nature’s vast miracle was attractive. Scout ahead of her turned around noticing her stopping for a moment and looking up to the sky.

  She tilted her head and gazed at the dusk sky fading into night. “I miss you, Tim, with all my heart…I hope I’m fulfilling your request, doing what you want…” She whispered, “He’s a good man I know you trusted him.”

  A new figure emerged on the deck of the boat. Kendall smiled, looked up to the sky again and whispered, “He came, Tim, your son is here.”

  She caught up to Scout in seconds, and stepped on the back of the boat, fighting back the tears with a grin. “It is so good to see you, Ryder,” she said, hugging him, “your father would be so proud.”

  He limply hugged Kendall and quickly broke loose, widening the space between them.

  “Well, that’s why I’m here.” He ran his hand through his hair, his shoulders back and head lifted. “I’m here for my father…Now I want to hear the whole story.”

  She smiled, ignoring the attitude she detected. “I’d like to tell you both; I need to tell you everything that has been going on.”

  Scout nodded to Roberto, who was untying the ropes to the dock, and headed toward the front of the boat, shouting back, “We have a good eight hours before we reach land, let’s get situated and I’ll show you where you can rest for the night, have some food, and you can tell us the whole story. We have plenty of time.”

  The boat glided across the flat seas at a good thirty knots. In the cabin, Scout and Ryder sat stiffly upright on striped cushions listening to Kendall, only interrupting to ask a few pertinent questions.

  She started at the beginning. Slowly, and in detail, she told how she discovered the briefcase right before the first cenote trip. She tried to hide her innermost emotions of deep pain at Tim’s deception. She described the suitcase and its contents in detail, and conveyed her initial bafflement about the old map.

  She touched on her struggle with Tim’s belonging to a government agency and never confiding the secret part of his life to her. She explained her interactions with Steve Crawf
ord, the Professor, and Conrad Nathaniel. She told them of the tunnels beneath the college, and the Nathaniel Cemetery with a scientific lab hidden underneath. Scout interjected here and there, asking questions and adding another apology for not taking them to the right cenote. Ryder asked a few piercing questions, but continued to listen intently.

  Both were silenced when she told them, “Others believe Tim found this bacterium, or plant, this thing everyone was searching for, that can prolong life, cure cancer and other diseases.” She explained what little she knew of Tobias, the man who had been in the lab and was apparently 175 years old.

  She added in a soft whisper, meeting Ryder’s eyes, swallowing her tears, “Your father may have been killed because of what he discovered. His death may not have been an accident.”

  Ryder, firmly parked on the edge of the seat for the last two hours, crossed his arms over his chest. He had asked questions in an even, low voice. He jumped up and paced the small interior of the boat like a caged animal. His handsome features twisted in anger.

  “I don’t understand.” He let out a harsh breath as he walked back and forth. “Who killed my dad?”

  She placed her hands together and squeezed them as if in prayer. “I don’t know, Ryder, I’m not sure who’s more dangerous—The Conrad Nathaniels of the world or the government. What I do know, before I go back home I need to figure out who to give this information to. The government and Nathaniel both know I have it and I can’t lead a normal life until I get it off my hands.”

  She hesitated, then spoke again. “No one knows, except for Scout and now you, Ryder, about the old cenote map. As far as I know, no one knows it exists. Maybe they’re all searching for the map.” She grabbed Ryder’s hands. “I don’t know how we would know what everyone is looking for…but I know the cenote is something your dad wanted to show you. Maybe if we find it we will understand why.”