The Mahogany Ship (Sam Reilly Book 2)

by Christopher Cartwright

  “No way – I wouldn’t hear of it. I’ll be at the airport in half an hour. Wait right there.”

  *

  The large silver six-wheeled Mercedes pulled up alongside the entrance to the airport. Despite the ostentatious truck, the man who climbed out appeared to Aliana like a down-to-earth, honest, mine worker. He wore denim pants with no label, a polo shirt, and rugged boots. The only sign of his billionaire background was the Rolex on his wrist, but even that could have been a fake.

  “Aliana Wolfgang?” The man asked politely.

  “That’s me.” She smiled.

  “Michael Rodriguez.” He offered his hand, and then said, “I’m really sorry you had to find out about Sam this way. We’re really are hoping to have him out in the next couple days. Don’t you worry – he has plenty of supplies on his side of the tunnel. He’ll be all right, just you watch.”

  Aliana shook his hand, and then climbed up into the small truck. Michael then began to drive south and out of town. The two spoke on the way to the mine site, and she quickly found herself naturally at ease with him. There was something about Rodriguez that she couldn’t help but trust. He seemed like the real deal somehow, despite what Sam had discovered about the Mahogany Ship. She could see why Sam was stuck for an explanation about the lie.

  Once they reached the mine’s entrance Michael showed her on the map of the tunnel exactly where the cave-in was, and what they were doing to release him.

  Aliana asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “There’s nothing more to do, I’m afraid. My men have it under control, and they should have him out in the next four to five hours. Is there anything I can do for you, while you wait?”

  Aliana looked at his face. It was kind and reassuring. “No thanks. I have some of the information that Sam provided me about your discovery of the Mahogany Ship, I liked to take a look while I wait. Is there anywhere I can plug in my laptop?”

  “Of course, I’ll have one of my men free some space in the computer tent.”

  “Thanks.” Aliana looked at him for a moment longer and then said, “I really mean that. For everything. Thank you.”

  Michael took her hand in his and replied, “You’re welcome. This will be over before you know it.”

  The hours passed quickly as Aliana made a list of questions to ask Sam regarding the Mahogany Ship. There seemed to be more discrepancies in the details of the find than she first realized, and Aliana was starting to wonder if there was some truth in what Sam had said to her.

  Maybe Michael isn’t entirely what he seems?

  By eleven p.m. Michael came into her tent and said, “Look, we’re doing all that we can, and my team will keep doing so through the night, but it appears that it will take much longer than we first anticipated. I’ve arranged a room for you at a local motel. Why don’t you spend the night there?”

  “I’d like to help,” she persisted.

  “I’m sure you would, but there’s very little you can do at this moment. I’ll come pick you up first thing in the morning.”

  She hated the thought of it, but knew that he had a point. Nothing could be gained by waiting at the tunnel’s side. “Okay, sure… but promise you’ll ring me the second you’re through.”

  “Of course.”

  Michael then insisted on driving her back to town, himself. After he left, she had a simple dinner and then relaxed in the bath. Despite being on her own private jet, the long flight and recent knowledge about Sam’s accident had taken its toll on her body.

  She decided to go to bed early. Her head had only just rested on the uncomfortable pillow, before she rolled over twice and then fell sound asleep.

  And then there was a knock at the door.

  Aliana pulled the curtain back and then opened the door. She paused a mere second before throwing her arms around the man on the other side

  “Mr. Reilly, I can’t believe you’re here!”

  The older man wrapped his strong arms around her, comforting her, and then replied, “Call me James, darling. You’re the first girl my Sam has ever brought to see his old man. That makes you practically family.”

  *

  Aliana stood back and looked at the man’s face again. Although she could imagine that he had a ruthless streak, it looked kindly at her now. James shared the same piercing grey-blue eyes and confident smile that she recognized in Sam.

  “It’s so good to see you here. I think Sam’s in trouble.”

  James smiled kindly at her and then said, “How about I come in, and you tell me what you’re doing here.”

  She explained everything that had happened and finished by telling him about the mine collapse. She described how Michael had been very good to her, but that she worried he might not be telling the entire truth about all he was doing to help Sam survive.

  “Did they tell you that’s where Sam’s mine shaft had caved in?” James asked.

  “Yeah, they’ve been working frantically for 12 hours now to try and reach him, at a place about ten miles south of town.”

  “Really, that’s funny. I would have thought that they’d have better luck tunneling where they left him.”

  “What do you mean, left him?” Aliana just about screamed the words. Then, fumbling through a map on the table in front of her, said, “This was where he disappeared.”

  “No it wasn’t… that place is more than fifty miles away, where they left him.”

  “How can you know that?”

  “Look, my son can be a self-righteous, altruistic ass at times, with no care for himself or the family fortune. But stupid, he certainly is not. He and I looked for the Mahogany Ship years ago. Came mighty close to finding her, too. Sam knew immediately, that Michael was lying, but hoped that somehow we’d missed something years ago. Either way, he never trusted Michael, and so he left a GPS beacon at the entrance of the mine shaft and asked me to keep an eye on things. I own several satellites for just such spying…”

  “So, if Sam’s not trapped down below this mine shaft where Michael took me, what happened to him?”

  “That, I don’t know.” James took out a large smartphone from his pocket and clicked on a GPS app. “Here, this is what the mine shaft where Sam’s been working looked like three days ago.”

  At first glance, Aliana thought it looked more like the entrance to a bomb shelter, left over from the Cold War.

  “And, this is what it looks like now.”

  The image clearly displayed a small mountain with cleared soil, and no evidence of what was once the entrance to the mineshaft.

  “So, you’re saying they’ve most likely bulldozed the entrance to one of the largest underground water cave systems in Australia, while he was deep inside it?”

  “Yes.”

  Aliana’s usually carefree smile was crestfallen.

  “I wouldn’t worry too much,” James said, comforting her with his arms. “I think you will find that my Sam is much harder to kill than that, and an expert cave diver, he will find another way out, or at least manage to keep himself alive until we can make one.”

  James, she noticed, never seemed too worried about his son. But the sheer fact that he was here demonstrated that he loved him very much, and was willing to do anything required to protect him.

  “I still don’t even understand why Rodriguez would want to hurt Sam. I mean, it was Sam who proved that he’d discovered the final resting place of The Mahogany Ship?”

  “Only he didn’t, did he?”

  “What do you mean, he didn’t?” She fidgeted with a cup of coffee. “He found the Spanish gold, and everything carbon dated to the 15thcentury.”

  “I don’t know where the Spanish gold came from – it was probably a cleverly executed and expensive exercise in deception, and for what purpose, I don’t yet know. I do, however, know that the Mahogany Ship settled nowhere near this location.”

  “How could you possibly be so sure?”

  “Because Sam and I once looked for her together, a
nd that’s not even close to where she was.”

  “So you found her?”

  “No, but I have an accurate account of the journey of one Mr. Jack Robertson, who survived the sinking of the Emily Rose in 1812. They were the first settlers to discover the Mahogany Ship, and their journey from Warrnambool to Sydney Cove never came close to Bendigo.”

  Aliana interrupted. “Yes, but that’s all common knowledge. What isn’t known is where, exactly, they spotted the Mahogany Ship.”

  “As I was saying, young Aliana…” James patiently began, as though he were speaking to a small child. “I have an accurate account of the journey of Mr. Jack Robertson. In it, there is a very specific, and detailed description of the route they took, and even the longitude and latitude where they were when they spotted that damn ship.”

  “So you do know where it is?”

  “My dear Dr. Wolfgang, this may take some time to explain if you keep interrupting.”

  “I’m sorry, James. Do go on.”

  “No, we only have the location where the party of survivors were when they first saw the Mahogany Ship. Sam and I reached the location, but all remnants of the Mahogany Ship nearby had either been destroyed, burned, or removed entirely. The ship herself, although interesting, was of minimal concern to me. It was what she was carrying that had particularly inflicted me with a keen interest.”

  “What was she carrying?” Aliana asked, more confused now than she’d been when she first started talking to Sam about the Mahogany Ship possibly being a giant, expensive, hoax.

  “A powerful scepter, called the ‘The Ark of Light,’ which, legend has it, held the ability to focus natural sunlight with extreme precision, or ‘Entrap Ra, the Sun God’ so that he might destroy one’s enemies. The crux of the matter being that the Ark was a very powerful weapon.”

  “And that was what you were after?”

  “Yes, and I believe that it, too, is the most likely reason for which our friend Michael Rodriguez has gone to such lengths to orchestrate bringing us all here.”

  Aliana wanted to scream in frustration.

  Each answer seemed to lead to another two questions.

  “Why would Michael, a billionaire, want an ancient weapon?”

  James smiled idiotically, at the simple question, and offered the possible explanation, “It’s a very good weapon?”

  “That’s bullshit. A man like Rodriguez could afford his own Army, Navy, and Air Force. So why would he care about a weapon that had the ability to destroy things with bolts of fire and lightning?”

  “Because, legend has it, that as well as being a tremendous weapon, the Ark of Light – when held at the top of the Pyramid of Giza at midday of the winter solstice – pointed directly to The Tomb of Knowledge. A place buried by the passing of a number of Ice Ages, it has been said that the place was created by God himself, as a means of storing all knowledge of man.”

  She studied his face. It was passionate to the point of obsession. “And why do you want to find such a place?”

  “Because knowledge, my dear, is power. And power, like any drug, never seems to be quite sufficient for one’s needs.”

  Aliana shook her head in wonder.

  She could see so much of Sam in this old man, despite his affliction with a number of vices, including, and not limited to greed, lust, and grandiose misalignment. Yet, he had the same attractive looks in a rogue kind of style as his son, and a charm that was hard not to enjoy.

  “Okay, so if Rodriguez is after this Ark, why drag you and Sam into it?”

  “That’s simple. He needs what we have, to find it.”

  “And what do you have?”

  “A map of where the scepter was taken after it left the Mahogany Ship.”

  “Are you fucking serious? You have such a map? Why didn’t you just use it in the first place, find the stupid scepter and go and get your unlimited power?”

  “Because there’s a catch…”

  “Of course there is.” Aliana decided she hadn’t met a more infuriating person.

  “The map depicts the scepter buried in a cave twenty-two miles, precisely, north of where the Mahogany Ship was left. There are a number of other markers used to identify the treasure, but the most important of all markers, is the exact location of the Mahogany Ship. Mr. Robertson made certain that it would never be found by accident, and when he returned to retrieve the Ark, he attempted to destroy the ship by burning it. Years later, when others came across the ship, it was found blackened – thus the mistaken presumption that the ship was built of the dark mahogany.”

  “So, if Mr. Robertson returned for the Ark, wouldn’t it now be somewhere else?”

  “No. You see, as luck would have it for you and me, Jack Robertson had a rather criminal past. And he was about to pay for a crime he’d committed more than twenty years earlier, while still living in England,” James said. “The story goes, Jack, once a highwayman and murderer, had been paid by Lord Dickson Mills, one of the richest men in England at the turn of the 19th century, to murder his wife, Mary, who he’d suspected had been having an affair. Only when Jack shot the woman, in cold blood, he realized that he had entered the wrong room, very nearly killing the man’s daughter, Lady Rose, instead. Like a fool, he’d stayed to try and save the young girl’s life, until someone came and he was forced to flee for his life.”

  “That’s some history. Is that why he left for Australia, to escape?”

  “Yes, before he was hanged. Now, when he left aboard the Emily Rose, a man by the name of John Langham followed. This was the man who was having an affair with Lady Mary Mills. Feeling responsible, the man had made a vow to hunt down the man and bring him to justice – and justice meant death. Through unknown and unlikely events, Jack Robertson, John Langham and Dawson Mills, Lord Mill’s only son, were the only three survivors of the wreckage of the Emily Rose who would ever reach Sydney Cove. Of the three, only John realized their strange past connection. On his death bed, he wrote to Rose asking her for forgiveness for failing in his promise to avenge her, and describing how he’d come to forgive the man who had injured her.”

  “Lady Rose was less than forgiving?”

  “Exactly, Lady Rose, now grown up, and having survived both her parents and her brother, had little left in her life than to kill the man whom she’d imagined had taken them all away from her. Having inherited a fortune, she sailed to the foundling Australia, and followed Jack until he reached his treasure. There, she killed him. In a strange whim, Jack had cut the raft which housed the Ark and let the treasure disappear into the tunnel forever.”

  Aliana, engrossed by the sad story, looked up and asked, “How did you come by so much of this history?”

  “Because Lady Rose looked at the treasure map that Jack had been carrying on him. Three leather parts, stitched together and marked John, Jack, and Dawson – the three names of the survivors of the Emily Rose. Men whose lives were destined to be entwined in love and hatred. She couldn’t believe it. She took it home, and never told anyone about any of it, until, on her own deathbed, she wrote it all down, with the inclusion of the map.”

  “But how did you come to learn of it?”

  James then opened a plastic folder, which showed the old map, worn, but still intact. “This map, my great, great grandmother found, after she killed Jack Robertson.”

  *

  Aliana’s cell phone rang.

  She looked down at it – a private number – and answered, “Aliana speaking.”

  “Aliana, we just got Sam out!” She recognized Rodriguez’s voice. “I’m coming by now to pick you up.”

  “That’s great! Thanks.”

  Aliana then looked at James, “Now, how do you want to do this?”

  James grabbed the keys to an old, beat up, Holden Utility. “Come on, I better take you to my place.”

  *

  James was just starting to enjoy his new ride, a 1970s Holden Utility. Noticeable less flashy than what he was used to, it was built befo
re the Environmental Protection Agencies got hold of the motor industry, and it came equipped with an 8-cylinder, 6-liter, leaded petrol engine – all power, and no handling.

  Sam, he knew, would hate it.

  Around ten miles out of town, he got out to open the gate so that he could drive into the farm where he was staying. An old, 1890 homestead rested on the hill at the end of the dirt road. Its roof, rusty corrugated iron, and its walls built of rock and timber, it had obviously seen better days. He had no doubt he was the first to rent it in more than a decade. James looked at Aliana, “This is my place.”

  “You’ve been staying here?”

  “Of course. Why, don’t you think I can do it tough?”

  “Sure, I don’t doubt you could – but it’s not your normal style, is it?” she said

  James laughed at that. “My son’s told you a bit about me, hasn’t he?” She nodded her head. “Well, I might like a somewhat decadent lifestyle these days, but you’d be surprised what I’ve lived through to get here.”

  Judging by her face, James thought Aliana most likely would have been very much surprised. He parked the car and the two walked up the old sandstone steps and into the house.

  Inside, the house looked entirely unlived in. Covers were still over the furniture, and a pile of dust seemed to cover the entire place.

  James opened up his laptop, and said, “Here’s the current satellite picture of the entrance to the mine.”

  The steel hatch, seen in previous images, was now covered with soil and fresh grass had been laid over the top of it, making it literally disappear.

  “At least they’ve left the place alone,” she said, her voice soft. “We should be able to get through easily enough. They never would have filled the hole. Michael will want to return for his gold, at some stage – it shouldn’t be too hard to find him.”

  “Don’t get too excited. Look over there,” James pointed to the camouflaged Armored Patrol Vehicle, nearly buried in a ditch no more than fifty feet from the entrance to the shaft.

  Her eyes were despondent, but not beaten.

  “What did you expect? Michael’s got more than ten million dollars’ worth of Spanish gold down there. He’s not going to leave it around for just anyone.”