Black Onyx

by Victor Methos

  “I wish. It’d be nice to have that kind of job security.”

  She glanced over to him. “What’s wrong, Dillon? You don’t seem your usual flirty self.”

  “James and Niles are leaving the business.”

  “What business is that?”

  “The business we have together that I never tell you about.”

  “Why are you mad about that?”

  “Because we love what we do. We’re good at it. And we make a ton of money. Why would you leave that?”

  She shrugged. “People can change.”

  He rolled his eyes. “You and James should write a self-help book together.”

  “Dillon, James told me a long time ago that you guys are treasure hunters. You don’t need to hide it from me”

  “He told you?”

  “Yes, and he also told me he was getting too old for it and he didn’t know how to break it to you. He cares about you a lot.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t need anyone. If they want to leave they can leave. I’m stronger by myself anyway.”

  “Don’t be bitter about it. Be happy for them. He can devote more time to that orphanage he wants to start. How come you don’t help him with that?”

  “I look out for myself, Jaime. Every second I spend looking out for other people is a second away from myself. I can’t afford that.”

  “See, that’s what I’m talking about. You’re not empathizing enough. You need to see it from James’ point of view.”

  Dillon stood. “I don’t need him. I don’t need anyone.”

  4

  Dillon waited just outside the entrance of the Honolulu International Airport. He flipped on sunglasses and had his hands in the pockets of his white linen pants as he paced around. Several children were here today, begging for change. One walked up to him.

  “Excuse me, do you have a dollar? We don’t have any food and we just want to buy something.”

  Dillon reached back and grabbed the arm of the other child that was attempting to pull out his wallet.

  “Nice scam,” he said. “But you kept looking back to your friend here.” He turned to the boy behind him. “And you, my friend, are good. You almost got it all the way out before I noticed. Where’d you learn to pick pockets?”

  “I didn’t do nothing.”

  Dillon bent down, eye-level. “I’m not the cops. Where’d you learn?”

  “No one. I teach myself.”

  “Well, here’s the problem. This little scam is fine if I had a backpack and you were getting into that. I wouldn’t feel it. But if you’re lifting my wallet, you have to make innocent contact so I don’t notice the other contact. What you should be doing is going somewhere crowded, somewhere people press against each other, like football games and stuff. Have your friend pretend to fall down and when someone goes to help him up bump into them and say ‘excuse me.’ Then make off.”

  The boy grinned. Dillon took out his wallet. He had fifty-six in cash and he handed it to the boy. “A for effort. Now get outta here, I’m waiting for someone.”

  The boys got wide smiles and ran off. Dillon watched them a moment, a grin on his face. Only a handful of years ago, before James had found him, he had been those boys. Hustling for every meal. Unsure where the next one was coming from.

  Within a few minutes, a man in a black suit stepped out of the front entrance carrying a black briefcase. He spotted Dillon and walked over.

  “What the crap, Henry? Did the FBI have a yard sale or something?”

  “I thought I would be inconspicuous.”

  “You’re wearing a black suit and tie in a hundred and five degree heat. Come on, we’ll stop someplace and get you some shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.”

  “I’d rather just get this over with and get out of here if that’s okay with you.”

  “Yeah, sure, the crown’s in the jeep.”

  They walked back to Dillon’s Wrangler that was in handicap parking. Dillon took down the fake handicap sticker and reached into the back and found a keyhole. He inserted a small key and a latch in the floor of the jeep opened up. He took out the crown, held in a velvet box, and handed it to Henry.

  Henry took out a jeweler’s loupe and put it to his eye. He examined every single jewel before putting the crown back in the box.

  “Well, it’s authentic.”

  “Told ya. How much?”

  “Well this would just be a rough estimate without checking my sources.”

  “Don’t tease me, Henry. How much?”

  “Probably in the vicinity of three to four hundred thousand.”

  Dillon jumped in the air. “Yes! Yes! I knew it. I freaking knew it. James didn’t even want to go down there. He thought the Yanomami would have sold everything of value by now or they would just hide it from us.”

  “Yes, I heard about your little excursion down there. How exactly did you upset the entire tribe enough to want to kill you?”

  “Well, somebody, and it’s not certain who, may have slept with the wife of one of their chieftains.”

  “Oh, Dillon, you didn’t.”

  “When am I ever gonna get the chance to sleep with a Yanomami queen again, Henry? I couldn’t let that opportunity slip by. I couldn’t afford not to do it.”

  Henry shook his head. “I’ll confirm with my sources on the crown and we’ll have the funds transferred by the end of the week once I get a firm bid. But I did have some other business to discuss with you.”

  “What?”

  “I could use a cold drink. There was a café inside the airport, why don’t we talk there.”

  The café was nearly empty except for two teenage employees who stood behind the counter discussing some boy they were both interested in. Henry got an iced latte and they sat down in the corner farthest from the entrance.

  “What do you know about the Piri Reis map?” he said.

  “Never heard of it.”

  “Piri Reis was an admiral for the Ottoman Empire. He compiled this map in 1513, more than five hundred years ago.” Henry pulled the map up on his iPhone and put it on the table between them. “There was a professor in the sixties that was obsessed with this map. You can see here along the bottom, that coastline? That’s Antarctica. Here’s the problem: Antarctica was not discovered until 1818, three hundred years after this map was compiled.”

  “That’s weird.”

  “Indeed. Even more so, this coastline is not the coastline Antarctica has now. This is the coastline without ice. The last time the coastline was visible without ice was 4000 BC. We have a map that displays something that no one could have seen since six thousand years ago. So a quick review of the facts,” Henry said. “First, this document is well verified as an actual map. Second, Queen Maud Land, the coast of this map, has not been ice-free for six thousand years. And finally, there is no known civilization or technology that could have made this map in the requisite period between 14,000 BC and 4000 BC when Queen Maud Land was free of the ice. And look at this.”

  He opened a document on the phone and gave it to Dillon. The document was a letter:

  8 RECONNAISSANCE TECHNICAL SQUADRON (SAC)

  UNITED STATES AIR FORCE

  Westover Air Force Base

  Massachusetts

  Reply to Attn of: RTC

  6, July, 1960

  Subject: Admiral Piri Reis World Map

  To: Prof. Charles H. Hapgood

  Keene Teachers College

  Keene, New Hampshire

  Dear Professor Hapgood,

  Your request for evaluation of certain unusual features of the Piri Reis World Map of 1513 by this organization has been reviewed.

  The claim that the lower part of the map portrays the Princess Martha Coast of Queen Maud Land Antarctic, and the Palmer Peninsula is reasonable. We find that this is the most logical and in all probability the correct interpretation of the map.

  The geographical detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the Seismic prof
ile made across the top of the ice cap by the Swedish-British-Norwegian Antarctic Expedition of 1949.

  This indicates the coastline had been mapped before it was covered by the ice-cap.

  The ice-cap in this region is now about a mile thick. We have no idea how the data on this map can be reconciled with the supposed state of geographical knowledge in 1513.

  Harold Z. Ohlmeyer

  Lt. Colonel, USAF

  Commander

  Dillon shrugged and handed the phone back. “What does it mean?”

  “It means that someone was able to hover over the earth six thousand years ago and mapped this region.”

  “Who?”

  “Some people thought extraterrestrials, but I always found that a ridiculous explanation. Any civilization with the capacity for interstellar flight would not travel four hundred light years to visit us. A four hundred-year journey, assuming they could even travel the speed of light, to study ants, because that’s what we would be to them technologically speaking, isn’t logical. And this civilization would have to be highly logical.”

  “Okay, it’s not the Klingons, then who do you think it is?”

  “An ancient civilization, an earth civilization that is undiscovered to history. And I know this for a fact.”

  “How?”

  He paused. “Because we’ve found them.”

  5

  Dillon leaned back in the chair. “You found them?”

  “To be more precise, a colleague of mine has found them. A classmate from Yale, geologist named George Anston. He found an entire city, Dillon. Buried under half a mile of ice. He hasn’t explored it fully and he’s mounting an expedition. He would like me to finance it and I said I would. I was hoping you and James could be on that expedition.”

  “To Antarctica? I hate the cold, Henry. Ever since Everest. And why would it matter to you if we were there?”

  “There is no doubt in my mind that there would be, shall we say, a king’s ransom in buried treasure. We’re talking about an advanced ancient civilization with probably no rivals.” He looked around. “Think of what type of wealth they could’ve amassed.”

  “Oh, I see. You want us there to steal.”

  “Not to steal, it doesn’t belong to anybody, well, technically Norway but not really. They didn’t know about it. And you can’t steal something that doesn’t belong to anybody. The British, Dutch, Norwegians, and French will be arguing over which nation can claim the find as its own for years. In the meantime, we can sweep in there and make certain that all the treasures are preserved. Who knows where they’ll end up if we don’t? We’ll take them and sell them to private collectors who will preserve and look after them.”

  “Hm, and I thought I was the con man.”

  “If you don’t want to partake I’m happy to leave. You’re not the only one in your profession that I have a relationship with you know.”

  “Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Henry. When is this expedition?”

  “In five days. Which means you’ll have to be leaving in two days to make it on time.”

  “And what, exactly, would your cut be for setting this up?”

  “Fifty percent, off the top before any of you split anything else.”

  “What? Are you out of your mind? I’m taking all the risk.”

  “And you will be handsomely rewarded with half. Look I’m the one setting up all the details to ensure you make it in and out on time and I’ll be the one controlling the selling of any items taken. I’ve secured crew and porters…I’m doing the heavy lifting between us. You just have to be cold for a couple of days and put a few things in a backpack.”

  He exhaled. “I need to think about it.”

  “What’s to think about?”

  “I’ll let you know tomorrow.”

  Dillon rose, leaving the box with the crown on the table. “And don’t forget to get that money to us. I’ve got a new Ferrari to buy.”

  Dillon pulled to a stop in front of his house and strolled around back. James was just walking to his car and stopped in front of him.

  “I just spoke to Henry.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yes, and he explained the…situation we have on our hands.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Well,” James said, “he said this could be enough for all of us to retire on. He said his friend George showed him something. A gold coin the size of a doorknob. And he believes there’s a lot more there.”

  “James, don’t tell me you’re thinking this is a good idea.”

  “I’m not a young man, Dillon. Our priorities are completely different. Now I have enough to perhaps, perhaps, get me through my twilight years without having to work but it’s not certain by any means. My nightmare, what keeps me up at night, is imagining that I’m eighty years old and having to live on the four hundred dollars a month the Social Security Administration is going to pay me, if they still exist then.”

  “If you wanted security, you should have become a banker or a doctor, James. What we do doesn’t have any security.”

  He exhaled. “I know exactly what bed I’m lying in, Mr. Mentzer. I chose it fully understanding the repercussions. But Niles and I are retiring, and I would like just a little security.” He put his hand on Dillon’s shoulder. “I’ve never asked you for anything, Dillon. Never. But I’m asking this. Please help me this one last time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, we have a luau to get to. I believe a pig is being roasted.”

  Dillon watched him walk away before walking around the house to the beach. Jaime was having a barbeque and at least twenty people were getting drunk on her patio. She was sitting on the banister with two men in front of her, flirting. Dillon stopped and watched her a moment, the way her strawberry blond hair quivered on the breeze. The sun was hitting her in just the right way, her smile spreading across pink lips. She felt him staring and looked over and waved. He waved back as she hopped off the banister and ran over.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey.”

  “Where were you all day?”

  “Some errands to run. So you havin’ a little party?”

  “Yeah, my sister finished her master’s degree and we’re just throwing her a little thing.”

  “Oh. Looks fun.”

  “Why don’t you come?”

  “No, no that’s fine. I wouldn’t know anybody.”

  “So what? Come on, I’ll get you a beer.”

  “I don’t think so, I’m really beat.”

  She took his hand and he felt his stomach flutter. “Come on, don’t be shy. I’ll introduce you around.”

  “All right. You talked me into it.”

  He followed her up the steps onto the patio where she took him by a cooler and gave him a beer. He set it down and opted for a Dr. Pepper instead and she took him inside. Several women were taking Jell-O shots on the island in the kitchen and Jaime put her arm around one and said, “This is my sister, Amy. Amy, this is Dillon.”

  “So you’re Dillon,” the girl said. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “Really?” Dillon said, looking at Jaime. “You talk about me when I’m not around? I’m flattered.”

  “Don’t be an ass; I just said I like your jeep.” She kissed her sister and yelled, “Let’s get some more shots!”

  Dillon waited behind the girls as they took shots. When it was clear Jaime wasn’t stopping, he went outside. A couple of the women tried striking up conversations with him but he couldn’t take his eyes off Jaime long enough to engage them. Instead, he just sat in one of her deck chairs and watched the ocean.

  After a while, she came and pulled up another deck chair and sat next to him.

  “Your sister’s nice,” he said.

  “What’re you doing, Dillon?”

  “What?”

  “Two of my friends threw themselves at you and you barely gave them the time of day.”

  “I’m not interested.”

  “Why not? They’re hot.”


  “No complaint about that. I just don’t feel like that type of girl right now.”

  “Really? And what type of girl do you feel like?”

  “I don’t know. If I was Dillon the garbage man instead of Dillon the guy with a big, nice house you think they’d even look twice at me? I bet you told them I’m rich.”

  “You are rich.”

  “That’s not the point. They don’t even know that for sure and they’re willing to give me whatever I want. Now, don’t get me wrong, most of the time, that’s just fine by me. But I just didn’t feel like it right now.”

  She looked to the ocean and then him. “Something’s bugging you. I can tell cause you wrinkle that little space between your eyebrows. What is it?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Don’t be coy. Just tell me.”

  “I have an opportunity to go somewhere I don’t want to go. But it could be a lot of money for me and James. Enough to retire.”

  “So are you gonna do it?”

  “I really, really don’t want to. I think it’s all theory and conjecture and it’s not going to payoff at all. But James asked me for a favor.”

  “You really care about him, don’t you?”

  “He took me in when I had nowhere else to go. I owe him everything.”

  “Well,” she said, looking back out over the sea, “what’re friends for?”

  He nodded. “I’m going to head home.”

  “Already?”

  “I’m beat, and if I’m actually going on this thing I have to leave in a day.”

  “When would you be back?”

  He grinned. “Why? You gonna miss me?”

  “Believe it or not, Dillon, I can get along perfectly fine without you always being around.”

  “I don’t believe you. But that’s cute that you’d lie to me.” He bent down and kissed her cheek. “Bye.”

  “Bye.”

  He walked to the sand and then across to his house before glancing back. She looked over to him and smiled.