The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 2

by Christopher Cartwright

  “How far do you think this thing goes?” she asked.

  “No idea, but let’s go find out.”

  Tom tied off his green primary dive guideline to the ancient tiller inside the cockpit. And then began swimming through the tunnel. Like the hull tunnels there were very little changes and nothing to obstruct them. When he reached the end of the tunnel at the point where the outer hull most likely stood, the entire tunnel turned to a right angle and dropped approximately ten feet. Carvings into the side of the wood showed the remains of a ladder that the Antiqui Nautae once used.

  He took his primary guideline and made a couple of loops over the edge of the ladder. “Okay, you can come through now Genevieve. There’s another level below us. I’m going to descend and I’ll let you know if it’s safe for you to follow.”

  “Copy that.”

  He watched for a moment until he could see the glare of her LED approaching. Then he descended into the lower level of the outer hull. He swallowed – equalizing the pressure in his ears to the new depth. The tunnel turned left and appeared to follow the length of the hull. It was an easy dive. By having the access door closed all those years, no marine life had ever developed on the walls of the inside of the hull. It was still in the same condition as it would have been hundreds of years ago.

  Tom swam towards the end of it. Approximately 60 feet away it turned left at another ninety-degree angle. “Genevieve, how are you going?”

  “Good. I can just make out your light at the end.”

  Tom checked the tension of his green guideline. “Okay, it seems to snake back towards the middle hull again. I’ll wait for you when I reach the middle hull.”

  “Okay, got it.”

  Tom swam along the horizontal tunnel until it opened into a large rectangular room. A dining table, which appeared to have been carved from the original sequoia tree trunk used in the hull, filled the length of the room. It was at least forty feet long. Solid bench seats ran the length of the table. For some reason the image made him think about a room full of Vikings sitting there, eating recently slaughtered animals with their bare hands. At the far end of the room another tunnel led most likely towards the outer hull on the other side.

  A bright light flashed behind him.

  He turned his head to look at her. “Welcome to the dining room of the Antiqui Nautae.”

  Genevieve flashed her light around the room. “It looks empty.”

  “It appears they lived simply while at sea.” Tom smiled. “Come on. Let’s see where this ends. It seems strange to build a tunnel that snakes around unless they were protecting something.”

  “I’ll follow you,” she said.

  Tom swam through the tunnel which brought them out on the lower level of the first outer hull. It snaked around to the right. He followed it all the way to the end. Again, it turned back towards the middle hull. Tom continued until it opened up into the largest of the rooms.

  And most unique.

  At first he thought it just looked like the Viking dining room, without the table. Then he noticed the exits. There were at least fifty inside the room – each one only just large enough for an adult to crawl through. Below, as his own light filled the room, he noticed the deep buildup of sediment on the floor. Unlike the rest of the ship, which had been mostly clear, the flooring here had deep sediment.

  Tom swam to the middle of the room and secured his green dive guideline to the roof using a hand driven screw to hold it into the wood. “Genevieve, careful with your fins in this room. The sediment is huge and you’ll have a white out pretty quick if you kick it up.”

  “Okay, got it.”

  He then waited for her familiar LED light to enter.

  “What do you think?” He asked.

  She flashed her light aimlessly around the room. There was no treasure and nothing to warrant their long trip to the secret chamber. And then she noticed the exits. “My god, there must be forty tunnel exits!”

  “I’ve just counted fifty-three.”

  Chapter Fifty One

  She looked at his face. Searching for answers. “But why would they make so many entrances?”

  “My best guess is that this room was used by the Antiqui Nautae to defend against boarding parties as a means of last resort. They would likely retreat into here. The attackers would follow them, not expecting too much of a challenge as they were allowed to continue through the empty tunnels. Then, when they enter this room, the warriors would be hiding inside each of these additional passageways and would emerge to slaughter them.” Tom flashed his light towards the sediment below. “Perhaps those are the remains of their last victims?”

  “So then what happened to the warriors?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe they got it wrong. Maybe there was a second rogue wave and they were taken by surprise. Who knows?”

  She looked around the strange room again. “Now what?”

  “Let’s check out these passages. Maybe one of them leads somewhere.” He screwed a blue secondary guideline into the wooden roof. “I want you come off the primary line and run a secondary line so we don’t end up with multiple overlapping lines while we’re here.”

  Genevieve nodded her head in understanding. “Sure.”

  Tom divided the room in half. One side for him and the other for her. He then began methodically working his way through the series of openings. Most simply turned back around on themselves and returned to the same room. Others were no more than an alcove large enough for hiding a couple of men.

  Frustrated, Tom returned to the starting point disappointed. “There’s nothing here, Genevieve. The entire thing was used as a killing room. There’s no secret treasure. Interesting history, but nothing more. It’s just an empty room.”

  Silence.

  “Can you hear me?” Tom asked.

  More silence.

  Tom switched off his flashlight.

  A faint glow could be seen. It seemed far away. It was light green, instead of the bright LED glow. Tom closed his eyes for a second and then opened them again – unsure that the light wasn’t caused by his eyes still adapting to the complete darkness.

  The glow was still there, but it was a long way away.

  Without any other light a matchstick will stand out like the sun. Likewise, the tiny green glow became a beacon. Tom began swimming towards it. His heart raced and he felt himself breathing the Heliox much faster than he should at this depth. Consciously, he struggled to slow his rate of breathing. He kicked his fins as though he were racing some unknown evil to the finish line.

  The tunnel was long.

  And then it curved in a sharp leftward direction. The light seemed to be maintaining its distance from him, no matter how fast he swam. “Genevieve, if you can hear me switch your strobe light on.”

  Radio crackles.

  He dropped another ten feet as the tunnel descended. There was a third level to the trimaran. Tom swallowed to equalize the pressure in his ears. “Genevieve! Can you hear me?”

  More radio crackles.

  The new level was very narrow. Almost too small for him to squeeze through with his 6 foot-five, 230-pound muscular physique. With his twin tanks he was only just able to make it forwards. His diving intuition told him not to go any further.

  Ahead, the silt had been recently disturbed, filling the entire tunnel with ancient particles of dust. He could no longer see more than a few inches in front of him. But it was the evidence Tom needed. Genevieve must have passed through this place.

  Against his instinct he continued into the silt whiteout. “Gen, can you hear me?”

  More crackles. This time, followed by one word that he could understand perfectly well. “Help.”

  “Genevieve!”

  “Tom! I think I’m in trouble.”

  He swam faster. His twin tanks now scratching along the walls of the tiny tunnel.

  “I must have snapped my guideline. I tried to turn around but seem to have gone the wrong direction. Now I’ve reached
a dead end and I’m trying my very best to hope that term doesn’t turn out to be the truth about my fate. I’m stuck!”

  Ahead of him the ancient silt had built up like a frenzied swarm of locusts which his vision could barely penetrate. “I’m pretty certain I can see you up ahead. Don’t move. And for God’s sake stop kicking your fins you’re sending all the silt particles flying. I can barely see a thing.”

  “I have stopped. The tunnel is so narrow I couldn’t kick even if I wanted to.”

  Against all safety, he blindly entered.

  It was dark despite switching on his light again. In fact his light worsened his vision. It was like switching on the high-beams in a car while driving in heavy fog He turned it off again and the familiar light green glow returned.

  The light was finally getting stronger.

  “Genevieve!”

  “Help!” Her voice sounded sharp. Rushed. Almost frantic.

  Tom increased his pace. If that was even possible. Then the green glow turned into the warm light of an LED.

  In front of him, he saw the back of a single fin. It was completely stationary. Christ, is she dead? Then it moved slightly. “Genevieve.”

  “Where are you?” she asked.

  “I’m right behind you. Do you think you can turn around with my help?”

  “No, my dive tanks will never let me turn. It’s too narrow.”

  Tom checked his dive computer. He’d used more Heliox than he should have because he’d chased her. “We’re getting low on Heliox. Can you go any further forward?”

  “No. There’s a door. It’s made of bronze or something metallic. I’ve tried pushing on it, but it doesn’t move at all. I could probably kick it down if I could turn around – which I can’t.”

  Tom pulled himself forward using the back of her fin. He shined his flashlight at the door.

  He placed the crowbar in Genevieve’s hand. “Here, try this.”

  She took it and began working to pry open the door. It didn’t move at all. “The brass is heavier than I expected. I didn’t even know the Antiqui Nautae even knew how to make brass.”

  Tom struggled to see the door.

  He shined his flashlight directly on it. The light bounced straight back at him like a mirror. “That’s not brass. I believe that’s gold!”

  Chapter Fifty Two

  Genevieve tried for a couple of minutes to break the door. “Okay, time for a new plan. I’m not going to be capable of creating enough force to break this door.”

  Tom looked at his dive computer. He had about ten minutes worth of Heliox remaining. And they still had to get out of the ancient trimaran. “I’m going to see if I can squeeze past you to reach it.”

  “There’s no way you’ll fit.”

  Tom carefully detached his BCD from his chest. “I’m not planning on taking my dive tanks with me.” He then slowly slipped his twin dive tanks off. It was hard, and for someone his size, Tom was surprisingly lithe in the confined area. He would still struggle to turn around, but he might just squeeze through to the door.

  “I need you to rotate so that you’re looking up towards me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, for me to get past you, I’m going to have to lose my dive tanks.” Tom shuffled closer to her and picked up her dive computer. She had less than half the Heliox he had. “We’re running pretty low on Heliox. Good thing, Matthew made me take an extra twin tank.”

  She slowly maneuvered herself to face him. “Pity its back on the deck.”

  Tom shuffled a little closer towards her. This was the dangerous part. If he became stuck now, they would both die for his mistake. “We’ll break through this door and then we’ll find somewhere to turn around. Trust me.”

  He disconnected his dive tanks from his facemask. Dozens of bubbles of residual Heliox disappeared from the end of the tube, with a hiss.

  He held his breath and then calmly turned to face Genevieve. No longer encumbered by his own twin tanks he was able to squeeze himself directly above her. He attached her secondary gas source to his own facemask. Expelled the small amount of water in the tube. And then took a deep breath of Heliox.

  Tom could see her light. He could hear the deep, mechanical sound of her breathing too much Heliox. But he couldn’t see her face as he tried to squeeze over the top of her. The ancient silt had been stirred so badly that it looked like a million stars made of gold as the light ricocheted off the tiny particles.

  Their two bodies pressed together, hard. Tom shuffled himself ever slightly forward. Her arms shook, just slightly – the only outward sign of fear she displayed. They were trapped at the end of an ancient tunnel inside the trimaran’s hull, sharing the one Heliox system, at a depth of 175 feet.

  The sort of thing that would scare the best wreck divers.

  Tom felt his facemask scrape along hers. Careful not to damage it, he strained his eyes to see. They were face to face with their masks only just separating them.

  Genevieve opened her eyes. They were blue and stared at him with something resembling adoration. And there was something else there, too. It surprised him – was it desire?

  “Tom, do you realize you have the most beautiful hazel eyes? They have tiny shimmers of green in them.”

  The statement shocked him.

  “Thank you, I think.” Tom squeezed further forward. “I’ll give you the chance to have a much better look at them once we break through that damn door and get back onboard the Maria Helena.”

  He felt her place the crowbar back in his hand. “Can you reach the door with this?”

  The tunnel was so narrow that Tom was only able to take shallow breaths. He pushed the crowbar into the side of the door. The hard steel bent back part of the thin layer of gold covering the wooden door. If he had more room to move, Tom was certain he could break through it.

  He pushed harder until the sharp edge of the crowbar broke through. Tom tried to pry the door open. His arm couldn’t move far enough to get the leverage needed to have any effect on the door.

  Tom didn’t check their Heliox supply. He didn’t have to – he knew it was going to run out within minutes.

  Then his eyes noticed something else.

  It was fastened to the side of Genevieve’s left leg. He glimpsed it, but couldn’t quite see it properly. Then he remembered her fixing it there when they were talking about beating his green ghost and diving with adequate weapons.

  He slid his right hand down her leg. Tom felt the neoprene wet suit stretch over her firm thigh as he slid his hand downward. She didn’t move an inch. Until he reached what he wanted – the Shark Stick.

  “Hey, just because I said I liked your eyes doesn’t give you the right to –” she stopped short.

  Tom had just fired the shark stick at the door from point blank from the door.

  Designed to stop an approaching Great White Shark, the Shark Stick was basically a modified shotgun. Loaded with a backwards facing Winchester 30:30 cartridge case, and then primed with .38 Special case in its mouth to hold the primer, the full case of burning powder was propelled into the target upon firing. The muzzle blast does the damage as so much high-pressure gas is forced into the flesh of the target.

  Tom looked for the remains of the door.

  There were none but something else shined right back at him.

  “Holy shit!” Tom said.

  He felt Genevieve pull him backwards. “Whoa! Is that what I think it is?”

  Tom swam inside. “I believe it is. And it’s probably worth more than you or I will ever make in a dozen lifetimes.”

  Chapter Fifty Three

  Sam had spent the afternoon watching hours upon hours of CCTV footage from a laptop inside the foreman’s office. They watched the initial damage to the vessel from what appeared to quite clearly be a rogue wave. It was nighttime, but the green wave appeared as a wall of turbid water.

  The video ended and Sam looked at his watch. It was approaching 7 p.m. and getting dark. He closed his laptop
. “Okay, I’ve seen enough. We should get back to the Maria Helena. Until we know more about what we’re dealing with, we should destroy the Bimini Road. At the very least block the Bimini Road before another rogue wave forms.”

  “Agreed,” Veyron replied.

  Sam climbed down the series of stairs and through the gate. He saw the foreman, Donald, approach. He shook the man’s hand warmly. “I must thank you for your hospitality. We’d better be getting back to the Maria Helena.”

  Donald looked him in his eyes. “Find out whatever the fuck that thing was and where it came from. And then make sure you kill any more of its kind.”

  “We’ll let you know as soon as we do.”

  Sam walked towards the Sea King Helicopter. The last of the sun was setting on the horizon. The sky was clear, and the air was a little cooler than it had been all day. The stars would be out tonight. He unlocked the side door to the cockpit and climbed into the pilot’s seat.

  Sam looked at Veyron. “We need a way to predict when another rogue wave forms. Then we can come up with a plan to destroy whatever the hell that green thing was. At the very least, we can keep out of its way.”

  Veyron grinned. “Maybe we can.”

  Sam flicked the main electrical switches to on. The Rolls Royce engine began to hum as the rotary blade began to spin counterclockwise. “What are you thinking?”

  “The plankton glows with bioluminescence in response to movement, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it’s thought to be a primal response to a predator. Whatever comes to eat them, is now reflecting the light, and consequently becomes the prey of something larger. Why?”

  “Because that means that the light created when a rogue wave is forming, or more exactly, as the group of whatever the hell these things are, come together, a large glow will form. My prediction is that light will be big enough to be seen from space, or certainly a real time satellite that’s looking for them.”

  “Of course, you’re right!” Sam picked up his cell phone and made a call.

  “What are you doing?”