The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 2

by Christopher Cartwright

Sam ignored the question. “Matthew! It’s Sam.”

  “Hey Sam, any luck with your investigation into the Global Star?”

  “A few leads. I’ll explain it all when I get back to the ship, but first I need you to do something for me.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “I need you to get Elise to hack into any local satellites overhead and search for a glowing light near the Bimini Road.”

  “Okay, I’m getting her to do it now. What’s this all about?”

  “It’s just a hunch but somehow the glowing plankton appears to be connected to the rogue waves. If I’m right, there should be an unusually large cluster somewhere to the east of Bimini Road – something big and bright enough so it can be easily spotted by our satellites, before another rogue wave forms.”

  Sam released the collective, which adjusted the angle of the main rotor blade, and the helicopter took off into the air. They were forty minutes flight time away from the Maria Helena, but something in his gut told him that the sooner he was back on board the better.

  “You still there Sam?” Matthew asked.

  “Go ahead Matthew. What have you got?”

  “Elise is just zooming into the bay at the east of the Bimini Road. There’s nothing obvious. It’s all dark there.”

  “Look around, see if there’s anything further east. Try up to twenty or so miles away.”

  “Okay, let’s see. What have we got?” Matthew said. “Hang on a second. I think we’ve found something.”

  “What is it?”

  “Oh shit! It looks like a glowing bay of fire – or a billion fireflies coming together. I have no idea what they’re doing, but they appear to be swarming together like ants.”

  “I think I know what they’re doing there. Matthew, you have to leave – right now!”

  “Jesus its firing up again!”

  “Matthew, you need to get out of there.”

  “Tom and Genevieve are on a night dive!”

  “Are they close to surfacing?” Sam asked.

  “They should be, but we haven’t heard from them yet. They entered a wreck and haven’t come out since. Now we can’t get any communication through to them.”

  “Does Tom have a spare Heliox supply with him for when he gets out?”

  “Yeah, I insisted he took twin tanks of Heliox as a backup. They’re currently sitting on the deck of the shipwreck.”

  “Then don’t worry about him. He’s the best wreck diver on the planet. If he’s got a secondary supply of gas, you can count on him to look after Genevieve and himself.”

  “Shit. Elise says her marker buoy just recorded a 120-foot wave pass over the Bimini Road!”

  “Head south – away from the epicenter!”

  Chapter Fifty Four

  Matthew opened both throttles to full and swung the helm so that the Maria Helena was heading due south. The smooth twin 44, 000 Horse Power Rolls Royce powerhouses screamed into life. “Tom and Genevieve are going to need to look after themselves for a while.”

  Next to him, Elise stared at the image on her laptop. It appeared as though swarms upon swarms of angry ants were all racing in the same direction – towards the Maria Helena. Each group of tiny glowing dots were collectively converging on the same spot, where a giant glowing pool swelled like the enormous belly of a beast. “If we don’t do something quick, I suggest joining them. Better to be below the surface than above it when this thing hits. We’ll lose the ship, but Sam can come pick us up out of the water.” Her voice was calm. She was speaking out of logic and science, rather than fear.

  “I’m hoping it won’t come to that, but I’ll keep it in mind. How much time do you calculate we have?”

  “If I gather correctly from your conversation with Sam, each of these glowing dots represent something that’s going to start moving towards us?”

  “That’s what Sam and Veyron think.”

  “And as they pass over the Bimini Road at speed they’ll create a rogue wave?”

  “That’s what we’re worried about.”

  Elise walked towards him on the bridge and carefully placed her laptop next to him. Matthew quickly scanned the satellite image.

  “Would you say that the flock just started to move?”

  “Oh shit!” Matthew held his hand on both throttles, hoping that in doing so, it might be able to drag some more precious horsepower out of the twin engines. His hand shook with the vibrations. He was glad Veyron wasn’t on board – the engineer would have killed him for abusing the ship’s engines. “Can you calculate a time to impact?”

  “I’m working on it.”

  Next to him, Elise was rapidly typing data into her laptop. Her fingers, hammering information with the grace and sensitivity of a concert pianist performing a rapid staccato. She then stopped and stared at the answer.

  Matthew turned to her. His usual manner of superiority and confidence broken by the events. “Well, don’t leave me in suspense. How much time have we got?”

  “Less than five minutes!”

  “Shit!” Matthew picked up the onboard ship microphone. “All hands on board the Maria Helena. We are about to be hit by a rogue wave. Lock all hatches and prepare for impact!”

  Elise crossed her arms and watched as the tiny glowing dots on her laptop monitor moved towards them.

  “Do you think it’s going to hit us?” he asked.

  Elise smiled and all he could see was her perfect white teeth. She carefully removed her glasses, safely placing them in their hard cover and then in her pocket. Matthew stared at her face. It was the first time he’d seen her without her glasses –revealing her startling emerald eyes, which betrayed her staggering intellect. She was probably the most intelligent person he’d ever met. At times, she appeared entirely mathematical and devoid of all emotions.

  This was one of those times.

  “Of course we will be struck by the oncoming wave – in just over four minutes. There’s nothing we can do to outrun that wave. The question, Matthew, is can the Maria Helena survive such a collision?”

  Unlike her, Matthew had no idea of the answer. There was no mathematical formula to determine if a ship would survive a large strike from a wave. His heart raced. He didn’t want to die. And he didn’t want Elise to die. She’d been a pleasant inclusion on board the Maria Helena. Although little more than a child in her early twenties, she was intensely professional and capable. More importantly, she had brought a certain sense of wonder to life on board, and a type of youth and vivacity. Although she acted like a nerd, she was constantly fun. It was like having the most intelligent child in existence on board. The rest of them wanted to nurture her and show her things.

  He wanted to reassure her as he would a child that everything was going to be okay, but she was too smart for that. She was the youngest person ever to obtain a Doctorate in mathematics from Harvard – she knew when she was being lied to.

  Matthew handed her a lifejacket. “Here, put this on.”

  She placed her head through the opening and tied the rest of the jacket around her waist. “I guess that’s a no then. Too bad, I was just starting to like your ship.”

  “We haven’t been sunk yet,” Matthew said.

  They stared at the glowing wave that approached on the computer screen.

  “Here it comes!”

  Ahead of the bridge, Matthew saw the towering wall of water approach. In an instant he knew with the same mathematical precision of Elise that they were doomed. There was no outcome in which the wall of water wouldn’t drown them entirely.

  A moment later the rogue wave split in two. To each side of the Maria Helena, a wall of water at least a hundred feet high loomed. And then it passed them by.

  Elise stared at him. For the first time, her face displayed fear. “What the hell was that?”

  Matthew embraced her as he watched the wave disappear. “I have no fucking idea!”

  Chapter Fifty Five

  Tom shined his flashlight into the room on the other side of
the obliterated door. The room was small by comparison to the others within the trimaran, but it was large enough for Tom and Genevieve to turn around. Maybe ten feet by ten feet to form a perfectly square room – no more than four feet high.

  It was filled with gold and treasure.

  The most prominent of all of these was a golden eagle perched on its own golden frame staring up at them with its wings spread outwards. It was nearly a foot high and held its wings outwards slightly wider than a foot. As the light reached it, several small dots of golden light ricocheted off the wall behind – forming an unknown celestial constellation. There were three piles of Gold Sovereigns spread around the room. Tom picked up a few coins and ran his hands through them. Their faces were of the monarchs of Britain, Portugal, Spain, and France. The most recent dates he could find was 1772.

  Tom let the coins fall through his fingers. “I guess the stories were true. These guys really did hunt the western ships.”

  Genevieve pointed towards her dive computer. They were desperately short of Heliox and Tom was still sharing her gas. “Until the Antiqui Nautae got it wrong and died in their search for treasure. Let’s not make the same mistake. We’ll come back later for this.”

  “Okay, sounds good.” Tom grabbed the golden eagle from its perch. It was heavy in his hand and he secured it to his dive belt next to the rest of the heavy lead weights. Something told him that it was important and he wasn’t willing to leave it behind. He increased the gas in his BCD to compensate for the weight and bring him back to neutral buoyancy. “Wait here until I’m attached to my own dive gear and then follow. If you lose sight of my light, let me know immediately.”

  “Gotcha.”

  Tom disconnected Genevieve’s secondary gas tube from his own facemask. He then held his breath while he swam towards his dive tanks. He worked quickly and efficiently as he reattached his own tanks.

  And then took a deep breath of Heliox. “Okay, we can go.”

  Tom kicked his fins in a slow but continuous rate. He was torn between the balance of trying to reduce the time until he reached the spare tanks, and using an excessive amount of Heliox through exertion.

  He confidently swam through the disturbed silt. “Run your hand along the side of the tunnel and keep going. There isn’t enough room here for you to turn around even if you wanted to, much less by accident.”

  “Okay.”

  Tom swam vertically into the next level and out along the complex killing room. He swung his flashlight around it looking for the way they had come in originally. There were 53 exits by his recollection. And only one that took him to the surface. At first glance, they all appeared identical. Then his light caught the original green guideline he’d used when he entered the wreck.

  Tom pointed with his flashlight to where the guideline had been screwed to the wood. “There it is. Attach yourself to the guideline and let’s go.”

  She held up her dive computer so Tom could see it. There was less than twenty BAR remaining. Not enough to reach the open deck. “I think I’m out of time.”

  “No you’re not.” Tom held his breath as he disconnected his own tank and replaced the nearly empty tank Genevieve was using. Then, he took her almost empty tank and reconnected it to his own. He then smiled at her. “I’ll meet you at the safety point.”

  “Good luck.”

  Tom swam through the opening which led to the long tunnel. At the end of it, he reached the Viking room. He breathed long, slow and deep breaths. It was a discipline designed to utilize every bit of oxygen stored in the Heliox, while at the same time slowing his heart rate and metabolic need. He followed the next tunnel until it reached the end. He tried to breathe in – but there was no more gas to breathe.

  He blew out slowly as he ascended to the top level. Then he swam along the long tunnel until his lungs burned. He turned right and followed the short tunnel to the opening in the center cockpit and out into the open water.

  Tom could see the twin dive tanks approximately thirty feet away from him, but his vision began to go all dark. He knew exactly what was happening. His brain was starved for oxygen, and it could no longer make any sense out of what he was seeing.

  He continued to kick his fins, but it was no use – he could no longer see. Tom heard Genevieve’s voice, but couldn’t make any sense of it. He was on the verge of unconsciousness.

  And then he took a deep breath.

  The gas inside his dive mask flowed easily. It felt cold, and sweet. Am I dead this time? Tom had been close before when other dives had gone wrong, and he knew that when you approach death, there’s normally a period of warmth and euphoria.

  Then he opened his eyes. No, he hadn’t opened them – they were already open. Only now, he could make out something. Or someone? His vision was blurred and full of a green light.

  His green friend had returned. Tom couldn’t quite make out its body, but he could see the face. It smiled at him. The same face. It had the same distinctive cleft chin below its mysteriously kind smile. Now he knew he was hallucinating.

  Gradually the green turned to the warm light of Genevieve’s LED.

  She kneeled down next to him and tried to look at his face through his dive mask. Tom reassured her with a smile. “You reached the spare dive tanks for me.” It wasn’t a question. Simply a statement.

  “Yes. Well you told me you’d be all right. And I believed you – until you stopped moving. So I thought I’d better help you out a little.”

  Tom grimaced as full sensation returned. “Thanks.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  “I’ve got one hell of a headache, but other than that I’ll live. Let’s commence our ascent.” Tom flashed his light towards where the Maria Helena’s anchor chain should have been – only it wasn’t there. “Oh crap!”

  Genevieve checked her dive computer. “What is it?”

  Tom pointed to where the anchor chain from the Maria Helena should have been. “It appears the Maria Helena’s abandoned us.”

  Chapter Fifty Six

  “Maria Helena, Maria Helena, come in!” Tom yelled into his dive radio.

  No response.

  Genevieve moved closer. “Why would they leave?”

  “I have no idea.” Tom tried to contact the ship again. “Maria Helena, are you receiving our transmissions?”

  Silence.

  “Matthew, answer me you bastard!”

  More silence.

  “All right Genevieve, let’s begin our ascent. We’re not going to get any answers down here.”

  “Agreed.”

  At the thirty feet mark Tom waited to decompress for ten minutes. Then, moving to the surface he said, “Let’s see if we can find out why they left us.”

  Tom’s head barely cleared the surface and he saw it. A wave, at least a hundred feet into the air, if not more, and radiating bright green.

  He turned and ducked his head back under the water. Grabbing Genevieve’s buoyancy control device, Tom depressed the air release, sending her on her way back towards the bottom. “Quick, we have to dive again!”

  “What is it?”

  “Rogue wave!”

  Above them the green apparition followed.

  At fifty feet, the two stopped diving and looked back. The frothy water seemed to have disappeared.

  “I think it’s passed,” Genevieve said.

  “Yeah, but whether or not the Maria Helena survived it, I don’t know.”

  The two swam to the surface again.

  There was nothing around them. The only remaining light were the millions of stars visible above them and all the way to the horizon.

  “Well. This might be a long wait.”

  The sea appeared unusually calm. With his buoyancy control device inflated Tom relaxed, floating on his back and stared up at the stars above. They were as beautiful as they were plentiful.

  Tom removed the golden eagle from his dive belt and held it up against the night’s sky. “We might be here a while Genevieve. We m
ay as well enjoy it.”

  She followed his suit and floated on her back in the almost perfectly still water, staring above. “I could think of worse places to have to wait.”

  “What are you doing with that?”

  “I’m trying to make sense of it.”

  She laughed. “By looking at the stars?”

  “Yes. I can only guess that it is some sort of celestial map. Hopefully it will lead us to where they once lived.” Tom watched her face. It was glowing with interest. “Who am I kidding? Hopefully it will lead us to their real treasure cache.”

  “What makes you so certain it’s a map?”

  Tom swam slightly closer to her so that that his face rested next to hers. Close enough that he could feel her warm breath on his cheek. He then held the golden eagle up into the air so that the tiny holes in the wings spread across the sky. “See these tiny dots?”

  She nodded her head.

  “I believe they represent a constellation of stars. Once you reach a point where the holes all line up to stars directly overhead, you will be above the desired location – whatever that might be.”

  “But none of those holes match up to any of the stars in our sky?”

  Tom lowered the eagle. “I noticed that too.” He held the eagle directly next to her and pointed directly at a series of holes. “See these. I believe they represent the Southern Cross.”

  “Which means the Antiqui Nautae lived in the southern hemisphere?”

  “Exactly.”

  Neither person spoke for some time after that. Tom noticed that Genevieve was still resting her head on his chest. She’d moved even closer, if that was possible. It surprised him. Genevieve had always been a sort of enigma aboard the Maria Helena. She was kind and nurturing to everyone, but there was also hardness there, too. Some sort of deep-rooted toughness that went further than her exterior.

  Tom wrapped his arms around her out of comfort. He waited for her to show her displeasure, and when she didn’t he cuddled her.

  She was quick to make new friends, but those friendships never surpassed the superficial stage. After two years on board she had refused to open up about her previous life. One thing was certain – she had gone to great lengths to remove any history of it, and had no intention of dating or getting close enough to anyone, of either sex, to relinquish her past.