The Dane Maddock Adventures Boxed Set Volume 2

by David Wood

  “And check this out! There’s a way in.” Bones indicated a dotted line leading from a different location on the island to the chamber.

  “It starts on land, so it’s unlikely to be an underwater channel,” Maddock mused. “Unless it’s become flooded over the years. That’s a possibility.”

  “I know where this is!” Avery exclaimed. “I can lead you right to it. If the sheriff will let us back on the island, that is.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Maddock said. “He said he’s going to arrest anyone who wasn’t gone by the end of the day. No way he lets us come back.”

  “What are we going to do?” Avery was on her feet, fists clenched. “We have to get to that secret passage before Locke drills into the chamber. That won’t be long!”

  “Chill,” Angel said. “You forget who we’ve got on our side.”

  “She’s right.” Bones rocked back in his chair, hands folded behind his head. “Maddock and I are experts getting into places we’re not invited.”

  “Only because you were never invited to any parties in high school,” Angel jibed.

  Bones’ obscene gesture was half-hearted at best. He loved the adrenaline rush of anything dangerous, and was clearly focused on finding a way onto the island. “You’ve got to figure he’ll have deputies guarding the road that leads to the island, and, maybe, a boat patrolling the coast, though I doubt it. He thinks he’s beaten us, so he’ll probably be lax.”

  “Don’t count on it. His ego is huge, but he doesn’t miss a detail. We’d better plan on two boats, and a patrol on the island as well.” Avery cupped her chin and narrowed her eyes as she stared at the map. “We’ll have to go in at night without lights or a motor. Kayaks?”

  “You’ve got a good head for this sort of thing,” Bones said. He gave Avery an admiring smile and she blushed.

  “I love kayaking!” Angel exclaimed. “Let’s rock this!”

  “Hold on.” Maddock held up his hands. “Avery’s right about going in at night, but any kind of boat is too risky. Besides, I want to do this tonight. Bones and I will swim it.”

  “No!” Avery shouted and sprang to her feet. “You can’t do that.”

  “We’re pros,” Bones said. “We’ve done the same thing hundreds of times, and trust me, the stakes were much higher. Worst that can happen here is we get arrested and Charlie bails us out.”

  “I need to go too.” Avery clenched her fists until her knuckles were white. “I have to show you the way in.”

  “I’m sure you can tell us all we need to know ahead of time,” Maddock said. “Show us on the satellite images.”

  “It’s cool, Avery. We’ve got this.” Bones reached out to take her hand but she snatched it away.

  “This is my project. I’m the expert. Besides, I’ve done plenty of diving. I can handle it.”

  “You wouldn’t be able to keep up if we ran into trouble,” Maddock said. “Look, I’ve been on plenty of treasure hunts and I know how you’re feeling.” Avery shook her head and, too late, Maddock remembered that a man should never tell a woman that he knew how she felt. “If the circumstances were different, I’d have you right there with us, but this is just one of those times when it needs to be me and Bones. Only me and Bones.” He said this last to Angel, who made a pouting face that sent a shiver down his spine. He looked back at Avery, trying to ignore how warm he suddenly felt. “I’m sorry, but this is the way it has to be.”

  “Besides,” Angel said to Avery, “this is Maddock’s treasure hunt. His father left it for him.”

  “You don’t understand,” Avery whispered as a solitary tear trickled down her face. “He was my father too.”

  Chapter 12

  Maddock sat, dumbfounded, gazing up at Avery, who seemed almost as shocked by her words as he was.

  “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I’ve been trying to figure out a way to tell you. This wasn’t how I wanted to do it.”

  Maddock looked from Angel, who was likewise speechless, to Bones, who frowned, and then his face split into a broad grin.

  “I can totally see it!” He pounded his fist on the table, threw back his head, and laughed. “The hair, the eyes, the thing you both do when you’re thinking hard. I should have figured it out.”

  “How is it possible?” Angel asked.

  “Our father,” Avery said, settling back into her chair and studiously avoiding Maddock’s gaze, “spent a lot of time here. Sometimes he was with his wife, but other times he came alone. He and my mother had a fling; two ships passing in the night and all that. They didn’t carry on any sort of long-term affair, but he sent money every month and made sure I had everything I needed. He even helped me with college.” Her eyes grew moist. “Once every summer, he would spend a few days with me. We’d always do something related to his pirate research. I suppose that’s why I chose the career path I did.”

  “So, this is more than an academic pursuit,” Angel said. “This is personal.”

  Avery nodded.

  “Say something, Maddock,” Bones urged.

  “Sorry, I’m just shocked. I never...” He trailed off, lost in dark thoughts. He’d never dreamed his father would lead a double life.

  “Let’s leave these two alone,” Bones said to Angel. “I think they’ve got some talking to do.” He rose from his seat and headed out the back door onto the deck. Angel gave Maddock an encouraging smile and followed her brother out the door.

  “I’m not lying,” Avery said after a lengthy silence. “I’ll even take a DNA test if you want me to.”

  “I don’t guess I want that,” Maddock said. “Bones is right. It’s kind of obvious once you know what to look for. How long have you known about me?”

  “All my life. I don’t mind telling you I’ve hated your guts for as long as I can remember. You got my dad fifty-one weeks out of the year. I got the leftovers. And now, after all the times he and I spent researching Kidd’s treasure, I find out it was you he wanted to share it with.” Her tears flowed freely now, but her eyes shone with resentment.

  Maddock nodded, unable to summon any words of comfort. He couldn’t blame her for feeling like she did.

  “So, how do you feel about me now? Still hate me?”

  “I haven’t made up my mind yet.” Avery managed a tiny laugh. “You’re bossy as hell and you don’t listen to anyone but Bones. That much I’ve already figured out.”

  “I’m not bossy, I’m decisive.” He grinned. “And I do listen, it’s just that everybody else is wrong most of the time.”

  “We really are an awful lot alike. Creepy.” Avery wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “So, what else do we have in common? Are you as unlucky with the ladies as I am with the guys?”

  “Maybe.” Before he realized what he was doing, he was telling her about his wife, Melissa, and her tragic death, a subject he studiously avoided even after all these years. Then it was on to his ex-girlfriend, Kaylin, and, finally, his current sometimes-girlfriend, Jade. “Things just aren’t working out between us. Sometimes I think Jade and I are too much alike, you know?”

  “I’ve got to hand it to you, Maddock. I never suspected you had that many words in your vocabulary, much less that you were the kind of guy who would talk relationships for ten minutes straight.” She reached out, tentatively, and took his hand. It was a good feeling: companionable and comforting.

  “That’s the longest I’ve ever talked to anybody about relationship crap,” he said, knowing he sounded a bit too much like Bones. “Is this typical sibling conversation?”

  “Don’t ask me. I’m new at this, too. Are we good?”

  “Yeah,” he said after a long pause. “I think we are. It’s still weird, though.”

  “Totally,” she agreed, slipping her hand from his grasp.

  “How about we bring the two peeping Toms back inside and let’s make a plan for getting to whatever Dad wanted us to find?”

  Bones and Angel were making no effort to hide the fact that they were w
atching Maddock and Avery through the window. When Maddock motioned for them to come inside, they bounded through the door like children headed to recess.

  “This is so cool!” Angel said. “Now I have somebody who can understand what I go through with this assclown.” She glared at Bones, who feigned innocence and pressed his hands to his heart.

  “Time’s short. Let’s get to work,” Maddock said.

  “Bossy,” Avery said to Angel in a confiding tone. “I just told him about that.”

  “They don’t listen,” Angel said in a mock-whisper. “You have to learn how to push their buttons to get what you want. I’ll show you.” She smiled at Maddock, eyes sparkling, and winked.

  Once again, he found himself feeling uncomfortably warm, and hurried on.

  “It’s going to be me and Bones going in. You get it, right?”

  Avery gave a grudging nod.

  “What can you tell us about this spot on the map?” Maddock asked.

  “We’ll have to compare it against contemporary maps and photos.” She couldn’t hide her guilty expression. “I lied. I have no idea what spot on the island this correlates to.”

  Maddock buried his face in his hands. “Why me?”

  “Just kidding. I know exactly what this spot is.”

  Bones and Angel burst out laughing and Angel high-fived Avery.

  “Fine,” Maddock sighed. “Fill us in.”

  “The spot here is in the swamp.” She pointed to the mark that denoted what they presumed was the entrance to the passage. The swamp was a triangular body of water that virtually cut the island in two.

  “I thought the swamp had been investigated and dismissed as a possibility,” Maddock said.

  “Sort of. Back when portions of the island were privately owned, someone tried to drain it. As the water receded, he found what looked like a wooden shaft rising up out of the water, but when they investigated it further, it turned out to only be a few feet deep. He gave up his efforts to drain it any further. After that, there were disputes over the swamp between the different people and groups who owned parts of the island. Eventually, the government took control and, since then, the swamp has been ignored.”

  “Do you think this map is pointing to that shaft?” Bones asked. “If we have to dig, there’s no way.”

  “It’s not. Look here.” She pointed in turn to six circles. “These indicate the locations of huge granite stones that form what we call the Oak Island Cross. The width of the cross,” finger hovering millimeters above the aged map, she traced the line, “is 720 feet, with the center stone perfectly centered. The distance from the center stone to the bottom of the cross is also 720 feet, and 360 to the top. Everything is perfectly proportioned except for this one.” She pointed to a circle between the middle and bottom stones.

  “That’s the entrance,” Angel whispered.

  “This stone ought to be halfway between the center and bottom stones, but it isn’t. Researchers have always wondered why it alone is disproportionately spaced. Now we know.” Avery looked around the table, her expression triumphant.

  “Is it in the swamp?” Bones asked, leaning down for a closer look.

  “It juts out into the water,” Avery said. “I’ll bet there’s a hidden passage underneath it.”

  “What if the stone is covering the passage? They’ll never be able to move it.” Angel pursed her lips and tugged at her earlobe. It was one of her little habits that made Maddock smile.

  “I guess we’ll find out.” Maddock’s eyes drifted to the bottom right corner of the page. “What are these symbols?” A tiny block of glyphs, triangles, circles, squares, some incomplete or slashed through with diagonal lines, had escaped their notice.

  “They look like the same glyphs that can be found on the stone that was discovered in the pit back in the 1800s.” Avery gave the symbols a long, appraising look. “This uses some of the same symbols, but it’s a different message entirely. No wonder no one has ever been able to make sense of it!” She sprang from her seat and hurried into her bedroom, returning shortly with a battered briefcase.

  Maddock’s eyes widened when he saw the case. “I remember that.” It had belonged to his father. Maddock could recall being surprised when Hunter Maddock had returned from one of his research trips with a shiny, new briefcase instead of his beloved old one.

  “Dad always had this with him whenever he visited,” Avery explained. “When I was little I used to like to play with the clasps. As I got older, I guess I came to associate it with the good times we had together. He gave it to me on my sixteenth birthday. I hope it doesn’t make you feel weird.”

  “It’s cool. He told me the airline lost it. I’m glad it’s still around.”

  “Anyway,” Avery said, opening the case and extracting a folder, “here are some possible translations of the original stone. Maybe they can help us figure it out.”

  “What about this?” Angel held up the other paper that had been in the envelope. “It’s got a bunch of those weird symbols plus a code.” She flipped the paper around for the others to see.

  “That looks like the cipher in The Gold-Bug,” Maddock said, reaching for the book that lay forgotten on the table. He flipped to the pertinent page and turned it around for the others to see.

  “No way!” Avery’s eyes grew wide. “Do you think Dad translated the runes, and then encrypted them?”

  “Definitely.” Maddock was certain of it. “He would have thought it added to the fun and made it more secure in case the wrong person stumbled across it. Besides, to the average person, it looks like a long math problem.”

  “Do either of you know how to break this code?” Bones asked. “Because I hated Calculus.”

  “I’ll bet there are plenty of Gold-Bug decryption sites online,” Avery said. “Bones, want to grab my laptop?”

  “Only if you sit on my lap top.” Bones had scarcely gotten the words out when Angel hit him over the head with The Gold-Bug.

  “Get the computer, you creep.”

  Ten minutes later, they had their translation.

  “Shaft south,” Bones read. “Tunnel divides. Lower shaft. Third tunnel north. Upper shaft.”

  “What do you make of it?” Angel asked.

  “I think there are a maze of tunnels in this part of the island,” Maddock said, “and these are directions for navigating them.” He looked up at Bones. “You up for a swim?”

  Bones grinned.

  “Let’s do it.”

  Chapter 13

  “That doesn’t look like a deputy to me.” Bones kept his voice so low that Maddock could scarcely hear him over the gentle ebb and flow of the surf. They were a scant twenty yards from shore, floating in the dark waters of the bay under a moonless sky.

  “You’re right,” Maddock agreed. The causeway leading to the island had indeed been guarded by the sheriff’s department- White and Boudreau to be exact, and they’d swum unseen past a patrol boat anchored offshore. He imagined another boat guarded the island’s far side. But the man who stalked the shore of Oak Island was nothing like the deputies. He was tall, lean, and prowled the coastline like a predator on the hunt, his eyes taking in everything around him. Despite the quiet night and calm surroundings, he was clearly on alert.

  “Let’s slip right past him. You know, a little SEAL-style stealth for old time’s sake,” Bones said.

  “Maybe, but we’ll give him a minute and see if he moves on.”

  They watched as the man continued on his way, eventually disappearing around a bend. Maddock and Bones didn’t wait, but swam for the shore, their powerful kicks driving them through the water like torpedoes locked onto their target. They hit the shallows, slipped their fins off and tucked them into dive bags- they’d need them again soon.

  There was no need to speak. They’d done this so many times Maddock had lost count. His eyes took in everything to the east, while Bones scanned the island to the west. At first glance, all appeared clear, but then the smallest of glimmers caught
his attention. The scant starlight flashed off a badge as Sheriff Meade himself strode out of the forest.

  Maddock needed only to incline his head a fraction of an inch to indicate the man’s presence. Bones scowled and nodded once. Moving as one, they submerged and worked their way along the coastline, moving in the opposite direction.

  They emerged in a pool of darkness on the rocky beach a stone’s throw from the swamp. Meade had positioned himself on the sea wall that separated the swamp from the beach. The sheriff stood with his thumbs in his belt, gazing out at his patrol boat.

  Maddock led the way, creeping wraith-like through the deepest shadows and noiselessly moving through the undergrowth that surrounded the swamp. He paused when he reached the edge of the brackish water. Here they would have to cover ten feet of open ground before reaching the swamp. He glanced at Meade, who had not moved, and then back to Bones. It was unlikely the sheriff would spot them, but Meade just might be mad enough to take a shot at them.

  Bones held up a fist, thrust his chin in Meade’s direction, and gave Maddock a quizzical look. The question was clear- Want me to knock him out?

  Maddock shook his head. He wanted to slip in and out with no one the wiser. If they harmed the sheriff, the finger would point either to them or to Charlie and his crew. They didn’t need that. Besides, this way was more fun.

  After slipping back into his fins, Maddock stretched out on the ground and slithered forward, keeping his eyes on Meade, who shifted his weight, but continued to gaze out at the bay. He aligned himself with the stone that marked their destination, and entered the swamp. The water, warm after the chill of the bay and the night air, enveloped him as he vanished into its dark depths. Visibility was almost zero, but he navigated the tangle and muck with ease. Finally, he arrived at the stone, Bones sliding up beside him.

  Now would be the most precarious stage of the operation. They didn’t know what they might find when they surfaced. For all Maddock knew, someone might be standing above them when they emerged from the water. Also, they’d need light to inspect the area around the stone.