by David Wood
Maddock leaped forward, pistoning a right cross to the temple and following with a sweeping kick that took the man’s feet out from under him. He fell hard to the ground, arms splayed. Maddock turned and sprinted after Kaylin.
The crowd had drawn away from the fight, giving him a clear path to the front door. Up ahead, the second attacker dove at Kaylin’s feet, tripping her up. He scrambled up on all fours and grabbed at her handbag. She shouted and kicked him hard in the face. She continued to impress Maddock with her toughness.
Closing the gap, he flew through the air and delivered a flying kick to the man’s chest, knocking him onto his back across a nearby table, sending the display crashing to the ground. From outside, sirens wailed over the din of the marketplace.
Kaylin’s assailant climbed to his feet and drew his gun. Screams erupted from the crowd. For a moment, Maddock thought the man was going to open fire inside the crowded marketplace. Instead, he held the gun threateningly in front of him and dashed out the door. The man with whom Maddock had fought rushed by an instant later. Maddock drew his own weapon and gave chase, Kaylin following close behind.
Just as he ran outside, a sheriff’s department patrol car screeched to a halt directly in front of him. Maddock raised his hands above his head, not wanting any misunderstandings. A deputy hopped out of the driver’s side door, weapon drawn. Ignoring Maddock and Kaylin, he sprinted around the corner of the slave market in the direction the attackers had run. A moment later, Bones clambered out of the passenger side door and followed the deputy.
“Had trouble with the locks,” he shouted as he ran by. “Glad you’re all right.”
Maddock could now hear sirens coming from both directions, and soon, three City of Charleston police cars pulled up to the front of the market. Bones and the deputy reappeared together a short while later.
“Lost ’em,” Bones said. He holstered his pistol, cursing their still unidentified assailants.
“Where’s Bernie?” Kaylin asked, a note of concern in her voice. The encounter in the slave market did not seem to have fazed her a great deal.
“She’s fine,” Bones said. “We flagged down the deputy here.” He nodded to the man in the tan uniform. “She’s in the back of the car.” He turned and waved. Through the tinted glass, they saw Bernie waving back.
“The call came in over the radio about a running gun battle in the street just as your friend was telling his story,” the deputy explained.
“Thanks for bailing us out,” Maddock replied. He was confused and frustrated. Who were these guys, and what did Maxie have that they wanted so badly?
Chapter 6
“Hey, babe. Thought you’d be home by now.”
“Sorry, I had to make a stop. I’ve got a surprise for you!”
“I hate surprises. What is it?”
“Maddock! You are no fun at all.”
“I know. Now, what’s my surprise?”
“I’m not…”
Maddock bolted upright, gasping. Sweat trickled down his cheek, or was it a tear? He didn’t care. Wiping it away, he shook his head as if that could clear the memory from his mind. He hated the dream, and now he hated the sun that had made him drowsy enough to doze off. Rising, he snapped his notebook shut and went back into the condo. He hurried past Bones and Kaylin, who were working at the small kitchen table.
Inside the bathroom, he closed and locked the door, doused his face with cool water, and gazed at his reflection, calming his nerves. The empty look in his blue eyes matched the hollowness in his heart: both remnants of the dream that had nagged him ever since Kaylin had come into his life. What was the deal? Was it guilt because he felt attracted to her?
“Get a grip, Maddock,” he said to the reflection. “You’re not a lovesick teenager.” He breathed deep and puffed out his cheeks as he exhaled. Pronouncing himself ready to face the world, he returned to the kitchen.
“Have a nice nap?” Kaylin asked. She looked up from Rienzi’s Bible and smiled. “Nice digs you and Bones found, by the way. I forgot to tell you earlier.”
Fearing for Kaylin’s safety, and assuming that their assailants had the resources to discover Maddock’s identity through the car rental agency, they had packed up and headed for North Carolina, where Bones’ uncle, Crazy Charlie, who dealt in used Cadillacs and brand new casinos, owned this vacation condo. They had brought with them everything that might be pertinent to the Dourado investigation. At Kaylin’s insistence, Bernie had returned to Mississippi to stay with relatives.
“How’s the translation coming?” He sat down across from her, forcing his focus onto the case. He was getting good at walling away those memories.
“Challenging. Many of these notes he’s written in the margins are so cryptic that I don’t know if we’ll be able to get any meaning from them out of context. A few of them are pretty interesting, though.
“Here in the book of Genesis, he’s underlined a passage which describes a time when ‘there were giants on the earth’ who married the ‘daughters of men.’
“Sounds like simple folklore to me,” Maddock said. Religion and the Bible did not mean much to him anymore. God, if He existed, wasn’t paying any attention to what was going on down here.
“That’s what Bones said. But here,” Kaylin pointed to a phrase jotted in the margin, “Rienzi has written ‘could it be?’ in big letters. He’s at least considering the possibility that it’s more than folklore.”
The story of David and Goliath had strange markings on it as well. Maddock had not been much of a churchgoer since childhood, but, like most people, he supposed, he was familiar with the tale. A Philistine giant named Goliath had challenged any soldier of Israel to single combat. Only a teenage shepherd named David was up to the challenge. The story went that Goliath, nearly ten feet tall, was armed to the teeth, while David brought with him only a sling, some rocks, and his faith in God. David nailed Goliath in the head, knocking him out. While the giant was down, David cut off the Philistine’s head with his own sword. It was actually a gruesome story if you stopped to think about it.
This, like most of the familiar children’s Bible stories, was one Maddock assumed to be less history than fable. It was, in his mind, a story to teach a lesson about not giving up in the face of overwhelming odds, and, of course, to encourage faith in God. Maddock was not interested in any of that.
Rienzi had apparently seen something of great value in this story. Goliath’s name was underlined in bold strokes. Oddest of all was a strange drawing in the upper right corner of the page. It was a stick figure of some sort. A series of dots of various sizes were linked by straight lines, creating an oddly familiar image.
Kaylin returned to translating Rienzi’s notes while Maddock reviewed Maxie’s work, and Bones looked over the research Jimmy had done on Rienzi.
“I don’t get it,” Bones said. “Whatever Rienzi found, he obviously lost it when the Dourado sank. That’s not exactly a secret. Neither is the location of its sinking.”
“What do you not get?” Maddock asked.
“Maxie was after the Dourado. Why don’t the guys who are following us just try to beat us to the ship? What do we have that they need?” He tossed the stack of papers onto the table and sat back. Hands folded behind his head, he looked up at the ceiling and sighed loudly. “It’s enough to make a guy crave a bottle of Jose.”
“Not a chance, pal.” Maddock didn’t like Bones when he drank tequila. In fact, Bones didn’t like Bones when he downed too much Jose Cuervo. The big man did not reply.
“It’s a good question, though,” Maddock mused. “Maybe they don’t know what they’re looking for.”
“Why would that matter?” Bones asked.
“Think about what we know of the Dourado,” Maddock said, turning the details over in his mind as he spoke. “The wreck turned up some distance from where it sank, with very little of the cargo remaining. Obviously, everything inside the ship spilled out over the course of several miles. There must ha
ve been something special about this one object that made Maxie believe he could find it.”
Bones sat in silent contemplation for a minute.
Kaylin looked up from her work, a thoughtful expression on her face. She seemed about to say something, but then shook her head and returned her attention to her task.
“All right,” Bones said. “We almost have to assume you’re right. Nothing else has made sense so far. If that’s the case, then what is it about this object that would make him, or us for that matter, believe that we could find it?” He folded his arms across his chest and fixed Maddock with a challenging stare.
Maddock had wrestled with this question since reading Rienzi’s journal two days earlier. It was crazy to believe they could find a single object that had lain on the seabed for almost two hundred years. But he knew, without a doubt, that Hartford Maxwell was anything but crazy. If Maxie thought something could be done, it most likely was quite possible, if not probable.
“It could be a very large object,” Maddock said. “Something he could have hoped to find with sonar.”
“Like what? A statue?” Bones shook his head. “It could be buried in silt, maybe pitted and misshapen, grown over with all kinds of organisms. It’s possible, but I don’t like the odds.”
“It’s not totally out of the question that the cargo could be found, is it?” Kaylin asked, looking up again from her reading. “I remember reading about the discovery of some Roman artifacts. When the ship started taking on water, the crew threw things overboard in an effort to stay afloat. Underwater archaeologists were able to trace the ship’s path by the trail of relics scattered across the seabed.”
“That was in deep water,” Bones protested. “The water between Singapore and Bintan is relatively shallow in most places. Storms and currents have more effect on shallow water wrecks than they do in deep water. There’s a good chance there’s nothing left of it.” He paused for a moment, stroking his chin, his brown eyes narrowed. “Still, you’re right. It’s not out of the question.”
“Okay,” Maddock said. “Let’s explore a completely different line of thinking. What if whoever is after us only knows that Maxie was on to something big, but they don’t know what? The fake journal he planted probably wouldn’t have mentioned anything about Rienzi or the Dourado. They might have discovered right away that the information was no good, and come after Kaylin to get the real story.”
“That could be.” Bones’ frown indicated that he was not satisfied with Maddock’s idea. “But they’re coming at us awfully hard for something they know very little about.”
“The information from Jimmy said that the church was ready to excommunicate Rienzi over the ramifications of whatever it was he claimed to have found. We also know from the journal that even the scholars of the day rejected his claims, whatever they were.” Maddock chose his words carefully. “What if the implications of this discovery would be just as controversial today as they were back then?”
“Too many what-ifs for me,” Bones groaned, rubbing his temples. “I just don’t see…”
“Look at this!” Kaylin’s soft voice trembled with excitement. She had returned to her examination of Rienzi’s Bible. Maddock and Bones leaned toward her. Her slender finger was pointing to a single word, “vraiment,” written in the margin next to an underlined passage.
“What does that mean?” Bones asked. “Sounds like some kind of stinky cheese.”
“It means ‘truly,’ or ‘truthfully,’” Maddock answered, drawing a raised eyebrow from Kaylin. “I took high school French. Good way to meet hot girls.”
Kaylin narrowed her eyes and fixed him with a withering stare. When she was annoyed, she reminded Maddock a little bit of Melissa. Melissa… he was definitely not going to travel down that road right now. It was almost sad how easily he could push those thoughts away these days.
“Listen to the passage Rienzi underlined. Kaylin’s knuckles whitened as she tightened her grip on the book. “And the priest said, ‘The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod, if you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.’ And David said, ‘There is none like it; give it to me.’” She slammed the Bible closed, dropped it hard on the table and smiled triumphantly.
“So he likes Goliath’s sword,” Bones said.
“Wait a minute!” Maddock snatched Rienzi’s journal off the table and flipped to the last page. He read aloud, “I will say only that truly, there is none like it.”
Bones whistled between his front teeth. “Son of a… Do you think he might have…”
“He found Goliath’s sword,” Kaylin said. She held the aged Bible in trembling hands. “That’s what Dad was after. It would stand to reason. Rienzi was the first to rediscover those ancient cities in the Holy Land. Why wouldn’t he find biblical artifacts?”
“The sword of Goliath.” Bones said the words slowly as if trying them on for size. “I don’t know anything about it.”
“Jimmy can run it through NAILS,” Maddock said. “Right now, we need to get ready for a dive.”
Chapter 7
Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, was an odd blend of modern and traditional. The city of more than a million people bustled with activity. Food carts intermingled with modern offices and clubs lined the banyan-shaded streets. Historic monuments and lush, green parks were sprinkled throughout the busy city. Even the skyline mixed the old and the new, boasting minarets and modern skyscrapers. Up ahead the Petronas Twin Towers loomed in the distance, and farther still, the Kuala Lumpur Tower, the world’s seventh tallest free-standing tower. It was undeniably a beautiful and unique city.
Maddock and Kaylin made their way on foot along a traffic-choked street. Despite the oppressive heat, he felt energized by the surroundings. He always felt at home in a tropical climate.
“Something smells good,” Kaylin said as they passed one of the food vendors.
“Maybe after our appointment.” Maddock consulted his watch. They were scheduled to meet with a Dr. Tengku at the Muzium Negara, Malaysia’s national museum.
“You’re no fun,” Kaylin said. “I want to come back here when we actually have time to be tourists.”
Maddock noted her use of the word “we” but didn’t have time to contemplate its meaning if any. It had been no mean feat to arrange transportation, as well as the needed ship and equipment, without drawing the attention of the people who were looking for Kaylin They had made the arrangements through a friend of a friend: one who asked few questions. An old Navy buddy had arranged transportation for the group on a cargo plane. No tickets were required, and thus no record of their flight. Maddock, Bones, and Kaylin had been careful not to use their credit cards, or do anything that might give away their whereabouts or their destination. Perhaps he was being paranoid, but his instincts told him to play it safe.
They skirted the edge of the Perdana Lake Gardens, Kuala Lumpur’s version of Central Park. Up ahead, the museum came into view. The steep, double-roofed main structure was flanked on either side by twin wings.
“This is a beautiful example of Rumah Gadang architecture,” Kaylin said.
“Good thing Bones isn’t here. You’d be treated to a parody version of “Blue Moon.”
“What’s that?” She cocked her head and frowned.
“You know: ‘ba ba bom ba ba Rumah Gadang…’” he sang in a deep voice.
“I’m beginning to think you and Bones are more alike than you’d care to admit.”
“Maybe so, but it’s only because he’s rubbed off on me over the years. We hated each other during the first phase of SEAL training.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep. Even got into a fight. Which I won, though Bones will tell you differently.” He couldn’t help but smile at the memory. It was hard to believe there had been a time when he and Bones weren’t friends.
“How’d you work that out?” she asked.
&n
bsp; “That was your dad’s doing. He sent us on vacation. But that’s a long story.”
They reached the museum, paid their entry fee, and asked after Dr. Tengku, who came out right away to welcome them.
Dr. Tengku was a short, round-faced man with dark skin and hair. He wore a polyester blue suit so cheap that Maddock was surprised it didn’t melt in the Malaysian heat. He greeted them with a moist handshake and ushered them into a tiny office decorated with model ships and Jimmy Buffett paraphernalia.
“Nice digs,” Maddock said “I live in Key West, you know.”
“Not many Parrotheads in Kuala Lumpur,” Tengku said. “It gets lonesome sometimes but at least I’m unique.”
“Thank you for seeing us,” Maddock said. “We won’t take much of your time. I understand you have an interest in ships and shipwrecks.”
Tengku nodded. “It’s merely a hobby but it’s something I’m interested in. How can I help you?”
“We have similar interests. We are researching a ship that sank somewhere in this part of the world almost two hundred years ago.”
“And which ship would that be?”
“The Dourado.”
A flicker of recognition shone in Tengku’s eyes and he smiled. “I have heard of that one. It’s a mystery.” He turned, removed a thick volume from a nearby shelf, and thumbed through it. Maddock didn’t recognize the language, but it wasn’t English.
“Here we are. Sank in 1829.” He read the entry aloud to them. Unfortunately, it contained no information they didn’t already have.
“Dr. Tengku,” Kaylin began as he closed the book, “is there anything at all you can tell us about the wreck? Any artifacts at a been recovered? Any legends surrounding the sinking?”
Tengku shook his head. “I’m afraid the only legend surrounding that particular shipwreck is a far-fetched one.”