“The Magdalena was loaded with treasures of immense value.”
“And, you think the Mahogany Ship wasn’t?”
“It may have been once, but by the time the first westerners arrived in Australia and laid their eyes upon it, the treasures were long gone, or else stolen.”
Tom pushed back from the table. Not a scrap of pizza remained. “What about the Spanish coin?”
“There may be a treasure chest worth of Spanish gold coins, but that sort of money isn’t anything worth interesting a man like Rodriguez about. I mean this guy has personal worth in excess of 25 billion U.S. dollars. He has no family, making him unencumbered, as well as one of the richest individuals on the planet.”
Tom wasn’t convinced. “In my meagre experience of treasure hunting, things that stay missing have a way of making people go crazy with desire and lust. Have you considered why such a billionaire is even interested in the damn ship?”
“He already told me. It’s a matter of national pride. He wants to prove that one of Magellan’s ships was the first to find Australia.”
A concerned frown marred Tom’s face.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”
“Okay, but I’m going to need an archeologist to get a better idea of what we’ve found,” Tom said.
“I agree, and I’ve already contacted just the right one.”
“Really? Who?”
“Bill – one of the best archeologists alive. I’ve wanted Bill on board with Deep Sea Expeditions ever since my dad suggested the program years ago. I’ve already made the call... Bill will be here in the morning.”
“William? What’s his last name?”
“No, it’s just Bill.”
Tom racked his mind to recall where he’d heard that name before, but he didn’t think he had. Somehow, Sam had never mentioned a man named Bill.
*
Michael Rodriguez smiled as he examined the list of requirements for his special project. It was long, detailed, and expensive. None of which mattered to him. Sam had asked him for the day to think about what would be required, and if he could leave his crew to help manage their current project.
Precisely two hours after being returned to the Maria Helena, he had written back with his demands. He wondered how Sam had procured such an extensive list in such a short time.
Yes, I’ve found just the right person to serve my needs, Michael mused.
Chapter Seven
The massive, purpose built cargo jet landed at Sydney International Airport with a rough jolt. It was technically an Airbus A380, but despite the original airframe, it resembled a supersized military cargo jet, crossed with the extravagant luxuries more often associated with a Columbian drug lord.
Sam’s eyes caught the sun from outside the window, and he turned his head to avoid it.
“Is it nice to be home, Mr. Reilly?” Rodriguez asked.
“Home? No, I was born stateside. This is my mother’s country… but it does feel like home, sometimes,” Sam replied. “Now that we’re here, are you going to tell me where you discovered that Spanish coin?”
“In some hills, west of a country town called Bendigo. Customs will clear us shortly, and then we will be on our way.”
Fifteen minutes later the ship was back in the air.
“You bribed customs?” Sam mused.
The Spaniard smirked. “No, of course not, but men of means have their ways.”
An hour later, the A380 landed on the small dirt runway, near Bendigo. It was a feat Rodriguez had told him cost him millions in engineering modifications to reduce the landing and takeoff distance for the monstrous aircraft to less than an average Airbus.
Even so, the massive aircraft used up every inch of the tiny runway, whose owners could have never predicted that such a mammoth plane would ever have need of it.
The engines, thrown into reverse to assist in braking, threw giant plumes of dirt up into the air, before the expert pilots turned her at the end of the runway. The aircraft then made its way along an open field to the side of the runway and made its final stop. It would sit in the open for the next few weeks.
Sam casually strolled down the plane’s automatic stairs.
A rusty sign read ‘Welcome to Bendigo.’
At the rear of the aircraft, the giant loading ramp below the high-mounted tail was retracted. More than ten tons of dive equipment, cables, and drills were already being loaded onto the five Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG SUV six-wheel drives. Each vehicle was then driven off the aircraft.
Sam walked toward the cars.
This was the sort of flamboyant finesse that his father would put on such a vehicle. He had requested a robust four-wheel drive SUV for use on this trip, given the location of the drill site. But only Rodriguez and his own father would have purchased five million-dollar plus luxury SUVs, which looked more like military hardware.
Still, he couldn’t help but admire their raw beauty.
“Do you like them?” Rodriguez asked.
“Certainly. What’s not to like? It’s a sports car, built for a battlefield.”
“And the Australian bush is a battlefield. Come, let me take you for a drive.”
Sam sat in the driver’s seat of the massive SUV. The steering wheel was on the left hand side, having been built for Americans, but that wouldn’t cause any problem where they were headed. The front windscreen was raw in its vertical beauty, and not only bulletproof, but it was Pilkington blast resistant glass.
Rodriguez directed Sam out of the town, towards the east. After ten minutes the blacktop road turned to dirt. Another ten minutes later and any semblance of road disappeared completely, only to be replaced by the rugged bushland of his mother’s land.
Sam put his foot down and the brutal 5.5 liter, bi-turbo V8 roared into life.
The bush was dry, and large eucalyptus trees spotted the otherwise barren horizon. After an hour’s drive, Rodriguez pointed toward a hill in the distance.
“It’s up there?” Sam asked.
“I know what you’re thinking. The cave system is obviously below the height of the mountain, but that’s where we found the Spanish ducat.”
Sam looked around at the barren mountain in the distance. “Strange place for the Mahogany Ship to finally rest.”
He then drove up the hill.
A large tent had been set up to house the exploratory equipment. It looked out of place in the dry, barren land.
A single man emerged from the tent and watched them, his hands in his pockets.
Sam parked the big truck, waited a moment for the red dust to settle, then he and Michael got out.
“G’day. My name’s Frank Edwards,” the man said, striding up to Sam with his hand outstretched. The stranger was noticeably shorter than average, with thick arms, and a large beard concealing his face. It gave him the appearance of one of Tolkien’s Dwarven miners.
“Pleased to be working with you,” Frank said, gripping Sam’s hand firmly. “I read about your exploits with the lost airship, the Magdalena.”
*
Sam Reilly stared down the dark hole in the ground.
It looked unnatural in the otherwise rugged Australian bushland. Just slightly wider than his shoulders, it was far too deep for Sam’s gaze to reach its black ending. The entrance had been reinforced with concrete and steel. Below every foot, a reinforced iron ring supported the earthworks behind, forming a natural ladder. It looked professionally built, as he would have expected from the mining operation that built it.
Frank gulped a drink from his water bottle, and then offered it to Sam. “After our first core sample returned the Spanish coin, we decided to drill a larger one so that we could reach the cave system below. You can imagine how excited we were. Particularly after I had contacted Mr. Rodriguez and he’d brought up the mystery of the Mahogany Ship. We really half expected to breach the opening and find the ship intact.”
Sam stepped back from the hatch, unable to see any further. “And once yo
u reached it?”
“Then we found a cavern made out of limestone, which appears to form the entrance of a maze of underground water systems, so enormous that…” Frank stopped, failing to find the right description and then said, “You’ll just have to see it for yourself, mate. I can brief you better once we get down there.”
“Okay, so how deep is this thing?” Sam asked.
“Five hundred feet, but the cavern opens nearly 50 feet earlier.”
“And at the bottom of the cavern, is it dry?”
“No, the entire cavern is flooded, approximately halfway up, but there’s plenty of evidence that the height of the water has risen and fallen many times before.”
“How can you tell?”
“Byron, our geologist, noted that the rock formations on the walls have hundreds of lines within them, spreading from the very submerged ground, through to the surface high above the water line. Most likely indicating the changing erosion of limestone via the flowing river,” Rodriguez explained.
“So, it’s safe to say that the Spanish coin didn’t sink through 450 feet of soil to reach the cavern. Therefore, it must have entered at a point further upstream, where the difference between the surface and the underground waterway is smaller.” Sam said out loud, speaking to no one in particular. “And if that cavern is a hundred feet high, then it’s conceivable that the Mahogany Ship, if that is indeed where the Spanish coin once originated, may be further upstream.”
“Let’s go have a look then, shall we?” Frank said, as he pressed the green button hanging from a cable that dangled inside the mineshaft, “After you, Sam. It’s only big enough for one person at a time. Byron’s already down there. He will look after you once you’re at the bottom.”
Sam peered over the side again and spotted it.
The miner’s elevator – a makeshift, cable driven device, used to gain vertical access down the narrow shaft – stopped at the surface, ready to take on passengers. It was a ten-minute journey to where a team of miners had already constructed a large work platform, from which to base their expeditions.
Sam stepped onto the steel platform of the miner’s elevator as it reached the surface, “I’ll see you at the bottom, shortly, shall I?”
“I’ll start loading some of the equipment you brought and meet you down there soon,” Rodriguez said. “Frank will follow and bring you up to speed with where the underground operation is progressing.”
The dry heat of the Australian outback disappeared along with all external light as Sam began the long descent. After several minutes, the shaft opened up to a massive cavern, and a large grin came across Sam’s face at what he saw.
Four large spotlights had been bolted into the walls and were projecting light around the room, allowing the enormity of the cavern to be fully visualized. Not quite as large as the one that held the Magdalena for 75 years, the cavern commanded a similar interest over his imagination. Below, the water lapped around the newly constructed work platform, which was approximately 50 feet in length by 20 feet wide. At the southern end, a small computer station had been set up, and three laptops displayed geophysical information.
These people aren’t amateurs… but why then do they need my help?
The water was flowing, but without any tremendous strength. It would be easy enough to dive. There were five tunnels through which water fed into the cavern and only one out of which it drained. Taking a cursory glance at it, Sam could see that only two tunnels were large enough for a ship to travel, but that didn’t mean that the ship wasn’t stuck further up one of the smaller tunnels. On the platform a man prepared dive equipment.
Sam pressed the red button on the lift controller and it came to an abrupt halt, approximately half a foot from the work platform, causing him to nearly slip.
“Welcome to the Mahogany Cavern. My name is Byron.”
“Mahogany Cavern?”
“It’s just what Mr. Rodriguez named it when the coin was found here.”
“He’s quite convinced, isn’t he?” Sam eyed the man in front of him. He was clean shaven, with thick glasses.
“That we’re going to find the Mahogany Ship? Yes. He says he had a hunch when we first found the coin, and then metallurgy analysis placed it around the same time that Magellan’s ship would have been in this vicinity.” Frank shrugged his shoulders. “In my experience, Mr. Rodriguez’s hunches are always right. If it came anywhere near here, we’ll find it.”
“Time will tell whether or not it was a myth or something much more interesting, after all,” Sam replied, with an indifference that he didn’t feel. “So, there are five entrances and one exit?”
“No, actually, there are five entrances and two exits… one of them is far below the water line… come around to the computer station and I’ll bring you up to speed with what we have discovered so far. We’ve had three men down here including Mr. Rodriguez, who has told me he wants to be involved every step of the way. You’ve already met Frank – he’s our drilling engineer. And then there’s me. Senior geologist for Rodriguez Mining Inc. You now make the fourth person who even knows of its existence.”
“You guys look pretty set up here. All of you must be used to working in similar environments. Why doesn’t Mr. Rodriguez bring in a full scale team and mine this ship? Why me?”
“It’s a good question. I’m surprised Mr. Rodriguez didn’t talk to you about it before you came. The land that we drove through to reach this shaft is private property. It’s farming land – cattle to be precise. We haven’t purchased the license to mine here, because with the exception of the gold coin, our exploratory core samples show no gold deposits. As far as the government’s concerned, this is still an exploratory expedition. You, my friend, are the fourth person who even knows of the existence of that Spanish coin.”
“Couldn’t he get a grant to dig specifically for the Mahogany Ship? I know that the Victorian government, seeking to find the answer to the mystery, offered $200,000 to anyone who could locate the remains of the ship. I’m certain they would offer exploration rights for that purpose.”
“Yes, but it would take months, if not years, to get around the bureaucracy. Outsiders would come in and take over. Besides, it’s going to become complex. You see, the land above us is on the corner of three separate properties. Depending on which tunnel our mysterious ship lies in, we’re going to have some difficult negotiations. But if we can continue as an exploratory team, for which we already own the rights, and then come across the Mahogany Ship in all its remaining glory, then…”
“You’re merely a mining corporation that is now helping bring a name to the local community.”
“Right, you’ve got it. So, you see, we can’t just go around blasting our way through these tunnels, pumping out the million plus gallons of water in the process. We need an expert cave diver, with experience in treasure hunting.”
“I wouldn’t call myself a treasure hunter, but I’ve been involved in a few expeditions to find lost wrecks over the years. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in finding the Mahogany Ship, so here’s to hoping that your boss’s luck hasn’t run out just yet.” Sam smiled. “All right, now down to work. Let’s see what you have explored so far.”
Byron slid his hand across his laptop screen four times, revealing a new system, “This is a geological scan of the cavern and tunnels that we’ve reached so far. Using ground penetrating radar, the computer has been able to predict size and shapes of the tunnels. The red arrows show the direction of water flow.”
Sam looked at the screen, which displayed a map that looked more like an ant's nest than a cave. There were five tunnels in and two out. Two of the tunnels looked quite detailed, with the map going nearly a mile down each of them. The rest of the tunnels stopped for no apparent reason within a hundred feet.
“You’ve explored the first two tunnels, is that right?”
“Yeah, we can set the SONAR up at the entrance of each new tunnel, but it only works based on line of
sight, so we need to physically move it further up the tunnel to capture each new section.”
“And the other three tunnels?”
“Five tunnels, you mean?”
“No, three tunnels. At this stage, we’re working on the theory that the gold must have come from further up the tunnel, which is where we will find the Mahogany Ship, if it was ever here.”
“Okay, each of them are going to be a bit more trouble. You see, there, the tunnels open into more tunnels, which then open into yet more tunnels. To complicate things more, the tunnel depths change dramatically, both raising and dropping more than a hundred feet. At some sections, it’s wide like this cavern, but in others, it begins to narrow enough that you and I might only just reach our way through it. In other words, it’s going to be a cave diver’s nightmare.”
“No, this is the type of challenge we dream about, but it’s going to take some time.” It had already become clear to Sam that it could take years for a team of divers to explore this underwater labyrinth.
“Time that we don’t have,” Rodriguez said, as he came down the mine elevator.
“No, I understand that. So, we’re going to have to narrow our field of search a little.”
“And how do we do that?”
“Okay, I’ve laid eyes on her… now let’s get the rest of my equipment down here, and I’ll show you just how we’re going to solve this mystery.”
Chapter Eight
The Sea King helicopter dropped the new team of arrivals on the deck of the Maria Helena. Keeping its rotors turning as the passengers disembarked, the pilot took off again, as though the precious minutes it took to fully allow its rotors to cease spinning was too much. They were the latest of a set of arrivals who’d come to assist in their work uncovering the underground pyramid and its mysteries. It was the third flight in the past 24 hours, and the Maria Helena was starting to fill up, mostly with scientists, engineers and microbiologists.
Tom Bower shook his head.
It had never ceased to amaze him how much a man like Sam Reilly could obtain when he thought it was important. Even if, in this case, he was making certain that Michael Rodriguez was going to foot the bill for every piece of equipment that had arrived. But it wasn’t equipment that surprised him. It was the professionals who came. Each one the top of their respective field, they had been brutally poached from whatever expedition or project they had formally been working on and whisked from any location on earth to help.
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