“Of course there is.” Aliana decided she hadn’t met a more infuriating person.
“The map depicts the scepter buried in a cave twenty-two miles, precisely, north of where the Mahogany Ship was left. There are a number of other markers used to identify the treasure, but the most important of all markers, is the exact location of the Mahogany Ship. Mr. Robertson made certain that it would never be found by accident, and when he returned to retrieve the Ark, he attempted to destroy the ship by burning it. Years later, when others came across the ship, it was found blackened – thus the mistaken presumption that the ship was built of the dark mahogany.”
“So, if Mr. Robertson returned for the Ark, wouldn’t it now be somewhere else?”
“No. You see, as luck would have it for you and me, Jack Robertson had a rather criminal past. And he was about to pay for a crime he’d committed more than twenty years earlier, while still living in England,” James said. “The story goes, Jack, once a highwayman and murderer, had been paid by Lord Dickson Mills, one of the richest men in England at the turn of the 19th century, to murder his wife, Mary, who he’d suspected had been having an affair. Only when Jack shot the woman, in cold blood, he realized that he had entered the wrong room, very nearly killing the man’s daughter, Lady Rose, instead. Like a fool, he’d stayed to try and save the young girl’s life, until someone came and he was forced to flee for his life.”
“That’s some history. Is that why he left for Australia, to escape?”
“Yes, before he was hanged. Now, when he left aboard the Emily Rose, a man by the name of John Langham followed. This was the man who was having an affair with Lady Mary Mills. Feeling responsible, the man had made a vow to hunt down the man and bring him to justice – and justice meant death. Through unknown and unlikely events, Jack Robertson, John Langham and Dawson Mills, Lord Mill’s only son, were the only three survivors of the wreckage of the Emily Rose who would ever reach Sydney Cove. Of the three, only John realized their strange past connection. On his death bed, he wrote to Rose asking her for forgiveness for failing in his promise to avenge her, and describing how he’d come to forgive the man who had injured her.”
“Lady Rose was less than forgiving?”
“Exactly, Lady Rose, now grown up, and having survived both her parents and her brother, had little left in her life than to kill the man whom she’d imagined had taken them all away from her. Having inherited a fortune, she sailed to the foundling Australia, and followed Jack until he reached his treasure. There, she killed him. In a strange whim, Jack had cut the raft which housed the Ark and let the treasure disappear into the tunnel forever.”
Aliana, engrossed by the sad story, looked up and asked, “How did you come by so much of this history?”
“Because Lady Rose looked at the treasure map that Jack had been carrying on him. Three leather parts, stitched together and marked John, Jack, and Dawson – the three names of the survivors of the Emily Rose. Men whose lives were destined to be entwined in love and hatred. She couldn’t believe it. She took it home, and never told anyone about any of it, until, on her own deathbed, she wrote it all down, with the inclusion of the map.”
“But how did you come to learn of it?”
James then opened a plastic folder, which showed the old map, worn, but still intact. “This map, my great, great grandmother found, after she killed Jack Robertson.”
*
Aliana’s cell phone rang.
She looked down at it – a private number – and answered, “Aliana speaking.”
“Aliana, we just got Sam out!” She recognized Rodriguez’s voice. “I’m coming by now to pick you up.”
“That’s great! Thanks.”
Aliana then looked at James, “Now, how do you want to do this?”
James grabbed the keys to an old, beat up, Holden Utility. “Come on, I better take you to my place.”
*
James was just starting to enjoy his new ride, a 1970s Holden Utility. Noticeably less flashy than what he was used to, it was built before the Environmental Protection Agencies got hold of the motor industry, and it came equipped with an 8-cylinder, 6-liter, leaded petrol engine – all power, and no handling.
Sam, he knew, would hate it.
Around ten miles out of town, he got out to open the gate so that he could drive into the farm where he was staying. An old, 1890 homestead rested on the hill at the end of the dirt road. Its roof, rusty corrugated iron, and its walls built of rock and timber, it had obviously seen better days. He had no doubt he was the first to rent it in more than a decade. James looked at Aliana, “This is my place.”
“You’ve been staying here?”
“Of course. Why, don’t you think I can do it tough?”
“Sure, I don’t doubt you could – but it’s not your normal style, is it?” she said
James laughed at that. “My son’s told you a bit about me, hasn’t he?” She nodded her head. “Well, I might like a somewhat decadent lifestyle these days, but you’d be surprised what I’ve lived through to get here.”
Judging by her face, James thought Aliana most likely would have been very much surprised. He parked the car and the two walked up the old sandstone steps and into the house.
Inside, the house looked entirely unlived in. Covers were still over the furniture, and a pile of dust seemed to cover the entire place.
James opened up his laptop, and said, “Here’s the current satellite picture of the entrance to the mine.”
The steel hatch, seen in previous images, was now covered with soil and fresh grass had been laid over the top of it, making it literally disappear.
“At least they’ve left the place alone,” she said, her voice soft. “We should be able to get through easily enough. They never would have filled the hole. Michael will want to return for his gold, at some stage – it shouldn’t be too hard to find him.”
“Don’t get too excited. Look over there,” James pointed to the camouflaged Armored Patrol Vehicle, nearly buried in a ditch no more than fifty feet from the entrance to the shaft.
Her eyes were despondent, but not beaten.
“What did you expect? Michael’s got more than ten million dollars’ worth of Spanish gold down there. He’s not going to leave it around for just anyone.”
“So, now what? Can we destroy that APC?”
“We could do that…” James smiled, as though he was genuinely considering it. “I think I have a better idea, one which won’t give away our hand quite so much. A slow win is sometimes more satisfying.”
“And what’s that?”
“We’re going to rescue my son, and then we’re going to steal Michael’s treasure.”
“Now you’re talking…”
“And after that, we’re going to make Michael pay by beating him to his ambition.”
“How are we going to do that?”
“By locating the real Mahogany Ship.”
Alana looked at the topographical map of the surrounding area. “That tunnel is almost 500 feet below the surface, we’re going to need a lot more equipment to rescue Sam…”
“That’s already covered.”
“What’s your plan?”
At that moment, the window sill started to vibrate as the ground shook, and despite the pale blue sky outside, the sound of thunder could be heard.
James smiled and stepped outside.
An enormous military helicopter approached, the twin rotors of the Chinook turning the dry land into a dust storm.
“And here come our reinforcements.”
*
Tom shut down the engine, and casually stepped out of the helicopter. He looked at James Reilly sitting on the front porch of a big old homestead, a local beer in his hand and a beautiful blonde by his side. The old man had a smile on his face that radiated sheer delight. It could have been the company of the beautiful woman next to him, or the fact that he was on an adventure with real value for the first time in years.
It t
ook a second for Tom to recognize the stunning creature as Aliana. He hadn’t expected her to be there. No one had told him that she knew anything about this.
“It’s good to see you again, Aliana,” Tom said, as he kissed her on the cheek.
Throwing her long, slender body around him with a solid embrace, she replied, “You have no idea how good it is to see you here. Thanks for coming.”
“You’re welcome. If I’d known that you were stuck here, alone with this man, I would have come to your rescue sooner.”
“Hey, don’t you think for a second that I can’t hear you, Tom,” James said. “You want a beer?”
“I’m only kidding, James. Sure, I’ll have a beer.” Tom grinned mischievously, “Have you found Sam, yet?”
Aliana, brought up the satellite display of the now covered mine shaft, “This is what remains of the mineshaft, and this is an image nearly 50 miles away, where they say that they were working when Sam disappeared. So, it’s safe to say that this is where he is,” she said pointing to the now hidden hatch. “What we don’t know is how we’re going to get him out of there.”
“On my flight from Los Angeles here, I had time to look at the maps of the tunnels that Sam had already made. I’ve then superimposed those with the land above, based on this topographical map.” Tom opened up the satellite images of the surrounding landscapes. “As you can see, there is very little in the way of rivers above ground anywhere near here, but if you travel 60 miles north, you can see the Dharuk river flows strong for hundreds of miles and then seems to just disappear into the side of a mountain. As we all know, rivers have to go somewhere. When you look at Sam’s underground maps, you can see that this third tunnel, the largest of the five mapped underground waterways that he’s explored, it appears to keep coming from the north. That’s less than 10 miles from the end of where his initial search reached.”
“We still have no way of knowing that those two rivers are one and the same,” James pointed out.
“Not certain, but look at this.” Tom clicked another button, and a third image joined the picture. This one was created using prediction software, designed to determine future sizes of the flow of water, based on previous size and strength.
“They’re the same river!” Aliana agreed.
“Either that, or just a very close neighbor,” James acknowledged.
“Just one question,” Aliana said.
“What’s that?” Tom replied.
“How are we going to bridge that 10-mile gap?”
“That’s simple… I wasn’t sure how far we were going, so I brought the MOLE.”
Chapter Sixteen
The small team arrived at the edge of the Dharuk River early the following morning. Aliana watched as Tom drove the mole out of the back of the enormous helicopter. To her, it looked more like something a kid would draw to highlight a bad science fiction story or cover of an eighties era comic book. At the front of the vehicle, a large tunneling device gave it the strange appearance of the nose of a mole, whereas the large tank tracks, reaching the same distance below and above the machine, gave it the odd appearance of large claws. Two windows built inside the tank tracks were the only signs that people might actually be able to fit inside the machine.
Aliana was surprised by how silently it ran, being electrically powered for underwater use. Tom then advised her that the device was capable of floating and submarining in water, and could tunnel through significant amounts of rock.
“What do you think of my girl?” Tom asked.
“I’d say, by the looks of her, that you have an interesting taste in women.”
Tom unlocked and then opened the watertight trunk of the mole. A small armory appeared, including plastic explosives and four high powered handguns equipped with silencers.
James’ left eyebrow raised in surprise, “You take those on a lot of diving trips with my boy, do you?”
“I wasn’t taking any chances, this time.”
James took the first Glock out, removed the silencer, emptied the cartridge, and then replaced the rounds, before adeptly reassembling it again. “Looks okay.” He then pointed it at an old tin can, forty feet away, and fired five rounds. “Seems to fire straight,” he said.
Tom walked towards the remains of the rusty old can. There were four holes all in a grouping no more than a couple inches in total. “Four out of five isn’t bad, James.” Tom said. “I’m impressed.”
James confidently walked up to him and snatched the can out of his hand. Holding it up to the sunlight he pointed out that the fifth shot was so close to the fourth that it almost went through the exact same hole – the tiniest of marks on the side of the hole indicating that it was indeed hit by the fifth bullet.
“Five out of five. Just wait till I tell Sam his old man’s a better shot. You can shoot, that’s for sure,” Tom said.
James scrunched up his face, like he was ready to hit someone.
“Of course I can shoot. I’ve been a dedicated Republican all my life,” James replied, as though that explained everything.
“Talking about weapons, what do you know about Billie?” Tom asked.
“Billie?”
“Billie Swan. The marine archeologist.”
“Oh Bill! She and Sam have a history…”
“You mean they dated?”
“No, it’s much more complex than that. With dating you sometimes have the chance of one day getting married and then hopefully later getting divorced. What Billie and Sam have is something more definite. Why do you ask?”
“She brought a high powered pistol and silencer to the Mayan site we discovered in the Gulf of Mexico.”
James smiled. “I knew I liked that girl.”
“Yes, well she decided not to kill me, so it begs the question, why did she take it in the first place?”
“I have an idea about that, but I think Sam could better explain it.”
Aliana stood up from the log she’d been sitting on. A half-eaten apple in her hand, Aliana decided she’d heard enough. “Are we going to go find Sam or wait around talking about him?”
“Good point, Aliana,” James said, “Rodriguez and his men might just go down the mineshaft, any minute now, having likely guessed that you were on to him.”
“That’s great,” Tom said, pulling out a rocket launcher from the back of the mole. “So we can expect company down there.”
*
The heavy mole floated surprisingly well, considering it more closely resembled a tank than a boat. Along the front steel wall, two monitors displayed both the digital imaging from outside as though it were a windscreen, and on the other side, radar and high frequency sonar images.
Tom adeptly steered the craft using the pedals, like those on an aircraft, with his feet to move the rudder that dragged behind the craft. Each hand gripped the individual throttle controlling the left and right tank tracks.
“Everyone have their seatbelts on?” he asked.
Aliana double checked her five-point seatbelt, and then said, “Are you expecting us to need them?”
Tom smile reassuringly. “Not at all, just a safety kind of guy, that’s all.”
The pace of the river picked up speed as the mole approached the opening to the cave system. Sitting next to Tom, Aliana leaned forward and asked, “How sure are you that we’re not just about to go off some sort of waterfall?”
James gripped her shoulder from behind and warmly said, “Oh, he doesn’t, but it’s reasonably unlikely, wouldn’t you say, Tom?”
“It’s all right Aliana. I’ve taken into account the possible differences in depth of the river. There’s less than ten feet of movement between this river and the subterranean river system from Sam’s map,” Tom said.
“And what if we’re wrong about these two rivers being one and the same?”
“Then, we’re in trouble,” James said, sardonically.
Tom threw the tank tracks into reverse, slowing their progression down the river to a meagre crawl, and
said, “Don’t worry, we’ll be safe.”
Entering the dark cave system, Tom flicked on the massive overhead LEDs, flooding the entire area with light. Small ripples flittered where the river approached the end of the large cave, before turning a slight corner and then disappearing into an unknown world.
Moving forward at a crawling pace, Tom had an ominous feeling he knew just where that water at the end of the tunnel was disappearing to. “Anyone want to guess where our river just went?”
He could see the whites of Aliana’s knuckles as she gripped the stability bar hard in front of her. “I have an idea I’m not going to like it!”
And then the mole lurched forward, as it entered the first set of rapids.
Skipping over the smaller rapids as they approached the end of the tunnel and slicing through the larger ones, the current picked up considerable pace, until Tom was forced to leave the tank tracks idling. The tracks were no longer able to produce enough force to overcome the flow of the river, leaving them bounding down the river, mostly out of control, like a heavy raft.
At the end of the river, the tunnel veered sharply to the left and the ride become more violent, as the entire river turned white with froth, causing the mole to bob up and down in rapids as large as five feet high.
At its narrowest point ahead, the river was surging and plunging down the inside of the mountain. “Here comes that waterfall you were asking about,” Tom said. “Hold on everyone!”
The mole dropped five feet into the first rock pool with a giant splash as the entire craft became submerged before bobbing out to the surface again.
Out the window to his left, Tom could see that the mole was only just floating above the surface of the whitewash. It floated there for a few seconds, being pulled slightly backwards by the flow of water pouring in behind them, before becoming caught in the downward hydraulics of the river, and pulled off the next ledge.
James laughed, like a kid on a ride, “Here we go again!”
The mole dropped off the second into another rock pool. This time, the unnatural flow of the large river spun the mole around in a clockwise motion.
The Sam Reilly Collection Page 42