Coastal Fury Boxset (1-3)

by Matt Lincoln

  Holm and I returned to our room maybe an hour later. He was smart enough to keep his yap shut for once.

  I spent part of the night planning the operation around the buy that was two mornings away. A long call with Diane Ramsey was a not-insignificant part of the process. It was only after the official work was done that I had time to plan the dive. Work before play, or something like that which was probably why Holm was asleep long before I hit the pillow.

  That was fine, though. After all, we only had one chance to get it right, and even with the area narrowed down, the search area was not small. Our chances of finding anything weren’t great. Our chances of having a great dive, however, looked damned fine.

  We had to take two vehicles because everyone wanted to go. Our replacement rentals had arrived at the hotel with no questions asked, and I took the silver Toyota Rush. Holm, Luci, and Emily piled in with me. Birn and Muñoz took a blue Lancer EX that Holm made sure I ordered them.

  “You got us a fun car,” Muñoz observed. “Is this a consolation prize for Birn’s injury?”

  I grinned. “Sure, you can see it that way if you want.”

  The confused glance that passed between them made Holm laugh. He shook his head and got into the Rush with a sad little smile. Emily and Luci got comfy in the second-row leather seats.

  “Not a scratch,” Holm warned. “Not even one.”

  “What is with you two today?” Emily demanded. “You’re acting like kids.”

  “They’re going diving,” Luci said. She turned to Emily. “They were SEALs, so this is fun.”

  “You got it, Luci.” I laughed. “I wish you knew how to dive. Maybe we’ll be able to teach you someday.”

  Luci shook her head. “No, thank you. I’m happy staying above the tide.”

  Crap. I forgot what had happened to her in that small bay.

  “You don’t have to go out on the water,” I told her. “Birn can stay here with you.”

  She leaned forward through the seats. “I will not allow them to dictate my life,” she insisted. “I am not ready to swim, but I will go in a boat.”

  “You go, girl,” Emily chirped. She and Luci fist-bumped.

  Yeah, I did good matching those two up.

  The forty-five-minute drive took us inland and past their farms and a few villages. Barbados had some gorgeous countryside with lush, rolling hills that made me want to return for a vacation. There was a lot to explore that we didn’t have time for, and it was a shame. Then again, we were going diving in a few minutes. I could handle that.

  The next best thing to the reason for the dive was that Emily was going with us. I shouldn’t have been surprised when she told us the night before that she was fully certified.

  “Have you dove in rough currents?” I asked her. “The flow between the Hat and Claw might push us around a bit.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she assured us. “Besides, there’s a bar further out. I’m surprised Grendel risked the ship to get into the bay.”

  “Dragon’s Fang,” Holm suggested as we pulled into a small marina’s parking lot. “Pretty tempting for a guy like Mad Dog. He took the Dragon’s Rogue to piss a traitor out into an enemy’s bay, and he did it next to a rock named Dragon’s Fang. That’s some good symbology.”

  I hadn’t thought of that. Holm was right, though. Hell, if I were a pirate captain who wanted to flip the bird at a rival, I’d want to do it on that scale, too. As we got out of the Rush, I wondered how Sandy Red would know he’d been pissed on by Grendel.

  “Damn.” I stopped in my tracks. “Robbie, I bet he was here to take Red out.” I looked toward the water, where there was a rock formation not unlike the one in Sandy Red’s Bay. “When that didn’t work… Smithson must have spied for Red and tried to take something of Grendel’s.”

  Emily brightened. “It’s certainly possible. As far as Luci and I could find, Sandy Red dropped off the radar a year or so before the Rogue disappeared. Grendel might have dumped Smithson where they could see from Red’s ship.”

  Birn and Luci stayed outside while the rest of us went into the rental office I’d called before we left. Our destination wasn’t far by road, but on the water, we’d need a good boat to get where we were going. Jim Garvey, who looked like a retired Woodstock hippie, ran the place and had such a boat ready, as well as gear and extra tanks for four divers.

  “I got you all set up,” Jim said in an American accent. “Check your gear, everyone. Can’t do that enough. The pros will tell you that every time.”

  If only he knew. I kept an eye on Emily and was satisfied that she examined everything from her tanks to regulator to mask. Overall, I was impressed. Garvey kept his gear in great condition. We paid for everything and followed him to the boat.

  The Parker 2820 was twenty-eight-feet long, nine and a half wide. Birn and I took a close look at the twin outboard motors and the roomy deck. The cabin was enclosed with a door. A lot of dive boats were open, but this was a nice touch.

  “If the water gets rough, she’ll get you through it,” Jim said. He tugged at his graying beard. “This one’s my favorite. Try not to scratch her up.”

  I pretended my team and civilian guests weren’t laughing their asses off, set my jaw, and marched aboard. They got to load the equipment, and I took the captain seat to “supervise” their work. Dive gear, a camera, and two metal detectors all needed to be stowed onto the boat and still leave room for our group.

  “What is it about you?” Holm laughed. “I mean, dude, everyone thinks you’re going to damage their stuff.”

  I shrugged. “I guess they look and see the real me.”

  Emily glanced up for a moment and met my gaze with wide eyes. She realized I was looking back and then ran back for another oxygen tank to load onto the boat. Something was going on in her head, and I just couldn’t figure it out. I watched as she organized her own gear and chatted with Luci and the team members.

  This was the first chance I had to think about her sudden appearance in my life. I’d known her less than a week, and yet, I already considered her a friend. Luci, too, as she got bolder. I had no idea what Luci wanted to do after our mission was over, but I hoped the best for her. Holm seemed to want more time around her, also. If that was a thing brewing, I wasn’t about to get in the way.

  “Ethan, you’re being quiet,” Muñoz said as she took the other seat in the cabin. She looked out to the others and smiled. “Emily knows her stuff.”

  I nodded. “Seems so.”

  “Good head on her shoulders.”

  I wished Muñoz would shut up. As much as I wanted to date, the reality was that I didn’t have time to dedicate to anyone. My life was chaos.

  “Gotta be smart to teach history to a bunch of knuckleheads at college,” I offered. I got up and leaned out of the cabin door. “We ready?”

  Muñoz stayed in her seat and crossed her arms as the others checked in. Somehow, I wasn’t a bit surprised to see Luci sandwiched between Holm and Emily. Yeah, there was definitely a thing building there.

  I got the boat going and ignored Muñoz’s pointed stare until we were on open water. She looked everyone over and then shut the door.

  “Holm better not hurt Luci, and you better not hurt Emily,” Muñoz warned. “They are strong women, but Luci especially is vulnerable.”

  “Nobody’s dating anyone,” I protested, but she was having none of it.

  “Ethan, you can hardly take your eyes off of Emily when you’re around her,” Muñoz said in a soft voice.

  “I’ve barely thought about her since we’ve been here.” I waved off the notion. “If anything happens to her or Luci, it’s on my head. Of course, I keep an eye on them.”

  Muñoz gave a dry chuckle. “You haven’t had time to think about her. You’ve been busy since you got here, and now is the only time we’ve had to relax without worrying about blowing your cover.”

  I stared out at the sea as I steered the boat a hair south. Distant whitecaps and the hazy horizon remind
ed me of long tours at sea in my early career. Back then, women meant little more to me than as people to pass the time with. With my career track, long-term relationships weren’t a priority.

  Now that I was in my late thirties, things seemed different. I wasn’t itching to settle down, but I wasn’t opposed to the idea, either. Well, I wasn’t opposed all that much.

  “She deserves someone who’d be around when she needs them,” I told Muñoz as I opened the throttle a little. The Parker responded with a light surge in momentum. “I’m not that guy.”

  “That’s her call, don’t you think?”

  I looked out the cabin window at the content expression on Emily’s face. She saw me looking and gave a little wave. Someone spoke to her, and the moment was gone.

  “All I’m saying is don’t discount it,” Muñoz suggested. “Take her out after this mission is over. Spend some downtime, get to know her.”

  Those were all things I didn’t get to do with Tessa Bleu a few months earlier. We didn’t get nearly enough time before she returned to her life in New York City. A part of me wished she’d stayed, but the reality was that our lives were too different and too far apart. I looked back at Emily. Our lives were different, also, but we didn’t have an issue with distance.

  “We’ll see what happens,” I said in a noncommittal tone.

  Muñoz nodded and went out to be with the others. She left the cabin door open, but I had to focus on some chop that cropped up as we neared Sandy Red’s Bay. The map labeled it as Camdon Bay, but I liked the old name better.

  The twin rock formations became visible before long. Both rocks fit their names. Witch’s Hat, or Witch’s Tit, was somewhat conical, and water had carved a low, even edge over the eons it took to wear down the stone. Dragon’s Claw, or Dragon’s Fang, was more typical of a blocky karst hill, except for a hook at the top.

  I had to maneuver around the long rock wall that sheltered the bay before we got close to the formations.

  “I bet that was a natural bridge,” Emily called out. “It probably fell centuries before Europeans arrived. Maybe longer.”

  I eased off the throttle as we approached. Her theory held merit. The claw hook did point toward the hat. And the hat, well, it really did look more like a rounded breast with a tip where the bridge would have connected.

  “Hell of a formation,” I said as I guided us in.

  From the photos, I had a hard time imagining the Dragon’s Rogue fitting between the enormous rocks. The outer wall was tricky enough, as any off breeze or current could’ve dashed the galleon into pieces. In our comparatively small vessel, I had engines and extra space to play with.

  “Where are we parking?” Holm asked from the door. “We’re ready to drop anchor any time.”

  “Hang on, I gotta think,” I told him.

  A thrill ran through my body as it hit me that this was the first time I was in a location that I knew, without a doubt, that the Dragon’s Rogue had floated centuries ago. I imagined myself in Mad Dog’s boots. He would’ve been gearing up for not just a fight, but to put an end to Sandy Red. The ship would need to be positioned for battle, but also so Red could get a good, long view of Thadeus Smithson carrying his cannonball off the plank.

  I nudged the Parker forward, toward the edge of the formation and then pictured the Dragon’s Rogue in the same location, but sideways. That position would’ve blocked larger ships from leaving the bay. Smaller boats, like our rental, would’ve been able to flee between the rocks and onshore cliffs.

  “The reef is about fifty feet ahead,” Holm told me. “We’re fine now, but we don’t want to be over it at low tide.”

  “We won’t be. This is the spot.”

  “Yeah?” Holm’s toothy grin reflected how I felt. “You’re sure?”

  I nodded. “Robbie, drop anchor.”

  38

  Birn and Luci got situated in the cabin while the rest of us geared up. I was a little concerned about whether Luci would be okay alone with one man since her ordeal, but she seemed more relaxed than I’d ever seen her. Emily must have read my mind because she sat next to me with her fins in hand.

  “I checked in with Luci,” she whispered as we put our fins on. “She’s not scared of any of you guys anymore. Lamarr said they had plenty they could talk about if she gets bored. And there’s always Candy Crush on the phone.”

  “Sounds good.” I wished all trauma survivors had the kind of resiliency Luci was showing. On the other hand, some survivors put off a lot of the pain only for it to resurface later in life. I hoped the former for Luci. “Everyone ready?”

  The other divers pulled down their masks and set their regulators. I followed suit. One by one, we stepped off the boat and into the water.

  I always welcomed the transition from air to underwater. Maybe it’s corny, but I thought of it as being embraced by the ocean. I belonged there, as did Holm. We were brothers of the sea.

  As everyone equalized, I got my bearings of the reef in relation to where I figured the Dragon’s Rogue would’ve anchored. The floor wasn’t more than thirty feet deep, and we had about forty minutes worth of air to get down there, search, and then be out of the water. I got the others’ attention and pointed in the spot I liked best for a search.

  We were looking for something as close to a perfect sphere as possible, be it covered by coral or other growths or not. There would be no skeleton, as the tropical waters and marine life would’ve seen to Smithson’s quick decomposition. No, all we needed to verify the story was the cannonball with a chain welded to it.

  It was hard not to be distracted by the reef’s teeming population of brightly-colored fish and live rock. Coral was incredible stuff… and it was hellishly vulnerable. I stopped for a moment when I noticed a wide area of bleaching. It took maybe a tenth of the visible reef, but damn, it was sobering. The others paused to see what I was looking at.

  Emily floated near me. She turned, and I saw her blink several times as if willing her eyes not to tear up. I understood the feeling. We didn’t have time to waste, so I continued the dive down until we reached the bottom.

  Large rocks spread out on the floor as if kicked away from the reef by unruly kids, only it was by the endless cycles of tides and currents. We each started searching at the sloped edge of the reef. Mad Dog wouldn’t have risked grounding the ship on the reef, so I figured that would be the furthest into the bay we’d find anything. That, and I hoped it wasn’t tangled up in the coral. We would only take photos if that were the case.

  The tricky part of searching on the ocean floor was the floor itself. Too much disturbance of the sand could take us to zero visibility in no time. We kept to a rough semblance of a line and looked for irregularities. Muñoz and I had both of Garvey’s metal detectors, so we were able to check suspicious shapes.

  Holm waved me over to a cluster of rocks that were worn smooth except for bits of live rock and anemone visible between more crowded spaces. It would’ve been hard to tell if a cannonball had gone through once upon a time.

  I waved the detector over several times and got nothing. It was no more than a cool display by the ocean herself. I kicked over to where I’d left off when I saw Muñoz waving me over and a flash from the underwater camera Emily had brought. I kicked a little harder to meet them.

  When I arrived, Emily pointed to a spot in the sand and brushed a few handfuls of sand away. She gestured for me to take it. I handed my metal detector to Holm, who’d joined us, so I could get both hands free.

  The thing that caught Emily’s interest was a blackened coin. Muñoz ran the detector over the area and found several small hits, as did Holm. We didn’t have time to photograph all of it, and we still hadn’t found a cannonball. The coin still signaled that we were on a good track, but whether that had anything to do with Smithson or not remained to be seen.

  Emily produced a large resealable plastic bag and gestured for me to put the coin in it. Holm and Muñoz began poking around for their metal hits, and they fou
nd more coins. This was great, but the cannonball was the real treasure. We only had ten minutes before we had to start ascending, and all we had were coins that could’ve dropped from any of Sandy Red’s ships.

  Holm handed the metal detector back to me, and I swam above the floor a few feet. The diary page hadn’t described the chain, but it had to be thick enough that, when added to the weight of the ball, would help keep a man from resurfacing. I scanned the floor for anything that looked like a ball and chain.

  The coins the others were finding seemed to go in a line. On a hunch, I projected that line a little further. Another rock cluster, this presumably fallen from the karst formations above us, had a thick pile of sand next to it, right in line with the coins. A smaller ridge stretched out toward me. I kicked over that direction and ran the metal detector over the sand bulge.

  The metal detector went batshit crazy. I set it down next to what I hoped was the chain and started brushing sand away. Within seconds, I found thick, metal links. They’d corroded together into a solid mass. I followed the ridge to the sand bulge and dug there. A sand cloud puffed up but was carried away by the current.

  By the time I got the cannonball uncovered, the others had all joined me. Emily’s bag now held at least two dozen blackened coins. She sealed the bag and set it next to the cannonball. We had about five minutes of air left before we had to ascend. Did we go now and return in an hour, or did we try to pull everything on this trip? It was my call.

  The safest thing would be to leave our finds, go up, rest, get the spare tanks, and then dive back down to rig the mesh bags that we’d use to raise the finds. But we had to get back to Bridgetown, and it was already later than I liked.

  I pointed to Emily and Muñoz to go up. They took the metal detectors and bag of coins. From her brisk motions, I got the feeling that Emily wasn’t thrilled with me, but that was the price of having me in charge.