Deep Wild Blue

by Michael Maguire

  ‘Can you get it all done in a day? It’s only a test run but the tides are good and I’d like Kristo to get there before the Stinger.’

  ‘I’ll try.’

  ‘Thanks, Troy.’ Jacob pushed his glasses further up his nose. ‘We don’t want to be beaten by the Riddle brothers.’

  ‘Never!’ Archie shouted the word. ‘Len Riddle tricked me because of his lies. He and his brother are stinking creeps… Please don’t sell Gull Cottage to them.’

  ‘You heard about the possible sale from Mr Mason?’ Jacob asked.

  Archie nodded. ‘They’ll make you homeless and the Riddles will build a caravan park on the land.’

  ‘It’s not all bad news, boy. The Council have promised me a nice little retirement flat if I’m forced to leave. Maybe it’s time I settled for an easy life.’

  ‘You can’t give up inventing,’ Archie urged. ‘You’ll turn into a vegetable.’

  ‘We’ve got to raise the money for groundwork repairs,’ Lucy said with feeling. ‘We mustn’t fail in getting to the treasure ship and bringing the gold to the surface.’

  ‘We need the dummy run to make absolutely sure that Kristo can complete the mission,’ Jacob put in. ‘The treasure ship will be resting on the bottom of the sea, but we can’t be sure if Kristo can reach that depth. We might be faced with all sorts of problems.’

  ‘I’ll have trouble keeping in contact with you if you go too deep,’ Troy explained. ‘You could be out of range.’

  ‘I’ll fit an antenna booster to your transceiver,’ Jacob said, solving the problem. ‘Archie and Lucy will have you with them all the way.’

  The twins looked up into Troy’s face. Nobody spoke or blinked.

  Eventually, after a long moment of thought, Troy nodded his head. ‘Okay, tomorrow morning Kristo gets his first look at the treasure ship.’

  Chapter Five

  ‘Please tell us you won’t sell Gull Cottage to the Riddle brothers.’

  It was the following morning and all had gathered in the boathouse. Lucy wasn’t wearing her usual covering of makeup and her voice and eyes showed her unhappiness.

  Jacob smiled at her as he tucked a piece of stray hair under his blue pagri turban. ‘You mustn’t worry yourself, Lucy. You must learn to stay positive.’

  Archie was helping Troy fix the two halogen spotlights to either side of Kristo. ‘The Riddles won’t get the gold from the treasure ship,’ he stated. ‘Their mini sub is junk. It should be with all the crappy cars in their scrap yard.’

  ‘We shouldn’t take them as a joke,’ Troy said. ‘They will try their best to outsmart us.’

  ‘The last time we saw that Stinger thing it was coughing out black smoke… Ha!’

  Troy finished adjusting the position of the spotlights and then moved to the dash panel. He connected them to the “lights” icon then signalled to Archie that he was going to do a test.

  There was a blaze of light as Troy tapped the icon filling the boathouse with brightness.

  ‘Well done, Troy,’ Jacob praised. ‘Lucy and Archie will need these spotlights when exploring the sea bed. It’s pitch black down there.’

  ‘What about scuba divers?’ Archie asked. ‘How deep can they go?’

  Troy looked up from the dash panel. ‘It’s extremely dangerous for scuba swimmers who attempt really deep dives.’

  ‘But no problem for Kristo,’ Archie sounded confident.

  ‘You’ll be using the professional tracking system that Jacob designed for underwater searches.’ Troy told him. ‘Uncle programmed the unit using the coordinates from the old map. Once you are settled on the sea floor switch on Kristo’s artificial intelligence and self-aware system and he should take you between Driftwood Cove and Sunset Cove.’

  ‘So is it a sort of high-tech sat-nav programme?’ Lucy questioned.

  Jacob gave a little chuckle. ‘Very similar, but a hundred times stronger and far more reliable.’

  Troy opened both hatches and helped the twins into Kristo’s cockpit. Uncle Jacob opened the boathouse rear doors as Archie and Lucy snapped on their safety harnesses. The cradle powered up and the familiar hum pieced the air.

  Troy watched Archie tap various icons on the control panel. All were working well as he closed the hatches.

  The plan of action had been discussed over breakfast with questions flowing back and forth and had convinced Troy the mission would be a success.

  Troy closed the hatches and switched on his tiny transceiver.

  ‘Turbine engines activated,’ Archie told him, leaning towards the cockpit microphone. ‘Cameras are on.’

  ‘Let’s go!’ Lucy was getting excited.

  Kristo lurched forward in the cradle and within a few seconds they were at the point where the rails ended and Kristo bounced over the foamy waves and slid smoothly into the sea.

  ‘Drop out of sight when you can, Archie,’ Troy encouraged. ‘When you’re well away from the shore Uncle’s tracking system should steer you directly to a spot between Driftwood Cove and Sunset Cove.’

  ‘Understood, Boss,’ Archie said, with his usual smirk.

  Lucy was studying the plasma screen whose camera was fixed to the dorsal fin. She asked Archie if he could slow down and stay near the surface for a couple of minutes.

  ‘What have you seen?’ he asked.

  ‘The Riddle brothers.’

  ‘Oh, we must be level with Valentine Cove.’

  ‘I caught a glimpse of them on the beach with the Stinger.’

  Archie eased off on the speed. He lifted Kristo’s nose so the dorsal fin skimmed smoothly through the surface of the sea.

  ‘I see them,’ Archie looked at the screen. ‘Ha! Ha! I guess they’re trying to repair that piece of trash.’

  ‘They’ve got a lot of cheek.’

  ‘Cheek?’

  ‘Trying to buy Uncle’s house once the Council force him to sell it.’

  ‘They could only do that if they beat us to the treasure ship gold… and they won’t because we’ll get it first.’

  ‘Base to Archie… Base to Archie!’ Troy’s voice sounded panicky. ‘Dive ten meters – and do it now.’

  Archie immediately put Kristo into a dive. A huge gush of sea bubbles and tiny fish filled the plasma screens as Kristo accelerated and dropped underwater. All screens darkened as something large and noisy passed overhead.

  ‘You weren’t concentrating!’ Troy’s voice was harsh through the cockpit speakers. ‘Luckily I have Uncle’s app on my phone and could see the danger.’

  ‘Sorry Troy… We were looking at the Riddles.’

  ‘Who cares about the Riddles. The hull of Cornish Destiny could have hit Kristo.’

  ‘Cornish what…?’

  ‘It’s a huge private super-yacht, owned by Lord Braxton. He’s down here during the summer holidays.’

  Lucy and Archie said nothing, just looked blankly at each other.

  ‘I’ll clue both of you in about the yacht later.’ Troy added. ‘Now, please continue with your mission and stop messing around.’

  Lucy was watching each plasma screen carefully. ‘No vessels or swimmers in the area,’ she reassured Archie.

  Archie’s eyes were back on the tracking system. He dived deeper, watched the gauge show that Kristo was fifty meters from the surface then he levelled up.

  ‘Speed twenty-five mph,’ he told Troy.

  ‘That’s perfect. According to the coordinates you should hit the intersection between Driftwood Cove and Sunset Cove in about five minutes.’

  Kristo sped on with Archie following the tracking system closely. Two grey seals and many tiny fish showed on the screens including the larger pollock, mackerel, garfish and conger.

  ‘Get your spotlights on, Archie, and drop down to two-hundred meters.’ Troy instructed. ‘You’re very close now.�
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  Archie caught a glimpse of a broken mast and part of a deck and deliberately dropped Kristo down to two-hundred and fifty meters.

  ‘Mega!’ He said, sucking in his breath.

  ‘I see it,’ Troy’s voice burst out of the cockpit speakers. ‘I’ll use the “screenshot” option on my mobile phone so we can show the images to Uncle.’

  Archie began using the rudder pedals to examine every part of the wreck. He was in very deep water now and Lucy pointed to the gauge showing Kristo’s depth at well over three-hundred meters.

  ‘You’re getting close to the max for this craft,’ Troy chimed in.

  ‘I can see a metal box covered in dirt and broken splinters of wood.’ Archie sounded eager. ‘It could be brass – a corner is glinting in Kristo’s spotlights. It’s on the quarter deck but there’s a thing like an oil drum sitting on top of the box.’

  ‘They didn’t use oil three-hundred years ago,’ Troy seemed puzzled. ‘I’ve taken a couple of screenshot photos, so maybe Jacob can figure it out.’

  Archie had circled the treasure ship three times. Most of the hull and decking had broken away making it easy to check for anything else that resembled a treasure chest. After three-hundred years everything had rotted away and even the captain’s quarters had decayed and crumbled into the sea bed. The only movement was a large squid that had been frightened by Kristo and had taken shelter under the broken mizzen mast.

  ‘Nothing else to see here,’ Archie leaned towards the cockpit microphone. ‘Shall we return home?’

  ‘Yes, thank you, both. Stay ten-meters below the surface and put Kristo in artificial intelligence mode. Cornish Destiny isn’t around, so you’ve got a clear run.’

  Archie switched off the spotlights and headed for the surface. ‘See you on the beach,’ he said.

  *

  Uncle Jacob sat at his workbench in Gull Cottage. He’d swopped his usual glasses for high magnification ones and was studying the screenshot photos on Troy’s mobile phone.

  ‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ he said glumly. ‘This is bad news, very bad news.’

  ‘Why Uncle?’ Troy queried. ‘Aren’t the pictures clear enough?’

  ‘If anything they’re too clear, my boy.’

  Archie moved behind his Uncle and pointed to the oil drum photo on Troy’s phone. ‘That is sitting right on the treasure chest,’ he told Jacob. ‘We’ll have to move it before we can get to the gold.’

  ‘That cannot be moved,’ Jacob cautioned. ‘It’s not an oil drum… it’s a depth-charge.’

  Lucy frowned and looked at Troy.

  Troy rubbed his chin. ‘I’ve read about them. I think they were used in the second-world-war to blow up enemy submarines.’

  Jacob nodded. ‘Absolutely right… I’m glad you’ve studied your military history.’

  He went on to explain that during the war several canisters filled with explosives were rolled and dropped off the stern of a warship whenever a submarine was hiding below.

  ‘They became known as depth-charges,’ he added, ‘and when you consider the size of the oceans there must be still many lying unexploded on the sea bed.’

  ‘And we’ve found one lying on a chest filled with gold,’ Archie said in a clipped voice. ‘Of all the scabby luck.’

  Uncle Jacob stood up, removed his glasses and walked to the window. ‘It’s out of our hands, Archie. I have no option but to report the depth-charge to the Ministry of Defence explosives unit.’

  ‘B-But we’ll lose the gold.’

  ‘We must be thankful that Kristo didn’t touch it. Otherwise we would have lost you and Lucy. These things pack a heck of a punch.’

  ‘You would have been blown to smithereens,’ Troy added.

  Archie swallowed hard. He opened his mouth to say something then decided that Jacob was right and slowly nodded.

  ‘So there’s no way we can recover the gold?’ Lucy asked, looking miserable.

  ‘Not with a depth-charge sitting on top of it,’ Jacob told her. ‘We must leave it to the experts.’

  ‘Will they send down scuba divers?’

  ‘It’s too deep for divers Lucy. The MOD explosives unit will probably use a remote operated vehicle.’

  ‘There’s only one good thing to come out of this,’ Archie tried to remain cheerful. ‘The Riddles won’t get the gold either. Uncle’s house is safe… The brothers’ can whistle for their caravan park.’

  Uncle Jacob spent the next hour on the phone talking to the Ministry of Defence. Troy, Archie and Lucy got stuck in preparing a late lunch, and then Jacob joined them to pass on information of how the depth-charge discovery would be dealt with.

  He detailed how a Royal Navy offshore patrol vessel would lower a remote operated vehicle to the sea floor. This would have two robot arms known as “grapplers”. If the depth-charge failed to explode when they tried to move it the remote vehicle would shift it to shallower water where divers could reach it.

  ‘Did you explain how we knew about the depth-charge?’ Archie asked.

  ‘Unfortunately I had to use a little white lie, my boy. I couldn’t let the secret out about Kristo, so I told them we’d hired a mini-sub for you to explore the ocean during the school holidays.’

  Lucy served Uncle Jacob with a slice of chicken pie and eggs. Everyone else tucked into bacon and eggs – but Jacob was very strict that eating bacon was against his culture.

  ‘How long will it be before the Navy gets here, Uncle?’ Archie asked.

  ‘They’ll travel through the night and arrive early tomorrow,’ Jacob told him. ‘Finding a depth-charge is a very serious matter. The vessel they want to use is based in Wales and there will be a fair bit of organisation needed.’

  ‘Do they know about the gold?’

  ‘I’m afraid they do, Archie. I spoke to a top man at the MOD explosives unit and he knew all about the treasure ship. He said if any gold was found by the Royal Navy it would automatically belong to The Crown.’

  ‘What exactly is The Crown?’ Lucy queried. ‘Is it the royal family?’

  ‘Not precisely. The monarch of the country represents The Crown. They are the head of state but they wouldn’t personally own the gold. Because the Royal Navy is involved then treasure trove would be owned by the whole of the country.’

  ‘Sounds hellishly complicated,’ Archie remarked, covering his bacon with brown sauce.

  Troy dipped some bread into his fried eggs. ‘When the Navy get to the spot between Driftwood Cove and Sunset Cove they’ll put in a “keep out” zone. They can’t risk an explosion with all the fishing boats around there.’

  ‘It won’t affect us,’ Lucy said. ‘We’re too far away.’

  ‘The Riddles will be on the edge of the action,’ Archie put in. ‘I expect they’re still repairing the Stinger at Valentine Cove.’

  ‘The Navy will warn them to stay away,’ Jacob said. ‘Come tomorrow the coastline will be swarming with patrol boats and the Stinger will be blocked from reaching the gold.’

  ‘They’ll be in the same position as us,’ Lucy remarked.

  ‘A stalemate,’ Troy added. ‘The gold will be blown into a million pieces and gone forever.’

  ‘Can we all go and watch the explosion?’ Archie was wiping his plate with a chunk of bread, but he had one eye on Troy.

  ‘We could drive there early tomorrow in Uncle’s old van, I suppose,’ Troy said. ‘The view of the sea from the cliffs at Driftwood Cove will give us a great spread of Navy operations.’

  ‘Brill… I can’t wait to see all the ships and divers and stuff.’

  ‘And they’ll all be there because you spotted something like an old oil drum.’

  Archie licked some brown sauce from the corner of his mouth and produced his cocky smile.

  *

  It was the following morning and everyone at Gul
l Cottage had been up early. There had been several local radio broadcasts warning all vessels to keep clear of Driftwood Cove and Sunset Cove. Troy drove the old van with Jacob seated beside him and Archie and Lucy in the back. All had binoculars so they could capture the best view.

  As they left Milford no-one noticed the Riddles’ scoop truck as it sped past them going in the opposite direction.

  ‘That looked like old man Jacob’s van,’ Joe Riddle said to his brother. ‘Where are they going this time in the morning?’

  ‘Were the kids there?’

  ‘I saw Blondie and her brother in the back.’

  ‘They’ll have heard the radio broadcast and be going to Driftwood cove that’s for sure. Somebody tipped the Navy off and it had to be that old fool Jacob Scott.’

  ‘Trust him to stick his beak in,’ Len sneered, winding down the tipper truck’s window and spitting out of it. ‘Now the gold will go to the government.’

  ‘If the radio warning was right about a depth-charge then maybe it’s lucky that we left it alone.’

  ‘My guess is it’s a dud,’ Len said, chewing on a fingernail. ‘It’s been there since World War Two.’

  The scoop truck turned off the main road and onto a bumpy track that led past the cliffs and down to the beach owned by Gull Cottage.

  ‘This couldn’t be better,’ Len said with a throaty laugh. ‘All of the Scott family are away sightseeing while we get revenge for messing up our plans with the Stinger and the gold.’

  ‘There’s no real gain in what you wanna do.’

  ‘There’s gain in it for me. They always seem to get one over on us… But it’s not gonna happen this time.’

  Joe dragged on the scoop truck’s handbrake and the vehicle skidded to a halt outside the rear of the boathouse. ‘So you’re treating this as payback?’

  ‘Bet your life I am, brother. I want that mouthy kid Archie choked up with anger – and Blondie crying buckets. Now don’t be such a wimp… Crash through those rear doors!’

  There was a noisy grinding of gears as Joe reversed the scoop truck and then turned it to face the doors. He flicked on the power to the scoop, raised it and waited for it to stop swinging. It was very rusty but the metal teeth at the top of the scoop looked evil and scary.