Gold in the Keys

by Matthew Rief

  A moment later Gus appeared, running wildly down the dock. He stopped right in front of the Baia and bent over, resting his hands on his knees.

  “They’re on their way!” he said before looking up and seeing the three of us standing there.

  “Gus, can you get the sheriff on the line?” I said.

  He nodded, reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone.

  “That really isn’t necessary,” she said. “Look, I’m sorry about the boat, but there’s no reason we can’t handle this ourselves. Here, I can even pay you,” she said, grabbing her bag from the deck and reaching inside. “What’s the rate for a day’s rental for a boat like this? Five hundred?”

  “More like seven,” Jack said.

  “Fine.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not necessary.”

  Gus, after standing for a few moments with his phone held up to his ear, informed me that he had the sheriff on the line.

  “Tell him not to come out,” I said. “It was a misunderstanding, that’s all.”

  Gus stared at me, eyes wide.

  “Apologize for me, will you?”

  He paused a moment in confusion, then relayed my message to the sheriff. A moment later, he hung up and put his phone back into his pocket. Walking over to the edge of the dock beside the Baia, he stood with his hands on his hips, looking straight at Sam.

  “You caused quite the ruckus here tonight, Miss Flores. You’re lucky Logan here isn’t getting the authorities involved. You’d be spending the night at the station tonight and calling your lawyer if he did.”

  Sam apologized again and, looking defeated, grabbed her things. She’d brought a few major pieces of gear with her, including the black hard case containing the underwater drone.

  When she reached for the sonar device, I grabbed the other end of it, looked her in the eyes and said, “Why don’t you leave it here for now?” She looked at me, confused, and I turned to Gus. “Thanks for your help tonight, Gus. And I’m sorry for the commotion.”

  He told me it was no problem, then, after telling Jack and me that he’d see us later, turned on his heels and headed back down the dock.

  Sam, who was still holding the other end of the sonar device, said, “I’d rather take it all now, thank you.”

  “No.” I stepped over the transom, grabbed the hard case containing the underwater drone and brought it back onto the Baia. “How about you wait a few hours? There’s a site out there waiting to be explored.” Her face brightened, and she smiled as if she’d just won the lottery. I looked over at Jack.

  “Isaac’s home tonight,” he said. “I’d love to help, but I gotta look after him.” Jack jumped over the transom, then turned to us both. “Be careful out there. Maybe Miss Flores here can keep you out of trouble for one night.”

  “You’re talking about the woman who just tried to steal my boat,” I replied with a grin. Sam shook her head and smiled at me.

  “Just don’t get killed,” he said, then said goodnight and disappeared down the dock. A moment later, I heard his small outboard start up and watched him cruise out of the marina, heading towards his house.

  CHAPTER

  ELEVEN

  Sam helped me untie the mooring lines and I started up the engine. When we were away from the dock and out of earshot of any of the other live boards, I said, “Before we get there, there’s something I have to tell you about this site. Something you’re probably not gonna believe.”

  The trip to the site went quickly as I relayed to Sam the story about the Aztec treasure and how I’d found one of its gold coins. She was engaged the entire time and found it hard to believe that the site where I’d found the coin was the same place where a large amount of seismic activity occurred. It was a crazy coincidence, and one that could explain why the treasure had remained hidden from view for so many years. During the little over an hour it took for us to cruise through the darkness from the marina in Key West to Neptune’s Table, I kept my eyes peeled, making sure that no one was following us.

  “So those guys chasing us yesterday weren’t ordinary drug runners,” Sam said. “They were after the treasure.”

  “As far as I can tell, yes. But the truth is, we’re not certain who those guys were or where they came from. We’ve tried to keep the treasure on the down-low, but something this big is sure to find its way out.”

  The water above the site was clear of boats when we approached, along with the rest of the ocean’s surface as far as we could see. There were no lights over the water except our own and the glowing reflection of the moon breaking through the partly clouded sky. We anchored, set up and donned our scuba gear, then dropped below the waves. We agreed that we’d spend about twenty minutes just doing a brief visual inspection of the ledge before deciding which piece of Sam’s equipment to utilize. Using high-powered dive flashlights, we descended to the ledge. I kept close to Sam, watching as her mannerisms changed when she examined certain portions of the seafloor. She seemed particularly interested in the small openings that lined the base and sides of the ledge. Looking at them, I saw the antennas of hundreds of lobsters sticking out. Those unique formations are what make Neptune’s Table one of the best places to find bugs in all of the Keys. She motioned upwards and we slowly ascended, breaking the surface a few minutes later.

  Sam slid her mask down to her neck and said, “That ledge was formed by abnormalities in the earth’s crust. And it looks to me like the majority of it isn’t more than a few hundred years old. I’ve never seen such an astounding underwater site before.”

  I climbed up the ladder onto the swim platform and helped Sam up behind me. Motioning towards the large plastic case, she said, “I think it’s time for the drone. Hopefully it’s small enough to fit through those crevices.”

  Excited to use the toy, I stepped over to the case, picked it up and set it on the outdoor table. Unclasping the hinges, I opened the case, revealing a small white rectangular device with a long yellow tether attached to it. When I picked up the drone, I saw that it had a built-in camera in front along with adjacent lights. It also had two forward/reverse thrusters along with top and bottom thrusters.

  I watched as Sam hooked up the other end of the tether to a controller with a small built-in flat screen. We set up the controller on the sunbed, then turned on the drone and launched it into the water. I was amazed how clear the image was on the screen. The lighting on the little drone worked great, allowing us to see clearly in the dark water.

  “I’m going to try to take her into one of those openings,” she said, piloting the drone like she’d done it a hundred times.

  The drone flew through the water, reaching the ledge in just a few seconds, then Sam eased it around the ledge towards the openings. Shining the light into the largest opening, she hit the forward thrusters softly, easing the device into the small cave. When she’d barely entered, we saw that the way was blocked by the local inhabitants.

  “I’ll be right back,” I said, grabbing my mask, a flashlight and a tickle stick. Wearing only my swim shorts, I leapt over the side of the boat, splashing into the warm tropical water, then dove down to the drone, following its yellow tether the thirty-five feet or so to the base of the ledge. The drone had backed out of the opening when I reached it, so I shined my light on the opening and looked inside at the ten or so lobster hiding with their long antennas sticking out. Using my tickle stick, I prodded their backs, causing them to hurl their bodies forward out of the opening and into the open ocean. I moved the end of the stick from one to the next until all of them were gone. Some had been well over regulation size, and as I watched them swim out, all I could think about was how I’d be back for them another day.

  When the opening was clear of all of the lobsters, I stabilized myself on the ledge and held my hands palms up, pointing towards the opening like in those old movies where the butler opens the door for his employers. A moment later I heard the forward thrusters spin, propelling the little drone slowly into
the cleared opening. Looking into the small cave and shining my flashlight, I watched as the drone eased inside, quickly disappearing from view. I looked up to the surface, switching off my flashlight and kicking my feet, reveling in the look of the water around me as I ascended through it. The dark water turned light, with hints of a silver glow as I broke the surface, and when I looked up, I saw the three-quarter moon had broken completely through the clouds. I swam to the Baia, grabbed hold of the swim platform and launched myself up out of the water. We had no lights on the Baia, trying to remain as unnoticeable as possible, but I could see Sam huddled over the drone controller and screen on the sunbed.

  “What a gentleman,” she said, grinning at me as I grabbed a towel and patted myself down. “The cave’s opening up a little.”

  Intrigued, I quickly dried off. After setting my mask, flashlight and tickle stick aside, I flattened out a fresh towel on the sunbed and sat down beside her. Looking down at the screen in Sam’s lap, I saw that the drone had entered a cave that appeared to be getting larger the deeper it went.

  “You see these wavy grooves on the sides of the wall?” She pointed to distinct features of the cave, and I nodded. “Those are the result of portions of a tectonic plate breaking apart, then being forced back together by the crust’s extreme pressures.”

  We kept our eyes glued to the screen as Sam piloted the drone deeper and deeper into the cave. She reached a turn and carefully maneuvered around it. On the other side, the lights of the drone shined upon a set of bright eyes that bobbed back and forth. She stopped the drone a moment and we saw that it was a Jewfish swimming against the back wall of a narrow portion of the cave, staring at the drone, clearly unhappy to have visitors in its home. As Sam eased the drone forward, it got spooked and swam over the drone and out of the frame in a hurry.

  “What’s that?” I pointed at the bottom of the screen, where just a small portion of the cave’s bedrock was visible.

  Slowly, she accelerated the upper thrusters, then angled downward slightly. A few ladyfish swam into view and there was a massive stone crab crawling over the rock, but that wasn’t what had caught my attention.

  “Right over there.” I pointed to a portion of the cave’s floor about ten feet or so in front of the drone. Sam piloted it slowly so as to prevent the thrusters from churning up too much silt and sand, but regardless, the clear water had a fine cloud, making it somewhat difficult to see farther distances. There was a crack in the rock, but there was something strange about it, something abnormal about its shape. As the drone moved closer, it began to take form.

  “What is it?” Sam tilted her head as the drone hovered just in front of the object. It wasn’t natural, we were both certain of that, but it was covered in barnacles and silt, which gave it the same color and texture as the rock surrounding it. After studying it for a few moments, I realized what we were staring at and grinned.

  “It’s the barrel of a Falconet,” I said. I wrapped my arms around Sam, smiling like I’d just won the lottery. She kept her eyes on the screen, trying to discern what she was looking at, but I was certain what it was. The narrow barrel gave away that it was most likely that particular type of light cannon utilized by the conquistadors during their wars in the Americas. As the drone angled across to its side, Sam’s eyes grew wide. She looked at me, astonished, then smiled as she saw clearly that it was the barrel of a cannon as well.

  “Unbelievable,” she gasped, unable to look away.

  Manipulating the controls, she ascended, then shined the lights forward and headed deeper into the cave. Just ahead of the drone, the cave appeared to dead-end, stopping at a large rock face. But after looking around the cave, we saw that the same crack below where the cannon had been lodged was now much larger. In fact, it was large enough for Sam to angle the drone down and pilot it into. Slowly, she navigated through the crack, and a few moments later the cave opened up, revealing a large open space. As the drone entered the large cavity, Sam noticed something shiny against the wall. She eased the drone closer, stopping right in front of a shiny gold coin resting on a small ledge. It took only a second for me to realize that it looked exactly like the coin I’d found on the ledge nearly ten years earlier. Its large size and the image stamped on its surface were unmistakable.

  She piloted the drone around the outer walls of the cave, and as she did so we saw a few more coins scattered about, all of them identical to the one I’d found. Shining the light around the massive underwater cavity, we saw that it was at least fifty feet in diameter and over a hundred feet deep, the lights from the drone unable to illuminate the bottom of it. After circling to the other side of the cave, we’d counted about thirty coins in all. Then Sam angled the drone downward and hit the top thrusters.

  I looked over the stern of the Baia, watching as more yellow tether unraveled and slid into the water. “How long is the tether?”

  Sam grinned as she continued the drone’s descent. “Four hundred feet.”

  Our eyes were glued to the screen. Excitement took over and my heart pounded in my chest as the lower portions of the cave were revealed by the light of the drone. As it descended, we noticed more and more sparkling objects resting on ledges and lodged into crevices around the walls. When the light touched the bottom of the cave, we both sat in silence for a moment, and Sam kept the drone hovering in place, the camera aiming straight at the cave’s floor. The ground was covered with scattered remnants of the Intrepid, including more Falconets and hundreds of chests piled together, some with their tops cracked open, revealing piles of gold coins that littered the bottom of the cave. We both stared in awe at the Aztec treasure, which had been hidden from mankind for nearly five hundred years.

  “It’s unbelievable, Logan,” Sam said. “I… I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”

  I could barely believe it myself, and I couldn’t look away from the hundreds of thousands of gold coins that lay in chests and spread out over the bedrock. The great Aztec treasure had finally been found and, as I’d hoped would be the case, I was the one who’d found it.

  “I’d say this is cause for celebration,” I said. I stepped down into the salon, opened up the small refrigerator and pulled out the unopened bottle of champagne that had come with the boat. Stepping back up to the cockpit, I propped one leg up on the transom, then blew the top off the bottle. Raising the bottle high in the air, I said, “To Professor Samantha Flores.”

  Once the bubbles settled, I took a few gulps, then grinned and handed the bottle to Sam. She grabbed it from my hand and, standing on the deck beside me, held the bottle in the air and said, “To Logan Dodge and to the Aztec treasure.”

  Sam took a long pull, then handed it back to me. We spent another half an hour piloting the drone around the bottom of the cave, exploring and getting as much footage as possible before navigating out of the caves and back up to the boat. Standing on the swim platform, I grabbed the drone and set it on the deck in front of Sam. As I wound up the tether line, she dried off the drone and removed part of its waterproof shell, then slid out the storage cartridge. She inserted the micro SD into her computer and quickly transferred all of the files. We used the freshwater pump to rinse down the drone along with the rest of our gear, then stowed everything in the closet and nearby lockers.

  Once everything was stowed and we’d brought up the dive flag, we sat beside each other on the sunbed and looked out over the water. I’d grabbed a few flutes, and we drank champagne while watching the waves glow in the moonlight.

  “And you said you don’t like mixing work and play,” I said, smiling at her.

  She laughed. “I guess it’s okay every now and then. What are you going to do with the treasure, Logan?”

  The night had cooled off a bit, so she sat up against me with a blanket. It felt good to have her bare, smooth legs pressed against mine.

  “First we’ve gotta get it all up somehow. These waters are still gonna be infested with bad guys looking to take the whole haul for themselves. And w
e sure as hell can’t bring up all of that gold using this boat, so we’re gonna need a bigger one with cranes.”

  Sam took another drink, then inched closer to me.

  “I’d like to help more if I can. I’m supposed to leave in a few days, but I’m going to call the university and get an extension.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” I said, polishing off the rest of my champagne. “Not that I don’t want you to, but it’s dangerous here, Sam.”

  “I know that. I was here the other day when we were being chased, remember? This isn’t my first time in a dangerous situation. I know the risks, and I accept them.”

  Instinctively, I slowly wrapped my arm around her and brought her in closer. She leaned back into me and sighed.

  “It’s amazing how it all wound up down there under that ledge,” I said.

  “My initial theory is that the ledge used to be a lot shallower. The Intrepid must have run aground, then years later, the seafloor rose up and over the wreck somehow.”

  It made sense but seemed so unlikely that it bordered on impossible. What were the chances that, out of all the shallow reefs and ledges in the Caribbean, the Intrepid would run aground on that ledge where seismic anomalies would surround it with rock for hundreds of years? I was too tired and buzzed to think it over anymore. Instead, I just enjoyed the moment and enjoyed the company of a beautiful and intelligent woman.

  Looking at my watch, I saw that it was just after two in the morning and decided it was time to head back to the marina. I gave a quick scan of the horizon and, after seeing that we were the only visible boat on the water, pulled up the anchor and started up the engines. Putting it in gear, I eased the throttles forward and brought the Baia up on plane, heading back towards Key West. The marina was as calm as glass as we cruised up to slip twenty-four and I maneuvered the boat slowly and steadily up against the dock. Sam stepped over the transom onto the dock, tied off the mooring lines and connected the shore power cable and water lines. I put the Baia in neutral and killed the engines. It was silent enough in the marina that the only sounds were the soft shifting of the boats in their slips.