The Mahogany Ship (Sam Reilly Book 2) (14 page)

“That’s simple. He needs what we have, to find it.”

“And what do you have?”

“A map of where the scepter was taken after it left the
Mahogany Ship.”

“Are you fucking serious? You have such a map? Why didn’t
you just use it in the first place, find the stupid scepter and go and get your
unlimited power?”

“Because there’s a catch…”

“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 19
^th
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. Noticeable 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 took 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.”

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. Displayed 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 the 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 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 hydraulic 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.

By the fifth revolution, they slammed into the rock at the
edge of the pool. In an instant, Tom shoved the two throttles forwards, sending
the tank tracks spinning, until they met traction on the rock and sent the mole
shooting up and over the next drop.

Tom felt the entire contents of his stomach reach his head,
as they free-dived into the deep pool of water at least ten feet below.

Slamming into the deep water, the mole’s giant drilling nose
acted like a high diver’s hands as it broke the surface tension, before
submerging nearly twenty feet below.

The mole popped its head above the water again, and started
to gently drift down the river at a leisurely pace.  James unbuckled his
seatbelt, laughing like a demon as he leaned forward, and said, “That was great
fun. Let’s go do it again!”

Tom shook his head in wonder. Some people don’t even know
when to be scared. Aliana, on the other hand, looked as though she might spew
all over the mole, but was purposely forcing herself to sit up and take in her
surroundings.

“How you doing?” he said, looking at her.

“Fine… Are we done with the rollercoaster yet?”

“Almost. According to this, we should be just about to meet
up with the part of the river where Sam has surveyed.” The river, now gradually
moving forward with no ripples or violent waves, looked like it went on
forever. “Is this a more agreeable pace for you?”

“Much, thank you,” she replied.

Tom left the tracks spinning slowly in a forward momentum,
just enough to keep them facing forward as they drifted down the river.

Up ahead, the river appeared to just cease.

But rivers never end in a tunnel; they end in the ocean or
large inland lakes.

“Can anyone see where the river goes after this?”

James casually buckled his seatbelt again. “I thought you
said you had a map?”

“It might have been just a little wrong,” Tom replied.

“How wrong?” Aliana asked, worried that although there were
no ripples, the current seemed to be increasing again.

“Wrong enough that I only have one guess where all this
water is disappearing to.”

They were nearing the end of the river, and the flow was
fast – like when it was about to drop off the edge of something.

Tom now recognized the distant sound of constant thunder up
ahead.

“Hold on everyone.”

Just before dropping off the end of the river into the
unknown below, Tom pulled on a lever above his head, and the doors to the air
ballast opened to full. The heavy mole sank, like a giant stone, as he pushed
throttles fully forward again.

Down, down, the mole submerged. In front of him, Tom read
the depth gauge reach 80 feet, before he saw what he was looking for.

An opening appeared at the base of the deep tunnel – too
small to accommodate the vastness of the river. There, most of the water
toppled over the top of the large rock face, whereas some still flowed below
it.

The tank tracks reached the gravel bottom with a jolt and
kicked the mole into life as it started to drive along the bottom of the river.

“Think skinny thoughts!” Tom said, as he lined up both tank
tracks to drive straight through the hole.

A loud thud could be heard as the mole’s tank tracks smashed
through the rocky edge of the opening, and then they were out the other side.
Above them, the sound of the waterfall, now on their side of the 80-foot rock,
could still be heard hammering the water above them.

Tom drove confidently along the now completely submerged
river system. “Ah, now, we’re in the same subterranean river that Sam mapped
earlier.”

An hour later, the small team looked through the clear
bulletproof dome above their heads to see the remains of a mining platform
inside an enormous cavern.

“This must be what Sam said was called the Mahogany Cavern.
Up there you can see the dive platform they were working on.”

“Are you sure they’re still out?” Aliana asked, noticing the
lights within the cavern were still running.

“Pretty sure, but don’t worry. – we’ll be ready if they
come,” James said.

Tom drove further downwards, towards the exit tunnel.

The tunnel was longer than he’d imagined it, and for a
moment Tom worried that he’d taken the wrong one. But then the depth of the
tunnel started to decrease, until the tank tracks above their heads were
occasional scratching on the ceiling of the tunnel.

The mole slowed, and then, like a four-wheel drive starting
to become bogged in the mud, the tank tracks seemed to be turning at a rate
faster than they were moving.

“You want me to get out and push?” James asked.

“Not just yet,” Sam replied. He pulled the lever above his
head, which opened up every air compartment available, causing the mole to
become extremely negatively buoyant.

The tank tracks instantly sunk deeper into the sandy bottom with
a heavy crunch and began catching again. And then they were through to the
other side.

Where the Mahogany Ship waited for them.

*

They approached the Mahogany Ship from the side, and quickly
saw the large hole in its side, where Sam had been entering her bow. Aliana
stared out the porthole to her right, where the ship stood. “Tom, you know what
Sam would have used when he was diving here. Any sign of his equipment?”

“Not yet. I haven’t seen anything. And seeing nothing can
often be a good thing when we’re talking about searching for a lost cave diver.”

“Sam’s not drowned,” James interrupted, frustration clearly
displayed on his face. “There were a number of caverns full of air, and pockets
of air throughout the tunnels on the way in here. There’s no way Sam could have
drowned here. Heck, I bet the athletic bastard, could have managed the trip we
just made, holding his breath between the underwater sections.”

The statement was ridiculous, but Aliana was grateful for
his reassurance.

“Now what do we do then?” she asked.

“We have a look at Rodriguez’s fake Mahogany Ship, and take
his gold!” James’s eyes lit up with excitement.

“What about Sam?” Aliana asked, feeling as though she were
the only person capable of staying focused on their primary mission – to save
Sam.

“If I know Sam, he would have taken the same route out that
we just took to come in,” James said.