The moon pool area they occupied was semi-enclosed, preventing him from viewing the upper deck of the ship, but he could hear footsteps up there so he knew additional crew were nearby. He wondered if all of the crew were Treasure, Inc. employees, or if, like he and Jayden, Daedalus’ outfit had chartered the ship along with a crew, adding their own men to the mix as “mission specialists.”
A crewmember wheeled a cart into the moon pool area with the still-intact safe Carter and Jayden had recovered. They moved it into position next to the drill.
“That’s our safe, Daedalus!” Carter said forcefully.
“You can have the safe,” Daedalus laughed, “as soon as we take what’s inside it.” His hired muscle hooted around them as the drill operator turned on his machine.
“Let’s just see what’s in it,” Jayden reasoned. “Could be nothing for all we know. Or some out-of-fashion necklaces that only Daedalus would wear.”
Daedalus scowled but nevertheless extended a hand toward the Asian-American sub-pilot in a gesture of reason. “Listen to the comedian here, Mr. Hunt. Your own pilot.” Carter said nothing, only stared at the safe while the drill operator brought the bit to the safe door. The shrill whine of metal on metal trilled the air and then the operator pulled the drill away, the motor slowing as the whine subsided. One of the crew swung the door open and peered inside with a flashlight.
“Got something here!” He rolled an arm rapidly in a “get over here” motion, but Daedalus was already there, shoving the technician aside, leaning in with his own flashlight.
“It’s all dry and we’ve got paper, documents of some kind….” He passed a few small pieces out to a crewman, including a passport, a black and white family portrait…”… and look at this!”
He held up a thick brown envelope, approximately eight-by-ten inches. It was thick enough so that it was either padded, or else very full. While Daedalus held the envelope up to a rack of work lights, one of the crew began removing the rest of the contents from the safe. A velvet sack was dumped into an open but gloved hand to reveal a pile of gold Krugerrand coins. A diamond broach, a pearl-handled revolver, and a silver cross with chain all came out of the safe and across the years into the hands of Daedalus’ employees. But none of these held any interest for the Treasure, Inc. leader. He slowly walked away as the items were extracted, hands turning over the brown, faded envelope.
As his fingers began to pry at the creased edge, Carter admonished, “You need to open that inside, in climate-controlled conditions! You could destroy it by exposing it to the salt air after all these years!”
Daedalus slowly looked up and turned to Carter. “Wouldn’t you like to know what’s inside?”
“Not if it means ruining the contents.”
The Treasure, Inc. leader removed his smartphone from a pocket and handed it off to an assistant. “Take photos.” Then he proceeded to rip open the envelope. Carter and Jayden moved toward him. Carter felt a strong grip on his leg and turned to see one of the crew dragging him to the ground. Another man tousled with Jayden while Daedalus sidestepped away without so much as taking his eyes from the envelope while he pulled a piece of parchment from it. The crew member with the phone began taking photos of Daedalus holding the parchment and envelope, and then closeups of the document itself.
“Heavy parchment of some kind,” Daedalus said in a detached monotone. “Perhaps papyrus.” He started to hold the document up to the light. Carter caught the briefest flash of hand-drawn outlines, foreign words placed in different areas, shading and relief in diverse sectors — enough to see that it was a map — before Daedalus suddenly pulled the document down and shoved it back into the envelope. Then he turned to his men and nodded at Carter and Jayden.
“Tie their hands. Put them in their sub. Leave the hatch open and drop it into the water. Make it look like an accident.”
Carter’s gaze immediately went to Daedalus ’ men. Would they actually be willing to carry out such a heinous order? He thought he detected maybe a glimmer of hesitation in one of the goons’ eyes, but his answer came a lot sooner than he would have liked. He felt thin plastic flex-cuffs start to close around his wrist. The same thing was happening to Jayden a few feet away. He cursed himself for letting his situational awareness slip, but after the hours-long ordeal in the mini-sub, his reflexes and perception were dulled. He knew he had to act fast, right now, or the situation would only get more difficult to extricate himself from as the seconds unfolded.
He slammed the heel of his right foot down on the toes of the crewman’s foot. He heard the rush of the man’s exhalation and then was able to slam his right elbow into his assailant’s gut as he doubled over in pain from the foot stomp. This incapacitated the crewman and Carter was able to knock him down with a simple kick to the side. Knowing he had mere seconds to act before he would be overwhelmed by the entire crew, Carter withdrew the loaded flare pistol from his waistband and fired it at the group of oxygen tanks that were in the process of being filled. Through his peripheral vision he could see pistols being drawn at him by Daedalus’ goons, but he kept his focus as he aimed the flare gun. He pointed it at the valve of one of the green oxygen tanks twenty-five feet away and fired the flare. A satisfying whooshing noise escaped from the gun as a streak of reddish orange rocketed out of it.
While everyone else either stared dumbly at the oxygen tanks or dove for cover, Carter hurled the now empty pistol at Daedalus ’ head, and without waiting to see if his aim was true, he spun around and bashed Jayden’s attacker in the side of the head with a two-fisted hammer blow. Stunned, that crewman slumped to the deck and Jayden was able to slip out of the zip-tie cuffs, which hadn’t yet been cinched all the way tight.
“This way,” Carter muttered to Jayden as he ran for a metal stairwell about twenty feet away leading up. Jayden wasted no time running for it, and was faster than Carter who still had both hands tied behind his back. The shouts of the crew and trammel of footsteps told them without having to look back that they were being pursued by multiple men. Walkie-talkies blared while they bolted for the steps….
….until the sound of the explosion overrode it all.
Jayden reached the steps first and his stomach leapt to his throat when he saw a burly crewman thundering down the steps. Behind them, billows of black smoke erupted from the fire started from the flare gun oxygen tank explosion. Carter was only a couple of steps behind, but now preoccupied with monitoring the extent of the damage dealt by the explosion, Jayden would have to do the fighting. He put one hand on each rail and pushed off the deck with both feet, swinging them up into the chest of the crewman as he ran down. The attacker’s eyes rolled back in his head as he was knocked backwards. The back of his skull bashed into the edge of one of the metal steps, rendering him unconscious. Jayden swiped the walkie-talkie from his belt, along with a heavy-duty Maglite-style flashlight that could be used as a club, and kept moving up the stairs. Carter caught up to him and turned around.
The shouts of their pursers grew louder while Carter checked the fallen foe’s pulse, which was there, but faint. “He’ll be okay,” he told Jayden.