‘Uninhabited. Mostly rock outcrops with a little vegetation. Waters there are shallow. Thousands of years ago, those two little islands were part of one large landmass. Now those two little islands are all that remains of it. The rest is underwater.’
‘If it’s shallow, maybe that’s why all these boats are sinking.’
Nash shook his head. ‘No. It’s only shallow in that small area around the islands. The rest of the surrounding ocean is as you expect. It’s deep. This isn’t a case of ships running aground. This is something else.’
‘Alright, you clearly know more about this than me. I just wanted to make sure we didn’t get into any trouble.’
‘Unless you think seagulls will call the Coast Guard, we’re safe,’ Nash replied.
Tyler stared at the map, frown etched on his brow. He could feel Nash staring at him.
‘What are you thinking?’ Nash asked.
‘Just that with this being so remote, if anything goes wrong, we’ll be far from help.’
Nash nodded. ‘Which is why I’ve taken all the necessary precautions. Here, let me show you.’
Nash rolled up the map and put it beside the console then turned back to the monitors that had been installed. ‘Alright, here’s how this will work. You see the monitors here?’ Nash pointed to the blue standby screens.
‘Yeah.’
‘Well, each screen is linked to one of the manta drones we brought on board.’
‘You just told me that. They are going down first, right?’
Nash nodded. ‘That’s not all. Once we’ve located what we are looking for, the manta drones will be positioned in a circular formation around you and Liam. As you load up the gold, I’ll monitor the live feeds from the drone cameras. The feed is super high resolution and also has night vision and thermal imaging. I’ll be monitoring those from the surface and keeping in constant contact with you from the surface. I know you don’t believe it, but I do, and I want to be sure the both of you are safe.’
‘You can pilot all those drones by yourself?’
‘They are designed to have adjustable buoyancy, so essentially, once they are in position, I can adjust the levels and the mantas will just sit there until I move them. They will need small tweaks to account for currents, but I can handle it. Think of it like spinning plates. As long as I keep moving from one to the other to adjust them, it will be fine.’
‘Let’s hope the units work as they should.’
Nash snorted. ‘Don’t let the fact that my hand is the way it is fool you. I was a good engineer before this happened to me and I still do alright now. I’ve personally set up each manta ahead of the dive. They will work.’
‘And what about the gold? How will we find that? Looking at the map you just showed me, this Devil’s Triangle is huge.’
‘We’re heading back to the location where we found the flotation balloons and the gold bar. Seems like a good place to me. There was still a fair bit of surface debris, too, so it stands to reason that the gold was found in the general vicinity.’
‘And how will we get the gold to the surface if we find any?’
‘Seems to me the flotation balloon idea is a good one. We’ve brought some with us. Any more questions?’
Tyler could see he was getting on Nash’s nerves, and decided it would be best to leave him alone. ‘No, that’s all, thanks. I’m going to head below and look at these books.’
‘Study them, Tyler. They could save your life.’
Tyler left the wheelhouse, books in hand. The closer they got to their destination, the more he wanted to know about Nash’s shark theory. Just to be safe.
Chapter Seven
The Devil’s Triangle. 100 miles off the coast of Australia.
‘We’re here,’ Nash said as he put the boat into neutral, letting it ebb with the gentle tide. They had been sailing for almost eight hours and the sun was starting to dip towards the horizon, turning the ocean into an expanse of fire. Nash walked out onto the rear deck, squinting against the sun as he surveyed the water. Tyler joined him. He had expected to see something. A marker or some other landmark to show that they were in the right place. He turned in a slow circle, scanning the waves, nervous that they were so far away from land.
‘It’s quiet,’ Tyler said as the boat creaked and swayed on the tide.
‘Yeah, nothing out here but us now.’
‘What are those?’ Tyler said, pointing at two rocky outcrops on the horizon.
‘Those islands I told you about on the map. See what I mean about them being too far away to be the cause of the sinking ships?’ Nash said. He was sweating, his eyes darting over the surface of the water.
Tyler walked to the stern, staring into the blue depths. Now he was there, everything seemed much more real. ‘Do you really think it’s down there?’
Nash grinned and joined Tyler at the stern. ‘Did some reading, I take it? Made you a believer now.’
‘I was talking about the gold, not the shark.’ He expected Nash to go into another one of his sermons, but he was too distracted. He was flexing his good hand as he stared at the water. ‘You know, I’ve been waiting to get to this stage for so long, and now that I’m here, I can’t stop shaking. Hopefully, we’ll find something otherwise, this will have been a very expensive wasted trip.’
Liam joined them on deck, already wearing his wetsuit. ‘You better get changed. We’re losing daylight.’
Tyler nodded, unable to hide the nerves that were setting in. Now, more than ever, he desperately wanted a few drinks. The inner demon was stirring and he wondered if Nash had brought any alcohol on board.
‘I’ll get the drones ready,’ Nash said. ‘The two of you will have to get them into the water for me, my arm…’ He trailed off, good hand still flexing with nerves.
Tyler felt like he was running on autopilot, somehow detached from reality. The closer he got to actually entering the water, the more aware he was that he didn’t know the people he was with and that he was trusting his life to strangers. He still couldn’t accept that there was a giant monster beneath the waves, and he had seen enough of Nash to know he was slightly unhinged. There was always the ‘what if’ though. After all, even crazy people were right sometimes and he couldn’t shake that off. With it in his mind, Tyler went below deck to change and maybe see if he could find a bottle of something to take the edge off his nerves.
II
Liam was lowering the last of the drones into the ocean as Tyler returned in his black and red wetsuit. It was a snug fit, his belly straining against the material. He had been unable to find any alcohol which had put him into a bad mood. It made him aware just how big a problem he had developed and knew he needed to fix it. Not yet, though, when there was so much stress about the pending dive. With the growing dark, the ocean no longer looked gorgeous and relaxing. Instead, it looked like the most inhospitable, uninviting place he had ever seen.
‘You okay there, big man? Not lost your nerve, have you?’
Tyler looked at Liam, wishing he had a little of the same cocky confidence. ‘I’m fine.’
‘Good, because we can’t afford any mistakes down there. For the record, I wanted to do this alone but my dad insisted we bring someone else in. Just do as I tell you and everything will be fine.’
‘Good luck giving me instructions under water,’ Tyler grunted, deciding he preferred the sulky, quiet version of Nash’s son. Liam shook his head and crossed the deck to the scuba gear, then stared at Tyler. ‘Come over here, let me teach you a little something.’
Ignoring the goading tone, Tyler joined Liam by the equipment. He glanced at Nash to see if he was going to say anything to his son, but he was preoccupied calibrating the underwater mantas, lost in the controls and array of screens in front of him.