As he got closer, the light disappeared.
He paused, mid-stroke, his eyes fixing on it again.
It flickered again.
It was gold!
He swam faster.
By now his lungs were burning, but he had to know the truth. He had to see it. The fear of losing whatever it was, was too much for him.
Again, the light stopped. He ran his hands through the sandy seabed. Something just below the surface appeared smooth, like glass.
He dug at the sand, pulling with both hands. There was definitely something there below it. Something smooth.
He cleared away a small layer of sand, revealing a large glassy surface, in the shape of a dome. He could see it clearly now. The object was made of glass. It was too large for him to reach either side of it, making it more like the size of a boat than a piece of jewelry. It looked like it had been buried there years ago. When and for what purpose he had no idea. He placed his eye right up to the glass, as though he could somehow see what was inside.
Katale stared at the strange sphere.
Could it have been an old sea creature, like the remains of an ancient abalone shell left discarded by the evil sea spirits? His face was pressed close to the sphere. A light originating from the sphere flashed and the inside suddenly became visible.
There, an old man, with white hair, stared back at him.
He was carrying a metallic canister. It had a strange emblem that Katale had never seen before, painted on the side.
If Katale had any air left to exhale, he would have screamed.
Instead he froze.
Inside, the man placed a single finger up to his lips — Shush.
Chapter Eighteen
Katale was the last one back to the flotilla.
He met his father, who informed him that something strange was happening with the sea, and no one had caught any fish today. Their mood was not somber. The sea would provide for them again tomorrow. The Moken worshipped two spirit gods — the good and the evil. Shamanism was the central element during the spirit festival.
Tonight, they made an additional devotional offering to the two spirit gods.
Afterward, Katale sat with his father and told him all about what he’d seen below the sand of the outer reef. His father didn’t really believe him. After all, for what purpose could the good and evil spirits have for a world beneath sea? But he agreed to see it in the morning.
The next morning they returned to the same site.
Katale dived down to the same place. There were no markings, but there didn’t need to be. He knew the outer reef better than any other person alive.
Yet he found nothing.
He dug in the sand, pulling big clumps of sand out, like a kid digging a hole at the beach, but the void inside revealed nothing of yesterday’s discovery.
On the surface, his father said, “Are you sure you didn’t dream it?”
“I’m certain, father. I swam here yesterday and there was a clear, curved device, like the windows you see on the Thai fishing ships. I could see through it clearly, and on the other side was an old man, with white hair. It’s there, I’m sure of it.”
“You just dug, and found nothing?” his father countered.
“Maybe they moved it?”
“No,” his dad replied, “If it’s as big as you say it was, there’s no way they could have dug it up and brought it to the surface so fast. You’re certain you have the right place?”
Katale nodded. “Yes. It’s only a few feet from a cave where I collect crayfish regularly.”
His father sighed and then took a deep breath. “Then we’d better keep digging.”
Katale and his father made three more trips down to the same spot on the seabed. Each time they shifted more and more sand, and each time, his father became more and more skeptical.
But on the fourth time he shifted a handful of sand and his fingers brushed up against something smooth, like glass.
His father saw it flicker, and quickly started to help remove more sand.
It took an hour for the two of them to clear away an area nearly five feet wide, but all it revealed was more of the strange dome shape.
His father said, “We need to collect fish or we will be hungry tonight. Tomorrow I will come back here with a gathering of the sea gypsies, and we’ll find out what this place really is.”
Katale spent the rest of that day fishing. He found some of the fish had returned, but not in their previously vast numbers. He caught a few, and returned to the main flotilla. His father was still out gathering a group of sea gypsies — he would not come home for a couple days — and by then all would be explained.
A couple days came and went and Katale didn’t see his father.
On the third day, his mother came to him.
She asked, “Have you seen your father in your travels?”
“No. He was out gathering a meeting of the sea gypsies. He might not be home for days. Why? Is something wrong?”
She shook her head. “He never reached any of the sea gypsies.”
Katale raised an incredulous eyebrow. “None of them?”
“No. I’ve asked around. No one has seen him.”
“That’s strange,” Katale admitted.
“He will be all right,” his mother said, emphatically. “He is wise and the spirit gods like him.”
He nodded in agreement. To him, his father was bigger than anyone he’d ever met — mentally as well as physically — he was a giant of a man.
Katale looked up from their flotilla.
A large iron ship, bigger than anything he’d ever seen in his life, was moving slowly across the turquoise waters of the Mergui Archipelago.
He grinned at the sight of it. “What is that?”
His mother shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s been here for the past few days. They’re saying it’s a navy battleship from some place far away.”
“Where?”
“The others don’t know where it is, but someone said the name is, Russia.”
“Russia?” Katale tried the name out. “I’ve never heard of it before…”
Chapter Nineteen
Sam Reilly felt his heart beat faster at the sight of her.
Next to him, his entire crew stood beaming with pride and pleasure, mixed in with a sense of loss for their older and reliable workhorse, the Maria Helena. It had taken just six months to design and construct the replacement ship. An extraordinary accomplishment, only capable of being achieved because of the hard work of a massive team of naval and aeronautical engineers from the US Department of Defense, along with civilian contractors, and some of the brightest minds in the industry.
The ship was designed at the US Navy’s advanced technologies lab in Quonset, New York, to Sam Reilly’s specifications, before having her composite hull put together at the Naval shipyards in San Diego. The ship was to be a replacement for the Maria Helena, which had been destroyed by torpedoes during a recovery mission for the USS Omega Deep, the US Navy’s most advanced experimental submarine. The Omega Deep had been stolen. As a reward for recovering the Navy’s 30-billion-dollar piece of military hardware, the Chief of the US Navy offered to foot the bill for the Maria Helena’s replacement.
The new ship was slowly pulled into view along a set of purpose-built rails by a pair of Peterbilt trucks. She was an awesome machine — a unique combination of beauty, raw power, and seafaring capabilities. She had a length of 180 feet and a beam of 45 feet. Shaped like a bullet, with a long black hull and narrow beam tapering in to a razor-sharp bow, she looked like one in the water, too.