What was interesting about these revelations from Briars and Curtis is that logically it would seem that damage would be done to only one party, that is the Elissa Dido project. But someone had set fire to the Susannah. Curtis wouldn't have done it. He wanted Star Salvage to find the shipwreck first. Did Briars do it? Or did he have someone on his side, someone who was just as determined to make sure that Groves didn't find it, as Rick and Curtis were that he did. The only other possibility was that there was someone out there who didn't want either of them to find the shipwreck.
All of this presupposed that Rick had been killed because of the shipwreck. Maybe he'd been killed because he was a con man and a thief. There were a lot of maybes here, a lot of information was coming together, but on the conclusion side, we were a little light. All I had to go on was gut instinct. As inconceivable as it might seem that all of this could have happened because thousands of years ago a ship had gone down at sea, my intuition was now telling me it was the shipwreck.
I didn't think I'd go to sleep, but I did. Soon I was standing in the sanctuary of Baal Hammon in a white dress, a sifsari covering my head and face. Everyone on the tour was there with me, although it was hard to tell who was who, because even the men wore robes with hoods.
A great fire was burning there, and its light flickered across the features of a golden god who sat, hands on his thighs, palms facing each other.
We were there for a great and sacred ceremony, although I didn't yet understand what it was. Somehow it became apparent to me that a child was to be sacrificed to the golden god. I wanted to stop it happening, but I couldn't move.
The child, whose face I couldn't see, was wrenched from its mother's arms and carried toward the statue and the fire. A howl so intense it could surely be heard in heaven, went up from the mother.
"Doesn't she know she's not supposed to cry," Jimmy said. "Can't she read?"
As Betty turned her back on her husband and walked away, I noticed an enormous sign that said NO CRYING! DEFENSE DE PLEURER! TRAENEN SIND VERBOTEN!
"Incompetent little twit," Curtis agreed.
"Tragic," said Chastity. She was standing directly behind Emile. If he moved to the right, she did, too. If he turned and walked a few steps, she followed. As she spoke, he turned and looked at her, then flicked his cigarette into the flames. She made the same motion, without the cigarette, and he frowned.
"Mors certa, hora incerta," Ben said. "Although given this is a sacrifice, perhaps it really should be hora certa, too, in this particular instance. Will we get dinner after?"
"You and I need to get in shape, Ben," Susie scolded "It's possible, you know. We can jog. Nora's done it."
A snake slithered over the golden god, then turned its eyes, demonic red, toward me. The mouth opened to reveal its fangs. The head swayed closer and closer.
I was back in my room. I looked at my alarm clock. Three in the morning. Four days to go. Who was the snake?
PART III
Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?
Can rage as fierce as this abide in the soul of heaven?
12
A LL NIGHT HASDRUBAL and the boy clung to a piece of wood, dashed by the sea, whipped by the winds.
"I believe this is part of the cedar box," Hasdrubal said. "The gods must have a sense of humor."
"Of a sort," the boy yelled over the roar of the storm.
"You remind me of my son, Carthalon," the captain said. "I trust I do not offend you in saying this."
"Indeed, I am honored," the boy said.
"I do not believe I will survive this night," Hasdrubal went on. "But I think you might. You are young and strong. Therefore I have another task for you, one for which, unfortunately, I am unable to reward you this time, as my money is gone."
"I will do it," the boy replied.
"You are a fine young man. I ask this favor only because I believe that our great city of Qart Hadasht is in grave danger, not just from Agathocles, as you might suspect, but from another."
"Tell me," the boy said.
"My ship was commissioned for a special voyage, a secret mission, by a very important person in Qart Hadasht. I was approached by the great man himself. I was told it was a matter of utmost urgency to the state. This person was, I believed, beyond reproach. Our task was to carry a special piece of cargo, which I'm sure you have guessed was the cedar box, along with money and goods, on a specified route along the Libyan coast bound for Tyre. Gisco, the man you call the stranger, was to accompany it. You caught a glimpse of that cargo, I believe."
"I did," the boy said, "and I have never seen anything so magnificent. Where did it come from?"
"Tartessus, of course, the lands beyond the pillars of Herakles, where gold and silver and jewels are to be found. But it is not so much what it is, as what its purpose was to be."
Hasdrubal gasped as another large wave hit them. The boy reached across their tiny makeshift raft to steady him.
"I was told that the statue--it is very old, Carthalon, older even than Qart Hadasht itself--was a gift to the city of Tyre to propitiate the god who has seemed to desert us in our hour of greatest need as the Greek tyrant tries to destroy us. Many have felt that miseries have been heaped upon us, because we have been lax in the worship of our own gods."
"I know that," the boy said. "I saw the sacred ceremonies in the sanctuary of Baal Hammon. But what of the silver and gold coins and the rest of the cargo? Were they for the city of Tyre as well?"
"No. The cargo was to be used to raise an army from amongst the Libyans to assist us in the forthcoming battles with Agathocles. I knew the voyage was dangerous, slipping out alone, without escort, and on such a bad night. But how could I refuse when I had seen the sacrifices made by our leaders--their first-born, sometimes their only children--sacrificed to save us all? And I confess there was profit in it. We citizens of Qart Hadasht are always on the lookout for gain."
"And so you are worried, now that the cargo has not reached its destination, the gods will still be angry with us--and the mercenary troops we hoped to muster, and even you, will not be paid?"
"No, much worse than that. I think the cargo was not really destined for Tyre. I fear that I am a dupe to treachery, an unwitting party to it. I believe the statue was stolen from a sanctuary in the lands near the pillars of Herakles--there is rumor of such a statue, more beautiful than anything we have ever seen, gold, with eyes of diamonds. I think the money was to go to mercenaries all right, but rather than being used to raise an army to support Qart Hadasht, it was to be used against us. The money was to convince the Libyans to support a traitor! And the statue, I believe, was to be used by that same traitor to convince the people to follow him."
The boy gasped. "How can this be? What makes you think this is so?"
"In part, it is just a feeling I have. In part, it is what you told me."
"What do you mean?" the boy said. "I told you nothing of this."
"Ah, but you did. You told me that the stranger conferred with Mago before he went down to the cargo hold, and that while you could not see who had returned the ingot, you did see Mago open an amphora of coins, hold the money for a few moments, but then return it and reseal the container. He did the same with the pithos of gold jewelry."