Pointing toward a hole in the starboard hull just below the main deck, Purdue made his way to the tear in the metal to guide the others in. In the back of his mind, the billionaire had no still harbored a wariness for the men of the Cóndor. He never lost sight of the fact that they could easily dispatch him under the water and make it look like a shark attack, even if they were timid enough to bother hiding his murder. Sam would be easy pickings up on the trawler, alone with a whole crew of foes.
Luckily Purdue’s scientific gadget had more than one colorful function. One of its settings was that of a laser beam strong enough to make popcorn in a man’s skull at close range. What masqueraded as antennae to track mineral values with, were in fact casings to accommodate laser propagation under water. The feature had been installed purely for cutting purposes should Purdue have to make incisions in metal while diving, but the other, less friendly, function would be an asset to any outnumbered man.
Into the wet darkness they floated, each one in turn switching on his flashlight. Apart from the occasional sea creature darting past them in startling detail, they were alone in the black cavern of steel and bone. Purdue tracked his previous way to where he had discovered the golden coins.
As he had explained to Vincent before, they were not accompanied by some king’s ransom. When he had retrieved the doubloon he had with him, he’d seen barely a handful more. But Vincent Nazquez was not impressed by ancient gold coins half as much as he would be if he could find the rest of the relic he already possessed — the prayer stick containing the incantations to unlock the gates of El Dorado.
In essence, both men were taking part in some quest into the past to still a hunger each of them had to know.
20
Mummy Dive
The divers slid through the seemingly endless dark. Around them, the interior of the ship’s engine room was unrecognizable as such. After so many years, it in no way resembled a man-made structure anymore. Pipes had become conduits of minor currents, cramped havens for shy octopuses to ambush their prey from, while steel dials, generators, and large ducts had become shapeless thrones of gloom. In some places the divers found themselves doing a double take on the algae structures, often resembling men. It was an unusual presumption for the party of four seasoned divers, but they all felt the macabre semblance eerie.
Purdue halted and pointed to a hatch under them, easy to open. He reached down and pulled the hatch upward. Its rubber skirting and wedge bar had long been eaten away by time and tide. Their faces contorted in horror as the rushing water, sucked through by the opening hatch vacuum, caused the most awful howl. Reminiscent of a bear’s growl, it filled with a torrent of bubbles that glimmered in the beams of their torches.
Purdue himself bolted backwards at the vocal sound released by the captive water under the hatch. A numbing fear momentarily gripped him, sending numerous Lovecraftian images through his head before he realized that it was merely the sound of the water through the mouth of the hatch.
Relieved, they finally followed the billionaire explorer through the large steel aperture. Below, they found what would make any treasure hunter fume in frustration. But these were not just treasure hunters. These were not men fueled by greed or monetary gain. Half-ransacked trunks, once carrying substantial riches in gems, silver jewelry, and gold, lined the one side of steel wall. They were distorted by the sea’s offspring claiming them, but what was left inside was still evident.
Even though the trunks had practically been emptied by previous visitors, they were heavy enough to constitute a pulley system to be recovered. Purdue and one of Vincent’s men took to measuring the dimensions of the large wood and iron boxes appearing to hail from the eighteenth century by design and material. Vincent took his time to scrutinize the contents of the first trunk. After a while he moved on to the second one, unsatisfied. They contained gold and gems like the others, but that was not what Vincent was seeking.
After all eight of the boxes had been measured, Purdue and Vincent recorded the dimensions at 2.2 meters in length, 2.8 meters in width, and their height at 1.3 meters. Vincent was getting impatient by the time he reached the seventh trunk and still had not found what he was looking for. His heart sank in despair when he completed his investigation of the eighth and found only the doubloons and jewels. He knew he had to be grateful for the immense bounty he they’d found, but there was little satisfaction in caviar when all you want is a beer.
Purdue motioned that he was going on to look for the bone locker his scanner had picked up when he was still lazing on his deceased yacht. Vincent nodded, and gestured for his two men to surface and rig up the pulleys. He was adamant to accompany Purdue to see what morose prizes the rich rewarded themselves with.
Through the intricate iron works of the bridge the two men went. They had no need for much paddling as a strong current carried them along until Purdue’s scanner lit up in bright red once more. It read as expected, combining symbols P and CO with the highest composition of the Ca symbol and the atomic number 20, making up the definitive chemical combination he was looking for.
Bone.
Purdue grabbed onto a thick post to his right and Vincent’s fleeting body was anchored by his grasp. Holding on to the skipper until he had secured his own place, Purdue waited for the scanner to read again before choosing the way down as indicated. By the looks of the cascading hollow, it was once a stairwell down to the sleeping quarters. Bunks were stacked one above the other in pairs, now the playground of nocturnal and shy specimens.
Ahead of them there were more of the crates they’d found the gold in above on the upper level, but these had been empty before the ocean’s children had taken them over and revamped them into shelter. Suddenly, Vincent urgently grabbed onto Purdue’s arm. Quickly, as if by reflex, the wealthy inventor had his laser device readily in his grasp, but what he mistook for an attack was just an observation to be shared.
Vincent pointed to the long sheets of rusted floor under them, lighting the area. Purdue looked down to find a whole trail of golden doubloons and assorted jewelry lying about, scattered like the entrails of a gutted treasure vault. Astonished at the sight, Purdue descended to the floor to clarify the nature of the sporadic glitters the coins gave off in the light of the flashlights. As he dusted the sediment that had settled on the floor, the particles ascended in a delayed slow motion allowing his fingers to reveal the strewn treasures.
They followed the trail of the glimmering valuables, picking up some of the coins as they went. Both men noticed that the doubloons were all marked with a peculiar symbol, much like the one Purdue had collected on his initial dive. In no way did they resemble typical Spanish coins, but Purdue thought to investigate their origin later. Vincent and Purdue reached another hatch entrance, but it did not lead to another section on the current level; it led to the floor below, deeper into the living quarters of the men.
Aside from the wreck’s outward appearance being that of German World War II battleship, there were no telltale signs or insignias irrefutably proving it to be a Nazi vessel. Thus far, Purdue and his accomplice could find no trace of identification on the ship, which was highly unusual, especially in a military environment. The hatch refused to move, and after some time the men realized that it was not rust causing the lock to jam, but water pressure.