Marion shook her head. “I always thought of it as personal love note for my mother’s eyes only. It was only when I found it again recently that I recognised a few characters referring to gold and submarines, that I realised it had some special meaning.” She was near to tears.
Oscar touched her hand caringly as he tried to comfort her.
“Mind if I read it through first? Then I need only translate the details of the treasure ship, if there are any.”
Marion nodded approval.
Oscar studied the document for a couple of minutes. The others remained silent.
“Right,” he exclaimed, shifting in his chair and clearing his throat, “the first page is all personal stuff — I’ll read that to you later Marion — the bit referring to the position of the submarine is here on the third page.”
“The bombs were raining down all over the dockyard. The sub pulled away from the quay, apparently undamaged. We watched it leave the harbour, then it vanished into the night. We were ordered back to our units and told to shut up about what we’d seen. Very early in the morning, I was stationed on lookout with the radioman from the barracks. He’d heard about the gold — the news had spread like oil on water. He told me that he’d been listening to routine radio traffic when he’d heard a faint message in plain language from an unknown ship trying to locate a submarine. No names or numbers were used, just, ‘Subman, we’re on station. Confirm rendezvous?’ They called a couple of times before a reply was heard. ‘Stand-by, Subman running late. Prepare for immediate transfer when we arrive.’ Then, ‘Standing-by’ was all that had been said.
Just as the first rays of dawn were lighting the sky a gigantic silent explosion illuminated the horizon. A huge mushroom of fire filled the sky. It took quite some time for the sound of the massive detonation to reach us. The position we noted was somewhere South of Corregidor. The radio operator excitedly rushed to his equipment where he heard a desperate cry for help. It lasted for a few seconds only. But he claimed that he had obtained a good fix on the sound, which we believe came from the submarine or the other vessel.
Keep this information safe. This war must end soon and then we can be together. Perhaps there could be a crock of gold out there for us? If however this letter gets to you and I don’t survive these dreadful attacks, then it could still be good for you, if the position is accurate. Then maybe you may find a golden treasure to remember me by.”
“The rest is personal again.” Oscar took a pen from his pocket. “This is the location he has written down.” Oscar scribbled the numbers on a piece of paper, casually showed them to Greg, and then passed them to Marion.
Greg stood up and walked over to sideboard and the notepad where he’d listed his own selection of possible locations of the submarine’s last resting place. One set were almost identical. It was an exciting moment for Greg but he would have stay calm until he could talk to Oscar privately and assess what everybody’s intentions were.
Greg turned back to the little group, his tone very serious.
“You do realise don’t you, that if these coordinates really are of a lost submarine full of gold, you’ve already given away this position to us. If I may say so, you took a great risk; we have shared a Bar-B-Q and a pleasant evening together but what else do you know about us?” He raised his eyebrows questioningly. “What do we know about you for that matter?” He looked at Oscar. “I need to have a chat with you before we go any further with this. I’m not prepared to stick my neck out with the authorities and end up enjoying the rest of my holiday gazing through bars.” He looked around the group. “Oscar I think it best if we have that little talk in private right now. Fancy a little walk?”
Feeling a little embarrassed by Greg’s forthright approach, Oscar looked towards Marion. “I’m sorry folks but Greg is right; we have to decide just how far we want to be involved with this! So excuse us please. Help yourselves to anything you need. We won’t be long.”
Oscar walked down the steps to the little garden and followed Greg out onto the beach. They walked in silence for a while.
Greg spoke first.
“That location is quite close to ours you know. I suppose they could just be genuine; what do you think?”
“I said before that I think it’s all just too much of a coincidence.” Oscar sounded disappointed. “Here we are in Manila, having found a holiday chalet at random, then just by chance our neighbours have detailed information on the same submarine that were looking for!”
“It does seem that way doesn’t it; did that letter seem genuine to you?” Greg tried changing the direction of the conversation.
“Well actually I think it is genuine. The question is; are our neighbours?” Oscar was despondent; the possibility that Marion was some sort of con artist had dashed iced water on his flutter of infatuation. “In the meantime I think we have to test them somehow. Though I can’t think how for the moment. One thing is certain though, if they are really genuine and as naive as they appear to be, your comment about half the crooks this side of the planet knocking on their door before long will certainly be true!”
Greg stopped walking and turned to face Oscar.
“Well old friend, one thing is certain, we’ve either managed by some extraordinary coincidence to find a fellow treasure hunter or we’ve managed to attract some very unwelcome attention to our project.” He turned and faced back towards the bungalow.
Oscar followed. “You promised me that this little project of yours would be a piece of cake!” He shook his head and laughed. “It looks to me as though were about to be starting another of your hair-raising adventures!”
Greg looked back at his friend. “You could opt out now; it’s not too late?”
“What and let you young scallywags have all the fun! Not on your life.” Fascinated by the intrigue and still harbouring a ray of hope for Marion, Oscar had a new spring in his step.
“OK then. Now first we need to try and clarify who’s who and what’s what. Moby Dick for instance, those sharp shooting speedboats, the government officials and these so called diving contractors! We need to check them all out.” Greg was thinking and talking as they walked.
“We need to tell Remi and Marion something about us as well,” Oscar reminded Greg.
“Yes well, I’ll leave that to you. I’ve noticed that twinkle in your eye every time Marion gets close, you dirty old man. So you can tackle that one!” He laughed and mounted the steps to the terrace.
The others were still sitting looking nervously expectant as Oscar moved over to the empty chair next to Marion.
“We’ve agreed between us that we may be able to assist you but we will have to have a proper commercial arrangement.” Oscar looked towards Marion; she held his stare without challenging him. “We will use our sources here to check out the various people involved. The diving contractor for instance; then we will try to help you to locate the wreck and, if successful, recover the gold. Then don’t forget the next equally difficult stage you have to dispose of the goods and convert them into cash!”
“What would you say to fifty-fifty partners?” Greg interrupted, anxious that Oscar was about to be too generous.
Remi looked at his mother and placed a hand on her arm. “What do you think mother? Fifty percent of something is infinitely better than one hundred percent of nothing; I don’t really think we have a chance on our own, do you?”
Marion looked at Remi. “Remember what your grandfather said in his letter: ‘Hope you find a little golden treasure to ‘remember me by’. Our expectations, you see, were not really very high, so any sort of reward would be a big prize for us.” She looked up at Greg. “Do we simply shake hands or do we need bits of paper?” She looked serious.