Their feet clanked as they stepped along the steel grates that formed the internal working stairs, used by maintenance to check on the bilge and assess the engines at different heights. At the end of the last one, it came to a sudden ending about three floors above the bilge — giving it the appearance of a giant viewing platform.
“This will do gentlemen.” Don stopped and then flicked off the lights.
“What’s this about?”
“Just wait for it. You’ll see what I need to show you.”
Chapter Thirty Eight
Sam strained his eyes trying to make out something in the darkness, but no light came to them. He could hear the labored breathing of Donald, the overweight naval engineer who had lead him down into the dark hull.
“Okay watch this,” Don said.
A moment later there was the sound of a large splash, as something dropped into the bilge water. Sam’s heightened sense of hearing while in the complete darkness magnified the echoes of the splash as it ricocheted around the confined steel hull.
He struggled to make out an image, but saw nothing.
Veyron switched on his flashlight. “All right Mr. Richardson, what’s this all about?”
Donald shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure, it must have died.”
“What died?” Sam and Veyron asked in unison.
“The phosphorescent plankton living in this bilge.”
“You brought us here to see the plankton?” Sam asked.
“I know what you’re thinking, but I’m telling you, this wasn’t no ordinary plankton. This stuff glowed stronger than anything I’ve ever seen. It was like plankton on steroids — and it wasn’t behaving normally.”
Sam was getting frustrated. “What do you mean by that? Plankton doesn’t do anything or behave in any sort of way. It just drifts in the ocean at the mercy of the currents.”
“It’s doing stuff to this hull. I can’t prove it, but if I had to bet on it, I’d say that something in the plankton ate away at the hull.”
“Have you done tests with the stuff? You know, taken the plankton and placed it in a metal container to see what it does?”
“Sure have.”
“And what were the results?”
Donald smiled, stupidly. “Nothing. It did nothing.”
“So, the plankton behaved normally.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t prove it was normal.”
“If it doesn’t prove exactly that, what do you think it proves Mr. Richardson?” Veyron asked.
Donald gritted his teeth. He looked like a man waiting to tell the most unbelievable part of the story, only to stop at the last minute, having thought better about what it would sound like. Then, crumbling with the need to get it off his chest, he said, “Only that the plankton didn’t want to lose its container of sea water.”
“Interesting,” Sam replied. “We’ll run some tests on the water and see what we find.”
“What do you think you’ll find with dead plankton?” Veyron asked, unable or unwilling to hide his skepticism.
“I have no idea, but the only similarity between the story told by each Captain, whose ship was struck by this rogue wave, was their reflection that the plankton was brighter than it had ever been before.”
“We’ve already agreed that it would be reasonable for the phosphorescence to be radiant in the wake of such a powerful wave. What makes you so willing to believe such a ridiculous theory?” Veyron asked.
“Because I’ve seen more improbable answers to questions in the past.”
Donald chuckled to himself. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Sam opened his backpack and removed a sampling kit. He then climbed down the steel ladder and knelt next to the bilge water. Using a glass beaker, he withdrew 200 milliters of seawater from the bilge. “Don’t get too carried away. I agree with Veyron, it’s a long shot, but I’ll run some tests and follow the only lead we have so far. Say, you seem pretty convinced by all this. Was there something else which makes you feel that the plankton is somehow different?”
“Look. I get it. You think I’m crazy, but run the tests. I’m telling you there’s something different about this stuff.” The man was sweating. He looked nervous near the bilge water. Constantly fidgeting, and when Sam asked him to help with the water, he took a step back. “No thank you, sir. If it’s all the same to you, I’ll just wait here.”
“Go on, as you said, we already think you’re crazy. So no reason to stop where you are now. May as well go all the way with your story.”
“All right.” He fidgeted with some paper notes. “Just remember, I’m just telling you the facts. We have a large Mexican workforce here, and as you know, they can be prone to superstition. Frankly, we’d all be happy once this ship has been scrapped.”
Sam reassured him it would be all right. “Go on.”
“A few days ago one of my welders, Juan Gonzales fell into that bilge.” Donald pointed at the dark, lifeless water. “A few hours later he developed a terrible rash all over his body and by that afternoon had an intense headache, followed by a rapid deterioration of his ability to stay awake. An ambulance was called and by the time they arrived, they had to stick a tube in his mouth so that he could breathe. By 6p.m. he’s in hospital and they take him for an MRI — you know one of those imaging machines?”
Sam nodded his head. “Go on.”
“Five minutes into the test, he began having seizures, and the Doctors had to stop it. Then all his symptoms seemed to disappear and by the next morning it was like nothing had ever happened.”
“Did they complete the MRI?”
“Sure did. Waited until the morning and sent him through the same machine with some drugs on board to keep him from fitting again.”
Sam was eager for the man to get to the point. “What did the MRI show?”
Donald shook his head sympathetically. “He has a grade IV brain tumor. Probably won’t live until the end of the month. Never had any symptoms before. Some shitty luck, huh?”
Chapter Thirty Nine
Tom dived to a hundred and thirty feet. Next to him, Genevieve reserved her energy and air supply by lying perfectly still. The two of them looked out over the large sandbar on the seafloor. There were at least a dozen vessels there and maybe another dozen in the surrounding areas.
“It’s like looking at a candy shop and being told to take photos and mark the location of each type of lolly. Then being told that if you’re a good kid, you can taste them in a few days’ time,” Tom complained.
Gen took a photo of the shipwreck graveyard. Probably the largest collection of 17th century shipwrecks ever found together. “They say vision is the food for the soul. I’d say this is quite a feast we have here.”
“Good point.” Tom showed her a dive slate. A single triangle marked the Bonaventure which he and Sam had explored. Tom ticked it. “Okay, that’s one down — Sam wants us to document the rest of them. We’ll start on the western side and slowly progress inwards towards the east.”
“Got it.”
She swam ahead of him, eagerly kicking her fins. Tom followed. They documented a total of sixteen shipwrecks before it was time to ascend to the surface again. Tom followed Genevieve’s lithe figure, as she swam to the top of a sandbar like a water nymph.
Genevieve stopped at the top of the sandbar and stared at the wooden structure below. “Is that what I think it is?”
Tom smiled. “I believe that’s the trimaran from Sam’s stupid oil painting.”
Chapter Fourty