“Sure, but the well hasn’t run dry yet, because as of five months ago the fat man was looking for fresh buyers. That’s how Fass came upon his.” Blaine paused. “Question is, how did the fat man mine all that stuff underwater without anyone being aware of it, including the captain here? That Dragon Fish might have needed all of two swallows to get Vasquez down. Maybe that’s what saved him.”
Natalya’s face was somber. “You know all this fits perfectly with the legends of the Lost Continent, don’t you? The waters of Paradise Point right here in the Biminis are lined with precise rock formations that many feel are the remains of its road systems.”
“The only thing lost right now is my patience.” Blaine swung back to Captain Bob. “You’re right, Captain, we can’t make it to this island alone. But you could take us there.”
He shook his head. “Lots of people asked me to over the years. Offered me more money than you ever seen to do it too. What makes you any different?”
“Because if you take me there, I’ll kill the Dragon Fish for you.”
“You’re the first man I ever seen might be able to do it,” Captain Bob said then. “I suppose I been waitin’ for ya. Never did want to die scared of a place I lived most my life. Always figured I’d be going back one last time….”
Four hours later they set off from the Alice Town harbor where Captain Bob’s cruiser was docked. It was a thirty-three footer that had once belonged to a rich couple from the Florida Keys. They’d beached it one summer evening, and Captain Bob got it off the insurance company for a song and rebuilt it himself. That had been ten years back and the cruiser didn’t get out to sea much anymore. He lived aboard it, though, and empty or half-empty bourbon bottles were the only decorations he’d added.
The captain had plenty of scuba equipment and tanks but they needed refilling, which Blaine accomplished in town while the old man and Natalya got the cruiser sea-ready. Captain Bob repeatedly refused to accept money for the charter, nor did he ask for any further elaboration on what it was they were looking for. He seemed quite content to simply head his cruiser out from the harbor and settle it gracefully into the sea. Blaine and Natalya could sense in Captain Bob a resigned acceptance of fate. He seemed to have regained a measure of health.
Captain Bob had already confirmed that the island with no name was approximately 175 miles east of Alice Town. With the cruiser’s top speed at thirty miles per hour, a six-hour voyage was in store at the very least, which, Captain Bob was careful to point out, would leave them precious little daylight. Night was the Dragon Fish’s time and nobody in their right mind would tempt the waters then. But he said it knowing they would anyway and he was glad of that. If he could just see the vile creature that had stolen his sons away destroyed, he would be ready to leave this world.
The island came into view through binoculars about five hours into their voyage. Soon, Captain Bob positioned Blaine and Natalya at opposite sides of the cruiser’s forwardmost point to watch for reefs his bourbon-soaked mind had forgotten about. The formations were treacherous, but the captain squeezed by them, with the hull occasionally scratching against one. In some places the reefs seemed to have gathered like sharks. Blaine had done plenty of diving through the years, including a stretch at the Great Barrier Reef, but he had never seen anything like this. The reefs seemed strategically placed to deter precisely the kind of journey they were making. There was a man-made quality about them.
Gradually the island with no name sharpened in view. It was surprisingly small, no more than a half mile across. It was decorated with lavish green flora and dominated by the center steeple of the lighthouse Captain Bob had manned for years, which poked up above the trees at the edge of the shoreline. The beach was smooth yellow sand. As they drew still closer, Blaine could make out the remains of shacks abandoned years before. The whole scene had the feeling of a graveyard, albeit a lush one.
“We’ll anchor here,” Captain Bob announced three hundred yards from shore. “Beneath us lie the corpses of a thousand ships. Riches and treasures beyond imagining.” He bit his up. “And this is where the Dragon Fish took my sons.”
“What about the center of the quake?” Blaine asked him softly.
“Right abouts where we are now. I remembers ’cause of the whirlpool. Never forget that sight. A tunnel whipping through the sea, sucking down anything which was anywhere near it.”
“And the depth?”
“Hundred feet at the deepest point.”
“I’m going down,” Blaine told Natalya and started to climb into his wet suit.
Natalya reached for hers. “I can’t let you have all the fun.”
Blaine smiled at her, not bothering to argue. Together, he and Natalya donned their scuba equipment, starting with the life vests a simple tug on a string would inflate. There was also a tubular sprocket fitted for an extension out of the tanks to draw air with a simple press of a plunger. Next came the weight belt and finally the bulky tank which on land was nearly impossible to tote. Captain Bob helped Blaine pull his over his shoulders and then moved on to Natalya while McCracken worked the straps tight beneath his groin, making sure the tank was centered properly. He and Natalya then rubbed water on the insides of their masks to prevent them from fogging up, adjusted the straps to the proper tightness, and checked both their main and auxiliary regulators.
“You’s got one hour of air each,” Captain Bob reminded them. “If I gets no sign of you after that, nothin’ saying I won’t pull up anchor and leave.”
“Fair enough,” said Blaine, pulling on his flippers.
“Hope you finds what you’s looking for, friend.”
“If it’s here, we’ll find it.”
With that, Blaine and Natalya grabbed hold of their spearguns and tossed themselves over backwards into the black depth below.
Chapter 28
The sights beneath them were breathtaking. Through the crystal-clear water they could see a paradise of sea creatures and plants springing from the nearby reefs. The fish seemed almost friendly, coming forward as if to be petted.
McCracken had always loved diving. The feeling of being underwater soothed him. It was a world where time seemed to stand still or at least pass more slowly.
The depths darkened as Blaine and Natalya kicked with their flippers and angled their bodies to swim lower. They were using the standard set of hand signals, never expecting to be far enough away from each other to actually require them and hoping not to need their spearguns and the underwater knives sheathed on their calves.
Down further now….
Captain Bob had told them that the depth of these waters was between ninety and a hundred feet. The angle of the sun was strong enough now to provide them plenty of light. But each had a powerful underwater flashlight attached to their weight belt.
Blaine wasn’t really sure what he expected to find or what he was going to do with it if he found it. Clearly, even if he could locate the Atragon crystals, salvaging sufficient stores of them would require a professional team like the one Vasquez must have employed. At this point, with time increasingly of the essence, he questioned whether such an operation could be mounted, especially with him being temporarily cut off from forces in the government. Still, an attempt had to be made.
Natalya grasped his shoulder and pointed hurriedly down and to their right. There, almost directly beneath them on the ocean floor, lay the remains of a ship from centuries back. The wood frame had long since fossilized, providing an eerie, ghostlike appearance. McCracken could tell from his maritime background that it was a Spanish galleon dating back to the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. A good chunk of the bow was missing, but otherwise the hull and masts looked reasonably whole.