“Lady Rose was less than forgiving?”
“Exactly, Lady Rose, now grown up, and having survived both her parents and her brother, had little left in her life than to kill the man whom she’d imagined had taken them all away from her. Having inherited a fortune, she sailed to the foundling Australia, and followed Jack until he reached his treasure. There, she killed him. In a strange whim, Jack had cut the raft which housed the Ark and let the treasure disappear into the tunnel forever.”
Aliana, engrossed by the sad story, looked up and asked, “How did you come by so much of this history?”
“Because Lady Rose looked at the treasure map that Jack had been carrying on him. Three leather parts, stitched together and marked John, Jack, and Dawson — the three names of the survivors of the Emily Rose. Men whose lives were destined to be entwined in love and hatred. She couldn’t believe it. She took it home, and never told anyone about any of it, until, on her own deathbed, she wrote it all down, with the inclusion of the map.”
“But how did you come to learn of it?”
James then opened a plastic folder, which showed the old map, worn, but still intact. “This map, my great, great grandmother found, after she killed Jack Robertson.”
Aliana’s cell phone rang.
She looked down at it — a private number — and answered, “Aliana speaking.”
“Aliana, we just got Sam out!” She recognized Rodriguez’s voice. “I’m coming by now to pick you up.”
“That’s great! Thanks.”
Aliana then looked at James, “Now, how do you want to do this?”
James grabbed the keys to an old, beat up, Holden Utility. “Come on, I better take you to my place.”
James was just starting to enjoy his new ride, a 1970s Holden Utility. Noticeable less flashy than what he was used to, it was built before the Environmental Protection Agencies got hold of the motor industry, and it came equipped with an 8-cylinder, 6-liter, leaded petrol engine — all power, and no handling.
Sam, he knew, would hate it.
Around ten miles out of town, he got out to open the gate so that he could drive into the farm where he was staying. An old, 1890 homestead rested on the hill at the end of the dirt road. Its roof, rusty corrugated iron, and its walls built of rock and timber, it had obviously seen better days. He had no doubt he was the first to rent it in more than a decade. James looked at Aliana, “This is my place.”
“You’ve been staying here?”
“Of course. Why, don’t you think I can do it tough?”
“Sure, I don’t doubt you could — but it’s not your normal style, is it?” she said
James laughed at that. “My son’s told you a bit about me, hasn’t he?” She nodded her head. “Well, I might like a somewhat decadent lifestyle these days, but you’d be surprised what I’ve lived through to get here.”
Judging by her face, James thought Aliana most likely would have been very much surprised. He parked the car and the two walked up the old sandstone steps and into the house.
Inside, the house looked entirely unlived in. Covers were still over the furniture, and a pile of dust seemed to cover the entire place.
James opened up his laptop, and said, “Here’s the current satellite picture of the entrance to the mine.”
The steel hatch, seen in previous images, was now covered with soil and fresh grass had been laid over the top of it, making it literally disappear.
“At least they’ve left the place alone,” she said, her voice soft. “We should be able to get through easily enough. They never would have filled the hole. Michael will want to return for his gold, at some stage — it shouldn’t be too hard to find him.”
“Don’t get too excited. Look over there,” James pointed to the camouflaged Armored Patrol Vehicle, nearly buried in a ditch no more than fifty feet from the entrance to the shaft.
Her eyes were despondent, but not beaten.
“What did you expect? Michael’s got more than ten million dollars’ worth of Spanish gold down there. He’s not going to leave it around for just anyone.”
“So, now what? Can we destroy that APC?”
“We could do that…” James smiled, as though he was genuinely considering it. “I think I have a better idea, one which won’t give away our hand quite so much. A slow win is sometimes more satisfying.”
“And what’s that?”
“We’re going to rescue my son, and then we’re going to steal Michael’s treasure.”
“Now you’re talking…”
“And after that, we’re going to make Michael pay by beating him to his ambition.”
“How are we going to do that?”
“By locating the real Mahogany Ship.”
Alana looked at the topographical map of the surrounding area. “That tunnel is almost 500 feet below the surface, we’re going to need a lot more equipment to rescue Sam…”
“That’s already covered.”
“What’s your plan?”
At that moment, the window sill started to vibrate as the ground shook, and despite the pale blue sky outside, the sound of thunder could be heard.
James smiled and stepped outside.
An enormous military helicopter approached, the twin rotors of the Chinook turning the dry land into a dust storm.
“And here come our reinforcements.”
Tom shut down the engine, and casually stepped out of the helicopter. He looked at James Reilly sitting on the front porch of a big old homestead, a local beer in his hand and a beautiful blonde by his side. The old man had a smile on his face that radiated sheer delight. It could have been the company of the beautiful woman next to him, or the fact that he was on an adventure with real value for the first time in years.
It took a second for Tom to recognize the stunning creature as Aliana. He hadn’t expected her to be there. No one had told him that she knew anything about this.
“It’s good to see you again, Aliana,” Tom said, as he kissed her on the cheek.
Throwing her long, slender body around him with a solid embrace, she replied, “You have no idea how good it is to see you here. Thanks for coming.”
“You’re welcome. If I’d known that you were stuck here, alone with this man, I would have come to your rescue sooner.”
“Hey, don’t you think for a second that I can’t hear you, Tom,” James said. “You want a beer?”
“I’m only kidding, James. Sure, I’ll have a beer.” Tom grinned mischievously, “Have you found Sam, yet?”
Aliana, brought up the satellite display of the now covered mine shaft, “This is what remains of the mineshaft, and this is an image nearly 50 miles away, where they say that they were working when Sam disappeared. So, it’s safe to say that this is where he is,” she said pointing to the now hidden hatch. “What we don’t know is how we’re going to get him out of there.”
“On my flight from Los Angeles here, I had time to look at the maps of the tunnels that Sam had already made. I’ve then superimposed those with the land above, based on this topographical map.” Tom opened up the satellite images of the surrounding landscapes. “As you can see, there is very little in the way of rivers above ground anywhere near here, but if you travel 60 miles north, you can see the Dharuk river flows strong for hundreds of miles and then seems to just disappear into the side of a mountain. As we all know, rivers have to go somewhere. When you look at Sam’s underground maps, you can see that this third tunnel, the largest of the five mapped underground waterways that he’s explored, it appears to keep coming from the north. That’s less than 10 miles from the end of where his initial search reached.”