Notice the necklace. Just like Perlmutter said.
Tamara Wright had to have been a ravishing beauty in her day, and, in her mid-fifties, she was still a striking woman. She had unlined caf+! au lait skin and shoulder-length hair that was as shiny black as a raven's wing. She was smiling at something the bartender said, showing a mouthful of the whitest teeth Juan had ever seen. She wore a patterned spaghetti-strap dress that showed off her toned arms.
He had pictured a cloistered academic when St. Julian first mentioned her and he was delighted to admit how wrong he was.
Juan had to stretch his pace to keep up with Max's bull-in-a-china-shop charge to get to her.
Dr. Wright, Max said with as much gallantry as he could muster. My name is Max Hanley.
A puzzled but pleased look set her smile at just the right angle. I'm sorry. Do we know each other?
Before Max could start in on what could prove to be a lengthy assault on her virtue, Juan stepped in. No, ma'am. You don't know us, but we're here because St. Julian Perlmutter said you'd be here.
You know St. Julian?
Yes, we do, and he said you'd have some insight into a Chinese Admiral that he, as much as it pains him to admit, doesn't.
Now she was really intrigued. Who are you?
Cabrillo. My name is Juan Cabrillo, and a couple of days ago my associate here and I discovered writing at the bottom of something called the Pine Island Treasure Pit that had been put there by Admiral Tsai Song in 1498.
Her mouth hung agape for a moment before she realized she was staring. She took a steadying sip of her white wine. Hanley and Cabrillo didn't look like the types to play a practical joke. They looked deadly serious.
It really is true? Her voice was a wonder-filled whisper.
Yes. Max said, grinning that he was able to provide her with information she obviously relished.
Wait, she said suddenly. Isn't Pine Island where some privateer supposedly buried his treasure?
The reality is even more amazing than that legend, Juan told her. He had already decided to get as much out of her as he could before telling her about the Argentine threat. He didn't want to risk her becoming uncooperative. Please, what can you tell us about Admiral Tsai?
The reason so little is known about him is that when he returned to China, a new Emperor was on the throne, one who didn't believe his subjects should leave the Middle Kingdom, and he put Tsai and his crew to death so they couldn't pollute the people with tales of the outside world. One of the men managed to escape, and it's from him we know about the voyage. She spoke with a real passion on the subject. And while Juan had asked the question, she was directing most of her attention to Max.
Tell us about the ship they were forced to leave behind. Tsai wrote that his men were set upon by an evil but didn't say what really happened.
Yes, that was the Silent Sea. Tsai was forced to sink her and kill all her crew because they had gone mad.
Where did this happen? Max asked.
The survivor was a lowly seaman, not a navigator. He only said that where it took place was a land of ice.
Curious, Juan said. How does
A black woman become an expert on Chinese maritime history?
No, I was going to ask how the story was preserved for so long, but since you brought it up . . .
My father was an electronics engineer who spent most of his career in Taiwan. I was raised in Taipei. That's where I got my undergraduate degree. It was only after I finished that we returned to the States. As for how the story persisted, the survivor, Zedong Cho, wrote it down when he was an old man. He lived in Taiwan when it was just anther province. The manuscript was handed down through the family, but by the time a few generations had passed it was seen as a piece of fiction, the fantasy of an old ancestor with a good imagination. I learned about it because my roommate all four years at university was Susan Zedong, Cho's nine-times-removed granddaughter.
Of course, there was no way to prove Admiral Tsai ever existed because the Emperor erased all evidence of him and all his men, so the story has remained just that, a story.
Until now, Max reminded.
Until now, she smiled at him.
Cabrillo could definitely sense some sparks here, and as much as he'd like to give them time alone, time was a luxury they didn't have.
Does he say what caused the madness? He was thinking about Linda Ross's report. Coincidence was a four-letter word in their line of work.
The Silent Sea got separated from the other two ships for a month on its way to South America. They stopped at a remote island please don't ask which and they traded for fresh food from the natives. That's the only deviation from what the other ships encountered, so I've always believed the food was tainted somehow.
Would you excuse me for a moment, Juan said, and stepped away. Max couldn't have been happier.
Juan dialed the Oregon and asked to be put through to Dr. Huxley.
Jules, its Juan.
Hey, where are you guys?
Believe it or not, on a Mississippi riverboat.
It's warm and sunny, isn't it? There was envy in the ship's medical officer's voice.
The sun just set, but it's still about eighty.
And you're calling to gloat. That's cold, Chairman, even for you.
Listen, have you had a chance to check those samples you asked Murph to bring back from Wilson/George?
Not yet.
Test them for prions.
Prions . . . seriously? You think Andrew Gangle had mad cow disease?
A form of it, yes, and I think he got it from the other body. Prions don't die, right?
They're just proteins, so they aren't really alive. But, yes, in a sense they don't die.
So someone could become infected if prions are introduced into the bloodstream by, say, accidentally jabbing yourself with the bone of a corpse riddled with them?
Julia didn't hesitate. Theoretically. Where'd this brainstorm come from?
A Chinese ship that isn't where it was supposed to be. Do me a favor and tell Mark and Stoney to quit studying the map. I found the bay. He left it at that and rejoined Max and Tamara, who was laughing at some joke Hanley had just cracked.
What was that all about? Max asked.
Playing a hunch about what tainted the food aboard the Silent Sea. Cannibalism was a common occurrence on several Pacific islands, and, if he was right, he knew what kind of meat the Chinese had bartered for. What cargo did the ship carry?
She was loaded with everything from gold and spices to silks and jade, all the items that the Chinese held in esteem. They wanted the best in their dealings with natives they met on their voyage, so they brought only their best. What else did Admiral Tsai write?
I have a translation down in my cabin. It would be my pleasure to get you a copy.
It was only because the band had stopped that Juan heard the low throb of powerful engines. He knew what it was even before he sprang to his feet. His sudden action alerted Max.
Juan raced to the side of the stern-wheeler and peered down into the dark waters. There was enough glow left in the sky for him to see that a forty-foot cigarette-style boat had pulled alongside the Natchez Belle. In it were four men dressed in dark clothes with ski masks pulled over their faces. So many things gelled in his mind at that moment, so many implications of what their dogged pursuit meant. But he didn't have time to dwell on them.
Already one of the men had leapt the narrow gap from the cigarette boat to the lowest deck of the lumbering pleasure boat.
They had four men. One would have to stay with their vessel, meaning three would board the Belle. Juan and Max had faced worse odds, but he had to consider the other passengers' safety. From what he'd seen of the Argentines, they weren't above targeting civilians.