Treasure of Love (22 page)

Dax gave the wheel one last turn. The pressure forced the wheel of the hatch right out of his hands and within seconds the corridor was almost empty. “It’s not flooded!” Dax yelled.

“Oh my God, we did it!” Mac added.

They were now standing in shin-deep water and suddenly feeling every pound of the weight from their dive equipment.

“We’ve got to make this quick,” Dax said. “I’m sure there’s no oxygen in the compartment, and we don’t have a hell of a lot left in our tanks. If we find anything worth preserving, we’ll close the hatch back up and make another dive. If we don’t find anything but the gold, we can flood the compartment to make it easier for us to maneuver and salvage. The water certainly won’t hurt the gold.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Dona said.

“Agreed,” said Mac.

Chapter 12

D
AX
waved his flashlight into the cargo hold and started looking around. He immediately spotted wooden crates stacked in the center of the compartment.
There’s more gold here than we thought
, he said to himself. He quickly did an inventory on the number of crates in the hold, ten across, by ten deep, by five high. He did the math,
that’s five hundred crates.

Dona and Mac helped Dax awkwardly step through the small hatch from the corridor into the ankle-deep water of the cargo hold. Fighting his swim fins and the weight of his tanks, he slowly wobbled over to the stack of crates. He again used his crowbar to dig into the seal of one of the wooden crates. The crates were brittle and weak from age and it took him only seconds to pry one open. The anticipation was killing him, but when he finally lifted the lid, he found six perfectly preserved, one-gallon aluminum cans. He used his glove to wipe away whatever sediments had accumulated over the last hundred years and read the label: “Salted Fish.”

“What the fuck?” he said out loud.

“What?” Dona and Mac said at the same time.

“Salted fucking fish!”

He quickly opened the next crate and again found the same contents.

“This is so unfair,” Jack said from the surface. “What in the fuck is happening down there?”

“We found enough salted fish to feed a third world country for a very long time,” Dax said.

“Is that all there is in the hold?” Jack asked.

“It appears to be, at least in this compartment,” Dax replied.

He quickly moved his flashlight around the walls of the compartment.

“There are three more hatches, one facing forward, one aft, and one starboard,” Dax said.

He knew the starboard door led to the same type of corridor as they had just vacated, and was more than likely flooded from the explosives. He awkwardly maneuvered toward the aft-facing hatch. He stopped in his tracks when he spotted another set of remains, resting in a sitting position on some sort of crate tucked away in the corner. Dax studied the remains, starting at the skull and shoulders. “He must have been some sort of officer,” he said. “Look at the gold epaulets resting on his shoulders.”

He moved the flashlight further down the skeleton and froze; resting between two ribs was a gold nametag. Dax kneeled down to see if he could get a better look at the name without disturbing the tag. It read, “Boris Smirnov, Ship’s Purser.”

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Dax whispered.

“What?” Dona asked.

He didn’t answer right away, but moved his light further down. Lo and behold, tightly clutched in the boney hands of the purser, were two shiny gold bars.

“Eureka!” Dax whispered. “Guys,” he said as he held the flashlight on the prize. “Do you see what I see?”

“Oh boy, do I see,” Dona said. “Mac?”

“Hell yeah, I see,” he replied. “I think we may have found what we’ve been looking for, ladies and gentlemen.”

Dax continued moving the light further down and stopped again when he saw, between the skeleton’s legs, the dial to a safe.
The purser is sitting on a fucking safe.

“We’re listening, Dax, what did you find?” a familiar voice said from the surface.

“I hear you, Jack. Uh, we found the rest of the
purser’s
journals
,” he said, being as discreet as possible.

Everyone heard Brad yelling in the background.

“How many?” Jack asked over Brad’s voice.

“Just a couple,” Dax replied. “But I’m sure the rest are here somewhere.”

“How’s your air supply?” Jack asked.

“Getting low,” Dax said. “We’re going to surface, change tanks, get more supplies, and get right back down here.”

“We’ll be waiting,” Jack said. “Be careful.”

Dax made a last-minute decision and gently removed the two epaulets and the nametag from the remains of the ship’s officer, and tucked them into a pocket on his weight belt.
It’s only right that I do whatever I can to get these personal effects into the hands of a family member.
Next, he removed the two gold bars and placed them securely inside his BC and started slowly making his way back to the corridor. Again, Mac and Dona helped him through the small hatch, and he secured it behind him.

“Now this next step could be tricky,” Dax said. “When we start to open the next hatch, one of two things could happen. Depending on how the hatch was designed, it will begin to leak water as the airtight seal begins to break, or the pressure will force it open immediately when the lock disengages.”

“Either way,” Mac said. “I can handle it. You guys brace yourself.”

Mac stood as far back from the hatch as he could and still reach the handle before he slowly started to turn the wheel. Enormous pressure from the other side of the hatch made the wheel more difficult to turn, but Mac was able to manage it on his own. As he slowly turned the wheel, water started seeping in around the perimeter of the hatch.

“The best possible scenario,” Dax said.

Mac turned the wheel a little more until water started spraying through the entire perimeter of the hatch.

“Okay, stop,” Dax shouted. “Let’s allow the corridor to fill up, and once the pressure levels out, the hatch should easily open.” It took about ten minutes for the small corridor to fill with water, and as expected, Mac was able to easily open the hatch door and they were able to swim out of the corridor and to the surface without any trouble. They broke the surface of the water, and Brad and Jack were standing on the swim platform waiting for them.

Even through the full-face dive mask, Dax couldn’t hide his smile. One by one, Brad and Jack got everyone on board and their tanks and BC’s off. Dax reached into the pocket on his dive belt and pulled out the epaulets and name tag. “Guys, this hasn’t seen the light of day in over one hundred years.”

Jack took the items from his hands and studied them closely.

“Neither have these,” Dax said, and he pulled two gold bars from inside his BC.

Jack’s smile was as broad as Dax’s. He leaned in and kissed Dax quickly as he took one of the gold bars and kissed it too.

“What’s it like down there?” Brad asked.

“It’s like stepping back into another world,” Dona said. “It felt so strange to be fully suited but be standing in only knee-deep water. We couldn’t have imagined that all this time, the inner compartments weren’t flooded.”

“What about that salted fish?” Jack asked.

“It’s the damnedest thing,” Dax said. “There are about five hundred cases of the stuff. Why would a ship of this size be carrying five hundred cases of salted fish?”

“What else did you find down there?” Brad asked.

“Guess what the purser was sitting on?” Dax asked.

“No!” Dona said. “The purser’s safe?”

“I don’t think it’s the purser’s safe, but it’s a safe just the same.”

“Why do you not think it’s the purser’s safe?” Brad asked.

“For starters, the purser’s safe is typically located in the chief purser’s office and built into the ship’s hull for added security,” Dax said. “But… during that time, it wasn’t uncommon for a wealthy patron to load his or her own personal safe onto a ship if they were making a one-way trip.”

“Makes sense to me,” Brad said.

“In addition,” Dax continued, “it wasn’t uncommon for the chief purser to have a secondary safe to serve as a backup for larger items or additional valuables.”

“That would probably explain why the ship’s purser was guarding the safe,” Dona said.

Dax thought for a second. “I would imagine that when the chief purser realized the ship was in trouble, he sent the ship’s purser down to the cargo hold to guard the safe until help came,” Dax said. “The poor bastard had no idea that he was being sent to his final resting place.”

“He was sitting so calmly at his post,” Dona said.

“He probably suffocated little by little when the oxygen ran out,” Mac added.

“Okay, guys, enough talk about the dead,” Dona said. “We have a hell of a lot work to do before this day is out.”

“What’s the plan?” Jack asked.

“We need to make a list of what we need to take down with us,” Dax said. “For starters, I’d like to wear a regular mask and regulator, which would make it so much easier to maneuver once we’re back in the hull.”

“I agree,” Dona said.

“Wait a minute,” Jack interrupted. “What about communication?”

“Jack, we’ve been inside the hull, and we know it’s safe,” Dax said. “Relax, we’ll be fine.”

“What if you
do
get into trouble down there,” Jack asked. “What then?”

“I didn’t realize you were such a worrywart, Jack,” Dax said as he lifted his hands to Jack’s face in a comforting gesture.

“I never used to be,” Jack replied. “So I guess you have yourself to blame for that.”

“Okay, how about this?” Dax asked. “We’re each taking two tanks, so if we’re not back exactly ninety minutes after our descent, you come and get us.”

“The problem is that I don’t know how to find you,” Jack snapped. “I wasn’t down there, remember?”

A thought hit Dax immediately. “Problem solved,” he said. “Mac shot the entire thing on video. You and Brad can watch the video while we’re below and you’ll get to see the entire adventure and know exactly where to find us if something goes wrong.”

“I still don’t like it,” Jack said.

“I know, Jack,” Dax said. “But we need flexibility down there, and the smaller masks and regulators will be so much easier to work with.”

Dona started gathering tools. Brad changed out the tanks and set up the new BC’s and regulators. Mac went in search of a new videotape for the camera to replace the one they’d used when they were under the surface, and Jack stormed off to the bridge. Dax gave Dona a few more things to add to the list, then went in search of Jack. When he reached the bridge, Jack was standing at the helm with the binoculars up to his eyes.
God, he’s gorgeous
, Dax thought as he slipped in behind him and slid his arms around Jack’s waist.

Jack tensed for a second, then relaxed.

“Any movement over there?” Dax asked.

“None that I can tell,” Jack curtly responded. “But the way the wind is blowing, I can’t see the stern or the starboard side.”

“Don’t you think they would have made their move by now if they were monitoring us?” Dax asked.

“I guess so,” Jack conceded. “I can’t put my finger on it, but something just doesn’t feel right about that boat.”

“Maybe we’re just being paranoid,” Dax said as he kissed Jack gently on the neck. “I love you, Jack.”

Jack put the binoculars down and turned to face Dax. “I love you too, Dax, that’s why I’m so pissed off about not being able to communicate with you. I feel so helpless.”

“I know you’re pissed, Jack,” Dax said. “I can feel it, and I can see it. But if this thing between us is going to work, you’re going to have to learn that you can’t get your way all the time.”

“Is that what you think this is all about?” Jack snapped. “Getting my way?”

“Not really. Well, maybe partly,” Dax said shyly. “But listen, Jack, I get it. I know you want to protect me, but I’m not used to being coddled. I’ve been alone for so long, and that’s all I’m used to.”

Jack pulled Dax in and held on to him, squeezing him tightly. “Okay, you win,” he said.

“It’s not about winning or losing,” Dax whispered. “But thanks.”

Dax heard Dona calling his name over and over. She finally stuck her head on the bridge. “Let’s go, Dax!” she yelled.

“I’m on my way, you big dyke,” he said. “Stop the damn yelling.”

Dona, Dax, and Mac suited up, and Mac made sure they synchronized their watches for exactly ninety minutes below the surface.

“And just so you know,” Jack instructed. “If I don’t see your smiling faces on the surface in exactly ninety minutes, I’m coming down there to get you. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” they all responded in unison. They put their masks on and started their descent.

“What do you say we go down below and watch that video in case we have to save their sorry asses?” Brad said.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Jack said. “Is our equipment still ready in case we have to get down there in a hurry?”

“We’re good to go,” Brad said.

O
NCE
below the surface, the divers followed their previous route and entered the hull at the same location. This time feeling much lighter and less encumbered, Dax took the lead and was the first to enter the corridor. As they had on the first dive, they were all in the corridor when Mac closed and secured the hatch behind them. Jack again opened the inside hatch, and the water started to slowly recede. When the water was again at their knees, the three of them stepped into the cargo compartment.