Curse of Atlantis (5 page)

“Don’t forget modest
y
too,” Serena added.

“Ah ha, so you admit it. You have been flirting with me,” Jack teased.

“What you call
'
flirting,
'
I call patronizing,” Serena returned.

“Aw, you always tell me the sweetest things,” Jack countered.

Serena slowed the car as she approached her father’s seaside home. She flashed Jack a warm smile and for a moment, two hearts were frozen in time.

Chapter
4

Caicos
Island
: Home of Javier Arista

“Well
,
well, Jack, you’re looking healthy,” Javier said, as he gave Jack
a
large bear hug. Pulling away, he add
ed, “And what’s that fuzz on your chin?
”

“I was bored up there in
Connecticut
so I figured I’d grow some hair,” Jack replied with a great smile, happy to see Javier after three months.

Stepping forward, Serena said, “And Jack, this is my mom
,
Berta
.”

Tall, slender, with an athletic build,
Berta
Arista extended her hand in greeting. “So nice to meet you Jack. I’ve heard so much about you. After your ordeal at sea, it’s good to hear you’re doing ok.”

“Thank you
,
Mrs. Arista. Fortunately, I bounced back from it all pretty quickly,” Jack replied.

“Oh, please call me
Berta
,” she replied with a warm smile.

Turning to Serena, Jack said, “Now I see where you got your good looks.”

As
Berta
blushed, Javier cut in, “She’s a real looker, eh Jack? Bet you’re wondering what a short, fat, bald guy is doing with a gorgeous woman like this, huh?

“Javi, you’re embarrassing me,”
Berta
said, politely scolding her husband.

“I heard you talk about your devilish good looks, so I’m assuming it must be that,” Jack said, diplomatically.

Turning to Serena, Javier said, “He
's
a sharp one. Keep an eye on him.”

“Maybe a little too sharp for his own good,” Serena responded, now turning to Jack, she said in a low voice, “Suck up.”

Jack smiled back approvingly
, then looked around the room. Looking through
the large
floor-to-ceiling windows in the back of the house, he admired the view of the ocean in the distance.

“Wow, what a view,” he said, now mesmerized by the sight. “It must be so nice sitting out there enjoying the sound of the surf.”

“It’s wonderful, Jack. We live in heaven,”
Berta
said proudly. “Can I show you around the house?”

“Absolutely.”

As the four moved from room to room,
Berta
showed off their quaint home by the sea. Large and ornately decorated, Jack was impressed by the ancient artifacts that added perfect accents to the furniture. As
Berta
talked about their years of living on the island, Jack slowly turned and absorbed the history.

Suddenly, a loud crash sounded as Jack’s backpack bumped into an ancient piece of pottery, knocking it off a stand and smashing on the hardwood floor below. Looking down at his feet, he felt sick as he realized his mistake.

“I am so sorry, Javi. I can’t believe I did that. Please tell me it wasn’t that valuable. I promise, I’ll pay
you back for it,” Jack
spouted in quick succession.

“Whoa, slow down there Jack,” Javier responded. “Don’t give it another thought.”

“But that looks like an ancient urn. I
t
must be worth a fortune,” Jack said, the sound of his own words deepening the quilt.

Javier looked to Serena and smiled. “You want to tell him?” he said.

“Tell me what.
” Jack
said
,
his face wracked with guilt.

“
Jack, it was probably worth about twenty-five dollars,” Serena said with a sly smile.

Cutting in, Javier explained, “Jack,
it’s a fake.”

A wave of relief instantly spread across Jack’s face. He looked down at the pieces and smiled.

“A fake? Phewww, that was close. Can you imagine what I’d owe you if it were real?” he said.

“A lot
,” Serena said, now teasing
. “The fact is
,
Jack, everything around us is fake… from the old T-Rex metatarsal to the Ming vase you just broke. Do you see that golden headdress on the shelf over there?” she pointed.

Jack looked over and noticed the exquisite crown shining on the top shelf of a display case, then nodded.

“That’s a fake too. As I said, it’s all fake,” Serena said.

“Amazing, it all looks so real,” Jack
marveled
.

“That’s the idea, Jack. We decorated our home with the reproductions for the very reason you saw here today. They’re replaceable. If something falls and breaks, it didn’t cost us much and we can have another made quickly and cheaply,” Javier explained.

“So where did you get these? Ebay or some specialty site on the web
?”
Jack speculated.

“Neither. These are reproductions of pieces we either own or we worked on. Once we’ve completed our task, we sent them off to a local artist here on the island and he makes us a copy for practically nothing. We pay for the materials and he just charges us his time,” Serena said.

Jack reached down and picked up the bottom piece of the broken clay pot. He looked at a tiny sticker that was pasted to the outside surface. Reading the label, he smiled at the heading: Reginald’s Reproductions.

“So this Reginald guy did all this work?” Jack asked, now surprised by the man’s talent.

“Yup, sure did. Basically, he makes a cast of the artifact, then pours ceramic material into the cast. He bakes it, then removes the cast, leaving a perfect reproduction of the original. After that, he paints it and sends it on its way,” Javier said.

“Phew, what a relief. That shrunken head in the room I’ll be sleeping in, kinda freaked me out. Glad to see that’s not someone’s real head,” Jack said. He thought for a moment, then added, “but if it was made from something real, who has the real shrunken head. Oh no, don’t tell me it’s buried away in your freezer somewhere, ready to spring out at me when I reach for a popsicle?”

“Don’t worry Jack. No one has the original,”
Javier said with a grin, “It’s a true fake. I bought it on Ebay... as part of my Halloween custom last year.”

“I’m afraid to ask… what were you?” Jack asked.

“A witch doctor,”
Berta
said, grinning ear to ear.

Jack placed his hand on Javier’s shoulder. Pretending to be upset, he shook his head and replied simply, “Disturbing… very disturbing.”

~~~~~  ~~~~~  ~~~~~

Jack strolled down the empty beach, listening to the morning waves and collecting tiny shells as he
walked. Every few minutes
he stopped, sipped his coffee, then continued. The previous three months had been hectic as he struggled to balance his job, and the upcoming excavation in
Greece
. Now with all that behind him, he simply walked along and let his mind wander.

Nearly an hour had
passed
and Javier's house was well out of sight. He stopped for a moment and looked around him, taking in the natural beauty of the landscape. With the coffee mug filled with shells and nothing of interest to his front,
he
turn
ed
around and headed back.

As he walked, he occasionally looked up, keeping track of his location from the house. In the distance, he began to see movement along the beach. He stared intently at the figure that was now growing larger by the second. Moments later, he smiled.

"She's a jogger... should have guessed with legs like hers," Jack said to himself.

Moments later, Serena's tiny image became large and distinct as she neared. In less than a
minute,
she closed the distance and now began to slow down.

"Nice morning for a jog," Jack shouted out.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Serena responded, slightly out of breath, now less than twenty feet away.

"Do you jog every day?"

"Almost... but only a couple of miles when I do," she replied, now stopping in front of him. "So, what are you doing out here all alone?"

"I love long walks on the beach," Jack replied, then added, "and candlelit dinners."

"Ha ha, funny boy. I figured you'd still be sleeping after the long day yesterday," Serena speculated.

"My internal clock woke me up early, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed on up the beach. I'm heading back now if you want to walk with me," Jack offered.

"Sure, that'd be nice," Serena said, flashing a Jack a warm, comfortable smile.

Walking
side by side, they carried on casual conversation. Jack answered questions about his childhood and Serena answered questions about her interests.
As
the topics came and went, they noticed
two
men approaching them.

"Huh, that's kind of strange. Do you normally see guys in suits walking the beach this early?" Jack asked.

"Never," Serena replied simply.

"Hmm, I wonder what they're doing here," Jack speculated.

"They can't have business with us, right?" Serena asked, now feeling a bit uneasy.

"Do you owe anyone money?" Jack joked.

"Only the bank," Serena responded.

As the two men closed the distance, they walked with a purposeful stride. Within
minutes,
Jack and Serena could see their faces clearly. Forty feet away, Jack could see the lines in the faces of the two men and guessed their ages to be around forty. As the two slowed their pace, there was no mistaking
for
whom
they came.

"Good morning, are you guys looking for us for some reason?" Jack shouted as the
y
moved closer.

"
Yes
, we're looking for a Jack Roberts. Are you him?" the taller of the pair asked.

"Who's looking?" Jack responded cryptically.

As the two men came to a stop in front of Jack and Serena, the taller man extended his hand and said, "I am
Dimitri
and this is my colleague, Slavin. I was hoping to have word with you this morning."

"Whatever you’re selling, we’re not buying,” Jack joked.

While
he
removed his sunglasses,
Dimitri
forced a cordial smile, then said, “My friend, we’re not selling. We’re buying. My employer is most interested in your crystal globe. He has sent me here to make you an offer.”

“At seven-thirty in the morning?” Jack responded
incredulously
.

“It is evening where we come from,”
Dimitri
replied.

“And where’s that?” Jack asked.

“
Russia
,”
Dimitri
answered simply.

“Russians? Didn’t you guys already make an offer a month ago or so?” Jack asked.

“Yes
, where my colleague failed, we hope to succeed,”
Dimitri
replied.

As
Dimitri
answered Jack’s questions, Slavin adjusted his earpiece, listened for a moment, then spoke a few words to
Dimitri
in his native language. Turning to Slavin,
Dimitri
nodded slightly. Pulling a cell phone from his pocket, Slavin
slowly
turned and took his phone call several feet away.

Jack eyed this interruption with suspicion. He now
felt uneasy about the two dark
–suited strangers and wanted to end their meeting quickly.

“You know
,
Dimitri
, I’m really not an expert at these sorts of things. Why don’t you give me your business card and I’ll have someone call you,” Jack said, hoping his brush-off would be enough.

“My friend, by your answer, am I to understand that you WILL negotiate for a price on the crystal globe?”
Dimitri
asked, directly.

Jack thought about telling
Dimitri
that he was in no way
interested. Looking at the tall dangerous Russian standing in front of him and the other standing off several feet away, he sensed a growing threat to both his and Serena’s safety. He knew the truth would not suffice.