Test Pilot's Daughter: Revenge (35 page)

Heather held the largest up for Christina to see as she gurgled only one chilling word through her mouthpiece,
“Gold!”

With boundless excitement, they tied a marker on the butt of the cannon, filled the balloon with air and sent it to the surface. Then they turned and swam hard, back in the direction of the boat. Captain Henderson, himself, pulled each girl out of the water and asked, “What’s the deal with the marker?”

“
By God! You’re not gonna believe this shit, but we actually found something,” Christina said struggling to keep her composure.

“
What? Come on, spit it out. What?”

“
We found a cannon,” Christina said in a soft tone.

“
Naah, in
these
waters? A cannon?”

“
It’s a cannon for sure,” Heather agreed.

“
No shit! We gotta get it on deck and see if it can be identified.”

“
And, we found these,” Heather said sheepishly, holding out the encrusted disks. In the bright sunlight, clearly visible below the broken layer of sediment was the glint of gold. As she rocked her open palm back and forth, reflections flashed in a bright sparkle.

“
Holy Jesus! Sweet Mary, Mother of God!”
Henderson looked skyward and crossed himself.
“This is big!”

The deck hands pulled themselves up on the diving platform. Before they could take off their tanks, Eddy yelled, “Huge pile of debris. Looks like a wreck.”

Henderson’s demeanor completely changed. No longer was he the laid back beach bum who captained a moldy old trawler. He looked more like a man possessed. It was like he was commanding a battleship going against Japanese subs. Orders were shouted in every direction. The excitement was explosive.

“
I’m moving the boat. Ladies stand back over there please. Eddy, I want ya to swing the crane out over their marker. Eric, get back down there and attach a line to that cannon. Gonna bring her up and have a look.”

The crew of the
Spanish Fly
went into action. About twenty minutes later, the huge cannon, fully encrusted with coral, was slowly hoisted over the side and eased down on the deck. Henderson seemed to know exactly where to look. He carefully scraped encrustation off one spot and letters began to appear.

“
Sweet mother of Jesus!”
he screamed, “
El Capitan!”

They all started yelling and jumping around like a bunch of idiots standing on hot coals. They were high-fiving and dancing to the lively music of the imagination. Henderson’s eyes lit up like sparklers just as he noticed something else and tried to calm them down.

“
Quiet! Quiet. Look at this. It’s gotta wooden plug.” He directed their attention to the anomaly. “The Spanish would only plug a cannon for one reason. They were hiding something. We gotta open this now and sneak a peek.”

“
But, how can we?” Heather asked.

Eddy came up from the hold with a cordless drill. They drilled a hole through the plug and inserted something that looked like a large coat hanger. Henderson used it for leverage to pull out the wooden plug. It looked as though the big gun was stuffed with mud. Heather, with the smallest hands, started pulling out sand and goop. As far as she could reach, her eyes lit up when she said, “Feel something hard, metallic.”

“
Get it out,” Christina cheered her on.

With a great deal of effort, she wiggled out a small cylinder. Henderson’s eyes bugged as he shook it with anticipation. He rinsed off the container and used a screwdriver to pop off the lid. When he poured the contents onto the wooden table, all five treasure-hunters gasped. A pile of uncut emeralds and rubies sparkled in the afternoon sun. A small fortune in Spanish bounty offered a kaleidoscope of colors. The circle of five heads looked back and forth with wide eyes.

Henderson’s face went dead serious. He turned to look behind him and scanned the horizon as if he thought they were being watched.

“
Listen up boys and girls, we’re into some big shit now. We gotta handle this very carefully, so the Bahamian Government don’t try to claim this whole find. This may be all there is, or there could be an enormous fortune down there. Until I get the proper paperwork filed, we have to maintain absolute secrecy.”

“
So what do we have to do?” Heather pleaded.

“
We already have the necessary permits, so we should be in good shape. You boys are staying by my side until we get this cleared. I can’t take any chances. Ladies, I know it’s going to be hard to keep your beautiful mouths shut, but I don’t want you to tell no one or make no calls for a couple of days. One wrong move and the news’ll spread like wildfire. Just ask Mel Fisher. He’s spent more time over the last twenty years fighting the Government than pulling up treasure. By Friday we should be in the clear.”

“
I want to keep these two coins,” Christina said. “They have a very special meaning to me.” She didn’t want to admit the jumbled voice of a dead friend led her right to the spot.

“
Not a problem. A lot of folks in these parts have gold coins. Just make damn sure you don’t tell nobody where you got ‘em.”

The girls went back to the village and tracked Lazer down in the bar. He was deeply involved in conversation with an older man, something about baseball. Christina walked up behind and grabbed his arm.

“
Lazer, uh, we need you. Would you please come over to Heather’s room for a minute. It’s number 117 right next door.”

“
Cain’t we gab right here?” Lazer said too loudly like he’d been drinking all afternoon. He slurred, “I’m in the middle of a serious painkiller.”

“
Shut up and bring your drink,” Christina pulled him off the barstool. She leaned into him to straighten out his gait as they made their way into Heather’s room. Christina shut the curtains and bolted the door.

He looked around slowly and said, “What’s all this here hocus pocus?”

Heather opened her hands and showed him the two gold coins.

“
Nice. So, where’d ya buy ‘em?”

“
Lazer, we’ve found something,” Christina whispered, “something
big
. We found the El Capitan.”

His face twisted in a big smile like they were putting him on. “Ya shore?”

“
Yep, positive identification on the butt of a canon. And we’ve already picked up enough precious stones to finance a first class salvaging operation. There could well be millions of dollars worth of artifacts down there, right where Jessica said it would be.”

“
Well,
hooty damn! Fantastesimo!
Time to celebrate. Let’s go party.”

“
Lazer, we have to maintain absolute secrecy until Henderson gets the claims filed.”

“
C’mon, we can still party. Just have to stay sober enough to keep from blabbin’. But, come ta think, ah expect they gonna wonder why we’re all so gol-danged happy.”

“
Just the reason we’re going to get room service tonight and stay in.”

“
Whatever you say, sweetheart. I know a more ‘n one way to put on the dog,” he chuckled with a big grin.

* * *

The next day Christina cleaned the coins and gave the larger one to Heather. She had the small “one escudo” piece mounted on her gold chain, the one Jessica had given her. That coin, twice the size of her old one, would always serve as a memorial to her fallen friend and Jessica’s passion for treasure. That afternoon found both girls reclining by the pool in quiet conversation.

“
So what are you going to do with Jessica’s necklace?” Heather asked.

Grasping the dainty chain, one of two around her neck, Christina squeezed the little gold coin and began to cry. She had worn it every day since Jessica was buried. With some reluctance, she unlatched the clasp and took it off.

“
I swore I’d wear it until Weston burned in hell. I expect he’s pretty well cooked by now. Think I’ll send it to Jessica’s mom. She must be devastated the body was never found.”

“
Good idea.”

“
Seems the very least I can do,” Christina said sadly. “Maybe it’ll give her some closure. If this wreck turns out as big as Henderson says, I suggest we give her Jessica’s share. She not only saved our butts, she also put us right on the wreck. ”

Heather looked puzzled and said, “Well, at least she pointed us in the right direction.”

“
No, Heather,” Christina looked around and started to whisper, “she did more than that.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
I mean literally, she put us right on the spot,” Christina decided it was time to fess up. “Listen, I know this sounds loony, but I could hear her. Jessica was talking to me down there. I’m serious, first there was buzzing in my ears, then she gave me specific directions.”

Heather stared into her eyes as if inspecting her sanity. She frowned with a worried look and said, “Too much sun, girl.”

“
No, I swear. Just as if she were sitting right here, she said, ‘Found in a mound, found in a mound.’”

Heather put her palm on Christina’s forehead checking for fever.

“
I know how it sounds, Heather, but it’s true. When we saw the cannon, she said, ‘Run under the gun, run under the gun.’ She was speaking to me; I’m sure of it.”

Heather twisted her face and said, “I suggest you keep that story to yourself. Won’t look very good in your NASA file.”

“
Don’t worry, I don’t plan to tell anyone but you. Anyway, I think Jessica’s mom should get her share.”

“
Agreed. I’m going to send this coin to Billy. I think Jessica would want him to have it. Isn’t it a beauty? Must be at least eight escudos. You can still read the year,
1732
, and the legend,
Ferdinand VII by the grace of God, King of Spain and the Indes.
Probably worth a great deal.”

After a while the girls finally went silent and drifted off to sleep.

On the beach in the early afternoon soaking up even more sun, Christina enjoyed the warm rays. She was rubbing lotion on Lazer when Heather came running their way. She was waving a rolled up newspaper.

“
Here it is,” she said, handing it to Christina.

The
Atlanta Journal
was a day old, but there was a small headline at the bottom of the front page that Heather had circled.

“
Hey Lazer listen to this,” Christina poked him in the side and read it out loud.

UGA Professor Lost in Mysterious Plane Crash

Dr. Steve Weston, a Psychology professor at the University of Georgia, was reported missing after failing to return to work on Friday. Investigators determined his Cessna 172 departed the Athens airport on July 18 at 4:00 p.m. There was no record of a flight plan, but a friend said he was flying to the beach. FAA radar data indicated a target with an easterly heading in that timeframe. It also showed a mysterious encounter with another unidentified aircraft and then a rapid descent about 75 miles northeast of Hilton Head. Norm Johnson of the NTSB stated, “Because of strong currents in the Gulf Stream, there is no practical way to recover sufficient wreckage to make any further determination. We only deal in facts. Any conclusion that this might have been a suicide or a mid-air collision would be pure speculation. Also, there were no reports of missing aircraft in connection with the incident, so a collision is not likely.” When asked why the NTSB wouldn’t use the same diligence to find the wreckage that it did in the Kennedy crash one year ago, Johnson replied, “No comment.”

A memorial service for Dr. Weston will be held Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm at the University of Georgia Chapel.