The Mahogany Ship (Sam Reilly Book 2) (15 page)

“Then why didn’t we see him?” she argued.

Tom switched both tank track electric motors to off, parking
the Mole, and then suggested, “Maybe he was already out?”

“Not likely. We would have seen some sign of him at the
river,” Aliana said.

“Come on, let’s get the gold,” James pestered, with a big, stupid
grin.

“Are you serious?” Aliana’s eyes stared at him.

“If Sam did escape, he would have left a note or something
for us on board the Mahogany Ship. Besides, I’d really like to see to what
lengths Rodriguez has gone to bring us here.”

“All right,” Aliana said, “but only so we can see if Sam
left us anything to go on. Then we’re back to searching for him.”

“Agreed.”

At the rear of the vehicle was a small airlock chamber,
large enough to allow just one person at a time to exit the mole, in full dive
gear.

James was the first to leave, followed by Aliana, and Tom
agreed to stay and keep guard. If Rodriguez and his men came back while the
other two were away, he said he would run them over with the mole at best, and
at worst, block the entrance to the Mahogany Ship so that the others could
escape.

By the time Aliana climbed through the opening in the ship,
and reached the sandy area where the dozen or more footprints indicated others
had been entering, she found James’s hand, reaching down to help her up.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Not a problem.”

“Any luck?”

“Yeah, I found it!” James said, showing her a number of
Rodriguez’s gold coins. “This is going to really piss him off.”

“What about Sam?”

“No idea. How about you have a quick look, and I’ll load up
the Mole.”

“You’re unbelievable James!” she said, deciding to look
around the ship herself.

“Thanks,” James said, as he put his dive mask back on his
face and dropped back into the water with a bag full of gold coins.

Aliana then looked through the first few rooms, quickly
making certain that Sam wasn’t there, lying injured or worse – dead – before
moving on to the next ones. It didn’t take her long to clear every room in the
ship capable of being easily accessed.

At the back of the ship, she saw that a large amount of sand
had intentionally been removed. Shining her flashlight on it, she immediately
saw how Sam finally determined the Mahogany Ship had been a fake.

The massive wall of concrete had been buried with no more
than a few feet of sand, to give the image of the back half of the ship being
filled with sand.

It was time to go. Nothing more could be achieved by walking
around the fake shipwreck.

“We’re out of here,” she said to James, who was hurriedly
shoving the last of the gold coins in another big bag.

“Okay, can you give me a hand with the second bag? I think I
might have overloaded it, and I’d hate to leave Rodriguez with one of his
coins.”

Not bothering to get into another fight with the man, she
picked the smaller of the two bags, and returned to the mole.

After the water was expelled from the diving hatch, Tom
helped her out of her dive gear, and then said, “I’m afraid, this is where the
rescue mission ends.”

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“See the power gauge? We’re down to 65 percent.”

“So, can’t we wait until it gets to 50 percent?”

“No, it’s going to draw a lot more power to get back up
those rapids,” Tom said. “Don’t worry. We’ll come back for him.”

*

Four hours later, the three were back on the surface, and
Tom drove the mole back to the helicopter, ready to be unloaded. Aliana
listened as James started whistling a happy tune to himself, while loading the
several bags of gold Spanish coins into a safe aboard the helicopter.

“Damn it, James, you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

He stopped whistling and replied, “And why shouldn’t I be?
Traversing a grade six black water run, in a cross between a tank and a
submarine, while stealing gold from a rich asshole – and you know that gold is
always one of the most favorite things to rich people, and I should know.”

“You forgot the part about not being able to rescue your
son, or have you forgotten?”

James looked amused, and said, “No, of course not, how could
I? You kept reminding me of it every few hours.” He then opened a prepacked
lunchbox containing more than twenty sandwiches, and said, “Lunch anyone? I’m
starving.”

“Shouldn’t we be back down there trying to find your son?”

“And why should we do that?”

“Jesus, James, don’t you care for your son’s wellbeing, even
just a little?”

“Of course I do… but I’m sure he’s quite capable of coming
out on his own. Honestly, sometimes I think you don’t really know my son at
all, do you?”

“How can you be so uncaring, and yet so certain that he will
make it out on his own?”

James smiled at her, only the slightest guilt visible.
“Because he’s already done so.”

“Sam’s already out of the subterranean waterway?” Aliana
asked, too stunned by the news, to be angry.

“Yes, got out a couple days ago.”

“What do you mean, ‘he got out a couple days ago?’ We’ve
been searching for him the past two days, and I was worried sick that he was
dead. You knew he was out, but still we went in to get the gold!”

“Yeah, something like that. If it makes you feel better, Sam
told me to.”

“He told you to. Really?”

“Well, he did say to make sure to keep you safe and hidden,
while he was away. So I thought, why not make Rodriguez pay in the process?”

“I thought he was dead, you fucking asshole!” Aliana, for
the third time in as many days, since meeting up with James, was ready to kill
him. “Hang on. You said while he’s away… where the hell has he gone?”

“Longjiang, China, of course.”

“Oh, of course,” she agreed facetiously. “What the hell’s he
doing there?”

“Elise sent him.”

“Why did she send him there?” Aliana paused, as she heard
the words in her own ears. “And who’s Elise?”

James smiled, speaking slowly as he would to a small child,
while explaining something complex. “He’s gone to meet a man name Jie Qiang,
who might just know exactly where the Mahogany Ship was left.”

“And what about the other one… the woman you mentioned?”

James stared at her, amusement on his face at her concern at
the mention of another woman. “And Elise is a computer whiz that my son hired
years ago. She used to consult for the NSA and the FBI until a disagreement on
the term ‘freedom of information’ made her resign – but not without leaving a
backdoor into their computer systems, granting her unhindered, and untraceable,
access to an immeasurable amount of information.”

“Okay… so why does Elise think Jie Qiang knows where the
Mahogany Ship was left?”

“Because one of his ancestors built it, while the other
executed the last man to return from its fatal voyage.”

Sam took a commercial flight to China, using a local
carrier, and under an alias passport that Elise had prepared for him. He read
the email again on the long flight, and recalled the conversation he’d had with
the man. Sam had almost deleted the message the first time he saw it, concerned
that it might be a ruse orchestrated by Michael Rodriguez or one of his men.

The email had been titled “In the unlikely event you haven’t
been murdered yet.”

He then had Elise look into the email account and run a
check on where the message had originated. Determining that it had come from
Longjiang, in the northern province of Heilongjiang of the People's Republic of
China, she then discovered that the original sender came from a small fishing
village, with no known ties to Michael Rodriguez. The only notable history that
she could find on the man, was that his entire family had been murdered two
years ago.

Elise had suggested he read the letter, and then contact the
man through an intermediary.

Sam had read the letter carefully.

Then read it again.

He remembered thinking that, if it was a ruse, it certainly
was a very clever one.

By the time he’d finished the conversation, Sam had decided
that he must fly directly to meet the man in Longjiang.

Arriving at Qiqihar Sanjiazi Airport, Sam quickly cleared
customs, and then took a taxi to a park in Longjiang, overlooking the water of
the Long River.

He paid the taxi driver and then, taking out three times the
requested fee, asked the driver to wait for him. The driver, staring at the
money, assured him he would wait.

Sam walked through the park until he reached two sets of
tourist chairs. Sitting down, he examined the large river ahead. Within
minutes, another man came and sat next to him.

“The river’s very pretty today, isn’t it?” Sam said to the
stranger.

“It is, but… I do not think I would like to go for swim,”
the man replied, in broken English, confirming that he was the man Sam was
looking for.

Sam turned to face the man and said, “Okay, Mr. Jie Qiang. You
have my attention; how did you know I was about to be murdered?”

“Because, the man who murdered my family had already gotten
what he wanted from you.”

“And what was that?”

“Your father’s attention,” Jie Qiang replied.

“So he thought he could ransom me?”

“No, nothing of the kind. He knew that if you advertised the
fact that the Mahogany Ship had been discovered, your father would come there
to see it. And your father, Michael knew, was the only man on earth who held
the key to finding the real Mahogany Ship.”

“But that’s crazy. My father doesn’t know how to find it. He
and I both tried ten years ago, and after many months, accepted that it was
nothing more than a fabled story.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes.”

“If that’s so, where’s your father now?”

A cold shiver went down Sam’s spine, as he thought about the
question. His father had taken an unusual fatherly interest in his safety, while
looking into the Mahogany Ship. He even felt loved when he called his father
for help, only to discover that the man was already in Bendigo.

Dad, what were you already doing there?

Jie Qiang looked at his face, and said, “So, your father’s
already come to Australia, as Michael planned.”

Sam ignored the question and then asked, “Why would Michael
believe my father could help him find the real Mahogany Ship?”

“Not the ship, only her most valuable possession.”

“And what made Michael think that my father could help him
in his search for it?”

“The fact that your father was in possession of a map that
showed him precisely where it was, but he lacked the ability to locate the
first identifying symbol on the map.”

“And Michael knows where that first symbol is?”

“Yes, Michael paid me a small fortune to receive my map to
it.”

“How is it that you came to know where the Mahogany Ship met
her demise?”

“Because one of my ancestors built it, while the other
executed the last man to sail her,” Jie Qiang replied.

“Okay, if that’s the case, tell me, what was the most
valuable thing the Mahogany Ship was carrying?”

“A secret weapon,” the man had answered immediately. “A
scepter with the ability to destroy anything in its path with intense heat, reflected
from the sun.”

“So you’re not lying. Okay, you have my attention. Why is it
that you’re now willing to betray Michael?”

“Two years ago I sold him the original map, taken from a man
known only as Rat Catcher, a eunuch slave, who was the last person to see the
Mahogany Ship, firmly stuck miles inland, in the large landmass that we now
know to be Australia. He had returned to China to get reinforcements.”

“Did those reinforcements ever come?”

“No, he was executed for crimes against the emperor. Before
his death, he left one of my great ancestors with this detailed map of where it
lay stranded, along with his journal from the original voyage. Of course, by
this stage the Yongle Emperor had passed. His successor, the Hongxi Emperor,
had ordered the suspension of Zheng He's maritime expeditions and destruction
of the remaining giant Treasure Ships, due to their rising cost and the need to
divert soldiers to fight off the constant attacks from the north. With the
giant ships no longer making expeditions, it was impossible for anyone to
return to this far away land to find the weapon of mythical powers.”

“But someone kept the map.”

“My ancestors knew the value of the map and left it for each
generation in the hope that one day, someone would retrieve the weapon.”

“What happened when you sold Rodriguez the map?”

“I returned home from work one day to find my wife and three
children all dead in their beds, and a message – ‘Followed your map, no sign of
the Mahogany Ship or the weapon. I suggest you take better care when providing information
in the future.’”

Sam didn’t know what to say to comfort the man. “Tell me
what you want me to do.”

Sam listened to the man’s demands, a smile creeping across
his face. “Yes, Mr. Jie Qiang, we have a deal.”

With that, Mr. Jie Qiang handed over the copy of the map and
a journal of one of the most wretched slaves to have ever sailed aboard the
Mahogany Ship.

Sam Reilly read and then re-read the poor man’s journal more
than a dozen times on the long flight back to Australia.

Next to the old Chinese text were a number of pages, typed
on A4 paper and stapled together. They were the best translation Jie Qiang
could produce.

He flicked through the pages until he reached the earliest
entry that seemed to connect to the story in which he was most interested…

*

Mid Atlantic Ocean – March 5, 1442

My name is Rat Catcher, and on this day I stood watch at
the top of the giant crow’s nest, scanning the horizon for any glimpse of land.
At little over four feet, I am by far the smallest man aboard, but my near
perfect eyesight has earned me the position on top of the tallest of our ship’s
eight masts.

Rat Catcher is not my real name, of course.

I have no idea what name my father once gave me. Nor do I
know what name my grandfather once gave my own father. The place in which the
battle took place, and the cause for which they had fought, were both just as
unfamiliar to me. I do not even know what my age was when all of this took
place.

What I do know is that my father lost, and as a
consequence, I was captured. Too young to be discarded in death, I was
castrated, as the custom would deem sensible, so that I may never seed their
enemies, and then sold into slavery.

Unable to recall how far I traveled since that day, I can
only imagine that it must be some great distance, as my personal features
appear so completely different than those who surrounded me in this new life.

I am short and despite an extraordinary appetite, remain
skinny, although what weight I have is derived from wiry lean muscle. My eyes
are a weak blue color and my skin vulnerably fair compared with those around me,
so that it burns every day when I work on the deck.

I’ve been traded a number of times as my other masters
feared that their possession was inherently weak and would shortly die.

By the time I reached a puberty that would never fully
come, I was purchased by my current master, who I’ve since been told only did
so because he thought that I could be trained to fetch rats from the tiny
spaces within the hold of his ship.  

My master immediately named me Rat Catcher.

More than twenty years has passed since that day, and I
now know that my master has grown fond of me, and often calls me by it with
some affection. I’ve sailed with my master across nearly all the seas and
visited many lands, although in that time I’ve never seen people who look quite
like myself.

As the years progressed, my master discovered that while
I was small and physically weak, I was mentally stronger than any he’d ever
met. Being small had given me the opportunity of necessity to be quick of hand
and to devise the some of the most unique solutions. Together, I’ve helped my
master claim many lands for his own master.

All men have masters – those who believe they don’t are
lying only to themselves.

By comparison to myself, my master was a giant. Almost
seven feet tall I have heard, and he’s won many battles and become a master
over the sea. Despite all the lands that he had either befriended or conquered,
my master’s homeland was under a great siege from a foe who had been fighting
them since anyone could remember.

There was some fear that if any more warriors left the
homeland, then it might fall victim to the invaders.

In fear of losing the sea that he had come to love
dearly, my master chose to take his three greatest ships across the largest of
the known oceans in the hope that he might discover a power strong enough to
beat his enemies completely.

An old seaman’s tale spoke of a people who lived on the
other side of the vast ocean who held a weapon so powerful that it could strike
an entire army down in one blow. Although, how my master heard of such a story
was beyond me, given that no one in living memory had ever crossed the ocean
and having done so, returned again.

It was for this purpose that my master led just three
ships across the ocean, further from my master’s homeland than any of his
people had ever traveled. They carried gifts to bring friendship to any
civilizations he should meet. And many soldiers to enforce it with powerful
weapons.

After nearly three months at sea we landed at the inlet
of a strange new land.

Sam skimmed the next few entries, which broadly related to
replenishing their food supplies, water, and maintenance of the three ships,
until he found what he was after.

New Land, West of the Atlantic.  May 31, 1442

After nearly a week of sailing north along the foreign
shores, I stood on top of the crow’s nest and stared at the monstrosity in the
distance. It was a pyramid made of solid rock construction, and looked like a
fortress that had proven its ability to defend itself for thousands of years.

It was so tall that, despite its base being at the level
of the bay, the highest point was even higher than myself, who was perched at
the very top of the two-hundred-foot mast.

At the pyramid’s crest, I could see a number of men
surrounding something that stood at their center and reflected golden rays of
sunlight, so powerful that the entire point appeared to glow with gold.

I gave my report to a messenger half way down the mast,
who then relayed it on to my master waiting at the bottom for the first report.

My master appeared confident and in his normally
commanding presence, despite the pyramid being just as terrifying as he’d
described it.

His calmness changed to urgency when he noted the message
regarding the golden cylindrical device.

“Hard to starboard! All ships, hard to starboard.”

Even at the top of the mast I heard my master bellow the
order.

The signal flag was raised and all three ships turned in
unison.

Half way through their turn, it happened.

Still aloft in the crow’s nest I had the clearest view of
the battle.

A flash of lightning struck the ship ahead of me as
though the Gods had struck it down. The heat was so powerful that it blew a
hole in the front section of the ship the size of a house.

The ship’s commander immediately ordered the catapults,
which had already been armed prior to rounding the peninsula, to fire. He even
managed to get more than twenty off before he realized what was happening.

The hole in the front of his ship was so large that he
was swamped within minutes. Before our ship even managed to complete the turn,
the other was on its way to the sea beneath. The next shot struck the ship to
his rear and this time its commander did not attempt to return fire but instead
focused entirely on keeping his ship afloat. It was a futile attempt and within
forty seconds the second ship was on its way to the bottom.

Below, I saw that my master had taken as much of an
evasive position as could be expected under attack from such superior weaponry.

He rounded the second sinking ship.

I could do nothing but watch as my master made the
painful decision to keep going and let the crew of the second ship drown. By
the time the second ship was destroyed, the enemies had taken their Godforsaken
weapon and aimed it at my master’s ship.

It struck no more than a few feet behind our stern.

The water, more than twenty feet of it, turned to steam,
but our ship carried on. As we rounded the peninsula again, a second bolt of
energy was released.

This time it made contact with the most aft of the masts.

It was disintegrated instantly, the charred remains of
its scout falling onto the deck below – and then we were round the peninsula
and safe from its violent rays.

I quickly climbed down the mast in time to hear my master
give the command to take the ship due east, away from the violent reach of such
a catastrophic weapon.

I have watched my master after many battles over the
years, but this one seemed different. There had never been one like this, in
which more than two thousand men were lost before the battle even started.

But his ship, thankfully, had survived.

“Rat Catcher – this has been a good day!” my master said.

“Yes, it has, Master,” I dutifully agreed, although I had
no idea what my master was talking about, after watching two thirds of his
fleet die within the space of twenty minutes before any of the ships were even
within range to return a single attack.

“Do you know what makes today so very special?” my master
asked.

“No, master. I do not.”

“That weapon we saw is more powerful than any possessed
by all of our enemies and friends alike. Of the entire realm wherein we live, I
doubt we would find another like it were we to sail for the rest of our lives and
well into the next.”

“Nor have I, Master,” I agreed.

“And that’s why, Rat Catcher – we are going to steal it.”

Pyramid Fortress June 10, 1442

It had taken hours for my master to explain how we were
going to capture such a powerful weapon, but by the time he had finished I knew
exactly what must be done. Regardless of the risk, I would happily take the
chance with my own life – because my master had asked.

I followed my master and four other men around the
ancient path that cut across the peninsula. The jagged path was cut deep into
the rocky mountain. My master moved fast along the dangerous ledge.

To the left, where the mountain could be seen high above,
a small pocket of dense vegetation appeared unnatural as it struggled to
maintain its grip on the rock.

My master smiled as he looked upon it and said, “Ah, here
it is.”

“Here what is, Master?” I replied.

“What I’ve been looking for.”

My master grinned, mischievously, as though he were
playing a game, reached behind the tree, and pulled hard on something. The
sound of wheels and pulleys turning could be heard from somewhere inside the
mountain, but nothing else happened.

I looked at my master, but said nothing.

No one else in our party was willing to question my
master, either.

Then the boulder twenty feet ahead of us slid to the
side.

“Welcome gentlemen, to my father’s land.”

No one spoke, but the revelation of our master’s heritage
was palpable.

Each man, slowly crouched down and entered the tunnel. It
was cramped, and with the exception of myself, they had to remain stooped to
stay inside.

The cavern was dark, making it difficult to see where the
opening went.

I looked around. There was nothing to suggest that the
cavern had been purposely built, or that it had once been someone’s home. There
was no evidence of any previous human interaction or other animal, for that
matter.

Behind me, I heard the enormous boulder start to move
again – closing the gap to the outside world.

One of my master’s men tried to move quickly to stop it.

“No, let it close,” my master ordered.

“But we’ll be trapped!”

My master ignored the man’s protest, simply holding him
firm with his giant left arm. The boulder finished moving, completing blocking our
view of the outside world and leaving us all in total darkness.

No one spoke.

I alone, amongst them, felt entirely comfortably with my
master’s decision. With religious doctrine, I was confident that my master had
a grand purpose in life.

As though I was being rewarded for my faith, I heard the
sound of more ropes and pulleys moving. A moment later, a secret door at the
back of the cavern opened, and a light-filled room came into view, which was
large enough that even my master was able to stand comfortably.

“Follow me, gentlemen,” my master ordered as he led the
way, only having to crouch to get through the small door before being able to
stand tall.

The room opened up and became filled with natural light.

“This is called the king’s travel vault. There are
several built into this track, so that the king can take refuge when required.
In doing so, the king can travel light, with only a few royal guardsmen to
accompany him.”

“And how did you know about the king’s vault?” I asked.

“Because he’s my father.”

“And what are we doing here, Master?” One of my master’s
other men spoke up.

“Betraying him.”

*

We waited for the soldiers to come. From above, we had an
uninterrupted view of the path below. It was an easy ambush and we slaughtered
all eight men by throwing large rocks down upon them, before they had a chance
to warn another watch tower.

We stole their armor and quickly donned it. 

It was basic, but identified us as part of the
civilization.

Only my master stood out amongst us, because he wore a
solid gold pendant around his neck with a jade picture of one of the thirteen creator
gods on at the center, making him look regal.

Within two days we reached the eastern side of the Great
Tower.

The place looked even more enormous and sinister from our
low vantage point as we saw it.

There, we waited until night came.

My master arranged for our ship to be rowed towards the
harbor in front of the pyramid fortress as soon as the sun left the horizon and
the weapon was rendered useless. They were to come in close and carry plenty of
lighting to maintain the façade.