| |
THE MYSTIC:
Rita steps out onto the main deck and hears Okana yelling at Dieter behind the bridge. She runs up the stairs to find out what’s going on. By the time she arrives, Alex and Okana are glaring at him. “What happened?”
Alex nods at Dieter. “The Captain has been holding out on us. He nearly got us killed trying to recover the device from the ice sheet when he knows there is another device already out of the water. He was just explaining that he wants to show it to us. Isn’t that right, Dieter?”
Dieter knows he doesn’t have much choice and nods at Rita. “That is correct. If all of you will follow me down to the lounge, I will play it for you.”
“Where are we headed, Dieter?” Okana demands.
“Set a course back to the eastern section of the Aleutian islands.”
Okana enters the destination into the navigation computer and looks out through the doorway. He sees Harrison coming up the stairs from the main deck. “Sam, get in here and take over. Our course and speed are set, so just keep an eye on things.”
When Harrison sits on a chair in front of the control console, Okana looks at Dieter. “Let’s go.”
Alex, Okana, and Rita follow Dieter into the lounge. A moment later, Mike walks in and looks around, with the other three crew members right behind him. “What’s going on?”
Alex indicates the Captain. “Dieter is going to show us a movie, Mike. He knows where we can find another device and some treasure stolen by one of his relatives at the end of WWII.”
Mike gives Dieter a questioning stare. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner? We barely escaped that ice sheet, and I was almost killed, John. What were you thinking?”
“I did not know that would happen, Mike. We were not supposed to make it past the islands, but the professor ruined my plans by saving us from the pirates. If anyone is to blame, it is him.”
Okana’s face flushes as he stomps across the room. He wants to drive his fist into Dieter’s face, but Alex steps in his way. “You heard him, Alex. Let’s take his movie and I’ll throw him over the stern.”
“Not yet, my friend. Let’s find out what he’s not telling us first.”
Dieter looks around at the expectant faces. “Last year, I was working in the Netherlands and discovered information about my grandfather. He was a Nazi opportunist and Captain of a German U-boat. Evidently, he had smuggled large amounts of precious metals and gems out of the Netherlands before the end of the war and was never heard from again. I paid a very large sum of money to obtain the movie that will show us his island. Unfortunately, I only have a rough estimate of its location.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” says Alex. “What has that got to do with finding the device?”
Dieter reaches into his coat pocket and brings out the plastic case. “In this movie, you can see one of the devices on the same island where he hid his treasure.”
When Okana reaches out to take the plastic case, Dieter gives him a wry grin and slowly holds it out to Josh.
Josh yanks the case from Dieter’s hand, glaring at him before walking to his desk and inserting the disk into the player. He turns on the television and presses play.
The television screen is white for a few seconds, then the movie begins. It’s like watching a director’s cut of a major motion picture. The camera is focused on a small island protruding above the surface in a vast expanse of empty ocean. The screen turns white again, then the camera zooms in on a large V-shaped notch cut into the rim of the dormant volcano, about fifty-feet in front of the ship. The white screen appears, then the sound comes on as the movie shows two men standing at the railing next to the wheelhouse of a small cargo ship. A slender man is wearing a dark brown leather jacket and a white captain’s hat, and the other man is wearing a German Officer’s uniform.
___* * *___
Captain Jim Burk turns to face the German Officer. “Damn it, Colonel. Do you have to film everything?”
Colonel Eric Dieter smiles as he continues staring at the island. “We will be very wealthy men when Hitler loses this war. Science will drive the new economic system. New inventions and discoveries will make a few men into millionaires, and I will be one of them. That is why I need documentation about my discovery.”
“How did you find this place?”
“You are not the first man with, shall we say, a questionable reputation that I have worked with. This was a smuggler’s hideout, but he does not use it anymore. He had a small accident just after he showed this island to me. This is where I have hidden my plunder, but what is more important, is what I have found in the crater.”
“The war isn’t over yet, Dieter. If Hitler has one of those atomic bombs I’ve heard about, things will change in his favor.”
“Not to worry, Captain. It is only a theory. No one could build such a device. When we recover this cylinder, we will keep it secret until the allies win, then we will show it to the new scientific community. They will throw money at me for research. You will see.”
Burk turns away from the railing when one of his men walks up to him.
“The tide is as high as it’ll get, Captain.”
“All right, take us in.” He turns to face Dieter. “You had better make this fast. This extreme high tide will only last another hour. If we don’t get my ship out before then, we will be trapped inside that volcano for an eternity.”
“You worry too much, Captain.”
“This is my ship, and it’s my job to worry. You have half an hour to load that thing. If you’re not done, I’m leaving without you. Get my meaning?”
Dieter turns to face Burk. “I do not take kindly to threats, Captain.”
Burk stares at him, a venomous look in his eyes. “It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.”
“You Americans are a bunch of cowboys.”
Dieter turns and goes down the steps to the main deck, and Burk concentrates on the narrow opening. The solid walls of the V-shaped gap in the side of the crater slowly slide past the sides of the ship, with only two-feet of clearance on each side. He looks through the open doorway at the man minding the helm. “What’s our depth, Brad?”
“Thirteen-feet, Captain.”
“Damn, this is close.”
“That it is, Captain. That only leaves three-feet of clearance under the hull.”
“You’re doing good, son. Nice and slow.”
Burk moves along the outside of the wheelhouse to the rear railing. The stern slowly clears the opening, and his ship is inside the crater. He walks back to the wheelhouse and looks inside. “How much water under us in here?”
“We’ve got twenty-feet, Captain, so as long as we get out before the tide goes out . . . What is that?”
Burk spins around and his mouth opens slightly. Directly in front of the ship, a massive curved mirror is half buried in the lava rock wall on the far side of the crater. A short distance to the left is a large cave, and a gray, torpedo shaped object is on the ground, with one end partway inside the opening.
Burk looks into the wheelhouse. “As soon as the skiff is in the water, get us turned around and ready to leave.”
“Damn right, Captain.”
Burk turns and glares at the German soldier. “Get that damn camera out of my face.”
___ ___
* * *
The movie suddenly stops, and Dieter looks around the room. Everyone turns and looks at him, and he turns to Cave. “We all know what that is, Professor. Your device. What do you know about it?”
This might get complicated. Everyone turns to look at him. From Norton’s description, the gray cylinder is one of the devices. “I’m not at liberty to say.” He stares at Dieter. “On which one of the Aleutian Islands is that device located?”
Dieter stares back at Cave. “That is the problem, Professor. It is not in the chain of islands, but somewhere near them. Only those pirates know exactly where it is. When you came aboard, you ruined my careful planning. I was going to steal this ship and meet them in Prince Rupert to get the disk and a map. I managed to get this motion picture, but my contact would not give me the map until I took over this ship.”
Mike jumps out of his chair and glares at Dieter. “Damn it, John! I trusted you. If you would have told me what you were doing, I would have helped you.”
“I could not take that chance, Mike. You may not care about money, but I do, and it is hidden on that island.” He glances around the room at the hostile expressions. “I was not going to kill you. I was going to wait until all of you went ashore, then Sam, Leroy, and I were going to disappear with the Mystic.”
Mike glares at Dieter. “I would have told the authorities.”
“You would not even know where to begin a search, Mike. You know how fast this ship is. You would never have found us.”
When Josh stands up, Alex sees the rage in his eyes and his clenched fists, so he stands up to stop him. “Just wait a minute, Josh. He’s not going anywhere.” He can tell Josh does not even hear him.
Bett suddenly jumps up in front of Josh. “Anger management, Josh. Do you remember the therapy? Just calm down.” She turns her head and glares at Dieter. “You’d better get outside until my man calms down. The therapy doesn’t always work, and I wouldn’t mind watching him beat the crap out of you.”
Dieter knows to leave and keeps his distance from Josh as he quickly hurries across the room and out of the lounge.
Okana watches Josh turn and glare at Bartram and goes over to help Bett and Alex.
Bartram sees the warning in Okana’s eyes and runs out of the room.
Alex looks around, then focuses on Mike. “That device could solve all our problems, if we can get it back to Nevada.”
“I know, but how are we going to get it?”
Alex gives the group a wry smile. “We become pirates. I’ll talk to Dieter and set up a meeting.”
Okana follows Alex into the walkway. “Is Dieter stupid enough to believe Blacktooth left a fortune in treasure on that rock?”
“I don’t care what he believes, as long as we get that device.”
***
Dieter finishes his negotiations with the pirates over the radio, clips the microphone into the overhead bracket, and looks over at Alex and Mike. “See how you have complicated things, Professor? Now we are forced to deal with the pirates on their terms.”
Alex grins and looks over at Mike. “I think we have sufficient firepower to take care of ourselves. We can do this if we’re careful and have a contingency plan. Since we will arrive first, we have time to see what we are dealing with and find an advantage of some kind.”
Dieter turns and gives a nod to Bartram, who engages the jet pumps and sets a course for the GPS location he heard from the man on the radio. Dieter waits until Cave and Mike go down the stairs to the lounge. “I’ll tell Harrison what’s going on and give you a break when we are close so you can get your weapon. Cave will assign someone to stay on the ship when we go ashore, and I want you to stay, too. For now, we are allies, but that could change.”
“What about the treasure?”
“Mike does not care about the money, and Cave only wants to stop the freezing. There will be plenty for us. Use the intercom when we are close.” He turns and goes down the stairs.
***
An hour later, everyone gathers outside the bridge and shares the binoculars as the Mystic approaches a small, barren brown dot on the water. They feel the ship suddenly lose speed and everything is quiet, but they are still five-miles away.
Bartram steps out from the bridge. “Hey, everything shut down and the radar and radios aren’t working.”
Josh walks into the bridge and does a few checks, then steps back out. “I’m getting interference on every frequency and it’s jamming the electronics. It must be coming from the island.” He looks at Bett. “That means your helicopter won’t work, either.”
Mike hands his portable radio to Josh. “I guess I won’t need this.”
Josh nods. “The regular electrical system is still working, so Rita and I will try to create some type of bypass so we can control the turbines. We will have to bypass some of the safety features, and it’s going to take some time. We’ll still be able to use the thrusters to continue to the island and maneuver once we get there.”
***
It takes the Mystic another twenty minutes to reach the island using the thrusters. When they step out from the bridge, the wind coming from the north is around forty degrees F, encouraging everyone to wear their winter coats.
Up close, the island is only thirty-feet from the water to the top of the crater, and only one-hundred-feet in diameter. If you did not know it was there, you would never see it from a boat or an airplane. The bottom of the V is seven-feet above the only narrow strip of rocky beach. The rest of the shoreline in a nearly vertical wall.
Alex turns to the group. “I’ll go with Mike and the Captain in the motorboat. The rest of you stay onboard in case the pirates try to board us. We don’t know how long until that ship arrives, so let’s get ready.”
“I’ll sound the horn when we see the ship.” Okana tells him.
“Works for me. All right, let’s get moving.”
Okana and Harrison follow Alex down onto the stern. They use the manual winch control for the hoist and set the motorboat into the water. A moment later, Dieter and Mike arrive and climb in, and Dieter starts the engine. Alex steps down into the boat, gives Okana a nod, and pushes the small craft away from the ship.