Dex
Baltimore
“That’s it,” said Tommy, his voice just above a whisper. “Oh, man…”
“They scuttled and deserted.” Dex admired this guy, Bruckner. He had brass ones.
“So what’s this all mean?” Tommy sipped on a Natty Boh.
“More than I want to think about. At least for tonight.” Dex wasn’t sure he should alarm Tommy with his suspicions at this point. His imagination still sparked with images of the underground Nazi base, the shipwreck that had fallen through the pack-ice—the light tower.
And the coolest part was Bruckner, himself. He’d recorded his story in a simple, dispassionate but very readable style. A reporter on the scene, no more or less. It could have been the basic translation, but Dex doubted it. He wasn’t even sure Bruckner cared if anyone ever read his log.
Either the log had been left intentionally in the captain’s quarters, or last-minute events kept Bruckner from retrieving it. Whatever the case, his story stood on its own. Although that wouldn’t stop Dex from checking ship registries for the names Nebuchadenezzar and Sturm. Probably a waste of time—those boats were real, he was certain. But seeing them in print somewhere would apply the epoxy of total truth to the whole story.
But there was one problem—a huge problem—he would need to verify before alerting anyone to a possible danger. He wasn’t even sure he should tell the rest of the guys yet. Tommy had read the same thing as Dex and hadn’t noticed it. So, it might be nothing.
Or, it might be everything.
“Hey, Dex… Earth to Dex.” Tommy tapped him on the shoulder. “Whatsamatter with you?”
“Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about something.”
“What?”
“When we go back down to the wreck tomorrow, it might be the last time we can do it.” Dex moused in a few commands, closing the translation website as he spoke. Then he saved the text of the log to a flash drive and encrypted it with a password. Then he clipped it to his keyring. He thought about putting it in the strong box, but the lock was broken, and anyone finding the originals wouldn’t need his translation for long. But he knew he didn’t want anything on his laptop drive, so the last thing he did was run his security program that flushed out and cyber-shredded anything he’d been doing connected with the 5001. Call him paranoid, but now that the good old “authorities” knew the sub was down there, he was going to keep things as tight as possible.
“Last time,” said Tommy. “Yeah, you said that before. Hey, you want a brewski?”
“No thanks, I’m going to hit the road. Like I was saying, tomorrow might be the last dive on that boat. I want to get out early, and I want to be the first team down. You okay with that?”
Tommy looked a little surprised. “You want me?”
Dex wanted him for two reasons: one, because of his training, he was a good guy to have around in a dangerous situation; and two, none of the other guys wanted much to do with him.
Of course, he wasn’t going to tell him that second reason…
“Yeah, things might get a little dicey down there, and you’re the guy I need in a pinch.”
Tommy smiled, chucked him on the shoulder. “Cool.”
Dex started to pack up his computer and the rest of the stuff. He was about to slip the brick of inter-matter, the translated text, and the log into his backpack, then stopped himself.
“Tommy, you think Augie would mind if we stashed this stuff with him for a little while?”
Looking over at the old guy dozing on the couch, Tommy smiled. “You kidding? Aug’s the best. He’d be glad to keep an eye on it.”
“Good,” said Dex, as he replaced the log and printed-out pages in Bruckner’s strongbox. Stuffing the box into the backpack, he paused as he picked up the strange brick. Now that he had an idea what it might be, decided it would probably be a better idea to never let the object out of reach. He handed the laptop and the backpack to Tommy. “You clear it with him, okay?”
“No prob. But how come?”
Dex shrugged. “I don’t know. I just have a feeling it’ll be safer here. At least for now. Call it a hunch, you know?”
“Sure, I got ya,” said Tommy.
Looking at his watch, Dex headed for the door. “Tell Augie thanks when you wake him up. I’ll see you at the dock. Regular time.”
“You got it. I’ll be there.” Tommy noticed he still carried the metallic slab. “Hey, I thought you said you were leaving everything here.”
“Everything but this.” Dex shook hands with him, thanked him, and slipped out the door into the festive lights of Little Italy.
As he walked to his car, he wondered if he was being a jerk with all the precautions, and he waved that off. He’d stayed alive doing dangerous things throughout a long Navy hitch because he listened to his instincts on more than one occasion.
And his internal Early Warning System was beeping right now. No way was he going to ignore it.