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The Strait of Messina
Dane Maddock grinned behind his scuba mask as the ocean bottom came into view. There was something about that moment when the seafloor first became visible after dropping down through the water that never got old, like a hidden world opening its gates for him to enter. A few feet off to his right, a big man of Native American ancestry—Uriah “Bones” Bonebrake—also made his descent. A former U.S. Navy SEAL who had served with Maddock, Bones became a partner in the treasure hunting outfit Maddock had started after leaving the Navy. The two had grown accustomed in recent years to travelling around the world on relatively short notice in search of sunken treasure and fabled historical artifacts.
A flurry of cloudy water caught Maddock’s attention. He pointed down and to his left, where the other two members of their underwater team, Willis Sanders and Matt Barnaby, were already at work. Willis, tall and dark-skinned, was also an ex-SEAL who served with Maddock and Bones during their early Navy days. Matt was not a former SEAL, but was ex-military, having served as an Army Ranger, a fact that was the source of unending ribbing on the part of the rest of the team.
Maddock tapped Bones on the shoulder and signaled off to their right, to a patch of seafloor they had dove earlier. That spot had yielded some minor artifacts—a few bits and pieces of old weaponry like spears, daggers, and swords, which they had examined on board the ship and guessed them likely to be from the fifth century. Maddock thought it worth spending one more dive on the same area, which they had previously laid out with a measured grid called a transect. He and Bones reached the transect and began carefully sifting through the seabed, fanning away the silt with their hands.
Willis and Matt handled the heavy equipment—a vacuum suction device connected to the ship that removed large quantities of mud from the bottom at the expense of ruining underwater visibility. They would dredge up the sediments out of the way and then return on a later dive once the water had cleared. But Maddock and Bones had already been through that process on this site and so now were able to sift through what had been revealed.
Maddock frowned as he held up another worn slab of metal, most likely a fragment from a dagger or sword. He dropped it into a mesh bag clipped to his waist. It would aid in their identification of the wreck site, but by itself it was certainly no treasure. In addition to the literal pressure of the seawater pushing down on him, Maddock also felt the never-ending pressure the sole proprietor of an inherently risky business was subjected to. As the owner of a small treasure salvage company, he knew he had to come up with goods that he was able to legally sell for profit, or else find some other line of work. While this site was promising, it had so far failed to turn up anything that could really pay the bills.
He looked over at Bones in time to see the Indian let a shard of useless metal drop back to the seabed. Maddock was about to suggest to his dive buddy that they move to a different part of the transect when he heard the rap-tap-tap of metal on metal coming from some distance away. Most of the seabed was mud and rock, so the only way to produce that kind of sound was either from the ship itself, or from the divers. And since it wasn’t him or Bones...
Maddock kicked off the bottom toward Willis and Matt while motioning for Bones to follow. The pair of divers swam over the ocean bottom until they passed out of their designated search area. They continued toward Willis and Matt. To Maddock, the metallic clanking noise had sounded like a crude signal of some kind, perhaps one of them banging a dive knife against his metal air tank, which was a common way to signal underwater.
Another noise grew louder as they drew nearer to Willis and Matt, that of the suction machinery they were using to pull mud from the bottom. A metal tube called an elbow extended up to the ship. The other end plowed into the bottom in order to suck up the sediments in order for the divers to see what was buried beneath. The suction of the machine made a loud racket, sort of a whining hum that seemed to come from everywhere at once. But piercing through the hum came that metallic clinking again.
Maddock pushed forward and then he saw the situation. And it was a situation; that much was for sure. Willis’ sizable back was to Maddock, while Matt was nowhere to be seen. Willis stood with his feet planted on the bottom while reaching up with his hands. Maddock followed his outstretched arms, and when the turbulent water cleared for a moment, he got a view of what was happening.
Predicament, he thought. Matt was in a real pickle right about now. Somehow the diver had been sucked up the intake end of the elbow tube, so much so that only his fins protruded from the end of the pipe. And yet the pipe suction was still on. They had no way to communicate to their team member on the boat, Corey Dean. Unlike the rest of the team, Corey had no military background at all, but his technical systems expertise meant that he was more than useful in a support role when it came to operating ships, computers and equipment of various kinds while the rest of the team was in the field. Still, the underwater team had no direct voice communications link to Corey topside on the boat. The suction pipe was turned on at the beginning of the dive and off at the end of it. Maddock’s independent operation could not afford state-of-the-art equipment, just the meat-and-potatoes basics that would get them up and running.
And now Corey was up and running, all right, Maddock thought, watching as the beefy Willis struggled to pull his dive buddy out of the tube by his legs. About to be run up through the tube...to the ship’s propeller where it connected. The force of the prop running in reverse provided the upward water suction to clear the seabed. But now it threatened to make mincemeat out of Matt unless they could either get him out of there or somehow tell Corey to shut off the engine.
Maddock tapped Bones on the shoulder and pointed up at the silhouetted hull of their boat, the Sea Foam, while mouthing the words, shut it off! Bones, seeing the urgency of the circumstances, wasted no time with a reply but instead immediately shot toward the surface. Fortunately they were in shallow enough water that the bends would not be an issue with this dive, even after a relatively rapid ascent. With Bones on the way to Corey on the boat, Maddock swam the remaining distance to Willis and the trapped Matt.
As Maddock swam up to the intake pipe, he could see that Willis was straining to keep Matt from being sucked up the elbow, so-called because it bent sharply in order to connect to the boat’s propeller, like an upside-down “L.” Maddock looked through Willis’ mask to see eyes wide as saucers, an expression that said he was about to lose his grip on the wayward Matt.
Maddock looked up into the tube and saw that Willis only had one hand on one of Matt’s fins. And then while he watched, that fin came off in Willis’ hand. He heard a muffled cry of dismay carry from behind his breathing mouthpiece through the water. Matt immediately splayed his arms and legs out against the sides of the pipe to slow his ascent, but the power of the suction was too much. He was dragged up the pipe toward the boat’s propeller.
Maddock wasted no time, acting on the instincts that had served him well time and time again during his time as a SEAL and as a treasure hunter. He signaled for Willis to move out of the way and then pushed off the bottom hard with both feet, shooting straight up into the tube. As soon as he was inside of it he felt the rush of water begin to carry him rapidly upwards. He didn’t think Bones would take much longer to reach Corey on the boat, but at the same time he knew Matt might only have a few seconds. He was counting on the near 90-degree bend near the top of the elbow to stop Matt from being sucked directly into the prop, but what if it didn’t? He shoved aside thoughts of blood-red water drifting down on him after the engines were shut off a little too late.
Not wanting to give that scenario a chance to unfold, Maddock reached up toward the single swim fin he saw sticking down into the vertical portion of the shaft. Most of Matt’s body was already in the horizontal portion of the pipe that connected to the motor’s prop. With a final kick of his own fins, Maddock pushed himself up and clasped a hand around Matt’s ankle, not wanting to take a chance that the fin would pull off like the other one.
Maddock wedged his own feet against the sides of the pipe as he yanked down on Matt’s leg. As soon as he could he grabbed a hold of his other leg as well, and then redoubled his efforts to get him out of the dangerous horizontal section of pipe. It worked, and looking up he could see Matt’s bone white face looking down on him, eyes wide, jaws clenched hard around his scuba regulator.
A second after that, the rumbling thunder of the boat’s engine came to a halt and silence settled over them. Bones had reached Corey. The upward surge of the water ceased immediately. Maddock released his grip on Matt’s lower legs and both divers eased their way down and out of the pipe, where Willis still stood on the bottom looking up.
Willis flashed Maddock and Matt the okay sign—forefinger and thumb held in a circle—and both men immediately responded with an okay sign of their own. Willis exhaled a long stream of bubbles in relief. But Maddock was looking at Matt, or at Matt’s hands to be specific. He hadn’t noticed it in the elbow, but Matt clutched a small box. Not a piece of dive gear, but something that looked old—it looked like an artifact.
Maddock pointed to it and then looked into Matt’s eyes. In return, Matt turned and pointed a little behind them near one of the “blow holes” created by the elbow that they had been working. Excited now, Maddock jerked a thumb toward the surface, signaling that they should get to the boat. He knew Matt wouldn’t be foolish enough to try and open the box while still underwater. If it was watertight, they wouldn’t want to flood the contents.
After a slow and cautious ascent during which the trio of divers met Bones, who had jumped back in after the boat motor was shut down to see if his friends might need help, all four divers climbed onto the boat’s dive platform. After quickly removing their gear, they huddled with Corey on deck. The redhead was already on the marine radio preparing to alert other boaters in the area in case they should require serious medical assistance, but once he saw everyone was okay he put down the transmitter.
“What’s that?” Corey gestured to the metal box in Matt’s hand.
“Haven’t opened it yet, but it’s heavy,” Matt said as he placed the find onto the work surface they used for sorting through finds. “I think the box itself must be made of lead.”
“Let’s have a look.” Maddock picked it up and turned it over in his hands. He could make out a thin seam where the top and bottom halves joined, but there was no latch or lock of any kind. He pulled gently on the top lid but it didn’t budge.
Bones let out an impatient huff of breath and stepped up next to Maddock. “Maybe you should let me have a try.”
Maddock glared at him and refocused his attention on the box. As a professional marine salvor, he knew that applying excessive force to any item that could be potential treasure was a no-no. But he tried again, applying slow but deliberate force, and after a few seconds was rewarded with a pop as the two halves separated. Maddock wanted to turn his head away with the onslaught of strong musty odor that wafted out of the box, but the contents were too alluring. The others caught sight of glimmering metal and crowded around for a closer look.
“Hell, yes. I see coinage.” Bones leaned in enthusiastically, eyes sparkling with excitement.
Maddock squinted at the coins. “They look Roman to me.” He picked one up and eyeballed it closely. “Fifth-century! It’s worn, but still readable.”
“What’s the other stuff?” Willis flipped his hand in a “hurry up” gesture as he eyed the rest of the box’s contents.
Maddock picked up a small dagger with a hilt made of gold and passed it to Willis, and then carefully took out a jewel-encrusted, ornately engraved cross and gave it over to Matt for closer inspection. Then his hands returned to the container and he removed a hunk of gold shaped like an insect, with two blue gemstones for eyes that twinkled in the sunlight.
“Is that what I think it is?” Bones wanted to know.
“It’s a scarab.” Maddock turned the rare object over in his hands.
“Man, this is some good stuff,” Willis marveled as his eyes took in the artifacts. The sheer amount of the haul wasn’t impressive, but the quality and obvious value of the pieces was undeniable. They had stumbled onto something big.
“What are those two pieces there?” Corey pointed into the box at two flat metal sculptures, shaped like falcons, so thin as to give them a two-dimensional appearance. Each had a large hole in the center in addition to being perforated with several smaller holes.
“What’s the matter, Maddock—you don’t look happy.” Maddock nodded slowly. He knew his friend could read him well enough by now to know that something was distracting him from the elation he should have felt at finding such a unique hoard.
“You know, it’s odd.”
“What’s odd, you? We know that. Surely you’re not contemplating that now.” Bones grinned down at his friend and business partner. Maddock ignored him and continued.
“The falcon is a pagan artifact—Visigoth—while the cross is a Christian one.” Maddock turned one of the falcons over slowly in his hands while Bones took the other. At length, Bones asked, “Does the name Flavius Honorius Augustus mean anything to you?”
Maddock shrugged. “ I don’t know, why?”
“Because we’ve got the dude’s dagger.”
Maddock’s heart raced and his hands felt numb. He couldn’t believe what he was looking at. If he was correct...
“I can’t be certain, but I think I know whose treasure we’ve found.”
Bones looked up from the falcon. “Don’t keep us in suspense, bro.”
Maddock hesitated, then grinned. “I’m pretty sure this belonged to Alaric, the Visigoth who sacked Rome.”