3 years ago - Izzy
The divers brought up more artifacts during the afternoon.
"Ma'am, I think you need to have a look at this one. I've never seen anything like it. It's quite corroded, but it looks to be a sign of some sort."
Across from the main diving tent, a sizable crane was in the process of hoisting a somewhat strangely shaped object from the water. Chunks of kelp and seaweed dangled off it, and it was a bit hard to make out exactly what it was while it swiveled from side to side.
"What do you think it is, Mum?"
"It's rather odd looking. I don't have a clue. It looks like a flat object, and yet it has curves and sharp edges. I really can't tell, but I do know it does look strangely familiar."
Alexandra was busy chewing her thumbnail, something she did whenever she got anxious or impatient. Patience had never been her strong suit. Izzy turned her attention back to the find, which was now almost completely salvaged from the water, and took a couple of steps closer to inspect it. They carefully pulled off the shards of seaweed that covered the peculiar object. Bit by bit they discovered the relic wasn't gold or copper. It appeared to be quite rusted and discolored in places. She started taking off scrapings immediately and tested them in their makeshift lab. An hour later, the results confirmed it was, as she suspected, pure silver.
Izzy and her daughter carefully started cleaning their find which lay flat on a table in front of them. Izzy ran her fingers over the flat surface and outlined the edges with her pen onto the paper underneath it.
"Okay, lift it up, please?" she instructed some of the crew.
They stood back a couple of steps to get the full perspective when Alex stopped dead in her tracks and squeezed her mother's hand.
"What's wrong, Alex?"
"You mean you can't see it, Mum? Look, look carefully."
Izzy took another couple of paces back and turned her head sideways.
"The bird, it's the raptor bird."
"Yes, it's the shape of the raptor bird that chased us, Mum."
"Okay, put it down again, please?" Izzy asked again.
"Wait! Stop!" Alexandra shouted seconds before it hit the table. "Lift it up again!"
"What is it, darling?"
"Look here, underneath the wing, there."
In front of their very eyes, underneath the massive bird's wing, was the word RHAPTA.
There were several seconds of complete silence, as they stood stunned, digesting what they had read beneath the wing before the crew broke into jubilant cheers. They danced, clapped hands, and jumped up and down with joy. Izzy thought her heart skipped several beats before it finally came to a standstill in her throat.
"Mum, you actually did it. You finally found your Rhapta, for real this time!"
Izzy couldn't react. She could hear the joy in her daughter's voice and the cheering crew behind her, but somehow her emotions were numb. Instead, she heard herself say, "Alex, get your father on the computer and tell him he needs to get back here right away."
That's all she managed to get out of her now constricted throat. She knew what this meant. Word would get out very quickly, and they would have treasure salvers up in their business before sunset.
"Mum, why aren't you happy? Do you realize what's going on here? You found Rhapta."
She pulled Alexandra aside.
"Please don't get me wrong, sweetheart. I am happy. Of course I'm happy, but we are going to need to be extremely careful now that we have found it. There are a lot of dangerous people after it too. If word lands in the wrong hands they'll be claiming their stake and things could get very ugly. Please get your father on the phone and tell him to get here FAST!"
Alexandra stared at her mother with a bleak face. Fear had settled in her mother’s eyes and her voice was more stern than usual. Izzy called out to Alexandra again. She knew the gravity of the threat this posed.
After another stern nudge from her mother, Alex was on the satellite phone, and before long Izzy heard Charles reacting much the same as she did.
"Dad says he's on the next plane out. He should be here by sunrise. What do we do now? Sit on it? It's the best news ever."
"Please try to understand, Alexandra. You're going to have to trust me on this one. We need to keep it under wraps as much as possible. Certainly until your father gets here."
The crew and diving team alike, on the other hand, were in full celebration, still gawking over the large crest and two-dozen other relics they had salvaged over the past week. Izzy panicked knowing she'd have to tone the guys down, and quickly. The last thing they now needed was a pack of treasure hunters on their backs. She cleared her throat and gathered them up.
"Guys! Listen up, please. Our excavation is a momentous day in history and I, along with you, am ecstatic that we are finally making headway in our quest for finding Rhapta. I implore you to please practice extreme caution and keep this under wraps. We cannot let word get out just yet. We need to get the right authorities out here and have it documented properly. I don't think I need to remind you that there will be a battle for a claim of this salvage. We cannot, I repeat, cannot discuss this with anyone."
Their blank faces stared back at her.
"I have summoned the authorities, and they will be here with Charles by sunrise. We will deploy a search team in the morning for the raptor egg Alexandra and I found earlier." Izzy masterfully put out this comment for bait before adding. "This mission will not be for the faint-hearted. As some of you might have heard by now, we encountered, what we believe to have been the mythical raptor bird. I did take a shot at it and believe I hit the creature, but there is a chance she might have survived."
A rumbling drifted through the small group.
"In the meantime, let's call it a day and get some much-needed rest. The last couple of weeks have been long. We will assemble and pick it up again in the morning once Charles arrives."
Izzy walked away and reflected on her carefully delivered speech. She knew she was totally dispiriting the crew. She was as elated as her crew was, probably more since she had been looking for Rhapta her entire life, but she couldn't run the risk of getting them all killed. She looked around searching for Eric.
"Alexandra, when last did you see Eric?"
"Um, not sure, Mum. I think he was around here just now, or maybe it was when we escaped the bird. Why?"
"Don't you find it strange that he disappears so often? I mean, where the heck does he go?"
"He did say he's dealing with some family issues. Maybe they're not resolved yet."
Another look through their campsite for Eric also turned up empty. Perhaps she was overreacting, and it was just family business. She just couldn't convince her senses of that.
"We should get some sleep, sweetheart. We might need to face that creature again tomorrow."
It wasn't long before the camp settled down and the nighttime sounds filled the air. Alexandra was fast asleep next to her. Izzy was tired too and just started dozing off when she was startled by a noise outside their tent. She sat up in bed, her eyes wide open and her ears turned toward the direction from which it came.
It was just before midnight and Izzy found herself cursing Eric for probably lurking around outside again for a space to sleep. She poked her head outside the tent. It was pitch black. Rain clouds covered the moon, resulting in hardly any light.
"Eric!" she whisper-shouted but heard no response. She stepped outside and walked around the side of the tent.
"Eric!" she whisper-called again. "Is that you?"
Silence again. Not a single sound except the lapping of the ocean water onto the rocks. Perhaps it was her imagination. She was practically asleep, so maybe it was the beginning of a dream.
Consoled by the idea that it was probably just her imagination playing wild tricks on her, she turned around to go back inside and, moments before entering the tent, heard a branch break in the trees behind the tent. As she turned to look back at the noise, a large, muscular hand covered her mouth from behind and she was forced down, face first in the sand. She tried to scream, but her voice strained as they pulled her neck backward. They tied her hands with rope behind her back. Any attempts to wrestle herself free were altogether futile against their brutal force. All she felt were two big men pinning her down on the ground. There was not a word exchanged between them. Complete silence. She tried biting one man's hand, but it barely had any effect other than prompting them to tape her mouth closed.
"Mum? Is that you?"
The commotion must have woken Alex up. Izzy shut her eyes and stopped wrestling, silently praying, pleading to God to not let Alex come out of the tent. Please don't come out, Alex. Stay there, please, she transferred her thoughts.
A few seconds later, Alex popped her head out through the side of the tent and shone her bright torchlight directly onto where the men had captured Izzy.
"MUM! NO! LEAVE HER A-L-O-N-E!"
Unable to speak, Izzy felt her attackers pull her to her feet and drag her away between the dense trees behind the tent. Alexandra's eyes, locked on her mother's, were filled with terror. She froze not knowing what to do.
"MUM! STOP! LEAVE HER ALONE! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!" she screamed over and over.
Izzy tried to dig her heels into the sand in a useless attempt to slow them down. At least until some of the crew hopefully came to her rescue. But her captors were just too quick and too forceful. She felt a heavy blow to the back of her skull before everything went dark.