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I swam farther into the yacht, passing over shattered pottery, a smashed glass table, broken wine glasses, and a faint crimson stain in the previously white carpet that I assumed was blood. It wouldn’t be Chui’s blood. His body had been found in a secret room he’d had built in his stateroom, so the blood stain had to be from one of Chui’s crew. They had all died in the shootout between them and Aria’s team when they’d raided this yacht to find Chui.
I peered into a few of the cabins where colorful fish and dozens of crabs looked right at home amongst the luxury bedroom furniture.
Nothing stood out of interest, though, so I continued swimming along the wide passage. My air hose tugged behind me, and I stopped. When it tugged again, I turned around and swam back.
I found Dad at the bar, and despite the regulator in his mouth, his grin was off the charts. He spread his arms wide like he was presenting a long-lost treasure. I gave him two thumbs up.
He rubbed his hands together, then pulled bottles from the shelving and placed them into his plastic crate.
Leaving him to raid the bar, I followed the stairs up to the bridge. Unlike the bridge on Rhino, this one had gadgets that I could only dream of. Unfortunately, saltwater had ruined most of them, but I helped myself to two sextants, a compass, a chronometer, four dive torches, and four weatherproof walkie-talkies. I also found a woman’s dive watch that was still working.
Thank you very much.
I opened the cupboard and pulled out a Pelican case. I wrestled to release the sealing clips, and a giant air bubble burst from the case. My breath hitched. Inside were two guns and several boxes of ammunition. I only owned one gun, an ancient silver handgun that Dad had found decades ago in a 1920s wreck. Dad had restored the weapon, and although we’d fired it, we hadn’t needed the weapon to save our lives. These guns should be more accurate than our hundred-year-old handgun.
After adding them to the crate, I followed my air hose back down to Dad, but he wasn’t there. Assuming he was making a trip out to the metal cage, I swam out of the yacht. Dad was on his way back from the cage with another empty crate. I didn’t think I had ever seen him swim so fast.
I had to shove aside a nosy reef shark to enter the cage before I could add my crate full of goodies and grab another crate.
This time, I headed for the rear lower deck, assuming they would have an equipment cupboard like most boats did. I checked my watch again. Our dive time was thirty minutes already. I would give Dad another ten minutes, then we needed to start attaching our airbags.
The doors to the equipment cupboard were so well concealed, it took me a while to locate them. I used my dive knife to jimmy open the doors. Another massive bubble burst out, knocking me backward.
Because of the angle of the boat, the doors shut again, and I had to use a weighted deck chair to prop the doors open.
I swam inside.
Holy shit, I’ve hit the jackpot.
The room was twice the size of the hut on Rhino and was full of quality sporting equipment. Two jet skis that had been on trolleys with wheels for easy transportation had toppled onto their sides. Next to them, two underwater scooters had also broken free of their strapping and tumbled over. They would be worth much more than my cheap second-hand one I’d scored a few years ago. But while they were exciting finds, the chances of them ever working again were minimal.
The side wall was filled with fishing rods, reels, tackle boxes, water skis, and snorkeling equipment. Floating against the roof were three surfboards, four wakeboards, and six paddleboards. The other wall had scuba diving gear that was several quality-levels above what I was using. The tanks alone would be worth twice as much as mine. I did a quick inspection of one. It had some corrosion, but Dad would have it working like brand new in no time. Next to the tanks were breathing regulators, masks, fins, at least ten wetsuits, and the most exciting–three scuba dive computers that were probably worth a grand each. I swam to the final section.
Yes! Underwater cameras and spearfishing gear. I need Dad’s help.
I wrestled one of the scooters free and pressed the button to turn it on. No such luck.
After filling my crate with the most expensive items first, and checking my air hose wasn’t tangled around anything, I swam out of the equipment cupboard, carrying the crate, and kicked like crazy to return to the cage.
Dad was on his way back from the wreck with another load, and his eyes lit up when he saw me.
Using hand signals, I indicated for Dad to put his crate in, grab another, and then follow me.
We swam into the equipment room, and his cry of joy seemed to bounce around the room.
After Dad and I made three trips to the cage, ferrying a pile of equipment that we could either use or sell, I checked my watch. We’d run out of time for the fun stuff.
We needed to get this wreck off the sand.
I showed Dad my watch, and he waggled his head in frustration. We had salvaged items from many wrecks over the years, but most of it was just junk. Occasionally, we found something worth a few dollars. The stuff we had so far was what our dreams were made of.
We returned to the cage with our final load from the looted gear, and after closing the door on the cage and locking it into position, I unhooked the cable attaching the cage to Rhino. Dad and I had agreed before the dive that if we found anything down here, we certainly didn’t want Kingsley to know about it. Once we transported Chui’s yacht to Rosebud and Kingsley got off our case, Dad and I would motor back here and haul up the cage.
We unhooked all our airbags from the outside of the cage, and working together, we swam around the outside of the yacht, strategically anchoring our twenty-two airbags to various locations over the wreck.
We’d chewed up another twenty minutes doing that.
Leaving Dad at the bow, I swam to a lift bag anchored at the stern. Using our hand signals, we added air to the first two balloons, alternating between taking a breath from the compressed air and filling the bags. The familiar sound of air rushing into the balloons echoed through the water as the one I filled slowly expanded.
