The ocean was rough, her waves were trying to pull me under, but I kept pushing through them, keeping my head above the water, trying to reach the island we could see in front of us. The smoke coming from Redd's craft rose above into the air, giving off a type of signal. They were hot on our trail, we knew it. The sound of the vehicles could be heard in the distance, coming from the four towers in the ocean.
"Come on Jamal, we're nearly there." I said looking back at the boy swimming close behind me. We could hear explosions getting more distant as we finally reached land. This part of the island looked like no one had visited here in a long time. I rolled over catching my breath looking at Jamal. I pulled the ring from my pocket and watched as it glistened in the sun, I could see the symbols which matched what we'd seen. I pointed the ring towards the sun, getting a better look at the jewel inside. Jamal had an idea where we were going next, and he wanted to keep moving forward.
Although I had no idea where I was or what was on this island – the only thing I knew was how we got here.
Six hours earlier
I looked into the guard's eyes, thinking about headbutting him, but just looking at the size of his huge coconut, made me think I'd probably break my nose – not a great idea Cass.
I needed to be brave, but it was hard to stay calm. I wriggled a little to try and make it more difficult for him to keep me still. But as soon as I became a problem, he just pointed at his Kalashnikov, which reminded me to behave.
This was now the second time he'd tied me up. They kept me well fed and I was allowed to have some water, each time I was free. Unfortunately, I couldn't wander the craft. I asked a lot of questions, but Redd hadn't been back to see me.
I wasn't sure how long the boy had been unconscious either. No one would tell me what was happening or where we were going. I think we've been travelling under the water for a few hours. The scenery whizzed by, and I wondered how fast we were going. From what I knew about submarines they go very fast and considering this is a very elegant underwater craft I would say we were travelling about 25 to 35 knots.
The temperature outside seemed to be cold, and I had a good idea we were somewhere in the region of the Baltic Sea. I wasn't sure if we were heading to the cave or somewhere else entirely.
"This my dear is where we're heading." I kept thinking about what Redd had said before. The boy behind me wasn't very talkative, and I still didn't know what Redd was talking about. Was the boy a guide to the other part of a map Redd had, who so trustingly shared that information with me.
There was one thing I needed to do and that was escape.
I looked around the room, there was one exit. The guard with the gun had gone back to once again playing poker. I had already tried to wake up the boy, but he just didn't move.
Did they give him a sedative? I thought.
I don't know what was weirder, the fact they gave him something to make him unconscious or the fact they didn't give me anything. Was he a threat? I started to build a plan of escape.
1 – I could lure the guard over here by pretending I was sick, hope he'd untie me, grab his gun and threaten my way off the craft.
2 – Pretend I needed to go to the bathroom, let him untie me, steal his gun and shoot my way off. I'd played enough video games to know where to shoot.
Either way I still needed to lure a guard over here.
"Who…are…you?" The exhausted voice of the boy said quietly to not alert the guards. His words sounded like broken English; he had a unique accent. And spoke sometimes in a language I didn't recognise.
"Hey! Are you okay? I'm Cassie." I said, but my voice was a little loud from the nervousness that accompanied it. "Stay asleep." I told him as I could see the guard coming over, I began talking to myself.
"Who are you talking to?" The guard said looking at me and walking around looking at the boy.
"Myself! I'm trying to understand which one of you two has the largest IQ."
He spoke some Russian which translated as something like "stupid girl."
When the guard moved back to playing the card game, I heard the boy's voice again, this time I got his name – Jamal. He was so good at whispering; the guards didn't even pick up he was talking. I waited until the sound of the guards got louder.
"How'd you get caught up in all of this?" I asked.
KKKKRRRRR – the sound of the guards' radios began crackling. The Russian chatter was too quick for me to pick up what they were saying. The guards walked over towards us, and I smiled at one of them. They checked our restraints and walked out of the room.
This was a good opportunity to get some more answers from Jamal.
"How old are you kid?" Thinking the age was something like 10 or so.
"I'm fifteen…" Jamal said, I thought he was much younger than that.
"Where are you from?" If I was going to learn more about where we were going and who Jamal was – now would be the time. Jamal sounded like the sedative was wearing off and began telling me some of what he last remembered before being brought aboard.
"A few days ago, I was playing on…beach with my sister – Alexandra…and this army of ships filled the ocean. Me…and…Alex watched as they reached…shore. "
I could sense the sound of fear in his voice, but before the ships came, I knew he was happy where he was. He continued. "Elder Izza said I think it's time."
"Time for what?" I said listening to Jamal tell the story.
"The sight of…ships made my sister ask if we're being invaded." Jamal said smiling.
I thought about what I'd think if I saw large metal war boats land on a remote island, I was living on.
"Elder Izza told Alex, don't be silly, we're not at war. I remembered…look in her eyes…she was scared – I could feel it."
I could see the story was upsetting Jamal and as much as I wanted him to stop – for the sake of his emotions – I also wanted him to continue. He carried on describing the men and women trampling through the village. It didn't take a genius to know who two of them might be as he described them in detail - Redd Fisher and The Giant.
"What happened next Jamal?" I said completely hypnotised by his story. I also imagined what it would've been like to see a large group of armed soldiers moving their way from hut to hut searching for something or someone.
"They were searching for us." Jamal said, "but Elder Izza said, as long as you're not together, they cannot hope to find what they're looking for."
"So, you ran?!" I said thinking about what I'd do in their situation.
"We jumped into…jeep and were being chased. Elder Guard take us toward…helicopter at the other side of…island."
I put myself right there in the middle of the action. I felt for Jamal and pictured a scene of Redd Fisher's army hurtling towards them on motorbikes, quadbikes and any other type of bike chasing them.
I could feel Jamal's voice had changed as he continued. "It was exciting…and scary at…same time; I held Alex close, looking back…fire covered the village."
"Oh my god, did they kill anyone?" I knew it was a stupid question when I asked it. Redd Fisher didn't want anyone knowing he was there and attacked – most likely in self-defence, but he was going to overpower them with his goons - no matter what.
"My people are trained…defend themselves; they had no choice…but to fight back." Jamal confirmed my thoughts.
Jamal was getting nervous as he spoke about the chase through the jungle, it wasn't just him, other guards were following close by, to widen the gap between Jamal and Alexandra.
"I could see…helicopter, I don't know man…he looked like…he had expensive white suit and spoke with…strange voice. Elder Izza said…man was part of group, they'd protect us, she said; it was their duty."
Jamal described the logo on the side of the helicopter, the design was the same one as I saw in Uncle Sam's study.
"Jamal, I think the man you may have seen was Sergei Romanov he's the head of..." Jamal was still telling the story, as though he didn't hear my words.
"More and more bullets…firing at us…I watched it take off with my sister crying…reaching out her arms. Elder Izza said to me before bullets killed her, find…broken city under…ocean, there you find…way home. I didn't know what…meant, but…don't think I'll forget it." Jamal had a tear in his eye, making me upset that I made him relive those moments. "I watched as…helicopter disappeared into sky…and then soldiers captured me."
City under the ocean? I thought, there were many cities under the ocean, one of them being the lost city of Atlantis. But this wasn't Atlantis, no one refers to that city as broken. This would mean…
My thoughts were interrupted as I heard the door to the room open. The giant ape and his bodyguard, the two guards from before and Redd came in.
"You don't want to wake him Ms Drake." Redd said looking at me. Jamal had made himself still look asleep. I really needed to escape here, but how?
"Where are we going old man?" I said, looking out at the murky waters.
"We'll soon be arriving, but first you will help us find…"
"More kids for your collection?" I couldn't help myself. I hated this guy. I pictured what he'd look like without a nose, imagining myself biting it off.
Redd didn't continue his reason for me, he just signalled Matvey and his armed guard to come with him as they left the room once again. The other guards returned to their game.
"Jamal, I'm so sorry, we need to get out of here." I said whispering as quietly as I could.
"Yes, but…how?" Jamal was asking a good question; I was still thinking about options 1 and 2. But thought maybe we could do something else – option 3.
"We can hide until we port or something." I said thinking about what Redd had just told us. I had no idea where we were or where we were going. But Redd had implied we may dock somewhere. The portholes showed only sea. Lots of exotic marine life had passed us by, but there'd been nothing much of anything else.
"What the?" I spoke too soon. The dark cloudiness of the water revealed a huge ship in the fog, not something like a 16th century carrack or a pirate ship. This was more like an ocean liner. There was metal work set up around the ship, lots of flood lighting and unmanned craft hovering around. If this was where we were stopping, I'd like to know how we were gonna breath underwater. The capsized ship looked like it had a story to tell.
As we moved slowly passed the wreckage high above the ocean, I could see the name on the side of the ship – SS Petoria. We didn't feel too high, but if we were going to rest at that vessel I hadn't a clue how we were going to move around in there.
"I think we should escape." I said to Jamal, trying to figure out a way to lure the guards over.
"What can you see?" Jamal asked me, I could feel him moving trying to break his hands free.
What I could see was Tweedledee and Tweedledum playing cards – bickering over their hands. It was easy to see what hands they were playing. I used the reflection of the glass at the side to see one guard's hole cards and the mirror of the light hanging over the table to see the community cards on the table.
"Ask if you can play." Jamal said, he was thinking what I was thinking. I had read a lot about poker and the many variations of the game. I first played it as a mini game on one of my video games, it interested me, and I was confident I could win a few hands.
"Hey guys, I'm pretty bored, sleeping beauty's not much fun, can I play?"
"Huh, you're just a kid, what would you know…playing this game." One of the guard's said, the one who wasn't winning.
"Yeah, ha, ha, what'd you have to gamble?" The other guard added to the conversation.
"I'm a renowned treasure hunter, I can help you find any treasure you want." I didn't really have much of anything to back those words up.
"You wanna find The Ark of The Covenant, Black Beard's treasure or the Golden Man, no one has ever found those, I can help you find 'em." My use of the internet was becoming invaluable here.
"Girl, it's a high stakes game, be quiet." The guard wasn't interested in what treasures I could help him find. I looked at the reflection of the glass and the table from the mirrored light casing.
"He's got ya there pal."
"What, how do you know?"
I took a deep breath and used my best convincing voice to prove to them, I knew what I was talking about. "Well, the flop gave it away from the beginning. I watched you marry, and the fifth street shows the final cowboy. You're playing for having the absolute nuts."
"Ignore her," the winning guard said, "are you in or out?" Again, his confident voice became more of a domineering one over the game and the other guard.
"All in!"
"Good," the guard knew he had him. His hand was way stronger. The losing guard showed a full house – kings over twos, the winner showed a Straight Flush.
"Lemme guess, you had a bad beat?" I said laughing, I could feel Jamal had managed to loosen his restraints.
"I will teach you to not speak little girl," the loser became angry at me, heckling came from the other guard. The sound of the hammer being pulled back on his side arm made me feel a little nervous, I hoped this was going to work.
"Hey you…over here." Jamal called out as the guard got closer.
"What are you doing? Boss said not to go near him." The winning guard said with a small worried look in his eyes.
"What's he gonna do?"
The guard spoke too soon as Jamal leant forward and bit him.
"Aaarrrgghhh you bit me."
The winning guard laughed at him, "ha, ha, told you not to go near him." I watched as the guard pointed his gun towards Jamal's left side, the guard just stood there briefly, before he started coughing violently. "KKKRRR" the guard made some weird noises and started reaching for his throat coughing. The other guard comes to his rescue and tries to help him as he falls to the ground. The blood gets on the other guard and he too starts coughing and spluttering, reaching for his radio.
KKKKRRRRR, I couldn't believe my eyes as the two guards were now dead right in front of me.
"Shit, what happened?" It was true, I was kindda scared of what I could see.
"Now is…chance to get free." Jamal said taking off my ropes and we managed to get free. I thought about taking the money, I could bribe my way out of a situation.
"We need to get on that ship, Elder Izza said that there's something there you need." I had worked out what Jamal had said, this was the city under the ocean, an ocean liner. And inside one of the passenger rooms was a way of being able to get Jamal home.
Could the stone have been onboard, I thought to myself.
We took the keys off one of the guards and unlocked the door to the room, peering down the corridor – there was no one around. Now was our chance to use one of the many escape pods.
"Jamal, what happened in there?" I asked, wondering if I should be this close to him.
"Like many animal…I have…way to protect myself from danger." What Jamal said was even more cryptic than the sound of his Elder Izza. I didn't really have time to understand it all now and wanted to learn what was onboard this capsized ship. We ran down the corridor and towards the escape pod. There were still people lurking on the craft as we quickly walked darted into another room.
I could hear Redd talking to someone through the vents in the control room – I couldn't see anything but heard a woman's voice. We darted into another room. Thankfully it was empty. Which we could see from the glass windows outside. We kept low and walked around the table.
"Where did everyone go?"
Inside this room there were several maps and blueprints of designs connected to Fisher Enterprises. Over the last few years, he'd bought the contract to explore this ship.
"What…you think is on it?" Jamal asked me, I was kindda hoping he knew. We looked more at the blueprints. Some huge towers had been constructed somewhere in the Baltic Sea. From the ledgers the ship had only just been found.
"Jamal, it looks a Swedish liner collided with this ship."
"Yes…look what was on…ship."
"My god you're right." I started to wonder if the Swedish liner had collided with the Petoria on purpose.
"Redd has been doing his research." I said pointing at the woman in the picture, a British professor of African archelogy was onboard the liner in Genoa.
How did it end up out here? I thought. She'd travelled quite a bit and was hoping to share what she found with a woman in New York.
"Looks like she never made it." I said, but there was one woman in New York from Redd's accounts thirty years later. I recognised her face; it was like mine in a way and a lot like dad's.
There was an item they didn't find on the professor and that was the ring. It wasn't the gold band or the gold casing that Redd was interested in but the red jewel inside.
There were more and more writings, links to Sir Francis Drake's jewel and the mysterious powers of the stone. This was getting more interesting by the second, and I thought the only reason why we were here now is because Redd hadn't found Dr. Alexandra Knight's ring.
"Looks like she travelled." Jamal said, not really knowing much about any of this, he did recognise the red stone in the ring though. I was certain of it.
"She doesn't look like someone who'd just give up the stone, I think she's hidden it somewhere on the ship. That's what Redd's searching for. They must've found something to help them locate it." The words in my voice ran off like I was uncovering a mystery.
There were maps and sketches, photographs and accounts of a temple inside the Kerenhasan cave in Sweden. The place looked huge, and Redd's archaeological team had found strange markings on the walls.
"Looks like they're trying to decipher them." I said, looking closer at the symbols. Could the answers be on this ship?
My words sounded more and more convincing in my head, but I didn't notice Redd Fisher and The Giant come into the room until the last second.
"Very good Ms Drake, and now you are going to help me locate the ring." Redd Fisher said gathering all the papers I was looking through.
"Sounds like a lot of wild geese running after one another if you ask me." I thought about the movies I watched and the treasure adventures I read about. One riddle after another to reach the treasure, this sounded like someone's idea of a joke and why the old man was in search of the stone was something I don't think I would ever understand. If I could find the stone before he did, then maybe I could use it to save Uncle Sam – there must be something in that temple.
"I only need you Ms Drake for this," I shouted out as Jamal got injected with another sedative, he was too late to react to my cries as I watched him fall asleep and be carried off back to where we were before.
"Let me go, what do you need us for?" I asked Redd, "you've got this all figured out, you don't need us."
KKKRRRRR, the sound of the radio alerted Redd to what they'd found in our cell.
"He's killed two more guards." The voice of Matvey said. Redd didn't look happy.
"Stupid imbecilic fools, how many times do I have to say this…"
"Maybe you should have locked him up in a steel cell," I said smiling as confidently I could.
"Well it's true at least." Redd's words carried more intrigued, I now realised what had happened to the other guy before we came aboard. I watched Redd take out his gun and I felt myself say gulp!
With his gun out, Redd moved me towards his safe, he entered the combination and pulled out some writings from Dr. Alexandra Knight's journal. Most of it was in English, but some sentences were in Arabic. The same cipher I kept seeing. He had done his best to put all the sentences together. I could see Dr. Knight had written these entries on certain dates.
"What do you make of this Ms Drake?" He said, pointing the gun at me.
I started with what I knew, well what I could translate as I became a little nervous.
"Up or Down_look High and Low.
Hot or Cold to get_away.
Backwards or Forwards_past or the future.
Now_Never_"
This was difficult, and the lines had been written on different days in her journal.
The first entry was written on the 15th September 1928.
The second was written on the 3rd December 1936.
The third, on the 21st November 1949.
And the last, written on July 25th 1956.
The more I looked at the lines the more they made less sense, grammatically they were incorrect, most likely due to my bad translation, or the lines were in some kindda code.
"Looks like you're stuck old man, haven't you searched every inch of the ship?"
Redd Listened to my words and had the answer.
"This ship is too fragile; we need to know exactly where to look, every time we touch this relic, parts of it just disintegrate. I hoped that your father could help me with this, but I think you'll do just fine."
Did he know something I didn't about Dad, and what could I do. I'd be naïve to think Redd didn't have his best minds on this. Unless he didn't want anyone else knowing about it. I thought more about what I'd seen in Uncle Sam's place. But nothing was giving away anything about Dr. Knight's mysterious writings.
I understood that the doctor had hidden the ring on the night the MS Copenhagen collided with the ocean liner. It was a matter of working out the clues. She had picked these dates specifically, could they be paces from the origin point - using the points of the compass to get to?
"Okay I think I've got it…" I thought about the first line and how she'd written high and low, up and down. I thought this could be pointing towards a ladder.
"Have you tried a ladder," the next line could be anything, but thinking about it in terms of temperature, I thought maybe an oven or a freezer, "between an oven and a freezer," the next item I thought could be a clock, something which you could use as a way to see the past and the future, "near a clock – the ring's either inside it or behind it or in some panel near it possible in the kitchen." I liked my thinking.
From the look on Redd's face, he'd already thought of that. He showed all the places they'd searched where a ladder was, even all the cold and hot points and all the clocks.
"Clever Ms Drake, but no."
But then I realised, oh my god, I know where it is, thinking back to what I saw at Uncle Sam's place now. Maybe they do need me after all.
The loud sound of an alarm boomed across the ship, with a voice saying preparing to surface.
We were still under the water but were heading closer to the ocean liner.
Redd gathered the writings, and we all made our way into the corridor, I could see the exit was now open. There was no water inside the craft, it seemed like we may be inside some part of the ocean liner.
Catching a breath, I climbed on the platform to go outside the submersible. We were inside the main hall. I looked up and could see the damaged tables bolted up above, the ceiling we were standing on had been turned into a docking area with the water lapping over the edge. Steel platforms had covered the ceiling allowing people to walk across. There were barrels and construction equipment all with Fisher Enterprises on them. I thought about escaping and hiding behind one of them. But I wouldn't have gotten very far.
Redd pointed a way into the next corridor. We climbed this makeshift service ladder and crawled into the hatch area, looking down from up here was high as Redd Fisher, the giant and a few more soldiers led the way further inside the upside-down ship.
Thank you for reading this chapter, we'll return and learn how Cassie and Jamal made it out alive with the ring in the next chapter. Where we'll discover more about the secrets onboard the ocean liner.