The sun beat down on the white sands of Bowhead Island. The tiny island off the shore of South Carolina was home to no one, save the birds and squirrels high in the lush, green trees and the snakes and rodents that slithered beneath the palmettos. It was a fine day at sea, but Maddock wasn’t feeling it.
"I don't think you know where to look." Willis Sanders leaned over Maddock's shoulder to look at the map where Maddock had marked the most likely spot where the wreck would be found. Willis was a former comrade in the SEALs and now a member of Maddock's crew. The other crew members, Matt Barnaby and Corey Dean, were busy at the helm of their boat, Sea Foam. Bones was elsewhere, presumably watching Dima soak up the sun in her bikini.
"Of course I don't know where it is,” Maddock said. “We’re working from a five hundred year-old story. That's why they call it an educated guess."
"Man, don't even try to get all pedantic on me. I just don't want to spend any more time in this sun than I have to." Willis had slathered his dark brown skin with sunblock, giving his face an odd, grayish tinge where he hadn't rubbed it in thoroughly.
"What is it with you and the sun lately? You've never been this uptight about it."
"Skin cancer. It's the silent killer."
Maddock scratched his head. "I thought that was carbon monoxide."
"You die your way, I'll die mine."
Maddock rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the map. "We know the Templar, whoever he was, came ashore in this area." He tapped a spot on the map. "Working backward, he was probably carried past the northern tip of Bowhead Island. Considering the way the currents run in this area, it's most likely the ship went down somewhere along this path." He traced a fishhook-shaped line he'd drawn on the map.
"Hopefully it wasn’t too close to land." If the wreck lay too close to shore, it risked being broken up by the ebb and flow of the tides. In deeper water it could lie untouched for centuries.
“We know he caught sight of the island just before the ship went down, so it can’t have been too far away. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.”
"We've got a hit, Maddock." Corey, the tech guy of the crew, sat watching the sonar readouts on a digital display. The fair-skinned redhead preferred the shelter of the cabin to exposure to the elements.
"Already?" Their luck couldn’t be that good.
"Wait. It's looking like…yeah, never mind. It can't be what we're looking for. False alarm."
Maddock didn't bother checking. They'd done this sort of thing for years and Corey knew what he was doing.
"I'm going to stretch my legs. Let me know if you find anything promising."
“A stretch sounds good,” Matt agreed. “Willis, take the helm?” The stocky, brown-haired man gave up the wheel and sidled up to Maddock. “Spending a little time with our new friend also sounds good.”
“She’s our colleague. Be professional,” Maddock said without a trace of sincerity.
“Seriously? And how long did it take you to hook up with Jade when she was working with us?”
Maddock grimaced. “Fine. Knock yourself out.”
They headed out onto the deck and back to the stern where Bones and Dima stood gazing out at the white ribbon of wake that trailed behind them.
"Are we there yet?" Bones asked.
"Yeah. Get out." Maddock sat down on the deck with his back against the rail. “What’s going on out here?”
“Not much. Just getting ready to soak up some rays.” He flashed a smile at Dima, who returned a frown.
“Yes,” she said, “I’m wearing a swimsuit under my clothes and I wanted to work on my tan, but now you’ve made it weird.”
“No skin for you,” Matt jibed.
“Fine. Never let it be said I stood between a lovely lady and her quest for the perfect tan.” Bones stood and stripped off his t-shirt. “Okay, now I’m topless too.”
This elicited the tiniest of laughs from Dima, and Maddock didn’t miss the way she eyed Bones’ muscular frame. “All right, when in Rome, I suppose.” She gracefully slipped out of her shorts and shirt. Her bright, yellow bikini perfectly offset her deeply tanned skin.
“Do you need someone to lotion your back?” Bones asked.
“As a matter of fact, I do. Matt, will you do the honors?”
The former Army Ranger played it cool, accepting the bottle of suntan lotion and giving it a shake, but as soon as Dima turned around, he pumped his fist in triumph.
Maddock looked on with a touch of envy as his crew mate attended to the attractive woman.
“Good thing my sister can’t see you looking at her like that.” Bones arched an eyebrow at Maddock.
“What? No, I wasn’t looking.” Maddock had to laugh. “Okay, busted. But your sister doesn’t get too terribly jealous.”
“Angel doesn’t get jealous? Are we talking about the same person?”
“Well, not compared to some women I’ve dated.”
Bones nodded sagely.
“I’ve been thinking,” Maddock said a bit too loudly, trying to redirect the conversation, “about our next move once we find the second stone.”
“Find the third one?” Matt said, not looking up from the task at hand.
“Yeah, but how?” Bones asked. “We’ve got no clues.”
“Not yet, but I think the next step is to follow up on Dima’s Book of Noah. As far as we know, it’s the only text in history that mentions the stones. Right?”
“As far as I know,” Dima said from her position on the deck. She lay face-down on a towel, the sun glinting off her oiled back. “I’ve been studying Noah’s ark for years and never heard of the Noah Stones until my friend Robert sent me the fragment. I was a little skeptical at first, but now that we know they’re real, I think we should try to find it.”
“This is kind of premature, don’t you think?” Bones said. “Even if we find the wreck, and the stone really was on the ship, there’s no guarantee the stone is still there.”
“Aren’t you the optimist? What’s up with you?”
“Nothing.”
Maddock didn’t miss the scowl Bones directed at Matt, who was now working on Dima’s legs, and he understood. “First the girl at the museum and now her. You’re striking out all over the place, aren’t you?”
“It’s not that. Well, it’s mostly not that. My dry spells tend to be shorter than your…” Bones glanced down and cleared his throat. “Never mind. Anyway, it’s knowing what those guys did to my grandfather, and facing the fact that they got away from us twice. I want to hit someone, Maddock. Hard. In the face.”
“I’m sure you’ll get the chance before this is all over.”
The boat slowed and the whine of the engine lowered in pitch. “Looks like they found something,” Maddock said. “Let’s check it out.”
The stop turned out to be for nothing. Under closer scrutiny, the wreck Corey had spotted turned out to be too recent. Three hours and two more false alarms later, Maddock was ready to pop open a Dos Equis and call it a day. He was about to suggest the same to his crew when Corey got another hit on sonar.
“I’m not getting my hopes up,” Corey said, “but this one looks promising.”
“Let’s send Uma down to check it out.” Uma was the nickname of their underwater miniature submersible camera. The robotic device could get an up close look at a wreck without stirring up too much silt and could safely go in and out of narrow spaces.
They hastily readied the device and sent it down. The crew huddled around the screen that displayed the images Uma sent back. Soon the image of a sunken ship filled the screen. Maddock had to admit it did look promising. It was a wooden ship, mostly buried in the sand.
Corey guided the submersible up and down the length of the ship. They couldn’t make out many details from the exposed portion of the wreck so next they had Uma scan the seabed around the wreck, looking for objects that might have spilled out.
Maddock watched, hoping for some clue that would tell them they were on the right track. Finally, he spotted something.
“Stop. Over there.” He tapped the top right corner of the screen.
Corey brought Uma to a halt, rotated her a few degrees, and panned out. A dark, cylindrical object lay in a rocky section of the sea floor. He had almost missed it.
“Bring her in close.”
Corey complied, and as the object grew larger, Maddock’s heart fell. Even in its current condition, he could tell they had missed their mark.
“What is that?” Dima leaned in for a closer look.
“It’s a cannon,” he said.
“Is that a bad thing?” she asked.
“In this case it is,” Bones said. “Its way to modern. Probably Civil War.” He turned to Maddock. “I could go down for a closer look just to be sure.”
Maddock shook his head. “There’s no need. This isn’t the wreck we’re looking for.”
“But are they the droids we’re looking for?” Bones made a face. “Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood.”
“Nice try,” Maddock said. “Right now, I think a beer is the only thing that will do the trick.”