Loch

Chapter 23

A loud knock at her door made Isla jump. She’d been on edge ever since they’d taken rooms at the small inn near Loch Ness. She stared balefully at the door for a full five seconds, trying to decide if she hoped it was Grizzly or the Tuatha de Dannan on the other side. Neither appealed to her right now. The knock came again.

“It’s me.”

“Coming.” She closed her laptop, stalked to the door, and flung it open.

Grizzly stood there, smiling and holding two bottles of ale.

“Thought you could use a drink,” he said.

“As a matter of fact, I could.” She accepted one of the bottles and returned to the small desk that occupied most of the space that her bed did not. She sat down and stared out the window at the dark waters of Loch Ness in the distance. She wondered how Maddock and Bones were making out. They’ll be fine, she thought.

Grizzly sat down on the corner of her bed and let out a long, dramatic sigh. “I wish they had me go,” he said. “I did stumble across the chamber at Dunstaffnage. I’m lucky like that. Maybe I could be of some help with the search.”

“Believe me, I wish you’d gone too,” Isla said through gritted teeth. She turned her back on the treasure hunter, opened her laptop, and logged back on. Once again, the photos Maddock had taken beneath Dunstaffnage filled the screen.

“I hope they don’t get lost,” Grizzly said. “That’s a long way to swim.”

“They’ll be fine. They dive for a living,” she said.

Not wanting to risk being spotted nosing around Urquhart Castle after hours, the two former Navy SEALs had begun their swim in a secluded area north of the ruins. The deep, steep-sided Loch provided the perfect cover. They’d be able to dive deep enough to go unseen, hugging the shore until they reached the castle. None of them held out much hope that the treasure chambers beneath the castle were more than a legend, but they were stuck for the moment, so any avenue was worth exploring.

Meanwhile, Maddock’s hacker friend had curtly reminded them that he did have a day job, but promised to take a second look at the cipher as soon as he had a chance.

“I wish there was something I could do to help,” Grizzly said. “You need any assistance with your cipher project?”

Isla shook her head. She was already deep in thought on how to proceed on that score, and she seriously doubted Grizzly would have anything to offer.

Maddock’s plan was clever, if they could pull it off. Jimmy had sent them the key to the cipher. At least, what he believed was the key. Isla would use it to create a false clue which she would send to Meikle, requesting help with another translation. With any luck, they would send the Tuatha off on a wild goose chase while she and her companions continued their pursuit of the real treasure.

But what would happen should they find it? Her editor was expecting a story, or series, about the hunt. That was no problem. She could submit any story she liked, one that would end in failure.

Grizzly would want to televise the whole thing. That wasn’t acceptable by any stretch. She’d have to figure something out there. But what about Maddock? Could she make him understand what the treasure meant? What had to happen next?

She let out a long sigh. She could do nothing about that right now. She returned her thoughts to the false clue.

“The message Maddock found beneath Dunstaffnage… the message you and Maddock found, that is,” she added hurriedly, “contains almost all the letters in the alphabet. There are only seven for which I don’t have symbols. Avoiding those letters, I’ve put together a new message. I’ve also made a slight alteration to the vowels. Not enough, hopefully, that it will stump Meikle, but sufficient to make it seem like we believe this to be a new code.”

“Let’s hear it,” Grizzly said.

“The worthy must brave the demon of Borthwick to claim the treasure.”

Grizzly scratched his head. “What is a Borthwick?”

“It’s a haunted castle southwest of Edinburgh.”

“I thought we agreed to send them to Morar,” Grizzly said. “That would be more believable since they have their own lake monster, Morag.”

“No, you wanted to send them there. There are two problems with Morag. The first is that it’s too close to Loch Ness. We want their attention focused on somewhere far away.”

“What’s the second issue?”

She rubbed her temples, trying to fend off the oncoming headache. “Morag is the problem. The strong association with a lake monster legend means there’s a chance we could end up searching there.”

“Gotcha. Sounds like you’ve got it under control.”

“I think so. The message itself is solid. It’s the image I’m going to send him that worries me.”

Grizzly stood and moved behind her chair. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

She grimaced. Increasingly, she found the man’s presence discomfiting. Perhaps it was the contrast to Maddock, whom she found a steadying presence. And then there was Bones, who could be a pain in his own way, but he seemed to be reliable, and Maddock trusted him utterly.

“It’s my photo manipulation I’m worried about. I’m going to tell Meikle we found a cave near the well and that this was carved on a stone there. The problem is the quality of some of Maddock’s photos.” She clicked on one of the photographs. “See how the flash partially obscures this symbol? I think it’s a combination of the moisture and the shape of the stone. If I plug this bit in, it’s going to look wrong.”

“I took a few pics with my phone. Maybe some of mine are better.” A few seconds later, Grizzly handed her his phone. Sure enough, he had a crystal clear image of the problematic section.

“This is perfect,” she said. “I’ll just…” Her voice trailed off as she realized what she was looking at.

“Something wrong?”

“It’s the photo you took,” she said. “There are more symbols here.” She grinned. “Jimmy didn’t have the entire clue.”