Kate carefully selected one of the gold-flaked chocolates. “I assume these are edible?”
“Of course.” Violante demonstrated by popping one of the smaller golden chocolates into his mouth. “The flakes are pure twenty-four-karat gold and biologically inert.”
Nick chose a truffle and admired it as if it were jewelry. “Why would you want to eat something so valuable?”
“Don’t let the glitter fool you,” Violante said. “The chocolate is far more valuable than the gold coating it. Each piece is seventy-five percent pure dark chocolate, made with scarce single-origin cacao from private plantations in Madagascar, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, Trinidad, or Ecuador.”
“You really didn’t have to do this for us,” Nick said.
“On the contrary,” Violante said. “A treasure in golden chocolate seemed only fitting to celebrate and honor your discovery of the Santa Isabel.”
“These chocolates are fabulous,” Kate said. “But they would look even better on golden dishes on a one-ton solid gold table.”
Violante nodded. “I agree.”
Nick handed Violante a picture of the table that Rodney had digitally created. The table was half-buried in silt and covered with concretions. It still looked magnificent.
“This would be treasure enough on its own,” Nick said, “but the seafloor is covered with gold dishes and piles of coins. It’s a spectacular sight.”
A second picture showed gold coins and dishes strewn across the ocean floor, covering rocks, peeking through silt, wedged between bits of coral.
“How did you find it?” Violante asked.
Nick reached for another chocolate. “Years of research going through historical records, old maps, logbooks kept by sailors on other ships who saw the sinking, descriptions of the stars in the sky, that sort of thing. Boring, academic detective work. Then it came down to instinct and technology. We spent months at sea in the area where we thought the Santa Isabel had gone down. We dragged sonar equipment behind our ship and mapped the seafloor, looking for telltale anomalies. We were in our eighth fruitless month, our money and morale critically low, when we passed over this vast, abyssal plane. That’s when we started to see huge sonar spikes that didn’t look like rocks.”
“What did they look like?”
“Cannons,” Kate said. “So we dropped our ROV, an unmanned sub loaded with cameras and things, into the water and sent it to the bottom for a look. We found the cannons, and a whole lot more.”
“How deep down is the treasure?”
“About twelve hundred feet,” Nick said. “It’s not going to be an easy salvage, particularly if you don’t want to attract any attention while you’re doing it.”
Violante waved off the concern. “Blindness is easy to buy.”
“If you have the power and the resources,” Nick said. “You do, we don’t. That’s why we’re here. You can’t imagine how infuriating it is for us to find one of the greatest treasures in the history of mankind and not be able to keep it all for ourselves.”
“Coming to you is our way of at least getting something out of it,” Kate said.
Violante’s face was a frozen mask and eerily devoid of expression. “Seventeen and a half million dollars is more than something.”
“It is if you take that amount out of context,” Nick said. “But given the cash value, rarity, and historical significance of what you’re getting in return, it’s a pittance. Your treasure will make England’s crown jewels look like costume jewelry by comparison.”
“Not that anyone will know you have it to make that comparison,” Kate said, helping herself to another chocolate. “Except us.”
“And your crew,” Reyna said.
“We’ll take care of them from the money you pay us,” Nick said.
“By the time we’ve paid Alves and everyone else their share,” Kate said, “we’ll be lucky if we can walk away with a measly ten or eleven million.”
“You could be lucky if you walk away at all,” Violante said.
Kate smiled at him. “You mean, what’s to stop you from beating the location of the Santa Isabel out of us right now?”
“If I was that sort of person,” he said.
“Thankfully, you’re a civilized gentleman,” Nick said. “But like Reyna said, you can never tell, so we’ve taken precautions. The wreck is mined with explosives. If the two of us don’t return unharmed in the next eight hours, our crew will blow it up.”
“So what?” Reyna said. “The gold will still be there.”
“Over a much wider area and in particles so small, you’d have to sift them out of the sand,” Nick said.
“It would take you months, and cost you millions of dollars, just to end up with the same amount of gold you’ve got right here decorating your candy. Hardly worth the effort. It would be much cheaper just to pay us.”
Violante dipped an apple slice into the chocolate and took a bite as he leisurely considered what they’d said.
“You tell an interesting story, but that’s all it is,” he said. “You could be a couple of daring con artists. The coins could have come from a previously salvaged shipwreck and these photographs could be fakes. I will have to see the Santa Isabel for myself before I give you any money.”
“Your concerns are entirely understandable,” Nick said. “But at the same time, we have to protect the location of the shipwreck from being discovered or we have nothing to sell. If you’d like us to take you out to it, you’ll have to let us search you for any communications or tracking devices, confine you to a windowless room during the voyage, and do whatever else is necessary to prevent you from learning exactly where you are.”
“You’d be treating me like a prisoner,” Violante said.
“Or a kidnapping victim,” Reyna said. “This could be a clever trick to get you to hand yourself to people who intend to ransom you for your fortune. If you survived, you’d be ridiculed for the rest of your life as the dumbest kidnapping victim ever.”
“Reyna is right. Wealthy individuals like me are frequently kidnapped, and exorbitant ransoms are quietly paid. It’s all kept out of the media, of course. But it’s a fact of life,” Violante said. “I live on a mountaintop and surround myself with Reyna and armed security guards to prevent it from happening to me. It would be absurd if I simply handed myself over to you without any protection or guarantees.”
“Makes sense,” Nick said. “What sort of guarantee do you have in mind?”
Reyna selected a strawberry, dipped it in chocolate, licked the chocolate off the strawberry, and ate the strawberry.
“I’ll keep your wife,” Reyna said with one last seductive swipe of her tongue across her lower lip.
Nick was silent for a beat. “What makes you so sure I wouldn’t sacrifice her for a huge ransom and a shot at the high life as a single man?” he said to Reyna.
“Because I’d find you, drag you back here, and cut your wife into pieces with a chainsaw while you watched,” Reyna said. “And then I’d serve her to you grilled, with a touch of salt and olive oil, as your last meal before I cut you up and ate you myself.”
“That’s a very vivid and gruesome threat,” Nick said. “You wouldn’t really do that, would you?”
“Let’s hope we don’t have to find out,” Reyna said and smiled at Kate.
Nick and Kate Hartley accepted the terms, and Violante agreed to meet them in three days at a dock in Málaga for the exchange. He’d get on the boat with Nick, and Kate would stay with Reyna.
The Hartleys got into the Mercedes, and Violante’s man drove them back to the airport.
“They might be very good treasure hunters but they are inept at business,” Violante said to Reyna. “The fools think they will be safe once I’ve paid them. People that stupid deserve to die.”
“You’re right,” Reyna said. “But the woman is dangerous.”
“You can tell that just by looking at her?”
“It’s what you pay me for.”
; “It’s one of many things,” Violante said. “But how dangerous could an archaeologist be?”
“I don’t know if she’s an archaeologist. I saw how she looked at me and carried herself. She’s a coiled venomous snake, ready to strike.”
“Then it’s a good thing that she’s the one staying here with you. I’m sure you two will have lots of fun together. It’s a shame that I won’t be able to participate.”
“I can find us a woman for tonight.”
“It won’t be quite the same,” he said with a sigh. “But go ahead. We’ll try to make do.”
Willie was waiting for Nick and Kate at the Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport on a private plane they’d “borrowed” in Lisbon for the one-and-a-half-hour flight. It wasn’t until they were in the air that Nick and Kate finally felt safe to talk about their encounter with Violante.
“That went well,” Nick said.
“How do you figure?”
“We weren’t tortured, and he agreed to go out with us on the boat.”
“But I’m going to be their hostage.”
“In a hilltop palace, eating expensive chocolates, taking swims and getting a tan.”
“With creepy Reyna watching my every move.”
“She really knows how to eat a strawberry,” Nick said. “How come you don’t eat fruit like that?”
“Fruit is not my thing,” Kate said. “Watch me eat an In-N-Out burger sometime.”
“Something to add to my bucket list,” Nick said.
“What bothers me is that I am going to be stuck up there while you and seven civilians are at sea with a brutal drug lord.”
“Those seven civilians aren’t exactly harmless. Your father scares the bejeezus out of me.”
Kate smiled. It was true. Her father could be a scary guy.
While Nick and Kate were away in Marbella, Rodney Smoot was busy setting up the render farm computers. He was in the cargo hold, eating dinner with Jake and Billy Dee, when Kate and Nick came on board. Jake and Billy Dee were eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Rodney was eating a microwaved Hot Pocket Philly Steak and Cheese.
“They sell Hot Pockets in Lisbon?” Kate asked.
“I have no idea,” Rodney said. “I packed a suitcase full of them to play it safe. I couldn’t take the chance that they don’t have them here. It’s my brain fuel.”
“You’re in Lisbon,” Nick said. “You should be treating your brain to Pastéis de bacalhau.”
“What’s that?” Rodney asked.
“Salt cod cakes,” Nick said.
“That’s revolting,” Rodney said.
“What if I told you that the cod comes frozen from Norway, so it’s essentially a defrosted meal?” Nick asked.
“I might try it in a Hot Pocket,” Rodney said. “With the garlic butter crust.”
“I’d go with the pretzel crust,” Kate said.
“Smart choice,” Jake said. “You can’t go wrong with pretzels, and maybe you could add bacon.”
Nick studied the exterior of the shipping container that held the computers. There were cables strung between the container and the walls of the cargo hold. The cables would supply the computers and their cooling system with power and relay the data stream up to the command center.
Nick peered inside the container. The banks of computers hummed, and he could hear a fan pumping in cool air.
“How’s the setup of the render farm going?” he asked Rodney. “I’m no expert, but it looks to me like you’re in good shape.”
“Give me an hour and another Hot Pocket, and we’ll be ready for a test drive,” Rodney said.
“Great, because we’re setting sail tomorrow,” Nick said.
An hour later, Kate met Nick in the corridor. They were both on their way to the remotely operated vehicle command center.
“I just did some research on Reyna Socorro,” Kate said. “Menendez’s cartel recruited her from FARC, the Colombian rebels who’ve been funding their revolution against the state with kidnapping, extortion, and drug dealing. She was the leader of a guerrilla cell that specialized in kidnapping politicians, soldiers, police officers, and foreign nationals. They’d be chained and held hostage in the jungle for years for ransom, used as human shields and to sow fear among the cartel’s enemies.”
“No wonder she was so quick to see this con as a kidnapping scheme instead of what it really is. That’s good for us.”
“She’s the one who suggested taking me hostage,” Kate said.
“Exactly. She’s fixated on kidnappings. So she won’t see what’s really going on and neither will Violante.”
“When FARC leaders told her they wanted to generate some positive publicity by releasing two police officers that she’d held hostage for three years, she executed the prisoners instead and walked out of the jungle with her AK-47 to join the Menendez cartel.”
“I don’t think it’s the same AK-47,” said Nick.
“You’re missing the point.”
“She’s a badass, I get it. So is her boss. That’s why we are taking them down, isn’t it?”
“Reyna doesn’t follow orders well,” Kate said. “You should expect a double-cross. She could decide to not give me back, or to hurt me a bit, just to test how serious you really are.”
“Then she’d be making a big mistake.”
“Because you think you can convince her that you’d kill Violante and blow up the gold if I’m harmed?”
“Because she doesn’t know what a badass you are.”
They walked into the command center, where Boyd, Willie, and Tom were all waiting. Boyd was in uniform and wearing his eye patch. The command center was dark inside to accentuate the lit-up buttons on the console and the meaningless data scrolling on the monitors.
Nick whistled with approval. “Nicely done, Tom.”
“Tom has genuine theatrical flair,” Boyd said. “This room has character and drama. It’s as if Tom is an actor whose instrument is a hammer and nails.”
“Thank you, Boyd,” Tom said.
“Captain Bridger,” Boyd said. “And I believe a salute is in order.”
Tom gave him the finger, and Boyd, staying in character, returned the salute.
Nick pulled out the chair in front of the ROV joystick and sat down. The screen in front of him was black. Tom leaned over his shoulder to point out how the joysticks worked.
“The center joystick controls the movement of the ROV. The two smaller ones control the left and right robotic arms.”
“Seems simple enough.”
“What do the buttons on the joysticks do?” Kate asked.
“Nothing,” Tom said. “They’re decoration.”
Willie stepped closer to examine the controls for herself. “How fast does it go?”
“It doesn’t go at all,” Nick said. “The ROV is still on deck. This is basically a videogame.”
“It better not look like one,” Kate said.
“We’re about to find out, Miss Optimism,” Nick said. “On second thought, let’s have the biggest skeptic on board take the test drive.” He got out of the chair and offered it to Kate. “You do it.”
Kate sat down and put her hand on the center joystick. “Okay, ready.”
“Not quite,” Nick said, taking two tiny flesh-colored earbuds from his pocket. He slipped one into his ear and handed the other to Kate. It was the same communications device the entire team would be using when the con was live. Rodney had one, too, as did Jake and Billy Dee, who were in the cargo hold with him. “Can you hear me, Rodney?”
In the cargo hold, Rodney stood at a keyboard inside the open shipping container and faced a screen that would show him whatever Nick saw on the bridge screen. Jake and Billy Dee were beside Rodney, but their attention was on another screen, showing the view from a surveillance camera in the command center. Their job would be to keep tabs on what the “driver” of the ROV was doing.
“I hear you loud and clear,” Rodney said to Nick. “Press the blue button besid
e your joystick, Kate, and off we go.”
Kate pressed the button and the murky, emerald depths in front of the ROV appeared on the screen.
“It’s awfully dark,” Kate said. “I can’t see anything.”
“Turn on the ROV’s lights,” Rodney said.
Kate searched for a button marked LIGHTS on the console and pressed it.
The flood lamps atop the ROV flashed on, illuminating the nose and outstretched arms of the vehicle and several yards of the ocean floor ahead of it. Startled fish darted out of sight. A crab scrambled between two rocks. Some kelp swayed in the current. The picture was as clear as it could be in deep, silty water. Kate pushed the joystick forward and the ROV slowly cruised along over the seabed.
“The crab was a clever touch,” Nick said.
“I was afraid it might break into song,” Kate said.
“It’s the details you take for granted, like the particles floating in the water or the coral on the rocks, that count the most and are the hardest things to get right in effects shots,” Rodney said. “You’ll only notice them if they look fake to you. If you don’t notice them, and are able to focus on the crab, it means that you’re already convinced, at least on an unconscious level, that the environment you’re seeing is real. So now you’re going to be much more willing to believe in a fortune in gold when you see it.”
“It’s the same with any con,” Nick said. “The real trick is being prepared for the mark to do the unexpected.”
Nick grabbed the joystick from Kate and jerked it hard to the right. The ROV made a sharp turn. The sudden motion of the ROV kicked up silt on the ocean floor, made the kelp sway, and scattered fish. It also revealed large rocks scattered ahead along a different stretch of the seabed.
Rodney laughed. “Nice try. If you thought you’d startle the computer, that it wouldn’t be ready for you, think again. You’re not going to surprise it and find a corner of the ocean missing, or cause the computer to lock up while it renders the new setting.”