Rock walked around the island for well over an hour before he thought it was time to make his appearance. Last night, after he left Anna in her office he came to the conclusion that the business of Oak Island needed to end as soon as possible for the safety of everyone involved. They all needed to know the truth so they could work on the problem together. His idea would be the starting point.
Rock strolled into the meeting just as Anna was stopping the video from the day before. She had marked a few of the highlights and played them again for the group. Nate turned the lights up when they were finished.
“There’s something down there,” Haden said. “I saw only structural timbers but if those timbers are in that hole, then the money pit will hold something. I’ve had a change of heart the more I think about it, we need to get someone down there as soon as we can.”
“I agree,” Jen Berrent said. “With this evidence, we need to get down there sooner rather than later.”
It went around the table and the various experts voiced their approval to excavate the borehole fully, knowing that nothing but very old logs were known to exist. Rock cleared his throat from the back.
Anna looked his way, “anything to add Rock?”
“Actually I do,” he said coming up to the front and standing next to her. “I have a lot to say. But basically it’s this, the whole idea of the money pit defeats its own purpose lending me to believe that there is absolutely nothing of any value to be dug up.”
“Thanks for the tip, treasure hunter,” Haden said smugly. “But I think everyone here is against you at the moment.”
Rock made eye contact with the man. “First, I’d like to ask you Haden, and everyone in here a question. What item from the past was hidden the best of all items?” He looked around but nobody answered. “The treasures we haven’t found are the same treasures we never will find. This is because one man decided he wanted to hide something and went with a friend and buried the treasure, he then killed his friend at the spot, drew himself one map and left. There was nobody to see him, nobody to talk and only one vague map that only he could understand. That is the only way to truly hide something. These treasures will never be found.” Rock smiled at the group and started pacing in front of them as though he were giving a lecture.
“Oak Island. Something this elaborate and intense, especially in the 18th century would have been a great undertaking. This is the truth no matter who was funding it, or who designed it. This pit, it’s dams and tunnels and artificial beaches, or even just the digging in general would have taken hundreds of men and made a large commotion and footprint on this relatively small island. Not to mention at the time, the mainland of Nova Scotia was already settled.”
“How do we find things?” He continued. “We find things through people, through stories, through maps. If there was something this important to hide or keep safe, the best way to do that is to limit the amount of people that know the site and to limit the amount of exposure to the location. The money pit’s crazy feat of engineering violates both of those rules. Anybody smart enough to build this, would never use it to hide something they felt was worth hiding. Too many eyes have seen the location, too many lips can spout a story after they had too much to drink, and too many of those people not involved from the shore or passing by would have seen the great amount of work being done and just waited until all was silent. If you want to hide something, you don’t make a production out of it.”
“Then why do it at all, why have timber supports in a cave that far down,” Haden replied, “there had to be a reason.”
“Thank you Haden, great question.” Rock said sarcastically making it seem as though Haden were leading him in his lesson. “That’s exactly what has puzzled me for so long. Why? Why build it? Well, if you hide something, you either want to retrieve it yourself at some point or have somebody else retrieve it. If not, you would destroy it. And, usually if you need to retrieve it, it needs to be done quickly. To retrieve something buried here would take a great deal of time and once again too many eyes and lips to be done effectively. On the other side, if it isn’t you who is doing the retrieving but someone in the future, it brings on the need of a map with a lively ‘x’ marks the spot.” He pointed to the back wall where a copy of the map of Oak Island hung. “But that complicates things even more. Now, you not only have to worry about your crew talking, someone else seeing but also losing or having someone finding or copying your map. For something so important, that’s an awful lot of liability.”
Rock paused to gather his thoughts. He casually glanced up and noticed everyone was actually listening to him. “So how do you hide your valuables on an island from somebody who knows you hid them on the island. Simple. You give them a specific place they cannot ignore. And poof, you have the money pit.” Rock held out his hands to either side. “You all, and myself up to this point, have fallen for the most elaborate decoy ever constructed. The money pit is meant to draw our attention because we were never the ones meant to find what’s here. Currently, we’re all digging at the wrong ‘x’.”
“You’re telling us whoever did this, constructed it and put nothing in it,” Dennis Rehr said from the side.
“Think about it,” Rock replied. “As long as your looking for the nothing that’s there, you won’t look for anything else somewhere else. Nobody would have constructed this to put nothing in it you say? But that’s exactly what this is, nothing more than a diversion. That’s the only answer to the why that Haden pointed out. Why build it? Answer. To keep you occupied, to discourage you, to eventually bleed you dry. And what’s more impressive is that it’s still working today and at this very moment. What’s really here, on or near this island, is something else, we just have to break a little further into the minds of who built it, to find it.”
Rock started for the door. The room was silent. He faced them all just before exiting, “talk through it and you’ll find it’s the only logical reason to build such a thing. They gave those searching on the island something they couldn’t ignore, and if all the time is spent over here, whose to look over there.” Rock motioned to Sayla and they left the room together.
“Oh my God, that was awesome,” she said as the door shut behind them. “It totally makes sense, how did you ever come to that?” They walked down towards Anna’s office.
“It’s what I’ve been telling you all along, the question of ‘why’ will lead you to the truth. But we’ll see if they all can see it.”
“So where is it? If it’s not where they’re digging, where’s the treasure?”
“Now that is a good question. My original thought was that the few symbols on the map in the back of the room, when decoded, would tell you where to find it. That way if the map was stolen or misplaced, the decoy of the money pit, that is clearly marked, would fool everyone. I convinced Delega to let me take it out of the case the other day. I scoured every detail of it and it’s definitely authentic, unlike his other fake presentation to me. But this map is very straightforward, nothing special except those unreadable symbols. If we could make headway on those, that would be our best option. However, the ones who knew the cipher are long since lost and we have no way of decoding it. But, whatever is here has to be fairly close by, I figure on the island. But then again, the crazy obsession driven people around here probably would have found it by now because it makes most sense for it to be easily accessible and not buried too deeply. And they have been digging all over this island for no reason other than to dig. But, there’s also a chance the designers figured that in as well. I know I sound crazy and like I’m coming from a hundred directions but that’s where my mind’s at.”
They turned into Anna’s office. He went to her chair and sat down. Sayla stood across from him. Rock pulled out his phone and dialed Brett Silver.
“Hi Rock,” his friend answered immediately.
“Brett buddy, I am in need of your services.”
“I’m not going back into that jungle for anything,” he replied, “I don’t care what you pay me.”
Rock laughed. “That’s not it. Actually I’m in Nova Scotia, I need to dive off the coast of an island up here.”
“Canada? The water’s too cold.”
“But I have a hunch.”
“A solid, evidence laden hunch or a Rock Tilton gut hunch. And when do you need me?”
“Somewhere in the middle, and as soon as possible. I can have Sayla arrange a ticket for you tomorrow.”
“That might be a little quick,” he answered.
“Ok then, just let me know when you have a few days.”
“Will do. I gotta go, later Rock.” Brett hung up. Rock saw Sayla about to ask a barrage of questions. “Not now,” he said pre-empting her speech. Just then, Seth Delega stalked into the room with Anna on his heels. His face was flushed an angry red.
“You do realize you put doubt into the entire group in there! Doubt is like a disease. You do know what happens then!” Rock had never seen Seth Delega as he was now. His eyes held an intensity that seemed against the man’s regular calm demeanor.
Rock leaned back in Anna’s chair, relaxed. “Yes, I do know. They start thinking instead of blindly following where past other groups say to go. They might actually find something now.”
“Or they might waste more time thinking about your idiotic speech and delay an already time sensitive project.”
Anna stepped between them. “We’re still going to follow the same course that I have already laid out. But Rock actually pointed out an idea that might be worth investigating on the side.”
“Actually Anna, I pointed out an idea that should become the priority of the search.”
“Not everybody is as obsessed with why they built it Rock,” she said. “They built it, maybe it was ordered built by someone who didn’t know any better, the best guess is still that if anything is on or near this island, its at the bottom of the money pit.”
“The person who built this was much smarter than anybody who has tried to dig this area. You won’t find a thing.”
“I want you off this island,” Delega said. “Your presence is no longer.” Delega stopped as a deep ‘boom’ echoed in the distance. He looked around as it came again, only louder and closer. Then another one shook the ground beneath them. Rock’s eyes darted to the window.
He jumped up from his seat and pushed Anna to the ground. “Get down Sayla!” He fell to the floor just as an explosion catapulted Seth Delega to the far wall. The window shattered, flying inwards, spreading broken glass over their hunched bodies. The ground lurched and a wave of heat and air pushed over them. Anna’s desk flung into Rock and rammed into his side pushing him over and pinning him against the wall.
Then everything stilled.
Rock’s ears rung with a high-pitched squeal and his own grunts sounded muddy in his head.
He shoved aside the desk and rose to his knees. His rubbed his abdomen, feeling a deep bruise begin to spread over the area. Next to him, Anna was still hunched over, he brushed the glass from her back and she slowly lifted her head to look at him. She appeared scared, but fine. Sayla was scrambling to her feet in the corner, shaking the glass from her body and Seth Delega slumped against the wall, he blinked his eyes and Rock was relieved to see him alive. He was bleeding from his nose and had numerous but superficial lacerations to his face.
“Everyone good?” Rock said coming to his feet and helping Anna to hers. He stepped towards Delega and bent down. “Seth, you ok?”
Seth Delega rubbed his nose and looked at the back of his hand. Bright red blood smeared onto his wrist and trailed down to stain the perfectly white cuff of his shirt. He looked around, dazed for the moment and then focused on Rock. “I’m fine,” he muttered.
Rock turned his gaze to the door as Nate slid into the frame. “Everyone ok, Anna you ok,” the young man was frantic. “I was out in the hall, what was that, it blew out the doors and every window.”
“What about the conference room, is everyone ok in there,” Rock asked.
Nate held up his palms, “I don’t know.” Two large hands took Nate by the shoulder and moved him to the side. Jacob, Delega’s head of security filled the threshold. A large jagged piece of glass stuck out from the side of his head sending a thick river of blood pulsing down his cheek.
“Mr. Delega, are you fine sir?” He stepped inside and helped Seth to his feet.
“You’re head needs to be looked at Jacob. You should sit down and take care of that,” Rock interjected.
“I’m fine,” Jacob replied. “But the conference room is in shambles. I have already alerted emergency services, they should be here shortly. We need to get back over there.” Jacob took a step and then stumbled, catching himself on the wall. Rock grabbed his arm.
“Let me go. Sit down and take care of that. Sayla, Nate, get something to put around that piece of glass, stabilize it, we don’t know how far it’s gone in.” Rock was about to leave when Seth Delega approached them. He came to a stop in front of Jacob with rage burning in his eyes.
“You failed miserably you stupid shit,” Seth said, spitting up blood in the other man’s face. “We’ll discuss your punishment later.” He stumbled out the door, steadying himself on the wall with one hand.
Rock left the group and ran towards the conference room. Glass shards littered the floor and crunched under his weight like small cornels of popcorn. When he arrived he stopped and stared in shock at the destruction. The far wall was completely blown in. Various personnel were running in and out, and Rock saw a few people stagger around, clutching various body parts. Haden Green limped out in front of him, a small sliver of glass stuck out of his right eye. His arm hung at an odd angle, dislocated at the elbow.
“Haden,” Rock said, staring at him.
“Get in there,” he said, “I’ll be ok.” Rock heard the sirens in the distance and knew he had to help whoever he could until they arrived.
He stepped inside and cringed at the destruction.
He bent next to the first person, slipping in a thin layer of blood. He braced himself with his hand feeling the warm fluid stick to his skin. He recognized the man, Ryan, he recalled, one of Delega’s personal assistants, his head lay flat to the side and his eyelids were shut, fluttering. But he was breathing.
Rock scoured his body but couldn’t find the main wound. The blood kept pooling beneath him, growing heavier with each passing second. He shifted Ryan’s position. When he did, he saw the large piece of wood that had splintered and jammed between the young man’s shoulder blades. It didn’t look real. There was too much blood.
Rock checked his breathing again. He was still pushing air but his face looked dead, the color had all but vacated the skin leaving behind pasty white flesh. Rock ripped off his T-shirt and tried to jam the cloth around the entry point careful not to hit the piece of wood knowing it was helping to keep the wound from gushing. He pressed firmly. His shirt slowly turned from white to a deep saturated red. There was nothing more he could do.
Rock felt everything slow down. His sight blurred and hearing became muddled. He swayed, trying to keep from being dizzy. Warm blood seeped between his fingers.
“Please step to the side sir,” someone pushed him on the shoulder. Rock startled at the touch. He blinked his eyes, surprised to see that the emergency technicians were standing next to him. The last thing he remembered was jamming his shirt around the wound. A young man gently eased Rock away. His hands let loose, slipping from the bloody rag. Two EMS technicians immediately went to work. Rock didn’t even know if Ryan was still alive.
He stood up and backed off, shaking. In the distance, he saw smoke rising from various parts of the island. The whole place was on fire.
Shirtless, Rock made his way back to Anna’s office. He tried to stay out of the way, skirting along th
e wall, letting the men and women who knew what to do, help those most injured. Nobody was in Anna’s office when he arrived. Eventually he found them all outside, sitting in the small parking lot, surrounded by police and medical personnel. Jacob was gone, rushed away to the hospital, as was Seth Delega. Anna, Sayla and Nate were all waiting, silently.
Rock sat next to them without saying a word. He put his arm around Anna as a young woman wheeled out a body just a few feet away, draped from head to foot in a white sheet. Anna fell into him, burying her head into his side. He felt her tears sliding gently on his skin. He rocked her back and forth and kissed the top of her head.
He didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. There was nothing to say.
Chapter 10
Nova Scotia, July 2012