Dragon's Triangle (The Shipwreck Adventures Book 2) (18 page)

“Theo’s doing fine.” He couldn’t tell her the rest now. She’d see for herself—soon, he hoped, assuming he could talk her into going back to the Philippines with him. That he had to do. It was the only way to keep her safe now.

She walked to the side of the boat and looked up at the sky. She was still clutching that gold thing in her fist, but she hadn’t offered to tell him about it. He felt as though she were slipping away from him.

When he’d first spoken to her, she’d been surprised, but still glad to see him. The longer this craziness went on, though, the longer she had to think about the last four years. He didn’t blame her. He thought about how much he would have suffered if she’d made him believe she was dead. But he’d had to do it. He had to protect her. When he’d seen what they’d done to Theo, he knew it was no longer possible to contact her. And yet somehow, as stubbornly independent as she was, he had a feeling she wasn’t going to buy that. Well, buy it or not, it was the truth.

And now it appeared as though what he had feared all along had happened.
They
had used her to find him.

When the canal ended at the Chao Phraya River, he turned right toward the sea. He had no charts, and while he knew it was quite a distance, he figured it was time they developed a plan. She’d had a navigation program on that little phone of hers with charts.

He looked over his shoulder. She was still standing with her back turned to him on the port side, bent forward at the waist, her forearms resting on the thick wood rail. The wind was blowing the hair back from her face. Even in the dim glow cast from the city lights she was a glass of ice water to a man dying of thirst. He wanted to stand there all night drinking in every detail of her.

But if these guys, both Peewee and Benny, worked for the men he thought they did—then he’d better stop mooning over the girl and come up with a plan.

“Riley, have you got charts and GPS on that phone of yours?”

She turned to look at him and smiled, and he almost forgot his name, much less a plan. She straightened up and strolled across the deck. She picked up her backpack, reached into a zippered pocket, and pulled out her phone.

“Where do you want to go?” she said.

“I want you to come back to the Philippines with me.”

She smiled again. “Not in this boat. It’s probably eighteen hundred miles down around Singapore and across the South China Sea.”

“I like it when you smile.”

“I assumed you were joking.”

“I’m serious. Theo and I, we’re on to something really big. This is bigger than those Skull and Bones Patriarchs, bigger than
Surcouf
. These guys have been behind false-flag attacks, buying elections, assassinations, Iran–Contra. You name some kind of black-ops deal in the last fifty years, and these guys were the ones.”

She sighed. “Oh, Cole. You might look a bit different, but you haven’t changed that much.”

“Come back with me. There’s no other way I can protect you now.”

“Protect me?” She laughed. “Really?”

“You don’t know what they’re capable of.”

“Cole, where the hell have you been for the last four years? I’ve done a pretty damn fine job of taking care of myself, thank you. I sailed my boat single-handed halfway around the world chasing after dead-end clues you left me, and suddenly you think I need you to protect me? Besides, I can’t go to the Philippines. My boat’s down in Phuket.”

“Then let’s go get it.”

She stood with her arms crossed and didn’t answer him.

He tried again. “We could sail it to Subic Bay together. It would take us what, a couple of weeks?”

“Yeah. But right now we’re a long way from Phuket. What are we going to do with this boat?”

“At first I thought we’d just leave it at one of the ferry docks on the outskirts of Bangkok, but then I thought it through a little more.”

“Yeah?”

“If we fly or take a train, you are going to have to show your passport.”

“Right, but this is Thailand. It’s not like they have supercomputers in their transportation industry here.”

“Don’t underestimate these guys, Riley.”

“What guys? Cole, I’ve been standing over there at the rail trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Do you know who’s behind this Benny guy? Because I sure don’t. The last thirty-six hours or so have been . . . interesting, shall we say? A grandfather who was supposed to have gone missing in World War II supposedly showed up in the Philippines, a dead boyfriend turns up alive, and somebody is shooting poison darts at us with a blowpipe. And mixed up in the middle of it all is this ninety-three-year-old elf with loose dentures and an apparently endless supply of fortune-cookie wisdom. And now you’re going to try to link what happened today to your crazy conspiracy theories. It’s a lot to take in.”

He nudged the helm a little to port to miss a tug with a long string of barges, then stroked the whiskers on his neck. “I know. And I know I have a lot of explaining to do.”

She shot him a look that felt like she had laser vision. The kind of lasers they use to do surgery.

“But Riley, first, we’d better figure out where the hell we’re going now. I say we take the river all the way to the Gulf of Thailand.”

“What about that poor guy back in the hospital? I have to believe he’ll live. How will he find his boat?”

“I’ve got his name. We’ll call the hospital and leave a message explaining where his boat is. Let’s pick a small place just south of the river mouth. Can you show me how to use that nav program?”

She sighed and pulled her lips in over her teeth. Then she rubbed the phone on her pants leg to polish the screen. She lifted it into his field of vision so he could watch the screen and the river at the same time.

“This app is called iNavX. I bought charts for all of Thailand. See that little blue boat on the screen? That’s us. The GPS is amazingly accurate.” She swiped her fingers across the screen. “See. This is how you zoom in and out. And at the top of the screen here, it shows that our speed over ground right now is 9.6 knots.”

Cole took a sneak peek at her profile. Amazing. Ninety-nine percent of the women he knew would be flaying him up one side and down the other for deserting her. Riley was teaching him how to use her GPS. God, he loved her.

Aboard the USS
Bonefish
Sea of Japan

June 19, 1945

Westbrooke made the announcement to the ship’s company at 0900. Ozzie thought he would have problems with at least one of the four other officers. They all held the same rank, and while Ozzie had the most years of service, they were regular Navy submariners while he was Coast Guard on his first sub patrol. Turned out, though, that the others were all reservists, not career sailors, and not one of them was excited about getting any closer to Westbrooke. They took Ozzie’s elevation to second in command with looks that said,
Better you than me.

When Westbrooke set the boat’s course for the Korean coastline along Tsushima Strait, there were raised eyebrows, but the new skipper settled it when he explained they had new orders for a top-secret mission. The thing that delighted Ozzie about these regular Navy boys was their allegiance to orders. If there were doubts, none were voiced.

In the late afternoon, Ozzie saw Ben and Colonel Miyata approaching from their quarters.

“Good afternoon, Lieutenant,” Colonel Miyata said.

Ozzie nodded.

“I would like to express my sadness at the death of your captain,” he said. Ozzie saw that hint of humor around the man’s eyes.

They were standing only a few steps away from the captain’s cabin.

“Perhaps we could find someplace to continue your questioning,” Ozzie said.

The colonel nodded.

Ozzie turned and knocked on the bulkhead by the captain’s door. He was almost certain Westbrooke was topsides, but he checked to make sure. They wouldn’t be bothered in there. He opened the curtain and indicated that the two prisoners should join him. Ozzie closed the curtain and pointed to the bunk. “Sit,” he said.

The cabin was barely six feet long. Ozzie paced the short section of floor. Neither Ben nor the prince said a word.

Finally Ozzie spoke. “I assume you are aware we have changed course.”

“Lieutenant, I know nothing about the operations of this ship.”

Ozzie barked a laugh. “Right. You know, Colonel Miyata, we are not as different as you might think.”

The eyes behind the lenses opened wider. “You surprise me with your insight.”

“The way I see it, we have each decided to use the other for our own purposes.”

“It is possible you are correct, Lieutenant.”

“So, what I need to know is, what are your purposes? What are you really up to?”

“I am just a sailor in this war like you are, and I am trying to get back to my men.”

“Bullshit. There’s more to it than that.”

“It is as I told you. I am charged with Golden Lily. We have completed many of our projects, but the last one was not yet complete when I had to return to Japan. Just as it is very difficult to get our
treasure back to our homeland, it is equally difficult for me to get myself back to the Philippines.”

“That’s why you were on a
maru
cargo vessel.”

“Yes, by keeping close to the Korean and Chinese coasts, we hoped to make Hong Kong and then cross to the Philippines from there. We did not expect an attack here in the Sea of Japan. However, I have come to realize the potential benefit of my current situation.”

Ozzie nodded. “A US submarine is one of the best and fastest ways for you to get back to your post.” Ozzie had calculated that it would take them roughly four days to get to the coast of northern Luzon.

“Indeed.”

“So, tell me more about these projects of yours. These Golden Lily caves.”

When Colonel Miyata began to talk freely about the wonders he had buried underground, Ozzie knew the prince had marked him for death. Otherwise he would not be speaking so freely.

“So how many of these underground sites have you built?”

“Throughout the Philippines, there are one hundred and seventy-five sites.”

“You’re kidding. So many?”

“Yes, we had so much material. This represents two years of work and hundreds of thousands of man-hours of engineers and prison laborers. The majority are on the island of Luzon in the mountains known as the Cordillera.”

“What kind of material are you talking about?”

“Much of it is gold bullion, but there are other treasures as well. Gems, priceless artifacts, artworks. But as I said, Lieutenant, if you do not have the locations, you will not find them.”

“But you say there is a map.”

“Yes, in order to prevent anyone outside the royal family from knowing the locations of these sites, the map and the key to deciphering the map have not been kept at the same location. However, now
that the Americans are fighting my countrymen and pushing them back into the mountains, there is a real concern that the Philippines will fall into American hands. I must retrieve the map. If you return me to the Philippines, I will pay you very well—in gold.”

“That’s your offer?”

“I know you want more. You think you can get your hands on the map and the key. I would advise you to be satisfied with the gold, Lieutenant. The gold and your life.”

“That’s daring talk for a prisoner.”

Colonel Miyata smiled that ghoulish smile. “Yes, but that situation could change.”

“You’re quite the optimist.”

“I know my people.”

“Speaking of which, where are we taking you, exactly? I gave Westbrooke some general coordinates, but I need—”

“I will give you the coordinates.”

Ozzie took out his notebook and pencil and handed them to the colonel. The man wrote the latitude and longitude and handed the book back to Ozzie.

“Is this a port?”

Colonel Miyata showed all his teeth this time in a broad smile. “It is one we have made. You will see.”

Ozzie opened the door. The little man stood and Ben followed him out. At the door, the colonel paused. “It’s been a pleasure speaking to you, Lieutenant.”

Watching the two of them return to their bunk area, Ozzie wondered, not for the first time, if the whole thing was a hoax. Did Golden Lily exist? Even if it was only a remote possibility that there were one hundred and seventy-five caves full of treasure, Ozzie knew the men he worked for would be pleased with his initiative.