The Grecian Manifesto (24 page)

Paulino led the men down the
gangway and onto the dock. Tommy and Sean preferred to carry their own bags,
which was fine with the Italian. Just because he was making a hundred thousand euros
didn’t mean he was going to be anyone’s slave. They passed several boats before
coming to the one Tommy had booked on the plane. It looked like it had barely
been used.

“I believe this is your boat,
gentlemen,” Paulino said, motioning with his hand in an inviting manner.

“Very nice, Tommy,” Sean said with
his hands on his hips as he admired the gleaming white vessel. “Well done.” He
slapped his friend on the back and stepped aboard into the aft part of the
boat.

“You will find the keys tucked
away in the side panel near the steering wheel,” Paulino said.

Sean moved up to the console
and lifted the lid of a small glove box. He removed the keys and held them up
so the other two could see. “Got ‘em.”

Tommy turned to the driver and
offered his hand. “Thank you so much for doing this, again on such short notice.”

Paulino took his hand firmly
and realized there were some folded bills in Tommy’s palm. He looked down and
smiled. “Oh, sir, you don’t have to do that.”

“Please, take it. It’s the
least I can do for your trouble.”

“Thank you, sir. I do
appreciate it. And it was no trouble at all.” He motioned to the cabin cruiser
bobbing gently in the boat slip. “I do hope you two get to enjoy this fine
vessel for a little while, at least. Thank you again.” He turned and walked
steadily down the dock’s walkway while Tommy spun around and climbed aboard.

As they prepared to take the
boat out to sea, they didn’t see Paulino turn down a different direction than
they’d come.

When he was out of sight, he
looked down at the money Tommy had given him. Two hundred euros was a hefty tip
for an ordinary driver. To him, it was chump change. In a few minutes, he would
be collecting another fifty thousand. He considered wadding up the cash and
tossing it into the water out of spite, but he decided against it. Money was
money. He could buy a few drinks with it at least. He stuffed the folded bills
into his front pocket and continued marching toward the rendezvous point.

Chapter 43

Northwestern Greece

Tommy and Sean sifted through
the storage crate on the back of the boat. It had been delivered before they
arrived and contained all the scuba gear they’d requested: tanks, regulators,
masks, fins, and a few other miscellaneous things. Untying the ropes and
getting the boat out of the slip only took a few minutes. Both of them had
grown up with friends who had similar vessels, so they had spent a great deal
of time on the lakes surrounding their hometown. The biggest difference between
the cabin cruiser they were driving now and those back home was that most of
the lake boats weren’t seaworthy. Their hulls and motors weren’t designed to
take the rigors of the open sea and salt water, something Sean had enquired
about at one point during one of their fresh water voyages.

Tommy stood behind the wheel,
keeping the speed down as they maneuvered their way through the no-wake area of
the harbor. Sean told him to drive since Tommy had more experience with boats
in sea conditions. Most of Sean’s time driving a boat had been on a lake, which
was a totally different thing altogether. Out beyond the last dock, a rock
formation broke the waves from coming into the bay. It appeared to be man-made,
a common construction for places where people wanted to build marinas but
couldn’t due to the damage done by unchecked tides.

After a few minutes of trolling
through the marina’s tight channels, they reached the more open area of the bay
and increased speed slightly. Tommy still kept it low because of the warning
signs. The last thing they needed was to tick off any of the local authorities
when they were so close to their goal.

Sean busily looked over the map
on his phone screen. He’d been sure to charge the device on the plane so he
would have plenty of battery life during their search for the mysterious
island. He compared the image on the screen to a map he’d dug out of another
storage box in the cabin of the boat. Spreading it out on a small table behind
the driver’s console, he was able to analyze the two maps at the same time,
verifying the direction they would need to go once they reached the open sea.
While Sean had never had any real experience in nautical navigation, he could
read a map and use a compass. As long as they had those two things, reaching
their destination shouldn’t be a problem. The boat, like most Sean had been on,
had a compass built in to the dashboard, so he had everything he needed.

The day turned out to be a good
one for cruising on the sea. The sun shone brightly in the pale blue
Mediterranean sky. An occasional fluffy cloud or two drifted by, doing nothing
to take away from the perfection of the day. The sea’s white caps drew closer
as the boat neared the harbor’s entry. Tommy kept a watchful eye on the depth
finder to make sure he was staying safely in the channel. The last thing they
needed was to run aground before even getting out to sea.

His diligence paid off, and a
few minutes later they were plowing ahead at nearly full speed into the
crashing waves. The bow of the ship rose and dipped dramatically with each wave
they encountered. Sean had to look up from the map to keep from getting queasy.
He didn’t usually get sea sick, but it had been a while since he’d been on
water like this. Up ahead, the waves began to diminish as they got farther out
from the shore.

“Am I going the right way?”
Tommy asked loudly, almost shouting above the noise of the water and the boat’s
engine.

Sean checked the compass and
the map. He’d drawn a line on the paper to chart the direction they needed to
go. “Yeah. Keep heading west. When we reach Mathraki, we will have to alter
course slightly and go southwest.”

Tommy acknowledge the
information with a nod and double-checked the compass to make sure he was
staying on course. Up ahead, he noticed a land mass jutting up from the sea on
the right.

“Is that the one?” he asked,
thinking they hadn’t gone the requisite distance yet.

“No,” Sean said shaking his
head. “That’s Diaplo. It’s the one right in front of you.”

Out in the open water, the ride
was much smoother, though still nothing like the lakes back home in Tennessee
and Georgia. With the ride becoming less bumpy, Sean was able to return his
attention to the map, taking a long inventory of the island’s terrain they’d be
visiting.

Six miles off the northeastern
coast of Corfu, the island of Mathraki jutted up out of the Ionian Sea. Sean took
a second to admire the surrounding view. He glanced back at the island of
Corfu, growing smaller as they got farther away, its mountains rising
majestically in the distance. The Ionian Sea boasted unique geography, with
several rocky islands dotting the blue waters. Most of them seemed to be inhabited;
even the smaller ones had fishing villages planted firmly along the shores. A
ferry lumbered through the water on their left. Its deck was loaded with
people, many of whom were taking pictures and staring out at the scenery. More
tourists, Sean thought.

Ten minutes passed, and
Mathraki loomed larger and larger in front of them. Off the port bow, Sean
noticed a small land mass rising up out of the sea. He took a quick glance down
at the map to recheck his bearings.

 
“You’re going to want to bear south toward that island over
there,” Sean said, pointing at the giant tree-topped rock about a mile away on
their left.

Tommy nodded and steered the
boat in a sweeping turn, leaving Mathraki on the starboard side and lining up
the bow with the small land mass Sean pointed out. He moved the throttle
forward a little and increased their speed. Being out of the choppy part of the
water, Tommy felt more comfortable going a little faster.

They reached the crystal-blue
waters surrounding the small island in less than four minutes. Tommy throttled
down the engine and let it coast toward the sandy shore. He continued to watch
the depth gauge to make sure they didn’t hit a reef as he guided the vessel
slowly into a small cove. The island couldn’t have been more than a square mile
or two in size. It featured a white sandy beach wrapped by steep, rocky cliffs.
Off to the left, the horseshoe-shaped cove straightened out to a flatter beach
with a thicket of trees, thick brush, and grass. In the middle of the island, a
short plateau rose above the sea, giving the top of the land mass what was sure
to be an enviable view of the surrounding area.

Sean stared at the sight with
wide eyes, steadying his balance with a hand on one of the nearby rails. “This
part of the world is so awesome,” he said, almost to himself. “If we read that
map from the mountain correctly, Julius Caesar was here a few thousand years
ago, looking at this very sight.”

“It is pretty incredible,”
Tommy agreed as he adjusted the wheel back and forth, keeping the boat on a
firm course. “I think we should probably weigh anchor over there in that cove.
From there we can swim over to the beach and check out the island by foot.”

“Sounds good,” Sean said with a
nod. He moved across the deck to the back where they’d stowed the cargo bin
containing the scuba gear.

He opened the hatch and removed
two pairs of fins, then laid them on the deck before closing the lid. They
wouldn’t need the dive gear just yet. First, they would need to scope out the
terrain and find the point of entry for the underwater cavern.
 

Tommy turned off the main
engine and hit a switch on the dashboard that triggered the anchor on the
starboard side of the bow. The heavy metal object descended rapidly into the
water, plunking into the liquid with a small splash. When the chain went slack,
Tommy halted the anchor motor and retracted it a few inches.

“Okay,” he said, “we should be
good here.”

He put his hands on his hips
and took a second to gaze out at the view. The mountains of Corfu appeared much
larger from the sea. A large, white yacht was motoring slowly out of the harbor
where they’d been less than half an hour ago. The ship was enormous, though he
couldn’t guess its length from so far away. The fact that Tommy was able to see
it from such a distance underscored the vessel’s mass.

“I wonder who owns that thing,”
he said as he stared at the opulent yacht.

Sean had removed his pants and
replaced them with swimming trunks. He was sitting on one of the aft seats and
attaching one of the fins when Tommy mentioned the white ship. He glanced up
and scanned the distant coast for a second before catching a glimpse of what
his friend was talking about. “I don’t know, but whoever it is has money,
that’s for sure. More money than they know what to do with.”

Tommy snorted a short laugh.
“Looks to me like they know exactly what to do with it. Buy a ridiculously
large boat.”

Sean grinned at his friend’s
comment. “Fair enough.”

Tommy stood by the seat across
from Sean and quickly changed into his swimming suit. “I figure we’ll start on
that beach over there,” he said and pointed to the flat area on the left side
of the island. “Then we can work our way up and over the plateau and down the
other side.”

“Sounds good.”

“Any idea what we might be
looking for?”

Sean peered at the island. From
fifty yards out, he couldn’t see anything of significance. The small piece of
land didn’t look like much. Maybe an interesting place to hang out for a day to
get away from other people, but other than that, it couldn’t have appeared less
consequential. He studied the rocky facade, scanning from one end to another,
still finding nothing of note.

“Not a clue,” Sean said after
another minute of looking. “If we can’t find anything on land, we might have to
take the boat around to the other side, maybe check it out from the water.”

“Good idea.”

The island wouldn’t take long
to circle with the boat, but would take a considerable amount of time for
swimmers to get around, especially in the Ionian Sea.

Sean noticed his friend eyeing
the water suspiciously. “What’s up? What are you lookin’ for?”

“Oh,” Tommy said, returning his
attention to the flippers on the floor. He slid one foot into one of the fins
and then the other. “I was just wondering if there were sharks in these
waters.”

Sean tightened the last strap
on his flipper and smiled. “Yeah, there are a lot of different species of
sharks in this area. But most of the time they don’t bother people.”

Tommy looked up in surprise.
“Wait, what? There really are sharks here?”

Sean laughed. “Yeah. I mean,
there are sharks in a lot of places. But there are a lot of them in the
Mediterranean. Trust me, though, they aren’t going to bother you.”

Tommy wasn’t convinced. “How do
you know that?” There was a hint of panic in his voice. Where Sean was
terrified of heights, Tommy had a healthy fear of sharks, however irrational it
likely was. Sean was certain his friend had watched the
Jaws
movies too many times.

“They talked about it on
Shark Week
. Less than half a percent of
shark attacks on humans annually in this part of the world. It’s actually
really low, though scientists aren’t sure why considering there are so many
people here.”

Tommy’s incredulity was written
all over his face. His mouth dropped wide open in disbelief. “
Shark Week
?”

“Yeah, you know, on
television.”

“I know what
Shark Week
is. Just not sure I believe
everything on television.”

“It’s going to be fine, buddy.
There probably aren’t any in this shallow water.” Sean stood up and moved over
to the edge of the boat, then leaned over and hung his feet off the side. “Come
on,” he said, motioning with his hand.

Tommy looked doubtful for a
minute, but finally got up and stepped over to the starboard side of the boat.
Sean dropped into the water and started kicking his legs to maintain his
position while he waited on his hesitant friend.

“The water feels great,” he
said and started swimming toward the island. The fins on his feet propelled him
forward like a human torpedo.

Tommy scanned the rippling
surface of the water one last time as he hung his legs over the edge and
paused. He shook his head. “
Shark Week
?”
he said to himself, and then dropped into the warm water. He trusted Sean, but
he paddled and kicked hard so he could reach the shore in less time, just in
case.