Oracle (29 page)

“
The thought has crossed my mind. Despite what Ophelia’s brother told her, the Norfolk Group hasn’t given up, and I don’t think they’ll stop now. It’s just a matter of time before they try again. They’ll probably wait until we get where going to make their next move, but…” Another shrug. “Better safe than sorry.” He stared at her appraisingly. “You saw something, didn’t you? Something you don’t want to tell the others?”

“
It’s nothing.”

“
Just like when you saw Hodges’ robot blowing up and killing us all was nothing?”

She put her hands on her hips in what she hoped looked like a sufficiently irritated pose.
“As you’ll recall, that didn’t happen. These visions…premonitions…whatever you want to call them, are just possibilities, and when you get right down to it, we can imagine those for ourselves without magic or dark matter or whatever.”

“
Fair enough. So what did you see?”

She pulled another chair up next to him and settled into it.
“If you had the power to see possible futures, how would you use it?”

“
Winning lotto numbers. Sports betting.” He said it with a grin. “But that word ‘possible’ kind of throws a monkey wrench in the works. So, I guess I’d look for things that aren’t subject to random variations.”

“
Like what?”

“
Well, natural disasters like earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. We can’t predict them, but the forces that govern those things are mechanistic. I told you about the Schroedinger’s Cat experiment right? That’s an example of alternate universes governed by randomness. But a lot of things are not random at all. The earth’s rotation, the phases of the moon, the tides; these things all happen the same way regardless of random variations. Or, if you believe in the multiverse hypothesis, those things happen the same way in all…well, most possible universes. That’s true of other things that we aren’t able to predict with certainty.

“
We know, for example, that someday the Yellowstone super-volcano is going to blow. We don’t know what the tipping point is and there’s not a whole lot we can do to change those geological forces, but I have a feeling that when it finally does erupt, it will happen across all the possible universes. Or at least the ones that we are likely to inhabit. So, if you were able to see one possible future and pick up a newspaper that talks about an eruption at a specific date and time, then you could pretty confidently take action based on the knowledge that the event is going to occur. Evacuate the area, ground all flights, prepare for the ash cloud. Provided of course that you could get the authorities to believe you.”

Jade nodded slowly.
“And if you weren’t a particularly scrupulous individual, what then?”

“
I’d buy stock in bottled water and dust masks, I guess.” He paused for just a moment, then continued. “You think there’s a chance that someone who isn’t particularly scrupulous might be planning to do something like that?”

“And we’re working to help her get it.”

“
Ophelia doesn’t strike me as being quite that calculating.”

“
People change. And you know what they say about power and corruption.”

He frowned.
“Now you’re getting into territory that isn’t quite so deterministic. In any case, you can’t judge a person on the basis of what they might do.”

“
If you had known from the beginning that Hodges was already working for the Norfolk Group, what would you have done differently?”

“
Point taken. So you think that if we allow Ophelia to find the Moon stone and open a permanent window on the future, she’s going to go all power hungry and destroy the world?”

“
I don’t
think
it,” she said, almost at a whisper. “I
saw
it.”

And that
’s not all I saw.

Professor was silent for a long time after that. Finally he said,
“Forewarned is forearmed, right? Now that we know what might happen, we can take steps to make sure it never does.”

“
And what if the steps we take are exactly what lead us to ruin?”

“
You see why I’m happier not knowing. You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to second-guess every decision. What you really need is a good night’s sleep though.”

“
Probably. But I think I’ll just sit here with you a while longer.”

Professor smiled.
“I can live with that.”

Great Isaac Cay,
The Bahamas

The
Quest Explore
r
arrived at its destination, without any further unexpected detours, in the early hours before sunrise. Jade had eventually turned in and slept successfully, her weariness overcoming her anxiety, but when she awoke, the apprehension returned in full force. As they sat over breakfast in the salon, she found herself staring at Ophelia the way a person might look at a career criminal or a known sexual predator, just waiting for them to give in to the dark desires hiding under the surface. And yet, Ophelia had not done anything wrong and might not ever do anything. Perhaps it would require only a single word, spoken at the right time, to ensure Jade’s memories of that dire future would never come to pass.

Jade knew that the answer to the riddle of what that tipping point might be was probably there in her memory as well, but when she tried to t
hink back…or was it forward?...she could only remember terror and loss on a scale that almost made her start crying.

It didn
’t happen. It won’t happen. I won’t let it.

After the meal, they all went out on the deck for their first look at the smudge of sand that was Great Isaac Cay. To call it an island was overly generous. The cay was little more than a brow of limestone which, by virtue of its location, had been trapping sand for uncounted millennia.
Rising up from it like a rude gesture was the Great Isaac Lighthouse, a one hundred-fifty-two foot tall rusty white spire that flashed its automated navigational warning light every fifteen seconds to alert mariners to the treacherous shallows of the Bahama Banks.

From their anchorage just north of the cay, Jade found it hard to believe the light was still operational. The dilapidated tower and crumbling remains of keeper
’s house and other support structures looked more desolate than some of the ruins she had excavated.

“
It’s supposedly haunted,” Professor said, with a mischievous gleam in his eye and looking none the worse for wear after his all-night vigil. “According to the lore, in the nineteenth century, a ship foundered nearby with all hands lost except an infant child who washed ashore alive. The ghost of his mother still haunts the island, especially during the full moon, looking for her son. They call her ‘the Grey Lady.’”

“
You’re kidding, right?” Jade had heard so many ghost stories in her years of field research that they were hardly more than background noise, but in this instance, she found herself hoping that Professor was just making it up.

He shook his head.
“The Grey Lady bit is probably just a coincidence, but the part about the full moon got my attention. Especially since it’s a full moon tonight.”

“
It’s not on the island,” Dorion said, peering at the lighthouse. “This is familiar, but we’re in the wrong place.”

Though she kept silent, Jade had felt it too. The sight of the lighthouse had awakened more memories of future events revealed to her by the Shew Stone, but she felt none of the excitement that had accompanied a similar awakening in Costa Rica. Rather, this felt like the first ominous step down a path that could only lead to tragedy

Nichols, who had joined them on deck, raised an eyebrow, but did not voice the question that was clearly foremost in his mind. “We can take you out in a launch. Circle the cay until you, uh, find what it is your looking for. If it’s in the shallows, we won’t be able to bring the
Explorer
in, but there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

He led them to the side of the boat where a rigid hulled inflatable boat hung in a davit. Further along the deck was an empty sling, which presumably had once held the boat stolen by the missing crewman who had tried to kill them with the submersible. The remaining launch was lowered into the water, and the four passengers joined Nichols and another crewman for the excursion. With Dorion providing navigational cues, they motored to a spot northwest of the cay.

Jade looked back to the lighthouse, recalling that this was the view as seen from the place where they had found… or rather would find… the Moon stone. Dorion confirmed this a moment later. “Here. It’s directly below us.”

Nichols looked over the edge. The blue water was stunningly clear and Jade could see the sandy bottom and the reef protruding through. There was nothing that hinted at an old submerged wreck.
“You say the
Misericordia
is down there?”

Professor looked as well.
“What do you figure? About six fathoms?”

Nichols nodded.
“The
Explorer
draws just shy of twenty-eight feet. That’s a little shallow for my liking, but if we watch the tides and maybe shed a little ballast, we should be able to work in here. It’s a nice depth for diving. We won’t have to worry about decompression stops. But this is a tricky business. You start blasting holes in the reef, and two things are likely to happen pretty darn quick. First, the government’s gonna ask what the hell we’re doing, and where’s our permit? Second, every pirate from here to New Orleans is going to come running to see what we’ve found.”

“
Pirates?” asked Ophelia, a little nervously.

“
My rivals. Other treasure hunters. Claim jumpers.”

Jade knew that what Nichols was talking about simply went with the territory.

“It would be in our best interests to avoid drawing a lot of attention to our presence here,” Ophelia said.

“
I disagree,” said Professor. “Given what happened last night, the wrong people already know that we’re here and they’ve always known what we’re after. Keeping things on the level isn’t going to make our situation any worse, and it will probably make it better since we’ll have the authorities on our side.”

Jade thought it was a good argument, but Ophelia disagreed.
“Going through official channels takes time, Dr. Chapman, and that’s something that’s in short supply.”

“
Can’t you grease the wheels?” Jade asked, with a little more snark than she intended.

“
That works most of the time, but not always,” Nichols said. “All it takes is for one historian or government official who cares more about doing his job than earning his paycheck, and those wheels get very sticky. Our problem here is that we don’t have a good basis for a claim. No offense, Dr. Chapman, but what you’re doing is about the same as water-witching, and it doesn’t hold up in court. We’d need historical evidence supporting the idea that the
Misericordia
went down here—and if I’m not mistaken, Dr. Chapman told us that the evidence puts her a few thousand miles to the east. We would also need some physical evidence, including something that positively identifies the Misericordia. When I look down there, I don’t see any evidence of a shipwreck.”

“
It’s buried under the sand,” Dorion said. “Right down there.”

“
Do you know anything about marine archaeology Dr. Dorion? Do you know what happens to a ship that sinks, especially in a place like this? Salt water can do a number on a wooden ship right quick. While that’s happening, currents and storms are pounding against the wreck, ripping it apart and scattering it across the ocean floor.  If any pieces big enough survive the storm season, they might become an artificial reef. Coral and other organisms start to grow on it the ribs of the ship or the cannon, and pretty soon, what’s left of the ship has become a new reef. Experts like me know how to look at a bottom profile and see the outline of an old wreck in the shape of the reef. I’m not seeing that here.”

Dorion spread his hands helplessly.
“It is there.”

“
Be that as it may, we can’t file a claim until we can prove it.”

“
And we can’t prove it until we start excavating,” Jade said. “We’re chasing our tail.”

“
I need what’s down there,” Ophelia said. Her tone was more authoritarian than desperate, and Jade was reminded that Ophelia was used to getting what she wanted. This time would be no exception.

Nichols
’ scratched his chin. “Well, I’ve got a pretty good in with the guy who makes these decisions. They would much rather deal with someone like me than with some of my competitors. I’ll make the calls, but I’m going to need a lot of latitude for these negotiations.”

“
You have carte blanche,” Ophelia assured him. “Whatever it takes.”

Nichols seemed genuinely surprised by this.
“I don’t get it, Ms. Doerner. You’ve already got more money than God, and treasure hunting, for all its romantic appeal, is a lousy investment. Why are you doing this?”

Ophelia ignored him.

By the time
the
Quest Explorer
was over the coordinates Dorion had indicated, Nichols had used his blank check to secure permission to excavate an exploratory hole. Jade and the others could do little more than stand by and watch as the mailbox blowers were lowered into place over the ship’s propellers. The crew had stripped down to swim trunks. Even Nichols had traded in his designer work shirt for a pair of baggy board shorts. His deep bronze all-over tan confirmed Jade’s suspicion that he remained very involved in the day to day operations of his company. Jade hoped that the ship’s master would stay in uniform, or at the very least, stay on the bridge; even the thought of Lee half-naked was enough to make her throw up a little in her mouth.

With the blowers locked in
place, the engines revved up, and for the next fifteen minutes or so, the ship sat unmoving, held in place by anchors with all the slack hauled in, as a blizzard of sand swirled up from below and turned the blue water a milky white. While they waited for the sediment cloud to clear, Jade and Professor began getting ready for the dive.

“
I’ll stay topside,” Professor told Jade. “Just in case there’s a problem.”

“
Are you sure?” She had never known Professor or any other SEAL to pass up a chance to get wet, but he nodded.

“
Probably no reason to worry, but after what happened last night, I’m not going to take any chances.” He stared at her for a second and then said, “Where’s your watch?”

She shrugged.
“Broke.”

He stripped off his own wrist chronograph and handed it to her. Jade felt her breath catch when she saw the watch—a stainless steel Omega Seamaster with a bright blue face—but as soon she felt it in her hand, the weird feeling passed. It looked a lot like the watch she
’d been wearing in the vision the Shew Stone had showed her, but it wasn’t the same; Professor’s watch was bigger and heavier.

“
I’ll want that back. I hope you can take better care of it than you did your own.”

“
Yes, dad.” She slipped it over her wrist and closed the double-clasp. The watch was two-fingers loose.

“
Just wear it outside the sleeve of your wetsuit,” he directed. “And don’t forget to look at it once in a while.”

“
The dive isn’t going to take that long,” she said, and then wished she hadn’t.

“
Oh. Sure, I guess you would already know that.”

She managed a wan smile.
“The good news is, you probably don’t need to worry about anything going wrong. Not here at least.”

“
Maybe nothing goes wrong because I’m worried.”

“
Touché, Professor. Well played.”

She stripped down to her bikini without the least trace of self-consciousness. Having spent more than half her life—nearly all her childhood—in a swimsuit, it was second nature now. Still, as she started to pull on a wetsuit borrowed from the Quest Explorer’s gear locker, Jade had to admit, she did look pretty good in the little red two-piece.

As she was donning the rest of her gear, Ophelia joined them. Like everyone else, she was in a swimsuit, which in this case was a tasteful, if ridiculously expensive Missoni Mare psychedelic pattern bikini which fully accentuated her enhanced physique, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the male crewmen she walked past. Jade was a little surprised by her own reaction; she felt threatened in a way that had nothing at all to do with sexuality.

“
I’d like to dive,” she said.

Professor met Ophelia
’s gaze and his eyes did not stray. “Are you certified?”

The slight tilt of her head was answer enough.

“In order to SCUBA dive, even if it’s just recreationally, you need to have a certification. And to get the certification, you have to take a class and pass a test. So, if you haven’t done that, the answer is, ‘sorry, no.’”

“
I’m a fast learner. You can teach me.”

“
Yes, I can. I’m a certified instructor. Maybe later, if there’s time, I can get on the Internet and print the manual for the bookwork portion of the class. But right this minute, the answer is, ‘sorry, no.’”

There was nothing Ophelia could say that would change Professor
’s mind, but Jade had to wonder if there was anything Professor could say that would make Ophelia realize that. Evidently, ‘sorry, no’ was enough. Ophelia turned away, with almost preternatural calm, and strode back the way she’d come.