Quest (Dane Maddock Adventures) (12 page)

Dane took the steps two at a time, and soon found himself beneath the canopy where Prince Albert sat gazing off into the distance.

“As you can see, she didn’t hold to her vow, and I’m the luckiest man in the world for it. And so…”

A sigh escaped the spectators gathered around Bones and Kaylin, and Dane was certain the Bones had gotten down on one knee. An unexpected feeling of envy crept up inside of him. There had been a time he had envisioned the day when he would propose to Kaylin. Of course, that was a long time ago, and they had both moved on. He shoved the thought out of his mind and clambered up onto the statue of Prince Albert. He hoped no one was watching, but if so, it was too late now.

Bringing his head level with Albert’s, he stared out across the lawn, trying to follow the prince’s line of sight. In the distance, he could clearly see an old brick building. It was as if someone had cut a passage through the sparse trees so that the structure was framed by wooded patches on either side.

“Kaylin, you have made my life worth living. And I have never minded that you’re transgendered.”

Dane choked down a guffaw and almost fell off of the statue. Internally cursing and laughing at Bones, he moved his head directly above Albert’s, just to be certain his line of sight was correct. It was.

“You know I never wanted kids anyway. So…”

His heart pounding with excitement, he sprang down, and dashed down the steps.

“Will you marry me?”

As Dane sprang over the rail, he heard polite applause ring out, and knew that Kaylin must have said ‘yes.’

“Thank you!” Bones shouted. “And I was kidding about the tranny thing. I took one home once, but that was beer-related.” More laughter, and a deeper round of applause.

Dane felt a tug at his elbow. He looked around to see a freckle-faced young boy looking up at him.

“What were you doing up there?”

“Oh, I was checking for… rust.”

The boy considered this for a moment before nodding sagely and walking away. Breathing a sigh of relief, Dane made his way through the dispersing crowd, and back to his friends.

“Congratulations,” he said. “When’s the big day?”

“Oh, we haven’t set a date yet.” Kaylin was looking at Bones with an expression Dane knew all too well. It was her ‘I’m pretending to be happy because we’re in public, but you will pay later’ look. In the time the two of them had dated, she had only given him that look twice, and he had forgotten neither incident. Both had been caused by Dane giving his honest opinion on her friends’ artwork: one a so-called sculpture titled “Patriotism” that consisted of strips of the American flag wrapped around toilet paper rolls; the other a performance art piece that he still could not wrap his mind around, though he did remember a country song played backward, and lots of grunting.

“I think I’m onto something,” he said. “Follow me.” He headed off in the direction of the building he had spotted. Bones and Kaylin strolled along in his wake, holding hands and doing a reasonably good job of acting as if they’d just gotten engaged. When they were back on the main street, Kaylin yanked her hand away and rounded on Bones.

“Tranny? How’d you like to be a eunuch? I dare you to go to sleep…”

“Not now!” Dane hadn’t intended to bark an order like that, but he’d been a military man, and some old habits die hard. “We don’t need you calling attention to us,” he said in a calmer voice. “Yell at him later, if you need to.”

Kaylin directed a contemptuous glare at Bones, but said nothing.

“The statue of Albert looks directly at that building right there.” He pointed across the street to their destination.

“What is that place?” Bones asked, stepping out into the street and almost being run down by a passing car. He ignored the blaring horn and kept walking.

As they drew closer, Dane could read the sign by the front door. “Royal Institute of Navigation. No way! My dad talked about this place. He visited here when he and Mom were still dating. She spent the day seeing the sights, and finally had to drag him out at closing time.” After all these years, the memory of his parents, and of their tragic deaths, was still bittersweet.

“My father came here as well, looking for information on the
Dourado
,” Kaylin said, her voice thick with emotion. Her father, a former officer and friend of Dane and Bones, had been murdered a few years before, and the three of them had completed his quest for the lost ship and its unbelievable cargo.

“So what do you figure we’ll find here?” Bones asked. “Doesn’t seem like a Fawcett kind of place.”

Dane and Kaylin suddenly exchanged excited glances, each arriving at the same conclusion. “The ship in the picture,” they said in unison.

Dane drew the picture from his pocket and looked at the portrait of the ship hanging in the background. The two-master, with its single smokestack, was the only possible link between their single clue and the Institute of Navigation. Hope rising anew, he led them inside. As he stepped through the front door, Dane was actually relieved to see an elderly man working the front desk. He didn’t think he could handle two cougars in one day. The man greeted them warmly, and when Dane asked if anyone on staff was versed in early twentieth century British ships, he directed them to the Cundall Library of Navigation, where shelves strained under the weight of aging tomes. The smell of old paper pervaded the room.

“Good afternoon. How can I help?” The speaker was a plump woman of middle years, with silver-streaked brown hair and a sharp nose that contrasted with the dull look in her eyes. She pushed a pair of black-rimmed reading glasses up onto her head, where they joined the two matching pairs that were already there. She did not quite meet Dane’s eye when she looked at him. All told, she gave off an air of casual disinterest.

“Yes,” Dane said. “We’re doing some research and I was hoping we could find something out about this ship.” He handed her the picture and held his breath. Unless this vessel was famous, he was searching for a single grain of sand on a seriously large beach.

The woman squinted at the photograph, held it out at arm’s length, and began patting her pockets.

“Bugger it all! Where did I leave my glasses? That’s the third pair I’ve lost today.”

Suppressing a smile, Dane pointed to the top of her head. Neither thanking him nor noticing the two other pairs of glasses atop her head, she pulled them back down over her eyes, and held the picture up again. “Ah!
Quest!”
she proclaimed.

“Not exactly a quest,” Bones said. “We just want to find out about the ship.”

“That’s the name of the ship.
Quest.
It belonged to Ernest Shackleton.”

“The polar explorer?” Dane asked sharply.

“One and the same.” She narrowed her eyes as she looked down at the picture. “Odd that it would be Fawcett in the painting. You would think it would be Ernest.”

“Do you know of any connection between Fawcett and
Quest
, or Fawcett and Shackleton, for that matter?” Excitement was rising in Kaylin’s voice, and with it rose Dane’s spirits. “I’m sorry; we didn’t ask your name.”

“No matter.” She waved away Kaylin’s apology as if shooing a fly. Still gazing at the picture, she took a second pair of glasses off of her head and began tapping her lips with them. “Fawcett and Shackleton,” she mumbled. “The only connection I can recall is Fawcett went on an expedition with…”

“James Murray!” Dane exclaimed.

If she was annoyed with Dane for finishing her sentence, it did not show.

“Yes. Murray was part of the Nimrod expedition.” Bones suppressed a laugh, but he need not have bothered. The woman, who still had not given them her name, seemed blissfully unaware of most of what was transpiring around her. “Shackleton, of course, led that one. Two years later, Murray joined Fawcett on an Amazon expedition. It went badly and Murray hated Fawcett after that. I don’t think they ever settled that grudge.”

“Interesting,” Kaylin said, though her tone said otherwise. This connection was tenuous at best.

“Do you have any information on
Quest
that we could take a look at?” Dane asked.

“Of course.” She walked between Dane and Bones, both of whom had to step aside to avoid her bumping into them. Dane watched her disappear between two heavily laden shelves. She had not instructed them to come with her, but who knew if that was intentional? With a shrug, he followed after her. After a moment’s pause, Bones and Kaylin came along. They wound through the shelves, coming out at a small wooden table next to a tall window giving them a view of Hyde Park and the Albert Memorial.

“Wait here,” their guide instructed. Feeling like schoolchildren, they took their seats around the table and waited. She returned in short order, bearing an armful of books. “These,” she laid two books on the table, “are specifically about
Quest
. These three,” she laid more books on the table, “contain chapters or sections referencing her, and this,” she dropped an oversized tome down in front of Dane, “is a collection of entries and clippings about Shackleton. Leave them here when you are finished.”

Dane thanked her, but found himself talking to the back of her head, as she had already turned and was walking away. Shaking his head, he pulled the large book toward him and opened it up. He soon found himself absorbed in the details of Shackleton’s exploits.

Bones and Kaylin also took books and began reading. It was not long before Bones spoke up.

“Dude, it sank.”

“What?” Dane looked up from a clipping of an interview with Shackleton. “Where? When?”

“Back in 1922, near a place called Ascension Island. Cool name, huh?”

“Seriously?” Kaylin asked. “Or do you have some kind of pulp adventure book hidden in there?”

Bones laid the open book flat on the table so all three of them could see it.

“I’m serious. It was Shackleton’s final expedition. He died of a heart attack and, on the way back,
Quest
sank.”

Dane pondered this new bit of information. Could the shipwreck be of significance? “Does it mention any connection to Fawcett?”

“Let me see… Fawcett…” Bones turned the page and he suddenly did a double-take. “Yes! Right here!” He read on for a moment, and then spun the book around so Dane could see. “It says Shackleton and his friend Rowett were on their way to the Antarctic, and they stopped in Rio. Shackleton had what they thought was a heart attack, but he refused treatment. There, they met up with Fawcett, who was returning from a trek in South America, and he joined them on their expedition.”

Kaylin snatched the book away, found the spot where Bones had left off reading, and took over the explanation.

“Shackleton suffered another heart attack, died, and was buried in South Georgia. They tried to continue the expedition, but failed.
Quest’s
engines were not powerful enough to battle the tough Antarctic waters, and she had a serious leak. They finally turned back, but the ship foundered and sank off the coast of Ascension Island. Fawcett is credited with keeping them alive until help arrived. He spent long hours exploring the small island, brooding, keeping mostly to himself, and cursing the “infernal birds,” but he did make sure they had adequate food and water.” She continued turning pages until she finally declared that there was nothing more to be gleaned from that particular book.

With a renewed sense of purpose, they focused in on Shackleton’s final expedition, searching for more references to Fawcett. Dane found the next clue.

“Listen to this,” he began, his pulse throbbing in his temples and his skin electric with excitement. “Fawcett said he lost something valuable in the shipwreck. He never said what it was, but he tried to recreate it, whatever that means, but feared his effort was incomplete.” He continued reading, and suddenly came upon a passage that gave him such a start that he almost dropped the book.