David Leadbeater - Caribbean Gold

Russo shrugged. “Hard to tell apart. You’ve heard both, I take it?”

“Well yeah, but only in the bedroom.”

Russo turned away. The team heard a scraping from below and then Crouch’s thin voice echoing back up.

“It’s… okay. Come on down.”

Alicia jumped up first. “He doesn’t sound so sure, so let’s get this over with.”

She pushed herself off, gliding fast down the rocky tunnel, gathering speed and feeling her body start to shift from side to side. She tried to arrest the momentum. The chute was incredibly smooth. Gray rock flashed past her goggles, unending. The journey down seemed to go on forever; forward vision nil, side vision nil. Just a steep fall and her beating heart and the cry she just couldn’t stop escaping.

Then the bottom. A sudden end to the chute and darkness. She found herself sailing over the edge and landing on a hard surface, jarring the bottom of her spine. Knocking the breath out of her lungs. It took a moment to recover.

Crouch held a hand out. “You okay?”

Alicia ignored the offer. “Yeah. But how am I gonna explain the bruises on my ass?”

“I’m pretty sure Drake’s used to it.”

“Shit, boss, what do you think we get up to?”

Jensen then flew out of the chute, landing hard. Alicia checked for broken bones and then left him lying there, wondering aloud if they might use him as a cushion for Caitlyn and Russo. But Crouch was already headed off, spotting an underground stream off to the right and following it toward a jagged row of rocks. The tunnel was now the height and width of two men. When Russo and Caitlyn arrived and dusted off they all followed Crouch.

Caitlyn showed again she was the sensible one. “Guys, how are we ever going to get back up?”

They ignored her, traveling further into the earth below Wales. Time stretched behind them without measure, a thin skein that held no sway down here. The row of jagged rocks continued for entire minutes. Sharp stones jutted up from the floor, forming trip-hazards as well as lethal weapons if anyone fell. They picked heir way carefully. Then, a wide stream barred their way, flowing crosswise to the path. Crouch bent down so that he almost touched the surface and looked both ways.

“Any traffic?” Alicia asked.

“No. Just darkness both ways. We’re gonna have to jump it.”

Alicia looked dubious. “Water and I don’t get on. You go first.”

Crouch gave her a look as if to say of course , then took a running jump. No way was he ever going to make it and the flow of the stream was enough to carry him away into eternal blackness, but still he tried, starting to build back up the wall of respect Alicia once had for him.

He landed short, came down hard and spluttered as he realized he’d hit a submerged ledge on the other side. Crouch crawled out of the water and waved. “You saw what to do. Let’s go.” He moved away at pace.

One by one they jumped and joined him. Russo allowed Jensen to make the jump alone with Alicia waiting on the other side, but the man put up no fight. Soon, they caught up to Crouch, the leader of their team taking time to examine everything as he went. They became used to walking, stumbling, traipsing on through the cavern and the odd light. It came as a surprise then when the tunnel floor abruptly ended and gave way to a terrifying vertical drop in the dark.

Crouch faltered into it, foot slipping over the edge and going straight down. Senses aware, he felt the nothingness and flung himself backwards. Still the momentum carried him forward an inch at a time, the incline sucked him down. He landed on his back, slipping over the edge.

Caitlyn grabbed the shirt over his shoulders. Alicia caught his buckle as she flung herself headlong, her own face coming close to the drop-off. Together, they hauled Crouch back to safety.

“Close,” he breathed, untroubled.

Alicia didn’t hear a thing, because it was she that saw it, she that found it, she that realized exactly what lay at the base of the twenty-foot drop.

“Oh, wow. You have to come and look at this.”

Crouch crowded forward and then Caitlyn, Russo asking them to hurry up so he could take a turn. Alicia grinned as she leaned out over the ledge.

Below, illuminated by veins in the rock, by its own radiance and by the team’s four faint flashlights, sat the biggest pile of golden treasure any of them had ever seen. Riches piled upon riches; so many gold doubloons they were uncountable, cutlasses and medallions, necklaces and bracelets and chains of brilliant gold. Gems that were the hue of emerald and ruby, and precious visions of amber and jade, all mingled within the hoard. Almost ten feet high it rose until Alicia felt she could probably jump from the ledge to the top of the golden mound and slither all the way to the ground. Crouch saw it too and the reckless intent glimmered in his eyes.

Caitlyn held out a hand. “No—”

“Fuck that.” Alicia leapt first, eyes and heart and soul taken over by the wondrous sight before and below her. The leap was full of danger but she hit the top of the pile hard, the coins a solid weight against her ribs. She found purchase with her feet and slithered right down, doubloons and medallions showering around her, bouncing off her shoulders and skull and falling like rain. The bright edge of a cutlass drew blood from her arm, a sword flipped up and catapulted past her forehead. Still she fell, feet first, soles gouging a path through the chattering, gleaming pieces, displacing a mountain of wealth to each side. At last she hit the floor and rolled; rolled through jewelry and ornaments, more plunder than she had ever dreamed of.

And then came Crouch.

Soon landing at her side, eyes reflecting the glory and gleam of the fortune that they had found.

“Don’t worry,” Caitlyn called down. “We’ll wait here so you can get out.”

Alicia laughed, dug her fingers among the piles and threw a shower high up into the air. “So now is it all worth it?”

Crouch had tears in his eyes. “I wish Healey could have seen this. I would change everything if I could.”

“I know.” Alicia looked around and thought she spied another tunnel leading off to the right. “But we have a lot more to do yet.”

“But for now,” Crouch crawled around in the gold, “let’s take a long moment…”

Alicia knew it was time to depart as soon as they walked away from the gold, but she stayed two more days. The Llanrumney Pub gave them lodging and help as they called in the authorities and started the long process of ensuring their find was well-guarded, kept off the front pages until required, and fought over by the right entities. That was as far as Crouch and the Gold Team went. Their passion came in finding the treasure.

On the final night they gathered at the bar, the large room warmed by a real fire, the flames crackling and sending a lustrous glow around the room. It was late evening, and the other patrons had started to drift away, but the Gold Team kept going strong, countless bottles of red wine opened before them and flowing almost as well as the laughter.

The discussed Zack Healey.

“Never as young or as naive as I wanted him to be,” Alicia said. “And the poor lad always took it to heart.”

“Can I tell you something?” Caitlyn leaned over. “He humored you as much as you ribbed him. Zack knows you.”

“Bastard.” Alicia laughed.

“Knew you,” Caitlyn corrected herself. “Shit, knew you.”

And there were tears, more laughter and nothing to forgive or forget. Tonight was all about Healey and the discovery he had helped make possible. Tonight was a celebration.

Tomorrow… they would start to mourn.