Alex Archer - Phantom Prospect

“The bite radius was enormous. Hunter says the body was cut in two.”

Cole frowned. “That would mean a great white of huge proportions. Something like that would be pretty unusual.”

“Larger than a twenty-footer?” Annja asked.

“Sharks that large don’t usually bother coming in close to shore. They’re more deep-water fish. Hardly ever seen. That sort of thing. But if one is stalking the dive site, then that would be unusual behavior as well. It would mean it was a rogue shark. And unlike in the movies, that just doesn’t happen all that often,” Cole said.

Tom had been silent at the other end of the table, but he looked up and smiled. “Well, we could always offer to go and check things out. If Hunter’s worried about his team and knows there’s a shark in the area, that might be why he decided to call you.”

Cole grinned. “Well, he needs to keep me in the loop anyway: I’m financing the operation.”

Annja frowned. “I thought you said Hunter was always riding you because you don’t make any money.”

“He is,” Cole said. “And he’s right to some extent. I don’t make much money. But I have money left over form a trust fund set up by my father.”

“Didn’t Hunter have one?”

“Absolutely. But he blew through it years ago financing his own dives. It was only after he went bankrupt that I staked him and he ended up striking a good find down in the Caribbean. Now, we work together with me fronting the money on his expeditions and reaping a decent return on my investment.”

“Interesting.”

“Well, it enables me to keep the research going,” Cole said. “And that’s the most important thing to me.”

Sandy cleared her throat. “Thing is, with a shark in the area, the dive crew isn’t exactly excited about getting back into the waters.”

“Understandable,” Annja said. “I wouldn’t be crazy about it, either.”

Cole looked pained. “It kills me to say it, but we’ve got to do something about it, then. Time is money on these things.”

Sandy nodded. “That’s why he called. He wanted you to know that there was some chaos up there.”

“And?”

“He wants you to come up.”

Cole took a long sip of his coffee and swallowed. “I don’t know. I’ve got a lot to do around here.”

“Like swim with more great whites?” Annja grinned at him.

“You know the plan, Annja.”

“Yes, but this is something you should look into. If there is a shark hunting through the dive site, then maybe you can figure out why it’s there and why it’s attacked a diver already. That research could prove just as useful as what you’re doing here.”

“I’ve always tried to keep my business investments separate from my love of the ocean.”

“Not always possible,” Annja said.

Cole nodded. “I’ve been somewhat idealistic in that regard.” He smirked. “Possibly naïve as well.”

Sandy got up from the table. “I can make the flight arrangements if you’d like. Get you up there for first thing tomorrow.”

Cole glanced at Tom. “Interested in coming along for the ride?”

Tom fixed him with a gaze. “Now, why would you even ask that question? Of course I am.”

Cole smiled. “I don’t like to assume things.”

“Yeah, well assume all you want. I’m not going to miss the chance to see what’s going on up there.” He shrugged. “Besides, it’s a hunt for treasure. What guy didn’t dream of doing that when he first heard about Treasure Island?”

Cole turned to Annja. “I know you’ve got plans to fly out soon, so I won’t bother asking—”

Annja held up her hand. “The dive site actually sounds like something I’d enjoy. And like Tom said, it does involve the search for relics and treasure. That’s something I’m always interested in, in case you didn’t know.”

Cole looked at Sandy. “Flight arrangements for three, if you please.”

Sandy nodded and left the room. Cole watched her go for a moment and then, noticing the silence that hung in the room, turned back. “She’s a good worker. Knows everything I need to keep up with.”

Annja eyed him. “She didn’t seem too thrilled with me being around here.”

“Ah, that’s just Sandy. She’s had a thing for me ever since she started working here.”

“That’s awfully modest of you,” Annja said with a laugh. She took a sip of her coffee and put her cup back down on the table. “Clearly, she thinks I’m a threat. Just make sure she doesn’t throw me overboard to the shark.”

“Sure thing.” He looked at Tom. “I suppose we’d better get the charts out and study up on the site if we’re going to be a de facto replacement crew.”

Tom walked to the nearby metal file cabinets and yanked one of the drawers open. With a sheaf of charts and papers, he laid them out on the table and spread them around. Annja could make out pictures of the ship itself, lists of what its inventory was rumored to have been, and even notes form an old journal.

“Where’s it supposed to have gone down?”

Cole sighed. “That was always the problem. The ship sank near Prospect, but attempts to find it so far have proven futile. It was 1814, after all, so maybe the location was wrong. Back then there was no Coast Guard to help fix a position. It always amazes me to think of what people must have thought about when they cast off from dock. There was no guarantee that you’d ever make it home alive. Between storms, dangerous shoals, prowling marauders, you had a slim chance of completing a journey.”

“And yet they did it,” Annja said. “And they opened up the world to exploration.”

Cole jabbed his finger at the east coast of Nova Scotia. “Hunter always thought the ship went down here. In about a hundred feet of water. But the currents are strong and there’s no telling where the remains of the ship might have been dragged to since that time.”

“Almost two hundred years have passed,” said Tom. “That ship could be scattered halfway between Nova Scotia and Greenland.”

Cole frowned. “Hunter has always based his hunts largely on his intuition. Until he learned to trust it, he never hit it big. The first time he went with his gut, he struck gold, literally. It’s something he tries to abide by to this day. And he seemed pretty convinced he knew where he’d find the wreck.”

“You believe him?” Annja asked.

“I’d better,” Cole said. “I’m sinking two million dollars into the hunt for the Fantome. I expect to make that back and then some. The treasure on board would be worth tens of millions of dollars.”

“If not more,” said Tom. “Remember that a lot of it was taken right form the White House. There’d be gifts and such from all the powerful world leaders at the time in the wake of the Revolutionary War. That stuff today would be an incredible draw for collectors.”

“Good point.” Cole studied the maps. “I wonder where Hunter is right now and whether he thinks that he knows where he’ll find the largest stock of loot.”

Annja studied a picture of the Fantome. “So this is the ship?”

“Loaded down with all that booty, she must have weighed tons,” Cole said. “Imagine setting off bound for England and running into the storm they took the brunt of? No thanks.”

“After weathering the strong ocean today en route to the sharks, I don’t even want to think about that,” Annja said. “I doubt I would have been a very good sailor.”

“You get used to it,” said Tom. “But even still, there’s nothing like a strong storm at sea to turn anyone into a true believer in the power of Mother Nature.”

Annja pored over the pictures and notes. “And to think, now there might be a prowling shark in their midst.”