Rogue Angel 46: Treasure of Lima Read Free Page A

Captain!”

3
    Costa Rica
    Present day
    Annja Creed fellinto darkness.
    Down.
    Down.
    Down she fell.
    Deeper and deeper with every passing second, until it seemed that the only thing she’d ever known was this darkness, pressing in on her from all sides.
    She could feel her eyes straining to see something, anything, even the slightest glimmer of light, but finding nothing but this total darkness. She could feel her heartbeat speeding up, her pulse accelerating, and she told herself to relax; there was nothing to worry about.
    Nothing but what might be lurking out there in the dark.
    As she was telling the voice in the back of her head to shut up and be quiet, her feet touched bottom. She bent her legs to absorb the impact, what little there was, and then stood up straight again. The weight belt around her waist would keep her anchored, but still, she was careful not to push off with her legs as she did so.
    She took a deep breath off her regulator...and hit the switch on the high-powered handheld spotlight that she was holding.
    The grotto directly ahead of her lit up spectacularly, just as Manuel had said it would, and she was caught in spellbinding wonder as brilliantly colored stalactites hanging from the ceiling of the grotto were revealed. A dozen shades of red, blue and yellow hues danced in the light, transforming the underwater cavern into a cathedral of color. It was breathtaking and Annja felt her pulse quicken in admiration.
    The cenote she was diving in had been formed thousands of years before when the naturally acidic groundwater seeped through cracks in the limestone bedrock, gradually wearing away the softer stone beneath, creating a pocketlike chamber with a thin limestone roof. At some point in the far past that roof collapsed and the empty chamber gradually filled with the groundwater seeping in through the surrounding soil. The result was a natural well hundreds of feet deep.
    Even better in Annja’s eyes was that fact that this particular cenote connected with a series of caverns extending more than a mile underground, making it a perfect dive location through which to experience Costa Rica’s subterranean world.
    The cable television show that Annja worked for, Chasing History’s Monsters, was devoted to exactly what its name suggested. For the past week she’d been here in Costa Rica filming segments on one of the more notorious Portuguese pirates of the 1800s. Benito “Bloody Sword” Bonito had raided shipping and seaside towns up and down the west coast of the Americas for a number of years before being captured and hanged by the British. According to legend, his ghost still haunted the Spanish Main, complete with spectral pirate vessel, and that was more than enough for her producer, Doug Morrell, to send her here to chase down those who claimed to have seen it and perhaps get lucky enough to see it for herself.
    Normally Annja might have objected to such ridiculousness—she was an archaeologist by training and preferred the episodes she hosted to have a bit more of a factual basis, but a week enjoying the green jungles and gorgeous beaches of Costa Rica was something she just couldn’t pass up. When the crew had called it a wrap two days ago, she’d phoned Doug and let him know she was taking a few days of vacation to relax in the sun and enjoy herself for a change. She’d even changed rooms to mentally mark the difference between the time she spent here for work and the time she was taking for herself. It was silly, yes, but it made her feel better and that was all that mattered.
    She’d gotten to know the resort dive instructor, Manuel Fernando, pretty well during the course of their shoot and enjoyed spending time with him, so when he’d invited her along on the dive expedition earlier that morning she’d readily agreed. There were three other resort guests on the dive, all beginners. Due to her previous diving experience, Manuel had let her go down ahead of the others so that