Unearthly Power Read Free

phone.
    “Atlantic Treasures Unlimited,” he remembered to answer at the last moment.
    After a brie f pause, and the telltale indication that the call had been transferred to another extension, a cultured voice asked, “Am I speaking to Sean Rylan?”
    “You are,” Sean said, wondering what the call was about.
    “Did you file a report on a possible newly discovered wreck three hundred and thirty nautical miles northeast of Nassau, Bahamas, five months ago?”
    “That’s me,” he said in a friendly voice.
    “Do you have any further information beyond what you filed?”
    “Not much more than the depth and the fact that the underwater currents in the area were much too strong to execute an effective reconnaissance.”
    The silence on the other end of the line continued for a brief moment before the older gentleman spoke again. “My name is Professor James, Kirby James. I’m the chair of the archaeology department at Bryn Mawr College. I’m calling on behalf of an interested party wishing to further investigate your discovery.”
    “Mr. James, we found a ship down there, but as I said, the conditions in the water are a bit hazardous for an effective dive,” Sean said, regretting the position of having to turn down work; even work that took two full days just to travel on-site.
    Without further hesitation professor James asked, “How big is your boat?”
    “Eighty-one by twenty-two,” he provided in automatic reflex.
    “Would you have room for a nine foot submersible ROV, and the ability to launch such a craft?”
    “What’s the weight?”
    “Six-thousand pounds.”
    Sean had to think about that for a moment. If we removed the aluminum awning, cut out a section of the freeboard and reattached it with hinges, and rearranged a few things, it would work. “Yeah, we could make it work. Our winch should handle that with no problem.”
    “Are you interested?” the professor asked as if that was all that was left to discuss.
    Since money had yet to be brought into the conversation, Sean instinctively thought it was not much of an issue to the caller and whoever he was representing. Sensing an opportunity, and plenty of work that went along with it, he decided to test his feelings. As if considering it for the first time, he rattled off a mental list of things necessary for the expedition.
    “Let’s see, we’d need to do some fabrication work on the boat, make a stopover at Nassau for resupply, and spend no less than four days on site, depending on the amount of success and the degree of investigation you want done, for a minimum of nine days in total, including our stopover. We’re looking at a down payment of ten-thousand with an additional twenty-five hundred a day,” he finished while holding his breath in the process.
    “If you’ll give me an account number, and the name of your financial institution, I’ll send a wire for the down payment right away,” Professor James said without hesitation.
    Sean proceeded to give him the information over the phone. Before he completed the call he said, “When do you want to go and how many will be in your party?”
    “In two weeks, if that is okay with you. July 6 th . There will be five of us.”
    “Okay Mr. James. As soon as I receive the deposit I’ll start the work on the boat and we’ll be ready to go.”
    “Thank you very much Mr. Rylan,” he said before disconnecting the line.
     
    Sean was less than efficient when it came to booking a job. Diedra normally handled the business side of things but she wasn’t here. He had no idea how they were supposed to pick up the submersible, what time of day they were leaving, if any of their group was dive qualified and would be joining him on the descent, and what they expected to find on an undocumented find that was worth the kind of money they were throwing around with so little information. These thoughts, among others, went through his mind while he left Alex behind to return to their apartment. He