Twelve Mile Bank, page 12
part #1 of AJ Bailey Adventure Series
“It’s a cool dive, maybe another day we’ll go inside and explore, I think you’d like it. Today, we’ll start at around a hundred feet at the base of one of the coral towers, there’s some canyons and swim throughs which are fun. We’ll make our way shallower by wrapping around a tower to sixty feet and then head across the flats in mid water to the wreck. We should have time to run down the port side towards the stern and then return towards the bow on the upper decks before cutting back across at around thirty feet to finish the dive on the top of the towers under the boat.”
AJ surveyed the group for any questions but the Campbell kids were already donning their gear in excitement so she figured they were ready to go. “Alright, gear up, let’s go!”
She looked at Mac. “I’ll be your buddy as you’re solo, we’ll be back at the line around thirty minutes but I can hang a little longer if you have air and want to explore more.”
She gave him the courtesy of assuming he’d be good on air consumption as he was in good shape, but she wasn’t sure what to expect as fifty dives over an extended timeframe was not much experience.
He thanked her and as AJ got her own BCD on she couldn’t help herself from glancing over at Mac as he did the same. Damn this guy’s easy on the eyes she thought. He had a confidence about him in both his movements and his manner, the kind of guy that everyone wanted to hang out with, male or female.
AJ had recognized long ago that in social terms young, single people fell into two categories, the caller or the called. The callers were the ones that rang someone else to see what was going on, where to go and were always trying to be at the cool party with the cool people. The called were the ones that decided what was cool. She’d always labelled herself as a caller, which as often is the case, was a pretty inaccurate self-assessment. But Mac was definitely the called.
She once again reminded herself to focus. She noticed he definitely didn’t seem like a rookie, maybe it was just the confidence but he knew his gear and was ready to go before the kids that had started before him. His BCD was a pro level piece of kit too, well-worn and used but still in good condition. She assumed he must have bought it used or borrowed it as it had way more than fifty dives on it. Hearing a splash she realized the Campbells were getting in the water so AJ let Mac follow before hurrying in behind them.
They gathered near the base of the mooring and once she got an ‘okay’ hand signal from each diver she led them down the coral pinnacle towards the sandy bottom. It was another perfect diving day, which was most days in Cayman, well over a hundred feet visibility and no current in the shelter of the reef.
AJ levelled off at a hundred feet just in time to see a pair of Eagle Rays majestically gliding in from deeper water and heading for the wreck. Their wingspans were at least six feet and it seemed so effortless how they barely rippled their large flat, spotted bodies to propel themselves through the water. Their faces seem to have so much expression, with a long snout and what appeared like a broad smile which always reminded AJ of a friendly dog.
They followed the rays around the base of the coral until ahead, across the sand, they could just make out the large menacing hulk of the wreck at the edge of the visibility.
The Kittiwake was a former US Navy submarine rescue ship built at the end of the war in 1945 and sunk as an artificial reef in 2011. At two hundred and fifty one feet long it made an impressive sight resting on the sea floor and with multiple access holes cut in the upper parts of the hull and main structure it was easily and safely penetrable. For the more adventurous the lower decks were left without access holes from the sides so they remained pitch black.
AJ turned into a large opening in the coral, she switched on her dive light and flashed around the walls and ceiling revealing multiple antennae from nocturnal lobsters hiding away in the daylight hours. She glanced behind to make sure her group were following and noticed something wasn’t right at the back of the line. She had three of the Campbells with her but the daughter and Mac were not and she could see movement at the entrance that appeared more frantic than it should be.
AJ u-turned and swiftly finned past the parents and son to the opening in the coral and looked around for the other two. They weren’t there. She immediately looked up and saw Mac and the girl with their arms interlocked heading in a controlled ascent to the surface. Something had gone wrong with the girls first stage on her regulator as a hard stream of bubbles was pouring from the top of her tank. She was breathing from Mac’s back-up regulator, known as an octopus. The situation appeared to be in hand so she signaled for the rest of the Campbells to come back out of the swim through and they’d abort the dive and ascend.
They met Mac and the girl at fifteen feet on top of the coral pinnacle where they all completed a safety stop for three minutes before making their way up to the boat above them.
Thomas knew something wasn’t right as he’d kept an eye on the bubbles and knew they were coming up early. He greeted them as they surfaced. “What’s happening down there, you’re back awful fast?”
The girl seemed completely unfazed by the potential disaster and actually excited by the drama of it all. “My regulator went wobbly and Mac here gave me his spare!”
Thomas helped her back in the boat. “Oh no miss, are you all right? You come up slow and all right?”
“Yes, yes, Mac saw it happen and he came up with me, we even did our safety stop.”
The others followed onto the boat and the Campbells all fussed around their daughter. AJ made sure she was fine and then checked out her regulator. She was relieved the Campbells owned their own gear so at least it wasn’t a piece of Mermaid Divers’ equipment that failed but it was still unnerving to have an incident under her watch.
“Looks like it blew the o-ring to your computer transmitter, probably unwound itself a bit so wasn’t seated, I should be able to fix it, I have spare o-rings.”
She retrieved her toolkit from under the console and went about repairing the regulator. Glancing over at Mac she saw he was calmly switching his gear to a fresh tank ready to dive again. “Thank you for helping there Mac, that was a text book buddy breathing safe ascent, quick thinking on your part.”
Mac nodded and smiled, lingering his eye contact with her until she awkwardly looked away. The Campbells profusely thanked him for helping their daughter so efficiently and AJ for fixing her regulator back up.
They remained on Sand Chute for the second dive just staying a little shallower and it all went without a hitch. As Thomas motored them back towards the dock Mac sat himself next to AJ and lifted his sunglasses which gave her the pleasure of being mesmerized by his bright blue eyes again.
“So what brings you to Cayman Mac?”
“Just a little holiday, get away from work for a few days.”
“What line of work are you in?”
“Oh boring stuff, I rep for an auto parts company so I travel around quite a bit, I sorta live on the road really.”
Oh well, she thought, there’s that transitory thing, she couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed.
“I actually have a meeting with a guy here on island this week though, he’s trying to get me to move here and run his import business.”
She hoped her expression didn’t give away her returned optimism and she chuckled to herself. She was never this way around guys, she prided herself on being level headed when it came to romance. He switched subjects. “Do you do afternoon dives AJ?”
“We do if we have enough people wanting to go, usually like to have four divers to make it worthwhile, I have some later this week.”
He nodded sympathetically. “What about unique or special dives?” She grinned at him. “Why, you find todays adventures too boring for you?”
Laughing he replied. “Definitely not, a beautiful spot and more drama than we’d like! A friend told me about a sunken island somewhere offshore that you can dive here, that’s more what I meant, do you know this place?”
AJ looked at the man, for a guy with limited experience he sure seemed knowledgeable, not many people knew about the Bank. “It’s called Twelve Mile Bank, we’ve gone out there a bit but it’s a tricky site, the currents can kick pretty good, it’s considered an advanced dive. Not many operators go out there as the boat ride is long relative to the sites right here on Seven Mile Beach and it can get lumpy, tough to predict. The top of the coral heads are at ninety feet and the sand is over a hundred so you don’t get much bottom time. It’s also a live boat meaning there’s no buoys or anchoring out there so the boat is drifting or circling, no line to go down or come up and the currents can sweep you away. Whoever’s on the boat has to carefully track the divers. Saying all that, it is a cool dive and the reef is really healthy.”
Mac is listening intently. “Sounds incredible, when do we go?!”
AJ realizes he’s serious and staring at her expecting a response. Well, if he only has fifty or sixty dives spread over many years then she shouldn’t take him on a dive like that. But watching him today he sure seemed like an experienced diver which didn’t add up. Why wouldn’t he say if he’d done more? Either way she couldn’t take the Campbells out there, the parents are recreational divers that aren’t looking for something that challenging and the kids are too inexperienced. She took a stab at a diplomatic answer.
“Well, we’d need to fill the boat with advanced divers who’d want to go for that trip, the plan this week is to dive the west side here.”
“What if I chartered the whole boat?”
She wasn’t expecting that and was stumped for a moment. “Well… I can’t this week as we have other people booked every day.”
“But you said you were free this afternoon?”
Damn, he was persistent. For a moment the idea that he really wanted to spend more time with her made her skip a breath but she quickly dismissed it as ridiculous thinking. “Well, I didn’t say I was free this afternoon, I said I didn’t have the boat going out with customers.”
It seemed like he’d edged even closer and leaned in towards her, he had a mischievous grin as he asked. “What are you doing this afternoon then?”
It took a bit for her to get the message but now she was sure he was flirting with her. She was glad she’d decided not to put her sweatshirt back on despite being chilly after the dives. Though she was shy AJ knew she was a pretty girl with a good figure, she had mirrors in her house, but the male model GQ types like Mac didn’t usually go for the tattoos and funky coloured hair. She was normally chased by the guys in the band or the extreme sports varieties that dug the fringe crowd look on a good looking girl. Ironically she found most of them to be shallow, self centred or too transitory… or all of the above.
“I’m afraid I have a project Thomas and I have to take care of.”
He didn’t miss a beat. “Honestly, I’m not the sit by the pool or on the beach type I’d rather be doing something so I’d love to help you two with whatever it is, why don’t you invite me along!?”
She wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to feel uncomfortable or flattered but she was going both ways. There was no way she was taking him with them this afternoon but she was rather attracted to this man and didn’t want to play too hard to get. She chuckled. “Thanks for the offer but I’m afraid it’s a personal project, but we should be done by six or so.”
“So does that mean you’re available for dinner tonight or do I get shut down on that too?” He gave her his best smoldering blue eyed look.
She missed a breath or two again and desperately tried not to appear overjoyed, despite being so. “Probably rude to turn you down on everything. But it’s just a friendly dinner, nothing fancy, okay?”
“Wherever you’d like to go is fine with me.”
AJ smiled. “I know a little pub.”
Carlos Costa offered Reg some coffee which he gladly accepted. Reg had managed to avoid conversation with Renfro on the ride out and now sat in the lounge of the Explorador de los Océanos with the Argentinian. The coffee was the finest Cuban roast according to Costa and he insisted they have Cortaditos, expresso shots with steamed milk and sweetened with sugar served in tiny mugs. Reg was more of a plain black coffee kinda guy but he rolled with it to appease the man. Costa handed him the Cortadito.
“As you can see by our position we are progressing with our scans, we are making wider sweeps around the Bank to see if there might be a wreck that has been rolled off the top into deeper water.” He looked at Reg carefully to gauge his reaction and Reg tried to hide behind sipping his coffee. He’d finished the tiny mug already and hoped Costa couldn’t tell that.
“The wreck we are particularly interested in is from the World War Two era Mr. Moore.” He watched Reg intently as he spoke. “It’s possible you and your young friend Miss Bailey have some knowledge of this?”
Reg is stunned, is this guy just fishing to see if he’ll bite or does he really know? He was at a loss how the hell he could know and moreover how to respond. There was no more covering up with an undersized coffee mug now, he knew he had a dumb founded expression on his face. He also noted Costa had reverted to using his surname, not quite as buddy, buddy as their first encounter. “What makes you think either of us would know anything about it? Especially AJ, she’s just a kid, she’s never done any salvage or treasure work.”
Costa looked him firmly in the eye and with a hint of a grin he spoke confidently. “It’s especially your young lady I believe has the knowledge, which she undoubtedly shared with you. She is, after all, the Granddaughter of Arthur Bailey, the British Navy man that pulled the last surviving member of U-1026 from the water and spent approximately eight hours with him.”
Reg was floored. Apparently he did know, but how? He tried to think it through quickly. There were two ends to the thread of the story, one end from Arthur Bailey, which was how he and AJ knew about it and the other end was from the Germans who put the gold on the submarine in the first place. To their knowledge that end of the thread should have stopped when the U-1026 went AWOL. There were enough reports and speculation from that time to place the U-1026 in the vicinity of Cayman although the official records state it was lost to unknown causes. The crew of the MTB-67 was public record as was the report that they pulled the three German submariners aboard so they could easily have got Bailey’s name from that. It still seemed Costa was making assumptions and Reg didn’t want to give anything more away.
“So you’re looking for a submarine?”
Costa laughed loudly. “Yes Mr. Moore, we’re looking for a submarine! You’re not seriously still saying you have no knowledge of this are you?”
His tone became more severe. Reg knew this was a turning point and he had to decide. He could either admit he and AJ knew about and had indeed looked for the sub, or keep denying it which clearly they both knew was a lie. If AJ had found the spot then they just needed a few days to dive the mysterious second pinnacle and they’d either find a large German type seven U-boat or they wouldn’t. From there they just register the wreck claim if they have one or Costa will keep searching in the deeper water where they couldn’t look and he’ll find it if it’s there. He needed to buy themselves a couple of days and the best way to do that was to keep Costa close.
“Well, sounds like you’ve done your homework Mr. Costa. If I share what I know, what’s in it for me?”
Costa smiled and clearly seemed pleased with himself for talking Reg around. Reg also caught a hint of relief in his face which made him think, maybe Costa is starting to doubt he’ll find it and wants all the help he can get. “A generous finders fee if information you provide helps us locate the submarine, I’m a fair man Mr. Moore, let us say fifty thousand American dollars? Is that satisfactory?”
Hell no it’s not satisfactory, Reg thought, if these crooks pulled the gold out of there it was worth millions. But the last piece of the cat and mouse game was the gold. Who knew about the gold and more importantly who thought the other knew? He was sure Costa new about the Nazi gold, he wouldn’t be this keen on finding the wreck just to hand it over to the Caymanian government. The fact that he’d hired Renfro was proof of that. The big question was whether Costa thought he and AJ knew about the gold and that would depend on how much Costa truly knew about Arthur Bailey’s story.
If Reg knew of the gold he’d want more than fifty K for a fee, if he didn’t that was probably a reasonable price. He decided this was a test and he gambled on Costa believing he knew nothing of the treasure. “Sounds fair to me. What about AJ?”
“That’s up to you, I’m making an arrangement with you, if you want to split it with her, involve her or leave her out of it, that is not my concern.”
“Fair enough. We’ll leave her out of it for now.” Reg replied assertively.
Costa nodded knowingly like he knew Reg would look after himself all along. “So, Mr. Moore, now we are partners, what can you share with me to aid our search for this elusive submarine?”
Reg took a deep breath, “Let’s look at a chart.”
AJ and Thomas had hurriedly prepared the boat at the dock, filled it full of petrol, loaded fresh dive tanks and headed about five miles offshore towards Herbert’s pinnacle. They’d been sitting there waiting for over an hour when finally AJ’s phone lights up with a text from Reg.
‘Costa knows everything except location. Your Grandfather, everything. I’m leading them to west end of Bank. Will text when there. Wait until then. Time is short. Good luck.’
AJ re-read it aloud to Thomas. She looked at her watch, it was already two thirty in the afternoon and she was anxious to get started.
Thomas looked at her puzzled. “I thought it was just you that knew the story from your Grand Papi?”
“We’ve always figured that someone from the German side had to know the sub had gone rogue, I don’t understand how they’d know about my Grandad though.”
She felt bad not telling Thomas the last part of the story, the fact that the missing submarine had a clandestine cargo of Nazi gold aboard. Whoever was behind placing the treasure onboard would have certainly had an interest in where it ended up and there might well have been some record of it that survived the war.
