The Wreck

"She's down by the bow," he commented.

"I drilled some holes in the bottom."

"You always were the smart one. Where were you?"

"I went diving, to clear my head."

"Lucky for us you did."

"You all right?"

"A few bruises and cuts, I've had worse in friendly barroom brawls," he said with a grin.

"Andy?"

"The same."

She was silent a long moment.

"Burt, did they..."

"No. They didn't do more than slap her around a bit. They probably would have gotten around to it, she's a hell of a woman, when they started looking for you she went ballistic. Never seen such a spit fire. It took three of them to hold her down. If I hadn't been staring down the barrel of an Ak, I would have helped her."

"They were looking for me?"

"Yeah. They must have been watching us for a while. They knew they were missing another woman. Tore the ship apart looking for you. Here, I'll take the wheel, go see about her."

Viv went down. Calizza was tending to Andy's face with a first aide kit. When she looked up and saw Viv, she just held out her arms. Viv rushed into them and they hugged. With that all the stops came out and Viv broke down into tears of relief.

***

Viv sat on the back deck of the Keyliner and watched as the salvage ship Antares finished final preparations. Technical divers had entered the first of the merchantmen and closed the Kingston valves. They had welded the hatch covers and had also closed off the hold and machine spaces from the upper deck. They weren't completely air tight, but they were close enough.

A long, dual umbilical had been run from Antares to the sunken ship. One line was anchored to a barge the other to the salvage ship. Four giant diesel pumps on the barge were already humming. They could empty an Olympic sized swimming pool in just under eight seconds. The plan was simple, but dangerous. As the pumps pulled the water out through one line, air would be supplied from the other. Since the hull was undamaged, it was thought the ship would gain buoyancy, until she eventually popped back up to the surface like a giant cork. They would then unseal the hatch covers, use the pumps to get most of the water out, and two ocean going tugs would tow the ship to Kingston. There, she would be accessed.

The legal battle had been less complicated than she feared. The original insurer had already paid off and they were thrilled to settle out of court when she offered them ten percent of the salvage. The authorities had arrested ten men in connection with the pirating ring, but had no other leads. They had made a cursory inspection of the sight, but hadn't discovered the Gulphin wreck site. Grateful for her help in breaking the ring, they had graciously expedited her salvage claim.

Calizza's lawyer had carefully worded it, so that they now had legal title to all wrecks they located in the area. It would make the inevitable fight over the treasure much less difficult. As Burt had predicted, the salvage operation had drawn very little attention and practically no problems.

No one thought it strange that Viv and her crew were determined to stay at the site while salvage operations were ongoing. Conservatively, the ships and their fittings would net her between one and one point seven million. Definitely a large enough sum to warrant her being on site in the eyes of the world. With a little luck, they would be done with the major archeological work long before the last of the merchantmen was raised. With a little more, they would all be as rich as Croesus, too.

Calizza strolled out in just a purple thong to watch the raising. Viv found her eyes drawn to the tall beauty's rump and long legs. She was mesmerized by the way the purple thong seemed molded to her lover's sex. Calizza felt eyes upon her and turned, smiling impishly.

Viv felt her body react and smiled. Maybe it would take luck to get the archeology done, she mentally amended. As to being rich, she realized it made no difference if they found another coin. She was already rich beyond belief.