Dragon's Triangle (The Shipwreck Adventures Book 2) (22 page)

Riley nodded. “Yesterday afternoon, when I was at the Temple of the Reclining Buddha to meet Peewee—who never showed—I opened it myself. A monk there told me that the writing on the papers inside isn’t in the Tibetan language at all. It looks like a bunch of symbols or hieroglyphs. He said he thought it looked like some kind of code.”

Cole slid the papers out of the tube. There were three small sheets and he spread them out on the bed. Then he saw that the third sheet was folded in half. He unfolded it and spread it out next to the others. He let out a long, low whistle. “That monk was right. But this one looks like Japanese writing,” Cole said.

She picked up the thin paper and looked at the characters. She held it one way, then rotated it. “I didn’t see this one. How do you know it’s not Chinese or some other language?”

He took the letter from her. “I’ve been looking at lots of Japanese documents lately. Military letters and orders.”

She pointed to the two sheets on the bed. “It’s odd that these two are the right size to fit in the gau, but that one needed to be folded.”

Cole looked up from his study of the Japanese document. “Does that phone of yours take pictures?”

“Sure.”

“Okay. Take a quick picture of this and we’ll send it to Theo. Kim said we’ve got Internet here. She wrote the password down on my
receipt.” Cole stood up and reached into his back pocket while Riley dug her phone out of her backpack.

She snapped the photo and checked to make sure it was legible. Cole handed her the receipt. As she typed in the password to access the Wi-Fi network, she noticed that the room had been purchased by a Mr. John Jones.

“So, Mr. Jones. To what email address should I send this photo?”

“You’re going to like this. Send it to MVBonhommeRichard at Gmail dot com.”

“Seriously?” She laughed out loud as she typed the email address into her phone.

“Do you have any other email address you could send it from in case someone is monitoring your account?”

She stared at him, started to say something, then just shrugged. He really was the old Cole. Just as paranoid as ever. She sent the email from an account she’d only used once before.

“So that’s the name of
Shadow Chaser
now,” she said when the email went through.

“Yup. Can you use that phone to make a Skype call?”

When she nodded, he wrote a number down in the margin of the receipt. “Okay, then dial this number.” Once it started to ring, he took the phone from her.

“Hey, Theo. It’s me. I just sent you a photo of a document.”

Riley watched his mouth as he listened to his friend. She really wanted to kiss that mouth, but she would need to rest for just a minute first.

“Yes,” Cole said, “I know it came from a different email address. That’s because Riley sent it.” Cole held the phone away from his ear, and even from the other side of the bed she could hear the enthusiastic whoops that erupted from the phone. “Okay already. It was unexpected, but now that we’re sitting in a hotel room in Phuket, I’m finding it a very pleasant surprise.”

Cole held the phone to his ear for a second, then grabbed a pillow, put it over the phone, and smiled at her. “That Theo,” he said. When he pulled the phone out, he said, “She’s right here, you know. She can hear you. Keep it clean. Listen, can you run that document through your translator?”

Riley felt the exhaustion creeping up to her head. She set her bowl back on the tray and eased back onto the pillow Cole had just been using.

“Already? That was fast. It’s Riley’s. It’s a long story.”

Riley closed her eyes and she felt like she was floating.

“You’re kidding me! Holy shit! After all this time! Right. Paste it into an email and send it back to the same address. I’ll call you later.”

She opened her eyes. “What is it?”

“Theo and I came to the Philippines looking for the Dragon’s Triangle.”

“But Cole, I looked it up and the Dragon’s Triangle is just a big empty piece of ocean.”

“I know. But it’s also the Enterprise code name for their project to find the wreck of a Japanese hospital ship called the
Teiyō Maru
. The cargo she carried was top secret. They believe she sank sometime in April of 1945, but in Japan and in the US, there are almost no records of this vessel.” He held up the letter. “This letter is from a Japanese Lieutenant Colonel Miyata. And he says she sank in the Babuyan Islands.”

“You sure look excited about this ship.”

“You bet. I’ve got to get back right away. Listen, we can put your boat into a marina where she’ll be safe. Then we’ll fly to the Philippines. This could be the breakthrough I’ve been waiting for.”

“What breakthrough?”

“Obviously, this Peewee guy is with the Enterprise. Sorry, Riley, but he probably never knew your grandfather. My guess is they were
using you to smoke me out. You’re not safe here anymore. You’ve got to come with me.”

She opened her eyes and propped herself up on her elbows. “Got to? So, now it’s all about you?”

“Surely you don’t think it’s a coincidence that he gave you these documents when I happen to be searching for this wreck?” He held up the letter.

“I don’t know what I think right now. I’m exhausted. But I can’t leave my boat. I’ve got my work. I need my computer, my books.”

“Bring ’em with you. I can’t afford to wait two weeks or longer now while we sail your boat to the Philippines.”

She flopped back down on the pillows. “And I can’t leave her.”

“I’ll hire a delivery skipper. She’ll arrive safe and sound. You don’t have to worry about it.”

She rolled onto her side and supported her head in the palm of her hand. “What’s so important about that
Maru
ship?”

Cole smiled. “In addition to the gold?”

“Shoulda known.” She wasn’t sure she could keep her eyes open much longer. “Yeah, in addition to the gold.”

“Well, not much. Just a map to the mother of all treasure sites in the Philippines.”

“Oh,” she said. “That’s all.” Her head fell back on the pillow and she gave in to the welcome darkness.

Ao Chalong
Phuket, Thailand

November 19, 2012

When Riley opened her eyes the room was pitch-black, and she didn’t know where she was. Her heart rate kicked straight into high gear. The ceiling fan turning overhead groaned in a regular rhythm, and she tried to prevent herself from hyperventilating. Then she heard a long snore. Moving only her eyes, she took in the lump of a body lying next to hers on the bed. The odor of soap and warm male skin jogged her fully awake. Cole. Shanti Lodge. She must have fallen asleep while he was talking to her. More like passed out.
Oh, God
, she thought. Why was she so inept at romance?

The air from the overhead fan was quite cool, and he had covered them both with a light sheet. He was sleeping on his side, facing her. The bedspread was gone and she lay there naked under the sheet.

The tray of food was gone, and he smelled like he had showered. This, their first night back together, hadn’t exactly been the passionate night of lovemaking she’d imagined it would be.

He could have awakened her if he’d really wanted her. But then he had been able to get a good look at her scars when he removed the bedspread and covered her with the sheet. Billy had never had a problem with shaking her awake when he wanted sex. With Billy, though, she’d always insisted on wearing a T-shirt to bed. She had no problem with him reaching under the cloth to touch her breasts, but he didn’t need to see the scars on her back.

Cole was the only man—other than her doctors—who had ever seen her shoulder and back, who had touched her scars.

Riley rolled onto her side, facing him, and studied his face in the shadows. She began to remember what they had been talking about the night before. He’d been so excited about the letter in the prayer gau, and he’d been certain Peewee had never met her grandfather and the whole story had just been a ruse so that she would lead Peewee and the Enterprise back to Cole.

It didn’t fit. Either that old man was one of the world’s best actors or he really had known her grandfather. Cole was wrong on this one, she was sure.

He said he wanted her to go back to the Philippines with him. But, of course, she was the one who had these documents Cole wanted. His idea was for her to go back to his boat in the Philippines with him, to leave her boat there in Phuket, and then have some professional delivery skipper take
Bonefish
to Subic Bay later. She knew she was supposed to find it sweet that he wanted to protect her. But there really was something demeaning about the fact that, after all these years, he suddenly didn’t think she could take care of herself. And she had her own mystery to solve in the Philippines. Riley wanted to find out the truth about what happened to the USS
Bonefish
and Ozzie Riley, her grandfather. She needed to understand how her father had known to name all his sailboats
Bonefish
.

Besides, she couldn’t imagine anyone else sailing her boat. She was the only one who really knew all the little idiosyncrasies of her
Bonefish
. She had made so many upgrades to all the boat’s systems, including security. It was no longer a standard Caliber 40.

And then there was her work. She had recently received the blueprints of a mega-mansion some country singer was having built outside Nashville and Mercury Security was waiting for her plans for the state-of-the art electronic security system she was supposed to be designing for them. She could be in Singapore in a week, get the work done en route, and email them the preliminary plans from there. She was accustomed to being alone on the boat, and she doubted she could work with Cole around, anyway. He would just be a distraction.

He would fuss at her, saying he just wanted to protect her. Now that she thought about it, the main emotion he felt toward her seemed to be pity—like he thought she needed to be looked after. He’d been off having adventures while this poor damaged woman was sailing around mooning about him. No wonder he’d kept his distance.

If he really felt he had to get back to Theo and his boat immediately, he could just go, as far as she was concerned. Hop a plane and leave her to get her boat there on her own. She’d sailed her boat solo more than halfway around the world. A few hundred miles more wouldn’t make much difference to her at this point. And she wanted to find out the answers to what happened to her grandfather on her own.

Very slowly she eased back the covers and slipped her legs over the side of the bed as she rose to a sitting position. Other than a little hitch in his breathing, he didn’t react at all. He was deep in sleep.

It would be easier this way. And at this hour, she hoped Benny would be sleeping out there in his fishing boat, too.

Her clothes were still damp and it was uncomfortable slipping on the bra and panties as they stuck to her skin. It took some adjusting to get things to fit right. She pulled on her khakis and the polo shirt, collected her backpack, and checked all the surfaces in the room for anything else that belonged to her. She almost missed her phone on the floor. He had plugged it in to charge overnight.

When she eased open the door, she dangled her backpack from the tips of her fingers. If he woke up, she planned to tell him she had an upset stomach and needed to go to the bathroom. But the opening door didn’t even register. He slept like a man who hadn’t a worry in the world. She paused, wondering if she should leave a note, but decided not to risk it. With her satellite phone she could access the Internet and leave him a message on her blog. She eased the door closed and winced at the light click.

Her sandals were outside the door, and she picked them up so she could get away without waking any of the other customers as she crossed the creaking wood floors.

A low light burned in the lobby area, but the grounds were deserted. She stopped in to the downstairs toilet and brushed her teeth, combed her hair. She stared into her own eyes in the mirror above the sink.
Are you sure you know what you’re doing?
she thought. Feeling unsure of herself was not something she was accustomed to.

When she crossed the parking lot, she was almost away, but she found a locked, solid wooden gate barred her from getting out onto the street. Riley swore under her breath. The chain was beefy and the padlock was bigger than her fist. But when she pulled on the lock it clicked open.

There wouldn’t be any way she could replace the padlock once she’d exited. She didn’t want to leave them all vulnerable to thieves. She checked her watch. It was 3:25 a.m. The sun would rise in little more than two hours. She arranged the gate so that it looked like it was still locked on the inside. She hoped that would suffice.

No one was around on the small side street, but she could see the occasional car passing on the highway beyond. She’d ridden her bicycle this way before. The waterfront was about a mile and a half away. She would need to walk fast to beat the approaching dawn.

Her dinghy was where she had left it on the beach, upside down on the sand and chained to a coconut tree. The oars were still there, too. Riley trotted over to the building that housed the Yacht Club lockers and restrooms, and she searched the grounds around the dinghies, anchors, and bits of broken gear that decorated the back of the shed. She found what she was looking for attached to a deflated dinghy with a rotted-out transom. She pulled her small Leatherman tool from her backpack and cut away the length of old polypropylene rope that was tied to the towing ring. After wadding up the line and stuffing it in her pack, she headed back to the beach.