Dragon's Triangle (The Shipwreck Adventures Book 2) by Christine Kling

Author:Christine Kling [Christine Kling]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2014-06-01T07:00:00+00:00

As they walked back toward the center of town, neither man spoke for the first ten minutes.

Cole was the first to break the silence. “It doesn’t make sense that the depth would go from like twelve hundred feet to a hundred and eighty feet in that one little area.”

“No, it could be an underwater mountain, but it’s more likely something down there caused a funky reading.”

“Something really funky—like radioactive?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

A Cave in Luzon

The Philippines

June 26, 1945

One of the enlisted men was the first to break rank. He lowered his gun, walked over to the barrel of gems, and thrust his hand inside. His fist rose into the air, spilling a showering cascade of colored stones that glittered in the beam of Ozzie’s flashlight.

“Jesus!” the man said.

“Sailor!” Westbrooke shouted. “Back in line.”

One of the men at the rear of the party took off at a trot, headed for the mountain of gold bullion. The chamber opened up like a half circle on their right. The golden dragon was against the far wall and the crates were stacked in such a way as to leave several walkways radiating out from the dragon. Ozzie shone his flashlight around the chamber. About one hundred feet ahead on the far side he saw a black opening. The beam of his light wasn’t strong enough to see beyond the far wall, but Ozzie assumed that was the tunnel that would lead on to the next chamber. The one where Masako’s men now slept. He wished Westbrooke would lower his voice.

The skipper continued to shout orders, but it had no effect on the men. One by one they wandered off through the aisles between the crates toward the center structure of gold bricks that appeared to support the dragon. Westbrooke followed them, but his orders did not seem to register.

Prince Masako touched Ozzie’s sleeve. “That dragon is early Qing dynasty. You cannot blame your men for being drawn to it. Even though the statue is hollow, it is made of more than three tons of pure gold.”

The snakelike body of the statue was about five feet in diameter, and it stretched back, rising and falling in an S curve. The beast’s huge head reared up, fangs bared in his gaping mouth. The forelegs reached outward with razor-sharp talons. “How did you get it here?” Ozzie asked.

“Our soldiers discovered it in a temple in Thailand. It was transported here on a ship, then off-loaded by crane out in the cave where your submarine is. It rests on a wood cart behind the bullion. When it is safe to transport it back to the homeland, it can be hauled back out to the dock.”

“And these other crates?”

“Let me show you.” The prince walked over to one of the smaller crates and spoke to Ben. The young man pried up the lid.

“Precious metals and gems are not the only treasures.” The crate was filled with straw-like packing material, but Ben dug down about a foot and pulled out a porcelain jar that stood about one foot tall.

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