The Last Airship (22 page)

Aliana’s
words broke Sam’s trance in an instant.

Turning
to face her, his hands still holding hers, he said, “You know about the
Magdalena?”

“Yes,
of course, it was a story my father used to tell me as a child. He’s spent a
lot of time and millions of dollars searching for her over the years.”

Sam
desperately wanted to question her about how her father was involved, and more
importantly, if she had been entangled in the attempt on his life. But his
first priority was to find a way out of their current mess. He would have to
focus on that first, and then return to the problem of her involvement.

“Well,
if she somehow found her way in here, we should be able to find our way out.”

“Yes,
but out where? I don’t see any other tunnels or crevasses,” Aliana pointed out.
“Besides, she’s remained lost to the world for over 75 years! It’s easy to
imagine that the passage she took to enter here, may be long gone.”

Sam
had already considered that possibility, “The water level must have changed in
the past 75 years. It’s the only explanation as to how she made it here in the
first place.” Sam said, his gaze returning to the Magdalena once more. “Look at
her, she’s aged a bit, but otherwise she’s completely intact. She must have
crashed into the icy lake, and then somehow floated into here in the summer,
when the ice had thawed. Since then, something must have changed to increase
the water level, and block the passage that otherwise might have allowed her to
float out of the cavern again.”

“After
all this time, she’s been so close to all of us?”

“Yes,
but it’s really not all that surprising that she wasn’t discovered. At this
altitude, only a few people would go to all the trouble of diving, and even
fewer would do so, knowing that they’d have to carry all their equipment up
10,000 feet of rock.”

“If
that’s so, and the water level has increased since she crashed, why then is she
resting high and dry on almost solid mud in here?” Aliana pointed to the
sand-like silt upon which the Magdalena rested.

“That’s
a good question,” Sam said, as he looked around the enormous cavern for an
answer.

This
is what I call real treasure hunting.

And
then saw it.

A
little subterranean creek, slowly feeding into the subterranean lake.

“That’s
why,” he said, pointing to it. “See how the creek is moving the limestone
sediment into the lake here? It’s building up and, over time, is slowly making
the lake shallower.”

“Hey,
I think you’re right, Sam.”

“Thanks
for the vote of confidence.” Sam checked his watch. “It’s already nearly one
a.m. How about we check out what’s inside the gondola in the morning? As far as
I'm concerned, we need to get some rest and call it a night. We can make a
fresh start on finding our escape route tomorrow morning.”

*

Aliana
slept poorly, as did Sam.

“Are
you awake?” she whispered.

“Yes,
can’t you sleep, either?”

“No,
I just can’t stop thinking about what we’re going to find when we search her.”

“What
time is it?” Sam asked, rolling over.

“It’s
four o’clock. Shall we start our day?”

The
time of day was irrelevant given their subterranean environment. They
breakfasted on some dried fruit and nuts. It was a very basic meal, but it
would provide them with enough nutrients to see them through.

“Okay,
now what?” Aliana asked.

“You
wait here while I see if it’s safe. I’m dying to have a look inside that
gondola,” Sam replied. Then, looking sheepish, he said, “Actually, people have
been trying to kill me to keep from looking inside that airship.”

Sam
hadn’t gone as far as saying that he knew she was involved in the last attempt
on his life, but the tone of his words suggested that he was intentionally letting
her know that he was on his guard.

“Are
you kidding me? No thanks!” Aliana hid her guilt with indignation. “If you’re
going to check it out, I’m coming with you! After years of hearing about her
disappearance, do you honestly think I’m going to let you explore her by
yourself?”

“Suit
yourself,” Sam replied.

They
both climbed aboard the little boat and rowed out onto the lake toward the
Magdalena.

Aliana
watched as Sam fought to pull open the gondola’s hatchway, which was pretty
much stuck solid after all these years in this damp environment.

Just
like all men, Aliana observed, Sam doggedly attacked the first hatchway he
could find, while she, on the other hand, noticed that she could climb onto the
open-air gangway and then try to open the door from there, into the gondola.
The open-air gangway was above the water level, along with its hatchway. If
they were going to have any luck, that would be the most likely hatchway to
use.

She
reached up to grasp the thin wire safety railing of the open-air gangway, and
started to pull herself up, first by her arms, then by swinging her legs up to
one side, before climbing over the railing.

She
attempted to open the hatchway door with a strong push, but it didn’t budge an
inch. Then, she turned the door handle and pushed again.

It
clicked as it opened.

“Are
you coming?” She said, mockingly to Sam.

“I’m
right behind you.”

She
waited as he quickly climbed up to stand beside her, before pushing the door
open completely.

There
was no odor.

After
seventy five years, any and all flesh that might have been aboard at the time
of the crash, had long since departed from the remains of the Magdalena’s
passengers.

Still,
the ghastly sight in front of her took her breath away.

There
were eight skeletons in total, who sat lifelessly, in the open gondola before
her. Their clothing had almost completely disintegrated over time. 

Aliana
noted that one of them still wore a pendant around its neck. At its base, was
the largest diamond she had ever seen.

She
remembered reading about it in a book.

“It
was called the Rosenberg Diamond,” Sam told her.

“That’s
right. I remember reading about it one of my father’s books which was about
some of the greatest treasures ever lost without a trace.” 

Her
eyes continued to scan the gondola.

Each
skeleton was strapped into its seat, as though they were expecting a bumpy
ride. The rest of the room looked as though it had been ransacked. The once
majestic interior looked barren. She guessed that it wasn’t the passage of time
which had destroyed her, but something else entirely – it appeared to her as
though someone had deliberately removed all of the fine things that once adorned
the place.

As
her eyes continued to glance around the room and take in the entire scene, she
began to worry that they were not the first ones to discover the dirigible. It
was obvious to her that fixtures had been ripped from the walls, and everything
that hadn’t been bolted to the floor had been removed.

“I
wonder what went wrong,” Sam said aloud. There was a sadness in his voice.

Sam
had said the precise thing that she was thinking.

“They
must have thought they’d made it. They were so close. Looking at them now, it seems
as though none of them even realized they were about to die.”

“Look
at this,” Sam said, pointing at the ugly, brown wooden box, which sat amidst
the seated skeletons.

It
was one of the very few items still remaining inside the gondola, which had not
been bolted down.

“What
do you think’s inside it?”

“I
don’t know, but it’s pretty heavy. Anything lighter would have washed away when
the gondola was submerged.” Aliana watched silently as Sam struggled to open
the lid, until he asked her, “Can you help me with this?”

She
came up alongside him and helped him pull the lid open. The box was made of
some sort of solid hardwood, but the water had caused the wood to expand,
locking it closed, permanently.

Together,
they managed to pry it open, using one of the oars from the rowboat outside.

“Wow,”
Sam said, his eyes wide, “is that why your father wanted me dead?”

*

Inside,
Sam saw that there were more than a hundred gold bars, each one bearing the
letters G&O, artistically embossed in the center.

“Wow,
that’s a lot of gold!” Aliana said, pretending not to hear what he had just
said.

“Enough
to kill for?”

“What?
Of course, any number of treasure hunters would kill to get their dirty hands
on this,” Aliana acknowledged. She appeared genuine, but the faintest of
quivers to her bottom lip, reaffirmed her involvement.

Sam
decided that now was not the time to corner her on it.

“Yes,
well, I imagine that they were trying to get as much of their fortune out of
the country as possible.”

He’d
seen a lot of wealth in his lifetime, but he’d never set his eyes upon so much
solid gold in one place, at one time.

Their
luster gave them a uniquely strong allure, which surprised him.

“There’s
another box over here,” Aliana said.

It
was smaller, and easier to break open, but no less filled with gold. Inside it
were German gold coins and a small bag of precious gems, including diamonds, sapphires,
rubies and emeralds.

“No
wonder someone wants me dead,” Sam murmured, as he ran his fingers through the
cache of precious gemstones. He raised his eyes to Aliana, and said, “There’s a
fortune in treasure here – certainly enough to kill for.”

“You
still don’t know what this is really about, do you?” Aliana asked.

“It’s
what everything is about – Money, Power and Greed.”

“No,
it’s about something even worse than that,” there was spite in her response.

It
gave him pause.

Sam
had expected her to be more contrite, instead, she was almost attacking him.  

“Then
what it is it?” Sam’s voice was stern with her, for the first time since they’d
started this journey. Aliana had obviously known much more about it than she’d
ever expressed to him.

Aliana
didn’t speak a word.

The
guilty expression on her face was, in itself, enough of an answer.

Sam
ignored her. He had other priorities right now. He would deal with her later.
He walked slightly further ahead and found a single small suitcase with a chain
on one end. It terminated in a handcuff which was attached to what would have
been the wrist of one of the skeletons. Unlike the others, this small case was
entirely metallic.

He
started to pull at it, but it was completely intact and strong as the day it
had been built.

 “Don’t
touch that suitcase!” At her strident tone of voice, Sam turned to look at
Aliana’s face. There was recognition in it.

“Why,
what’s in it?”

“That
one must be destroyed. It is of paramount importance that we destroy it!” There
was true panic in her voice.

“Okay,
tell me why?”

“My
father told me about a virus that my grandfather was commissioned to create for
Adolf Hitler. It was supposedly more lethal than anything else ever created. If
Germany had succeeded in harnessing its power, the allied forces would have
never had a chance to win the war. Like the Japanese after the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Allied forces would have had no other option but to
unconditionally surrender, and Nazis Fascism would have succeeded.

A
sudden realization hit Sam like a thunderbolt. 

He
had just discovered the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle.

“Are
you telling me that the hunt for the last airship was never about the gold?”

*

John
Wolfgang knew the second he’d ended the phone call with Blake Simmonds that the
man had been keeping something from him. Simmonds was as ruthless as he was
calm. His voice hadn’t changed a bit when he mentioned that Carl was dead.

There
was something else that Simmonds was withholding, John was certain of it. He
knew people, especially some very deceitful people, and Blake was the worst
amongst the lot of them.  At least a thief could be relied upon to steal. Even
terrorists believed in something with certainty, but Blake worked on an
entirely different set of values, which Wolfgang couldn’t even begin to
understand.

And
how can you trust a person you don’t understand?

John
replayed the conversation in his mind. There was something about the way that
Blake seemed so overly focused about where he’d just been, almost as if he were
worried about his location…

Did
he know something about the Magdalena?