Seizure(81)

My straining ears registered air moving in and out of Chance’s nose, my own heartbeat, waves lapping outside the cabin. But the lock remained silent.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

I sensed the other Virals drift back into the room.

I’d almost completed the final circuit when I heard it.

Clink.

Yes! 36. I had all three.

Time to close shop.

SNUP.

The power drained way. Thankfully, I was already seated. When the weakness subsided, I removed my sunglasses and rubbed my eyes.

“I have it,” I said. “The numbers are 24-12-36.”

“But 12 and 36 aren’t multiples of 8. It doesn’t fit the—” Chance stopped, went squinty eyed in thought. “Shoot. Maybe it was multiples of twelve.”

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Ben snorted. “Thanks for nothing.”


“Like you’ve never forgotten anything,” Chance shot back. “I’m on medication!”

I tried the digits in numerical order. The handle turned and the door swung open.

The safe’s interior was divided into levels.

Our prize rested on a red velvet cloth on the top shelf.

Anne Bonny’s cross was slender and delicate, beautifully carved from a single piece of cherry wood. The upright was two feet long, with the horizontal bar crossing six inches below the apex. The central ring formed a perfect circle at the point where the two parts intersected. A clear crystalline substance filled the space between arms and ring, causing the cross’s heart to sparkle in the lamplight.

Gracefully, uniquely, and perplexingly, the top tine curved gently to the right.

“That’s it,” Shelton breathed. “That’s the symbol on the treasure map.”

“Treasure map?” Chance didn’t miss it.

“Shelton, I swear, you’d make the worst secret agent in history.” Hi smacked his forehead. “Dead within hours. I’d probably off you myself.”

“Talk about this map,” Chance pressed.

No one spoke.

“Hey! I did my part. You promised to explain if I produced the cross.” Chance waved a hand at the safe. “Voilà! There it is!”

“This cross may be tied to Anne Bonny’s lost treasure,” I said.

Choosing my words carefully, I gave Chance a sanitized version of the events of the last few days. The other Virals listened in perturbed silence. But a deal is a deal.

“Wow. I didn’t see that coming,” Chance said when I’d finished. “Where’d you find the map?”

“On eBay,” Ben said. “Treasure map section. We paid the Buy It Now price.”

Chance ignored him. “And there was nothing at the end of the tunnels?”

“Only a goofy poem,” Shelton said. “Tory’s getting it translated.”

Wince. Cursing a blue streak, I reached for my iPhone.

“What?” Hi said.

“I’m such a dope.” I scrolled through my unread email. “Aunt Tempe sent me her translation two days ago. I fell asleep and forgot all about it.”

Finding the message, I read aloud:

On the moon’s high day, seek Island People.

Stand the high watch, hold to thy faith, and look to the sea.

Let a clear heart guide you through the field of bones.

“Great.” Shelton tugged an earlobe. “Now what the frig does that mean?”

“It says ‘island people’?” Ben sounded excited. For Ben.

“Yep.” I double-checked. “Both words capitalized. ‘On the moon’s high day, seek Island People.’”

“Moon’s high day!” Ben’s eyes gleamed. “That must be another full moon reference, like in the Sewee legend. ‘When the night sky burned as daytime.’”

“Sounds reasonable,” I agreed. “But how does that help?”

“And who are the island people?” Hi asked.

“I don’t think it’s a who.” Too agitated to stay still, Ben began pacing. “When I was a kid, my grandfather would take me fishing. Wherever we stopped, he’d teach me the old Sewee name for the place. He never accepted European changes.”

“Progressive,” Chance muttered.

Ben was too absorbed to notice. “One I remember—an island named Oneiscau.”

“Wonderful,” Chance said. “Let’s plan a cruise.”

“I think we should.” Ben stopped pacing. “In Sewee, Oneiscau translates to ‘Island People.’”

We all stared in shock.

I recovered first. “Which island?”

“No idea.” Ben shook his head in frustration. “My grandfather died when I was eight. But I remember seeing it once in a book about Charleston’s barrier islands.”

Hands fumbled for smartphones and began tapping furiously.

“How do you spell that?” Hi asked. “Sounds like a lot of vowels.”

“Got it!” Shelton won. “It’s Bull Island!”

“That’s close!” Ben exclaimed. “Just two islands north of here.”

“Oneiscau was renamed Bull after a colonial leader,” Shelton read. “Right about the time Bonny was hijacking ships in the area. She’d have known both names.”