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I snorted at that. “Totally.” I’d never driven a ship in my life. I wasn’t even sure if drive was the right word. Steer? Did one glide or float? I didn’t know the terminology, but I didn’t have to. I just had to convince this guy I wasn’t expendable.
He stared at me curiously, then stepped back, holstering his weapon. “Why don’t you join us,” he said, not really asking.
I followed him around the corner to a table. Three men were watching me carefully. I had to play this cool, like I knew exactly what I was doing. I took a seat and stared at the map in front of me. I wasn’t familiar with the area, but he said it was in Spain.
“So, what’s the take?”
“Aztec gold,” he answered. “A lot of it.”
“We’re a long way from Spain.”
“What’s your point?” another asked, glaring at me.
Yeah, I got it. I didn’t belong. I was the new guy and they didn’t trust me.
“I’m just wondering how you can be sure we’ll get there before someone else finds it.”
“Why is he here?” one of the other guys asked.
“Because he can get us where we’re going if the captain doesn’t cooperate.”
“And you trust him?”
They all turned to me questioningly. I chuckled, holding out my hands. This was going downhill fast. “Guys, I’m like you. I just want to make money.”
“Yeah?” one of them jerked his head at me. “And why’s that?”
“Well, basically, I worked a job and it ended badly. Then I ended up in Russia and I’ve been trying to get home, but I’m now listed as a wanted man. So, you can see how landing in a big pile of money would help ease the discomfort of not having anywhere to call home for the time being.”
It took a minute for them to all nod, but eventually, they came around.
“Krill,” the first one said, then it continued around the table.
“Omnis.”
“Mallock.”
Then we reached the guy who held a gun to my head. “Tim.”
I almost burst out laughing, but held it back. “FNG.”
“What’s that stand for?” Omnis asked.
“Fucking new guy.”
It was a shame that I was once again the new guy. And with this crowd, I hoped I wasn’t the new guy for long. With any luck, I could lose them at the next port.
Now that introductions were out of the way, it was time to get down to what exactly they were after. Aztec gold was a vague response. “So, what makes this gold so special that everyone’s looking for it?”
Tim turned the map around and pointed to the right-hand corner. “This is where I think the gold is. Have you ever heard of Montezuma’s treasure?”
“No.”
“It’s been missing for five hundred years. According to the legend, when Montezuma ruled over the Aztec Empire in 1519, a Spanish conquistador named Hernán Cortés landed on the shores of what is now Mexico. Now, Montezuma had spent years expanding the empire. By the time Cortés got there, the cities were filled with gold and silver. Rumor has it that the Spanish spent six months there before massacring hundreds of the Aztecs. After killing Montezuma, they fled with all the gold they could carry.”
“Yeah, but the gold is lost now,” Krill said. “The legend says that the Spanish had to dump the gold as they were fleeing.”
“It would have been found if they had dumped it,” Tim argued.
