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“We’re fine,” he said, hearing the bedroom door open and seeing Remi standing there, a vision in her off-white silk robe. “It’s Selma,” he said.
She walked over to the extension at the desk and picked up the receiver there. “Hello, Selma,” she said.
“Mrs. Fargo. Good to hear from you. Just wondering how it went last night?”
Remi eyed Sam through the doorway, saying, “Perhaps you’d like to answer?”
Apparently she wasn’t quite over their disagreement. “We ran into a bit of an issue when our boat blew up.”
“I’ll contact the insurance company.”
“Actually,” he said, “if you could hold off on that.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“The RCMP have agreed to keep our rescue quiet for now. To buy us a little time.”
“Time for what?” Selma asked.
“My question exactly,” Remi added.
“If whoever set us up last night thinks we’re dead, maybe they won’t be in such a hurry to come after us. I’m hoping we can make some progress on the maps and finding that cipher wheel.”
“Except,” Remi said, “we’re checked into our hotel under our real names.”
Good point, Sam thought. “Let’s hope the explosion was convincing enough that they’re not calling the area hotels to find out if we survived. Now, about that cipher wheel,” he said to Selma.
“That’s the reason I wanted to call you,” she said. “Bree told us about your idea of taking the outline of the maps to see if there are any similarities to other islands.”
“My idea?”
“She said you mentioned it on the plane. That the maps were similar in shape to a number of other islands in the Atlantic. Her suggestion was to rule out those that weren’t frequented by pirates and compare the map to the shape of those with rumors of treasure, such as the Oak Island legend.”
“That one didn’t end well.”
Selma cleared her throat. “Anyway, while we were working on the cipher code last night—and not having much luck—Bree took the illustration of the map from the Pyrates book that was thought to be that of Oak Island and started comparing it, shape-wise, to islands in the Atlantic. She found one that we think is a pretty close match off the coast of Brazil. Ilha da Queimada Grande. It fits with the Latin serpens Lazlo found in the text.”
Sam noticed that Remi’s I-told-you-so look faded into one of concern. Though neither had actually been to the island, they were well familiar with the area. They had studied it in the past, due to rumors of Incan treasure being buried there. Ilha da Queimada Grande, aptly nicknamed Snake Island, was home to the golden lancehead, a species of pit viper so venomous that the Brazilian Navy had forbidden all public access. According to the island’s geological history, the rising sea had separated Ilha da Queimada Grande from the mainland more than eleven thousand years ago. The isolation was the reason the vipers on the island had evolved into the most venomous snakes on earth. With only seabirds landing on the island and no other prey, the snakes needed a fast-acting venom that would incapacitate a bird before it could fly away. Snakes aside, there were several documented shipwrecks in the area around the island.
“And what is it we’re searching for?”
“If the map is legit, a shipwreck off the southern tip of the island.”
“Even if we spent years searching, the odds would still be astronomical that we’d find the cipher wheel.”
“If,” Selma said, “we were actually looking for the wheel itself. I’m hoping for the next-best thing. Identify the ship.”
Remi’s brows went up. “Am I missing something here?”
Even Sam was stumped. “How does that help us?”
“Lazlo thinks the stolen cipher wheel was a copy and that the ship’s captain scuttled his vessel to keep the wheel from being captured. Which means the original cipher wheel’s still out there. Narrow down where and when that ship was made, we might be able to identify its owner through manifests. We find its owner—”
“—We find the original cipher wheel,” Sam said. “Send us what you have.”
“It should be waiting in your in-box. Along with travel information that I’ll be passing on to your flight crew for the trip to Brazil.”
He dropped the phone into the cradle, got out of bed, and joined Remi in the other room. “That sounds promising.”
