Story A
Atocha: Lost at Sea
Early in the morning, July 20th, 2022 in Forrest Meadows, California.
"What's the assignment for today?" asked Adam Fisher, head detective at the Murphy's detective agency.
"One, I'm sure you'll enjoy," Lieutenant supervisor Charles Pinkerson said, setting down a file that Adam read aloud: "Atocha: Lost at Sea"...
"But this was already found and all the treasure was taken, is there a reason why you're bringing this up, Lieutenant Pinkerson?" Adam questioned, obviously curious and confused, but knowing that his supervisor wouldn't bring him a 40-year-old case, he awaited with anticipation for the explanation.
"Well, it is true that it was found and most of the treasure was either lost or taken, however we aren't putting together an investigation and search team under your lead to find the remaining treasure on the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, but a missing compartment of the boat that is said to hold an even rarer and more valuable treasure. No one really knows what it is, and we would like to find it before word gets out and half of the world's national treasure hunters are on our tail."
Adam listened attentively and showed signs of interest.
"We both know that I love treasure stories and enjoy diving all over the world, so what's first?"...
"Hey honey. How are you feeling?" Drake Myers was currently in his wife Mel Myers' hospital room, where she was undergoing her 4th round of chemotherapy due to her neuroblastoma disease.
"I have been better." Mel began to laugh before quietly coughing up a storm.
"Ok, take it easy, you'll have a lot of time to laugh freely when this is all over." The senior nurse tried to reassure Mel as she began to make sure everything was set up.
"Well babe, looks like it is time for me to go, I’m gonna try to find the best way to get this settled." Drake kissed his wife's cheek before getting up and heading out the door.
"Bye, love you," Mel responded before turning her attention to the doctors and nurses.
Drake began to look up the cure for his wife's disease. He eventually found out there was a cure, Danyelza, but it was one of the most expensive cures in the world, costing one million dollars. Drake was astonished at the price! His career as a Marine Biologist only had a salary of $40k a year at Landry's Inc. in Texas, and he currently only had a net income of $90k. He decided to call it a day since it was 9pm and he had been researching and trying to find out ways to make enough money to pay for the Danyelza since 4pm.
It was a new day, a fresh new morning, sunny with no clouds in sight. Adam and his group of 5 headed to the Meadows Field Airport to get to Florida Keys in nine hours. Once they arrived, they continued to conduct research on the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, but didn’t find much about the secret compartment.
Drake woke up at 7am and ate his breakfast while proceeding to research for a way to earn enough money for the Danyelza. After looking through many different opportunities he finally came across a case of an artifact that would not only allow him to pay for the cure for his wife, but set them up for life. He then headed to SEARCH, Inc., which had some of the best marine archaeologists in the world and sometimes looked for sunken ships and artifacts. He met with the company owner, Kane Broen, to find out if they could help him.
After talking, they made arrangements for Drake to go with a team of the archaeologists to Florida, where Drake would then meet up with a team currently looking for the sunken treasure. Surprisingly, it took Adam's team a few days in order to get all the equipment and gear they'd need to make sure they could make multiple trips to look for the treasure, which they had only been given one month to find. Drake's team arrived with all their necessary equipment a day before Adam's team took to the waters off the Florida Keys, where the Atocha had originally been shipwrecked, nearly 35 miles off the coast of Key West. However, Drake's team had only 2 weeks to find the treasure.
Both teams set sail on July 26th, where they'd be 5 miles apart, but without knowledge of each other's existence. For the first 6 days, there was no progress from either team, and the two boats had crossed paths several times, but no conversation about either team was made. Both teams seemed to figure out that they were after the same thing, however, the 7th day provided some promise, as Adam's team recovered a little of the treasure from the shipwreck: 20 ounces of gold and 33 ounces of silver totaling 47k dollars. Both teams decided to preserve their findings in museums.
Both teams continued to search and found little things such as gold, silver, and even a few of the sailors' possessions from 1622. Drake's archaeologist team was given two more weeks due to their findings. As well as finding possessions of the sailors, they found massive dents in seamounts and some man-made structures that were also smashed and destroyed. One night, after another sighting of a seamount that seemed to have resulted in a massive landslide, Adam's crewmate that worked in Florida Keys told a legend about something that 'ruled' the area they were searching, maybe even a cause of the Atocha's shipwreck back in 1622.
"The legend goes along like this: 'Years ago... I think maybe 500 years... there was a simple caravel that carried a crew of 23 Spaniards who were sailing across the Florida Keys waters, led by Juan Ponce de León's fleet, and had been lost from a storm and separated from the fleet. They continued their journey through the waters, and one night, there was a big bump that slightly tilted the caravel, and there was a loud screech sounded below the sailboat, alerting the crew, but the crew had no time to react before some huge, scaled, multi-colored tail smashed the boat into two. Only a few members of the crew survived and swam to the Florida Keys.' Ever since then, there have been numerous sightings of a mysterious creature threatening boats. I have even encountered this beast, but no one really has seen it closely or clearly to tell what it is. It may just be a whale after all."
The crew continued their work, and every once in a while shared tales about the sea and other legends they had heard.
After 3 weeks of searching the Florida Keys, they still hadn't found anything about the secret compartment, and both teams of marine biologists and archaeologists started to doubt the possibility of the secret compartment's existence. To make matters worse, Drake just got a call from the hospital that his wife had just had a relapse and was now in critical condition, and she wanted to talk to him.
"Hey babe, how's the search going?" she asked in a weak voice, but her happiness despite her condition was evident in her voice.
"Not too good, found some gold and silver from the shipwreck, but nothing else… but we need to talk about you, how are you feeling?" Obviously concerned, Drake needed to know if he should go see her in the hospital, or continue his search for the "secret compartment."
They continued talking. Mel was getting considerably weaker as the days went by. The doctors were only giving her a month left to live. They agreed that Drake would continue the search for one more week, and then return to the hospital, no matter what.
The next day both crews headed out into the ocean at first light, on August 18th. After several hours of searching, Drake's solar scanner picked up something huge, causing it to blare constantly, sending the crew into panic. Within seconds waves crashed against the boat, as the boat began to keel, threatening to capsize. As the crew struggled to keep the boat afloat, they heard a loud shriek, one that was below them, and just as the waves started, they died back down, leaving the crew astonished.
It didn't last long however, as the boat was smashed into pieces, launching the crew into the air, in multiple different directions. Luckily, Drake and the marine archaeologists had put on their scuba gear. Unfortunately a few of the crew members were knocked unconscious, some of their gear damaged, and some of them severely injured, yet Drake only had a minor cut on his left hand, causing a bit of blood to bleed out into the water.
The loud commotion and waves threatening Adam's vessel drew the crew's attention to the destroyed boat, and Adam instantly plummeted into the ocean and swam over. The rest of the crew followed suit.
Finally with their team underwater, they got a glimpse of the legendary beast. A greenish-blue scaled seahorse that floated at 25 feet tall. It began to dart towards the divers, smashing into every obstacle in its way. The legendary creature knocked a few of the divers into a spiral as it smashed into Adam's boat, denting it, causing it to keel completely over and sink slowly. Only some of the equipment left was not damaged, leaving a few harpoons with their quivers, nets, trowels, picks, and one underwater drone.
The massive seahorse did a U-turn and headed over to the remainder of the conscious crew and stopped, its eyes moving back and forth between the crew. The silent seconds were filled with anxiousness and unease, causing an accidental harpoon fired toward the creature, slightly penetrating its scales, causing a loud shriek and a swift swing of its tail toward the crew, dispersing them.
Drake and Adam ended up on one side of Adam's sunken boat, and the rest of the divers on the other side.
"We need to form a plan!" Drake shouted, shooting a harpoon, lodging it into the side of the beast.
"Ok, how about we put the net around the beast's head and make a run for it?" Adam responded, tying two nets onto the drone.
"Ok, but where will we go?" questioned one of the archaeologists.
"Well, we had sent an S.O.S out when we found y'all's boat in pieces, so hopefully they will come rescue us. Let's just try to stick together and figure it out as we go?"
Adam then sent the drone towards the seahorse, catching its head in the nets, causing another shriek from the seahorse as it began to try to break free of the net, sending the drone flying through the ocean. The crew began to swim, using the ocean's habitat to their advantage as they swam deeper and away from the seahorse.
After about 15 minutes of swimming their air started to run low, and they began to resurface. On the way up, Drake spotted an odd-looking box made of something that resembled pine wood with rusted iron latches. He descended and struggled to open it. Adam pursued him and handed him a knife to pry the iron latches, and they found inside a perfect-condition, 150-carat, tinted half red and half blue diamond.
"Is this it!? The sunken treasure is an extremely rare diamond!" Drake began to ascend along with Adam.
Once on the surface, the crew was spotted by the Coast Guard and helped aboard the boat, and taken to the nearest hospital.
A few days later… The diamond was displayed under Adam and Murphy's detective agency, alongside SEARCH, Inc., before being placed in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. The money was split between the divers, while Mel received the Danyelza, was cured, and released from the hospital.
