Dragon Gold

Chapter 7

Seven

Saturday, December 18

Offshore of Roatan

Julian stood on the stern of the Tesoro, smoking a cigar as his crew lowered his mahogany craft, the Gatsby, into the deep cobalt waters. He wanted to check on his open-ocean fish farms before twilight, then get his superyacht safely into the marina at Parrot Tree.

He was accompanied by Nguyen, his bodyguard, and Dr. Li, his new geneticist. As they motored over to Atlantis, the city of open-ocean nets, each one the size of a soccer field, he noted one net flapping in the breeze. He pointed with his cane.

“That one will need repair.” He shook his head. “By now that group has all gotten out. Too bad. They were the largest of my CobiX.”

“Yes, boss,” Nguyen said.

Julian instructed Nguyen to motor to the shark enclosure on the far end. He was pleased with what he saw there.

“These look about ready for harvesting. Wouldn't you agree, Nguyen?”

The bodyguard grinned. Nguyen relished the harvest. Unlike the locals, he never balked at cutting the dorsal fins from the still-living sharks.

Their next stop was an enclosure of large CobiX hybrids that hadn’t been breached. There weren’t many left, though. It seemed they’d cannibalized each other.

Julian scowled and turned to Dr. Li. “These CobiX hybrids require more protein than regular cobia. It looks like they’re going to need much more fish in their feed than anticipated. I’m hoping you can engineer them to be just as large but less dependent on costly meal.”

Dr. Li gave a curt nod. The new scientist had an icy edge that Julian admired.

Nguyen interjected. “When we harvest the shark fins, we could just feed their still-moving bodies to the CobiX. I think the hybrids would enjoy that.”

Julian nodded his approval. “Good idea.”

They then motored over to the enclosure that held the smallest of the CobiX hybrids. And yet they weren’t as small as Julian had anticipated. Or at least, the ones that remained weren’t. It was survival of the fittest in these enclosures.

Julian smiled. “These look healthy. Not as many left as I would like, but they must be, what, nine feet in length?” He tilted his head. “Yes, Dr. Li, decrease their protein requirements in the next batch of hybrids, but make sure they remain vicious.”

Dr. Li nodded once more, but remained silent.

Julian looked around and considered the state of his assets. They fell far short of what they had once been. Eight months ago, he had lost his shrimp and langosta farms, which had operated illegally in the Roatan Marine Park. Now his property here was limited to Atlantis. The farm existed fifteen nautical miles offshore of Roatan, putting it well outside Honduran territorial waters yet still in her economic zone. Honduras tried to take that too, in a case tried before the United Nations, but Julian’s lawyers won that particular battle, arguing that the old 2000 Law of the Sea was outdated for current mariculture techniques—the prime argument being that Julian only harvested what he implanted into his farms.

The courts siding in his favor had come at significant cost. Lawyers were expensive, as was greasing the right hands. Then he had to put Atlantis up for collateral to his lawyers to retain them for the next battle. A battle he lost. And Julian didn’t like to lose, particularly when it cost him something he wanted.

In all the subsequent legal wrangling, he’d been fined severely when Honduras sued him for environmental damages, using Dr. Eva Paz, of all people, as their expert witness in the red tides that Honduras claimed he was responsible for. Julian’s defense was that it was the pandemic that had hurt tourism, not the red tides. The court found that argument irrelevant—damage had been done, and Julian had to pay.

And now, on top of all that, he could see that Atlantis would cost more than he’d estimated to get it profitable again.

Which brought him to the bitcoin. A little over one hundred million US dollars’ worth.

The kind of money that would take care of everything.

He knew exactly where it was—on a ledger implanted in a monitor lizard named Plata that the i***t Ignacio had given to Dr. Eva Paz. Julian couldn’t be certain if she’d discovered it, but he had strong suspicions. Both she and her friend Thomas Sternberg had done well recently. Too well.

If they had taken his money… they would pay.

Julian turned to Nguyen. “While we’re out, let’s go say hello at Bailey's Key. I’d like to get back my plata con Plata before Dr. Paz knows we’re here.”

At the dock at Bailey's Key, after Nguyen threw buoys over the side to protect the Gatsby, Julian stepped off the boat and looked around. “Nguyen, do these enclosures look enlarged to you? This pier is new too, isn’t it?”

“Perhaps, boss,” Nguyen said.

Dr. Li stepped onto the dock as well, gawking at the dolphins, who were squeaking and whistling at him. The biggest one splashed water on him.

Nguyen laughed. “Don’t fall in, Dr. Li. If you thought our CobiX hybrids were scary, you’ve seen nothing. These big fish can kill you.” He made a big-daddy-shark motion with his arms.

Li brushed the water off in disgust. “They’re dolphins,” said Dr. Li. “Not fish.”

Nguyen shook his head. “You sound like Tran. But who cares what they are? They’re murderers and should pay for what they’ve done.”

Julian tapped his cane on the dock. “No, Nguyen, it didn’t go down like that at all. The report we got is that these dolphins killed the sea dragon that killed Tran. You should pay them some respect.”

“Who was this Tran?” Dr. Li asked.

“Nguyen’s brother,” Julian said.

“And he was our last scientist,” Nguyen added.

Dr. Li took a quick step away from the dolphins. “Perhaps I’ll just wait for you in the boat.”

While Li climbed back aboard the Gatsby, Julian and Nguyen walked down the dock to the island, following the beep of Nguyen’s GPS tracking device, which was tracking a receiver that had been attached to little Plata’s collar. Julian hoped to just grab the monitor lizard and its treasure and go, without encountering anyone. But as they walked, Julian felt a sense of dread. This place had definitely been upgraded. A new modern lab with a glass-walled conference room? How could Eva, a “scientist living on grants,” in her words, have paid for all this? Unless…

His dread turned to rage when the GPS led them to where a thick mangrove overhang where the monitor lizard should be. But instead of little Plata, a fluffy calico cat was curled up, sleeping. It wore a purple rhinestone collar.

Plata’s collar.

I’ve been had.

Julian cursed, then knelt and took the collar off the cat. Embroidered on the collar was the name Plata. The cat stood and stretched with a meow.

“They found the ledger. They stole my bitcoin!” Julian ground his teeth. “Ignacio was an i***t to think this plan would work!”

“Too bad he’s already a dead man,” grumbled Nguyen. “Otherwise, I’d kill him right now.”

“You may have your chance at violence, but for now we have to be smart. While there’s still a chance, however slim, that Eva still has the ledger and hasn’t already cashed in, we have to pursue that possibility.”

Nguyen looked deep in thought. Then his eyes widened as if he’d just realized something. “Sir… there’s another problem.”

“What is it?” Julian snapped.

“The encryption code for the ledger. Ignacio had it engraved on a gold bracelet. A bracelet that he always wore…”

Julian looked at the sky. “And Ignacio got swallowed by our sea dragon! Even if we can get the ledger back, now we have to recover the bracelet from the ocean floor. That i***t!”

“We know the coordinates where he went down,” Nguyen said. “It’d be a good use of our treasure-hunting equipment.”

“First we find the ledger. If Eva has spent it all already, no need for the bracelet. For now, let’s be on our way. I want to get the Tesoro to the marina before dark.”

Nguyen grinned, showing his teeth. “Go ahead, boss. I’ll be right there. I just want to leave Eva a little message to encourage her to cooperate. Too bad her dog isn’t here. This cat will have to do.”

“Do what you must. There are too many cats here anyway. And if it turns out Eva has spent my money, this cat will be the least of her worries.”