Sunday Fiction - Chapter 22

All previous chapters can be found on the fiction page

Bruce had no idea where to go from there. Carl was the captain; but he didn’t know the real reason for this excursion.  Bruce knew deep inside his sole that someone on this ship knew the real reason for the expedition. He hoped that Jack had not lied to him; but one could never be completely sure of that. His dealings with Stuart seemed to be straight forward and he didn’t really think that Lyle knew anything different. The father and son team seemed to be symbiotic.

That left him with the helicopter pilots – Matt and Joe.  They seemed to be exactly what they purported to be, helicopter pilots. They were sent out to look for things and most likely had no idea of the general plan. The pay was good, and they had no family. Why not join a crew for two years?

Steve had mentioned to him that he would be more than willing to answer any questions he had, and that he would be straight with him. Perhaps now was the time to ask Steve the pressing questions.

He left his cabin and went to find Steve. It was mid-day so Bruce figured that Steve would be preparing the evening meal. He headed towards the galley and it appeared to be empty. Entering the door that Steve came through each night at dinner he figured he would find the kitchen. What he found behind that door stunned him.

Charts and maps covered the wall. There were different colored pins and threads interweaving and connecting them. But that was not the strangest part. There was also a time line that had the same threads leading to the pins on the maps. The timeline began in July of 1993.  He had been told this ‘expedition’ was a two year endeavor, but looking at the times he realized he had been lied to yet again.

Head throbbing, Bruce attempted to make any sense out of the charts. What he could determine is that everything started from Texas. Was that a coincidence? He could have sworn Monica told him they were based out of Washington D.C.

Leaving the room with more questions than answers he decided it was time to go get some fresh air and clear his head.  Aiming towards the helipad he had not anticipated running into anybody. Although he was not clears on everyone’s responsibilities, it was obvious that everyone was occupied most of the time. For all he knew they were in their individual cabins.

The helicopter was not on the deck, so that meant Joe and Matt were not here. He ambled over to the chart room and noticed that neither Lyle nor Stuart were in there. He’d never been very good at geography, but he thought he might determine something from the maps. He saw that there were several binders with different dates on them. He started at the first one he could find. It was dated July, 1993.

Opening the binder and slowly turning the pages he was able to determine that this was not just a map of the area, but a map of the journey as well. It appeared as if 1993 was spent in the Gulf of Mexico.

Pulling down the binder marked 1994 he saw that the journey led this crew to the Caribbean. It appeared as if they made stops at several of the known islands as well as several of the unknown islands. There were notes on new islands they had discovered.

These binders also provided Bruce with more questions than answers and at this point he wasn’t even sure whom to trust to get the answers.