Read Online In Too Deep by Coert Voorhees - Free Book Online

“And?”
    “That’s it,” he said with a shrug. “We never found it. Mel Fisher looked—”
    “For twenty years for the Atocha —I know. My mom and I got my dad one of the silver pieces of eight from that wreck.”
    “Shipwrecks are amazing that way. The treasure can be right under your nose for years, and you have no idea if you’re hot or cold. That’s what makes it so frustrating, and so addictive. You think that if you can just stay in the game long enough, you’ll find what you’re looking for.”
    “So you didn’t find the Santa Lucia , and that was it?”
    “That was it. The investors ran out of money, and we all went on our way. Treasure hunting is expensive.”
    The kernel of a thought began to sprout in my mind, an explanation for what had been bothering me ever since our arrival. “There’s nothing wrong with this island, you know. The Good Deeds. They don’t need us here.”
    Alvarez turned and grinned like an idiot. “The locals worked hard to clean it up.”
    When it hit me, I laughed, and a piece of jicama snagged in my throat. “This is a sham?”
    “ Sham is such a negative word,” Alvarez said. “The Pinedale Academy prides itself on providing a wide range of opportunities for its motivated student body. I was just doing my part. Besides, I tend to get sick of being in one place too long.”
    “You just wanted to see your friend,” I said.
    The crowd had thinned out by now. The sun was well below the horizon, and the air held a slight chill. Wayo had distributed nearly all of his catch.
    “And you’re going to have Borders Unlimited on your college application. That’s what I call a win-win.”
    A wheelbarrow had appeared, and Wayo filled it with the skeletal remains of his fish. He lifted the white marlin by the tail, and as he moved it to the wheelbarrow, something fell from its mouth and hit the concrete with a thud. I stepped closer for a better look.
    It was a five-pound dive weight.
    Wayo sheepishly picked it up and tossed it into the wheelbarrow as he said something in Spanish.
    “Combined weight wins, huh?” I said.
    Alvarez shrugged as if to say, What can you do? Then he clapped and rounded up our little crew. “Let’s go eat some fish!”

EIGHT
    T he hotel room I shared with Katy was simple, with a thin carpet and twin beds on either side of a small bedside table. As with the previous nights, Katy and I had nothing much to say to each other. When we came back from dinner, she disappeared immediately into the bathroom. The springs in my mattress squeaked a protest when I dropped onto the bed.
    I sat cross-legged, the pages of de la Torre’s journal spread out in front of me, and a Spanish–English dictionary at the ready. There had to be something more in those pages—an account of what happened after the storm, or clues about whether the Jaguar made it onto the island—and if Katy wasn’t going to help out anymore, I’d have to handle it myself. The going was incredibly slow, given the combination of the calligraphy, the antiquated Spanish, and my utter inability to say anything other than “D ó nde está el baño?”
    “What do you think, Annie?” Katy said. She stood in the bathroom doorway wearing a bright red bikini top and an expensive-looking sarong that didn’t even come close to her knees. “Too first-world slutty?”
    I rested the dictionary in my lap and rubbed my eyes to make sure I was seeing clearly. “What are you talking about? Why are you—”
    “You didn’t think we were staying in, did you?”
    There was a knock at the door. Katy opened it to reveal Nate wearing a white muscle shirt and a gold chain necklace and looking a lot like a third-rate mobster. Behind him, Josh had wrapped his freshly showered hotness in a bright blue vintage T-shirt with something like a phoenix on it.
    Nate rubbed his hands together as if to warm them. “You guys ready?”
    “You don’t want to change?” Josh said.
    My voice didn’t seem to work. I