The Archaeologist's Errand
A cluttered marine archaeology lab in Halifax at 11:40 PM, where the $190,000 is still in a duffel bag on a workbench and the lobster dinner has gone cold next to a sonar printout that shouldn't exist.
The marine archaeologist — Dr. Celeste Moreau — didn't buy the submersible for research. She bought it because her own sub died last week, mid-survey, 60 meters above what she believes is a 1762 French privateer carrying 400 pounds of uncut Brazilian emeralds in its hold. She's offering Double and Bust a 20% stake in whatever they recover if they pilot the sub back down to the wreck site off Sable Island — a three-day expedition leaving at dawn. The catch: Sable Island is called the Graveyard of the Atlantic for a reason, the sub they just sold her still has the screaming ballast pump they fixed with a coffee mug, and Dr. Moreau's last dive partner quit after what she will only describe as 'a disagreement about ascent speed.' Double wants to take the deal — 20% of a privateer's emerald haul could be generational wealth. Bust wants to take the $190,000 and drive back to Newfoundland before this woman gets them killed in their own former submarine.
“We already trusted that sub with our lives on the highway. Now it's worth emeralds instead of lobster. This is called a streak, Bust.”
“Her last dive partner quit over 'ascent speed.' That's not a professional disagreement, that's a near-death experience with a thesaurus.”
The ballast pump screamed the entire descent like a haunted espresso machine, but Dr. Moreau guided them straight to the wreck — and the first object Double pulled from the silted hold was a barnacle-encrusted chest containing 83 pounds of uncut emeralds, their 20% cut appraised at $2.1 million by a gemologist in Montreal who literally dropped his loupe.
I want it on record that the coffee mug held at 90 meters. That's not luck, that's engineering.
I threw up four times on the ascent — at a speed I would describe as 'reckless' — and I'm now co-owner of emeralds I will never emotionally recover from earning.