Fallen Pride (Jesse McDermitt Series) Read Online Free

of Homeland Security, a federal agency. Our papers are in order and you’re dismissed. Or, if you like, I can have Captain McDermitt here contact your boss and he can tell you you’re dismissed. Both ways, you’re gone and we’re in the water in less than five minutes. Your call.”
    The Lieutenant looked at his Sergeant, then handed Rusty the license back. “No wonder nobody like s you Feds,” he said as he motioned for the Sergeant to shove off.
    Once they were well away, Deuce turned to Rusty and grinned. Rusty said, “You really get your rocks off doing that, don’t you?”
    “Absolutely.” Then he looked over at me and added, “Let’s blow some sand away, Jesse.”
    I climbed back up to the bridge and started the starboard engine, while Rusty and Deuce looked over the stern rail on either side. I put the engine in forward and brought the rpm’s up to 1000. The mailbox would probably hold at 1500, but the water was only 20 feet deep and the big props on the Revenge move a lot of water. I held it there for about four minutes, then backed it down, put the transmission in neutral and shut off the engine.
    “Can’t see shit,” Rusty said. “You sure blew up a lot of sand.”
    We had to wait about ten minutes more while the compressor refilled the three tanks yet again. By then, the current had carried away most of the sand and we could see the outline of the ship clearly. We put our gear back on and headed back down to the bottom. We only had a couple of hours of daylight left.
    Before we even got close to the bottom, Rusty pointed and we all saw it. The unmistakable glint of gold. Even after more than 140 years buried in the sand, it gleamed like the day it was removed from the molds. Gold is too dense for anything to attach to it. Scattered in a small area were eleven gold bars and we each picked one up. I looked over at Deuce and Rusty. They were both having a hard time breathing, grinning around their regulators as they were. We each carried the bars up to the boat and I climbed up on the swim platform, while they went back down four more times. I stacked the gold bars in one of the fish boxes built into the deck as they brought them up.
    Once we had them in the fish box, we each leaned against the railing and looked down at them. “I can’t believe it,” Deuce said. “We actually found it.”
    “That there’s 110 pounds of pure gold, man . I thought they’d be bigger,” Rusty said with a grin. “Just the melt value alone, that’s worth over a million bucks.”
    “Historic value,” I said, “twice that and then some. Since it’s the property of a nation that no longer exists, the government will have a hard time proving ownership.”
    “Think there’s anything else down there of value , Jesse?” Deuce asked.
    “I doubt it . You read the information Chyrel gathered. The Lynx already unloaded here in Fort Pierce and was commandeered by Colonel McCormick at the last minute. All the crew made it ashore, except him.”
    “N o reason to hang around,” Rusty said. “I know a guy with the Florida Historical Society. I’m sure he’d be interested in buying it. We’re gonna have to get the state and federal government involved too, since we’re inside the 12 mile limit.”
    “I doubt Washington would even send anyone down,” Deuce said. “Not over a paltry couple of million dollars.”
    We started getting ready to return to the Keys. Deuce rowed out to where the stern anchors were set, taking a long coil of rope. He free dove down to each and used the rope to hoist them up to the dingy and then I used the windless to hoist the bow anchor. Within fifteen minutes we were ready to get underway.
    Just as the sun was starting to set, I pushed the throttles forward and the twin 1015 horse Cats responded instantly, lifting the bow and bringing the big boat up onto plane. I never get tired of that feeling. It was 250 miles back to Marathon, so we set the autopilot and took shifts on the bridge