Free The Simeon Chamber by Steve Martini Page A

the seminar.”
    Avoiding further entreaties, Nick managed to tug the final page of parchment from under Jasper’s fingers and carefully placed them in his briefcase. “Perhaps we can finish it tomorrow night. I’ll give you a call.”
    “Yes. Yes, please do.”
    Quickly Nick made his way to the door. He was halfway to his car before he realized that he had never thanked Molly for dinner. But he would live with the regret. He had no desire to get near Jasper again with the parchments. 75
     
    It was three in the morning by the time Nick finished interpreting the last line of the script.
    Using the page already deciphered by Jasper, Nick had struggled to match up the letters and words of the translated text with the balance of the pages.
    There were a few rough spots, but he had scribbled the substance of Drake’s message in a small notebook. He sat exhausted on the couch in the living room of his apartment and pieced the notes together. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, the sentences began to take shape. The first three of the four pages were a laundry list of treasure seized by the crew of the Pelican, later christened the Golden Hinde, as it traveled a circuitous course from the Azores to the Caribbean and south along the coast of Patagonia, through the Strait of Magellan and up the Pacific coast of the Americas. Listed were a dazzling array of artworks, precious gems and metals—
    four chains of solid gold, each three feet in length, a bag of pearls, two more bags of emeralds, fifteen barrels of silver bars, two large crates of gold bullion bars, twenty-two chests full of gold royals of plate and a crucifix of gold studded with emeralds. This special find Drake kept in his cabin in a locked cabinet along with an eagle of gold bearing a large emerald clutched in its talons. The bird he had plundered from a Spanish ship off the coast of Mexico. According to the manifest, Drake had taken many of the items listed from a Manila galleon as he sailed south from his exploration of the Oregon coast. It was a cruel irony for the Spanish and a stroke of good luck for Drake that two small ships adrift on a boundless ocean should come into contact off an uncharted coast. Drake captured the galleon, took her cargo and left the hapless Spaniards to sail south empty. The parchments confirmed the view of historians that Drake, contrary to the myth popularized in the movies and fiction, was merciful to his vanquished foes, never killing without cause or justification.
    According to the brief narrative contained in the parchments, after taking the Manila galleon Drake’s ship had sprung a leak and was in risk of foundering. The captain made haste to put in at the nearest safe harbor. It was this harbor that he christened his “Nova Albion.” Nick scrawled the translation in his small
    notebook.
    But it was the last entry of the four pages that raised the hair on the back of his neck. It was only five lines, and Nick read and reread it a dozen times. He stared at the words. The translation had to be wrong. He checked his notes and looked at the parchments again. There was no mistake.
    Suddenly Nick comprehended the full impact of the message scratched on the pages. For the first time in four centuries human eyes had read the secret penned by the fiery English captain, and Nick knew that any search for Drake’s journal would have more than merely academic significance.
    “Listen, Sam, we don’t have time for this. i have two trials in the next seven weeks and you should be developing new business. I think in the last year that we’ve humored your mother enough to last her a lifetime.” Pat’s eyes shimmered under the candlelight of the restaurant, her hands clasped, her elbows resting on the table, flanking a half-empty wineglass.
    “Nick’s studying the documents now. I think they’re worth money …”
    “Where have I heard that before?”
    It was a low blow. Pat had never allowed him to forget the episode in Alleghany.