CHAPTER THREE

Derrick was 11 years old when Rolph arrived at the ranch at the age of 6. He was the son of one of grandfather's trusted aides who had died on duty some years back. In his will, Derrick's father had left a letter and a badge pin which he had instructed his wife to present to grandfather.

Following her husband's last wish, Derrick's mother had gone to Marfa with her son and the pin.

The moment she presented it, they were accepted into the ranch and given their own personal quarters to stay. Derrick was put to work and training immediately while his mum was given a job in one of their factories because she had no education.

When Derrick and Rolph met, they were both half-orphans and their existing parents were hardly around to play with them. So Derrick suddenly became like a brother to Rolph and his little sister; Hannah.

They had the same training, slept in each other's quarters and depended on each other. but Derrick, being a smart boy, had always known who the master was though he didn't start calling Rolph 'master", until Rolph clocked 16 and grandfather gave him a quarter of Texas city to control.

Grandfather had called them and directly appointed Derrick as Rolph's personal bodyguard and second in command. Both of them were to take instructions from grandfather. Therefore, though Rolph was Derrick's master, he had no control over him.

Rolph turned the boat around and they made their way back to the said cliff. Rolph stopped the boat at the mouth of the inlet.

They each opened their backpack and brought out swimming gear.

"We can't leave the boat here in the open. Let's leave it over there." Derrick pointed to a corner of the cliff not far from them. Rolph nodded in response and restarted the boat. He then directed it to the corner and killed the engine.

After wearing their swimming gear, they activated the safety of their guns and tucked them into their sides before helping each other to zip up the suits. Rolph brought out a belt of knives and strapped it on.

"It will slow you down." Derrick pointed out but Rolph ignored him. He was still pissed.

They silently dropped into the water after anchoring the boat to a cliff and covering it with the brown drape. They made their way under water communicating by signals.

After some time, they spotted what looked like a very large set of iron rings layered atop each other and dropped into the sea. Using their binoculars, they saw that the rings had cameras and security lights on them so they could not be approached from underwater.

Derrick signaled for Rolph to wait and he swam to the surface then came back and signaled for Rolph to follow him. They swam in the opposite direction for some time and when they broke the surface of the water, they found themselves in what looked like an enclosed cave tunnel that went on and on with white bulbs overhead. This cave tunnel looked like an underground train tunnel and can take three trucks driving side by side at once.

It looked like it was built with the same materials the ring well that went deep down into the sea was made of.

Looking around and seeing nobody, they swam to the wall to inspect it. Derrick removed one of his fins and touched the wall. It was not cast iron. It was solid concrete. Someone had carved a cave out of the cliff and casted it in reinforced concrete.

"What do we do now? We can't approach from underwater."

Derrick looked around. "Well there are no cameras here. Let's swim just below the surface and see how far we can go."

"Okay."

They disappeared and soon they started hearing voices muffled by the water. Rolph motioned for Derrick to stop. From where they were, they could make out a deck and legs of people working on it. But they couldn't come up to look because a set of very big security halogen lights with wide spectrums were criss-crossing each other on the water while a third one was stationed permanently in the middle, not moving. Its beam was directly focused on the water. If a fingerling should swim close to that light, in this dark tunnel, it would be seen.

While Derrick was taking pictures from their awkward position, Rolph went down and soon saw what he was looking for. The ring well was just ahead of him and he made for it but soon collided with a net. Scared that he was caught, Rolph panicked and started trashing but sensing that the net was not wrapped around his body, he relaxed and unhooked a knife. He was about to cut into the net when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Derrick behind him. Derrick signaled to him not to cut the net then pointed at the distance.

Focusing his binoculars, Rolph spotted two white sharks swimming around not far away but on the other side of the net. He had never been this close to a white shark. And what was a white shark doing this close to the shore? And he was going to cut the net?!

Rolph was shocked. Even though he was underwater, he felt himself sweating. He gulped and instantly swam away from the net with his knife firmly in his hands. He looked around to make sure he was in the clear then headed for the way back not waiting for Derrick who was taking pictures.

With Derrick done, the partners made their way back the way they came from and when they returned to their boat, it was dark. Silently, they made their way back to the beach, cautiously returned to their hideout, hid their boat and changed into casual clothes. Then they entered their ford jeep and sped off with Derrick behind the wheels. Still not talking.

"From the look of things, it's a bigger operation and we should report it immediately. This is bigger than we can handle on our own." Derrick broke the silence.

They had been traveling for an hour in silence. When Rolph is that silent, it's either of two things. He was scheming or he was sleeping. And that his eyes were closed doesn't mean he was sleeping. The only way to confirm was to talk to him.

If Rolph was scheming, Derrick needed to stop him. From what he had seen in that tunnel, something big was going on and without grandfather's help, they wouldn't be able to get to the bottom of it.

"There should be another way into the tunnel. We need to find it." Rolph replied with his eyes still closed.

'I knew it. He was scheming,' Derrick thought to himself.

"Yes. There might be an entrance that comes out from the island."

"Sure. But that will be underwater. What I am looking for is an entrance from dry ground. Get some metal detecting machine once we get back to base. We are not reporting until I find that entrance." There was finality in his tone.

"Yes boss."

They fell into another silence and this time around, Rolph really did sleep off. (Edited)