Piranha

He hoisted himself up onto the lip of the cave floor and heaved Max out after him.

Max peeled off his mask and spit out his regulator.

“You know,” he said, his voice seemingly muffled by the blackness around them, “I could be on the ship knee-deep in repairs.”

Juan laughed. “I thought you’d like to see this since you missed Haiti.”

“You thought I’d want to see a dank, dark cave? Do I look like a Morlock to you?”

“Half Morlock. But the cave won’t be dark for long.”

Juan removed four high-powered LED lamps from his waterproof pack and arrayed them on the floor. When he lit them up, Max leaped to his feet.

The cavern they were standing in was three times the size of Sentinel’s cave in Haiti, so big that it extended beyond the lights’ reach. Brilliant green crystals sparkled in every crevice, some shaped like rosettes, others the circumference of cedars that had sprouted from the floor and grown through the roof high above.

“Holy Emerald City, Batman,” Max said, rubbing his hands together in glee. “We’ve hit the jackpot here.”

“They’re not emeralds. They’re selenium crystals colored by copper impurities. Not valuable as a mineral on its own, but for someone who has the means to create Sentinel—priceless.”

“How did you know this would be here?” Max said as he turned in a gawking circle.

“The video we recorded of Kensit’s office on the yacht. He had a map on the wall that said Phase Two. Underneath it had the exact latitude and longitude, plus a third number that I finally realized was depth. I was pretty certain he had found another cave. And if it was like the one in Haiti, it was a good bet that we could find a way in.”

“For all we know, this might be the only other cave like this on earth.”

“You may be right. The only similar cave that had been discovered is one in northern Mexico called the Cave of the Crystals, but those crystals are bone white so they don’t have the same properties as these Oz crystals.”

Max suddenly stopped gaping at the wondrous view and looked at Juan.

“You were afraid Kensit might sell his technology and let them build another Sentinel in this cave. That’s why you destroyed the yacht.”

Juan kneeled and picked up one of the crystals to examine its facets, careful not to cut himself. “I destroyed the yacht because Kensit had to pay for attacking my people. But it did worry me that if he survived, he would buy his freedom with the secrets of Sentinel and the location of this cave.”

“I can’t blame you. I know I wouldn’t trust anyone with that technology. If absolute power corrupts absolutely, wielding Sentinel would put almost anyone on the fast track to being a tyrant.”

“As we’ve seen already. And if one man like Kensit could be corrupted by that much power, imagine what a whole government could do with it.”

“Who knows about this place?”

“Just us. I figured what Langston Overholt doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Besides, it’s on Mexican soil, so the U.S. government wouldn’t exactly have a strong claim.”

“But what if the Mexican government got in on the action?”

“Then it would get complicated. They could keep it themselves or sell it to whoever they wanted. A conglomerate with big pockets. A drug cartel.”

“That brings up a good question. Who does own it?”

“Me.”

Max regarded him with surprise. “You?”

“I discovered the name of the shell company that Kensit controlled to buy it. Since the company’s owner is now deceased and left no decedents, I put in a lowball offer for this seemingly worthless piece of land, including the mineral rights. It’s a matter of paperwork now.”

“But how did Kensit find this place?”

“Who knows,” Juan replied. “Geological survey. Or maybe he used Sentinel somehow. We’ll never know what it was capable of with Kensit dead and the plans destroyed. Who knows if anyone will ever be able to re-create his work. For our sakes, let’s hope not.”

“Kensit was a psycho, but he was also a genius, wasn’t he?”

“I’ll grant that he was smarter than any single one of us, probably by a wide margin. But his mistake was thinking he was more brilliant than all of us put together.” Juan took two Coronas out of his pack and handed one to Max. They clinked the cans together before sitting back to take in the sights.

“And I tell you what, my friend,” Juan said with a contented grin. “I’ll take a team of smart people over a lone genius any day.”

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