Lost At Sea by Arthur Limbada (simple ebook reader TXT) 📕

    Gerald Hudson looked like someone Andrew knew from college. The label “nerd” came instantly to mind. He had short brown hair, neatly brushed to the side. His excited green eyes darted across the room from behind his rectangular shaped glasses. Unlike Terrance’s new male partner Tryon, Gerald shirt was perfectly ironed and buttoned, tucked neatly into his blue jeans. He was holding a small note pad in his hand as he jotted down notes while the lady spoke.

   “Ambitious, intelligent, probably arrogant,” were the thoughts that ran through Andrews head about his new partner.

   His gaze quickly switched to Gene. Of the four inexperienced detectives, she looked the most composed. An expensive looking necklace hung around her neck. Andrew guessed that it had some form of sentimental value. Maybe it was passed down from her mother. It was the only piece of jewellery visible on her.  She had an interested look in her large green eyes as she looked up at the lady, her short black hair falling over her face.

   He really couldn’t pick up much of her character from her appearance, though the way she occasionally pushed her bang to the side and tapped her fingers on her leg alluded to her nervousness.

    Gerald raised his hand in their direction, acknowledging them, and then looked up at the woman as she continued talking.

    “I hope every single one of you here realize the graveness and importance of this mission. Due to the minuteness of this mineral, Azite, every little bit is extremely important. I know some of you here are still fairly inexperienced but we are all depending on your very best, am I understood?”

   Everyone gave there assent.

   “Great. Before you go, I want to give you all my best wishes in this mission, and would like to stress the importance of it. The whole world is counting on you.”

    “I think we’re done here. There is a folder on the table for each of you, take if before leaving. Thank you very much.”

 Tyron raised his hand quickly before the lady could turn around. “Sorry, I just have something to ask.”

    “Go on.”

  “What about that boat or whatever that was seen on the radar of the Destroyer, do we know anything about it yet?”

   “As I said,” the lady replied, “everything is written down in those folders. But since you’ve brought it up I might as well tell you. The vessel that was spotted on the radar by William Tucker was a small fishing boat named “The Fair Lady.” It was found by the coast guards, floating aimlessly several miles from land. Strangely enough however, after they boarded they found it to be completely abandoned.

   We’ve got some of our experts analysing the boat this very moment. If anything suspicious is found on it, you will be informed, don’t worry.

  Everyone seemed content with that answer and stood up, picking up their files and heading for the door. As Terrance passed the lady he turned to her.

   “What if it’s the Kraken?” he said sarcastically.

   “Well then I hope it gets you first,” she retorted, not amused.

Andrew Gray led Gene Fay and Gerald Hudson back to his office. Andrew found that although they were taking exactly the same route as the one he had taken this morning; his whole mental attitude was extremely different. Before, his feelings while walking towards the briefing room were those of apprehension, doubt, and excitement, while now on his way back, though he still had the feeling of excitement, that emotion was overpowered by a greater one of determination, a greater will power that outweighed any other forms of anxiety he might have felt before. Reaching his destination, Andrew pulled the keys out of his front jean pocket, and unlocked the door leading to his office. Andrew motioned for Gene and Gerald to come inside, and once they did, he shut the door with a silent “swoosh” which ended in a low “click”.
After having done this, Andrew walked over to his computer, shaking the mouse for the screen saver to disappear. After entering the password that showed up after the screensaver, Andrew invited Gene and Gerald to come and sit around. Since there was only one extra chair, Gene sat cross legged on the soft carpet floor.
“Where shall we start off?” he inquired, while clicking around on his mouse.
“Could we research the reports of the Bermuda Triangle?” Gene asked, “Since I don’t know a lot about them?”
“Good idea, do you agree Gerald?”
Gerald did agree, so Andrew entered the internet browser on his computer. Opening Google, Andrew typed in the search “Bermuda Triangle legends” and instantly hundreds of pages showed up. Andrew smiled, remembering how long it had taken for internet pages to load five years ago compared to now, especially with the latest technologies he had access to. Clicking on the first link on the page, Andrew opened to a website full of stories of Bermuda Triangle legends.
“This one seems interesting”, he said, reading aloud.

* * * * *

Strange Disappearances

“There are strange parts of the so-called Devil’s Triangles. These are places where ships and planes often go missing. Islands lie at the three points of the triangles. The most famous is the Bermuda Triangle. Between Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico is the eerie Sargasso Sea. Hundreds of people have vanished here in the last fifty years. It can be deathly still, with thick seaweed and yellow mists. Or, in sudden storms, the sea can whip up and form heaving waves. Planes have fallen from the sky inside the Bermuda Triangle. Radios and compasses have stopped working. Are there strange powers at work? Or is it just all myth and unlucky coincidence?

Missing Ships

Small boats disappear there each year. Maybe that is not surprising because the sea can be so stormy. But what about large ships going missing? In 1980, a 12,000-tonne cargo ship called the Poet disappeared with a crew of 34 on board. The ship had just passed all its safety checks. The last anyone heard of the Poet was when one of the crew called his wife on the ship-to-shore radio. He told her that all was well. The ship was at the edge of the Sargasso Sea and the weather was fine. Yet the Poet vanished soon after this and nothing was ever found. Such mysteries just cannot be explained.”

Theories and Explanations

Many people think that the Bermuda Triangle reputation has been exaggerated and that the evidence for so many mysterious disappearances is not very strong. The say that many factors could account for the “accidents” such as frequent and sudden storms, and a particularly fast moving current that could carry unwary ships off course (Although this does not account for the experiences of those in airplanes).

Despite all these factors, however there are still many convinced that there is something very odd about the area – and some even odder theories about it. Some believe that aliens who are studying our planet occasionally make off with human samples. Others think that it is a door into time, or a fourth dimension, through which one may travel to new worlds or into the future or the past. Other theories are that there is a large sea monster living under the sea, which eats all the ships passing over him.

Bermuda Disappearances

1880 - British ship, the Atlanta, vanished with 290 people on board.

November, 1872 - The Mary Celeste, spotted drifting around the Azores, crewless

March 1918 - The Cyclops vanished in March 1918 with 309 men aboard

5th December 1945 - Five avenger torpedo bombers disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle; the flying ship sent to rescue them also vanished without a trace the same day.

30th October 1954 - Navy Lockheed Super Constellation plane vanished with 42 people on board.

11th January 1967 - Cargo Plane lost with 4 people on board.

3rd June 1984 – 27 meter ship (the Marque) lost with 18 people on board.

* * * * *

The list stretched on endlessly, listing all of the known disappearances connected to the Bermuda Triangle. Andrew skimmed through pages and pages of them, randomly reading out the name of a ship that disappeared and when it had happened. Andrew selected the search box for the website, and typed in “disappearance 2014”. Instantly, the hundreds of pages once there, disappeared from sight, revealing only one link left, titled “The Caribbean Dream: Our most recent ship to vanish over the Bermuda Triangle”. Andrew selected the link and once the page reloaded, it opened to this.

* * * * *

The Caribbean Dream

The Caribbean Dream was a cruise ship, a capacity of 4,000 people, including crew. The ship cost 450 million dollars in total to build and outfit, as it featured a large theatre, ice rink, as well as a shopping mall and two 50 meter swimming pools, one outdoors, the other inside. It also was equipped with a library and a DVD rental. Thomas Riley, the captain of the ship, stated before their voyage, that it was in fact the fanciest and most expensive ship he had sailed on and that he was looking forward to “taking this beauty out for a ride.” By the time the “Caribbean Dream” left the coast of America, it was filled up with 3,000 well paying passengers. The first stop was to be the Island of Bermuda, once going there and staying for a few days, the cruise ship was to sail down to Puerto Rico. That’s when things went awry. The major difference with the disappearance of the Caribbean Dream is simply this, it is the first and only vehicle, whether ship or plane, to disappear during what we know of the 21st century. Though we don’t have a large amount of information on the disappearance, we do know that it disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle, something that hasn’t happened in about 15 years.

The disappearance was straight forward enough for followers of Bermuda Triangle mysteries. The Caribbean Dream had left Bermuda exactly the same, plus seventeen passengers. The ship had been checked on before departure, and it was in good working order. One of the passenger’s had received a phone call from his mother the same day of the disappearance, and reported to her on the good time he had been having. He said everything was going wonderfully. Now though we know that the person who received the phone call wasn’t the captain or didn’t have any kind of knowledge about how the ship was faring, he could tell that in other things that everything else was fine. One hour after the call, the ship disappeared off the radar. When the satellite images