Second Verse: Peter Moably Philippine adventure series, #2

By Robert Hatting

Good life with a golden fever, unexpected life threats, and ex-wife dirty tricks. 

Peter Moably finally discovers what represents fifteen percent of a treasure. What happened to the other eighty-five? 
He has a hunch but the government drug interdiction, rogue CIA goons, Chinese underworld mercenaries all distract his efforts. 

Peter and his lovely Filipina wife take on these evil forces with the help of an eighty-nine-year-old great aunt. 
Watch and learn how Moably tics them off the list one-by-one while discovering an enormous treasure of gold bars. 
Tune in for book number two in the Moably Philippine series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blair Pacific Publishing
• Release date: Nov 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386514749

Robert Hatting

Born in Seattle, raised in numerous locales during his youth; including many years in the Panama Canal Zone, and on his grandfather’s ranch in eastern Oregon, Hatting was worldly and rural, bilingual, and developed the ability to observe and record at an early age. He also developed a strong work ethic and bravery beyond his years. He was a gifted athlete and an above average student. Moving often because of his father’s profession, he had to adapt quickly and positively. Plus he was often called upon to defend himself, so his martial arts skills were honed in reality — not in some gym (Being a new kid in school was a constant and often bloody challenge). Rob Hatting’s novels have been read by thousands around the world.  Rob writes from experience — his locales are actual places — described true-to-form; his characters are depictions or amalgamations of real people and his stories are grounded in reality. The underpinning of each novel is the base character of the writer. An adventurer by nature, his experiences range from that of a cowboy, rancher, deep-water sailor, professional diver, rodeo performer, businessman, auctioneer, pilot, trucker, knife maker, horse-trader, commercial fisherman, beach bum, and inventor. Each craft and adventure has given him a myriad of experience from which to write.  He can pilot a plane, drive most anything with wheels, and captain/pilot a ship. He boxed, rodeoed, and competed in numerous team and individual sports. Hatting spent two tours in Vietnam as a brown shoe, (civilian contractor) ten years as a computer salesman with NCR, and has bought and sold over forty businesses throughout the world (eight were weekly newspapers, four were knife manufacturers,...). Rob attended Western College of auctioneers in 1977 to augment his business and journalism degrees from OSU; using his creativity as a ‘turn-around’ specialist. His personal adventures morphed into novel writing while working on the Alaska Pipeline in 1975. His first novel was published in 1978; his second in 1981. He wrote and published several each decade and currently has twenty-one fiction, three non-fiction, and six screenplays available to his credit.  Rob became a full-time expatriate in 2003; Mexico, Costa Rica, and finally Panama for over a decade. He moved to the Philippines in 2015 where he currently resides.

Book preview

Prologue

Eleven hours to go! Just for this leg of the journey. Crap on a crowbar!

It was the price of living in the modern world; flying several miles above the earth — over the polar icecap and across the international dateline. This multi-leg journey had begun in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental and then on to Cebu City to Hong Kong to Seattle, to Portland and terminating in Redmond, Oregon. It would take two days out of my life. Stuffed into an aluminum cylinder fastened to rocket engines, I closed my eyes again and considered my good fortune.

I have to admit my upgrade to first class was superior to the economy class which had brought me to the Philippines a year earlier. A year that had catapulted me to a new world and a new life.

The biggest change for me was not the culture of a foreign land, but the fact that I’d fallen in love and had married again. The climate was certainly an adjustment, too. A central Oregon auctioneer accustomed to four seasons in the dry climate of the high desert to living in a tropical climate with two seasons. Wet and wetter.

My mind’s eye recalled the trip to the beach a few days prior; my thirty-two-year-old wife Carmen in a string bikini, enjoying the warm surf breaking over her feet and ankles as she walked toward me. I shook the image and recalled the last time my ex-wife, Danielle and I had taken a trip to the Oregon Coast. We’d driven for the better part of a day to reach Newport and the Embarcadero where we had a condo. It was not an enjoyable trip. Looking back I could see our marriage was not enjoyable. Not even when the kids were small. Our constant battle was setting the guidelines and boundaries for raising our children. I was old-fashioned, she was more liberal. Of course, the kids like the easier; the more liberal way. Consequently, when the break finally came, I had lost all respect for Danielle and our kids.

My mind flashed back to the beach time with Carmen. It was only thirty minutes from her house to our favorite beach resort but we had only been using it recently because of our constantly busy schedule; running her two businesses and building our new home and farm.

The guy seated beside me decided to put down his book and talk so I guess it’s time to be polite and either make a new friend or tell him to ‘button up’. His choice. Damn, sometimes I can’t believe what an asshole I’ve become.

...Pete Moably. Sorry, I was lost in thought and didn’t get your first name Mister Jeffers, I apologized.

"It’s John. John Jeffers, he repeated.

I had a trick to memorizing names with faces. I would always ask a second time. Then make a picture with the first name. In his case, a toilet (john), then add some action and I’d never forget John being flushed out of an airline shitter at forty thousand feet.

So, John is Seattle the end of your journey?

Nope. Connecting to Dallas. Gotta finalize my divorce so I can marry my Filipina girlfriend, he replied.

Where do you live in the Philippines? I asked.

I’m on Cebu. A little village on the southern end named Algeria. How about you? he asked.

I’m headed for Central Oregon. Gonna fetch my 89 yr. old Great Aunt and bring her back to my place near Dumaguete on Negros Island. I may be sitting in this same seat in a week, I speculated.

Jeffers nodded his understanding and suggested we share contact information.

I visit Dumaguete often, John stated. The ferry is only a forty minute journey."

We exchanged cards and then we went about our business. John back to his book and me back to remembering Carmen on the beach in her bikini.

I fingered my passport tucked into my shirt pocket. The US passport would be used to enter the US through Seattle. The Filipino passport would be used to reenter the Philippines when Betty and I fly from Hong Kong to Cebu City. That will be the first time I would be using my dual citizenship since it was issued for doing my limited warrior routine with the Abu Sayyaf. The other prize I had in my possession was the lifetime Salvage and Treasure License; issued by the President of the Philippines. The dual citizenship was a private matter, but the word leaked out about my license to treasure hunt and caused all manners of hare-brained offers from all over the world; including Japan.

The treasure we’d found from the map and journal of uncle Arlis was sitting in a cavern beneath the new home I’d built. It wasn’t the full treasure, just 12 bars of gold left by Leonard MacVoy as a token of appreciation for my uncle and his buddy, Billy Sprague for saving his life back in 1945.

A token of appreciation? I wondered what life was worth. You leave a waitress a tip, it’s usually fifteen percent of the total bill — a token of appreciation for services rendered. Would the Lieutenant have considered his life worth a decent service? Would twelve bars of gold represent fifteen percent of what was in that cavern?

I did the math in my head 1020 bars. Each bar weighed about one-hundred pounds. Over 100 thousand pounds of gold may have resided in that cavern until Leonard removed it and took it to the states. How does one move fifty tons of gold and not get caught?

Just for grins, I need to read the journal he’d left in the chest with the gold. Carmen and I had read the letter he’d written but not the journal. We’d put everything back and hadn’t touched it since the day it had been discovered.

I don’t understand the mental aspect of our decision; purposely not wanting to know more. Maybe it was a door that needed to stay closed for a while. I can’t explain it but I’ll certainly take another peek when I escort Aunt Betty into the cavern to see what else Lieutenant MacVoy had offered uncle Arlis.

><>><<><

My layover time in Seattle had been reduced because of our late arrival but I was able to communicate with Dave Whitefeather and advise him of my ETA in Redmond. I also sent messages to Pete Junior, and Cindy, my kids, asking them to meet me for lunch in Redmond. It was a long-shot but at least I had made the effort.

Portland terminal time to change airlines was a bit longer so I was able to contact my wife via Facebook. I hated having an account but at least it was handy to chat and do video calls.

Carmen had sent me a couple of photos she had taken on our honeymoon in Thailand. I almost broke my phone closing the cover so no one could see. Calling her a voyeur was an understatement. Sitting and waiting was not easy, so I slipped back in time to revisit our marriage and honeymoon. 

Thailand was interesting and a beautiful country but not someplace I wanted to live. Of course, we were there on a mission and didn’t get to see much other than Bangkok and a couple of beach resorts. Compared to my first honeymoon with Danielle, my Thailand experience was remarkable and memorable. My first marriage - not so much. Danielle and I spent a lot of my mustering out bonus and flew to Jamaica. After coming back from Desert Storm, I wasn’t all that anxious to spend more time in the sand. My idea of a honeymoon was Alaska for some good fishing.