Panama

By John Boyd

Denver Noles and his team decide to search for the Spanish treasures from map won by his deceased uncle during a World War II poker game. While searching the seabed off the coast of Panama an explosion rocks the Panama Canal.
A huge cargo ship inside one of the canal locks system is pushed out from the canal during the explosion.
Two men tumble into the water from their ship while Denver and his crew are nearby searching for Spanish gold. They pull the men from the water surprised they are U.S. Military and further surprised by learning what cargo is on the ship.
Noles and the others try to look for more survivors as the ship sinks, from sabotage and find more than they bargain for.
The hunt for gold is delayed as they have to hunt for the missing cargo and fight for their survival from a most deadly enemy.
A fight that even their SEAL training might not have prepared them for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329490284

Book preview

Panama

PANAMA

By

John R. Boyd

Four Pawns Publishing

901 N. Gadsden St.

Tallahassee, Fl. 32303

www.fourpawnspublishing.com

© 2014, Four Pawns Publishing, All Rights Reserved

Acknowledgments

To George Modric, my best friend, for taking time away from life to help mine.

To my team and friends, Robert Ray, Donna Carver, Bernard Daley, Audrey Graves, Lars Bjerga, and the continued effort you have put into my brand is amazing and humbling. Bonnie Hearn-Hill, for editing, advising and guiding this work, thank you, you’re a pro. Thanks for everything.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third party websites or their content.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

PROLOGUE

Panama, 1671

For years Captain Henry Morgan had wreaked havoc on the Spanish holdings throughout the Caribbean from his home base in Jamaica. Over time he earned the reputation as England’s most famous buccaneer. Morgan had amassed a tremendous fortune at the expense of the Spaniards, all while turning back every attempt by their Navy to stop him. With news of the pending peace between England and Spain in December, 1670, he sailed for Panama, his most famous and final raid.

Morgan commanded a personal armada that included thirty- eight ships and more than two thousand men. They landed at Limón Bay near the coastal town of Colón, Panama, located on the Caribbean side of the Isthmus. He intended to march to Panama City. His sights were set on the Spanish gold and other riches he knew were there. His spy network was the best in the Caribbean and throughout the countries that bordered the area. They had told him of the governor’s cache.

As Morgan and his men marched across the Isthmus, they captured towns along the way. They were traveling the road that the Spanish had built during the 1530’s, after Francisco Pizarro’s conquest of the Inca. The road linked Panama City on the Pacific Coast to Colón on the Atlantic/Caribbean. The Spaniards had carried gold and treasures along this route to their waiting ships for transport back to Spain. Captain Henry Morgan planned to do the same, except that his destination would be Jamaica. He found the fact that he was on the Spanish road ironic, as he and his men were now going after their treasure.

At the news of Morgan’s impending arrival, Panama’s governor called on the Spanish Army to defend the city. However, when the size of Morgan’s force was corroborated, the governor decided to take drastic measures to protect the King’s gold. He sent for one of his top soldiers. He had a plan. According to the latest information, it would take another two days for Captain Morgan and his pirates to reach Panama City. Morgan and his men were taking their time along the fifty-five mile march. They were busy capturing towns along the way which was impeding their progress. Inside the governor’s office, he and Captain Hidalgo de la Cruz met to discuss his plan to save the gold.

How many men will it take to handle the gold? the governor asked.

That is not our problem. Three wagons with two men each are sufficient. It’s the number of men we will need to overtake two ships and their crews. Probably twenty men will be enough, said Captain de la Cruz.

You still don’t like the idea of taking two ships? the governor asked.

No, but your plan for a decoy might be wise because they will surely chase us, said the Spanish Captain. Besides battling the English Navy, he had spent many voyages providing protection against pirates such as Captain Henry Morgan.

Then you must hurry, said the governor. He stood abruptly, thus ending the meeting.

Captain Hidalgo de la Cruz stood and bowed before he backed out of the governor’s office. He quickly picked twenty of his best men to prepare and load the wagons. He and his men worked through the night to load the three wagons. Each would be pulled by a team of eight oxen.

They left at dawn, each wagon loaded to the top with the spoils of the conquests of the new world. When returned to Spain, this load of riches would be the largest from the new world since Pizarro’s conquest of the Inca more than a century earlier.

Captain de la Cruz and his men moved along Camino Real, the original Spanish road built along the Isthmus, through the town of Chilibre. Two of his scouts rode up, warning him that Morgan and his pirates would soon be upon them. De la Cruz signaled for the drivers to get off the road and hide the wagons out of sight. He and his men waited patiently as Morgan and his group passed. They would repeat this scene many times. It took them almost two more days to arrive in Colón, on the shores of Limón Bay on the coast, where Captain Morgan’s thirty-eight ship armada awaited his triumphant return.

Captain Hidalgo de la Cruz devised an ingenious plan to capture two ships, stow the gold, and escape. One ship would be loaded with all the gold while the second would be full of worthless crates filled with rocks.

Through the years of battles with the British, Captain de la Cruz and his men had captured many British prisoners and taken their uniforms for times like these. He and ten of his men would dress as British sailors, like Morgan’s crew. De la Cruz and his men were able to speak both English and Spanish. They approached one of the waiting crew boats that lined the shore and the armed men who were guarding it. Morgan’s fleet lay anchored off shore. Morgan had left only skeleton crews on board as he knew the Spanish fleet had returned south to Peru from Panama on the Pacific route, after delivering gold and other valuables that would later be taken back to Spain.

De la Cruz quickly explained to one of the armed guards that Morgan had sent them back to load what they had found so far. He led the man to one of the three wagons filled with gold. Upon seeing the gold, the guard motioned them to one of the crew boats so they could take their loads to the ships. He even helped load the first boat. Captain de la Cruz sent the first of the two crew boats and half his men to the nearest ship, while he and the rest of his men stayed to load the last two boats. From shore, they could see that his men encountered no problems, as they worked with the skeleton crew to unload the crew boat on Morgan’s ship.

The plan was that Captain de la Cruz, the other half of his men, and the rest of the gold would leave shore and head directly to the same ship. They would unload the second half of the gold while the first crew went back to shore to load up the fake crates and head to a second ship. Then, in a coordinated attack, they would overtake Morgan’s crews on both ships and set sail for Spain. The decoy ship would head toward Cartagena, a Spanish stronghold, while the second ship would take the northern route toward Spain, laden with gold.

Captain de la Cruz launched the two remaining crew boats with the gold. His first crew had not yet returned as planned. However, he wasn’t too concerned as he knew they were some of his best men. When they were within three hundred yards of where the ship was anchored, he could see muzzle flashes in the night sky and knew they had been discovered. He ordered his men to continue rowing toward the ship to help the first crew and was shocked to see that the sails were being raised along with the anchor. When he realized they would not reach the fleeing ship in time, he diverted the crew boats to the nearest ship, a captured Spanish Galleon. They tied up alongside the galleon and Captain de la Cruz climbed aboard. He told the story of the captured gold to the ship’s unsuspecting captain who quickly called his crew to assist in unloading the crates. Once the last crate was aboard, Captain de la Cruz and his men overpowered the pirates and set sail in pursuit of the other ship, his men, and the other half of the gold that he had been entrusted to take to the King of Spain.

At the edge of Limón Bay, near its entrance to the North Atlantic and Caribbean, Captain de la Cruz caught a glimpse of the fleeing vessel. It was ablaze and clearly sinking. By the time he arrived, the ship had sunk with all hands lost. He could do nothing but continue on to Spain with only half the gold and half of his men. He decided to follow his original plan and head north from Panama around Cuba to the north. It was the route that posed the least risk of encounters with either the pirates or the British. He went to the galleon’s helm and gave the captured captain orders, repeating the same in Spanish to his men who he’d put in charge of watching the captain.

At the exact moment de la Cruz fled Panama by ship, Captain Morgan and his superior force reached Panama City. In a last ditch effort to turn back the greater force, the Spanish stampeded a herd of cattle in the pirates’ path. But Morgan’s men easily diverted the cattle with only minor losses. Upon seeing this, the governor ordered Panama City burned rather than have it fall into Henry Morgan’s hands. After an exhausting search, it became apparent that Captain Morgan and his men had been duped. The gold was gone.

Weeks later, when Morgan returned to his fleet, he was told of the midnight flight of two ships laden with Spanish gold. The news that the gold had been smuggled out from under his nose actually made him laugh.

A year later, Henry Morgan was forced to return to England to face charges of piracy. However, a forgiving King Charles II knighted him instead and, in 1674, named him Deputy Governor of Jamaica where the infamous pirate lived the rest of his life.

Captain Hidalgo de la Cruz and the Spanish gold never made it back to Spain, nor was he or any of his men ever heard from again.

Pearl Harbor, 1941

It was December 7, 1941, and the pot had grown to a little more than thirty-one hundred dollars. Seaman First Class Harry Tolliver was sitting on four deuces.

Harry and the other four players had been at it for almost eight hours. The weekly card game was taking place at Madame Chu’s on Hotel Street in Chinatown, two dives down from where Mauna Kea intersects with Hotel Street. Harry and the other sailors had been playing all night. Madame Chu’s catered to the American servicemen stationed at Pearl Harbor. Harry had worked an arrangement with Madame Chu to rent a room one night a week for the card game. She calculated how much revenue she’d lose, with one of her eight rooms being out of service for the night, and charged them that amount as a fee. But the room was private and the MP’s stayed away from Madame Chu’s, so it was a good setup.

Harry had joined the Navy in 1940, at the request of his father, Captain James Tolliver, a submarine commander. Harry had reluctantly enlisted, knowing the Navy would be the lesser of two evils. The first would have been his father’s wrath, compounded by his grandfather’s, who was also a Navy man that had proudly served in World War I. Harry had been stationed at Pearl Harbor, while his father operated out of the Philippines. Every few months his father would show up at Pearl and try to convince him to join him and become a submariner. In the year Harry had been in the service, he’d managed to sidestep his father’s requests.

He’d also finally found something he was good at poker. So far, Harry had won about thirteen thousand dollars. By his calculation, he was one of its highest paid sailors in the Navy; a fact that always amused him. Now, sitting at the table in the smoke filled room only he and one other sailor were left in what would surely be the last hand of the night. He looked at his remaining chips and saw that he had a little more than five hundred dollars, almost twice as much as the stack in front of his adversary. He took a deep breath, looked at his four deuces and the Ace of Spades and laid them face down on the table. Harry pushed all of his chips into the bulging pile in the center of the table.

All-in. Five hundred and twenty-five dollars to you, Benny, Harry said.

Sweat rolled down Benny’s cheeks. He looked at his cards, set them down, counted his chips, and looked up at Harry. They’d known each other for a year.

I’ve got two hundred and fifty dollars, Harry. Will you take an I.O.U. for the rest? he asked.

You know the rules, Harry said.

Harry, you know me. I’m good for it.

It’s not that I don’t trust you, Benny. I don’t want any hard feelings, but rules are rules, Harry said. He nodded at the other players who were waiting to see what would happen with the largest pot they’d seen yet.

You’re right, Harry, Benny said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of pieces of paper. He tossed them into the pot.

What’s that? Harry asked.

I won those maps off a British sailor in Singapore last year. Cost me a thousand dollars. He swears they are real.

Harry picked up the maps, looked at them and was about to toss them back at his friend when he thought he heard the unmistakable but distant sound of an explosion.

OK, Benny. I’ll call it even. But they aren’t really worth anything.

The other sailor smiled. Thanks, and sorry, Harry. He flipped his cards over. A full boat. Kings over little ladies, he said, and leaned forward to grab his winnings.

Not so fast. Harry turned over his four deuces and grinned. He picked up the two pieces of paper, slid them into his pocket and pushed the chips to the banker to collect his winnings.

The other three sailors were looking out of the second story window toward Honolulu harbor.

Damn, guys something’s happening, said one of the men. We’ve got to get back to Pearl. It looks like all hell is breaking loose.

Money in hand, Harry Tolliver followed the others out of Madame Chu’s, running down Hotel Street and back to Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese raid was almost over by the time they made it back to the base. The luck of his timing that day was never lost on Harry Tolliver for the rest of his life.

Japan 1942

Akira Tokugawa silently stood at attention in front of Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan. Japan’s fleet had suffered its first setback in May, 1942 when the U.S. fought the larger force to a draw in the Battle of the Coral Sea. The following month, the U.S. defeated the Japanese at Midway. The prime minister knew that something drastic must be done.

The U.S. was united at home and building up a powerful war machine. They were now bypassing Japanese blockades and, thus, able to reinforce and resupply their troops at will.

Is it possible, Tokugawa-san? the prime minister asked.

Yes, Prime Minister. I believe so. I have studied the drawings, as have our experts.

Good then, Tokugawa-san. I am depending on you and so is Japan. Anything we can do to disrupt or slow the Americans and their allies is critical for our ultimate victory.

Akira Tokugawa bowed and left the meeting. He was the great-grandson of the last Shogun of Japan, Keiki Tokugawa, and with that name came honor, pride and responsibility. He, as all of his family members had been for hundreds of years, was willing to give his life to help Japan survive. Tokugawa was in charge of Japan’s spy network throughout the United States and into Latin America. Having been educated both in Japan and the United States gave him a unique perspective on the adversary and that part of the world. When the war started, many of his countrymen who had immigrated to the U.S. had been unjustly persecuted by the Americans, but, by the summer of 1942 all of his American-based agents of Japanese descent had either fled the U.S. or been placed in internment camps.

He had been sent to the U.S. in the mid-thirties during the depression because money had not been a problem for him. It was during those years that he had been recruited to spy and gather information on the weaknesses of the emerging giant. During that time he had witnessed many of its people struggle. However, they also had an undying faith and hope for the future, and a fierce pride in their country. Unlike the Japanese who, with a culture that dwarfed the Americans in its longevity, had become complacent. The Americans promoted freedom and allowed