I was lying in my bunk when I suddenly I heard a voice. It had this strange stereo effect. I heard it once like in my head and at the same time through the speaker of the ship’s radio. Am I hearing radio now? I’m not growing any antenna as far as I can see. One more thing to add to the pile of mysteries.

"This is captain Smith of the USS Weston. You are approaching a quarantined area. Cut all engines and prepare for inspection. Please acknowledge!" I peeked outside the cabin and saw Bob coming from the direction of the toilet racing to the bridge, still trying to fasten his pants. Yep, those phone calls always come at the worst time.

Oh, there was really a ship on the horizon. From what I could see it was one of those newer all stealthy weird things.

"This is Robert Parks of the research ship Neptune. We are preparing for your arrival."

So we were a research ship now. I haven’t seen much research so far except for those guys ‘researching’ men's magazines.

After a few minutes the war ship came along side. We all stood on deck for the welcome. Bob said that hiding out of sight didn’t work with the sensors on these ships, but they weren’t looking for missing persons anyway as that’s another part of government anyway. The weird stealth ship unfolded two robotic arms that clamped on the posts where you normally would have used ropes, but I guess that was not fancy enough for the military. With some groaning sounds, the ship pulled itself closer.

Then, the captain of the ship stepped on some platform that swung down for him on another robotic arm. He stepped on the platform and the arm moved toward out boat. Really fancy stuff, the platform was kept perfectly level independent of the movement of either boat. When the arm moved to our boat and matched its movement so the captain could easily step on deck. Our own captain was extending his hand, just as the military man stumbled when stepping of the platform, so Bob quickly grabbed his hand to help him with his balance. Many mouth corners were trying really hard not to curve upwards.

"Captain Smith, welcome to the Neptune. What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to know your destination and see your permits. This is a dangerous area. We have reports that the whole area is filled with contaminated savages."

"No problem, captain. Our destination is not fixed. We are studying the adaptation of migratory birds to the changes to the African coast. However, might I introduce you to our team leader, Jack Daniels. He will make things clear. Right this way, sir."

A smile appeared on the face of captain Smith. The two captains disappeared into a cabin. After a few hours they emerged, well inebriated, with Captain Smith was carrying a small wooden box.

"Captain Parks, *hiccup* I will keep this paperwork with me for further investigation, but it all seems good. Very good. You go on and have fun over there."

He patted his box that had glass tingling inside affectionately, tapped on a screen on his sleeve to summon the platform again, stumbled onto the platform and disappeared into his ship. The robot arms pushed us away and then retracted. In the whole time the ship was there, I haven’t seen a single person move on it. It looks like the poor guy was all alone in a high tech ship.

"All right people, we've got work to do. Start the engines and check the transmitter on that bird. Go go go! I'll be in my cabin for... checking the maps. Don't disturb me for nothing! I’ll see you later." Bob closed the door behind him and closed the curtains.

It was in the afternoon of the eight day at sea. Finally there was land in sight. In the distance there was a beach with some jungle behind it. It didn't look quite right. The trees where there but it looked like some of them had blue tint instead of green leaves, or a dark green with a blue shine. That was so weird.

"Men, we're at the coast of Nigeria. The tracker says our gold is 3 miles inland. We'll drop anchor here. Jeff, go prep the dinghy. We’re going to scout out the location. Make sure the engine is fueled and running in one hour. Juan, go prep four environmental suits. If that air conditioning of my suit isn't working, I'll kill you. Jamal, get the guns in case the people there did turn to cannibals. Go people, you're wasting daylight."

"Boss, who's gonna watch the kids when we're in the jungle?" Juan asked.

"We're taking the kids with us and let them do the work, unless you're volunteering to do all the chopping trees and digging. No? Thought so. You stay here and prepare dinner. Got it?"

"Okay boss."

"You kids, wait here on deck. You'll get your suit soon enough."

Me and Tom sat down on the deck, watching the men puttering about. It didn't take long for Juan to give us some white suits, or at least something that used to be white once. I think it was something you saw firemen use, like a hazmat suit.

Juan started his instructions. "These is the suit. Look, open here. Put your feet in the boots and pull it up. Close the zipper."

I dutifully did what he said, but these things were hot while it was already hot and humid outside.

"Come on, put this backpack on and I'll hook it up. Good. I'll turn on the systems. It's now connected to the ship's grid so it doesn’t drain the batteries." Juan told me.

The temperature in the suit went down to bearable.

"My goodness. This thing is warm! Are you serious we have to chop down trees?"

"Yes. But we have chainsaws and we stole a small excavator from a construction yard. You didn't think we're going to do that by hand? Oh you did. Heh."

"You, other kid, put on your suit too while l put on the breathing mask here. We don't want our working force sick with all the viruses out there in the jungle. First check the connections to the backpack. Put this over your face. Breath in to check everything works. All okay?"

I nodded.

"Ok, now pull the straps over your head. And the hood over the straps. With the controls on your arm here you can adjust settings. Radio is set to channel 1."

He walked now to Tom and watched him put everything on.

"Breathing okay? Ok. Looks good. You're all done. Look, the boss is here. Adventure awaits!"

Indeed, Jamal and Bob showed up. Of course, their suit was better and cleaner than ours. And they were wearing a gun on their hip, a shotgun on their back and a machete on the other leg.

"Everybody in the dinghy. We're going."

After a lot of maneuvering in the cumbersome suits, we all got in the little boat. Bob used the crane controls to lower the boat into the water. After he made a number of vague but impatient gestures toward the corners of the boat we finally understood we had to unhook the chains from the boat so quickly got to it.

After a few minutes, we arrived at the beach. After some fiddling with the controls on his arm, Bob's voice came over the radio.

"Okay, we all get out of the boat pull it ashore, near the tree line. Go! Get out!"

At least the suits kept us dry as we got out of the boat and into the waves. We slowly dragged and carried the boat op the sandy beach near the tree line and quickly found out that sweating while wearing a breathing mask was not so fun. Bob tied the rope to the tree and we took a little breather while the cooling of the suit went to work.

"Alright, enough rest. Jamal, let's go inland. You go first. Then the kiddies. I go last. No running, you hear?" Bob said while patting his gun. Right, that message was clear. This is the real deal. Jamal went ahead and into the trees while we quietly followed. He found some wild trail that was easy enough to follow. Bob was checking his phone for directions. He had his phone in some bag for underwater usage to keep it air tight.

"It's still 2.3 miles. Go a bit to the left. There seems to be a trail."

"Boss, I see some things moving here. Maybe the bush people are here!"

"Nonsense. Now walk. I'd like to find the location of the gold today."

"Okay boss."

But I heard something else. I was a voice in my head again.

I tried to look around, but didn't see anything, but somehow could feel that the voice was transmitted by radio from nearby, about a hundred feet to the north. And it sounded like a friendly voice, not in the sense of the voice itself but something in the transmission signal itself. So, following my gut feeling there, I tapped my leg twice.

I tapped my right leg twice. This was getting weird, but it better than following these gold hunters.

I tapped Tom on his back where the bandits didn't see it. When he looked in my direction, I gave him our hand signal for 'teacher/parent coming, look busy' from our time in school. He looked very confused, so I give the signal again and carefully looked around. Tom nodded. He understood.

Suddenly a primal roar sounded through the jungle.