The little black book

Skai; tall, muscled, lean and dark-skinned propelled his fishing vessel further out towards the soft orange painted horizon. He soldiered on resisting his slight fatigue as mild and comfortably warm sun rays seeped between a thin mist of silver clouds, reflecting off the vast ocean surface and shimmering upon the waves as a precious blanket of diamond dust.

Rowing for a couple of minutes he finally arrived at the reef, the sun now completely illuminated the stretching sky above him and his entire surrounding. He closed his eyes then took a deep breath and listened to the lulling of his boat upon the short, succinct waves. He appreciatively devoured the magnificent scenery around him which could easily overshadow many other grand beauties in this world. 'Surely this is paradise' he mused to himself as he gazed at the clear glassy waters below him; so transparent that one could easily identify the fish swimming about the beautiful rainbow Caribbean reef, it's splendour second to none other.

Skai, content with his position, set anchorage. He pulled off his shirt and leapt expertly over the bow of his boat, diving beneath the waves. He relished in the cool feeling of the salt water upon his skin. This is what he lived for, what he looked forward too. Easter vacation was nearing its end and when school finally started he would definitely have no time for this; he already rarely had any, especially with him going into his last year soon and all that.

He slipped his favourite pair of goggles, a distinctive magenta colour, which hung around his neck over his face and swam merrily through the water, cutting through the waves as though he were a fish. Along the ocean floor he searched the reef for lobster and other shellfish like salt-water crab and lambi conch. Such tasty delicacies would be quite a treat, he would have to use this to placate his mother's sure wrath, he palely acknowledged. He sneaked out without completing any of his assigned chores. He really was sorry but he simply couldn't pass up such an opportunity. It was such a clear day, not raining like the past few and although yesterday was sunny the tide was definitely too high to be anywhere safe. He had also painstakingly finished all of the assigned holiday homework, much to his current pleasure. He would definitely make it up to her later he reasoned to himself.

Idly swimming and diving around he spotted a very distinct white object hovering between the ocean bed and its surface. Upon closer inspection he realised that it was a bright white barrel which didn't truly hover but was simply anchored to a brick by means of a rope and that there was not only one but many of these barrels. This barrel however was the only one of its color; all the others were blue. This was definitely suspicious.

Skai untied the white barrel and a couple of the blue ones and brought them to his boat which was by now semi filled with many of his day's catch. Looking around superstitiously he pried open the white barrels first and what he found startled him. In full sealed plastic clear packages he spied bags on bags of crushed green leaves. He was afraid to look in the blue barrel. The whites alone could be worth quite a sum, surely at the very least $200,000. Sometimes this happened, he remembered looking at the news once, where the increasing drug trafficking epidemic was explained and many dealers had been caught and charged with many years in prison. This however wasn't what scared him though , what really frightened him was that if he was found snooping through these barrels or even suspected by the obviously very dangerous owner he'd be in very big trouble. He quickly sweeped each of the barrels in search of any hidden cameras but thankfully found none. He then sealed each lid tightly and returned all of the white barrels to their original anchors under the sea.

Ready to also return the blue barrel Skai paused. His curiosity was overwhelming. He really wanted to know the contents of the blue barrel, consequences not considered. He shakily took a deep breath then slowly uncovered the last barrel. Surprisingly there was very little but the little there was, still dazzled him while slightly horrified him also. Unlike the others this barrel had no drugs, however there was a neat stack of bills, a small black leather bound book and a couple of handguns. He took the bills and counted around $20,000. He grinned victoriously. This was such a find. He was sure his mother would be pleased. He opened the little black book and read its contents. It documented a series of blatantly criminal transactions deferring from mentioning any sensible names and using only code.

Skai pondered carefully on what to do with everything he had found, most importantly what he would do with the information he now possessed, take it to the police anonymously or to his grave forever…