A bullied eighteen-year-old must solve the mystery of a treasure map, or his family will be murdered by a Cult of religious psychopaths descended from the Spanish Inquisition. 

It's a story about young adults rising to a challenge.  It's like "Treasure Island" meets the "Karate Kid.”

SYNOPSIS:

The setting is a small, Louisiana city on the Gulf of Mexico. You wouldn’t imagine that two families here have been fighting and killing each other for two hundred years over a sunken treasure worth hundreds of millions. They're fighting over the Santa Elena, a treasure ship belonging to the Spanish Inquisition that sank in 1800. Its navigator had the only map of its position. A family of Cajuns stole the map and murdered the navigator. The Inquisition sent its most fanatic priests to find the wreck.

The two groups started families. They were never sure who their enemy family was. The hunt passed from father to son for all those generations. The Inquisitor's descendants formed a Cult that will stop at nothing to find the map. They finally home in on the map-holders family. But unknown to the Cult, the map has a secret, and the Cajuns have not found the treasure.

Paul belongs to the Cajun family. His father died a hero, and Paul is so beaten down with stories of his glorious death that Paul becomes afraid to act. Paul is protected by his family. He doesn’t know anything about the map until he is attacked by members of the Cult family who demand it. He goes to his uncle Jack who tells him of their family's role in the treasure hunt. Once Paul becomes involved, it’s kill or be killed. Paul’s antagonist is the Grand Inquisitor. He is a religious fanatic who wants the gold to make the Spanish Inquisition a world religion. Sandy is Paul’s girlfriend, and she has an active role in the story as Paul’s sidekick. Paul has another conflict that involves Sandy. She’s Black, and his mother is racist.

Paul’s life now depends on finding the map's secret while protecting himself and his family from the Cult. This war leads to explosions, murder, kidnapping, fights, demons, assassins in dark alleys, failed treasure hunts, betrayal, sharks, and finally, a decision. Is it all worth it? Should we quit? All the actions lead to a battle above and below the water as the final conflict occurs. The war is resolved after two centuries.

Even then, the battle is not over.

In the end, Paul gets Sandy, success, self-confidence, and the gold: all the treasures of the Santa Elena. Even the tarantula gets its reward.