“I’m a fast learner. You can teach me.”
“Yes, I can. I’m a certified instructor. Maybe later, if there’s time, I can get on the Internet and print the manual for the bookwork portion of the class. But right this minute, the answer is, ‘sorry, no.’”
There was nothing Ophelia could say that would change Professor’s mind, but Jade had to wonder if there was anything Professor could say that would make Ophelia realize that. Evidently, ‘sorry, no’ was enough. Ophelia turned away, with almost preternatural calm, and strode back the way she’d come.
Jade watched her leave. “She’s going to get Nichols, or someone else, to let her make the dive.”
“Probably. And she’ll probably do just fine.”
“Then why didn’t you just give in?”
Professor shrugged. “Dunno. You ready?”
Jade put on her mask and, with Professor trailing, made her way down a gangplank to the dive platform at the waterline. Dorion and several members of the crew gathered above, eager to see what treasures would be found. On the platform, another crewman, likewise suited up to dive, showed Jade the weighted line that would take them to the edge of the excavation. From there, she would be on her own, free to investigate the hole that Explorer had blasted in the reef. Without further delay, Jade held her mask in place and stepped off the platform into the lukewarm soup of the Atlantic.
Ophelia’s expression betrayed none of the rage that was burning just beneath her smooth exterior. How dare they deny me this opportunity! They wouldn’t even be here if not for me.
Nichols would not refuse her. She had already found the correct pressure point to use against him. The only question was whether he could give her what she wanted quickly enough. Perhaps she could also get him to recall the divers, bring Jade back up before she found the prize. Ophelia wanted to be the first to find it, the first to touch it and peer through the window into the infinite possibilities of the future.
There was no sign of Nichols on deck. She found that odd, but a helpful crewman who seemed to be having difficulty raising his eyes to meet hers — a fact that she found deliciously satisfying — told her where to find Cliff Barry. Barry seemed all too eager to accommodate her, and led her to a private companionway that had not been on their tour. There was just one door at the end of the corridor, and beyond it, Barry told her, lay Nichols’ executive stateroom.
Barry knocked and Ophelia tapped her foot, counting out the seconds. There were two things she hated: being told no and waiting. Having been subjected to the former by Chapman made this all the more unendurable. Finally, the door opened, but the face that greeted her did not belong to the owner of QMI.
Ophelia stared at the familiar visage for a moment. “I know you.”
Recognition quickly gave way to alarm, but before she could protest, Barry addressed the man. “We’re alone.”
“Inside, quickly.” The man stepped back and Barry put an impertinent hand on Ophelia’s back and pushed her forward into the stateroom.
Ophelia tried to mask her rising fear with outrage. “Don’t touch me,” she snarled, and then rounded on the unidentified man. “You were at Delphi. One of the men that tried to kill us. How dare you—”
“Shut up.” The order was delivered in a cold, emotionless voice that was somehow more commanding than if it had been a shout. Ophelia closed her mouth and said nothing more. “Thank you,” he continued. “My name is Brian Hodges, and yes, I was there at Delphi. And before you say anything more, you should know that I’m here because your brother sent me to keep you out of trouble. You have no idea what you’re playing with here, Ms. Doerner.”
“You’re trying to stop us. You tried to kill the others last night.”
“Yes. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped and now things are considerably more complicated.”
“Why are you doing this?”
Hodges’ eyes narrowed. “I’m sure your brother told you about the Norfolk Group, and what we’re trying to do. That thing you’re looking for could set the world on fire. We — the Group, men like your brother — are not going to allow that to happen. In a situation like this, our protocols call for total sanitization. But apparently, those hard and fast rules aren’t so hard and fast when family is involved.” He made no effort to hide his contempt. “Big brother doesn’t want little sister to get hurt, so that puts me in a bit of a pinch.”
Ophelia’s heart was racing. Despite all they had been through, even the harrowing events in Greece, only now did she recognize so acutely her dangerous position. There was no one here to protect her and the only weapons she had with which to take control of the situation — her money, and her sexuality — were not going to make a bit of difference here. She drew in a shaky breath and said, “I won’t give up. If that means you have to kill me—”
“I’m not going to kill you, Ms. Doerner. Not if I can help it. And since it’s obvious that I can’t get you to listen to reason, that leaves me just one option.”
“What’s that?”
His lips curled into a humorless smile. “I’m going to help you get what you want.”
Jade followed the line down quickly, holding her mask against her face and blowing through her nose to equalize the pressure in her inner ear. She could feel the powerful tug of the Gulf Stream’s current. Five hundred years ago, European mariners had relied on this warm-water conveyor belt to speed them across the Atlantic with their cargo of wealth from the New World, but the current was capricious. The strong surface current also energized tropical cyclones; it had probably been just such a storm that had thrown the Misericordia onto the shoals near Great Isaac Cay, and then buried it under tons of sand.
The weighted line ended at a berm created by the powerful thrust from the Explorer’s engines at the edge of a much deeper crater. Most of the sediment stirred up by the operation of the mailbox blowers had settled, but Jade could see the flow of the current in the few remaining suspended motes. It wouldn’t be long before the ocean filled in this divot and erased all trace of their excavation.
Jade stared down into the crater for a moment, marveling at what had been uncovered. She had not expected to see a Spanish galleon, sitting pretty and just waiting for her to stroll its perfectly preserved decks, yet what she now saw was almost as impressive. The ship had been mauled relentlessly by the currents and eroded by the corrosive power of salt water, but she could clearly make out the heavy wooden beams of its skeleton. Other dark shapes were starkly visible against the white sand. Metal artifacts perhaps, encrusted and oxidized, lay scattered about the bottom of the crater.
The crew diver joined her there a moment later, and after flashing her a thumbs-up, kicked forward and dropped down into the hole. Jade went in after him. To maximize their search time, they split up and began swimming in opposite directions, scouring the bottom for treasures. Although Jade was only really interested in one item, anything that might establish the identity of the wreck would help them legally justify their initial exploration, which could prove essential if the recovery of the Moon stone turned out to be more difficult than expected. Jade’s prescient glimpse into the not-too distant future assured her it would not, but inasmuch as she hoped that vision would turn out to be wrong, it was better to do this by the numbers.
Beneath the sand lay an encrusted mass of limestone, the ancient remains of the reef upon which the sediment had accumulated.