“Not mysterious at all. I’m an investigator with UNESCO. My job is to track down stolen antiquities. If anyone is a mystery, it is Kurt Austin. You’re the one who rose from the sea like a merman and saved the ship and the oil platform after you rescued me.”
“The captain deserves most of the credit. He steered the ship away from the rig. If I had been at the helm, we’d all be picking crude oil out of our front teeth.”
“Kurt is being far too modest,” Lange admonished. “He freed me and my crew. While I steered the ship, he fought off the hijackers and saved a piece from your cargo.”
Carina’s face lit up. “You saved the Navigator?”
Austin nodded. “There’s a large object wrapped in canvas sitting on the deck. Might be your statue.”
“I’ll have it moved immediately to a safe place,” Lange said. He called the bridge on his pocket radio and ordered his first mate to round up a work crew.
The mate said that a Coast Guard cutter was on its way and that the shipowners’ representatives were flying in. The captain excused himself and the medical technician went with him, after handing Austin some painkillers.
“I’m curious,” Austin said. “What’s so special about the Navigator?”
“That is what’s so odd,” Carina said with furrowed brow. “The statue is not terribly valuable and may even be a fake.”
“In that case, let’s talk about things we do know about. Like our dinner date.”
“How could I forget your unexpected invitation, especially after your sudden appearance? But first tell me where on earth you came from.”
“Not on earth. On the sea. I was in the neighborhood lassoing icebergs.”
Carina glanced at Austin’s broad shoulders. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he wrestled icebergs. She assumed he was joking until he explained what he had been doing on the Leif Eriksson.
Carina had encountered scores of memorable men in the course of travels around the world, But Austin was truly unique. He had risked his life to save hundreds of people and property worth millions of dollars, fought off hijackers, even killing one of them to rescue her. Yet he was flirting like an impetuous schoolboy. Her eyes roamed over his hard, tanned body. From the looks of the pale scars marking his bronze skin, this wasn’t the first time he had put himself in danger and had paid a price for it.
Carina reached out to touch a circular scar on Austin’s prominent right bicep. She was about to ask if it were a gunshot wound, but, just then, the door opened and a slender, dark-complexioned man stepped into the sick bay.
Joe Zavala’s eyes widened in surprise, and then his lips turned up at the corners in his trademark half smile. He had heard that Austin was being treated for a wound. No one had told him about the lovely young woman who seemed to be caressing his friend’s arm.
“I stopped by to see how you were doing,” Zavala said. “From the looks of things, you’re doing pretty well.”
“Carina, this gentleman is Joe Zavala, my friend and colleague. We’re both with the National Underwater and Marine Agency. Joe piloted the boat that brought me over to the ship. Don’t be alarmed by his piratical looks. He’s quite harmless.”
“Nice to meet you, Carina.” Zavala gestured at Austin’s bandage. “Are you okay? You both look a little banged-up.”
“Yes, we’re quite the couple.” Carina said. She blushed at the implication in her comment and removed her hand from Austin’s arm.
Austin went to her rescue and brought the conversation back to himself. “I’m a little stiff around the ribs. Bad bruising, and scrapes in a few other places.”
“Nothing a shot or two of tequila wouldn’t help,” Zavala said.
“I can see you are in good hands,” Carina said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll go see how the crew is doing with my statue. Thanks again for all you have done.”
Zavala gazed at the door after it had closed behind Carina and let out a whooping laugh that was uncharacteristic of his usual quiet-spoken demeanor.
“Only Kurt Austin could find an angel like Miss Mechadi out here in the fogbound reaches of Iceberg Alley. And they call me a Romeo.”
Austin rolled his eyes. He slid off the table, pulled on a borrowed blue denim work shirt and buttoned up the front.
“Captain Dawe holding up okay?”
“He’s reached the end of his joke repertoire and has begun to recycle old ones.”
“Sorry about that, old pal.”
“He says he’ll stand by another day, but then he’s got to go chase Moby-Berg. So you’re not off the hook yet.”
“How’d you get aboard? Last I knew, the pilot’s ladder was cut.”
“They must have dug up a spare. You had a tough time climbing on board. What happened?”
“I’ll lay out the whole sordid tale over a cup of coffee.”
They headed for the mess hall, where they poured themselves steaming mugs of coffee and devoured a couple of tall pastrami sandwiches on pumpernickel. Starting with the close call boarding the Ocean Adventure, Austin gave Zavala a detailed account of his exploits on the containership.
“Someone went through a lot of expense and trouble to steal this statue,” Zavala said, after pursing his lips in a low whistle.
“Seems that way. It takes money to buy helicopters and organization to mount a hijacking at sea. Not to mention the connections needed to put a couple of moles on board to welcome the hijackers.”
“They could have simply stolen the statue and run for it,” Zavala said. “Why destroy the ship and the oil rig?”
“By getting rid of the ship, they eliminate evidence and witnesses. The oil rig was simply a means to an end. It has a certain clinical neatness about it. The sea claims all.”
Zavala slowly shook his head. “What kind of a mind would think up a bloodthirsty scheme like that?”
“A very cold and calculating one,” Austin said. “The choppers must have come from an ocean launchpad. We’re within helicopter range of land, but the coast is pretty rugged. I can’t see them flying any great distance with a heavy weight hanging at the end of a rope.”
“A water-launched attack on a moving target makes the most sense,” Zavala agreed.
“Which means we may be wasting time,” Austin said. “They could still be in the area.”
“Unfortunately, there’s no air support on this ship,” Zavala said.
Austin cocked his head in thought. “I remember Captain Dawe saying that a helicopter was due back on the rig. Let’s go see if it’s arrived.”
He chugged down a painkiller with a final swallow of coffee and led the way out of the mess hall. Captain Lange welcomed them on the bridge. Austin borrowed a pair of binoculars and pointed them at the oil rig. He could see a helicopter on the oil platform.
“This is quite a vantage point, “Austin said. “Did you see what direction the hijackers flew in from?”
“Unfortunately, no. It happened very fast.” Lange’s face flushed with anger at the recollection.
“What do you know about the two Filipino crewmen who were working with the hijackers?” Austin said.
“They were vetted through the usual hiring practices,” Lange said. “There was nothing in their records to indicate that they were pirates.”
“It’s possible that the men who shipped on board weren’t the real owners of the papers,” Zavala said.
“What do you mean?”
“They either stole the papers from the real crewmen or killed to get them,” Zavala said.
“In which case, we can add two more murders to this gang’s list of crimes.” Austin said.
The captain swore softly in German. “You know, sometimes when you’re up here, guiding this big ship across the ocean, you feel like King Neptune.” He shook his jowls. “Then something like this happens and you see how impotent you really are. I would much rather deal with the sea than with monsters of my own species.”