Hawke sighed and rolled his eyes. “Even now, here, in the middle of the sea…”
“Where’s Chief?” Hart said, looking frantically around in the water.
After a short search, Sophie saw him, bobbing about in the water, face down. “I’m sorry,” she said.
There was silence for a few moments as they considered the destruction Zaugg had wrought since all this began, and all those who had died trying to stop him. Then Scarlet saw Ryan’s MacBook give up the ghost and sink slowly to the sea floor. “Hey boy — there goes your IQ.”
“At least mine’s heavy enough to sink,” Ryan said.
A long period passed when even Hawke began to get nervous about their chances of survival when Ryan perked up and craned his neck, protecting his eyes from the sun’s glare with his hands. “Look over there!” he shouted, clinging to the door for his life.
“It’s another boat!” Sophie said. “Thank God!” She lit a flare and fired it into the air.
“The sun shines on the righteous.” Hawke lit the second flare.
A few moments later a high-powered catamaran pulled smoothly alongside them.
“You need some help?”
The accent was French, southern by the sound of it, and the man who had spoken looked as close to a professional wrestler as you could get without the ring, the umpire and the popcorn. He had the thickest neck Hawke had ever seen, and that was saying something. The full effect was finished off with a shaved head and an enormous no-nonsense handlebar moustache.
“You took your bloody time,” Scarlet said, laughing.
The man offered a nonchalant Gallic shrug but made no reply.
“Everyone,” Scarlet said. “Meet Reaper. Reaper, meet everyone.”
“Ça va?” the man said, and roared with laughter as he lowered the boarding ladder into the water.
On board, they ate a meal of freshly caught sardines with a grilled avocado and tomato salad, all courtesy of the mysterious owner of the catamaran, before taking a few minutes to relax and regain their strength.
Hart made use of the communication system on board to organize a conference call between several concerned agencies, including Sir Richard Eden, and a senior officer at the CIA. They were informed that Zaugg had gotten away with the full golden disc and had now dropped off the radar. Demetriou was back on shore and would meet them there where air transport was being arranged.
“Where the hell did you get a luxury catamaran from, Reap?” Scarlet asked.
“I am a resourceful guy,” he said, smiling. But that was all he said.
The others looked at her, shocked. Hawke was awaiting an explanation.
“When we were in Athens and we realized you’d been stupid enough to get yourselves caught,” Scarlet said, looking casually at Lea, who rolled her eyes in response, “we decided we needed some back-up. So Joe called the commodore in there,” she jabbed her thumb at the comms room, “while I thought about who I knew in this part of the world.”
“And the answer… c’est moi,” Reaper said with a broad smile.
“We go way back to some dark days that would put you off your lunch if I were to describe them, but I knew he was down here so I gave him a call. I told him about the boat and its location but that we would meet him on the mainland.”
“Luckily for you guys I anticipated your incompetence and decided to borrow this catamaran, or you would all be dead and your man Zaugg would have the tomb and its treasures all to himself, no?”
They finished their meal, and Hawke and Scarlet joined Reaper who was steering the boat towards the mainland as fast as he could go. Thanks to the commodore’s phone call someone was arranging a chopper for them, but where they were going they had no idea.
“So what’s your real name?” Hawke asked.
Reaper clicked his tongue dismissively. “You can call me Reaper.”
“Reaper?”
“Oui. That is my name as far as you are concerned.”
Reaper checked the navigation system and looked back to the horizon. He lit up a cigarette.
Scarlet said: “Reaper is his codename. Please forgive him. He can be brusque sometimes.”
“What are we talking about here?” Hawke asked. “Former French Foreign Legion, now a merc?”
Scarlet arched an eyebrow in surprise. “Exactly. How did you know that?”
“Let’s just say I recognize the attitude.”
Reaper laughed. “Fine. I’m a former Foreign Legion man. 2REP section.”
“The infamous paratrooper section,” Hawke added with respect. “No doubt you’re none too fussy about your mission briefs since becoming a merc, either.”
“You think you’re better than me because…”
Then Ryan was shouting.
“Oh my God, I’ve got it!” He came running into the room holding a triangular serving dish full of green olives.
“Well stay away from me then,” purred Scarlet.
“No — the second clue — I think I have the answer. Look!”
He held the dish up in front of them.
“Have you been smoking coffee again, Ryan?” Scarlet said.
“No, look!” He set down the dish and swivelled an old laptop belonging to the catamaran’s owner so the others could see.
“When we were trapped in the hold on Zaugg’s yacht something kept on bothering me.”
“Me too,” said Lea. “They’re called cable-ties.”
“Not the cable-ties,” Ryan said. “What was bothering me was that weird cryptic reference to the Samian’s sacred place in the second clue — you remember?”
Hawke sat opposite him and bit into an apple. “Sure — Beneath the Highest City, Where The Samian’s Sacred Work Shall Guide — The Kingdom Of The Eldest Is Where What You Seek Doth Hide. What about it?”
“We all presumed that the highest city — the acropolis reference — was pointing us in the direction of the famous Acropolis in Athens, the one with the Parthenon where all the tourists go every year, right?”
The others listened as Ryan’s moment in the sun dawned. Sophie spoke to Reaper in rapid French before bumming one of his cigarettes and lighting up. She kicked back next to Ryan on the soft chair around the low table.
Ryan looked at her and they shared a glance before he continued with a smile on his face. “But there was that part about the Samian. It just didn’t make sense. Then, thanks to Zaugg I had time to think about it without access to the MacBook, and so I really thought about it, if you know what I mean.”
“Go on, boy.”
“Clearly the Samian is a reference to Pythagoras — I’m sure you all got that much, right?”
The others shared a glance, thought about it, but then Hawke said: “No, Ryan. Only you got that much. Please carry on, mate.”
“Pythagoras was also known as Pythagoras the Samian, for the simple reason that he came from the island of Samos, but that’s not important. What’s important is the reference about his sacred work.”
Reaper turned from the helm and spoke over his shoulder. “Triangles, no?”
Ryan was impressed. “Yes, exactly! Pythagoras is most famous for discovering and demonstrating the proof of what we now call the Pythagorean theorem — the mathematical law that states that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.”
“This is like being back in school, Ryan,” Scarlet said. “Only without the bikesheds. Do speed things up.”
“Sorry — anyway. That takes care of the reference about his work — clearly it is directing us to look at a triangle of some sort.”
“Like a monument?” Sophie asked, leaning into him.
“No, I don’t think so. Just listen for a second.” As he spoke, he typed something into Google Earth and the Mediterranean Sea spun into view. He zoomed in on Greece.