Undertow (13 page)
Zane pointed to his watch. She checked her own. Gave him a thumbs-up. She was so ready to get started. Zane wiggled his arm, warning her to keep her eyes out for any hiding moray eels. She shot him an impatient look, too happy, having too much fun to be annoyed with him today. He·d given her a ten -minute lecture on the whats, whens, and whys before he·d announced her ready to dive.
He yel ed what was probably
yahoo,
then spread his arms wide, giving her the entire wreck.
Bubbles rose and danced in a column over his head, growing larger as they neared the surface. Teal bowed at the waist and, twisting her body, swam off to explore.
She could·ve stayed there al day, but aware of the time limit, started dusting the sand. Zane did the same, working about twelve feet away. She saw a dul gleam, mostly hidden beneath the grains. A piece of yel ow plastic? How disappointing. She went to pul it free so she could dispose of it topside.
Not plastic she realized, giving it a gentle tug,
gold
. How freaking cool would it be to discover an entire cache of gold coins? It lay just under the edge of a clump of what looked like dark gray coral. Zane had given her the very first gold coin retrieved from his wreck the other day. Was this another? More than one? The thought made her giddy.
The coin he·d generously, but oh so casual y, given to her the week before was t ucked away inside the little silver box he·d given her when she was a child.
Her winnings for the bet not to puke anymore. The thought made her smile.
That little container he·d prized her with had been fresh from the sea, blackened and covered with conglomerate. She·d treasured it, because it had come from her hero, even when she had no idea it was anything more valuable than a chunk of gray coral. It wasn·t until years later that Teal had it professional y cleaned and discovered it was an oval, silver, lady·s powder compact. She carried it everywhere with her.
Like her one night with him, Teal doubted Zane remembered giving a shy little girl such a priceless gift.
Two, if she counted the gold coin.
She fanned the sand and gently tugged her treasure free. Her heart did a hop, skip, and jump as a heavy chain emerged from the sand link by link. Careful y, cautiously, she started easing it out of hiding. She desperately wanted to cal Zane over, but refus ed to let the chain go in case she couldn·t find it again.
Forty inches if it was an inch, she decided, holding it against her throat to calculate how long it was against her arm. She held it out to admire, awed by the beauty of the piece. The links were heavy, embossed with a relief pattern of intricate « leaves possibly? Hard to tel with the ebb and flow of the tide, which caused shadows and drifts of light to dance over her hands and the gold chain. It looked as shiny and new as if it had just come from a jewelry store. Amazing.
Stunning. Magical. She looked up to hail Zane, but he had his back to her.
Teal tucked the chain careful y in the basket. Then looked back to see if there was anything else nearby. Her breath snagged as she picked up what looke d like a man·s ring. Big and heavy with a large clear stone. A diamond? Into her goody basket. Careful y dusting the sand with a methodical sweep of her hands, she found a large gold medal ion with a rough cut, dark green-ish, possibly black stone in the m iddle.
She kept going, her excitement building. She completely forgot she could·ve alerted Zane by knocking on her tank. Her basket was half ful when she bumped her knee on the clump of coral where she·d discovered the chain. Damn that hurt.
She glanced down at the offending rock-hard protuberance.
Hang on « A brush of her hand showed it had a square edge, not found in nature.
Holy
carburetor!
A box of some sort?
It was too big to pry out of the sand and lift by herself, although she tried her damnedest.
This cal ed for reinforcements. Excited, she remembered to take out her dive knife and rap the handle of it against her tank. The ringing sound echoed in the water .
Zane swiveled in her direction at the noise and swam toward her. His basket was already fil ed with interesting artifacts that they·d take up for Maggie and Colson to clean and catalog.
Beside herself, Teal showed him what she·d found, then hovered impa tiently beside him as he inspected it from every angle.
Together, they pried a box, about the size of an overnight suitcase, out of the sand using their hands and final y their knives. They wouldn·t attempt opening it until they had it on the
Decrepit
and Maggie got a look at it. But Teal·s heart raced with anticipation. It
looked
big and important. Zane indicated they leave it there to take to the surface later. She was disappointed, but there was so much else to look at, she contained her excitement and impatience for the time being.
They found a ring with smal red stones and a brooch the size of Teal·s palm, shaped like a dragonfly, with what looked like sapphire eyes and emerald markings.
Another ring, large, with an emerald the size of Zane·s fingern ail. They stared at each other over their treasures, and grinned around their regulators like crazy fools.
The money was going to be great, Zane thought, standing up in the pilothouse, looking down at his team on the deck. He liked money just fi ne. Liked spending it even more. But the adrenaline rush of being the first to salvage a treasure frigate site, a frigate that only a few people, if any, had ever bothered to pursue as a viable wreck, that·s what made his blood pump and his heart pound. Ye ah. The money was always sweet, but it was just a way to keep score. The dive was everything.
Maggie and Colson were tel ing Teal about some of the artifacts they·d found that day.
Much as Zane enjoyed being the teacher, he figured he·d be better served s taying away from Teal for a couple of hours.
Diving with her, here, now, had felt «
right
somehow. He didn·t want to overanalyze that.
He just knew when emotions were running so high he might say or do something a little
too
impulsive. So in an atypical move, he stayed in the wheelhouse alone. Savoring the taste of victory and watching a long-legged brunette with go-to-hel eyes laugh at something his friend Ryan was tel ing her.
Even she, for a brief moment, forgot that she was antisocial and shy.
Maggie was eager to get into the heavy box they·d found and wanted it brought on board as soon as Zane could retrieve it, especial y now that they had visitors. A dozen or so boats of various sizes had been dropping anchor al afternoon. Safety in numbers? Perhap s. But Zane would be lying to himself if he didn·t admit that it unnerved him to have so many potential troublemakers so close to his site. But odds were, they had no idea what kind of treasure they were sitting on. It would be a chal enge to keep it that way, but he lived for a chal enge.
He thought of the box Teal had discovered. It could contain anything, from nothing to gold bars. Zane decided to hold off on hauling it up until early the next morning. Their competitors were less likely to notice them bringing it up if they moved it at first light. The downside was that he would have to wait to find out what was inside.
He leaned back in his chair, watching the activity on the deck. He smiled as he cupped the back of his head with both hands, his lungs fil ing with anticipation. ´This,
this
is the start of something
big
.µ
* * *
She was helping Maggie clean and bag gold coins in the shade of the crane.
Ńo.µ She tilted her head to see him from under the brim of her bal cap. Śhit. It·s gone? I didn·t even notice it was missing, we fanned a different area this morning.µ
´Damn it,µ Zane told the two women, his voice grim. Śomeone helped themselves to our prize.µ
Teal felt proprietary about ´herµ box. Ćoupling this with the sabotage to the drive shaft and hul and the
Sea Witch
·s appearance pisses me off.µ
Maggie pressed a hand to her midriff. Ít gives me a squirmy feeling in the pit of my stomach.µ
Í hear you.µ
Ĺet·s go over to
Sea Witch
and see what she has to say for herself.µ Teal was freaking ready to rumble.
Zane shook his head. ´The two of us together couldn·t lug it onboard, and she·s over there alone. Unless she had help, not possible.µ
´Maybe she has someone on board with her?µ
Í·ve been watching. Not that I·ve observed.µ
´Fine. Then we·d better figure this out sooner than later, because
someone
·s responsible.µ
Teal got to her feet and glared out over the sparkling water. ´
Look
at them. Any freaking one of them could be our guy.µ
The area was fil ed with possible culprits. Sailboats, other dive boats, and cruisers kept to the one-mile rule, but there were dozens and dozens of people on board. Teal considered them al guilty until prove n innocent. She·d start keeping track ³names of the boats and a list of who she saw on board, with descriptions and random observations.
On one of the cruisers, three elderly ladies had brought their knitting out on deck and settled into lawn chairs to watch the proceedings, which Teal thought bizarre.
´They·re observing the one-mile rule,µ Zane pointed out, leaning against the base of the crane.
Áren·t you pissed off?µ Teal demanded turning back to him.
´Yeah. Big time. But until I figure out who·s res ponsible, there isn·t anything I can do about it. I·l laminate a copy of the federal arrest warrant and tack it up on the tal est timber of the
Vrijheid.
µ
Teal·s eyebal s throbbed. ´You think a piece of freaking
paper
is going to stop whoever is doing this?µ
Ít·s a start. Don·t freak out. I·m working on it, Wil iams. Just do your job, chil , but keep an eye out for anything odd.µ
Í·m looking at something odd right now,µ she said with asperity, making Maggie snort behind her. Íf you were any more laid-back, Cutter, you·d be in a coma.µ
He smiled, no teeth, no sparkle in his eyes. ´Don·t let my sangfroid fool you.
Make no mistake, Wil iams, I·l catch whoever·s doing this.µ
´How? When?µ
Í cal ed in the authorities to make a casual inspection of the surrounding boats. They·l go
·round and say hey, what·cha doing, how·s it going? And hand out a copy of the federal arrest warrant so they know what they·re up against if they poach.µ
´That·s it?µ Teal wanted to personal y go to every boat armed to the teeth, accompanied by a phalanx of Navy SEALs, and demand their treasure back, right this freaking second.
´For now,µ Zane told her flatly. ´People are curious, they just want to watch how a salvage operation works. They have no idea what·s down there, and I intend to keep it that way.
Eventual y, they·l get bored and leave. Observing is boring as hel , especial y from a distance.µ
He clearly wasn·t going to fire warning shots across the bad guys· bow. She sucked in a sigh of frustration. ´Wil the
Sea Witch
bug off, too?µ
´Doubt it. She usual y hangs around a couple of weeks before she disappears like a bad smel
. This is a big fucking deal. Like I said, I don·t think they know the extent of what·s down there,µ Zane told her. ´For al they know, there·s a minor wreck we·re excavating, and the
Sea Witch
is simply keeping tabs on us to see what we·ve found. If we keep the excavation quiet, chances are she·l give up and go elsewhere.µ
´What worries me is how quickly they al showed up,µ Teal said, crossing her a rms and staring out at the énemyµ boats. Ín spite of the fact that we·ve been staging decoy sites al week. And in spite of the fact that this particular area is notoriously hard to navigate. The way they swarmed in the minute we dropped anchor « it·s alm ost like someone tipped them off about the site.µ She turned and faced him, her arms stil crossed defiantly. ´What if it·s someone on board?µ
´Despite what Nick told you³because I know my brother, and I know that he·s the one who put a bug in your ear ³my crew is sound. Anyone can go online and see exactly where we are. It·s not a secret. And people in the know keep an eye peeled on al things Cutter, in the hope that they can get in on the action. But they don·t know what we have, or what we hope to find.
That·s
a secret. I·d like to keep it that way as long as possible.µ Staring out at the anchored vessels, Teal wished she could go to each boat and check them from stem to stern for stolen artifacts, then rip the lips off the thief.
Zane had spent years searching for this site, and Teal couldn·t stand the thought of some bottom-feeder swooping in and snatching his hard -earned prize, only to sel it on the black market and lose a piece of history forever.
Śo that·s our plan then?µ Teal asked. ´To haul as much treasure up as fast and as quietly as we can and hope they don·t realize what we·re doing?µ
Éxactly, and the first phase of the plan is to throw them off the scent. And that·s why we·re inviting everyone on the surrounding boats over for a big-ass party.µ
Á «
party
?! Are you freaking nuts?µ
* * *
Every day brought with it more incredible finds, and more and more people closing in on the site. Zane stil hoped to keep the discovery quiet, which meant keeping up the appearance that they were excavating a minor wreck. So he decided to host a party, because that·s exactly what he would have done had the
Vrijheid
been a minor wreck.
The one positive thing about having people and the press around was that they·d help keep the artifacts safe. The local authorities as wel as the Dutch government were also keeping an eagle eye on what was being retrieved. Stealing from Zane was money out of their own pockets.