Page 99 of Summer in Greece

‘Hello, Delphi,’ I whispered. ‘You precious creature of the sea.’

CHAPTER 41

SHELLY

Greece, present day.

LATE AFTERNOON, SHELLY IRONED HER white linen pants and a matching shirt. Apart from a little mascara and lip gloss, she abandoned the idea of make-up, but then fumbled with buttons and smudged her eye make-up while fretting about Elias’s remark. He’d been moody and begrudging all day and she hoped he wasn’t going to try and embarrass her in front of the dive team, though she wouldn’t put it past him. Had she understood correctly, that Harry had an endless string of girlfriends? The man was, after all, good-looking and surrounded by beautiful, half-naked women for much of the year. She would be naïve to think he lived like a hermit. Also, she wondered if Elias was perhaps a little jealous of her receiving most of Harry’s attention.

At the dive centre, she found a long trestle outside the building, overlooking the sea. Petros was setting out thirty places with notebooks, pencils, upturned plastic glasses and bottles of water.

She found Harry inside, on his tablet and knew better than to speak to him.

Outside again, she noticed a place set with a label bearing her name. Feeling Petros’s eyes on her, she looked up and gave him a smile. ‘Thank you, Petros. It feels good to be an official part of the team.’

‘According to my father, you’ve got more qualifications than several of the main dive team.’

Shelly felt him on her side, unlike his brother. She pulled out a chair and lifted a notebook and pen from her bag. The first papers were about the dedicated commercial dive support vessel; DSV for short. A solid hulk of ship that would show up well on any ship’s radar, which was important as they were diving in a busy shipping lane. She started memorising the vessel’s layout.

Once Shelly had the layout of the ship firmly ingrained in her mind, she found a sheet detailing the medical facilities on board. Then, she went through a ‘worst case scenario’ exercise in her head. Her local paramedic leader in Dover had given her the number of the Air Sea Rescue team nearest to the island of Kea, so she made contact and introduced herself and confirmed that they knew about the dive. Engrossed in making notes, she hadn’t realised some of the dive team had arrived and felt herself blush when she looked up to see half a dozen men watching her.

Harry came out of the dive shop and introduced the team as they arrived, twenty-four men and five women besides herself covered every aspect of the dive, including technicians, boat crews, and dive management teams. They all settled down to the excitement of the pre-dive meet. For most of the team, using the bell for decompression was a new experience and, like Shelly, they had all studied the Standard Operating Procedure intensely. Several emergency scenarios were considered including oxygen toxicity, air embolism, and loss of consciousness. Everyone knew these were real dangers, and all those who would be in the water went through an unconscious diver drill. When Harry asked if there were any questions, Shelly raised her hand.

‘I know it seems overly cautious, but as I’m assistant medical officer, can I have everyone’s blood group, age, and any medical conditions before you leave this table?’

Elias piped up. ‘Oh, come on! These are all very experienced divers, even those who are not going down. Don’t you think you’re being a bit over-dramatic?’

Shelly felt the heat of a blush rise in her cheeks and was determined not to look at Harry. ‘No, I don’t think you can be too careful. Don’t forget, two very experienced divers have already lost their lives in the last decade here. Also, we must take into consideration this will be the first time we’ve all worked together, and accidents do happen.’

He tutted, took a beer from the fridge, and banged the edge of the cap against the edge of the table to remove it. Their eyes met and she saw nothing but hostility.

*

‘That all went very well,’ Harry said when they were alone. ‘I must apologise for Elias, again. I’ll have a word with him later. The problem is, he’s very loyal and misses his mother, but won’t admit it.’

Shelly shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but in fact, she was still smarting.

An early night was the order, although sleep would be difficult with so much excitement bottled up for the next day.

‘You must go home, Harry,’ Shelly whispered, at the door of her apartment. ‘We both need a good night’s sleep.’

‘Ten minutes?’

‘Definitely not.’ Her body temperature rose as he pulled her towards him. Dusk slipped toward night and the darkening shadows seemed to intensify the salty-spicy fragrance of him. Her heart beat faster as his face came inescapably close and for a moment, urgent feelings of desire almost overpowered her resolve.

She longed to tell him how much she wanted him at that moment, but she resisted. People’s lives depended on a clear head tomorrow.

His sweet mouth covered hers. Her hips pressed against his. She wanted him so fiercely that for a few seconds, she couldn’t breathe – then she was panting. Her determination weakened; they were almost swaying in the erotic dance as old as mankind. ‘Stop!’ she said quietly. ‘Not now . . . you really must go. We both need a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow night, I promise we’ll more than make up for this abstinence.’

‘I’ll hold you to that,’ he growled, tugging her against his body one last time, before walking away.

‘Tomorrow night, I swear you can hold me to anything you like.’

*

The next morning, everyone scuttled about doing their individual jobs. Little was said, no one wanted distractions, yet tension and excitement mounted with every passing minute. Although there had only been two deaths on the wreck in the past hundred and fifteen years, everyone feared another on their watch.

Divers would be on the Britannic for forty-five minutes with the remotely operated vehicle’s camera watching and relaying its video to the dive boat monitors. The ROV would also keep check that the decompression bell did not shift in the current.