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“What story, exactly?”
He was fading fast. Mike and Nicholas leaned close.
“What story, exactly?” Nicholas asked again.
He whispered, “Josef and Ansonia.”
Mike lightly squeezed his hand. Ansonia, he recognized her name from Jonathan’s files. “Who are they, Alex?”
“The key. They stole the key.”
Nicholas hunkered close. So they were from long ago. Shepherd was nearly out. Nicholas said quickly, “You said Weston went with Elise to the other boat. Where is the other boat?”
Barely a whisper. “North,” he said, and he was gone.
Mike said, “He’s lost a lot of blood, Nicholas. I’ve done the best I can. I hear a helicopter.”
Halpern said from the cabin doorway, “The medics are here for Shepherd.”
Nicholas said, “Good.
Time’s up. Ryan, you and I have to dive down to the sub, now.”
75
Nicholas climbed into his thick neoprene dry suit, ran through the equipment, tested his regulator and tank.
He caught Mike watching him, and smiled. “Havelock came prepared. He prepped his boat with all the cold-water equipment we need. The dry suit’s a must since it’s going to be bloody cold down there. Don’t worry, all right?”
“Is that your way of telling me you’ve got this under control?”
He nodded. “It is. I do. Don’t fret.” And he was ready. He said more to himself than to her, “Now I wonder where will I find a key so small it will fit in my palm.”
“You’ll find it. Be careful, both of you.”
Both men nodded. They needed to hurry, the sky was changing color, going a soft, warm yellow-gray. The sun was nearly behind the westerly mountains.
Mike shook his arm. “How are you going to get in the sub?”
“I’ll bet you Havelock’s already done it for us.” He took her shoulders. “Have faith, Mike.”
She had to believe if the key was on the sub, he’d find it.
She let him go, watched him turn to Halpern. “Ready, Lieutenant?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
They made their way to the stern. The sun was descending rapidly now. It would be dark when they came back up.
Halpern checked Nicholas’s equipment, and Nicholas returned the favor. “It’s going to be sketchy down there, sir.”
Nicholas only nodded. He’d dived several times onto shipwrecks, but never into a sub. He knew there’d be choking silt and zero visibility. It had scared the crap out of him since he was a bit claustrophobic, and now he was doing it again.
“All right, then. Bottoms up.”
They donned their masks and dropped off the end of the boat. Nicholas waited a moment, allowing the cold air to lap against his face. The water was very cold, but the dry suit kept him comfortable. After a minute, he cleared his mask and signaled to Halpern. With a quick wave to Mike, and a prayer, he started down.
Nicholas flipped on the camera feed attached to his mask so Mike could see what he was seeing. They fired up their propulsion devices and started to dive, the lights cutting a path through the murky water.
