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  Hannah patted the minisub’s damaged plates. “Yeah, it’s a howler of a joke, Ebersole. You should have seen us laughing down there on the ocean floor. We’re both fine, by the way.”

  Ebersole nodded toward Conner One. “More than I can say for your vessel.”

  Josh stepped forward. “It was my fault. I thought I’d left enough clearance, but I misjudged the distance. I still think this is the best craft I’ve ever piloted.”

  “Do you? Hannah, let’s talk inside.”

  “Now? I need to run diagnostics and—”

  “Your people can take care of it. Let’s go.”

  Josh and Matthew moved to follow him, but Ebersole turned and raised his hand. “Just Hannah.”

  She turned toward them. “It’s okay, guys. Finish up here.” She followed Ebersole, who was already halfway across the deck. The crew was looking at her as if she had been sent to the principal’s office, and she knew it was taking every ounce of Kyle’s self-control to hold back a taunting “Uh-oh . . .”

  They walked downstairs and made their way through the long, narrow corridor to the conference room, which was papered over with schematics for the submersibles. Conner One and Conner Two were virtually identical, but Hannah had designed subtle variations so as to evaluate the best total design for the final product. Three-foot models of the two vessels were suspended over the long table by almost-invisible strands of wire.

  Ebersole closed the door behind him. “I’m shutting the mission down, Hannah.”

  She tensed. “Don’t do this.”

  “I’m the only reason you’re still here. Corporate wanted it over weeks ago.”

  “I know that. But you need to buy us some more time.”

  “Every day we’re out here is costing the company a fortune. The rental of this boat, payroll for the crew . . .”

  “AquaCorp is all over the Discovery Channel TV special, not to mention a logo placement in every newspaper ad and bus-stop poster. Plus the National Geographic spread. The exposure will be huge.”

  “It will be. But the Discovery Channel television people are gone, and the National Geographic team has finished. And you’ve completed your trials on the XP38 vessels.”

  “Conner One and Conner Two,” she corrected.

  “If you prefer. The point is, AquaCorp has gotten everything out of this mission that it’s going to get. Your creations have performed magnificently, and everyone in the industry knows it. Even more people will know it when the magazine pieces and television profiles hit. We already have a three-year wait list on orders.”

  “So doesn’t that entitle me to two more weeks?”

  “The company has nothing to gain by keeping us out here and everything to lose. Everyone will know that one of the best underwater pilots in the business cracked up in your sub. That won’t give our potential customers a comforting feeling.”

  “It’s still a story without an ending.”

  “You mean Marinth.”

  “Yes.” Hannah crossed to the far wall, where dozens of eight-and-a-half-by-eleven-inch color printouts had been pieced together to give a complete mosaic of what remained of the ancient city. “We’ve learned so much about the people who lived here. How they ate, worshipped, married, raised their children, governed themselves . . .”

  “Your minisubs made that knowledge possible.”

  Hannah turned away from the mosaic. “But we didn’t solve the biggest mystery of all . . . We don’t know how they died. It was a brilliant, beautiful civilization that just seemed to . . . vanish. Almost no trace of their language or customs has ever existed anywhere else. What happened to them?”

  “That’s a question for another expedition, Hannah.”

  “But with just a few more dives, we might be able to answer it with this expedition.”

  “I’ll give you one more day. Tomorrow. Then we’re heading home.”

  “When all the TV specials and companion books come out, I’ll promote the hell out of them. I’ll give AquaCorp all kinds of credit.”

  “You’ve already promised to do that. That’s why we’re out here.” Ebersole shook his head. “When I report your accident, it will be out of my hands anyway. We’re done here, Hannah.”

  He strode out of the conference room.

  Dammit. She had been half expecting it after the crack-up, but she had hoped that she could persuade Ebersole to stall for more time with the corporation.

  Okay, he had pulled the plug. That didn’t mean she had to give up without a fight. She just had to think of some way to make that fight as effective as possible.

  CHAPTER

  2

  Melis Nemid poured two glasses of sangria from a pitcher and handed one to Hannah. “You gave it your best shot. I can’t ask for more than that.”

  “I can.” Hannah took the glass and leaned back in her chair on the deck of Melis’s ninety-foot twin-masted schooner. Although it looked for all the world like a nineteenth-century sailing vessel, the belowdecks area contained one of the most sophisticated research labs on the sea, manned by a half dozen of the smartest and hardest-working marine scientists Hannah had ever met.

  But none was more impressive than the young woman sitting across from her. Melis Nemid was blond and gorgeous, with an intelligence that was truly remarkable. She was the marine biologist who had discovered Marinth and unlocked many of its secrets years before, and the previously lost city and its people had become her life’s passion. Hannah had met Melis at various scientific conferences back when the impossibly young marine biologist was still trying to convince skeptical colleagues of Marinth’s significance. Hannah and Melis had formed a close bond, allies against an establishment that was increasingly closed to new ideas. They were kindred spirits, then and now.

  Hannah looked at the Copernicus, parked just a hundred yards from Fair Wind’s starboard side. Her team was still on deck evaluating the damage to the minisub. She knew she should be there with them, but she had to get away from that boat, away from Ebersole, away from all things AquaCorp.

  “My best wasn’t good enough, Melis.” Her hand tightened on her glass. “Dammit, I know we’re close to an answer.”

  “I feel it, too. But I’m grateful for what we’ve been able to do. Only you could have convinced that company to turn your routine sea trials into a massive archaeological expedition. I’ve been trying for years to mount a project of this scope. Without you, I would have waited years longer. My husband, Jed, has poured millions into this project, but I won’t let him sink any more into it. He shares my dream, but I have to take over now. This is my responsibility.” She made a face. “And money is tight in the academic world.”

  “I take it that you weren’t successful yesterday.”

  “It was a complete waste of time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to take some foundation chairman on a personal tour of the Marinth Museum in Athens, endure a long, excruciating lunch, then hear them tell me that they might have a few dollars to spare in the next fiscal year . . .”

  “I’ve done the fund-raising circuit. It’s no fun.”

  “The executive I met with yesterday told me that I’d better my chances if I would go to dinner with him wearing the silver gown I wore at the Save the Oceans fund-raiser last year.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “I wish I was.”

  “You didn’t do it, did you?”

  “What kind of woman do you think I am?” Melis smiled and sipped her drink. “Besides, the gown was a loaner from Halston. It’s against my principles to buy designer gowns when I could put the money toward something more worthwhile.”

  “Ah.”

  “So I pulled up anchor and got back here as soon as I could.”

  “It’s a good thing you did. I guess you heard that Pete and Susie just saved our bacon?”

  “Captain Danbury said something to me about it. It doesn’t surprise me. Those two have helped me out of a hell of a lot of tight spots over the years.” She gazed aff
ectionately at the dolphins as they raced each other around the Copernicus. She turned back to Hannah. “As much as I hate to say it, it may be a good thing you’re ending the expedition now. We’ve already been out here a couple weeks longer than we expected, and your people are getting tired. We both know how dangerous that can be. Accidents do happen. You could have been killed.”

  “But I wasn’t. And the answer is still here somewhere. It’s probably right in front of our eyes.”

  “If it is, we’ll find it. You’ve given us enough data for years of study. Thanks to you, we’ll be able to explore every inch of this city from the comfort of our computer keyboards. We’ll be able to look up, down, left, and right from any vantage point. It’ll be even more amazing than the mapping work you did on the Titanic.”

  “I hope it amounts to something.”

  “It will. In time, schoolchildren will be able to log in to the Marinth Web site and explore the entire city, just like you’ve helped them do with the Titanic. Maybe one of them will make the discovery we’re looking for.”

  “I guess I’m just more impatient than you are.”

  Melis smiled. “I’ve been living with Marinth for most of my adult life, and delving into its mysteries has never been an easy battle. When I first found it, we were able to swim down to it wearing scuba gear. But after the underwater earthquakes along El Hierro Ridge, the island sank more in the next five years than it had in the four thousand years previous. It seemed so unfair . . . like some deliberate slap of fate. But vessels like yours have brought it back to us. And new underwater currents have cleared away hundreds of feet of silt and exposed far more of the city than we ever realized was there. So maybe those earthquakes weren’t such a disaster. Marinth seems to give up its secrets only when I’m best able to understand their meaning.”

  “That’s why I grabbed a skiff and came over here. I needed some of your Zen-like perspective on things.”

  “You should take some time off. That will give you loads of perspective.”

  “I’m not giving up, Melis.”

  “Neither am I. My Zen only goes so far. Marinth may be over four thousand years old, but I want to find out all her secrets in my lifetime. But it doesn’t hurt to stop and take a breath . . . or a vacation.”

  “I’ve never been good at vacations.”

  “Take one. Go someplace frivolous. It’s been a difficult time for you, Hannah. Your brother’s only been gone two months, and you haven’t properly grieved for him.”

  “I’ve grieved for him. I grieve for him every day of my life.” Hannah looked down. “Because I can’t bury myself in my work to forget when he was my right hand on these kinds of jobs.” She smiled faintly. “He was looking forward to coming with me on this one.”

  “I was looking forward to seeing him. Conner was a good man.”

  “Yes, he was.”

  “You don’t blame yourself, do you?”

  Hannah was surprised at the bluntness of the question, but then again, Melis had never been one to hold back. “No. Even though it happened on one of my jobs.”

  “You were supervising the retrofit of an old Russian nuclear submarine for a U.S. museum exhibit, right?”

  Hannah nodded. “I’m sure you heard all about it. There was a lot of history connected to the sub that we didn’t know about. It seems that there were men who were willing to kill to find what was aboard that sub. If I had been inside Silent Thunder that night, I wouldn’t be here now either.”

  “All the men responsible are now dead?”

  “Yes. It didn’t bring Conner back, but it’s a relief to know they won’t hurt anyone ever again.”

  Pete and Susie broke the water’s surface near them, playfully clicking and chattering.

  Hannah looked at the dolphins and smiled. “They always know when someone needs cheering up, don’t they?”

  “As much as I’d like to give them credit for that, this time your Mr. Daley would be right if he said they probably just wanted a snack.” She picked up a plastic bucket of salmon and held it up toward Hannah. “Would you like to do the honors?”

  “Sure.” Hannah took two of the fish and tossed them out to Pete and Susie, who immediately devoured their treats.

  Melis put down the bucket. “While I’m probing you on subjects you would rather not discuss, what about Kirov?”

  “You’re right. I’d rather not discuss it.”

  “Tough. I’ve been holding back my curiosity on all this for the past two months. Now I want some answers.”

  Hannah sighed resignedly. Of course Melis wasn’t going to let her off the hook. “Okay, what answers?”

  “Well, I know that someone named Kirov who had a connection to you signed on for this project as a security chief, but he never showed up.”

  She shrugged. “Then you know as much as I do. Kirov has intelligence-agency contacts, and they used their influence with AquaCorp to get him the gig.”

  “Then why didn’t he show up?”

  “I have no idea. He hasn’t been in touch with me.”

  “Wonderful. I see that your taste in men hasn’t improved since your divorce.” Melis glanced at the deck of the Copernicus, where Hannah’s team was still working with the minisub. “Okay. We’ll forget about him. What about Matthew? He absolutely adores you, you know.”

  “Matthew? Are you serious? He has women falling for him in every port city in the world.”

  “But he doesn’t fall for any of them. At least, not the way he does for you. He acts like a schoolboy whenever you’re around him. A schoolboy who speaks with an incredibly charming Australian accent. And one who happens to be ripped. I’ve been sitting here hoping he’ll take his shirt off, but I don’t think it’s happening.”

  “Maybe you’re the one who needs to hook up with him.”

  “Not an option. I already have the perfect man. At least, the perfect man for me. Jed is everything I want or need. Matthew is all yours.”

  Hannah smiled as she shook her head. It was amusing to see Melis in matchmaking mode. Melis was usually as intense and obsessed with work as Hannah. “You know he’s not my style.”

  “A gorgeous man who worships you?” Melis thought for a moment. “You’re right. Not nearly complex enough. Not your style. But maybe you should consider changing your style.”

  A loud, insistent beep sounded from the walkie-talkie clipped to Hannah’s belt. She unfastened it and held it up. “This is Hannah.”

  Josh’s voice blared from the tinny speaker. “Hannah, I’m inside Conner One. You and Melis need to get over here now. Right now.”

  Hannah exchanged a glance with Melis. Josh’s urgency surprised her. She raised the walkie-talkie. “What’s going on, Josh?”

  “You’re not going to believe this. Hell, I can’t believe it.” Now she could hear the excitement and jubilation that vibrated in his voice. “Screw Ebersole. I think we’ve found it.”

  “Found what?”

  “What we’ve been looking for. The end of the story.”

  Hannah and Melis stared at the murky eight-foot projected image in the Copernicus conference room. There were over two dozen crew members crowded behind them, all trying to make sense of what they were seeing.

  “What are we looking at?” Hannah asked.

  Josh adjusted the focus. “This is the captured video from Conner One’s aft camera right before we struck the wall. I was reviewing the footage from the moment of impact, to see what happened.”

  Matthew smiled. “You’re a screwup, that’s what happened. You shouldn’t need instant replay to figure that out.”

  “Thanks for the support, Matthew. I wanted to see how I screwed up.” Josh advanced the image a few more frames. “When the wall came down, it hit the edge of a mosaic of colored glass that had been covered by silt. The stained glass tilted up for a second, and our lights shone through it. We don’t have a clear shot of the glass itself, but you can see the image that it cast on another wall. Look.”

  J
osh froze the image, and they could see the multicolored images projected with astonishing clarity.

  “It’s incredible,” Hannah murmured. “So sharp and vivid.”

  Melis walked toward the screen. “This may have been the top surface of a trellis, probably designed for the sun to shine through and project these images on a white patio. We’ve seen these in a few other places, mostly schools and libraries. They were often used to recount histories of various buildings and institutions.”

  “Exactly what I thought,” Josh said. “I’ve seen enough of these in the past few weeks to get an idea what I was looking at. If it’s anything like the others, the top line tells us what story we’re being told.” He turned to Melis. “You’re the expert. What does that say to you?”

  Melis studied the image. “It’s sunrise/sunset signs, meaning birth and death. We’re being told a life story.”

  “Whose life?” Ebersole asked from the back of the room.

  Melis’s eyes narrowed on the sign to the right. “It looks like the birth and death of . . .” She gasped. “Oh, my God.”

  Josh nodded. “So I’m not crazy?”

  Melis studied it for a moment longer. “This last picture is in the shape of what was once the island. Marinth itself.” She looked up at Hannah. “This is the story of Marinth, from the beginning to the end.”

  “You always said this was here someplace,” Hannah said.

  “It had to be here. The people of Marinth had too much regard for their history for them not to have had some kind of record. And since their civilization was dying long before the tsunami, they would have had time to tell it.” Melis walked toward the projected image and ran her finger across the lines, which looked as much like cave paintings as a written language. “But only the first part is visible here. Look, here are the early settlers in their fishing boats, and this is the great war they had with the invaders. We already know about this from statues and monuments we’ve found. Immediately afterward, there was a long period of peace in which art and music blossomed . . .”