Crescent Dawn

“I knew they were lying when they came aboard,” Captain Kenfield said, shaking his head. “But I certainly didn’t suspect they would resort to murder.”

Pitt noticed a lump on Gu

“What happened to you?”

Gu

“While you were down, the yacht sent over a small launch filled with armed thugs. Claimed they were with the Turkish Ministry of Culture.”

“Policing the high seas in a luxury yacht?” Giordino asked skeptically.

“I asked for their identification, but was shown the stock of a rifle instead,” Gu

“They told us in no uncertain terms that we had no authority to be working on a shipwreck of the Ottoman Empire,” the captain said.

“Interesting, that they knew what the wreck was,” Giordino noted.

“What else did they want?” Pitt asked.

“They demanded all of the artifacts that we had removed from the wreck,” Kenfield said. “I told them to get off my ship, but that didn’t go over too well. They marched Rudi and me onto the bridge wing and threatened to kill us. The crew had no choice but to acquiesce.”

“Did they take everything?” Giordino asked.

Gu

“But not before ordering us off the site and threatening us to stay off the radio,” Kenfield added.

“I hate to tell you they didn’t just take all our artifacts, Rudi,” Pitt said. “They also dug up your monolith from the wreck site.”

“That’s the least of our losses,” he said grimly. “They’ve got Zeibig.”

The captain nodded. “They asked who was in charge of the wreck excavation. Dr. Zeibig happened to be in the lab, and they forced him to go with them.”

“After what they did to Iverson and Tang, we know they won’t hesitate to kill him, too,” Giordino said quietly.

“Have you tried contacting anyone yet?” Pitt asked the captain.

“I just got off the satellite phone with the Turkish Ministry of Culture. They confirmed that they possess no yachts and have no policing resources assigned to this region. I also contacted the Turkish Coast Guard. Unfortunately, they don’t have any vessels in the immediate area, either. They have directed us to their base at Izmir to file a report.”

“In the meantime, the bad guys are able to disappear completely with Zeibig,” Pitt said.

“I’m afraid there isn’t much else we can do,” the captain said. “That yacht is at least twice as fast as the Aegean Explorer . There’s no way we could try pursuing them with any hopes of catching up. And once in port, we can alert our own government authorities as well.”

Giordino loudly cleared his throat as he stepped forward. “I know something that could keep pace with that yacht.”

He turned toward Pitt and gave him a confident wink.

“You sure she’s ready?” Pitt asked.

“She’s as ready,” Giordino said, “as a hungry alligator in a duck pond.”

Previously prepared for launch, it took only a few minutes to check that all systems were operational before Giordino’s new submersible was lowered over the side. Seated at side-by-side controls, Giordino performed a quick safety check while Pitt radioed the bridge of the Aegean Explorer .

“Explorer , please give me a current fix on our target,” he asked.

“Radar shows she’s holding on a steady course of zero-one-two degrees,” replied the voice of Rudi Gu

“Roger, Explorer . Please follow at speed while we go try to catch the fox. Bullet out.”

Pitt was wary of the notion of playing chase in a submersible. Normally reliant on battery power for propulsion, research submersibles were historically slow, plodding vehicles designed for limited range. But the Bullet had broken the rules of submersible development.

Named for the vessel’s speed rather than shape, the Bullet was based on a design by Marion Hyper-Subs. The NUMA prototype mated a steel submersible cabin to a high-performance powerboat hull. As a submersible, the Bullet was capable of diving to depths of a thousand feet. On the surface, separate propulsion motors in a pressurized engine compartment along with a 525-gallon fuel tank allowed the Bullet to travel long distances at high speed. The design permitted the sub to reach remote dive sites without the need for an accompanying support vessel.

“Ready to engage surface drive,” Giordino a

A deep rumble echoed behind them as the twin 500-horsepower motors churned to life. Giordino visually checked several gauges on the instrument panel, then turned to Pitt.

“We’re ready to roll.”

“Let’s see what she can do,” Pitt replied, easing back the throttle controls.

They were immediately pushed back into their seats as the powerful diesels shoved the submersible ahead. In just a few seconds, the vessel was riding high on its sleek white hull, racing across the waves. Pitt felt the sub pitch and roll through the choppy seas, but as he gained a feel for its stability he gently added more throttle. With the control cabin perched near the forward edge of the vessel, he felt like they were flying over the water.

“Thirty-four knots,” he said, eyeing a navigation screen readout. “Not too shabby.”

Giordino nodded with a wide smile. “I figure she can do well over forty on a flat sea.”

They blasted north across the Aegean Sea, bounding for nearly twenty minutes before they spotted a speck on the horizon. They pursued the yacht for another hour, drawing slowly closer as they passed north of the Dardanelles, weaving around a pair of large oil tankers sailing from the Black Sea. The large Turkish island of Gökçeada soon loomed before them, and the yacht altered course to the east of the island.

Pitt followed on a zigzag course so as not to appear to be directly following the yacht, then eased back on the throttles when they approached within a few miles. The yacht slowly turned away from Gökçeada and angled toward the Turkish mainland, hugging close to the coastline as it gradually reduced speed. Pitt turned and followed on a delayed parallel tack, holding well out to sea while staying within visible range of the luxury boat. Skimming low in the water, from a distance the Bullet appeared to be just a small pleasure craft out for an afternoon cruise.

The yacht traveled several more miles up the Turkish west coast, then suddenly slowed and veered into a semiprotected cove. As they sped past offshore, Pitt and Giordino could make out a few buildings and a dock with a small freighter moored alongside. Pitt held their course until they were a mile or two north of the cove and well out of sight, before dropping his own throttle to an idle.

“Seems like we’ve got two choices,” Giordino said. “We can put ashore somewhere and make for the cove on foot. Or we can wait until dark and take the Bullet into the cove through the basement.”

Pitt eyed the craggy coastline a half mile away.

“I’m not sure there are a whole lot of good spots to run aground around here,” he said. “Plus, if Zeibig or anyone else should get injured, hiking back out could be problematic.”

“Agreed. Then into the cove it is.”

Pitt glanced at his orange-faced Doxa dive watch. “Dusk will be here in about an hour. We can start heading in then.”

The hour passed quickly. Pitt radioed the Aegean Explorer with their position and instructed Rudi to bring the research vessel to a holding spot ten miles south of the cove. Giordino used the time to retrieve a digital marine chart of the coastal area and program a submerged route into the center of the cove. Once underwater, an autopilot system would drive the submersible to the specified location using computer-enhanced dead reckoning.