Admiral Nelson paced his cabin, his angry thoughts creating a tornado in his mind. Dr. Ramirez had left this morning – some six hours ago - to get some supplies in Corfu, but he hadn't returned. A little over an hour after he left, Lee and Chip had also gone, to take some shore leave, perhaps do a little sightseeing. Nelson had seen their itinerary and secretly laughed at the thought of Lee's consternation. The captain was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a history buff. He had asked to be taken off the dive on the ancient trading ship almost before the first day of diving was completed. With a spark of mischief in his eyes, he had suggested Chip for his replacement; Nelson knew that was in the nature of needling his friend and XO. But Chip had actually liked diving on the ancient wreck. And Dr. Ramirez had been very complimentary of the knowledgeable young officer. The two of them had hit it off, and Chip was far from bored, coming back to Seaview from the dives with many questions and suggestions and a wide-eyed enthusiasm that had made everyone around him smile.
Nelson knew that Lee was intrigued by that enthusiasm and saw it as a chance to help him learn a little more about his XO. He already knew a great deal, wormed out of Chip, despite the XO's reluctance to share his private life. Still, Lee was a master at dragging things out of people no matter how reluctant they were. Chip hadn't really stood a chance, but instead of jeopardizing the relationship between the command team – an all-important relationship for the health of the boat – it seemed to have solidified their friendship... In fact, Chip willingly told Lee things he would never tell anyone else. The admiral found that intriguing, because initially he had thought the two of them too different to forge any sort of real friendship. Lee was charming, outgoing, and outstandingly heroic; Chip tended to keep himself to himself, and few people ever saw that powerhouse smile that could light up a room. He could be heroic as well, but tended to a calculated action, everything carefully planned out. Lee planned on the fly, using his skills to pull him through. Chip preferred to leave nothing to chance, plotting out every angle to be sure he had everything covered. His enthusiasm for the dive had been somewhat of a surprise, and Nelson thought he would greatly enjoy the field trip to Sarpolis. It was very doubtful that Lee would enjoy it as much as Chip would...
But none of that explained at all why neither they nor Dr. Ramirez had returned from their respective shore leaves on time. He had sent a search party to Corfu, but they had been unable to find a trace of Dr. Ramirez, nor had they spoken to anyone who had seen him. A shrug, a shake of the head... No one had seen him, no one had talked to him... It was as if the marine archaeologist had vanished without a trace; as if he had never existed at all.
Add to that the fact that Lee and Chip had been gone for at least two hours over their period of leave – completely unlike either of them – and Nelson was steaming. Not just one missing man, but three, and none of them irresponsible or daring enough to miss what amounted to a curfew. Dr. Ramirez had another dive scheduled later today, and Chip had been planning to dive with him. The old trading ship and her possible cargo was a source of endless fascination for the scientist and the XO. They wouldn't have missed that chance to go out to her again...
He knew that Lee and Chip had headed for the island of Sarpolis, now uninhabited, but once covered with temples to the ancient Greek gods. It wasn't a place that Lee would enjoy, but he had let Chip plan the outing, and Chip naturally would want to see the ancient temples. Lee wouldn't care about the temples, but he would be very interested in the enthusiasm Chip showed for them. He was constantly looking for a way to draw the quieter, more reserved XO out from behind the walls he'd built around himself, and this looked like a sure thing. But when Nelson had sent Sharkey and some men to check out Sarpolis, all they had found were two dead men on the beach and an empty island. Odd, since the last ferry of the afternoon had come about an hour before Sharkey had descended on the island; they should surely have found and reported the dead men, and anyone who had been there, including his two officers, should have left with the ferry, but Nelson knew his command team hadn't been on it. They should still have been on Sarpolis therefore... But the island was deserted.
A more thorough report had been forthcoming from the COB when he reported back to the boat; the term "mother hen" had probably been coined for the efficient, overly protective chief. Sharkey had torn the island apart, looking for his officers, but all he had found, besides two bodies, tied up with Navy issue belts, were bullet scars on the ancient stones. Very clearly, his officers had tied up the two men, but they hadn't been armed... And even if they had been, they wouldn't have shot two men who had already been incapacitated.
But the presence of those two unreported dead men meant that Nelson didn't dare report his missing officers to the authorities. Not unless he wanted Greek officials accusing his men of murder. Trials in foreign countries were problematic, as they didn't always follow the familiar procedures found in American trials or court-martials. Nelson knew his men hadn't killed anyone; he would not take the risk that the Greek authorities wouldn't believe them...
But he had to wonder what had happened... Clearly, the two dead men had been a threat, or Lee and Chip wouldn't have felt compelled to tie them up. And the bullet scars on the ruins told their own tale. Sharkey was sure they were fresh scars, from shots fired no more than a few hours before. Since his officers had gone off on shore leave unarmed, it seemed most likely that the men shooting were the men dead on the sand. But if that were so, then where had Lee and Chip gone? They had to take the ferry to get off the island. They hadn't; so they should still be on the island, but... They weren't...
Nelson cursed angrily. Where were they? If they were still free, why hadn't they contacted Seaview and explained themselves? Answer: for whatever reason, they couldn't. And if they couldn't, that must mean they were in deep trouble. Why was it always Lee who got into trouble? No, that wasn't fair; Chip could get himself into just as much trouble as Lee, though it was far less likely to be his fault, when it happened. Lee seemed to search trouble out, his larger-than-life personality a magnet for enemies. Chip, on the other hand, was quieter and – on the surface of things – less of a target. Yet somehow, he still seemed to attract trouble, not because he was larger-than-life, but because he was so damned brilliant, and there were always people in the world who wanted to know things they weren't entitled to know... Most of those people seemed to want to know Nelson's secrets, and Chip was privy to a great many of them. He was also the most accessible of Nelson's senior officers. The admiral had had to take precautions to keep his command team protected. They hated it, but he wasn't inclined to subject to anymore threats than were absolutely necessary...
All that was serious enough; Nelson always worried when his command team went missing, because it usually meant they had a fight on their hands. But his marine archaeologist – a thoroughly dependable man; and a thoroughly gentle one – had also gone missing.
It had to be tied to the wreck they were working on. It was too much of a coincidence that the leader of the team, plus two of the men who had dived on the wreck had gone missing within the space of a few hours. But it was just a typical ancient Greek trading ship. What could possibly be worth so much that someone was willing to kidnap three people to stop the work?
He moved to his desk, looking down at Dr. Ramirez's notes through narrowed eyes. Nothing in the reports he'd made, or in the notes he'd taken suggested anything to Nelson. They'd been busy tracing the trail of wreckage, mapping it out precisely on the ocean floor. The upcoming dive would have finished that work. Then they would begin on the crumpled decks of the ship, photographing the positions of the debris, gently extracting anything of value to history... Dr. Ramirez had indicated that he didn't think they'd find anything with real monetary value in this day and age. Perhaps a few Greek kouroi or korai, or maybe some amphora that had once been filled with wine. Greek pottery... But no money and probably no weapons. It had been a simple Greek trading ship...
So what were these hypothetical kidnappers after? Nelson pondered that question through narrowed eyes. The statuary, if there were any, would have a monetary value, depending on their quality and age. There were a number of extant kouroi, moreso than korai, but neither were particularly valuable except to museums. A fine one, or perhaps one sculpted by a known ancient sculptor, might be worth a little more... But worth the kidnapping of three men? Not likely.
Information? But any information on that ship would be in the form of clues that very few men other than trained archaeologists could read. And nothing they gleaned would be earth-shattering, except perhaps to the scientific community. Again not likely to be worth the kidnapping of three men...
So there was something else on that ship. Something that Dr. Ramirez was not aware of, something that even the Greek government was not aware of... But if that were so, how had these people known about it? Had they dived on the wreck without permission? Or did they just think what they wanted was on this ship?
He remembered Kowalski's report from the first dive: he had thought he had seen two divers in the water above them as they worked the wreck. Their silhouettes had shown clearly against the sunlight filtering through the water, and Ski had been positive of what he had seen. Yet, when he had gone to warn them off, he had found no divers... Were those unknown party crashers the same men who had kidnapped three men? Had their three men even been kidnapped? The answer to that question was paramount...
But even more important was discovering what information the kidnappers expected to get from their three captives, assuming that Lee and Chip had indeed been captured... That was never a safe assumption: Lee had ways of getting out of dangerous situations, and he wouldn't leave a man behind. It seemed likely that something had happened to them, since they weren't on the island... But what that something might be was far harder to determine.
He picked up the mike on his desk and bellowed into it. "Sharkey! We're going to Sarpolis. I want a team of three men. We will turn that island upside down." He double-clicked the mike as he continued. "Mr. Bishop. Station a team of divers over that wreck. Change them every hour. I want to know if anyone goes near it, and I want to know immediately!"
"Aye, sir," came through the mike from both men. Satisfied, Nelson tossed the mike down and headed to the control room. He would take the flying sub to Sarpolis. They could land in the water, and stay hidden. He and his team would go ashore in diving suits. He could set FS1 to scan for anyone coming near the island. They would be alerted if the shooter returned. And they would go armed, and prepared to defend themselves or rescue their people.
Lee and Chip had to still be on Sarpolis. The deeper mystery was what had happened to Dr. Ramirez...
