It was the sonar screen, and it now showed only the sloping sea floor. The Surcouf was gone.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN

Aboard the Shadow Chaser

March 31, 2008

10:27 a.m.

She could not breathe. How? Was it possible for a submarine to disappear? Where did it go? Maybe it was another of Cole’s pranks or better yet, part of Cole’s plan. Theo was good with electronics. It must be one of his tricks.

Riley turned to look at him, and Theo’s eyes told her it was no trick.

“I don’t understand,” she said.

Theo opened his mouth, then raised his hands and shook his head. “I don’t either. It’s a steep incline. Maybe when he moved that stuff inside, it was enough to shift the wreck –”

“You know the layout better than I do,” she said. “The exit – how close was he? He could have gotten out, right?”

Theo kept staring at the screen. “It’s possible. It will take him ten to fifteen minutes to get to the surface.”

Dig yanked her arm and pulled her toward the wheelhouse door. “Bring up that camera. I’ve got to get that box.”

She struggled against his grip. “No.”

He shoved her through the door.

That was when she saw it. The gray, cauliflower-shaped cloud was visible over the top of the island of Guadeloupe. It was the shape of it that stopped her.  Unlike any cloud she had ever seen before. Riley grabbed the rail and blocked the way aft. “Theo,” she called. “Come look.”

The young man appeared behind Dig and the three of them stood there watching the cloud grow. Theo was the first to say it. “Montserrat. The volcano.”

Riley saw smoke from several fires on the island of Guadeloupe. She swung her head back and forth. “What’s happening there?” She pointed to the smoke.

“It could have been a major seismic event,” Theo said. “We wouldn’t feel it on the water.”

Dig said, “I don’t give a damn about what’s happening on the island. Bring up that box.”

The VHF radio back in the wheelhouse erupted with voices speaking in rapid French.

“What are they saying?” Theo asked.

Riley listened. People were talking at once, stepping on one another’s transmissions. One woman was screaming in incomprehensible Creole.

“Someone just said several buildings have collapsed in Pointe-à-Pitre,” she said. “My God, Theo. An earthquake. If he’s trapped –” She could not finish the sentence.

Theo turned on the FM radio. There was only static. “Power must be down on the island. That’s why everyone is on the VHF.”

 Riley said, “Now they’re asking for all emergency personnel to report for duty, and any people with medical training to go to the city to treat the injured.”

Theo tapped the scan button. “I think I can pick up a Dominica station here.”

A British accented voice began speaking through the static. “The Soufrière Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat has erupted with an unprecedented explosion causing more than half of the lava dome to collapse. The ash and steam plume is visible for miles. While here on Dominica, we felt a morning tremor, reports are coming in of a more severe earthquake on the French island of Guadeloupe.”

Theo tucked his tablet computer under his arm and pushed past them. He trotted back to the big spool on the after deck and hit a switch with the palm of his hand. An electric motor hummed and the cable began to reel in.

Dig pushed Riley ahead and they followed. When they got to the rail on the afterdeck, she searched the surface for signs of bubbles. Cole, tell me you’re okay. You’re going to surface in a minute and we’ll laugh, right? Each time she saw something that looked like it might be a diver’s bubbles, hope rose in her chest, but then the water would turn smooth again, the disturbance nothing more than a wind wave.

She would know it if he were dead, wouldn’t she? She’d known something was wrong when Michael died, and he had been across an ocean. Not under one. Mikey, help me. Help me find him. Tell me he’s all right. 

Theo stopped the winch.

“Why are you stopping?” Dig asked.

“It’s a long shot, but Cole might have attached himself to the ROV. We bring him up too fast, and he’ll get the bends.”

Dig raised the gun and pressed the barrel against the side of Riley’s head. “You reel that in right now, or I’ll shoot her.”

“Theo, don’t —”

“Riley, look, so far, the cable’s intact. If Enigma made it out, there’s hope Cole did, too. He may be down there decompressing right now.”

Then where are his bubbles, she wanted to ask.

“Stop talking and bring it up.” Dig twisted away from her and trained the gun downward. She jumped at the boom when it went off.

Theo howled, his voice rising at the end as though in a question. He hopped a couple of times on one foot, his back arched, his face twisted in pain. He lifted his foot and examined the shoe. Blood dripped from a hole on the little toe side of his sneaker.

“Don’t argue with me, boy.”

Theo stared at Dig, the whites of his eyes huge behind his glasses, his lips pressed together as though he were forcing his mouth to stay shut.

Far across the water, Riley saw a sportfishing boat headed toward them. Stay away, she wanted to say. There is a crazy man here, and he is likely to shoot all of us before this day is done.

After that first cry, Theo didn’t make another sound. He hit the button and the crane started up again. The three of them stood silent at the rail watching the black, snake-like cable emerge dripping and glistening in the sunlight. To the northwest, over the island, the ash cloud grew like a brain coral recorded on time-lapse photography. It spread toward them coating the blue dome overhead with its gray pall.

Finally, the bright yellow of the PVC pipe appeared a few feet below the surface. There was no diver, either alive or dead, attached to the ROV. Where are you Cole? Please tell me you’re hanging on the anchor chain hatching some crazy plan. 

The Enigma no longer looked like a cute little toy. The yellow pipes were broken, mangled. Riley remembered how proud Cole had been when he had shown it to her during their first passage down to Dominica and the Indian River. The device now looked like it had been hit by a truck, or more precisely, dragged out of a wreck.

Theo hit the button to stop the crane before the device was halfway out of the water. “There’s something in the cargo net,” he said.

“Bring it up on deck,” Dig said.

“I can’t. The cable can’t support the weight of it. It breaks and it will all sink. Somebody needs to get in the water to attach the line from the crane.”

“I think I can do it from the Fast Eddie,” Riley said. She wanted to get down closer to the water to look for Cole.

“Good idea.”

“You’re not going anywhere without me,” Dig said.

She gave him a curt nod. “Let me untie the painter.” He released his grip on her arm, and she stepped back to the cleat. She handed the line to Theo, and he pulled the black speedboat alongside the rope ladder. Riley climbed down and Dig followed, struggling to hold onto the ladder. When he stepped onto the deck, he pulled the sling off over his head. She saw where blood had stained the left side of his shirt.

Meanwhile, Theo swung the crane out over the water. Out on the boat’s foredeck, she scanned the Shadow Chaser’s waterline. No sign of him. She reached up and grabbed the shackle dangling from the crane.

“Got it,” she called. She pulled on the line and walked aft, then jumped down into the cockpit so she would be able to reach the Enigma where it bobbed at the surface. Once the shackle was secured, she gave Theo a thumbs up and the crane motor hummed.

Dig pushed her aside as the mangled ROV rose dripping out of the water. He swung it over the powerboat’s after deck, and Theo reversed the crane. Over Dig’s shoulder, she saw a flash of white. The ceramic mug. She smelled the sharp, acrid odor she always associated with low tide. Dig reached into the steel mesh bag that was slung beneath the ballast tanks, and he withdrew the white mug. She saw his hand go up into the air, and she held her breath. Two other men had touched that artifact before Dig — Cole and the captain of the Surcouf. She saw his hand fly past as he threw the mug to the deck where it exploded into sharp white shards.