Page 68 of Under Pressure

The hulking hull of the ship came into view appearing as a shadow. If he didn’t know it was a boat, it would pass as an underwater cavern or coral. He turned to Wolfe’s camera and gave them a thumbs up. A moment later, they saw it too.

“Whoa,” Knox said. “That’s a big ship.”

It was massive. They’d expected that from Ryker’s descriptions, but seeing it in person was different than hearing about it.

They stopped on the deck, and Gray gave them instructions from Ryker’s map of the ship. When he’d first given it to them, Sean had wanted to give him a big smacking kiss. They’danticipated an arrogant, haughty prince they’d have to baby, and instead, they’d gotten a haughty, but not arrogant, and very competent Isola Del Famiglia ex-Royal Navy Lieutenant who’d had the foresight to grab the ship’s plans as he’d fled his country. “At the aft, there’s a door leading below deck. You should see it any moment now.”

They headed that way, and found the door a moment later. Thankfully, it was already open.

“Head down those stairs and take a right,” Gray said.

They did as they were told, diving deep into the bowels of the ship. Sean used the stair treads to pull himself along. The ship had crashed on a reef, and the sea life in the reef had adopted the ship like home. Coral grew all over, along with other plant life. Some seaweed waved at them as they went by. Sean was surprised by the variety of colorful fish that had taken up residence in only a year’s time.

“Look! It’s Dory!”

The excitement in Knox’s voice was palpable as he spotted a blue tang swim by. It made Sean grin. There weren’t many things that could surprise their unit, they’d seen so much, but the ocean was never the same. Even Sean, who ended up in the surf almost daily, always found something new to make him smile, something surprising.

The last time he’d had a surprise outside the water had, ironically, been when Blue had shown up at his mom’s party. He shook his head, trying to rid it of Blue thoughts, and carefully followed Gray’s instructions as he led them through metal halls and corridors, past rooms, and gear never to be used again, deeper, and deeper into the depths of the enormous ship.

“All right, you should be coming up on cargo any minute now,” Gray said.

They found a door with the word “cargo” still clearly visible on the side. Sean picked off a hard shell crab feeling the shellgive slightly, and set it to the side. Wolfe tried the handle. It was stuck. Sean grabbed on, and between the two of them, they were able to push the rust-lined door open.

The cargo was massive, with multiple trucks, a few tanks, ramps, a couple of cranes for loading and unloading, and crates covering nearly every available inch.

“What were these guys up to?” Gray asked.

Sean and Wolfe exchanged glances. That’s what they wanted to know.

“How’s your air doing?” Knox asked.

Sean and Wolfe both checked their gauges. They had plenty of time to look around. Wolfe turned to Sean and gave a thumbs-up to the camera.

They split up but kept within sight of one another, and started combing through the crates. Most were common supplies you’d see on a ship: food, toiletries, weapons that would no longer function after so much time in the water, tools, and so on.

Then Sean came to a metal crate, about four and a half feet tall, and five by five feet wide in a long row of similar metal crates. This one had a Norwegian flag on it. Sean came up short.

“What is that?” Gray asked.

Sean waved Wolfe over and removed the bolt cutter from his pack. The lock dropped off with a snap. The two of them lifted the lid together.

In the sparkle of an indigo tiara, Sean’s life seemed to flash before his eyes. And while Blue had only been a small part of his life, her face was what appeared more than any other. Wolfe nudged him, breaking him out of his manic thoughts as jewels, coins, bills, precious metals, and other items glittered up at them.

“What. Is. That?” Knox whispered.

Trouble.

Wolfe and Sean looked at one another, then down the row of crates. Sean’s heart raced in his chest. Wolfe pointed to Sean and the next crate in the row, then to himself and down the row. They both nodded as Wolfe swam off slowly, checking each crate as he went, Knox read off the countries on the lids of each box as Wolfe’s camera caught them. “Norway, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Sweden, Monaco . . .”

Sean went to the next crate. It was from Spain. He cut that one open as well, only to find more treasures just as they had in the first crate.

“Isola de la Famiglia,” Knox practically shouted. “Wolfe found it.”

Sean hurried over to where Wolfe was, getting there in time to help him hoist the lid. Shining in their headlamps, just as with the other two crates, were all the treasures Ryker risked his life for.

Wolfe and Gray stared down the line of crates, each with a flag or family crest on it they didn’t recognize. There had to be at least fifty of them, if not more.

“What have we gotten ourselves into?” Gray said in a near whisper.

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