Page 96 of Night's Reckoning
Johari worked on the hull, continuing to coax sediment away from the cargo hold of the ship, using hand motions to alert the other vampires when a new section had been cleared. Watching her was astonishing. The sediment around each fixed object seemed to melt away under her hands, revealing perfectly intact objects that had been hidden for over a thousand years.
“I wish so hard I could video this,” he said. “It’s amazing.”
“I wish I could see it,” she said through the radio. “I may have to go down tomorrow night.”
“It’s pretty damn cool.”
Ben headed for the end of the wrecked hull where Meili had been working. He swam down, focusing his light on the base of the coral, but it was far more compacted than he remembered. The coral sat atop a section of hull that had broken off, blocking the area beneath it and whatever might have been stored there. It wasn’t a large portion, and if he hadn’t been looking, he would have thought it was simply part of the reef.
“I’m getting Johari.”
He motioned to Johari, who held up her hand in the universal signal to wait.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not going to be able to move this without her.”
“Okay.” She sounded skeptical.
“I couldn’t move this with a sledgehammer, Fabi, and I don’t want to be that destructive if I can help it.”
“Just be careful.”
Ben had cleared some of the loose rocks and debris from the base of the collapsed hull by the time Johari swam over. He couldn’t talk to her, but he motioned to the portion of the hull he wanted to lift, hoping she got the idea.
She nodded and began to slowly move the section of rock the coral had attached to, probably hoping to disturb the reef as little as possible. She waved at him to get back, so he moved and allowed her to work.
“Okay, you’re not gonna be happy what we’re doing here,” Ben said. “But she’s moving it.”
“How many coral are you killing?”
“As few as possible.” It was the truth. The rocks moved far more slowly than the sediment. Johari had her hands under them, and it almost looked like she was very slowly shifting a crusted-over Volkswagen.
“The hull is pulling away with the rocks,” Ben said. “I can see what’s underneath now.”
“What is it?”
He swam down and managed to take a peek before Johari whacked the back of his head with her hand. He looked up. She pointed to where Ben had been waiting.
Get back.Her glare was unmistakable.
“I need to wait until she’s finished with the rocks.”
“Okay.”
He checked his watch. He’d already been under for fifteen minutes. He had enough air in his tanks for an hour, but he’d promised Fabia he’d only be gone a half an hour.
Five minutes later, Johari waved him over. Ben lowered himself to the sea floor and began brushing away the sediment with the tools Fabia had given him before Johari held her hand out and the sediment began to melt away from the dark lumps that had been hiding.
“Fabia, there are glass ingots.”
“Colored ones?”
He grabbed the flashlight from his belt and shined it and his headlamp where Johari’s hands moved. “Yes.”
There was bright red and brilliant green. But more than anything, there was blue. Rich, cobalt-blue glass that winked at him from the bottom of the ocean like colorful cabochon jewels.
Ben’s heart was racing. While nothing about the glass ingots was sexy, he was taken by the thrill of the hunt. He was uncovering something that had remained hidden for a thousand years. Glass ingots poured in the fires of Damascus, brought by caravan to be loaded onto a ship that traveled thousands of miles, only to sink on the bottom of the ocean floor.
