Page 172 of Her Reluctant Hero
“Where have you been the past four days? Not diving the site. It hasn’t been touched.”
“We were waiting for you to show up. That man, that Smoller man, wanted to catch you by surprise.”
“He did,” Mallory grumbled. “And Dr. Vigil? What happened to him?”
“I don’t know.” The girl’s voice was shrill. “I didn’t know anything about it until a few minutes ago. I can’t believe it.” Linda dropped to the edge of the bed, slumped, her hands dangling over her knees. “Why is this happening to us, Mallory? Why?”
But Mallory didn’t have the energy to explain it. She just wanted to think of a way to get out of it.
The first thing Adrian did when he emerged from belowdeck the next morning was to look toward Smoller’s boat, hoping for sight of Mallory. He’d barely slept all night, worried about her, knowing Smoller could go to her if he chose and Adrian had no way to protect her. He’d gone through dozens of escape scenarios, some of them admittedly ridiculous, but all requiring that his crew have a way to communicate, and he’d been kept from his brother and Jacob.
He didn’t see Mallory, but his crew and Smoller’s men were on the barge, suited up to dive. Even Linda, who hated to dive, wore a wetsuit. Adrian’s crew was carefully positioned so that no one could speak to one another. He still wasn’t sure how many men Smoller surrounded himself with. Until he knew, he couldn’t come up with a workable plan.
Mallory walked out onto the deck of Smoller’s boat in her wetsuit, looking healthy enough, though her movements were cautious as she took in her surroundings.
He hoped she remembered the hand signals they’d learned before they married, a system that had come in handy on dives when they couldn’t talk. He tried one now, as discreetly as possible.
He didn’t know a sign forDid he touch you?so he motioned,Are you okay?
Mallory nodded once, almost imperceptibly.
Be patient.
A smile quirked the corner of her mouth as Smoller stepped to the edge of the barge. Yeah, she’d signaled for him to be patient often enough.
“We’ll be diving in shifts today to maximize our time, now that we have extra divers.” Smoller’s voice carried across the barge to both boats. “I want the box. The other artifacts aren’t important. I want to be out of here before anyone comes snooping around.”
Like the Belize Defence Force. Adrian had alerted them nearly two days ago, so where were they? He’d warned them of the possibility of pirates and thought they’d at least patrol the area. He’d yet to see a cruiser. Had Smoller paid them off?
“Two of my men will go with each group.” Smoller turned to Adrian as he said this, and Adrian jerked his attention from Mallory and nodded. “Adrian, your group will go first. Your wife will be with me.”
Adrian wasn’t willing to see what Smoller would do to Mallory if Adrian disobeyed, so he slid into the water and signaled to his two guards that he was ready to descend. With one last look at Mallory, he dove. When they reached the site, one of Smoller’s men thrust a wire basket at Adrian and motioned to the site. Fill it and send it up.
Years of careful excavating were ingrained in him. He couldn’t make himself dump the artifacts, ivory and bronze and gold, into the baskets the way Jacob, Linda and the guards did. He lifted a cylindrical seal, rubbed his thumb over the end, tried to see the design but couldn’t make it out. It had probably belonged to the captain of the ship. If Adrian could only study it, get it to Mallory so she could interpret the symbols—
His dive alarm went off. Out of habit, he swam for the guideline, tucking the seal into the utility belt at his waist, only to be grabbed by the shoulder. He turned to look at one of his keepers, who pointed to the site and the basket. Okay, so he hadn’t made much progress, but staying down here could kill him. If he got the bends, Smoller wouldn’t send him to the naval base for decompression. He’d let him die a slow painful death.
He pointed to his watch, then up. The other diver shook his head and gestured to the site. Adrian glared at the man a moment, disbelieving, and swam around him.
This time the man closed a hand around his arm. Adrian turned, looked to see Jacob and Linda swimming for the line. He jerked his arm, but the man wouldn’t release him. Frustrated, he slammed his fist into the man’s mask. Damn, the blow hurt his knuckles, and took too much effort through the water to do damage, but it startled the man into letting go. Adrian headed up the line, only to be stopped short by a hand on his ankle above his fin. Son of a—
Before the man could dislodge him, he swung his other foot around to push it into the man’s face. Again, too much resistance in the water to do much damage. This time the other man didn’t let go. Instead, he stripped Adrian’s flipper off. Damn it.
Adrian twined his arm around the guideline and tried to pull himself up, to no avail.
He unwrapped his arm and unhooked his weight belt. It floated down toward the man as Adrian shot up and out of the other man’s grip. Now, however, he was moving too fast to decompress. The only thing that could slow him down was the guideline, which floated just out of his reach.
His alarm beeped like crazy at the quick ascent. He felt aches in his body as he reached for the rope again. And again. His fingers brushed it. Almost.
Jacob and Linda climbed onto the barge, dripping and shivering. Mallory looked past them to the water, holding her breath as she waited for Adrian.
“He’s been down too long!” Mallory shouted across to Valentine’s boat, where Smoller’s men stood looking over the side.
“He’s probably decompressing,” Smoller said, nonchalant.
Not this long. Adrian dived strictly by the tables, always underestimating his bottom time, overestimating his decompression time. He’d been down on the outside range of that time. She wasn’t waiting any longer. She strode to the pilothouse, picked up a set of tanks, checked the gauges before buckling them on over her clothes. She found a pair of flippers, strapped them on her feet.
“You can’t go in without a suit,” Smoller protested.
