The Danger ( PDFDrive.com )

the Adventurer.
He called, “What can we do to help?”
When the diving bell finally broke the surface, English and the three interns
were astonished to find themselves deposited not onto their own ship, but to the
deck of the Ponce de Léon.
What was going on here? They had narrowly escaped Marina only to be
delivered right into the hands of Cutter and Reardon.
Luckily, Star was there to explain the situation through the intercom. “I think
Cutter’s our friend now, believe it or not. He’s a treasure hunter and a reef
wrecker, but he didn’t know what Marina was doing. And when he found out, he
warned us right away.”
“Marina didn’t make it,” Kaz said soberly. He offered no details. It would be
a while before he would be ready to discuss this particular adventure.
“Anyway, Cutter’s giving us a ride over to the oil rig,” Star concluded.
“Captain Bourassa will meet us there. He’s got to go slow over the reef because
there’s about a zillion dollars hanging under the Adventurer.”
English glared at her through the small view port. “I hope you know this by
inference only, mademoiselle with the wet hair, and not because you are foolish
enough to dive there.”
They were about halfway to the Antilles platform when the helicopters
began to arrive, filling the sky with their machine-gun rhythms.
Dante peered out at them. “Big doings at the oil rig.”
English laughed mirthlessly. “One billion dollars. Many zeroes attract many
friends.”
Adriana gaped at the aircraft that filled the skies over Saint-Luc like circling
hawks. “You mean all this is for us?”
“I believe you Americans have a saying about — hitting the fan?”
The decompression from seven hundred feet took four long days. By the
time the divers stepped out of the chamber, the contents of the lift basket and
even Star’s gold candlestick sat in the hold of a French warship that patrolled the
waters over the wreck site at the edge of the Hidden Shoals.
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