Pitt felt revulsion and anger at having to use the scientist’s body as a human shield, but he knew that he would have otherwise been cut to ribbons.
“They killed him twice today,” Giordino said somberly.
“They…” Pitt muttered, gazing toward the receding profile of the yacht racing toward the horizon. His mind was already churning over the question of who would commit murder over an old shipwreck, and why?
“We better get him out of here before every shark in the Mediterranean shows up for lunch,” Giordino said, grabbing hold of Tang’s arm.
The Aegean Explorerhad already weighed anchor and was creeping up to the men in the water. A group of deckhands lowered a crane and quickly hoisted the dead men aboard, then helped pull up Giordino and Pitt. The ship’s captain and doctor scurried to the scene, followed closely by Gunn. The NUMA Deputy Director had a dazed look about him as he held an ice pack to his head.
“They both died in the water,” Pitt said as the doctor kneeled down and quickly examined each man. “Drowned.”
“Both accidental?” the captain asked.
“No,” Pitt said as he stripped off his wet suit. He pointed to a severed air hose extending from Iverson’s dive tank.
“Somebody cut their air lines.”
“The same people that tried to iron us with the bottom of their rich Italian hull,” Giordino added.
“I knew they were lying when they came aboard,” Captain Kenfield said, shaking his head. “But I certainly didn’t suspect they would resort to murder.”
Pitt noticed a lump on Gunn’s head that he was rubbing with the ice pack.
“What happened to you?”
Gunn grimaced as he lowered the pack.
“While you were down, the yacht sent over a small launch filled with armed thugs. Claimed they were with the Turkish Ministry of Culture.”
“Policing the high seas in a luxury yacht?” Giordino asked skeptically.
“I asked for their identification, but was shown the stock of a rifle instead,” Gunn said, repositioning the ice pack to the knot on his head.
“They told us in no uncertain terms that we had no authority to be working on a shipwreck of the Ottoman Empire,” the captain said.
“Interesting, that they knew what the wreck was,” Giordino noted.
“What else did they want?” Pitt asked.
“They demanded all of the artifacts that we had removed from the wreck,” Kenfield said. “I told them to get off my ship, but that didn’t go over too well. They marched Rudi and me onto the bridge wing and threatened to kill us. The crew had no choice but to acquiesce.”
“Did they take everything?” Giordino asked.
Gunn nodded. “They cleared out the lab, then beat it back to their yacht just before you guys surfaced.”
“But not before ordering us off the site and threatening us to stay off the radio,” Kenfield added.
“I hate to tell you they didn’t just take all our artifacts, Rudi,” Pitt said. “They also dug up your monolith from the wreck site.”
“That’s the least of our losses,” he said grimly. “They’ve got Zeibig.”
The captain nodded. “They asked who was in charge of the wreck excavation. Dr. Zeibig happened to be in the lab, and they forced him to go with them.”
“After what they did to Iverson and Tang, we know they won’t hesitate to kill him, too,” Giordino said quietly.
“Have you tried contacting anyone yet?” Pitt asked the captain.
“I just got off the satellite phone with the Turkish Ministry of Culture. They confirmed that they possess no yachts and have no policing resources assigned to this region. I also contacted the Turkish Coast Guard. Unfortunately, they don’t have any vessels in the immediate area, either. They have directed us to their base at Izmir to file a report.”
“In the meantime, the bad guys are able to disappear completely with Zeibig,” Pitt said.
“I’m afraid there isn’t much else we can do,” the captain said. “That yacht is at least twice as fast as the Aegean Explorer. There’s no way we could try pursuing them with any hopes of catching up. And once in port, we can alert our own government authorities as well.”
Giordino loudly cleared his throat as he stepped forward. “I know something that could keep pace with that yacht.”
He turned toward Pitt and gave him a confident wink.
“You sure she’s ready?” Pitt asked.
“She’s as ready,” Giordino said, “as a hungry alligator in a duck pond.”
Previously prepared for launch, it took only a few minutes to check that all systems were operational before Giordino’s new submersible was lowered over the side. Seated at side-by-side controls, Giordino performed a quick safety check while Pitt radioed the bridge of the Aegean Explorer.
“ Explorer, please give me a current fix on our target,” he asked.
“Radar shows she’s holding on a steady course of zero-one-two degrees,” replied the voice of Rudi Gunn. “She’s now approximately ten miles north of us.”
“Roger, Explorer. Please follow at speed while we go try to catch the fox. Bulletout.”
Pitt was wary of the notion of playing chase in a submersible. Normally reliant on battery power for propulsion, research submersibles were historically slow, plodding vehicles designed for limited range. But the Bullethad broken the rules of submersible development.
Named for the vessel’s speed rather than shape, the Bulletwas based on a design by Marion Hyper-Subs. The NUMA prototype mated a steel submersible cabin to a high-performance powerboat hull. As a submersible, the Bulletwas capable of diving to depths of a thousand feet. On the surface, separate propulsion motors in a pressurized engine compartment along with a 525-gallon fuel tank allowed the Bulletto travel long distances at high speed. The design permitted the sub to reach remote dive sites without the need for an accompanying support vessel.
“Ready to engage surface drive,” Giordino announced, then reached over and pressed the starter buttons for a pair of turbocharged diesel engines.
A deep rumble echoed behind them as the twin 500-horsepower motors churned to life. Giordino visually checked several gauges on the instrument panel, then turned to Pitt.
“We’re ready to roll.”
“Let’s see what she can do,” Pitt replied, easing back the throttle controls.
They were immediately pushed back into their seats as the powerful diesels shoved the submersible ahead. In just a few seconds, the vessel was riding high on its sleek white hull, racing across the waves. Pitt felt the sub pitch and roll through the choppy seas, but as he gained a feel for its stability he gently added more throttle. With the control cabin perched near the forward edge of the vessel, he felt like they were flying over the water.
“Thirty-four knots,” he said, eyeing a navigation screen readout. “Not too shabby.”
Giordino nodded with a wide smile. “I figure she can do well over forty on a flat sea.”
They blasted north across the Aegean Sea, bounding for nearly twenty minutes before they spotted a speck on the horizon. They pursued the yacht for another hour, drawing slowly closer as they passed north of the Dardanelles, weaving around a pair of large oil tankers sailing from the Black Sea. The large Turkish island of Gökçeada soon loomed before them, and the yacht altered course to the east of the island.