Tommy nodded and led the way, again stepping cautiously through the brush, sticks, and rocks on the sand. Halfway to their destination, they passed a small fire circle with some charred wood in the center. “Looks like a few people have been camping out here,” Tommy said, glancing at the fire pit as he walked by.
“Nothing new under the sun, I suppose. Seems like every piece of remote land has been touched by human feet at one point or another.”
“Yep,” Tommy agreed. He stopped suddenly and held up his right hand. Sean knew why his friend had halted. He’d noticed the same thing out in the water, creeping in their direction.
“Who do you think that boat belongs to?” Sean asked.
“I was just about to ask you the same thing. It’s the one we saw before.”
Sean twisted his neck to the side to loosen his nerves. “Yeah. It seems an awful lot like they followed us over here.”
“Coincidence?” Tommy twisted his head around and raised an eyebrow as he looked at Sean.
“I really wish I could believe in those,” Sean said. “Unfortunately, I’ve seen too much to the contrary in my life so far. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“You think they’re authorities?”
“No,” Sean said definitively. “Not on a boat like that.” His voice picked up a little urgency. “Come on, let’s get to the top of the ridge and see if we can get a better look.”
Sean stepped in front of his friend and stayed low, using the island’s thick brush for cover as he moved toward the steep path leading to the top of the plateau. He kept his eyes on the approaching vessel as well as on the trail. The cliff closest to where they’d weighed anchor wrapped around the route to the top, providing a little extra cover. It took less than a minute for the two men to reach the grassy plateau. Once on the ridge, they crouched even lower, careful to stay hidden among the tall blades of grass. The breeze from the sea caused continuous movement from the vegetation, another thing Sean counted on to conceal their presence. Just because their boat was anchored in the cove didn’t mean he wanted whoever was approaching to know where they were. He preferred to find out who was encroaching first.
The two Americans reached the edge of the cliff and peeked through the last stands of broad grass, using their hands to keep some of it clear to give them a good view of the yacht’s passengers. They thought the boat was big from a distance, but up close they realized how truly impressive it really was.
It featured two floors above the deck, and one below. The windows were difficult to see through due to the dark tinting, but Sean assumed the top floor was where the captain drove the behemoth. The front of the vessel featured sharp-angled design, from the fiberglass wall up to the windshield. It had to be at least eighty feet long, if not a little more.
“I wonder how much gas it took just drive that thing over here from the marina,” Tommy said in a hushed tone as the two stared at the yacht.
Sean kept his eyes on the ship. “There’s no telling. But I’m guessing the guy that owns it isn’t worried about gas mileage. He’s probably got a Bugatti in his garage too.” He squinted in the sunlight and was able to make out a man in a windbreaker standing on the main deck, leaning casually over the railing.
Tommy saw the man as well and wondered who it was. “You think that’s the owner of the boat?”
“Maybe. That’s definitely not Dimitris Gikas, though.”
“How do you know?”
Sean glanced at his friend out of the corner of his eye as if Tommy had a tree growing out of his face. “Because I always do my research on the enemy.”
Tommy realized it had been a stupid question. Sean had always been thorough. When someone was able to catch him off guard, they’d really accomplished something. That’s how well prepared he was for everything. Back in the days when he’d worked for the IAA, the other employees used to say that Sean Wyatt always had a plan for everything. While not entirely true, it was pretty close.
“What do you want to do?” Tommy asked, trying to get a better view through the weeds and grass.
“Well, whoever it is, they know we’re here. No point in trying to change that. If that guy on the deck is the owner of the ship, then it’s probably just a local land owner or something.”
“He looks like he’s pretty relaxed, like he’s just out to enjoy a day cruising around the islands.” Tommy’s observation made sense, especially to the casual observer, but Sean was no casual observer.
“Something isn’t right,” Sean said after a moment of thought.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s too quiet. A guy like that, with enough money to buy a ship like that, doesn’t go out to sea to cruise around alone. Where is the crew? And usually men with that kind of dough have two or three female companions sunning on the platform across the bow.”
Tommy frowned. His friend was right. It did seem odd. “Maybe he’s here with his wife,” he said, offering an unlikely yet plausible scenario.
“Doubtful. That doesn’t look like a guy who would be anywhere except a fundraiser with his wife, if he’s married at all.”
“Ever heard of not reading a book by its cover?”
“Well,” Sean angled his head a little, still staring at the yacht, “in my line of work, you gotta go with what you have.”
“You mean your former line of work.”
Sean’s eyes went sideways for a moment at his friend’s comment. “Touché.”
The man on the boat’s deck straightened up and leisurely made his way around the side of the boat to the bow where a doorway led into the cabin. He disappeared inside, closing the door behind him.
“Doesn’t seem to be in a hurry of any kind, does he?” Tommy asked.
“No,” Sean shook his head. “But something isn’t right. It’s almost like he wanted us to see him standing there, looking like he wasn’t up to anything.”
“You really can’t switch off the paranoia, can you?”
“Nope. It’s kept me alive this long. Stands to reason I shouldn’t quit now.”
Tommy scooted back a little from the cliff’s edge and turned over onto his side so he could face Sean. “Well, what do you want to do? Sit here until they leave?”
Sean wormed his way back away from the ledge, staying on his stomach. He shook his head. “No. They already know we’re here. If it’s someone harmless, they will see us walking around and not think anything of it. If they aren’t harmless, they’ll be looking for us soon anyway.”
“Is it possible we could search the island and then sneak back onto our boat?”
Sean had to consider it for a minute. They needed to find the cave where Caesar had hidden the antikythera, but doing so would require them to scour the rest of the terrain, and not all of it would be able to keep them hidden from view. If they couldn’t locate the antikythera, Adriana could die. Getting back to the boat wouldn’t be easy either, but he figured they could stay low in the water and reach their boat without being spotted. Maybe. That would require getting in the water on the other side of the island where they’d just been, and swimming all the way around. Wading back in from the sandy beach would put them in wide-open view.
“For now, let’s do as much as we can to stay out of sight and search the rest of the island. We have to find that artifact. There’s no going back without it.”
Tommy saw the resolve in Sean’s eyes. He knew what was at stake, and he knew that they couldn’t leave unless they had Caesar’s device in their possession. “Okay, buddy. Let’s do it.”
The two stayed low on all fours, crawling backward away from the cliff until they had reached far enough inland that they could get to a crouching position without being seen. They remained in a low stance as they moved farther across the plateau. When they reached the middle of the island and could no longer see the yacht in the cove, they stood up and stretched their legs for a second. The rocky ground had scuffed their elbows and knees but hadn’t been as jagged as it appeared from the water. Most of the surface was sandy dirt, and the bits of rock that shone through the loam had been worn smooth by time and weather.