I

‘We’ve leased the Maritsa for six weeks, right?’ asked Knox. ‘All the equipment too?’

Ricky knocked back his whisky, pulled a sour face. ‘So?’

‘So we won’t be saving your Chinese friends much of anything by calling the project off now.’

Miles shook his head. ‘You don’t know these people. If they find out that we knew this was a bust and didn’t tell them—’

‘But we don’t know it’s a bust,’ countered Knox. ‘Not for sure. We have a sea-bed studded with Chinese artefacts, remember, not to mention a very compelling sonar reading.’

‘Which has been refuted by a more recent one,’ pointed out Miles. ‘And by the magnetic imaging.’

‘Yes. And by the sediment samples too. But what if someone had tampered with those readings and those samples?’

‘What?’ asked Ricky. ‘Who?’

‘Don’t get ahead of me,’ said Knox. ‘I’m just asking: isn’t it possible? I mean, how hard would it have been for someone to have switched our samples with sediment from elsewhere?’

‘Why would they do that?’

‘To trick us into giving up the site, of course, so that they can come back later and plunder it at their leisure. I mean, if we’re right about there being a treasure ship here, its cargo could be worth tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Wouldn’t that be worth switching some samples for?’

‘Holm!’ spat Ricky. ‘I never trusted that bastard.’

‘Calm down,’ said Knox. ‘I’m only suggesting it’s a possibility. And if so, shouldn’t we make certain, one way or the other, before we call off the expedition? Wouldn’t our most prudent and responsible course be to take new tests and samples, but this time make sure they can’t be interfered with, maybe even fly some duplicate samples back to Europe for checking. Who knows, maybe we’ll get different results. But, even if not, it’ll buy us another week in which to start managing the expectations of your friends back in China. And we’ve also got Miles and me and fourteen other professional divers on board, we’ve got a motor-boat and two inflatables and all the survey equipment we could wish for. Maybe the wreck isn’t where we thought, maybe it’s five hundred metres west, or a kilometre south. Let’s use our extra time to find it.’

‘You’re right,’ said Miles. ‘We’ll survey the whole damned sea-floor.’

Knox stood and went to the window. The sea was still too rough for the motorboat, and it was getting dark. No way would it be heading back to Morombe tonight. He turned to Ricky. ‘I’ll bet Holm’s still on board,’ he said. ‘He could really screw us if he wants to. Might be worth trying to smooth things out with him.’

‘Leave him to me,’ said Ricky. ‘What about you two?’

‘We need to brief the guys, thrash out a new schedule.’ He looked at them both for approval. ‘Agreed?’

‘Yes,’ said Miles.

‘Yes,’ said Ricky.

‘Good,’ nodded Knox. ‘Then let’s go do it.’