The lieutenant crosses his arms and squints at the plane. “I’d use flotation rings. Basically make a raft around it. You could use salvage balloons to do that. That’s how they move concrete blocks around under water for construction. They take forever to inflate.”

“But he doesn’t have to inflate them while people are watching. He just has to tow the plane from wherever and park it over the sandbar at high tide and let it drop.” I pull out my phone to look up tides on the Internet.

“Three-fifty a.m.,” he replies from memory. “That’s high tide.”

Knoll has been listening while he waits for the head of the bomb squad to report back with an alternate plan. “We’ll start looking in on that. Meanwhile, they’re going to try to rig a robot against salt water and get it out there to do the inspection. Anyplace we should look first?”

The lieutenant thinks this over carefully. “We already got the first four serials. Can it take a look inside the engine compartment? The serial number there is actually etched into the engine block.”

“I think so. We can cut it open. The robot has a diamond saw.” Knoll radios instructions to the head of the bomb squad.

I feel a wave of relief that we’re going to continue the inspection with everyone at a safe distance. Although I get the feeling the Warlock isn’t going to repeat the first stunt.

All of this inspecting and prodding reminds me of the setup for one of my grandfather’s illusions. For the premiere show, the police chief of whatever town we were in would be invited onstage to inspect the locks and the packing case. Local warehouse workers would manhandle the chains. Grandfather would make a big show of proving everything was real. The subtext was showing how much smarter he was than all the idiots onstage.

That was part of why Houdini was so popular. He cheated death and defied authority. Now the Warlock is teasing the ultimate law enforcement authority in the world. We’re all amped about the plane exploding because there’s just no way it could be the real missing Avenger and pilot. But maybe that’s his trick . . .

A half hour later, the bomb squad is bringing the plastic-wrapped robot over to the plane on a boat. A technician in a truck on shore will control it while the supervisors watch the robot’s camera feed in handheld monitors. Knoll holds up his screen so we can see.

Bomb robot work is a slow process. Because of the dangerous nature, the tech doesn’t want to make any mistakes, like overcompensating on the controls. It’s like trying to fix your car with baseball gloves on both hands.

An armored tech places the robot on the inside of the sandbag barrier. Thick treads push it across the sand to the plane. The robot comes to a stop near the front and starts to extend an arm on a telescoping base. At full extension, it comes halfway to the engine compartment.