The boat appeared on November 2, a couple of miles out from Coron, in the Philippines. It sat there overnight, and in the morning it still hadn’t moved. Coron was home to the Club Paradise Palawan Hotel, so there were plenty of people who noticed the boat and the fact that it didn’t appear to be going anywhere or doing anything.

Club Paradise Palawan was an exclusive island resort, monetizing azure waters and a pristine beach. It wasn’t unusual to get boats passing, but there was something odd about this one: approximately 130 feet—not big but not small, either—with visible machinery on deck and no crew in sight. It didn’t broadcast any radio signals. On the third morning, when birds had started gathering around the ship, the resort’s security took their own craft out to get a closer look.

They found the first body in the water, tied by its feet to the railings. Two more on the deck itself, which was sticky with blood.

“There were three in the cabin,” Hawkes said. “All had been tortured and shot. The men were of various ethnicities and carried no identification. The machinery, including towing winches and stern rollers, looked like it was for some kind of salvage work. The boat had been torn apart.”

“Like what?”

“Like they were searching it for something.”

After liaising with several maritime administrations, the Philippines authorities managed to establish that the vessel had sailed from Hong Kong via Manila. But it still wasn’t clear what the boat was for. The local police had passed the ship’s details on to Interpol. Interpol automatically contacted all organized crime units globally, including London’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, who contacted the intelligence service.

Naturally enough, it came through to Chris Hawkes. Hawkes kept D7 operating on multiple fronts. Taylor liked his energy. He’d been a good agent runner, she’d heard, withdrawn from the Balkans after a cycling accident, although that wasn’t the story he always told. The desk job sometimes appeared to be constricting him, but he applied the same level of enthusiasm, and he needed it. D7 wasn’t as big as once promised, but every conventional target crossed over with organized crime—from Russia to the DRC—so he was kept busy. His team had seen it all, or so they thought.

Hawkes showed Taylor a plan of the boat.

“First thing I noticed: This boat is highly customized. It looks like a research or survey vessel, with a lot of onboard computing but also diving equipment and the contraptions for salvage work: generators, steel-cutting equipment, salvage pumps. Then, at the back, you get the real oddity: a separate, unmanned submersible vehicle sitting in the hold. Like a robotic sub.”

“Military?”