Each of them wore wetsuits with tanks, weights, and goggles pushed up on their foreheads. Matt admired Adira’s physique in the suit – long and athletic. He turned, and saw that Hartogg looked hugely bulked, like some sort of superman, and that Baruk also looked formidable. Abrams, Matt and Andy were more modestly muscled, and Tania looked tiny compared to the Israeli woman. However, her visible curves made it impossible for Matt not to think back to smooth, pale skin beneath his sheets. She smiled at him, and he smiled in return.

They travelled for another few minutes and then with the sandy beach just a yellow strip in the distance the captain turned off the engine and let the boat coast for a few dozen feet more. His eyes never left the shoreline as he lined himself up with a couple of taller landmarks, and then he called for Adira to nudge an iron pick anchor over the side. It loudly dragged about ten feet of chain and then a few more dozen feet of salt-toughened rope into the magnificent blue water. Matt watched as the rope sizzed dryly on the gunwale and rapidly sank. In another second it suddenly went limp.

“Bottom,” Mahmood said in English. He turned and grinned.

Adira looked around slowly, and then spoke in Egyptian to Baruk. He nodded and took off his mask – the agent had just been volunteered for topside lookout duties.

Adira put a foot up on a seat and pointed out over the water. “Out there – Mahmood says we are just fifty feet from the island. He won’t drop anchor any closer due to the underwater snags. Some places are only twenty feet deep; others can drop down to eighty. He said that the island has broken into three pieces, and the fissures are the deepest areas…but there’s nothing in them to see.” She waved her arm over the water. “Columns, sphinxes, and blocks are scattered in a wide area.” She turned to each of them. “We start with the island, and then we can broaden our search if we need to.” She stepped down and walked in among them. “Okay, we all get dive buddies – the major and myself, Matt and Andy, Lieutenant Hartogg and Captain Kovitz.” She zipped her suit to the top, and looked at her dive watch. “Stay in visual. It’s now seven hundred hours. First surface in thirty minutes; clear?”

Everyone nodded. Breathing equipment was given final checks, goggles came down, and then bodies fell backwards over the side.

They swam down at an angle into the azure water, and Matt was delighted to find that it was warmer in the ocean than up on the boat’s deck. He had dived many times before, but was far from an enthusiast. Matt remembered descending in inky black water – there was something about not knowing what was below you that still gave him the creeps…especially as he understood that there were things in the depths staring back at you, big things, seeing you without you even knowing they were there.