The silence stretched. All eyes were fixed on the tabletop as they retreated to their thoughts. At last Adira spoke. “Major Abrams is correct. We have no choice but to continue.” She got to her feet. “Time for rest. Eat in your rooms and be down the front at nine-thirty pm. Baruk and I will be waiting.”

Matt saw Tania look across at him and raise her eyebrows. He shook his head, but she just smiled wider, and nodded subtly.

Adira’s voice was cutting. “I suggest we all get some rest. Focus on what we need to do tonight, rather than on our genitals.”

Matt blushed, Tania looked away, and Andy’s head jerked up, his brow furrowed in confusion.

Within ten minutes, Matt was flopped on his bed, feeling drained.

He punched the pillow behind his head, but knew he’d never actually sleep – the best he’d be able to do was close his eyes and try and relax his muscles, if not his mind.

There came a knock on his door. “It’s me.” Tania’s whispered voice.

“Go away.” He hissed to the door.

The knock came again. “It’s…important.” The words were breathy.

He groaned…and then let her in.

*

The wind had fallen away and the sea was like a sheet of oil. Mahmood flicked a cigarette into the water as Adira came into his small open cabin. She handed him over some notes – more than double what he was normally paid. They talked quietly for a second or two and he laughed and nodded, and then turned out the single light, so they were all in darkness.

Matt sat in silence, just like the others. They were all thinking through what had brought them there, the coming dive, the missing Israeli agents, and who it was who had taken them and was probably watching them all right now.

The boat chugged directly out from the coast, and Mahmood glanced over his shoulder from time to time, lining the stern up with landmarks on the shore. It was dark, and in the cabin they could only tell he had turned when the red dot of his cigarette was pointed directly at them.

Outside on deck, there was more light – the moon was already huge as it steadily rose overhead and created a silver path on the still water that was an endless black plain. Below water, Matt knew there was more activity – movement, predator and prey, eyes already on them.

In fifteen minutes the boat slowed, and then stopped. Just as before, Mahmood let the craft coast for a moment or two, and then pushed the anchor over the side. He let out ten more feet of rope, tied off, and then lit another cigarette. He watched the shoreline for a few seconds before nodding, satisfied with his position, and then spoke a few words to Adira as he sat down to watch the divers.

Adira pointed. “The island is about fifty feet to our north. But he said there is a current running tonight, so we must take that into consideration in our dive as it can push us off course. He will leave the lantern alight on the bow – it will be our beacon, our only beacon: if we surface away from where we went in, just head for that.”