Matt grinned. “Spoken like a true geologist.” He bumped knuckles with the young man.

“Benefits of a higher education.” Andy wiggled his brows. “But seriously, we should start with the remains of the island – if there is any type of entrance, it’ll probably be there.”

“Do we dive now or wait until the sun has risen a little more?” Tania asked, her eyes on the water. “Also, this area is notorious for tiger sharks.”

“We dive now,” Adira replied with a smirk. “And there are always man-eaters, Captain – above and below the water.”

Tania’s jaw set. “Dr Albadi said that it might not be open or even visible until the full moon. And the first phase of that is not until later tonight.”

“True, but we should at least familiarize ourselves with the territory – every second counts now.” Adira turned to look at Tania; her eyes were expressionless, but there was a hint of enjoyment at the corners of her mouth. “Have you ever done a night dive before?”

A challenge welled up momentarily in Tania’s eyes, but after a second or two, she simply shook her head and looked back out at the water.

Adira snorted softly. “I thought not. The underwater is a very different place at night. There is no light, other than what we bring – it can be disorienting and frightening to a novice.” Her eyes slid again to Tania. “Starting the search then would be extremely difficult or impossible. We will dive this morning, and at least try and narrow our field of search. Any objections?” Her eyes moved along the faces.

“Works for me,” Abrams said, his eyes also on Tania. He turned back and smiled. “It’ll also add to our cover story, doing what we are here to do – enjoy the diving.”

Adira nodded to a small boat hire firm on the beach. “There.”

*

The faded green Mercedes Benz with the two Mossad agents in the front seat sat under a tree that grew smaller as the seven-person group chugged away from the shore in the old wooden fishing boat.

Matt inhaled the sea air, and clung on to the seat, feeling old fish scales, splinters and dried salt against his palms. The air was still cool, but already he felt the hint of the balmy day to come, as sheets of golden light bathed their wetsuit-clad bodies.

The captain, Mahmood, a little man with few teeth and the brawniest forearms Matt had ever seen, knew exactly where the sunken island was to be found and also the best dive spots, as he’d taken probably hundreds of diving tourists out from the beach. Matt placed his hand on the rough gunwale; there were a few fingernail spots of green paint still attached, but the faded glory of huge hauls of shimmering silver bodies in woven rope nets was lost permanently now to the more lucrative tourist trade.

Adira stood in the small open cabin with Mahmood, chatting amiably, and Matt watched as he occasionally pointed out different landmarks on the shore. Adira nodded, looking impressed, probably extracting as much useful information as she could from their ancient mariner.