“No, I’m afraid not,” Sam said, “Things progress slowly here in the best of times, Tusker. And this is not the best of times. The police are investigating what happened, but it’s a bit tough when the crime scene—if it was a crime—is at the bottom of the ocean.”

Ian joined them. “Has the navy offered to help? Surely they’ve got divers who could check things out.”

“That would make sense,” she answered, “but things here don’t always make sense. There’s a bit of a turf war between police and military, leftover grudge from the war, I guess.”

“Maybe we can offer some assistance to the police,” Tusker chimed in, “given our… unique skill set.” He gestured to his dive gear.

“They’ve only just buoyed the site where the Taprobane went down,” Sam said as she unpacked the water bottles and shoved them into a small refrigerator.

“Well, why don’t we all chat about it after we get settled in our room,” Ian said, his arms still full of dive gear from the van.

“Sure thing,” Sam said. “I tried to tidy it as best I could. I put Upali’s things in a duffel bag in the corner and laid some clean sheets on the table. Sorry, it’s as far as I got.”

“No problem, we’ll manage,” Tusker said. “So, I didn’t ask. You work here with Sebastian?”

Sam chuckled. “Sometimes I help out here. I’m a marine biologist by training, but this time of year, a lot of people come to dive the Hermes and I dust off my old dive instructor certificate.”

“Sorry, I didn’t realize…” Tusker stumbled. He felt silly. Now her accent and style made sense. She’d probably studied in England or Australia.

Sam winked. “No worries. Most of my work is now in a lab or office, but every once in a while I like to get wet.”

Tusker blushed. Ian broke in with an exaggerated cough, staring at Tusker.

“Alrighty, then,” Tusker said then turned to leave and picked up his duffel. “We’ll go get settled and catch up with you later. We’re meeting with Dinesh from MOCHA this evening at the China Bay Club to see what he’s found out.”

“Sounds good,” Sam said. “If you need to eat, we serve dinner anytime after seven.”

Ian had turned and was walking up the path towards Room 4, his arms full of dive gear. He gave a side glance at Tusker and grinned. “Careful there, Romeo. She’s clearly out of your league.”

Tusker blushed. “Romance is the last thing on my mind,” he said, as much to convince himself as Ian. He heaped his dive gear against the bare wall and caught sight of Upali’s duffel. Focus, Julian, focus, he thought.

“Right, so what’s the plan then?”