Greg brought in the coffees as Cate checked the speaker on the desk for the fourth time. She checked her watch again and then turned to Abigail. “We’ll record everything, but keep your fingers crossed the link holds. This is costing me the last of my exploration budget, and a truck-load of goodwill with a friend.”

“You must have pull. I didn’t think anyone was getting extraneous budget allocations anymore.” Greg took his seat.

Cate wiggled her eyebrows. “I knows people.” She swallowed; truth be known, there was no exploration budget. Getting funding to go on questionable treasure hunts in today’s razor-thin funding environment was near impossible, especially at a time when university departments were being shut down or downsized.

Even if there was the prospect of finding any money, it’d take weeks to procure its release. Cate had no time or patience for university political maneuvering, so had dipped into her own savings for the project. Getting a result was now damned personal.

“Professor Cate Granger… Cate? Are you there?” The voice was scratchy, and as disembodied as she expected.

“Freddie!” Cate scooted forward in her chair. “You made it. How is it?”

“How is it? Fucking freezing.” His yell competed with the sound of a rushing wind in the background.

Greg leaned towards Cate, whispering. “Remind him he’s in the Gulf of Alaska.”

Cate turned and scowled before spinning back to the speaker. “I owe you big time, Freddie. Did you get all the kit?”

“Yep, top of the line; spared no expense. And had a nice meal as well. Spent every penny you gave me.” There was grating laughter.

“And another nice meal when I see you again, Freddie, promise. Are we just about ready?” Cate held up her hands, fingers crossed on both.

“Sure am, ran a test flight, and am just preparing to attach the spare relay beacons. Nice piece of tech, if I do say so myself.”

“What’d you get?” Greg sat, sipping and listening.

“The DJI Phantom 2 with HERO4 GoPro – eye in the sky, baby.” Freddie’s voice bubbled with excitement.

Abigail mouthed, wow, then leaned forward. “Hi Frederick, this is Abigail Burke. Is that the quad copter version?”

“Hi Abigail. Call me Fred or Freddie; only mom calls me Frederick, and that’s only when she’s pissed at me. And you bet it is; Phantom Quadcopter v2.0, with gimbal control dial and built-in battery, compass, thermal reader, full hour flying time, and relay drop-crane for WiFi buoys – means when it enters zero line-of-sight areas like a cave, it can drop the relays, and continue to send and receive signals so we don’t lose him.”

“Cool, very cool,” Greg said. “No wonder he blew the budget.”

Cate clasped her fingers together on the desk. “Okay, Freddie, we’re ready when you are.”