Neal looked at Madeline, then reached out and squeezed her hand as he said the next part. “The next time we had any information about the King’s Transom was when the Indian authorities found us.”

“I see,” said the admiral, quietly. Then, treading lightly, he probed further, “Then, perhaps you might have some information on what the results of the search were up until the … incident?”

Neal paused a moment, and Madeline, not willing to let him bear this burden alone, spoke in his place. “We talked at length about the search the previous days, but not that night.”

She sat up straight and seemed to gather herself, then continued, “Neal is being kind, Admiral, and more of a gentleman than, well, you’d expect.” She shot a smile at Neal and he nodded, surprised, but, he couldn’t deny, relieved that she had interrupted him.

“You see,” she continued, “he wasn’t on that final call, it was just James and I. It was late … and the call was … personal in nature.”

She fixed the admiral with a powerful stare, her fatigue forgotten, her grief driving her forwards. Neal looked at her, astonished at her resolve. It had been Madeline who had come up with the cover story. He had fought her on it, but she had been as resolute then as she was being now, and he was mute with admiration for her.

The admiral and Madeline looked at each other for a moment, sizing each other up. Finally the admiral nodded, a look on his face as close to sympathy as you might hope to see on an officer dealing with blatant violations of orders and more than a few encroachments on the official secrets act. He made a note on his paper then looked back at Neal.

“I have to ask this, do you have any theories as to how this tragedy may have come about?”

Neal thought a moment. Madeline and he had debated at length whether to tell the admiral their true suspicions, but had decided that the chance that the staunch military man would pass them on was too great. That said, they had also decided that he was not a stupid or incapable man, in fact, Laurie had often referred to the admiral as an ally of hers in Washington, so they would try not to say anything that would burn their bridges with him, either.

Finally Neal went on, staring very deliberately into Admiral Hamilton’s eyes. “Admiral, I cannot stress enough that we have no information that would allow us to make any conclusions about what caused the King’s Transom to go down.

“However,” Neal paused a moment to emphasize the next point, “nor am I able to eliminate any possibilities at this time.”