“He wanted to look, I guess,” Kemal said, with a nod. “Then Russia falls apart. The submarines stop coming. Everyone says the Russian navy is broke. One day I take a chance. I follow a school of fish in close.” He held an invisible steering wheel in his hand to demonstrate. “I'm ready to run if they come. But nobody stops me. Since then I fish here with no trouble.” He shrugged. “When the television people want to go in with Mehmet, I think it's no big deal.”

“Did you ever go ashore and look around?”

“No. What's there was not my business. That was before Mehmet got shot.” He spat over the side. “Now it is my business.”

Kemal's story meshed with the report Austin's friend Leahy had sent him. According to the CIA files, construction on the base started in the 1950s. A U-2 plane photographed the site on an overflight. The U.S. kept close tabs on the growing complex. The Turkish counterpart of the CIA confirmed the reports of submarine traffic. U.S. listening posts determined that the base was under the command of the Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol. The scientific station was built to do ocean research that would help the fleet do its job.

Military activity slowed after the Cold War. The cash-strapped new Russian republic shut the base down, much as obsolete army installations were closed in the U.S. The scientific station was abandoned. The CIA could have saved millions in surveillance expense by talking to Kemal and his friends. Unfortunately, the one point on which the Turk was wrong, his belief that the base was deserted, had cost his cousin's life.

When the Turgut was less than a mile from shore, Austin asked the captain to drop anchor. Kemal yelled an order to his crew, and a minute later the boat coasted to a stop and vibrated with the rattle of the anchor chain. As the anchor splashed into the sea, Kemal excused himself and went off to supervise the setting of the trawls.

Zavala appeared from the other side of the boat, where he had been getting their scuba gear ready for a dive.

Austin eyed the twisted stub of the cheroot clenched between Zavala's teeth. “I see you've been raiding the captain's humidor.”

“He insisted. I didn't want to hurt his feelings.” Zavala removed the stogie from his mouth and held it at arm's length. “I think they make these things out of old tires, but I'm sort of getting used to the taste,” he said with a shrug. “Gear's all set to go.”