“Nice to meet you,” the man said. “I’m Ensign Frank Daley. Pardon my disguise. The locals are used to seeing Navy personnel around, but we’re trying to keep this operation low-key.”

Despite his attire, Daley’s ramrod-straight bearing, razor-precise crew cut, and chin so close-shaven that it shined all marked him as a military man.

“You’re pardoned, Ensign,” Austin said. “What do you have planned for us?”

“We’ve got a chopper waiting to take you to Search Command on my ship, the cruiser Concord.”

As they walked out to the gray Sikorsky Seahawk that had been awaiting their arrival, Austin asked Daley the status of the search.

“We’ve covered hundreds of square miles using surface and air,” the ensign said. “Nothing so far.”

“Have you dropped sonobuoys to listen for underwater movement?”

Daley patted the nose of the Seahawk.

“This bird was built for antisub warfare. It’s got the latest in acoustic detection. The info from the sensors is transmitted back to the ship and goes into a network computer system. All negative so far, sir.”

“Has the lab site been thoroughly investigated?” Zavala asked.

“As thoroughly as can be done with an ROV,” Daley said.

“I heard that there’s a NUMA ship helping with the search,” Zavala said. “I’ll see if I can borrow their submersible and give the lab site a closer look.”

Austin had been thinking about his conversation with Lee.

“Dr. Lee has a lead we’d like to pursue on the island,” he said. “Could you give Joe a lift out to the ship and pick us up in a few hours?”

“I’ve been told that the entire Navy is at your beck and call, Mr. Austin,” Daley said. “The chopper does two hundred miles an hour. We can be back on the island in no time.”

Austin turned to Zavala, who had started to load their bags onto the helicopter.

“Song has unearthed some interesting stuff about Nan Madol,” he said, “and it might have a bearing on the lab. Can you ride herd on the search operation while we take a quick look?”

“Hold on, Kurt. You go off with the lovely Dr. Lee and I muck around in the mud. What’s wrong with that picture, partner?”

“Nothing as far as I can see, partner,” Austin said.

“I’ll have to admit you’ve got a point there,” Zavala said with an easy grin. “See you in a few hours.”

He got into the helicopter with Daley. The ignition fired the twin General Electric engines to life and the spinning rotors gathered speed. The sixty-five-foot-long aircraft lifted off the tarmac, hovered at an altitude of a few hundred feet, pivoted slowly, and flew over the lagoon toward the open sea.