“I couldn’t get to Carina. How fast can you line up some muscle?”

“Police might be faster.”

“The local gendarmerie wouldn’t stand a chance against Baltazar’s mercenaries.”

Flagg nodded and pulled a phone out of an inside pocket. He punched in a number and talked for a few minutes before hanging up. “Got a ‘go’ team coming out of Langley. They’ll be here in two hours.”

“Two hours!” Austin said. “It might as well be two years.”

“Best they can do,” Flagg said with a shrug. “How many bad guys you say there were?”

“About three dozen, counting Baltazar.”

“Odds are about right for a couple of tough old company men,” Flagg said. He opened the door to his car and reached under the seat to pull out a Glock 9mm pistol, which he handed to Austin. “This is a spare.” He patted his chest. “I’m already carrying.”

Austin remembered that Flagg was a walking arsenal.

“Thanks,” Austin said, taking the weapon. “Hop in.”

Flagg slid into the passenger side of the Bentley.

“Damnit, Austin,” Flagg said. “I had forgotten until now how boring my life had become since you left the company.”

Austin levered the gearshift into low and put the car into a tight U-turn.

“Hold on to your hat,” he said over the squeal of spinning tires. “Life is about to become very interesting.”

NUMA 7 - The Navigator

Chapter 49

“SHOULDN’T THEY BE UP BY NOW?” Saxon said, sounding a note of concern.

“Don’t worry. They’re both experienced divers,” Trout said.

He and Saxon sat in the rubber raft near the marker buoy. Trout was more worried than he let on. He had glanced at his wristwatch a few minutes before Saxon spoke. Gamay and Zavala were pushing their air supply to the limit, especially if they needed decompression stops. Dire scenarios materialized in his imagination. He could picture the divers lost or their tanks entangled in the unknown passages below the hotel.

Trout had been staring at a blue heron skimming over the lake when he saw a disturbance on the surface.

He pointed at the mounding bubbles. “They’re up!”

He grabbed his paddle and told Saxon to do the same. They dug in and were only a few yards from the first head to break the surface. Gamay. Zavala surfaced seconds later.

Gamay inflated her buoyancy regulator and floated on her back. She pulled the regulator mouthpiece from between her teeth and took gulps of fresh air. Trout tossed a rope to his wife.

“Hey, beautiful, how about a ride?” he said.

“That’s the best offer I’ve heard all day,” Gamay said in a weary voice.

Zavala hitched onto the line behind Gamay. Trout and Saxon towed the two tired divers into shallow water. The divers removed their tanks and fins and slogged onto shore. They dropped their weight belts, climbed to the edge of the grassy banking, and sat down to rest.