“Not mysterious at all. I’m an investigator with UNESCO. My job is to track down stolen antiquities. If anyone is a mystery, it is Kurt Austin. You’re the one who rose from the sea like a merman and saved the ship and the oil platform after you rescued me.”

“The captain deserves most of the credit. He steered the ship away from the rig. If I had been at the helm, we’d all be picking crude oil out of our front teeth.”

“Kurt is being far too modest,” Lange admonished. “He freed me and my crew. While I steered the ship, he fought off the hijackers and saved a piece from your cargo.”

Carina’s face lit up. “You saved the Navigator?”

Austin nodded. “There’s a large object wrapped in canvas sitting on the deck. Might be your statue.”

“I’ll have it moved immediately to a safe place,” Lange said. He called the bridge on his pocket radio and ordered his first mate to round up a work crew.

The mate said that a Coast Guard cutter was on its way and that the shipowners’ representatives were flying in. The captain excused himself and the medical technician went with him, after handing Austin some painkillers.

“I’m curious,” Austin said. “What’s so special about the Navigator?”

“That is what’s so odd,” Carina said with furrowed brow. “The statue is not terribly valuable and may even be a fake.”

“In that case, let’s talk about things we do know about. Like our dinner date.”

“How could I forget your unexpected invitation, especially after your sudden appearance? But first tell me where on earth you came from.”

“Not on earth. On the sea. I was in the neighborhood lassoing icebergs.”

Carina glanced at Austin’s broad shoulders. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he wrestled icebergs. She assumed he was joking until he explained what he had been doing on the Leif Eriksson.

Carina had encountered scores of memorable men in the course of travels around the world, But Austin was truly unique. He had risked his life to save hundreds of people and property worth millions of dollars, fought off hijackers, even killing one of them to rescue her. Yet he was flirting like an impetuous schoolboy. Her eyes roamed over his hard, tanned body. From the looks of the pale scars marking his bronze skin, this wasn’t the first time he had put himself in danger and had paid a price for it.

Carina reached out to touch a circular scar on Austin’s prominent right bicep. She was about to ask if it were a gunshot wound, but, just then, the door opened and a slender, dark-complexioned man stepped into the sick bay.