Joe Zavala’s eyes widened in surprise, and then his lips turned up at the corners in his trademark half smile. He had heard that Austin was being treated for a wound. No one had told him about the lovely young woman who seemed to be caressing his friend’s arm.

“I stopped by to see how you were doing,” Zavala said. “From the looks of things, you’re doing pretty well.”

“Carina, this gentleman is Joe Zavala, my friend and colleague. We’re both with the National Underwater and Marine Agency. Joe piloted the boat that brought me over to the ship. Don’t be alarmed by his piratical looks. He’s quite harmless.”

“Nice to meet you, Carina.” Zavala gestured at Austin’s bandage. “Are you okay? You both look a little banged-up.”

“Yes, we’re quite the couple.” Carina said. She blushed at the implication in her comment and removed her hand from Austin’s arm.

Austin went to her rescue and brought the conversation back to himself. “I’m a little stiff around the ribs. Bad bruising, and scrapes in a few other places.”

“Nothing a shot or two of tequila wouldn’t help,” Zavala said.

“I can see you are in good hands,” Carina said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll go see how the crew is doing with my statue. Thanks again for all you have done.”

Zavala gazed at the door after it had closed behind Carina and let out a whooping laugh that was uncharacteristic of his usual quiet-spoken demeanor.

“Only Kurt Austin could find an angel like Miss Mechadi out here in the fogbound reaches of Iceberg Alley. And they call me a Romeo.”

Austin rolled his eyes. He slid off the table, pulled on a borrowed blue denim work shirt and buttoned up the front.

“Captain Dawe holding up okay?”

“He’s reached the end of his joke repertoire and has begun to recycle old ones.”

“Sorry about that, old pal.”

“He says he’ll stand by another day, but then he’s got to go chase Moby-Berg. So you’re not off the hook yet.”

“How’d you get aboard? Last I knew, the pilot’s ladder was cut.”

“They must have dug up a spare. You had a tough time climbing on board. What happened?”

“I’ll lay out the whole sordid tale over a cup of coffee.”

They headed for the mess hall, where they poured themselves steaming mugs of coffee and devoured a couple of tall pastrami sandwiches on pumpernickel. Starting with the close call boarding the Ocean Adventure, Austin gave Zavala a detailed account of his exploits on the containership.

“Someone went through a lot of expense and trouble to steal this statue,” Zavala said, after pursing his lips in a low whistle.