Adam leaned on his elbow. Watching her following on the path to her realizations, coming along with her and coming to his own conclusions... “Penderghast wanted to make another find.”

“Because nothing in his life has brought him as much fame.” She smiled crookedly. “I received a lot of insights while he was killing me.”

“You found the treasure? You found the treasure?”

“I did. Whenever he was on the ship, and he was there quite a lot, he watched over my shoulder, gave me advice on how to manipulate the remote crawler, what to look for. He told me repeatedly that after seventy years underwater, most artifacts wouldn’t be recognizable.”

“He annoyed you.”

“Not at all.” Clearly a lie. “I had done an instant simulator class on how to run the remote crawler and studied everything I could about underwater archaeology, but I was raised on South American sites high in the Andes. The exact opposite of the underwater mission. I kept thinking Stephen would have been better with someone who was experienced in underwater archaeology. It didn’t add up. I admit I had niggling doubts.”

“What did the other scientists think?”

“They didn’t know what I was doing.”

“What do you mean?” Adam sat straight up. “You were on a secret mission?”

Elle looked at Adam in exasperation.

Enlightenment dawned. “Of course you were. Stephen Penderghast didn’t want anyone to know what you were searching for.”

“The other scientists complained. They were sure I was doing frivolous science. They said I was taking too long. They had hoped I would get out so they could spend more time with the real sciences.” She looked sideways at Adam.

“Marine biology and geology?”

“Right. And astronomy, although some cast doubts on how valuable astronomy could possibly be. But I couldn’t say no to the job, and I was getting better at everything. I really was!” She leaned close to Adam and stared insistently at him.

“One day when Stephen Penderghast wasn’t on the ship, one of the other guys asked what I was looking for. I figured why not tell him, because Ryan Naidu was piloting an ocean-current study. I didn’t explain the details, but I said it was a shipwreck that had foundered close to shore.”

She seemed defensive, so Adam soothed her with his tone and the gentle stroke of his knuckles across her jaw. “A guy who knows ocean currents was exactly the right person to ask.”

“I didn’t ask. I...explained things.” Definitely oversensitive. “Ryan told me all the currents of the Pacific Ocean converged on this beach. He said if someone on land had spotted the foundering boat, prevailing currents would have swept the boat closer to shore. He suggested I search among the sea stumps.”

“Stumps?” Adam looked out to sea.