“I took a quick peek. Despite the protection, the paper is in pretty bad shape. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get anything off of it. Assume I can’t, and tell me what you two think. The pit has thwarted a number of attempts. You mentioned one that used some pretty high-tech solutions and yet they failed. What do you think the brothers figured out?”

Mark swallowed a mouthful of food, and said, “We know their first attempt ended in disaster, so obviously one of them learned something during the war that gave him the answer.”

“Which one?”

“I doubt the pilot. He was an observer on a blimp. I can’t imagine that kind of job giving him much inspiration.”

“So it’s either the Marine or the Army Ranger,” Juan said.

Mark leaned in toward the webcam. “Look, this is an engineering problem, hydrodynamics, stuff like that. The Marines faced some pretty tricky booby traps as they fought their way to Japan. My bet is, he saw something the Japanese had done and thought Pierre Devereaux had come up with it first.”

Eric looked at him crossways, and said what Cabrillo was about to. “You still think this is about an old pirate? There’s no way the Argentines would be this interested if the Treasure Pit turns out to be just that.”

Murph looked a little defensive. “What is it about, then?”

“Obviously, I can’t answer that question.” Eric turned back to Juan. “Do you have any ideas, Chairman?”

“Nothing. Ronish died before he could talk. And Max and I weren’t in any position to search his place. Come on, think. What did they figure out? How do we crack the Treasure Pit?”

Mark tapped his chin. “A device . . . a device . . . A booby trap . . . Something involving water . . . Hydrostatic pressure.”

“You have an idea?”

Murph didn’t answer because he didn’t have one. “Sorry, man. I’ve been so wrapped up in the history, I never really thought about the technology.”

Juan blew out a breath. “Okay. Don’t sweat it. Max and I will think of something.”

“May I ask what?” Eric said.

“God, no. I’m winging it here.”

For the next hour, they created a list of equipment the pair might need and went about filling it. What couldn’t be purchased in Port Angeles would be delivered from Seattle. By the time they were done, a delivery van was headed to Forks from Washington’s queen city and a small ferry was under way from Port Angeles and would pick up Max and Cabrillo at the fishing pier in the town of La Push. That coastal village was just a few miles north of Pine Island. The only problem was that they would lose another day because the sophisticated underwater communications equipment was coming in as airfreight from San Diego.