Crescent Dawn (Dirk Pitt 21)

“We better get him out of here before every shark in the Mediterranean shows up for lunch,” Giordino said, grabbing hold of Tang’s arm.

The Aegean Explorer had already weighed anchor and was creeping up to the men in the water. A group of deckhands lowered a crane and quickly hoisted the dead men aboard, then helped pull up Giordino and Pitt. The ship’s captain and doctor scurried to the scene, followed closely by Gunn. The NUMA Deputy Director had a dazed look about him as he held an ice pack to his head.

“They both died in the water,” Pitt said as the doctor kneeled down and quickly examined each man. “Drowned.”

“Both accidental?” the captain asked.

“No,” Pitt said as he stripped off his wet suit. He pointed to a severed air hose extending from Iverson’s dive tank.

“Somebody cut their air lines.”

“The same people that tried to iron us with the bottom of their rich Italian hull,” Giordino added.

“I knew they were lying when they came aboard,” Captain Kenfield said, shaking his head. “But I certainly didn’t suspect they would resort to murder.”

Pitt noticed a lump on Gunn’s head that he was rubbing with the ice pack.

“What happened to you?”

Gunn grimaced as he lowered the pack.

“While you were down, the yacht sent over a small launch filled with armed thugs. Claimed they were with the Turkish Ministry of Culture.”

“Policing the high seas in a luxury yacht?” Giordino asked skeptically.

“I asked for their identification, but was shown the stock of a rifle instead,” Gunn said, repositioning the ice pack to the knot on his head.

“They told us in no uncertain terms that we had no authority to be working on a shipwreck of the Ottoman Empire,” the captain said.

“Interesting, that they knew what the wreck was,” Giordino noted.

“What else did they want?” Pitt asked.

“They demanded all of the artifacts that we had removed from the wreck,” Kenfield said. “I told them to get off my ship, but that didn’t go over too well. They marched Rudi and me onto the bridge wing and threatened to kill us. The crew had no choice but to acquiesce.”

“Did they take everything?” Giordino asked.

Gunn nodded. “They cleared out the lab, then beat it back to their yacht just before you guys surfaced.”

“But not before ordering us off the site and threatening us to stay off the radio,” Kenfield added.

“I hate to tell you they didn’t just take all our artifacts, Rudi,” Pitt said. “They also dug up your monolith from the wreck site.”

“That’s the least of our losses,” he said grimly. “They’ve got Zeibig.”

The captain nodded. “They asked who was in charge of the wreck excavation. Dr. Zeibig happened to be in the lab, and they forced him to go with them.”

“After what they did to Iverson and Tang, we know they won’t hesitate to kill him, too,” Giordino said quietly.

“Have you tried contacting anyone yet?” Pitt asked the captain.

“I just got off the satellite phone with the Turkish Ministry of Culture. They confirmed that they possess no yachts and have no policing resources assigned to this region. I also contacted the Turkish Coast Guard. Unfortunately, they don’t have any vessels in the immediate area, either. They have directed us to their base at Izmir to file a report.”

“In the meantime, the bad guys are able to disappear completely with Zeibig,” Pitt said.

“I’m afraid there isn’t much else we can do,” the captain said. “That yacht is at least twice as fast as the Aegean Explorer. There’s no way we could try pursuing them with any hopes of catching up. And once in port, w

e can alert our own government authorities as well.”