z89 Dillon sighed. “All right, you’d better fill me in.
Where are we going?” “Just off Rathlin Island.” “And the Master Navigator will home in on the position?” Barry looked startled. “Is there nothing you don’t know?” “We’ve really been on your case, }ack, thanks to · Liam. Anyway, how deep will she be?” “Well, off Rathlin Island according to Admiralty charts, anything between ninety and one hundred and twenty feet.” “That’s not bad, not if you allow for the size of the vessel. Mind you, it’s how she’s lying that matters.” Sollazo joined them. “How much further?” “Half a mile,” Barry said. “I’m turning the Navigator on now.” He handed it to Sollazo. There was a monotonous pinging at regular intervals: “Hell, it’s working,” Sollazo said.
“The closer we get, the more urgent the sound, and when we reach the final position, the pinging becomes continuous.” “Let’s keep our fingers crossed.” Sollazo gave it back to him and turned to Dillon. “I was going to dive with Mori, but as you’re supposed to be such hot stuff “He shrugged. “You’d better come and check the gear.” “My pleasure,” Dillon said and followed him out.
z9o
RATHLIN ISLAND LOOMED OUT OF THE MIST AND Barry reduced power as they coasted onward through water which was extraordinarily calm. The pinging on the Master Navigator had increased in urgency and suddenly it changed into a long, single, high-pitcbed shriek.
“That’s it,” Barry called. “Get the anchor over.” Mori and Sollazo hurried to comply. Kathleen was at the port rail and for a moment Dillon was at Hannah’s shoulder.
“I’m carrying,” he whispered. “Barry found two, but Devlin, the old fox, gave me a third. Ankle holster.’ ‘
“Careful,” she said. “Not now. It could be a blood ‘bath.” “Not to worry, gil dear, I’d like to go down and take a look at an old friend so to speak.”
The anchor rattled down, the’Avenger stopped dead. There was silence, then Barry came..out of the wheelhouse. “There you go, so let’s getn with it.”
Sollazo turned to Dillon. “Let’s get ready. I’ll go first,” and he went down to the saloon. WHEN HE CAME BACK ON DECK HE WAS WEARING one of the diving suits and a weight belt and buoyancy jacket. “Your turn,” he said to Dillon.
Dillon went down the companionway to the saloon and undressed to his underpants, unstrapping the ankle holster. There was a cupboard marked Emergency Flares. He ripened it and slipped the Walther inside.
As he reached for the diving suit there was a step on z91
the companionw and Sollazo looked in.
“Come on, let’s get moving.”
Dillon dragged on the suit awkwardly and the cowl over his head. He pulled on the socks, then picked up the other weight belt and fastened it around his waist with the velcro tabs. Then he reached for the diver’s knife in the sheath.
Sollazo said, “Leave it. You’re the last man in the
world I want to see with a lethal weapon.”
“Suit yourself.”
Dillon picked up his inflatable, then took the other Orca computer and went up on deck to where the others waited, sheltering from the rain under the deck awning. Sollazo followed him.
“I’ve been tinking,” he said. “We’ve got to husband ourselves.’ We can only spend so much time down there, you know that, even less if it’s lying at a hundred and twenty. Ygugo first, Dillon, and see what you find.”
It made sense and Dillon smiled: “My pleasure.” With a skill born of long practice he lifted the inflatable and tank over his head, inserted his ,arms, and strapped the velcro tabs across his chest. He sat down to put his fins on and took the Halogen lamp Mori passed to him looping its cord round his left wrist.
He leaned over the rail to swill out his mask, then pulled it down and turned, sitting on the rail.
He raised a thumb. “We who are about to die salute you and all that old Roman rubbish,” he said, put his mouthpiece in, checked that the air was flowing, and went over backwards. z9z
HE PASSED UNDER THE KEEL, FOUND THE ANchor line and started down, pausing at fifteen feet to equalize the pressure in his ears. The water was extraordinarily clear yet strangely dark, and he pulled himself down the anchor line checking his Orca computer.