Ewell’s Rifle hadn’t been a firearm, Annja remembered, but rather the trusted horse on which he rode into battle.

A horse like the one in front of her now.

Unable to find a switch or a lever that might release the horse from its position on the crest, Annja grasped it with one hand and tried to turn it. She felt something click beneath the pressure she was exerting and the statue came free in her hand.

Garin had been hanging back, watching her, but when the horse came free in her hand he crowded close, wanting a look for himself. She passed it over to him and let him examine it for a moment, before taking it back. When doing so, she noted that it felt heavier than something that size would normally weigh, signaling to Annja that there was more there than met the eye. She’d have to examine it more closely once they got it up to the surface.

Opening the dive bag at her waist, Annja dropped the statue inside. A glance at the dive computer on her wrist told her they’d been down for twenty minutes at this point. At their current depth, that meant they were now at the halfway mark.

Plenty of time to get back to the top, she thought.

She signaled to Garin that they were ready and followed him back through the wreckage the same way they’d come in until they reached the gun deck and the opening in the hull through which they’d entered the ship.

27

With a nod to her, Garin slipped out of the opening, located the dive line and, using it as a guide, headed for the surface. Annja moved as if to follow but then stopped for a moment before leaving the wreck, wanting to be certain that the bag containing the artifact was tied securely to her dive belt. She didn’t want the river current to tear it free while she was surfacing.

Satisfied, she turned to follow Garin, only to hesitate at the exit, a sense of unease stealing over her. She couldn’t put her finger on precisely what it was, but she had that sinking feeling in her gut, that tingling at the edge of her spine that sometimes warned her when something was about to go very wrong.

She’d learned to trust her instincts and listen to that feeling.

She extended her arm outside the wreck and waved her spotlight about, looking for she didn’t know what.

The beam of light could only cut through the water for a short distance before the murk swallowed it up. Still, she thought she saw something swimming through the dark waters at the edge of the light’s reach.

That’s just Garin, she tried to reassure herself.

She pulled the spotlight back inside, turned it up to its most powerful setting and flashed it back in the same direction.

This time there was nothing there.

Satisfied, she clipped the light to her belt and leaned out of the opening, her hand groping for the dive line that she intended to follow to the surface. A dark shape rushed forward out of the murky water to her left. She saw it and flinched backward, her body reacting to the threat before her conscious mind had processed exactly what it was. She caught sight of a scaly hide and a flash of teeth before the alligator’s powerful jaws slammed shut just inches from her face.

Half a second later the creature was gone, lost once more in the murk.

Heart pounding, Annja backed away from the opening. She knew that contrary to popular belief, alligators actually had excellent eyesight and, being natural predators, were attracted to movement. She was hoping that the creature would just continue on and leave her alone if she didn’t give it any reason to come after her.

She called forth her sword and felt a little less anxious when her hand closed around the hilt. Unlike a firearm, a melee weapon like her sword would work pretty effectively underwater, provided she stuck with actions that didn’t generate a lot of resistance. Great slashing strokes were out of the question, but she could stab with it easily enough. Armed, her chances improved almost a hundredfold. Most alligators avoided human contact as much as possible, and the larger the creatures, the more shy they were. The average alligator was about twelve feet in length, she knew, which put the one she’d just seen well in the upper percentile.

That’s one big lizard, she thought.

She checked her dive computer again and saw that she had another five minutes of air, plus a ten-minute safety margin. Hopefully the alligator would grow bored and wander off long before that.

But that wasn’t to be.

Even as she thought about it being gone, the gator swam back into view. It cut through the water like a torpedo, approaching her hiding place but not intent on attacking, at least as far as she could tell. It seemed to be just swimming about, waiting for her to emerge from her little cave.

She held her breath, as if breathing might alert it to her presence somehow and continued backing up.

As she did so, she bumped into one of the cannons that had been tossed about by the hurricane. It wasn’t a hard blow, by any means, but it hit her side at just the right angle to set off one of the emergency strobe lights she had hanging on her belt.

The water around her was suddenly filled with a blazing red light that pulsed outward into the darkness. It flashed over the alligator, catching its attention and causing the beast to turn back toward her.

It was facing her direction when the next pulse of light went out and the alligator reacted to it instantly, charging directly toward her.

BELIEVING ANNJA TO BE right behind him, Garin headed for the surface without a backward glance. He was on limited air at this point and didn’t want to stay under any longer than necessary.

The sun cut down through the murky water, and as he drew closer to the surface he could make out the dark shadow of the Kelly May’s hull in the water above him.

To his surprise, however, he saw that she was no longer alone. Another, larger shadow loomed next to her. The second vessel was a good deal larger than the Kelly Mayand, from below it, looked as if there were only a few feet separating the two boats. Garin hesitated, hanging in the water a few feet below the surface. Warning bells were going off in the back of his mind, the other vessel’s presence making him uncomfortable. He didn’t know if it was the position of the boat or the fact that it was there at all, but hundreds of years of trusting his instincts told him that he needed to be careful.

He glanced down into the water below him, looking for Annja. She should have been here by now, he thought.

But there was no sign of her in the murky water beneath him.

For a moment he considered diving back down toward the wreck, but a glance at his dive computer told him that would be a bad idea. He had only a few minutes of air left; descending would leave him stranded at the bottom without enough oxygen to get back to the surface. Even if he did find Annja, he’d only be putting them both into increased danger.

His lack of air also meant he didn’t have a lot of time to decide what he was going to do about the mysterious vessel above him.

He might be worried for nothing, he knew. After all, there were probably half a dozen legitimate reasons for the presence of the second vessel, from a quick coast guard inspection to a chance visit from one of Mitchell’s fellow trawler captains. He really didn’t have access to enough information yet to come to a useful conclusion.

His best bet was to see about getting some.

Kicking himself into motion, he swam beneath the hulls of both boats until he was on the far side of the larger vessel. Once in position, he gently surfaced, trying to make as little noise as possible as his head and shoulders came up above the waterline. His new location gave him a good look at the other boat. Unlike the Kelly May,this one would never be confused as anything but a pleasure craft. Where the Kelly Maylooked weathered and used, the newcomer practically gleamed, from its showroom-bright white paint to its newly polished brass sparkling in the sunlight. Garin could see it had at least two decks above the waterline and those were topped by a floating bridge for fly-fishing. From the size of her, Garin guessed she ran on a crew of four, minimum.