Clive Cussler - The Navigator

“Good to see you, Kurt. Ready to get back into some good old Marmara muck?”

“I’ll have to take a rain check,” Austin said. He surveyed the activity on the site. “Looks like the project is going well.”

Hanley’s face flushed with excitement. “This is the most fantastic dig I’ve ever participated in.”

“I hope you won’t be too busy to do me a small favor,” Kurt said.

“I still owe you and the young lady for your volunteer work. Where is Carina, by the way?”

“Freshening up. I’m meeting her for lunch.”

“Please give her my best regards. Now, what can I do for you?”

Austin reached into a canvas bag he had borrowed from Captain Mustapha and pulled out the latex molds of the second Navigator. “Could you make plaster of paris casts from these?”

Hanley held a mold at an angle to view the relief. “No problem. It will take a couple of hours for the stuff to dry.”

“We’ll come by after lunch.”

Hanley took the bag and its contents. “Where’s Joe?”

“Nursing his submersible. It got a bit banged up on a dive and probably won’t be of use to you.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Hanley said. “It would have helped us explore the site’s perimeter, but, as you can see, most of the excavation is dry.”

Austin said he would be back after lunch. He hailed a taxi and told the driver to take him to the TopkapiPalace. The sprawling complex of buildings, courtyards, pavilions, and parks dominated Seraglio Point, a hilly promontory at the junction of the Golden Horn, the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosphorus. The Ottoman sultans and their retinues had lived at Topkapi for four hundred years during the heyday of the Ottoman Empire.

The palace grounds had been transformed into a museum. Austin strolled between the twin turrets into a park shaded by leafy trees and teeming with tourists from every part of the world. He passed the treasury, which guarded a fortune in precious jewels, and made his way to the building housing the Konyali Restaurant.

Carina sat at a table in the courtyard, gazing out at the sun-sparkled water. She had changed from the casual outfit she wore on the TurquoiseCoast and wore a long-skirted dress of dark russet that complemented her cinnamon-and-cream complexion. Austin wore tan slacks, foregoing his standard Hawaiian color riot for a more-conservative dark green polo shirt.

He pulled up a chair. “The sultans really knew their real estate. Location, location, and location.”

She greeted him with a dazzling smile. “It’s spectacular!”

“The prices are exorbitant and the food is less than five-star. The service is cafeteria-style. But the dining view is the best in Istanbul. You can’t go wrong with the salad or the kebabs.”

Austin offered to do the honors. He carried two fresh green salads and lemonades back to the table.

Carina took a dainty bite of lettuce. “An excellent recommendation. Is there any place you haven’t been?”

“I get to travel a lot in my job.”

“What exactly is your job?”

“As I said before, I’m an engineer.”

She cocked a finely arched eyebrow. “NUMA is world renowned for its study of the oceans. But you and Joe spend most of your time fighting bad men and rescuing maidens in distress, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Austin said. “I’m also head of the NUMA Special Assignments Team. It consists of Joe and two others who investigate mysteries on, under, and above the sea, that don’t fit easily into any mainstream category.”

“And how does this mystery stack up with your past experience?”

Austin gazed off at the queue of cargo ships that stretched off into the distance.

“Looking at events objectively, I’d say that this is a case of someone wanting something, ready to destroy anything or anyone in the way. Subjectively, I’m afraid it goes deeper than that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You get a sixth sense when you spend a lot of time under water. It’s telling me that there is more to this than what we see. There’s evil lurking behind the violence.”

“As if things weren’t strange enough,” she said with a nervous smile. “What do we do next?”

“Enjoy our lunch, savor the view and the sunshine, and then check out the plaster of paris casts Hanley is making for us.”

“Do you think the casts will tell us anything?”

“That’s my hope. Someone didn’t want us to find the second statue. I think we’ve got all we can out of Turkey. The NUMA plane is heading back to the States tomorrow. We can regroup at home. I’d like to look deeper into the Baltazar question.”

“And I’ve got to salvage the pieces of the national tour. Kurt, ” she said, lowering her voice. “Don’t turn around. I think one of those men who attacked us on the boat is sitting at a table.”

“Maybe you’ve got the jitters.”

He rose from his seat and came around behind Carina. He put his hands on the back of her chair and quickly scanned the other tables. A man sitting alone saw Austin glance his way and raised a newspaper as if he were reading it.

“You’re right. I’ll see what he’s up to.”

Carina looked on in horror as Austin strolled over to the table. He peered over the top of the newspaper directly into the man’s face. “Peekaboo!”

The man lowered the newspaper and his lips curled into a snarl.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” Austin said. “I don’t even know your name.”

“The name is Buck. You won’t have to remember it for long. You’re dead meat, Austin.”

“How’d you get out of the woods?”

“We called in backup.”

Austin sized up the husky physique and the military brush cut.

“American accent. Green Beret or Delta Force?”

“Neither one, smart-ass. Navy SEALs,” he said with a proud smile.

“That explains why you swam so well. The SEALs are a good outfit. Why’d they throw you out?”

Austin must have struck a nerve with his wild guess because the smile vanished.

“Unnecessary roughness.”

“Who are you working for now?” Austin said.

“Someone who wants you dead.”

“Sorry I can’t oblige your employer.”

The man gave him a nasty chuckle. “They want you to suffer, but I’m going to make it quick. I owe you. When you killed Ridley, I became squad leader. Look around.”

Austin surveyed the courtyard restaurant. He picked out the other men he had last seen swimming for shore. One lounged against a wall. A third man sat at a table. They stared at Austin as if they wanted him on a dinner platter.

“I see you’ve brought along the rest of the Turkish swimming team.”

“Go along with us. You can make it easy on the lady.”

“You’ll kill her quick and easy too?”

Buck shook his head. “My employer has other plans for her.”

“Nice chatting with you, Buck. I’ll explain the hopelessness of our situation to Ms. Mechadi.”

Austin sauntered back to the table where Carina sat, her face frozen in fear.

“Good spotting,” he said. “There are three of them. They want my hide, but they want you alive.”

“Dear God! What do we do?”

“They won’t try anything now. It’s too public. Let’s go for a stroll.”

Austin guided Carina in the direction of the palace gate. His pursuers kept pace a hundred or so feet behind. He scoured his memory and tried to recall the layout of Topkapi and the palace grounds, searching for a hidey-hole where they would be temporarily safe.

An idea came to him. Not a total escape, but it might gain them valuable time.

Carina saw the faint smile on Austin’s face and wondered if her friend had gone mad.