Carolyn Keene - Greek Odyssey

“But they’ve probably tightened security,” Nancy said. “I’ll bet that’s why they were checking passports on Delos.”

Mick tapped the manila envelope in front of him. “McCurdy thinks the terrorists have been moving around the islands in a stolen boat,” he added. “But they need papers to leave the country.”

“So our theory about the three stolen passports may be right,” Nancy said. “It looks as if they’re going to fall into the hands of these three criminals.”

“Wow,” Bess said, her eyes wide. “I feel like I’ve created an international incident.”

“According to this letter, even Interpol is in on the case,” said Mick. “They’re compiling a special list of all lost or stolen passports in the hope that they’ll be able to use it to snag the terrorists.”

“Do you think we should go to the police with our suspicions of Theo and Dimitri?” George asked.

Nancy took a sip of her fruit drink, and thought for a moment. “We still don’t have enough evidence.”

“She’s right,” Mick added. “All we can do is watch and wait.”

“And lay low,” Kevin added.

Zoe nodded her agreement. “Now that the terrorists can identify Nancy and Mick, we should all be extra careful.”

“I’m glad we weren’t planning a trip for tomorrow,” Bess said. “We’ll be better off sticking around here.”

The next morning everyone else was already on the beach by the time Nancy finished breakfast and changed into her suit. As she walked down the path toward the water, she saw Bess and George posing on beached Windsurfers for Dimitri. The photographer was kneeling in the sand, taking their picture. Dressed in a black wet suit, he looked more like a diver than a photographer.

“I will have all your photos back to you tomorrow,” Dimitri promised Bess, smiling as he strapped the bright yellow waterproof camera around his neck. “But now I must meet a group of British tourists who have hired me. They want me to take photos of them snorkeling so they can brag to their friends back home.”

As Dimitri headed off down the beach, Bess walked over to the beach towel where Nancy had just sat down. “I’m afraid to see those photos he took of me that afternoon in Chora when you guys searched his studio. It was such a hot day—I probably look awful.”

“All in the line of duty,” Nancy teased, her eyes on Dimitri’s retreating form. Was his friendly smile just a cover-up for a master forger? Were he and Theo working together?

She lay down on her stomach. She was thinking about how to proceed with her investigation when she felt a splash of cold water on her back. She rolled over and sat up just as Mick tossed a snorkeling mask onto the beach towel beside her.

“Time for a dip, Nancy,” he teased. “There are some amazing fish out there today.”

“You’re on, Devlin,” Nancy said. Grabbing the mask, she raced him to the clear turquoise water.

With the help of the snorkeling gear, she spent the next half hour exploring the underwater world of the Aegean Sea. A school of tiny silvery fish fluttered past her, tickling her legs as they went. Lingering over a clump of seaweed, she discovered fish in dazzling shades of blue, orange, and yellow. She carefully avoided a group of pincushiony sea urchins, whose spines could sting.

Mick was just pointing out a tiny gray octopus when Nancy caught sight of a diver out of the corner of her mask.

Turning her head, she saw that he was wearing a black wet suit, mask, and scuba-diving equipment—she couldn’t make out his features at all. Nancy was about to look away when she noticed a strange contraption in the diver’s arm. It looked like a cross between a rifle and an archery bow.

A second look made her gasp. The man was holding an underwater spear gun!

Grabbing Mick’s arm, Nancy twisted around in the water to point out the armed diver.

Just then the diver aimed the gun and fired! With a burst of bubbles, a sharp spear torpedoed straight toward Nancy and Mick!

Chapter Thirteen

Nancy felt her whole body go tight. Pressing her hands against Mick’s side, she pushed—as hard as one could push underwater—sending him in one direction while she moved in the other. A split second later she felt a rush of water as the spear zoomed past her.

Mick’s arms flailed for a moment. Then Nancy saw him start swimming off in the opposite direction from the diver. Following his lead, she kicked frantically through the water behind him.

Quickly she turned back to see if another spear was coming her way. The masked diver was loading another one!

Without a moment to waste, she and Mick pushed above the surface and swam, trying to put distance between them and the diver. Nancy knew that they could move more quickly if they weren’t under the surface, but with every stroke she took she thought about the sharp end of that spear.

Her muscles were screaming from exertion when she ducked her head under the water to check on the man with the spear gun. She was just in time to see the second spear veer off to her left. Then the diver turned and swam away from them.

Breaking through the surface, Nancy took a deep breath. “That was close,” Mick said, coughing as he propped his mask on his head. “Did you get a look at that guy?”

Nancy pulled off her own snorkeling gear. “No, but there he is again!”

The diver had surfaced near a small motorboat that was floating some twenty yards away. Nancy watched as he tossed the spear gun into the boat, then heaved himself aboard. His head was covered with the black hood of a diver’s suit, but Nancy was able to see that he was a man of medium build. A moment later the boat’s engine roared to life, and the masked man sped away.

“Guess he’s not going to stick around for a chat,” Mick said, smiling weakly.

“No, but I think his message was clear. Someone wants us out of the picture.” Nancy frowned. “I just wish I knew who that someone was.”

When Nancy and Mick finally waded to shore, they found their friends playing cards, oblivious to what had transpired out in the sea.

“I can’t believe all that action was going on while we were sitting here,” Bess said, brushing sand from her legs.

“It’s a good thing both you and Mick are good swimmers,” George said, scanning the nearby water.

“Thank goodness you weren’t hurt,” Zoe added.

Nancy combed her wet hair and pulled it back into a ponytail. “I just wish I had seen the face of that man with the spear gun.”

“Well, let’s think about it,” Kevin said. “Who could get their hands on a black wet suit?”

Mick dried off, then pulled a blue T-shirt over his head, “Theo has one. I saw it stashed in the cabin of his boat.”

“But no one has seen Theo all morning,” Zoe said defensively. “Besides, you would have recognized the Sea Star .”

“He could have borrowed a boat from one of his friends at the marina,” Nancy pointed out, then added, “But we also saw Dimitri wearing a wet suit just this morning.”

George snapped her fingers. “That’s right! A black wet suit. He could have jumped in a boat after he disappeared down the beach.”

“But he said he’d been hired to spend the hour photographing some tourists underwater,” Bess added. “That’s why he was wearing the wet suit.”

“We should check out his story, just to be sure,” Nancy said.

Mick looked out over the sea, a serious expression darkening his handsome face. “Do you think that those criminals decided to come after us?” he asked after a moment.

Nancy winced. “I sure hope not. First of all, I’m not sure they’d be able to find us that easily. And if the police are looking for them, my guess is that they’d want to lay low.”