Carolyn Keene - Greek Odyssey

“And there’s a six o’clock deadline!” Nancy stressed.

Rossolatos smiled reassuringly. “We will be there long before the deadline. Do not worry.”

How could she help but worry?

Nancy was surprised to find Theo coming out of an office when she, Zoe, and Mick walked into the hall. Immediately there was an exchange in Greek between Theo and Zoe. “Theo came in to make a report,” Zoe explained. “His boat was stolen from Mykonos’s harbor. A few of the fishermen saw two men boarding the Sea Star . From their description, it sounds as if the two male terrorists stole the Sea Star . One of the fishermen remembers seeing a red-haired woman board a smaller boat.”

“Was George with them?” Bess asked, but Theo didn’t know.

“Why did they take your boat,” Mick wondered, “when they had the other one?”

“Maybe they need a faster, larger boat than the one they’ve been using,” Nancy suggested.

She followed her friends outside into the late afternoon sunshine. The bright sky seemed to contrast sharply with the darkness of her mood.

“Maybe we should go back to the hotel and wait,” Zoe suggested bleakly.

“She’s right,” Bess said, wiping tears from her eyes. She couldn’t stop crying. “There’s really nothing else we can do.”

“I can’t just sit around and wait,” Nancy said. “I’ll go crazy.”

“Don’t tell me,” Mick said, raising an eyebrow at her. “You want to go to Dragonisi?”

“I have to,” Nancy told him.

“It’s too dangerous,” Bess insisted. “If the terrorists see us, they might kill George and Kevin on the spot.”

Nancy frowned, thinking. “We can wait in a boat offshore, out of the way of the police and where the terrorists can’t see us.”

Zoe shook her head. “It’s too risky.”

“Please,” Nancy pleaded. “I just need to be sure that George and Kevin get away safely.”

“I can take you there,” Theo offered. “A friend of mine at the marina told me that I could use his boat until I get mine back.”

“Thanks,” Nancy said gratefully. “We should leave right away. The six o’clock deadline isn’t that far away—it’s already four-thirty.”

“This is crazy,” Mick said hesitantly, “but I know there’s no changing your mind. Count me in.”

Bess and Zoe exchanged a look, then Zoe shrugged. “I guess I’m going to see Dragonisi, after all,” Bess said, feeling miserable as she followed her friends down the street to the marina.

As Theo had promised, a small blue boat, similar in size to the Sea Star , awaited them at Mykonos’s harbor. As Theo steered the boat out of the harbor, Bess sat beside Nancy on the aft deck. “I guess Theo’s not a suspect anymore,” Bess said.

Nancy nodded. “It looks as if the operation was directly between the terrorists and Spiros. The fact that the terrorists stole Theo’s boat proves that he was just an innocent victim.”

And so are George and Kevin, she added silently, staring out at the churning sea.

By the time they neared Dragonisi, it was already five-thirty. Just thirty minutes until the deadline, yet there wasn’t a police vessel in sight.

“Something must be wrong,” Nancy said as Theo cut the boat’s engine offshore. They were behind a huge rock formation that jutted out of the water. By leaning over the forward deck, however, Nancy could see the cave entrance and the shore. Squinting, she could also see a yellow boat moored near the beach and a smaller boat. “Theo,” Nancy asked, pointing, “isn’t that your boat?”

Theo leaned forward. “That’s the Sea Star , all right.”

Nancy choked back a sick feeling. “What’s keeping the police?”

“Maybe they’re already inside,” Bess said, but she looked just as worried as Nancy felt.

Nancy shook her head. “No. We’d see another boat—maybe more.”

“Let’s just sit tight and see what happens,” Mick suggested. Nancy didn’t see any alternative, so she and the others settled in by the forward railing. Their eyes were glued to the rocky beach.

“Those binoculars we used to watch Spiros might help,” Bess said, pulling them out of her tote bag. “Here.” She handed them to Theo.

Tense moments passed without a sign of another boat. The waiting is killing me, Nancy thought as she checked her watch yet again. Twenty minutes to the deadline!

“Someone’s coming out of the cave!” Theo announced, handing Nancy the binoculars.

Nancy recognized Mashti, the muscular man. As she watched, he transferred the four cartons of explosives from the smaller boat to the Sea Star . “They’re moving everything to Theo’s boat,” she said. A moment later Rashid came out and helped Mashti move knapsacks onto the Sea Star .

“They’re getting ready to leave,” Nancy told the others, lowering the field glasses. A tense silence settled over the group.

“Where are the police?” Mick finally said.

“No one has brought the passports,” Nancy said anxiously. “The terrorists must be getting ready to kill George and Kevin! I’ve got to go in there—before it’s too late.”

Chapter Sixteen

Nancy’s friends looked at her as if she had lost her mind.

“You can’t go in that cave,” Zoe warned her. “It would be suicide.”

“She’s right,” Mick said firmly. “It’s bad enough that those people have two hostages. Don’t make it three, Nancy.”

“I’m not going to march in there. We’re going to swim in—through Kea Lake,” said Nancy.

Theo’s mouth dropped open. “That’s right—we can use the underwater passage!” he cried.

Nancy stood up and began to search through the boat’s compartments. At last she found what she wanted. “This will help,” she said, pulling out a flare gun. “I have a plan that might give George and Kevin a chance to get away. But I’ll need everyone’s help.”

Her friends were openly skeptical at first, but once Nancy explained her plan, they agreed to try it. Bess and Zoe had discovered a box of snorkeling gear belowdeck. And Theo found a chart of Dragonisi, which they could use to map out their plan. Within minutes the group was ready for action.

Theo and Mick would dive into the pond on the other side of the point and snorkel into the terrorists’ cave, ending up in Kea Lake inside the large chamber. While Nancy used the flare gun to distract the terrorists, Mick and Theo would emerge from Kea Lake, free George and Kevin, and guide them out through the underwater passage.

“We’ll bring along extra snorkeling gear for George and Kevin to use on the way out,” said Mick.

“This pond will lead us to the tunnel of water,” Theo said, pointing to a spot on the chart. “It’s on the next beach, just beyond that stone ridge.” Nancy looked up at the rocky point to the right of the terrorists’ cave, then nodded.

Nancy turned to Bess and Zoe. “You should wait on the other side of the point for Theo and Mick to return with George and Kevin,” Nancy explained. “And while you’re waiting, watch for the police. Then come back for me.”

“But what if the terrorists come after you?” Mick asked, his jaw tense.

“I can hide in that rocky section of the point, just like we did last time,” Nancy assured him.

“Wait a minute,” Bess objected as Theo guided the boat toward the rocks just out of sight of the terrorists’ cave. “This sounds too risky to me.”

“We’ve got to do it!” Nancy said, squeezing Bess’s arm. “George and Kevin’s lives depend on it.” Nancy had put the flare gun and extra flares in a tote bag she found belowdeck. Now she slung the bag over her shoulder and descended the boat’s ladder. As she carefully stepped into the waist-deep water, she held the bag over her head.