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He let her go on her own

She buckled into the vest and rose carefully, her ulator ready She proceeded carefully to the edge, slipped her regulator in her ed the weight on her sli to be one of the guys, not a hindrance, not soe basic tasks

She surfaced, and he handed her the caulator and asked hi artistic," he told her "And I’ around at the surface She could handle the ca air from her BCV She sank below the surface

"What a woman!" Bartholomew said "Why, if I were only flesh and blood…"

"But you’re not," Sean told hiear and followed in her wake

Pirate’s Cut was a beautiful place to dive The water was clear, and visibility was ahorn coral rose and wafted in the move shades grew around it Tiny fish darted here, there and everywhere, while a large grouper, at least three hundred pounds, decided to swi She shot the coral with the tiny fish and panned slowly around to the giant grouper

There was a drop-off near the shallow area of the reef, and she followed it down; she knew that the ocean went to no more than a hundred feet at the drop-off She eased down about another twenty feet, aware that Sean was near her then, watching her He ca for the camera She frowned behind her mask but handed it to hirouper was still following her, like a pet dog She shrugged and swae She reached out and stroked the side of the fish He circled her--hoping for a handout, she was certain Divers e the creature to co that he hadn’t wound up on a dinner plate hier, and then swao to the bones of the old sunken ship that was assumed to be the Santa Geneva She’d been a wooden-hulled ship and had broken up, however it was that she’d gone down She was really nothing but wooden bones now, since the sea had caused the disintegration of most of the hull Vanessa still loved the wreck It was possible to iine the size of the ship, where the masts had been, the hold, the cabins, the quarters

She looked through the camera as she neared a section of the reh the lens, she saw a figurehead

Iain, and for aa wourehead

She blinked, and it was gone

She moved the camera away for a moe of the figurehead and fil in the fish, the barnacles growing on those sad bare bones that re crusted rose from the bed of sand on the floor of the ocean that held the wreck It was just a dot on the sand, but through the lens, it seeently swishing sand from the object She wasn’t sure what it was, it was so encrusted, but it was odd, so she picked it up

Sean was behind her He eased himself down on his knees and she showed him what she had discovered He took the camera from her and pointed upward He was ready to surface

They had ood hundred feet from the boat and stopped at thirty-three feet to pressurize Sean reached the dive platform and ladder before she did He set the camera down on the platforrasped hold of the platform The sea rocked around them, but Sean ably drew himself up and turned to reach for her She hesitated only briefly and then accepted his hand, throwing her flippers up as well and clih the little custom hatch to the deck of the Sea Ray and he spun her around without asking, unlatching her tank

"I’ll get yours," she said

He didn’t protest but accepted her help and stowed the tanks He came back to her and asked for the object she had picked up from the ocean floor

He turned it around and around in his hand "I have friends to take this to," he murmured

Vanessa felt a sudden, eerie sweep of air around her She spun around, looking for…

So around her

Still, she was suddenly cold She could reh the ca clarity--since it hadn’t really been there And now…

This This chilling sensation that…

They weren’t alone

Sean looked at her suddenly "What’s wrong?" he asked her

She shook her head "Nothing A goose walked over uess What do you think it is?"

"A coin…or a pendant I think you’ve found a real relic," he told her

"Really?"