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  She was furious, but she could never tell Andrej or Hiroshi that the cop had stolen her passkey and then used it to steal the Bible. Her position at the resort was in dire jeopardy now. She had to eliminate the cop before he could use the ledger to cause her further harm. She desperately needed Disco to perform damage control before her aspirations of running the resort were crushed.

  When Tanya entered the Marina Del Ray, Disco was already there. She closed her eyes, held her breath, and then put on an Academy Award-worthy performance.

  “You look yummy this morning,” she whispered into his ear, brushing her silky hand across his face, silently shuddering as she felt his beard stubble and smelled his vodka breath.

  “To what do I owe this pleasure?” Disco asked warily.

  “I was afraid for you last night when I heard all that gunfire,” she purred.

  “Why are you suddenly so concerned about my safety?” he wondered.

  Tanya was afraid she might be losing him and decided to change strategies.

  “Okay, let’s call a spade a spade. I’m ambitious and I need a big strong partner such as you. I am smart enough to know that I cannot take over and run this place by myself, so I want to work out an agreement with you as a full partner.”

  Tanya knew that she was really going out on a limb. If Disco turned her down and ratted her out to either Hiroshi or Andrej, she would be sleeping with the fish by nightfall. But at this point she didn’t really have a choice.

  “I also need a strong reliable man in my bed,” she continued. “This all-business act is growing old. I need a lover.”

  Suddenly, all the blood stopped flowing to Disco’s brain and was detoured to his groin. He had the IQ of a carrot, but also the lustful hormones of a caveman. Disco thought this might not be a bad idea. This sexy creature was certainly ambitious and could conceivably pull her plan off—and he wanted to be her man and ride her coattails to prosperity.

  “If I agree, what do you want me to do?” he asked.

  Tanya felt him wavering, so she leaned over the table toward him to give him a good peek at her ample cleavage.

  “We’ll make a great team, baby,” she said. “With my brains and your brawn, how could we miss? Champagne and sex every night as the money rolls in day after day.” She now had to deliver the coup de grace. The thought of this loathsome beast touching her was so repugnant that she almost couldn’t utter the words.

  “Disco, I have two jobs for you to do, and then you can come to my private casino room tonight and collect your carnal reward.”

  ***

  Micko had gotten a great night’s sleep after calling Buddy on his cell phone and informing him of the exact location of the money-laundering Bible. He knew that dangerous days lay ahead, and he didn’t want it all to be for naught; so he let Buddy know everything that was happening. Micko knew that Buddy needed time to assemble a team of agents, and arrange transportation. He just hoped Buddy would be quick about it.

  Now he was awake, and it was a gorgeous day. With his newfound confidence, his fears and nightmares were over and he looked forward to a good investigation.

  Micko didn’t go to the restaurant for breakfast. Instead, he went to find Flacka. She wasn’t at the pool bar, so he thought it might just be too early for her. Instead, he walked to the dock and bought coffee and cake from a local merchant. He continued down the dock to the Hummingbird and saw that Celestial and Regis were busy loading up the boat with scuba tanks.

  Micko threw his dive bag on board and asked where the scientists were. Regis pointed up toward the hotel, and Micko could see the pair struggling with their dive gear. He took one last bite and swallowed it down with the rotgut coffee.

  “I’ll give them a hand while you guys load up the Hummingbird,” he said.

  Micko met them and offered to carry the professor’s bag.

  “I’ll carry it myself, son,” the doctor replied. “Help James.”

  Micko noticed that the professor was carrying the re-breather and asked, “Would it be all right if I tried that before the week is out?”

  “Are you trained to use a re-breather?” the professor questioned.

  “I was trained to use one of the earlier models, but I see you have the CCR 2000. That’s top of the line, but I can handle it if you do the gas mix,” Micko replied.

  “Okay, you can try it later.”

  The trio half-carried and half-dragged all the remaining gear onto the boat and beat a hasty departure lest too many people notice and asked questions. The water was as flat as glass, and the sunrise was spectacular as the Hummingbird hummed across the lagoon to the passageway.

  ***

  Disco met Tanya at the sport fishing boat at five o’clock in the morning. He brought his henchman Nike along, and the two spent the better part of an hour loading the boat with various pieces of equipment.

  Steve came to the boat and stated, “I need this boat to recover the Barrett brothers’ bodies.”

  “We need it right now,” Disco barked. “You can use it later.”

  Tanya hid in the downstairs sleeping quarters so that Steve wouldn’t see her.

  “I have the recovery team coming here in half an hour,” Steve insisted.

  “You and your recovery team can have the boat in the afternoon!” Disco snorted.

  Nike walked up to Steve and bumped his chest in a silent challenge. Steve knew that he was overmatched, so he backed off and went into the scuba shop to telephone his recovery team of the change of plans.

  Disco fired up the Happy Monkey, and Nike loosened the bow and stern lines. Soon they were entering the middle of the atoll.

  Once they were out of sight from land, Tanya peered through the wheelhouse porthole with a pair of high-powered binoculars. She watched the Hummingbird and wanted to discreetly follow it. “Disco, throw out a few fishing lines so it looks like we’re on a fishing expedition,” she yelled over the roar of the twin 550 horsepower Mercury engines.

  Disco was driving the boat, so he relayed the message to Nike, who promptly complied. The threesome pretended to fish until Tanya said, “There they go. Follow from a distance so they don’t get suspicious.”

  Tanya was wearing a large straw hat, sunglasses, and a yellow windbreaker to conceal her identity. She knew that the cop would use binoculars to peer back at them, so she had to stay out of sight or her plan would fail.

  ***

  The Hummingbird easily crossed the atoll until it reached the turbulent waters of the passageway.

  “See the floating buoy?” James yelled to Celestial as he pointed to the marker for the u/w video system.

  Celestial nodded and moved the Hummingbird into position. On Regis’ mark, he dropped anchor. The pair worked well together. Regis directed the anchor to be dropped hundreds of feet up current of the marker, and after Celestial played out the anchor line, they were right on top of the marker buoy. The scientists could drop over the side of the boat and follow the buoy straight up and down without fighting the current to return to the Hummingbird. The rear boarding ladders were right at the mooring line.

  Micko helped the scientists into their dive gear and double-checked everything before they entered the water.

  “You’re worse than a mother hen,” the professor groaned.

  “Better to be safe or you’ll be pulling another Robinson Crusoe,” Micko joked.

  The professor nodded that the point was well taken as he climbed down the Christmas tree-style ladder. He entered the water and held on to the buoy for dear life as James took a few seconds to join him. The current was swift as the pair descended the mooring line to the rocky bottom, but not as severe when they reached 130 fsw. The professor held onto the life-saving line as James quickly removed the camera from its u/w bracket and snapped it onto his BC vest D-ring. The entire dive lasted less than ten minutes.

  Back in the lagoon, the water was so calm and the weather so perfect that visibility was ten miles or more. Micko noticed the sport boat following a
nd watched with his mediocre binoculars. Nothing was obviously suspicious, but Micko was a seasoned police veteran and had an uncanny sixth sense that was putting the rest of his senses on full alert.

  The scientists popped to the surface sooner than anyone had expected. James handed the camera to Regis, and then both divers climbed back aboard the Hummingbird. Celestial and Regis pulled anchor, and they made a wide turn and headed back into the safety of the atoll.

  Micko directed Celestial to drive to the mooring ball of the Apogon. He needed to find evidence on the skiff that might point to Disco as the criminal who had caused the scientists to be marooned and nearly killed. Micko felt sure that Buddy would bring a law enforcement army with him, so he wanted to tie up all the loose ends before they arrived.

  He helped the scientists remove their gear, and almost immediately after, they helped him on with his own dive gear. Before Micko was diver-dressed, Regis had the Hummingbird tied up to the Apogon’s mooring line. The five men had a pre-dive discussion about what Micko might find on the skiff to prove that it was the one that the professor and James had rented. No one noticed the sport boat approaching from the south.

  The Happy Monkey moved closer and closer to the Hummingbird until it reached the wreck of the USS Gilliam, a 426-foot U.S. attack transport ship. Disco and Nike tied up to the mooring line and pretended to be game fishing, while Tanya watched the activity on the Hummingbird. When she saw the cop gearing up for a dive and was sure that nobody was watching them, she ordered, “Hurry up and get your dive gear on, and then lower the equipment.”

  ***

  Andrej was furious. His morning was not going well. The previous night the rebels had caused mayhem, and the Bible had gone missing. At the moment, he couldn’t locate Tanya or Disco.

  “That bitch!” he yelled at Alex. “I’ll kill her with my bare hands.”

  Both Andre and Alex knew that it was Tanya’s passkey that had been used to steal the Bible because the concierge had returned the card to them that very morning. They knew that they had to pass the blame to her to save their own skins. Andrej needed Disco to kill and dispose of Tanya, as well as to find the Bible. He was sure that the cop had it, but with enough physical persuasion, it would be returned. All was not yet lost. They had to torture the cop, get the Bible back, blame Tanya, and then punish her. Then all would be normal again.

  But why all this grief on the night of the grand opening and the elaborate fireworks display? Andrej had to complete this mission before Hiroshi or the home office learned of the “Great Bible Transgression.”

  ***

  Just before Micko slipped into the water, Regis pointed toward Eneu Island across the atoll. The visibility was so good that the men could see the two Majestic dive boats pulling the fireworks barge. This delay would almost cost Micko his life as their attention was focused east instead of south.

  ***

  “Quick! Get in the water! Hurry!” Tanya ordered. She could see that the men on the Hummingbird were distracted by the flotilla from Eneu, giving her henchmen time to get into position without being discovered.

  Nike entered the water fist, and Disco lowered the heavy equipment to him from the leeward side of the boat so no one on the Hummingbird could see them. The devious pair managed to get in the water and begin executing their plan before Micko even left the Hummingbird.

  Disco knew that this would be a long, deep, gruesome dive, so he connected the long hang hoses well before they entered the water. His last words to Tanya were, “Keep an eye on the hoses and make sure that the air is turned on. We will need a long deco hang after the job is done.”

  ***

  Micko finally took his eyes off the riveting scene developing from across the lagoon and did a backward roll off the gunwale. He splashed noisily and descended immediately without bobbing to the surface to give a diver okay signal. He wanted to complete the dive quickly after gaining the information he had sought. Something was bothering him, and he wanted to be off the water because the water was the source of his concern.

  Normally, Micko admired nature’s underwater wonderland, but on this occasion, he simply dove down the mooring line. The line was connected to a large concrete slab that lay in the sand a dozen feet in front of the Apogon’s bow. Micko followed the line down to the soft sandy bottom. He knew that the small skiff was at the stern section of the submarine and began to swim past the bow and toward the stern. Taking a quick look into the submarine’s bow firing rubes he was amazed to see that there was a rusty torpedo visible in one tube. Evidently, the outer tube door cover had been jarred loose either during the initial sinking or from the storms and tidal surges that had taken place over the past fifty years. Micko made a mental note to speak to Steve about this extremely dangerous condition.

  He swam across the sub until he came to the wreck of the small skiff and shone his powerful light on it. The curiously pink paint had been obscured from his view over one hundred feet higher the day before, but now it was clearly evident. James had also stated that the boat had a small white rabbit painted at the rear where the motor was attached, and Micko saw the rabbit as clear as day. He started humming the Jefferson Airplane song when he spotted something in the sand near the skiff—an empty bottle of Leningrad Gold Vodka. This was the personal stock of Disco and the Russians, and it was not sold at the resort.

  Micko moved in to collect the bottle, still humming the song when he thought he heard an airplane underwater. He looked at the submarine Apogon that was sitting upright; the noise couldn’t be coming from there. He checked his gauges, thinking he might be having a serious bout of nitrogen narcosis. He was at 180 fsw and could easily be narced. He grabbed the bottle and placed it inside his BC vest pocket.

  Suddenly, Micko saw a flash of bright yellow fly past him on the right and then another one on his left. Both yellow objects banked sharply and flew past him the way they had come. At depth, things always took several seconds to make sense. Quickly he realized that the two objects were powerful underwater scooters driven by two divers. At first, he only saw the bubbles and turbulence that trailed the motors, but just as it was becoming clear in his head, the nearly invisible wire caught his legs. The scooters were rigged with fishing reels of thin spider wire that were wrapping around him. They had made several passes before Micko realized what was happening.

  He tried to make a mad dash to the submarine, but his legs were hopelessly garroted. He used his hands to pull himself along the sand toward the sub to cut off the scooters’ angle.

  Suddenly, Micko felt himself being jerked upward. The scooters had a good hold on his legs and they pulled him up to the submarine’s conning tower; in a few minutes, he was securely lashed to the highest point of the sub.

  He could hear the faint whine of the scooters’ motors retreating as he contemplated his precarious situation. Stop! Think! Act! This was the mantra that every diver was taught to follow. Never panic or you will die! Micko stopped and calmly slowed his breathing. He thought it was remarkable how clearly he was thinking. The scooters would not come back since they had probably come a long distance from the sport boat, and the divers needed to get added air and deco. He was alone and had to figure things out for himself. He was tied from the legs and the top of his scuba tank. His hands were free, but he couldn’t reach the long knife strapped to his calf because the wire was wound tight around the knife and his legs.

  Micko reached up on the shoulder harness of his BC vest and removed a small knife with a three-inch blade. Unfortunately, the knife was too small to handle the incredible strength of the spider wire. He calmly replaced the useless blade and checked his air supply. The air was good for another five minutes or so. Think, damn it! Think!

  Like a bolt out of the blue, he remembered the surgical scissors inside of his BC vest pocket. He always carried these scissors ever since being snared in spider wire on a wreck off the North Carolina coast years ago. He carefully removed the empty vodka bottle and pulled out the scissors with the e
lastic lanyard. Then he replaced the bottle and began cutting the wire from his legs. It was not an easy task, but he still had plenty of air to spare when his legs were free. The wire had cut up his dive suit pretty good and didn’t spare his flesh.

  Micko tried to cut the wire that was caught above and behind his head on the scuba tank valve. It was impossible. Stop! Think! Act! He needed a new plan, and fast. He was just as snared to the conning tower as he had been when his legs were bound. There was only one recourse. He had to free himself from the BC vest and his air supply in order to leave his underwater prison.

  He looked to the surface; the vertical visibility was incredible. He could actually see the Hummingbird and the deco line hanging over the side. Micko slipped out of his BC vest but kept his regulator in his mouth as he surveyed the tangle of restraining wire. He determined that he would not have enough air to free the BC vest and scuba tank, so he took a deep breath and made an emergency ascent aiming for the life-saving air in the deco line under the boat.

  As an experienced dive master, Micko knew how to make an emergency ascent. He would have to slowly exhale all the air out of his lungs while rising toward the surface. If he rose too quickly with too much air in his lungs, he would die an excruciatingly painful death from an air embolism or lung expansion.

  Micko swam upward to the second stage hanging twenty feet below the Hummingbird. As soon as he got close, he expelled all of the air from his lungs and slowly sucked in the cool mixed gas that would save his life and allow him to hang until his deco was complete.

  ***

  Tanya watched as the twin scooters dove under the Happy Monkey en route to their murderous mission. She’d told the two men to dive deep and follow the ocean floor so they wouldn’t be seen from above or below. Traveling the distance at 180 fsw meant the men would need a long deco time after the job was done. Disco had already set up the deco lines in anticipation of the long hang time. All Tanya had to do was wait—but she didn’t just wait. She had a devious plan of her own.