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Lei Lu planted her butt in the bow of the pristine dive boat. It was either new or Shakespeare was anal about his equipment. She was thankful it had cushions because it was going to take several hours before they reached their destination. It was doubtful they would find anything floating at the coordinates, but at least they could determine the depth and prepare for a dive tomorrow.
As Shakespeare prepared to launch the boat, Nita and Katlin acted as first mates. Lei Lu wasn’t sure where either of them had developed nautical skills, but being born and raised in Utah, she’d rarely had the opportunity to be on a boat as a child. During her training at the Joint All-Female Special Operations School she’d learned to strategically drive a boat while getting her dive instructor qualification, but she was much more comfortable one hundred feet underwater than behind the wheel on top of it. She’d gladly fly Black Swan anywhere, but a little boat in the big ocean with waves and swells, no thank you.
Her screen lit up. Satellite connected. Lei Lu did a mental happy dance, rechecked her calculations, then headed to the cabin. Shakespeare stood in front of the console that reminded her of their high-tech jet. When he touched the two-foot screen with his fingers and expanded the digital view of the bottom, she plummeted into gadget envy. He just might have cooler toys than she did. She thought about the aluminum case secured below and grinned. Nope. She still won.
She seated herself on the only chair. “Shakespeare, in case you’ve forgotten, I’m Lady Kite. Lady Hawk threw our names at you relatively quickly, but I guarantee there won’t be a test at the end of the night. Just yell ‘Hey Lady’ and you’ll get our attention.”
“I remember who each of you are.” Never lifting his gaze on the depth finder, he carefully turned the boat slightly to the right, missing what might have been an outcropping covered in coral.
“Do you want our coordinates now or after we cross the wall?” She could see where the numbers doubled, then tripled, ahead. The wall on this side was extremely steep, quickly dropping thousands of feet.
“After.” He guided the boat around a very shallow area.
Since he didn’t seem very chatty, Lei Lu took a few minutes to watch him in the green glow of the dash lights. His close-cropped hair was nearly white under the ever-present ball cap. This close, she could plainly see the deep-creased fan lines at the corners of his eyes. He must squint a lot. That made her wonder if he wore glasses...or should. His skin was tanned to the point that she couldn’t tell if it was naturally dark or he spent too much time in the sun without proper sunscreen. Age wise, she placed him in his late forties.
Using her training, she pegged him at six feet tall, hovering close to two hundred twenty-five pounds of solid muscle. Although he was wearing a loose-fitting shirt in faded pastels, she didn’t see any love handles bulging over the top of his board shorts. Perhaps all that diving, and handling of gear, kept his physique trim for a man his age. She glanced at his white sideburns and the silver scruff on his face, confident in her assessment.
She hadn’t been able to pull his records, but that would have required his legal name. Shakespeare was all that had been offered by USSOCOM. That was a bit strange, but so was everything about this mission.
Lei Lu felt more than saw him relax as he covered both throttle controls with his big hand and tilted them forward. The powerful engines growled under her feet and the boat increased speed. A single glance at the depth finder confirmed they were in deep water. Very deep. The bottom of the ocean was over seven thousand feet below.
“Now, sweetheart, where are we going?” His bright white smile almost distracted her enough to forget his term of endearment.
Standing, she set her computer on the seat and glared at him. “Look, Shakespeare, let’s get one thing straight, I’m not your sweetheart. Or your darling. Or any other cutesy name you might decide to call me.” She balled her fists on her hips. To her, those names were demeaning and belittling. “You may address me as Lady Kite, Captain—which as you know is my military rank—or you may call me ma’am.”
The cocky bastard had the nerve to grin at her. “Do your lovers call you ma’am?”
Coming from a man she thought was two decades older than her, Lei Lu considered perhaps he was trying to be funny to relate to her youth. Maybe he was just into younger women.
Was she into older men? She never had been before, but possibly that’s why she’d never found the right man. There was just something about him that made her want to flirt. He was so much older than her, he had to be harmless.
She could play the game, just to pass the time. Leaning in close, completely invading his personal space, she raised one eyebrow. “Yes. When I wear my leathers and carry my bullwhip.” She showed him two rows of white teeth. “And only if I allow them to speak.” She wondered if her domme act would send him running in the other direction.
He leaned forward, towering over her. His hungry smile made him look closer to thirty than fifty. “That’s not how we would play out. In the bedroom, I’m always in charge.” His gaze raked over her from the tight bun at the back of her neck to the flight boots on her feet. She felt as though he could see right through the black overalls to the woman she was inside. “But if that’s what it takes to get you off, I’ll tie you up. I’m a sailor. I’m good with knots. We’ll go to my place as soon as we’re done here tonight and I’ll show you just how good I can be.”
She really wasn’t into BDSM at all. She could talk a good game, and pretend to be a ball-busting domme when needed for an op, but when it came to real sex, that wasn’t her scene. Being captured, chained to a pallet or wall by a psychotic terrorist, was her greatest nightmare. Just the thought of someone binding her wrists, holding her down, or restricting her movements in any way, shot cold fear through her veins.
Stepping back, she picked up her computer to cover the light shudder that ran through her. Lei Lu knew she was putting up a wall between them, not just a screen. She was also well aware of sending mixed signals but couldn’t stop herself. “Shakespeare, I don’t fuck around while on a mission. Lives depend on me doing my job and doing it well. I can’t afford any distractions.” To soften the blow, she added with a smile, “You, Mr. Shakespeare, are way too distracting.”
The minute the words left her mouth she realized they were true. Another time, another place, and she would have quickly taken him up on his offer. Maybe it was true that men got better with age.
She glanced through the front window where Katlin and Nita stretched their legs in front of them on the seats, their hair free of the required military style, and blowing in the wind as the boat zipped through the water.
“And if you’re thinking about making a move on any of my teammates, you can just cut off any of those thoughts right now. They all have men waiting for them at home.” She hoped that was enough of a warning for him.
“Yes, ma’am.” He gave her a half grin. “Now, if you’re done castigating me, maybe you’ll tell me where the hell we’re going so we can finish this little nighttime joyride before dawn. I don’t know about you, but I was up prepping this boat before daylight and had completed two dives before supper. I have two more scheduled for tomorrow and would prefer to sleep sometime tonight.”
Feeling like a bitch, wondering if she’d read Shakespeare all wrong, she gave him the coordinates.
After typing in the numbers, he squinted at the chart plotter. “That’s about forty miles away.”
“Yes.” That had been her estimation. Suddenly worried, she asked, “Can this boat make it that far?”
“Fuck, yes.” He sounded insulted.
“Do we need to go back and get more gas?” Now Lei Lu was getting worried.
“No.” He did a slight course correction. “What was it doing all the way over there? That’s quite far out of the commercial flight path. Most American flights avoid Cuba. Where was it coming from?”
“What’s our ETA?” Katlin asked from behind them. Somehow, Lei Lu had missed her team leader moving from her seat in the bow. She’d been wrapped up in flirting with the handsome boat captain.
“You might as well get comfortable,” Shakespeare warned. “It will take us at least two hours to get there, and probably some more time for grid work to pinpoint that little blip.” He pointed toward Lei Lu’s computer.
“I can take over the controls if you’d like to nap,” Katlin offered. “I know this was last-minute for you. It was for us, as well. Fortunately, Lady Eagle and Lady Falcon were able to fly the plane while we slept. I have my Surface Line designation, same as you.”
What? Katlin was withholding information.
“I’m good.” Spear glanced toward her team leader. “It wouldn’t be the first time I pulled an all-nighter looking at deep blue water and stars.”
“I’m not familiar with this part of the Caribbean,” Katlin admitted. “My family has a place on the Atlantic side of Costa Rica but it’s all white sand and gently sloping beaches.” Her gaze went to the twenty-four-inch colorful screen. “It’s fucking deep here. If the plane is that far down, we’ll never reach it in a dive. Do I need to call in a submarine?”
Spears’ glance slid to Katlin before returning to the open ocean. “Are you telling me you could make a call and they’d send a submarine?”
“Of course.” Katlin shrugged. “That’s why we’re here. So, do you think the plane is in deep water?”
“Swee—I mean, Lady Kite,” he gave her a sheepish grin then asked, “let me see that computer again.” After handing it to him, he studied her screen and his own. “I’m hoping we get lucky and it crashed on Mouchoir Banks.”
Lei Lu leaned over and looked at her computer. “I don’t see that island indicated on my map.”
“Because you’re looking at land maps, not a nautical chart.” Shakespeare used his fingers to expand his screen. Suddenly, she could see dozens of numbers. They were depths. “Until we get closer, I can’t be sure. It looks like it’s coming from this area.” He circled his finger over numbers in double digits rather than thousands.
He reduced the picture so it showed approximately two hundred miles. “We’re skimming the outer edges of the Greater Antilles which define the outer edge of the Caribbean.” Pointing, he indicated as he talked. “Off to our port side is the Atlantic Ocean. This area starts the continental shelf for both North and South America. There’s very little between here and Africa except for deep blue water.”
“Deep doesn’t begin to describe it.” Lei Lu leaned in. “The earth underneath the ocean falls off to over a mile almost the entire way. Sometimes it’s closer to two miles.”
“Actually, the Puerto Rico Trench starts less than fifty miles from here and is the deepest spot in the Atlantic Ocean.” Shakespeare widened the view once again and pointed to their location then ran his finger along the ocean side of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. “That area is nearly five miles deep and it’s relatively close to shore.”
Katlin indicated to their destination. “I’m not understanding. Explain it to me, please. What am I looking at here? I don’t see an island.”
“Probably the best way I can describe it is to think of mountains under the ocean, created the same way they are on land, through plate tectonic shift.” He smiled. “Many of the mountains under the ocean are taller than those on land. Islands like Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, and even Bermuda, are actually the top of mountains that have risen out of the depths of the ocean. Most of the Caribbean is on a plateau that drops off right underneath us.”
“Since our compound in Costa Rica is at the far end of that geology, the water isn’t very deep at all.” She giggled. “At least compared to this.” She pointed to a number over eight thousand.
“Exactly.” Shakespeare nodded. “Now, think of Mouchoir Banks as a shorter mountain, one that isn’t tall enough for land to appear above the water. It’s still relatively flat on top, just covered by water. There are three more what you might think of as sunken islands to the southeast of Grand Turk. Being mountains, though, they’re separated by deep valleys, like the one we’re traveling over now.”
They all looked at the numbers on his navigational screen. Most were over five thousand.
“How deep are we looking at over on Mouchoir?” Since Lei Lu was also the dive instructor for the team, she started thinking about tank mixes and the number of rest stops they’d be required to take.
“I’ve mapped most of that area.” With a touch of his finger, the screen jumped, showing a rough outline that resembled an ankle boot. “It can be as shallow as twenty-five feet to about seventy. If it’s near the edge of the wall, we could be talking hundreds of feet. It drops off fucking fast in most places, unlike the area around Grand Turk and the Caicos atoll.”
“So, it’s flat on top, like a sandy beach?” Katlin asked.
“Not hardly.” One side of Spear’s mouth kicked up. “There are hundreds of outcroppings that are barely below the surface. The tide in this part of the world only varies a foot or two, but some of these rocks are only ten feet below the surface. We’re not in any danger in this boat, but the original sailing ships laden with treasure headed back to England and Spain weren’t as fortunate. There are several wrecks in this area. It’s part of the Bermuda Triangle legend.”
Lei Lu loved the thought of diving on a seventeenth century galleon for underwater artifacts. She wondered if Shakespeare was a treasure hunter. “Have you ever found any old ships here?”
“Several. I had a group that spent nearly two weeks diving on Mouchoir Bank. It’s a relatively pristine area. They found three wrecks. There are probably a lot more over on Silver Bank but that’s another forty miles southeast. Too far for me to go, unless I buy a bigger boat.” He went on to explain, “Most people who come to this area want to dive the wall, check out some of the unique coral and fish, and lay on our sandy beaches. You have to be a dedicated diver to want to sit in a boat for two and a half to three hours before you can even get in the water. You’re limited to two dives a day for safety reasons. Then it’s another long ride back to Grand Turk.”
Spear waved his arm around his boat. “I’m not set up for overnighting out here. My galley consists of a cooler filled with water and box sandwiches that I pick up from the deli on my way to the boat. The head is little more than a grinder toilet down in the bow.” He grimaced. “Sorry, I should have pointed that out when we got on board.”
“Thank you. I think I’ll avail myself of the facilities.” Katlin pointed at the three-foot square door under the dash. “Down there?”
“Yep. You can’t miss it.” Spear then added, “light switch is on the right as you head down, but I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t turn it on until after you close the door. It’ll ruin my night vision.”
Katlin unlatched the door and let the dashboard light spill down the steps. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small flashlight. With the click, the steep stairs were bathed in red light.
“Thanks, I appreciate that.” Shakespeare said.
From the bottom of the steps, Katlin grinned at him. “I don’t want to fuck up my night vision either.” She quickly closed the door.
“So, are there lots of wrecks in this area?” Lei Lu hoped the excitement didn’t show through in her voice.
“I’ve only been over to Silver Bank once and we saw four wrecks in one day.” He grinned ear to ear. “We must’ve seen twenty-five cannons. I’ve been told that on the next sunken island over, there are even more.” He shrugged. “Shipwrecks are kinda cool, but it’s very expensive to recover relics. Then you get tangled in a political tug-of-war. These sunken islands are so remote and there are so many dangerous, uncharted rock heads. To me, it’s just not worth the risk.”
Lei Lu shrugged. “So much for that dream.”
Shakespeare chuckled. “Hollywood has sensationalized the idea of deep-sea treasure hunting. They never show the downside.” He lifted his chin toward the bow where Nita slept. “There’s a blanket in that bin if you want to cover up Lady Harrier. She looks sound asleep.”
Opening the panel he’d indicated, she found several blankets in waterproof bags. “Most of us have trained our bodies so we can sleep anytime, anywhere. She’s just happy that she’s here rather than home. Her baby is teething, and she wouldn’t be getting any sleep at all.”
“She left her baby for this mission?” Spear slid her glance. “This plane wreck must be more important than I was led to believe.”
The door at her knees opened and a red light pierced the cabin.
“Lady Kite, why don’t you grab one of those blankets for yourself and catch a quick nap?” Katlin turned her attention to Shakespeare. “We’re still over an hour out, right?”
“At least.” He looked away from the endless black water. “I’ve got this, if you both want to sleep.”
“I’m wide awake now,” Katlin professed. “I’ll wake you before we get there so to give you plenty of time to prep your equipment.”
As though her body was agreeing, Lei Lu yawned. She grabbed a second blanket and within minutes was asleep under the stars.