Bane frowned. “We’d be breaking the law. I’m not cool with that. Pete said we could take the minisub down to take a look, but no excavation.” Leia could see from the glower on Ron’s face that he wasn’t happy with that option. “I care about our heritage too, Ron. If there’s a chance a Hawaiian burial site is down there, I’m not going to disturb it.”
Ron slammed his hand against the doorjamb. “There has to be a way! I’m not getting this close to lose it all now.”
“Let me try to talk to Pete again,” Leia offered. “I have a feeling he was just the messenger and wasn’t totally behind this ruling. We just have to be careful.”
“That will take time too. In the meantime, we’re going down there.” Ron set his jaw and went back to his computer. “We’re about ready to dive. Is the minisub in the water?”
“Yeah.” Bane joined him at the monitor. “You see anything?”
“Yeah, I see what she said. It’s as clear as rain once I knew where to look.” Ron’s finger circled the anomaly on the screen. “It’s right here.” He glanced back at Leia. “Good work, Leia. We never would have found it.”
“I don’t think I’m ready to go down again,” Leia said. She clasped her hands on her forearms.
“We don’t expect you to,” Ron said with an airy wave of his hand. “The sub only holds two men. Bane and I will take a look to see how we can best handle the excavation. It’s too late to do much work right now.”
Bane shot her a quick look. “We can only look, Ron. No excavation without permission. We’re not going to break the law.” Ron grunted but didn’t answer.
“I’ll get dressed and go see Pete after you’re back up,” Leia said. “It can’t hurt to try again.” She saw the displeasure on Bane’s face. She tilted her chin up and stared him down. He had no claims on her.
Bane barely registered the hiss of air above his head, but his tongue noticed the stale, canned taste of it. He maneuvered the controls of the minisub and peered through the window at the surreal world outside. The dying light barely penetrated at this depth, but the bright headlamps of the sub picked out the details: an octopus uncoiled its arms from a rock and zoomed away in a spray of ink, a puffer fish peered in the window at them then lumbered away, and a hammerhead shark cruised its terrain.
Ron fiddled with his screen settings, and the picture from the camera mounted outside zoomed into focus. Bane was too busy handling the sub to see what the camera was picking up, but he heard Ron whistle. “What is it?” he asked.
Ron jabbed a finger at the screen. “There she is!”
Bane saw it then and caught his breath. A Spanish galleon, the stuff of dreams and legends. Coral encased her, but it only showed more clearly the shape of her bow, and the way her masts had bro-ken and fallen as she’d sunk. God was good to let him see this in his lifetime.
Ron leaned closer to the screen and studied the image. “Can you deploy the shovel?”
“No excavation, Ron.”
“Get out of the way.” Ron shouldered him aside. He fiddled with the controls, and the mechanical shovel extended from the sub. It had five claws to take samples of the seabed and was about a foot wide. He maneuvered it to the man-made reef and then plunged it through lobe coral and into the dirt.
“Careful! We don’t want to harm the galleon or the coral. I think you should stop. This is stupid.” When Ron didn’t answer, Bane leaned forward and watched the claw pick up some samples. Ron retracted the arm and deposited the sample in the hold, then got the equipment into place again for another go. He moved the claw back and forth for nearly an hour, picking up samples from all over the reef. More and more night predators began to come out: sharks, barracuda, squid, moray eels. The water was alive with hungry marine life looking for prey. At least he was inside, away from the daily cycle of life and death playing out in front of him.
Ron stood and stretched. “That’s enough for now. I’m eager to see what we’ve got. Let’s surface and take a look.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Bane adjusted the controls, and the sub began to rise. An inquisitive tiger shark followed the sub as it surfaced. The sub bobbed to the top of the waves about fifty feet from the ship. A few minutes later, they heard the clang of the winch retrieving the sub, then they rose alongside the boat. Moments later, a crewman rapped on the window, and Bane released the pres-sure and opened the door. The fresh air tasted great.
Leia and Kaia were waiting outside. Leia had a bottle of water for each of them in her hands. She handed it to them as they stepped onto the deck. “I’m usually parched after a ride in that dry air.”
“Mahalo.” Bane accepted the water and uncapped it, then took a long swig. The cold, wet liquid soothed his dry throat.
“Did you find it?” Leia’s voice was a little too casual.
“You weren’t narced as badly as we thought. We found what you did. You found it. Ron got some samples.” Her smile beamed, and he looked away, nodding toward the men unloading the cargo from the vessel. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”
“It’s nearly eight o’clock. Aren’t you hungry?” Kaia demanded. “I’m starved.”