Rosa narrowed her eyes as if she could see the picture more clearly that way. Alessandro whistled through his teeth.
The boat looked tiny now. It was lying alongside a much larger ship at least ten times its length. The huge vessel was snow white, with complex superstructures, many decks, and several helicopter landing pads.
The next picture came up. The smaller boat beside the gigantic white vessel had disappeared.
“It doesn’t reappear anywhere in this area,” said Campbell. “They must have taken it on board. Including what was hanging beneath the surface from the cable winches. It all seems to have happened very fast. I’d say they were pros—except that even professionals would need some kind of breathing apparatus and diving suits. As it is, I can only say I haven’t the faintest idea who they were. Not the army. And not any treasure hunters that I’ve ever heard of. Experts, for sure—but not from the same planet as mine.”
Still baffled, Alessandro shook his head. “That’s a cruise ship.”
Campbell nodded. His fingers moved nimbly over the keyboard, and he zoomed in on the picture.
The view centered on one of the landing pads, indicated on-screen by a letter H inside a circle. Rosa held her breath.
Something was inscribed on the deck in big black letters, easily visible to pilots flying that way.
Stabat Mater.
REVENGE
“THANASSIS,” she exclaimed.
Alessandro and Professor Campbell looked away from the monitor in surprise. “You know the vessel?” asked the treasure hunter.
“Only by name. It belongs to a Greek shipowner called Thanassis.”
“I thought he was dead,” said Alessandro.
“There were reports in the media a few years back that he was very sick,” replied the professor. “But there was never any official announcement of his death, only all kinds of rumors and assumptions. It’s a fact that he hasn’t been seen in public since.”
“And now he’s developed a taste for underwater archaeology?” asked Rosa. But she was really thinking of something very different. The Dream Room. Danai Thanassis dancing in her hoop skirt, protected by her bodyguards. Her dreamy, almost ecstatic expression.
Campbell shrugged his shoulders. “All we could find out in a hurry was that the Stabat Mater has been sailing between Europe and North America for years. She never seems to stay in any harbor for long, usually just for a few days. Clearly it’s impossible to book a passage on board. Either the cruises are reserved for very exclusive customers, or she crosses the Atlantic as good as empty. A kind of ghost ship.” He grinned, but Rosa didn’t feel like laughing. There was something wraith-like about Danai Thanassis, yes, but she was certainly no ghost.
“Do you think old Thanassis is on board?” asked Alessandro. “And that’s why no one sees him these days?”
“Possibly. We got these photos only yesterday evening, so we’ve hardly had time to research more than the most essential features.”
“The shipowner’s daughter lives on the Stabat Mater,” said Rosa. “I think.”
Alessandro looked at her in surprise. “How do you know all this?”
She searched her mind for a way to evade the question, but then said, straight out, “From Michele.”
He stared at her.
“Let’s talk about it later,” she suggested.
Campbell looked over his shoulder again. “Ruth, did you find out anything about the route after that?”
The woman in overalls shook her head. “No, nothing. Access is barred, even to our contact.”
Alessandro didn’t take his eyes off Rosa. “You talked to Michele?”
“Not now.” Although everything in her urged her to tell him the truth—and ask what he knew about it himself—she was saving all that until they were alone. She was already annoyed with herself for mentioning Thanassis at all.
Clearly Campbell could sense the tension between them. “Looks like we won’t get anything more on the later route of the Stabat Mater. We know that she left the Strait of Messina going southwest, but after that her trail is lost in the open Mediterranean. We can’t find any more satellite pictures of her. Obviously they were all deleted after my contact got us that first series of photos.”
“The Thanassis family has deeper pockets than ours,” said Alessandro. There was unconcealed belligerence in his voice. Rosa had always liked that about him, but at the moment it made her furious. Why did he think he could blame her? Because she’d gone against his wishes by getting in touch with the New York Carnevares? She was the one who’d almost been torn to pieces in Central Park. She didn’t need him playing the role of her