the San Rafael disappeared, leaving only kelp, rocks and the darkness of shadow.
Jordan didn’t know how long he remained unmoving, enthralled, before Aurora tapped his shoulder and pointed up. Stunned, he checked his watch and air gauge, not believing the amount of time that had passed. Already his air supply registered almost half-empty; they’d been below over thirty minutes, with the return trip still ahead of them. Under Aurora’s watchful eyes, he reversed position, and both made their way up the tether.
Almost twenty minutes later, they cleared the surface. Aurora, as dive master and therefore last one out of the water, inflated her B.C. to act as a life jacket while waiting for Jordan to exit. He took off his mask and fins, threw them into the boat, then climbed up on the diving platform. He removed his tanks and handed them to the waiting Donna. Aurora removed her tanks in the water. Like many women, she lacked upper-body bulk and couldn’t climb out of a boat with the weight of air tanks on her back. Jordan grabbed them from her, lifted them over the rail, then reached for her outstretched hands.
He pulled her straight up out of the water, over the side and down. Her feet didn’t touch the side of the boat before resting on the deck.
“Hey, cowboy, I know you’re excited, but easy on the ride,” Aurora said, Jordan’s hands still on her wrists.
“How did you find it?” Jordan demanded. He released her to pull off his hood and toss it into the netted, open storage area.
“The ship was there? You actually saw it?” Donna asked.
“Told you so.” Aurora’s smug response matched the triumph in her eyes.
“How did you find it?” Jordan repeated.
“The Big Guy told me.”
“Huh?”
“I should say Mission San Diego, San Diego’s first church, did. You were right, Jordan, to want to research those records. But I beat you to them.”
San Diego Harbor
Late afternoon
THE STOWED SCUBA GEAR dried in the open air as Neil piloted the Dealer Ship back into San Diego Harbor, Donna on the flying bridge at his side. The two divers had rinsed and dried, changed into their regular clothing and stood on the main deck. With a captain’s eye, Jordan noted that the incoming harbor traffic was even heavier than the morning’s. Only the larger commercial ships and military vessels with radar stayed at sea after sunset.
Donna stayed with Neil on the flying bridge. At the railing, Jordan and Aurora watched San Diego’s shoreline slowly light up. Once again, Aurora had proved herself one step ahead of him in the search for the San Rafael. He felt annoyance mixed with gratitude over her capabilities—tinged by more than a little worry.
“If you could find the San Rafael through old Mission records, so could anyone else,” he said quietly.
She turned to face him, the sun-streaked blond hair blowing into a tangled cloud about her face. “I know. That’s why I was a little careless when I, uh...refiled the documentation. Somehow, some of it ended up under O and W instead of S in the archives. And I shuffled and layered the pages, as well.”
“O and W?”
“Oops and whoops.” She grinned. “Terrible of me, I know. I didn’t sign the museum registry with my own name, either. I used my mother’s first and maiden names. I’d rather have taken the paperwork itself, but I couldn’t justify stealing.”
“As long as we can keep the location of the San Rafael secret...” A sudden thought occurred to him, and the amusement of the moment faded.
“What?”
“Maybe those men on the pier weren’t after me, Aurora. Maybe they were after you and your salvage rights, and I got in the way.”
Aurora’s face blanched. “I told you before—no one knows the location. And no one knew of my visit to the Mission except my sister and Tanya. They’re in jail. They wouldn’t—couldn’t—have told anyone.”
“Glad to hear it. Nonetheless, your little delaying tactic with the files might just keep us—” alive “—one step ahead of the competition.” Jordan studied her in the growing darkness as the Dealer Ship slowly motored toward their slip area. “First thing tomorrow, we go—”
“To the Mission so you can check out the archives?”
“No,” he said. “Tomorrow we go to Mexico to check on your family.”
Aurora blinked in surprise. “You and me? Why?”
“Two reasons. We need to see if anyone’s tracked them down to talk to them about this, and we need to know if there’s anything else that can be done for them—legally and aboveboard. Their