Zev pumped his fist, locking eyes with Carly, who had tears in hers. Ford and Randi cheered and hugged, pulling Carly into their celebration as Zev listened to Jeremy talk about legalities and next steps. Zev told him about their dive and his hopes that they’d find something significant that tied to the Pride. “I’ll see you Monday morning, and, Jeremy, thank you again for everything.”
When he ended the call, Carly leapt into his arms. “You did it!” She kissed him and said, “You gained the rights to whatever is down there, which we both know is from the Pride. You made our childhood dreams come true. I love you, Captain Zev!”
Ford was arguing with Randi about something and stopped midsentence to say, “Does that name carry into the bedroom?”
Zev glowered at him as he set Carly on her feet, but they all cracked up. As they talked over one another, their voices escalating with excitement, the full weight of it all hit Zev. The vessel was his, and there was something big down there just waiting to be unearthed. He looked at Carly, bouncing on her toes, smiling brighter than the sun as she described to Randi what it had been like to see the LED illuminate on the magnetometer. When Ford began telling Randi that he and Zev had saved Carly from a great white shark, Carly’s eyes found Zev’s. She might not have been there for the first discovery, but she was here now, celebrating the part that mattered most. He’d worried about Carly being overwhelmed by the dive, but he’d never expected to be the one who would become swamped with too much emotion to think straight.
He strode across the deck, reaching for her hand. “Excuse me,” he said, pulling her away from the others and into his embrace. He held her tight, their wet suits still hanging off their hips, and said, “God, baby. We did it. We really did it. The Pride is ours.”
“You did it!”
“No. You’ve always been with me.” He gazed into her eyes and said, “You’re my lucky charm, Carls.” He lowered his lips to hers, wishing he could kiss her for hours.
“Hey, smoochers,” Ford interrupted, waving his phone at them. “Remember-when picture?”
“Oh, man, you’re an ass,” Zev teased, and hauled Ford and Randi into a picture. They took several, and then they stripped off their wet suits and switched into work mode.
Zev grabbed a pad and pen while the others took care of the equipment and talked about what the magnetometer might have picked up. He sat down and said, “All right, guys, let’s focus. We need to get our arms around our plans for next week. Then Ford and Randi can dive, and later we’ll take the coins to the vault, shower, change, and meet at Rock Bottom for a celebration dinner.”
They all cheered.
“We’ve got a lot of plans to make for next week. I’m meeting Jeremy Monday morning in Boston to finalize all the paperwork. We’ll need extra hands to do this quickly. Ford, you want to see if Cliff and Tanner are available?” Cliff and Tanner were two divers Zev trusted and had worked with a number of times. Zev would have them sign nondisclosure agreements to ensure the dive location and other details would be kept confidential, but they knew the routine.
“I’m on it,” Ford said.
“Randi, is Brant around? I want to put him on standby with the crane.” Brant was Randi’s oldest brother. He was a shipwright, and he owned a marine equipment company and a host of fishing boats.
“Yeah, he’s around. I’ll let him know,” Randi said.
“Great. Whatever pinged the system spans at least ten or twelve feet in length, and it isn’t far beneath the surface. We’ll see if we can get to it with the dredge engine and pump. Wait until you use that equipment, Carly. It moves six hundred gallons of water a minute and sucks the sediment like a vacuum cleaner, blowing it out onto a twelve-foot floating screen deck covered in fine mesh, so we can sift through the debris without losing any artifacts.”
He was talking fast, and Carly was crouched beside an oxygen tank, looking at him forlornly. Reality hit him like a slap to the face.
This wasn’t their real life. This was a trip, a jaunt into his life. Carly wouldn’t get her hands on that equipment or him next week. She’d be two thousand miles away, handling crowds at the festival.