The Vision

“Oh. Um. Right,” Bethany murmured.

“Do you want coffee?” Genevieve asked quickly, changing the subject.

“Sure, thanks.”

Bethany plopped down on the futon, where Thor joined her. “You still on for tonight?” she asked.

Genevieve nearly spilled the coffee.

“Yeah, why not?” he asked.

“Barhopping,” Bethany told Genevieve. “We’re all going.”

“Should we be barhopping?” Genevieve asked.

“We don’t have to drink at every bar. But Thor, Lizzie and Zach haven’t spent much time here. We’re going to show them the must-do tourist places and then our own favorites. Hey, we’re always in by four o’clock. We can shower, eat somewhere cool, show them a few spots and be back by eleven-thirty. Marshall’s coming, and Thor’s the boss of his team, so…” She shrugged. “It’ll be great.”

“I’m not so sure,” Genevieve murmured.

“When did you suddenly turn into such a stick?” Bethany demanded.

“Here. Take your coffee. Entertain yourselves. I’m going to shower,” Genevieve said.

“You’re going to shower—to go diving?” Bethany asked.

“Yeah. I want fresh seaweed in my hair,” she said, and left the two of them together on her futon. She walked into the bathroom and closed and locked the door. She stared at her reflection in the mirror again. She realized she was deeply irritated and didn’t know why.

She also didn’t want them to leave.

Determined not to dwell on the situation, she hopped into the shower, washed her hair, then hopped out. Her suit from the day before was on the rack, and she slipped back into it, then found shorts and a denim shirt, and slipped them on over the suit. When she emerged, the two were still talking.

“It was weird. I thought it was coming from here, too,” Bethany was saying.

“What are you talking about?” Genevieve asked sharply.

“Weird noises.” Bethany laughed. “If I didn’t know you better, I’d have said you were cooking!”

“You heard noises, too?” Genevieve demanded.

“Yeah, a real racket. I don’t usually get up way before I need to—especially when I’m hoping to have some energy left at night,” Bethany told her. “What were you doing?”

“Nothing. I was swimming, remember?” Genevieve said curtly. It was enough to make her nuts. She saw a body, no one else did. Thor heard noises, so did everyone else.

She felt a disturbing, creeping sensation along her spine. How much did that matter when she had awakened wet with seawater? And she didn’t remember a thing about leaving her cottage.

“They’ve probably got the tiki bar open by now. I’m hungry,” she said.

Thor and Bethany rose at her obvious suggestion that they all leave. He headed off to the cottage next door, waving a hand behind him. “See you in a few minutes.”

Bethany stared after him. “Cool,” she murmured.

“Yeah, he’s just great.”

Bethany looked at her in surprise. “What’s the matter? He’s got a great reputation.” She giggled. “And damned good buns, too. And pecs. And biceps. And those eyes…”

“Bethany…”

“What?”

“Go for it.”

“Oh, no. I’m not flirting with him or anything. He never fools around on a job.”

“Who the hell told you that?”

“I read it. There was a magazine article on him not long ago. He’s the kind who’s married to his work. He grew up on the wrong side of town. Father walked out on his mother, she wound up dying of a heart attack at forty, trying to raise the kids on her own. He just doesn’t want a family, I guess.”

“How noble,” Genevieve muttered.

“What is the matter with you? I’d think you’d want to work with someone who wasn’t hitting on you all the time. Everything with him is all business. Though I guess he’s been a little hard on you over the…what you thought you saw in the water.”

“A little hard? He thinks I’m certifiable.”

Bethany giggled, sobered quickly and apologized. “Genevieve…we’ve all seen what we haven’t really seen in the water at some time.”

Yes, but have we all awoken soaked in seawater, with seaweed in our beds? she nearly asked aloud.

“Let’s get something to eat. We have to make the first discovery. And we have to make it today,” she said, catching her friend’s arm and urging her toward the tiki bar.

Thor knew the history; he never went into anything without studying every shred of information about the project. Still, for some reason—perhaps to enforce the part about avoiding destruction of the reef in any way—they were seated on and around the picnic tables and benches by the docks, listening to what they knew already.

If ever a man had looked like he should be a professor of history, it was Henry Sheridan. He wore the kind of glasses that had Coke-bottle lenses, black frames, and, sure enough, he must have broken them, because they were held together between the eyes by a Band-Aid. His hair—a combination of mousy-brown and gray—stuck up in tufts from his head, without benefit of mousse. His face was very thin, ascetic, and his form was equally meager. Thor had the feeling the man seldom thought about eating, so lost was he on some intellectual plane.

Coast Guard Lieutenant Larry Preston was the antithesis of Sheridan. He was big, tall and hardy. He could swim and dive with the best of them, and though his job was to see that they followed the dictates of the state, Thor was pretty sure that history itself bored him. Preston liked action. He was wearing sunglasses and a uniform hat, along with his white shorts and shirt, and beneath those glasses, Thor had a feeling the man was keeping his eyes closed.

To the credit of the divers from both boats, they were at least putting on the pretense of rapt attention.

“As you all know, I’m certain, we estimate that there are at least two thousand undiscovered wrecks in the waters around the state. But the sea is harsh. Ships don’t usually sink intact. Winds and rains crack masts, and timbers split. On the way down, ships are at the mercy of tides and currents and their own weight and construction. Sometimes small vessels fare better, but huge ships—even broken up—can be an easier find. A ship such as the Marie Josephine might have left a field of discovery a mile long. She was brutalized by pirates in the midst of a storm. It’s more than likely her remains are in far more than two or three pieces. Despite that, and as you’re aware, we’re not going in with any vacuuming devices. Especially since we’re working on nothing more than speculation right now. It’s likely that, should you succeed in finding the ship’s resting place, you’ll begin to find small relics. Coins, of course. Pottery, porcelain. Last year, as Thor can tell you, we unearthed a Civil War barge in the St. Johns river because an 1860s razor was found. By Thor.” Sheridan nodded his way in acknowledgment. Lizzie applauded, and Alex Mathews let out an appreciative whistle.

“Cool,” Bethany murmured, offering him her generous smile.

Thor felt restless, anxious to be out on the water. He found himself studying Genevieve Wallace, who was staring straight ahead at Sheridan, her face betraying not so much as a flicker of emotion. The woman was fucking weird. She walked out in a nightshirt and jumped into the water?

While all kinds of noises were coming from her cottage?

“Raccoons,” he heard someone whisper.

Victor Damon was leaning casually against the edge of the next table over. He wasn’t listening at the moment; he was grinning as he looked at Bethany.

“Excuse me?” Lieutenant Preston snapped.

“Sorry, sir,” Victor said. “Bethany heard some kind of commotion last night. She forgets just how many cats and raccoons we have around here.”

“Well, they won’t be under the water!” Preston reminded him.

“Right, sir, absolutely not,” Victor agreed.

Sheridan cleared his throat. “I think it’s important that you all understand the full history of this wreck. The Spanish settled Florida in the early 1500s—St. Augustine is the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in the United States. The English got nervous about the Spanish being so close, and the French were trying to get a piece of the action, too. In 1763, Britain gained control of Florida in exchange for Cuba. Then came the Revolutionary War, and Florida remained loyal to the mother country. In 1784, the Spanish gained control again as part of the peace treaty that ended the American Revolution, but in 1821 they ceded Florida to the United States.”

Alex yawned. He caught the others staring at him and sat up straight.

“Hey, sorry, but I grew up here. I learned all this stuff in school,” he said.

“Yeah, but were you listening then?” Victor asked.

“This is important,” Sheridan said impatiently. “It explains why our ship is where it is. During the American Revolution, the French helped the U.S. Unofficially, the Spanish helped the French give us help. Before he was a pirate, José Gasparilla was in the Royal Spanish Navy. He knew these waters from his military experience, and he continued his career as a pirate until he died in 1821. Rumor has it that before his ship could be taken, he cast himself overboard with weights tied to his feet—one of his favorite ways to do away with prisoners. But shortly before his death, he heard of the Marie Josephine.” He paused dramatically.

“An English ship, despite her name,” Genevieve said into his silence.

“Yes, and Gasparilla was loyal to Spain. Unless, of course, there was a good Spanish ship to be attacked.” He laughed, then continued. “At any rate, he heard that the Marie Josephine was nearby, having taken a late exchange of prisoners to Cuba, and heading back to jolly old England laden with the ransom that had been paid,” Sheridan said.

“He probably felt he had a right to steal it,” Marshall said with a shrug.

“Exactly!” Sheridan agreed.

Thor was startled when Genevieve disagreed. “I don’t think that was it at all. Gasparilla had fallen in love with the captain’s daughter, Anne, who had managed to travel with her father and the prisoners to Cuba, because she wanted to be with a young Spanish nobleman they were exchanging. He and Anne had both been Gasparilla’s prisoners previously—that’s how they’d met—and had been ransomed together by the English, who then made the young Spaniard, Aldo Verdugo, their own prisoner. Rumor has it that Anne tricked her father and managed to become a passenger on the ship once again to remain with Aldo. And Aldo, who should have been safely in Cuba, had stowed away on the ship so he could remain with his beloved Anne. Gasparilla, however, had also fallen in love with Anne when she was his prisoner. He had returned her to the English because of the ransom, and his fellow pirates wanted the money. He, however, wanted her back. That’s why he went after the Marie Josephine.”

Alex snorted. “Gen, that’s nuts. Let’s see…all that ransom money—in gold—or a woman. Come on! Women would have been a dime a dozen to a pirate.”

Genevieve waved a hand in the air dismissively. “He wrote letters about his love for her,” she claimed.

“Where are these letters?” Sheridan demanded, frowning.

“Your university,” Genevieve said. Everyone was staring at her. “Hey, I made a trip up and studied everything in the library about the Marie Josephine, Gasparilla, the storm, everything. I was cross-referencing, and that’s when I found the letters.”

“Come on, you can’t put a romantic spin on pirates,” Victor teased her. “They were dirty, nasty thieves.”

“You should have read the letters,” Genevieve said. “Even a nasty, dirty pirate can fall in love.”

“He could have had tons of women,” Victor insisted.

“Yes, but she was the one he wanted. Who knows why someone falls in love. Or maybe it was only an infatuation. The one he couldn’t have. Anyway, he wrote about her in those letters, and he said he was in love.”

“Leave it to a girl,” Victor countered, rolling his eyes and sighing.

Genevieve laughed. “Leave it to a girl to beat the pants off you,” she countered lightly.

Thor sensed camaraderie in their teasing. It was apparent this group knew one another well, that there was a deep underlying friendship between them. He realized that he envied it. He had a damned good crew, but they didn’t always work together. Zach and Lizzie were totally reliable, but they were too close as a married couple to bond with anyone the way Marshall’s people were bonded, even when they were teasing and testing one another. He’d thought he liked it when business was business, but there was something approachiing an actual family relationship between Marshall’s divers, and it not only appeared to be fun, it clearly worked.

“Hey, baby, please don’t beat me up,” Victor said in mock fear. “Hey, Alex, watch out. Our Gen is tough.” He paused, grinning and sliding closer to her on the bench to set an arm around her shoulders. “Except, of course, when she’s seeing things in the water.”

Genevieve shook off his arm and smiled sweetly in return. “Eat shit and die, Victor.”

“Hey, hey! Knock it off, all of you. This is serious business,” Marshall said.

“Hey, I meant it,” Victor protested innocently. “She’s the best. Ouch, Gen! That wasn’t nice.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she said, staring at him sharply with those mercurial eyes that could so easily light with laughter, then narrow on a dare. “I did my homework.”

“Of course. Obviously…I haven’t read everything in our archives,” Sheridan said. Thor had the feeling the man would be finding the letters immediately on his return to the university.

“If Gen says they’re there, they’re there,” Victor said, suddenly dead serious.

“Come on,” Marshall said wearily. “It doesn’t matter why Gasparilla attacked the ship, only that he did. And right as he was savaging her, a storm came through. Gasparilla got away, but the Marie Josephine went down. He purportedly came back to find the treasure, but the storm had shifted the sands and he couldn’t find her, so the ship remains at the bottom of the sea with her complete treasure, or so we imagine.”

“Yes, well, that’s about it,” Sheridan said, sounding somewhat huffy. He’d always been a nice-enough guy, if a little geeky, but it was obvious he hadn’t liked being shown up by a diver. “The letters I do know about were left by one of his men, and from his descriptions of their position while awaiting the Marie Josephine, and calculating the currents, the effects of the storm and the natural shifting due to time, I firmly believe I have you exactly in the right area. But you need to find proof positive of the ship’s final resting ground before we allow any disturbance of the reef.”

“How many times do you think we’ll have to listen to this speech?” someone murmured softly. Thor looked around. Jack Payne was shaking his head.

“As many times as Professor Sheridan wants to give it,” Marshall said, staring at them. “We’re being paid by the state,” he reminded them. “Money raised mainly by the efforts of Professor Sheridan.”

Thor leaned forward to speak at last. “We took more than simple pirate history into account while plotting our coordinates. When the ship sank, remember, half of what is land today wasn’t then. The area has been dredged, filled in, blown away and literally remade by the army, the navy—and Henry Flagler. When he was building his railroad, they didn’t have a place for a depot, so he told them to make one. All that has been taken into account, along with weather charts and the tidal phenomena over the years. One of the main points we need to remember is that our ship’s probably broken into many pieces, most of them entirely unrecognizable without careful scrutiny. And she’s probably spread out over a wide expanse of ocean floor.”

He was pleased to see that he’d captured their full attention. And they remained riveted when Sheridan spoke again.

“And the state will take full possession of the find, with each of you receiving a percentage,” he reminded them.

Marshall rose suddenly, arching a brow to Thor. He nodded, knowing what Marshall was about to say. Sheridan had advised them both of the plan. For some reason the man seemed very wary of the divers he had chosen. He wanted the two crews mixed up, so there wouldn’t be any chance of one group hiding anything from the other. Sheridan was not a trusting soul. The names had been mixed in an old bait bucket last night, to be drawn at random this morning, before the meeting.

“We’re mixing up the crews today. We’ve done it by lot, so there’s no complaining—there shouldn’t be complaining, anyway. We’re all in this together. So forget your old buddy system, because you’re getting new buddies. Here’s the roster for today. Bethany, you’re with Zach. Vic, you’re with Lizzie, and I’ll be the man on deck. Alex, you’re teaming up with Jack Payne, and, Gen, you’re with Thor. Preston will be staying topside.”

He was going to be working with Genevieve?

That was something Thor hadn’t known. Great. Just great.

Well, at least he could quickly dispel the notion that she was seeing dead people smiling at her in the water.

“We’re retracing ground we’ve been over where the sonar has indicated there is metal somewhere beneath the water. We may find a lost diving watch from last weekend, but hey, we’re looking for a needle in a haystack, so…everyone ready?” Marshall asked.

If he was unhappy, it certainly didn’t seem Genevieve Wallace was thrilled with the arrangements for the day, either, Thor noticed.

But as they walked, heading out for the boats, Jack Payne slipped an arm around her shoulders. “Should I grab that equipment bag for you?” he offered.

“Jack, I’ve been hauling my own gear forever, you know that,” she said, but she smiled at him as she picked up her own bag and they all made their way down to the docks.

So he was partnered up with her, Thor thought.

He still felt the uneasy sensation of waking to the strange noises, then seeing her, soaked, salty and wearing seaweed in her hair.

She was a wild card, no doubt about it.

So why the hell was he so damned fascinated with her?

On shore, fine.

In the water?

He shook his head.

It was going to be one hell of a day.

4

Neither Genevieve nor Alex had been on The Seeker before, and Thor couldn’t help a moment’s pride when he watched them survey his boat. She was nice, with a great cabin, powerful motors and a large dive platform, allowing for easy exits and access.

He took the helm himself as they headed out. Lieutenant Preston was at his side. “Sheridan’s a jerk,” he said above the roar of the motor.

Thor shrugged. “He’s all right. He’s just really passionate about history, I guess.”

Preston snorted. “Yeah, but did you see his face when Genevieve knew something he didn’t? Thought he was about to have a stroke. I guarantee you he’s on the phone right now to some grad student, reaming them out for missing a cross-reference.”

Thor shrugged. “Hey, finding the ship is the important thing, right?”

“Man, she’s nice,” Preston murmured then, studying the console. “There a second helm in the cabin?”

“Yep.”

“Radar, sonar, GPS…she all but drives herself, huh?”

Thor turned, aware they were no longer alone. Genevieve was standing behind him, wearing her wet suit. Beyond her, the other divers had already attached their buoyancy control vests to their tanks, and tested their regulators and air, ready for the water when they reached the reef.

Gen had a touch of challenge in her manner. “Great boat,” she told him seriously. “I’m really going to enjoy it.”

He had to smile, then glanced down at his instruments to hide his pride. Marshall was leading at the moment, and in fifteen minutes, they would be dropping anchor and tossing out their dive flags.

“You’re point man,” Thor said to Preston, who nodded. Thor headed back to don his own gear. One of his fellow divers had already taken care of his BCV and his tank. Nevertheless, he checked out his regulator and air, along with the security of his tank.

“Don’t trust me, eh?” she said softly, next to him, sliding down on the seat to secure her vest.

“Never trust anyone when you’re getting into the water,” he said.

“Don’t worry. I don’t. But if you’re with any of us, that’s all you have to do. Final checks. We take care of each other.”

He felt his teeth grate. Was she suggesting that he’d never dived with anyone trustworthy before?

She stood, balancing perfectly with the weight of her tank. Preston hurried up behind her, but she was already moving. “Hey, we’re partners!” Thor called after her.

She waved. “I’ll be hanging at the surface. Waiting. Take your time,” she added sweetly.

Sweet? Like hell.

He was quickly ready, stepping off the dive platform to land beside her in the water before sinking slowly.

Ten feet away, Jack and Alex gestured, indicating their parallel paths.

Thor believed strongly in the methods they’d used to determine the location for this search, but down here now, their depth a little over fifty feet, he wasn’t at all certain they would make a discovery. They were a little west and south of the customary beaten dive areas, but they might as well have been pleasure divers off any tour boat. The reefs were majestic here, dangerous for anyone who didn’t know the path to navigate through them—or forced onto them in the midst of a roaring storm. There were areas where the coral outcrop—with its rich abundance of life—gave way suddenly to greater depths, and then fan coral would suddenly shoot sharply toward the surface. The colors seemed brilliant today. Purple fans, then a riot of fire coral. Blue-and-yellow tangs. Clown fish. A huge grouper…a lone barracuda. Something seemed to glisten in the sand deep below, and he propelled himself past the coral and downward.

The object was covered in sand. He dug, adrenaline racing through him. His fingers curled around the object, and disappointment washed through him. There was nowhere near enough sea growth on the object for it to have been in the water any length of time.

He had found someone’s lost dive knife. A nice one, actually. But definitely new.

He looked back, ready to let his dive buddy know it was nothing. She was right behind him, as ever, perfectly still and buoyant. She nodded her understanding.

He swam on.

No! Good God, no.

She was there. Thor was just ahead, but she was there. The woman with the long blond hair.

I don’t see you! Genevieve raged inwardly.

The woman’s head rose. The woman smiled with poignant, aching sweetness.

She was a ghost, Gen told herself. She wasn’t there. But she was. She reached out…but didn’t touch Genevieve. Then it seemed that a ghost of a ghost, an image of the woman but even paler still, rose from the creature weighted to the bottom. Rose…and pointed.

Thor looked back. Genevieve tried to stare back with perfect calm. She pointed.

Apparently he saw nothing. He frowned and looked in the direction of the woman, then swam toward the area bordering the coral where Gen indicated. He stopped just to the side of the ghost and gently began to sift through the sand.

So she was insane.

But the ghost’s specter or aura or whatever was pointing, as well. Genevieve forced herself to breathe, listening to the lulling sound of her regulator. Okay, she was crazy. But the ghost wanted her to go in a certain direction.

She went.

Nothing. Nothing at all. Sand, without a hint that something might be lying beneath it. He looked back again. His partner was moving. She looked back at him and indicated that he should follow her.

She had the strangest expression on her face.

Shit! The woman was seeing things again. He was sure of it.

He waved, determined to get her attention, to snap her out of whatever strange hallucination had seized her. He had no idea where she was going, or why.

She nodded to acknowledge him but ignored his signal, indicating that they should circle around the coral outcrop rather than move on.