The rest of the boat was compact and well-designed. The lower deck had a central passageway running the entire length of the superstructure with a number of tiny cabins off it, each with bunk beds and a private bathroom. The deck above this was all one spacious galley, easily big enough to seat all the extremely wealthy patrons Colter took on his treasure-hunting trips. At the rear of this space, Aleksey discovered, was the door leading out to the small sundeck and the hydrosphere. Above this central galley was the bridge, which they had yet to be shown. On one wall in this comfortably fitted-out area for relaxation, where they had gathered for coffee, were pictures of some of the expeditionsRogue Wavehad undertaken since its commissioning. It seemed to Aleksey, studying these, that there was a great deal more seeking than discovering going on, which was fair, he supposed. After all, he assumed people who climbed mountains didn’t do it just to get to the top. He made a mental note to confirm this with someone who was dumb enough to do such things. His personal moron was back with Tim in the cottage in the woods, finishing putting Enid’s things in storage while Miles was away. None of them knew what was best for the boy, but Tim had insisted that living as if his grandmother was still there and about to speak any moment from her chair probably wouldn’t be ideal. He smiled as he recalled their parting. Obviously, the annoying one couldn’t order him to do anything—Michael Heathcote, aka Michael Staveley-Bathurst, worked for him, not the other way around—but there had been many imprecations muttered for his future health and wellbeing should either he or Ben continue the hunt without the family idiot in tow. He’d agreed: these two days were for Miles. The treasure could wait.
Listening with half an ear now as he studied the pictures, he couldn’t help but smile at an unexpected and unlikely helpmate to the entire family’s aim to keep the boy’s mind distracted from the sad events in Devon. Entirely unforeseen by him, Jerome Barthrop was also going to be part of this little pre-expedition, and the museum director seemed to have found a fan. Possibly his first ever. He’d been in the galley when they’d entered. When introductions had been made, he’d explained dryly in his irritating and pedantic way that any placing of anything had to be done under his auspices and that he was solely responsible for everything to do with the county of Cornwall within his role as English… Aleksey had actively tuned him out after this, but at the end of the speech, Miles, reluctantly removing his rucksack so he could sit down, had declared, clearly impressed, ‘Gosh. You do have an interesting job. It’s terribly important, isn’t it, to catalogue things correctly.’
Aleksey, turning away to cover his snort with a cough, had caught Colter smiling with amused fondness. Eliam had even lightly tapped the boy’s shoulder and urged, ‘Okay then, Miles, let’s see this wondrous device of yours, and you can take your first reading, andthenyou and Mr Barthrop can start a catalogue together.’ He’d looked slowly up then and had actually had the nerve to wink athim, but even more astonishing than discovering the man appeared to have a heart and to hold no particular grudge against his family, Aleksey realised that this man was knowingly assisting Emilia and Mark with their plan to cheer Miles up.
Once the young professor arrived, they set off. Much to Aleksey’s annoyance, as all things in his life seemed to be weirdly connected, they headed to Benhar. This coincidence may have been simply that it was one of the closest islands to St Mary’s and had very shallow waters—hence a causeway—but it seemed to him that he was being admonished for his refusal to help Phillipa. As they anchored off the western shore of the rocky headland, he was able to picture more clearly the wind turbines which might soon cover the place. He felt Ben come to stand beside him and wanted to kiss him, but he just studied the tanned, corded arms, admiring Ben’s beautiful watch. Ben swung his hip closer and nudged him.
‘Come on. We’re going down.’
As this fairly closely mirrored what he’d just been thinking, but in another context, Aleksey pushed himself from the rail with a private smirk and followed Ben through the galley to where everyone was gathered on the little upper deck above the hydrosphere. Once more, Ben went first. Miles made his way slowly and carefully to the open hatch and descended after him. Aleksey followed the boy, and soon the three of them were standing like specimens in a bell jar once more. Now inside, this analogy wasn’t quite so entertaining.
He looked up when he heard Colter closing the hatch. It settled into place with a hard clang, and they felt the device shudder slightly before the chamber began to lower into the water. They were standing on a small walkway around the inside of the seating platform, and there was a drop below this down to the floor, which Aleksey could now see was made of glass segments. They came to a halt with another tiny shudder. Then as they watched, these transparent petals, like an aperture in a camera lens, slid apart, leaving them staring down at open water. None of them focused for long on this technical wonder, however, because as they’d lowered, powerful lights on the exterior of the glass capsule had come on.
All eyes rose to the display in front of them.
The arc lights pushed beams of illumination into the waters around them, lighting up the pale sandy seabed, catching motes of grit or debris as they floated and twirled, turning them into specks of stardust. Looking up, the water turned from inky-navy through an entire spectrum of blues and greens, ending at the surface in dazzling, shifting fractals of glittering kaleidoscopic patterns.
Ben put his finger on the glass and whispered in an awed voice, ‘Unbelievable.Thisis a portal. You step into it in one world but emerge into another.’ Aleksey, standing alongside him, hand loosely on Miles’s shoulder, nodded. It wasexactlythat experience. Although diving took him into this unseen realm, the very act of being underwater with tanks and suits and weights never let him forget that he was a creature of air, not water. But this…it merged two worlds, and the hydrosphere being so much smaller than the vast ocean spreading out around him, this was the realm that disappeared from consciousness. Through this gateway, he truly became one with the sea.
The hole in the floor was big enough for a couple of divers and their equipment to exit through together, and once the wonder of being underwater was over, their attention returned to this slightly worrying feature. Even Miles, their scientific genius who entirely understood the physics behind diving bells, and who was more than happy torepeathis explanation of kilopascals to anyone who hadn’t grasped it the first time, seemed anxious that there was nowwater, water everywhere, but not, apparently, flooding into their little chamber. It defied reason, and Aleksey’s brain told him that there must still be a floor, only that it was invisible. Ben proved him wrong. By kneeling on the little raised walkway and stretching down he could dip his hand in the ocean. This simple act seemed to panic Miles even more, and he pointed out a number of times that it would be extremely dangerous to extend the sphere in rough weather—tilting then occurring—and that it would have been better with a secure metal hatch and not just a glass one. Perhaps the entire thing being built of metal—although he could foresee some problems with visibility then. He hadn’t inspected the seats yet so hadn’t come up with any flaws so far in their design.
While the boy was kneeling, anxiously watching Ben playing with the water, Aleksey rocked the hydrosphere behind his back, mimicking rough weather for him. Water immediately slopped higher, and a large bubble of their air consequently escaped its containment and headed hastily for the surface. Ben pulled his hand out and thumped him hard on the shin.
There wasn’t all that much to see after a while. They weren’t alongside a reef; there were no fish, tropical or otherwise; and they could enjoy rocks, seaweed and sand any day of the week on the island. Nevertheless, Aleksey could understand the potential wonder of such a device and pictured what theNicholasmight look like lying right beside them, divers exploring it, and glints of gold flickering in their lights from the darkness of its rotten, forbidding holds.
* * *
Ben was studying their bags. Aleksey wanted him to study something else. They had ten minutes until they were ready for the first reading. As he’d recently demonstrated, ten minutes was all he’d ever need. ‘I’m sure I brought it. He better not have nicked it.’
‘Looking at that rack on the sundeck, I think he has enough of his own.’
‘Yeah, but mine’s bigger.’
That was too easy, so he ignored it and tugged once more on Ben’s jeans. ‘Come.’ Ben sat down on the edge of the bunk, still mulling over the fact his dive knife appeared to be missing from his bag. Given there was currently no crew, they’d both been slightly surprised to find that not only had Colter unpacked their duffels, he’d also neatly stowed their gear. But now Ben’s knife was missing.
‘You don’t seem worried! I mean, isn’t this proof he’s trying to kill you or something? Disarming you? Seriously, you invent threats over absolutely nothing yet—’
‘Stop fussing, I will buy you a—’
‘That’s not the point, and—stop it! It’s only two days!’
Frustrated, Aleksey rolled onto his back and pillowed his head on his folded arms. Ben was playing responsible father again and had insisted: no sex on the boat while Miles was with them. And now, beingGuardianof Genius, he supposed he had to go along with it. Benwasstudying him now but not the part he wanted admired, which wasn’t acceptable, as Ben staring into his eyes like this often led tohimhaving to promise something or other, or being blindsided with one of his other half’s unilateral decisions on something. Ben tapped his nose.
‘Come on. I’m supposed to be keeping you busy and your mind off Enid as well.’
‘Exactly.’
Ben trickled his finger up the inside of the pale folded arm, which definitely didn’t help matters down below. Knowing what was really troubling him, Ben murmured, ‘He’ll recover in time.’
Aleksey sighed. ‘He checked the chair to make sure it was stable before he sat down.’
‘I know. Maybe we shouldn’t have taken him out of his comfort zone so soon. Did you see the way he’s gripping his rucksack all the time? I think he’s got Enid’s bird book in there.’
‘Oh, God.’
Ben leaned down and kissed him slowly, his hand automatically travelling lower until he appeared to recall his own rules and sat up quickly, frustrated and annoyed—and banged his head on the upper bunk.
It was only as they were helping Colter to get one of the raiders into the water for Miles’s thermometer placing, that Aleksey noticed another odd feature ofRogue Wavethat had not struck him before. He moved away from the winch and began to walk slowly around the lower hulls, peering over the rail. He came back around to the zodiacs and watched as Colter and Ben hooked one of the boats to cables. Any passengers had to board whilst still on the hull and then be lowered with the raider—no steps, no ladder, no way to get down to the water any other way. Seeing him watch this dubious operation, a terrified Miles now swinging in the boat with Mark and Barthrop, Colter nodded at his expression.
