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table, eyes closed, body slack in one of the swivel chairs that were bolted to the deck around the table. Holden had seen enough soldiers in combat to know that Larry wasn’t done yet, but he was closing in on exhaustion. He was forty-four and diving was a young man’s game.
    The old-alcohol smell on Larry’s breath wasn’t helping, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as that of an end-phase alcoholic. If a company deep-sixed every diver who drank, there would be very few divers left.
    Grandpa Donnelly sat beside Larry, jostling him awake. Holden sat across from them. When Kate hesitated, he smiled a very different smile and patted the chair next to him.
    “I won’t bite,” he said. Although a bit of nibbling . . . yes, I’d quite like that.
    Warily she sat down. The chairs were so closely spaced that she could feel his body heat like a ghostly caress with every breath he took. She tried not to notice it. The others certainly didn’t seem to be aware of the muscular dragon coiled beneath the proper accent, but she could think of little else when he was near.
    “Now that I’ve had a chance to do a brief recce, it appears that this dive isn’t as badly off as my superiors feared,” Holden said. I suspect it’s worse, but until I can prove it, I’m just another British prig. Or as the old man says, a god-rotting bureaucrat.
    “Not a total ‘cock-up’ after all?” Larry asked in a gritty voice.
    The elder Donnelly snorted.
    “Are you here to shut the project down?” Kate asked bluntly.
    “Not after we just struck the lode,” Grandpa said. “Right, Mr. Cameron?”
    “Not at the moment, no,” Holden agreed. “My employer’s interest, which is very keen, is based on a single coin that was minted in the mid-seventeenth century. The coin was found on a rocky beach not far from here after—”
    “A gale ripped through some coral reefs and generally rearranged some sea bottom last year,” Larry interrupted, yawning. “We’re clear on all that.”
    “The sea is a fickle bitch,” Holden said. “That coin could have come from anywhere. It could be the first of a hoard or a one-off kicking around on the storm currents. We believed that it would lead to more. The handful of coins and raw metal you have found so far is welcome, but it’s not the weighty kind of proof my superiors expected.”
    “And they’re all worried that either they were wrong about diving on this wreck and will be shown up for it,” Larry said, “or that someone on Golden Bough is a thief. We’re clear on that, too.”
    Kate shifted, wondering if she could kick her brother under the table.
    Holden pinned Larry with his unusual eyes. “Antiquities was divided on that very subject. However, after the money chain was discovered, they are quite excited that you are on the right track.”
    “How clever of them. Ouch!” Larry gave his sister a look.
    She lifted one eyebrow at him.
    Holden hoped his own amusement didn’t show. Under other circumstances he probably would have enjoyed Larry, who was a very well-regarded diver and drinking companion. However, the circumstances were what they were and Larry might well be a thief or simply an incompetent captain who drank when the pressure got too intense. In either case the result was the same.
    The advance on expenses wouldn’t be made and the dive would be shut down.
    “Antiquities is hoping that the treasure isn’t scattered over the entirety of the seafloor between St. Vincent and Grenada,” Holden said. “Again, opinion is divided. I’m told there is quite a lively discussion at the moment. Anything you find will be weighed carefully in the decision whether or not to advance the monies you have requested or invoke the weather stipulation and terminate the dive.”
    “Look, this isn’t anything new,” Larry said impatiently. “You come on board and throw your weight around, but you don’t know any more than we do about what’s below. You’re hoping for a big payout but