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for big ships. So what Cosmas was saying was, ships from Egypt came here, off-loaded their stuff onto local craft, then waited. The local craft took it over the shallows to the other side, loaded it on big ships coming from the Bay of Bengal, Indonesia, even China. And the same thing happened in reverse. You can really picture it out here, those big fat-hulled Roman ships where we are now, and over there on the other side Chinese junks, with all kinds of canoes and catamarans in between. Pretty cool, huh?”
    “Pretty cool,” Jack replied, grinning. “Cosmas was writing five hundred years after what the Romans we’re talking about at Berenikê, but basically it’s the same scenario, until the Arab conquest of the Middle East and north Africa shut down the sea routes to India. Cosmas provides the most detailed account we have of the ancient trade that went on here. Good work, research assistant.”
    “Think outside the box. That’s what Uncle Costas tells me.”
    “Uncle Costas?” Jack said.
    “Hiemy says I’m a lot like you. I don’t know whether that’s praise or not.”
    “Who?”
    “Hiemy. You know, your old buddy. Herr Professor Dr. Hiebermeyer. That’s what Aysha calls him, Hiemy.”
    “Of course,” Jack said. “Hiemy.”
    “Aysha’s in love with him, you know.”
    “Hang on a second. One thing at a time.”
    “Just getting you up to speed. You’ve spent the last three days with your head in the clouds.”
    Jack laughed. “Well, I’ve been waiting. Hiemy’s been holed up like Caractacus Potts working on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He’s been like that ever since we were at school. Every time he calls me up with a new discovery, insists that I come and see it, I agree to go, and then he realizes he needs more time to make absolutely sure. So before going I usually wait until he’s come to see me personally three times. Then I know. It’s a fine art.”
    “I’m sworn to secrecy. I could tell you what it is, but I can’t. That was his condition for allowing me to help them in the lab.”
    “That’s part of the game too.” He looked into her eyes, thought for a moment, then spoke carefully. “I’ve been thinking about your mother a lot over the past days. You know when I saw her last year I hadn’t been in contact with her since before you were born and when I did see her, it was for only a few moments in the archaeological site at Herculaneum. But I’ve got a perfect memory of her from when we were together all those years ago, like a favorite old film that will never change. You’re in that film now too. It’s as if we’re a family together. I can see a lot of her in you.”
    “When she told me about you the last time I saw her, she said the same about you,” Rebecca said. “She was planning to contact you after my sixteenth birthday, you know. She said she always meant to, once I was old enough to look after myself. My birthday was a month after she disappeared.” Rebecca looked at Jack with unfathomable eyes, and then draped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulders. Jack held her tight, and smiled. “Maybe she was right,” he said. “Maybe there is a bit of me in you.”
    “Not the seasick bit, I hope.”
    “I do not get seasick.”
    “Yeah, right.” She leaned back into the bridge and yelled, “Dr. Jack Howard, famous underwater archaeologist and commando extraordinaire, gets seasick.”
    “Time you were back in school,” Jack grumbled.
    “Hah. We’re on the high seas. I’ve been reading about that too. Out here, no laws apply.”
    A hand clamped her shoulder, and Scott Macalister stepped out from behind her, smiling at Jack. “Young lady, only one law applies, and that is the law of the captain. Anyone signed on under the age of eighteen is my personal responsibility.” He placed an old brass sextant into her hands. “Navigation class at 1600 hours.” At that moment a white streak appeared a few hundred meters off the starboard bow. “Tracer