Anderson, Kevin J - Artifact by Anderson Kevin J

Author:Anderson, Kevin J
Language: eng
Format: epub

“Eduardo Blaine. Which is his room?”

The woman looked confused.

“Señor Blaine?” Peta repeated.

“Ah, sí.” The woman nodded and pointed with her thumb along the hallway beside the stairs. “Room two. End of the hall on the left.” She smiled conspiratorially, as if she thought Peta was going to sneak into Blaine’s room and give him an early-morning quickie.

“Gracias,” Peta called out as she ran down the hallway to the door marked with a gold-plated number 2

hung at a drunken angle. Banging loudly, she yelled, “Blaine? You there? Blaine, wake up!”

She stood there, waiting, the time slipping away. Simon’s boat was now well out of the bay for sure, bouncing over the water.

The bolt clicked open.

“You said you’d wake me. You said that you’d be up, and wake me before Simon could leave.”

Blaine—in white Jockeys, no shirt, and looking more asleep than awake—held the door open wide and backed up to let her in. He raised his left arm as if to check a watch that wasn’t there.

“What time is—God, my alarm. I must have…Maybe Simon hasn’t left—”

“I just saw his boat heading out of the harbor. Thanks for the help.”

“Okay, okay! Relax. Let me get dressed. I got a boat. We’ll catch him.”

“He’s already got close to ten minutes on us.”

Blaine smiled, but the charm that had worked so well the night before had lost its appeal. “No problem, I have a very fast boat.”

“Hope it works better than your alarm clock.”

He grinned boyishly. Peta guarded herself against any impulse to forgive him.

“Okay, wait in the lobby. I’ll get dressed and be out in a minute.”

“Please hurry.”

As she waited, feeling each second tick by, she thought through the possibilities. Could Blaine’s boat beat Simon’s? If not, what would happen if she had to dive after him? It had been a while since she had done a tech dive. Mixed gases—nitrogen, oxygen, helium. She knew it was not something to rush into.

Rushing could get you killed.

“Let’s go,” Blaine said, running out of the hotel. She followed him to the town’s small wooden dock. At

the last boat in the line, he stopped. “Jump in.”

Peta stared. “This is fast?”

The boat looked like a fisherman’s trawler, built for steadiness, perhaps, but surely not for speed. It did, however, have everything in it she would need for the dive, like the several pairs of tri-mix tanks which lay amid the more usual tourist dive gear.

“Don’t knock my boat.” Blaine untied the stern line. “Unless you want to swim after Simon.”

“That might be faster.”

“Just start her up,” he said, running to untie the bow line. “Hit the silver button.”

Peta pushed the button, and the inboard started with a substantial roar that immediately garnered her respect.

Blaine finished untying the lines and, jumping onto the deck, clambered back to the wheel. “Okay,” he said. “Now hold on.”

He opened the throttle and the squat boat reared up like Trigger at the end of a Lone Ranger movie. Peta flew back into her seat and tasted salty spray on her face.

“I’m impressed,” she shouted over the roar.

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