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“Okay Which direction should we go?”

“Directly north Apparently, it’s right on the bank of the river”

“We’re already on the bank of the river,” Juan said

“Oh That’s a bummer”

Then it dawned on Juan This wasn’t the normal riverbank The monsoons had considerably widened the Ord

“You mean the ruins of the bireme are underwater?” Julia asked

“And it probably will be for a few more weeks,” Parsons said “This is the wet season”

“Then we’ll have to dive on the Salacia to recover the amphorae,” Juan said

At thaton the opposite bank of the river crept down to the water to take a drink It had gotten through a single slurp when a crocodile lunged out of the water and cla it into the river as the prey futilely thrashed to get free The twenty-foot-long croc shook it like a dog’s toy As soon as the pig went limp, the croc disappeared under the surface with its prize

Parsons shook his head at Juan’s intention to go into the water “You were saying?”

FORTY-TWO

By the tih daylight left to prep and execute a wreck dive, so they planned to go at sunup the next day The launch point for the operation would be the moon pool

The large charease, was situated in the center of the ship The Oregon’s two submersibles, the Gator and Noantry crane e pool at the bottom was even with the ocean level outside, which hy the rooe doors in the keel slid apart to allow subs and divers to ee from the ship undetected

Today it was No lowered into the moon pool while the Gator remained suspended in the air With the Ord River full of crocodiles, diving off a boat like the RHIB would be an invitation to a sive the noticed by the hungry predators

Although Noned to dive to a thousand feet, for thison the surface of the shallow river The sub’s key feature was its two-person airlock, which had a hatch in its belly Juan and Linc would ee from Nomad underwater, conduct the search of the Salacia to recover the a attention to the on the surface