Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

slammed into the rock barrier, and inside the cavern the water was extremely rough. He relied on Abigail to remain outside to warn him of the larger waves coming into the cave that might be dangerous. He tried to find some sign, some small bit of evidence that would indicate the speedboat had been hiding when the coast guard had gone looking for it, but there was nothing at all. There was a light coming through a crack on one side indicating there might be another opening along the series of caves.
    Water had poured and pounded the rock formation, widening the holes and smoothing and polishing, over centuries. Aleksandr paddled around the cove to try to find the source of the light, but was disappointed when the crack was too small for the kayak. A speedboat wouldn’t have fared any better.
    There was no way through the cave.
    He shook his head at Abigail. She was trying to watch him, watch the ocean, and keep an eye on the surrounding cliffs and cove in case a sharpshooter was positioned somewhere in concealment, watching them. Aleksandr powered the kayak along the bridge of rock to the next cave. This appeared far more promising. The chamber was quite large and could easily hide a speedboat. The water was far calmer, although much more shallow.
    “I’m going in, Abigail. The water’s about a meter deep, but the chamber goes all the way back and Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    looks as if there’s more to it than I can see from here. The water’s far calmer in this cave and I don’t like you being so exposed out here. Anyone could be sitting up in those rocks. I don’t want you getting shot at again.”
    Abigail didn’t particularly care to be a sitting target either, so she followed him into the large chamber, paddling all the way through it to the back where waves crashed into a smaller tunnel.
    “We might be able to make it on through,” Aleksandr said. “What do you think?”
    “I doubt they’d take a speedboat in there.” She peered as far inside as she could. “It looks as if it makes a turn toward the left and narrows a bit. We might make it through, but I don’t think they’d risk it. I think this cave is close to the harbor and they more than likely hid out here while the coast guard looked for them. If they had to abandon the boat they could make it back to shore with diving gear.”
    “If that tunnel goes all the way through to that other cave, they have a handy escape route,” he reasoned.
    “Let’s look around in here first before we try it,” Abigail suggested. “If we find anything at all to indicate they might have used the tunnel, then we’ll see if we can make it through.”
    She paddled around the inside of the chamber, peering down into the water while he examined the rocky walls and the few outcroppings and ledges for any evidence that might indicate the men who shot Danilov had been in the chamber. If they’d used it once, there was a good chance they would use it again and Aleksandr would be waiting.
    “There are caves over by Sea Lion Cove,” Abigail said. “Isn’t it more likely they’d use a place close to the mill and the smugglers’ route on a more permanent basis? They’d have to have a place to stash the boat when they weren’t using it.”
    “Not necessarily.”
    Abigail turned sharply and stared at him. “Who are you chasing, Sasha? Are they art thieves? Is Jonas being fed a line of bull?”
    “My country has one of the highest ratios for stolen art in the world,” he said.
    “That isn’t an answer.”
    “You saw the necklace. It is genuine.”
    Abigail felt the small flutter in the pit of her stomach, the one that always warned her when the truth was something more than what she was hearing. She’d felt that flutter four years ago and hadn’t acted fast enough. “Aleksandr, don’t send Jonas on a wild-goose chase. He doesn’t deserve that.”
    “His job is to find out who killed Danilov. The murder occurred in his jurisdiction and I’m certain he’ll take his job seriously. He’s that kind of man. My job is to shut down the drain of artifacts coming out of our country and to recover what I can.”
    “Then why are we out here paddling kayaks looking for that speedboat?”
    He glanced up, his eyes glittering, diamond hard. “It happens to be part of my investigation.”

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    Abigail shivered. He had changed in the