The Reef

brilliant. She would earn her doctorate years before the majority of her contemporaries.
    He was thrilled with her.
    So thrilled he had opened several doors for her along the way. Doors that even with her skills and tenacity might have been difficult for her to unlatch. Her opportunity to research in a two-man sub off Turkey in depths of six hundred feet had come through him. Though like an indulgent uncle, he had taken no credit. Yet.
    Her personal life earned his admiration as well. Initially, he’d been disappointed that she hadn’t remained attached to Matthew Lassiter. A continued connection would have been one more method of keeping tabs on Matthew. Yet he’d been pleased that she’d shown the obvious good taste to shrug off a man so clearly beneath her.
    She’d concentrated on her studies, her goals, as he would have expected from his own daughter, had he a daughter. Twice she had explored relationships. The firstno more than the rebellion of youth, in VanDyke’s opinion. The young man she’d attached herself to in the initial weeks after her return to college had been little more than an experiment, he was sure. But she’d soon shaken herself loose from the muscle-bound, empty-headed jock.
    A woman like Tate required intellect, style, breeding.
    Indeed, after graduation she had been drawn into a liaison with a fellow postgraduate student who shared many of her interests. That had lasted just under ten months, and had caused VanDyke some concern. But that, too, had ended when he’d arranged to have the man offered a position at his oceanographic institute in Greenland.
    To fully realize her potential, he felt Tate needed to limit her distractions, as he had over the years. Marriage and family would only tilt her priorities.
    He was delighted that she was now working for him. He intended to keep her on the fringes for the present. In time, if she continued to prove worthy, he would draw her into the core.
    A woman of her intelligence and ambitions would recognize the debt she owed him, and would understand the value of what he could continue to offer.
    One day they would meet again, work side by side.
    He was a patient man and could wait for her. As he waited for Angelique’s Curse. His instincts told him that when the time was finally right, one would lead him to the other.
    Then he would have everything.
    VanDyke glanced over as his fax began to hum. Rising, he poured himself a large tumbler of freshly squeezed orange juice. If he hadn’t had such a full schedule that day, he would have added just a dollop of champagne. Such small luxuries could wait.
    He lifted a brow as he picked up the fax. It was his latest report on the Lassiters. So, he mused, Matthew had jumped ship and gone back to his uncle. Perhaps he would stick the drunken fool in another rehab center. It continued to surprise him that Matthew didn’t simply leave the old man to wallow in his own vomit and disappear.
    Family loyalty, he thought, shaking his head. It wassomething VanDyke knew existed, but had never experienced. If his own father hadn’t conveniently died at fifty, VanDyke would have implemented his plans for a take-over. Fortunately, he had no siblings to rival with, and his mother had faded quietly away in an exclusive mental hospital when he’d been barely thirteen.
    He had only himself, VanDyke thought, sipping the chilled juice. And his fortune. It was well worth using a small part of it to keep an eye on Matthew Lassiter.
    Family loyalty, he thought again with a small smile. If it ran true, Matthew’s father had found a way to pass his secret to his son. Sooner or later, Matthew would be compelled to hunt for Angelique’s Curse. And VanDyke, patient as a spider, would be waiting.
     
    Rough weather hit the Nomad and halted excavation for forty-eight hours. High seas had half the crew down for the count despite seasick pills and patches. Tate and her cast-iron constitution rode out the storm with a thermos of coffee at her worktable.
    She’d left the cabin to a moaning, green-faced Lorraine.
    The rock and roll of the boat didn’t stop her from cataloguing the newest additions to the trove.
    “I thought I’d find you here.”
    She looked up, let her fingers pause on her keyboard and smiled at Hayden. “I thought you were lying down.” She tilted her head. “You’re a little pale yet, but you’ve lost that interesting green tinge.” Her smile widened wickedly. “Want a cookie?”
    “Feeling smug?”