Shadow Zone by Iris Johansen, Roy Johansen Page A

glanced out to sea and saw Pete arc high out of the water. Susie followed only seconds later.
    Beautiful. Splendid creatures.
    Mysterious creatures.
    And what had happened today down in the ruins of Marinth had been full of mystery.
    And wonder?
    Perhaps. If she had been able to stay here longer, then she might also have been able to reach out and touch the wonder . . .

    “A Helicopter ?” Jed Kelby said it as if he hadn’t heard Melis correctly.
    Melis walked toward the stern of Fair Winds, holding the satellite phone tight against her ear. “Yes. It’s necessary, Jed. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t. You know I don’t like asking you for help with Marinth.”
    “No, dammit, I wish you would. I’m your husband, and that place is as special to me as it is to you.”
    “That’s not entirely true.”
    “Well, finding it was special for me.”
    Melis smiled. Marinth had been the passion—no, obsession —of Jed long before she had even heard of it. As she had told Hannah, her interest in Marinth had originally centered on the ancient civilization’s unusual interaction with dolphins, and how, thousands of years later, the local dolphin population still exhibited unique social behaviors with each other and human visitors. In addition, the Marinth dolphins’ highly evolved skeletal and respiratory systems allowed them to dive deeper and longer than any other dolphins on earth. But Marinth had held her once she’d been caught up in its unfolding story. Jed, however, had quickly moved on to other challenges, other adventures that took him to the far reaches of the world. He was currently in Micronesia, on the trail of a sunken Japanese destroyer that might have gone down with a fortune in diamonds in its hold.
    “Marinth was only special to you when it was still so blasted elusive,” Melis said.
    “That’s not true. It will always be special to me. It brought us together, didn’t it?”
    “Don’t get all sentimental on me. I’m still not through teasing you about your attention deficit disorder.”
    “Let’s get back to the helicopter. Why do you need it?”
    “Hannah brought up the trellis. It’s reasonably intact, but there are dozens of missing glass pieces that need to be reconstructed before we can interpret the message on it. This could be it, Jed.” Lord, she hoped that was true. It had gone on so long, she was almost afraid to hope. “This could tell us what happened to the people of Marinth.”
    “I hope so, Melis. It would be everything you’ve been working for.”
    “It would.” She added lightly, “Don’t you wish you were here instead of chasing diamonds?”
    He chuckled. “At this very moment, yes. No, not this minute. Every minute of every day. I miss you. Screw the diamonds. They don’t compare.”
    She felt her throat tighten. No, they didn’t compare. Treasures were dazzling and the search exciting, but what she had with Jed was truly remarkable. Yet their relationship was based on freedom as well as love, and she would no more interfere with his life and purpose than he would with hers. He was an adventurer who traveled the world, but when they came together, it was fantastic. “I miss you too. If you get a chance, fly in and see what we’re doing here.”
    “I might do that. The Japanese are giving me a king-size headache about that sunken sub. Things aren’t going so well here.”
    “Which means that there’s no way you’ll change your focus until you get what you want. So I’m not going to see you anytime soon.”
    “Unless you tell me to come.” His voice was suddenly grave. “Then I’ll be there for you. Anytime. You know that.”
    “I know that.” For an instant she was tempted. No, she’d probably be so busy that she’d end up ignoring him for sixteen hours of the day. But oh would those other eight hours be fantastic.
    Stop being selfish.
    “No, go persuade the Japanese that they should let you have your diamonds. I’ll call you when you can come