Skeleton Coast

  “You couldn’t have done a very good job of playing at it.” Sloane took the largest stone from the pile and showed it to him. “This one alone will fetch about a million when it’s cut and polished.”

  Max just stared at it goggle-eyed, bringing a fresh round of laughter.

  AN hour later, after everyone had explored the ship, Sloane found Juan standing at the Rove’s prow, his hands clasped behind his back.

  “What’s that line?” she asked as she approached him. “Give me a tall ship and a star to sail her by.”

  He turned and smiled. “Only look out for the sand dunes.”

  “I’ve been reading the ship’s log. H. A. Ryder continued to write in it after they were buried. Kurt was correct about the Herero attacking at the height of the storm. They slaughtered the crew to a man, all except Ryder. The Herero leader had once worked for him as a guide and owed him his life following a lion attack. Not that it mattered. The reprieve was temporary.”

  “What happened?”

  “The storm raged for a solid week. When it was finally over they couldn’t push open any doors, including the one leading to the bridge, and the portholes were too small to fit through. They were trapped. There was enough food and water to last them nearly a month, but the end was inevitable. One by one they died off until only Ryder and the Herero chief remained. I have to assume that Ryder went next because there was nothing in the log about his companion succumbing.”

  “That is definitely on my top ten list of ways not to die,” Juan said with a shudder.

  “There was something else in the log that Ryder mentioned, something pretty interesting. He wrote that when he and his companions plundered the Herero’s diamonds they left behind four beer pots brimming with stones. I know from history that their king never used them to buy protection from the British against the Germans occupying his lands so the stones are still out there.”

  “Forget it,” Juan said, grinning. “Last time I helped you I ended up stranded on a giant metal snake in the middle of the ocean and had a supertanker sink from underneath me. If you want to go looking for more diamonds, be my guest. I’m going to stick to something safe, like hunting terrorists.”

  “It’s just a thought,” she said, teasing.

  Cabrillo shook his head. “While we’re on the subject of diamonds there’s a couple of things I’d like to ask you.”

  “Fire away.”

  “Are you sure you’ll be able to get a good price for these stones?”

  “My company will pay close to full market value for them just so they can maintain their monopoly. They won’t like it much that I didn’t bring them back myself, but in the long run they’ll have no choice. Don’t worry. Moses will get more than enough money to see the leaders of his country get sent packing.”

  “That brings me to my second question. I assume that once the deal is done you aren’t going to win employee of the month any time soon. I was wondering if you’d consider changing careers.”

  “Are you offering me a job, Chairman Cabrillo?” Her smile was brighter than any one of the diamonds they’d found could ever be.

  “The hours are long, the work’s dangerous but, as you just saw, the pay can be pretty good.”

  She stepped closer to him so that their chests were almost touching. “I had a chat with Linda not too long ago and I got a sense that there isn’t a whole lot of fraternization among the crew.”

  “Office romances are tough enough. It’s even worse when you all live together.”

  She ran a fingertip along his bare arm and looked into his eyes. “In that case there’s something I need to get out of my system first before I’d even consider going off and playing pirate.”

  “What’s that?” he asked, his voice husky.

  “This,” she said as their lips met.