Mitch buttoned his wet vest quickly as the man closed the distance between them.

“It really has, how have you been?” James asked. “Take that gear off so I can see you properly!”

The dark-haired man finally reached Mitch and kissed him on the cheek before embracing him tightly.

“I’ve been well, how about you? I can see your business is still booming!” Mitch said as he undid his scuba gear and placed it into a box full of other gear before moving his bag back onto his back.

I spat my respirator out, taking a deep breath of fresh air, and pulled my goggles off. The air tasted weird after using the oxygen tank for what felt like a long time. It was too salty.

“Ah, have you been keeping track of me? Well, I wouldn’t mind if you have been! I’m fantastic. Time has been kind to you, Andrew!” James said, pulling back finally. “You’ve aged like a fine wine, I don’t know how you do it.”

“Ah,” Mitch said. “You’ve aged well yourself! You don’t look a day older than the last time I saw you.”

James laughed, the noise rich and melodic.

“Well, with the amount I’ve spent on botox and surgery since then, I would hope not! What a thrill it was to get your call, even if it was just for use of my boat but you know I can never say no to a good party! Despite your insistence that I keep it behind closed doors until after you’ve left…” James said, trailing off with a pout.

Mitch laughed lightheartedly.

“I know, it was a disappointment for me too but I need to try and do right by the kid.”

James’ face lit up and he finally looked away from Mitch for long enough to glance at me.

“This must be her. I didn’t know you had a daughter,” he said, scrutinising me.

I felt my face flush under his gaze. I didn’t know who that man was or why Mitch had given him a fake name but I saw the way his hand lingered somewhat possessively on Mitch’s arm.

Mitch chuckled easily.

“Me either! Imagine my surprise when I got a call from an ex thirteen years later and then Faith came to live with me,” he said, smiling back at me. “Do you need a hand with your gear?”

I nodded at him, trying to look a little uncertain, and undid the clips, turning around so that Mitch could lift it from my back and put it in the box too. I kicked my flippers off and put them in the box too, watching the man unsurely.

I wanted to look like I was really Faith, a kid who was dumped on a father she didn’t know after however many years. He’d said thirteen though. How old did he think I was? Or, was it just an act?

I couldn’t actually remember if I had ever told him how old I was. Surely I had? It probably came up at some point but I just couldn’t remember.

Or maybe he was doing it on purpose. I mean, he had lied about both of our names, maybe he was lying about my age too so that we were even less traceable.

“You know, I do see it! She looks just like you,” James said with a smile at Mitch before looking back at me. “It’s lovely to meet you, Faith.”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” I replied with an awkward grin.

“I like to think we look pretty similar too,” Mitch told the man. “Did my transport get here alright?”

“Yes, yes. You know that Hannah would never disappoint you!” James said, gesturing with his head further into the boat.

They turned and started towards the stairs leading up to the rest of the boat and, for the first time, I got the chance to look around at the boat we were on.

My mouth fell open.

I could tell from underneath the ship that it was big but I hadn’t expected it to be that huge. It was the largest and fanciest-looking ship I had ever seen in my life. It made the one that Mitch and I had been on the night before look tiny.

I stared at the small platform that James had been waiting for us on, taking in the comfortable-looking chair and half-empty glass of champagne resting on the table next to it, before following them up the stairs.

“Now, now, Alistair,” James chided from in front of me, blocking the view of whoever he was telling off. “Remember what I said about keeping communal spaces appropriate and clean until I make the announcement. There’s a child on board this ship now, we need to protect her innocence!”

My face flushed as James stepped aside, revealing the tanned man who reclining on the sofa. One arm was wrapped around a woman, the other frozen in the act of unbuttoning her shirt.

He looked at me before sighing heavily, his hand falling away from her as his head dropped back against the sofa.

“Come now, James!” he complained in a thick accent. “She’s barely a child!”

James’ eyes narrowed.

“I would appreciate you not questioning me whilst you are on this boat,” he said coldly.

Alistair’s head snapped up and I saw his throat bob as he swallowed.

“Of course! I was merely saying that the girl looks older, not questioning you. I would never,” he insisted.

James’ smiled at him, seemingly enjoying the grovelling.

“Good. See to it that you don’t. Now, Andrew, your helicopter awaits,” he said, warmth returning to his smile, and gestured further into the boat.

Mitch nodded to him and we began following him along a corridor, past the bar where a black-suited waiter stood. I smiled at him politely, before sending a furtive glance out the large glass window that lined the corridor. I could see multiple ships around the area, most of them well lit which made them seem fairly innocent.

Well, not innocent, I knew what was happening on the boats, but it seemed unlikely that the Sterlings would have such a bright boat too. Unless they were trying to blend in.

They could be on any one of those boats.

A loud moan sounded from one of the rooms as we walked passed, almost drowned out by a rhythmic banging and I felt my eyes widen. My face felt hot and I found myself glancing at Mitch and James, trying to see if they could hear it too. They must have been able to, it was so loud, but they didn’t react in any way.

“You know,” I heard James say, “you really must join us next time. It was so fun last time you attended one of my little parties.”

Mitch grinned at him.

“Ah, it was but I’m a father now. It makes it harder for me to attend,” he lied.

“We have a children’s boat!” James said. “Really, you must stay. Even just for an hour or two.”

“I wish I could,” Mitch told him. “But unfortunately, we need to get out of here.”

James sighed loudly.

“I assume that means I will be having company soon?”

“Most likely. They shouldn’t bother you for too long though,” Mitch said. “And I owe you one.”

James looked over his shoulder at Mitch, his expression flirtatious.

“You owe me at least three or four at this point,” he said. “Maybe even five or six.”

Mitch chuckled.

“Four,” Mitch countered.

“I’ll accept that.” He stopped just in front of a door and turned back towards us. “Hannah’s just through here but unfortunately, I shall leave you here. I have matters to attend to and I assume Alistair did not take heed of my warning.”

He glared down the corridor over my head.

“Ah, go easy on the poor man,” Mitch said to him, resting a hand on his arm. “He looks like he’s new to this whole thing.”

“He is but that’s not an excuse to ignore a rule,” James said before sighing heavily. “Alright, just for you I will make an exception. But that means you owe me five.”

Mitch laughed.

“Fine. Five it is. I’ll call you soon.”

“I’ll be waiting. It was nice meeting you, Faith. Make sure you look after your dad. He’s not nearly as young as he thinks he is,” James told me before winking at Mitch.

“Hey now! I am exactly as young as I think I am!” Mitch argued. “Thanks again, James.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, I shall go find someone to mop up this floor before someone slips. Have a safe journey.”

He embraced Mitch once more before smiling at me and walking past us.

I looked down at the floor, spotting the trail of water that we had caused before glancing back at Mitch.

“Ready to go, kid?” he asked.

I nodded.

He pushed the door open, the noise and wind hitting me immediately. A helicopter waited on the huge deck at the front of the ship. I squinted, the wind making it hard to see, but Mitch wrapped a hand around my arm, leading me towards the aircraft.

I could barely see, my eyes were mostly shut, but I managed to make out some steps. I climbed aboard, falling into the nearest seat as Mitch shut the door behind us and sat opposite me. He grinned widely and pointed at a headset which hung on the wall next to me.

I slipped the headphones on and pulled the microphone down as Mitch did the same. The noise was immediately muffled and the silence that followed was a little disconcerting.

“Hello, Lauren, can you hear me?” Mitch said, his lips moving a little faster than his words were coming.

“I can indeed. You’re right on time. Ready for liftoff?” the familiar voice asked.

I craned my head, looking through the gap in the seats and spotting her bright red hair sitting in the cockpit.

“Damn right, let’s get out of here. Are you ready, kid?” he asked, looking at me as he slung his bag off his back and opened it quickly.

He grinned at the items inside, clearly happy that they were undamaged before looking back up at me.

I gave him a thumbs up before realising I could probably speak.

“Oh, yeah! Sorry,” I said quickly.

“Not a problem! Take us away, Lauren. Once we’re in the air properly, I’ll have a look at your hands, kid. How are they feeling?” Mitch asked.

“What happened to your hands?” Lauren asked quickly, sounding worried as the helicopter lifted into the air.

I looked down at them, staring at raw, red skin. They looked worse than they had before. The water had washed away all of the blood leaving deep gouge marks on my palms but at least most of the stones had been washed out of them. The skin around them was red and strangely puckered from being underwater.

I wasn’t sure what to say to Lauren though. It felt so embarrassing to explain that I’d fallen climbing through the hole. It made me feel so stupid and inexperienced.

“She took a bit of a tumble,” Mitch explained for me. “But luckily it wasn’t as bad as the one you took back in Majorca. I’m not a squeamish person but half your chin was hanging off!”

I looked up in horror, the mental picture running through my head.

“I told you I’m clumsy!” Lauren shot at Mitch. “Plus, it was nothing that sixteen stitches and some light surgery couldn’t fix. Are you okay, Grace?”

I swallowed, feeling the weird and uncomfortable feeling that I’d felt when Mitch had worried about me before returning. It sat heavily in my stomach, making me feel a little nauseous.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I answered, looking out the window at the sunrise.

I could feel Mitch’s eyes on me but I didn’t want to look at him. I was too ashamed.

“Where’s the first aid kit? Still under the seat?” Mitch asked, leaning forwards and groping blindly under his seat.

“Nah, I got it here,” Lauren said, leaning over and grabbing the red bag from the passenger seat and holding it out behind her.

Mitch stretched to take the kit from her with a wince.

“Are you okay?” I asked quickly, suddenly remembering the noise I’d heard just before I’d gone underwater.

“Ah, I’m fine, kid,” he said, not looking up from the first aid kit that he was unzipping.

I watched him, concern washing through me. He looked fine, I couldn’t see any injuries but it was hard to tell. His clothes were still wet and the vest he was wearing was such a dark colour that I wouldn’t have been able to see any blood stains on it.

He slipped a pair of rubber gloves on before leaning forwards towards me.

“Can I see your hands?” he asked, the words coming through my headset after a slight delay. “I worry about them getting infected because the water in that cave was probably not the most sterile.”

I shuddered lightly at that. I had to agree with him. The thought of that horrific-smelling murky water being anywhere near my cuts made me anxious. Most of it would have been washed away during the rest of the swim but I was still worried.

I edged forwards in my seat and held out my hands to him.

He examined them carefully for a moment, gently touching the skin around the cuts and watching my face to see my reaction.

“Does that hurt?” he asked.

“Mmm, kind of,” I said. “I think it’s just a normal cut though, not anything bad.”

He nodded distractedly, looking back at my hands.

“Okay, I’ll remove the rest of the gravel now and disinfect them. I’ll wrap them just to keep them clean for now but I’ll do it properly when we get to the plane. I want to give them a chance to breathe and for the scabs to form properly.”

“Okay,” I replied, not sure what else to say.

“This might hurt a little but I’ll be as gentle as I can,” he promised.

I nodded, not moving my hands as he began to carefully remove the stones.

Even so, it hurt. I sunk my teeth into my lower lip, biting down hard to distract myself. It stung, sometimes becoming a sharper pain, before settling down into a soft throbbing. They started bleeding again too, wherever Mitch had removed the stones. I was almost a little glad that it hurt, which felt strange. I could feel exhaustion hovering just out of reach and I knew that whenever it did hit me, I would crash hard.

Eventually, Mitch leaned back and brushed the final stone off my hand and onto the floor between us.

“You have someone who will disinfect in here, right?” Mitch asked Lauren over the comms.

“Yeah, of course. It’s hired through a company that has surprisingly good cleaning policies which… now that I think about it, is pretty concerning,” she replied.

Mitch laughed.

“Well, I’m glad but let’s just not look into that any further until we are far away from this island,” he said.

“Agreed.”

He grinned up at me.

“It’s probably not as dark as it sounds, right?” he asked. “Alright, I’m going to disinfect them now. This is going to sting.”

I nodded, watching as Mitch tipped some disinfectant solution onto a cotton pad before gently swiping it across my palm.

Pain spiked in my hands again making me bite harder on my lip but it faded quickly.

“How are they feeling?” Mitch asked, finally finishing disinfecting my hands and looking up at me again.

“Alright,” I said uncomfortably.

They hurt, obviously, but it was fine. It wasn’t too bad.

He smiled at me, the skin around his eye crinkling.

“Okay, let me just wrap them up and I’ll be done,” he said.

I nodded, watching as he tucked the slightly pink cotton pads into a clear plastic bag with the rest of the rubbish before pulling out two large plasters.

“These will be pretty loose,” he told me, “but the scabs won’t stick to them.”

I nodded.

Mitch carefully unwrapped one of the plasters, gently pressing it over my palm and making sure it was stuck down around the edges before doing the same with the other hand.

“How do they feel now?” Mitch asked. “Are they still stinging?”

I shook my head.

“They're not too bad.”

Mitch gave me a look that told me he knew I was lying.

“Okay,” he said after a moment. “Lauren, how far out are we?”

“Mm, not too far. Should only be able five to seven minutes,” she replied. “I’ll let Oscar know to start getting everything switched on and ready to go. I’ve already bribed everyone I need to so we should be able to get in the air again pretty much straight away.”

Mitch slumped back against his seat, one hand resting gently on his stomach.

“Oh, good. I should pay you more.”

There was a pause before Lauren spoke again.

“Ah, my rates are high enough already. I wouldn’t charge you more.”

“At least let me pay full price then,” he shot back.

“Never.”

Mitch sighed loudly before grinning at me.

“She does this every time,” he said. “But every time I try to send her more money, she either shuts down the bank account or moves out of the country.”

Lauren’s laugh echoed in my ear.

“I do what I have to. You know that Oscar and I already have more than we need. You’re paying too much for us as is and we owe you everything. I refuse to charge you a cent or penny more.”

Mitch shook his head and started to open his mouth but Lauren started talking again.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” she asked.

Mitch’s hand patting his bag, seemingly subconsciously.

“Oh yeah. I got a good few scrolls, some artwork and a bust or two. Obviously, none of the scrolls are originals from the library but there’s enough of an age range there to prove that the organisation is still at work. Or at least they were at the beginning of the last century when the items were stashed there, I assume.”

“Oh, really? You didn’t find anything more recent than that?” Lauren asked.

“Nah. I’m not sure if they assumed it was a safe hiding place or if they forgot about the stuff. I reckon it was intentional though. There was too much there for it not to be but I know for damn sure that they’re going to be pissed. What do you reckon the fallout of this will be? How long do you think we’ll have to hide?” he asked.

Lauren deliberated for a moment.

“I really don’t know. You said they’re still pretty powerful, right? Do you think they had access to any of the cameras on the island? I assume they did, right? Oh, one second, got to speak to Air Traffic,” she said.

I watched through the gap in between the seats as she lifted a hand to her headset, speaking quickly before touching it again.

“Yeah, I reckon they do. I mean, it would be foolish if they didn’t,” Mitch said. “They have to be better than that, I’ll be so disappointed if they aren’t.”

Lauren laughed.

“You’ll be disappointed if they don’t have pictures of your face?” she asked.

“I mean… a little! They’re a huge, international organisation, funded by some of the richest people in the world. They need to be good.”

“You know, Mitch,” Lauren started. “Sometimes, I worry about you. Are the Sterlings not enough of a challenge but you want to piss off whatever this lot are called too?”

“I don’t specifically want to piss them off!” he insisted. “I’m just saying that if I have pissed them off already doing this work for Georgia, I want to see what they can do. It’s morbid curiosity more than anything else.”

Lauren laughed.

“Damn right it is. You reckon she’s going to want you to keep searching after you’ve found this or will this be the end?”

Mitch let his head fall back against the headrest, his eyes shutting softly.

“I reckon there will be another job. This is what, the sixth? She wasn’t content with the research I found for her nor the World Chronicles I stole from the Pushkin Museum. Even when I got her the gold plates from the Serapeum, it wasn’t enough. I think this is enough concrete evidence of the organisation to mean that nothing will ever be enough again. She won’t be happy until she joins them or dies trying,” Mitch explained.

“What, you reckon they’ll kill her?” Lauren asked.

“Mmm, I don’t think they will. Her interest is innocent enough. She’s just a collector, you know? Plus, with her fortune and funding, it would be a waste. I think they’ll recruit her. Especially after this.”

“What does that mean for us? Surely they won’t be comfortable hiring such scummy lowlifes,” she teased.

“Wow, lowlifes? Hardly. I’d say we’re at least middlelifes,” Mitch joked. “I’m not sure. I’m going to assume we’re not the first people who have stolen from the organisation and probably not the most skilled either. I think they’ll either recruit us too or Georgia will be our liaison and we’ll never officially know they’ve hired us. It’ll be pretty obvious though, I think.”

“You reckon?”

“Oh yeah, she’ll start either asking for really specific things like specific items or she’ll have more to give us. Rather than just saying ‘get me proof’ or ‘find them’, I think she’ll tell us to hunt down an item that was stolen by a specific person or organisation.”

“Huh, makes sense. That could be pretty fun though. More money, right?” Lauren asked as the airport came into view.

“Probably. I feel like they’ll be less okay with me keeping artefacts for myself though.”