A Birth day

"I know," Angus said, "It sounds to me like this was all set to get our attention but I don't know why."

"Let's consider what we do know, then," Michael said. "This can't be much about power, at least not so far as I can see. The only other thing that Tom Gelding likes more than power is money."

"Well, Edward has money, that's for sure," Angus said.

"Does Evan?" Michael asked.

"No," Angus said. "I mean, he's comfortable financially, but he's not what you would call wealthy."

"Alright, but you are. And Edward is."

"And he's not getting any from us," Angus said in quiet anger.

"You're within your rights to be angry, Lad," Michael said, "but he's got easier ways to make money than by trying to bilk you or Edward. He's got other reasons to want to come after you, but I don't think money is on the top of his list."

"Then, what?" Angus was frustrated now. "Why set up my brother for anything?"

"What if its the ships?" Marcus said. "What if he's checking out your shipping fleet?"

"Could be, but he's rented ships elsewhere," Angus said.

"Yeah, but notice--he's rented diving boats. Not yachts. Diving boats. He's not doing it for luxury. And the ship he had last night--did it have a diving platform?"

"Um..." Angus took the folder of paperwork and looked through it to find the model of the ship. "Yeah. Yeah, that one has a platform on the stern."

"Well, that might be important."

"You mean the whole diving business might be important," Angus said. "Maybe, but what could he be looking for?"

"Clearly, if its about the diving, he's after something underwater," Marcus said.

"And if that's the case, they might not have been after Evan at all," Michael said. "I mean, what if Evan's being on the ship was unfortunate not only for Evan but for them too? If they had let something happen to Evan, they would have had to contend with Robert's wrath, and they've never had to content with his full wrath before. That would have been an exceptionally bad move on Tom's part."

"I'm wondering if that is exactly what happened," Marcus nodded in response to Jack's question.

"If they took him to reduce any pushback from Robert, they might have taken him to protect themselves but now they don't blood know what to do with him," Michael said. "I've seen other nitwits make that mistake before."

"Then why blow up the ship at all?" Angus asked.

"I'm wondering if they either had something on the ship or someone that was going to give them trouble. What if the dinner party was a blind and the real activity was whatever their goons were doing off the diving platform on the back?" Marcus asked.

"If that's the case, then as soon as we get to the site, we need to go down and see what they're on about," Michael said.

"No, no, that's not the way to do it," Angus said. "Let me see the manifest. That will tell me where they planned to sail to and back. My guess is that it is at the center point of that trip where we'll come close to where they're targetting."

"Well, I've got that here too," Michael said, handing it to them. Angus accio'd a large map of the Mediterranean sea and he looked at the plan for the trip and then, he compared that with where the ship exploded. The site of the explosion didn't add up with where the ship had intended to be. He fetched a wooden case from the bridge and opened it up to display a set of navigation instruments He sat down and spent some time using things like a sextant, a compass, and some other things, he came up with an alternative route that looked to him like a much more realistic route that they probably ended up taking. Then he brought Gervaise from the bridge and showed him what he'd plotted out and asked Gervaise if the knew of any sort of echo or sonar that they could sue to see what might be down below the surface at that location. Gervaise didn't know of anything but he believed it was close enough to the explosion site that it would be worth checking out.

"What do you think?" Angus said. "I think we need to go to the explosion site, but I really am starting to think Evan isn't there. I think we need to check this other theory out next. It's a fanciful tale, yes, but in our world, unlike the muggle world, the fanciful tales are often the ones that tend to be true. I think this--right here--just about a mile and a half from the explosion site--is worth our visiting and doing a dive at. What do the rest of you think?"

"Mate, you do realize you aren't going to be able to swim with one hand, right?" Marcus asked Angus. "How about you let us do the wet work, and you stay up here and stay dry?"

"If you take the bridge," Gervaise told Angus, "I'll go into the water in your place. I don't want to leave the bridge without command, but you could take the bridge, and I can go for a swim."

"Can you manage that with one hand?" Marcus asked.

"Him?" Gervaise grinned. "With one hand and in his sleep both."

"That works for me," Marcus said.

"Alright," Angus agreed. "I guess you lot should go suit up. Marcus, do help anyone with any adjustments they need to their wetsuits, would you?"

"Of course," Marcus said.

"Do we have dive slates?" Angus asked Gervaise.

"Dive slates," Gervaise scowled. "Your grandfather isn't that old school. We have masks with transceivers. We can actually use real words. I'll have the crew break some out and some cameras." He teased Angus, laughing.

"Good," Angus said, taking the new coordinates up to the bridge, leaving the others to change. they weren't far from the explosion site, and Angus wanted to see what was left of last night's ship. He took a pair of binoculars and went out on the anchor mount on the bow of the ship so he could get a clearer view.

"Careful, Captain," the first mate called to Angus. "That mount gets like ice when she's wet, Sir. You wouldn't be the first crew member overboard on account of her."

"Thank you. I'll be careful," Angus said. "Helmsman, come about thirty degrees starboard. I have the wreck site in sight."

"Aye, Captain," the helmsman returned. Angus ordered changes in speed to slow them down because they were getting close, and he made sure they knew he wanted a full stop at the wreck site. He backed up off the anchor mount, back to the bow of the ship because he knew that the wet anchor mount would throw him forward into the sea if he was still standing on it when the ship came to a full stop.

"Shall we drop anchor, Sir?" the helmsman called.

"Aye, Helmsman," Angus replied, not liking the site of debris all around them now, with Italian coast guard vessels all around them.

"We're being hailed by the coast guard, Sir. They're warning us off," the helmsman called.

"I'll take it,' Angus said, unwilling to be warned off. He went back to the bridge to tell the coast guard he wasn't going anywhere.

Marcus made sure everyone's suits fit properly. Michael didn't say a word. He suited up like he had done it all his life, and he found tanks and flippers and sat on the bench back on the dive platform with the rest of them. Gervaise brought four masks with transceivers. and he showed them how to turn the transceivers on and off so they could communicate with each to other and with Angus.

"It's going to be a minute," Gervaise told them. "We've reached the wreck site, and the coast guard wants us to clear off. If I know Angus, he isn't going anywhere until he's good and ready to go. He'll have to persuade them we have a right to be here."

"And if that doesn't work, he'll just hex the shit out of them," Michael said.

"He's probably already made up his mind what spell he'll use too," Gervaise laughed. They heard Angus raise his voice in anger just once, but then he radio'd back to them.

"We've got clearance to dive. One dive, no more than ten minutes below the surface, and then you're all straight back. Not a moment longer. Got that? You know what to look for. Go when you're ready, but stay in touch, and stay together," Angus told them.

"Aye, Captain," Gervaise replied. He looked at the rest. "Time to get wet, Gentlemen."

"Let's go, Kids," Michael said, putting his mask in place and stepping off the platform. He was followed by Marcus and Gervaise.

"Its all stirred up down here, like mud," Marcus said.

"What's your visibility?" Angus asked.

"God,, no more than about 18 inches at best," Marcus said.

"Be careful of your depth. Stay shallow. This is a short dive," Angus reminded them. "We don't want any of you having decompression issues."

"Red dive suits on my right, Angus," Michael said.

"Italian muggle coast guard. They want to make sure you don't nick anything," Angus said. "Had to strike a compromise."

"If I nicked anything, they'd never see it anyway," Michael said, annoyed. Angus laughed.

"I don't like how this looks, Angus," Marcus said. "The debris pattern splatters out evenly in all directions, like a pretty even circle."

"Meaning, you think that the explosion came from just about in the center of the ship itself," Angus said.

"Precisely. Where would that line up on the deck plans?" Marcus asked.

"Um...give me a second..." Angus said, flipping through the paperwork.

"Here,' the first mate pointed it out to Angus.

"You're right,' Angus said. "Marcus, that would have put it in the elevator shaft, just one deck down from the deck that our cabins are on, on this ship."

"And that would exactly line up with the explosion pattern," Marcus said. "

"Would the crew have been using the elevator that night?"

"Probably. The kitchens and the pantries are on the lower decks," Angus said. "But the plans called for the supper to be up on deck, so it's unlikely that there would be much call for Gelding or his guests to be off the deck at all. Are you seeing anything helpful?"

"Maybe," Marcus said. "I'm getting lots of pictures."

"Me too," Michael said. "I'm not seeing anything worth bringing up, and no evidence of any clothing or deceased. Nothing like that."