A Birth day

Jack listened and kept an eye on the rd suits not far from him he did chuckle at Michaels words about them not seeing if he did take something. Jack took pictures too mostly of scorch patterns and bits of metal that he took to be part of the elevator. Swimming into what was left of one of the bedrooms he noticed something on what remained of a mirroe " Marcus over here , co ordinates I think, written in lipstick?" he said knowing nothing else would have servived , he quickly snapped a picture of it so Angus could see it to " you think it might be from Evan?" he said swiming back to Marcus and Michael to show them the image he'd captured.

Jess smiled as she looked at th girls " what would you like for supper, Angus said you can get what you want to eat" she said " or you can just rest in one of the rooms." she saw Tara panicing alittl and she took her hand " they will find him" she said softly to her whie drawing off the axiety she felt builing with in her. Jess wondered what was keeping Robert from apearing but knew he had a lot to sort out first.

"Maybe," Michael said. "Suppose that lipstick is Evan's shade?" Marcus laughed, but Marcus understood Michael's question. Where would Evan have gotten red lipstick? Or was it actually lipstick at all.

"Shark!!" Michael shouted suddenly, pointing off in the opposite directions. It alarmed the muggles and sent the red suits scurrying to go find the shark, and while they dashed off, Marcus took more pictures and Michael cast a reveal spell on the mirror fragment. It showed a momentary fragment of a blurred face casting a spell on the mirror to write the message. Michael couldn't see the face, though, or enough of it, to see who cast the spell. It hadn't been lipstick. It had been a spell. Michael purposely fired picked up a piece of scrap wood and broke the mirror to stop the spell.

"We need to surface," Gervaise said. "We've got 30 seconds left. Let's surface and safe the rest for our next dive. shall we? I think we've learned all we can here."

Kate and Simone arrived together at the hotel, and they each had a large duffel. Kate had to book a room for her and Robert, and Simone checked in for herself and Edward. They agreed to go check in to their rooms and then try to find Tara and Jess. They would think about ordering supper when they knew where everyone was and when Edward and Robert finished at the charter office.

Jack chuckled and nodded he watched as the revelio spell revealed aface and then Michael shouted shark making the red suits scatter and Jack chuckled as Marcus shattered the mirror. It was now Gervaise said they should surface and Jack nodded "Yeah don't want to piss off the locals," he said as he started to swim out of the wreckage of the ship and towards the surface.

Jess heard familiar voices and unlocked the door " In here Simone" she said and smiled seeing Kate was with her too. " there doing okay for the moment, Tara is understandably anxious." she told them "We were about to order lunch" she said stepping to one side so they could enter the room then locking the door again.

"Give Kate and me a moment to check into our suites and we'll get with you," Simone said. "Marcus already booked a separate suite for Edward and me, and Kate got one for her and Robert. Let us put down our bags and then we'll order some room service for all of us. I'm sure they're anxious but these things don't resolve quickly. They can take hours and hours. I'm sure that everything that can be done is being done. Besides, Kate tells me that these sorts of exact situations are the sorts of things that Michael was hired by the ministry to do, and he's out with them. The last thing we want is for them to hurry anything. In my experience, the longer it takes, the better the outcome tends to be. Anyway, give us half a tick, would you? We'll be back."

Kate and Simone went to their rooms to drop off their bags and make sure all was well in their rooms.

When the divers got back on the ship, Gervaise's crew took the tanks to refill them, and helped the divers to go find places on the deck to sit. Angus came back from the bridge.

"We're only a few minutes from the second dive site," Angus said. "I've asked the crew to get fresh tanks for you. I figured you might want to do that dive straight away when we get there. When that dive is over, I think you should rest and get a bite of lunch. The crew is preparing something for us, and they said they'll have..."

"Captain, Mr. Donohue is on the radio for you," the first mate said.

"Which one of us?" Gervaise asked, not knowing if they were referring to him or Angus.

"Captain Donohue," the mate said. Angus followed the mate to the bridge. He knew Edward would want all the facts that Angus had.

"Michael," Angus was hailing Michael on his diving mask.

"Right here,' Michael replied.

"Join me on the bridge, you and Jack and Marcus. Edward has Robert with him, and Robert says he has some information," Angus said.

"On our way," Michael said, taking off his flippers so he could walk easier. He made his way to the bridge quickly, with Marcus one step ahead of him.

"They're here," Angus said to Edward, when they arrived.

"Stay on it," Edward told him. "Stay with it til we find him."

"I'll bring in every man from Paris if I have to," Robert said, "but listen, I've been looking into all sorts of these odd movements of Gelding's. According to our informants he's hired himself some dark arts 'maritime recovery agents.'

"No way," Marcus frowned.

"That's a bloody fancy term for, basically, a wizard who commits marine crimes."

"Pirates," Angus summarized. "And they do all sorts of crimes on water."

"Including diving," Marcus nodded.

"That is very interesting indeed," Angus said. "That absolutely fits with what we think we're onto." Angus told them what they believed they knew, and Edward said.

"Then you're looking for a dive site where they think there is something to be gained from it," Edward said.

"And you're about a mile or a mile and a half from where a muggle submarine went down decades ago in a muggle war. Might be worth eyeballing if you..."

"Where?" Marcus perked up.

"About a mile or a mile and a half due west of your present coordinates."

"Score!" Marcus said. "Angus, you're right on it, Mate. Look." He pointed to the spot Angus had already marked on the map and read the coordinates.

"That's the exact spot. How did you know?" Robert asked.

"We didn't. That's the spot Angus marked about half an hour ago thinking that it was the spot that was the real goal of Geldings' team last night."

"Then you lot have to go find out what's down there," Edward said. "You need another team?

"Not yet. We'll let you know," Michael said. "Let us do this on our own first."

"We're not going anywhere. You lot stay in touch with us," Edward ordered.

"Of course," Angus promised.

Jack followed Marcus and removed his fins so he too could walk. Entering the room he stood in front of the door to stop any unwanted earwiggers listening in as he'd hear them. " so your thinking whether there using it as a base or there's some sort of salvage they're after inside it" Jack asked as Marcus pointed out that where Robert had told them about the sub was exactly where the coordinates had landed.

Jess heard Simone and nodded "All right" she said and smiled returning to the suite and sitting with Tara as she waited for Simone and Kate to get sorted. Jess accused a word search book and a pen and began working on each puzzle quietly waiting.

Gervaise took back the bridge and thanked the muggle authorities and moved the ship on to the next spot. While the ship was in motion, Angus went to his cabin and changed, tucking the gillyweed in his wetsuit. He wanted to see for himself just what Gelding was willing to risk Evan for. When Angus came back in his wetsuit, Marcus sighed. He had hoped he would be able to discourage him from going, but where Evan was involved, Angus needed to be there, and Marcus knew it.

"If you go, you're going to have to be right with me," Marcus said to Angus quietly but firmly, "because if you're not, you're going to drown trying to swim with one hand."

"I'll manage just fine," Angus told him. Marcus wasn't happy, but he understood it.

Kate and Simone finished some very basic unpacking and then they went back to the suite that Marcus had rented for Jess and Tara nd the girls. They had seen clearly that Jess was getting as impatient apparently in being alone with Tara and the girls as Tara and the girls were in waiting for news on Evan. It wasn't like Jess to appear so impatient, but perhaps, then, Jess was just bored. They weren't sure. They had each brought the hotel room service menu from their suites so that there was more than one copy of the menu.

"We brought our room service menus from our rooms too, so that more than one person at a time could look at the menus," Kate said. "Why don't you lot take a look at the menus, decide what you want for lunch, and we'll order for all of us?"

"

Jack heard Marcus with Angus "I'll stay by his side too" he said "Don't want you drowning" he said and chucked but knew Marcus was right in that Angus would not swim right with his shoulder. Jack who had taken off the top half of his wet suit pulled it back on and smiled at Marcus. " this will be fun " he said as he pulled up the zipper on his wet suit.

Jess saw them enter and smiled as they spoke to Tara and the girls about ordering something for lunch. Jess used the time while they were ordering to let go of some of the tension she was holding and relax back to herself. " sorry about earlier I think their tension got to me, I should not let it do that" she said to Kate "no news is good news" she said softly as she crossed another word off her word search list.

"I'm curious as hell to know what Tom Gelding wants with an old, rusting, muggle submarine," Angus said.

"Depends on what he's hiding in it," Michael said. "And also on how crazy he really is."

"Hiding in it?" Angus asked.

"Hell, yes. The muggles know exactly where it is, but nobody's coming down to see if anybody's home, now, are they?" Michael asked. "It's a bloody perfect place for a wizard to hide any flipping thing he wants."

"or anyone," Angus said.

"Well, if Evan is down there, we'll have to get him straight off to a hyperbaric chamber because being down that long, the bends would kill him if we brought him up too fast," Marcus said

"Unless they've developed some sort of charm to equalize the pressure," Michael suggested. "I've seen some pretty outrageous things in my time. Think about it. The dark arts are spells created by damned desperate people to help them do things in underhanded ways because doing it right squashed their chances of getting what they wanted. So, I wouldn't put it past some of these dark arts sea dogs to have come up with a spell that would equalize deep sea pressures."

"We'll have to be careful ourselves," Angus said. "We won't be able to go very deep or stay long or we'll have serious health issues from it and we won't get anything accomplished."

"We'll attach lines to you for that dive so we can keep hold of you, especially since its so murky down there today, and that way we can keep track of how far down you are," Gervaise said.

"You'll have to," Angus agreed.

"We're at the second site, Captain Dumont," the mate said.

"Alright," Michael said. "Let's go see if the neighbors are home, shall we?" Michael said, heading back to the dive platform. The crew had fresh tanks and had lines to attach to each diver to keep hold of everyone. They had to help Angus with his flippers, his tanks and his mask. The damned tanks were painful on his bad shoulder, but he didn't make one single complaint. It wasn't going to be for that long, anyway.

"You sure you want to do this?" Marcus asked.

"Yes," Angus said. "I'm ready if you lot are. Let's go."

Jack chuckled and listened to MIchael as he spoke of what the dark arts could do " he has a point" Jack said " never know what those devious devils are up to" he added checking his tank and attaching it to the harness before placing it on his back . He heard the first mate say they were at the spot and looked to Marcus as he spoke to Angus " tie one end to me and the other to you" he said holding up some brightly colored yellow rope so they could see it in the murky water.

When the mention of the bends was brought up for Evan Jack looked around and saw no chamber on the ship " well we'd better hope they have coz we got no chamber here." he said pulling on his flippers and waiting for them others to be ready.

"Hyperbaric chambers are ridiculously expensive," Angus said. "Its a lot easier to simply do the right thing to begin with. Anyway, here goes." He jumped off into the water, and he was immediately followed by Marcus and Michael.

Angus was managing to swim far better than Marcus thought he could, but he knew the water was making it easier--for now. The deeper Angus was going to get, the harder it was going to be for him to swim. And Marcus also believed Angus was pushing hard because if there was any chance Evan was on that old sub, Angus wanted to get him out. Marcus pushed hard quickly to get to Angus to tap his good shoulder, to get him to ease up, to take his time and try to spread his energies out more efficiently. He gave Angus a hand signal, a gesture Angus knew, that was a gesture that Marcus had used the night Angus was hanging over that bottomless pit by a root. The gesture, over time, had come to signal silently between them for Marcus to be able to say to Angus. "I still have you, Mate." Angus saw the signal and paused for a moment, and then nodded. It had grounded Angus that night and forced him to rely on Marcus, and it reminded him again that he had mates here. He could rely on all of them to join him in bringing Evan home. It calmed that momentary impulsive drive that had Angus trying to race headlong to get to Evan. Marcus just nodded, knowing Angus was focused again.

As they got deeper and deeper, Michael believed he was starting to see some very dim lights in the deep. Well, that didn't make sense--unless there were people down here. So, they had been right. Gelding was up to no good in a whole new way. Michael spoke quietly.

"We have lights, Boys. Slow down. Approach slowly and keep your eyes open for any sorts of security or traps. In this case, it isn't that we have company. We are the company, and I don't think we're invited," Michael told them.