The Midas Legacy (Wilde/Chase 12) by Andy McDermott Read Free Book Online

sight of the other diver’s lights. ‘He looks okay.’
    ‘Thank God!’ exclaimed Nina. ‘What about you?’
    ‘My suit’ll need some filler to patch up the dents, but I’m all right.’
    She let out a relieved sigh. ‘Okay. I feel kinda bad asking this, but . . . what about the Secret Codex?’
    ‘I dropped it, but it’s around here somewhere. When the water clears, we should be able to find it. Although,’ he continued with a sudden weariness, ‘to be honest, I’d rather get back up top. And Nerio probably would too.’ He looked towards his companion – only to see him descending back to the altar room. ‘Oh, you’re kidding me! He’s already gone to look for it. You archaeologists really are all as bad as each other!’
    ‘We can’t stop being who we are,’ Nina said, amused. ‘But you’re right, you should get topside. And back home! Macy missed you this morning.’
    ‘Let’s not tell her about the whole “Daddy almost died” part of the day, shall we?’
    ‘Yeah, probably best.’
    Matt cut into the conversation. ‘Hey, Eddie. Looks like Nerio found that book.’
    Eddie saw the Italian ascending with the Codex. ‘Great, we got the list of all the places where Talonor dug latrines. Now can we go? That’s more than enough archaeology for me.’
    Nina smiled at her husband’s complaints. ‘I’d be perfectly happy to keep going, but . . .’ She checked her watch, eyes widening. ‘Oh crap! It can’t be that late already!’
    ‘You haven’t missed picking Macy up from nursery, have you?’ Eddie asked.
    ‘No, but I need to get moving soon. Like, now.’
    ‘Okay, then I’ll talk to you when I’m at the airport. Which’ll be a while, seeing as I’ve got to get up to the ship and then take a chopper back to Portugal first.’
    ‘I’ll wait up. All right, I have to go. Love you.’
    ‘Love you,’ Eddie replied.
    She smiled again, then took off her headset microphone.
    ‘Well, thanks for coming in, Nina,’ said Blumberg.
    ‘No problem at all, Lester. If you need me for anything else, I’m more than happy to help. Although Eddie might be a bit reluctant! But if you want me to assist with the translation of the Secret Codex, I—’
    He shook his head. ‘That won’t be necessary, thanks.’
    ‘Are you sure? I know the Atlantean language as well as anyone, and—’
    He cut her off again, more brusquely. ‘The Secret Codex is now an IHA security matter. You’ll be able to read the abstracts as they become available, of course, but we need to keep the actual translations classified for now. Talonor visited a lot of places; we can’t afford to have treasure hunters ripping potential sites apart before we have a chance to investigate them. You know the rules.’
    ‘Yes, I know the rules,’ she snapped. ‘I wrote most of them!’
    Blumberg puffed out his chest. ‘That’s as may be, but you don’t work for the IHA any more, so you don’t have clearance to see the Secret Codex before we’ve determined what’s safe for public release. I appreciate your help today, but you’ve done everything you can for us. So you should probably go pick up your daughter. You wouldn’t want to be late.’ He gave her a smug little smirk.
    Nina stood, scowling. ‘You know you’re kind of a patronising jerk, Lester?’ One of the IHA technicians stifled a giggle.
    Her host was not amused, however. ‘Thank you for stopping by, Nina.’ He turned away, issuing commands to those aboard the research ship.
    ‘Asshole,’ Nina muttered as she headed for the operation centre’s exit.
    Despite her best efforts to rush through Manhattan, she still arrived fifteen minutes late at the Little Petals nursery. The elevator was old and slow and frequently out of order, the building undergoing renovation work, so rather than wait for it, she simply ran up the stairs to the second floor.
    ‘Oh hi, Nina,’ said Penny Lopez, as the redhead hurried into the cloakroom. Even though the teacher was