The Girl Beneath the Sea (Underwater Investigation Unit #1)(68)

“Fine?”

“Yes, it’s a thousand dollars an hour as long as the antenna’s causing interference.”

Irro is getting nervous. Our goal is to get him to let us aboard without calling the captain. I’m fairly certain his response would be to call in their attorney or whoever Bonaventure uses to maintain security.

“We’ve had everything checked. I’m sure it’s not it,” he says.

George stabs a finger at the radar mast. “Do you see anything else here that tall? Whatever. We’ll write the fine, you have your electrician check the radar, and then you can show up in court in a week and get it cleared up.”

“It’s not our radar causing the problem,” Irro insists.

“It could be an echo from a building,” I say to George.

“Are you trying to tell me my job?” he snaps at me.

“I’m just saying that if we make a physical inspection and it’s not it, then we can move on.”

“Or I can just write this up now. What was your last name? Also, I’ll need to see your passport.”

I push his clipboard down and put the scanner to my ear. “I’m not sure that it’s coming from up there. I can’t tell from here, though.”

“Would getting closer help?” asks Irro.

“It’s only going to tell me what I already know,” George growls.

“Sorry, Irro. If I can check the signal strength from the bridge, that might settle this. Otherwise, we have to fine you and call the captain down.”

“Fine,” George acquiesces, as if the choice is his. “Lead the way.”

Irro undoes the chain blocking the gangway and takes us up to the boat, relieved to avoid involving the captain.

I make a show of checking my scanner, which is actually set to a channel that will blip if the radar antenna points in its direction. George studies the boat while trying not to look too interested.

The surfaces are spotless. Not even any water spots. The deck is free of scuff marks, and from what’s visible through the windows, the interior is equally well kept.

We go up a flight of stairs, and Irro takes us onto the bridge. Large flat-screen displays show everything from a map of the vessel’s current position to weather to a hundred other details.

I go over to the navigation and check out the system. It’s a KVVM positioning system that uses GPS and the European Galileo satellites not only to tell them where they are, but also to steer the boat. A box on the screen is asking for a password. That’ll be tricky. George notices this and gives me a slightly raised eyebrow.

Next to the KVVM is a screen showing several views of the harbor with colored rectangles around other boats and the dock. I’ve never seen that before.

“What’s this?” I ask.

“OceanEye,” responds Irro. “Vision-based automatic navigation. It can pilot the boat in the harbor.”

“Hmm. Can you operate the radar?”

“Which one? Weather? Short range?” he replies.

“Weather.”

Irro sits down at a console across from the KVVM and types in a password. The screen changes to a map of South Florida, and a line begins to sweep around, illuminating pixels of storm clouds in the area.

I turn my scanner up, and it makes a blip sound every time the antenna points in its direction. “We’ll need to try this from the deck.”

Irro gets up and heads to the door. “This way.”

I step after him, then stop. “I’m being stupid. I need to get a GPS fix. George, did you get one?”

“I left the unit at the office.”

“Oh, I can help,” Irro offers. He quickly types a password into the keyboard on the KVVM.

I don’t catch it, but I notice out of the corner of my eye that George is recording it with his phone. What a tricky dog.

Irro reads out the numbers on the screen. “Latitude: 25° 47′ 27.18″ North. Longitude: -80° 11′ 5.20″ West.”

George types that into his phone. “I’ll send that to you.”

A moment later I get a text message. Password = mermaid.

A bit obvious. I guess they weren’t too worried about people hacking them from the bridge.

“Can you take us to the aft deck?” asks George. “That’ll give us the best line of sight.”

“Certainly.”

Irro begins to lead us down the steps. When we’re halfway there, I stop. “I forgot the scanner.” I conveniently left it on a chair when Irro wasn’t watching.

“I’ll get it,” he replies.

George grabs him gently by the elbow. “Actually, can you show me where the bathroom is?”

Irro seems torn. He’s faced with two people roaming the ship. One going back to the bridge, the other wandering the interior.

“Go ahead and show him. I’ll meet you right here.”

George starts walking toward a sliding door. Irro chases after him.

I hightail it up the steps and back into the bridge. The KVVM is back to requiring a password, since Irro logged out.

I enter it and go straight to the dropdown menu and find a tab for historical data. There’s an option that says, Past 30 days.

A list of GPS data flies across the screen, and I start to panic. I’d been hoping for a map with a dotted line. This is raw data.