Page 239 of Hidden Tide

I tear free from Agent Marquez.

“Get him out!”

Scott releases the crewman he pulled from the water to a Coast Guard rescue swimmer.

Then he turns back toward the ship.

Mark catches his arm.

“You can’t enter through the diving chamber. It’s gone.”

“I’m not leaving him.”

“Neither are we.”

John points toward the jagged opening torn into the lower hull.

Water pours through it as the ship rolls with the current.

“That breach leads to the cargo deck.”

Piers shakes his head. “The ship is listing toward it. You go through there, you may not come back out.”

Scott removes his breathing regulator from his mouth.

“Ben would go.”

No one argues.

All four men turn toward the Argent Star.

Agent Marquez grips my shoulders.

“Calle, move away from the edge.”

“I need to see him.”

“You’re too close.”

“He’s inside that ship.”

“I know.”

Marquez pulls me behind the concrete barrier as burning debris strikes the dock.

The Coast Guard response boat races toward the four SEALs. Rescue swimmers drag them aboard while another vessel directs water onto the flames.

“Keating,” Marquez calls into her radio. “What caused the explosion?”

Commander Keating’s voice answers through the receiver in my ear.

“We don’t know. The external cameras show the first blast originated inside the diving chamber.”

“Simon said Ben’s team reached the hull. Could he have triggered it?”

“Marcus disabled the alarm. Simon may have had a separate system.”

“No,” I say.