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I’m not a rookie diver. As a matter of fact, I qualified in the French Navy and have logged more than seven-hundred dives. I needed to see how you handled yourself down there. I was impressed. I want to offer you a job.
    Regards
    Alexa

    She waited two minutes and received a reply.
    “Skype me. Use my email address.”
    She copied his email address into the Skype search box and double-clicked on his avatar. Her request was accepted within a minute. She clicked on the dial icon.
    “What job?”  
    She twirled her hair around a finger. “We’ll get to that later. You will be working with my dad and me.”
    “Do I know him?” he asked, seemingly interested. She guessed he needed the cash.
    “Bruce Bryden,” she said. She waited for the recollection to follow.
    “Colonel Bruce Bryden. Israeli intelligence?” Neil asked, his voice laced with suspicion.
    Alexa smiled. “Yes. You have met him before, haven’t you?”
    “Yes, you could say we’ve met before.” It sounded like he wanted to say something more, but he hesitated.
    “Well, he thinks you’re the man for the job.” Alexa leaned back in her chair, enjoying the uncomfortable silence. “But I hardly know you at all.”
    “Where are you?” he asked.
    Alexa pumped a fist in the air. “In Maputo, Mozambique. I’ll send your flight details to you.” She opened a browser on her laptop and typed in the URL to an online booking agent. “I assume you will be able to take a couple of days off?”  
    Neil grunted something that sounded like “I guess.”
    Alexa smiled. “Good-bye, Mr. Allen.” She disconnected the call.  
    She leaned back in her chair. At last, something to look forward to.
     

CHAPTER TWO

Present Day
    Maputo, Mozambique

    Neil Allen crumpled up his towel and T-shirt and tossed them onto the sand. He dropped his dark glasses on top. It had been a long flight. He had booked into the Polana hotel and headed straight for the beach; he needed to get rid of some excess energy. And he had a date.
    He scanned the beach with squinted eyes. The coastline was packed with vacationers young and old, splashing and diving in the lukewarm waves of the Indian Ocean. Some were lounging beneath straw umbrellas, slopping themselves with sun screen.
    Neil kicked off his sandals and bounced over the scorching sand towards the sea. He sloshed through the water, making his way deeper towards the larger breakers. He dove in, allowing the wave crest to fizzle over his body, and came back up for air in a trough behind the surf break. He swam deeper, rolled onto his back, and paddled, floating in the vast expanse. The offshore rip pulled him in an easterly direction and angled his body downstream, paddling with his arms to keep him in the direction of the flow.
    The beach moved to his left as he drifted towards a tangle of seaweed that he gripped onto, guesstimating this was close enough to the predetermined meeting spot.  
    Neil noticed a female surfer stand up on the crest of a wave. She wore a white Second Skin and red board shorts, moving forward on her longboard and then back, riding the wave gracefully, willing her board farther. She dove into the apex as the wave broke, came up for air, and slipped back onto the board. She paddled his way.  
    He studied her as she approached, noticing features he hadn’t before. She had olive skin and her dark hair was plastered back. He guessed it would be shoulder length when dry. She had high cheekbones and full lips. When she was ten yards away, she sat up on the board and drifted towards him, paddling with her hands and feet against the stream. She had mesmerizing eyes, green and sparkling from the reflection on the water. She was stunning.  
    “Hot, isn’t it?” she smiled. Rivulets ran down her forehead and cheeks. She crossed her arms, grabbed her Second Skin, and pulled it over her head. She wore a white bikini top that inched up high on her breasts. She rolled the Second Skin in a bundle and pulled her