“We’ve laid traps, and I’ve added protection, but Doyle has the right of it. Some of it rests on Sasha. In Corfu, she knew when Nerezza would strike, so again, we were prepared. Added to that, we have the practicality of Riley’s network of contacts. We should know when this Malmon sets out for Capri. Once he has, the fight for us is against two fronts. Men, and minions.

“We’re stronger than we were.” Again, he looked at Sasha. “And more united. It will matter. I believe it will weigh on our side. Then there’s a matter of the search.”

“No more clues from that quarter?” Doyle wagged a thumb toward Sasha.

“Not as yet. It’s a great deal of pressure on her, so I’m asking if I’m not with her, someone else is. Always. She handles the visions well now, but the more open she is, the more Nerezza pushes to get in.”

“We’ve got her back.” Sawyer glanced toward the pool. “Once it starts, nobody should split off alone, but we’ll keep Sasha close.”

“Then we move on, do the work, which puts us out on the water. And in it.”

“Strategically, any serious attack should wait until we find the star. If having it were my goal,” Doyle continued, “I’d lie back, let the targets do the work, then go in, take them out, claim the prize.”

“But,” Bran said, and waited.

“It’s not altogether about logic, is it, but about greed with some madness thrown in. Sasha prophesied Malmon wasn’t what he was or would be. We have to assume, considering her visions, he’s made a contract with Nerezza. We can’t know what he is, what power she might have given him in exchange. Or how hell-bent he’ll be on getting to us, as he knows what each of us has or is.”

“Hell-bent as fire and brimstone,” Sawyer said. “Trust me.”

“That being the case, the odds favor he’ll come at us, at least a testing run, an attempt to deplete our numbers, or take one or more of us captive. Or he may go full out, believing we have information here he could use to find the star himself.”

“He’s a confident son of a bitch. I lean toward the full out. Not to kill, or not to kill certain ones of us. He’d rather capture, but he’d enjoy bloodying the ground while he’s at it.”

“Or the water,” Bran put in. “Which is where our search will focus.”

“And where we’re most vulnerable.” Doyle slid his gaze toward Annika. “Even with our advantage there.”

“I could arm the rest of you with the bombs, as we’re calling them. They won’t harm you as they will those who attack. But I’d have to do some work on underwater use there.

“And meanwhile we can’t use guns under the water, and a harpoon is a single shot.”

“We handled underwater attacks before,” Sawyer pointed out.

“We have. But what I’ve been working on, with Sasha’s help, is Doyle’s idea about infusing blades and so on with something like the bombs. It’s close to ready, or close to ready to be tested. It will help, considerably. But it may come to retreat, to Sawyer getting us out and away. Which is where we were, Doyle, when you joined us.”

“It takes proximity, that’s the thing. That’s why I brought us, boat and all, back to the villa in Corfu. I couldn’t risk missing anybody, disconnecting.”

Well used to talk of war, Doyle helped himself to salsa. “What happens if you disconnect?”

“Never happened, but I’m told if it does, it’s a long fall into wherever and whenever for the passenger. On the boat, I know I can do it. Underwater, I could miss someone, and if we’re into it, I’m likely to pull enemy back with us.”

“So what we need, if it comes to that, if getting to the boat isn’t going to happen, is to do whatever we can to pull in around Sawyer, give him the chance for the full retreat.”

Slinging a towel around her waist, Riley stepped up. “In the water,” she began and dumped more from pitcher to glass. “We’re two teams of three.”

“Is that so?” Doyle countered.

“It’s so if you’ve got a brain. Annika, key advantage us. It’s her element. She can hear and see farther than us or them. She can move faster than us or them. She gets her tail on? I wouldn’t want to take a hit from it. Bran, advantage us. Nobody likes to get struck by lightning. He’d take out more with a jolt than we will with diving knives. And he can get out on his own, take at least one of us with him? Right?”

“True, but I wouldn’t leave any of you. That’s not negotiable.”

“I don’t mean that—and thanks. I mean, moving on to our next advantage, Sawyer. He’s the escape route if and when. If Bran knows he’ll get the rest of us, he can worry about getting himself out, if necessary.”

She sat down with her drink. “The rest of us, we make sure everybody stays alive, no one gets separated.” Now she looked at Sawyer. “Ever fired an underwater pistol?”

“No.”

“Underwater pistol?” Bran’s brows lifted.

“Yeah, it’s specially designed to be used under water. Fires fléchettes, not bullets because the barrels aren’t rifled, and they maintain their trajectory through hydrodynamics. They do the job.”

“I’ve heard of them—pistols, rifles. Frogmen, SEALs, right?”

She nodded at Sawyer. “And so on. I might be able to score us a couple of them, and the ammo. It’ll probably take a few days, but I have a source.”