Late that afternoon, they slowly sailed into the harbor in Athens, gliding their way toward the dock. At last the anchor dropped, and a few minutes later, the ramp was lowered.
Xander opened their cabin door and looked into the hall. “It’s clear.” He grabbed Leila’s hand and pulled her into the corridor. She tiptoed behind him.
“Try to look casual,” Xander reminded her.
“Yeah. Of course. I do this all the time, ya know.”
Casual. Think casual. She straightened her shoulders and raised her chin.
No one stopped them on their way out. Jack caught sight of them, but he simply wished them a pleasant journey and pointed them toward the immigration office as he passed by, heading in the opposite direction.
The inspection went quickly and without any awkward questions. The border patrol agent was too busy chatting with his co-workers and didn’t even search their backpack.
Once they passed the towering chain-link fence that surrounded the harbor, Leila let out a breath of relief.
Finally, they’d made it to Greece.
One step closer to finding Soliman. One step closer to rescuing her family. One step closer to stopping Faris.
Her feet felt strangely heavy as they readjusted to walking on land. They strolled past a couple parked police cars, yet none of the officers standing around took notice of them.
Leila didn’t even protest when Xander hailed a taxi and they got in, then drove toward the city center.
“What was the name of that marina?” Xander asked.
“Um.” Leila sucked in her breath. F… It started with F. It seemed like years since she and Drake had talked about it in the tent in the desert. “Flisvos.”
Xander relayed the information to the driver, then leaned back against the seat.
Leila let out a sigh and sank into the plastic leather, turning her head to watch the landscape flash by. At late summer, the grass was brown, vanishing among the rocky soil. Some shrubbery survived the heat and dryness, dotting the landscapes with tufts of green.
“So, have you thought about how we’re going to find Soliman?” Xander asked, sorting through their selection of passports.
“Not really.” Leila scrunched her lips to one side. “All I know is what Drake said. Soliman would be with the Medjay, Sobek. We should be able to find him in the Flisvos marina.”
“Well, that shouldn’t be too difficult. How many Sobeks could there be in Greece? I’m sure we can just open a phonebook and he’ll be right there.”
Leila rolled her eyes. “That’s a start. Now how many of those are Medjay?”
“We’ll need weeks to find him at this rate.”
“Why don’t you try looking at the smaller picture?”
“The smaller picture?” Xander raised his eyebrows and stuffed all the passports back into the bag. “Right. We start at the marina, ask around for a chap named Sobek. If nobody knows him, we forget the guy and focus on Faris.”
Leila bit down on her lip, her stomach churning at what Xander wasn’t saying out loud. He still thought Soliman was dead.
Half an hour later, the taxi dropped them off at the marina gates. Leila and Xander stood at the end of the boardwalk, seagulls cawing and swooping overhead. Just beyond the giant white ferries waiting to bring passengers to the smaller Greek islands, a half-dozen wooden boardwalks stretched over the turquoise water like splayed fingers. Boats and yachts of all sizes bobbed next to the docks.
“Let’s start at the first dock,” Leila suggested, and their feet clacked over the wooden boards as they strolled across the planks. She scanned the names of the boats, wondering how people came up with some of them. The Codfather. Boat to be Wild. Seas the Day. Steve.
But nothing that could clue her in to Soliman or Sobek’s whereabouts.
Xander stopped and asked a man untangling ropes on the deck of his boat if he knew where they could find Sobek, but he didn’t speak English and simply shrugged.
They searched the docks for another half hour, with no luck. By then, the sky was turning shades of pinks and oranges, and lights along the coast flickered on.
They sat on a bench in the middle of the docks, and she watched a man climb out of a boat up ahead, grab his fishing gear, and stride down the boardwalk, back toward the city.
“What now?” Leila asked.
“Try a different marina? Ask Siri?” Xander ran his hand through his hair. “This job is so much easier when you have all the fancy gadgets at your disposal. There are countless harbors and marinas around here. There are so many places he could be hiding, especially if he doesn’t want to be easily found.”
“Wouldn’t hurt to look anyway. If he’s not listed, other places to look would be the university, antique shops, or maybe—” She stopped, staring at the hull of the fishing boat in front of them. River God. Of course, it could just be a generic name someone slapped up on the side… or it could be a reference to the crocodile-headed god of the Nile, Sobek.
Xander narrowed his eyes as he studied the vessel, then tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“That’s it. That has to be his boat.”
“I mean, it’s almost too easy.” Xander crossed his arms.
“I doubt most people would make the connection.”
“The problem is, the boat is here, but Sobek isn’t.”
“But there was a man just here.” Leila turned around. At the end of the wooden walkway, the man climbed onto a motorcycle. “There!”
“Are you sure?”
