Murder, sunken treasure, and pirates both ancient and modern send Doc Ford on a nightmare quest in this New York Times bestseller in Randy Wayne White´s thrilling series. Marine biologist Doc Ford has been known to help his friends out of jams occasionally, but he´s never faced a situation like this. His old pal Carl Fitzpatrick has been chasing sunken wrecks most of his life, but now he´s run afoul of the Florida Division of Historical Resources. Its director, Leonard Nickelby, despises amateur archaeologists, which is bad enough, but now he and his young "assistant" have disappeared--along with Fitzpatrick´s impounded cache of rare Spanish coins and the list of uncharted wreck sites Fitz spent decades putting together. Some of Fitz´s own explorations have been a little...dicey, so he can´t go to the authorities. Doc is his only hope. But greed makes people do terrible things: rob, cheat, even kill. With stakes this high, there´s no way the thieves will go quietly--and Doc´s just put himself in their crosshairs.