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Chapter 6

"Captain!" the first mate shouted.

"What is it?" Melchor asked.

"I think you should look through the binoculars." the first mate responded and passed the binoculars to his captain. Melchor looked through the binoculars and was surprised.

"What island is that?"

"I have no idea, Captain. According to our maps there shouldn't be an island. The next one is two days away from our current position. Our sensors have discovered the island."

Melchor put the binoculars away again. Every island was on their map so why wasn't this one on it? The only islands that could be missing on it were small ones, too small to bother marking them on the map. But this one was definitely not a small island. Not many ships were sailing in this area because it was often heard that pirates were in this part of the ocean. Day and night Melchor watched the ocean, looking for any ship that would come closer to them and he won't sleep before they hadn't left this area again.

Melchor looked to his first mate who waited for further instructions. "Go! Go get the Americans."

Ziva stood on the deck leaning on the railing and kept her eyes on the horizon. They were now for three weeks on sea, already searched three islands for Tony but they had yet to find him or something that would lead them to him. They met some local people on the islands, but they haven't seen or heard of Tony either.

Maybe it really was just wishful thinking that Tony was still alive. Maybe they were just grabbing for straws, anything that could tell them that Tony was still somewhere out there.

But even if it was just wishful thinking, Ziva would continue their search.

She won't give up on him.

There weren't a lot of islands left to search through, so he had to be on one of the last ones. If he wouldn't be on one of them, the possibility of him being somewhere on the seabed would be getting more and more real.

"Gibbs, David!"

Ziva turned confused around to look for the source of the disturbance. Gibbs appeared at her side and glanced up to the first mate of the ship. The man bent over the railing so they could see him better. "The Captain wants to speak to you."

"What does he want now?" Ziva murmured irritated. Unfortunately her first impression of Melchor had been right. He wasn't a friendly person. Though he cared for the ship and the crew members, and seemed to be very good as a captain, he failed to be good at everything not concerning his job. But the crew trusted him. He fulfilled his job. That was enough for her.

"Stay calm, Ziver." Gibbs told her. He understood her irritation. He also wasn't a fan of the captain. But he was the captain and they had to live with that fact.

As they entered the control room, the captain motioned for them to look through the telescope."Look to the northwest."

Ziva glanced through the telescope, staring surprised and confused at what she saw. She considered for a moment if she lost her sense of time, because the next island shouldn't even be in sight before tomorrow evening.

She passed the telescope over to Gibbs, so that he could see it for himself.

"Which island is this?" Ziva asked Captain Melchor.

Melchor stared concentrated at Ziva. Gibbs had put down the telescope as Ziva had asked the question and was now waiting for the answer of her question. "We do not know. There are not any islands marked on any maps for this area."

"Not marked? What does this mean? Shouldn't all islands be marked on maps nowadays?"

"They are. Only small islands, which are not big enough to be of interest, are not always marked on maps, though local people still know about them. But this islands is definitely not small. It should be marked on the map."

"There are sightings of pirates in this area. Many local fishermen surely avoid come out here." Gibbs noted.

Melchor nodded confirming. "That's true. Still, I should have heard of an island of this size." He looked through the telescope again. "Do you know how sailors call unknown islands? Ghost islands."

Ziva rolled her eyes at that statement. She wasn't interested in sailor's yarn. Biting back a sarcastic reply, she ignored the other two men and turned to Gibbs. "It's in our search area, Gibbs."

Gibbs nodded. "True. We should take a look around this island."

Melchor whipped around, shaking his head vehemently. "Mr. Gibbs, Ms. David, we have been on sea for two weeks now. We have not enough supplies to explore a complete new island. Besides we do not know what is on this island!"

"If our friend is still alive, there's a possibility that he is on this island over there." Ziva argued, pointing to the island.

"She's right. It could be that he somehow ended up on this island." Gibbs strengthened their reasoning.

Melchor angrily grumbled something incoherent. He seemed to be anything but eager to anchor on an unknown and unexplored island. "You just said the magical word, Ms. David. If. If he is still alive. And I'm not stupid. The man you two are searching for is the American who went down with that freighter three years ago. The one the authorities have searched for in the past. Tell you what, I have seen pictures of the wreck and if you would ask me, there is no chance that your friend lived through this accident. No one did."

"There is no proof for his death, so as long as there's even the slightest chance that he is on this island, we will look for him there!" Ziva voiced Melchor thought that he could stand a chance against a furious and determined Ziva, he surely was mistaken. She won't ignore this chance at finding Tony.

"Again, our supplies aren't enough for such an adventure!"

Before Ziva could reply, Gibbs got closer to Melchor trying to be diplomatically. Surely they could find a solution for their disagreement. One, everybody would be satisfied with. "How about we separate? One part of the crew goes with us to the island, the rest will fetch more supplies at the next harbor."

The Captain considered Gibbs suggestion for a moment, though he still didn't look like he would accept this solution. When he spoke, his voice was very firm. "Mr. Gibbs, with all due respect. The next harbor at which we could restock our supplies is a trip of five days from here. Do you really want to spend ten days on a unknown island all by yourself?!"

"Captain, we pay you for helping us to find our friend."

Melchor crossed his arms and kept staring furiously at their American guests on the ship. If those two wanted to go on that island, he couldn't stop them. He wouldn't care if they died on that piece of unknown territory. But he sure as hell won't endanger anyone of his crew. Traveling through this part of the ocean was dangerous enough with all those pirates around. "You know what? It's your money and if you want to through it out of the window, you can do it. But whatever happens to anyone of my crew is my responsibility. I won't make anyone go on that island. They have to go voluntarily. But I can already assure you that it will not be many. They are fishermen. Not soldiers or pioneers or anything else. They are easy targets in dangerous situations."

Gibbs nodded. "And even if we have to go alone, so be it."

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I haven't started the chapter yet, but we might be seeing a familiar face soon…..