Although it was almost certain that the merchant who had rented out the boat had deceived them by giving Liang En and his team false information for his own salvage, the current situation brought about more questions.
The biggest question was what exactly this person was after, as from any angle, such an illicit excavation would definitely be a losing venture.
But the problem was, for this criminal organization, they would take huge risks to do certain things but would never do something that would lose money, so the situation now seemed very strange.
"I guess they must have discovered something they need here, but we just don't know what it is," Liang En whispered as he looked at the video of the other party's boat and divers that Fan Meng had recorded on his phone.
"What should we do next?" Fan Meng asked Liang En. "Do we need to call in some people from the White Knight Security Company? There's a team of former professional soldiers ready to be deployed."
"No, we don't need to. We can get official support, so there's no need to complicate things by bringing in our own force," Liang En said, shaking his hand lightly.
"But we need to understand what the other party is up to. Since we're acting openly and legally here, any action against them requires us to understand their actions first," Liang En said with a troubled expression.
"I think I might have a good idea," Jeanne d'Arc said suddenly, having watched the video carefully. "We can start by investigating these divers."
"That might not work. The area around Santorini Island is a diving hotspot, with many people diving in the area. There's even a diving school on the island teaching tourists with no experience," Fan Meng said, shaking his head helplessly.
"So, diving around here is a very common activity. Just based on this, we won't have enough reason to investigate their actions."
"You're right, but the problem is this area has many historical relics," Jeanne d'Arc smiled, then took out a tourist booklet she had picked up at the airport.
"I got this booklet at Athens Airport. It's meant to inform tourists about what to be aware of when traveling in Greece, including rules for diving in the area."
"According to this booklet, because Greece is the center of ancient civilization, there are numerous historical relics both on land and underwater."
"Therefore, in the Aegean Sea area, to protect possible underwater historical relics, all divers must get a permit to dive, and diving without a permit is illegal."
"You're right. Now that I think about it, these people do look very suspicious," Fan Meng recalled some suspicious points about the group after Jeanne d'Arc's explanation.
One suspicious point was that only this group of people was diving in this area, while other yachts only passed through the area without stopping, let alone diving, indicating their location was not a diving spot.
Another suspicious point was that this group seemed to be deliberately avoiding others. After recalling carefully, Fan Meng confirmed that this group never appeared when other boats were nearby.
"So we now have enough evidence to prove this group is likely trying to conduct illegal underwater excavations," Liang En clapped his hands and said.
"So the next step is simple. I can hand over this information to the Greek officials who accompanied us and see if they will take corresponding actions."
After returning to the hotel, Liang En quickly found the official and showed him the video, explaining that his bodyguard had found it suspicious during their trip.
"Thank your bodyguard for his vigilance. This indeed seems to be someone conducting illegal excavation work," the official said seriously.
"I will immediately send this information to the police. If everything goes well, they will try to stop this activity and arrest these criminals soon."
Although the Greek officials were known to be somewhat sluggish at times, due to the fact that Liang En and his team were notable figures, the Greeks moved much faster this time.
The next morning, Liang En was informed of the results of the police raid the previous night. With the video evidence, it was easy to track the boat and its owner.
The local police launched the first raid that night after obtaining concrete information. However, the result was not very optimistic.
Although the police confirmed the boat involved in the crime and found several newly salvaged pottery shards in the company's office, they did not capture the criminals.
Based on the on-site investigation, the owner saw the police approaching through the surveillance cameras and escaped. The company's employees they caught knew nothing about the matter.
"But don't worry, we have issued a wanted notice based on our investigation. If all goes well, we should be able to catch these criminals soon."
The next morning, the official briefed Liang En and the archaeological team on the results of their operation the previous night.
"You have done a great job," said the middle-aged leader of the Irish National Museum's archaeological team. "I believe you will soon bring these criminals to justice."
After this small episode, everyone quickly resumed their excavation work. This time, they adjusted their survey direction, changing the excavation site from the wrong location provided by the deceiver to the correct one.
After switching locations, they quickly found the underwater conditions entirely different from before. Through a series of simple searches, they soon found the severely damaged wreck of an ancient ship on the seabed.
That afternoon, after lunch, the divers found something using metal detectors. When the items were hauled up to the deck, they discovered more metal pieces similar to those Liang En had found earlier.
Besides metal pieces, they also found scattered wooden fragments and broken pottery shards. From these, Liang En and his team could confirm that this was likely a merchant ship that sank for some reason.
More importantly, judging from the condition of the ship, it was likely a merchant ship from that era, allowing the archaeologists to study the overall situation of that period through the wreck.
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