Page 298 of Hidden Depths

Piers zoomed in with the camera.

“The man at the stern has something in his hand.”

“A weapon?” Ward asked.

“No.”

Piers’s face changed.

“It’s another lure.”

The man lifted the brass lure into the sunlight.

Even from a distance...

I imagined that anchor.

The serpent.

Then he pointed directly at me.

Ward stepped in front of me.

The man smiled.

He threw the lure into the water.

Then raised two fingers to his forehead in a mocking salute.

“Who is he?” I whispered.

No one answered.

The stranded boat began taking on water.

Yet the man didn’t seem afraid.

He simply stood there...

Watching Sea Whisper sail away.

As if getting trapped on the reef had never mattered.

As if shooting at us had never been the real mission.

Piers lowered the camera.

His expression was grim.

“I know why they followed us.”

Ward looked at him.

“Why?”

Piers turned the camera around.

On the screen was a clear picture of the man holding the lure.