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“Don’t come for me!”

Donald grabs her hair.

“One more word,” he says, “and I’ll put you on your knees beside the railing.”

Simon takes the radio from him.

“Twenty-nine minutes.”

The transmission ends.

The Argent Star continues across the bay.

Two Coast Guard vessels follow at a distance. A third holds position ahead of it, blocking the northern channel.

“They can’t go anywhere,” Hazel says.

Thomas shakes his head.

“The Mariner’s Crown was built to enter places other vessels couldn’t.”

Keating looks toward him. “It’s still a ship. It can’t disappear.”

“No. But it can reach Blackwater.”

Mom tightens her hand around Nathan’s.

“Where?”

“A sea entrance beneath the cliffs. James believed Donald sealed it years ago.”

“He didn’t,” I say.

Everyone looks at me.

“Simon brought the ship back because he needs Dad’s film. If the original is inside Blackwater, that’s where he’s going.”

Thomas nods slowly.

“The Argent Star is small enough to enter the old loading channel at high tide.”

Keating brings up a navigation map.

“Blackwater Island is more than two hours from their current position.”

“Not if Simon changed the engines,” Ward says.

“Even then, he won’t reach it in thirty minutes.”

“He doesn’t intend to wait thirty minutes for the compass,” Ben says.

He enters the ruined dry dock with Mark, John and Piers. Water pours through a split in the concrete wall, flooding the floor around their boots.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Finding out what Simon left behind.”

“You were just inside an explosion.”