Page 110 of Uncharted

“Holy shit!” Easton cries.

“What?” I’m walking the panel to the other side of the main salon to put it with the others.

“It’s like someone went to Best Buy and loaded up on electronics.” Easton’s holding a box in each hand, both from leading manufacturers of yacht electronics. A red Simrad box and a black Digital Yacht box. “I’m guessing these might be replacements for the snap boards in the wheelhouse?” He hands me one.

“These are exactly what we need. What else is in there?” I duck my head in, hoping for some engine parts, but it’s just boxes of electronics.

“I’m guessing this isn’t normal storage for duplicates? Something the shipyard forgot to tell Sam about?”

“No. This... this makes that box of clues Zane keeps obsessing over even more complicated.” I slap the wall.

“The saboteur was after the yacht? Not the diamond, not trying to kill Emily and me... and everyone else along with us? This is...”

“Amazing. Right now, I don’t fucking care how any of this shit got here. I only care about installing it.” My brain is whirling.

“Yeah, no way either of us is going to sleep now.”

“Fuck no. Help me get the rest of the boxes out.” I grab three red boxes and stack them on the table. A few hours later, we’ve got ten boxes of components, and fuck me, I only knew seven of them were damaged. Which somehow pisses me off even more. Most of the parts are plug and play. Which is fabulous. But the high-frequency radio, the one that could get us some actual help? There are no parts for that one.

“Something else must have gone wrong.” Easton’s pushing the trash from the boxes into a bag. I’ve got sweat running down my back and one of the last parts in my hands.

“What do you mean?”

“Why put all these parts in the wall if you weren’t going to come and claim the yacht?”

“We were in a weird current with the storm. The other raft got yanked in the direction we should have been.”

“So you think whoever was going to put all this back in found my sister’s raft?”

“I don’t know anything anymore, but yeah, sure. That sounds plausible.”

“Don’t get snippy about it. We’re talking about my sister and my dad. Now I’m not sure it’s a good thing if they were found.”

“And Anders, Shayla, the rest of the crew. I’m not snippy. I’m never snippy.”

Easton glares. “You’re the definition of snippy, grumpy, whatever you want to call it.” He’s got thatI’m counting to tenlook. The one my dad used a lot. Huh. Right, well, maybe I am snippy. “Whatever the fuck you want.”

The VHF radio on the sideboard crackles, and excited voices come over it. Voices that sound remarkably clear.

“Kill the light.” I grab the manual binoculars and flare gun. Easton moves to go to the back deck, but I grab his arm. “Up top, stay low.”

We fly up the stairs, and when we get there, we’re only there for a few seconds before Easton turns to me. “There’s too many of them.”

Chapter48

Seized

Haley

I roll over, and Sam’s blue eyes are watching me. “Morning, Sugar,” he says.

“Sugar?” Zane laughs from the platform below.

“You good to get going? I know Calvin’s anxious to get working on things.”

I put my head on his chest. “I know Calvin won’t say, but do you think he’s close to getting an engine to turn over?”

Sam presses a kiss to the top of my rat’s nest hair. “I think so. It damn well feels like things are really close. But then, really close could be another month.”