Page 31 of Uncharted

“Fuck, there she is,” Zane shouts into the wind. “She’s horrible-looking and amazing all at the same time.”

“Indeed.” I pull up to the swim deck. I’ve got one of the inflatable docks tied to the back of the ship. The reef has popped one already, but we have ten of them and some days I’m too tired to pull it in and put it back out again. I use it to float equipment around the sides of the ship to check on the patch.

The way Zane hops out is a thing of beauty, a little slice of normalcy in the way he does it.

“I know we don’t have much time before we lose light, but I want to talk to you about what I’ve found. And this stays between us. Let’s go up to the wheelhouse.”

Chapter14

Foundering

Calvin

A fucking mole. “You think someone sabotaged the ship? Why?” It doesn’t make sense. But then, I’ve been wracking my brain for weeks and none of it made sense then either. “Why?”

“Right. That I don’t know. But this? This I can hold in my hands.” He pulls a plastic zipper bag out of the cabinet behind his chair and hands it to me. “I put it in there. When we get back to civilization, maybe they can pull prints off it?” It’s a computer board, snapped in half.

I flick my eyes over to him. I’m still not confident that we’re going to get this ship working again. But maybe I can get communications back online. I eye a shortwave radio on the table beside his chair. My soldering iron is next to it. “All right, well, we know Candy was off her rocker. What if she came in here and pulled it out and snapped it?”

“No,” Zane said. “Haley went straight to get Candy and Rocky out. They were asleep. I mean, this would have been noticeable right away.” Zane pushes on the back of the table.

“It’s not just the motherboard. The ship’s radios were all sliced. And boards pulled, wires cut. The water tanks were out of balance, but these stickers were making them look like they were.” He flips through the captain’s log and points to two stickers.

“But we’d been having problems with the stabilizers all along, ever since we left the dockyard.” I can’t take my eyes off the destroyed electronics.

“Right. But we had a new crew on board.” Zane’s staring at it too.

“Yes, but they were on board. Making an entire boat abandon ship with yourself? That’s just crazy.” I hand the board back to Sam.

“Who’s stupid enough to do this and trap themselves on a raft just hoping for a rescue?” The words hang between us, charged with a mix of hope and disbelief.

“It makes no sense. Not with the cracked motherboard and the myriad of other issues you’ve discovered. This is beyond a mere stabilizer malfunction; it’s a shit show. It’s going to take months, and that’s if I had replacement parts. I haven’t even made it down to the engine room yet. If they spent this much time messing with the electrical, what have they done to the engines?” My stomach tightens.

“Look at this,” the captain urges as he guides us down the corridor, past his quarters, and into the “Grand Salon.” He’s peeled a panel from the wall to find wires dangling like loose vines in a jungle. That’s what we see: a nest of cables, some severed clean through. “Someone not only yanked on these but cut them, too, then put the panel back in place.”

“This didn’t just happen; it started back at the boatyard.” The sabotage is deeper than I ever imagined, reaching further than someone aboard. But someone on board finished it.

“I can only trust the two of you,” he confesses.

I instinctively cover my mouth, stepping back as Zane fixes him with a steady gaze.

“And Haley?” Zane’s question hangs there, fragile as a soap bubble.

“Yes, Haley.” He purses his lips. He’s playing it cool with Haley. We’ve got other things to worry about, and I understand. “I trust Haley, but there’s no need to bring her into this.” The captain’s assurance is solid, but his next words are for our ears only. “But this stays between us.” He snaps the panel back in place with a finality that echoes my pounding heart. “Understood?”

He looks at me; I nod. “Just us three,” I agree, my voice steadier than my nerves. I don’t like not telling Haley. I’ve given the captain my word, and I’m always a man of my word. But I might not be this time.

“What else do you need?” The captain’s practicality is a lifeline. “You’ve got about thirty, maybe forty minutes before darkness swallows us whole. I don’t want the reef ripping a hole in the tender during low tide.”

“Copy that,” I say.

“I’m going to check out the crew deck.” Zane glances to the back stairs.

“I’ll join you,” I add. I’m curious about the state of my own cabin.

The yacht is a fucking disaster. The cushions from the sofa are on the floor, but better yet, there’s not a horse in sight, not a pillow nor a painting—they’re all gone.

Down the stairs to the crew galley, there’s junk all the way. Bags, boxes. I kick a few to the side. The captain made a hasty search for provisions. I grab a scrub brush, dish rags, and some hand sanitizer and toss it in an empty grocery bag from the floor.

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