As Gray cleared the rock pile, he spotted a mound half buried in the sand and draped in strands of seaweed. A pale, outstretched arm rested atop the beach.
A body.
They hurried over. The dead man lay on his back, his eyes open and glazed. His legs were covered by wet sand but his exposed chest was striped with blackened marks, as if he’d been lashed with a flaming whip.
Ben dropped to his knees with a sharp curse. “Simon…”
Gray crinkled his brow. “You know this man?”
“He’s the reason we’re all here.” Ben gazed out to sea, plainly searching the waters. “He was a biologist working for the Australian Research Council. Part of the Coral Reef Study. He was out here monitoring the spread of coral bleaching. It’s knocked out two-thirds of the reef. A bloody international disaster. One Simon was trying to prevent from spreading.”
Seichan frowned at the blackened stripes across his body. “What happened to him?”
Ben spat into the sand as he stood. “Chironex fleckeri.”
“And that would be what?” Gray pressed.
“The Australian box jellyfish. One of the most venomous creatures on the planet They’re as big as basketballs with three-meter-long tentacles full of stinging cells. It’s why we call them sea wasps. You get stung by one of those and you can die an agonizing death before you reach shore.” Ben shook his head, continuing to stare out to sea. “They’ve multiplied like crazy since the bleaching, thriving on these oxygen-deprived waters.”
Gray studied the ravaged body, noting the rictus of pain frozen on the dead man’s face. Seichan gently picked up his outstretched hand, examining the pliability of the fingers. She glanced significantly at Gray.
At these warm temperatures, with his body baking in the sun, rigor mortis would have set in within four hours. Which meant he’d died recently.
“Makes no sense,” Ben muttered as he stepped away, rubbing the stubble across his chin and cheek.
Gray followed him, hearing the worry behind his words. “What makes no sense?”
Ben waved to their gear spread over the sand. “It’s why I hauled in full wet suits. While the seas around here might be plenty warm enough to go skinny-dipping in, you don’t go diving in these waters without covering yourself up.”
While unpacking the gear, Gray had noted the set of Ocean Reef Neptune masks, meant to cover a diver’s face and head. They even had integrated comm units to allow them to communicate with each other underwater.
“Simon would’ve known better than to go swimming in these waters without proper protection.” Ben gave another shake of his head. “Something’s bloody wrong here. Where’s his catamaran? Where are the others?”
“Others?” Gray asked.
“He was working with a small team from ANFOG.” Ben noted his confusion. “The Australian National Facility for Ocean Gliders. They’re a group of oceanographers that deploy underwater gliders, unmanned drones that patrol the reefs. The devices can continuously sample water, monitoring temperature, salinity, light levels.”
“To help study the coral bleaching,” Gray said.
“There were four scientists from the University of Western Australia aboard his boat, along with a graduate student.” Ben glanced with concern at Gray. “Simon’s daughter, Kelly.”
Gray understood.
The others wouldn’t have abandoned the dead man, especially his daughter.
Seichan joined him, her brows pinched with suspicion. “You said the dead man was the reason we’re here. Why?”
“Simon knew I was up in the Queensland area. He wanted to see if I might help him solve a mystery. One suited to my particular skill set.”
Gray frowned. “What skill set?”
“At mapping and traversing tricky cavern systems.”
Gray knew the man’s history. He was formerly with the Australian army, specializing in infiltration and extractions. He had been recruited from a military prison to help with an operation in Antarctica two decades ago, one involving an unexplored cavern system and a missing team of scientists.
“What did Simon want with your skills here?” Gray asked.
“Three days ago, one of the group’s gliders revealed the opening to an underwater cave, likely exposed from the cyclone that swept this coast last month.”
Seichan crossed her arms. “And he wanted you to help explore it. Why?”
“Because of what he found in the sand at its entrance. A set of old manacles and a half-buried ship’s bell. They recovered the objects and found a name inscribed on the bell. The Trident.”
Ben glanced between them to see if they recognized the name.
Gray shrugged.
“The Trident was a convict ship that transported prisoners from Great Britain to Australia. While docked in Melbourne in 1852, a group of prisoners teamed up with a handful of the ship’s mutinous crew. They commandeered the Trident, absconding with several crates of gold mined from the Victorian goldfields. After that, the ship vanished into history.”
“Until now,” Seichan commented drily.
Gray stared out at the promontory jutting into the sea. “Perhaps Captain Cook wasn’t the only one who had trouble navigating these waters.”
“That’s certainly true. You can find plenty of shipwrecks out there. Like the ruins of S.S. Yongala farther south. It sank during a cyclone a century ago.”
Seichan sighed. “So you brought us to the edge of a graveyard of ships.”
“I thought you might like to do a little treasure hunting with us. I never thought…” His words died away as he glanced at the remains of his friend.
“If this is truly foul play,” Gray said, “then someone else must have caught wind of Simon’s discovery. What else did your friend tell you?”
“Only to meet him here, and if he was delayed, to head to the coordinates of the glider’s discovery.”
Gray frowned. “And where is that?”
Ben pointed to the promontory of Cape Tribulation. “On the far side of that ridge.”
Before he could drop his arm, a sharp chatter of gunfire echoed from that direction. A startled flock of birds took flight from the forest near there.
Knowing what this implied, Gray cursed himself for leaving his satellite phone back in D.C., but the device was Sigma property.
“With no cell signal and no radio,” Gray said, “we have no way of alerting authorities.”
“So what do we do?” Ben asked.
Gray turned his back on the sea and stalked toward their gear. “We suit up and get to work.”
As Seichan swam from the shallows to the deeper water, her body shed the dulling months of relaxation. With each stroke and kick, an icy coldness suffused her limbs. It sharpened her senses, honing her reflexes. The weeks of leisure faded into a dream, proving how illusory those months had been.
She settled into that cold center of her being. Her true nature was as coldblooded as any shark in these warm waters, predators that needed to keep moving to survive.
It was a lesson she knew all too well.
She followed behind Gray and Ben as they glided over the bright reefs. She studied Gray’s physique, the kick of muscular legs, the sweep of his arms. She remembered the glint in his eyes as he turned from the seas to prepare for this dive.
Like her, he was in his element.
After recent events back in the States, the two of them had attempted to flee, to vanish for a spell, to use the time to heal, to discover each other in new ways. And they had. But they both seemed to sense that such a sojourn could not last.