My shoulders tighten when I see the dog. A black Lab, ten meters away, sniffing at the tussock grass.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I crouch there in the dark, legs burning, frozen to the spot. If they spot me…how the hell am I supposed to explain to this stranger why I’m crouching in the sand dunes in the dead of night?
Unless…this person isn’t a stranger.
I peer through the tussock grass to the parking lot, narrowing my eyes when I see the silhouette of a man. I scan his features, but it’s too dark to see his face.
The dog lifts its head, sniffs once.
And looks straight at me.
“Come here!” the man yells. I flatten my hands on the ground, ducking so low that my nose touches the sand. The dog barks urgently, and my heart seizes in fear as the man climbs the side of the dune, swearing under his breath.
I stop breathing.
“Get here now!” the man commands, slipping his hand into the dog’s collar, roughly pulling it away. The dog won’t stop barking. It rises up on its back legs, straining hard. I flinch with each bark and wait, breathless and anxious, until the barking subsides and the footsteps retreat. When I’m sure they’re gone, I raise my head and scan the parking lot.
Empty.
I get slowly to my feet. With a quick glance to my left and right, I creep to the edge of the clifftop, the boom of the waves pounding my eardrums as I get closer. Wind claws at my hair, stinging my eyes as I hide in the shadows, staring down at the dark water.
And there it is.
A blur of white cruising through the darkness. I reach into my pocket and dig out the binoculars, scanning the scrawl of words on the side of the boat. Yes, it’s her.
TheDeep Sea.
I hover there at the cliffside, standing sideways to shield my body from the wind. I scan the boat through the binoculars, not even sure what I’m looking for as it races through the water.
My pulse quickens when it starts to slow down near a marker buoy. The captain gets to his feet, hands still on the wheel as he peers over the side into the water. Heath. A man beside him is tucked into the passenger seat in a loose ball of limbs, eyes fixed on a mobile phone. Luke.
The boat comes to a stop, bobbing on the water, disappearing for a moment as a wave rolls past. And when the view clears, I stare down and freeze.
Heath is standing in the middle of the boat, staring straight at the clifftop. I swear, he’s looking right at me. Instinctively, I duck, but there’s no way he can see me here. I’m hidden in the darkness, dressed all in black. Even if he had binoculars, he’d struggle to spot me. So, why is he staring so intently at the clifftop?
I glance behind me, terrified the man and his dog will reappear. I brace myself to run, ready to flee at any second. But there’s nothing. Just the dark and the wind blowing over the tussock grass.
I turn back, bringing the binoculars slowly up to my eyes. He’s moving now, stalking up and down the boat, pointing at the water as Luke leans over the rail, looking down. Heath crowds in beside him, peering intently into the water.
Shark nets,Luke had said.The VFA put ’em up last month. Two meters under the surface, a hundred meters long. S’posed to reduce the chance of an attack.
I raise an eyebrow in surprise as Heath drops into the skipper’s seat and Luke shines a torch on the surface. They must be looking for any tangled wildlife.
Stingrays, turtles, none of the big boys yet…
TheDeep Seacruises parallel to the shore as Luke shines his torch alongside, inspecting the nets. I lower the binoculars, feeling foolish. I don’t know what the hell I expected to see, but it wasn’t this.
But then.
Luke whirls around, eyes scanning the clifftop, his body frozen. From his spot at the skipper’s seat, Heath glances first at the deserted beach, then slowly raises his head to the parking lot. I check it, too, pausing to glance over my right shoulder at the empty lot.
What are they looking for?
Heath turns to Luke, and it looks like he’s calling out something over the idling engine. Luke walks quickly to the kill tank. He crouches down, wrenches it open, and reaches in.
The next part happens so fast that I’m reeling.
