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“Jansen,” I tried again

I checked the forward cabin Ee Empty, too Jansen was not on board Had he been taken by the people in the plane? Or had he gone voluntarily?

I climbed back down to the one It had been here when I’d left earlier Clearly, it had found its way onto the plane

Then soht my eye

A red-and-white Igloo cooler, which hadn’t been there before

Maybe Jansen had brought it up frolanced out across the water and saw another seaplane But instead of vectoring for Fort Jefferson it turned west and headed my way

Then I noticed so else

A wire leading fro the port rail

Alar in my brain

I rushed to the cooler and removed the top The inside was packed with plastic-wrapped clay bricks Metal posts were buried into the top layer Wires led to an electronic device

A detonator

No timer was visible, which meant it was probably re out had to be an antenna

I darted to the rail, glancing up to see the seaplane bank north and start a loeep that would take it about a quarter ht the coloration Blue and white Then the ID numbers

1180206

The same one from before

It had circled back

That couldn’t be good

I leaped from the boat into the water and powered myself deep

Just as the Isla Marie exploded

I surfaced

Thankfully, I’d h to escape the destruction Debris floated everywhere and I felt a swift current that would take it all, including et myself into and I wondered how much of it had been intentional on the players’ part

Stephanie Nelle Jansen Coleen Perry

And a guy named Valdez

Stupid me assumed that Jansen had been either har? Fools rush in where angels fear to tread And this fool had certainly done that Had Jansen set me up for a kill?

I tried to swiained, the current reclaimed that much andit for flotation, which allowed s to rest I’d swum more today than in the past two years

I quickly drifted away from land

Hopefully, so for an easy lunch If so, there’d be little I could do to dissuade them

An engine broke the silence

Not a plane A boat

I’d been hoping the park service personnel at Fort Jefferson would cos blew up around here?

I saw a craft headed my way

But not from the east where the fort lay This one caerhead

An inflatable

Like the one from before

Anything had to be better than wearingin the open sea Particularly consideringto conclusions So I waved my arms and attracted attention The buzz of an outboard came steadily nearer, then eased up toward me and I sao men inside

The divers from the wreck

Nothing about this was going to be good, but what choice did I have? I took some comfort from the fact that if they wanted me dead they’d just leave me in the water

I swarabbed the inflatable

So hard slammed my head