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Will was there He touched her arm, and she looked at him and knew he’d be there for her, a safety net
She looked into the salon--and it began
At first, the characters were ghostly She heard her own breathing through the respirator; she felt Will close at her side
Then the characters becaain she was alone on the ship’s deck She heard the laughter, the s about the curse…
It was co, and she knew it The wind that beca, the shadowy, shapeless thing,toward thee, tall It was a e dark eyes, his arms crossed over his chest He wore a tall, turbanlike hat or cap, and jewels adorned his neck The eyes looked at her, stygian, blank, as if sightless, and yet all-seeing…
It--he--came closer and as he was nearly upon her, she felt pure terror
Then…
She heard a garbled voice "Breathe!"
She was being shaken She blinked and saw Will She was treh an ice stor…
She didn’t choke
And as she saw hi; she had faith in herself But his faith was even greater, and he would stop whatever demons came for her, stop them before they could reach her
Yes, Will seemed to have faith in her, and he seeo back up before the others, although he realized she’d seen soh she wasn’t sure how to convey that to him, he didn’t protest any of her roup It always seemed impossible that no one had noticed their later arrival What felt like aeons when she was staring into the salon must have been just a minute or two
She and Will went to work A over a crate packed in a tarp, trying to deterht and, no doubt, whether or not they could bring it to the surface
Jimmy Green noted that their dive time was up, and they made the ascent
There were more treasures, of course As usual, Amanda commanded the ti in the background with Kat, and it wasn’t until the dive trip had ended and they were in the car, headed to the hotel to shower and change, that he was able to ask her what she’d seen
"I don’t know," she said "I guess I was expecting a mummy to suddenly appear in the darkness But it wasn’t It was a… I don’t knohat it was A giant Egyptian,some kind of headpiece He had deep, dark eyes The eyes didn’t see at the ship It was the great dark shadow that threatened the ship"
"Interesting," Will said "Maybe once we’ve gone through soiant Egyptian," heman, say early twenties, with dark skin and exceptionally fine features I’y the way you are, but I’ve seen pictures of pharaohs that were similar"
"Maybe it was Amun Mopat We don’t actually knohat he looked like," Will said
Kat made a sound of distaste
"It wasn’t really Aiant, and I still don’t believe he caht be who or what you saw in your hed "Will, when I went down to the galley before the second dive, I found A on her cell phone She said--and I quote--‘I’ll find it I’ you, I’ll find it’"
"Did she know you heard her?"
Kat nodded "She said she’d lost a friend’s CD And then she startedsandwiches"
"She could have lost a CD--or she could be looking for so shot The ship’s been at the bottom of that lake for over a hundred years And it’s not like Amanda’s ever down there alone"
"No, but we’ve all been bringing up pieces of pottery and stone statues--and the dagger and the box There could be so special down there," Kat said
"We have copies of the ship’s h it, but I’ll read it hly and try to discern if there was one special thing aold death mask was considered thelike that"
Kat grinned "His deathof that size out of the water!"
At the hotel, they went to their separate roo the rooo between theht; they’d all learned that everyone was in a better position with good backup
She should have been concentrating on her vision, trying to analyze it and determine what she’d seen with her sixth sense, but…she was hu about Will Chan, about his lean and muscular body and the beautiful warh she was all alone, she blushed She realized she didn’t have to; she was an adult and it was okay to be attracted to a ue