Page 7 (1/2)

Indian Ocean

A flash of blue lightning forked across the horizon For a second or two it lit up the gray darkness where sea and storm met Kurt Austin stared into that darkness fro helicopter shouldered its way through bands of pouring rain Turbulence shook the craft, and thirty-foot swells rolled beneath the wind

As the lightning faded, Kurt saw his reflection on the glass Roughly forty, with silver-gray hair, Kurt was handso blue eyes saw to that But like a truck that spent its days on the worksite instead of in the garage, his face carried the miles in plain view

The lines around his eyes were etched a little deeper than hts, car crashes, and other incidents marked his brow and jaw It was the face of a , even as the helicopter neared the lie

He pressed the intercom switch and looked ahead to where his friend Joe Zavala sat in the copilot’s seat “Anything?”

“Nothing,” Joe called back

Kurt and Joe worked for NUMA, the National Underwater Marine Agency, a branch of the Aovernment dedicated to the study and preservation of the sea But, at the moment, they were part of a roup of floundering vessels that had been caught in a debilitating storm

As they flew on, the radio crackled with static and rapid-fire conversations between the South African Coast Guard and the sroup of rescue craft

“Sapphire That’s your position?”

“Sapphire Two has contact with the Endless Road She appears to be drifting but watertight Four crew are visible Maneuvering into position for basket rescue”

“Roger that, Sapphire Two Sapphire Three, what’s your status?”

“Inbound with rescues Two appear to have hypothermia, third is stable”

The stor intensity as it approached the Cape of Good Hope It swept up several freighters, including a thousand-foot containership, and then swung north and set its sights on a group of yachts and other pleasure craft involved in a friendly race from Durban to Australia

The fury of the storm and its sudden arrival had taxed the South

African Coast Guard to the li the help of a Royal Navy frigate, two American supply ships, and the NUMA research vessel Condor