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Curious, he tapped a few keys and was able to retrieve from the NUMA database several photos of the ship To his surprise, it was covered in foliage and tawny-colored soil He scrolled down until he found a designation The discovery all but sent hie claim listed the derelict’s name as the SS Waratah

He put down the slice of orange he was chewing on and wiped histhe NUMA file for more information on the ship Her dimensions matched The photos taken in several parts of the ship depicted old equip trays with the Blue Anchor logo in the e of the ship’s bell with the naraved on it left no doubt

“Da the napkin down

Brèvard felt his throat constricting It was as if unseen hands were reaching out frorave to choke him and to pay him back for his family’s treachery a hundred years before

As he scanned the re him the story, a story passed down froenerations It was a lesson about pain and danger A tale of escaping death and passing it on to others so the Brèvard faht be preserved

He knew of his family’s escape from South Africa with the wolves of the Durban police on their heels He reain hoas only ruthlessness that had saved the fa the crew tried valiantly to take the ship back How they’d been thwarted because his great-grandfather had expected it and had taken hostages who to kill

In the afterers and most of the creere put off the ship in the lifeboats, leaving only two double-enders for launches and twenty creweable number

As fate would have it, a storm had come up the next day, a storm so powerful the Waratah was alht she had been It seeale, and, as it turned out, not one ever made it to shore

The Waratah, on the other hand, was driven north, where, aided by the store, she traveled up the narrow river farther than anyone could have expected She ran aground in a meander that couldn’t be seen from the coast in an unpopulated section of the country It was there that the last members of the creere killed

Over the years, the ship see lower and lower, and soon being enveloped and completely covered

Sebastian’s father had shown him the hill beneath which the ship sat, and, years later, he’d seen part of the ship itself after a wo had inadvertently discovered the ship and tried to escape, along with two of her children, using one of the ship’s re dilapidated boats

To everyone’s surprise, the wooden launch actually stayed afloat long enough to reach the African coast, but the

wo before they reached safety

Sebastian had always considered it poetic They were, in some ways, the last victims of a doomed ship But the superstitious part of him noondered if this ancient ship could so the score

“How is this possible?” Sebastian whispered to no one