Government Guy
Light waves rock the boat as I step to the stern railing.
Deep sea fishing. I take a deep breath of the ocean air.
This silence is exactly what I needed.
My phone is back on land.
My chartered captain has left me alone.
And I need to find a way to do just this for the rest of my life.
The silence is broken when the captain shouts down from his cockpit. “Whales!”
My brows lift, and I drop my attention to the water.
Leaning over the rail, I narrow my eyes, focusing on the distorted image.
Then I see it.
My heart starts to race at the magnificent sight.
She’s passing beneath the boat.
Gods, she’s so big.
Then I see another.
And another.
There’s a whole pod of them.
I lean closer to the water.
I think I see a flash of color.
Something like… red hair?
I swallow and blink.
It had to be a fish.
The whales are so close to the surface. I reach down.
Watching the next one swim from beneath the boat.
It’s so…
I tilt my head as I try to understand the hand hooked around her fin.
My lungs still.
I don’t mean to look.
I don’t want to look.
But I find myself staring into the eyes of Vameer Vadas.
He winks.
I stumble back, tripping and falling onto my ass.
The captain yells something at me.
But I sit on the floor of the boat. Staring at the railing. Waiting for The Warrior to leap from the water and kill me.
Except he doesn’t.
And I wonder if that’s worse.