Jack lifted his light to the depiction of the place the new figures had emerged – the cave opening. He moved the light from the drawing to the cave opening on the cliff wall – the shape was exactly the same. “I feel good about this.”

“But there are no natives on Heceta Island,” Abby said. “I don’t think there’s ever been.”

“Not now. But what about twenty, thirty, fifty thousand years ago?” He stepped closer. “I’m no expert, but these are very old – stone age, maybe?”

“Yes, late Pleistocene, I think,” Abby said. “We see a lot of cave art in geological excavations. And you’re right, this could be anything between thirty and fifty thousand years old.”

“That’s a lot of time to have passed,” Cate said.

“Not geologically,” Abby said. “That’s like yesterday on the geo-clock.”

Cate nodded. “I’d agree, if this area wasn’t prone to earthquakes.”

Abby sighed. “Yeah, there is that.”

Jack turned back to the beach, his eyes on the crabs. “Well, if those peoples were able to come down and go back up, then goddamn so will we. But first, we need something in our bellies.”

They all turned to the wave of crabs. Cate hated the thought of trying to make a meal of the tiny living creatures, but her stomach growled loudly, and she knew she’d eat as many as she could catch.

*   *   *

Cate spat more crab shell onto the ground. It reminded her of when you had a fried egg, and managed to score the shard of eggshell between your teeth – except this was twice as hard and unyielding. In the end, she gave up trying to remove the minuscule amounts of meat, and swallowed everything down.

She spat again and looked up, and then across at the cave wall. There was a vast rent in the cave wall, disgorging tumbled boulders to the shoreline. Some were rounded, almost looking melted together as if the cliff face had vomited the stone down into the water.

The cave looked to only extend in about fifty feet. “Doesn’t go in very far,” Cate said, feeling her optimism dip.

“No, but that’s not the direction we want to go,” Jack said. “We see where it leads.”

She nodded, and looked back over her shoulder at the sea. It was still as glass, just some vapor rising from the bath-warm water. She couldn’t shake the feeling something was gliding past, frustrated now that they had escaped.

“Yes, we see where it leads.” She continued to watch the water. “I’m finished with sea travel for a while,” she added softly.

“Let’s do this.” Jack started off, followed by Abby.

Cate gave the water one last look. Anger flared, as she tried to see beneath its surface. “Fuck you.” She turned away and followed Abby and Jack into the cave.

CHAPTER 20

Alaskan Department of Natural Resources

– Geological Resources Division