The rooftop was a mess of fish guts and bird shit, awaiting a long-overdue rain. The horizon promised a storm. Black clouds bubbled up above the dark strip of distant water studded with the bright jewels of treasure divers’ boats. The rain would come and the shore would creep closer. The water would get deeper and bury her secrets.

Far to the north of the gathered boats, closer to the brewing storm and the distant hills, the water seemed rougher. The white gauze of chopped waves laced its surface.

A red boat bobbed on the inlet.

I dropped the pail of fish. Heard the frantic beat of descending wings behind me as I raced back down the concrete stairs, around and around, back to the lobby.

“Alden! Alden, he’s at the inlet! He’s in the water!”

Alden paled. “I don’t know what to do about that.”

“You have to stop him. We have to save him!”

“How? Dive in after him? Set a net? Bait a hook with your pussy?”

“Fuck you, Alden! We have to go.”

“Go to the beach. I’ll meet you there.” He limped out from behind the desk.

I didn’t wait to ask his plan. I ran.

My feet found their way across the bone beach, each footstep snapping down, sinking beneath the small skulls, their empty sockets folding shut under my toes, raising a fine dust of chemical calcium. I dodged bubbling mud pools and slid over polished eye stones. I grazed my shins on young yucca growing up from the new beach, until my knees hit the bone grit of the hidden inlet. The water was deeper than it had been years ago. Only the tip of a mast was visible above the water, its scrap of sail like a grey flag.

The red boat rocked offshore, anchor dropped into the dark water, her deck bare, her winch line taut.

I advanced as far as I dared, my toes right up against where the sand turned wet.

“Robb!”

I knew he couldn’t hear me. There was no one else on the boat. His whole life was strung on that winch line. I twisted my hair into fisherman’s knots. The sky had begun to growl.

Alden came stumbling up behind me, a large package under his arm, his pack slung over his shoulder. He let it fall to the sand and pulled the ripcord, and a small inflatable raft expanded at our feet.

“Is it safe?” I stared at the dark water and the thin rubber bottom of the raft.

“No. Doesn’t matter—we have to do this.”

We dragged the raft to the chopping waves. I flinched as the water brushed my feet. Alden didn’t touch the water. He hopped over the side and pulled me in after.