Son’s favorite stories to tell, though, were of the Con Dao Sea Monster. There had been tales for generations of the monster. Maybe for as long as people had lived on the archipelago. Myths to scare children: shadows and drownings, shapes seen on the shore. But now everyone came to believe the stories. There were several deaths of illegal fishermen attributed to the monster—mostly local free divers who used cyanide or spears to kill reef fish for the tourist market. Most of the deaths were drownings. In some cases, the bodies were bruised and battered as if they had been forcibly held underwater.

Two of them, though, had been stabbed with their own spears. And a park ranger who was poaching turtle eggs had been slashed to death on the beach.

The more superstitious among Con Dao’s population thought it was the ghosts of the political prisoners on the island, seeking revenge. Son didn’t think so. He thought it was something natural, reacting to the overfishing, the constant harm to the reefs. It was life thrown out of balance, lashing out.

Then one of the dive shop’s customers was killed by the Con Dao Sea Monster while Lawrence was leading him on a shipwreck dive.

That incident closed the dive shop Son worked for and brought Son’s perfect job to an end, but the job would have ended anyway: shortly afterward, DIANIMA bought the archipelago.

The purchase of the archipelago was a corporate social responsibility project, DIANIMA claimed—an effort to save it from continued environmental degradation and mismanagement. They evacuated the entire local population, with cash payouts that would allow people to start better lives elsewhere. Deported us, Son said.

It was strange to hear DIANIMA’s name again. The company Eiko had planned to work for. When he heard it, he felt the edge of fresh pain at what his life had become. He was supposed to be working for them by this point. Working his way up through the corporate food chain, proving his worth. Paying back his parents’ investment in him, their faith in his abilities.

There was a weak round of protests when DIANIMA evacuated the population, but in fact many of the locals were glad to go. The payouts were generous, and their lives on the island had been dull, their prospects limited to poaching and a desultory tourist industry that never grew enough to provide many of them with a living.

Son didn’t believe DIANIMA’s cover story about corporate social responsibility.

“Why?” Eiko asked.