19

SAM

Maria looked at Sam, wary. They sat in silence in the cabin of her boat.

‘How do you know all this?’ Maria asked eventually. ‘Only my father and I call that tiger shark Scarface.’

‘Because I’ve been there before,’ Sam said, wondering why she looked so sad at this news, ‘with you, in my dream. You told me about it.’

She shook her head. ‘No. You must have seen my father.’

‘I know it’s hard to believe,’ Sam said. ‘I’m sorry, but that’s the truth. And I’ve not seen your father.’

‘But how could you know of Scarface?’ she insisted.

Sam hesitated, weighing up how else he could convince her. Out the window, at the far end of the dock where it met the beach, he could see his friends waiting.

‘Where is your father?’ Sam asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Maria said. ‘My father went missing out there, at sea.’

‘When?’

‘Two weeks ago.’

Sam swallowed hard.

Two weeks … did one of our enemies get here that much ahead of us?

‘I’m still searching for him, every day,’ Maria said. ‘Well, until yesterday, when my boat broke down. Even my mechanic won’t do anymore work since my father owes money to everyone.’

‘Why?’

‘He … he stopped fishing. Stopped taking on charters. He became obsessed with searching.’

‘Searching? What for?’

‘He would never tell me,’ Maria said. ‘He just went out every day, diving and swimming and searching for something on the seabed.’

‘How’d it start? Did something happen that made him start searching? Some event?’

‘Event?’

‘A trigger,’ Sam said. ‘Something must have made him stop working and spend all his time and money looking for something under the sea.’

‘I …’ Maria said, then she just trailed off and stared absently at the boat’s weathered deck.

Sam didn’t know what to say to her.

How can I convince her that she now has to join me in an urgent quest to find a Gear to an ancient machine?

‘… it was nothing really … but he did change after I told him about a dream I had. He was immediately convinced there was something there,’ Maria went on. ‘Some kind of treasure … he spent everything on it, buying new dive gear and equipment, and the last few weeks he sold everything we owned and borrowed money from everyone so that he could put all of his time and effort into searching for it.’

Sam’s jaw dropped as Maria’s words sunk in.

‘Maria,’ he said, slowly and deliberately. ‘In your dream—or nightmare—was there something you were looking for?’

She nodded.

Sam swallowed hard.

‘Did you see it?’ Sam asked. ‘In your dream—did you see what it was that you had to get?’

‘It was shiny, made from metal. But …’

‘When?’

‘The night before my father started acting crazy. And then last night. I dreamed it again, it was a little wheel.’

‘Can—can you describe it?’ Sam said, pacing anxiously. ‘Or, wait, can you draw it?’

He took a notepad and pen from his backpack and passed it to Maria. He watched as she sketched what was undeniably a Gear.

‘That’s it!’ Sam said. ‘That’s your Gear!’

‘Gear?’

‘A cog, part of a machine—part of the machine I was telling you about.’

‘Oh. Ohl’

‘That’s why I’m here, Maria, to help you get it. This is the “treasure” your father is seeking. Everyone is. Only you could dream of it. We have to find it, and we can look for clues to find your father too.’

And if Maria’s father knew … others might. We may even be too late now.

‘But how did he know?’ Maria asked, confused.

‘Your father must have known how important your dreams were,’ Sam said, skirting the issue. He didn’t think now was the time to tell Maria that her father was probably a Dreamer who knew about the prophecy and had heard that the race had begun.

We’ll cross that bridge later if we have to …

Sam stood and leaned out of the cabin door, signalling to the others to come down to the marina.

‘Wait, Sam,’ Maria said. ‘If you mean for us to go after him, I’m afraid this boat, the engines … they are not working.’

Sam changed his Stealth Suit to resemble exactly the oil and grime stained overalls of the mechanic before, and Maria gasped at his altered appearance.

‘I have friends here who can help out with that,’ Sam said. He went up on deck with her and waved along the jetty at the others. ‘I think you’ll find with their help, this boat’s going to run like she never has before.’