Absolute Pressure by Sigmund Brouwer Page B

stood still and looked around. The smell of salt water filled the air. Pelicans stood on the dock posts. There were dozens of boats tied to the long dock. A lot of people were walking around. None of them were Judd or Uncle Gord or his friends from Miami.
    Past the docks, the sun had almost dropped to the place where ocean met sky.It was orange, a postcard kind of sunset. In less than half an hour, most of the light would be gone.
    I already knew where I would wait and watch. I carried a gym bag in one hand. I had a fishing pole in my other hand. I had a ballcap pulled low over my eyes. I was going to sit at the end of the dock, where I could keep an eye on the
GypSea.
    It was the fourth boat down, bobbing in the wake of passing boats.
    I walked onto the dock. The
GypSea
was empty as I passed it. Fifty yards down, I reached the end of the dock. I sat and dropped a fishing line into the water. I held the fishing pole as if I was waiting for a fish to take the bait. With a slight turn of my head, I kept an eye on the
GypSea
. Most of my face was hidden by my ballcap.
    Ten minutes later, Judd Warner walked onto the dock.
    I ducked my head down even more. I didn’t think he would give me a second look, not if he was worried about getting onto Uncle Gord’s boat.
    He hopped onto the
GypSea
as if he owned it. A second later, he had moved into the front of the boat. It was a big boat. There were a lot of places he could hide. A few seconds later, he was out of sight.
    My heart began to race. I had guessed right!
    I waited a few more minutes. Once Judd was hidden, he wouldn’t be able to see me get on the boat. As I waited, I went over my plan again. At this point, I could change my mind. I could wait for Uncle Gord and his friends to get to the boat. I could tell them about Judd. They could find him.
    But then they would never know what he really meant to do. No, I told myself, the best way was to wait to see what Judd wanted. I would stick to my plan.
    I stood and picked up the gym bag. I walked down to the
GypSea
. Front to back, it was sixty feet long. More than twenty good-sized steps. It had a couple of cabins beneath the top deck. Judd was hiding in there somewhere.
    I stepped onto the boat as lightly as I could. I didn’t want him to hear me or feel the boat rock.
    The sun had dropped out of sight, and the last rays of light made long shadows on the deck. I knew of a place where no one would see me when it was light out. It would be that much safer at night. I tiptoed to my hiding spot.
    It was a wide upright locker where we stored wet suits that we rented to divers. I pulled it open, moved inside and pushed myself among the wet suits. They smelled of salt water.
    There was just enough room inside for me to set my gym bag at my feet. I reached out for the door and closed it almost all the way, leaving a few inches to give me a crack to see out.
    Then I reached down to my gym bag again. I pulled out a speargun.
    After all, Judd had a pistol. I needed to be armed too.

chapter twenty-five
    At nine o’clock, it was completely dark. I heard voices as Uncle Gord and his friends stepped onto the boat. I heard clanking as they set down their scuba tanks and the rest of their gear.
    I didn’t need to see them to know what they looked like. I had seen them a couple of other times. All three looked like football players. They had short hair and square faces. I remembered seeing themand thinking lawyers like that would be good for scaring judges.
    I wasn’t worried that they might open the locker I was hiding in. They wouldn’t need any of the rental wet suits. All of them had their own wet suits. People who dive a lot don’t like using rental wet suits. Why? It sounds gross, but there are no toilets underwater. Sometimes divers have to go so bad, they go in their wet suits and let the water wash it away.
    The four of them moved around the boat. They didn’t talk much. There were other sounds: the