“The ship itself was being eaten alive and the way her hull sounded as the supports buckled sounded like she was screaming in pain. It was a phantom moan. Some men jumped overboard, a few tried to unhinge a life boat, but they were overcome with panicked bodies.

“A few minutes later they were pouring diesel fuel all over everything. They actually thought they could save the Solon by killing that thing in the hold. The fumes burned my eyes, but I could see someone tossing a book of matches — lit. The whole thing went up; a blazing inferno ignited the air we were breathing.

“I didn’t have time to think. I just reacted. I jumped off the top deck and hit the water. Salt burned its way into my nostrils when I hit the surface. My shirt pushed up over my head and I struggled to untangle myself. My clothes were heavy and I was tired as hell, but I dragged myself through that water with every ounce of life I had. I thought about the captain. I thought that I would have to give more then he had to survive. I would swim until the grim reaper stripped the flesh from my bones. I swam for almost an hour; I never looked back.

“My body cramped and I started to sink. I fell into that abyss and couldn’t tell which way was up. It was all black and it stung my eyes. I ripped the boots from my feet and let out a delirious underwater scream. That act of a fatigued mind was the only thing that saved my life. I could feel the bubbles crawling up my face and I knew that I had been driving myself in the wrong direction. When I broke the surface I filled my lungs with a great gasp. Frantically, I looked in every direction but I couldn’t see the ship anymore.”

Joseph looks toward the ground and pushes his way past Anderson.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going home.”

“So we’re done here?” Anderson asks.

Joseph stomps over the threshold of the door and turns his head slightly to the left. “I went back there last year with a team of divers. The navy sent me. It was a full moon when we dropped anchor. The sea filled up with little white drifts of gel. It looked like when the reef blooms in Australia.”

Anderson folds up his papers and hastily stands to face Joseph. “Is that all you found?”

“It’s all we had to find. There’s no reef anywhere near where the Solon went down.”

Joseph closes the door behind him. Rain still pounds across the rooftop. Anderson looks at the photographs of the French specimens and stands against the window. He can scarcely understand what might have been unleashed in that muddy-oily- Mediterranean.

.