Chapter 1

The Hammersley had arrived back in port to refuel after they had found the dead body of Albie Dumas. While Bomber and Charge were taking the body of the ship Mike had gone to Navcom to report on the situation. Kate had written her reports and decided to get some fresh air. She had seen dead bodies before, but this one, today, was a cruel reality of the fact that there were aggressive and dangerous men out in the world.

She stepped on deck and saw Bomber and Charge just lifting the body bag into a car. She sighed while she leaned back at the grey metal. The weather wasn't helping much to get over her gloomy mood. What was it that had Albie killed and more importantly why?

Kate had an idea, maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to do, but sitting around and waiting wasn't what she wanted to do. Maybe she could— Kate's thoughts were interrupted by Dutchy who also came on deck. She gave him a glance to see if he wanted something from her and got one in return. It looked like he would say something, something that would make her forget what she was thinking, so before he could say anything she said: "I was just out here, thinking…"

"Oh no," Dutchy teased her.

"What?" Kate asked, not understanding why he had said that.

"You've got that look on your face again. The last time you had that look you got yourself into trouble," Dutchy explained.

"Oh, it's not like that," she defended herself. "I was wondering…" she stammered.

"About?" Dutchy interrupted her.

Kate stepped away from Dutchy as to create a bit of space between them, not knowing if he would take her seriously. "What is so important about that boat?" she asked him.

Dutchy realized Kate wasn't just joking around so he thought for a second before he answered. "I think it's all about the sunken yacht," he answered.

Kate was happy he took her seriously, although his answer wasn't much help. She had already gotten that far. "Well, it's where it all started and so I was just—"

"Wondering," Dutchy finished her sentence, again teasingly.

"Yes," Kate exclaimed. "Wondering," she repeated him before she looked up at him. He was smiling and she couldn't help but smile at him as well. "It's not that deep out there. What would I find if I go snorkelling?" she asked him.

"Do we have time?" Dutchy asked while he looked at his watch.

"We?" Kate asked surprised.

"Yeah," Dutchy replied, letting her know he meant what he had said.

"About four hours," Kate replied. Since this was her original plan, to go snorkelling, she of course already knew how much time she had before she had to be back at the Hammersley. Having someone coming along wasn't part of her original plan, but could be very helpful.

Dutchy gave her a broad smile and turned around. "Shall we?" he said. Kate nodded and followed him back inside to get her swim gear. She started to like this idea a lot and maybe at the end of the day she would have some answers to boot.

While following Dutchy into the ship she was wondering if he was still wearing the same swimming shorts as he had done the last time the crew went for a swim. She chuckled out loud when thinking about how good he looked in them, and how she had sneaked a few glances away.

"Something funny X?" Dutchy asked while looking at her. Kate blushed, at a loss for words. She couldn't tell him what she had been thinking so instead she said: "I was just thinking how much fun this snorkelling trip is going to be!"