Chapter 7 - Coordinates in the Margins
By midnight, the storm had tapered into a steady drizzle. Sarah abandoned the truck in an all-night diner parking lot sixty miles away, transferring to a forgotten grey sedan David had bought from a cousin years ago and parked behind an auto shop. She bought dry clothes, diapers, and warm milk at a gas station, paying with crumpled cash.
Inside the quiet car at a roadside rest stop, Lily finally slept, clutching the cap's patch in her tiny fist. Sarah turned on the dome light and opened David’s water-stained journal.
Most of the early entries detailed maintenance logs and pressure anomalies on the deep-sea wellhead. But the final pages contained cryptic notes. David had written down a sequence of numbers repeatedly: 47.2189° N, 124.1954° W.
Beside the coordinates was a name: Elias Vance, Harbor 9, Point Grenville.
Sarah checked her phone's offline maps. The coordinates pointed to a remote, rocky cove on the Washington coast, known for decommissioned shipyards and sea fog. David had often spoken of Elias, an old navy diver who had taught him underwater welding decades ago.
Could David really be alive, hiding in those desolate coastal caves, waiting for a signal? Or was this entire notebook a trap left behind by the men who had shot Marcus?
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Sarah looked down at Lily’s peaceful face. The child had known from the very beginning that the chair was only temporarily empty.
She turned the key in the ignition and steered the sedan toward the coast.
