The Reef

clerks.”
    To lose it all now was unthinkable. Without his share of the treasure he’d not only be a cripple, he’d be a helpless one. “You gotta stop him.”
    “How?” Matthew shot up, pressed his hands against Buck’s shoulders to keep him in bed. “He’s got a full crew, armed. They’re working around the clock. I’ll guarantee he’s already transported what he’s brought up, and what he took off the Sea Devil and the Adventure. ”
    “You’re just gonna let him get away with it?” Fueled by desperation, Buck gripped Matthew by the shirtfront. “You’re just gonna turn around and walk away from what’s ours? It cost me my leg.”
    “I know what it cost you. And yeah, I’m walking away. I’m not going to die for a wreck.”
    “Never thought you’d turn coward.” Buck released him, turned his head away. “If I wasn’t laid up here . . .”
    If you weren’t laid up here, Matthew thought, I wouldn’t have to walk away. “It looks like you’d better work at getting up and out of here so you can handle it your way. Meantime, I’m in charge and we’re going to Chicago.”
    “How the hell are we going to get there? We’ve got nothing.” Unconsciously, he reached down to where his leg should have been. “Less than nothing.”
    “The Sea Devil, the equipment and some odds and ends brought in a few thousand.”
    Glassily pale, Buck turned back. “You sold the boat? What right did you have to sell the boat? The Sea Devil belonged to me, boy.”
    “It was half mine,” Matthew said with a shrug. “When I sold my share, yours went with it. I’m doing what I have to do.”
    “Running away,” Buck said and turned his head again. “Selling out.”
    “That’s right. Now I’m going to go book us a flight to Chicago.”
    “I ain’t going to Chicago.”
    “You’re going to go where I tell you. That’s the way it is.”
    “Well, I’m telling you to go to hell.”
    “As long as we go by way of Chicago,” Matthew said and walked out.
     
    The bottom line, Matthew learned, was a great deal steeper than he had imagined. Swallowing his pride left his throat raw. He soothed it with a cold beer while he waited for Ray in the hotel lounge.
    His life, he decided, was about as bad as it could get. Funny, a few months before, he’d had basically nothing. A boat that had seen better days, a little cash in a tin box, no urgent plans, no urgent problems. Looking back, he supposed he’d been happy enough.
    Then, suddenly, he’d had so much. A woman who loved him, the prospect of fame and fortune. Success, the kind he’d never really believed in, had been briefly his. Revenge, which he’d dreamed of for nine years, had been almost within his grasp.
    Now he’d lost it all, the woman, the prospects, even the bits of nothing he’d once considered more than enough. It was so much harder to lose once you’d won.
    “Matthew.”
    He looked up at the clap on his shoulder. Ray slid onto the stool beside him. “Thanks for coming down.”
    “Glad to. I’ll have a beer,” he told the bartender. “Another for you, Matthew?”
    “Yeah, why not?” It was only the beginning of what Matthew planned for one long night of stinking drunkenness.
    “We’ve been missing each other the last few days,” Ray began, then tapped his bottle against Matthew’s fresh one. “Kept figuring we’d run into you at the hospital. Though we haven’t been there as much as we’d like. Buck’s not feeling up for company much.”
    “No.” Matthew tipped the bottle back, let the chilled beer run down his throat. “He won’t even talk to me.”
    “I’m sorry, Matthew. He’s wrong taking it out on you this way. There was nothing you could have done.”
    “I don’t know which he’s taking harder. The leg or the Marguerite. ” Matthew moved a shoulder. “I guess it doesn’t matter.”
    “He’ll dive again,” Ray stated and stroked a fingertip down the condensation on the bottle. “Doctor Farrge told me his physical recovery is ahead of schedule.”
    “That’s one of the things I needed to talk to you about.” There was no way to put it off any longer, Matthew reminded himself. He would have preferred getting roaring drunk first, but that little pleasure would have to wait. “I’ve got the go-ahead to take him to Chicago. Tomorrow.”
    “Tomorrow?” Torn between pleasure and alarm, Ray set his beer down with a clack. “That’s so quick. I had no idea arrangements were already