Page 40 of Honor Code

He shook his head, his expression grim.

A wrenching sob caught in her throat as icy realization crashed over her.

"I'm sorry. I don't think they made it."

Please, no.

"We didn't even have time to get a mayday out. Nobody knows what's happened."

"I saw a boat speeding away from the rig as I was coming in," she said, her voice sounding hollow and distant to her own ears. How could Phoenix and Boomer be dead? It wasn't possible. Men like them didn't just die.

No, it couldn't be true. She refused to believe it.

"Really?" Billy seemed confused, his brow furrowing. "I didn't see anyone leave."

She shook her head, too stunned to continue, grief and shock numbing her senses. Maybe she'd imagined it? None of this felt real.

"There's another exploratory rig, the Discoverer, fifteen miles out," she told him, forcing herself to focus. "Have you got enough gas to get there?"

He nodded jerkily. "Yeah. I think so."

She gave him the coordinates, her voice sounding like someone else's. "Get the remaining crew over there then call for help."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to stay here and keep searching. They might still be alive." Even saying the words aloud felt like a foolish, desperate fancy, but she clung to that faint shred of hope like a lifeline.

He gave a somber nod, but she could tell by the grim set of his face that he thought that tragically unlikely. Still, she had to try. She couldn't rest until she'd seen their bodies with her own eyes.

If there was even the slightest chance...

She swallowed hard over the painful lump in her throat. "Send help, Billy. Go. Now."

He gave a last nod, turned the lifeboat in the direction she'd given him, then set off, the engine sputtering to life. She watched it chug slowly away until it faded into the billowing smoke.

Alone, her tears came in earnest. Great, wracking sobs that shook her entire body as the horrible reality sank in.

God, please don't let him be dead.

She couldn't believe it. Wouldn't believe it.

She drifted listlessly around the debris field, hot tears streaming down her cheeks. Every now and then she'd stop and call out his name. Boomer's name. But nothing. All she got in reply was the tortured groaning of the rig as it kept tilting to one side, and the smell of scorched metal.

What was that?

A faint tapping sound could be heard in the eerie silence.

She froze, listening hard, hardly daring to breathe. There it was again.

Tap-tap-tap. Taaap-taaap-taaap. Tap-tap-tap.

Was that an SOS? Or was her battered, shell-shocked mind playing tricks on her? Was it just the metallic death throes of the gutted rig as it sank slowly beneath the waves?

Ellie restarted the engine with fumbling fingers and moved warily in the direction of the tapping.

"Hello?" she yelled through the smog, her voice cracking. "Anybody there?"

Tap-tap-tap. Taaap-taaap-taaap. Tap-tap-tap.

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