* * * * * Ten minutes later, the big truck rolled to a stop. I jumped down from the van and sped around to the cab, slipping on wet sand. There was a salt spray with the wind-driven rain in the air, and I smelled the sea. I thought I could make out the gleam of the breakers through the darkness, but it might have been my imagination. I did hear the pounding roar of the surf, though. I saw Joe's dark bulk getting down from the cab just as I reached it. "Are you gonna be any trouble, boy?" Joe asked me. "Trouble?" I repeated his word. "What are you doing? What did you drive here for, Joe?" He didn't answer. He went around to the van and helped the woman down. She said something and it almost sounded like she was crying. "Take it easy, baby," he told her. "It won't be long now." The rain poured down, drenching all of us. The surf roared and hissed and boomed across the beach. "Hey, where are you going!" I shouted. They were heading down across the sand. They didn't answer. I could stay with the truck. I could pull the truck out of there. Or I could follow them and see what the hell was going on. But just then Joe came back from the beach. I couldn't see his face, but his voice sounded odd. "You better come down with us, Harry," he said. "She figures you know too much. I figure she's right." We stood very close. In the dimness I could barely make out the big monkey wrench in Joe's hand. If I said no, he'd bop me one with the wrench. If I said yes and went down there with him, would he use the wrench on me later? It didn't look as if I had much choice. I went down across the sand with Joe. The woman was waiting for us at the water's edge. The breakers were faintly phosphorescent with glowing plankton and I could see the outline of the woman's figure against them. Then Joe's bulky silhouette came between us. I stood there and stared out across the black sea. Neither of them paid any attention to me. The breakers broke and foamed and rolled themselves out on the sand. The tide was coming in. The wind blew spray. "You're waiting for something, aren't you?" I asked. It was a dumb question. They weren't down here for their health. "Something coming in from the water?" I guessed. "Submarine, maybe?" Joe said: "We're not waiting for something coming in from the water." The woman said: "Don't tell him, Joe." Joe said: "Funny, you calling me Joe. Still calling me Joe." The woman: "You're Joe. You're Joe until we leave." Joe: "Yeah, but it's funny." The woman: "I hear something, Joe." Joe: "No. It's the wind." The woman: "Will it be soon?" Joe: "Yeah, soon. What we gonna do with him? With Harry?" "He knows too much," the woman said, "but does it really matter?"