The trawler stank of diesel and old fish. Halloran stood at the rail, a dead man's notebook tucked in his coat, watching the spot on the chart where an island should be. Low tide would uncover it for six hours, then drown it again. Six hours to dig up whatever the Meridian settlement had buried before the water took it back. The captain spat over the side. "Mud's showing," he said. "Go now or go home."

Instead of digging, Halloran decided to read the whole notebook first. The dead man had spent years studying Meridian. If Halloran understood what was buried before he touched it, maybe he'd live longer than the man who wrote it. He sat in the wheelhouse and turned to the first page.

Halloran read until he found a folded map slipped between the pages. It didn't mark treasure. It marked a door, carved into the island's only hill, sealed with iron and salt. Below it the dead man had written: "Whatever you do, do not open the door. I did." Halloran's hands went cold.

Halloran closed the notebook and made his choice. He would dig up the box for proof, but he would never touch the door. He rowed to the flats, found the church, and recovered the ledger of names. Then he rowed straight back, the hill and its sealed door untouched behind him, exactly as the dead man had begged.