Mara kicks up toward her own boat instead, ready to radio the claim office and the coast authority. If Vares wants a fight, she will make it a legal one, on the record, with witnesses. But her radio answers with nothing but static. Someone has been busy up top.
Mara hauls herself onto her boat and finds the radio wires cut clean. Vares planned this. A second skiff idles nearby, and a woman on its deck calls across the water: "Come aboard. We'll explain. Or you can keep diving alone until this wreck takes you too."
Mara refuses to board. She fires up her engine and runs for the harbor at full throttle, the Vares skiff chasing her wake. She reaches the marina, jumps onto the dock, and shouts for the harbor patrol. The chase ends in flashing lights and questions. She kept her claim, her boat, and her life, and the truth about the wreck is finally going to come out in daylight.