The third team was making a night run to deliver flood markers when Lu Wang heard the dead water grinding its teeth in the reef gap ahead and shouted for them to turn the rudder. Team leader Lu Yao pressed the official seal and calendar sheet of the Tidewatch Office on him, insisting they rest at the seventh watch and reverse course at the eighth. He even brought up how Lu Wang's brother had shouted the same warning years ago, then disappeared. Old Gan urged him to shut up, saying that if he opened his mouth, his uniform would be gone. Lu Wang didn't look back. He crouched by the helm, pressed his palm against the rudder post, and knocked three long beats, two short, then a pause. He had Lai Si and everyone aboard count the water striking the hull through the soles of their feet. The tide came three beats sooner than the calendar sheet predicted. Lai Si stared at Lu Yao with his mouth agape. Lu Yao had heard it too, but refused to admit it, saying only that the document was issued by the authorities. But his brother had never returned after misjudging the reef three years ago. Why had the name on the sleeve of the uniform, patched into the casualty register, been rubbed away too?
