Tim Curran: Dead Sea

George thought it over and the lie came easy. “We don’t really know what happened. Got lost in the fog, hit something and went down. You and me were on a lifeboat, then we found this boat drifting. We jumped on board.”

“They won’t believe that… will they?”

George put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it. “Sure they will. Trust me, buddy, that’s exactly what they want us to say. Nothing more, nothing that will look funny on their reports, just simple bullshit they can write down and will let them sleep at night.”

The lead boat came in closer and the sailor in the rear cut the engine.

“Ahoy there!” an officer in khaki dress said from the front of the boat. “You in trouble here?”

Menhaus laughed. “Brother, don’t you know it.”

He helped Menhaus aboard, but George hesitated. “What the hell year is it?”

The officer and sailors looked at one another and then the officer told him.

George and Menhaus were smiling.

They’d done it, they’d actually done it.

Before he climbed onto the rubber boat, George picked up the teleporter and tossed it overboard. It floated for a moment and then went underwater, down into the depths below where it belonged.

“What was that?” the officer asked.

“Oh, that?” George laughed as he came aboard. “That’s just my science project… but I don’t care much for science anymore.”

Then he was in the boat and Menhaus couldn’t seem to stop grinning.