Odys, Klein, and Alger met up with Vice Admiral Deep Sea on a beach.
Vice Admiral Deep Sea, Howl Constantine, looked from Admiral of Mysteries to Gehrman Sparrow. "I assume you aren't here for my bounty?"
His voice was clear, with an almost magnetic quality.
Howl was asking for final confirmation. Admiral of Mysteries had helped him earlier, so it seemed unlikely that this was a trap.
Still, he wanted to hear it from them directly.
His subordinates remained on guard, some with a hand on their weapons.
Odys glanced at his two companions. Alger did not want to expose himself and seemed reluctant even to speak.
Klein was playing the cold, stern Gehrman Sparrow. Right now, he was an arrogant man with a face of stone.
So Odys answered, "No."
Howl Constantine asked, "Then did you come to Whale Island for that rock?"
"You could say that," Odys replied with a smile.
Vice Admiral Deep Sea's gaze sharpened. "You came for something else, didn't you?"
Odys ignored the question and asked one of his own. "What exactly is that rock? Why do you want to destroy it?"
"You saw what it did," Howl replied, dropping his own question. "It causes living things to mutate. Of course we want to destroy something so evil!"
Odys smiled. "Sorry, but I find it hard to believe a Pirate Admiral is that responsible."
Vice Admiral Deep Sea glanced at the waves beside them. "Perhaps you don't understand the sea. I can clearly sense that it's quietly changing.
"And things like that rock are the source of the change."
Odys frowned. "You mean there are many more of them out at sea?"
"The ones on islands aren't so bad." Howl's answer confirmed it. He continued with a sigh, "Many other sources of contamination lie