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//chapter six • jealousy on water's surface
"WHAT'S THIS right here?"
"Don't touch that." Andrew snapped, violently smacking JJ's hand away from the ROV's control panel. Don't ask how Andrew ended up helping the Pogues with their stolen ROV. The underwater drone that they'd stole for the purposes of getting a look at what they think it the Royal Merchant at the coordinates they were given. Apparently Pope wasn't enough to get the controls working.
Andrew's morning had started out with JJ beating on his window. JJ was lucky Sarah had left early, otherwise Andrew actually would have pushed him off the three story house. And now he was here, watching John B and Kiara swim in the lake as he got the ROV booted up for Pope. Kiara, of course, had had some thoughts about asking Andrew for help, but had at some point caved.
"God bless the geeks." JJ said, leaning over Andrew's shoulder as Andrew and Pope gave him matching humorless glances. "What would we do without you two to control the drones?"
"It's not a drone, it's an ROV." Pope corrected as the two Pogues in the water came up to the surface for air and JJ moved to lean on the railing of the dock.
"Shut up. Shut up." JJ snapped at him, not letting him finish. "It's too early for that right now."
"Hey, once we get footage of the wreck, we'll bring it to a lawyer in town and file a formal claim." John B called.
"It's bullshit, why do we have to do that?" JJ complained in response.
"Well, there's a maritime salvage law." Andrew informed, still fiddling with the ROV controls.
"You can't just go to the ocean floor and scoop up a bunch of stuff." Pope added while watching Andrew mess with the controls, trying to learn how Andrew at got it videoing. He gave up eventually and walked over to stand at the railing of the dock.
"I know, I know. It's just lawyers aren't cheap bro." JJ replied with a frown.
"As soon as they see the footage, they'll work for a comp." John B told them, hollering from the water.
"How do you know all that?" Kie asked, confused as to how John B, who was normally a total impulsive idiot, had all this information.
"'Cause my dad said it, like, a million times." John B said as they both treaded on the surface of the water. Kiara started swimming over to the ladder to climb her way out of the marsh.
"Yeah, that's fair." Kie nodded.
"The tether is like, really really long. In the wrong weather, it could get pushed around." Pope said and Andrew looked up as him as he stood, leaving the monitor alone.
