In darkness, Rehema tied the safety rope around Khamis’s waist. Her hands were cold but steady.
“Come back without the device rather than fail to come back.”
The buoy rose and fell beside them. Salma kept *Sahani* on the sheltered side of the waves while Biko aimed a torch into the water. Khamis entered on Rehema’s count. The current pulled hard beneath the surface. He found the watertight box bolted to the buoy’s frame, just where Salma had described it.
His line snagged on the propeller.
He pulled once, twice. The rope tightened and trapped his body against the metal. Above him, Biko saw the wrong line moving. He leaned over the rail and cut the loose rope wound around the propeller, not the safety line around Khamis. Rehema counted seconds and gave two sharp pulls. Khamis freed the box and kicked upward with his lungs burning.
They dragged him aboard. He could not speak for several breaths. Rehema rolled him onto his side and checked the cut around his waist. Salma kept the boat from striking the buoy. Asha’s voice came through the coastal radio asking for his condition, and Rehema reported honestly that the dive had nearly failed. Their evidence would include risk and error, not only a clean result.
Before opening the box, Rehema photographed its waxed latches, the buoy number, the rope position, and Khamis’s damaged line. Biko read the GPS coordinate aloud. Salma identified the buoy as the one she had visited with Yusuf. Only then did they cut the wax.
Inside lay a camera wrapped in Yusuf’s cloth. Its battery showed one bar. They played the video once.
Musa removed seal 707 and fitted 909. Kenga pointed toward the tanker and displayed his watch. Captain Daudi signed the manifest while another man held a phone before him, showing a photograph of his family. The audio was poor, but the faces, timestamps, seal, and acts were visible.
Rehema froze the frame containing the timestamp and compared it with Musa’s messages on her source phone. The minutes aligned. She saw the service-hatch sticker and copied its number onto her arm with marker. Biko noticed Daudi pointing beneath the console—the same gesture seen through the white car’s window.
Khamis wanted to seal the camera and carry it directly to Njoroge. Rehema refused. If the boat sank, the evidence would sink with it. She proposed recording the screen with two cameras while transmitting the raw file in numbered pieces.
Biko held the antenna. Salma kept *Sahani* aligned with the wind. Khamis read timestamps without commentary. Asha confirmed receipt from the coast and sent one set to Juma, one to Njoroge, and one to the community station.
The transmission failed twice. Each time they resumed from the last confirmed timestamp, not from the beginning. That allowed recipients to assemble the file without guessing. Kenga could hear the operation, but could no longer force the evidence to depend on one box.
Njoroge confirmed Musa’s face, the manifest number, and Kenga’s gesture were visible. He was heading to Dock 14 to request a valve stop. Khamis told him Daudi was a hostage, not a fleeing captain. Rehema supplied the tanker number and service-hatch route.
The camera battery died after the final segment. No one treated the dead device as a new mystery. The raw card went into a waterproof bag sealed and signed by Biko. Salma reported the recovery time. The work of the buoy was finished.
A wave from *Malkia-7* struck *Sahani*. Salma turned into it while Biko shielded the evidence bag and Rehema caught the falling receiver. Through the rain, Khamis saw the barge taking the direct Dock 14 approach instead of the storm waiting zone.
They chose the short return route beside the service line. Khamis wanted to find Daudi first. Rehema insisted the video must reach the dockworkers before the team did. He accepted her priority. They continued broadcasting without editing, giving Kenga warning but giving the workers time to choose.
Biko reopened the frame of Daudi’s gesture. The service-hatch number matched Salma’s map. *Sahani* could reach it from the leeward side. Khamis transmitted the number to Njoroge with a warning: no valve should move until Daudi confirmed the pressure.
Lightning lit Dock 14. The crane powered on, and Kenga appeared on its platform, raising one hand as if welcoming them.
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