Ghost Ship: A Sigma Force Short Story
: Final Chapter

At the end of my full-length novels, I love to spell out what’s real and what’s fiction in my stories. I thought I’d briefly do the same here.

CAPE TRIBULATION. I was lucky enough to spend some time in this area near Port Douglas in Queensland and always wanted to set a story here. It’s truly a magical place, where the rainforest meets the Coral Sea. I also took a horseback ride to the beach featured in this story, where I watched a huge saltwater crocodile saunter across the sand and into the surf. While there, I also became enamored with the history of the region. The site was indeed named by Captain Cook after his fateful accident on the nearby reefs. So I thought it would be fun to tell a story of a ship that suffered a similar, if more tragic, fate.

THE TRIDENT. While the ship featured in this short story is purely fictional, I based its fateful tale on the histories of two real convict ships: the Success and the Hive. Their combined stories involved mutiny, gold, and lost shipwrecks. So I borrowed their tales for this adventure.

THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. As I was setting this story here, I couldn’t help but mention the tragic bleaching that is currently affecting two-thirds of the reef’s coral, covering a swath almost nine hundred miles long. The reef is home to many endangered species, along with four hundred types of coral and fifteen hundred species of fish. It’s an invaluable habitat, one that three hundred million people rely on for food, employment, and livelihood. So let’s not lose it.

ANFOG GLIDERS. Yep, those yellow research torpedoes are real . . . though I may have stretched their capabilities a bit. But not by much!

WHAT’S NEXT?

At this story’s conclusion, Seichan makes a fateful decision to head to Hawaii, specifically Maui. Gray has, of course, cursed them by declaring nothing can go wrong. Their sabbatical from Sigma Force is about to come to a crashing end—and nothing will ever be the same for the two of them. Already forces are in motion, fueled by an ancient horror known only as the Demon Crown. So hold tight, and I hope you enjoy the wild ride to come!

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