In the Beast's Shadow

As it so often is after a storm, the ocean was calm and unnaturally smooth. It was still, and even the wind, howling the whole night along the cliff-lined coast, and the waves, bursting into white spray against the craggy rocks, had faded to nothing by sunrise. The only sounds to break the silence were the steps of three men, carefully approaching a gray-white marble cliff. "It's here," called Mahoney out. "But also something else ..."