Twist

After Conway succeeded in compromising the cables, he earned many names. He was a bomber, an arsonist, and a terrorist, but none of these ever seemed appropriate to Anthony. In the aftermath of the event, many ridiculed Anthony for his portrayal of Conway in his article. Meanwhile, others hounded Zanele for information, but her publicity team kept her safe.

Many began speculating on his motives, though no one could find any. He left no manifesto. Some believed he was radicalized, while others believed he had schizophrenia. Anthony believes he acted because of a broken heart.

Anthony believes that Conway never meant to hurt anyone. He attacked no one. If he was angry about the cables, he could have attacked the company in Brussels. His extensive knowledge and experience also mean that if he wanted, he could have hired a boat and trawled the ocean floor until he severed a deeper cable.

Anthony will never know why Conway did what he did, but he tries to reconstruct it anyway.

Conway rises in the early morning hours, gathers his materials, and goes out to his boat. He sets out in the water just as the other fishermen arise, heading out into the early dawn. It takes him 12 minutes to reach his destination. He angles the boat to face the landing station and uses the station to calculate the location of the cable. He stops the engine and drops his anchor. It descends 47 meters. He strips, secures his waterproof backpack, dons his gear, and packs his lungs with air. He enters the water and descends.

He feels the pressure build on his body and slows his heartbeat. Soon, he hits darkness and slams into rocks, having miscalculated the descent. He has little time before he will need to ascend and uses his headlamp to quickly locate the cable. He secures the backpack to the cable, turns, and pulls the chain of the flare, igniting the thermite. 

As he begins to rise, light from the burning thermite grows behind him. He does his best to stay calm and uses the rope of the anchor to guide himself up. He emerges, the day no different than it had been before he dove.

Anthony admits that his account of Conway’s actions is fiction. The fact is that Conway sabotaged the first cable on the morning of September 18, 2021, with a thermite explosive. Many are skeptical that he acted alone, but Anthony believes he did. Anthony knows that Conway made it back to the boat. With the bag destroyed, there would be no fingerprints, and the depths would prevent any major disruption on the surface. In many ways, Anthony sees this as the perfect crime, with no evidence left behind.

Anthony believes that Conway wanted to destroy both cables and immediately began his hours-long journey to the other side of the city after returning to the boat. The next dive was deeper, though, over 60 meters. Conway knew to be careful, as the disruption in the cable was likely to alert patrols. On his journey over, he was approached by the coast guard, but they only gave him a warning and took a picture, which was later circulated.

In his account, Anthony believes that at the second location, Conway’s first dive failed. He could not find the cable. He moved farther out, and as the coast guard approached again, he dove. Anthony does not know why Conway committed to this second attempt, with the risks now higher. When he found the cable, he successfully disrupted it, but he never emerged from the water. Only his boat, goggles, and broken headlamp were found.

A scorch mark on the goggles suggests that Conway was closer to this explosion, taken off guard by it. In his shock, he may have gasped or become discombobulated, without the necessary oxygen to return to the surface. Anthony even believes that he may have been an inverse Icarus and continued to dive down.

Anthony, now living in London, tries to meet with Zanele. Though he believes he secures a time to speak with her, her team ignores him. During the pandemic, Anthony began to feel like a new person, his sobriety lasting, and his efforts with Joli continuing. He sends a letter to Joli. Though Joli’s response does not match Anthony’s intensity, he believes that it is the beginning of a new relationship.

When news about Conway’s attacks broke, it was first blamed on Islamic groups. Conway was not even mentioned. Two days later, however, when divers found a backpack identical to the one Conway was suspected of having prepared, panic ensued. The divers filmed their descent and discovery of the backpack. The Royal Navy defused the bomb and discovered that the backpack was actually filled with sand. Ten other bags of sand were found strapped to cables around the world. All reminded the world of the fragility of the cables.

Conway was eventually identified as the perpetrator of the cable attacks in Egypt. His apartment was left in a normal condition, making Anthony believe that Conway planned to return to it. People dug into his past, discovering that his real name was Alistair Banks. He changed it to join the US military. When the media began questioning Zanele, she refused to speak. Her career took off, and she became a star.

Anthony does not know why Conway did what he did, but he suspects that Conway lost his grip on reality and could not find a solution to that which plagued him. People around the world believed they saw him for months afterward. His body eventually washed up in Libya, five months after his disappearance.

Anthony sends emails to Zanele but does not receive many replies. He continues working as a journalist and sets up an interview with an Irish writer who is working with the Alonzo King Lines Ballet. He does not like the writer but attends the performance. At the reception afterward, he sees Zanele and says hello. Zanele invites him for a visit the next day.

Zanele lives with Mmodi and their children on a houseboat on the Thames. They sit together and talk about Conway. Zanele admits that Conway was a great actor, better than she was. She proceeds to tell Anthony how she met Conway. When she went to Florida to study theater, a woman dropped her ring off a pier. Conway dove to find it and was underwater for what seemed like an impossible time. They connected, and he taught her how to dive before he returned to Louisiana. They wrote to each other, but Conway soon disappeared.

Conway would come and go for months at a time. One time, they went to an abandoned island off the coast of Angola, a former Portuguese territory. They walked through the empty streets and enjoyed their time together. They continued to see each other on and off for years, but by the time Zanele came to England, they both knew it was over. When Anthony asks about Conway’s life in Ireland, Zanele tells him Conway never shared that part of his life.

She tells Anthony that Conway travelled throughout the pandemic and even stayed at her house in Cornwall, though she never saw him. Zanele ponders if Conway did what he did to make a point. She questions the nature of damage and repair, reminding Anthony of his son. He realizes that he has ached for reconnection for years. Before Anthony leaves, he and Zanele take a picture together. She sends it to him, and he thinks of how it must be flying through the cables under the ocean.