Other costs kept rising, too. Extra fuel. Damaged gear. Lost hours waiting for tourists to move. The old outboard of his boat coughed harder each week, and Elias knew the repair bill would not care that the fish had fled due to music and vanity.
At home, even the cabin no longer felt safe from them. Drones swept over the hill at sunset and all hours, filming “tiny fisherman homes” against the sea. Once, Elias stepped outside in his undershirt and heard laughter from a yacht below when the drone dipped toward him.