Kerry rolled out of the way, but her hose caught on one of the wheel spokes and yanked her around. She twisted in surprise, and with a pop, the hose ruptured and pulled loose from her second stage. Air stopped. Kerry’s eyes snapped open wide and she reached back, her other hand grabbing for Dar’s arm nearby. She spat out her regulator and stuck it into her pocket, reaching down for her secondary. The broken line was spewing bubbles, however, and she realized it was her life running out and gathering up along the ceiling.
Dar whirled at the sound of air releasing, spotting the problem immediately. She dropped her hard-won relic and pounced on Kerry, pulling her around to get at her second stage. In an instant, she grabbed Kerry’s hand, pulled out her own reserve regulator, 278 Melissa Good and handed it to Kerry.
Kerry grabbed her residual air computer and showed it to Dar.
Dar just pushed the regulator at her as she turned the valve on the top of Kerry’s tank to shut her air down. Kerry took the regulator and exchanged it, now breathing off the same tank as Dar. She picked up Dar’s computer and looked at it, clutching Dar’s arm in alarm.
Dar patted her cheek comfortingly and kept working. It was getting dark. Dar propped up her light and grabbed Kerry’s broken hose, examining the end of it. Discarding the hose a moment later, she pulled a small packet out of her BC and unwrapped it, disclosing a multipurpose tool and some small, shiny things that looked like foreshortened bullets.
Kerry waited tensely, unable to see what Dar was doing and very conscious of the air they were both expending. On Dar’s tank, they would not have enough for both of them to get to the surface with a safety stop, which would expose them to the danger of the bends. Kerry tried to remain calm, breathing slowly and evenly.
The water closed in around her, now dense and dark, flickers of unknown life visible at the perimeter of her vision.
Dar closed the end of her pliers on the bit of hose stuck in the second stage, twisting it hard and unscrewing the end of the broken part. It jammed a little, but she finally coaxed it out and let it drop to the ground. From the selection of small bullets, she picked up one and inserted it into the hole, gently working it in and screwing the threaded plug into place. She tightened it down, and then slowly opened the valve again, watching carefully for any bubbles.
There were none.
She tapped Kerry on the shoulder and motioned for her to exchange regulators again. Her lover did so immediately, sucking in air from her own reserve with a look of utter relief. Dar put her tools away, and then checked her watch. They had been down too long, she realized, and from the look in Kerry’s eyes, Kerry knew it too. Dar pointed toward the wheelhouse entrance, knowing they didn’t have time to even glance into the ship’s hold. But there wasn’t anything she could do about that. All she could do was grab up the relic she’d found and head for the surface.
She followed Kerry out into the dark ocean. Almost no light was coming down now, and the wreck was receding into a mysterious shadow. Dar hefted her bit of metal in one hand and got her bearings, moving slowly away from the boat toward their anchor line.
Kerry checked her compass, shining her light ahead of her until it reflected off the silvery chain reaching up toward the surface.
She took hold of the anchor line, grateful for its security as they began to inch their way upward. It was the first time she’d ever had Terrors of the High Seas 279
an equipment failure, and she had to admit it had rattled her badly.
She knew that if she hadn’t had Dar with her and Dar hadn’t been prepared as she always was, she’d have been facing an emergency ascent and the very real possibility of a diver’s nightmare. The bends meant the trapping of nitrogen bubbles inside her bloodstream, bubbles that would grow bigger as she shot to the surface and potentially cut off her circulation. A normal rate of ascent gave the gas plenty of time to be gradually reabsorbed, but doing anything else opened you up to the risk of a heart attack, a stroke, paralysis, or death. Kerry wasn’t ready to die yet, and just the thought of a stroke like her father had suffered made her blood run ice cold.
But she had been lucky; Dar had been there. Kerry felt a lump in her throat as they paused for a safety stop. Watching her from behind her mask, Dar circled her leg with an arm and squeezed it.
With the dark water around them, it was an oddly intimate moment. Kerry leaned forward and pressed her mask against Dar’s, just looking into her eyes. She forgot about their mission. She forgot where they were, and for just that moment, Kerry was simply glad to be alive.
Dar brushed her fingertips against Kerry’s jaw. Her eyes smiled. Kerry caught her hand and clasped it. She could feel the powerful emotion running between them so strongly; words would just have been window dressing. Above them, their conjoined bubbles twirled lazily for the surface.
Breaking the surface first, Dar pulled off her mask and shook the hair out of her eyes. She spotted the boat, Charlie and Bob waiting anxiously on its deck, and moved toward it.
Kerry emerged just behind her, surprised at the chop that the water had developed. Glad their dive was over, she kept her regulator in her mouth as she followed Dar through the waves. She hung onto the ladder while her partner hauled herself up on board, Dar’s catch bag heavy with the relic she’d recovered as it banged against her knee.
As Dar cleared the ladder, Kerry tossed her fins on board, then grabbed the metal rungs and, with a surge of energy, pulled herself and her gear up out of the water. She was already stepping onto the deck by the time Dar turned, and she gave her lover a tiny wave as she made her way over to the bench and sat down on it. So, Kerry, her mind gently mocked, wanted to look macha in front of the boys, hm? She hooked her tanks up on the holder and unfastened her BC, sitting back and relaxing as the weight came off her shoulders.
“Find anything?” Bob asked. “Looks like you did!”
Dar shed her catch bag, which clattered onto the deck. “Found a couple things,” she said. “How are we doing on time?”
“All right,” Charlie told her. “Wind’s come up.”
280 Melissa Good
“So I noticed.” Dar shucked her gear and stood up straight, pulling her hair back and wringing the water from it. “We found some things I can’t really explain, but I’ll tell you what we didn’t find.” She put her hands on neoprene-covered hips. “We didn’t find fishing gear.”
Charlie and Bob looked at each other. “Huh?” Bob said. “What d’you mean? It was a fishing boat.”
“Yeah.” Kerry stood and went to the cabinet, where she pulled out two towels. The night air was cool, and she was starting to chill.
“But Dar’s right. There wasn’t any fishing gear on it. No nets, no whatever-those-things-are they use to pull the nets up, nothing.”
She tossed Dar one of the towels. “I found a part of a crate I brought up.” She wrapped the other towel around her, closing her jaw to prevent her teeth from chattering. “I need to go put on something dry.”
“Go.” Dar pushed her gently towards the cabin. “Where’s that soup?” she asked Bob, giving him a direct stare.
“Oh. Um...inside.” Bob pointed. “I’ll go get it.” He opened the door and let Kerry enter ahead of him, then closed it behind them both.
Dar went to her catch bag and opened it.
“If he wasn’t fishing, what was he doing here?” Charlie asked curiously.