Chapter 20
The Stranger
The weather’s perfect today. Clear blue waters for miles and a white-hot sun. The mid-December air smells fresh, alive, bursting with energy.
Just like I feel.
Crystal’s working, Natalie’s safe with Mads and Ms. Connor, and I’m about to take my first dive into the tunnels of the blue hole—Carter’s Drop.
I still haven’t gotten used to the name.
During the deck briefing, we confirmed today’s assignments and buddy pairings. I’m a part of something.
And now I know who I am—Dr. Nathan Carter. Albeit with a terrible memory, but still.
The more I read through my journals and spend time with my family and friends, the more connections I’m making with my past. It all fits.
Crystal says I’m the same man she fell in love with.
Being together feels easy and natural. And I dream of her.
Not the one lonely dream anymore. But memories. Each one building on the last.
After the last few nights, I should be exhausted. Instead, I’m exhilarated.
I can take on the world.
Scott walks over.
“You’re in a good mood,” he says. He’s trying not to smirk, but it’s not working.
I shrug.
“One of those nights, huh?”
“Maybe.”
He smiles and squeezes my shoulder. “I’m happy for both of you. Ready to do this today?”
“Absofuckinglutely.”
I’ve memorized the maps. I know the layout of everything charted so far.
On the map I drew years ago, it’s just numbers and notes.
Nothing’s labeled. The newer surveys show the names the team has been giving to the rooms and passages as they chart the system.
The Megaron is the biggest chamber. It’s the one I discovered the day I went missing.
Hecate is the longest run of tunnels, and that’s where I’ll be going with Finn and Margaret today.
“I envy you. Jamie and I are stuck with Sid’s camera team. She wants to complete the footage of the Megaron for her documentary trailers.” Frowning, he mutters, “Fucking cameras.”
Yeah. I don’t envy him.
“You good on the Hecate route and the jumps?”
I nod and tap my temple. “Are we focusing on Hecate because of Finn’s heat scopes?”
“No,” he says. “Other than the branches off the Megaron, Hecate runs the deepest on sonar. Finn wants to go deep. He thinks the heat’s the most intense at the ends.”
“So what? Are we going to scrape the heat from the walls?” I’m still waiting for someone to clarify the plan. Oh, that’s right. There isn’t one. “What do you think this is?” I ask.
“I’ve got no idea. That’s why we’re here. Explorers.” He grins and picks up his gear. “Today’s about data and assessment. All that science shit you nerds go crazy for.”
“Do you trust Finn?”
“No,” he says without hesitation. “But I’m not the best judge. Either way, watch your back. Margaret’s in charge today. Don’t go any farther than the lines, Nathan. Not today.”
“Got it.”
He walks toward the platform. “All right, let’s gear up,” he calls out.
Beneath the surface at the drop line, we equalize and check each other for leaks and trim. Scott and Finn decided we were going to use full-face masks with comms to make team communication easier.
We begin our descent, equalizing every few feet as we swim toward the blue hole.
My heart rate picks up as we get closer.
When I dove with Crystal and Scott the other day, it was an out-of-body experience. I felt like I was going to die. Or that I already had. As we neared the entrance to Carter’s Drop, I saw myself from a distance. I watched as I swam into the mouth, and then as it closed around me.
Then I followed myself in.
Scott gave me shit as soon as he reached me, but I’d gotten a glimpse of the thing that had killed me. Not my body, but my mind.
Now here I am again.
It looms in front of me. The same. But slightly different.
As if it’s alive.
And waiting.
Our lights illuminate the cavern’s limestone walls as we swim into the main chamber.
We level off at twenty-five feet. Stalactites hang from the ceiling like crystal chandeliers, while wide stalagmites rise from the floor in columns of varying height and diameter, like ancient pillars.
It’s a large, open, well-lit cavern, with seven main tunnel openings.
A jagged entrance to the right leads to the Megaron.
The unassuming, nearly flat opening to the left marks the start of the Hecate tunnels.
Scott calls Clint on comms. “Clint, we’ve reached the cavern, and we’re about to split.”
“Copy boss. Everything’s good topside. We’re ready to check in at the sixty-minute mark.”
Scott ends his communication with Clint and turns to us.
“We regroup here in two hours max. Safety check at sixty. Stay alert.” We make eye contact, and he gives me a Shaka signal.
Then our teams split and head in opposite directions.
STOP! Prevent your death...
Our team passes the Grim Reaper cave-diving warning sign and enters Hecate.
It’s gorgeous.
Most of the limestone is sculpted smooth, and the water is so clear that the passageway takes on a velvety midnight-blue hue under our lights.
Per the surveys, the Hecate passages are much wider and easier to navigate than the tunnels leading to the Megaron.
With a large area and limited mineral formations due to the stronger channel flow, there’s plenty of space to move around in here and avoid the walls.
At least as far as it’s been explored. Sonar suggests a main flow crossroads about a third of the way down, where the routes start to pinch tight, and the traverse options become gnarly.
But we’ll be going nowhere near that today.
I didn’t notice it in the cavern, but the water is getting uncomfortably warm in here already. I check my dive computer.
We’re only thirty meters in.
Margaret and Finn also notice the heat.
“If we run into any of your shimmering patches, what’s the protocol?” Margaret asks Finn.
“If we see them, we’ll turn back at once. But we’re unlikely to run into a sudden shift in temperature that we won’t detect in time to survive.”
“That’s reassuring,” Margaret says sarcastically.
For a scientist, Finn acts on gut and intuition more than I’d expect. But I guess that’s why we’re in the caves right now, actually doing something instead of in a room talking in circles.
Finn curses. “Eighty-four degrees. Bloody hell.”
We’ve got summer open water temperatures in here, in a cave. I’m going to be just as pissed as him if we have to end the dive before we’ve even started it.
“Bollocks. We just jumped to eighty-six degrees.”
“One more degree of buffer,” Margaret says.
Finn pauses and studies the data on his computer. A small nod, as if a decision has been made. “We can push to ninety-two for a short period. Watch your exertion. Fifteen minutes tops once we get there.”
The hell? What’s he doing? He’s the one who suggested the safety maximum of eighty-seven degrees.
“We’re not doing that. We dive the plan,” Margaret states, staring at Finn with disdain.
“Right. Well, for now we’re still holding at eighty-six degrees.”
We continue. Pointing my flashlight at the line for Margaret so she can inspect it, she checks it quickly and then moves to the next tie-off.
After a few minutes, I notice our breathing is elevated, and my cheeks are burning.
I pull away the neck collar to flush my suit.
It does very little to relieve the heat.
We’ll get heatstroke if we don’t get out of here soon. Margaret snaps her head toward me.
“It’s too hot.” She swivels around. “Where’s Finn?” I look around and don’t see him either.
She presses on her PTT. “Finn, where the hell are you?”
Margaret raises her voice. “Finn?”
She switches channels. “Scott, we have a problem. Finn’s pushing limits. Suggested we could go hotter. Now he’s out of sight.”
“When?”
“Six minutes. My temperature reading is ninety.”
“The fuck—” Scott says something to Jamie. “I’m calling the dive. Jamie and Liam will guide Sid’s team out. You and Nathan leave now. I’m heading to the Hecate for Finn.”
“Copy.” Margaret anxiously scans the passages, still looking for Finn. Then she turns to me. “You heard him. We’re ending the dive.”
I stare at the tunnel offshoot where I last saw Finn and point.
“I’m going to check that tunnel. He was there. He couldn’t have gone anywhere else.”
“Scott said…”
“I know. But there’s no time. It’s too hot.”
Reluctantly, Margaret nods. “Ten minutes tops.”
Quickly, I enter the tunnel. My God. It’s like a hot tub in here.
I was sweating in my suit a few minutes ago, but now I’m too hot to sweat.
I’m cooking. Checking the temperature, I’m shocked to see ninety-six degrees.
No wonder my heart is pounding in my chest and ears.
I’m already way past the danger zone for hyperthermia.
I swipe my light from left to right, top-down, searching for any sign of him. This will take longer than ten minutes.
“Finn, where are you, man?”
Silence.
Then I spot him. His head is tilted to the side, and his body has drifted toward the ceiling. His fins are still. The light in his hand points aimlessly as his arms move in slow, erratic reaching motions. His leg is wrapped around a line, the only thing keeping him from crashing into the limestone.
He’s completely disoriented, but he’s alive. We’ve got to get out of here, or we’re going to die.
Approaching him with caution, I catch his harness and yank him back into position.
After I flush his suit, I try to talk to him.
His eyes are still open, but he’s listless.
Adjusting his torso to move his body parallel to the guideline, I push his light to point ahead and adjust his wing inflation and position.
Keeping my grip on his harness strap, I haul him back through the offshoot into the tunnel where Margaret is waiting.
My head is pounding, my fingers growing weaker, and it takes everything I have to keep my hold on Finn.
Margaret grabs onto him, and together we drag him into the main tunnel.
As we swim toward the exit, the water cools fast with the fresh flow.
My breathing finally evens out. Margaret’s does too.
Finn is conscious, but he’s out of it, mumbling incoherently.
He’s lucky to be here. We all are, I think darkly.
We cross paths with Scott a few meters from reaching the main cavern.
“Is he?” Scott asks.
“He’s alive,” I say.
“Great. Because I’m killing him when we reach the surface.”