Chapter 38
The cage plummeted down.
I managed to get the regulator back in my mouth and start breathing again. I looked at Ariel. She’d taken another hit to the head. Bubbles rose from her regulator, so I knew she was breathing. I put a hand on her shoulder and peered into her eyes.
She was unconscious.
The spear with the sample was gone, slipped from her grasp. The camera’s underwater housing was cracked, and the memory card was fried. All of it, everything, for nothing.
Down, down, down we plunged.
The pressure in my ears felt like someone stabbing an ice pick through my skull. I tried to equalize as best I could.
The cage crashed against the sea floor, kicking up a cloud of sediment that dropped visibility to zero again.
I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face.
The crumpled cage left little room for the two of us.
After a few minutes, the cloud of sediment cleared.
I checked on Ariel again, shaking her shoulder. Her eyes fluttered open, and she looked at me with confusion. After a beat, she gave me the thumbs up, and I felt much relieved.
The massive shark swam around overhead, staying near the surface, circling the boat.
A quick check of the oxygen told me that we had roughly 35 minutes left. At 90 feet, it was advisable to do a safety stop on the way up to avoid decompression sickness. But if that shark was still swimming around, I'd take decompression sickness over becoming a snack.
We had one slight problem.
The deformation of the cage had wedged shut the top hatch.
I kicked it several times, but it wouldn’t budge.
That sense of dread swelled, and panic filled Ariel’s eyes.
The clatter drew the attention of the mammoth shark. It plunged to the bottom and circled the cage.
The current washed over us and kicked up more sediment.
I kept kicking at the hatch until it finally gave way.
With a way out of the cage, I breathed a little easier. As easy as one can breathe with a meat grinder waiting for you. I did not want to get out into the open ocean with that thing. But at some point, we wouldn’t have a choice. Drown or die as fish food.
The shark kept swimming around, eyeing us.
Our oxygen kept depleting.
In a blink, 10 minutes passed.
The shark showed no sign of boredom.
Another blink, another 10 minutes.
In a perfect world, we needed a 3-5 minute stop at 15-20 feet.
This was far from a perfect world.
If I swam away from the cage first and kept to the bottom, it might distract the shark long enough for Ariel to get to the surface. I wasn’t particularly keen on dying down here, but it was better than both of us. Sometimes life is a series of compromises. And sometimes, it’s just a sacrifice.
The time drew near. It was now or never.
I pointed at Ariel, then to the surface.
She looked at me with trepidation.
I gestured in the direction I would swim.
Ariel shook her head.
I nodded, overriding her.
She shook her head, adamant.
This was perhaps our first and last argument.
I tapped the gauge and pointed to the surface again. We were out of options.
Ariel’s eyes filled behind her mask.