Chapter 10
Rex swam beside Kimo, swinging his head back and forth, keeping his eyes open and his senses on high alert for any signs of danger from man or marine life.
As they neared the ocean floor, he looked around for any sign of a shipping container or the people who had died in it.
As far as he could see, nothing indicated that a twenty-foot shipping container had rested in the sand.
By now, the indentation would have been smoothed over by current and wave action.
Kimo pointed to Angel and Leilani, then to her right toward the reef.
Leilani nodded, and the two swam away.
Instead of heading for the reef, Kimo hovered over the sand. She pulled out her dive knife and dug in several places.
Rex wasn’t sure what she was doing. It wasn’t like the container could’ve sunk deep enough to be covered by the sand.
Rather than watch and wait, he joined her, digging his knife in a few inches and lifting sand.
A couple of minutes passed. Rex began to think they were wasting time they could be using to search for the BCD and camera. Ready to move on, he dug his knife in one last time. The tip of the knife struck something hard. When he lifted it, a metal crowbar came with the blade.
Kimo grabbed the crowbar and nodded. She motioned like she was jamming the crowbar into something to pry it open.
Rex understood what she was trying to say. This was the crowbar they’d used to open the container. Whether it could be used as evidence or not, she seemed happy to have found the tool. It was as if it proved she hadn’t been hallucinating the existence of the shipping container.
She secured the crowbar to her BCD and motioned toward the reef.
Together, they swam toward the rocky outcropping.
Rex stayed with her, looking all around for the BCD she’d ditched during her escape from the shooters. A large school of shiny fish swam in front of them, their scales flashing like sequins in the sunlight.
They passed long stretches of sand with an occasional, isolated giant rock providing a home for coral and small, colorful fish. Rex tried to imagine how fast she’d had to have been swimming to evade the motorboat bearing down on her from above.
As she neared the reef, Kimo slowed and moved to the left. Rex stayed with her. Not exactly three feet away, but close enough to shield her if someone or something tried to get to her.
She swam several yards, moving in and out of the rocks along the edge.
A bright blue-and-green parrotfish swam around her as if warning her this was its feeding ground. When she swam past, it flipped its tail and went back to its territory.
Kimo moved on, continuing her search, widening the space between them and the other dive team.
A movement out of the corner of Rex’s eyes drew his attention. He turned just as a turtle rose from the ocean floor and swam for the surface.
Caught in the moment, his gaze followed the turtle upward.
A strange humming sound made him look for the source.
Kimo searched the reef several feet ahead of him.
He hurried to close the distance, his gaze sweeping the water around them, looking for the hum that grew steadily louder.
Then he saw it.
A diver sped toward him using a propulsion vehicle. He held onto the device with one hand and aimed a speargun with the other.
Rex kicked hard to come up beside Kimo. He shoved her toward a crevice in between reef rocks as the approaching diver fired the speargun.
The spear sliced through the water, headed directly for Rex and Kimo.
He pushed her down and dove after her.
The spear crashed into the rock where a moment before Kimo had been.
Knowing the gun couldn’t be reloaded very fast, Rex tapped his watch, sending the message Need Help Now. He didn’t wait for a response. Instead, he swam up as the man with the propulsion vehicle passed over them, turned around and paused to reload.
Rex wasn’t giving him a chance to shoot again. He swam, pushing as hard and fast as he could, and catching the attacker before he could fit the spear into the weapon. Rex grabbed the gun, yanked it from the man’s hands and flung it away.
A knife flashed past Rex’s face.
He ducked, grabbed his knife and thrust it toward the other man, slicing into his arm.
The man jerked backward, blood coloring the water around him.
When Rex shot a glance over his shoulder toward Kimo, his heart skipped a beat. She had come out of the rocks and was swimming toward him.
Behind her, another man approached with a propulsion vehicle, aiming directly for her. Unlike his predecessor, he wasn’t carrying a speargun, which was Kimo’s saving grace.
Kimo must have heard the hum of the approaching propulsion vehicle. She turned in time to see the incoming threat and quickly retreated, ducking low behind the rocks, disappearing completely.
Rex kicked hard, swimming for her, angry at himself for ignoring his own rule to stay within three feet of her. He prayed he’d reach her before the man with the DPV.
His prayer wasn’t answered.
Before he was within ten feet of Kimo, the man on the DPV reached her location first and slowed to a stop.
Kimo shot upward, slamming the crowbar into the man’s gut.
The attacker spun away. He seemed to regroup and then renewed his attack, charging Kimo as she hovered over the reef, backpaddling desperately to swim back into the relative cover of the rocks while moving further away from the attacker and Rex.
The other diver went after Kimo, dropping behind the reef, out of Rex’s sight.
Rex’s heart sputtered, and he pushed harder. He cleared the rocks in time to see the man with his hands around Kimo’s throat.
She kicked and swung her arms at the man, trying to free herself from his grip. When her hand landed on his face mask, she grabbed it and yanked it off his face.
The attacker released one hand from Kimo’s throat and reached for the mask in her hand.
She flung it into the rocks of the reef and used that moment to shove him backward into Rex.
Rex hooked the man’s arm and swung him around and away from Kimo.
The aggressor came at Rex with his knife, swinging it wildly, his eyes squeezed tightly shut against the stinging saltwater.
Rex reached for the man’s wrist and shoved it against a jagged rock. The fight moved as if in slow motion. Every shove sent his opponent in one direction and Rex in the opposite.
He had the advantage over the other guy because he didn’t have his mask, and the saltwater was clearly causing him distress. Finally, the man touched the inflater assembly on his left shoulder, sending him toward the surface.
Rex’s watch pinged from the guys on the surface with the message, Incoming Bogey. He glanced up to see the propeller and underside of a speeding boat whip past them.
When he looked toward Kimo, she was waving frantically and pointing behind him.
Before he could turn, someone rammed into him and pushed him away while tugging at the hose connecting his regulator to the tank. He clamped his teeth around the mouthpiece and held on.
Rex twisted, trying to spin and face the aggressor. When he did, the strain on his regulator hose snapped, and he sucked water in through his mouthpiece.
His hose had been cut.
Rex spat out the water and ruined regulator, held his breath and blocked a jab from a knife the guy held.
He didn’t have time to fight this guy. He needed to get to the surface and air.
He let the diver come close, blocked his attempt to cut him and delivered his own knife into the man’s midsection, sinking it deep.
The diver clutched his belly and kicked away. He swung the propulsion vehicle up from where a strap attached it to his BCD. Moments later, he blasted past them, leaving a trail of blood and bubbles.
His lungs burning for air, Rex started for the surface.
A hand on his arm stopped him. He turned to find Kimo beside him. She removed the regulator from her mouth and held it in front of his face.
He took it, sucked in a deep breath, let it out and took another. Panic abated, and he handed the regulator back to Kimo.
She put the regulator in her mouth and pointed to the surface.
He gave her the okay sign and grabbed her BCD, bringing her chest to chest with him. He held on as they kicked their fins, rising no faster than the bubbles from the breaths they released.
They hadn’t gone far when Rex realized all was not well at the surface.
That motorboat that had zoomed over their heads had turned around and slowed to a stop above them.
Rex and Kimo stopped their ascent and reversed course, sinking back among the reef rocks, continuing to share the air from her tank.
The people above hauled one of their divers aboard. The wounded diver who’d sped away on the DPV raced up to the boat. He, too, was dragged aboard.
About the time the boat finally sped away, Angel and Leilani converged on them.
Angel messaged Rex, Are you all right?
Rex gave him the hand signal for okay and rose with Kimo, buddy-breathing all the way to the surface.
Devlin and Teller brought the tour boat close enough to where they were, without risking running into the reef.
Waves splashed over them, the water rougher than when they’d started the dive. The sun hovered over the horizon, appearing to slowly melt into the ocean.
Devlin helped Leilani up onto the boat while Teller stood guard with a rifle.
Rex pulled himself out of the water and turned to help Kimo on board.
“Are you okay?” he asked, inspecting her neck. “Did he hurt you?”
Kimo shook her head. “He didn’t have me long enough.”
Rex didn’t see any bruising. He relaxed a little. “You scared me.”
She laughed. “You scared me, going after the man with the speargun.”
“He missed the first time.” Rex inhaled and let it out slowly. “He might not have missed a second time. I couldn’t let him reload. But I left you, and I shouldn’t have.”
“You had to stop him—and you came back.”
Once Angel was on the tour boat, they worked at stripping out of their BCDs, tanks and fins.