ROOFTOP - JJ MAYBANK ✓

◌ FOUR

Kiara stuck her right hand in the bag while she used her left to keep it steady. She moved aside the breathing tubes and goggles, looking for the tanks and their readers. She pulled out o2 tank after o2 tank, turning them on, reading the oxygen levels, turning them off, and letting out the same sigh after every check. "These are all empty. You took empty tanks." She pulled out the very last one and performed the final check. She sighed again. "This one's a quarter full. That's enough for one person."

Athena looked over at JJ, but he just shrugged. He didn't know how to dive. When would he have learned? That was way out of his price range. "It's kind of a kook sport," he informed her with a wink when Kiara asked them who knew how to dive.

Considering the fact that she was a boat with strictly Pogues, she didn't love the fact that scuba diving 'was a kook sport.' That meant she was on a boat with all inexperienced divers, but one of them was going to have to go down. It was inevitable, Athena knew this. However, apparently, Pope had read about it once.

He explained the bends to everyone. When you try to come up from the bottom to the surface too fast and nitrogen gets in your blood. The bends can kill you if you come up too fast. Pope did some quick math and figured that John B, who was their designated diver, would have about twenty-five minutes with the quarter tank. He needed to stop around ten feet and wait for two minutes on his way down and on his way back up, to avoid the bends.

While Pope was still explaining things to John B- and Athena and JJ were making eyes at each other- Kiara ripped off her shirt and jumped off the boat. She landed in the water feet first with her arms in the air. For a second, Athena thought she was trying to keep her shirt dry, but then Kiara dragged her hands down and turned over. She started swimming hands first, shirt still in hand, now soaking wet.

"Uh..." John B looked over at Athena.

"What was that all about?" Pope asked, finally putting his pencil back in his pocket.

"I dunno. But I liked it. A lot." JJ was no longer making eyes at Athena.

Pope and John B shot each other the same exact look, and then looked over at Athena. She was busy squinting through the sun at JJ, annoyed. And utterly confused. After all the questions he was asking her yesterday about playing him. Just exactly who's playing who here?

Kiara's head popped back up on the surface of the water. She shook her head, sending water from her hair everywhere. "I tied my shirt about ten feet down," she explained. "That's where you need to do your safety stop." Kiara climbed back on the boat, now in nothing but her bathing suit. JJ was definitely eying her.

Athena pretty much tuned the rest of the boat ride out. She was vaguely annoyed and slightly confused. Generally, she just felt like this was getting too complicated for her. But she really liked JJ.

John B dived down, the cops showed up, John B came back up with a black bag he stole from the wreck. So many big things, they again just glossed right over. Athena wasn't big on talking everything to death, but the cops tied their boat up to theirs and didn't even notice the sunken boat below them. That at least deserved a conversation. Didn't it?

The bag contained another bag, holding a silver, metal container. Inside that was a compass. Said compass seemed very old and worth probably pennies at the local pawn shop. It was nothing special. Plus, it was damaged; scratched up, and waterlogged. But John B claimed it was his father's. He said it had been passed down his family tree for decades.