Ocean Blue (Sea Lab Book 1)

CHAPTER 27

With the vastness of the Great Barrier Reef, he hoped to stay within visual range of everyone. They fanned out in a V-formation, spear-guns leading the way, heading north for today's exploration. Sarah swam to his right and Tony was beyond her. To his left, Rachel and then Kevin outside of her. They agreed to stick together to cover more of the reef in one direction today. They'd go south tomorrow. Five pairs of eyes might prove crucial in finding what they were looking for. It might also help them stay alive since the great white shark patrolled these waters.

As the group ventured further, Jake checked his flanks. Sarah and Tony had finned ahead of him. She kicked her legs with determination, always about the business of getting things done. And he figured Tony's gun-ho attitude was the reason for his faster speed over the aquatic world beneath them. On his other side, Kevin and Rachel lagged at a slower pace. Kevin had an investigative eye as he studied the irregular outcroppings, and Rachel, likely, was used to following his lead. The formation now resembled a backward slash instead of a 'V'.

Swishing along, a trail of bubbles lingered over their heads, at least twenty feet of water above them, and about as much below as the team swam between the surface and the ocean floor. On such a grand scale, it gave one the feeling of flying in slow motion.

For a few seconds, Jake relaxed and got lost in the sea's wonder. Then he realized Tony and Sarah had wandered farther away. The other pair did the same, but he felt more comfortable with Kevin and Rachel because Kevin was a field supervisor himself. He was used to looking out for the welfare of divers under his charge. Jake should feel the same way about Sarah, but he...

There he went, being over protective again.

He pressed the talk button on his mask. "Maintain a visual, please."

Everyone acknowledged the command, but seemed to try his patience on the outer fringes.

Some of the coral reef loomed large, like colorful mountains under the sea. Jake skimmed over the ranges and dove for a tiny patch of sand at the bottom. When he reached the desired spot, he noticed Sarah had finned far ahead of him, but slowed to inspect a ridge on the reef, the rifle shape of her speargun stretching in front of her. Tony had disappeared over the top of the hillside.

"What happened to staying in sight?"

"Sorry," Sarah said. "There's a lot to cover."

A quick glance over his shoulder revealed Kevin and Rachel had drifted away, too.

"All of you are testing my nerves."

"We'll catch up in a jiff," Kevin said.

Tony answered as if from nowhere. "I'm just over the crest of this formation. This blows away any coral reef I've ever seen."

"That's why they call it the Great Barrier Reef." Jake emphasized the word 'Great'.

"Go figure." After Tony's reply, gurgling bubbles were all Jake could hear. Then: "I see something. I'm going to check it out."

"Don't go too far."

"You bet, skipper."

Jake floated, looking up at the summit of the vibrant hills jutting from the seabed twenty to thirty feet high. Keeping a firm grasp on the four explorers would be a monumental task. He twisted his body and knifed through the water like a dolphin. He'd at least try to keep up with Sarah. Her diminished form lingered to the north. When he got close enough to see the bubbles over her head, he stopped and focused on the job of searching for marine life.

He had yet to see any fish. As reported. But there was so much more to discover.

Only now did he appreciate the vastness of the ecosystem spread before him. Being so preoccupied with his dive partners, he'd been unable to explore the region with a careful eye.

Jake drifted above a sea Anemone. The bright red tubes with tiny bulbs on the ends sprouted from a crescent-shaped outcropping. It was actually a living creature waiting for a fish to wander close enough to its venom-filled tentacles. Nearby, a bouquet of prickly flowers spread out before him, soft coral, tangerine orange.

He held his speargun out to the side and closed in on an oval lump, dull yellow with swirling patterns similar to... well, the human brain. Nice. Brain coral.

Ahead, something shiny piqued his interest. Jake narrowed his vision and tried to make out what might have been the silver sheen of a small fish. But when he swam to its location, he found a metallic object nestled between a violet outgrowth. He turned the rectangle shape over and realized it was a piece of chrome with cursive writing on one side.

Christened 1983, it gleamed in the sunlight from above.

The plate must have broken free from a vessel and plummeted to the ocean floor. Jake imagined the plaque mounted on the stern end of a fishing boat below the name of the craft. Probably some rich doctor with an obsession for the sea.

He dropped the chrome piece and turned his attention to the north. "Sarah, have you drifted off too?"

"I'm not that far from you," her reply came.

"Well, I can't see you."

"Look northwest of your position. Ten o'—Jake... behind you..."

The water stirred, displaced by something fast approaching like wind from a speeding car. Tingles ran down the back of Jake's neck and raced down his spine, locking his limbs in place like a frozen statue. He craned his head around, and out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a huge tail-fin, an ominous intruder slicing through the water toward him.

Jake wielded the end of his speargun, struggling to move it into firing position, but never had a chance.

The weight of the creature's elongated body crashed into him from behind. He felt no pain, but the blow blasted him toward a sandpit at the base of the reef. His hip missed the hardened protrusions of the coral by a narrow margin. The seabed rushed up to meet him. The impact with the sand deflated his lungs.

The panicked voices of Sarah and Kevin rang out in his ears. It took a moment, but he now knew why he associated no pain with the bite. The creature's jaws had sunk into his air tank. Soon, their shouts became muffled as his oxygen supply gurgled from the canister in a great expulsion of bubbles. In seconds, it became hard to breathe. Then he couldn't at all, the air squeezing from his chest, his lungs straining, grasping, suffocating.

As the giant fish pinned Jake to the ocean floor, he sensed this might be the end of his life. The end he feared the most.