PARADISE | JOHN B ROUTLEDGE |

08 i thought you were more agile than that

"JJ! Hold steady!" John B yelled to his friend, who did his best to keep the boat in the same position.

"Okay, 900!" Kiara yelled, not even bothering to tally the depth anymore.

"JJ, we're gonna turtle in this storm, man!"

"920!"

"Crank it north by northwest, ten seconds!" John B yelled, the wind howling in all their ears.

"Almost there." Pope muttered, impatiently tapping on the side of the computer.

"John B, there's too much current, we're gonna lose it." Kiara yelled as she and Talia both pulled on the tether, trying to keep it steady.

"South southwest, JJ, hard!" John B ignored the girls and called to JJ, who turned the wheel as hard as he could. "Half speed, steady at this bearing!" He added, to which he nodded. Beeping sounded from the tablet and John B ran next to Pope.

"What do you got, Pope? Come on, man. What do you see?" John B asked desperately.

"Nothin'. A whole lot of nothin'." Pope said defeated, ready to close up the laptop.

"You should be right above it, brother." John B told him as they both looked at the screen, silently praying to see anything.

"Kiara, Talia!" Pope yelled to the girls, who were still feeding the tether into the ocean.

"960, 970!" Kiara yelled as Talia could hear the ending of the wire come off of the holder.

"980!" Talia yelled, trying to keep the tether from completely unraveling.

"I'm at the bottom, I'm at the bottom!" Pope finally yelled. The girls clamped the tether and ran over to Pope and John B, who yelled at JJ to stay steady.

"You should be seeing something, man."

"I know, I know, wait." Pope moved the camera around, hoping to find something, and they did. What was left of a wooden ship sat on the ocean floor, a golden angel sitting at the bow. All the teens sighed in disbelief.

"Oh, good god." Pope muttered, stepping back slightly from the computer.

"See anything?" JJ yelled from inside the boat, but the group was too fixated on the screen to answer.

John B only chuckled. "It's the Royal Merchant." Talia shook her head, a smile finding it's way to her face.

"Holy shit, we did it." She whispered, grabbing Kiara's hand for support. They all leaned closer to look for what they really wanted to find: the gold. Pope moved the drone around more, finding nothing that resembled gold.

"It's not there. Look, just pull the drone up." John B sighed in defeat, running a stressed hand through his hair.

"We can do another pass, recharge the battery. We can go back down." Pope offered as John B walked towards the stern.

"Guys, we've been through it three times, there's nothing there." JJ told them, as the rest of the group yelled at him to shut up.