The grated door swept open, gliding across the floor track and ramming against its stop, the collision reverberating throughout the hydro lab. Sarah stepped in first, and Jake followed. Then Tony, Kevin and Rachel squeezed inside. Sarah slammed the door shut, pressed a button inside the steel box and the elevator began its descent to the lowest level of the ship.
Upon purchase, the Atlantis lacked a moon pool. So at the discretion of Director Hardy, Sea Lab dry docked the ship and inserted the upgrade near the stern, between the A-frame crane and the hanger that housed the mini-sub, Alvin. The moon pool made it simple for divers to access the water. The square opening was big enough for diver propulsion vehicles, or DPVs, the smaller remote operated vehicles, ROVs, and even the Alvin itself. Techs could lower dive equipment into the room by using the elevator in the hydro lab. Jake learned all of this by studying a PDF on his iPad during the flight to Brisbane.
Or they could use the platform lift as a service elevator if they didn't feel like taking the stairs.
With all five of the team together, Jake eyed his dive watch as the lift leveled with the floor of the moon pool room. "We're behind schedule. It's one minute after nine." He slipped from using military time. After all, he wasn't in the Navy anymore.
"We'll be in the water in minutes," Sarah replied, attaching a waterproof bag to her belt in case they came across anything interesting. Jake did the same as they stepped from the lift.
Everyone had already changed into wet suits and fins. All that remained was to don air tanks and hit the water. Jake padded over to an interior wall and pressed a round button on a control panel. He watched as a giant section of the floor slid back, leaving a hole in the ship's bottom. When the hydraulics shut down, he flipped a switch on the same power box and a bright swath of floodlights illuminated the recess like it was an indoor pool at the Holiday Inn. More than ready to sink into the azure blue depths, he strapped on his air tank and neared the water.
Sarah, now ready to go, sat with her legs over the edge.
"I'm feeling like a few laps." Tony cracked his neck.
"Make sure you mix in a little work with your fun," Kevin said. "We are being paid, you know."
"Work is my middle name. W-O-R-K," he spelled out the letters, "sounds like a radio station." He tapped the point of a spear-gun on the floor. It was almost as tall as he was. The Magnum 450 XHD harpoon had a black finish with yellow stretch bands on the firing end, which operated like an underwater crossbow. All five of them had identical weapons as their defense in case they came across another monster fish. "But as much as I'm dedicated to work," Tony's mouth formed a wicked grin, "I still like to play." He aimed the spear-gun at the wall and made a sound like a harpoon swooshing through water.
"Just make sure you get within range before you pull the trigger," Jake said. "And watch where you aim that thing."
Rachel's eyes danced while Kevin held a stoic expression.
Sarah cleared her throat and gestured toward the water. "Enough with the adolescent humor."
Tony offered a solemn face and saluted, and then dropped through the opening feet first, followed by Kevin, Rachel, and Jake.
Ten feet down, Jake looked back and saw Sarah leave the ledge and sink below the surface.
Each member of the team wore a Neptune Space Predator full-face dive mask equipped with the communication headset built in. Jake always got a false sense of security whenever a voice crackled over the airwaves. It made him feel like his dive partners were right behind him, when in reality they could have drifted farther apart. In the past, he'd lost sight of his partner and had to find them using common underwater landmarks.
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.