Authors: Colleen Coble
“I love diving!” Eva said. Hotshot offered her a pencil, and she took it, touching it to the tip of her tongue to wet it. “Okay.”
T
he ship rocked in the waves. Leia was shivering, and she wasn’t even in the water. The trade winds blew across her exposed flesh, but they felt cold to her, though she knew they were as warm and balmy as usual. She began to pull on her wet suit. Might as well get this over with. Bane already had his gear on and stood with Mano looking out over the water from the bow of the
Pomaik’i
. Ron was on the island rounding up some more equip-ment, though he’d managed to get enough for today’s dive. She was thankful he hadn’t asked too many questions.
Annie was helping her gear up. She stood and shaded her eyes with her hand. “Hey, is that your dad?”
Leia looked up to see her father speeding toward them in his small dingy. From the whine of the motor, she figured he had it opened up all the way. She waved, and he motioned wildly, a frantic movement that made her rise and hurry to catch the towrope he tossed her way. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Eva. She didn’t come home after work, but we got this note.” He stepped aboard and handed her a folded piece of paper.
Bane and Mano joined them. Ajax pressed close to Bane’s leg. Leia took the note and unfolded it. I’M OKAY, BUT YOU HAVE TO DO WHAT HOTSHOT SAYS. GIVE HIM BACK HIS STUF. DON’T CALL POLISE. EVA. Leia’s fingers tightened on the paper until it began to crumple. Eva was so trusting, so easily taken in by anyone who was nice to her. She looked at her dad. “Hotshot? Who’s Hotshot?” Her father’s gaze was fastened on her face as though he hoped she held the answer. “And what stuff does he want?”
He took back the note. “I have no idea who he is. I’d say the stuff is the artifacts.”
“Does Mama know? Eva talks to her a lot.”
“She’s heard her mention him, but she thought this Hotshot was one of Eva’s coworkers. We called Laura Gallagher, but she’s never heard of him.”
Laura was Eva’s supervisor at ARC. She kept a tight rein on the employees. Whoever this guy was, he had made sure no one saw him with Eva. Leia curled her fingers into her palms.
“Did you call Detective Ono?” Bane asked. He held out his hand for the note, and Akoni gave it to him. He grunted as he read it.
Akoni hesitated. “I was afraid to call when the note said not to. I’ll just turn over the artifacts and get my daughter back. I can’t run the risk that the guy would hurt her.”
Leia rubbed her palm over her face. “I don’t know what we should do. I don’t want them to hurt Eva.”
“You think there’s more than one?” her father asked.
“I wonder if it’s the same two men who grabbed me. The big guy, Moe, could have a nickname like that.”
“Let’s get the artifacts up top before we call the police. We’ll see what they want to do once the items are in our possession.” Bane held on to his mouthpiece and jumped into the water.
Leia started to follow him, but her dad grabbed her arm. “I’m sorry, Leia. Sorry I’ve made such a mess of things. I should be protecting my family, and instead, I’ve put you all in danger.”
Leia put her hand over his. “We’ll figure it out. We’re Kahales, after all.”
His answering smile was strained, and he dropped his hand. “I’ll be praying for you.”
“I’ll take all the prayers I can get.” She moved to the edge of the boat, held her mouthpiece, and jumped into the blue water. She grabbed the line attached to the cargo basket and brought it with her. The warm caress usually relaxed her, but every muscle tensed as she plunged down after Bane. The strange taste of the specially mixed air made her tongue tingle.
They’d called Nani as they were setting out, and the dolphin met her as she entered the water. Leia grabbed Nani’s dorsal fin and let her pull her down to where Bane floated. The drop-off grew closer, and she resisted the impulse to turn and swim back to the boat. Bane couldn’t do this alone. She flipped on her halogen light, and the bright illumination reassured her.
She let go of Nani, and the dolphin nosed rocks near the drop-off. Leia realized she was breathing too fast and made a conscious effort to control her air. It had to last. Bane saw her and motioned for her to come with him. He disappeared over the side into the blue hole. She kicked her fins and propelled herself after him, though every muscle in her body wanted to shoot for the surface. She hesitated at the edge and peered over. There was no floor in sight.
She moved downward. Nani kept up with her. When Leia paused, Nani bumped her hand with her nostrum. Leia rubbed the dolphin, and the action settled her excitement a bit. She checked her dive computer. She was at one hundred fifty feet. Another fifty feet to go. She could see Bane from here as he approached the cave where the boat sat.
Leia studied the cave. It was more of an overhang than a real cave, but they had to find the one that held the artifacts. While Bane searched the right side of the overhang where the fish hovered, she finned herself forward, toward the back of the cave. Her father hadn’t been certain where the cave was, because he’d never been down here. He’d only reported what Koma had told him. She swept her light over the wall and down to the floor. The hole sprang into relief, and before she could react, Nani shot through it. Leia turned around and looked for Bane. He was looking her direction, so she motioned to him and waved her light back and forth over the opening. He propelled himself toward her. Peering inside, he then stuck his head in, kicked his fins, and disappeared.
Her ears were ringing a bit, but she didn’t feel narced. The special mix of air was helping delay the effects. Exhaling a stream of bubbles, she put her head through the opening. The fit was tight, but she could make it if Bane could. Gritting her teeth, she kicked firmly with her fins. Maybe on the other end of this tunnel-like entrance, it would get bigger. She knew it was her imagination that her air tasted more stale and tight. The walls around her gradually expanded, then she found herself in a cave about twenty feet in diameter.
Bane was already swimming back toward her with a load in his hands. He pointed behind him, and she saw more floating boxes tethered by ropes that wrapped around a natural pillar of coral. She pulled out her knife and cut the ropes to the nearest box. It weighed practically nothing in the water. She moved back to the opening and joined Bane as he maneuvered the boxes into the basket. They secured the boxes, then swam back to the cave.
Leia was getting her stride back. She now noticed the fish zip-ping by her mask and admired the bright coral that grew along the bow of the ship. A moray eel zipped back into its hole, then poked out its head to watch them pass. She went first this time and swam to the last of the artifacts. There was only one more box, a small one. Bane’s eyes behind his mask were warm with approval as he took the box from her, and then turned to head out.
Nani bumped into them. She darted back and forth in a frenzied water dance. Leia paused to try to figure out what had upset the dolphin when she noticed rocks beginning to slide on the slopes of the cave around them. It seemed hotter all at once. She glanced at her dive computer and looked at the temperature gauge. At first she thought the temperature had remained the same, but then she realized it had skyrocketed ten degrees. That wasn’t possible. She showed the computer to Bane.
He gripped her arm, then pointed. Pillow lava was dripping over the front of the cave. They had to get out. She started for the cave opening, but the water got hotter, and the lava was dripping so quickly there was no room to get by without being burned. Bane pulled her back. It was too late. They were trapped. His eyes held a terrible awareness that they were going to die. He pulled her into his arms, and she listened to the sound of
his regulator. It would soon stop. He would run out of air before she did because he was a big guy and pulled a lot of air.
Leia didn’t want to die yet. There was so much she wanted to experience, and she realized she wanted that life to include Bane. While she looked forward to heaven someday, she’d never thought that day could come so soon. Her gaze locked with Bane’s. She tried to tell him with her eyes how much she loved him and how sorry she was for everything. Bane opened his arms, and she moved into them.
E
va didn’t like this place. The corners held spiderwebs with dead bugs hanging in them. Hotshot had promised they’d go for diving, but she didn’t see gear around. They were just in this dumpy cabin that took forever to walk to. Hotshot had brought her here and told her he’d be back later. When he left, she’d tried the door, but it was locked.
Eva had tried to open a window and crawl through, but they were stuck shut. It was hot in here too. She wanted to go home and watch
Home Alone
again. She watched it every day. Sometimes she felt like Kevin in the film—invisible enough that she could be for-gotten by her family. At the same time, the film gave her hope that she could be a hero too.
She was tired of sitting on the cot. She wished she had a book to read—maybe
Black Beauty
. She stood and walked around the room. On the old table she carved her name, then something scraped at the front door. She sprang to her feet and faced the door. Maybe Hotshot was back with his diving gear. She rushed to the door as Hotshot entered the cabin. His hands were empty. “No diving gear?”
“Not yet.” His smile widened as he took a lock of her blonde hair and twisted it around his finger. “You’ve sure got pretty hair, Eva.”
There was something about his smile that she wasn’t sure about. It made her feel funny, excited, and icky all at once. She backed away. “I think I should go home now.”
“Not yet,” he said, kicking the door shut behind him. “We have lots to do yet.”
T
hey floated heart to heart for a few seconds, then Leia realized the dolphin was trying to drive them apart.
Nani swam in circles around them. She bumped against their legs, and Nani rolled over then zipped to a rock that stuck out into the cave. She disappeared behind it. Leia hadn’t realized there was enough space back there to hold the dolphin’s body. Gesturing to Bane, she led the way to see what Nani had discovered. Leia’s light caught a small opening near the floor. Nani must have swum into it. Could there be another way out?
Bane pushed her toward the opening. She swam into it. Nani must have brushed the sides, because it was nearly too tight for Leia to negotiate. Phosphorescent plankton glowed along the way, swirling in the current. Wait, there was actually a current? She watched and realized it was true. This water was flowing somewhere. Nani hadn’t come back either. Her light picked up starfish and translucent shrimp clinging to the walls. It almost looked like stars.
Stars. Eva had said something about stars. In her dream, she said Bane followed the stars out of the cave. Hope resurrected, and she looked back to smile at Bane. He looked puzzled, but he smiled back, though she could see the resignation in his eyes. She paused and swept her hand through the plankton. Her motion made him frown, then he watched the plankton flow at a fast clip away from them. He took her arm in an excited grip. Nodding forward, he gave her a gentle push. She kicked off with her fins, moving faster now. Her light played along the ceiling with the glow of starfish. The corridor turned vertical, and she looked up into a tunnel that seemingly had no end.
She turned to glance back at Bane. Right behind him came a column of pillow lava. She pointed. He turned and saw it, then grabbed her arm and shoved her upward. She shot up through the tunnel, moving as fast as she dared. They might need to find a hyperbaric chamber when they got out of here. If they got out. Bane was right on her heels, but thankfully, the pillow lava didn’t seem to be billowing after them. She paused to decompress a bit. Bane enveloped her in his arms again, and they floated like that for several minutes.
Leia had been so concerned about the lava and the water temperature that she hadn’t checked their bottom time. She glanced at her computer and realized she had only fifteen minutes. If she had fifteen, Bane probably had only ten, maybe five. She pulled away from Bane and shot upward again. Bane followed after her. Starfish still glowed in the light of her lamp. The tunnel began to widen as they raced upward, then they were through the tunnel and in another cave. Leia checked her gauge, and the temperature had increased another couple of degrees. They had to find a way out of here. She glanced back at Bane and realized he had hardly any bubbles coming out of his regulator. He was almost out of air.
She grabbed her octopus regulator and thrust it at him. He spit out his mouthpiece and slipped her auxiliary one into his mouth. In sync, they swam farther into the cave. With both of them using her tanks, they had less than five minutes to live. Her light picked up Nani swimming toward them. The dolphin slowed, and Bane grabbed her dorsal fin. Nani flipped her tail and drew them with her as she moved through the water toward an opening in the cave wall. Once they were through, Leia recognized where they were. The cave they’d just exited was the cave Bane had wanted to explore. The crack leading from the cave to a seamount at the edge of the blue hole had widened, and through the ash swirling in the water, she saw a red glow deep under the masses of pillow lava. It was about thirty feet away, too close for comfort.
Nani shot up through the water as though she understood her human friends had little time left. Leia was beginning to suck hard on her regulator, and she knew Bane must be having the same difficulty. She took another breath, and there was nothing there. Her initial reaction was to try to hang on to her last lungful of air, but she knew she had to exhale as she rose or risk the same fate as Tony. Exhaling slowly, she kicked her fins with the dolphin, trying to shoot up faster.
Dots began to cloud her vision. She was blacking out. She peered through the haze of her fading vision at Bane and realized he was almost unconscious as well, barely hanging on to Nani. Then her head broke the surface of the water. She spit out her regulator and drew in the sweetest air she’d ever breathed. She gasped in another lungful as Bane did the same. They clung together and filled their bodies with oxygen.