It was Gryphen, and he was in shorts and a t-shirt in case he had to go into the water. His prosthetic was switched out to his waterproof one.
“Ready to do this?” he asked.
Michael was.
“Let’s go swimming.”
Gabby was sitting on a log, watching from beside the water. She was scanning the area to give them a heads-up if the woo-woo shit started.
Beside the water, Graham, Michael, Gryphen, and Finn were standing there.
Michael took a deep breath, and released his fiancé’s hand. Then, he began wading into the cold water.
As he felt the ledge with his toes, he turned around and faced them.
“See you in a bit,” he said, stepping back and taking a deep breath as he sank into the murk and off of the edge into the deep water.
They watched him go down, and occasionally, there were bubbles as he released some of the air he was holding.
Finn was curious.
“How long can he hold his breath?” he asked.
Graham was watching his watch.
“Around three and a half minutes or up to four if he’s really pushing it.”
Now, they’d wait and see if something happened.
In the water, it was pretty clear as the sediment hadn’t been kicked up yet.
Michael was feeling around, as he sought out the remaining bones.
When he found one, he picked it up, and carried it up as he swam the fifteen or so feet to the surface.
When he broke the water, he held what looked like a tibia in his hand. Tossing it, Gryphen caught it.
“I can see relatively well. There’s a bunch of bones there. They didn’t scatter too much.”
On the tarp, there was a skull, a femur, and some arm bones.
“See if you can find the pelvis,” Gabby said. The hip bones are important to Tony. He can date the age and gender with them.”
Michael nodded.
“See you in a few.”
He sank back down, and Graham began timing it again. He did that the next four times his man came up with bones and went back again.
On his next trip up, he passed off a femur.
“Toss me the bag,” he said, meaning the dive bag by Graham’s foot. “I’ll gather up as many of the smaller bones as I can. I haven’t found the pelvis yet.”
Finn tossed him the bag, and Michael went back down again.
As he went under, Gabby warned them.
“Oh, shit.”
