Chapter 1: Into The Deep
Somewhere off the Southeast Coast of Florida – Present Day
“What secrets do you hold for me today?”Desi Starr dangled her bare feet over the side of her thirty-foot dive boat, eyes fixed on the spot in the water where something had shimmered yesterday—just out of reach, just out of time.
The ocean replied with a low hum—mysterious, ancient.She inhaled the salty breeze, her pulse steady, mind already submerged.The craft swayed with each roll of the sea in a sensual dance that always calmed her.But not today.Not when she was sure something was down there, something she’d been seeking as long as she remembered.
She hadn’t imagined it, a glint beneath the reef, too angular for coral, too perfect to be natural.But with three nervous customers clinging to her fins and sucking down air like soda through a straw, she hadn’t dared go deeper.
Now she was back.And this time, she wasn’t leaving without answers.
The sun bled across the horizon, smearing gold and orange over the calm Atlantic.Swinging her legs back over to the deck, she slid on her dive booties, tucking the edges beneath her wetsuit legs.Then reaching for her weight belt, she lifted it with practiced ease and fastened it around her hips.
“Really think you saw something?”Camila approached, handing the BCD and tank to Desi.
Grunting, she hefted the unit, shouldered it in one fluid motion, then cinched the straps across her chest and waist.She opened the tank valve and turned it back a quarter turn.A brief hiss emerged, and she leaned in, listening for more.No leak.No fuss.Good.
“I do,” she answered her first mate and employee Camila Ramos, ignoring the look of skepticism—or was it criticism—in her deep brown eyes.
Desi brought the regulator to her mouth and took a deep, steady breath.The air was dry and cool.The gauge needle held steady at full.Her dive computer clicked into place around her wrist, the display already active.She thumbed through the settings, checking depth alarms, no-deco time, and tank pressure.
“What do you expect to find?”Camila crossed her arms over her chest as she expertly balanced on the rocking deck.Her Spanish accent always grew stronger when she was agitated, making her harder to understand.Which wasn’t always a bad thing.“Treasure hunting?Sunken pirate ships?Really!”Frowning, she rolled her eyes.“A waste of time and valuable resources, if you ask me.”
Which Desi had not.But she learned from experience that it was best to let Camila release her disapproval in small outbursts rather than suffer an eruption later.Besides, the passionate Puerto Rican always calmed down eventually.
“Leave her be, Camila.”The voice of reason came from Ethan Turner, the captain of her boat and another of her employees.He stood at the wheel looking like Poseidon with his sun-bronzed skin and bleached-blond hair.“Ocean’s Echo is advertised for both scuba diving and shipwreck exploration.And if Desi saw something, she should check it out.”
Desi smiled his way, and he winked in return.
Growling, Camila stared out to sea.
Grabbing her mask, Desi spat lightly into each lens, then rinsed it in a bucket of seawater.It went over her face in a smooth motion—snug, secure.
The fins came last.Lowering to sit on the transom, she slipped them over her booties, tightened the straps behind her heels, and flexed her toes inside them, her legs already itching to move.
Glancing at the sea behind her, Desi paused for a breath.The boat rocked gently beneath her.Somewhere below—just past the edge of yesterday’s dive—something waited.She ran her final check aloud, a whisper over the wind.“BCD… Weights… Releases… Air… Final okay.”
Everything was set.
With a nod to Camila and Ethan, she slipped the regulator back into her mouth, took one last look at the still, endless sea.And then rolled back off the edge and into the deep.
The water closed over her like a whisper—cool, heavy, and absolute.All sound from the surface vanished in an instant, replaced by the rhythm of her breath through the regulator.In… out… in… out… like the beating of a heart, the sound of life in an otherworldly paradise where peace reigned, where all of Desi’s problems washed away into insignificance.She watched the glittering bubbles race to the light above with each exhale.Then smiling, she angled her body downward, adjusted her buoyancy, and began to descend.
The reef below bloomed with early light.Shafts of morning sun pierced the blue, illuminating swaying sea fans and darting parrotfish in bursts of color.But Desi wasn’t here for the view.She kept her eyes locked on the drop-off just ahead, a crag of coral where the reef gave way to deeper shadows.
Over the edge she went…down, down…twenty feet…thirty.
She hovered, checked her gauges.All good.Kicking her fins, she plucked her flashlight from its hook and swam deeper.The hum of the ocean surrounded her, muffled, ancient, alive, a symphony playing her favorite tune.Yesterday, she’d brought her students down to fifty feet, nearly deep enough for their Open Water Certification.But she’d seen something, a shimmer in the darkness—and she’d descended another ten feet to investigate before returning to them.Now she was at seventy.
Her heartbeat ticked louder, not from exertion but anticipation.She kicked gently, fins slicing through the water with barely a ripple.Then she saw it, just as she had the day before.A shape in the murk.Angular.Unnatural.
Her chest tightened.Not fear—not even excitement, but oddly…recognition.
She drifted closer.The light shifted, and the shape became clearer.A corner of worked metal—brass maybe—half-swallowed by coral.Barnacles clung to it like long-lost lovers.Swimming closer, she gently brushed sediment from what looked like the curved imprint of a hull.
A ship.
Buried.Forgotten.
