Chapter 1
“Ready?” Alana gave Kimo a thumbs-up.
“Ready.” Kimo Kekoa returned the gesture, adjusted the regulator in her mouth, held onto her mask and her camera and tipped backward off the dive boat into the inky-black waters of the ocean.
As soon as she sank beneath the surface, she breathed air from the scuba tank, righted herself in the water and kicked her flippers, sending her away from the dive boat they’d anchored off the shore of Maui.
The night dive was for the specific purpose of capturing the beauty of bioluminescence. The moonless sky and the warmth of summer made the night perfect. Already, they’d seen the eerie blue-green glow of the tiny plankton lighting up the shoreline.
As soon as Alana swam up beside Kimo, they dove deeper and swam nearer to the shore, hoping to get photos of marine life with the backdrop of the blue glow.
No sooner had they dove downward, swimming toward the shore, than a turtle swam up from the ocean floor. While Alana shined an LED light, Kimo aimed her underwater camera at the turtle, catching the image.
The turtle, apparently curious, circled Kimo and Alana for several minutes, giving them every angle to capture the free-flowing beauty of the creature before it swam away.
Kimo’s viewfinder followed until the turtle disappeared into the darkness.
A hand on her arm made her turn toward her friend.
Alana pointed toward a rocky reef. Movement drew their attention to the camouflaged legs of an octopus, clinging to mottled gray rocks.
Kimo swam closer, snapping more photographs, excited to add the octopus to their shoot.
When the octopus slipped through a crevice, disappearing out of sight, Alana and Kimo rose above the rocks, searching for their next subject.
Colorful fish flitted past them. Again, Alana shined the light while Kimo photographed, at times, capturing the blue haze of the bioluminescence in the background.
After they’d been underwater for forty-five minutes, never going much deeper than twenty or thirty feet, Kimo motioned to Alana, tapping her dive watch.
Alana nodded, gave the OK sign and swam over the top of a reef, heading toward the dive boat, shining her light into the cracks and crevices of the jagged rocks.
Kimo swam alongside her friend, camera at the ready. It never failed that when she set it aside, some of the most spectacular sights appeared, whether they were fish, turtles or other marine life, and by the time she raised her camera again, they’d be gone.
This time, Alana’s light bounced off straight, parallel lines on the other side of the shallow reef. Straight lines weren’t natural in this environment where varied shapes of rocks, coral and seaweed should have been.
Kimo and Alana exchanged glances. Both women shrugged and then moved closer.
Once they cleared the reef, a large parrotfish swam past them. Kimo focused on the colorful fish, snapping a stream of photos of it as it swam away. Beyond the parrotfish, a shipping container appeared, settled onto the sandy surface of the ocean floor.
As Kimo neared the container, she saw the door was slightly ajar, but not enough to see inside.
Kimo grabbed the door and tried to push it wider. It didn’t budge.
With the oxygen nearly gone in her tank, she shook her head and motioned for Alana to ascend. Alana checked her gauge, nodded and started up.
Kimo dropped a pin on her dive watch’s GPS, marking the spot, and followed Alana to the surface.
They emerged, not far from their boat, swam over, slung their flippers over the side and climbed the ladder.
“That was amazing,” Alana exclaimed. “Those photos of the turtle and the octopus will be great for the dive brochures. Still, I’m curious about that shipping container.”
“Me, too.” Kimo pulled off her mask and snorkel, shrugged out of her buoyancy control device and set it, with the tank, on the deck. She helped Alana out of hers, then straightened.
The steady blue glow of bioluminescence lit the ocean near the reef and shoreline, filling Kimo with her own wonder and amazement. “It’s beautiful.”
Alana stood beside her. “We picked a perfect night for this.”
Kimo nodded in the faint glow cast by the required lights affixed to the bow and stern of the small boat. “Thanks for coming with me when I’m sure you’d rather be with your fiancé.”
