Leilani handed flippers to all four divers, then a mask and snorkel to Kimo.
Rex held his up. “Got my own.”
Leilani nodded and checked the BCDs, regulators and tanks once more before taking the helm again.
Devlin rose to stand beside her as she showed him how to operate the tour boat. After a few moments, Dev took the helm while Leilani pointed ahead to the island, telling him what to look for and places he could pull into should he have to drive the tour boat.
Kimo hoped they wouldn’t come to that. She wanted to get there, find the camera and get back before another boat full of gunmen showed up to cause trouble.
Devlin pulled a small buoy out of his bag and set it on the deck.
Angel and Rex moved to sit beside Devlin to adjust their dive watches and add preset messages.
Kimo watched with envy. She’d always wanted subwave sonar capabilities but had chosen to spend her profits on additional photography equipment and software first. She leaned forward, watching them adjust the buoy and their watches, eager to learn more.
“We already have Are you okay?,” Devlin said. “And Surface now. What else should we add?”
“Low on air,” Rex said.
“We don’t know what we’ll find down there,” Kimo said. “How about Incoming bogey?”
Rex smiled at her. “That could mean anything dangerous—animal or human.”
“Good,” Dev said and keyed in the words.
“And how about Need help?” Angel added.
“Got it.” Dev keyed in the message and tested them out on Angel’s and Rex’s watches, using the onboard monitoring device. “Now you two send a message to each other.”
Angel sent one to Rex. Rex gave him a thumbs-up and sent a message to Angel.
Angel nodded. “Works.”
“We need to be vigilant out there. These people aren’t playing around,” Rex said. “They don’t want what’s on that camera to get out, and they probably don’t want anyone who has seen what was in that shipping container to live to tell about it.”
“That would be Kimo and Alana,” Angel said.
Rex moved to sit beside her. “We need to stay together. No more than three feet apart.”
Kimo’s brow furrowed. “We’ll be bumping into each other.”
“Better to bump into each other than to lose each other,” he said softly.
“I’ll be the same with Leilani,” Dev grinned as Leilani chose that moment to glance back at them and cock a questioning eyebrow.
“Don’t worry, babe. I’ve got you covered,” Dev called out over the engine noise.
Leilani and Kimo had spent many hours together diving around Maui and the other islands. Kimo trusted her abilities. Angel, an ex-Navy SEAL, as well as Rex, had trained extensively in scuba diving. They had the right team.
“We’ll start at the coordinates where we found the shipping container,” Kimo said, “and then move toward the reef. We were on our way back to the dive boat when the other craft arrived and ran over Alana and then dragged her onboard. I headed for the reef when they came after me. I was close to the reef when bullets hit my scuba tank and grazed by leg.”
Rex reached for Kimo’s hand and held it as she continued.
Kimo liked how he made her feel safe. She drew in a breath and continued. “I dropped the BCD with the tank. I think that’s when I dropped my camera, too, because I don’t remember having it with me as I surfaced and hid among the rocks. If we can find the BCD and tank, the camera should be nearby.”
“Since you were close to the reef, we’ll spread out in pairs and swim in that direction,” Rex said.
“And if we don’t find it by the time we reach the reef?” Angel asked.
