Kimo’s hand closed over his, and she shook her head.
Rex grabbed her fingers and squeezed them gently. He set her hand away from him and completed the task of shrugging out of his BCD and tank, careful to keep the regulator in his mouth as he set it on a nearby rock. He took her hand and placed it on the tank. Motioning for her to hold onto it.
When he was sure she understood, he took a deep breath, removed the regulator from his mouth and dove into the crevice.
He pulled himself deeper and stretched his arm into where the gap narrowed. The tips of his fingers curled around the strap. He tugged gently, afraid that if he jerked it upward, it would wedge itself into the rock. The camera moved several inches and jammed.
Rex released the pressure on the strap, letting the camera fall an inch. With a twist of his hand, he turned the camera slightly and lifted again.
Again, the camera stopped where the edge of a rock jutted out.
His lungs starting to burn, Rex kicked his fins, moving to a little different angle over the camera. He let the camera drift downward and then brought it straight up, not at an angle, avoiding the jutting rock.
By the time he had the camera free of the tight space, his lungs burned with the need to breathe.
A hand clamped on his ankle, dragging him upward.
When his head cleared the crevice, Kimo was there, placing her regulator into his mouth.
Rex sucked in a breath and let it out, then sucked in another as he held up the camera.
Kimo hugged him hard and briefly.
They buddy-breathed over to the other BCD and tank. Kimo took the camera, attached it to her BCD and helped Rex into his tank.
When he was breathing normally with his own regulator, he sent the message, Found it, and followed with Surface Now.
With one hand on the camera, holding it snuggly to her chest, Kimo reached for Rex’s hand. She squeezed it and then swam back to the damaged BCD that would serve as additional evidence of treachery.
Rex hooked a hand through the harness.
As they slowly ascended, Rex kept an eye out for motorboats overhead and attack divers below.
Leilani and Angel joined them as the tour boat circled and stopped close to them.
The waves had grown rougher in the time they’d been down. Devlin had to help them out of the water and onto the deck.
When all were safely aboard, Teller turned the boat around and headed for the Lahaina marina.
They stripped out of their gear and stowed it safely. Rex removed his underwater sports camera from the BCD vest, glad they hadn’t run into any attackers during their dive. He shoved it into his pocket and sat beside Kimo.
Leilani took over at the helm.
Kimo sat with the camera in her lap, pushing buttons, her brow furrowing. She glanced up and shook her head. “I can’t get it to work.”
Rex held out his hand. “Let me see.”
She handed it to him, pushed to her feet and started stripping out of her wetsuit.
“They said they wanted the camera. They didn’t say anything about a requirement for it to work.” Devlin pointed out from his position near the back of the tour boat, where he held onto a post for balance and his rifle should anyone slip up behind them.
Rex tried to turn on the camera. “Most likely the battery is dead.”
“My charger and spare battery were on the dive boat they took.” Kimo shook her head and turned away.
Curious about how the camera worked, Rex turned knobs, flicked switches and opened the compartment that held the storage devices. This camera used a similar SD card as his smaller sports camera.
Rex pulled his little camera out of his pocket and opened the disk storage compartment. The SD cards were the same size, if not the same storage capacity.
