Dean checked the gauge, saw that there was still a half tank, put on the vest, and didn’t even take time to adjust the waist belt before grabbing the guy’s mask and jumping in.
The shock of cold water was something you never got used to—no matter how many times he experienced it, it still sucked. It was pretty much like jumping into an ice bath. Although that might have been warmer. Fuck, it was cold. He knew he wouldn’t last long and his movements and reflexes were going to be shit, but there was nothing he could do.
He spat in the mask, wiped it around, fitted the regulator in his mouth, and dove.
Hold on, Annie. Just hold on.
Thirty-five
Thank God for physics, Annie thought. The resistance of the water gave her the time she needed to evade the knife blow that was meant for her neck.
Sofie reached for her, swiping with the knife again, but Annie pushed off against her, sending them both backward in opposite directions. Annie felt one of the metal walls behind her and knew she had to think of something fast. Sofie had dropped the knife in the struggle, but she was reaching for something.
Oh God, a gun. They were about ten feet apart. Annie had watched aMythBustersepisode where they’d shot a couple of different-sized bullets underwater. One had died in three feet and one in eight feet. She wasn’t going to count on the right equation of distance, depth, and caliber.
She’d lost hold of the finger spool in the struggle, but located it quickly. Swallowing the fear, she reached for the line with one hand while diving to the debris on the bottom to stir it up.
An instant later, the water filled with silt, cutting off visibility completely. It was like being in a pool of mud.
This was how people died, she thought to herself. A silt-out could create terror and panic in even the most experienced divers. Even with the line in her hand, Annie felt fear crawling up her throat, and her heart racing to escape.
But she forced it back and slowly used the line to guide herself out of the wreck.
Every second, she half expected Sofie to come lurching out of the murky water toward her.
She really needed to stop watching scary movies.
She thought she could sense someone flailing around near her, but she couldn’t be sure.
She reached the end of the line and knew the broken windows were above her. The visibility was better, and she was able to feel around to find the opening.
She started to go through but quickly realized she’d made a mistake. It was the wrong opening—a smaller one—and now she was stuck.
But that wasn’t the only disaster. What she’d thought was panic whistling in her head was actually the sound of escaping air. She lifted her air pressure gauge to see the needle dropping way too fast. Her air tube had been cut or damaged. Sofie must have nicked it with the knife.
She kicked again, trying to untangle herself or force her way through. But she could only move a few inches in either direction. Her tank was hooked on something.
Don’t panic. Don’t think about how much air you have left.But the “stay calm” reminders weren’t working. She tried to reach around to untangle herself, but her efforts only seemed to make it worse.
How long would the silt take to settle? Would it matter or would she already be out of air? Bullet or suffocation, in the end it didn’t matter.
She fought against the urge to take deeper and deeper breaths of air, but she knew she was running out of time.
She was going to die.
The panic was harder to keep at bay, which was why at first she thought she imagined the person swimming toward her.
She had to be imagining it because the person wasn’t wearing a wet suit.
It was only when he was close enough for her to look into his mask that she realized she wasn’t imagining anything.
It was Dan.
Dean,she corrected. He was here. He’d come back. He’d found her.
If she had any air left, she would have exhaled with relief. But she was literally sucking on fumes.
He was trying to ask her what was wrong, but she was too panicked to remember any hand signals. Fortunately he grabbed her pressure gauge and figured out what was going on.
