Into the Deep by Virginia Smith

Author:Virginia Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2010-08-26T04:00:00+00:00

The stream of bubbles from Nikki’s regulator ceased. Ben had been expecting it. Her tank had been low to begin with. Plus, she’d been anxious on the way down to the wall, and an anxious diver sucked air at a much faster rate than a calm one. Behind her mask, her eyes grew round as basketballs. Hysteria swelled her pupils until they were almost as black as the shark’s.

Acting quickly, before she could shoot to the surface in a panic, Ben unclipped the secondary air source from his BCD and held it up in front of her. She clutched at it, and in a single motion, jerked her regulator out of her mouth and replaced it with his spare. Ben tapped on the face of his own regulator, the signal to “relax and breathe,” but he doubted if she remembered. So he held her gaze with his, willing her to calm down. If she kept sucking air like that, she’d hyperventilate, and that would be disaster at sixty feet.

After a few gasps, the rate of her breathing slowed. She gave a shaky nod, and then lifted her hand. Her fingers formed the “okay” signal.

Good. Now Ben had to figure out what to do. His air pressure gauge registered almost 2000 psi left in the cylinder, which wouldn’t last long with two of them breathing on it. He looked up and counted the ominous dark figures circling above them. Three nurse sharks, which were not a threat. In fact, he was surprised they stirred themselves from the bottom, where they habitually rested. A hammerhead, too, which normally would have thrilled him, because sightings in this area were so rare.

And the Caribbean reef shark. He’d spotted it at the surface, which is what prompted him to descend so quickly. This one was at least six feet long, big enough to make anybody sit up and take notice. Caribbean reef sharks were bold and had been known to make close passes at divers, like this guy had done a minute ago. They could be persistent when provoked by chumming, and had been known to attack. Good thing Nikki didn’t know enough about sharks to identify that fellow.

He looked around to get his bearings. The water had darkened as the sun sank in the sky, and he could no longer see the location of the wall. That might be the outline there, forty feet below them, but it was hard to tell with no light. Still, they couldn’t go down to be certain, not with their limited air supply. The only other choice was to surface, which wasn’t an option at the moment. He gave Nikki the signal to start swimming, and indicated the direction.

He locked his arm through hers and pulled her close so there was no danger that the current would separate them and rip the regulator out of her mouth. The trembling in her arm provided clear evidence that she had not yet conquered her terror. Well, who could blame her?

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