Page 25 of Building Courage

“You did great in the pool, and we’ll be at a shallow depth.”

“Can I bring my phone and take a few pictures?”

“Sure. Meet me at the house, and we’ll load our gear.”

“Okay.”

He drove to the base and got busy with the day’s activities, but his mind replayed the interview with Byres over and over in his head off and on.

During a break after lunch, he decided to reorganize his cage. Denotti wandered in to join him. He leaned against the metal frame of the door. “You okay, Gilly?”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve been quiet all day.”

“I have a date after work to go diving.”

“With the photographer?”

“Yeah. She needs all the practice and instruction she can get if she’s going to dive in Australia. She did great in the pool, and now we’re going on a short dive in La Jolla this afternoon just so she’ll get a feeling for what it will be like. I was able to call in a favor from Grant and he’s going to take us out for an hour or so.”

Denotti bobbed his head in agreement. “Sounds like a good plan.”

Tucker sat down on an equipment bin and rested his elbows on his knees. “Do you remember your very first dive?”

“Yeah. It was with you in BUD/s. I’m not sure you realize it, but the whole class watched you like a hawk. You had more experience diving than most of the instructors.”

“Not really, Denotti. Those guys had used equipment I’d only dreamed of at the time.” And now, they were using equipment their instructors hadn’t had. There were always improvements.

“You still had a leg up, and they depended on you for feedback. Plus, you worked with the guys who were struggling. As a class, we did better than most because of it. Even Miles Sherman. Do you remember that guy?”

“Yeah. I asked myself then, why the hell would a guy who’s afraid of water join the Navy?”

“Exactly. But you got him through the swimming and diving part of it.”

“He got himself through it, Knotty. It took him more effort, but he wanted to be a SEAL more than he was afraid of water. We all have parts of the job that challenge us.”

“What’s yours?” Knotty asked.

Tucker decided to admit it. “Being stalked by a two-hundred-pound shark inside the hold of a sunken fishing trawler.”

“You didn’t act scared. You just swam out behind him like it was a walk in the park.”

“He came out of the cloud of silt, knocked me down, scared me so bad I nearly wet my dry suit, then swam back into the cloud. Laying the rest of the charges after that was a little—dicey.”

Knotty shook his head. “You’ve either got balls of steel or you’re loon crazy, Gilly.”

“Neither. I was over halfway through laying the charges. We were under a time limit, and I just wanted the dive finished so we could get the hell out of there. Besides, I scored him with my dive knife on the way out.”

“We saw that trail of blood following him and thought he’d eaten you.”

Tucker laughed. “Well, he didn’t.” He’d tried. He wasn’t going into that, though. “Training Brynn is helping me shake off the after-effects of that experience. She’s going to be swimming in waters where great whites live and hunt. I have to help her stay calm no matter what she faces while she’s diving.”

“Not too big a challenge,” Knotty said, his tone dry.

“She’ll have a team of divers with her. I just want to prepare her for the unexpected if I can.”

“We know all about that,” Knotty said, holding out a fist.

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