Page 96 of Doyle

“I’m just that much fun.”

She glanced at the headlamp.

He reached for it, pulled it on.

“C’mon—”

“I have the light, you have the O2.”

“You still don’t trust me.”

He cocked his head. “I never should have.”

She flinched.

And shoot, that was a lie, wasn’t it?

Then her mouth tightened. “Right.”

He looked past her into the dark water. “I’m going to regret this.”

She smiled. Then, “C’mon, Frogman. The only easy day was yesterday, right?”

“Don’t do that.” He leaned down to pull off his shoes. Threw them onto the rocky ledge. He liked them—he’d purchased them in Catalonia.

“Do what?” She treaded water, snapping on her BCD.

“Give me SEAL quotes.”

“Aw. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”

“For the love.” He settled in the water, reached out, and hooked his hand into one of her straps. Tugged her body closer to him. His secondary oxygen line only stretched so far.

“Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.”

“That is actually a good one. It’s about doing things right so you save time?—”

“I prefer ‘Come with me if you want to live.’” She’d lowered her voice, turned it mechanical.

“That’s not funny.”

“It’s a little funny.”She met his eyes, smiled, then popped in her reg. Sank into the water.

He yanked off his jacket, left it floating.

And the one SEAL saying that settled into his brain and seeped through him as they started into the darkness, his light bright against the dark lava tunnel, was: No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

Hopefully it would survive the second.

TEN

If anything feltlike the bowels of hell, it was the tunnels under Cumbre de Luz. Maybe the heat from the lava still simmering deep inside the giant, because sweat poured down Doyle’s face, around his face-mask-slash-ventilator. Dust still clogged the tunnels, a blood-red haze against the headlamps of the SAR crew.

The most recent vibration hadn’t helped either. Just a rumble deep inside the volcano, but it had shaken loose more of the dust and frankly, a little of Doyle’s courage.

Please, God,don’t let him be buried alive.

Doyle should have agreed with Pete Brooks, the head of the Red Cross SAR team Declan had brought in, and stayed behind. But no, Doyle knew the mine.

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